Chapter 41 The Bone Council
After finishing all this, I walked straight out the door, ready to move on to the next kill.
I kept repeating the same pattern—hide first, then cut people down with the magic blade the moment we met face-to-face—until I'd taken out all the guards patrolling or resting below deck.
Including the first three, that made eleven people in total.
It sounded like a huge task, but since no one had received any warning and all the guards were caught completely off guard, it only took me less than half an hour.
I couldn't be sure that everyone I'd killed was a traitor...
But in the end, this was just a dream, nothing more than an illusion. In real history, the old wizard named Selene had died, even leaving behind an endlessly looping dream.
If I couldn't tell who the traitors were, I might as well kill them all.
By this point, I had noticed something was clearly wrong—this sword wasn't just calming me down, it was also dulling my sense of the value of life. This was a magical item that had been sitting in Anna's room, so obviously Anna knew what it did.
But the killing spree was discovered.
As soon as I stepped out, I saw Klaus hurrying this way, just turning the last corner.
I was about to hide, but the moment I saw Klaus, he seemed to sense something and looked up.
He saw me just as I was coming out of the room.
The instant we saw each other, we both froze. I fell silent for a moment, not knowing what to say, just gripping my sword tighter and getting the wasp ready—if a fight broke out, I'd send the wasp flying at him to self-destruct.
Strangely, Klaus didn't attack right away either.
Seeing me come out of that room, a strange expression appeared on his face. After several seconds of silence, the vague thought in my mind became clearer:
...Why wasn't Klaus attacking me?
Did he not want to?
No, I was certain Klaus definitely wanted to kill me... The killing intent in his eyes was practically spilling over, his narrowed eyes full of a reptilian chill.
Just looking into Klaus's eyes, I could hear faint, unclear whispers in my ears.
In my vision, Klaus's figure gradually became twisted and distorted, purple-red mist rising from his body... But when I looked more carefully, it seemed like just an illusion.
But he seemed to have misunderstood something.
"Donald, whose side are you on?"
"...I don't want to say."
Klaus sighed and stopped pretending to stay silent. "Listen, Donald. I can spare you, but you have to keep our secret too... This is for your own good as well. You don't want to fight and have Selene on the upper deck since the intense magical fluctuations, do you?"
So he was worried about Selene.
"You can spare me?"
I repeated Klaus's words and couldn't help but laugh. "Is it really your place to say something like that now?"
Even if my real strength couldn't match Klaus's at all, my advantage was that I wasn't afraid. Precisely because I was fearless, I could bluff with extra confidence.
But seeing my confident expression, one corner of Klaus's mouth suddenly lifted, revealing undisguised mockery:
"Who do you think we're taking orders from? What do you think gives us the nerve to betray? Do you think we're all as stupid as you?
"Anna's family isn't some generous bunch of nice people. Her father only has three children in total, and he dotes on her especially. If it weren't for orders, we'd have to be crazy to murder Ms. York..."
Klaus's eyes were full of almost pitying scorn. "I'd advise you to back off, too, Donald, while there's still time. You killed everyone below deck, didn't you? Not bad skills—join us.
"We can't start fighting on the ship right now, but once Selene's dead, if you dare set foot on shore, you're finished. And even if you stay on the ship and don't come down, the ship itself can't withstand cannons... Just one cannonball and this whole ship will split in two."
"I killed your men—can you really trust me?" I asked.
"Even if you didn't kill them, someone else would have."
Klaus sneered. "They're just a bunch of useless trash. I wouldn't even want them as materials for dark magic... But you're different. You're also a wizard. If we fight here, we'll only alert Selene, and then she'll kill both of us. You've been hiding all these years—you can't just want to be a guard, right?"
"...So who's behind you?" I narrowed my eyes and asked in a low voice. "Who wants to kill Anna? You can at least tell me that, otherwise I can't trust you."
"Since I'm telling you, I'm not afraid of you talking." Klaus's mouth curved up. "I'll be straight with you... It's 'The Bone Council.' Not just Anna—her father won't survive either. It's only a matter of time..."
The Bone Council...
Damn it, just hearing that, I knew it was connected to Bone Lord.
And that soul vessel, a finger bone...
Just thinking about this made my stomach hurt.
What was this—more than a hundred years after Bone Lord's death, there were still dark wizards worshipping him, and there was this 'Bone Council.' Most importantly, did Bone Lord know about this organization? He must know, right? But then I suddenly remembered Bone Lord's disgusted attitude toward dark wizards on Wizard Commercial Street, and I wasn't so sure anymore.
"Of course, I agree to join your operation... By the way, what does The Bone Council want? It won't conflict with my goals, will it?" I asked.
Klaus said somewhat impatiently, "What we want is just the seal and the letters."
I was about to nod, but immediately realized something was wrong.
Klaus was lying.