This Fucking Life (5)
They walked on.
The two nuns advanced through the quiet forest, searching for the vanished Saintess, until they had come a long way — all the way to a mountain that sat well apart from the village and church of the 7th Floor Area. The odds that the Saintess had wandered this far were vanishingly small.
Something rustled in the undergrowth.
"Saintess! Where are you!"
Still, you never knew. They swept their flashlights through the dark, hunting for the woman who had disappeared. On top of everything else, it was said she had offered up her eyes and her voice in exchange for God's love — which meant the Saintess could barely see what lay in front of her, and even when she had something to say, she could not make a sound. A pitiful existence. How could they possibly leave someone like that all alone?
And so the nuns pressed deeper into the mountain, searching.
Ordinarily, junior nuns weren't supposed to split off from the others like this. But given the circumstances, and given that this wasn't a dungeon, it was the sort of thing that got a pass.
At the mouth of a ravine, they stopped.
"What should we do? Do we keep going?"
The novice asked her senior first. If they went any farther, the forest would grow dense. With that many trees, the radio would likely fail, and if anything urgent happened they wouldn't be able to reach the church — meaning they wouldn't be able to call for backup.
"Hmm. Might be a little dangerous. Wild boars show up around here sometimes... wait."
The senior, sweeping her flashlight across the ground, suddenly spotted something odd.
"Hold on. Look at this."
"What is it?"
"Aren't these footprints? The size looks like a woman's."
A single trail of footprints, pressed into the earth and leading into the woods. The gouged soil, the crushed leaves, the size of them — all of it matched a woman's foot, about the same as their own. Whoever it was had gone into the forest alone, and not all that long ago. Maybe two hours, give or take.
"...Let's report this first. They still haven't found the Saintess, and she might have come this way."
If you assumed the Saintess had walked this far, the timing lined up. And off in the distance, flashlight beams still flickered around the church — meaning the others hadn't found her either. It was enough to raise a suspicion.
"Ah, okay. Then I'll radio in right—huh?"
They were about to call it in. Footprints, likely a woman's, found in the woods at the foot of the mountain. A search of the area seemed warranted.
"What's wrong? Something the matter?"
"The radio isn't working. It won't even turn on."
"Oh, for crying out loud. Of all the times for it to break... When are they going to replace these ancient pieces of junk?"
A problem had arisen. The radio the nuns had brought wouldn't work. The cause was unknown, but given how short-lived the magic stones that powered these radios were, it was probably just a dead battery. That kind of failure happened all the time.
"What do we do? If something happens to the Saintess—"
"Well, we can't say for sure it's her. But it might be, so..."
The mountain was steep. There were cliffs you'd die from if you fell, and pits so deep you'd never climb out. And a blind Saintess had gone into a place like that? They had no idea why she'd come — but her safety came first.
If it really was the Saintess and we didn't go after her, we'd get chewed out so badly. And then there's the broken radio on top of that.
There was no other choice. The senior, who had about a year of experience, made the call.
"You head down to the village and get word to the church. They can swap out the magic stone there."
"Got it. But what about you, Senior?"
"What else? I'll go look for the Saintess on my own."
She would search the forest. The junior would go down to the village and contact the church.
"It'll be dangerous alone! Are you sure?!"
"I'll be fine. I'm not gonna die. Worst case, a few wild boars show up, and I can punch those out no problem."
It was a choice she could make because she herself was an E-Rank Awakener.
"Mmm... I mean, I guess..."
Most Awakeners were obligated to become hunters and contribute to climbing the Tower. But those of the lowly E-Rank could, like ordinary people, fulfill their duty through military service or by joining a convent, and so be exempted from a hunter's obligations. Fighting monsters at E-Rank was a serious struggle, after all. Even so, they were far stronger than regular people — that much was true.
A few wild boars showing up would actually be welcome. Meat hardly ever made it onto the church's table. If some did, they could finally eat their fill for once.
"And what's the worst that could happen? Worse than dying? Besides, if I find the Saintess, we'll get leave — and our training period might even get shortened."
"...You're really sure? Then I'll hurry down to the village and make the call."
"Yeah. Be careful, okay?"
"You too, Senior."
From the junior's perspective, her senior's words made sense. The most dangerous thing on this mountain was the occasional wild boar that tore up the fields — and even those the nuns went out to deal with on a regular basis, so the odds of running into one were slim. About as slim as the Saintess heading into this mountain in the first place.
"I'd better hurry... I'm going to be late at this rate."
