episode_0167

government ordinance.

Within the Ntrpg worldview, a spirit was a monster classified as a type of spirit-type monster.

The only difference from undead like wraiths and banshees is that they are monsters that come from the soul of an animal or magical power itself rather than the vengeful spirit of a person.

Unlike hideous monsters like goblins or undead who are full of resentment toward the living, they are not that ferocious… .

In any case, monsters are monsters. They were not meant to be of benefit to humans.

They have a hobby of pulling all kinds of pranks on humans, and although they think it’s just pranks, the humans who play them are likely to die or become maimed.

First of all, the fire spirit liked to play pranks by increasing the fire in the fireplace and burning down the entire house. They even pulled pranks like that in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep because the lights go out quickly during the day.

The wind spirits like to grab people from high places and make them fall with them. They say that since they are half-spiritual, falling is no problem, but in all likelihood, the victims caught in this will die from their heads exploding.

The earth spirit usually appears in front of people who are running away in a huff, and its hobby is to make small rocks on the bare ground to knock down such people.

There is no need to say anything about the fate of a person who falls to his death while trying hard to escape.

And lastly, the water spirit was a monster that enjoyed bewitching people with its beautiful appearance and drowning them.

If the drowned one is clean, they play around with it and then send it back, but if it’s dirty, they submerge it deep in the water and take it out the next day?

Of course, as this world is a medieval fantasy full of uneducated people, it is difficult to find people with proper hygiene concepts.

Especially for adventurers who rarely had to wash due to the nature of frequent living and fighting, the water spirit was nothing more than a monster that lured people and drowned them.

Although it has the advantage of purifying lake and river water, it is… That’s something that only wild animals would enjoy.

Even if the water becomes clean, humans can’t use it properly for fear of drowning, so what’s the point?

In other words, our killing of the water spirit in the lake was not a terrible act of murder, but rather something to be praised.

Unless a spiritist or an elf has released their spirit into this lake, we have simply exterminated the murderous spirit that has been putting passing travelers into the lake.

“…I didn’t know that they would kill me just by taking a bath without even fighting.”

Maybe it’s because of Ganagle’s bodily fluids?

To us, it was just smelly filth, but to the spirits, it seemed to be more fatal than a fairly lethal poison, perhaps because it was the bodily fluid of a creature that had been transformed into a monster by embracing the power of the abyss.

“It was a good wash…”

After washing up and coming up to the mouth of the lake, Friede sighed lightly as if it was absurd and looked at the completely polluted lake.

After the spirit died, the lake rapidly became cloudy and has now turned into a black-green swamp.

The refreshing coolness disappeared everywhere, a rotten smell filled the air, and lumps of dust and tentacle pieces slowly swam in the lake water.

“No one can wash it anymore.”

“Well, wouldn’t it become clean again after about fifty years?”

“Well, how about it….”

I wringed out my water-soaked hair with both hands and looked at the corpses of fish and crustaceans floating on the surface of the water.

… Even if you discharge factory wastewater into the river, I think fewer fish will die than this.

What had been a mysterious magical lake before was now just a swamp of death.

It was a good thing I washed it quickly and got out before it got completely contaminated. Even if I had washed it a little longer, it would have been no different from not washing it.

“Anyway, I think I need to dry my clothes properly first… Well, isn’t it a bit like this here…? It smells really….”

After washing his body, Friede said, gently holding his nose as he began to feel the stench of the surroundings.

“Okay, let’s move to our seats first.”

I nodded. I felt like if I stayed here, the bad smell would seep into my clothes, even if I just washed them with water.

◆◆

After roughly washing the horse saddle that had dirt on it with drinking water, I walked for about ten minutes, lit a bonfire, and sat down.

The heat of the crackling flames warmly dried my wet clothes and hair.

“Ahh…it’s warm….”

Friede smiled brightly and stretched out her arms around the bonfire to enjoy the warmth, while I rummaged in my bag next to him and took out a pot and preserved food.

I had already lit a bonfire, but I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to finish breakfast and move.

It may be the middle of the night, but the sun has already risen high and brightly lights up the whole place.

Since it wouldn’t be noticeable if we lit a bonfire, I didn’t think there would be any problems if we took some time to eat.

“Let’s see…dried carrots and turnips, beef jerky and a pinch of salt…oh, that grass was probably edible too, right?”

Sweep the ingredients you purchased in advance into a pot filled with boiling water, select herb-type plants from among the surrounding weeds, wash them well, and throw them in.

“Hey, Hilde. Can I help you too?”

As I was making beef jerky stew on the spot, Friede, who was warming the fire, asked in a hesitant tone if there was anything he could help with.

I guess it pricked my conscience to see me working hard to prepare food while he was resting well, right?

“It’s okay, it’s almost done, just rest.”

I smiled and answered that there was no need for that. Not out of consideration for Friede, but out of consideration for my own taste.

‘You’re not good at cooking.’

Friede herself seemed to be oblivious, but the last time I tried her cooking skills were as terrible as the smell of the sewage that killed the spirit.

If she had been a porter instead of a warrior, that dish alone would have been enough to get her kicked out of the party.

Perhaps the party members who expelled the porter, Friede, would also have become happy by hiring a better porter and shouting three cheers, rather than regretting and becoming devastated and obsessed.

