Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

CHAPTER 376: A new Problem

"So, what do we actually know about the scout reports? They have seen undead but what did the undead do?" Skadi asked as we followed Garm.

"A merchant caravan has spotted undead recently in the forest but they did not engage. Daddy's scouts have killed a few zombies wandering around, that is all that I know." Helena replied.

"So there is a chance the tier three is reasonable and the zombies were their own scouts." I mused.

"I have to warn you, friendly undead are usually not a thing around here. When they come from the mountains they always attack the living, except maybe the Devourer. And Nyx was the first to make peaceful contact with that creature." Helena cautioned.

"So, a question for all the undead here: How do you see the living and other undead?" Cassie asked.

"I do not particularly care if someone is alive, although undeath is clearly an advantage." Garm stated. "We are a pack, that is the important part."

"Meow." The cats seemed to mostly agree.

"I serve Mistress Koyuki and will slay her foes, whoever they might be." Kaito stated. "However, I do not have a desire to kill and I respect the living."

"I admit that the blood of the living has a certain appeal and one of my instincts tells me they are food. However, that does not apply to any of you." Hatsumi stated. "Like Kaito I do not have any urge to slay the living, unless they provoke it with their behaviour."

"Hm." Rose said, while looking thoughtful. "I think at first I was mostly just afraid of the living. My survival instinct made me fight against Leo's control and the other mages, then surrender when your group arrived. I would not have felt bad for killing anyone but I am not so sure anymore. I kind of like existing and I suppose the living do too. How do you feel about undead in general?

"I would have called them evil before Koyuki." Skadi admitted. "However, I would have called nobles evil too before I met Cassie and Helena. Now I am judging them on a case-by-case basis."

"You played with Nyx pretty quickly once you met her." I pointed out.

"She is a cat, they get away with being evil and we still like them." Skadi replied.

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Nyx nodded.

"I saw undead as tools or a threat that needed to be eliminated." Helena said. "You know that we have been fighting them in the north but I never considered that you could be friends with an intelligent undead."

"I never had any meaningful interaction with undead before the academy." Cassie said. "I would have seen them as monsters but I had never given that much thought."

"I did not know anything about undead before becoming a necromancer and I have been rather fascinated by them since then." I admitted.

"I believe your views were never in doubt, Mistress." Kaito said.

Everyone nodded. Before I could reply Garm sniffed loudly. "There is something ahead. Death."

We readied our weapons and magic, then we approached cautiously.

"Ivy and Kasai, scout left, Nyx and Yoru, scout right." I ordered the cats and they sprinted ahead.

My felines were small and knew how to move silently. They were great scouts except that they could not speak our language. However, they could convey some feelings through the link and warn us if there was a threat. We gave them a moment to get into position before we followed them.

As we came closer we found the aftermath of a fight. I could see some dried blood, a broken spear and damaged plants. The only corpse was one goblin whose head had been smashed rather badly, however there were some smaller bits of flesh as well.

"Someone raised all the corpses from that fight, except the badly damaged one." I concluded.

"So our tier three undead found some goblins it seems." Helena said. "Any idea how old the corpse is?"

"I am not really an expert in such things but perhaps yesterday? The fight happened after the latest snow." Garm said.

"Do you think the undead is hunting goblins for their army?" I wondered.

"If there is a goblin tribe nearby, sure, but we are clearing the goblins who come near our villages. Actually, if there are goblins here too the crawlers might be an even bigger issue. The goblins could have been driven from the caves as well if the crawlers started to expand. Damn, that could mean a new nest with a new queen." Helena said.

"So, how bad would that be?" Cassie asked.

"I said before that crawlers don't really leave the mountains, except to hunt if an entrance is close to their territory. However, if a nest is really close and they need a lot of food they might attack a village. They won't settle out here but this area could become too dangerous for travellers. A new queen needs a lot of food to grow her nest. We might have to send soldiers to seal any exits and establish regular patrols to keep them contained. Dealing with the nest itself would be really costly." Helena said. "If we can deny them food from outside they might move deeper into the mountains again."

"Are such things common around here?" I asked.

"To some degree there is always a monster problem. This could be one of the more dangerous ones but nothing we haven't dealt with before. As long as we report this, Daddy can take the necessary actions to keep the people safe." Helena replied, then added: "It's not like we have confirmed my theory yet but there are enough indicators to take this seriously."

"Should we turn around then, or should we try to find the undead?" I asked.

"I am not sure." Helena replied. "If we could deal with the undead it would solve one problem but we don't know if we can catch it. If the undead is on the move we might chase it for days or weeks."

"We could go a bit further and still be at your home before nightfall." Garm suggested.

"Let's do that, maybe we get lucky and find something." Helena said.

"I will leave the cats deployed as scouts while we follow Garm's nose." I suggested.

Helena nodded. "Good, let's go."