Chapter – 09
Eileen moved through the forest with surprising ease for someone blind.
Of course, she was nowhere near a normal person’s level—but still.
When the ground turned muddy or the terrain uneven, I occasionally held her hand as we pushed through the woods.
Then, Eileen suddenly stopped.
I was walking a little ahead, so at the abrupt silence of her footsteps, I turned around.
Eileen lifted her nose slightly, sniffing the air.
“There’s a strange scent. About two hundred and twenty-three steps ahead. By my stride, of course.”
Two hundred and twenty-three steps.
If she smelled something, it was most likely the presence of a monster.
Because she lacked sight, all her other senses were remarkably sharp.
Especially when it came to anything unholy, demonic, or foul.
I pretended not to know and asked,
“Unnecessarily precise. Are you sure?”
“Even if thou dost doubt, will something that is suddenly cease to be? In the use of holy-power echolocation, none can match me.”
Ah, right. That was her “setting.”
Echolocation.
Sensing one’s surroundings by reading returning sound waves.
In her case, it wasn’t sound she used but holy power. So she couldn’t perceive shapes and terrain like the original meaning implied, but instead she was exceptional at sensing holy, demonic, or evil presences.
Like how blind people tap with a cane or click their tongue, she constantly emitted bursts of holy power in every direction to detect corruption.
That warm feeling one got simply by being near her was because of this.
Naturally, it wasn’t something just anyone could do—and was one of the reasons Eileen was special.
“Would I be a nun for no reason?”
“……”
Well. Judging by her behavior alone, she didn’t resemble a nun in the slightest.
Which wasn’t surprising, considering she wasn’t even a real nun.
I chose not to argue and shut my mouth.
Eileen asked, “So, what wilt thou do?”
“Good question.”
Of all places, it had to be in the direction we were heading.
If we encountered a monster, a fight was inevitable.
We could detour to avoid provoking it—but then we’d take longer getting out of the forest.
“It’s not a strong stench. Comparable to food waste left to rot for three midsummer days. Judging by its movement, just one. And slightly shorter than thou.”
Her words prompted my decision.
I drew my sword from its sheath.
Srring—A satisfying ring. The silver blade gleamed sharply.
This would be my first real combat.
I had prepared myself long ago.
Without a word, I walked forward, raising my alertness.
As I focused, my senses sharpened.
The rough texture of the hilt tickled my palm.
The chirping of insects and the rustling branches in the wind pressed gently against my ears.
Behind me, Eileen came close and whispered,
“I shall warn thee beforehand: I won’t be of much help in this fight. ’Tis a monster, not a demon.”
“I know.”
In the continent of Istalnicia, the word ma didn’t refer only to the evil and corrupt.
Ma was anything bizarre, strange, wondrous, extraordinary—things so unbelievable you doubted your own eyes.
Like magic.
Or like the monster ahead.
Holy power purified evil, but had little effect on ma.
“Worry not. Even if thy belly is split open and thy intestines spill for display, or if thou losest a limb or two, I can heal thee cleanly. Ah—but ’twill hurt. Just… keep thyself alive.”
“How reassuring.”
With that final remark, we walked on in silence.
The closer we got, the sweatier my palms became.
If the smell reminded her of rotting food, it wasn’t a high-rank monster—but nervousness was natural.
We slowly descended a slight slope, and soon we saw it.
Reptilian scales covering its body.
A protruding snout and crooked, warped legs.
Scraps of cloth barely covering the essential parts.
And bluish, metallic eyes reflecting the dim moonlight.
I instantly recognized the monster and let out a sigh.
My tension drained away.
“…A Kobold?”
“’Twas smaller than thee, was it not? Why such disappointment? Wouldst thou prefer an ogre the size of a house to flatten thee with one blow?”
That wasn’t it.
But I couldn’t help feeling deflated.
A Kobold was a bottom-of-the-bottom low-tier monster—something even an ordinary adult man could defeat with a decent punch and luck.
I gently set down my backpack, gripped my sword again, and dashed forward.
Only when I was nearly upon it did the Kobold notice me; it flailed in panic.
When ambushing an enemy close to your height, the proper tactic is to target vital spots—head, neck, heart.
So that’s what I did.
My blade pierced the left side of its chest.
Blood sprayed.
And that was that.
The flesh tore, the still-beating heart split in half.
The Kobold twitched a few times, then went limp.
A monster or not, it was still a life.
And I had extinguished it with ease.
Strangely, I felt nothing.
No guilt. No remorse.
Maybe because it was a monster.
No… somehow, even if it had been a human, as long as I had justification, I doubted my reaction would’ve been much different.
That thought unsettled me more than the killing itself.
“If thou hast skewered it, pull the blade out. Why stand there frozen? …Ah. Thou wert an immigrant, were thou not? Barely six months here. Is this thy first time filleting something still alive?”
“Yeah. But… I feel fine.”
