The Wolves' Revenge (1)
Finding a cat around wasn't all that strange.
This was a world where monsters ran rampant, sure, but the ecosystem itself was built from the same animals you'd find on Earth.
The problem was that, as far as I knew, no cat in existence had a jewel embedded in its forehead.
"Shoo."
"Myaaa."
I didn't get any particularly ominous vibe off it, so I just waved my hand to chase it off. Instead of fleeing, the thing sauntered right up and rubbed itself against me.
I thought cats were supposed to be wary animals. What was this one's deal?
"Wow! A cat!"
Luna came out at the sound of its meowing. Her face lit up the moment she spotted me after seeing the cat.
"Nothing happened while I was gone?"
"Not really."
"Hmm. So you went out and killed things just like always."
It had been the same as always. The only difference was that this time I hadn't charged in to kill—I'd charged in to protect.
"Never mind that. Take a look at this."
"You didn't bring it home to raise it?"
"Why would I raise something like this?"
It wasn't that I hated dogs or cats. But for an exorcist priest, keeping a pet was just another way of creating a weakness. That was a habit best avoided.
"Come on, let's keep it!"
"Hsssk!"
"Eek!"
Why was it throwing a fit the second Luna tried to pick it up? And then it had the nerve to pad over and sit quietly at my side. Unbelievable.
"Seems like it's got a rotten temper, so maybe we should just…"
"Here. You two can get along just fine!"
Luna scooped it into her arms again. This time the cat didn't hiss—though the look on its face still screamed that it was thoroughly unimpressed.
"Just a second…"
I sparked a tiny flame of divine power on my fingertip and gently brushed it over the cat. Nothing seemed off.
"I'll let you keep it, but I'm not helping. Looking after a cat is going to be part of your schedule from now on, so you'll have to handle it yourself."
"Yes!"
"And try to keep it inside the cathedral as much as possible. With looks like that, if it wanders outside it's either going to get itself killed or get stolen for looking expensive."
One or the other—dead, or snatched for a high price.
"Sister Bella! The kitty-cat is here!"
"Kitty-cat?"
Bella, who had been sprawled across a chair in the sacred confessional, sat up to inspect the cat. She didn't look particularly moved.
It was roughly cat-shaped, so they could figure out how to live with it on their own.
I had been moving and fighting without rest all day, and somewhere in the middle of it I'd even sent a report back to headquarters. Ordinarily I would have just reported the kill later, but a monster that could steal a human's memories, power, and appearance all at once was a different class of threat. I hadn't had a choice.
"Haaah."
I washed up, dropped onto the bed, and my eyes shut on their own.
Skritch-scratch.
It would have been perfect if not for the sound of something clawing at my door.
I'd never raised a cat myself, but I'd heard somewhere that they scratched with their claws, so I cracked the door open.
In the distance Luna came sprinting in her pajamas, while the cat darted straight into my room the instant the door opened.
"Kitty-cat!"
I tried to hand it over quickly so I could sleep, but it had already wriggled under the bed. It clearly had no intention of coming out, and from the look of it, it was fully prepared to curl up and sleep with me starting tonight.
"Sister Luna."
"Yes…"
"Cats are sensitive animals. They're not like dogs—if you grab them and hug them too much, they just end up hating it more."
I told her that if she kept a comfortable distance and spent time with it properly, it would eventually relax and come closer on its own. Only then did she turn and leave.
"Myaa."
"You get out of here too."
I told it to leave, and instead it settled in like it owned the place. I just shifted over to make room and climbed into bed.
"Whew."
At last I closed my eyes and let sleep take me.
As my exhausted body drifted under, I suddenly remembered who the jewel in the cat's forehead had looked like.
"It's the same color as the Empress's… mmh."
Whether it matched the eye color of some woman far away in the capital or not, sleep came first.
Whether a new monster called a Skinwalker had appeared or not, the cathedral's day began exactly the same as always.
Bella woke early without meaning to, swept along by the bustling morning energy of the place.
"Hyaaawn!"
She had gotten used to the hard bed, and for the first time in her life she felt genuine comfort. The irritation and fatigue that always clung to her had vanished.
She shuffled out and peeked through Dante's slightly open door. The cat she had met for the first time yesterday was sprawled on its back, sleeping in blissful comfort.
"I'm so jealous…"
She wanted to climb up there and lie down again herself, but to even have a chance she would have to get both Luna and Dante out of the way—and now she had this cat as a rival too.
The two of them had already finished their morning training ahead of her and were preparing for mass and breakfast together. Watching them, Bella thought they looked almost like a married couple.
If someone ordered her to live the same way, though, she would never be able to keep up with Dante's disciplined routine.
"How do you keep living like that?"
"Me?"
"Not Luna. You, Father."
In Luna's case it was obvious she was enjoying this life simply because she got to be with Dante.
"Hm?"
Living as an ordinary priest was new for him this time around, but Dante had been maintaining a life of faith for well over ten years. It wasn't a question one should ask someone like that—but there was no way Bella could know every detail of his past.
"It's not fun, no. I just follow the teachings, that's all."
On Earth he had been non-religious, and at the start it had felt more like clinging to something just to survive. The emotion that ultimately sealed it had been a thirst for revenge, so if you looked only at his motives, there was nothing more personal than that.
