The Dullahan Priestess's Invitation
RPG games let you handle side quests just fine. I stayed calm for now and looked at the woman in front of me. First off, she had three heads—no, not attached to her neck. Her head was just enormously oversized, which caught me off guard. Her hair was braided from the back and sides into a single ponytail. As she sat in the chair, she leaned a stone staff with a ring on it against her side. I'd seen adventurers who'd been to the Magic Palace carrying those kinds of things before, so I knew priests usually wielded them. The woman slowly blinked her closed eyes—wait, no, her eyes that were closed—and adjusted her glasses with her hand. I felt all eyes in the cafe turning toward us and shut my own. How was I supposed to break this awkward silence?
After asking if I was doing well, she hadn't said another word, just sat there in silence. Even though she was a beauty with the rare elegance of a noblewoman, and her blinking eyes peered at me, there was an indescribable eeriness about her. Her snow-white skin lacked any sign of life that living beings should have. With hands as smooth and flawless as carved marble, she leisurely scanned the menu with her finger and called over a staff member. The cafe workers, terrified by the sudden appearance of a headless woman, huddled in the corner trembling until the youngest one was pushed forward to take her order.
".....The sweetest thing you've got, one."
It took her a full two minutes of pondering before she finally spoke. Was it laid-back, or just excessively slow?
"....Looks like you're ordering something healthy."
The severed head spoke to me as she gazed my way. The food I'd already melted into a mess by then. It was obvious she had business with me. But she sat down at my table without a word—plenty of empty seats around—ordered one thing, and now we were just staring each other down. Was she agonizing over what to say? In this suffocating space, I mulled over my thoughts alone.
"The outfit does show some cleavage, yeah. Priest robes are just too big by default.....Does it bother you?"
"Nah, no one's gonna stare there normally."
Who'd be gawking at boobs with a head rolling around? Not knowing what to say, I kept my cool, gauged her reaction carefully, and opened my mouth.
"So, does the Dullahan have some business with me?"
In my old world, headless monsters that carried their own heads around were called Dullahan. Here, they seemed to exist as one of the other races. She fell silent again at my question. When her chocolate ice cream arrived, her body leisurely scooped it up by hand and fed it to her mouth, while the head accepted it, closed her eyes, and seemed lost in thought.
"....I come from the All Gods Temple."
She only spoke after eating half the ice cream, chewing it so contentedly with puffed cheeks that I wondered if this was her real purpose.
"A priest who serves the Shining Lord Rasihan...."
She continued after finishing the chocolate ice cream. By then, I'd casually ordered something else. She was just one of those slow-talking people. The other patrons, adapting to the Dullahan's turtle-like pace of thought, went back to their own business. These people's adaptability was freakishly high. Probably because this isekai world had incidents popping up left and right.
"Sorry~ Are you here? Pardon me, I was swamped. How's the chat going with Radamu?"
"She's in the middle of introducing herself. About two hours now. We've even heard she's a priest of the Shining Lord from the All Gods Temple."
"This girl, seriously—no way she's dozing off again, right? You're not some child of darkness; get some sunlight!"
Ms. Knox pinched the Dullahan's cheek, lifted her head, and shook it. She whimpered that it hurt and carefully took her head back.
"Greetings, Auntie....It's been....80 years since we last met, right?"
"Oh, you. Getting dementia at that age? It was eight months ago, silly! Hohoho."
Ms. Knox smacked her back and explained that the girl was a bit odd. Clearly, the Dullahan miss was right.... But auntie? Just how old was this receptionist lady?
"A god from the All Gods Temple is looking for you, Radamu."
"A god?"
I wasn't sure if it was urgent, but dispatching a priest meant the god was calling pretty insistently. A god summoning me out of the blue.... Ms. Knox said gods usually called people who had priest or holy knight potential, or to deliver prophecies or special blessings. Blessings often came without summons—the god just spoke directly. But some gods frequently did it this way, apparently.
A god seeking me. I'd wanted to visit the All Gods Temple anyway. A massive island of gods floating over the sea sounded epic. I'd imagined it as a temple built on land since it's in the central region. She said it would take months to get there, so we should prepare thoroughly. We could gate to nearby, but boats were mandatory. Installing gates on the temple would invade the gods' domain—strictly forbidden.
