episode_0009

*

A scream that seemed to tear through the air of the monastery made me jump up straight away.

My wounded body throbbed, but there was no time to hesitate.

The only ones on this island who would scream are them, and I’m the only one who can protect them.

I immediately opened the door and rushed out.

As soon as I stepped out of my room, Sola’s door burst open, and Anna and Sola came running out in a fluster, their hair sticking up.

“Ugh, Father? Wh-what’s going on?”

“… That’s what I want to ask you, what happened?”

“I-I don’t know. I was sleeping and suddenly there was some so-sound…”

Sola, still half asleep, looked around in a fluster, and Anna was trying her best to wake up from her dazed state.

There was nothing particularly strange about the two of them.

Sola was her usual self, and Anna, other than looking a little tired under her eyes as if she hadn’t slept well, seemed fine.

Then, was that sound Lucia?

“…!”

Just as I thought that, another piercing scream erupted from Lucia’s room.

It was a loud, cracked sound that didn’t sound like Lucia’s voice at all.

Sola and Anna squeezed their eyes shut and covered their ears.

Their reaction wasn’t just because of the terrible noise.

A horrifying sound that seemed to gnaw at the mind.

This was clearly a sign of a demon.

“Damn it, Kunat, you son of a bitch…”

I immediately knocked on Lucia’s door.

I grab the doorknob, but it won’t open.

It’s not locked, but it feels like something is physically blocking the door.

“Haa…”

I kicked the door straight away.

The hinges were ripped off roughly, and the door quickly fell into the room.

I stepped over the fallen door and went inside.

“Lucia!”

Lucia was standing on the bed in a bizarre posture.

Her waist was bent backwards at a 90-degree angle, so her upper body was looking up at the ceiling, and both hands were wildly rummaging through her hair hanging down towards the floor.

Her whole body twitched in movements that seemed to cut off like a wooden doll whose joints hadn’t been oiled for a long time, and her head was also tilting madly up, down, left, and right.

“Ha, Lucia…”

Kunat said yesterday that there was a girl who was interested in his proposal.

I thought it would be Sola.

But, I guess I was wrong.

Lucia’s appearance was very familiar to me.

The sight of a demon taking over a person’s body, which I had seen several times.

I slowly rolled up my sleeves.

“I need to preach.”

I picked up the door that had fallen on the floor, fitted it into the door frame, and kicked it lightly.

The door was forcibly fitted into the door frame with a crunching sound.

This was to prevent Sola and Anna from entering the room.

I slowly approached Lucia.

“…”

Lucia was still in that bizarre pose, passed out with her eyes rolled back.

Pitch-black foam was bubbling up from her mouth.

I slowly grabbed Lucia’s thin wrist, which was rummaging through her hair, and pulled it towards me.

Even as her arm was pulled, she was still standing in that position.

I looked down at her arm.

The hand with thickly raised veins and fingers was unbelievably long and bony for a human, and from the fingertips to the wrist, it was dyed black, so dark that no light was reflected.

As I slowly moved my gaze down, not only her arms but also her legs were dyed black.

Her pale, ashen hair was also turning black like sticky ink and flowing down.

Her eyes, visible between the strands of hair, were also burned black, as if her pupils had disappeared.

I stared silently into her eyes.

At that moment, Lucia’s pupils returned to their place and immediately looked at my face.

Her pupils were as red as freshly spilled blood.

I immediately realized what kind of demon had entered her body.

“Beast-form demon. Ebony Wolf.”

The low and vile bottom of Hell.

A being closer to a beastly fiend than a cunning demon.

A troublesome guy.

Ordinary demons target humans who are consumed by great desires, but not these guys.

Since they don’t have the intelligence to stimulate human desires in the first place, they arbitrarily mark any human, forcibly seize their bodies, and stain their surroundings with blood and carnage.

They’re very simple-minded, but that’s why they’re even more terrifying to ordinary humans.

A disaster-like being that suddenly comes and shatters their daily lives, even if they haven’t done anything wrong.

But, fortunately or unfortunately.

Defeating them is much simpler than other demons.

Even if they’re demons from Hell, they’re still beasts.

There’s no need for a complicated Exorcism Ritual.

The Ebony Wolf retreats when suppressed by force.

“Rescue us from evil power and violence…”

I quickly recited the prayer and reached into my pocket.

At that moment, I momentarily leaned my upper body backwards.

It was a judgment close to instinct.

The wind swept over my head as I leaned back.

My bangs fluttered violently, and a pitch-black pillar seemed to pass through my vision.

Lucia.

No, the wolf swung its hand at me.

“…!”

The wind pressure alone was enough to create a sharp wound on the bridge of my nose.

Ignoring the blood flowing down the center of my face, I grabbed the Holy Water bottle in my pocket and smashed it.

“… Have mercy.”

My hand heated up hotly.

A divine light covered my hand.

I roughly wiped away the blood flowing on my face with my hand.

An involuntary bitter smile spread across my face.

“Damn it,”

Haa, vacation? Demotion?

How nice would it be if fate was something you could get away from so easily.

It seems I’m destined to bicker with demons even on this island.

