Chapter 74: Someone Scarier than Heretics

Yuria came back.

Wounded.

“Yuria! What happened?”

“Sion…! I’m hurt! Here and here and here! Look! It must hurt like hell, right?”

“No, why is an injured person so cheerful…”

“I don’t know. I missed you.”

Yuria ran towards me with tears welling up in her eyes.

For a moment she clung to me like Lady Lea, but I couldn’t withstand it and fell backwards.

The weight felt different from Lady Lea.

Her large breasts squished against my face.

“Mmph!! Can’t, can’t breathe..!”

“Ah, sorry. I was just too happy to see you.”

I was finally released just before passing out.

If I had been pinned down for a little longer, I probably would have fainted.

“No, Yuria. But how did you get hurt? What happened?”

“Well, you see…”

Yuria told me about what happened that day.

When she and her companions went to the place where they thought the transfer stone would be, the kingdom’s army was already lying in ambush.

Anticipating that adventurers would come from Labyrinth City, they were waiting, and as soon as Yuria and her party members were spotted, they launched an attack.

“And there were some soldiers in the kingdom’s side who were former adventurers.”

“Former adventurers?”

“Yeah. It seems they became kingdom soldiers after building up their strength in Labyrinth City.”

“Huh, those crazy bastards.”

“Right? I’m not sure what kind of good treatment they promised, but judging by their appearance, most of them seemed to be older guys whose growth had stagnated.”

“They must be the ones who went to the kingdom after being weeded out in Labyrinth City. Trash.”

“Exactly! That’s what I’m saying. There were a bunch of weeded-out guys gathered. But because there were many of them and they operated as soldiers, it was truly hell dealing with them.”

Adventurers moving in teams and soldiers moving in battalions are completely different.

They strategically utilized adventurers whose individual combat abilities are far superior to ordinary people, so even if they were lower level than Yuria, it must have been overwhelming to face them.

“Since they turned adventurers into soldiers. It must have been tough to deal with.”

“As expected, Sion is smart and immediately understands the situation.”

“Well, this much is nothing.”

“It was really no joke. They came at us in formation, and arrows rained down like a storm. Whew.”

From what I heard, it seemed Yuria alone slaughtered at least 100 people before escaping.

To think there were guys who became kingdom soldiers because they thought they couldn’t make it big as adventurers.

I’m not sure how much their annual salary is, but they must have thought becoming a kingdom soldier was much better than living off earnings as a low-level adventurer.

And with hundreds of such guys swarming around, Yuria and her party eventually couldn’t hold out and had to flee.

“We were outmatched. We tried to just destroy the transfer stone and run away after assessing the situation, but even that wasn’t possible. There were former Gold Badge adventurers waiting near the transfer stone. Most of them were old guys, but. The fact that they survived until old age was rather concerning.”

“I guess they’re retired adventurers who became kingdom soldiers.”

“Yeah. It seems so.”

Old Gold Badge adventurers.

This is quite a scary combination.

Saying they’re old means they have that much experience, and it means they survived until old age.

“Anyway, I came back alive without dying.”

“You worked hard. You really worked hard.”

“Right? Hundreds of them attacked simultaneously. I couldn’t kill them all, so I got a bit hurt while running away. They say I might get scars. Will I not be pretty if I have scars?”

“No. You’ll be fine.”

“I’ll be fine, right? You won’t abandon me even if I get scars, right? You have to take responsibility and support me till the end. Right?”

“Huh? Uh, yeah. Right. Of course.”

“Yeah yeah. Good good. As expected of Sion. Let’s be together forever?”

For some reason, the words “let’s be together forever” sounded a bit scary.

“Y-yeah. We should be together forever.”

“Mm-hmm. Yeah. Good. Promise me.”

“Promise…”

“I’ll kill you if you break the promise.”

“Hey! Your eyes are scary!”

“Hehe. Just kidding.”

Yuria, who was staring at me with crazed eyes, hugged me as if nothing had happened, smiling.

For a moment, I was genuinely scared.

“Did everyone who went with you come back safely?”

“No. Three out of seventeen died, and the rest, including me, are just a bit injured?”

“Ah… Those three…”

“The guild decided to cover everything for this incident, so they’re reviving them for free. You have no idea how much trouble we went through to bring them back before they rotted.”

