Saintess Summons Skeletons

There were many things Sofia had expected might be behind the doors, but she had to admit, a giant room with an indoors forest, a large mansion, a small lake and a fake blue sky were really not it.

Yet here they were. Birds were chirping, wind was howling, the sky was blue and the sun shone brightly up above. Sofia wanted to squint as she looked at the indoor sun. Holy fuck, that’s a lightstone?!

“This is still the palace of Sorrow?” she whispered, looking behind her. The doors were still behind her, she hadn’t been teleported, there did not seem to be any illusion at play here either.

A tiny blue bird flew up to Sofia, landing at her feet, it looked up at her, chirping expectantly.

Sofia observed the bird through her mana senses, and as far as she could tell, this was a genuine bird, probably level two or three, of a species she had never seen before.

The bird kept chirping at her feet.

Just what… What is going on right now?

Does it want food? I have plenty of seeds for Zangdar so…

Sofia grabbed a handful of random small seeds from her storage and crouched down, placing her open palm in front of the bird, which happily started pecking at the seeds, making pleased sounds. The scene attracted a bunch more birds, and before long Sofia was sitting on the ground, feeding birds and questioning her life.

There was some noise coming from the mansion, Sofia thought she heard the sound of fire, but it was faint and covered by the noise of dozens of birds. Beside that, there were two large sources of mana in the room aside from herself, one being something or someone inside the mansion, and the other being the huge lightstone hanging from the ceiling, which was charged with so much mana it would probably keep shining uninterrupted for the next ten thousand years.

When there were no more seeds, the birds all flew away, leaving Sofia flabbergasted next to the entrance.

The weirdest thoughts coursed through Sofia’s mind as she walked on the green grass and wildflowers going toward the entrance of the mansion.

Is this entire place a big mimic? A mansion mimic?

As she came closer, the sounds from within the mansion became more obvious, someone was cooking something over a fire, a woman, judging from the voice humming a lighthearted tune.

What did I get myself into?

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Sofia took the final steps toward the manor’s front door, she adjusted the shape of her armor to make it look a bit more like regular clothes, and lightly knocked.

The humming stopped for a second, before starting again.

Am I being ignored? Is this a trap? I…

Not wanting to overthink things, Sofiak knocked again, raising her voice a bit, “Hello?”

The humming stopped, cut abruptly by the sound of pots and cutlery crashing to the ground. A girly voice came from inside, “D- don’t come- Wait! I’m naked!”

Sofia froze as she struggled to process that answer.

She could hear the person hastily pick up the fallen pots, before rushing up a flight of stairs then down a few seconds later. Finally the door opened, and Sofia’s feelings were once again thrown for a loop as she took in the appearance of the person standing behind the door.

It was a young human woman with a slender build, looking like she was barely an adult. She was barefoot, wearing a crumpled knee-length green skirt and a half-buttoned up white shirt. The buttons weren’t even matched to the correct holes, resulting in a messy look. But that was only the surface level, when one looked past her clothes, they were greeted by severe burn marks covering half the woman’s face and body, all the way from her scalp to her right foot. These were old burn marks, the leathery skin a patchwork of beige and reddened colors. As a result of this, the woman's long blonde hair only grew from one half of her head, and was combed over to cover the other side. “Rom-” she had started saying as she opened the door, stopping mid-word when she saw Sofia, following which she blushed heavily, and her wide green eyes veered to look at literally any and everything except directly at Sofia as her body seemed frozen in place.

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“W- Well. Don’t stay… outside,” the burned woman finally offered with an awkward forced smile after a long silence, taking two steps back and struggling to try to look in Sofia’s direction.

Sofia had fired the usual instinctive [Identify] at the woman; she gulped when the prompt appeared, and entered the mansion with all the enthusiasm of a fish jumping into a bear’s den.

[Mage - Lv. 400+]

Is she… Shaking?

Sofia suddenly stopped and the woman practically jumped in place.

“Are you fine? Would you rather I actually stay outside?” Sofia asked, feeling like she was forcing her way in despite having been invited.

“N- no I- It’s… Alright. I… Consented to this,” the woman stammered. She was visibly sweating and shaking, it was painful to watch.

Sofia took another few careful steps in, allowing the scared woman to close the door behind her. She was wondering what to say next. But the woman surprisingly explained more, staring at the ground. “I- I should have expected… When I felt the tremors… But- But Romuald never came so…”

“Romuald?” Sofia repeated, wondering if she was supposed to know the name.

The woman first jolted when Sofia spoke again, but realizing it was nothing, she tried to explain more, her voice sounding a bit ashamed, “He’s blue and all… and…He talks like this,” she demonstrated, amplifying her voice with mana.

“Oh! The guardian? We met him at the entrance.”

“We?” the woman repeated, crouching a bit and placing her hand on her head, her shaking doubling in intensity.

“Ahah, hum, I- me and my skeletons, I mean,” Sofia said, lying to try to salvage the tiny sliver of sanity that the burned woman seemed to struggle to hold onto. “I’m a bit of a necromancer, ahah… I’m Sofia. Or Vakariazrehafin of Sorrow, if you would prefer to call me that.”

The woman seemed to calm down a bit at the notion that Sofia’s companions were only skeletons. “Vakaria…” she repeated. She forced herself to stand back up, and held out her non-burned hand toward Sofia, despite her face clearly facing another way and her eyes looking even further away, “I- I’m Velania,” she managed to blurt out with a tremendous effort, her hand shaking like a leaf.

Sofia went to grab Velania’s hand, and the ‘young’ woman fainted before Sofia’s hand could even reach her.

Wha-

Sofia grabbed her before she could fall to the ground. She could feel Velania’s wildly beating heart even through her armor.

Is she going to be fine? I-

Can a level 400 even faint?!

A bark made Sofia jolt, the skeleton dog from before was right there, wagging his tail as he stood in the doorway to what looked like the mansion’s living room. As soon as he got Sofia’s attention, he turned around and entered the room.

Sofia decided to follow, grabbing Velania in a princess carry and bringing her to a large couch where the skeleton dog was sitting, waiting for her. She gently sat Velania on the couch, and tried to wake her up, but failed.

“She’s out cold, but her breathing is calming down a bit…”

Sofia turned to the skeleton dog, and he chose this instant to disappear in a puff of smoke.

“Wait!”

Sofia heard another bark, she looked around, it was coming from the other side relative to the entrance hall, where Velania had originally been when Sofia knocked on the door. When Sofia entered said room, the kitchen, the dog was nowhere to be seen, but a faint smell of burnt food soon hit her face.

Oh crap.

A batch of cookies were cooking on a metal tray over a fire pit embedded in the wall, they were turning dark-brown, with the ones closest to the edge of the tray already a bit black.

Sofia instinctively grabbed the tray out of the fire, placing it on the marble countertop nearby after pushing away the bunch of pots that were randomly stacked there, before coming to a stop as she stared blankly at the half-burnt cookies.

“What the fuck am I doing?”

She ran back to the living room, finding Velania still passed out on the couch, her thin blonde hair covering most of her face.

No, seriously… What is going on?

Sofia heard another bark, and a luminous scroll appeared right on top of Velania’s lap.

‘She holds the key to your last trial

Helpers may be available later.

Whatever you do, do not mention Dragons!!!

Try to have fun, and don’t be mean!

- Sorrow -’