episode_0121

Aria of Midnight

“Let’s see~ If I do this here…!!”

Aria swung her staff, breaking the leg of a doll that was swinging a sword at her. As the doll she attacked lost its balance and staggered, she thrust her fist forward, smashing its head. Then, she snatched the sword the doll was holding and threw it at another doll. However, perhaps because the doll was tough, the sword bounced off weakly without piercing its head. Aria pondered this.

“Hmm… the dolls are indeed reinforced to be quite sturdy.”

“Yes… Although I’ve lost some dolls to you… it doesn’t matter…!! As long as I can have you…!! It doesn’t matter if these dolls break!!”

“…Only Zeke-nim can have me, you know? Don’t talk as if it’s a given that you can have me… It’s disgusting?!”

As the girl spoke as if she could possess her, Aria flared up. She swung her staff, smashing the head of the doll the girl was controlling to speak to Aria. The girl chuckled and then, controlling another doll, spoke to Aria.

“Heh heh… Alright. I’ll put that aside for now. But I’m going to work towards it, you know? There are various weapons prepared here to kill people and turn them into dolls. Can you withstand all of them?”

“Ah… so it seems.”

Aria looked around as she saw dolls holding bows on the rooftops, aiming them at her. Similarly, dolls on the ground and other rooftops were also aiming bows at her, their numbers reaching a good twenty. Aria twirled her staff in her hand and asked.

“This is just a personal question, you know? Just how many dolls did you make?”

“Guess. Still… it won’t be fewer than you think…!!”

The girl challenged Aria to guess the number of her dolls and then controlled the bow-wielding dolls to shoot arrows. Arrows flew towards Aria from all directions. Hearing the sound of bowstrings being drawn, Aria unleashed light from her staff just as the arrows were shot at her. A defensive barrier enveloped Aria, and the arrows struck it, falling weakly to the ground. The girl looked at the spherical barrier surrounding Aria and thought.

*’….!! Now that I think about it… a barrier seemed to be protecting Traveler Oppa in that room earlier…!! So, it was this Saintess’s doing after all…!! Heh heh heh… I want it even more now… that power…! That appearance…!! She could become an incredibly perfect doll…!! I won’t let her go…!!’*

“Well… since the tools the dolls are holding can’t break other dolls…!!”

Recalling how the dolls’ skin easily repelled swords earlier, Aria realized that ordinary weapons couldn’t even scratch the dolls. She immediately dropped her barrier and punched, smashing the face of a nearby doll. Then, she lifted the doll with the shattered face and threw it at the bow-wielding dolls on the rooftop. As the dolls on the rooftop were struck by the thrown doll and fell to the ground, she immediately swung her staff, breaking the neck of another doll.

*’Looks like I’ll have to break them all myself. Well… for Zeke-nim’s praise, this much hassle is nothing~ Heh heh heh…’*

Filled with anticipation at the thought of receiving Zeke’s praise, Aria thrust her staff—longer than the sword—into the abdomen of a doll lunging at her with a sword, stopping it. Then, she struck down the doll’s hand, making it drop its sword, and proceeded to grab the doll’s arm and began to spin it around. The Puppet Master, who was sharing the doll’s senses, began to feel dizzy.

*’Aargh…!!! Oh… I’m dizzy…!!’*

“Hup~!”

At the moment the Puppet Master complained of dizziness and couldn’t properly control the dolls, Aria released the doll she was holding and hurled it at other dolls. The doll, thrown with Aria’s immense strength, began to smash into the dolls it collided with. Seeing this, Aria smirked and said.

“It seems I can break them if they’re made of the same material~ Well… shall we continue?”

As dolls wielding swords and farming tools rushed at her from behind, Aria charged towards them and swung her staff, striking their hands. The dolls’ wrists shattered, and the weapons they held fell weakly to the ground along with their hands. But at that moment.

“Pant… pant… My head’s so dizzy… I was late getting my head straight, Saintess. But… do you really think you can put up a barrier again in this situation?”

One of the dolls with a shattered wrist spoke for the Puppet Master. Aria realized that with dolls on the rooftops and standing on the ground all aiming bows at her, and other dolls by her side, there was no space for her to deploy a barrier.

