The Vengeful Apostle's Plea
Cloud tumbled forward toward the high priest, grabbing his leg and starting to beg. “High Priest! Please spare me! The truth is I got sick because of the witch’s trickery!”
“What about it?”
“If you catch this illness, you’ll go into convulsions like me and die within three days!”
“So what?”
Cloud writhed in agony, frustrated that the high priest still didn’t understand. “Why can’t people understand a simple thing? I came here to join, not because I was actually sick!”
“What? Not because you came to join?”
“The villagers told me that a magical plant called Healing Snowbloom grows around the Light Tower, so I came hoping to get it!”
The village residents began to murmur among themselves. “That guy’s got a contagious disease, right?”
“If it spreads, that’s scary…”
“Snowbloom? Bullshit! Let’s drive him out of the village right now!”
Meanwhile, Sylvia watched quietly with a smile of admiration. Cloud had become a chameleon-like actor, constantly changing his performance with every situation. His desperate thrashing looked ridiculous, but for some reason it was kind of cool…
The high priest shook his legs fiercely, trying to pry Cloud off. “Get lost! You’re useless to me now! I’ll take your wife instead!”
Cloud frowned and said, “Why are you being so stingy? You could just give it to me for free, right?”
“The Healing Snowbloom that grows in the Light Tower is different from ordinary snowbloom. It’s extremely miraculous, so wealthy people from all over the country buy it at huge prices. Would you expect someone like you to get it for free?”
“How much does one cost?”
“Fifty million gents.”
“Hah!”
“With your strength, you could never afford it, right?”
The high priest sneered, his lips twisting into an evil smile. “Several guys just like you came here looking for herbs because they were pretending to be sick for the past few days. Unfortunately, I didn’t give them the herbs. Instead, I killed all the men and took all the women. You’ll be next, so enjoy your fate.”
The high priest ordered the surrounding men. “Prepare the ritual, and throw this guy to the ‘Beowulf’!”
“Yes!”
The men answered in unison. Three men grabbed him, and Cloud glanced nervously toward the distance. The edge of the flat hills that stretched like a plain was completely quiet with no signs of life. Cloud clicked his tongue. He immediately looked at Sylvia. “Sylvia! Start!”
“Understood!”
Sylvia, still tied at the waist by the ropes, sprang up like lightning from her spot, and began to knock the unsuspecting men to the ground with flashy kicks. Thud! Thud! “Aaaah!” “Gack!”
Cloud quickly pulled out a miniature dagger the size of his thumb from his pocket, cut the ropes binding his body, and shouted urgently into the air. “How long are you going to stand there watching?!”
Some villagers’ shocked gazes turned toward the roof. A shadow of an unknown person suddenly fell over the sun-drenched roof, and arrows shot like lightning. Fsh! Fsh! Fsh! “Kyah!” “Ack!” “Aaaah!”
The men who had been trying to grab Cloud and Sylvia fell one after another, pierced by arrows. The village residents screamed and panicked as the square turned into chaos in an instant. “It’s an elf! That’s an elf!” Someone shouted while pointing at the roof.
Cloud’s gaze turned to the roof. He saw the figure of a woman standing against the bright summer sun. Her radiant skin glowed under a red leather jacket and skirt that shimmered like fire, and her long sky-blue hair fluttered wildly in the wind. Elena Sairalinde! Cloud finally understood the true identity of the guardian angel. The one who had provided him with a horse and weapons when they left Valua, left a fruit sack during their rest stop on the way, and who he had thought was dead… was her. The arrows flying from the bow in her hand struck the people wandering around Cloud with pinpoint accuracy. And then it happened. A heretic hurriedly climbed up from the village watchtower and shouted at the high priest. “High Priest! The Valua army! Huff huff! High Priest, the Valua army is coming!”
The high priest’s eyes widened. Looking far into the distance of the village, he saw dozens of Valua flags fluttering in the wind atop the green hills. The high priest frowned and raised his staff high. “Defend the village! We are the chosen ones of Ophelia! We will never fall while Ophelia watches over us!”
Encouraged by the high priest’s furious shout, the heretics began to move busily. The number of heretics gathered in the square, excluding the forces to capture Cloud and Sylvia, started to decrease rapidly. They dressed in white robes with determination, grabbed spears, swords, and bows from the weapon warehouse, and ran to the areas they had been assigned. Their neat and consistent movements looked like well-rehearsed actions prepared in advance to counter the expected Valua invasion. “The Valua guys are underestimating us. This is a good chance to teach them what happens when you touch us.”
The high priest grumbled irritably while walking into the Light Tower, completely ignoring Cloud, Sylvia, and the elf. In the meantime, Cloud quickly cut the ropes binding Sylvia’s body. “Humiliating Hero Ophelia! I won’t let these bastards off!”
It seemed she had been holding back. Once her body was free, she snatched the sword the heretic had been holding and began to swing it vigorously. Taking advantage of the chaotic situation, a heretic ran up from behind her. “Die!” “Ugh!”
Cloud reflexively closed his eyes and raised his arms to block the blow. However, the heretic swinging the sword flinched and froze. An arrow had pierced through his back and come out the front of his chest. He gripped the arrow with a twisted expression and fell. It wasn’t just him. The people circling around Cloud were also struck by arrows from Elena in rapid succession, their chests pierced like leaves in the wind. They fell like fallen leaves without any real resistance. Elena was dropping heretics with an unbelievable speed and precision. She was as fast and accurate as Sylvia, who wielded a sword, and they couldn’t be compared. She sat on one knee on the roof, taking precise shots at the heretics approaching Cloud.
But the roof soon stopped being a safe spot. Several heretics crawled up to the roof on all fours. One gripped a gleaming axe, and the other stood in defensive posture with a steel shield. Moreover, on the roof of the neighboring building, three heretics who had just climbed up drew bows and hastily took their positions. “……!”
Realizing the situation instantly, Elena pulled her bowstring taut and fired three arrows at the neighboring roof with incredible speed. Fsh! Fsh! Fsh! “Kyah!” “Ugh!” “Aaaah!”
The archers on the neighboring roof grabbed their necks and fell downward one by one. Next, a heretic from behind raised his axe. Without hesitation, he swung it down. Sensing it beforehand, Elena ran away at an astonishing speed. An arrow flew right after and pierced the heretic’s neck who had clicked his tongue in regret at not being able to kill her. “Wow, Elena is amazing….”
Cloud had completely forgotten about the Snowbloom and was staring blankly at the distant Elena. “Cloud! It’s not time to watch the show!”
Sylvia leaped up, grabbed his shoulders with both hands, and looked into his eyes. Her gaze seemed angry about something. “You know that elf, right?”
“J-just a little.”
She shook his shoulders vigorously. “You’re not going to do anything with that girl too, are you?!”
“N-no!”
“If you do it with other women from now on, I’ll kill you!”
“W-why?”
“You’re asking even though you know!”
“I’m asking because I don’t know!”
“Shut up!”
Sylvia muttered vaguely and grabbed Cloud’s hand, leading the way with the sword in her other hand. “Stop ogling other women and come quickly! We need to get the herbs!”
After driving off some of the heretics, no more came running. The heretics, facing a huge threat of war, had their nerves focused entirely on the village outskirts, ignoring the two. Even those who ignored them either ran off somewhere in panic or were busy carrying war supplies, so many passed by without noticing. “Haha! Good, good!”
Since there were no obstacles in the way, it was a blessing. Cloud and Sylvia rushed into the herb field near the Light Tower in an instant.