Welcome to Son Billy Village! (2)
As requested, baked potatoes and water arrived. They'd been thrown together in a hurry, so plenty of the potatoes were burnt, but it still beat human flesh.
"Th-then what about what those people are eating?"
"Yeah. Pretty sure it's all in there."
Just to be safe, I let a trace of holy power flow into the water before having her drink it.
"Wh-why? It's probably their own food supply…."
"Have you ever done anything wrong without realizing it?"
"Plenty."
Plenty, huh. I couldn't even imagine what sort of crimes she'd committed.
"Just because you didn't know doesn't mean the sin vanishes. Of course, whether that counts as grounds for punishment is a whole different debate."
"Then this…."
"I'm not certain, but it's probably part of some ritual. Either forcing you to commit a sin or dragging you down to their level."
By sharing the sins they'd committed with others, they might get some trashy sense of satisfaction, or maybe there was another purpose altogether.
"Then won't they find it strange if we don't eat that?"
"Huh? You didn't notice? They've been staring at us like they want to kill us ever since we entered the village."
Apparently Leona hadn't picked up on the gazes, but every single one of them carried murderous intent strong enough to carve a person apart. The killing aura was no joke.
"Th-the whole village?"
"In cases like this, it's usually the entire village. Still, it's strangely well-maintained…."
I'd encountered a few cult or heretical groups operating at the village level before, but most of them had been ruins on the verge of collapse. Living in opposition to the religions at the center of civilization meant they received no benefits and ended up no better off than medieval mountain hamlets.
"Well. That's for the empire's high-and-mighty to deal with. For now, let's fill our stomachs and prepare for what we'll face starting tonight."
At least one imperial noble was probably connected to this, but rooting them out was a job for the empress and the rest of the empire's big shots.
I dragged a reluctant, nibbling Leona upstairs to our room. When she pestered me to sleep together, I asked if that meant we could get stabbed together, which sent her scurrying off. I immediately threw myself onto the bed.
"I wonder when they'll show up…."
I waited in pleasant anticipation for the prey that mistook themselves for hunters.
"Why the hell aren't these bastards coming…."
I must have dozed off without realizing it. Light was already pouring through the window.
"E-Exorcist Priest! Come out here!"
Leona, who had been waiting in the other room, must have woken up too. She was pounding on the door.
I grabbed Horizon in one hand and yanked the door open. Leona, in the middle of knocking again, nearly tumbled forward.
"Eek!"
"What are you doing?"
"You could've caught me!"
"Sorry. This thing is more expensive than you think."
It was the gun I might have traded two years of my life to obtain. Of course it was more precious than some fool of a woman who looked like she'd heal if you spat on her wounds.
"Why?"
When I answered so shamelessly, she didn't press the matter any further.
"Go outside and look."
"……?"
The moment I stepped out the door, the murmuring finally reached my ears.
"Wh-what's going on?"
"Where did the innkeeper go!"
The coachmen who had been staying at the inn with us had gathered on the first floor. None of them dared step outside; they were all trembling in fear.
'Six?'
Out of the original eight coachmen, only six remained. There was no scent of blood on the stairs or anywhere on the first floor, and there hadn't been any commotion during the night.
"Look outside!"
"Huh?"
Dense fog. A thick mist so heavy you couldn't see an inch ahead had swallowed the entire inn and seemingly the whole village.
When I stepped into it, something thin and damp wrapped around my whole body, disturbing my senses.
"Hey. Where did the two coachmen go?"
"They ran off saying they were going to serve their nobles. But…."
"W-we heard screams. Terrible screams!"
Whether out of loyalty or greed, they'd actually tried to push through that hellish fog.
"Do any of you have a working pocket watch?"
"Why are you suddenly talking about watches!"
"Just check them. The watches."
They must have thought I was a gentle person when I treated them with respect, believing they were in danger. Only after I released a bit of killing intent and spoke roughly did they obediently pull out their watches.
"It's stopped?"
"Huh? Why is this happening!"
They weren't panicking because the watches had stopped; they were probably worried about having to repair them or compensate the nobles who gave them the watches.
"Why the watches?"
"The fact that the watches have stopped proves this place is no longer the one we knew."
"Th-then shouldn't you just carry a watch around?"
"Have you seen me fight before?"
Unless it was some ridiculous watch from Ca-something, no timepiece in this world could withstand my power.
"But the inn and other buildings look the same…."
"Rather than us entering the other side, they've cut off just the village with a barrier."
The silver lining was that no matter how much time passed here, almost no time would pass outside.
"E-Exorcist Priest? Please save us! If our masters die…!"
"I'm not in the business of saving your masters. I only save the people right in front of me."
I wasn't sure where to draw the line for "strong," but in terms of pure combat ability, I wasn't weak. But was I some saint capable of saving everyone? Absolutely not. I knew my limits. The reason I'd become an exorcist priest was never to save people; it was to kill.
"Let's head upstairs."
"Pardon?"
"Are you planning to fight barehanded? I need to get ready too."
"You said you'd save the people right in front of you, so where are you going!"