“Oh my… It seems you’ve used your head a bit. If I’m surrounded like this, I certainly can’t use a barrier.”

“Right? Then, now you’ll obediently become my doll, Saintess…!!”

As Aria admired her plan, the girl chuckled and controlled all the bow-wielding dolls to shoot arrows at Aria. At that moment, Aria quickly lifted the nearby dolls with shattered wrists and planted them into the ground around herself, making them take the arrows in her stead. She then swung her staff, knocking down the arrows flying from above. Seeing this, the girl was astonished.

*’She blocked the arrows by swinging her staff?!’*

“To judge that such mere dolls could defeat me… isn’t that a bit naive? Well… shall I clean up here and then go look for you…?”

“…..Ah… fine. I suppose I have to admit I can’t defeat you with these dolls… Look forward to what the next dolls will be, Saintess. I’ll come find you again soon… Heh heh heh…”

Accepting that the dolls in the village couldn’t defeat Aria, just as Aria said, the girl told her to look forward to what kind of dolls would appear next, then controlled all the dolls in the village to rush at Aria. Seeing the dolls recklessly charging at her, Aria chuckled and said.

“I don’t expect much. They’ll probably be similar anyway. I need to kill you quickly before Zeke-nim wakes up, so just send them all. That way, this will end sooner.”

“I can’t do that… This midnight performance is only just beginning… Wait your turn, Saintess.”

As if preparing something, the girl stood up from her chair and headed somewhere. Meanwhile, Aria swung her staff, breaking the arm of a doll rushing at her, then kicked it down. As another doll swung a sword from behind, she twisted her body to evade it, then used the foot she was using to step on the first doll to kick the other doll’s leg, before bringing her staff down on its face, shattering it.

*’Phew… still, the sheer numbers are a bit overwhelming… But for Zeke-nim, I have to endure this much hardship, right?’*

Realizing the large number of dolls rushing at her, Aria braced herself for a struggle. As a doll lunged at her with a dagger from the side, she swung her staff, knocking the dagger away, then punched the doll’s neck, incapacitating it. However, if she focused on one doll, others would attack her, so Aria had to pay attention to attacks coming from all directions.

*’It looks like there are about thirty left. Even the bow-wielding dolls seem to have realized that long-range attacks are meaningless, as they’re now picking up weapons from fallen dolls and rushing in… Alright, Puppet Master. It seems I’ll need to exert a little more effort…’*

Aria, who had been carefully dodging attacks from all sides, realized that she would be at a disadvantage if she continued like this. She then charged at a doll attempting to strike her with a sword, using it as a shield to break through the dolls’ encirclement. After breaking the neck of the doll she used as a shield with both hands, she looked at the dolls rushing at her again, then closed her eyes and began to murmur.

“O Omnipotent One in the heavens. Your follower, who abides by you, seeks to borrow your strength. Please lend me your power. With your might, I shall punish the sinner…!!”

After Aria chanted the spell, she lightly brushed her staff with her right hand, and her staff began to emit a yellow glow. However, that light was more intense and brilliant than before. It was proof of Aria’s growth. Yet, Aria sighed and grumbled upon seeing the light emanating from her staff.

“…Oh, come on… I usually prefer to handle these things with my own power, not like this… But I have to solve this before Zeke-nim wakes up, so…”

Compelled by her mission to resolve the entire situation before Zeke awoke, Aria, who was forced to use divine power, lamented and then charged straight into the dolls. Aria began to spin her body as if dancing, indiscriminately striking the dolls with her staff, which swung along with her arm. Aria’s appearance as she annihilated her enemies, dancing under the moonlight, was as beautiful as a lead performer on a stage facing down foes. After dealing with all the dolls, Aria extinguished the light from her staff and sighed.

“Haaah… I seem to have taken too much time… Well then… I suppose I’ll have to search all the houses to find out where that Puppet Master is, right?”

After dealing with all the dolls, Aria began to survey the buildings to find the Puppet Master. In this dead village, where only moonlight existed, no other light was visible at all; there was only darkness. Aria sighed deeply and said.

“It can’t be helped… Well, they wouldn’t want to reveal their location anyway, so they’re probably keeping the lights off… But there’s no sign of life around this village… Hmm…”

As there was no sign of life around the village, Aria began to hypothesize where the Puppet Master might be and why there was no trace of life. Then, as if recalling something, Aria nodded and murmured.

