episode_0048

Hugo Casval, a butcher of the lower class.

The moment he proudly uttered his own name, as if it were something to boast about, my blade was already hurtling toward his throat.

My body reacted faster than I had anticipated.

Swing the sword.

Kill and obliterate the enemy before me.

It wasn’t a true strike empowered by .

Unless one possessed absolute confidence in their own strength, such an act from the outset to deliver a fatal blow was nothing short of madness.

For me now, was nothing more than a gamble; succeed, and the enemy dies, fail, and I die.

It’s not a technique to be brought out against an adversary whose abilities remain unknown.

That’s akin to going all-in without even looking at the opponent’s hand in a card game.

So, Gangwan was still off-limits.

Even as I poured all my strength into wielding the sword at the cost of physical exhaustion, what if he managed to evade it?

What if he blocked it with a method I hadn’t foreseen?

What if he regenerated after being sliced in half?

What kind of situation would I find myself in then?

The risk was too great.

Therefore, instead of invoking Gangwan, my instinct unleashed the maximum speed attack I could wield in my usual state.

The black-iron mixed greatsword extended like lightning, scattering putrid blood.

Thud!

…But it didn’t connect.

The greatsword, swung at lightning speed, ruthlessly cleaved through empty space one step ahead of the old man’s neck.

“Kuk…!”

It wasn’t a failure in distance control.

Even though the number of enemies I had slain formed a hill, there was no way I could have miscalculated the distance between the enemy and myself at this point.

“Dangerous, very dangerous. Your judgment is incredibly swift. I’d believe you were a knight.”

The old man, who had taken a half-step back, chuckled while pointing below with his slightly revealed fingertips.

Seized by the half-rotten grips that suddenly emerged from the ground, my leg halted just before taking the final step.

“The grasp of the dead.”

A binding spell that summons the hands of the deceased to restrain the enemy and halt their movement.

Yes. The reason the swinging longsword missed was not due to my mistake, but because my leg was caught by his magic.

“Stay put just like that. At my age, it’s a bit burdensome to tangle with young ladies and adventurers.”

Huge Karsval pointed at me with his right hand, shaking his head. Within his open palm, a translucent gray mass shimmered as if holding a ball.

“Nonsense…!”

I glared at him, furrowing my brow.

A simple first attack blocked.

If I had activated my armament and swung my sword, would it have been possible to break the restraint spell with force and swiftly strike him down?

Well, probably not.

A deep abyss priest who can instantly activate a restraint spell wouldn’t likely be so defenseless after just one break.

…Anyway, I can’t stay restrained like this.

“Take this!”

I grabbed the scythe, severed the approaching specter’s hand with a swift stroke, kicked it away, and leaped towards the old man.

“Over here! Here, there’s a real deep abyss priest!”

Drawing the attention of adventurers who thought they had won, shouting loudly.

I wanted to avoid drawing attention since I hadn’t found the helmet yet, but now my face was a problem for later.

“What? Just now, what did they say over there…?”

“A deep abyss priest…? A ‘real’ deep abyss priest?”

Adventurers enjoying their rest after the battle turned to me with questions.

“Hilde? Wait, isn’t that…!”

“Oops…! No helmet! I’m not wearing a helmet!”

Gerda and Freida also rushed towards me in surprise.

“Haah!”

Ignoring their astonishment, I sprinted towards Huge Karsval, widening the distance like a ghostly retreat, while keeping an eye on both the man’s right hand coming at me and the ground beneath my feet.

“Are you trying to gather reinforcements? Quick judgment. The idea itself is ordinary, though.”

“Talking big, aren’t you? Do you think you’re some kind of sage? Butchering people, huh?”

“Butcher, personally, I think it’s a somewhat exaggerated nickname. I haven’t killed as many as would warrant such a title.”

He repeatedly distanced himself, laying out his futile self-defense.

“You’re amusing. Then what are all these undead?”

When you add up the remaining undead inside the dungeon, those hunted yesterday, and the ones wiped out today, it seems there would be at least hundreds.

Killing hundreds of people and claiming not to be a butcher—how could such an excuse hold water?

“I merely reanimated corpses. Aren’t corpses just resources scattered everywhere? Lately, they’ve been overflowing to an extent that surprises even me.”

However, he shamelessly rambled on with a nonchalant face, seemingly devoid of any guilt.

He claimed he simply gathered exposed corpses and revived them, insisting he never individually killed so many people.

“Nonsense…!”

Ridiculous. Human corpses aren’t strewn about like weeds in a field, numbering in the hundreds in every direction.

Even I, having killed so many marauders, barely amounted to a hundred or two.

“Why lie? It won’t change anything in this situation.”

The Abyss Priest, with a faint smile, aimed his extended right hand toward me.

– Kieeeek…!

The grayish lump on his right hand emitted a mournful glow, shooting towards me like a bullet. As it approached, its size gradually increased.

What is that?

Is it going to explode?

It looks like it’s going to explode, no matter how you look at it, so I dodged the glowing lump flying towards me without leaping aside.

Just before, as I glanced at the spot where I had been running, I caught a glimpse of the ghostly hand suddenly shooting up.

Kwaaaang!

Subsequently, the large gray mass exploded with a thunderous roar. The shockwave caused the ground to crater, and gravel mixed with earth fragments scattered in all directions.

See, it did look like it was going to explode after all. He intended to grab me and blow me away with the explosion.

“If it doesn’t hit, then stop!”

But I easily evaded it.

I steadied my unbalanced body with a sudden change in direction by touching the ground with my left hand and dashed forward again.

