Witch Hunter Rhapsody

"Please use it."

Maximus and Raphael sat in a small café on a street corner. The area was affluent, and the street and shop environment was much better than Maximus had seen before.

Raphael ordered a strong coffee, while Maximus, who didn't like bitter drinks, ordered only a lemonade.

Necromancers have a bad reputation among wizards, not because of the content of their research, but because of the things they do in order to conduct their research.

Necromancers often conduct their research without considering the consequences, making it impossible to reuse living materials. In their pursuit of materials, they often cause losses or even deaths to other wizards.

The country of Noctis was also transformed into its current desolate and ruined state by necromancers, and Maximus knew that these guys were extremely dangerous.

"You said there's a way to resurrect Alistair? What's that all about?"

"His body is in my hands. With a little help, I can bring him back to life. That's a good thing for you, isn't it?"

Raphael was very curious as to why Maximus did not want his superior to be resurrected.

"His death would be the biggest problem."

It was an ambiguous statement, but Raphael understood it and nodded sympathetically.

From the perspective of their status, Maximus is undoubtedly the inferior party. He followed his superior on a mission, and his superior died while he survived. It is even possible that his own mistake led to his superior's death. Therefore, it is quite normal for him to be worried.

Fortunately, the spell Raphael used was able to avert Maximus's worries.

"The spell I use will not truly restore the state of the deceased just before death, but will select a state before death. However, this requires a considerable amount of materials and the full assistance of a professional wizard."

Raphael said.

"After I resurrect Alistair, I will simultaneously use magic to peer into his memories, and then alter them. How about that?"

"What?"

For Maximus, what Raphael said was quite appealing.

Alistair initially wanted to kill him, but he didn't expect Vitas to be so powerful, and was ultimately killed.

Now, the teacher has begun searching for Alistair's whereabouts; if he doesn't find him, he'll die; if he does find him, he'll die too.

However, according to Raphael's current proposal, after Alistair's resurrection, he could even change Alistair's mind.

The reason why Raphael did this is quite simple: to spy on Alistair's memories. Given the methods of mages, it wouldn't be difficult to make a copy while spying.

As Drak's guides, they possess countless secrets and magical knowledge, which absolutely makes it worthwhile for them to go through such trouble.

Maximus looked at Raphael, perhaps fate was truly on his side, and after the worst of times, something good had finally appeared.

What do you need?

"Many things, this resurrection array, the array for reading memories, and the array for changing people's minds require a lot of resources. I can obtain some of them, but the rest I need is you, Maximus."

"What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to do something inconvenient to me, to come here with Alistair to complete this mission, and I've never heard of you before. You must be a guy with some tricks up your sleeve."

what?

What is this guy saying?

Is it possible that I'm just an average student among the teacher's students, with no outstanding abilities or achievements, and that Alistair only summoned me because I was assigned to take down Viya...?

However, the opportunity is right in front of him. If Maximus can seize it, then all of this, all of this...

"Okay, I'll join. Tell me what you need."

……

Maximus did not see this as betrayal, nor did he see it as an act of heartlessness.

Because their teachers did not provide them with the treatment they deserved, even though Drak had enough resources to ensure that every student could live comfortably, other students not only failed to receive the resources they were entitled to in order to achieve greater value and more outstanding academic results, but instead became resources for other researchers.

Maximus thought about it more and more and felt that he should do it. All he wanted was to survive, or perhaps, to live with dignity. Was he wrong?

Maximus knew what he was supposed to do.

Raphael showed him the materials for the magic circle that would be drawn. As expected of a magic circle that could pull people back from the brink of death, the materials alone took up several pages.

Abyssal charcoal, meteorite iron, banshee tears, lich skin... some of these materials were even completely unknown to Maximus.

However, according to Raphael himself, most of the materials could be obtained by him and the necromancers.

The only things we need to figure out are the bile from the Nether Salamander and the scales from the Frost Dragon.

This was the most troublesome part, as even with the help of his own school of thought, Raphael couldn't obtain it and could only rely on the help of Maximus, who seemed to have some status.

Maximus had heard a little about both of them.

This is essentially an impossible task. The salamanders generally live in the swamps of the battlefield, and as their name suggests, they love death and are often accompanied by corpses.

As its name suggests, the Frost Dragon generally lives in the Frostlands, the realm of the Frost Giants. The Frost Giants are the most magic-hating race in the world. For a wizard, finding a Frost Dragon in the Frostlands and peeling off its scales is tantamount to suicide.

