The First Return (2)
Meanwhile, at the Labyrinth Temple, Priest Cardon—who had taken over in Priest Arthur’s absence—let out a deep sigh.
I'm exhausted.
He had slept and woken up, yet the fatigue refused to lift. This weariness had piled up from managing the temple, and it seemed it wouldn’t fade without several days of proper rest.
How on earth did Priest Arthur endure this?
The conditions must have been far worse when he first arrived. While the new operating system he had established was impressive, what astonished Cardon more was that Arthur had managed the infirmary without any major incidents. Even the healing centers in the Holy Empire’s capital didn’t handle patients under such grueling circumstances. Cardon still remembered how shocked he had been upon first assessing the situation.
This kind of patient surge can’t keep happening.
The healers’ exhaustion levels were dangerously high. The infirmary would be quiet for a while, then suddenly flooded with patients. Treating them required several times more mental effort than routine care.
Still, thanks to the high caliber of the priests here, nothing catastrophic has occurred.
From what he’d heard, they were all priests whom Priest Arthur had personally trained. It wasn’t unusual for a Chief Healer to take on disciples, but Arthur hadn’t limited his teachings to a select few. He had shared all his knowledge with every priest working at the temple.
I wondered why he would do that, but I suppose he had no choice if he wanted to run the infirmary properly.
Of course, only someone as responsible and kind-hearted as Priest Arthur could have managed it. Under normal circumstances, most would have sent urgent requests to the Holy Empire for more priests while selectively treating only those they could handle. They would have known that once additional priests arrived, the chaos would gradually subside. The suffering of patients left untreated until stabilization would simply be ignored.
It was I who failed to truly see Priest Arthur for who he is.
Having served Bishop Haman for so long and learned a great deal, Cardon still felt painfully inadequate. He had believed his judgment of character was sharp, yet it clearly wasn’t. Compared to himself, who had only now come to recognize Arthur’s true worth, look at Bishop Haman. There was a reason the bishop had paid such extraordinary attention to Priest Arthur.
At some point, I must have been looking at the world through blinders.
Grateful for yet another moment of enlightenment today, he spent a brief time in prayer. Taking a moment for reflection before beginning treatment in earnest was incredibly important.
After his devout prayer, he made his way to the infirmary. The moment he stepped inside, a voice called out to him urgently.
“Priest Cardon! We have an emergency!”
“Is it a critical patient?”
The priests wouldn’t have rushed to him first thing in the morning over something trivial. Having centered himself through morning reflection, he felt confident he could handle whatever patient arrived.
“We didn’t dare touch him carelessly, so we had no choice but to wait for you, sir.”
“I see. You did well. Let me take a look.”
Seeing with his own eyes was far more reliable than hearing a hundred explanations. As they moved, he received more detailed information about the patient.
“It’s not certain, so I hesitate to say this, but we suspect a curse.”
“This isn’t the first time someone has come from the Labyrinth afflicted by a curse.”
“No, sir.”
If it had been an ordinary curse, they wouldn’t have come running to him the moment he arrived for work. Just as the priest had implied that something was off, the patient had been isolated in a sealed area. A holy knight stood guard at the door, and it didn’t look easy to prevent the person inside from trying to burst out.
BANG! BANG! BANG!!!
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!!!
“Open the door!!!!!!!!”
A furious, agitated voice echoed from within. The rage-filled tone was so chilling that it sent shivers down the spine just to hear it.
“He wasn’t this bad just a moment ago…”
“They’re trying to kill me!! You think I’ll just let it happen?! I’ll kill you all!!!”
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!!!
The door shook as if it might shatter. The only reason it held was because this was the isolation room. Cardon had heard the door was made of iron.
“We’ll go in first. The patient’s condition is violent—if you enter alone, you might get hurt.”
“I’d be grateful for your assistance.”
He gladly accepted the holy knight’s help.
“But didn’t he come to the infirmary of his own accord? Why is he suddenly demanding to be let out in such a rage?”
He worried whether any coercive measures had been taken while moving the man to isolation.
“He was perfectly normal when he arrived with his companions. But the moment we tried to treat him, he violently refused, and his attitude grew increasingly aggressive. The priests sensed something was wrong and asked me to help guide him naturally into the isolation room.”
CRASH!
“Eek!”
“Hic!”
When there was no response from outside despite his pounding, it seemed he had turned his fury elsewhere. He was likely throwing and smashing objects inside the room.
“If he were in his right mind, he wouldn’t dare behave like this inside a temple.”
No one would want to end up on the Blacklist by doing something like this. Being placed on the list affected not only the individual but their entire family.
