Lord of Rot

The white bandages wrapped around his chest constantly gave off a strange, nose-tickling scent—a mixture of Red Bud Grass and Pig’s Eye Grass. That, at least, was the official story: he’d been run through the chest with a rusty iron sword by a rotting corpse in a tomb.

Just a short while ago, an apprentice scholar had declared that Baron Leech Clarence—the new heir to his late father’s castle—had little more than a day to live. Fortunately, the apprentice added, Baron Leech would be able to pass the last moments of his life in a painless coma.

After his passing, Baron Leech’s younger brother, Leo Clarence, would inherit the barony and the dilapidated Porcupine Castle. And when Leo, in turn, returned to the embrace of the Four Gods, he would pass the title and fiefdom on to his eldest son, ensuring the Clarence line would continue forever.

That was, of course, assuming Baron Leech actually died.

But Baron Leech, the man who had just been handed a death sentence, was now lying on a warm deerskin blanket, his bright, sharp eyes staring up through a crack in the roof tiles.

The real Baron Leech was already dead. The body now lying beneath a white ice-wolf pelt housed the soul of a man from an Otherworld.

Transmigration, like reincarnation, required a bit of luck. Leech considered his own quite good; he’d become a baron. At the very least, he was luckier than his father.

Leech’s father, Baron Lierde Clarence, was a legendary figure. The son of a blacksmith, he joined Duke Duru Leopold’s army at the age of thirteen out of a thirst for honor. He performed so many heroic deeds on the battlefield that he earned the nickname "the Porcupine covered in quills." Duke Duru later made him a Knight, and after another twenty years of struggle, he finally became Baron Porcupine, with a castle to his name.

His life was nothing short of legendary. But in his second year as a Baron, his old wounds acted up, and he returned to the embrace of the Four Gods. In accordance with the kingdom’s laws of succession, his eldest son, Leech Clarence, became the new Baron of Porcupine Castle.

On just his third day as Baron, a farmer from Porcupine Territory reported finding a cave in his wheat field, claiming he could hear the roars of what sounded like a beast from within. As the local lord, Leech took his teacher, Jamie Duke, and four strong farmers to investigate the cave.

The four farmers led the way with torches. Although Leech wanted to live up to his family’s "covered in quills" motto, his courage failed him, and he stayed at the very back under the protection of his Swordsmanship Teacher. From the depths of the cave came the screams of the four farmers. The supposedly "quilled" Baron Leech turned to flee, only to be run through the chest with a sword by his teacher, Jamie Duke. Though he hadn’t seen the man make a move, his teacher was the only one in a position to ambush him.

On the very day his teacher brought the near-dead Baron Leech back to the castle, his stepmother, in a remarkable coincidence, produced an apprentice scholar to announce Leech’s impending "death."

It was nearly impossible to find a scholar in the impoverished Porcupine Territory. There were hardly any books, and they generally preferred to study in the great cities, plumbing the mysteries of the world.

After Leech’s mother passed away, Lierde had married the daughter of a Knight under Duke Leopold’s command. She gave Leech a brother, Leo, who was six years his junior and now just twelve years old. If Leech were to die now, Leo would become the youngest land-holding Baron.

Unfortunately for them, the current Leech was full of life. The moment the Transmigrator’s soul settled into the body, his wounds had completely healed.

He had no special skills. He’d been an ordinary person before transmigrating, and the body he now inhabited—that of Leech Clarence—was equally ordinary. Although he was the lord of a desolate territory, his enemy was right here in this castle: the only master swordsman in all of Porcupine Territory, the "Warg Slayer" Jamie Duke. His own teacher.

It was said that before entering the service of Leech’s father, Baron Lierde, Jamie had been a Wandering Swordsman. He had once single-handedly slain two rabid Wargs with a 50-pound greatsword, earning him the title of Warg Slayer.

If Jamie and his stepmother found out he was awake, they would surely find a way to kill him again, and this time, no one would ever know.

’So, what is that yellow dot?’

Ever since he’d opened his eyes, Leech had noticed a yellow dot in his vision, floating constantly just above him.

The threat to his life made him certain he had to figure out what that yellow dot did. Perhaps it was his golden finger, the advantage granted to him as a Transmigrator.

GRUMBLE~

His stomach was growling.

He sat up, intending to pour a glass of water to quiet his rumbling stomach. He couldn’t risk the noise attracting his stepmother, who had the ears of a hunting dog.

The moment he sat up, he realized the yellow dot had moved!

As he turned his head and shifted his gaze, it moved onto the wall.

Leech began to turn his head, and the yellow dot followed his line of sight, wobbling constantly. When he looked down and moved the dot toward the floor, it turned green.

The green dot suddenly expanded into a circle about half a meter in diameter.

When he looked back up at the wall, the green circle swiftly shrank back into a yellow dot.

’I think I get it.’

He looked at the floor again. The green circle appeared at the foot of his bed, right next to his handmade woolen rug. The rug had been Baron Lierde’s first reward from the Duke, and Leech had inherited it along with the title and lands when his father returned to the embrace of the Four Gods.

Without a sound, a tombstone erupted from the floor, pushing the woolen rug aside.

’My golden finger is summoning tombstones? Am I supposed to crush people to death with them?’

Leech pushed the woolen rug aside and walked up to the tombstone. It bore no name, only a single groove. Green moss filled about three-tenths of this groove.

’Don’t tell me... I have to dig a grave?’

As if it could hear his thoughts, a dark, gaping hole appeared in the floor.

A Swordsman who could swing a 50-pound greatsword was waiting for him in the castle, and who knew what monsters lurked in the hole. After a second of difficult deliberation, Leech picked up a candle from his room.

As he ventured into the hole, a foul, reeking wind hit him in the face. He had a bad feeling about this, but he pinched his nose and pressed onward.

He walked for some time, guessing he might have already passed beyond the walls of Porcupine Castle. Finally, after nearly a third of his candle had burned away, something besides utter darkness appeared in the passage.

A corpse, its eyes wide open in death.

His own eyes widened. The body had been ripped open from chest to navel by sharp claws, its innards exposed to the subterranean darkness.

’It’s one of the four farmers,’ Leech realized, recognizing the body.

A long-extinguished torch lay on the ground nearby.

’So, I brought the entrance to that creepy tomb into my castle? And put it right in my own room?’

The four farmers had died horrible deaths, which meant there had to be a lethal monster inside. Leech wanted to turn and run, but the flickering candlelight illuminated the scene ahead: a decaying head. Dried, rotten flesh clung to the white bone, and the skull had been split open by a hoe.

Beside the rotting corpse lay the bodies of the other three farmers. Their wounds were much less severe than the first man’s. Though they had fatal injuries to their necks and hearts, their bodies were at least mostly intact.

’So this is the terrifying thing that killed them?’ Leech picked up the fallen torch and lit it with his candle. The brighter light cast a glow much farther down the passage, allowing him to see the scene of the battle clearly.

The four farmers must have been attacked by the tomb’s "master." In a life-or-death struggle, they had desperately fought back and killed their attacker. In the end, all five bodies had fallen together.