Chapter 57: Salvation Church (7)
Chapter 57: Salvation Church (7)
I doubted my own eyes. Was something like that even possible by any common sense?
The wall had gone soft. I hadn't seen wrong. The woman's hand was halfway into the wall as if it were fluid, like dipping it into water.
'Have I finally gone mad?'
No, that wasn't it either. The eyes of the newly added followers had gone so wide they looked ready to pop out.
I stopped doubting my eyes and sank into a different kind of trouble instead.
'How is something like that possible? Magic... no, it can't be. Sorcery? Can you do something like that with sorcery?'
I knew practically nothing about sorcery, so it was just frustrating.
Even in the midst of this, the woman moved without pause, as if refusing to give me time to sort out my complicated thoughts.
"Come, follow me."
The woman vanished into the wall. The followers, who seemed to have experienced this before, followed behind her without hesitation, and those who appeared to be new also hesitated briefly before pressing their bodies into the wall.
Once everyone had finally entered, the wall returned to its original solid state, as if nothing had ever happened.
Even the priest, the only one who had remained without entering, left the room as if he had other business to attend to. No sooner had silence returned than I immediately bolted out from behind the curtain and stood before the wall the woman had touched.
'What is this? What did she do and how?'
She had clearly touched it and murmured something quietly.
I couldn't figure it out from that alone, so I groped the wall here and there. After a few passes, a subtle sensation brushed my fingertips.
It was so finely finished that it was almost impossible to distinguish with the naked eye — only by touch could I barely register its existence.
'A gem?'
My bewilderment was short-lived.
This made it certain. This was sorcery.
What else but sorcery could produce magic-like effects by paying a precious price?
A method humans had discovered to oppose demon-race magic was unfolding right before my eyes.
'Just who in the world is behind this, to have sorcery of this level...?'
A hollow laugh escaped me.
This was getting more and more unsettling. Couldn't I just stop here? I'd anticipated that this wasn't some run-of-the-mill cult, but still, no matter how you looked at it — sorcery, really?
An ordinary person could live their entire life and not encounter a sorcerer more than ten times. Sorcerers were that difficult to hire, and the costs were astronomical. So how on earth did it make sense for sorcery to appear here?
Right now, I wanted to bolt straight to the Imperial Palace, grab the Emperor, and yell that I couldn't do this any longer, but...
'That damn Cruel...'
The Emperor would never let me give up easily, of course, but above all, Cruel was the problem.
I'd rather have dirt in both eyes than see that wish coupon fall into that bastard's hands. I'd sooner wreck this whole place and be done with it.
'...Should I really just do it? Going down together doesn't sound so bad.'
Now that I'd lost track of the mastermind, the Salvation Church would just rise again somewhere else, but at least I'd have destroyed their headquarters, so the Emperor would have no grounds to chew me out.
I got so absorbed in thinking about just how I'd wreck the place if I actually did it that I even had the vague sensation that it was getting a bit noisy outside.
'If I really do wreck the place... I suppose I'll start by smashing this.'
In any case, the medium for this sorcery seemed to be the gem right in front of me. If I broke it, the spell would be neutralized.
...Should I break it?
I was glaring at the gem, deep in thought, when suddenly a hand shot out from behind the curtain right beside me and grabbed my arm.
That alone was enough to make me recoil in shock, but the hand didn't stop there. With strong force, it yanked me over.
It all happened in an instant.
Of all things, it was the arm that had been struck by the arrow, and my mouth fell open involuntarily from the pain.
'Hhk?!'
'Shh—'
Of course, even that was stifled by the hand that clamped over my mouth.
When I looked up in alarm, my eyes met a pair of composed green eyes looking down at me.
At the same time, unable to overcome the revulsion surging up inside me, I tried to shake them off roughly.
BANG!
A man in priest's robes who threw the door open a little violently forced me to freeze my movements.