"Her name is Nex Hades Mortis. She's the eldest daughter of the Hades family, no less."
"Never heard of her."
"Figured as much."
Dullahan were former demonkin who swore loyalty to Captain Eagle, turned their backs on the Maou, and now mostly worshipped the Shining Lord, even converting their faith. Their racial trait? Infamously slow and deliberate. Scholars said it was because they had no heart in their torso.
"No heart?"
"Dullahan's real body is the head. As long as that's fine, they won't die. No heart means no blood flow, hence the pale complexion."
"Isn't that just dead?"
"But she's alive, isn't she?"
Fair point. Ironclad logic I couldn't argue with. I was curious about the mechanism keeping her alive, though. They were a race of priests and holy knights, so few in number they were predicted to go extinct. Long-lived, but hedonistic with zero interest in most things—no marriages, barely any interaction even among their own kind.
"But get this~ If they fall in love, they drop lines like 'You're my heart' or whatever."
"Sounds like something you heard secondhand."
"Read it."
"Pardon?"
"It's from a book."
"Ah, right."
"....I am Nex Hades Mortis."
Ms. Knox straightened up seriously, but Nex nodded, cut her off, and finished her introduction. With that, her busy-looking body tidied up around them, picked up her head, and stood.
"Please follow me to the All Gods Temple. A god seeks you."
"......Sorry, she's always like this."
"...I'm 132 this year, Auntie....I'm an adult too."
Whoa, her age was on a whole different scale. And Ms. Knox was her auntie? She'd been an A-rank adventurer—what kind of life had she lived?
"What? The All Gods Temple? A god's looking for you?"
"As expected, big bro's a druid after all!"
When the party rejoined us and heard we had business at the temple, Larirure Larirarion was fine with it, but Lemon Hyacinth begged to tag along too. Even with the whole party coming, the Dullahan priest just asked if we were ready to depart—no objections. I'd thought she'd walk slow, but she moved surprisingly fast—we practically had to jog to keep up.
"We'll take a gate to a kingdom near the Salacia Sea."
"The Salacia Sea, huh....The place with all those creepy rumors lately?"
"Less rumor, more incident."
We stepped toward the gate marked for Hanasin Kingdom. Seafood sounded good since it's by the sea. Following the Dullahan priest, we emerged to an endless expanse of blue sea greeting us. Massive ships came and went, unknown otherkin bustled about, and we overlooked a white-sand beach where some swam and played. They must've placed the gate here on purpose for the view.
"Epic...! This is the Salacia Sea! The ocean!"
"Ugh, hate it. Sea's not my thing. Feels like my lungs are rusting."
Unlike the excited Lemon Hyacinth, Larirure Larirarion grumbled that she regretted coming.
The Dullahan priest leaned her staff against her chest for a moment, unfolded a paper with one hand to check it, then stood blankly still for about ten minutes—no movement. We waited around her for another twenty after that.
"Dullahan live 500 years, y'know. Elf-head smashers— their species name literally means 'elf killers.' Even sword Masters can't split those ridiculously tough skulls."
"Insane."
"That's why the elf Overlords wiped 'em out. Demons or us—survivors are countable on one hand. Not the Hades family that priest mentioned, but yeah. Maybe seven left total."
That was basically extinct already. Even Sword Masters couldn't decapitate them? And the Overlord who nearly did it—what kind of monster was that? Power balance in this world was whack. Seven Dullahan left, utterly indifferent even to each other. We were watching a species go extinct in real time.
"Big bro! Sis! Got tasty stuff! Here's the grilled salmon sis wanted, and fish and chips for big bro!"
"Seriously, hate to say it, but is that stuff even good, Radamu?"
It was edible—what was the problem? What monsters were around Hanasin Kingdom? Good to know about the locals too. We chatted about random stuff like that for an hour.
"....The reserved boat ticket has expired."
"Huh? By how much?"
After all that stalling, figures it'd be late. I took her ticket, checked the date and time. Yeah, way overdue.
"How long, Radamu? Refundable?"
"Three days."
"That's way too late."