novelraw Chapter 137 : Chapter 137
Chapter 137 : Chapter 137
Chapter: The Devil and the Church (8)
I carried Wimar on my back and returned to Ekampote.
“I could have carried him.”
“It's fine.”
My internal injuries were completely healed.
It was thanks to the Moon Orb. Now at fifty percent. The remaining amount had to be used carefully from now on. Ellen was hoping for that.
The priest of Ekampote, Benach, greeted Harad and Ellen with a horrified face.
I laid Wimar down on the bed in his room.
Wimar awoke around the time the sunset became prominent.
He woke up sooner than I thought, which was to be expected. Though old, he was a priest with extraordinary regenerative abilities.
“……I have shown a disgraceful sight.”
His voice was older than usual.
Upon opening his eyes and seeing the ceiling, Wimar seemed to have roughly grasped the situation.
“It must be time for me to die…….”
Wimar muttered softly.
He had lost his will to fight in front of a devil.
A priest, no less.
It was an incident for which returning his divine power to Laan would not be enough. But light still lingered around Wimar.
O, benevolent Laan. Wimar offered a short prayer.
“It would have been better if I had died.”
Wimar tried to raise his body.
He was probably trying to go to the confessional. It seemed he thought a prayer offered from his bed was not enough.
“It was a 5th Rank devil.”
Ellen gently pushed Wimar back down.
Though he was a priest with excellent regenerative abilities, he was very old. He needed rest.
“Ellen, you truly are strong.”
Wimar smiled bitterly.
It surely wasn't just because his body had been easily pushed back onto the bed by Ellen's hand.
“5th Rank. 5th Rank…… A Great Devil has appeared. And a true devil at that.”
The Church referred to 5th Rank mages as Great Devils.
A true devil referred to a heart addict.
“A true devil?”
“It refers to those who have realized their essence as devils and devour the flesh and spirit of humans.”
Ellen flinched.
Ellen, realizing he was referring to predation, flinched.
‘Was I found out?’
Back then, the shadow mage had offered the heart to me.
“What became of the Great Devil?”
Wimar seemed more shocked by the appearance of a Great Devil than by the situation at the time.
Perhaps he was treating it as insignificant. The mage didn't seem to be in his right mind.
“He ran away.”
At my words, Wimar turned his gaze.
It was a gaze mixed with affection, no different than usual.
“That is a hard story to believe. He should not have been able to keep his senses amidst human flesh and spirit.”
“The bastard ate a magical beast's heart and became lucid. And he felt threatened by our young lady.”
Wimar, who had been looking at Ellen, slowly nodded his head.
He seemed to be recalling the pebble she had kicked.
It was an acceptance made possible by his looking down on mages.
5th Rank. The North treats a mage of that level as a Sword Master, but the Church classifies them below that.
“Ellen. You have saved my face and even saved my life.”
Wimar remembered his neck being choked by the shadow.
On top of that, Ellen had even yielded the magical beast, saving Priest Wimar's face.
It was because I had told her not to intervene, but to Wimar, it must have felt like a concession.
Wimar's complexion, having subdued the magical beast, was dark.
It was because a being more dangerous than the magical beast had appeared.
“I must report the appearance of the Great Devil.”
Great Devil.
A 5th Rank mage was an exceedingly rare existence on the continent.
“Are you returning to the Premont Central Church right away?”
Ellen asked.
To me, it sounded like she was telling him to go.
She was hoping that the devil suspect Rosen would be forgotten from Wimar's mind.
“I would like to, but it seems difficult. I think I'll need to rest for a few days.”
Wimar said, holding out his hand.
His body, where even scars had turned to wrinkles, needed time.
“It is already night. Let us see each other tomorrow.”
Outside the window, it had grown dark before they knew it.
Harad and Ellen left Wimar's room.
That day, instead of snoring, the sound of something murmuring could be heard from beyond the wall.
It was too quiet to make out, but it sounded like a prayer.
That sound of prayer continued until the sun rose.
* * *
Wimar had stayed up all night in prayer, but his complexion was not so bad. He acted like a perfectly fine person.
And he treated Harad and Ellen as usual.
“That's not how you do it.”
He talked about family with me and corrected Ellen's clumsy prayer posture.
Such a Wimar resembled a benevolent but strict grandfather.
However, grandfathers can be boring sometimes.
After about four days, Ellen let out her boredom.
“When are you going back?”
“I plan to rest for another three or four days.”
Wimar, who had rested for four days, planned to rest for that much longer.
However, Wimar seemed perfectly fine.
“Aren't you all better?”
Since it seemed so in Ellen's eyes too, it was probably true.
“My body may be, but my heart has not found peace. Please wait just a little longer.”
Wimar still seemed unable to get over the fact that he had lost his will to fight in front of the devil.
Indeed, for the past four days, his routine had consisted solely of going between the chapel and the confessional.
“Ellen, there is no need to match your time to mine. If you are bored, you may go out whenever you wish, day or night. You two have not been baptized. You do not need to be so bound by doctrine.”
