"Our Honorable Lord?" Who, exactly?
The next morning.
Karnak was lying on the sofa in his office, reminiscing about breakfast.
"Ah, that was delicious."
A soft, fluffy omelet, fragrant white bread spread with sweet jam, savory sausages, and perfectly roasted carrots.
Being rich really was nice.
To think he could eat such luxurious food first thing in the morning?
"I thought even after regressing I'd have to scrape by on rough meals for a while."
He was rolling around on the office sofa when there came a knock.
"It's Baros, young master."
"Come in."
A sturdy blond young man entered the office. Karnak spoke without getting up.
"Is it really okay to keep calling me 'young master'? I'm the lord now. Doesn't that sound suspicious?"
"It should be fine. From what I hear, I've always been making that mistake anyway."
Apparently, even after being thoroughly scolded by the old butler, he hadn't broken the habit, and everyone had half given up.
"If anything, this sounds more natural."
"Then fine. Have you eaten?"
"Yes. The food was good."
"They even feed the servants well?"
"Yes. Seems we really did get rich."
Baros glanced at the documents piled on the desk and asked with a puzzled look.
"But young master, is it really okay to laze around like this? You're the head of the family now—aren't you supposed to have tons of work?"
"Oh, those?"
Karnak shrugged after flicking his eyes over the reports on domain management.
"I already finished them."
"Already?"
"Do you really think I'd struggle with something like that at this point?"
For a newly appointed twenty-year-old lord, it would have been a full morning's worth of work, but to the Necromancer King who had conquered the entire world, it wasn't even a proper pastime.
"I wrapped it up while having dessert after the meal."
"W-What?! Dessert?! Lucky you! I didn't get any!"
Watching his attendant focus on such a strange point, Karnak let out a wry smile.
"Is dessert really what matters right now?"
"Of course it matters! I threw away wealth and glory for that, you know?"
"Well… fair enough. I'll sneak you some later. For now, we've got a more important problem."
"Oh, right."
Baros straightened his expression and sat across from Karnak.
Then he asked seriously,
"What are you going to do now? About the trial by duel."
Once Karnak officially became the head of the family, the Deventor Viscounty began to move again.
Sensing trouble, the Jestrad Barony grew tense.
To be honest, with the barony's remaining strength, there was no way to stand against Deventor.
Of the nine knights they once had, only five remained. Two of those were still recovering from injuries, and the hundred-odd domain soldiers were in poor condition as well.
If they wanted to survive at all, the only option was to hand over the copper mine and pay an enormous sum in war reparations.
But doing that would mean losing all the wealth they had only just gained—and becoming even poorer than before.
The peasants would starve in droves.
In this impossible situation, the one who saved the family was the new lord, Karnak.
Before everyone, he declared boldly:
"By the name of Allium, Goddess of the Moon and Justice, I hereby request a trial by duel against the Deventor Viscounty!"
According to the doctrines of the Lunar Order, a duel conducted in Allium's name would grant victory to the righteous party.
From this teaching arose the institution known as the trial by duel.
Under the supervision of a priest of Allium, the two sides would fight honorably to determine right and wrong.
At first glance, it seemed like a brutish system where the strong took everything—but that wasn't entirely true.
For one thing, the duel could not take place unless both sides agreed. If there was an obvious disparity in strength, penalties could be imposed, and it was also permissible to appoint a champion to fight in one's stead.
"Of course, that's just how it's described. In reality, it's basically saying the strong get everything…"
Baros shook his head.
"Isn't that insane? What on earth did he trust to pull something like that?"
This was something Karnak should never have proposed.
The difference in power was blatant, they had no suitable champion to put forward, and it wasn't as if twenty-year-old Karnak himself was some overwhelming powerhouse. Even if the other side suggested it, this was a situation where he should have refused at all costs.
"And yet he dug his own grave first…"
A sacred trial by duel was decided only by the death of one side.
Once it was established, there was no surrender.
To avoid the duel now and accept defeat? In that case, the Order of Allium would take Karnak's head.
Karnak slumped his shoulders.
"At least now I know why the old butler and the others suddenly started treating me so differently."
In fact, from the Jestrad family's perspective alone, the terms weren't entirely bad.
If the territorial war continued like this, they would lose the copper mine and still have to pay huge reparations.
But if it was turned into a trial by duel…
Of course, there was no chance of winning. But even if he lost, all that had to be handed over was the mine that caused the duel in the first place.
Once the judgment was made, all grievances would be resolved in the name of Allium, so there would be no need to pay a huge compensation. At least the peasants wouldn't starve.
"I don't even understand why the Viscount of Deventor agreed to this duel. He could have just fought and taken a huge compensation, couldn't he?"
"You have to consider reputation. Oppressing the weak too much doesn't look good, right? Other nobles would talk behind your back."
The Deventor family wasn't exactly in need of money.
"If they can smoothly take the copper mine through the duel, they can just give up the compensation. Not a bad deal for them either."
Thus, the trial by duel was set between the Deventor family's strongest knight, Sir Randolph, and the Jestrad family's new lord, Baron Karnak.
Who could possibly fail to respect a young lord who risked his life for them?
"Damn it… no wonder everyone's eyes were so bright when they looked at me…"
Baros asked Karnak, who was grinding his teeth.
"Then why did you personally step up? Why not just send a champion?"
"Hey! I didn't step up! This damn twenty-year-old kid, Karnak, stepped up!"
Karnak flared up, then deliberately calmed himself and caught his breath. He subtly asked,
"So… Baros, couldn't you step in as the champion instead?"
Of course, Baros was no longer a Death Knight. He was now just a frail human, with a body that hadn't even been properly trained.
"Even so, couldn't you handle a rural knight like that?"
"So that's why you called me here, huh?"