For Raphael, this wasn't particularly urgent. The reason was simple: if Draco arrived, he could simply run away with the corpse. Once he returned to Noctis, all the wizards of the entire undead kingdom would be backing him up.

What about Maximus?

If he doesn't revive Alistair quickly, he'll really die when his teacher arrives.

Maximus pondered deeply, his mind instinctively turning to that man.

Vitas.

Vitas was, in a strict sense, Maximus's benefactor. After he accepted the mission to kill Viya, he spent a lot of time thinking about how to carry it out, but he had no clue what to do next.

Viya is an excellent wizard with extremely strict defenses against magic. As long as Viya stays in her laboratory, it is virtually impossible for a wizard to kill her easily.

It was at this time that Vitas appeared in the wizard's black market, a fairly large city with some wizards. Maximus was able to gain some pitiful respect here by virtue of his status as a Drak student.

It was at this time that Vitas approached and expressed his desire to serve under the wizard.

Of course, Maximus knew that Vitas was after his status as a teacher, and that there were many such people who hoped to gain a new future by attaching themselves to one of the most powerful wizards in the duchy.

Such people often appear in front of Maximus, and most people back down when faced with Maximus's terrible demands.

So Maximus jokingly assigned the task to Vitas.

Anyway, he hadn't revealed his real name or identity at the time. Even if this hot-headed knight failed, he wouldn't be blamed.

Until Vitas actually killed Viya.

To be honest, Maximus thought that was his best performance. Even though he was so shocked that he almost peed his pants, he still forced himself to go over and intimidate Vitas, at least to confirm who was the master and who was the servant.

It was around that time that Maximus began to believe that Vitas was omnipotent.

Later, he even killed Alistair during the undead invasion, well, although it was mostly that monster Viya who killed him, but he was able to cooperate with that monster Viya.

What exactly is this...?

What exactly is the relationship between Vitas and Declan? Was he sent by Nexus to infiltrate?

If this is the case, his power, the method by which he killed Viya, and the phenomenon of his harmonious coexistence with the Viya monster all become explainable.

Maximus ultimately decided to ask Vitas for help.

If Vitas really is Nexus's man, then he should just accept his bad luck; there's nothing he can do if things ultimately fail.

If not, and Vitas is simply a mercenary as he claims, could he possibly find those two things?

Maximus remained silent for a moment, then finally summoned his raven and released it to Vitas's residence.

Hopefully Vitas is at home now.

Maximus's ravens are specially tamed. Although not every wizard has such creatures, they are not particularly rare. It's just that wizards have different ways of dealing with their limited resources.

Through special magic, he can observe the environment around the crows through their sight and hearing, and convey his words through them.

He could see Vitas's residence in the distance; to be honest, in terms of size, Vitas's rented apartment looked much larger than his own wretched laboratory.

In terms of quality of life alone, Vitas's quality of life is probably much better than mine.

Damn it, when I was tracking Vitas before, I saw several women around him.

It's understandable; Vitas is young, handsome, and dashing, the kind of knight who seems to have stepped out of a story, so it's quite normal for him to be popular with women.

As for Maximus, he didn't know many women. Apart from the guy who almost had to sell himself because of food shortages, he didn't know any other living women.

This is even considering that female wizards make up a large proportion of the wizarding profession. In other professions, Maximus would not even see a single woman.

The crows continued to approach, and the window, which was usually open, was now closed.

Maximus banged on the window, hoping to get Vitas's attention.

However, after a long time, Vitas did not open the window. Could it be that Vitas was not there?

If he really isn't there, then Maximus will just have to accept his bad luck.

Just as Maximus was about to leave, the window suddenly opened.

Vitas appeared in the window.

He didn't usually wear his signature armor, but Maximus remembered that he would wear clothes at home.

He saw Vitas looking around, and finally looked up and saw Maximus's raven.

"Damn it, who was making all that noise? It's you, Maximus. Couldn't you have picked a better time?"

"Hehehe, are you doing something important right now? Or did you bring someone else's girl back? How ridiculous, you bastard..."

Before he could finish speaking, Maximus saw a girl named Ethera appear from behind Vitas.

She was wearing clothes that clearly didn't fit her body properly, and she looked outside with a curious expression.

"Who are you talking to?"

"A wizard friend."

Vitas placed his hand on Aethera's shoulder, then said to the raven, "Wait for me for two more hours. Tell me what's on your mind in two hours. Hopefully, you really have something very important to tell me."

Maximus felt a nameless anger rising within him.

Why is it that a knight like Vitas can do so much better than a wizard like myself?

Jealousy gradually consumed him.