City Lord's Mood Swings

"You! You!" Alexandra yelled in frustration.

"All right, we can go now. Also, do you know of any very accomplished necromancers?"

"My father is one, I'll introduce you to him," Alexandra said with a sigh. However, Kai was so elated he had found a way to survive that he wasn't worried about anything else. He hadn't even noticed her annoyance.

"Ah, fantastic, I have much to learn!" Kai said with a face that would horrify any other person. Had it not been for his voice which showed there was perhaps a human deep down, Alexandra would have never accepted being by the side of an undead. They naturally hated the living, after all.

"All right, then, shall we go?" Kai asked in an uppity tone.

"Wait," she sighed once more. "They'll shoot you on sight if you go as an undead. Get some robes from these guys."

Kai could barely turn his head and look at the bodies. It was a lot easier in the heat of the moment, he felt the guilt would hit him like a truck if he gazed directly at the bodies again, so soon after doing the deed.

"Could you, perhaps…" Kai started stammering, "…get me the clothes?"

"What?!" she was incensed. "I am royalty, you want me to run errands for you?!"

After 15 minutes of back and forth, she finally conceded and soon after they reached the gates once more.

"Lady Alexandra, where are your followers?! Is this man the only one left of your retinue? We'll-"

"That's enough. Tell father I have arrived, I need to speak to him."

"Yes!" the guards screamed and rushed to be the first one to talk to the City Lord.

"Those dumbasses just left this place unguarded…" Kai wore a solemn façade. Were these people just idiots? They first attacked basically what passes as royalty around here right by the city, and then this.

"Incompetent fools!" Alexandra yelled after them, albeit not stopping them from leaving. After all, she really needed to talk to her father.

Kai, on the other hand, felt an indescribable feeling of wonder after entering the city. There were creatures of all races around, trading, eating, drinking and working. He saw a lizardman blacksmith with his wrought iron in his hands, admiring his work.

There was a pharmacy right by the corner after entering the city, run by what seemed like an elf, but Kai was not sure. Furthermore, he took a peek at one of the alleyways, seeing a special kind of shop, dealing in carnal needs.

"Oh, I better see what that place's all about later."

"Skelet- butler! Butler!" Alexandra approached with a huff, pointing her finger to his face. "As my butler, how dare you stray from me!"

"What the-" Alexandra quickly interjected before Kai could say anything more.

"You are, after all, the butler who saved me, I'm sure you wouldn't want to miss this opportunity to talk to my father!"

"Ah, yes, of course!" Kai similarly put on a show and finally played along. He also checked his timer.

*23:40:42*

"I still have enough time to find another one of those stones," Kai thought as he reminisced about its taste.

Even though eating stone felt weird at first, it was incredibly good! Not only that, his race had levelled up, too! This also resulted in raising his timer to 24 hours. Even if nothing else, he should level up so he has more time. Who knows, if he levelled up enough, he could be cured, eventually.

"Damn Lenny," Kai mumbled under his breath and followed Alexandra right by her side. Although this was ethically questionable, she allowed it. Alexandra felt she was being very generous to her saviour.

"Be careful to hide your body well under those robes," Alexandra urged him again when they arrived at the gates of the City Lord's castle.

"It'll be fine," Kai whispered. His whisper without any lips, however, sounded like a terrifying and mocking omen for the future. Then again, what followed, didn't, "I mean, I just really want to eat some of those stones."

Alexandra was taken aback, calling such a precious memento a "stone", however, she still burst out laughing when she heard the sentence. A skeleton pet fed by stones? This was unbelievable!

The gates soon opened and a man in his forties waited on the other side with a large smile on his face.

"Alexandra! I missed you so much!"

"Really? I was only gone for two days," Alexandra awkwardly responded as she buried her face in her father's chest.

"Hah!" Kai said. "I never thought you'd be so lovey-dovey after acting like an ice empress all day!"

"My name is Lloyd," he said with a smile on his face, which slowly turned into rage. "And what kind of impertinent undead are you to think you can waltz into our home?!"

"What?! An undead?!" the two guards nearby immediately pointed their spears at Kai, who stood there, silent.

"Father, please, he saved my life!" Alexandra begged and told the story of how all her followers were killed and she was almost prisoner to a cursed fate.

"So two of them escaped, huh?" Lloyd said calmly.

"This guy's mood is as volatile as my shares!" Kai thought and remembered what a simple life he led just a day ago. His life now hanged on the balance. I mean, if they just managed to keep him in the dungeon for 24 hours, there would be nothing left of him. He shuddered at the thought.

"Actually, City Lord-"

"How is your mind intact?" City Lord Lloyd interjected and started circling Kai as he spoke. "It is a curious matter indeed."

"Never mind that, I'm dying here!" Kai suddenly said, leaving fear behind. "I need to know how to stabilize myself!"

City Lord chanted a few words and created a circle with pitch-black characters on the ground. Soon, other skeletons started pouring out of the circle and the spell was dismissed around twenty skeletons.

"Do you see any difference between yourself and these?" City Lord asked.

"I mean, we are all just some bones, but… these look weaker."

"They are, skeletons are usually one of the weakest undead, and even if you stabilize your creations, they will never progress."

"Are you telling me to accept my fate and die?" Kai spoke up. There was no way he was just going to accept his fate and die without a fight. Along with his steeled resolution, his body suddenly seemed more durable and a feeling of danger crept up on the guards, who were no longer pointing their spears at Kai, but really wanted to at this point.

"No."

"Then what do you mean?"

"You are not a normal skeleton," the City Lord concluded. "Not only do you still have your mind, but you also don't seem to be hating the living and the way you talk is almost more human than these guards'."

Kai wanted to yell "No shit!" to his face, but he restrained himself. Suicide by mocking the City Lord didn't seem very smart.

"However, you can progress and rise further. Which, as you understand, means I should kill you right now, when I have the means to do so."

Kai suddenly felt a chill of death coming straight from his eyes into his. At that very moment, he knew he would be dead as long as the City Lord wished so. Despair filled his thoughts and he considered running away, fighting didn't even seem like an option.

"But then again, I don't feel like killing anyone, or anything today," said Lloyd with a grin on his face. Alexandra thought the joke was funny, but Kai wasn't thinking it was funny still. He feared for his life but still tried to don a smile.

"Ha-ha, I guess I will just leave and never bother you again!"

Kai wanted to leave.

Upon Alexandra's insistence, however, the City Lord finally spoke again after a long sigh just as Kai was leaving the gates.

"I guess I can try to help you out until we stabilize you," Lloyd said with a smile on his face. "But as soon as you kill any one of my servants, soldiers or guards…" he said as claws made up of darkness appeared from both sides of the City Lord, freezing Kai down to his marrow.

"Understood, sir- Lloyd- Lord City Lloyd!"