Reborn As A Useless Mage, But I'm Already The Angel Of Death

06

Adrian materialized in the servants' quarters of the Ravenshaw estate, stepping out of a shadow cast by an overturned chair like he was walking through a doorway. The transition from the brightly lit banquet hall to this dark, blood scented corridor made his eyes take a moment to adjust.

"Welcome back, my lord."

Thalia stood waiting for him at the end of the hallway. She wore the plain black and white uniform of a Ravenshaw household maid, but the way she carried herself made the disguise almost laughable. Her posture was that of a soldier, not a servant. Her pale eyes tracked his movements with the sharp precision of someone who had spent centuries perfecting the art of killing.

Thalia Blackwood. Not just any undead servant. She was Adrian's masterpiece, created through his most complex original spell, Reincarnation, a fusion of Soul Art and Necromancy that could restore a dead person's full consciousness, personality, and memories rather than producing the mindless puppets that standard necromancy created.

He had found her tomb in his previous life, buried deep beneath the Blackwood estate in a chamber that had been sealed for over four hundred years. The records identified her as Thalia Blackwood, a legendary ancestor of the House whose existence had been deliberately erased from official history for reasons Adrian still did not fully understand.

"Report." Adrian walked past her, and she fell into step beside him with practiced ease.

"Every contracted member of House Ravenshaw has been eliminated. Forty seven confirmed dead, including Lord Daniel and Lady Vanessa. Their bodies have been gathered in the main cathedral hall as you instructed. The converted servants are standing by for final orders."

"Every contracted member?"

Thalia paused. The silence was answer enough.

"Who is missing?"

"Lucas Ravenshaw. The youngest son. Age fourteen. He was supposed to be in the east wing nursery, but when the servants moved to secure him, his room was already empty. I conducted a sweep of the entire estate myself. He is not here."

Adrian stopped walking. Lucas Ravenshaw. In his previous timeline, the boy had shown up at Ashgate Academy weeks before any other Dark Empire student, already carrying a demonic contract despite his young age. Adrian had always assumed Lucas arrived early out of eagerness. Now it seemed more likely the boy had simply been somewhere other than home when everything fell apart.

"He will surface eventually." Adrian's jaw tightened. "Ashgate Academy. That is where he will go. It is the only place left that would take in the sole survivor of a fallen Great House without asking too many questions."

"Shall I pursue him?"

"No. One loose thread is manageable. The primary objective is complete."

They entered the main cathedral hall, a cavernous room with vaulted stone ceilings and stained glass windows depicting the Ravenshaw family crest. The floor was carpeted with bodies. Forty seven members of House Ravenshaw lay arranged in neat rows, their expressions frozen in various stages of terror and confusion. Around them, dozens of undead servants stood motionless with their heads bowed, awaiting commands.

Adrian walked between the rows of the dead without looking down. He had seen too many corpses in his life to feel anything about these ones.

"The primary mission is done. Lilly is safe. The demon rampage will not happen tonight." He stopped at the far end of the hall and turned back to face Thalia. "Burn the palace. Everything above ground. Leave the underground chambers and the laboratory intact."

"The laboratory, my lord?"

"The evidence of their demonic contracts is stored there. I want both empires to find it. I want them to conclude that House Ravenshaw was destroyed by the very demons they made deals with. A cautionary tale. A misdirection."

"Understood." Thalia inclined her head. "Will you be staying to oversee the destruction?"

"No. I need to return before anyone notices I have been gone too long." Adrian held out his hand. "But first, I need what you have left."

Thalia understood immediately. She placed her hand in his and held still as Adrian activated Gluttony, drawing mana from her reserves into his own depleted body. The transfer lasted only seconds, but it was enough to restore him to functional levels.

"That will do." He released her hand and stepped back into the nearest shadow. "When you are finished here, return to the Blackwood estate and blend in with the other staff. I will need you close when we depart for Ashgate Academy in three days."

"As you command, my lord."

Adrian activated Shadow Blink and vanished.

Left alone in the cathedral of the dead, Thalia Blackwood stood motionless for a long moment, surrounded by corpses and silence. She had been dead for four centuries before this boy brought her back. Not as a puppet. Not as a tool. But as herself, with her own thoughts and her own will and her own memories of a life that ended so long ago that the world had forgotten she ever existed.

He was extraordinary. Not just powerful, though he was certainly that. But genuinely extraordinary in the way that only someone who had already seen the end of the world could be.

Thalia raised both hands. Blue flame erupted from her palms, pouring outward in every direction, consuming the bodies, the servants, the furniture, the walls, everything. The fire climbed the cathedral's stone pillars and burst through the stained glass windows, shooting into the night sky in a column of blue light visible from miles away.

She walked out of the burning estate without looking back, a faint smile on her lips.

Back at the banquet hall, Adrian emerged from the washroom cubicle and nearly walked directly into Lilly, who was leaning against the opposite wall with her arms folded and an expression that could have curdled milk.

"Twenty minutes." She held up two fingers. "You were in there for twenty minutes."

"I was not feeling well."

"You were feeling well enough to dance with Maya Sinclair."

"Those two things are not related."

"What did you do to her?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Maya. What did you do to her? Did you use some kind of charm spell? A hex? Because there is no explanation on this earth for why a girl like Maya Sinclair would willingly dance with you unless dark magic was involved."

"Your faith in my social abilities is inspiring as always."

"You do not have social abilities! That is the whole point!" Lilly threw her hands up. "Every girl in this hall has been avoiding you all night because you have the personality of a stone wall with anger issues, and then out of nowhere you are waltzing with the most intimidating girl in our entire social circle like you have been doing it your whole life!"

"Maybe I am just a natural dancer."

"You tripped over your own feet at last year's winter gala and blamed it on a ghost."

"There was a draft."

"It was your shoes, Adrian!"

He almost laughed. Almost. Instead he just shook his head and started walking back toward the main hall. "For the record, Maya and I are not involved in any way. She is going to Ashgate Academy. So am I. We danced because neither of us had been asked by anyone else. That is all."

Lilly fell into step beside him, still eyeing him suspiciously. Then her expression shifted into something more serious.

"Speaking of Ashgate Academy." She pulled a folded letter from her clutch. The same ornate blue seal that Maya had shown him earlier. "I received my invitation this morning."

Adrian stopped walking.

In his previous timeline, Lilly never received that letter. She never had the chance. She died on this very night, on this very floor, before any invitation could ever reach her.

His actions had already changed the timeline. He had saved her life, and that single change had rippled outward, creating new possibilities that had never existed before. Lilly at Ashgate Academy. Lilly alive for events she was never supposed to witness.

What else had changed? What else would change the further he pushed?

"Adrian? You have that weird look on your face again."

He blinked. Then he smiled, careful and controlled, and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Congratulations, Lilly. You deserve it."

"I... thank you." She looked caught off guard by the sincerity. "Are you sure you are feeling alright?"

"Never better."

They walked back down the stairs together, side by side, while behind Adrian's composed expression, a quiet unease settled in his chest. His second chance was already reshaping the world in ways even he could not fully predict or control.