episode_0024

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After a brief prayer for the dead, we started moving again.

There were many things to think about, but I couldn’t afford to dwell on them right now anyway.

Monsters could reappear at any moment, and the purpose of this search was, after all, to find supplies, including food.

Worrying now wouldn’t magically reveal a way to save the world or a plan to wipe out all the monsters. Besides, I wasn’t naive enough to harbor such unrealistic hopes.

No matter how capable an Exorcist Priest I might be, I am ultimately just a human.

Even the Goddess couldn’t prevent people from becoming broodmares for monsters and burning to ashes in demonic flames. Who am I to think otherwise?

I don’t entertain the arrogant notion that I, a mere human, can solve everything in this world.

Even if I truly possessed the power to resolve all the world’s despair, I couldn’t possibly fix everything in a single day.

All I can do is my best today.

Believing that I’ll make the world a little better, taking on each problem one step at a time is the best I can do.

And the problem I need to solve today is the monastery’s food shortage.

We haven’t found anything yet, and we need to move as much as possible while the sun is still up.

I spurred myself on, steeling my resolve and quickening my pace.

“…”

But no matter how hard I tried to focus, my troubled mind wouldn’t settle.

The fate of the world, the terrifying monsters, how to protect the nuns.

The tempting whispers of the Devil.

All those thoughts swirled and tangled in my head at once.

Then, like a knot too tight to unravel, they weighed heavily on my eyelids.

My head feels heavy.

My heart feels heavy.

Everything is dark before my eyes.

We have a long way to go.

“… Is this the place?”

How long had we been walking?

As the sun gradually set, turning the sky navy blue, Lucia asked me in a quiet voice.

At her words, I looked up and noticed an old fortress made of brick.

It was the fortress that was our goal for today.

It was so old that even the sight of a partially collapsed wall matched what I remembered seeing before.

But there was also a distinct difference from when I had seen it before.

A defensive wall made of sharpened trees had been erected around the fortress.

The defensive wall was evidence that someone had barricaded themselves in this fortress to escape the monsters, so it seemed certain that someone had lived here.

I looked at Lucia and put a finger to my lips.

Lucia nodded and held her breath.

“…”

I tried to be as quiet as possible and listened, but I couldn’t hear any signs of life nearby.

Upon closer inspection, a layer of fine dust had accumulated on the defensive wall, and spiderwebs were stretched across the entrance of the fortress.

It looked like no one had been in or out for at least a month.

I held up my hand to stop Lucia and carefully approached the fortress, avoiding the defensive wall.

Lucia stopped, following my signal, but wore a puzzled expression.

It’s no wonder she was puzzled.

In a situation where monsters might appear at any moment, it would be a dangerous decision for me to move ahead of Lucia.

However, this was to prepare for any possible situation.

Even if there were monsters inside the fortress, all I would need to do is stall for a moment for Lucia to catch up.

But, what if I opened the door and found people hanging inside, turned into a breeding ground for the same monsters we saw earlier, or even corpses of people who had hanged themselves?

Lucia had already witnessed a horrific sight at the lumber mill, and I didn’t want her to see such a sight again.

It would be too much for a girl her age to handle.

Lucia might seem relatively okay on the surface, but fatigue and wounds were surely accumulating in her mind without her realizing it.

No matter how easily she gained the power to crush monsters after falling into the Devil’s grasp, she was still just a girl.

She is now, and will continue to be, a trainee nun affiliated with our monastery.

Under any circumstances, she is someone I must protect.

So, in a situation like this, where we don’t know what might come out, I had to move first.

With Lucia behind me, I carefully pushed open the entrance to the fortress.

Creak…

The heavy wooden door slowly began to open with a loud creak.

I peeked inside through the gap in the door.

“…”

“Um… Father?”

Lucia whispered, barely audible.

“Is there… anything you see inside?”

“…”

Fortunately, the only things moving inside the fortress were drifting dust particles.

The dust, flying everywhere from just the slight opening of the door, fluttered quietly, telling me that no one had been here for a while.

There were definitely no corpses or monsters in sight.

I put a little more force into it and flung the door wide open.

There was nothing inside but old furniture.

“Yeah, it looks okay.”

“Oh, that’s a relief.”

“…!”

I was startled and turned around because the reply was so close.

Lucia was stuck to my back, having approached me without me noticing.

Lucia looked up at me with an innocent expression that seemed to ask, ‘Why do you have that look on your face?’

I said in a reluctant tone.

“Yeah, it’s a relief… We can rest here for today. There’s a fireplace, so it’ll be easy to light a fire.”

“Then, is this… the end for today?”

