In a Nutshell
"Sister Luciella, that coffin you're carrying… it holds a divine power stronger than any holy relic I've ever seen."
The sudden bombshell left me unable to process it. I lifted one of the wings covering Lucy to stop Chloe from adding anything further, and asked,
"Divine power? I don't sense any energy from it at all, let alone divine power."
If Chloe was right and Lucy's coffin really did contain divine power, it made no sense that I hadn't noticed—never mind Huey or Lucy.
"Ah, I misspoke. More precisely, an enormous amount of divine power is sealed within it."
Hearing my question, Chloe patted her chest as if she'd gotten a little too excited.
"…I've met plenty of priests before, but none of them ever said anything like that."
"As Master says. No one has ever mentioned such a thing until now…"
"Isn't that way too far-fetched no matter how you look at it?"
Even I hadn't noticed there was a seal at all. There was no way I could believe she could identify what was sealed inside.
"Ahaha… Well, I understand it's hard to just take my word for it… Hmm, what should I do… Ah! How about this?"
Chloe seemed to have some reason she couldn't fully explain. After a moment of thought, she clapped her hands as if struck by inspiration and beamed at us.
"I swear in the name of my Lord, the God Deneb. Everything I have just said is true without a single falsehood."
I was left speechless for a moment.
"What?"
"What do you mean all of a sudden…"
Huey and Lucy didn't seem to grasp it—but a priest swearing on the name of the god they serve is a far bigger deal than people realize.
"…That's not something you should say so lightly."
Swearing on a god's name is an act that can invite divine wrath just by uttering it. If you're unlucky, divine punishment can fall before the oath is even finished.
"Come on, it's not like I was lying. Lord Deneb will be generous about it."
Even in a situation where you might die from a false accusation, people usually avoid saying that—and she's doing it so casually?
Is this woman completely insane?
"Anyway, that coffin truly holds an incredible amount of divine power. And it's the divine power of the God Deneb whom I serve."
…Setting Chloe's mental state aside, the fact that this area hadn't been blasted into oblivion yet made it clear her words themselves were the undeniable truth.
As I listened to Chloe and looked at the coffin Lucy was holding—
"So?"
Lucy pulled the wing I'd just lifted back over herself, then tightened her grip on the chains.
"It sounds to me like you're saying you'll take this from me."
Divine power or not, it was a precious possession to her, and she wasn't about to hand it over.
"What? Of course not. I was just curious, that's all."
Chloe smiled so gently it almost made Lucy's reaction seem embarrassing.
"Well, I don't know about the old fogeys, but at least I can tell."
That the coffin would only gain its true value while in Lucy's hands.
Huey eyed Chloe with open suspicion as she patted her flat chest and spoke, then opened his mouth.
"…You can tell that too?"
"It's a sai— a priest's intuition!"
…A little, no, extremely suspicious.
Well, whatever.
"…Cultist."
"Excuse me!?"
Only then did Lucy finally relax and let go of the chains. Nestled in my arms, she grumbled at Chloe with a face full of discontent.
And so, our journey with the self-proclaimed priest Chloe—whose identity only grew murkier the more we learned about her—began.
Five days had already passed since we left Swinford by carriage.
"…Hey, Huey."
"What."
"There's something I've been wondering about for a few days now."
"Funny. Same here."
Leaving Lucy and Chloe, who were preparing the campsite with Jason, I approached Huey as he built a campfire and prepared dinner.
"Is she really a real priest?"
"…I've been wondering the same thing."
She did cast proper blessings like a self-proclaimed priest should, and her healing and barrier arts were surprisingly skilled, but…
"Waaah! Brother Jason is providing delicious liquor again today! What a sweet fragrance!"
Watching Chloe hop around joyfully with a bottle of liquor in each hand after abandoning the luggage, it was impossible to think of her as a proper priest.
"Ahaha! Care for a drink!? Brother Huey, Sister Ren!"
"You drink it yourself. I'm not much of a drinker."
"I'm currently under escort duty myself, so I'll have to decline."
Chloe looked at the bottles in her hands with disappointment at our answers.
Seeing that, I recalled how on the first night of the journey she'd shoved a bottle into Lucy's mouth and knocked her out cold.
"Th-then… Sister Luciella…"
She didn't seem to remember that herself. She carefully offered Lucy a drink as well, but—
"Grrr."
"Eek!"
Lucy took a step back and reacted fiercely.
"Hiiing. You're all so mean…"
Jason had said from the start that he didn't drink during merchant caravans. Watching Chloe grow dejected because no one would join her, I muttered quietly.
"…She says that, but she'll just drink alone and enjoy it anyway."
"She's done it every night, so yeah."
