29. My Corpse

There was a possibility that Xavion's mother sacrificed herself to resurrect Claude again. Xavion's mother was a Necromancer, so it made sense if she resurrected him, but this time it was a little different, whether out of guilt or something else, she seemed to sacrifice herself for his resurrection.

Claude quickly woke up from his bed, feeling uneasy. As he rushed outside, he covered his mouth; he realized he was far from the palace and saw from a distance that it was burning and filled with smoke.

Could this be because of him?

"I have to go there!" When Claude was about to leave, he was stopped by some guards, guards who were on sided with Kane and that's when he realized he was being protected by Kane.

*****

In the real world, although Natan (Claude) was just an introvert who lacked self-awareness and never socialized, he was adept at socializing on social media, for example, with the editor from the publishing agency.

The sudden change in Natan's novel plot puzzled someone who used to be Natan's editor, especially when Natan suddenly decided to terminate his novel contract with the film producer, considering his novel was going to be filmed. Strangely, Natan's novel appeared on an English web novel site.

His pseudonym remained Left-Handed Bearl. What the editor didn't know was that the original author was no longer Natan but Eren.

Unfinished contract issues led Natan to face demands from a film producer and book publishing owner. He brought a police officer and contract evidence to Natan's house. Before knocking on the door, Mr. A instructed the police to hide.

Despite the oddity of his repeated visits, the door was always opened by his assistant.

"Natan is not here, he's busy," Eren said, peeking behind the door.

Mr. A stared flatly at Eren; in fact, he saw Natan sitting on a rocking chair holding a cup of coffee, the chair swaying, and Mr. A assumed he was alive.

"Let me in, to talk for a moment," Mr. A almost barged in, but Eren still blocked him.

"He's busy," Eren replied.

"I'm an important person," Mr. A retorted once more.

"He's busy, I need to emphasize, he's busy." With emphasis, Eren shooed the man away.

"Just for a moment." Mr. A began to get emotional; his body was certainly larger than Eren's, and he then pulled Eren's body out and started to enter. His emotions surged when he saw Natan at ease.

"Natan! You have to take responsibility for your contract! Natan!"

Natan remained silent, his eyes closed, full of dust. Then the man realized something; Natan's body seemed like a wax figure, and when Mr. A touched Natan, he fell. His body hit the floor with a loud thud, unlike that of a living person.

Thud.

"Natan?" Mr. A gently touched Natan's body, feeling only stiffness. Natan's body was no longer warm, and he wasn't breathing. Mr. A then glanced at Eren and the still-functioning computer; Eren had just uploaded his story to the web novel. Its cover was almost the same as the novel Natan created, even the pen name was the same.

"So, all this time it was you?" Mr. A immediately realized that Eren was now the one writing the story. "You pretended to be Beruang Kidal? Natan's pen name?"

"Yes, so don't blame me for terminating the contract. He's been dead for a long time; I didn't kill him, he just fell down the stairs when his heart disease flared up," Eren replied easily.

Mr. A immediately took out his phone to call someone.

"What are you doing?" Eren asked suspiciously.

"Of course, I'm calling the police!" Mr. A replied, pretending to make a call.

And indeed, Eren panicked; it meant Eren was guilty. "Don't call the police, they will take Natan away from me, and they will definitely perform an autopsy, I don't want that!" Eren yelled in frustration.

"Or else, I'll kill you!" Eren grabbed a ballpoint pen. He was going to stab Mr. A with it.

"Oops, but I forgot I actually brought the police," Mr. A said annoyingly, and indeed, the police were behind Eren. They were ready to capture him.

"W-what?" Eren's body was then seized. He struggled to move, but he couldn't.

"Don't mess with me!"

"Don't interfere with my affairs!" Eren yelled, trying to free himself.

Mr. A took Natan's body, his eyebrows furrowing with pity for Natan.

"Don't touch that, don't!" Eren couldn't accept that Natan was being carried by that man, he couldn't accept it!

Eren tried to escape, but as he was about to run, his leg was shot.

"Ugh."

Natan was autopsied at Mr. A's and the police's request. Since Natan had no family, Mr. A decided to take responsibility for him, and it became his duty. Eren's punishment became heavier when he learned that Natan had been mistreated even as a corpse, and Eren admitted it out of a twisted sense of love, when Natan was already a corpse, what love was there to reciprocate?

He also confessed to his actions that caused Natan to suffer a heart attack.

After that, Mr. A took Natan to his house to find a suitable place.

"So he really had a heart attack? What now?" Mr. A puzzled.

"He should have a proper resting place, shouldn't he?" Mr. A muttered. He then took out his wallet and checked their high school photos together; Mr. A didn't expect his former friend's ending to be like this.

"That's right, Sir," the servant replied.

"Bury him in my place," Mr. A replied.

"But that place is for you when you pass away," the hesitant servant said.

"If that's the case, bury me next to him."

"What if we contact his family first?" the servant asked again.

"He doesn't have a family; consider me his family." Mr. A insisted.

Soon, another servant brought something. "Sir, I have obtained the items you requested; everything has not been reset; you can still see the drafts and read the writings either by Eren or Natan."

Mr. A took the small item. It contained important data.

"I actually don't understand why Eren did this, even asking me to continue his story and likening Claude's character to Natan's; he wanted an ending before he was executed," Mr. A said, a little confused.

"But in this story, Claude commits suicide," the servant replied.

"So, you like reading that story, huh?" Mr. A teased his servant because the servant knew the details of the altered story.

"Do you know what witches are in that story?" Mr. A asked.

"If I'm not mistaken, there's a necromancer witch, and that's the mother of a character who never appeared in the new chapters, Xavion." The servant tried to explain.

Mr. A snapped his fingers, grinning from ear to ear.

"Mr A-Aleister." Called his servant, terrified by his grinning face.