Ch.5Who Am I (2)

“Hey, Succubus. What business do you have in this small village?”

To the hunter’s question, mixed with wariness and hostility, I answered smoothly.

This was one of the situations I had anticipated.

‘Compared to what I expected… the suspicion seems a bit intense.’

“I was traveling and just passing through. However, I encountered a pack of Demonic Wolves on the way, and my carriage was damaged.

I came to the nearest village hoping to find a carriage I could hitch a ride on to the big city.”

When I said that, the hunter seemed to lower his guard somewhat. At least he put away the crossbow that looked ready to fire at any moment.

But some suspicion still remained, as he questioned me again.

“There’s no lie in those words?”

“Of course not, it’s the absolute truth without even a hint of deception.”

I spoke with an expression of complete innocence. Well, there wasn’t a single lie in what I said.

I just didn’t tell the whole truth.

‘Still, is this how Succubi are treated…’

I lamented inwardly about the treatment Succubi receive.

It seemed worse than I had expected, which made me feel even more tearful.

As you can see right away, in this world, demons aren’t treated as enemies that must be killed on sight.

If anything, they’re closer to being treated as a race, like elves or dwarves.

‘But that doesn’t mean there’s no discrimination or prejudice between races.’

And in the case of Succubi, that feeling tends to be quite strong.

“There’s a merchant coming from outside tomorrow. I’ll allow you to stay in the village until then.

But if you dare to pounce on anyone from the village, know that you’ll die by my hand.”

Exactly like that.

To put it simply, the perception of Succubi in this world is that they’re a race obsessed with lust.

Since the actual behavior of Succubi as a race isn’t much different from the stereotype, I couldn’t say such reactions were incomprehensible.

But for me, who just happened to become a Succubus, it felt unfair.

“By the way, are there any empty houses in the village?”

“Why are you asking about that, Succubus?”

“Well, I don’t want to sleep outdoors. I was wondering if there’s a spare house where I could stay for the night.”

At my response, which suggested this was obvious, the hunter who had been on edge froze for a moment like someone who’d swallowed honey and couldn’t speak.

“…There’s an empty house on the left at the village entrance.”

Thankfully, the hunter quickly regained his composure, and I was able to get a cabin to stay in for the day.

* * *

After putting my backpack in the cabin and having some jerky for a meal, I noticed the sun was already setting outside.

It was still too early to sleep.

Instead of resting in the cabin, I grabbed my sword and went outside.

“Huff… Haah…”

Perhaps it was due to the Sword Saint trait.

Just holding the sword in an empty space made my senses sharpen and become keener.

I felt like I could do anything with this sword right now. I wondered if this was what people meant by being intoxicated by the sword.

But I knew that what I was feeling now was just an illusion.

How could I say I could do anything when I had already nearly died once?

And that was against someone who, by absolute standards, couldn’t be considered that strong.

‘Meeting that Owl has been quite helpful…’

Thanks to that, I quickly shed my sense of omnipotence and began to focus on the sword again.

Soon, I started swinging the sword.

Once, twice, four times, ten times… I swung the sword continuously without interruption.

Despite swinging without stopping, the sword didn’t waver, following the path of the blade and creating clean lines in the air.

But my expression wasn’t very satisfied.

‘As expected, the sword energy doesn’t come out easily…’

Throughout my sword practice, I tried moving my magical power, but there was no sign of sword energy being created.

In the game, the condition for acquiring sword energy was to achieve level 5 or higher in both cultivation technique and sword technique.

However, I don’t know any cultivation or sword techniques right now. After all, I’ve never learned either.

So it makes sense that I can’t use sword energy.

But what I’m experiencing isn’t a game but reality. Because of that, I wondered if things had to work exactly like in the game.

In the end, I failed spectacularly.

However, I wasn’t sure if the reason for my failure was my own inadequacy or something else.

Since this was reality and not a game, I felt the need to understand the fundamentals beyond simply learning techniques.