And sure enough.
"Hwaaah… The taste of the wine Brother Jason has bestowed upon us. I'll never forget it as long as I live! Ah, and this daily bread Brother Huey prepared as well!"
"I'd really prefer if you forgot, if possible."
"Ahaha! What a joker!"
"…I'm serious."
When mealtime arrived, her dejected look vanished without a trace as Chloe single-handedly emptied both bottles she'd been holding.
"See that?"
"Told you. She's definitely a cultist."
"…I agree."
"Haha. It's rewarding to offer when you drink so happily."
I was starting to get more curious about Jason's motives for willingly providing liquor to a cultist priest like that. He clearly knew something.
"Alright, let's do the night watch the usual way today."
"Yes. It's my turn first today, right?"
Anyway, after a simple meal, we sat by the warmth of the campfire and discussed tonight's watch for a while.
"Hold on."
"Ren?"
"What's wrong all of a sudden?"
I started sensing a strange presence around us.
"…Get ready. We're surrounded."
"That's weird. I don't sense anything."
"Ren's the strange one. Even gold-rank adventurers who specialize in detection weren't this good."
Strange? That's harsh.
"What's going on?"
"An ambush. Wake up that sprawled-out cultist priest over there."
Jason must have sensed something odd about us as we stood on guard waiting for the enemies to enter our field of vision. He approached at some point and asked, so I asked him to wake Chloe.
"I'll take a look from the sky."
—Flap!
I flapped my wings, controlling the wind they stirred up to lift myself into the air. From far off, I could see a large horde of corpses slowly surrounding us and closing in.
"…Was there a graveyard nearby or something?"
Living Dead.
A type of monster said to be born when negative energy accumulates in the corpses of the dead. They mainly appear at night in places like mass graves when necromantic energy grows strong…
"Strange."
They're monsters that instinctively sense life force around them and chase the living, but I couldn't believe there were enough corpses buried around here for them to swarm from such a distance—and from all directions at that.
…Tch. No point fretting over it alone. I should head down for now.
"How is it, Ren?"
"See anything?"
"There seem to be quite a few of them."
After landing, I explained to Huey and Lucy what I'd seen from the sky.
"Living Dead, huh."
"Ugh, you have to smash their heads to stop them. And they stink."
Lucy started grumbling the moment she heard Living Dead. Well, with the weapon she uses, there'd be a lot of flying fragments.
"…If she were a real priest of the Temple of Repose, we could clean them up neatly and easily."
The divine power of God Deneb specializes in purification, after all. I muttered toward Chloe's direction with regret, but—
"Doesn't look like it'll work."
"She's completely out cold."
As Huey and Lucy said, it was best to abandon any hope that Chloe would wake up in time.
"They're coming into view."
Before long, Huey's voice accompanied the sight of dozens of Living Dead entering our field of vision.
"Ugh. I really hate the smell."
"Right? If it gets on my legs, it'd be absolutely disgusting."
"Alright, focus."
Just as Huey pulled a bundle of talismans from his robes, saying he'd try to thin their numbers as much as possible with Taoist magic—
—Thump.
A sudden heartbeat.
—Thump.
And just like something I'd experienced before, the scenery around me gradually began to freeze.
What a pitiful sight.
At the same time, a woman's voice echoed through the frozen world.
"…Who are you?"
Whoa, your mouth moves? Amazing.
I tried somehow to turn my head toward the presence I felt behind me, but for some reason my body wouldn't move. Barely managing to speak was the limit.
Well, I suppose that's why you're hanging on in such a ridiculous state.
Even though I'd never heard the voice anywhere before, the sarcastic tone somehow put my heart at ease.
Since we have the chance, I'll introduce myself at least. Think of me as… just a helper of sorts.
"A helper?"
Something like a lingering thought left behind by someone who was worried about their successor.
I was starting to wonder when restraining people had become a form of help.
You being stuck in this uncomfortable state isn't my fault. It's entirely your problem.
"…What?"
Tsk. Never mind. You'll figure it out eventually anyway. I came out because there's something more important I need to tell you right now.
The voice that had been spouting nothing but incomprehensible words suddenly began whispering right into my ear from directly behind me.
So that the pitiful ones wandering the boundary between life and death may find their way—a baptism of fire.
That is the duty of you, the new Apostle of the God ■■.
Saying I already knew the method, the voice told me this as the world slowly began to flow again.
Well then, I'm counting on you.
After the world returned to its original flow, I murmured as I looked at the flames that had somehow begun blazing on my wings.
"Baptism of fire…"
Honestly, none of the sudden talk about duty or whatever really sank in, but one thing was crystal clear.
"…In a nutshell, it means burn them all to ashes."