Chapter – 08
“They are keeping us locked in this room right now, aren’t they?”
“It certainly appears that way.”
Of course, we could easily smash that door down with our axe and sword to break out.
However, being trapped in this cramped room for reasons unknown—in a village that was by no means hospitable to us—was hardly a welcome situation.
—You two, block it from the inside as well!
Priest Rufus’s urgent voice echoed from the other side of the door.
But with no certainty yet as to whether that priest was an ally or an enemy, following his words blindly carried a heavy risk.
“What shall we do?”
In response to Sir Arden’s inquiry, I pointed toward the furniture inside the guest room.
“For now, let’s not block the door completely. Instead, let’s move the furniture near the door so we can barricade it at a moment’s notice if necessary.”
As I was moving the furniture toward the door alongside Sir Arden, something kept rattling inside the wardrobe we were shifting toward the wall.
Wondering what on earth could be inside, I flung the doors open, only to find objects I had completely bypassed in my expectations.
“They are holy relics.”
Sir Arden provided confirmation.
In the past, people used to simply take ordinary items rolling around the temple and infuse them with divine power to label them as holy relics.
Now, however, these relics possessed a fine sheen that made them look like blatant luxury goods to anyone’s eyes.
‘Back when I was the Third Holy Maiden, if I had indulged in luxury like this with holy relics, I would have been severely punished. Tsk tsk.’
Clicking my tongue inwardly, I reached out and picked up a relic that resonated with my divine power.
The lantern-shaped relic, classified as a high-tier holy relic, was fully charged with divine energy without having suffered any consumption.
For reference, the grade of a holy relic is determined based on the amount of divine power contained within it.
“It seems they haven’t used the holy relics here at all. The consumption of divine power is, at best, equivalent to treating a common cold. It’s nowhere near enough to have cured an epidemic that swept through an entire village.”
The other low-tier and mid-tier relics likewise showed almost no consumption of divine power.
Considering that all the holy relics shoved into this wardrobe were healing relics, there were two possible hypotheses to deduce.
Either the situation was such that they couldn’t even use these relics, or the problem plaguing this village was something that healing relics could not solve.
‘Strange. The symptoms of an epidemic were clearly visible among the villagers, yet…’
As if something were shrouding my eyes, an inexplicable sense of frustration choked my chest. What exactly was I missing right now?
I surveyed the guest room, which was coated in a thick layer of dust from how long it had gone without cleaning.
For starters, within this guest room where Priest Rufus had locked us, nothing seemed particularly suspicious apart from the holy relics discovered inside the wardrobe.
Why did that priest react so excessively upon seeing the sunset and lock us in this guest room?
Come to think of it, that old woman had also warned us to lock the doors and windows once night fell and never to step outside.
The common denominator was the specific timeframe: ‘after the sun sets.’
What on earth happens in this village at night?
I needed to understand the phenomenon to solve it, so being trapped in this narrow room was incredibly frustrating.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Right then, something violently pounded on the inn window, interrupting my thoughts.
Because the window was tightly boarded up with wooden planks, it was impossible to see the outside, leaving no way to know what was striking it.
The intensity of the pounding grew increasingly fierce, causing the planks covering the window to creak precariously.
I hurriedly snatched up the axe I had leaned against the wall.
“Get back!”
Simultaneously with Sir Arden’s shout—
Crash—!
The window shattered completely, and massive, pitch-black arms—looking as though they were drenched in tar—vied with one another to thrust themselves into the inn room.
As we pressed ourselves flat against the door to avoid the hands flailing wildly in all directions, this time, something began to violently batter the door from the other side.
With the door rattling as if it might burst open at any moment, Sir Arden and I frantically piled the furniture we had moved nearby to form a barricade, firmly securing the entrance.
“Aren’t those demonic beasts? They only said an epidemic was going around this village; they never mentioned there being demonic beasts!”
“I was not informed of this either!”
Crack, thud!
Because our voices were drowned out by the sound of everything being smashed to pieces, our conversation was practically a series of shouts.
