episode_0022

*

I took Lucia and Kunat aboard the ship early in the morning.

I tried to leave as quietly as possible, but Anna was already out before me, standing there to see us off.

Before boarding, Anna handed me a small bundle, which contained two small loaves of bread and a small jar of pickled fruit.

It seemed Anna had gotten up before dawn to prepare a lunch.

The amount was small, but the thoughtfulness felt immensely large.

Considering the Monastery was already short on food, I tried to refuse, saying I’d only accept her kind gesture, but Anna pushed the bundle into my arms as if stuffing it in, begging me to take it.

Considering that I’d had a conversation with her on the cliff in the middle of the night, it was easy to see that Anna hadn’t slept at all.

I felt sorry for simply ignoring Anna’s sincerity, so I reluctantly accepted the bundle and thanked her.

After a brief greeting, I unfurled the sail on the ship, and Lucia rowed.

Anna waved, watching us slowly drift away.

Sola wasn’t there.

She’s probably still asleep.

I could already picture Anna’s suffering, having to look after Sola alone for the next few days, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.

After the ship reached land, we hurriedly moved our feet.

This time, since there wasn’t a set destination, I was planning to explore as far as possible, as long as conditions allowed.

Lucia, with the Devil’s power around her, went to the front.

I followed behind her, and Kunat leisurely followed at the very back.

Usually, I would leave Kunat on the ship and proceed with the exploration.

But this exploration was sure to take at least two days, and I couldn’t leave him, a Devil, alone for that long, so I had no choice but to take him along.

At first, I tried to find something like a dog leash in the village to put on him, but I couldn’t find anything suitable, so I gave up.

The now ruined Mora Village was very desolate.

There weren’t any people, of course, and there were hardly any monsters, probably because several explorations had already been conducted.

Even the objects and furniture had mostly disappeared, making it feel like an even emptier ruin than when I first visited alone.

Silence filled the surroundings.

For some reason, that heavy silence felt much more terrifying than any grotesque monster.

Lucia must have felt something similar, as she hugged her arm slightly, stroking it.

Arriving at the entrance to the village, we stopped for a moment and began to discuss.

Now that we’d left the village, there were two paths we could take.

One was to move along the coastline, and the other was to move inland along the forest path.

After some deliberation, we decided to move along the forest path.

We had no idea what lay ahead on the coastline path, but we had at least some information about the forest path.

Three months ago, it was the path I took to get here.

From what I remember, there was a woodworking shop about an hour’s walk away, and an old fort that used to be used as a resting place for hunters about half a day further.

If we were lucky, we might be able to find tools such as the hammer that Anna wanted at the woodworking shop, and if we were even luckier, there might be people who had survived and were holed up in the fort.

Even if there were no signs of people, it would at least be a place to spend the night safely.

Having made our decision, we slowly moved our feet along the forest path.

The forest path was as silent as the village.

An ominous silence, where not even the chirping of insects could be heard, was packed tightly between the trees.

Normally, Kunat’s nonsense would only be annoying, but this time I let him chatter away.

Without even that, it felt like it would become too unsettling.

This terrible silence.

As if saying that you’re the only people left in this world, the world was completely enveloped in silence.

Perhaps because of that,

Lucia and I were much more tense than during our usual explorations.

I even had the thought that a monster might jump out from between the trees.

But fortunately, the monsters didn’t show themselves for over an hour.

We were able to reach the woodworking shop without any interruptions.

“Heh heh heh, this is truly awful.”

But it didn’t seem like we would be able to find what we wanted at the woodworking shop anyway.

The woodworking shop was… ha, damn it, how should I put this.

It had become like a hatchery for monsters.

White strands as thick as yarn covered the woodworking shop like a spiderweb.

No, it was closer to the appearance of sticky snot that had been stretched out and solidified as is.

The woodworking shop’s building, which was used to cut logs, originally only had pillars and a roof without walls, but now those white strands were like walls that had been sparsely attached.

It wasn’t filled in carefully enough to completely block off the walls, so we could see the inside of the woodworking shop clearly, and inside were wriggling, pale human figures.