“Feeling fine is the normal reaction. Didst thou expect to collapse in horror, unable to sleep for three nights, tormented by guilt? That only happens in novels and children’s tales. Reality teaches all the same lesson: if thou dost not kill, it kills thee. Call it a sort of indulgence. Though in this case, thou picked the fight.”
Strange girl.
She giggled—oddly ill-fitting with her nun persona.
Watching her laugh somehow eased the unease swirling in my chest.
Which is why I could respond casually to the message that appeared.
【Battle Concluded!】
You have successfully and mercilessly slain 1 Kobold suffering from being ‘old, exhausted, sick, and generally having a terrible life.’
This Kobold’s name was In-Alu. He was searching for herbs for his sick wife and children. They are too weak to lift a finger, and will soon perish from illness—thanks to you.
“So I basically killed them too. If this were a game, I’d at least get some XP or gold out of it.”
『…Excuse me?』
It was a joke. A joke.
『…….』
『…….』
『…….』
**『…Loading.
Heartless.
Merciless.
Cruel beyond measure.
I… am at a loss for words.
Even demons would weep before you.
– Sharing this story at a tavern will grant you a slight increase in Infamy.』**
“……”
“What art thou mumbling about? Come. Let us go.”
Eileen walked ahead, utterly unconcerned with the Kobold.
I wiped the blood off as best I could, grabbed my things, and followed after her.
The moon had been out for some time—darkness had settled enough to call it night.
Any more delay and we would’ve been forced to camp inside the forest.
No thanks.
After a short while, the trees grew sparse. Young trunks, thin and widely spaced.
We were nearing the forest’s end.
If things continued smoothly, we could make it out before night fully set in.
I rubbed my sore shoulder.
“By the way.”
“Yeah?”
“Thou art more obedient than I expected. Or rather… passive.”
Obedient?
I paused to check if my understanding of the word matched hers.
It didn’t seem like a word that suited me at all.
“When I said I would go to Franz and pointed to thee, thou accepted without hesitation.”
I stammered slightly.
“Well, someone from the Papal Office needed me.”
“No. The choice was thine. That cantankerous old man seems to cherish thee. He would have let another escort me.”
By “old man,” she must mean the Sword Saint.
She wasn’t wrong.
He did try several times to persuade me to stay and let someone else go.
Had I lacked the will, I’d still be at the Guild.
But I was here.
And that seemed suspicious to Eileen.
She took a breath and continued.
“Thou lookest as though thou wert born to place the world beneath thy feet.”
“Didn’t you call me ugly earlier?”
“Didst thou take that to heart? ’Twas but a teasing jest. If thou takest such offense, one begins to wonder if it is true. I apologize. Poor thing. And I spoke not of thy face, but of thy soul.”
“So you’re not a nun—you’re a fortune-teller?”
Normally, she would have hurled a sharp retort at such a dull joke.
But she didn’t.
Instead of replying, she continued speaking—
which for some reason made me sweat more than if she had mocked me.
“For someone like that to follow my lead so easily… one cannot help but suspect a hidden motive. Whether for good or ill.”
“Alright, Dr. Freud.”
“Even slugs can show their horns. Fine. Think what thou wilt. There is a more pressing matter anyway.”
She could read the shape of my soul.
Born to place the world beneath my feet, huh.
That hit closer than I liked.
I stopped responding.
If I continued the conversation, I had the feeling she’d dig all the way into the deepest parts of me—places I didn’t want touched.
Seeing me fall silent, Eileen also stopped talking.
We walked in quiet, and before long, reached the forest’s edge.
Beyond lay an open plain.
The full moon cast a clear light across the land.
It was a view that could make one sentimental.
Leaving the damned forest behind, I looked for a place to rest for the night.
A small clearing appeared—enough space for two people to camp.
Eileen stepped into the center and released holy power.
A white, glowing orb—about her size—rose and floated, warming the surroundings.
Well, that solved the campfire problem.
I pulled our sleeping bags and food from my pack, along with the map.
Day one.
Estimating by the distance from the Gate and the forest we just crossed, I roughly worked out our position.
If we kept traveling southwest, we’d reach our destination without issue.
Though with Eileen’s pace in mind, it wouldn’t take just a week like when I traveled with the Sword Saint from Franz to Wind-Forest Mountain.
It would take at least ten days.
I taught Eileen how to use a sleeping bag, then crawled into mine.
It had been a while since I last stared up at the night sky.
Stars sprinkled the black canvas above us like dots of paint.
Back on Earth—no, in Seoul—you rarely got a sky like this.
Thinking of home made my chest ache for a moment.
In Chronicles of Istalnicia, Earth wasn’t another dimension—just another planet in the same universe.
Which meant that among these countless stars, one of them might be the sun that Earth orbited.
Would I ever be able to return?
I sensed Eileen turn her face toward me.
As if she wanted to say something.
But she didn’t.
So we simply lay there side by side.
Until the grass stilled,
and the wind quieted,
and even the starlight seemed to fall asleep
—leaving the world in complete darkness.