So you even transported the bodies.

It seems they retrieved all the corpses of their fallen comrades. It was obvious how much trouble they must have gone through without even seeing it.

Unless you have a spatial pocket like me, bringing decaying corpses from the kingdom to the city while evading pursuit from enemies would have been an insane level of difficulty.

“The survival rate was higher than I expected. Considering the number of enemies, it’s a miracle you escaped alive. By the way, Sion. I saw a new friend at home when I came back.”

“Ah, right.”

We bought Olivia together with Yuria, but I unilaterally purchased Marine and enshrined her in this house.

“So, you needed someone to look after Olivia while you go down to the labyrinth, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Hmm. I see. Hey, you over there.”

“Y-yes..! I’m Marine!”

Marine looked noticeably intimidated.

Yuria is quite famous in Labyrinth City.

She’s considered something like a red-haired sword princess.

There’s a perception that you’ll get sliced up if you mess with her.

So it was fully understandable that Marine, a former adventurer, was scared.

She must have been overwhelmed by Yuria’s spirit and gaze.

Hearing about Yuria from me and directly facing her are two different stories after all.

“Did you clean the kitchen and bathroom?”

“Y-yes..! That’s right..!”

“You did well. There wasn’t a speck of dust.”

“Thank you!”

“Where do you sleep? On the floor?”

“Ah, I sleep inside that jar over there..!”

“Is that so? Hmm. I see. You didn’t do anything weird with Sion, right?”

“Huh..?”

“Like fooling around with Sion while I was gone. Something like that.”

“N-no..! Not at all!”

“Really? Let’s get along well from now on.”

“Y-yes..!!”

Actually, I got one off with Marine on the first day.

But now wasn’t the atmosphere to talk about that. Let’s hide it, that day’s incident.

“By the way, I was thinking of washing up. Want to go in together?”

“Should we..?”

“Yeah. Marine, please light the fire.”

“Yes..!”

We entered the bathroom together at the suggestion to wash together.

“Hehe. Sion, you’ve gained more muscle since I last saw you. Oh my, look at those arms. Hehe.”

“Aaaaargh!! Yu-Yuria!! Don’t press so hard..!!!”

“Does it hurt?”

“It hurts it hurts it hurts!”

“Hehe. Weak. Weakling. Heheh.”

Yuria laughed while fiddling with me like some toy.

She must be really happy to see me after a long time.

“Sion, tell me what happened while I was gone. Olivia told me roughly, but I want to hear it from you.”

“Me? Oh. Um.”

Where should I start?

Being attacked by heretics?

Or almost having my neck cut off by a monster that came up from the 6th floor?

I didn’t want to worry Yuria unnecessarily.

“Olivia started learning the lute. She’s playing quite well these days.”

“Oh, really? I should listen later. Does she go to the bard training school?”

“They say men there drool whenever they see women, so. We went to the druid club building.”

“Those bard bastards do have a lot of male prostitutes. You did well. So, nothing happened to you?”

“I…”

“You got hurt, right? Tell me in detail.”

She’s not just letting it go after all.

“Well, you see. I was attacked in the middle of the night.”

“By whom?”

“Heretics…”

“Those fucking bastards. We should tear them apart and kill them whenever we see them. So how badly were you hurt?”

“Well, I was unconscious for a few days. I got stabbed pretty badly.”

“…Any physical loss?”

“I’m fine. No parts were cut off. And I killed one of them.”

“You did well. In that kind of situation, you must kill at least one no matter what. Otherwise it remains as trauma and you’ll suffer for life.”

“Right.”

Fear ultimately manifests from subjects that can’t be overcome or unknown entities.

If you reveal the secret of the subject or eliminate it with your own hands, fear naturally dissipates.

This would be impossible in modern Earth, but this world is a place where murder is recommended for self-defense.

Especially if the opponent is a heretic, actively killing them is rather encouraged.

“You got hurt a few days ago too, right? What was that? Did you get hurt in the labyrinth? I heard there was some incident.”

“It wasn’t in the labyrinth. That’s related to heretics too.”

I told her about what happened the other day.

A monster from the 6th floor crawled out to the middle of the city, and while I was buying time to save the Young Lady from it, my neck was half-cut.

