"The next one is Anna's mother. Her soul is still intact, so we can take her."
"Wonderful!" Anna whispered excitedly, but quickly composed herself, realizing such behavior was impolite.
"Who's next? Anna's father here?"
"Unfortunately, Anna's father isn't here. He and your uncle died at the Watchtower, and in the end, not even their bodies remained."
Sebas, seeing Hel glance at him, could not help but express some regret.
"I see. Next, anyone from Lily's family need resurrecting?"
"Ah? I don't think so. Master, after seven years, ordinary souls really can't remain in the world?"
"That's certain. Only transcendent souls can be preserved using elemental crystals."
Hearing this, Lily appeared somewhat disappointed. Her dearly beloved elder sister had been an ordinary person with no talent for cultivation.
"Next should be my maternal grandfather, right?"
"Yes." Sebas nodded, leading Hel to a simple grave deep in the cemetery.
"This is your grandfather's grave."
"Here?"
Hel looked at the grave, so plain that it didn't even have a tombstone. She waved her hand, opening it just as before, revealing a decayed coffin on the verge of collapse.
"No… there's no soul in this coffin."
"No soul? Master, could it be that the soul is already in the elemental crystal?"
"No." Hel was certain. Without further explanation, she pushed the coffin aside.
But the inside was empty—there wasn't even the liquid that typically forms from a decomposed body.
"Are you sure my grandfather was buried here?"
Hel looked at Sebas and the others, suspicious. Clearly, no body had ever been in this coffin, or if there was, it had been removed quickly. Otherwise, it wouldn't be in this state.
"How could this happen? We saw him buried with our own eyes."
Sebas rushed to the coffin and began searching, refusing to believe it, but no matter how thoroughly he checked, he found no trace of a body.
Arwin joined him, his expression grave as he stared at the empty coffin.
"There's only one road into the cemetery, and it passes through the main hall of the castle, which is guarded at all times. To stealthily remove the patriarch's body, the thief would need to be at least two tiers above us, at fourth-tier, otherwise we would have noticed."
"Perhaps this is related to the Skoll School," Hel said.
She recalled that anyone wealthy and powerful enough to steal from the Heim family in such a manner could only be from the Skoll School.
"No, there's another possibility," Sebas said, having recovered from his earlier despair. Straightening his slightly disheveled clothes, he faced Hel again.
"My grandfather originally came from the Sorcel Magic Empire. According to him, there is still a branch of the Heim family there. To prevent family secrets from leaking, they may have reclaimed my grandfather's body."
"Is that so? But the Magic Empire is far away… Perhaps in the future, we can visit the Scholars' Country. Anyway, we can deal with this later. If there's nothing else, follow me to see how I resurrect these two."
…
Resurrecting the dead is actually quite simple.
First, you need a living body and a complete soul. Hel had no shortage of souls, and creating a body was straightforward. Using the remaining bones and some other flesh, it was easy to reconstruct a human body.
With a living body ready, placing the soul inside was simple. Hel remarked that souls were more convenient than any "plug-and-play" eye technique she had ever seen.
Once the two were resurrected, Hel gave them a choice: their desired bloodline and the path they wished to pursue.
Anna's mother, Ancyia, chose an elven bloodline and life-attribute magic.
Black's wife, Melanie, chose dragon blood and wind-attribute martial energy.
Of course, Black also got the same: dragon blood and his original fire-attribute martial energy.
After spending three golden bloodline tags and three talent tags, Hel successfully gained three loyal subordinates. Most importantly, all three were alive—an unprecedented achievement.
This was revolutionary because Hel had never had living subordinates before.
Additionally, resurrecting these two increased everyone's loyalty to Hel. The most significant changes were in the young maid Anna and Black. Their loyalty tags immediately changed to [Hel's Undying Loyalty]. Though not the +340 loyalty version, Anna gained 130 points and Black 140 points. This made Black Hel's first core living subordinate.
Sebas and Arwin also had their loyalty tags upgraded to [Hel's Undying Loyalty], though only +100 points each. Lily's loyalty increased slightly, though not to undying; her loyalty simply shifted to Hel.
That evening, Hel held a grand banquet at Heim Castle to celebrate her first New Year in this world and the addition of these new members. The feast lasted late into the night. Sebas, Arwin, and the others, unusually happy, drank a little too much.
Hel herself was completely immersed in Ancyia's culinary offerings, unable to pull away. It was the best meal she had had since arriving in this world.
Niv pampered her by cutting the food to make the meal even more enjoyable. Anna and Lily were chatting in a corner, Anna's flushed face suggesting an inappropriate conversation.
The banquet continued until Hel could eat no more. She returned to her room and slept deeply until noon the next day. Upon waking, she saw Niv's beautiful eyes staring straight at her.
"Niv? Why are you back on my bed?"
"Naturally, to deliver your morning bite, Master. And of course, I've come with something very important. Master, are we going on a date today?"