"What am I, your nanny? Stuck to your side twenty-four seven? If you just stay inside until the situation clears up, your odds of survival go way up, so shut it!"
Irritation flared, but I figured I should at least give them one last warning.
"And stay away from the windows. I warned you clearly."
I had no intention of praying for the idiots who ignored me and got themselves killed.
After saying everything that needed to be said, I went back up to the second floor. Leona only needed to grab a single sword, but I had quite a few things to prepare besides Horizon's magazine.
"Why did they only give me three grenades? Haah."
I'd used them all against the ghost train, so all that remained were holy water and the blood packs needed for holy arts.
"Haah."
It was annoying, but I gathered all the remaining shotgun shells, split them into three bundles, and stuffed them into leather pouches. I poured the blood packs over them, soaked the leather thoroughly, and tied them shut. They weren't as good as real grenades, but they'd do in a pinch.
"Here, take this."
"Ugh! What is this smell?"
"My blood."
"Excuse me?"
"Pour holy power into it until it's about to burst, then throw it. It'll work something like a grenade."
Let's just call it my own creative holy art.
"Drink the holy water too."
"This doesn't have blood in it, does it…."
"No. It's a precaution in case the fog is poisonous."
Of course my blood wasn't in it, but I didn't even want to imagine what that crazy woman might have added when she made the holy water.
"Why do I have to drink it alone?"
"I have holy power. Why would I need to?"
Sorry. It makes me want to vomit, so I can't. Not that I actually need it anyway.
"Should we look for some kind of artifact?"
"No."
She'd made a reasonably smart suggestion, but unfortunately that wasn't the answer.
"This is an extermination battle… By the way, did anyone else come up with us?"
"No one followed me."
I put a finger to my lips to signal Leona to stay quiet, gripped Horizon in one hand, and moved. I silenced my footsteps, approached the wall, and sent holy power flowing into the floor.
As the faint light spread, the situation on the second floor formed in my mind.
Two figures were staggering up the hallway. I couldn't make out their exact appearance, but their gait alone told me they were far from normal.
I wanted to use Horizon, but the noise would be a problem.
I tucked it back into my coat and headed into the hallway with Leona.
"Hik!"
That damn scream again. What was she going to do, screaming like that just from seeing a little blood?
"Hey. Where are the other four?"
It was obvious even without looking, but I tested them anyway in case some sanity remained.
"Kruk."
"Krurrk!"
Yeah. If they were sane, they wouldn't be making zombie noises instead of human speech.
"Looks like you got some plastic surgery while I wasn't looking."
Their faces were grotesque. They must have wanted to tear into meat, because every tooth had been replaced with long, pointed fangs. They must have wanted binocular vision too, because two extra eyes had been added.
"Wh-what is that!"
"I don't know."
I really didn't. Did she think I knew everything? This was the north, not the south where I used to work.
"I don't know, but kill them!"
Kill first, ask questions never. There was no option to turn them back. It was clear that eating human flesh had triggered some kind of apostasy and caused the mutation.
'The other four not showing up means only these two have been twisted.'
"Huuuungry…!"
Since they said they were hungry, I had no choice but to open my fist wide and feed the charging one my fist-potato. As a bonus I added some spicy fire, so it might sting a little, but it came from the heart so I hoped they enjoyed it!
Crunch!
Whoosh!
"Kieek!"
The one engulfed in fierce flames went berserk from the impact, dragging the second one down the stairs with him.
If they'd had any intelligence left, they would have blocked with their arms. I hadn't expected them to only know how to shove their mouths forward.
"Tsk."
As expected, four corpses waited downstairs. The torn and bitten remains looked like a bear had feasted on them.
"Ugh!"
"If you're going to throw up, do it in the kitchen."
"I-I'm not!"
Fortunately it seemed she was only dry-heaving.
"At least we got one keyword."
"Is it hunger?"
"Could be starvation, could be hunger."
Both were representative symbols. Usually things connected to them were dried-up, jerky-like bastards, so why did these look like this?
"There wasn't any mutation like this before…."
"Heh. It seems you've killed the residents who finally came out after so long."
I looked up at the voice coming from the inn entrance.
"Are you the village chief?"
"Yes, I am the chief of this village, Alexander Son Billy."
The old man was surprisingly muscular. The problem was that, like the mutated coachmen, he was covered in fangs, had four eyes, and his face was horribly twisted.
"Why did you crawl out here instead of sitting inside picking human flesh from between your nails?"
"It is the chief's duty to welcome new residents. And you killed those residents."
"You were going to kill them anyway, weren't you?"
"Hehehe. Would I kill an exorcist priest I need to savor slowly over time? Besides, the woman behind you must provide us with fresh blood, so don't worry."
Hmm. This wasn't going to work.
Bang!
The village chief's head, which had been spewing filthy words just moments ago, exploded in a spectacular spray.
"Uh… Wh-why did you suddenly kill him?"
"His breath smelled terrible."
And he didn't seem dead. I'd used a normal bullet, but the scattered pieces of the chief's head were already beginning to gather back together.