The Beast of Calamity
Watching Aria shatter the wall of the disaster beast's enclosure with ease, I was stunned by her monstrous strength, but at the same time, I felt a wave of relief. '...Is she escaping because of the guards?' Someone like Aria could probably handle a few guards without breaking a sweat, but it seemed she was being unusually cautious—perhaps because of her position as a saint. 'Does she have a reason to maintain her saintly status?'
Even though she looked completely insane, Aria still seemed to follow some kind of behavioral logic and a personal 'line' she wouldn't cross. 'She already looks corrupted, but it's a bit different from the original story.' In the original work, after her fall, Aria lost all reason and drowned herself in slaughter. Talking to her normally should have been impossible. Unless someone was forcibly suppressing her madness. '...But there's no one who could do that.'
In the original story, she even mocked the gods themselves, so not even a deity could quell Aria's insanity. Other thoughts crossed my mind, but right now, escaping was the priority. 'The entrance and exit are probably swarming with guards by now. That means the only way out is through this hole she made.'
It was the exact opening Aria had punched through the wall—just big enough for one person to squeeze through. I was about to step toward it when a sudden, ominous thought struck me. 'She wouldn't be waiting for me outside, would she?' It might have been overly paranoid, but knowing Aria, she could easily pretend to leave and then lie in wait just ahead.
-Damn it. Those bastards who caused this mess have probably already slipped away by now. Why is everyone losing their minds over it?
-Tell me about it. Well, if the higher-ups say jump, we jump.
"Oh no."
The sound of footsteps was getting closer. It didn't seem like I had time to hesitate. I quickly tossed aside the fox mask I'd been carrying and squeezed my body into the hole Aria had created.
The moment I emerged, I scanned my surroundings, but thankfully, no one was waiting beyond the wall.
"Phew."
I let out a sigh of relief and headed straight for the Barhen family estate.
Drip—
On the way, blood I hadn't managed to swallow leaked from my mouth. 'Tsk. Did I bite down too hard?' I'd put too much force into it earlier, and the bleeding still wouldn't stop. 'This... isn't this a bit dangerous?' I needed to watch out for excessive blood loss. I'd survived so many crises before—it would be ridiculous to die from something as mundane as bleeding out.
'For now, I should get back quickly and at least staunch the wound with some cloth.'
I picked up my pace, determined to return as fast as possible. That's when the Distorted Dagger I'd been carrying began to twitch and move on its own.
'Huh? What the...?'
The scent of blood lingers.
It is his scent.
The woman gazed with vacant, violet eyes as her divine artifact resonated with her. In the current mortal realm, the laws of causality severely limited divine interference, but the presence of a sacred relic changed everything. If he touched the artifact, she could pull him into her domain at any moment.
A faint light began to bloom in her empty eyes. It was nearly ten thousand years since she'd last felt such ecstasy and pleasure. All of it—for his body and soul. The result of her summoning the relic to claim him completely.
"???"
No one had been summoned. Only the dagger remained, lying there alone.
She was momentarily stunned by the hollow outcome, but nothing changed.
I made it back to the estate safely and, with a slightly uneasy feeling, bit down on a strip of cloth. 'I threw it into the sewer just in case. That should be fine, right?' The Distorted Dagger had been infused with the aura of an evil god from the start. I'd originally planned to keep it for later use, but the moment it started trembling ominously, I hurled it into the nearest sewer drain.
'Better safe than sorry.'
Just like with Aria earlier, I couldn't fully trust the 'original story' anymore. It was only a reference. There might be side effects that weren't mentioned, and above all, my gut feeling about it had been terrible. Ever since coming to this world, my instincts had become strangely, almost excessively sharp.
'Is it just a survival instinct turned into a sixth sense?' Maybe all the near-death experiences had sharpened it. 'More importantly, the root of all this chaos is obvious now.'
Philia had demanded to break off her engagement with the protagonist she once loved, and Aria, who should have been helpless, had instead killed the assassin sent after her. Seeing them act in ways completely opposite to the original story, I finally understood the source of the unease I'd been feeling all along.
"Ian."
I could no longer deny the possibility.
