Make a Contract and Become My Apostle, Part 8
—Why don't you just go down and check if the password works yourself?
"True. I'll go down and check, so wait here a second." The Goddess had a point. Leaving the first floor to Falco for a moment, Yohan headed down the stairs into the basement.
—But is this truly a warehouse for stolen goods? It does not seem particularly filled with treasures.
"We've been barely scraping by lately. Ah, is that why they tried to weed out guys like me? To cut down on mouths to feed?"
Before long, Yohan spotted a safe tucked away in a corner of the storage room.
Click. He spun the dial just as the grave robber had instructed, and the lock clicked open. Instead of opening the safe right away, Yohan merely confirmed that the combination was correct and headed back up to the first floor.
"Hey, I checked. He was telling the truth," Yohan said to Falco as he stepped back onto the ground floor.
Falco nodded silently. Then, she suddenly bent down and picked up a dagger lying on the floor.
"Yohan."
"Yeah? What is it?"
"You said you were stabbed in the back, right?"
"Yeah. Hurt like hell." Yohan answered honestly, though he tilted his head, wondering where she was going with this.
Squish!
"Ack!"
But he immediately understood why Falco had asked. With an indifferent expression, she stepped behind the tied-up grave robber, pulled his neck back to expose his back, and drove the blade straight in.
"Whoops."
The dagger pierced clean through the grave robber's back, its tip poking slightly out of his chest. Witnessing this right in front of him, Yohan let out an involuntary gasp.
The grave robber convulsed for a moment before his head slumped forward. He didn't move again.
—What splendid craftsmanship. Even with a sharp blade, slipping it precisely between the ribs requires immense skill, the Goddess remarked in an admiring tone.
Yohan, on the other hand, was utterly startled—even though he had just killed four grave robbers with his own hands moments ago.
"He was tied up and stabbed in the back. It's only fair we paid him back exactly what we got."
Hearing Falco's calm explanation, Yohan could only shake his head in sheer amazement.
Yohan and Falco dragged the brutally slain grave robbers' corpses outside. They tossed them carelessly into the pit originally dug to bury Falco and shoveled dirt over them.
The pit had been excessively spacious for just Falco, but stuffing five grown men inside filled the wide hole in no time.
After burying the bodies, the two returned to the hideout.
"So," Yohan said, brushing the dirt off his hands as he sank into a wooden chair. He propped his equally muddy boots up on the table. "Now we need to figure out how to welcome the bastards coming back from their expedition."
Falco, who was wiping down her dagger, nodded. "Since you kicked the door down and completely shattered it, we should at least hang some cloth to cover the entrance for now."
"Ahem." Feeling a prick of guilt at Falco's remark, Yohan cleared his throat loudly.
—Still, it was a fiery entrance. Quite a sight to behold.
"Shut it, you."
Yohan pushed himself up from his seat. Rummaging through the hideout, he found a piece of canvas and roughly draped it over the broken doorway.
"Alright, let's think. If we were the grave robbers returning from an expedition, where's the first place we'd go upon entering?"
"The wooden door is smashed and replaced with a cloth, so they'll immediately suspect something happened and head straight for the basement."
Yohan nodded at Falco's response. "Exactly. So, we should pour oil or scatter nails on the basement stairs, and rig the basement door so something drops from above the moment it opens."
"If that's the plan, why don't we leave the stairs clear and only set up traps at the basement door and inside the room itself?"
Falco's suggestion made sense.
"Ah, because if they hit a trap on the stairs, they'll get spooked and hesitate to go inside?"
"Right. And once they're in the basement, there's only one way out."
"Heh, heh... Perfect." A sinister chuckle escaped Yohan's lips. He was really starting to like this girl.
Yohan thought that while Falco certainly had a terrifying streak, they shared a strange, unspoken chemistry.
"And for the ones trying to scramble back up from the basement..."
"We still have plenty of time. We could rig some heavy wooden stakes to the ceiling of the stairway and release them when they try to climb back up."
—Wait a moment.
As the two discussed their trap designs, the Goddess's voice suddenly echoed in Yohan's mind once more.
Flash!
The Goddess, who had remained in her spiritual form, materialized back into her child-like appearance.
Falco's eyes sparkled, still fascinated by the sight. Yohan, on the other hand, was already used to it and merely looked down at her with a bored expression.
"What? Is something wrong?"
"I sense my energy coming from the basement, faint though it may be," the Goddess replied to Yohan's query.
Yohan instantly realized what she meant.
"It was so faint that I did not notice it earlier, but now I feel it clearly." The Goddess tilted her head back to look up at Yohan. "My Apostle. My Sacred Relic lies in the basement."
The three immediately headed back down to the basement.
"Let us see now," the Goddess hummed, dragging her small body around as she inspected the stolen goods scattered throughout the basement one by one.
"A Sacred Relic?" Falco whispered to Yohan, watching the Goddess's retreating figure.
"Yeah. According to her, the faith of the mortals who worship her is her main source of power, but she can also recover strength through items imbued with her divinity."
"I see."
Clatter!
While the two whispered, the Goddess recklessly rummaged through the piles of junk.
"Found it!" she cried out before long.
Clutched in her hands was a sword that practically screamed antiquity. It was the kind of item one would polish just enough to make it usable, slap a label like "vintage" on it, and sell for an exorbitant price. In reality, it was just an old relic whose abandonment date was impossible to guess.