Baros scratched his head and shook it.
"I don't think it's feasible at the moment."
"Huh? Why? With all your experience, you can't handle this?"
Even as a human with a weakened body, he had nearly a hundred years of combat experience fighting alongside Karnak.
"You were the second-in-command of Necropia! You even took down three of the Four Great Death Kings!"
"That was all thanks to the power you gave me!"
"Still, you were the one wielding it, weren't you?"
"That's the thing—people who haven't properly trained often misunderstand this…"
Baros gave a wry smile.
"Just having all that experience doesn't let you defeat a third-rate knight if your body can't handle it. Arms missing? You can't use your sword. Can't walk properly? Forget fancy techniques. It's that simple."
You need a body capable of using your experience. That's the minimum requirement.
"Don't you remember in Darha Village when you stopped me, young master? I wasn't faking it. If a fight had broken out then, I really wouldn't have had a plan on my own."
Even a small child with basic martial arts training would have been more capable than his current untrained, grown-up body, Baros explained.
"Sure, now I could beat a child, but putting my experience to use is a different matter."
Karnak frowned.
"Ugh… a guy with over a hundred years of battle experience showing such weakness?"
"Exactly because I've fought for over a hundred years, I know my limits. Of course, once training starts, I'll progress faster than others. No trial-and-error needed."
Baros calculated for a moment and continued,
"Half a year? If you dedicate yourself, you could take down an ordinary knight."
A mere servant surpassing a fully trained knight in just six months? That was absurd, even insane.
Experience was undoubtedly a valuable asset.
The problem was…
"The trial by duel is in a month. There's no time."
"So, there's no countermeasure."
"Damn it…"
Baros asked in puzzlement,
"That's uncharacteristic of you. At this point in time, you were just a servant, so fine, but couldn't you have had other knights fight? And you're personally risking your life? Weren't you far from being a noble hero?"
Even with Baros speaking in a tone utterly lacking respect, Karnak didn't care. He had been hearing that tone for over a hundred years—it was normal.
Instead, he replied seriously.
"I can see why things turned out this way after hearing all that."
In any case, the current Jestrad barony had no knight who could step forward as a champion.
"The strongest knight in the family was my brother Paralt, and he's dead too, right?"
At this point, the odds that the remaining knights could defeat Sir Randolph were infinitesimally close to zero.
"There's no point in putting forward a champion who can't win anyway."
A trial by duel is conducted in the goddess's name, so the defeat of a champion is considered the defeat of the principal as well.
In other words, if the champion loses, Karnak must also take his own life.
"No matter how you look at it, the outcome's the same, so it seems the me of that time decided to find a different way."
Apparently, about two months ago, Karnak suddenly said this:
— I've thought of something. Trust me and wait a little.
Then, without explaining anything, he left on a journey and only returned yesterday.
"So, it's obvious what I was thinking, right?"
Baros smiled knowingly.
It really was obvious.
His master had done something similar in the past.
"Necromancy."
So what kind of nerve did Karnak at that age have to pull off something so insane?
This wasn't something you could find out by rummaging through the old steward's memories. Even back then, Karnak had kept necromancy a strict secret and told no one.
"But I can make a pretty good guess."
Karnak had discovered necromantic texts due to a long-standing habit of his.
Ever since childhood, whenever things got tough, he would flee to the family's old warehouse. Being alone in a dark, deserted place and rummaging around calmed his mind.
"Thinking about it now, I was a pretty gloomy kid, wasn't I?"
"You were a gloomy adult even after you grew up, so what's new?"
"H-Hey, I wasn't that bad, was I?"
"A socially bright adult who reduced people to bones with a flick of his finger, you say?"
"Shut up…"
The Karnak of this timeline had probably followed a similar path.
As he became lord and the pressure mounted, he likely holed up in the warehouse as a form of escape and found a necromancy book.
Practicing necromancy near the territory would have been discovered immediately, so he must have traveled far to Darha Village.
The reason for choosing Darha Village was clear.
It was far enough from the territory, deep and sparsely populated, yet still a place where supplies could be obtained—such locations weren't common.
"Same twenty-year-old me, just with slightly different circumstances. Of course I'd reach a similar conclusion."
The difference was that in his previous life, he had run away secretly with only Baros to learn necromancy, while this time he had openly announced his departure.
"Now it all makes sense."
Baros nodded.
"I was wondering why you, who lack nothing now, would bother learning necromancy…"
Then he suddenly asked,
"But can you really beat a regular knight with just three months of necromancy training?"
The opponent was Sir Randolph, the strongest knight of the Deventor territory.
Compared to the famed knights of the kingdom's center, he might fall short, but he was still far beyond what an ordinary person could challenge.
"No matter how absurdly powerful necromancy is as a forbidden art, three months seems way too short."
Karnak looked at Baros with an incredulous expression.
"Hey, of all people, you're the one saying that?"
"What did I say?"
"You watched me closely back in the day. You know what I was like."
"That was a hundred years ago. I barely even remember you when you still had flesh on your bones."
"F-Flesh…?"
Karnak grimaced, having been casually demoted to dog treat status. But it wasn't exactly wrong either…
"Honestly, I can win."
He changed the subject.
"Necromancy is the ultimate taboo. Show even the slightest trace of it, and every religious order on the continent will mobilize to exterminate you. With risks that huge, why do necromancers still appear?"
Necromancy lets you grow strong far too easily.
In a short time, with little effort, even without talent.
"Not just me—anyone who seriously commits to learning it would have a decent chance."
Baros tilted his head.
"Then what's the problem? That means there's a way to win."
"Yes, there is a way to win."
Karnak let out a deep sigh.
He was a necromancer, not a mage. That meant he only knew necromancy.
"There's no way not to get caught."