Ch.58Black Blood – 3

With a thud, the carriage bounced upward momentarily, causing my body to tilt sideways.

As a result, my finger went in even deeper, touching Christine’s uvula, and despite choking, she accepted it with ecstatic eyes.

“Mmhng… my Lord God…”

“Could you not make such strange noises?”

At my words, Christine promptly shut her mouth. Simultaneously, with the sound of tearing flesh and breaking bones, my index finger was ripped off.

Watching Christine gnaw on my finger like she was chewing on cartilage made me feel rather peculiar.

While stroking her head with my other hand, I opened the window and leaned out.

“How much longer?”

“We’ll arrive in about 10 minutes, sir.”

The coachman handling all four horses answered in a solemn voice. Not much longer then. After acknowledging his response, I closed the window again.

My finger had completely healed during that brief moment, but it wasn’t long before Christine bit it off again.

“We have about 10 minutes left. Start getting ready.”

Christine nodded.

In truth, there wasn’t much to prepare. Most items were already in the small bag Charlotte had given me, and Christine was completely bare.

At most, the sword I had set aside was the extent of our luggage.

The carriage shook once more. Seeing my body sway from side to side, Christine’s eyes momentarily filled with killing intent.

I stroked her head more firmly to signal her to stay quiet, and she returned to her docile state, munching on the finger she had torn off.

This wasn’t what I had intended from the beginning.

The terrain was so rough that my body shook whenever the carriage bounced, and each time, Christine would show killing intent and try to murder the coachman. I was simply giving her what she wanted to prevent unnecessary casualties.

Though the carriage was clearly luxurious and the coachman’s skills were exceptional, it was of little use while traveling through the middle of a forest.

In fact, considering we were only occasionally bouncing rather than constantly rattling, this was extremely comfortable by comparison.

I had hired an expensive coachman and rented an expensive carriage with a lot of money—how could I let her kill him?

After giving Serena and Charlotte firm instructions, almost like orders, not to fight each other, I planned to go to the lake Christine had mentioned through a transfer gate.

I had originally intended to ask Charlotte, but she said she couldn’t hide her murderous intent toward Christine.

Instead, she gave me a bag containing dozens of heavy gold coin pouches along with the royal family’s insignia for identification as a gift.

When I asked how many were inside, she told me to count them myself. I gave up after reaching 37 and just put them back.

She said she had initially planned to give me that much in platinum coins. When I asked if she was trying to buy me an entire city to make me a lord, she replied that she would do so if I wanted.

Since she seemed like she would actually do it if I didn’t say anything, I firmly declined.

Things went relatively smoothly after that—except for when Charlotte casually irritated Serena and Christine by saying that it was a wife’s natural duty to support her husband as he embarked on a journey.

Only after separating the three of them as they were about to fight again could I use the transfer gate. I should wrap this up as quickly as possible and return to the palace for my peace of mind.

Since I had given orders, Serena wouldn’t try to fight with Charlotte, but you never know what might happen.

More importantly, I had told Christine to get ready, but she was still chewing on my finger.

“That’s enough now.”

“…As you wish, my Lord.”

Christine slowly responded and removed my finger from her mouth. Saliva dripped from the finger.

She gently pulled my hand and carefully used her own hair to wipe away the saliva.

“There are handkerchiefs in the bag, you know.”

“I cannot clean the sacred body of my God with the possessions of heretics.”

“You do realize this carriage was also rented with that heretic’s money, right?”

“I begged to walk, but my God wished for a carriage. How could someone like me object to what my God desires?”

She had a point. As soon as we exited the transfer gate, I had stopped Christine, who was about to walk straight into the forest as if it were the most natural thing.

Walking to a place that would take over five hours by carriage? For someone like me who needed to get there as quickly as possible, that was absolutely unacceptable.

I even suggested she carry me on her back, but she refused, saying she was too dirty to touch my clean body.

What’s the difference between that and biting off my fingers or letting me stroke her hair?

Christine finished speaking, immediately knelt on the floor, and began to pray, bowing her head toward me.

If anyone saw this, they would think we were a nobleman and slave engaged in some peculiar role-play. Even those adventurers gave me disapproving looks as soon as they saw Christine.

With her enormous chest, a nun’s habit cut down to her pelvis, and white garter belts strapped to her thighs—it was a costume difficult to associate with an ordinary nun.

Fortunately, I had shielded Christine from their view and pushed her into the carriage first; otherwise, those men who gave such looks would have been dead already.

Suddenly, the carriage stopped.

I wondered if the 10 minutes the coachman mentioned had already passed, but the adventurers escorting the carriage weren’t opening the door.

For reference, I had hired those adventurers with money too. Since the carriage was so expensive, the rental company suggested it would be better to hire escorts.

‘…This is taking longer than expected?’

I thought it would just be a brief delay, but the carriage remained stationary for over five minutes. Wondering what the problem was, I slightly opened the window and peered outside.

If some clueless bandits had foolishly attacked us, or if the adventurers had gone crazy after seeing the price of the carriage and betrayed us, it would be extremely unfortunate.

I’d make Christine offer them all as sacrifices.

Fortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case. The adventurers were still standing guard around the carriage, and there were no suspicious signs.

Judging by the voices coming from the coachman’s direction, someone appeared to be blocking the road.

“What’s happening?”

I caught one of the adventurers closest to the window and asked. It was a female adventurer with long black hair tied at the back of her neck.

“Um… I’m sorry. It seems there’s a bit of a problem.”

“What kind of problem?”

