"Haaaaaaaaa!"
I woke up screaming, my body drenched in sweat. Beside me, a beautiful girl wearing revealing attire rushed over and grabbed my shoulders.
"Master!? What's wrong with you!?" Alarmed, she searched my body for any wounds or signs of anything out of place.
I looked at her for a few seconds. Her devotion was so great that I could see the fear in her eyes at the thought of something happening to me.
"Shaula... I'm fine, sorry for the scare."
I lowered my gaze to the book still in my hands. The cover had no design, just a title written in simple calligraphy.
"Víctor Batista."
"What a shame, really... You put on a pathetic show, but you had potential. I don't blame you for ending up like that, though I would have liked to see your redemption."
"Eh?" The scorpion girl tilted her head, with a tone of confusion and complaint. "What are you talking about?"
I sighed and ran a hand over my face.
"Forget it, I have to keep studying these."
I picked up another Book of the Dead and prepared to open it. By this point, I had lost track of the time I had spent in that library, accompanied by my faithful Shaula.
"Wait, Master! You've read a lot today! What about hanging out with your cute disciple?!"
She snatched the book from my hands before I could "immerse" myself in it and threw herself into my arms, landing on my chest and looking at me with her cheeks puffed out in indignation.
I rolled my eyes, but placed my hand on her head and ruffled her hair, eliciting a purr of pleasure from her.
"Ah... Master's hand feels so good... please, touch me more..."
I inhaled through my teeth.
"It's impossible to concentrate with you... At this rate, I'll never finish reading all the Books of the Dead."
Obviously I didn't mean it: even if I had all the time in the world and devoted myself to reading 24/7, I could never keep up with the amount of dead people... probably.
Shaula let out a soft growl, but my caresses quickly quelled her anger.
"Nghhh... Why is that so important?"
"Good question. Let's just say I need to know a lot of things and want specific information, but it's going to take me some time to gather it."
That wasn't the only reason, but I knew Shaula wouldn't ask many questions, especially when she was melting from my touch.
"Sacrament of the Immortal King... I finally found a way to complete the technique."
When it came to resurrecting the dead, there was always the problem of not being able to recover the original soul. The body was replaceable, as characters like Roswaal and Echidna demonstrated, but if you wanted to have the whole person, the soul was indispensable... or so it was believed.
I didn't manage to recover the souls, but by researching enough, I discovered an alternative path, one that allowed me to "resurrect" someone completely without needing to get their soul.
I only needed a vessel and that person's Book of the Dead. With that, I could recreate someone's physical appearance, personality, and memories, as if I were making a photocopy.
Technically it wasn't a resurrection. The original person remained dead and what emerged was a perfect imitation... one that I could control, because it had been forged with my power.
"There's just one problem..."
I looked at my hands. They were no longer pale, but gray. The skin hung like wet leather, just like the rest of my body. I didn't know if it was the effect of reading too many Books of the Dead (with the stress that entails) or from having used that technique that violated the laws of the world.
"This is bad. Maybe I should possess another body or create a new one."
"Master."
My "disciple's" voice brought me back to reality. She looked at me with fear, as if she sensed what I was considering doing.
"Yes, Shaula?"
"I love you."
"... I know."
"—I exist solely for you."
Her green eyes were full of love and tears when she said that.
But I didn't dare say something I might regret. Instead, I placed my hand on hers, stroking her palm with my fingers.
"I know that too."
"You won't leave me again, right?"
I looked at her and smiled.
"Wherever I go, I will take you with me."
Hearing that, Shaula hugged me tightly, though she held back so as not to hurt me.
"You better keep your word, Master! Four hundred years is too long, so I won't bear being away from you again!"
What I liked most about Shaula was that her loyalty and dependency were absolute.
"She deserves to live, she deserves to be happy."
I placed my hands on her waist and held her tight.
"You've waited for me for four centuries. I'll make sure the wait was worth it."
Shaula blushed intensely and her body responded to my touch with enthusiasm.
"Yes, Master, take me... Teach my body that I'm yours..."
"Cof."
Suddenly I heard a throat-clearing and turned my head, finding two men standing side by side, looking at me with solemn expressions.
"Sorry for the interruption," Reinhard said, with his usual politeness, though his eyes were not kind.
I gave a wry smile.
"Don't worry, Reinhard and Rigel. You've arrived at an inopportune moment, but I'm intrigued. How can I serve the knights of Lugunica?"
"Stop playing dumb! I already know what you did, you bastard!"
Rigel took a step forward.
"You killed them all... And you replaced them! The princess too...!"
"Why?"
Ignoring Rigel's squeals, I looked at Reinhard and focused on his question.
"Because I want to have control, because I'm fed up with the lies," I said, listing the reasons as if they were part of a shopping list, "and because I need to know more, so I can free myself from them."
"Them?" Reinhard frowned. "Who?"
"The witches, obviously. Now, if you don't mind, I have to keep reading..."
"Ol Shamak!"
Rigel was smart and used his ace up his sleeve spontaneously, without warning or hesitation. Darkness enveloped me completely.