Chapter 65
Chapter 65
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 65
Chapter Title: As Expected, None
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As expected, none.
I readjusted my grip on my sword and approached the door.
The moment I reached for the doorknob, Alicia blocked my path.
“Stop right there.”
“...”
“Unfortunately, hostility alone isn’t proof of heresy. If it were, the imperial court would be crawling with heretics.”
Alicia York.
Uh, um.
I had plenty to say, but I decided to hold my tongue.
“If we strike before they bare their fangs, it only proves our own aggression. It’d just tip them off.”
“Th-then what should we do…?”
Alicia nodded toward the mountains visible through the window.
“What else? If they’re wolves, then we’re dragons.”
She draped an arm around my neck and began rummaging through my pockets with familiar ease.
“Ah…?! Your Highness! The Lord is watching!”
“…What exactly are you doing?”
“Hold still.”
My brief panic faded as she pulled out the antidote herb I’d packed from herbology class.
“A dragon only gets bitten if it lets its guard down.”
The villagers were mere lay followers, after all.
It was unrealistic to expect them to match the combat prowess of Marias or the bishops.
That’s why, in the original story, they tried slipping poison into the protagonists’ meal.
Without Lan’s poison immunity, the group had to fight with the poison debuff until the quest ended.
That’s precisely why I’d brought the antidote herbs.
“They’re not powerhouses. They’d lose head-on against us. If they’re hostile and act on it, poison is inevitable.”
She’d pierced the trap I knew from the original story using nothing but observation and deduction.
“…As expected of the Crimson Scales.”
“Kuhuhu. Praise from a junior feels special. Feel free to give more.”
“But why rummage through my pockets? You could’ve just asked me…”
“I’d rather just hear the praise.”
After tearing off a root of the antidote herb for Mine, I handed another to Alicia.
“I’m good.”
“You have your own antidote herb?”
“No.”
Alicia gave a wry smile.
“There probably aren’t many poisons that could affect me anyway. Better save it, just in case.”
Memories flashed of what she must have endured in the imperial succession struggle.
Poison attempts were likely routine for her.
I chewed on the antidote root, its bitter tang filling my mouth.
Once prepared, we opened the door and followed the innkeeper down to the first floor.
Dozens of villagers were already laughing and drinking in the inn’s common room.
At the center stood an old man with a beard trailing down to his chest.
The village chief of Ronwood Village.
“These are the new mercenaries who’ve come to our village.”
The chief welcomed us with a friendly smile at the innkeeper’s introduction.
“Come, sit right here.”
After introductions, the innkeeper led us to the central table.
The table was laden with generous portions of food we hadn’t ordered.
Soon, the promised local brew was poured into glasses before us.
A dark crimson liquid of unknown origin.
Just like the church’s black flame.
“Here’s to the new mercenaries in Ronwood Village!”
At the chief’s shout, every villager in the inn raised their glasses in unison.
Their gazes fixed on us intently.
At Alicia’s signal, I lifted my glass of the crimson liquid.
We toasted, set down our glasses, and began eating.
All the while, I kept watch on the chief and the villagers.
They never took their eyes off us.
Like wolves waiting for their prey to collapse.
“Hahaha! How’s our village fare? To your liking?”
“Excellent. The best I’ve had lately.”
“The orc meat is remarkably consistent.”
Time passed.
If the food had been laced with lethal poison, symptoms would’ve shown by now.
But we were perfectly fine.
Finally, the smile vanished from the chief’s face.
“…Why aren’t you affected?”
His cold voice was like a signal. Every villager in the inn rose from their seats.
Weapons had appeared in their hands.
The room, once filled with laughter, brimmed with killing intent in an instant.
Mine and I swallowed our food and slowly stood.
“Who knows.”
Gripping the sword at my waist, I replied to the chief.
“The food’s so bland, the poison isn’t taking effect.”
“…You knew.”
“With all that hostility radiating off you, it’d be weirder if we didn’t. Treat your guests kinder in the next life.”
The chief’s face twisted in rage at Alicia’s mockery.
“Offer these scum to the god!”
At his cry, every villager charged with weapons raised.
Each blade gleamed with dark crimson black flame.
Proof positive they were heretics.
No more hesitation needed.
Mine moved first—she’d been prepared.
“Judgment of the Lord upon you fools who serve the Evil God!”
Her prayer filled the room with pure white light.
Holy enchant settled on my and Alicia’s weapons.
Swords glowing with holy power.
That was our signal.
Without a moment’s delay, I kicked the table aside and charged the chief.
I cleaved through a couple of cultists blocking my path with instant kills and shouted.
“Elly! Buff, please!”
Once the fight started, they’d try to alert the branch.
Our plan was to let none escape and smash the branch by day’s end.
Alicia’s fluidity enhancement buff was essential for that.
But for some reason, no buff came.
“Kuhuhuhu.”
Glancing back, Alicia sat slumped on the floor, chuckling awkwardly.
“I said there aren’t many poisons that work on me.”
“…You did.”
“Wouldn’t you know, this one does. Paralysis toxin, it seems. My body’s numb; I can’t move.”
“?”