The food Friede made tasted like that.

He looked at me with such expectant eyes that I suppressed my nausea and forced a smile to reply that it was delicious.

Of course, I’m not particularly good at cooking, but I’m still better than Friede.

Because of the time I spent wandering alone and as an adventurer, I was able to make a decent stew using just preserved food.

“What do you think? I didn’t have enough ingredients, so I made some filling….”

“It’s so delicious! I want to eat it for the rest of my life!”

Friede, who tasted the stew, made a fuss and laughed.

“Hehe, it looks like you were very hungry. It made me want to eat it for the rest of my life, but honestly, it wasn’t that delicious.”

I smiled slightly and sipped from my bowl of stew.

Anyway, that’s an exaggeration. Honestly, how can you live off of this for the rest of your life? You can get a better meal than this if you spend a silver coin or two at a restaurant in the city.

“Whew…that’s not what I meant….”

“Huh? What?”

Friede mumbled something quietly, but I couldn’t hear it properly because he was sipping from his bowl of stew.

“Oh, it’s nothing. It’s just that the stew is a little hot.”

Well, it seems like it was just meaningless self-talk.

“Eat slowly. Eat quickly and your mouth will dry.”

“Yes, I’ll be careful!”

Friede smiled and nodded. Her hair, which had become dry and fluffy, was as light as wool and swayed gently.

======[Hade]======

‘You’re one step late… .’

The warrior Heid, the blond-haired, red-eyed young man who had been chasing after the Abyss Priest Ganagle Feitan, clicked his tongue and muttered to himself.

Ruins spread out before his eyes.

A rocky hill that had collapsed and been carved away as if a landslide had occurred, and the land clearly showed traces of having been plowed once. There was a foul fishy smell that could not be removed from the damp soil.

The smell of blood. The smell of blood was so strong that it was not just for one or two people, but for dozens of people.

There were no blood stains or corpses, but there was no time to erase them, so it wasn’t that difficult to figure out what happened just from the rough traces left behind.

‘How dare you say that there is someone who attacked my prey…’ .’

Heid frowned in displeasure.

I don’t know where or who it was, but there was someone who found Ganagle one step ahead of him and engaged in combat.

Considering that all traces of Ganagle were cut off here, it appears that he and all of the cultists who followed him were slaughtered.

It was extremely insulting and unpleasant for him. Because it was like a thief smeared dirt on the achievements of the person who would ascend to the throne in the future and ran away.

For Heid, it was no different from a mortal sin that required him to be torn limb from limb and hung in the square. It may be impossible right now since we don’t know the identity of the thief.

“Mr. Heid.”

Behind Heide, who was showing his anger and discomfort, a man with short-cut red hair approached and bowed.

A short sword at his waist and a shield in his left hand. A patrolman with a long bow slanted on his back. He was a man whose sharp, slitted eyes looked particularly fierce.

“Bitege, did you catch them?”

Heid asked, turning his head towards him.

Unlike the sisters Diarin and Diren, who were only half toys, Ranger Vitege, one of the carefully selected party members in the Kingdom of Herbor, shook his head.

“No shame. I thought I had caught them all… but that feather thief actually knew how to cast ‘Shadow Veil’.”

As soon as the Heid party reached the rocky hill, men in feathered cloaks ran away.

Heid ordered Ranger Wittege to chase them down and capture them, but unfortunately this failed.

“Shadow Curtain? Are you talking about the remnants of the Goddess Church?”

The ones who were running away had to hide themselves by spreading a curtain of shadow as soon as they entered the shady forest.

“Yes. Not only that, but they also cast ‘Silence of the Night’ and hid themselves. Both sides were traces of the cult. If we continued to pursue them, there was a risk of being ambushed in return, so we had no choice but to retreat.”

Add to that the fact that there were other enemies blocking his presence, and even Vitege, an experienced patroller, had no choice but to give up the chase.

“Assassins from the Goddess Church…? I don’t understand. If they were truly them, they would have no reason to interfere with us.”

Heide muttered in a questioning voice.

Considering that he had used two of the church’s secrets, the identity of the thief who stole his achievements was supposed to be an assassin carefully trained by the Goddess Church.

The problem is that there is no reason for the Goddess Church, let alone others, to try to steal the hero’s merit.

‘It doesn’t make sense. If the church was going to take direct action, they would have sent a paladin to cooperate. That means… .’

In common sense, there was no way the Goddess Church, which clearly knew that he was chasing Ganagle, would interfere with him in this way.

The Hero and the Goddess Church have a loose but firm cooperative relationship.

In particular, Heid, who was also a member of the royal family of a country, was a warrior with such a deep connection with the church that he could boast of having a closer relationship with it than any other warrior.

“…The secret record may have been leaked. I wonder what kind of big-headed guy did something like that.”

Therefore, rather than the possibility that the Goddess Church tried to assassinate him in the back, it was more likely that the secret enemy had leaked out of the Church.

“There must be a church building in Svinarand, right? Let’s go there. I’ll have to send a personal letter about this.”

“Yes, Mr. Heyde.”

Wittege nodded, got up on his knees, and walked down the rocky hill with Heyd.

The destination is the lake city of Svinarand.

The thief who leaked the secrets of the Goddess Church tried to steal the hero’s achievements, so it was time to inform the church and tell them to find the thief.