The Ruined Death Knight

Seeing the teenager with long white hair, someone of the living, the killing intent of the Anabast was clear as day.

But seeing her beside their creator and master, they held back their death magic.

Floating towards their creator, they bend their backs to Danzel.

"We greet thee, creator and master." The Anabast said in unison.

Seeing them bowing their heads, Danzel felt quite awkward, but he still nodded his head in acknowledgment.

"Rise your heads, Anabast's. I got someone to introduce you to." He said in his cold voice.

Doing as commanded, all 5 of them raised their heads and stared down at Shiro while clearly showing their hostility.

Seeing that, Koji and Niyuki stepped forward in front of Shiro while tightening their grip on their respective sword.

Danzel recognized their hostility and found it understandable, but not acceptable.

"This is here Shiro." Danzel said while he put his hand on top of Shiro's head, making her whole body freeze in place.

Luckily for her, he didn't keep his arm for long on her head.

"Shiro is under my protection under a promise. And that same protection is expected to be done by all of you. Other than that, she is a great magic caster that learned from the same teacher as I did. So any questions about magic except for necromancy, you can ask her for advice." Danzel explained, which made Shiro look at him dumbfounded.

"H-Huh? But Rue-"

Before she could finish, the eyes behind the shrouded darkness of the Anabast flared up dark green light while their hostility grew only worse the moment Shiro mention a part of his name.

Ignoring Shiro's clear reluctance, Danzel stared at the hostile Anabast.

"Though I believe that I don't need to say this if any harm comes to her, the one that will share her knowledge with you will have their anchor removed and their own souls trapped of all eternity by me personally. You have been warned." Danzel said.

Those words alone made the Anabast shake a bit.

Deep inside of them, they knew that their anchor was essential to them, but trapping their souls of eternity? They didn't even understand what it fully meant, but their glances toward Shiro changed.

So they decided to aim their hostility toward another thing that their creator said.

"Creator, may I ask permission to speak?" The tallest one asked.

Danzel simply nodded at his question.

"I thank thee creator, and I apologize for my potential ignorance, but can someone weaker than us be able to surpass your knowledge and teach us nonetheless despite being weaker?"

Danzel stayed for a few moments silent before answering his question.

"I think you are overestimating my knowledge of magic. Except for death magic, I am considerably a beginner in other types of magic. Compared to Shiro who is a pure magic caster, I am mostly a melee fighter."

"That alone makes her more qualified to teach that myself. As for your second point, despite how she looks, she almost doubles the mana that one of you posses and she is more experienced in magic. And that's everything that it matters. Even though you guys are stronger, she is capable enough to have a chance to win."

Once he finished, the Anabast turned to look at Shiro, which made her all the more uncomfortable than she already was.

"Ehm, are those you undead? And I am supposed to teach them?" Shiro turned her gaze towards Danzel.

'Won't they just kill me?' She thought internally.

"That's right, they know few strong spells, but I want them to learn way more than they already have. If you help them and me, I will keep my promise of teaching you necromancy and lend you my books."

"Though that's about it, if you reject my offer, you will simply don't get access to such knowledge. In the end, I will keep my word to Agares as best as I can, regardless of your choice." Danzel said before looking her in the eye.

"So, what will it be? Though remember, nothing is free."

'Don't do anything even if she rejects.' Danzel told Anabast with an internal command.

Regardless if she accepts or not, she will simply slow down there and his development in magic and nothing more.

And as immortal beings, all that they had enough of was time.

Shiro stayed for a long time in silence as she stared at the Anabast.

No matter how she looked at the floating living shadows, there was something that brought her an uncomfortable feeling.

'I still have a lot to learn from Rue's books and trying necromancy without him might make a grave mistake...but are those things worth enough to risk being spread by those...what even are those?'

Though Shiro could be somewhat naive and that would be for fair reasons. It wasn't to the point where she won't doubt someone who was showing hostility towards her to not actually harm her.

It would be no different than giving a cat a fish to safe keep.

Anyone expecting any other result than the obvious would be just plain stupid.

So she was leaning towards rejecting Danzel's offer.

But a sudden change made her change her mind.

And that was the particular Anabast bowing their heads towards Shiro while also revealing their skulls to her.

Those two are the armored and blind Anabast.

"Magic caster Shiro, I will be grateful if the one who my creator recommended would teach us the ways of magic." The blind Anabast said.

"I promise to uphold my creator's wishes and uphold gratitude if you were to bestow us yours. knowledge." The armored Anabast said.

The other 3 Anabast looked at the two surprised of bending their heads to someone who wasn't their creator and saw it as some kind of disrespect towards their very creator.

Danzel in turn saw it as completely the opposite.

'Those two are quite smart.' Danzel complimented them internally.

Considering what he told them before, their results would be what keep him to keep the anchor. Shiro could be vital to improve their results.

So he expected a similar response from all 5, but from now he only got 2. At worst he expected 3, with the tallest being among the two.

Though he wasn't going to blame them for showing their none-stop hostility as they were exposed to their undead instincts for the first time.

"What is your decision, Shiro? Even they promise not to harm you without me giving the command to do so."

Shiro stared at the revealed skulls of the two Anabast for a few seconds before nodding her head towards Danzel.

"A-Alright, I will do it. B-But I am not sure if I can do a good job teaching...what are they even called?"

"Their race is called Anabast, as for their name... the one with no eyes is called...Sylas. And the other one is named Baron. As for the other ones...there is still in progress." Danzel said somewhat embarrassed.

He had thought of a few names for the others but he only announced those two as they were the ones to make an actual effort to convince Shiro to the deal.

For the blind one, he went for Sylas as it somewhat sounded as sightless.

And for the armored one, he named him Baron based on a title he heard of the nobility of human society. Based on his emotions, he seemed the most straightforward and serious among the bunch.

He also considered Duke, but he didn't like how it sounded.

That, and he couldn't come up with better names and be still hesitant in revealing the other 3.

Luckily for him, the two now named Anabast seemed to find their name to their liking.

As for the other Anabast that were left out, they tightened their hands and felt various emotions.

The one feeling the most regretful, the tallest one suddenly spoke up.

"Creator, we recently came to learn a spell from the book that you gifted us. And I ask you if it is alright to show our efforts and receive further guidance..."

Hearing that, the missing eye ones both nodded their head with excitement while Sylas and Baron looked at him with an expected look.

Danzel in turn was surprised to hear such news.

'I just recently gave those guys the book and they actually managed to learn something...' He thought to himself. Feeling somewhat depressed.

Albeit he didn't have time to go out and study magic ever since he got his [Magical Talent] and [Apprentice of Death King] to test his learning capabilities, comparing his past self with them was still depressing.

Nonetheless, he still that he saw that growth was possible for them.

"Alright, let's see what you guys learned. Use the spell that you leaned against me. Shiro, you can watch them and look for mistakes." Danzel said as Shiro nodded her head.

Drawing his sword out of its sheath, Danzel stepped forward the Anabast.

"Now come at me. Show me what you learned.