“Yeah, let’s move again when the sun rises tomorrow morning.”

“That’s good…”

Lucia’s voice was mixed with a deep breath.

She must have been under a lot of stress today too.

I tried to go inside the fortress to clean up a bit so that Lucia could rest as soon as possible.

However, at that moment, Lucia stuck right next to me, then clung to my arm as if hooking her arm around mine, and pulled me into the fortress.

“Lucia?”

“Yes?”

“Could you let go?”

“Why?”

Lucia instead strengthened the grip of her arm, entwined even more tightly.

Why is she suddenly like this?

I sighed and replied.

“…I need to clean up the dust a bit. Even setting aside health concerns, if we light a fire like this, it might cause a fire because of the dust.”

“Ah… I see…”

Only then did Lucia slowly release my arm with a reluctant look.

The condition of the fortress inside was quite serious.

The acrid dust that entered my mouth with every breath tickled my throat and nose.

I quickly took out a flint from my pocket and lit a fire in the fireplace, then lit a stick from the torch holder and waved it around the floor like sweeping.

That alone burned away the large dust particles.

Unless I mop, I can’t clean up the old dust, but at least without the large flying dust particles, the risk of fire is greatly reduced.

I went around every corner of the fortress, burning the large dust particles and examining the area around the fortress.

As befitting a fortress used as lodging for hunters for the night, old bows were hung here and there, and old blankets that seemed to have been used for bedding were also placed.

I also found bloodstains stuck to the floor, but judging from the amount and how it flowed, it seemed to be the blood of hunted animals, not humans.

Judging from the defensive wall outside, it’s certain that someone lived here, but they didn’t die here and moved somewhere else.

Perhaps those terrible corpses I saw at the lumber mill were the end for the people who stayed here.

“Okay, at least we can sleep here for today.”

I decided not to think about the corpses anymore.

Turning my gaze, I saw a small wooden cabinet in the corner of the room.

When I opened it, I saw small spiders running away from the light.

In the place where the spiders had passed, there were six dusty bottles of wine.

I slowly took out the bottles of wine.

“Father? What is that?”

“Wine…”

“Wine? Alcohol?”

“Yeah, it’s a wine I know well.”

It was a rather good wine to be stuck in a shabby fortress with no temperature or humidity control.

It was an expensive wine used by the Order for Masses,

It seemed that some of the supplies that came to our monastery had been diverted in this way even before the world was destroyed.

“Well, it’s an expensive wine that’s hard to see even in this rural area, so I guess it can’t be helped if a few bottles are taken…”

Since I can’t punish them for their sins now that they’re dead.

I gave a hollow laugh.

If those few drops of wine relieved the suffering of people hiding from monsters, it would have been far more valuable than using it in a Mass.

I carefully pulled the cork out of the wine and smelled it.

It was almost vinegar, but it was still drinkable by a thread.

I took out only one more bottle of the remaining wine and put it in the bag I had brought, leaving the rest as they were.

If someone else finds this place again and spends the night, I hope that wine will quench their parched throats….

That’s when it happened.

“Um, Father….”

“Yeah?”

Lucia hesitated and approached me.

“You opened that wine… are you… thinking of drinking it?”

“Yeah.”

I nodded.

“It’s not in great condition, but we can’t be picky in this situation. And we don’t have any water… Of course, alcohol can’t replace water, but it’ll be enough to quench our thirst.”

“That’s… right, isn’t it?”

“What’s wrong…?”

Lucia fidgeted with her fingers and said.

“I’m… also thirsty…”

Ah,

Lucia hadn’t drunk alcohol before.

She’s still a child after all.

Even with the Devil and everything, Lucia was still Lucia.

Her cautious attitude was somehow very cute, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Then, would I really drink it all by myself, leaving you out?”

“Ah…!”

Lucia’s face lit up.

Unlike when she was timid in the past, she couldn’t hide her emotions at all.

If she had a tail, she would have wagged it from side to side.

The way she was becoming more and more like a puppy after being possessed by the Ebony Wolf was unfamiliar yet cute.

“Lucia, you’re old enough to drink anyway, and children in the countryside drink sometimes too. It’ll be okay, right?”

“Yes!”

Lucia nodded with a smile and took my hand, leading me.

I was dragged by her hand and sat next to the fireplace together.

Kunat, who had been warming his body by the fire with his eyes closed, quietly opened one eye and said.

“… When I see it, you’re the problem.”

“What do you mean.”

“You… really don’t know, do you?”

“What are you talking about.”

Kunat was muttering something, but I ignored him because it was obviously nonsense anyway.