To be honest, going to a graveyard late at night was never a good experience.
Doing it right after hearing a ghost story was even worse.
"Can't we come back in the daytime?"
Hiding behind Duanmu Huai, Guleya looked nervously around and whispered. Old Bent, beside her, was also drenched in cold sweat, nodding furiously.
"Don't joke around. We're not here for fun, we're here to investigate. If we wait until daylight, what if we scare something off?"
Something?!
At Duanmu Huai's reply, Guleya fell silent, too afraid to say more.
"But still… this graveyard is really big…"
Standing at the gate, Duanmu Huai peered inside. Under the moonlight, the cemetery lay utterly still. A thin mist drifted among the tombstones. Other than that, there was no sound at all, as if they had stepped into the land of the dead.
And indeed, just as he said, the graveyard was massive—almost as large as the town itself.
"There's no helping it. During the war with the elves… many died."
Old Bent sighed at the memory.
"Most of the town's young men went to fight, but only a handful ever came back…"
"That's war."
Duanmu Huai glanced once more at the cemetery and then looked away.
"Alright, show us the graves of those four who died."
"Yes."
Led by Old Bent, the three reached the graves deep within the cemetery. The tombs had already been dug open, dirt piled to the sides, shovels scattered as if abandoned mid-work. Duanmu Huai studied the scene carefully before asking:
"No one took care of this?"
"No one's dared set foot here for some time. It's just been left."
"Hmm…"
Duanmu Huai nodded, then switched on his searchlight to illuminate the dim burial pit. Inside lay only a simple wooden coffin. He lifted the lid—and saw nothing inside except… a gaping hole.
"So you're saying the corpses ran off through this hole?"
He pointed to the tunnel at the coffin's head. It was just wider than a man's skull, like a beast had clawed it out. Even shining the beam into it revealed only darkness.
"Yes…"
"Oh-ho, interesting."
Duanmu Huai grinned.
"Let's check the other three."
Soon they inspected the rest. Each was the same: tunnels burrowed from underground into the coffin's head, broken open, the bodies gone. For now, it truly seemed the corpses had disappeared into those holes.
"Hmm…"
After looking at all four, Duanmu Huai thought for a moment, then asked:
"And the other graves? Anyone checked them?"
"Of course not."
Old Bent shook his head vigorously. Then, as if realizing something, he looked at Duanmu Huai with unease.
"You mean… the others too…?"
"If you're going to the trouble of digging tunnels, stealing only four corpses is boring. If it were me, I'd take more. Why not?"
With that, Duanmu Huai strode to another grave. Stretching out his hand, he activated his gravity gauntlet. At once, the soil atop the mound rolled aside on its own.
Old Bent's eyes went wide at the sight, but he wisely covered his mouth. Guleya clung to Duanmu Huai's back, staring. She was half-dragon, a mage—yet never in her life had she come to dig up graves in the middle of the night!
At that moment, she remembered what Anne had told her before leaving.
"Being with Sir Knight will never be boring—it's thrilling and fun! Just try it and you'll see!"
Well… sneaking into a graveyard to dig up coffins at night was certainly thrilling, but not fun at all!
Ignoring her inner panic, Duanmu Huai lifted the coffin lid. Inside… nothing.
"What?!"
Old Bent cried out. He knew this grave well—the man had died of illness two years prior. Yet the coffin was empty too, a tunnel dug at its head just like the others.
Don't tell me…
His gaze swept over the countless tombs around them. Cold sweat ran down his brow.
Had the entire graveyard… been emptied?
No, impossible!
The cemetery was as big as the town. Thousands must have been buried here through the centuries. Surely not all were taken, even those who'd lain for hundreds of years until their bones had rotted…
But Duanmu Huai didn't care what Old Bent thought. One after another, he opened coffins, only to find each one empty. Whether dead for years or decades, the remains were gone.
"Curious. What does anyone need with so many bones? Feeding a dog? Brewing bone soup?"
He muttered, frowning at the gravestones and the hollow coffins. Even with the system's hidden quest, he hadn't expected something this bizarre.
"Well then, let's check the last one."
He had worked his way down the row to the edge of the cemetery. Every coffin so far was empty. This one likely was too… huh?
Something felt off.
Could this be the lucky pull of the ten-draw?
Grabbing the lid, he flipped it open.
"Eeeek!!"
Guleya shrieked, Old Bent collapsing onto the ground in terror.
No wonder. Unlike the others, this coffin wasn't empty. It still held… a man.
He was about fifty, dressed in yellow robes. His eyes bulged wide, face twisted in agony, frozen in the moment of a terrible death.
"It—it's the priest!!"
Old Bent screamed.
"The priest? The one who kept the cemetery, the one who disappeared?"
"Yes, it's him! But how—how is he here…?"
Murmuring in shock, Old Bent shook his head. Everyone had suspected the priest of dark deeds when he vanished. Who knew he'd ended up dead, buried in a grave himself?
But the strangest part was yet to come.
The priest's body suddenly twitched. Guleya clutched Duanmu Huai's hand in fright.
"S-Sir Knight, he moved!"
"I saw. Calm down, will you?"
Duanmu Huai shot her a look. In a world with monsters and spirits, this was nothing. Even if Manaria had no necromancers, such things weren't exactly unheard of.
But soon he realized this corpse was different. Its mouth was slowly opening wider… and wider.
What, it can talk?
No. From the gaping mouth crawled a fat, furry rat. It squeaked, beady eyes staring at them.
Then the priest's whole body convulsed. Countless rats burst forth from his mouth, from between his ribs, pouring out like a fountain, filling the grave in moments.
"Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!!"
Hundreds of vermin writhed in the pit, a black tide of fur and tails. At the same time, from the other dug-up graves, more swarms emerged, and from untouched mounds too, earth heaving as unseen shapes stirred.
The ground swelled, cracked, and from it, endless hordes of rats erupted like a flood of darkness.
Seeing this, Guleya's taut nerves finally snapped.
"Noooooooo!!!"
Her scream tore through the night. In the same instant, blazing fire burst from her dragon claw. The flames surged into the grave, incinerating rats and priest alike in a storm of heat. Then the torrent of fire roared down the tunnel beneath, and the entire cemetery quaked.
The ground exploded, collapsing into a massive pit. In an instant, all three of them were swallowed into the depths.
(End of Chapter)