It wasn't the priest from earlier. A priest I'd never seen before came practically sprinting in this direction with an urgent expression, pressed the very gem I'd been glaring at moments ago, and twisted it sideways.
"Quickly, quickly...!"
...Why did he seem so frantic? No, wait, why was it so noisy outside?
Vaguely, I could hear shouts like "Hand over your lord!" and it felt a bit ominous. Come to think of it, where was Lady Rien and what was she doing right now?
A few seconds passed. There seemed to be a bit of static from the gem, then a voice quickly came through, crisp and clear.
"What is it?"
"An intruder has entered!"
"...Is that so. How many?"
"One person!"
"...One person?"
"Yes, they are currently tearing through the building looking for someone called 'my lord'!"
CRAAASH!!
The timing was spectacular. A tremendous crash rang out.
A woman who had kicked open the already-open door to draw everyone's attention spotted the one priest standing there dumbly in bewilderment. With a voice that strained to feign calm, she spoke roughly.
In her hand was a single sword, apparently taken from one of the guards here.
"Where is my lord?"
"..."
"..."
In the absurdity and fluster, no one could find the words to respond, and even the voice from beyond the gem fell silent. In the meantime, I confirmed the face of this troublesome intruder and quietly lowered my eyes.
I felt a persistent gaze from above, but I resolutely ignored it.
I didn't know why that person was here, but it was none of my business. I didn't even know who that person was. Anyway, I didn't know. It had nothing to do with me.
'...Damn it.'
Why on earth are you of all people showing up here...?
CRASH!
"Wh-What the!"
The intrusion was so boisterous that the guards swarmed in instantly. Without even time to brush off the glass shards clinging to her body, Rien exploited the moment they were still dazed, swiftly struck the back of the nearest one's head to take him down, and seized his sword.
It wasn't her own sword, so it felt a little awkward, but it wasn't a major problem. Now all that remained was to locate the Count... but still.
Rien adjusted her grip on the sword and swept her gaze around. The people her eyes landed on each flinched and stepped back, as if sensing that her skill was no ordinary thing.
"...Where is my lord?"
She was merely hired, not sworn in fealty, so properly speaking she ought to call him 'the Count,' not 'my lord,' but... in this situation, she couldn't risk broadcasting the Count's presence.
'My apologies, my lord Count. I will definitely take responsibility for this.'
Leaving a brief apology in her heart, she took one step forward. The sight of them taking one step back in tandem was quite a spectacle, but she didn't have the leisure to care about such things right now.
While she was wasting time like this, what if something happened to the Count?!
"Does no one know?"
"..."
"I see. Then..."
"Wh-Who is this 'lord' you keep talking about?!"
She had intended to just let them be and go look for someone else if no one knew, but an unexpected, desperate shout came back.
Rien paused and turned to the one who had spoken.
...Right. How should she answer that? Count Deon Hart? A hero? Either way, it would be revealing their identity, so she shouldn't say it.
After a moment of deep deliberation, in the end,
"...He is my lord."
She had no choice but to spit out that vacant answer.
She passed right by the men who'd gone blank as if doubting their own ears, and headed for the door.
Those guys were lucky. If she hadn't needed people to spread word of this commotion, they would've been sprawled miserably across the floor by now.
'I did think it over in my own way, but...'
As expected, schemes and stratagems didn't suit her. So she didn't know any clever method to efficiently find and rescue the Count.
That was why, today, she was going to do what people called 'wrecking the place' right here. If some knight ran wild looking for someone called 'my lord,' surely one or two people with guilty consciences would reveal themselves. They would definitely try to move somehow — either reporting to someone or handling it themselves — and she just had to chase after those ones.
"Hand over my lord!"
"Ah, I'm asking you, who is this lord?!"
"You don't seem to know."
"Gah, seriously!!"
Rien swung her sword and began tearing through the interior of the Salvation Church without restraint.
She didn't kill anyone. The Count hadn't given any orders, and there was no need to escalate things by committing murder.
