"Tell me something I don't know…" Ysaria replied, though her eyes stayed fixed in Kai's direction, still clearly interested in what was happening on his end.
Kai began recounting the situation.
"Sounds rough. There's nothing like that here—at least not for the last two thousand years since necromancy triumphed over the world. But I do recall a time when an old church of some deity rose up to challenge the necromancers. They used magic similar to what you're describing with that lantern."
She paused in thought, brushing a strand of dark hair behind her ear.
"For now, you'll need to cover your tracks. The remnants of death are hard to erase—and with two skeletons following you, it's even worse."
With a sigh, Ysaria stood and walked toward a bookshelf brimming with ancient tomes. She scanned the spines one by one, murmuring under her breath.
"This one should do. You won't have time to create a proper array, so your best bet is a quick ward spell. It'll drain your mana dry, though… so I'll have to get more mana stones. Not that I'm the one paying for them."
She gave a careless shrug, her expression serene as she flipped open the chosen book and skimmed through its contents.
"Hexes… enchantments… no, not a charm. This incantation's too long… There. Found it—Clairvoyance Ward. Perfect for your current problem."
Kai's eyes lit up. "Yes, that! Perfect. Let's hurry. As for the mana stones—go crazy. I doubt money's going to help me right now. I need power, fast."
"Mm. I'll take care of it. Now start learning this."
She placed the book in front of him. Kai eagerly reached out—then froze.
"Hey… I can't read this."
The two locked eyes in a long, weighty silence.
"What do you mean?" Ysaria finally sighed. "Don't you have even a sliver of Gilgrim's genius brain in that head of yours? Then again… something must have gone wrong. You still have your speech and language intact—maybe it just takes longer to sync Gilgrim's memories?"
She muttered something under her breath, clearly resigning herself to the long hours of teaching ahead.
"Just learn this incantation. It'll help with your little lantern problem," she said, pausing to demonstrate how to gather mana into one's hands.
She chanted softly:
"Let the shadows of life conceal my steps,
Let the world's eye be blinded,
While the silence of death reigns."
Kai repeated after her, word for word, almost effortlessly.
To his own surprise, the lines stayed fixed in his mind as if etched into memory. He was never this sharp before—not like this.
Then, focusing like she showed him, he gathered the necrotic energy into his palms. A green glow spread across his hands, pulsing with eerie vitality as the mana flowed from deep within him.
"…Maybe you do have something more," Ysaria muttered, watching him with growing intrigue. "It would've taken a normal apprentice a few tries to even activate that… Do you remember how to use other magic, perhaps?"
Her tone had shifted—she was curious now, maybe even a little awed.
"I guess I did gain something from this body," Kai said, staring at his glowing hands. "Now tell me—what do I do after concentrating all this mana?"
"That's easy," Ysaria said, brushing her hair back as green light danced around her fingers.
"You're already two-thirds of the way there. All you have to do now is will it—give the spell its purpose. It will form a barrier around you that begins erasing traces of necrotic mana, like a veil that eats away the scent of death."
As she spoke, a green bubble shimmered into existence around her. It expanded smoothly, enveloping the target zone. Moments later, the glow faded into a near-invisible shimmer, and the air within began to subtly distort. The faint residue of necromantic magic in the space flickered—then dissolved, as if purged.
"Alright, I think I get it," Kai said, nodding as he placed his head down on the desk, preparing to switch bodies. "Now let me switch so I can start putting some distance between us and that group."
Darkness claimed his senses for a moment.
When his eyes opened, he was back in his original body under the bridge while water passed through his feet. Alison was nearby, her posture tense as she scanned the surrounding forest. The two skeletons stood on either side, motionless but alert.
"I think I've got the perfect way to cover our escape," Kai said, trying to calm her. "Just give me a second to concentrate."
"Alright, just hurry. We've already wasted enough time." Alison's voice cracked with tension as her eyes darted through the trees.
Kai nodded and began gathering mana again. This body lacked the sharpness of Gilgrim's—it wasn't as easy. His memory faltered slightly, forcing him to repeat the incantation a few times under his breath.
But eventually, it clicked.
"There. I did it," he said, panting as the green ward shimmered into life around them. The spell expanded in a dome, a few meters in radius, and Kai winced—half the headache from earlier and the sense of weakness had returned with it.
Still, it was working. The trail they had left behind, the faint marks of necromantic energy, began to vanish.
"Let's move," Kai said, pushing forward. "We need to make as much distance as possible before they realize where we are going."
Alison, like before, took the lead.
They avoided the road entirely, not even walking parallel to it, knowing it could be used to track them. Instead, the group followed the river. It wasn't the most direct path to the city—it curved in a wide U-shape around the forest—but it was safer.
"We should be near the city within a few hours at this pace," Alison said. "We'll need to find a way to sell those jewels in the morning, so get ready for a long walk."
She sounded a little more at ease now. Seeing the magic work had clearly reassured her. With nothing else to do but walk, she began to hum quietly to herself. The tune was aimless but light—one of the small comforts that reminded Kai she no longer tired like a normal person.
"Let's do that, then. I think I know a place," Kai replied. "It's kind of run down, so we might not get as much as we'd hope, but enough to last a few days... maybe weeks, depending on how things go."
He glanced at her sidelong. "Though I still don't know how much you need to eat now."
At the mention of food, Alison visibly shuddered.
"I noticed you're getting hungry again," Kai added, lowering his voice. "We'll need to figure out a way to deal with that... or someone's going to notice."