Demon Exorcism.

This is my calling.

I erased the existence of the monster from my mind.

The demon in front of me is a being born from human violence and the instinct to fight.

Complicated thoughts were a luxury for him.

“… You,”

A voice that sounded like a refined version of a bizarre beast’s cry flowed from Lucia’s mouth.

“Again, it’s you.”

Lucia’s face distorted, and soon she bared her teeth and snarled fiercely.

Looking at her usual weak-hearted appearance, it was an expression I couldn’t imagine at all.

I didn’t answer.

There’s no point in mixing words with a demon.

In the first place, he’s not even as good a conversation partner as Kunat.

I snorted and raised my fist.

The match is simple.

Right now, my hand is wrapped in a sacred flame that burns evil.

If I grab him, it’s over.

I lowered my stance.

He also spread his legs and lowered his stance sharply.

He bends his knees, puts both hands on the floor, and raises his butt.

It was a movement like a feline animal taking right before pouncing, but it was also a slightly embarrassing posture to take with a human woman’s body.

“Don’t do that with Lucia’s body.”

Left.

A thick finger with a sharp fingernail flew from the left.

I expected it, so I thought I could avoid it with ease.

However, at the moment I tried to turn my body, a dull pain bloomed in my abdomen, and I momentarily flinched.

“Kuk!”

Thanks to that, my reaction became sluggish, and I avoided his hand by a hair’s breadth.

Lucia’s body, which flew in with her missed left hand, passed right by me and destroyed the wall behind me.

“Eek!”

Anna and Sola’s screams were heard.

“Damn it,”

I immediately approached the guy who was pinned to the wall.

As I swung my fist, he put one hand on the floor and lifted his body into the air, avoiding my hand.

In an instant, he was in a position that looked like he was doing a handstand with one arm.

He stepped on the wall with his sharp-clawed feet, and then started running up the wall of Lucia’s room.

Thump, thump, thump!

The wooden wall was dented with each step, leaving traces.

I turned my head in all directions, trying to chase him.

Because of the pain, all I could do was follow his movements with my eyes.

I slowly took a breath.

Get a grip.

I’m not a problem, but Anna and Sola can’t resist.

I don’t know why Lucia was possessed by a demon, but if Anna and Sola make a contract with the demon to survive from Lucia, who is threatening them, it would be a really terrible comedy.

I closed my eyes and focused on the sound.

After all, I can’t chase him with my eyes, and my body is too injured to turn my head or body quickly to find him.

Sound.

I concentrated all my attention on the sound of his footsteps echoing from all directions.

Whack!

A sound like the wall breaking was heard.

He stepped on the wall even more fiercely.

I opened my eyes straight away.

Lucia was flying towards me.

“Got you.”

I reached out my hand and grabbed his neck as it was.

A huge shock flowed through my arm.

It felt like I was blocking a stone flying from a catapult with my bare hands.

My arm is protected by the sacred flame, but that doesn’t reduce the amount of impact, so I felt a shock that made my shoulder collapse.

My shoulder was as hot as my arm.

It seems like it’s broken or something.

I bit my lip and slammed the neck of the guy I was holding onto the floor.

“Kiiiiik”

He screamed and struggled.

A cloudy smoke leaked out from the gap between my hand and the back of his neck.

He tried to set up his claws and struggle.

I immediately climbed onto Lucia’s chest and pressed his arms down with my knees.

It felt dirty to be sitting on Lucia’s upper body and strangling her neck.

He’ll run away even if I stay still like this, but I wanted to return Lucia to normal as soon as possible, so I made eye contact with him and recited the prayer.

“Iaaak, n-no!”

His bright red pupils rolled around and slowly began to move behind his eyelids.

After a while.

Strangely, the pupils that had gone up began to rise again from below.

A hazy sky blue.

Familiar eyes that seemed to symbolize her weak heart.

“… Lucia.”

Turning my head, her hands had returned to being small, white hands.

Looking at her face again, her hair was already a pale, ashen color.

She began to breathe slowly, scattering her thin, silk-like hair on the floor.

Her chest under me was slowly swelling and shrinking.

“Uh, eugh,”

She frowned slightly at the pain.

Only then did I lift my knees that had been pressing down on her arms, and took my hand off her tightly gripped neck.

Bright red handprints were clearly left on her neck.

“Fa… Father…”

Lucia whispered in a small, faint voice.

“Hoo… Are you okay?”

I carefully asked her.

Lucia slowly nodded her head with dazed eyes.

“Yeah… That’s a relief.”

I slowly tried to get off of her.

I have to ask why she was possessed by a demon, but it’s not too late to do that after she’s had a little breather.

Not only her, but I also needed to take a breather because the wounds I suffered yesterday and the injuries I suffered today were throbbing, making it impossible for me to come to my senses.

At that moment, Lucia grabbed me.

“Father… Nim…”

“Lucia…?”

Teary dewdrops began to form in Lucia’s sky-blue eyes.

“… I’m, I’m sorry.”

“…”

“I’m really… sorry…”

Lucia squeezed her eyes shut and started crying.

I stroked Lucia’s head without saying a word. .