Ch.100Report on the Downfall of Kindness (10)

Maria trembled.

The empty lot where the Holy Grail Knights had their accident. A place filled with trees carved with human faces, where simply setting foot there seemed to drain one’s vitality.

Kain was now saying he would return to that place.

“They treat me as a ‘damaged offering.’ Even the broken trees didn’t like me much. They were reluctant to let me touch them. So if I cause havoc in that forest, it will affect the villagers one way or another. It will cause quite a commotion.”

“Wait. Just wait.” Maria whispered. “Is there any reason you need to go back there and disturb those trees again?”

“Because that’s how we can draw Roberta out,” Kain answered.

From Kain’s perspective, Roberta seemed to treat this whole process as a game.

If she wanted to, she could take action anytime. But instead, she was setting the villagers on Kain’s group like hunting dogs.

Like a cat playing with a mouse, she wanted to slowly enjoy watching their desperate struggle.

“She’s hiding behind her hunting dogs, waiting for the right moment. When the prey is caught and weakened, that’s when she’ll finally show herself and fire the final shot to end it. But there’s another way to draw out a hunter.”

“What’s that?”

“Make them angry.”

Kain pointed to himself and Lily.

“Roberta knows you’re an Inquisitor, but she knows nothing about me and Lily. She probably thinks we’re just farmers who can fight a little. That’s a good condition to be underestimated. But what if people like us, while running around evading her, actually mock and ridicule Roberta?”

“She’ll lose her composure and make mistakes.”

Maria understood Kain’s intention. He was deliberately trying to provoke Roberta. The most effective way would be to wreak havoc in the “forest” without getting caught by the villagers. However,

“That means you’ll be the bait.”

At Maria’s point, Lily also nodded with concern. But Kain shook his head again.

“Not necessarily. First, there are things we need to do before we get there…”

Kain explained the rest of his plan. Maria and Lily listened quietly. They didn’t argue except to ask about one or two specific details.

“I don’t know how Roberta will act once she reveals herself. She’ll probably try everything she can. But if we know her location, we can counterattack.”

“If Roberta takes the bait.” Maria brushed her bangs up.

“Honestly, under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have even considered this. But right now, I can’t come up with a better plan either. But, do you really have to go alone to that clearing with those bizarre carved faces?”

Kain nodded. Maria shouldn’t go there again. Hadn’t her condition rapidly deteriorated just from standing there?

“Maria. Can you honestly say you’re in perfect physical condition right now?”

“…As much as I hate to admit it, no.”

“That’s why you and Lily need to stay together. I can cause trouble there by myself. And your burden will be significant too. Lily, please take care of Maria.”

Lily’s eyes said no. But she pressed her lips together and eventually nodded.

“…Understood.”

“Don’t get hurt. Don’t die. We need to survive.”

“Look who’s talking.”

Maria finally turned away. Lily silently embraced Kain.

“Be careful.”

“Don’t worry,” Kain whispered. “If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s running away.”

* * * * *

The top room of Roberta’s mansion.

Roberta, completely naked, sits quietly meditating on a cushion. Beside the cushion lie a composite bow made with cow tendons and horns, and arrows crafted from processed hawk feathers.

Though it’s called a witch’s room, there’s no crystal ball for seeing the future, nor necklaces made of crow skulls.

Rather, it’s modest for a village leader. The only decorations are honorary emblems received from the Pope and the Emperor, and the bow she used to capture the Demon King.

Of course, the bow has been broken for a long time. But like a true hunter, she kept various types of bows and arrows.

Just the arrowheads alone come in wide varieties: broad ones, narrow ones, those that don’t easily come out once embedded, those that can be set on fire, and even those that can be coated with poison.

Among them, today she chose the composite bow made with cow tendons and horns.

There was no particular reason. It was simply the day to use the composite bow.

The joy of hunting different prey with different bows. Some might call it a whim, but for Roberta, it was pleasure.

The delight of reuniting with an old friend after a long separation. The thrill of nocking an arrow, aiming at a target, and hitting the vital point of prey from an even greater distance than before.

To feel such pleasure, she needed to focus entirely on the hunt. Things like the letter sent by William, or the ominous rumors circulating throughout the Empire, had to be completely forgotten.

So this is just a game.

‘But a game for a righteous cause.’

Roberta had no intention of taking the lives of Maria and the farmer couple. She merely wanted to bind their feet so they couldn’t move.

Twice as difficult as hitting a vital point is breaking someone’s will. To overwhelm them with skill so precise and chilling that they wouldn’t even think of escaping.

And Roberta had done this many times before.

With her two arms, two legs, and her bow. In this regard, she didn’t even need to use her “knowledge.”

People around the world believe that Roberta “hunted” criminals persistently, but that’s not the truth.

She simply shot her arrows until they listened. Just in front of their toes. Tearing their undergarments between their thighs without cutting the skin. Grazing their eyebrows without causing a single wound to their eyes.

Eventually, the criminals would be “persuaded” on their own.