“Where is the companion who came with him?”
Unless it was immediately life-threatening, it seemed wiser to gather more information before entering to treat the patient.
“He’s over there.”
Following the priest’s gesture, Cardon saw a man standing with a deathly pale face.
“Excuse me.”
“Ah, y-yes! Yes, Priest.”
“You entered the Labyrinth with the patient currently in isolation, correct?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“When you first brought him here, what made you do so?”
“He kept saying his stomach felt off and was dozing off constantly, so I thought something was wrong and practically dragged him here. What in the world is happening to him? He’s not usually like this at all. He’s the kind of friend who’s never once raised his voice.”
His hands were trembling violently, clearly shaken by his companion’s drastic change.
“Is this completely unlike his usual behavior?”
“Yes, yes. He’s incredibly quiet. No matter what anyone says to him, he just laughs it off with that empty smile of his.”
“Did anything unusual happen inside the Labyrinth? We believe there’s a high probability he’s been cursed.”
“A c-curse?”
The man didn’t seem as surprised by the word “curse” as expected.
He must have suspected it.
There was definitely something he was hiding. Had this not been a day of newfound enlightenment, Cardon would have pressed him relentlessly. But today, he chose to be lenient.
“It looks like you have something to say. For your companion’s sake, could you tell me in detail?”
“That’s… well… I…”
It seemed difficult for him to speak. If it had been something honorable, he wouldn’t have looked so uneasy.
“I… I don’t really know. We weren’t together the whole time. Maybe he touched something he shouldn’t have while I wasn’t looking.”
After much internal struggle, the man ultimately chose to conceal the truth. It seemed this matter couldn’t simply be brushed aside with good intentions.
“I understand it’s hard to say. But without knowing the cause, treating your companion will be extremely difficult. We need to identify exactly what happened.”
“I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.”
“…Understood.”
What was the point of hounding a man who had already shrunk back in fear? If it became a real problem, they could simply investigate the organization the man belonged to and uncover what he had been doing.
“I should go in now.”
“Yes, sir.”
The holy knight opened the iron door. The moment it swung open, the man—who had clearly been waiting for the chance—lunged at the knight.
“Uaaaaah!! Die!!!”
They must have searched him before placing him in isolation and removed any weapons, because he swung at the holy knight with bare fists. The knight easily blocked the rage-fueled attack.
“I’ll restrain him.”
The holy knight swept the man’s legs out from under him, forcing him to his knees, then grabbed the back of his head and pinned him to the floor before binding both hands behind his back. Once his arms were secured, the knight swiftly neutralized his thrashing legs as well, then lifted the man bodily and placed him on the bed.
“Die!! Dieeeeeee!!! KyaAAAAAAGH!!”
“I can’t tell if this is a curse or if a demon has possessed him.”
Mucus and drool streamed from his face. His eyes, bloodshot and bulging, were filled with madness. Even as his thrashing caused him to injure himself, he showed no concern. The holy knight held nothing back, firmly suppressing every struggle.
“What has made you so angry?”
“Aaaaagh!! You’re all trying to kill me!! Aaaaagh!!”
“I am a priest. There is no reason for me to kill a patient who has come for treatment, is there?”
“It hurts!!! It hurts so much!! Let me go!! Please, save me.”
Now he suddenly burst into tears.
“He seems completely overtaken.”
“Yes, it appears so. He’s beyond rational conversation. We should begin treatment immediately.”
There was no time to waste. Moreover, ever since entering the isolation room, an extremely unpleasant odor had been emanating from the man’s body.
A stench like this means…
He knew exactly what kind of situation produced such a foul smell. As he drew closer, the odor grew so intense that it stung his nose.
While the holy knight continued to hold the man down in case of any sudden movements, Cardon channeled divine power into the patient’s body.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!”
The moment the divine power entered him, ugly red blotches erupted across the man’s skin.
“It huuuuuuurts!!!!”
The man’s screams reverberated throughout the infirmary. Divine power was an energy infinitely beneficial to humans.
“Endure it. You must endure if you wish to live.”
It wasn’t the man himself crying out in pain. The unclean presence lodged within his body was mimicking him, thrashing and screaming.
This energy…
He couldn’t simply expel the unclean thing inside the man. He had to identify its source. If the root cause wasn’t removed, similar patients would continue to be carried into the infirmary.
“Huuuuh… aaaah…”
The man’s screams gradually grew weaker over time. His voice was growing hoarse, but more importantly, as his body was purified, the man’s mind—which had been controlled by the evil presence—began to return. The red blotches that had covered his skin slowly started to fade as well.