Ch.62Black Blood – 7

“…..”

I narrowed my eyes, staring intently at the lake bottom near where the black blood demon was said to have dissolved.

It being the middle of the night made it exceptionally difficult to distinguish objects with the naked eye.

I scattered the stones on the bottom with my toes and had Christine move the boulders too large for me to budge, meticulously examining every crevice.

The fact that they had completely pulverized it rather than simply moving it aside was a minor issue.

When I could no longer hold my breath, I’d briefly feel water gurgling into my lungs, then draw on my regenerative powers to restore my body before resuming the search.

If I were an ordinary person, I probably would have drowned hundreds of times by now.

After spending nearly three or four hours scouring the lake bottom, I reached one conclusion: the holy water here was far more powerful than I’d thought.

Far from being contaminated, there wasn’t even a trace of any problem. Seeing that even the organisms inside the lake were unharmed, it was as if nothing had happened at all.

Even Charlotte couldn’t find a way to restore land contaminated by those creatures’ blood and had to resort to the extreme measure of literally plowing up the earth.

‘This should be fine.’

I gave Christine, who had stopped right behind me, a thumbs-up. It was a signal that we were done and should head up.

Christine nodded, approached me, and casually crushed the rock that was firmly tied to my ankle with rope by stomping on it.

As the weight holding me down disappeared, my body began rising to the surface. Christine followed behind, walking through the water.

It wasn’t simply moving her legs to float upward, but stable steps as if she were walking up stairs.

Finally, my head emerged from the water, and the water that had filled my lungs was expelled through my lips with successive coughs.

As I kept spitting up lake water surging through my throat while floating on the surface, Christine walked right up to me.

Then she knelt on the water and bowed her head before speaking.

“Step upon me, my god.”

“What?”

“This worthless flesh, I mean. Though it is but a dirty body not even worthy of being a rag to clean and discard my god’s body, I would gladly offer it if it allows my god to stand higher than I.”

The black tips of Christine’s hair, touching the water, became disheveled and floated on the lake’s surface. So she wanted me to step on her head to get onto the surface of the lake.

“That’s enough. Just help me up.”

“As you wish.”

After my sharp refusal, Christine carefully pulled me up. I felt a strange sensation beneath my feet.

As I stood on the water, Christine gently released my hand and bowed her head to me once more.

“Now what?”

“For my god to be lower than I, and for someone like me to look down upon a god—this should never happen. I beg you, this sinner, please trample this sinful body that dared to look down upon a god as punishment.”

She tried to place my foot on her head, but I quickly stepped back. Seeming to understand my implicit refusal, Christine raised her head.

She truly seemed to consider herself a sinner. Transparent liquid different from the lake water streamed down her cheeks.

“My god, please…”

“Stand up, Christine.”

When Christine didn’t move despite my words, I took her hand and helped her up myself.

Her body trembled as if struck by lightning when we touched. Whether from being in the water until just now, she seemed even more alluring.

Her eyes were filled with tears, and her nun’s habit clung to her body, soaked through, revealing her large breasts and slender waist. Wet strands of hair stuck to her cheeks and neck.

As I slowly brushed those strands away with the back of my hand, I spoke in the calmest voice possible.

“Don’t worry about it. Let’s just head back.”

“…Yes.”

Christine nodded slightly. Throughout our departure from the lake, neither Christine nor I spoke a word.

Only the occasional sound of her sniffling and swallowing her tears could be heard. It made no sense to me, but what could I do if that’s how she felt?

Before long, the sensation under my shoes changed from liquid to solid. I shook my hair roughly and wrung out my clothes, which had become heavy with water.

Christine seemed more dejected than usual.

‘Maybe I should actually perform a ritual with my body for her later?’

I’m not sure if there’s a large rock around here.

No, if I offered to perform a ritual, she’d probably overturn the entire area to find something suitable, so it doesn’t matter.

She did suddenly dump a pile of dirt and rocks on me before starting last time.

If Serena hadn’t been there, I’d probably have been buried under it for two days.

“Excuse me.”

Suddenly, a polite male voice came from a distance. Someone neatly dressed was emerging from behind a tree.

It was the slave who had guided Christine and me here, who had introduced himself as Alex.

“Why are you here?”

“No need to be wary. I’m entirely on your side.”

“I doubt it. What do you think we did?”

“You handed over such a large sum of money without hesitation. You couldn’t possibly be bad people.”

“Then why do you have that money?”

With a shrug and a “It’s nothing,” Alex reached for the pouch at his waist.

Though it had some blood on the outside, it was clearly the same pouch of gold coins I had thrown to the remaining workers to divide among themselves.

“Those people violated the contract. They’re all dead.”

“It was an unfair contract, then. Or did you pull some kind of scam?”

“A scam? It’s their fault for agreeing to a contract without proper investigation, blinded by money.”

“So you admit you tampered with the contract.”

“Haha, I won’t deny it.”

Judging by his statement that they died for violating the contract, even if they had completed the work, they would have been disposed of to silence them.

It meant there was never any intention of letting them live. That fat man was quite vicious, it seems.

“So, why show up out of nowhere? Your master is dead, you’ve got money. You could have just run away.”

“This isn’t enough.”

“Not enough? What are you trying to do?”

That pouch alone should be equivalent to or more than a year’s salary for most workers.

“It would cost quite a bit just to remove the obedience mark engraved on me. Then, I’d need travel expenses to flee to a place where my face isn’t known. And I’d need to settle there too, so one pouch isn’t enough. That’s why I’ve appeared before you again. To make a deal.”

