Sadly there was no way to reuse the bear corpse. You could not simply reanimate a fallen zombie. Also, the cats were busy consuming parts of the body. It might be too big to completely devour, even for those gluttons, but they were certainly trying.

While my goblin zombies kept watch we quickly searched the area. The soldiers and Cassie's students helped. There was an obvious trail left by the bear but I decided to not follow it. The fleeing enemies would certainly not wait at the end of an obvious trail, unless they had another ambush planned.

Also, I still had Karl's squad detained and needed to deal with them. And Cassie's students were here too. It would be better to just go back and report everything. We were quite some distance from our camp, if we spent too much time following a trail we might not return before dark.

While we searched the site my scouts returned. They had not found any additional problems, which was good. We did not find any clues and decided to return to Karl's squad. They were still contained by the goblin zombies. I had half expected to walk into another disaster and was pleasantly surprised that nothing happened.

Back at the main camp we were greeted by an irritated Captain Sarah.

"Koyuki? Why do you have students with you? And is that Lieutenant Karl's squad? What happened?" She asked.

I gave her a detailed report of today's events. Cassie added her side and my squad confirmed what we had said.

"I need a drink." Was Captain Sarah's response. "This is quite the mess and I don't even have the troops to do anything about it. I can't send soldiers to look for their camp, or go after their trail. Also, Karl was a noble. Second son of Baron Hickley, I believe. We need a royal investigator and technically I should detain you, or at least not deploy you. But your undead are the majority of our troops. At least you have Cassie as a witness. That helps."

Sarah was pacing as she was thinking. "Ok, Cassie, come with me. I will escort you and your students to your camp. I will need to talk to Irene. Koyuki, stay here at the camp. Karl's squad will remain under guard, for now."

I saluted and said goodbye to Cassie. Then I settled down near the fire. Nyx curled up next to me and I started petting her.

Some time later Hatsumi arrived, followed by Helena soon after. I told them about today's events. When I reached the part where I got injured Helena hugged me, then inspected my throat.

"I told you to stop getting injured!" She complained.

"Says the one who tripped and fell on a horned weasel…" I teased.

"It's a shame that we cannot use the corpse. Good job Nyx, keeping our mistress safe." Hatsumi praised the cat and started petting her.

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I continued the story and told them about the second ambush.

"How can the Brotherhood be this incompetent?" Helena wondered.

"They are a cult. They might have some intelligent people at the top but I expect most of their ranks are badly educated people who have been indoctrinated from their youth. Or untalented people feeling slighted." Hatsumi said.

"Why?" I asked.

"People with magic already have a lot of power and opportunities. At least most of them. There is no reason to join such an organisation, if you are attending an academy and are already successful. I suspect a lot of their recruits are either people who failed in the current system, or simply have been recruited young and have been trained by the cult. Although I do wonder what their overall plan is." Hatsumi mused.

"I thought they wanted necromancers to rule?" I asked.

"Perhaps, but a cult cannot simply challenge the kingdom. They would certainly need a better plan than to raise a few undead and cause some disruptions." Hatsumi replied.

"Who says they have a plan? Maybe they are just some lunatics wanting to experiment on people?" Helena suggested.

I shrugged. "If they keep coming after us we just have to deal with them. I should work more on my magic, not just my undead." I rubbed my throat. That had been an unpleasant experience. "And we should start carrying potions."

Captain Sarah returned late and informed me that we would not be patrolling tomorrow. That meant I could sleep in and spend some more time cuddling with Helena, which was nice.

I had expected the trip to be cancelled, to my surprise that did not happen. Duchess Barkworth sent her own troops to take over and protect the students. It took them a day to arrive, meanwhile there were no trips into the forest. A royal investigator arrived as well. He had been called for the goblin ambush, so he had been in the area.

I was interrogated, as were all other witnesses. I was not charged with anything, but I doubted this would be the end of it. It would take time for the news to spread. Also, our command training was cancelled, for now. Not just for me, for Helena as well. Then again, the Duchess' troops were now doing the job.

I said goodbye to my squad and Captain Sarah, who looked like she could use some sleep. Then I moved towards the students' camp with Helena. We would stay there for the remaining trip and then return to the academy with them.

It was nice meeting Skadi again. We started brainstorming ideas for the headless goblin, which I still had on ice.

"You could turn the head into a bomb and have the goblin throw it!" Cassie suggested.

"What? That would work like one time. And it would be a waste of a head." I countered.

"But it would look cool! And you could use other heads, or bombs looking like heads. Imagine an enemy's face if someone throws exploding heads at them!" Cassie said, with a grin.

"Why not just sew it back on and make a normal undead?" Skadi asked.

"Is there a magical thread? Maybe we can do something with that?" Helena wondered.

"If there is, it is probably expensive." I replied. "We could just do a vampiric undead. Although, we would need some blood."

"I could prepare something back at the academy. But… explosions…" Cassie mumbled.

"It had an air affinity, right? Can you use that?" Helena wondered.

"I am not sure. The corpse is still somewhat fresh and on ice. Depends how strong his magic was. He certainly threw some big lightning bolts. Actually, if I try to keep his air affinity we probably should not add more affinities. I could try to just animate it without an element and hope he gets air." I mused.

"Sounds risky. You could waste a corpse. Also, will you make another tier three?" Skadi asked.

"If possible, yes. I need to ask Gronir when we are back." I concluded.

"A tier three without an element would be a waste. Maybe do a draugr at least?" Helena suggested.

"Maybe. The corpse has been frozen for a while. Maybe I should infuse the water a bit with mana." I mused.

"Good idea. Since you and Helena have nothing to do for the remaining trip, why not make sure there is water circulating the body?" Hatsumi suggested.

She did have a point. I was sort of grounded, as was Helena. We did not have a squad to lead anymore and were just waiting until everyone went back to the academy. So I spent the remaining time training and working on the corpse.

There were no further incidents and soon we found ourselves on the road again, moving back to the academy. We ran into another rainstorm, without a goblin ambush this time. Otherwise nothing bad happened and we arrived safely. I was looking forward to less action and more classes.

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