“Those heretic bastards are crazy. What the hell is the secret service doing?”

“Secret service?”

“Yeah. It’s like the city’s defense force… Hmm. Did the spider lose her thread?”

“What spider?”

“There is one. An auntie who handles silver threads. She’s amazing at catching bugs. But she keeps missing heretics.”

“Huh…”

A woman who handles silver threads.

Isn’t that Lady Lea’s skill instructor?

That person is the secret service of Labyrinth City?

Who on earth is Lady Lea learning skills from?

On paper she’s a thief.

But the skills she’s learning are specialized for espionage and assassination.

No wonder her combat ability has noticeably increased. There was a reason.

“Anyway, that’s amazing. You held out against an Observer. It’s a real monster that even I haven’t properly fought yet.”

“It was only possible because Moira-nim sealed all its skills with her magic eye. If not for that, I would have died too.”

“Still, the fact that you could face it even for a moment is amazing. A Bronze Badge porter who hasn’t even conquered the underground city faced off against an Observer from the 6th floor crystal cave and survived? Even a passing dog wouldn’t believe that story.”

“That’s true.”

“So I’m saying it’s amazing. Be proud.”

“Thanks for saying that.”

Yuria patted my head.

She’s a senior adventurer before being my girlfriend.

She entered and exited the labyrinth much earlier than me, and from when we first met, she was already among the top Silver Badge adventurers.

Receiving praise from her felt really good.

“Since you survived well, I’ll wash your hair as a reward. Stay still.”

Yuria applied soap to my head and massaged my scalp.

It feels like my scalp might tear, but it’s strangely refreshing.

“Ah, right. Yuria.”

“Hm? What?”

“I’m going into the labyrinth next week.”

“What? Didn’t you just come out of the labyrinth?”

“Well…”

I told Yuria about the heretic hunting matter.

She’s someone I can trust enough to reveal everything to, so there was no need to hide anything about this expedition.

“You’re going with the Saint? With Fria?”

“Yeah. With her and four heresy inquisitors, six people are going down.”

“Be careful. Fria is a famous crazy bitch.”

“No, everyone’s saying that. Why exactly? What did she do for everyone to say that?”

“It was 10 years ago, or 20 years ago. Anyway, a long time ago. It was when the Saint was actively working as an adventurer. At that time, heretics rose up outside Labyrinth City. I think it was in the Kingdom of Cayslan then too. Anyway, Fria swept through an area where heretics were said to be at that time.”

“Swept through?”

“Yeah. Not just people suspected of being heretics. All innocent people too. Over two months, she turned that whole area into a sea of blood and finally killed all the remaining heretics. Then she hung the heads of heretics on the city walls managed by a baron. It’s one of the famous incidents.”

“…”

One of the famous ‘incidents’.

What on earth had she been doing?

“Since then, Saint Fria has been banned from going outside the city. I heard she even killed a few nobles from Cayslan just on suspicion of being heretics.”

“She really is crazy. How is she still alive after doing such things?”

“Maybe because she killed all the assassins who came for her too? And the Saint must have played a part in the suppression of the Goddess Church outside Labyrinth City.”

She was a scarier person than I thought.

“It’s better to think of Fria as a kind of killing machine. She’ll do anything to kill heretics. A killing machine that erases all forces opposing the Goddess Church. The church made her that way. It’s the result of being brainwashed through education since childhood.”

This is why indoctrination education is scary.

To think they turned an ordinary girl into a killing machine.

“She’s a crazy battle saint.”

“Her combat ability is amazing, but she also has ridiculous holy power and healing techniques that can save anyone as long as they’re not dead. She’s certainly a saint. It’s just that the goddess didn’t seem to look at her temperament when designating her as a saint. Still, if she’s on your side, you probably won’t have to worry about dying easily.”

“True. I’m more scared of the Saint than the heretics.”

At this point, I’m starting to fear the Saint more than the heretics.

She was a madwoman whose eyes didn’t smile at all even when she laughed.

It might be better to see her as a murderous spirit bound to the Goddess Church.

“Anyway, come back safely. Don’t die.”

“I got it.”

Yuria patted my back.

I can spend tonight with her.

I’m glad Yuria came back before I enter the labyrinth.