Anyone could tell they were those monsters.

Moreover, something pure white was hanging from the ceiling of the woodworking shop, as if it were a spider’s cocoon.

Oh, for fuck’s sake,

It was humans.

Human corpses were hanging there.

“Fath… Father.”

Lucia called me in a trembling voice.

Even Lucia, who had casually blown away the monsters’ bodies, seemed to find this sight too difficult to bear.

At that moment, one of the monsters slipped out from between the white strands.

I said to Lucia urgently.

“Get a grip. It’s coming.”

“… Yes, yes!”

As I finished speaking, Lucia’s hands and the tips of her hair were instantly dyed black.

“I’m counting on you.”

“… Yes! Father, hide!”

The monster twitched for a moment, then slowly turned its head towards me.

A droopy mass of flesh covered its face, like it was wearing a mushroom, and a tumor-like, swollen mouth.

That face, with pockmarks made of whitewash bubbling on its skin, wiggled for a moment, then opened that disgusting tumor and began to make clicking sounds.

Then, it instantly stretched its arms forward and rushed towards me.

“Krrr,”

Lucia bared her teeth and lowered her stance.

Just as she seemed to be crouching down, as if a coiled spring was being released, Lucia’s body flew forward.

The monster’s pure white arm and Lucia’s jet-black arm collided in mid-air.

The monster’s arm was crushed like a soft fruit.

Lucia, at the same time as landing on the ground, twisted her waist and swung her arm behind her back.

Lucia’s arm pierced straight through the monster’s flank, cutting the monster’s upper body in two.

The monster’s upper and lower bodies each wriggled and crawled on the ground before slowly stopping moving.

“You’re getting used to it more and more, isn’t that great?”

Kunat said, looking at Lucia as if he were impressed.

“I can only say you’re born with it, I can’t help but think, was this your destiny from the beginning? Your ‘Exorcism’ only made her destiny a little more painful.”

“Shut up.”

“If you want to deny my words, take another look at that.”

Kunat pointed to Lucia with his chin.

Due to the commotion of the earlier battle, monsters that had noticed the intruder were popping out of the woodworking shop one by one.

Lucia lowered her body like an animal, and then, using her arms as if they were forelegs, she ran towards them.

The monsters were being torn apart in chunks by Lucia’s fingernails.

It wasn’t just that she was strong and agile.

To me, who knew how tough their skin was, that sight felt very foreign.

The Devil’s power.

That itself is a weakness for the monsters.

It wasn’t that Lucia’s sharp fingernails were tearing them apart, but rather that the moment their skin touched Lucia’s fingernails, it looked more like it was melting like chocolate.

Lucia swung her arms around, covered in their bodily fluids.

“…The Devil seems to like that look.”

“Doesn’t he?”

“No… things like this, aren’t things a girl should be doing.”

“You say that, but aren’t you ultimately benefiting from her?”

“…”

I had nothing to say.

If I had my way, I wouldn’t want to bring Lucia on explorations.

No matter how much she had given her body to the Devil,

No matter how easily she defeated the monsters, fighting like a beast.

She’s still just a teenage girl, after all.

There’s no way I could just see her as a convenient weapon, could I?

But, no matter how I felt, as someone who had no means of dealing with the monsters, I didn’t have much of a choice.

Why is it that divine power doesn’t work on that monster that has brought this world to crisis?

Feeling helpless, I quietly clenched my fists.

It was then.

From behind Lucia, a monster lunged at her with its mouth open.

The tumor was leaking yellowish liquid, and from inside, a jet-black gums with teeth packed tightly inside popped out.

“Lucia, behind you!”

“…!”

Without even turning around, Lucia instinctively jumped towards the wall of the woodworking shop, avoiding the monster’s snout.

Then, rotating her body in mid-air and stepping on the wall, she flew straight towards the monster.

Lucia landed on all fours, passing straight through the monster’s abdomen.

Pieces of the monster’s body soared in all directions, and then soon fell limply to the ground, spreading a squelching sound.

With that sound as the last, another heavy silence came.

“Father. Are you okay?”

It was Lucia’s voice that broke the silence.

