Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

As the officers and Cathleen left I felt Helena's hand on my side, where I had almost been stabbed earlier. "Are you truly alright?"

I nodded. "They did not hit me but I need to think about my protection again. This time Hatsumi was fast enough but who knows how it will be next time?"

While I pondered that, Helena drew me closer and gave me a kiss. "You are not allowed to die." She whispered into my ear afterwards.

"I will do my best." I promised. "I even evaded the first strike!"

"Your reflexes were pretty good but training your speed even further might help. Better armour would be nice too." Skadi said.

"Perhaps you need a dedicated self-defense undead on your person." Kaito mused.

"Like what?" Helena asked.

"Something small that you could keep on you." Katio said.

"Meow." Nyx commented.

"What did I miss?" Garm's left head said as he joined us. His right head studied me. "I see that our pack is unharmed but such assassins are unacceptable!"

"We are currently discussing ways to better defend her, like a small undead she can keep with her." Rose said. "Like wearing Nyx as a hat but I don't think that is the most practical solution."

"Oh, have you considered neckwear?" Garm asked.

"What sort of undead could you wear around your neck?" I asked.

"A snake?" Cassie suggested.

"You could twist an undead snake into a tie." Garm mused. "This is a splendid idea!"

"I don't think a snake twisted into a tie would be able to react quickly." Hatsumi pointed out.

"It would work on my hand or my arm, I suppose. It would have to be a small snake otherwise it would be uncomfortable." I said.

"Damn, we should have bought the frost viper corpse." Hatsumi muttered.

"Perhaps we can acquire a suitable snake corpse around here? There are some inside the Korrah Forest." Kaito suggested.

"Maybe I can help you? As an apology for the incident. I knew that there might be traitors but I do feel awful about this." Valeria stated.

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"What about Lieutenant Camille?" I asked. "What will happen to her?"

"There will be an investigation but she is the niece of Count Ritberg. Mother will likely use this incident to put pressure on their family. If there is any real evidence that she was involved in this there will be consequences." Valeria assured me.

"Back to the snake, we would need a small one that curls around Koyuki's forearm. Or maybe two, one for each arm? They can then strike from there, perhaps they could even provide magical shields?" Helena wondered.

"Why are you only considering Koyuki? All living inside the pack could get a snake as protection." Garm suggested. "You are all a bit squishy, except for Skadi."

"True but Koyuki is the one getting attacked all the time." Helena pointed out. "She needs something the most. Also, we can't communicate with undead as easily and would have to rely on commands."

"You could create a tier three undead." Cassie suggested.

"I think it would be really boring for a tier three to be curled around my arm all day." I said.

"Um, you are not concerned about having more tier three and keeping them controlled? You are concerned about it being bored?" Valeria asked.

"Of course! You had night watches before, right? Imagine being on guard duty all day, every day!" I said.

"Hm. It would depend on the undead but I am not sure how much they would mind." Garm mused.

"We would need a good corpse for a proper tier three anyway, let us see what we can acquire first." Kaito suggested.

"I think tier two would work just fine but once we have a corpse we can discuss this some more." I said. Despite Garm's statement I was not convinced that a tier three would enjoy guarding me all the time. Further, I might be able to empower a tier two with something similar to a joint casting. Then I could put a command on it to create an emergency shield fuelled by my own mana. While an intelligent bodyguard would be the best I felt like I had the tools to create a good tier two as well.

"Speaking of corpses, we should start collecting the ones we want from the field." Rose suggested.

"I still do have a not-yet-corpse here." Hatsumi stated while shaking the paralysed soldier in her hands.

"Perhaps we should question him." Kaito suggested.

I nodded. "Can you allow him to speak while keeping his remaining body paralyzed?"

"Yes." Hatsumi confirmed, then she bit the man again.

"Abomination! You shall burn in the holy fires of Iles!" The man shouted.

Cassie sighed, then she handed a coin to Skadi.

"Uh, what was that?" I asked.

"We had a bet on who would ambush us next and she picked Ilestria." Cassie muttered.

"Cassie had assumed it would be a group related to the new drug but this was clearly just Ilestrian zealots." Skadi said.

"We don't know if they worked with a local group and Ilestria could be involved in those drugs." I pointed out.

"Arhgghhgh…"

I looked at the captured soldier and foam was coming from his mouth.

"What happened?"

Hatsumi grabbed his mouth, forced it open and peered inside. "Hm, I think he ate some poison, there is a weird smell now. I have no idea where he got it from."

"We need to warn the others before they question the frozen one!" Valeria said, then she ran towards the officers.

"Is he dead?" I asked.

Hatsumi nodded.

Zealots were weird. Then again, they might have thought death would be better than to be captured by a necromancer. However, if I were actually evil I would just raise their old souls and bind them as a tier three. Luckily for them I had no intention of having an unwilling tier three by my side. Actually…

"Do you think that poison would interfere with necromancy?" I wondered.

"You mean it would react badly to the raise undead spell? That is possible. You can raise them from farther away, right? Perhaps you can try it?" Cassie suggested. "Let me just get a sample from his mouth first."

We prepared shields to be extra safe and placed the corpse on the ground. Then I backed away to a presumably safe distance and tried to raise it.

Flames burst from the body and we immediately summoned some water to prevent the fire from burning all the surrounding grass.

"Amateurs, it did not even explode." Cassie muttered, then her eyes widened. "Hey, do you think I can use their recipe and adapt it to make your death magic more explody? What if we made a bomb that could deliberately trigger with your magic?"

"I am fine with my magic not exploding." I said while Cassie pouted. "Anyway, let's collect the corpses. We have a lot of work left to do."