TGBAP 42

“May I ask just one thing?”

At that moment, Javier forced back his fear and faced the bishop head-on. The bishop looked at him with an interested gaze.

“What kind of ritual is it, exactly, to offer sacrifices like that?”

“…….”

“At least I want to know what kind of work we’re doing.”

“Hm, what the ritual is for…… to be honest, even I don’t know the details.”

“……Pardon?”

“Do I look like I’m lying to you now? Sorry, but this is only my second time, so I don’t know the details well. But I did hear that it wouldn’t be wrong to say the temple was built for the sake of this work.”

“What in the world does that…….”

“If you want to know more than that, you’ll have to climb higher.”

“Th-then please answer just one more thing! Who is the one who ordered this? Could it be His Holiness?”

With eyes cold as a snake, the bishop raised his index finger and pointed upward.

“Higher than that.”

Higher than the Pope? Then could it be…….

“Now, enough small talk—let’s get on with it.”

The bishop turned around and looked at the magic circle, where blue light and red light twisted together and roiled.

Then he checked the pocket watch pointing exactly at midnight, and stretched out both hands.

Once again, an ominous energy poured out over the backs of his hands.

As if responding to it, the magic circle rippled with a black aura beyond a complete red glow.

“This lowly servant offers a sacrifice—”

Kwaduk- Kwaddeuk-!

A chilling sound came from the center of the pattern, and the corpses began to crumple and vanish as if being eaten by the pattern. As if it were devouring those bodies.

After some time passed, the corpses atop the pattern had vanished without a trace. Only the pooled blood proved what had happened just now was not a lie.

“Now, the last task.”

When the bishop turned around, everyone tensed as one.

“If you go up these stairs, you’ll find a manor. There will be one child in that manor.”

“……A child?”

“Yes. Find a child around ten years old.”

“F-find him and what are we to do?”

“Hm, they said it isn’t time yet, but…….”

The bishop muttered to himself, then came to a decision.

“If the child looks healthy, leave him as he is, and if he looks weakly—like it wouldn’t be strange for him to collapse at any moment—then…….”

Bring him here.

* * *

Deng- deng- deng- deng-

The clock struck midnight, and the grandfather clock’s chime echoed loudly through the manor.

The moment midnight came, Kaiser witnessed Ria vanish right before his eyes.

With no sign at all, she disappeared in the blink of an eye the instant it became midnight.

It looked like annihilation, and for a moment he got scared.

“Damn it, there’s no way!”

Kaiser forced himself to shake off the ominous thoughts creeping up, and barely turned around.

From here on is the beginning. I need to confirm what happens in this manor.

Clicking his tongue, Kaiser headed first to where Lucian was.

“What? Th-this—what is this?!”

And he couldn’t hide his confusion.

The barriers Ria had layered two and three times over were gone without a trace.

Not only that. Every trap and spell Ria had set up around the place had vanished too.

Only the magic he had installed remained.

‘Did Ria’s magic vanish along with her when she disappeared?’

Since they were things made with Ria’s power, it wasn’t impossible.

Having found a new problem, Kaiser set up another barrier over Lucian’s room using his own magic.

At the moment he finally breathed again, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

“Right, the basement!”

Ria had definitely put some kind of locking magic on the basement door too.

But if her magic had vanished all at once, there was a strong chance the magic on the basement door had been undone as well.

Sure enough, he could feel an unknown presence rising little by little from below.

Sparks flew from Kaiser’s mouth as a tremendous rage wrapped around his whole body.

“How dare lowly humans come in.”

Kaiser dropped to the first floor in one bound. At perfect timing, the basement door opened and four clumsy-looking humans came up.

“Huh?”

“There really is a kid?”

They didn’t look like people with martial strength, unlike what he’d expected, but Kaiser didn’t lower his guard for a moment, shooting them with cold eyes.

By chance, he was polymorphed into a child around Lucian’s age, intending to make them lower their guard.

“Who are you?”

“Ah, w-we’re not strange people.”

“Hey, when you say it like that, you look even stranger.”

“Do we?”

At their dazed, idiotic appearance, Kaiser’s eyebrow shot up.

Then, one man whispered to his companion.

“What do we do with him? Do we take him?”

“They said if he’s healthy, leave him alone.”

“But they said if you look at his face, bring him no matter what…….”

They whispered among themselves, but a dragon’s hearing caught even their every breath.

“Just take him. I don’t want to die.”

“Me neither. No way we’d kill a kid this small.”

“W-wait! Are you out of your minds? Do you know what the bishop might do—!”

“Then, Javier, do you want to die instead?”

“That’s…….”

They’d seemed to be talking it out, then started splitting. One opposing taking him, and the other three deciding to take him.

“Kid, want to come somewhere with us for a moment?”

“If you just come quietly, we won’t do anything strange.”

“Why are you trying to take me?”

“Um, that’s…….”

“Was the order to bring a child?”

Two of them widened their eyes, visibly flustered. Realizing he’d been right, Kaiser clenched his fist tight.

“So you did come for Lucian in the end.”