Wimar spoke as if addressing a whining granddaughter.
“You said you came to Ekampote to meet a friend. Go and meet that friend. You too, Harad. The magical beast has been subdued, so there should be nothing more to feel uneasy about.”
“But the Great Devil is still here.”
What remained was not the Great Devil, but Wimar.
As long as he remained in Ekampote, Ellen could not go to meet her friend.
Because that friend was a mage who knew of the Asylum.
Perhaps they weren't even in Ekampote anymore.
“That will become the Church's business.”
Wimar drew a line.
At that point, Ellen had no choice but to concede.
Actually, she would have done so even if he hadn't drawn a line.
Ellen seemed very bored.
“Then I'll go have a drink.”
“Go ahead.”
Wimar smiled faintly. The farewell was short.
It was already night outside, and he never trespassed upon the night.
The night in Ekampote was dark.
A few shops spewed light through their windows, but things that lit up the street itself were rare. The fact that it was still winter also played a part.
“What happened to Rosen?”
Ellen said in a whisper in the darkness.
“I don't know.”
That was a question for me too.
Wimar acted as if he had forgotten about the devil suspect, Rosen.
All this time, Wimar had only prayed.
“Don't you think he forgot? Because of the Great Devil. And thanks to me, too.”
That was why Ellen had stuck so close to Wimar for the past four days.
To prevent the topic of Rosen from coming up, Ellen had constantly asked Wimar about the Sun God Laan, doctrines, and prayers.
“No way.”
“He's old, you know.”
Ellen said something rude without a second thought.
In the North, it wasn't rude, but honest.
“A priest forgetting a devil.”
To my mind, it was an impossible story.
‘Were Great Devils particularly rare during this period?’
Perhaps that was the case.
But it didn't really mean anything.
Even if he had forgotten, as Ellen said, he was bound to remember someday.
He might remember as soon as tomorrow afternoon.
“If Wimar goes to find Rosen, what will you do?”
“I have to stop him.”
If that happened, a clash with Wimar would be unavoidable.
“How?”
Ellen stared intently at me.
“You're here.”
“You're telling me to solve it?”
“Yes.”
“…….”
“You're smarter. If I think about it, I'll regret it.”
Ellen was shameless.
It wasn't that there was no way.
I just had to prove that Rosen was not a mage.
Wimar would be stubborn, but in truth, there was no other way.
“By the way, is he really a mage? I mean Rosen.”
Ellen seemed to be thinking the same thing.
It was a question I couldn't answer.
“It's a secret.”
“……You know you look petty right now, right?”
Ellen's eyes narrowed.
“Well, I can tell you. But that's a bad habit. You should at least try to think about it before hearing the answer. Don't just think of hearing the answer first.”
“…….”
“I'm saying you should try to distinguish mages in your own way. Like Wimar.”
Really?
Ellen tilted her head.
“But you're here?”
I can distinguish mages.
Ellen believed that wholeheartedly.
“There might be a moment when I'm not here. It wouldn't hurt to know.”
Ellen stared intently at me before finally nodding her head.
It meant she was convinced. I sighed in relief internally. This bought me some time.
“How do you distinguish them? Like Wimar?”
“That takes a long time. The method I know is a little easier and simpler. And its accuracy rate is better than you'd think.”
Ellen's eyes shone.
An easy, simple method with a high accuracy rate.
It was a method that Ellen, who liked to get things for free, had no reason to refuse.
I found a window where the light was particularly dim and entered the building. It was a tavern with not a single customer.
I took a seat at a table set up by the window.
“First, order a drink.”
Then he ordered a whole bottle.
It was an alcohol that would get you treated like a greenhorn if you ordered it in the North, but on the continent, its proof was quite high.
“And then drink up.”
I drank straight from the bottle.
My Adam's apple only stopped after I had emptied half the bottle. There was no sign of intoxication. A small fire that had risen in my stomach had burned off all the alcohol.
“Kkeueu.”
I pretended to be drunk as I exhaled the smoke.
“Something bad happen?”
The owner, who was on the other side of the bar, spoke to him.
To anyone, I looked like a person who wanted to get drunk.
“Something like that.”
I waved my hand at the owner.
Then I took another swig from the bottle and ordered a new one.
“A traveler? Don't drink too much. At least order some food.”
The owner who brought the new drink gave him a look of concern.
I had now gone from being a person who wanted to get drunk to a drunk person.
“A traveler, you say. Perfect. It seems that owner doesn't know we're with Wimar.”
Ellen was just staring intently at me without a word.
She had a 'what the hell is this guy doing' look on her face.
“Once you're drunk like this, find someone suspicious or someone you want to know about. It doesn't matter if you find them first and then get drunk.”
I said in a low voice.
“There's no one here but the owner. I'll assume that owner is suspicious.”
“And then?”
“You do this.”
I kicked back my chair and stood up.
Then I strode towards the owner.
My unsteady steps blatantly showed I was drunk.