"Ian...?"
It was hard to believe, but the 'me' right now...
"Ian!"
Someone called my name sharply. The high-pitched voice made me think it was Lucy, so I turned my head—only to freeze.
"Lucy. Why are you yelling so—ah, my lady?"
Philia was staring at me with an icy expression.
"I'm sorry, my lady. I was lost in thought for a moment."
When I hastily made an excuse, she demanded in an angry tone, "What happened to you? Look at the state you're in."
Right now, I had a blood-soaked cloth in my mouth and my hair was a mess. 'Yeah, I don't look normal at all.'
"Ah, I tripped while working and got a little hurt. Haha."
I tried to laugh it off like it was nothing, but Philia suddenly grabbed me by the collar.
"My lady...?"
As I panicked at the sudden closeness, Philia stared at the clear handprints around my neck and muttered in a low voice, "Your neck too. Who did this to you?"
At this point, if I didn't give her a proper answer, something bad was definitely going to happen. But I couldn't exactly tell her the truth—that a saint had done this—so I made up a suitable lie.
"Well... the truth is, I stepped out for a bit today and got jumped by some local thugs who wanted money. They were choking me, so I just handed it over quietly and left. They were really vicious. Still, I reported them to the patrol, so it should be handled properly."
Maybe it was thanks to my standoff with Aria, but I'd somehow become a skilled liar. 'I feel like the boy who cried wolf.' Well, in a big city like Catabel, there were plenty of thugs and underground organizations, so it was a believable enough story.
Philia listened without saying a word, staring fixedly at my neck.
"You don't need to worry too much. I'll make sure it doesn't interfere with my duties."
"......"
What could I even say? I'd never seen this expression on Philia's face before. It wasn't just cold—it was as if every trace of emotion had been wiped away. In a way, it was even more terrifying than Aria's mad grin. Less like a human and more like something inhuman...
"...Ian. Be careful from now on. Your body doesn't belong only to you."
"Understood."
'Because it belongs to the Barhen family?' Well, even if servants weren't exactly slaves, in a broad sense they could be considered property of the Barhen house, so she wasn't wrong.
Philia looked at me with an unreadable expression, then gently stroked my neck before turning and walking away.
'What was that about?' It might have been my imagination, but the look on her face at the very end was definitely...
Before I could sink into my thoughts, I noticed something strange about my body first.
"...That's weird. The pain's already gone?"
The stinging pain in my mouth had vanished in an instant. Even the minor aches throughout my body had disappeared as if they'd been washed away.
Philia had cast a high-level healing spell on Ian.
After using the spell on Ian, Philia slipped out of the estate and slowly made her way toward the back alleys. Normally, she would have been confined and unable to leave, but with a simple cognitive manipulation spell, she could exit the grounds unnoticed. Of course, what was 'simple' for the current Philia would be something ordinary people could never master even if they devoted their entire lives to it.
The moment Philia first saw Ian's wounds, the 'demon' inside her had nearly burst out uncontrollably. Naturally, if that demon emerged, the city would be destroyed—and Ian would be caught in the aftermath. So Philia had desperately held it back.
She didn't care about the lives of the people nearby. The only thing that mattered was Ian's safety. Until he grew strong enough, she planned to refrain from using her power as much as possible.
The deeper one went into Catabel's back alleys, the more sinister they became. At the entrance, there were beggars sitting around asking for alms, but the further in, the more it was filled with a spine-chilling silence.
Of course, none of it could block Philia's path. The criminal organizations lurking in the shadows, the cults rampant with fanatics— she passed by all of them in silence.
Eradicating those who had dared to harm Ian would have been far too easy for her. Since she didn't know exactly 'who' had done it, she simply decided to kill them all.
Releasing only the tiniest fraction of her authority, she scattered 'seeds' throughout the back alleys.
"Grow strong and tall, my children."
The next day, crimson spider lilies bloomed in thick clusters throughout Catabel's back alleys.
Thunder roared as the storm descended. It was far too colossal to be called a mere living being. A body so enormous it could swallow half the Western Continent. The man let out a hollow laugh in front of its majestic bulk and raised his sword.