Reborn with a Necromancer System
Chapter 157: An Offer of Travel

Chapter 157: An Offer of Travel

Vepice looked at Kai with hope in her eyes. She took a step away from the stew of ingredients that even his natural ability to wither organic matter, dared not to touch.

"Do I need to bring anything?" Vepice asked, her voice quiet but curious.

Kai tilted his head. "Do you have anything you want to bring?"

She hesitated for a moment, then turned and padded barefoot over the damp earth. Her destination: a crude bed formed of animal hides and thick wooden branches woven together into a raised mat. It was stained with age, worn by time and solitude, but well-kept.

"Just this," she murmured.

She knelt down, reaching into a bundle of fur tucked beneath the hides. When she rose, her hand held a small, timeworn locket strung with frayed leather. The metal was tarnished, the clasp nearly rusted through, but when she opened it with a gentle click, a smile ghosted across her lips.

Inside was a hand-drawn sketch on yellowed parchment. A woman: refined, elegant, with the same angular cheeks and soft jawline as Vepice, but more delicate. Her hair was darker, flowing like ink around her face. Her expression was caught mid-smile, her eyes slightly melancholic.

Kai leaned closer. "Your mother?"

Vepice nodded, brushing her thumb against the edge of the drawing.

"The only thing I have left of her. My master said she gave this to me before she died. He said she was weak. That she cried too much. That... he was doing me a favour by taking me in." Her voice cracked, but she steadied herself. "But when I look at this... I remember that maybe I was loved. Once."

Kai didn’t interrupt. He just watched her for a moment. Then nodded.

"Reasonable. If that’s all, we can go."

He turned toward Mari, her undead form standing silently nearby like a sentinel awaiting orders.

"Oh, and you?" he said, eyes narrowing slightly as he raised a hand. "You can leave us."

With a thought, he opened his shadow space.. Mari walked toward it, her movements still graceful but mechanical, obedient. As her form reached the edge, the shadows curled around her like tendrils of smoke, then consumed her entirely.

The space sealed behind her with a whisper, and she was gone.

"Right," Kai said, shaking off a wave of fatigue that still clung to his bones like wet cloth. "Let’s get out of here."

They left the forest behind with quiet steps and cautious eyes. Kai limped at first, his body still sore from the near-fatal ritual that bound Mari’s soul and all the damage he took from her divine arrows, but he managed. Vepice moved lightly beside him, agile and alert.

It wasn’t long before trouble came.

Two arcane wolves prowled across their path. Each of them was a mass glowing fur that crackled with energy. Their howls sounded out, possibly to alert more of them to the feast that stood before them.

’You’re not eating us today.’

Kai raised a hand, but before he could summon anything, Vepice moved.

A blur.

She reached behind her back, pulling a small, jagged blade from a hidden wrap. Then another. And another.

Thunk. Thunk.

The wolves snarled, one collapsing with a pained yelp as a dagger buried itself in its glowing eye. The second lunged and Vepice met it mid-air with a twist, throwing two more blades into its ribcage before tumbling aside.

Kai stepped forward and finished it with a burst of corrupted mana, black tendrils erupting from the soil to drag it down. Its glow vanished with a flicker.

"Well," he said, breathing hard. "I was going to help."

"You’re still injured," Vepice replied coolly, retrieving her blades. "I told you. I’m not useless."

"I didn’t say you were."

Her smirk was subtle, but it was there.

By the time they reached the forest’s edge, the sky had begun to shift into a dull morning hue. Pale light bled through the trees in shafts of color. Vepice lifted a hand to shield her eyes, blinking rapidly.

"The hell is this?" she muttered, wincing.

"Sunlight," Kai replied with a wry smile. "You’ll get used to it."

She hissed softly, squinting into the open plains beyond the treeline.

"It’s so... bright. Not like I remember at all! I hate it."

"You’re not the first person to say that."

’Mostly hungover people, or those that are shut-ins. I’d know.’

"Will it always hurt?"

"No. Not once your eyes adjust. Besides... it’s not worse than the light from your master’s torches, is it?"

