episode_0023

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“I like you a lot, Father.”

“Seriously? You didn’t know? Wow.”

Even after hearing Lucia and Kunat’s words, I couldn’t say anything.

I’d never even heard a kind word from a woman in my entire life, and since my job was a priest, I hadn’t exactly been starved for affection between men and women.

So, it might be natural that I didn’t notice their favor.

But, after Anna’s confession last night, I already felt like I’d been hit over the head, and now even Lucia likes me?

No matter how hard I try to figure it out, I just don’t understand.

Okay, even if I give in a hundred times, I can barely understand Anna.

I still don’t know why she has feelings for me, but Anna lived a normal life until a few years ago, and she’s more than old enough to be married, so,

it wouldn’t be strange for her to be interested in the opposite sex.

But Lucia was very unexpected.

Lucia, who has only lived on the island since she was about ten years old, why?

There are so many things I want to ask, so many things I want to argue about, but I can’t seem to open my lips.

Asking her, who’s almost half my age, why she likes an *ahjussi* at my age, was a terrible sight that I couldn’t handle emotionally.

There’s no way I could ask that question easily.

Just barely holding on to my already flying mind was my limit.

I just decided to turn my gaze and change the subject.

Luckily, there was a good excuse.

“Let’s talk later, and let’s take a look around first. There might be more monsters.”

“Ah, okay.”

Kunat twitched his bearded, jet-black lips.

“Running away after all.”

I silently stepped on his head and approached the workshop, which was covered in monster fluids.

Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be anything moving.

I couldn’t hear any sounds, and there were no signs of life.

It seemed that there were no other monsters besides the one Lucia had taken care of a little while ago.

I carefully entered the inside of the workshop.

“…Oh, God.”

I sighed as I looked at the corpses hanging from the ceiling.

The corpses were hung up with hardened monster fluids.

The ceiling was covered in their white fluids like plaster. Here and there, people were stuck to the ends of the white threads that hung down like giant snot, each hanging there.

Lucia, who belatedly followed me in, also lowered her gaze in shock.

Kunat used the chaotic furniture as a springboard to climb onto my shoulder and said.

“Look over there, Billy.”

“Get down.”

“Just look.”

Kunat pointed with his chin at the corpses hanging from the ceiling.

I shifted my gaze in the direction Kunat pointed.

“That thing on their backs, do you see it?”

“…”

Most of the corpses hanging from the ceiling were naked.

It wasn’t that the monster had taken off the humans’ clothes and hung them up, but rather that the clothes seemed to have rotted away on their own.

As proof, some of the corpses still had pieces of cloth wrapped around their arms or legs.

When I looked closely at the backs Kunat mentioned, there were tumors like those on the monsters’ bodies growing all over them.

Looking closely, they also looked like very large blisters.

Some of the corpses even had several blisters bigger than their own torsos.

The greatly enlarged blisters were made of such a thin membrane that they were transparent, and the shadows of young monsters curled up like fetuses could be seen inside.

I roughly counted the numbers with my eyes.

Assuming one monster per blister, it seemed like there were four or five monsters in each corpse.

Goosebumps stood on end all over my body.

Fear squeezed my heart, and even my blood seemed to freeze.

I tried to calm my trembling voice and said to Kunat.

“Kunat. You said it.”

“…”

“‘Seedbed’.”

“I did.”

When Kunat was explaining about the monster, I think I understand now why he specifically called it a seedbed instead of a parasite.

Parasites infiltrate the bodies of living hosts and take their nutrients.

But those things lay their eggs in human corpses.

They use the human body as earth and a nest.

I understood the aggressive attitude that those things had shown the day I first met the monster.

After all, what they need is a corpse.

If I hadn’t escaped that day and had been caught by them, the thought that I might have ended up like that made me want to vomit.

“Damn…”

The thought that they could pass through walls doubled the disgust.

Even if I hide in a fortress or castle to avoid the monster, it wouldn’t work.

Even if I hide in a vault, that monster will have no problem.

Those things will pass through the walls, find humans, kill them, and lay their eggs in their corpses.

What’s worse, those things are fast.

You can’t run away, and you can’t hide.

No, what’s the point even if you’re lucky enough to escape?

For civilization to develop, humans must settle down and live.

But as long as these monsters are here, humans can only live by running away from them forever.

That means they have to move forever.

It’s impossible to farm, build villages, or build cities.

Even suicide is a problem.

Again, what those things need is a corpse, not a living human.

“You said 90% of all mankind is dead.”

“I said it was an estimate.”

Damn it.

Then right now, how many monsters are there in this world?

“…”

An unimaginably vast number felt desperately hopeless.

“Father…”

Lucia, who had slowly approached me, gently hugged my side.

I silently pulled her head in and hugged her.

