Chapter 48
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Myth
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Let's check the reward first.
「Ominous Aura」 has been strengthened.
Ominous Aura has been strengthened!
...Not that it really moves me or anything.
I fought that holy knight precisely to get this in the first place.
Whatever it is, I'll just be satisfied knowing I got the reward.
I'd even thought about going full human-repelling mode since I'm a pitch-black crow anyway.
Acquired 「Sacred Aura」.
But this is different.
Suddenly getting Sacred Aura too? I never even imagined it.
It's the reward you get for building fame, just like how spreading infamy gives you Ominous Aura.
And I've gotten both.
Infamy makes sense.
I showed a bunch of adventurers me mercilessly attacking a holy knight, after all.
But fame?
Is it because I made that beautiful bald holy knight grow her hair back?
One strand of feather split thin as a thread and stuck perfectly to Bertolt's head.
It was a phenomenon even I couldn't understand.
I hadn't even thought a feather could split that finely.
If it could, I'd have shaped it into a sharp needle and shot it straight.
Anyway, it looked just like real hair.
Whether it actually grows or it's more like a wig, who knows.
Not my problem to worry about anymore.
The important thing is getting Sacred Aura itself.
Did they think my feather made her hair grow, or something?
Even if that's true... the only one who knows is Bertolt, right?
Infamy came from showing myself to a ton of adventurers.
Can one person's belief match or exceed a group's?
Is it because she's a holy knight, or did Bertolt want hair that badly? No idea.
Whatever. Good is good.
These traits I got aren't listed in the status window.
In other words, they're like the traits shown when setting up the character.
They're not obtained through normal means, which is fine, but it's frustrating not knowing their exact effects.
Conditions satisfied.
Huh?
「Sacred Aura」 and 「Ominous Aura」 clash with each other.
Sub-quest Duality unlocked.
A linked quest!
Nice, nice.
Quests keep coming—that's good news.
It feels like it's giving me some direction on what to do.
Your myth begins.
Nice. Gotta have at least one myth like this.
...
"Caw?"
I tilted my head.
Am I reading this right?
Myth?
Myth, really?
What the heck did I even do?
All I did was make a bald holy knight beauty's hair grow back.
*
After the crow retreated, the adventurers thoroughly searched Skarnas.
The expedition's goal wasn't just repelling the unknown enemy—it was also investigating the truth of Skarnas.
Using info from Ethan and Erica's party, they found Karida's journal and traces of ritual magic.
Bertolt—now helmetless, with twilight-hued hair swaying—muttered lowly at the evidence.
"...Eternal Night."
As she'd feared, someone had performed the Eternal Night ritual.
Was that crow the host of Eternal Night?
No, that couldn't be.
Based on the reports, it was more logical that the crow had subdued the Eternal Night host.
The brief but distinct night aura they'd felt.
That meant the crow had eliminated the host, nullifying the ritual.
"The crow we just saw isn't an ill omen. What it heralded was none other than twilight. Close to night, yet something that can never be called night."
It was hard for the adventurers to understand.
Very few even knew of Eternal Night.
But they nodded anyway.
Because Bertolt was a holy knight.
An Emerald Holy Knight, no less.
Whatever she said had to be right.
Unlike other nobles or authorities, a holy knight's position built responsibility and trust through words and actions.
"B-Bertolt, ma'am! We found something! Ugh, there's a human corpse over there...!"
It wasn't the summoner of Eternal Night.
But that didn't mean it was free of ill omens.
It could just be evil beings fighting over territory.
Which brought them to the remaining suspicion: the human corpses reported by the scouts.
Bertolt moved to confirm it.
Sure enough, there were chunks of human flesh and dried blood.
"Wait... th-this is...?"
One adventurer behind her, grimacing, spotted something on the ground.
"Red Scorpion Brotherhood?"
It was the Red Scorpion Brotherhood's insignia.
Whoever died here was scum not worth mourning.
Of course, that didn't excuse the crow.
Bertolt was a holy knight, duty-bound to exterminate threats to humanity.
Even if the human was guilty, it was her job to punish them.
She couldn't let a monster that tasted human flesh live.
Of course, this assumed the crow hunted them.
Bertolt's instincts told her there was more to this incident.
Her red eyes scanned around.
A massive gash carved into a tree.
That was no crow mark.
"Huff, huff... W-Wait a sec!"
A girl in mage robes came running up.
Mages were rare, so Bertolt had noted her before departure.
"I-I'm Erica! From the party that reported on that crow earlier... There's something I didn't mention...!"
Someone who'd seen the crow firsthand.
Bertolt listened silently.
What she said was this:
Yes, the crow had an ominous aura, but no intent to harm them.
It just seemed to be trying to drive them out of the village.
"I see. That makes sense. Even challenging me to fight... did it know everything...?"
That wasn't all.
"And... before it chased us out of here..."
Another powerful foe in the village: the ghost bride.
Erica told of approaching the mansion with Ethan, and how a mysterious ally resolved the ghost bride's grudge.
"You're saying the crow might be that ally."
Circumstances pointed that way.
Only Skarnas's giant crow had human-like intelligence and power to defeat such a foe.
"The mansion. Can you show me?"
"Y-Yes!"
Erica happily led Bertolt.
Since returning from the adventure, something had nagged at her.
The others feared the crow, but Erica saw it differently.
Especially that silver coin glimpsed in the crow's chest feathers.
It matched the one Ethan tossed to their ally.
"Everyone, stand by here."
Bertolt followed Erica.
The more they walked, the more familiar items littered the path.
Black feathers seen just before twilight.
It had used the mansion as a nest after driving out the ghost bride. Almost certain now.
"Right here!"
Erica and Bertolt arrived at the mansion.
After inspecting outside for a while, Bertolt entered.
Passing a complex barricade at the entrance, they found what seemed the crow's nest.
Feathers on the bedding, even cold roasted meat left behind.
A crow roasting meat defied common sense, but Bertolt thought it fit that crow.
Chasing its traces for a while, Erica and Bertolt spotted something.
An altar.
With a holed silver coin placed on it.
Seeing it erased Bertolt's last doubts.
The spirit that saved Skarnas: Raven.
Likely revered by villagers, it descended in rage at the Eternal Night host slaughtering them.
It blocked outsiders to save any remaining humans, then slew the host.
Once done, it left without lingering.
As if entrusting cleanup to the arriving holy knight.
Bertolt was a holy knight.
Holy knights served gods, or so the tales went—but it was slightly different.
What they prioritized above gods was conviction.
So her kneeling before the altar wasn't strange.
Erica didn't stop her, just bowed her head quietly.
She too had been helped by the crow.
Bertolt resolved.
To repay the divine beast that aided her, the adventurers, and the village.
She wouldn't stint offerings at this remaining altar.
Her duty was pursuing the Sage, so she'd entrust others to offer daily.
It didn't take long for Skarnas tales to spread.
Curious folk visited the altar.
Oddly, suspiciously shiny-headed people gathered in droves.
And the sheer volume of offerings they brought.
Shiny folk offering shiny things—the crow wouldn't hate it.
Thus began the Great Crow myth.
Of course, the myth's subject was oblivious to offerings piling on its altar, pondering feather attachments—but most myths start that way.