Creating Anime In A Fantasy World - Chapter 86: The Illiterate Lich

After Edward made his proposal, the lich actually agreed, not only gathering up the unconscious people strewn on the floor and moving them aside but even inviting Edward into the innermost hall of the castle, a chamber that had remained sealed until now.

“This hall was originally meant to receive guests,” the lich explained. “But in a desolate place like this, with only wandering ghosts for company, it turned out there was no one to host. So it’s never been used until now.”

The loneliness hinted at in the lich’s words left Edward’s companion,

Belldia, feeling somewhat at a loss, as it was the first time he had come so close to her terrifying master.

Edward, for his part, tried to respond calmly, saying, “Then I should consider it an honor to be your first guest, my lord…”

In response, the lich, walking ahead, replied with a hint of amusement through a mental link, “Heh, whether you’re truly a guest or just dinner for the lost souls outside depends on how satisfied I am with this so-called ‘movie’ you’ve brought.”

The lich couldn’t produce sounds in the usual way due to its completely decayed body, so it communicated using magical mental vibrations instead.

As a result, even after all this time, Edward had no idea of the lich’s original gender—a fact that mattered little since the undead had long lost any need for such distinctions.

The group soon settled in the hall.

Despite its centuries-long disuse, the room was impeccably clean, likely preserved by the castle’s magical barriers and the cold environment.

This only heightened Edward’s sense of the lich’s loneliness; to live day after day in such an empty place would have driven him mad ages ago.

Yet here the lich had endured, perhaps for hundreds of years, until it had finally opted for eternal slumber—a testament to an unyielding will and terrifying mental resilience.

In this setting, Edward subtly began to examine his surroundings for any clues about the lich’s identity, hoping to gain some insight into this mysterious and potentially dangerous adversary.

His search paid off when he noticed a thick book wedged under the table’s central leg as a makeshift prop.

“‘The Bible, Third Edition’? They published a third edition of the Bible?”

Setting aside the strange fact that a religious text like the Bible had ever been updated, the mere presence of such a book in this chaotic, deserted place triggered a cascade of thoughts.

The Bible was distributed solely by the Church, an organization that had shadowed humanity since the dawn of civilization.

This suggested that the lich might have had some connection with the Church in life.

While Edward was considering these implications, the lich, noticing his interest, turned around and said, “What? Are you interested in this boring religious text too? After all, nobody knows what kind of entity humans have been worshipping all these years…”

“Um, from the way you’re speaking… does that mean you know?”

“I don’t. If I did, I would have hunted down every one of those deceiving gods!”

Edward, sensing the lich’s hostility toward the divine, wisely refrained from pursuing the subject.

Yet he couldn’t resist commenting when setting up the Imaging Crystal, “If you hate gods so much, why keep the Bible? Why not burn it? Or could it be that you’re so bored out here that you resort to reading it for entertainment?”

“Are you insulting me?”

“Not at all, just asking a logical question. Most people naturally like reading, after all.”

“I can’t read.”

“Oh, that explains it… wait, what?”

Seeing Edward’s stunned expression, the lich repeated, as though clarifying, “I can’t read. So it’s impossible for me to be interested in that book.”

No matter how wild Edward’s imagination ran, he never expected this terrifying figure, likely a master mage and a high-ranking undead, to be… illiterate.

It was like a top-notch pilot confessing they’d never been to school.

“So? After I said it outright, do you still think I’d read a book written by those religious charlatans? Even if the illustrations are nice, I’d never look!”

Though Edward suspected that the lich had inadvertently revealed something, he dismissed it.

For now, he put aside the mystery of how an illiterate individual had become a lich and possibly a being beyond mortal understanding.

At least he understood now that the lich deeply resented the Church and was incredibly stubborn.

In truth, though Edward was a hardened atheist raised in a world of compulsory education, he had reluctantly come to acknowledge the possibility of gods in this world—entities from a higher dimension.

Otherwise, many phenomena would simply remain inexplicable.

Therefore, he bore no ill will toward the Bible and even appreciated some of its stories’ moral lessons, though he still didn’t believe in gods himself.

What he loathed were the fanatics who committed atrocities in the name of religion.

“Well, though I set up this table out of habit, I forgot that I can’t actually eat anything anymore. Oh, yes, some knights from the Orc Kingdom once came here on a suicide mission. They left behind…”

Saying this, the lich rose slowly, and just as Edward worried the lich might bring out a few corpses to showcase some terrifying “boss” energy, it instead returned holding a dusty bottle of wine and asked, “So? Would you like a drink?”

“N-No, not at all…”

Both Edward and Belldia hastily declined the lich’s “hospitality,” and in the ensuing silence, Edward carefully adjusted the Imaging Crystal.

At last, the two Imaging Crystals he’d brought began to project the two movies that had been so well received in human society.