‘When I get to the city, I should first look for mental cultivation and sword techniques…’

Having made that plan, I turned around to address the gaze I had been feeling for a while.

There was the hunter, hiding behind a tree with just her face peeking out to observe me.

When our eyes met, she immediately hid behind the tree.

The problem was that I could still clearly sense her presence. Because of that, whether I could see her or not made little difference to my discomfort.

Feeling like I might get a hole in the back of my head if this continued, I reluctantly spoke up.

“If you want to watch, you can do so comfortably from the side.”

I said this while looking at the tree.

The hunter, embarrassed at being caught hiding, blushed and revealed herself.

“W-watching? No… Succubus, I was just monitoring you because I don’t know what you might do.”

“Let’s go with that then.”

The conversation ended there.

After all, she was someone from a village I’d be leaving tomorrow, someone I wouldn’t meet again. What more was there to talk about?

That’s what I thought.

Until the carriage I was waiting for didn’t arrive by the end of the next day.

“…Didn’t you say it would come today?”

“…It might be delayed by a few days.”

* * *

To cut to the conclusion, the carriage did come.

The only problem was that it arrived a week later than expected.

Still, I didn’t waste that week meaninglessly.

Rather, it was a time I needed in a way.

I had the opportunity to learn butchering methods, which I had felt the need for earlier.

And I learned it from none other than the hunter, Nelly.

Nelly didn’t teach me butchering without reason from the start. Initially, she was quite hostile toward me.

However, I was able to reduce some of her wariness by helping to eliminate monsters that approached the village.

It was during this time that we properly introduced ourselves.

After she lowered her guard, feeling sorry for her sharp attitude, she taught me butchering.

Although I couldn’t learn properly due to limited time, I was able to learn all the basics.

‘Fortunately, since butchering is done with a knife, I picked it up quickly.’

Otherwise, due to the short time given, I might not have even learned all the basics.

Anyway, the day after I learned all the basics of butchering, early in the morning, the carriage finally arrived.

“The carriage is coming.”

I was the first to notice the approaching carriage.

Thanks to the sound of hooves and wheels rolling that I could hear from far away.

“Really?!”

Upon hearing my words, Nelly immediately ran to the village entrance.

Though she didn’t show it outwardly, she must have been quite worried.

Following behind Nelly, I also headed to the village entrance and could visually confirm the approaching carriage from afar.

Soon, the carriage entered the village, stopped, and the coachman who had been riding got off.

“Mr. Hans! Did something happen? I was worried because you’re much later than expected.”

The coachman who got off the carriage was indeed the person Nelly had been waiting for.

Having confirmed each other, the two seemed to forget I was there and immediately started talking.

“Ah, Nelly. Sorry to keep you waiting. It seems the Apostles of the Evil God have appeared again, so the church has strengthened checkpoints, which delayed me.”

“Apostles…?!”

As an interesting topic came up in the conversation, I carefully focused on their dialogue.

Apostles of the Evil God.

It was a term I was hearing for the first time.

If the church was involved in searching for them, they couldn’t be a small-scale force.

For someone like me who thought I had identified all major forces, this was shocking news.

‘There’s still more to discover…?’

The one fortunate aspect was that this seemed to be a force that had been somewhat exposed. Although details weren’t clear, at least some aspects had surfaced.

If it had been a completely veiled organization, even noticing it would have been difficult.

Wondering if there was more useful information, I focused again on their conversation.

And soon, I noticed something strange.

“They’re the ones who take over people’s bodies, right? That’s scary…”

“At least when they appear, all the surrounding monsters gather there, making them easy to detect. If not for that, I wonder how we would have noticed them.”

‘Wait…?’

Possession.

Monster Rush.

The characteristics of these Apostles mentioned by the two were remarkably similar to my situation.

Could this be a coincidence?

‘No way…’

It seems… I might also be one of these so-called Apostles of the Evil God.