As if trying to feel the warmth of the remaining humans, I quietly felt Lucia with my skin.

Kunat quietly got off my shoulder and began to chant a strange spell in a wicked voice.

Instantly, green flames appeared and burned the white threads and corpses attached to the ceiling.

The stinging smell of sulfur.

It was the flames of Hell.

“It’s easy with the power of the Devil, you know.”

Kunat twitched his nose as he watched the falling ashes.

I looked at Kunat and said.

“Why… doesn’t Holy Power work?”

“It doesn’t seem to be an evil being.”

“That thing?”

“In this world, there are mushrooms that grow on the bodies of insects, and there are bugs that cut off the tongues of fish and take their place. Those things aren’t evil life forms, are they?”

“…But,”

For the first time, I was speechless to a devil.

There were many times when I just crushed them because they weren’t worth arguing with, or ignored them because I didn’t want to deal with them, but this was the first time I felt like I really didn’t know how to retort.

Looking at the falling ashes like snowflakes, I quietly asked.

“Why aren’t you coming yourself?”

“Hmm?”

“The devils… why aren’t you coming forward? You guys can get rid of the monsters…”

“Because it’s not our world.”

“Ha, so it’s none of your business. Is that it?”

“Strictly speaking, that’s true, but that’s not what I meant.”

“…?”

“What do you have to do for a devil to appear on Earth?”

Ah, that’s right.

Devils can’t just come and go on Earth as they please.

They have to take over the body of a corrupted human soul as a passage, or be summoned by humans through evil rituals with a purpose.

Even Kunat in front of me right now was summoned by me and put into the body of a cat.

“Don’t think of it as a devil’s trick. From the beginning, the reason we can’t descend to Earth is the rule set by the God you believe in, isn’t it?”

“…”

That’s right.

God himself chased the devils into Hell and forbade them from harming the Earth.

That’s what it said in the doctrine.

My head is confused.

From the world’s crisis that forces me to borrow the power of the devil, to Anna and Lucia’s affections.

I feel like my faith is being gnawed away at both internally and externally.

My worldview, my ideology,

I felt like the boundaries of everything I saw were blurring, and my mind was dizzy.

“It took a long time, but I think you understand completely now.”

“…”

“Why I called you… or rather, them, hope.”

Kunat quietly shone his eyes and continued.

“Offer up the souls of the two remaining girls, and you can gain the power to save mankind.”

“Eat… shit.”

“Your curse isn’t as strong as before. You understood, so it’s understandable.”

“Shut up.”

“Are you going to make Lucia fight all the monsters in this world by herself? How can you, as the head of the Monastery, treat the nuns differently?”

Lucia flinched at those words.

I immediately yelled at her, afraid that she might misunderstand something strange.

“Didn’t you hear me say be quiet!”

“Of course, it won’t make a big difference if there are three people. But wouldn’t it be at least three times better than Lucia alone?”

I frowned and glared at Kunat.

My face was probably red with anger right now.

I could feel the blood vessels next to my eyes throbbing.

But unlike the irritating tone, the cat’s face looked endlessly serious.

Kunat made a face as if he was sneering with only one side of his face, and let out a low voice.

“Humanity is over, Billy.”

“…What?”

Kunat sighed and continued.

“Well, since you’re maintaining such a strong attitude, I’ll stop lying and tell you the truth. The statement that I can save mankind is actually a lie.”

“Are you kidding me? Now?”

“Billy, you have such a upright personality, you only refuse even if it’s to save mankind, so if I told you the truth, what would you have done?”

“…”

“I expected you to feel repulsed by relying on the power of the devil, but you didn’t relent even with the justification of saving mankind… I should stop doing these stupid things that gently soothe you with troublesome lies.”

Kunat’s attitude loosened a bit more.

The contrived, sanctimonious manners disappeared in an instant, and a laughter full of ridicule filled the space.

“Other devils besides me are moving, looking for the remaining humans.”

“…”

“Humanity has already become unable to survive on its own, and the devils are competing to take over the remaining humans.”

No,

don’t be fooled.

You can’t believe what comes out of a devil’s mouth.

“Maybe the same offer will go to other humans that the devils have found.”

“…”

“Either go extinct, or survive by becoming a devil’s henchman.”

Kunat finished speaking with a smile.

It was a truly devilish smile.

“Now, those are the only two options left for humanity.”

The arm that hugged my side grew stronger and stronger.

I quietly pulled Lucia towards me and looked down at her.

Her hair had already returned to its original color.

The color of ashes, like the ones falling from the ceiling.

I could smell a faint sulfur smell even from her hair.

“…”

Lucia can kill monsters.

Because she became a devil.

I can’t kill monsters.

Because I’m a priest.

I don’t know why, but the image of the Goddess in my dream last night flashed through my mind.