“Hmm.”

The Abyss Priest raised his eyebrows as if intrigued, then extended his left hand and drew a small circle in front of him.

Oooh…!

The grayish circle etched in the air trembled with a faint resonance, then suddenly spewed forth something like a chilly mist from its center.

『 Frost of the Underworld 』

It was a curse that scattered freezing cold to slow down those who approached.

“Doing the same thing…!”

A sensation akin to falling into ice-covered water.

Though not to the extent of shivering as much as one would expect from the body of a Brünhilde accustomed to the cold, it was inevitable that movements would slightly slow down.

“Holding out, are you? Impressive. It seems the curse isn’t something a novice adventurer can easily withstand.”

The Abyss Priest looked at me with a gaze mixed with admiration. His nonchalant voice was nothing short of provoking.

“You must be weak. Want to try the test? If you’re a novice adventurer, there are plenty here!”

Since the sword was still out of reach, I swiftly drew the dagger from my waist and hurled it towards him like lightning.

“Huh.”

Raising a magical barrier, Hugo Casval deflected the dagger and let out a sardonic laugh. He raised his hand and pointed behind me before speaking again.

“Still, feeling that way?”

And then,

“Aaargh!”

A scream tore through the air.

The sound of flesh being pierced by a blade, and the clashing of spear and sword, resounded disorientingly.

“That, that brat attacked the priest!”

“This crazy bastard! What’s he suddenly…!”

Accompanied by sounds of shock that should not have been heard.

◆◆

With the Abyss Priest in front of me, I couldn’t turn around, but it was all too clear what was happening.

“Aaargh!”

“It’s betrayal! Traitors are among us!”

Just hearing the shouts made the situation obvious.

Betrayal.

Some of the adventurers who had abruptly changed their stance upon hearing my cry now wielded their weapons against their fellow adventurers.

“Were they traitors from the start!”

“Damn it, let’s kill this guy first—ugh!”

From the sounds, at least a third of them seemed to be involved.

“Kiyar! What is this crazy guy trying to do right now!”

The urgent shouts of retaliating adventurers echoed loudly.

Their voices were filled with confusion and bewilderment, as if they were caught in the betrayal of those they thought were on the same side.

“Damn it, damn it! Why the hell is this happening to me? That bastard cursed us! If we don’t betray, we’ll be cursed to death!”

Kyara, the traitor by name, yelled in a tone full of injustice and madness.

They claimed they didn’t want to do this, but it was inevitable because of the curse.

“The bastard came back alive alone, and when I tried to console him…! Was he in cahoots with the Abyss Priest! If that’s the case, he should have just died!”

“And you think this guy has any right to say that! What makes you any different!”

I roughly understand the situation.

Search party members who returned after losing their comrades. They hadn’t escaped unscathed due to sheer luck. It was what the Abyss Priest had allowed.

“Nonsense! If you wanted the curse lifted, you should have asked the priests!”

“Damn it! If that would have worked, we should have done it sooner! Just mentioning it was enough to make us feel like we were dying!”

Cursing them and making them enemies of other adventurers and priests was an effective yet despicable method.

“You’re watching my back? You’re also a damn traitor!”

“Cough! No, I…”

“Hamilton! This bastard dares to…!”

So effective that panicked adventurers suspected each other as traitors, considering everyone else as enemies, and went berserk.

“Damn it, damn it! These guys are all insane! Insane!”

A warrior swinging his sword in all directions, warning others not to come near.

A sorcerer shooting fire arrows at the enemy who killed his lover.

Even an archer, half out of his mind, running into the forest.

The chaos was instantaneous.

◆◆

The adventurers, who had achieved a miraculous victory against countless undead, suffered immense losses due to the betrayal of those they believed were allies.

And it happened in the blink of an eye, almost like a joke.

The losses were unbelievably catastrophic, all brought about by a single curse.

However, one thing remained incomprehensible…

“A curse that triggers just by uttering a specific word and leads to murder…?”

I barely suppressed the urge to look over my shoulder and, wielding my sword towards the Abyss Priest, voiced the question that had sprung to mind.

“If one possesses the ability to wield such high-level curses, there would be no reason to resort to such cumbersome methods in the first place.”

Just revealing the fact that a curse has been cast upon a priest is enough to instantly bring about death by curse.

For a profound abyssal priest capable of using such a potent curse, there was no need to employ a curse to manipulate the betrayal of adventurers.

With their own power alone, they could have wiped us out long ago and still remained standing.

“Hmm. Seems like you have some confidence in curses? Quite unusual for a mere adventurer. Very intriguing…”

Huge Karsval stroked his chin and lifted the corners of his mouth.

“Indeed. That’s right. Such a high-level curse is beyond my current capabilities. Besides, if I had truly cast a curse, there’s no way the goddess’s hounds wouldn’t have noticed.”

“What…? No, then…”

“It’s just as the lady thinks. I merely threatened them by blowing off the heads of a few, casting a curse on the rest. Ignorant fools like adventurers wouldn’t understand anything about curses. They were easily deceived.”

That’s right. From the beginning, the traitors were not under any curse.

They simply mistook what the abyssal priest said as being cursed.

That was sufficient for them.

Unlike paladins, priests, or mages, common lowly warriors like the adventurers would have no knowledge of the effects or limitations of a curse.

“This is how lies work. Behold. The results I achieved with a simple threat and a single lie.”

The abyssal priest, Huge Karsval, laughed heartily, boasting about the achievements he had made through deceit and trickery.