Saintess Summons Skeletons

“You’re a terrible employer. That was the worst week of my life,” Beatrice weakly complained, looking dead on the bone seat.

“Heh, maybe, but I can assure you that’s worth it. Even if only for stamina and slowed aging. Where did Pareth take you to level up?”

Sofia had checked through Pareth’s eyes a few times, but every time they were just walking in some cave, never actually fighting anything.

“I– I don’t wanna talk about it,” Beatrice answered with a shiver.

“Alright alright. Feeling good enough to walk? Follow me, I’ll show you your new room.”

“Can I rest here for a minute?”

“... Fine, stay seated, I’m carrying you.”

Beatrice did not even have the force to jump in surprise when the chair she was on flew up and followed Sofia out of the library.

Sofia looked back, “Hey, I just healed you, you can’t be that tired, right?”

“Damned necromancers, don’t know the meaning of the word rest…” Beatrice mumbled, staring at the ceiling like a dead fish, her limbs limp dangling from the chair.

“You’re the one who suggested working for me, are you not?”

“This is a far cry from what I expected back then…”

“You already speak like a jaded old man and you’ve been here less than a month.”

“Oh, don’t worry I’ve always been like this…”

“So much for the prestige of a princess.”

“What prestige? I’m barely even a princess anymore, you’re really the only person calling me that… Also where in the shit are we?”

“The palace I’m paying you to decorate? Where else? You’ve got some heavy work ahead of you.”

With wide eyes, Beatrice jumped out of the chair, looking around, currently in the wide entrance hall with two large sets of stairs leading up surrounding the tall doors to the throne room.

“You built this?! And that other room? In just a few days?!”

“Humm… How do I say this… That’s just the entrance?”

Sofia watched Beatrice run to the front gate and struggle to push it open, jumping outside through the crack, and looking up, bewildered. She joined her in looking at her own creation.

“What do you think? Not bad, right?”

Beatrice slowly turned to look at Sofia, “You… You did this? Was your class secretly castle-builder?”

“It’s just bone walls. I made the rest of the city the same way, you know?”

“... I’m going to need a lot more money to make this work. A lot, lot more…”

“Hmm… I can do thirty million gold. Is that enough?”

Beatrice froze for a second, blinking several times as she watched Sofia’s expression. “You… You’re serious, aren’t you? Are you made of money?!”

Sofia raised her golden left arm, “Well. Funny you should ask that, as a matter of fact…”

Saria returned early the following day, having found nothing of interest in her storage, but having given Zephir a detailed account of the event with Anna’s books, thereby ensuring that he would look into the matter himself. The next few days went by in relative calm, Sofia helped Erredis with the first sale of an Odalite forge use, to Eltiel, netting them eight stones that they chose to split fifty fifty. Beatrice got hard at work furnishing the first floor starting from the entrance and kitchen, somehow engaging Bookie’s help along the way who happily carried item shipments around the palace. Meanwhile, a small reading group formed in the library alongside Sofia, Speed having joined after a random visit, Zerei having been understandably attracted by Sofia’s enchanting antics, and Saria and Pareth joining purely for the pleasure of accumulating knowledge.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Then, as Sofia closed a book she had just finished going through, a flurry of system notification grabbed everyone’s attention.

‘RANK N°14 - ASTELIA GLACIER, now entering the Ark. Seats will open up for sale in 1:00:00’

‘RANK N°16 - AZRANOVAKERFEN OF DREAD, now entering the Ark. Seats will open up for sale in 1:00:00’

‘RANK N°23 - ZULUK AMOK’OK RAYRA, now entering the Ark. Seats will open up for sale in 1:00:00’

‘RANK N°212 - ORA, now entering the Ark. Seats will open up for sale in 1:00:00’

‘RANK N°4366 - ALITH, now entering the Ark. Seats will open up for sale in 1:00:00’

“It looks like even without encountering your imprint this won’t be an easy ark,” Saria said first, closing her book.

“Seems so. I didn’t even know Dread had a new Apostle,” Sofia answered.

“Cin never brought it up but it looks like he does and he’s doing quite well. Rank sixteen… Know anything about them, Rei?”

Zerei shook her head, “No. Curse doesn’t communicate all that often, and when he does it’s usually to share new curses.”

“We’ll get to see that new Apostle in action soon enough anyway. Does anyone have any clue about the other two?” Sofia asked.

