CHAPTER 422: Rumours and Plans

"Have you heard the latest rumours?" Valeria asked, as she sat down next to me and my friends in the mess hall. It was the end of the second week and we had been contemplating how we should spend our day off tomorrow.

"What rumours?" Skadi asked.

"There is a new undead wolf roaming the academy! Since you haven't said anything, it's not yours Koyuki, right?" Valeria asked.

"You mean Grendel? No, he belongs to Gronir. He was raised a few days ago." I replied. "I'm surprised that information hasn't spread yet."

"Only the necromancy students know about him and there aren't that many." Helena pointed out.

"I told you though." I said. "I would have told anyone who asked."

Skadi shrugged. "Maybe I didn't pass that along and instead frightened some first years. The academy is called the Wolf's Den, unofficially. Who's to say that there isn't a dread wolf stalking the halls looking for prey?"

"I told Grendel he needs some neckwear so people won't be as frightened when they see him." Garm added.

"He has a lovely brown tie now. With bad lighting you could almost think it's a noose, you know? Since he is a bringer of death." Cassie said.

I looked at my friends. "Since when are you spreading such rumours?"

"Eh, there were some pushy first year nobles who hit on us." Skadi replied.

"We might have told them we would feed them to the undead school beast." Cassie said.

"But Grendel looks cute!" I protested. "He even has that cool smokey fur."

"He is quite fluffy if you pet him." Rose added.

"I think most people see undead a bit differently." Valeria said.

I pointed at Garm. "Most people like him and want to pet him."

"Well, he looks more alive than Grendel. Honestly, that smokey fur looks a bit dangerous to touch." Helena said. After a pause she added: "But it is soft."

"It's all about how you dress." Garm's left head said. "I will have to talk to Grendel some more. Maybe he should consider having a cat on his head? That helps as well." The right head added.

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"Gronir doesn't have an undead cat. Or at least he doesn't have a tier three one." I replied.

"A clear oversight on his part." Garm said.

"Meow." All cats agreed.

"Well, I have heard another rumour: There is a vampire in the sewers!" Valeria said.

"Of course there is, I have been doing patrols for the city." Hatsumi said.

"Wait, you are still doing that?" Valeria asked.

"She wants to and it helps us with the city and our finances. There is also the chance that she finds some criminals. Sadly the guards are still looking for Renata and haven't found any clues yet." I said.

"I believe the criminals in the city are quite irritated by our continued presence." Kaito said with a smile.

"Oh, we should dress Hatsumi as Koyuki again and see if someone comes for her!" Cassie suggested.

"You want to spend tomorrow hunting criminals?" I asked.

"Corpses would be welcome, we only have that one body from your attackers left." Rose said. "I would like to help you raise more undead. When are we going to raise that last corpse?"

"I don't have a specific use for that corpse. I was hoping we would learn something new and I could experiment with it." I admitted. "Also, we haven't been able to test the assassins or the shamans in a real battle yet. It would be nice to see them in action to evaluate their improvements. It might help me to refine them for my next undead."

"Wait, you are contemplating spending Solday looking for a fight?" Valeria asked.

"Yes?" I said.

Valeria sighed. "Girls, have you considered a spa?"

"The baths are nice, we have been there a few times." I said.

"No, not just the baths! You can get your hair and nails done, get a massage,..." Valeria suggested.

"Nails are a waste of time in the military." Helena said. "Unless you want to use them as weapons. I guess earth magic could reinforce them or a blood mage could use them to scratch someone but using a weapon is easier."

"You want them short and clean for alchemy." Cassie added.

"Ok, so no spa. What about shopping?" Valeria asked.

"Do you think the adventurers guild will have some corpses? I have tried buying from them several times and I still want some light affinity undead but they charge a lot. I wonder if I should just hire a group directly." I said.

"Honestly, your force is rather powerful and even a trained undead slayer will struggle. I think our greatest weakness is spotting an attack and hopefully we will learn better ways to counter them in class." Helena said.

"And there is Kyan." Cassie pointed out.

"Ssss."

"Maye you should just go for cheaper corpses and work on enhancing them? Your goblins turned out really well." Skadi said.

"True. Maybe I can get more goblins? Crawler corpses would be awesome too, I want more Andys." I said.

"I meant shopping for clothes, or jewellery, or,..." Valeria interrupted.

I shuddered. "No, no clothes."

"Aw, you could use more cute clothes, Koyuki!" Helena said.

"We could always buy more neckwear." Garm suggested.

"Valeria, you can go shopping with Garm, if you want to." I suggested.

"We could bring Grendel and Yoru." Garm's left head said. "It's a shame that Kaito doesn't have a neck. A true shame." Garm's right head added.

"While neckwear is common for a butler I believe the uniform itself is enough. However I could try to form a bow with the frostfire emerging from my neck. It might be an interesting exercise in control." Kaito stated.

"Well, so what are you going to do tomorrow then?" Valeria asked.

"There isn't much to do with the brewery currently but I tend to check on it whenever I have time." Cassie said. "I was also thinking about trying some new bombs with Kasai's help…"

"I usually just make sure that Cassie doesn't explode." Skadi said. "And I train my runes while I watch her."

"If we aren't hunting anything I will read more about necromancy and fiddle with some runes, but I expect Helena will drag me to a training room and we will spar a bit." I admitted.

Helena nodded. "You need to train your shields and work on your direct attacks. Why don't you train with us, Valeria?"

Valeria sighed and looked at Garm. "Maybe we can go shopping for neckwear…"