novelraw Chapter 67 : Eden, the Garden (6)
Chapter 67 : Eden, the Garden (6)
Chapter 67: Eden, the Garden (6)
Elena realized only belatedly what kind of situation she was in. The fact that she’d taken off all her clothes wasn’t normal at all.
“Elena. You took off all your clothes and danced. You were bad at it!. Haha!”
“…What kind of dance was it?”
“Want me to show you?”
Elena gave a hesitant nod.
“Watch closely! Behold my dance moves!”
Nike mimicked the motions more or less. He waggled his hands like a cephalopod and wiggled his hips in a bizarre way.
“Oh, my God.”
Elena covered her face a moment too late.
She hadn’t done anything sticky with Nike.
She’d danced naked like a fool, and she sweated because of it…
“Nike.”
“Hah?”
“Kill me.”
“For real?”
“Yes. I meant it.”
Nike didn’t oblige. He needed that time to hurry and find Hestia.
“W-What else did I do? Are you teasing me by any chance? Is Nike a more mischievous man than he looks?”
Elena’s face burned. She couldn’t stand it. She even wished Nike were joking.
“Not joking. Elena. You and I did it.”
“Eh. What…? Did what?”
“You pulled off my pants. You wouldn’t let my legs go. Elena, you were strange.”
“…”
Elena’s face turned beet red. As an archbishop, she’d done something unseemly. She’d rather die than let others know.
‘No way that actually happened.’
But the signs left all over her body proved Nike’s words. Her racing heart and her body heat were still hot.
…But it didn’t actually feel bad.
After a moment’s thought, Elena smiled again, shyly. She looked very satisfied.
Something she could never experience at the Hall of the City God.
If her partner was a man this handsome, nothing could be better.
Besides, her body and heart had already been devoted to the man who’d become the Sword of Destiny.
“No… It’s coming back now.”
“Good! From now on, just follow me!”
“Yes. Let’s do that. I showed something shameful as an archbishop. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine!”
Elena pressed her lips together with hazy eyes. Looking at Nike’s Adam’s apple made her lust boil like mad. This pilgrimage was a great success.
‘It’s about time I did my job.’
Elena felt over herself here and there. She sensed dirty traces of magic lingering.
‘As I thought… I got hit by a witch’s spell.’
Elena had seen through the spell cast by the Witch of Motherhood from the very start. Most likely, it was a magic spread across the whole village of Jibria.
Even so, she had dispelled her sacred arts in the carriage and let it hit her. After sending Nike and Hestia away, she couldn’t remember anything, which meant the opponent was a powerful witch.
Thanks to that, she’d had a rather enjoyable time. The archbishop was actually grateful to the witch.
‘Of course, letting myself be fooled ends here. It’s about time I hunted the witch. Since she’s a helpful witch, I’ll be as humane as possible while I burn her.’
Elena pressed her hands together and whispered low.
“The grace of the Sun God. The radiance of the Sun God. The wrath of the Sun God. Holy battle. Be drunk on that fervor―!”
Flaaash!
In an instant, light wrapped Elena’s body, and golden armor formed over her from head to toe.
“Oh? Elena. You look cool.”
“Uhuhu. Thank you. Most people gasp when they see my armament, but you don’t have any prejudices, do you, Nike?”
“Is that so!”
“Yes. Everyone thinks archbishops fight only with prayers. In truth, to be worthy of an archbishop, you also have to fight well with your body like a paladin.”
Nike was sincerely impressed.
“Physical prowess. I value it too!”
“Hahaha. Thank you. As expected from you, Nike. Are you fine with a woman this strong?”
Elena lifted a golden shield and a war hammer with a laugh. For a slender body, the weapons were fearsome enough to strain belief.
Nike stuck up his thumb with a click.
“As long as they are good at fighting!”
“You’re kind. Good. Let’s go.”
“Yeah!”
* * *
“M-M-Mister!”
“Hah— I searched for you for so long.”
Elena in golden armor and Nike with his ashen hair were easy to spot. They hadn’t been wandering the flower field for long before the girls found Nike and swarmed around him.
“Who are these… children?”
When the girls linked arms with Nike, Elena gave an annoyed smile. The girls paid her no attention. Even though she stood right beside them, they treated her as if she weren’t there.
“Mister! Come on. Let’s go to the house where Mother is.”
“Where is it! Lead the way!”
“Ahaha. So you finally feel like coming? You’re the best!”
Nike rubbed his nose at the praise. Elena twisted her lips in disbelief.
She’d never hated innocent children this much.
“You girls—”
Elena tried to call them to a stop. One girl snapped her head around, set a vicious look on her face, and stepped up to Elena.
“Unwanted guests should be quiet.”
“What?”
“You’re an uninvited visitor. Mother won’t give you a seat.”
“Is that so? And who exactly is your oh-so-great Mother?”
When the archbishop sneered, the girl lifted her eyes and split her mouth in a murderous grin.
“You’re a slave who’s taken the filthy sun as master. Watch your tongue. Do you know where you are?”
“…Haha. This quickly?”
The voice and the way of speaking felt off. She wasn’t talking to a girl. Something else sat behind those innocent eyes.
A truly evil monster.
“You’re the Witch of Motherhood…”
“I don’t care what you humans call me. Just don’t hinder me any further. If you let me take the vessel, I promise I’ll return you safely.”
The archbishop of the Hall of the City God and the Witch of Motherhood faced off. An archbishop personally hunting a witch was rare even in history. Keeping her prayer steady in her heart, Elena spoke firmly.
“Vile witch. Stop tormenting the innocent and stop throwing this world into chaos. Don’t you dare covet what’s mine. I’ve come to judge you.”