“Now that I think about it, when Village Chief Akada-nim guided me to his secret room in Karizan, he used a summoning magic circle to move to that workshop. If the Puppet Master is using the same method… Well… should I search the buildings first?”

Thinking that there might be a magic circle somewhere in this village for transporting to a distant place, like Village Chief Akada-nim’s workshop, Aria ultimately decided to search all the buildings. First, heading to the tavern, as soon as she opened the door, a doll lunged at her with a dagger. Instead, Aria thrust her staff first, breaking its hand, then kicked its head, sending it flying into the wall. Then, she stomped on the head of the doll that had collapsed against the wall, shattering it, and looked around.

“Hmm… the strong smell of alcohol suggests that no one has touched the village’s liquor even after it died… Well… shall I see if there are any dolls left in this building first?”

Seeing the doll that had just ambushed her, Aria thought there might still be dolls left in this building, so she headed to the second floor. Sure enough, just as Aria predicted, several dolls on the second floor attacked Aria with daggers and clubs. Aria brutally smashed them into pieces. Thus, fragments of the dolls—which would have been even more gruesome if they were real people—were scattered across the floor.

“Hmm… I think Zeke-nim would be startled if he saw this. But if I clean it up, the evidence will disappear, and I’ll receive less praise… For now, should I just leave it like this and investigate?”

With the intention of proving this tragedy to Zeke later to receive more praise, Aria decided not to clean up the mess. After thoroughly searching the second floor of the tavern and finding nothing particularly special, Aria went down the stairs, muttering.

“Hmm… there’s nothing here. Just alcohol… Oh?”

Just as she was about to feel disappointed that there was nothing special in the tavern, Aria discovered a book lying on a table and immediately opened it. But as soon as Aria opened the book, she encountered a difficulty. The reason was that the writing in the book was too faded.

“Hmm… it looks like a diary… but it seems so old that the writing isn’t visible… Phew… I hoped there would be a clue about where the Puppet Master might be… If I can’t read it, it’s worse than having nothing… Oh?”

Aria continued to flip through the book, but as only faded, unreadable pages appeared, she sighed deeply and complained. However, at that moment, a section with relatively intact writing appeared, and Aria, surprised, immediately began to read it.

August 12th? I don’t even know how much time has passed. This damn fog still envelops our village, so I try to calculate the date by counting how many times the moon has risen in the night sky, but I’m not even sure if I’m calculating it correctly now. People who went outside haven’t returned, and people inside have started disappearing… I don’t want to die like this… Damn it… We have enough food, so that’s fine, but the problem is we don’t know what’s attacking us. Most people predict that the child is attacking us out of resentment… Honestly, if it’s not that, there’s no other explanation. Please save us.

August 13th? Damn it… Village Chief-nim has also disappeared. What’s going on? Could that unpleasant child really be behind this? Everyone suspected that child and headed to the house where that child lived, but… no one was there. Then who exactly is attacking us? And why doesn’t this fog disappear? This fog seems to have enveloped the village for almost a week now. And because of this cursed fog and the disappearing people, everyone is terrified. I am too. So much so that I think I’d have to ambush anyone who comes into this tavern with the dagger I have…

August Save me

“…..”

After checking the contents of the book, Aria realized that the male doll that had just attacked her on the first floor was the owner of the diary. But that wasn’t why Aria’s mind was troubled. The part that troubled Aria’s mind was…

*’Could it be that the Puppet Master is that child from this diary… and if that child also has a story… Ugh… Zeke-nim would definitely tell me not to kill her…’*

This was because she had found out that the Puppet Master, who was trying to kill her, was a child, and that the child had a story. Aria was in a difficult position, anticipating that if Zeke knew this and she killed the child, he would praise her less. Should she kill the girl and feel relieved, or see Zeke’s conflicted expression…

*’Aargh… What should I do?!’*

Aria was at a loss, overwhelmed by such a huge dilemma. Meanwhile, inside a certain tent, the girl was giggling as she watched something.

“Hee hee hee… It was too weak, wasn’t it, Saintess? Look forward to it… Next time, I’ll create a tense atmosphere for you… Now… the curtain has risen on the play…!!”