Chapter 60
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 60
If she was lucky, she might even avoid Toth. She was just turning the corner, clinging to that small hope, when she heard it.
“Rosalina.”
The moment she rounded the corner, she heard the one voice she had wanted to avoid most.
A single drop of sweat rolled down Rosalina’s cheek and clung to the tip of her chin. Toth, who had been leaning against the wall waiting for her, turned his head slightly in her direction.
“O-oh, Toth… You’re not asleep.”
She tried to play it off, but all that came out was a clumsy cliché.
He had clearly been waiting for a long time. His expression was anything but bright. The one stroke of luck in her misfortune was the deep darkness of the night, which hid his piercing gaze.
“…You certainly enjoy wandering around at this hour,” Toth said. His tone was as mocking as ever, but his voice was quieter than usual.
“Uh, yeah. Well, I just went out for some fresh air.”
“And where exactly did you go?”
“That… well, I was feeling restless, so I walked along the streets of Jabet Square… Ah.”
The moment the words left her mouth, Rosalina clapped a hand over her lips.
It was a blatant slip of the tongue. Jabet Square was where the Black Disaster had swept through. It was now a contaminated zone, a place everyone shunned.
“You really never learn, do you?”
“I… I’m sorry.”
It wasn’t the first or second time she had ignored his warnings. Rosalina knew that if she were in Toth’s shoes, she would be furious. He would usually yell. He might even hit her. Bracing herself, she squeezed her eyes shut.
“Fine. We’ll talk about that later.”
His response was the exact opposite of what she expected.
Toth, who had been leaning in the shadows, took a few steps toward her. Only then did the darkness release its hold on his face, revealing his expression.
He looked different.
The girl didn't have a knack for reading minds, but the Toth before her now seemed tangled in complex thoughts.
“I don’t know where to start, but for now, you’d better not go inside. The Captain and the others are in a meeting.”
Sensing she was in trouble for more than one reason, Rosalina asked anxiously, “A meeting? What kind of meeting? Aren’t you going, Toth?”
“The matter has already been decided. Even if you go in now, you won’t understand what they’re saying. It’ll just be chaotic.”
“…What was decided?”
“We’re all leaving Hastin.”
The Captain had agonized over many things before reaching this conclusion, but the decision itself was simple and absolute.
Hastin was hopeless. There was no possibility of improvement.
Therefore, holding out any longer was meaningless.
In truth, leaving Hastin was something they had considered since the famine first struck. They had only been held back by the practicalities of preparing for such a move and their own lingering attachment to the town.
“Rosalina, I don’t know what you think, but our Captain doesn't trust those knights.”
Rosalina thought of the knight in shabby clothes. She was certain he was a good person because he believed in Him just as she did, but she knew that was her own bias.
If she set that aside, the two knights were certainly suspicious. The Captain’s judgment was likely correct.
And that was another reason.
“He said we need to hurry.”
“…Then when are we leaving?”
“Tomorrow night.”
At the word ‘night,’ Rosalina looked up. The sky felt exceptionally dark, darker than usual. The stars were barely visible. She couldn’t even tell if the sparse specks dotting the blackness were stars at all.
By the time she lowered her head, Toth made a quiet suggestion.
“Rosalina, before that happens, there’s a place we need to go together.”
*
The night air was so damp that walking through the foggy streets felt like being drenched in a fine rain.
“Rosalina, I saw you went to the catacombs again.”
“Huh? That… well… yeah.”
“You can try to hide it and lie, but it’s obvious to anyone watching. You know the Captain was really angry this time, right?”
“The Captain was angry?”
“Yeah. If you had gone straight inside earlier, you would’ve been scolded until dawn. You need to do some self-reflection, Rosalina. Do you have any idea how bad things have to be for the Captain to get that angry?”
“…I understand.”
“I tell you all the time, there are rules to follow in a group. I’ve told you so many times, you could at least pretend to listen.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll do better from now on.”
“How many times have you said that? You’re always quick with an apology.”
“……”
“That aside, Rosalina.”
“Yes?”
“The new village won’t have that religion you believe in. What are you going to do?”
“Huh? Toth, are you worried about me? I thought you hated that I believe in Him.”
“I never cared about what you believe in, or whether you go to mass or whatever. I’m scolding you because you ignore warnings and go off alone in the middle of the night without a word.”
“You are worried about me.”
“Be quiet.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. Distance doesn’t matter to faith. No matter where I am, the heart that believes in Him reaches just the same. I can be saved in another village, too.”
“…Well, that’s a relief then.”
“Hehe, I’ve been misunderstanding you all this time. I thought you were just a cranky old man who was always angry.”
“Think what you want. But if you don’t want to see me angry, maybe you should stop doing things that make me angry? How many times have I told you how dangerous it is to wander the streets alone at night in the town’s current state…”
“I get it! There you go nagging again. It’s because you keep saying things like that that I don’t want to listen to you.”
“Ha. Fine. I get it. Let’s stop here.”
“……”
“……”
“Hey. Toth.”
“Speak.”
“Where are we going once we leave Hastin?”
“I don’t know the exact details. No one has the stamina to go far, so we’ll probably head to Pertens. It’s the closest.”
“Ah, Pertens! I’ve been there before! I got a dress there for my eleventh birthday. It was red and so beautiful.”
“We’re not going there for fun. So please, get your head on straight once we arrive.”
“I know! But there’s no need to be like that already.”
“…Right.”
“Hey. It’ll be really hard once we get there, won’t it?”
“It’ll be several times harder than it is now. The back alleys there will have their own established groups.”
“You mean there will be turf wars.”
“If things go badly, we might have to fight them several times before we can settle in. No one knows how many of us will be injured or die.”