That made her pause. Then she snorted. "No. They were bright in the dungeon, and... well... very hot."

Kai looked back at the trees. At where the dark boughs of the cursed forest where he’d almost died, where he’d fought a goddess, and where he’d brought his sister back from death all were. It didn’t feel like a home, but it was, once.

Vepice adjusted her makeshift pack.

He’d offered to carry her stuff in his shadow space, but she said she didn’t trust it, and that it looked like anything that went in would be lost forever. Even when he proved that wasn’t the case by putting a rock inside, closing and opening it again, and then pulling out the rock.

He extended a hand once more, fingers curling in a familiar gesture. The air shimmered, a ripple of shadow, and his shadow space peeled open with a sigh of cool darkness.

He reached in and withdrew the bundle of clothes. Old thieves’ garb. Light, tough, inconspicuous. Looted from the guild he’d painted red not so long ago.

"This should fit," he said, turning toward her.

But she was already unwrapping the rags.

"Wait-!"

Strips of bandage and dirt-stained cloth hit the ground in a heap. Her bare skin caught the early light, pale like moonlit marble. She stood there without hesitation, back straight, utterly unbothered by the open field behind them.

Kai spun around, ears burning.

"Don’t do that in public!" he hissed over his shoulder. "Kleo! people exist! You can’t just-"

"What?" Her voice was flat, confused. "They’re just clothes."

"It’s not about the clothes..."

He exhaled hard, running a hand down his face. She was smart. Clever, even. But some common sense had clearly been carved out of her during those years. Torture did that, it wore down the boundaries of decency over the years when your torturer and others saw you nude constantly.

Eventually, she tugged on the first set of clothes, Kai peeking only once she gave a little grunt of effort. The fabric clung to her tightly, too tightly, especially around the chest, where the shirt strained with every breath.

Kai grunted and reached into the shadow space again. "Nope. Not this one."

He tried another. Then another.

Finally, a loose charcoal-grey blouse with a lace-up collar fit without screaming for help. Paired with dark trousers cinched with a braided leather belt, and a sleeveless hooded cloak the color of dusk, she looked like someone reborn.

Her long silver hair spilled over the cloak’s shoulders in soft waves, and her light green eyes, bright despite everything, stood out vividly against the muted tones.

"...You look like trouble," Kai muttered.

She smiled faintly. "Trouble?"

Kai smiled back. "The good kind."

"So where is this boat?" she asked, changing the subject.

Kai glanced west, toward the golden horizon. "That way. We just need to find a port city. One with ships bound for Sala."

She cocked a brow. "And we’re just going to ask nicely?"

"If that fails," Kai said, shrugging, "we steal one."

Vepice raised an eyebrow. "Steal? I’m beginning to think you’re not a good guy, Kai."

"I never said I was." He smiled thinly. "And it’s not about being good or bad. It’s about surviving."

She stared at him for a moment. Then nodded slowly.

"Survival comes first. I do know that..."

Kai nodded, and set off towards the west, with Vepice following behind him.

"Shouldn’t we do something about our looks? You changed your face before, right?"

"I don’t care anymore. I killed a goddess. If people are going to come after us, I’m not wasting any more time or mana on disguising myself or creating fake identities."

"Will we have to kill people?" she asked.

"Probably. I can do it for you, if you want."

"No, I will help. I need to."

With that, Kai grabbed a weed from the road and absorbed its essence until it turned to ash in his hands.

"That is interesting. Do you think I can learn that?"

"Well, we don’t even know your specialisation. So, maybe? Being a variant, maybe there’s some cooler magic you can use."

"Will there be a way to find out at the port town we’re going to?"

"Oh, we aren’t heading there straight away. I have a couple of things left to do before I-"

He felt the teleportation magic link back up with him. The twenty-four hours were up.

"What’s wrong?" Vepice asked.

"No time! Come close!"

Vepice listened and stepped towards him. He enveloped them both with shadows and held onto her tightly.

’I can’t leave her here alone again. Let me bring her back with me!’

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