Lucia slowly got up.

“It looks like there aren’t any more monsters now.”

Lucia, covered in pure white bodily fluids, shook her jet-black arms and hair and hopped towards me.

Unlike when she rushed towards the monsters, it was a cute, rabbit-like hop.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

She looked at me with eyes that were dyed blood-red.

I slowly nodded and took a handkerchief out of my pocket.

Then, I wiped the white liquids off her face.

“Uung.”

“Are you not hurt anywhere?”

“Yeesh.”

As I wiped her soft cheeks, her pronunciation also became softly mumbled.

I gave a hollow smile and finished wiping off the things that were on her hair.

Her facial skin was very smooth and soft.

Her hair was also very soft.

Surely her body, arms, and fingers would all be soft and supple too.

With hands like these, a body like this, how can she crush those tough monsters like that?

The power of the Devil…

“… No.”

“Yes?”

“It’s nothing.”

I shook my head.

I almost thought the power of the Devil was convenient.

That shouldn’t be the case.

Why is the Devil’s whisper so sweet?

It’s because they always offer sweet proposals to humans.

That’s why the Devil is dangerous.

The Devil stimulates human desires and pretends to grant those wishes.

And in return, they seem to ask for something relatively trivial.

But that’s never the case.

Devils are fundamentally good with numbers, and these geniuses with numbers never make deals that they lose out on.

In fact, Lucia is healthier than ever, and has gained strength and reflexes that surpass ordinary people.

But in return, hasn’t she been assigned the role of vanguard, fighting the monsters?

I am benefiting from the price Lucia is paying, but I shouldn’t consider this a windfall.

That would be unfair to Lucia and a wrong mindset as a Cleric.

“Father?”

“Aren’t you tired?”

“Um… I’m okay. I’m glad Father isn’t hurt.”

“Ah, Lucia… Thank you. You did really well.”

Lucia said that and smiled bashfully, staring blankly at me.

After wiping her face to some extent, Lucia’s appearance looked very cute.

“Why?”

“Father, there’s something.”

“Yeah.”

“Since I did well, um…”

“Um?”

“Could you pat my head?”

Lucia said that with her cheeks reddened.

Seeing them dyed as red as her eyes, it seemed she understood that it was a shameful request.

“Ah… it’s still covered in a lot, so… it must be damp. I made an unpleasant request… I’m sorry. Please forget about it.”

Lucia stumbled over her words and tried to step back.

I gently grabbed Lucia’s arms and pulled her slightly.

They were dyed black, but it was skin that was no different from normal skin.

Lucia, who had shown such a strong power against the monsters, amusingly couldn’t resist my weak strength at all.

Lucia came closer, drawn by my hand.

I gently held her shoulder with one hand, and swept her damp hair back with the other.

“I’ll do things like this as much as you want.”

“Heh, hehe. It feels good.”

The Devil that entered Lucia’s body was definitely the Ebony Wolf.

The name Ebony Wolf is just a name given to it so that humans can understand it, and it has nothing to do with real wolves.

In the first place, it’s not an animal, it’s a Devil.

However, looking at Lucia smiling happily as she felt my touch, she looked like a baby wolf or puppy acting cute.

Was Lucia’s original personality like this?

Or is it the influence of the Ebony Wolf?

Or could it be….

“Lucia….”

“Yeesh-”

“I know this is a really weird question… but can I still ask you just one thing?”

“Ask away.”

“Do you… like me?”

The image of Anna from last night flashed through my mind.

Could it be that Lucia also feels the same kind of affection for me as Anna?

Eh, no way.

What’s wrong with this old Cleric, acting like this?

Lucia is still just a child.

“I’m sorry, that was a stupid quest…”

“Yes…”

Lucia slowly nodded her head twice.

At the last nod, she paused with her head lowered.

Then, soon, she smiled shyly and slowly raised her lowered head.

Her blood-red eyes met my eyes head-on.

Lucia slowly continued to speak.

“I like Father very much.”

Ah, oh dear.

This can’t be happening.

“Didn’t you really know? Oh my god.”

Kunat muttered as if he were dumbfounded.