She could easily subdue the farmer couple. However, the Inquisitor named Maria looked rather fierce.

A world full of dissatisfaction. Irritation. Complaints… No matter how well hidden, such rebellious tendencies always show somewhere.

“Now. Where might you be?”

Roberta’s hand moved toward her naked body.

Her knees and legs, the softness between her thighs… but she doesn’t extend her hand below her legs. The tree roots sprouting from the mansion gently entwine her body.

In this moment, Roberta is a tree returned to the earth.

Just as trees draw nutrients from the ground and “read” the earth, Roberta’s body becomes “one” with the village.

People’s movements tickle Roberta’s body like tactile sensations. The villagers’ movements are like gentle caresses, while the strangers’ movements are like thrilling but rough kisses.

But without touching, she cannot know their exact location. That’s why she must touch carefully and delicately.

“Mmh.”

Her smoothly moving fingers stopped at her left shoulder, below her right breast, and on her left thigh in succession. The three people—Inquisitor Maria and the farmer couple—seem to be scattered.

Roberta took a deep breath. She drew breath into her lower abdomen. She gathered energy like winding a ball. Then, by flexing her muscles and stimulating with her hands, she directed that energy toward where the strangers were.

“Hah…!”

It feels as if countless invisible hands are caressing her body. Roberta loved this moment. When all the villagers moved in perfect unison under her command.

Each of their movements gently and thrillingly touches Roberta’s nerves. The tingling signals gathered from each nerve strand become immense pleasure that shakes Roberta’s body.

“Ah… mmhh…”

An excitement that threatens to make her lose her mind. But this too is training. A hunter’s senses must become delicate even in such moments. She needs to know which parts of her body are heated, which parts are still tense.

Ah, but the three people are running through such dull places. The more intimate parts of the village. They should be coming to places where Roberta could be more excited, but they only engage in ticklish caresses.

The thought of driving them rises like a snake. It wouldn’t be difficult. She could simply send the villagers to the parts corresponding to her sensitive body.

But she must endure.

The longhouse.

She must lead them all there. That place is connected to Roberta’s deepest and most intimate part. Only by performing the proper ritual there would Roberta be satisfied, and gain tremendous power in proportion to her satisfaction.

Until then, she can endure a little teasing.

Though her legs tremble and her thighs shake, she still endures. Swallowing the saliva pooling in her mouth, she searches for these pitiful ones by running her hands over her body.

It’s ticklish. Still ticklish. But the hands that could scratch her itch thoroughly are still too slow. Yet that made it better. If it’s slow, the satisfaction will be greater.

Hasn’t Roberta been patient for the past 10 years?

Like other heroes, Roberta knew that Arius’s seal was merely a stopgap measure.

But unlike those fools who agonized over that fact, felt unwarranted guilt, and tried to pass the responsibility to someone else just to get through their own lifetime, Roberta diligently prepared for the future.

‘The Demon King is coming back? So what?’

On the day the Demon King fell in the wasteland, while assisting Arius’s clumsy spell, Roberta glimpsed infinite possibilities.

‘I can become greater than the Demon King, the Pope, even the Emperor.’

A world where negative emotions like hatred, resentment, and anger are bound to trees, and people who walk the earth become happy, kind, and gentle.

No one in the world had created such a world. But Roberta believed it was possible.

Because she believed she was the only one who had such an idea.

And the past 10 years were a process of constantly experimenting with the idea, repeating successes and failures, and refining it to near perfection.

Berta Village has now completely settled. The once most heinous criminals the Empire had produced have now become so docile that they are welcomed even in nearby villages.

Those who committed sins willingly agreed to cut off the parts that sinned and “sever” ties with their past. And they also consented to “offering” them to the rosewood trees.

Those rosewood trees are far from ordinary. They feed on people’s sins. Sinful thoughts. All kinds of negative emotions. Aggressive things that could harm others… the rosewood trees devour all of them.

Since the trees take away all the negative things, only pure emotions remain in the human body. Smiles. Laughter. Kindness. Love. Understanding…

And what happened as a result?

Berta Village became the safest village in the Black Forest. Those who were once called the Empire’s shame have now transformed into humans who are welcomed wherever they go.

Of course, it’s unfortunate that the rosewood forest behind the village is the most dense and dangerous place even in the Black Forest. But Roberta, who defeated the Demon King, understood such things too.

She knew that human malice is immeasurable and sometimes passed down through generations, so the malice of people who have lived only 30 or 40 years…

‘So they should be more grateful to me. Look at the expressions that have sprouted on those rosewood trees. How savage are they? If it weren’t for me, they would still be living with those emotions in their hearts.’

But Roberta was always dissatisfied. Her dream was the entire world. But the people of Berta Village were at best stupid and stubborn farmers, or unparalleled antisocial criminals.

She was always curious whether more proper people, ordinary people, could also be “influenced” and “persuaded” by her. She planted more trees and persuaded more people.

Then the world responded to her. As if by magic, Brother Henry appeared before her.

The one man who could fulfill everything she wanted.