"It just looks like an old sword to me..."
"Yeah, looks like junk to me too," Falco and Yohan muttered to each other.
Regardless of their skepticism, the Goddess was so thrilled to have found her Sacred Relic that a bright smile refused to leave her face.
"So, what are you going to do with it?" Yohan asked. He had previously imagined her literally chewing it up, but surely, a deity wouldn't absorb divine power in such an utterly undignified manner.
"I shall eat it."
"Say what?"
Her answer was brief, instantly shattering Yohan's faint hope of no way, she wouldn't.
Crunch!
The Goddess suddenly opened her mouth wide and bit down on the tip of the sword. A loud, metallic shattering sound echoed through the room.
Crunch, munch, grind.
With an indifferent face, the Goddess chewed and swallowed the rusty sword as if she were enjoying a casual meal.
"..."
Not only Yohan, but even Falco stood frozen, unable to hide her sheer horror at the bizarre spectacle.
"Mmm."
Having devoured the entire sword in an instant, the Goddess lightly wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Indeed, it did contain a trace of my energy. However..."
"What now?"
"Perhaps because it was neglected for so long, the energy of wicked things has mingled with it. That must be why I could not sense it at first."
So it's basically like eating moldy bread, Yohan thought, shaking his head.
"Sure, sure. Well, since we're down here anyway, let's check what's inside the safe."
Falco tilted her head at his suggestion. "Didn't you already check it earlier?"
"I only checked if the combination worked; I didn't actually open it. Looting is always more fun when you do it together, isn't it?"
At Yohan's reply, a small smile tugged at the corner of Falco's lips. She stepped up to the safe and pulled open the already unlocked door.
"Oho." The Goddess let out an admiring gasp as she peered inside.
While the basement was filled with nothing but random junk, the safe contained items that were clearly valuable at a glance. Gold coins minted in the distant past, various pieces of jewelry, and more.
Yohan swept every single valuable from the safe into his pockets. Apostle of a deity or not, a man had to make a living first.
In truth, Yohan hadn't had so much as a sip of water since the moment he was stabbed in the back by the bastards he once called comrades.
Growl.
Right on cue, his stomach let out a loud rumble, demanding food.
"Let's grab a bite first before we finish up."
"Yeah. I was actually getting hungry too."
The two immediately rummaged through the hideout to find some food.
"Ah, that's much better."
With their bellies full, they resumed their work of turning the grave robbers' hideout into a trap-infested dungeon.
"We should have at least two days of leeway, but let's aim to finish everything today just in case."
"Okay."
Though it was a week's journey on foot, those bastards would be traveling by carriage, not walking. Furthermore, there were likely other groups of grave robbers out on expeditions besides the ones who had betrayed Yohan. Thus, the possibility of a group returning at any moment could not be ruled out.
It took a full half-day of hard labor for the two of them—and even the materialized Goddess—to completely renovate the hideout.
Fortunately, the hideout was stocked with plenty of junk that was perfect for crafting traps. They didn't even need to step outside to gather materials.
"Whew."
But their hard work paid off. Yohan wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand, a satisfied smile spreading across his face. "This should be more than enough, right?"
"We don't have any materials left to make anything else anyway."
Falco also looked quite exhausted from the manual labor, but her expression was just as bright as Yohan's.
They had left the first floor mostly untouched. However, they had prepared a few "surprise gifts" near the basement door and along the stairs leading down.
"I shall return to my spiritual form now."
"Sure thing."
The Goddess's physical form vanished in an instant, leaving only Yohan and Falco in the hideout once more.
"I guess all that's left is to wait," Yohan said, and Falco gave a silent nod.
"Alright. Let's take shifts keeping watch."
Since they had no way of knowing exactly when the returning grave robbers would arrive, taking turns keeping watch was their best option.
"No. I don't think that will be necessary."
"What?"
For some reason, Falco declined his suggestion. She glanced toward the entrance draped in canvas.
"I hear wheels rolling. It seems they've already arrived."
"Really? Sharp ears."
Though caught off guard, Yohan didn't mind. The traps were already set, and this saved them from a tedious wait.
"Perfect. Let's head up to the second floor first."
"Got it."
Yohan and Falco grabbed their daggers and ropes and hurried up to the second floor.
Given the habits of grave robbers, most of them would head straight for the basement to check on their loot, but there was still a high chance one or two might wander up to the second floor.
Yohan's plan was simple: lasso any unlucky bastard who came up to the second floor, choke them with the rope, and finish them off with a dagger.
Mumble, mumble...
Soon, unfamiliar voices echoed from beyond the stone walls.
—I sense multiple life forces beyond the wall. The elf was correct.
"Hey, where the hell did the door go?"
"Did those idiots break it playing around again?"
"Tsk, goddamn useless bastards."
Before long, the voices of the returning grave robbers grew clearer. Clutching a dagger in one hand and a coiled rope in the other, Yohan kept his eyes glued to the stairs leading down to the first floor.
"Hey! Anyone here?"
"What the... where is everyone?"
Hearing the exchange, Yohan and Falco silently locked eyes.
"Don't tell me those bastards cleaned out the safe and ran off? Hey! Go check the basement right now. And someone go check the second floor!"
It's showtime.
Listening to the grave robbers' voices, Yohan slowly licked his lips, a thrill of anticipation coursing through his veins.