"I didn't join the Thousand Sects hoping for some reward from God. I needed a pillar—something that would keep me from collapsing on the path I was walking."
From a target for his vengeance, to a place to lean on, and now to a standard for what was right—the teachings of the Thousand Sects guided people so they could stand on their own in the world.
"And more than anything, when I hold mass and walk around erasing grudges, I'm hurting the things I hate most in this world. What could be better than that?"
"Ah…"
Back to square one. At the root of every action he took was the simple desire to damage evil and demons.
If marrying someone and having a child would permanently banish every demon from the face of the earth, Dante would marry without a second thought.
"You hate them that much?"
"I do. I hate them—but as long as humans exist in this world, those things will never disappear."
He spoke of a destiny of endless fighting, yet there was no despair in it. It was simply the quiet reaffirmation of the work he would spend his life doing.
After the meal and mass were finished, Dante left for Leona's morning training, leaving Bella and Luna alone.
"Luna."
"Yes, Sister?"
"Doesn't this get old?"
"Mm. It… does? But compared to how I used to live, this is heaven."
"Even though you have to become a nun?"
Becoming a nun didn't mean you had to remain one forever, but the way people looked at you when you left the vocation tended to sour. It was something the mind could accept more easily than the heart.
When a young nun or priest stepped down from their position, the social reasons were often unsavory—falling in love and breaking doctrine, for example.
"Um. Yes! I'm a Dampyr, so I barely age. I can live as a nun for a long time and still do something else later. It won't be too late."
"……"
Bella decided not to ask what made not aging such a good thing. No matter how disastrous her social skills were, she wasn't so dense that she couldn't read between those lines.
"Sister, do you have any dreams or anything?"
"Dreams…"
As if she could have any. From infancy she had endured horrors meant to erase the fact that she was a witch, and after that she had been forced to become a hunter. When that failed she had been all but dumped at the academy, and only after meeting Dante had she begun to slowly experience what the world could feel like.
"I just… want to keep living like this for now."
"Uweeeegh!"
Even while heaving up an empty stomach, satisfaction sat plain on Leona's face.
Physical training after so long had delivered a sharp, exhilarating rush. What could have been a tedious stretch of time had instead become almost too enjoyable simply because she was sharing it with Dante.
"Whew. How's the atmosphere in the Knight Department?"
"Not… great. But everyone's pushing each other harder than before."
Maybe it was because they had faced danger together and come out the other side. Students who had barely shown up to class were participating again, and the department had been full of energy lately. No one had forgotten the victims, but the professors seemed more driven than usual—as if determined not to let those sacrifices be in vain.
"But is it really possible to cut with a blunted sword?"
"It is. The sword McDowell carries around is blunted too."
"What?"
Even Leona hadn't known that.
"That bastard generates a blade out of divine power and fights with it. He shapes the will to cut into form and swings, so there's nothing he can't sever."
Mana could only strengthen the edge already present on a blade; it couldn't create an edge from nothing. That was why, when she had fought the Skinwalker, her sword had felt more like a heavy blunt weapon than something that could actually cut.
"The heart is what matters. If you can only cut when you truly mean to cut, then it rises solely from your own will—and there's no room for that crazy woman to slip out."
"C-Can you do it too, Father?"
"That? No. But this, I can."
Thud.
He flicked a light punch toward a falling leaf. The leaf didn't tear—but a sound came from the tree beyond it.
"Huh…?"
"They call it something like 'striking through the mountain,' I think. I'm not at the level of dropping an enemy with it yet."
"Th-That's amazing!"
"Enough. Don't worry about that—focus on your sword. What I saw last time was one thing, but you've still got plenty of room to get stronger."
"Yes, sir!"
She had found her path. She had found possibility too. Now that even a sliver of hope for a future she couldn't see before had appeared, she had no reason to give up.
Busy.
Seriously…
Smashing monster skulls would have been easier. Between training, teaching, and the ordinary duties of a priest, by the time I finished everything night was already closing in.
After dinner I tossed the cat that tried to follow me into Luna's arms and started my night patrol.
Danger could arrive at any moment, but this—this was an exorcist priest's real job, and it felt more comfortable for it.
"Exorcist Father!"
"Hm?"
I had barely stepped into the city streets when one of the smarter officers from the police station came running out. This wasn't chance; from the look of him he had been searching all over for me.
"What is it?"
"Th-There's been an incident. Please help us!"
"Let's go take a look first."
I could have refused, but if a cop used to a city full of problems had gone out of his way to find me, there had to be a reason.
The farther we went, though, the more we left the city center behind and headed into the back alleys. Suspicion crept in, then faded again as the smell of blood grew thicker. Only an idiot would set a trap in a place that reeked of blood like this.
"Here it is."
The place he led me to was a rundown warehouse. Even without opening the door the stench of blood hit hard, and the officers who had responded were waiting—apparently for me.
"Good work not contaminating the scene."
"Thank you, sir!"
Of course, it was probably less careful procedure and more pure instinctive fear—but praise could make even a demon dance, right?
Creeeak.
Even cracking the door a little let a wave of nauseating stench roll out. Officers who were no strangers to that smell still covered their noses and stepped back.
"What the…"
Beyond the fully opened door, dozens of corpses—torn apart as if by beasts—lay draped over the warehouse's contents.