“What? Why are you suddenly saying such scary things?”
“I’m telling you to be prepared, Rosalina.”
“…I understand.”
“……”
“Toth, is leaving Hastin really the right thing to do?”
“I don’t know if it’s right or wrong. The Captain made a judgment, and everyone is following it. It’s not like you’re going to stay behind alone, are you?”
“…I guess not.”
“Exactly.”
“Then, I’ll ask just one last thing.”
“Go ahead.”
“Why did you come here with me?”
“After telling you not to wander the streets alone at night, what kind of person would I be if I let you come here by yourself?”
“Ahaha, now that you mention it, I guess you’re right.”
“……There’s that, and I also owe those two a debt.”
“What kind of debt?”
“There are some things you don’t need to know.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“……”
“Ah, we’re here.”
Concluding their long conversation, Toth and Rosalina came to a halt.
Both instinctively covered their noses.
Could a person ever truly get used to this stench, no matter how many times they encountered it? The moment the smell hit them, a wave of revulsion surged through their bodies. Suppressing the urge to gag, they stepped forward, and the gloomy shadows cast by the mountain of death veiled their faces.
The place they had arrived at was the pit where the corpses of Hastin were piled. At the very bottom, Rosalina’s parents were buried.
「Let’s finally let them rest in peace.」
That was why Toth had brought Rosalina here.
Tomorrow, everyone from the back alleys would leave Hastin. He had made it sound to Rosalina like things were still up in the air, but in truth, everything from the departure time to the route had already been finalized with the Captain.
It sounded simple enough, but leaving Hastin would be anything but smooth.
They had to be careful to avoid not only the guards but also the suspicious knights from ‘Loono’s Mist.’
For so many of them to move undetected, they would have to act in perfect unison.
That meant when the time came, there wouldn’t be a single moment for personal affairs. The only time they had was right now. Most of the others didn’t have any lingering attachments—having nothing, they had nothing to leave behind. But Rosalina was different.
Didn't she have the strongest attachment of all, right here?
“Once we leave, we won’t be able to come back to Hastin for a while.”
Toth spoke to Rosalina, but he was also asking himself: Will we really be able to return? If so, how much time will have passed?
‘I originally wanted to give them a proper funeral…’
He held up a torch, its head thickly coated in oil he had stolen from an abandoned house.
“What are you going to do?” Toth asked.
Even at his question, Rosalina couldn't bring herself to speak. In their current situation, a conventional burial was impossible.
Her parents were at the very bottom of the pit. To get to them, they would have to clear away hundreds of corpses piled on top. And even if they somehow managed that, the bodies were already rotted beyond recognition. It would be impossible to tell them apart.
“If we leave them like this, they’ll just become a source of plague.”
They would become food for beasts and insects.
It was better to burn them.
“…Rosalina, do as you wish. It’s up to you. It’s okay if you just say your goodbyes and go back.”
Toth had no intention of forcing her hand. He was simply giving her a chance so she wouldn’t have any regrets later.
The choice was entirely hers.
Rosalina just stood blankly before the mountain of corpses.
Whether her senses had gone numb or her nose had already adapted, she didn’t grimace at the stench. She only tilted her head back slightly to look at the mound.
“…You know, Toth, I don’t want to do this. Because He is going to save Hastin. To be honest, I don’t even know why the Captain wants to leave. Hastin is going to be saved anyway. Can’t we just wait?”
This time, Toth remained silent.
If any of the others had heard her, they would have surely raised their voices, snapping at her without a second thought.
— Face reality already.
— Do you really think salvation is coming?
— If it was, we would have been saved long ago, you idiot.
The same words echoed in Toth’s own mind.
He barely managed to swallow the impulse, forcing it down with his saliva.
“The god you believe in isn’t the only one who can provide salvation. What you do can also be a form of salvation.”
“…Toth, what does that mean?”
“I don’t know what this salvation you’re always talking about really is. But can it happen right this moment? If not, doesn't that mean your parents have to stay trapped in that dark place for days, maybe even months longer, with no guarantee?”
He had spoken for longer than he intended. With a hint of regret, Toth continued.
“From that perspective, what you do now might be a better form of salvation. I don't know who this 'He' you talk about is, but don't leave things you can do yourself in the hands of another.”
“What I do is salvation…”
Rosalina’s voice trailed off. After a moment of hesitation, as if she had finally made up her mind, she reached out her hand.
“Toth.”
He could hear the resolve in her voice. Even before she could say another word, Toth lit the torch.
“I’ll do it.”
She took the torch he silently handed her.
The process was simple. All she had to do was transfer the flame to the pile before her. She could touch the wick to it, or if even that was too much, she could just hurl the entire torch into the pit.
She hesitated, faltering for a moment, before extending the wick toward the pit.
Just as she was about to set it ablaze, a voice broke the desolate silence.
“I wondered who might be in a place like this in the middle of the night. It turns out it was a fellow believer.”
A set of calm footsteps followed.
It was strange. No matter how quiet the night, a sound as faint as footsteps shouldn’t have been audible from a distance. And yet, the sound of his approach was chillingly, vividly clear in their ears.
Toth was certain. The approaching figure was making no effort to hide their presence. No, it was more than that—they were forcibly injecting their existence into the minds of others.
A man taller than Toth by a hand’s span emerged, draped in a black robe.
“Bishop!” Rosalina cried out, confirming Toth’s suspicion.
The Bishop offered a smile that seemed oddly innocent for a man of his pale, towering stature.
“I had nothing better to do and was simply passing by when I saw you two. But who is this person beside you?”
As the Bishop asked, Rosalina excitedly introduced Toth. While he and the Bishop exchanged a slight nod, Toth was already thinking.