For some reason, there happened to be no civilians in sight either, so she raised hell even more boldly. After quite some time, a suspicious priest finally caught her eye.
The sight of him taking one look at this mess, recoiling in fright, and dashing off somewhere.
'That's the one!'
If she tailed him, she would be able to learn of the Count's whereabouts.
Pretending not to have noticed his movements, she continued rampaging freely through the building's interior while naturally following behind him.
It went without saying that during this process, countless people were stretched out along her path like a trail of footprints.
The guy who'd been dashing busily opened the door at the end of a hallway and slipped inside.
Before she followed him in, a sudden hypothetical came to mind.
'This could be a trap. If so...'
—Then she would go in even harder, to seize the initiative.
It seemed as though she'd been somewhat tainted by the Murderer Knight Order, but she had no other choice.
She couldn't exactly not go in, could she? There was no telling how many were inside. In that case, there was only one way.
Rien, picturing the knights under her command, gave a short laugh.
'I'm the one who commands mad dogs anyway.'
She would become a proper mad dog and run wild.
CRAAASH!!
She kicked open the already-open door, displaying her shining character, and burst inside.
Discovering the one who looked like the priest she'd been following and leveling her sword at him was her first priority. Grasping how many others were around was her second.
Her bewilderment at finding no one besides the priest in front of her was brief. Rien suppressed her feelings, feigning calm, and asked in a low voice.
"Where is my lord?"
— Where is my lord?
"..."
Saelin quietly let out a sigh at the voice coming through the gem.
She'd gone to the trouble of telling them to reinforce security, but to think they were this incompetent. She'd known this since they hadn't even noticed Cruel Hart entering.
It was a good thing they served the same master; how startled she'd been when they'd crossed paths inside the building.
The thought that came right on the heels of barely calming her startled heart was the news that Deon Hart had received the same mission.
And the thought that if they hadn't even detected Cruel's intrusion, then they would allow Deon Hart's intrusion even more easily.
Thinking that far, the impoverished man with red eyes had suddenly come to mind, but when she went out to look for him again, he was already gone, so she'd thought no more of it.
And now, a knight had come storming in searching for 'my lord.'
'It's certain.'
She knew it the moment she heard the voice. She was that suspicious knight she'd driven away from the door earlier.
A 'knight' storming in searching for 'my lord.' And coincidentally, the red-eyed pauper who'd visited at roughly the same time.
Saelin was of commoner origin, but her mind worked quite well. With clues lining up this neatly, grasping the situation was instantaneous.
'So it's Deon Hart. They clearly said they watched the guards leave. Did the two of them cross paths? No, perhaps he's still inside.'
Of course, even having grasped the situation, she had no intention of taking any particular measures.
She couldn't take measures, and besides, the intended purpose of the 'Salvation Church' had already been achieved long ago. All that remained was cleanup. She simply hoped that the one doing the cleanup here would be Cruel Hart and not Deon Hart.
She would just watch for now, and if Deon Hart showed signs of reaching the core first — only then would she personally step in and clean up.
There was no need to step in before that. The Duke had said so himself, so Saelin had no intention of going out of her way to do anything beyond acting as usual.
'I've done all I need to do.'
She'd warned them to reinforce security, and she'd hidden the important documents tightly in the deepest place.
What she had to prioritize above all in the current situation was making sure that knight didn't discover the existence of the gem embedded in the wall.
She'd surely smash it the instant she noticed it.
And not because the sorcery would break. It was because something that must never be discovered could end up exposed.
A secret so dangerous that it could threaten the Duke's everything, even his life itself...
'So it absolutely must not be discovered.'
Taking care that not even a breath might carry over to the other side, Saelin mercilessly severed the connection to the outside and turned around.
Opening the door and stepping out of the room, she faced the people who sat in rows looking this way, and smiled a benevolent smile as if nothing had happened.
"Apologies for the brief interruption. Shall we continue, then?"