“They’re conducting some kind of inspection, but we don’t know the details either. Could you wait a moment?”

The female adventurer said this and then walked briskly to the coachman’s side. After exchanging a few words, she returned to her original position and shrugged.

“They say they’re dispatched from a nearby merchant guild. They’re inspecting everyone passing through this road. They even have the lord’s seal, apparently?”

“Why would a merchant guild be here…?”

“Why would merchants come here? They must have smelled money. Well, I don’t know what they found in this deep forest, but if they’re blocking the road with a lord’s seal, whatever they found must be extremely valuable.”

The adventurer chuckled to herself, wondering if they had discovered a gold mine or something.

“Can we still pass through?”

“Probably. From what I heard, they’re almost finished.”

“That’s good.”

“Actually, we could have passed through faster, but it turned into a pride battle.”

“A pride battle?”

An unexpected term came up. Seeing my puzzled face, the adventurer continued her explanation.

“Well, you’re a noble’s son, right? And very wealthy too.”

“…I suppose that’s true.”

With that one sentence, I understood what was happening and responded with a slightly disgruntled tone. Indeed, looking at my spending habits, such a misunderstanding was not unreasonable.

I had rented the most expensive carriage with four horses attached, hired the most expensive coachman, and commissioned A-rank adventurers for escort by throwing money around.

“So there was a bit of an argument when they asked who was in the carriage and refused to be inspected. It’s probably almost over now.”

In other words, what could have been resolved by simply passing through had become complicated because the coachman, with his shoulders squared with pride, had unnecessarily asserted himself.

I thanked her for the explanation and closed the window. It seemed faster if I just handled it myself.

“Christine, could you stand up for a moment?”

“What is it, my God?”

“I’m going outside for a bit.”

Christine raised her head. I was about to take her hand and help her up when I flinched upon seeing her eyes.

Two lifeless eyes were staring at me. It meant she was in a very bad mood.

“What’s wrong?”

“I was contemplating how to make the heretic who dared wag her filthy tongue at my God atone for her sins.”

Ah, so that was the problem.

I recalled that the adventurer I had just spoken with was female.

Since we had conversed through the window, her voice would have naturally reached Christine, and it was obvious what Christine meant by “atonement.”

‘This is why I wanted to hire only male escorts.’

Unfortunately, among the A-rank adventurers, only this party of two men and two women was available.

The rest of the A-rank adventurers had left the city on other requests, and the B-rank adventurers I had proposed as a last resort had declined, saying it was too burdensome.

They said it was obvious what would happen if B-rank adventurers like themselves joined an escort mission originally intended for A-rank adventurers.

They remained adamant even when told it was just a simple escort mission, and they refused even more vehemently upon hearing that the destination was deep in the forest.

“Just let it go.”

“My God, heretics are beings that must be eliminated. If you would permit me—”

“Christine.”

When I spoke firmly, some life returned to Christine’s eyes. Slowly, her head nodded up and down.

“…Yes, my God.”

This should at least prevent her from ripping out someone’s spine on a whim.

As I took her hand and helped her up, Christine trembled, rubbing her thighs together, but I deliberately ignored it.

When I pushed the curtains aside and opened the carriage door, two nearby adventurers were startled and rushed over.

“Sir, is something wrong?”

“The carriage has been stopped for quite some time.”

“I apologize. We’ll resolve this right away—”

“No, that won’t be necessary. I’ll go see for myself.”

I gestured for the adventurers to step back and got out of the carriage. Christine followed me with her hands modestly folded in front of her lower abdomen.

As her knees bent slightly, her dazzlingly white thighs and garter belts were subtly revealed.

Heading toward the front of the carriage, I found soldiers and the coachman still glaring at each other with unresolved tension.

Upon seeing me, the coachman was startled, removed his hat, and greeted me respectfully.

“Why have you come all the way here, sir?”

“The carriage has been stopped for too long.”

“Oh, I apologize. These people are more stubborn than I expected. We’ll depart soon.”

At those words, one of the soldiers flared up in anger.

“I told you we have the lord’s seal!”

“You expect me to let you peer inside the carriage just like that? Are you out of your mind?”

“I told you those were our orders for inspection!”

Apparently, the soldiers were also quite stressed from standing around conducting inspections in such a remote area.

Leaving the two who had started arguing fiercely again, I quickly assessed the soldiers at the checkpoint.

Four of them.

I took four gold coins from one of the pouches in my bag and stepped between the two men.

The soldier looked at me with an irritated face, but quickly composed himself when he saw the gold coins in my hand. He was quick-witted.

The adage that there’s nothing money can’t solve, and if there is, perhaps you haven’t offered enough money, had never been proven wrong from past to present.

“A-ahem.”

The soldier who received the gold coins stopped arguing and signaled to his colleagues. The other soldiers also stepped aside with beaming expressions.

The coachman gave me a look that seemed to ask why I was giving money to such people.

“What were you doing here?”

“As you can see, we were inspecting people and carriages passing through.”

The soldier, who had calmed down as if by magic and was now fawning over me, made me inwardly smirk. Of course he would act this way toward someone who threw gold coins to avoid inspection.

“I heard it was requested by a nearby merchant guild…”

“Yes, yes. That’s correct. It was a request from Jupiter Trading Company over there.”

“Do you happen to know why they made such a request?”

The soldier hesitated, unsure if he should divulge this information, but when I handed him four more gold coins, he answered as if it wasn’t worth pondering anymore.

“They say a lake of the highest quality holy water has been discovered in the middle of the forest!”

Would you look at that?