“Ah, should’ve eaten the antidote herb.”
‘Trolling here of all places?’
I was dumbfounded.
No choice—I hoisted Alicia onto my back and swung my sword.
“Kraaak!”
Cultists screamed and fell around us, but the situation wasn’t great.
Even if Mine hated Evil God followers, her dungeon performance meant we couldn’t rely on her heavily.
I was the core of this operation.
And right when I needed the speed buff, I was lugging dead weight.
“Put some muscle into it! Ah! They’re escaping?!”
“Stay still!”
“That way! We need to break through there first!”
Worse, Alicia started tap-dancing on my back.
‘…Should I just drop her?’
That moment arrived soon enough.
Terror filled the eyes of cultists as their comrades died without landing a blow.
A few turned to flee.
‘Shit.’
That instant.
Kwaang!
A flash erupted from behind, piercing a fleeing cultist’s back.
Mine’s Holy Calling.
Five cultists charged her at once.
“Rozia, over here!”
I reached for Mine, but she shook her head.
Her hand now gripped a mace of shattering imbued with holy enchant.
The cultists’ eyes burned with demonization as they gathered demonic energy at their fingertips.
Mine’s face twisted at the sight of the blazing energy.
“You blasphemous wretch!”
Kwajik!
“Keheuk!”
“…?”
Mine’s mace shattered one cultist’s skull clean.
The mace that crushed monster hides like tofu struck a human head.
The girl who freaked out over a single spider.
The bottom-tier saintess with zero kills all week.
Now she was pulping a man’s head like a watermelon right before me.
What the hell?
I wasn’t the only shocked one.
The remaining four cultists charging at me and Mine froze in place.
Mine’s face showed no tremor.
Her eyes, readjusting the mace, held only disgust, like she was staring at insects.
“Who’s next?”
Her icy voice broke the cultists’ will to fight.
“Th-this…! What are you waiting for? Kill them now!”
Seizing the opening, I kicked off the floor with Alicia on my back.
Seok!
My sword sliced air, severing the chief’s head.
Simultaneously, Mine crushed the shoulder of a cultist lunging at her with her mace.
Minutes later, the only ones moving in the inn were the three of us.
I gently set Alicia down.
Then I looked at Mine coldly surveying the corpses.
“…”
No regret or guilt in her eyes.
She pulled a duskweed from her pocket, chewed it, and faint smoke rose from her mouth.
‘If you’re that good, why not earlier?’
Smashing heretic skulls like nothing, yet trembling before dungeons and monsters.
This selective dungeon phobia.
Still, it felt off.
In the original, Mine hated cultists too, but it was mostly pity and sorrow.
This Mine was excessively brutal.
My eyes kept drifting to her duskweed, but we had no time—priorities first.
“You’re way more capable than planned, and she’s way less. Saved our skins, though.”
“Elly’s… not there?”
“Yeah. Hesitation’s just poison. Once decided, move fast.”
I meant it sincerely.
Sadly, no time for chit-chat.
I sighed inwardly and said,
“No time. We hit the branch before word spreads.”
“Indeed.”
Alicia extended both hands to me.
Hitchhike request.
Yeah. As expected, none.
I hoisted Alicia onto my back again.
We left the blood-soaked inn, crossed the darkened Ronwood Village, and began ascending the mountain path.
Thankfully, no signs of pursuit.
⁎⁎⁎
The Tartaros Church’s Ronwood branch was a small villa midway up the mountain.
From the outside, no one would suspect a heretic lair.
But inside, it was a different world.
The mansion reeked of a dreamlike incense that could empty your mind if you weren’t careful.
This once-ordinary branch had filled with this eerie aroma two weeks ago, when a certain woman arrived.
A massive magic circle etched into the floor.
Around it lay the naked corpses of imperial soldiers.
Scouts captured after locating and surveilling the branch.
Oddly, every corpse—male and female alike—was utterly nude.
More bizarre, their faces bore not agony, but utter ecstasy in death.
At the center of this grotesque scene sat a woman haphazardly draped in black silk robes.
She lounged sideways on a long chair, swirling a glass of red liquid.
“Ahh, behold. Such beautiful expressions.”
She caressed the cheek of the nearest fallen knight with a languid touch and whispered,
“Freed from painful reality, asleep in eternal bliss. This is our church’s greatest mercy—our love.”
Then, a low-ranking cultist entered and reported.
“Fourth Bishop. Contact with the village has been lost.”
“Oh? Looks like we have guests.”
She’d been dispatched here recently on headquarters’ orders.
To handle the aftermath of the Seventh Bishop Marias Gerens’s death and the Temple of Repose raid.
Events that “shouldn’t” have happened yet, one after another.
Normally, they’d erase traces and flee upon location exposure.
But this time, headquarters chose differently.
They predicted the empire would send its most famous sword after the missing soldiers.
And the empire’s sword with the highest buzz lately?
None other than the Dirge Sword.
“Lucky us. I get to love you right here.”
A serpentine, cunning smile curled her lips.
Her name was Eliber Han.
Originally the bishop overseeing the Doll Dungeon, colloquially known as the “Lover.”