“I am Harad. A mage.”
“……?”
The owner's eyes narrowed.
“Are you drunk?”
“I'm drunk, but I'm in my right mind. I'm a mage.”
“You, you crazy bastard……!”
The horrified owner soon kicked Harad and Ellen out.
He didn't even take their money.
“……What did you do?”
Ellen, kicked out onto the street, asked in disbelief.
“Usually, if they react like that, they're a normal person. If they look at me like I'm crazy, or just watch my expression and avoid getting involved.”
“…….”
“If they try to catch you or report you, they're a devoutly religious normal person.”
“…….”
“It's true.”
In my regressed opinion.
There was no more accurate method on the continent.
* * *
“Ah. It doesn't work very well in the North. There's no Church there.”
It is effective on the continent where the Church is a neighbor.
At the very least, it's a much more plausible method than the existence of a mage who can distinguish other mages.
“How do they react if they're a mage?”
“So you believe me now.”
“I'm pretending to.”
Despite my earnest explanation, the inexperienced Ellen showed no sign of believing him.
“If they're a mage, it's one of two things. They're either happy to see you. Or they get startled and look around.”
“Freaking out in case someone else hears?”
“That's right. Then there's a high probability they're a mage.”
“I'll fall for it this once.”
Ellen walked straight to the northwest.
There was a merchant guild run by Ekampote there. Located in the west-central region, trade was this land's specialty. It went back and forth between the western nations and the Empire.
The merchant guild's building was in the northwest.
The devil suspect, Rosen, worked there.
“Rosen.”
Rosen was a warehouse keeper, and he remained alone in the building until late.
Smoking a cigarette in front of the entrance, he turned pale as soon as he saw Harad and Ellen.
“Calm down. Priest Wimar isn't here. It's just the two of us.”
Ellen said with slightly slurred speech.
The smell of alcohol wafted from her mouth. She looked drunk to anyone, and on top of that, Ellen waved her hand and even lit a cigarette.
“I'm Ellen. A mage.”
Rosen dropped the cigarette he was smoking.
Ellen took a long drag, exhaled, and said with a complicated expression.
“It's true. I'm a prisoner captured by Priest Wimar. His scheme is to use me as bait to catch other mages like me.”
Ellen spoke as I had told her.
It was to explain why she had been traveling with Wimar.
“This person too.”
Ellen grabbed my arm.
“That's why this person took your side back then. Because he's a mage.”
“It can't be……!”
At that, Rosen shed tears and tightly gripped my hands with both of his.
Then he hurriedly looked around.
“……It's true.”
Ellen muttered blankly.
‘……So he was real.’
I was thinking the same thing.
Wimar was right.
Rosen was indeed a mage.
Looking to the side, Ellen was looking up at me. Her eyes were sparkling. I shrugged my shoulders and gloated.
* * *
First of all.
I have to run away.
If I were Rosen, I would have.
Even if I had power. That would be the rational choice.
There's no reason to get involved for no reason and be caught by the Church.
“Do you need help?”
But Rosen asked a strange question.
“Can you help?”
Rosen looked up at the sky for a moment.
Night. As a mage, he seemed to have figured out that Priest Wimar does not operate at night.
“Protection will be difficult, but I can show you a path to escape.”
A path to escape. My eyes shone.
I thought of Balbebron and Alena.
“It will be a dangerous path. I cannot stop the Church's pursuit for you.”
I scanned Rosen.
Until one materializes magic, you cannot know if the opponent is a mage. The same goes for their Rank.
But even considering that, Rosen didn't look all that impressive.
Yet he was speaking as if he could shake off even Priest Wimar.
‘He's not alone.’
There are more mages.
Perhaps it's even a group.
“Why are you going this far for us?”
“Are we not in the same boat?”
Rosen said with a bitter smile.
Harad and Ellen are mages. For the mage Rosen, that was reason enough to help.
“Are you saying you'll kill Priest Wimar for us?”
“Pardon?”
Rosen was appalled.
“That is not possible. How can one kill a person.”
A person, not a priest.
The word was unfamiliar to me. However, because of that, Ellen seemed to like him more.
Will you kill Wimar?
That question was for Ellen.
She wanted neither Rosen's nor Wimar's death.
“What do you think?”
“I want to help.”
Ellen seemed satisfied.
On the other hand, my mind grew more complicated.
Rosen was a mage. That meant the way to stop Wimar had completely disappeared.
“So you were here.”
It was then that a voice was heard.
My heart sank.
At least, that was the look on Ellen's face.
The Church's method of rooting out mages was through threats and deduction.
And…… on-the-spot capture through stakeouts.
“Ellen.”
It was an old but clear voice.
The quiet sound of footsteps grew louder.
From the jet-black night, the light of the sun walked out.
With his hand on the dagger by his heart and his back straight, Wimar was familiar yet strange.
“And devil.”
Undiluted hostility was glaring at me.
“You've trespassed, upon the night.”
I laughed in vain.