“Ha! How ridiculous. A mere insect, and you claim the vessel as yours? And you even prattle about the human world?”
“Under the Sun God, everyone is equal. Each day isn’t enough to give thanks and rejoice in the grace we’re given.”
The girl’s aura grew more evil. Elena gripped her war hammer tight, ready to smash the girl’s skull at any moment.
This was the witch’s nest.
The witch’s garden.
The witch’s field.
Everything in sight was an enemy and malice.
In this swamp of sorcery, the only thing to trust was unwavering faith.
“That Sun God of yours… nothing could be more disgusting. You can fool foolish humans.”
Ha ha. The girl laughed unpleasantly.
“Do you know it? The true form of that ‘thing’ you worship as the Sun God. Do you know what it plots?”
“Foolish witch. If you want the true form, look up at the sky. Even this beautiful garden you brag about couldn’t be tended without that grace. How can you not know?”
“…You don’t know your place.”
The girl smiled savagely. Blood began to stream from her eyes. She twisted her jaw and gnashed her teeth, and a rain of teeth clattered down.
“Let’s see… whether you can talk like that in the face of death.”
“Do wait. I’ll be right there.”
Crack—
The girl’s neck twisted a full three hundred and sixty degrees. She dropped where she stood, her breath cut off in an instant.
The girls who’d been dragging Nike along fell the same way.
Crunch!
Crack-crack!
Snap, snap!
The girls all clutched their faces and twisted. Their necks snapped, and five girls died. It wasn’t their will. It was murder.
There was no chance to prevent the carnage. It was a slaughter in the blink of an eye.
“The worst.”
Nike felt great disgust.
As always, witches were revolting.
He was amazed there wasn’t a single corner in which to think well of them.
Even Morgana had at least one likeable point.
Standing before the girls’ corpses, Elena said,
“This deserves divine punishment. The Sun God has become angry.”
Elena knelt quietly and closed the girls’ eyes. They were children who’d done nothing wrong.
They’d been kids who should’ve lived out a hopeful future, crushed by the witch’s evil. The Witch of Motherhood had kidnapped them, and they’d lived as its slaves until now. It was an unjust, brutal death.
Before the eyes of an archbishop of the Hall of the City God, a deed that could never be tolerated had been done. Elena prayed for the girls.
“May the Sun God guide these little lambs……”
When the prayer ended, Elena rose.
She wasn’t spotless or perfectly holy, but she was still an archbishop. A pillar of the Hall of the City God, a servant of the Sun God’s doctrine.
She couldn’t help but rage at a world where the innocent died so easily. Fuming, she spoke to Nike.
“Let’s go. I’ll kill the Witch of Motherhood with my own hands.”
“Don’t touch my prey!”
“…Fine. That’s reassuring.”
Nike answered in a low voice.
“Witch. Massacre.”
His eyes sank even calmer than usual. The colorless pupils flashed more chillingly, like those of a predator that had found its prey.
That murderous gaze traced the blue flower path that had opened like a road over the garden.
The blue flower field was now full of green grass, and the blue blossoms bloomed only in one direction, forming a path.
It was the witch’s invitation.
“…It wants us to follow.”
Beyond the hill in the spread of flowers, girls in white dresses were holding hands and playing in a ring.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
“Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
“Ah ah~ ah ah ah~ ah ah ah.”
“Na na na, na na na na, naaaaan na.”
The girls sang. In the windless garden, an ominous melody flowed. It wasn’t cheerful at all, yet the girls kept giggling without rest.
Behind the spot where they danced stood a large triangular wooden house all by itself.
Nike pointed at the strange structure.
“That house. It’s unpleasant.”
“…Do you sense something?”
“A monster. Dangerous.”
“A monster huh…”
Elena frowned at the uncanny house and the girls.
There wasn’t a single natural thing.
Everything visible was artificial and alien.
It was a landscape like an abstract painting, drawn with the paint of magic.
Even an archbishop of the Hall of the City God hesitated at the desolation. Elena spoke to Nike.
“Nike. Before the holy battle, shall we pray?”
Without even looking, Nike shook his head.
“Prayer. I don’t want it.”
“…Why?”
Because he didn’t believe in any god.
Instead of answering, Nike set off down the blue flower path.
* * *
Dododododo.
The busy clatter of shoes spread through the dining hall. The girls’ steps as they went to their places kept a steady rhythm.
Ten girls in identical white nightgowns pulled out chairs and sat.
There was nothing on the table but utensils and napkins, with candles glowing here and there.
Hestia smiled in silence. It was a familiar sight. A mealtime she had truly loved.
She was afraid this longed-for scene would vanish again any second. Wearing an anxious smile, Hestia took her seat.
The girls sat facing one another.
They met each other’s eyes and beamed.
Every one of them was a pretty, adorable girl.
They had the looks to be called witches.
Their blood would be sweet, and their flesh would be tender.
Countless arms descended from the ceiling. The children closed their eyes, lifted their chins, and smiled as they opened their mouths.
Hestia did the same. Saliva pooled in her mouth. Memories of a sweet meal bubbled up.
The countless arms squeezed something into the girls’ open mouths. When their grips tightened, a bright red liquid flowed.
The girls happily drank the red liquid. The taste was so ecstatic that they all smiled and wiped their lips with napkins.
When the meal was done, the girls spoke in unison.
“Mother, thank you for granting us our daily bread again today!”
“Mother, thank you for granting us our daily bread again today!”
“Mother, thank you for granting us our daily bread again today!”
“Mother, thank you for granting us our daily bread again today!”
“Mother, thank you for granting us our daily bread again today!”
Hestia searched her memory and joined in.
“…Mother, thank you for granting us our daily bread again today!”
Tears of joy spilled from Hestia’s eyes. The happiness of coming home was beyond words.