“What kind of deal?”

“Information. What else could it be? My strength is nothing compared to yours, so all that remains is the knowledge in my head.”

“I don’t know. You don’t seem to have anything worth getting. We just accomplished one of our purposes for coming here. The other has nothing to do with you.”

“I’m sure there is. I plan to tell you everything we did here and what Jupiter Company has been doing all this time. If you wish, I can also hand over evidence of various corrupt ledgers and illegal activities. Each piece of information is significant enough to bring down Jupiter Company if it gets out. In return, you’ll need to ensure my safety, of course.”

“I have no interest in the latter and don’t particularly want to know about it… but the former sounds good. I can decide after hearing what you have to say, right?”

“Of course. I plan to tell you four things: how this place was discovered, what was done here, why magic barriers were set up, and why checkpoints were established. How does that sound?”

There was a magic barrier too?

I glanced at Christine, who had stepped back slightly and was standing demurely beside me. Since he mentioned a magic barrier, it must have been dispersed by mana nullification.

And if mana nullification worked, it meant the barrier was designed to repel intruders in some way.

I wasn’t curious about what kind of barrier it was, nor did I need to know. With Christine beside me, whatever magic they brought would meet the same fate, so why bother caring?

“Sounds good. I don’t need the other two, just explain what was done here and why the checkpoints were set up.”

“What? But—”

“I’ll pay you the same as if I’d heard all four.”

“I’m grateful for your generosity.”

Alex bowed deeply. Yes, someone who’s true to their desires like this is much easier to deal with than someone half-heartedly good.

There’s no need to worry about being hindered by unnecessary morality and altruism, and they’ll handle tasks reliably as long as they’re properly compensated.

To show I wasn’t lying, I took out a pouch of gold coins from my bag and placed it on the ground.

Alex looked at the pouch as if appraising its contents, then turned to me with a servile smile.

“So, why set up the checkpoint? The road abruptly ended in the middle of the forest, and it wasn’t even close to here. If they really wanted to block people coming and going, wouldn’t the magic barrier be enough?”

This was my first question.

If asked whether those soldiers could truly control people entering this lake, the answer would be “no.” Above all else, the checkpoint’s location was truly puzzling.

The road ended abruptly with no notable stronghold, so what exactly were they checking?

“It was a trick devised by my master… excuse me, not anymore. Andreiy bribed the soldiers to position them there and used magic barriers to cast illusion spells on passersby, making them repeat the same path back and forth, naturally filtering out people coming by road. Ah, but the lord’s seal was genuine. Forging that would be troublesome.”

“Is that why the road ended in the middle?”

“Yes. Since the barrier made people turn back, there was no need to pave more road. Did you kill those soldiers, by chance?”

“No. I just paid them and passed through.”

“That’s unfortunate. They were trash who deserved to die right there. They’ve been taking bribes from Jupiter Company for a long time. They probably would have revealed everything if you had asked about the lake’s secret.”

I recalled how the A-rank adventurers had excitedly chattered among themselves after I casually asked what was going on and they answered that they’d discovered a lake made of holy water.

So they weren’t just being servile after receiving money; they were corrupt from the start.

Anyway, I had instructed the coachman and those adventurers to keep quiet about whatever they saw or heard during our journey when we contracted them, so it shouldn’t matter.

The soldiers would have been silenced by Jupiter Company when they were bribed.

“Alright, next. What did you do here? I only heard from the others that you removed demon corpses.”

“That’s exactly right. Before extracting holy water from here, we needed to clean the surroundings. That work alone took considerable time, and we hadn’t even started the actual extraction process yet. That’s truly all there is, so I have nothing more to say. I apologize.”

“You didn’t touch anything else?”

“No. I strictly controlled the humans working here, so you can trust me. I swear the lake hasn’t been touched yet.”

It seemed true that they hadn’t done proper work. Then this place is truly finished now.

Having confirmed there were no remnants of the black blood demon, I no longer needed to care what they did with the holy water.

“There’s no need to apologize for not making up content to answer. Here, as I promised, take this.”

There wasn’t much gain, but satisfying a bit of curiosity was enough.

“You don’t have to do that! I’ll pick it up myself.”

As I was about to pick up the pouch from the ground to hand it over, Alex waved his hands saying I didn’t need to, but since I’d already picked it up, I just held out my hand.

Alex approached me with an awkward expression. Just as his white-gloved hand was about to take the pouch from me—

“Kugh?!”

With a crunch of flesh and bone being crushed simultaneously, the hand that was about to grasp the pouch was violently torn off and rolled on the ground.

Blood spurted forcefully from the severed wrist, staining the pouch of gold coins.

“AAAAARGH!”

Alex screamed, clutching his wrist with its upper part completely torn off, rolling around on the ground. The white glove holding his wrist was instantly dyed red.

It was Christine.

Christine, who had approached in an instant and torn off his wrist, was looking at Alex rolling on the ground with eyes consumed by anger.

Between her tightly clenched fist, the barely recognizable flesh was further crushed, squeezing out through her fingers.

“Christine, what did you just—”

“What magic was it?”

Unexpected words flowed from Christine’s mouth.

“What?”

Consumed by rage, Christine shook her hand, clearing away the completely crushed flesh and bone fragments. Then she began slowly approaching Alex, who was rolling on the ground.

Seemingly overwhelmed by her presence, Alex forgot to scream and just trembled, tears streaming down his face.

“I asked what magic you were trying to use on my god.”