Leaving her senior behind as she entered the forest, the nun headed down toward the village to replace the radio's battery.
Twenty minutes had passed since she'd started walking. Even the moon was hidden behind clouds; the only thing she could rely on was the beam of her flashlight. But fortunately this wasn't that deep into the woods. She wasn't likely to run into any beasts, and if she kept a good pace she'd reach the village soon enough.
Rustle. Rustle.
"?"
...Yes. That would have been true of the forest as it originally was.
"Senior?"
The nun, who had been walking at a steady clip, stopped at the sound of something moving in the underbrush. Had her senior come back down? Come to think of it, she couldn't quite remember whether her senior had taken the flashlight with her.
"Did you forget to bring a flashlight?"
For searches, they always went out in pairs in case one flashlight's battery died. Normally if one ran out you'd use the other's, but every now and then someone forgot theirs entirely. Had she come back to ask for the light?
Rustle.
"Hey, that's scary. Could you not play around like that?"
But calling out to her senior brought no answer. Had she run into a wild animal? There was definitely a presence, but no voice came back.
"...Hmm? Whew."
The nun soon relaxed and started toward the brush. As she swept her flashlight toward the presence, she'd caught sight of the black veil that nuns wore. Her senior was probably trying to play a prank — unfortunately for the joke, the black veil fluttering between the trees had given her away.
"Senior, if you're going to pull a prank, at least do it prope—huh?"
But when she actually got close to the underbrush, what she saw was not her senior.
"Senior?"
What she'd seen a moment ago had indeed been her senior's veil. Except, more precisely, it was a bloodstained veil hanging from a tree.
"This is... is that blood?"
And from the veil, blood was dripping. Drip. Drip. Which meant the blood on it wasn't old. Until just a few minutes ago, the person wearing this veil had been walking through the forest. That was the proof.
And then—
Rustle!
Something was wrong. That was her senior's veil. No question. The bloodstained portion had her senior's name written on it. Unless there was someone else with the same name, that was that.
Rustle! Rustle!
Something was coming.
"S-Senior...? This kind of joke isn't funny."
The nun swallowed hard and called her senior's name.
A wind rushed through the trees — but no answer came. Only an ominous gust, thick with the stench of blood.
Then, from behind her, came the sound of footsteps.
They were familiar footsteps, and when she shone her flashlight, a human shadow appeared on the ground. It was her senior.
"Ah, Senior—"
A dull, heavy impact.
Huh?
At the same instant, something smashed into the nun's head. She lost her balance and collapsed to the ground.
"...Wh-what?"
Then her consciousness began to fade, and with a pain she couldn't place, something hot ran down her forehead.
What... what is this?
A red liquid was spreading across the ground. To her shock, all that blood filling her vision was flowing from her own head. Fresh, hot red liquid pouring out. Her vision stained crimson, she couldn't make sense of what had happened. Naturally, her voice wouldn't come out properly either.
"Sen... Senior..."
What on earth had happened? What had done this to her — and why was her senior just standing there, staring down at her as she lay on the ground?
A body hit the dirt.
?
The nun soon understood why. The senior who had been shambling vaguely forward had, upon reaching her, collapsed without a shred of strength.
"Senior?"
Moonlight fell. It illuminated the face of the senior collapsed in front of her — the face that had been hidden in shadow.
"Ah."
Her senior's face, lit by the moon, was no different from usual. Except that, just like her, a red liquid was running down her forehead, and she was staring blankly into empty air.
"Grrrr..."
Then came a bone-chilling cry. It wasn't a boar. The owner of that cry was smaller than a boar, about the size of a child — and she found herself wishing it had been a boar instead.
"...Ah."
Green skin. A lumpy, ugly face. That appearance, and a child's build? That alone was enough for the nun to identify it.
Among the monsters that frequently opened Gates and appeared, they were known as the worst of the worst. Each individual was so weak that Gate signals barely registered, and yet they came in filthy numbers — the number-one monster hunters despised.
"Gruk! Gruk!"
The cries multiplied. Then the goblins dragged the fallen nuns away, vanishing into the deep forest.
One hour later.
Ruina arrived at the mountain behind the village district.
"..."
At the entrance were the footprints of the nuns who had gone silent — and no trace of them coming back out. Meaning the nuns were still on the mountain. A recall order had gone out about an hour ago, and they still hadn't emerged.
"...Fuck."
They'd found the Saintess. Now they had a different problem on their hands.