All gazes turned to Speed, who was still pretending to read, but ended up caving to the social pressure. “Zuluk Rayra is the youngest daughter of Archmagus Rayra, one of the three ascended leaders of the Arege Union. She should be around thirty or thirty five, and she more or less has complete control of the entire food and services industry of the union. No idea how she fights but you can imagine how much her current equipment must be worth,” Speed started. Seeing that everyone was still staring, he continued with a sigh, “I don’t know about this Ora in particular but that strikes me as a typical Odon name, probably male. I have heard rumours about a rising Odon sword genius, so chances are that’s him, but I’m not sure.”

“As expected of mister postman, you really are well-informed,” Saria complimented.

“Some day my head’s gonna explode from all the names and faces I’m cramming in there…” Speed complained, gazing back down at the book he held.

“Don’t worry I can always hold some of your essence for you if you need to make some space in there,” Sofia jokingly offered with a thumbs up.

“As if I could afford that!”

“Didn’t you say you were growing slightly stronger last time?” Sofia asked.

“Strong emphasis on slightly. My EV is still shit. But it did climb up a tiny bit. I found out why in the meantime, it’s thanks to the union, actually.”

“Oh, yes? What did they do?” Zerei asked curiously, “Sometimes I want to help Curses but he said I couldn’t possibly change anything, no.”

“Nothing crazy, drakeling races have gotten very popular, so with people constantly focusing on their speed, it’s helped shift the perception of speed in my favor. It’s only really having a visible effect because the union is just that fucking huge,” Speed explained.

“Ah, right! Speed!” Sofia said right as he finished his sentence, “I forgot to ask last time, but you should know all the emperors around, right?”

“Y- Yeah? There aren’t that many emperors to begin with…”

“Then does emperor Evatoseptot ring a bell?”

“That… Hmm… No, not even remotely. Are you sure whatever empire this guy is from still exists?”

“All I know is the name and that he’s alive,” Sofia said, “It’s not a huge deal if I don’t find out who that is, but it makes me kind of uneasy that absolutely nobody seems to know anything about him…”

Sofia proceeded to explain the matter with Edrazeketh’s quest and the option in it to deal with or negotiate a peace treaty with said emperor, without getting too into the details of the Lord or the quest itself. Saria already knew all about it but for Speed and Zerei it was all new information.

“It is worrying, yes…” Zerei commented, “Who else did you ask?”

“Erredis, Leverle, and a few others… Honestly at this point I would ask Nex, but aside from trying to piss off the high scribes, I’ve got no way to contact him. Maybe I should ask Sun…”

“No no no, don’t say that!” Speed freaked out on his chair, gaze turning to the faint rays of evening sunlight that streamed into the library from the tall windows, “fuuuuck…”

“What’s wrong, Speedy? Can’t handle a bit of sunlight?” a certain tall ‘elf’ woman standing behind Speed’s chair whispered in his ear, having appeared there without the slightest warning sign. “Hello hello, everyone! It has been a while. The squids have been keeping me quite busy. Are you all doing well?” Sun asked, disappearing and reappearing behind Sofia’s chair. She grabbed Sofia’s left arm with her own. Sun’s left arm was, as usual, glowing white for no apparent reason; that was just how she looked. “We match now!” she enthusiastically said, before loudly sniffing as if smelling something weird, and plucking Bookie’s book form out of thin air.

What the hell?!

Bookie shivered in Sun’s hand, and his skeleton form quickly ran into the library from the main entrance.

“Ah– Ah– Let me go! Too hot!!!” he cried out as he stumbled into the room.

“Oops, sorry, I got a bit too excited there. Still, I can’t let you go quite yet,” Sun said, opening the book and flipping through the pages, Bookie looking instantly better as he ran to Sofia’s arms.

“The Phoenix?” Sofia asked.

Sun found the page at the same time, her fingers gliding on the ethereal golden page. “Tssk tssk… You found something like this and didn’t even call me. What am I even giving away my essence for?” Sun commented, a big smile on her face, “It looks like yours is in a better state than mine.”

Somehow Sun took over the conversation for the remaining hour, not-so-subtly trying to push random quests on Saria, Zerei and Speed the entire time. In the end, Sofia barely managed to ask about the original topic, learning that not even Sun herself knew the first thing about Emperor Evatoseptot. Sun left seconds after the ticket sales for the ark started, after paying a VIP spectator room for the group out of her own pockets without even asking them.