Although Sir Arden accompanied me in the capacity of a guard knight, now that demonic beasts had appeared, it was not a situation where I could solely rely on his protection.
Twisting my body to dodge a beast’s hand lunging toward me, I struck down with all my might using the axe in my grip.
Sticky blood, heavily laced with demonic energy, spurted from the severed arm, only for the limb to wriggle and begin reshaping itself into an arm once more.
Before long, the mass clumped back into the shape of a hand and tenaciously pursued me to grab hold of me again.
Even when I tried to seize it with my hands, it nimbly evaded my touch—contrary to its massive size—and lunged at me from just outside my reach.
“Damn it!”
As I repeatedly swung my axe to cleave the regenerating arm while spitting out curses irritably, Sir Arden, who was parrying the hands lunging at him with his sword, turned to look at me with startled eyes.
What, have you never seen a Holy Maiden (candidate) swear before? If it’s your first time, take a good look while you can.
While ceaselessly hacking at the beast’s arms with my axe, I noticed something strange about Sir Arden, who was fending off the limbs just as I was.
“Sir Arden! By any chance, is your sword not consecrated?”
“Because I recently changed swords, the scheduled date for consecration was set for a week from now! It is my blunder for failing to imagine that I would face demonic beasts like this!”
I see. No wonder it felt strange that a Holy Knight’s sword, typically mobilized for subjugating demonic beasts, wasn’t able to cut through it.
Applying a consecration to a weapon takes five minutes. And it isn’t just any five minutes; it requires a considerable amount of concentration.
Bestowing a deity’s grace upon an inanimate object could hardly be a simple matter.
This meant that with the demonic beasts’ arms thrashing through the guest room and trying to seize us, it was virtually impossible to consecrate my axe and Sir Arden’s sword under these conditions.
If that was the case, the only remaining method was…
“Sir Arden! I need you to act as bait for a moment!”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Get yourself caught by those hands so that I can grab onto the beast! Since we don’t have a consecrated weapon, the only way to make that thing incapable of regeneration is purification!”
“Do you know how to wield divine power to that extent?”
“If it were impossible, I wouldn’t have even brought it up!”
I’m someone who is highly adept at bare-handed purification, not just beating demonic beasts to death with a mace, you know.
Meeting my gaze, Sir Arden lowered the sword he had been using to confront the beast, his face filled with grim resolve.
As if it had been waiting for this exact moment, the beast’s hand enveloped and wrapped around Sir Arden’s torso with its palm.
I firmly grabbed the massive hand that was crushing Sir Arden in a suffocating grip.
Although my palms stung fiercely and gave off a burning smell, I did not let go and immediately attempted purification with my divine power.
The divine power I channeled surged into the beast through our overlapping hands.
A fierce tug-of-war ensued between the demonic energy and the divine power as the beast tried to push out the holy energy invading its body.
However, there was no way a mere demonic beast could endure the relentless influx of my divine power.
“Cough! Hack!”
Pain-filled coughs erupted from Sir Arden’s mouth.
Seeing his skin turn flushed and practically scorched, I intensified the momentum of the divine power I was pouring out.
The hand convulsed violently, and its grip on Sir Arden loosened. Seizing that opening, he hastily escaped from the beast’s clutches.
A holy light radiated from the overflowing divine power that the creature could no longer contain, purifying the surrounding demonic energy.
A crisp, clean air finally began to circulate within the suffocating atmosphere.
The black hand that had resisted with terrifying strength went limp, and at last, the beast’s arm…
“What in the…?”
I voiced my sheer bewilderment at a sight that completely defied my expectations.
If things had gone as anticipated, it should have turned to stone and crumbled or shattered into pieces.
Yet, this arm was gradually reverting back into a human one.
As the arm shrank in size, the rest of the beast’s body outside was also dragged into the guest room, reclaiming its original proportions.
“My goodness, Caritas…”
Staring at the entity that had been a demonic beast just moments ago—now returned to human form—Sir Arden murmured a lament that was barely a whisper.
The face lying unconscious with closed eyes while caught in my grasp was a familiar one.
It was the very woman who had been dragging her daughter back home while the child cried out for help.