“K-kid? Really, we won’t do anything. If you just listen, there won’t be any dangerous th—”

Puk-!

The man who had been creeping toward Kaiser couldn’t finish his sentence.

“Kuhk! Kkhuk-!”

Seeing Kaiser’s hand aimed at his belly, the man who’d been blankly staring soon vomited a gush of blood.

With it happening in the blink of an eye, both the attacked man and the others behind him froze in place.

Kaiser didn’t blink even once as he pulled his hand back out. The man’s body crumpled helplessly, meeting death without even being able to close his eyes.

“U-uaaah!”

“Monster! It’s a monster!”

The remaining two, excluding Javier, shrieked and wildly swung the torches they had brought.

Kaiser’s eyes flashed, and he jumped in place.

Whiik-!

With a strong gust, the torches went out, and darkness fell over the surroundings. Their fear only grew bigger and bigger.

“D-don’t split up! If we split up, it’s more dangerous!”

Javier, the first to regain his composure, hurriedly said—but.

Uaaah—!

A scream came from the farthest spot.

“Damn it! Don’t come! Get away!”

One trainee priest wildly swung the unlit torch.

But Kaiser dodged it all, moved behind him, and grabbed his head.

Kwaddeuk!

The man’s neck twisted strangely, and he collapsed without even a scream.

Javier sensed that now he was the only one left.

‘What in the…… why is this happening!’

All he had done was wait to become an official priest tomorrow, so why was something like a nightmare happening?

He wanted to wake up from this nightmare right now.

But as if proving it wasn’t a dream, the chill pressing into his whole body was agonizingly cold.

Before he knew it, his eyes adjusted to the dark, and he could begin to see the surroundings one by one.

He could also vaguely see the shapes of the priests collapsed on the floor.

Seeing that, Javier squeezed his eyes shut tight.

“G-God……!”

Trembling, Javier fiddled with the temple’s symbol hanging around his neck, a Möbius-shaped necklace.

“Almighty God, please look down upon this pitiful servant—kuheok!”

Just as he started reciting a prayer, a monstrous force tightened around his throat, choking off his breath.

Javier’s body lifted up into the air.

As his breath was gradually squeezed out, Javier flailed and scratched at the arm holding him.

“C-clearly…… a child…….”

Where had the child gone, and why had the owner of monstrous strength appeared?

Javier was only confused by everything.

“I will give you a chance.”

“Kuheok! Keuhk!”

“If you tell me, without lies, what you were trying to do, I will spare your life. But if you do not, know that you will become like those three.”

“……Keuk!”

Kaiser released Javier’s throat. Javier collapsed where he stood and hurriedly sucked in air.

But Kaiser didn’t give him much time.

“Answer within ten seconds. Ten, nine, eight, seven…….”

“I-I can’t speak!”

Kaiser’s eyebrow twitched as he looked down at Javier arrogantly. Around Kaiser’s body, “fear” began to seep out.

“Do I look like I’m joking with you right now?”

Kugugugung-!

The area shook like an earthquake, and Kaiser’s voice lodged not in Javier’s ears, but directly in his brain.

Javier instinctively realized that the one before him was not human, but a tremendous being. And also that he wasn’t the child the bishop had sought.

If he tried to go down alone, he’d die, and if he answered wrong now, he’d die too.

Javier agonized between the bishop and the one before his eyes, then squeezed his eyes shut.

“I-it’s not that I won’t answer—it’s that I can’t!”

Kugugugu…….

The fierce momentum subsided. Javier barely opened the eyes he’d shut.

And he could see a pair of eyes right before his nose.

Green eyes like a reptile’s, proving he was not human.

“It’s not that you won’t, but that you can’t…….”

“Keuk!”

His hair was seized and his head forced back. Afraid of offending the other’s temper, Javier bit down on his lip hard.

Kaiser examined Javier from head to toe.

His pupils narrowed further, taking Javier in at a glance. Then he realized there was something ominous inside his mouth.

Without warning, Kaiser pried Javier’s mouth open and pulled out his tongue.

“……You’ve been struck by wicked arts.”

It was too vile to be called magic, and too different in texture to be called a curse.

‘It’s my first time seeing this.’

Even as one skilled in magic, he couldn’t tell what it was. In form it resembled magic, but its essence was different.

But looking at it, it felt like he could tell how to break it.

“It will hurt.”

Kaiser kindled a blue flame at his fingertips and seared the vile magic circle with it.

Keuk! Kkeueueuk!

Javier’s body trembled as he gritted through it. It was pain so intense he felt he might faint, but it stopped right before he lost consciousness.

“With this, you won’t be toyed with by wicked arts any longer.”

Kaiser looked at Javier, twisted in pain, then cast healing magic on him. The horrific pain vanished, but the shock remained.

“Now, you can answer, right?”

Kaiser didn’t give Javier time to recover.

Because he believed that breaking the wicked art and using healing magic was consideration enough.

As if seeing through Kaiser’s thought, Javier trembled and bowed his head low.

Then his mouth opened.