Chapter 376
Chapter 376
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 376
Chapter Title: The Saintess's Inquiry
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Natida ventured deep into the heart of the snowy mountains, and Rak followed her with a skeptical look on his face.
"Even the knights didn't find a single trace when they searched..."
When Belnoa and Chloe had come to the North, they had combed through the mountains with the knights like they were hunting rats. But in the end, they hadn't tracked down the magical beast that left those bizarre traces. The warriors had been no different.
Even the warriors born and raised in the North, who roamed the snowy mountains like their own backyard, hadn't spotted it. That meant it was safe to assume there were no more traces left in these mountains.
But Natida's steps as she led the way showed no hesitation. It was the stride of someone utterly convinced that something lay ahead. As Rak shot dubious glances at her back, Natida let out a chuckle and spoke up.
"If it's the blood-soaked clothes that bother you, you don't have to glare like that. I'm perfectly fine."
She tilted her head as she said it.
"I'm a saintess, after all? The divine arts I use do take a toll on the body... but they heal everything, so that's why I rely on them. No need to worry."
"...Pardon?"
"Yes?"
Rak blinked.
Natida blinked right back. Rak thought to himself that the saintess before him had clearly misunderstood something.
"The clothes don't bother me at all."
Rak wasn't one for beating around the bush.
He stated it plainly.
"I was just wondering what might be this way, since you seem so certain."
That was all, he added with a nod. There wasn't a hint of deception in Rak's expression.
"Uh... really?"
"Yes."
"But your clothes are drenched in blood... and it doesn't bother you?"
"Doesn't that happen all the time when you're training your body?"
Rak rolled up the sleeve of his shirt.
He tapped the scars etched into his forearm and flashed a toothy grin, proud as could be.
"Scars and wounds are a warrior's pride."
"Ah, right..."
Natida made a awkward face.
Realizing she'd been barking up the wrong tree, she scratched the back of her neck sheepishly and started walking again. They trekked on for a good while before Natida halted in front of a sheer cliff.
A jagged wall of rock.
Below the cliff, the corpses of beasts that had fallen to their deaths dotted the ground here and there. Natida glanced at them before pointing to a spot on the cliff face.
"There it is."
Rak narrowed his eyes.
In the direction Natida pointed, a section of the cliff protruded unnaturally. It was as if the entrance had been sealed with stone. You wouldn't notice unless you knew to look.
"...How did you spot this?"
"There's a way."
Natida shrugged and jerked her chin toward it.
"Let's go. Looks like traces inside."
She muttered about how they might get there, rummaging in her robe for a rope or something, when—
"Excuse me for a moment."
Rak scooped Natida up with one arm.
Before the startled Natida could let out an "Eek!", Rak slung her over his shoulder. Her eyes, which had sparkled with excitement for a split second, turned ice-cold in an instant.
"...Young master?"
"Yes?"
"Don't people usually... carry someone princess-style in situations like this? That's how it is in the fairy tales."
"Isn't this safer?"
Rak blinked, genuinely puzzled. Natida sighed and patted his forearm where she dangled.
"Fine, whatever. Let's go."
With a thud, Rak leaped from the cliff's edge. It was a light jump, and his landing was smooth. In a heartbeat, he stood before the protruding rock and set Natida down, hand on his waist.
Whoosh, crack!
He drew his axe smoothly and cleaved into the stone.
It was fairly thick rock, but the moment Rak's axe struck, it split like dry kindling with a resounding crack.
"Whoa."
A short exclamation of awe.
Behind the shattered rock lay a long tunnel. A thick stench of blood wafted from the pitch-black depths. Natida pinched her nose and stepped inside.
The moment she took that first step—
A blue flame flickered in the darkness.
It took a moment to realize it was the glow from a beast's eyes, and that brief delay was all the time the beast needed.
Screech.
The beast's claws lunged straight for Natida's eyes.
* * *
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Thwack.
Before the sharp claws could gouge Natida's eyes, Rak's arm shot out from behind her and seized the beast's wrist. A silver-white flash traced a brutal arc, slashing down at the beast's arm.
Splat! Drip, drip.
Black sludge sprayed out before splattering to the ground. The beast let out an eerie screech and staggered back, while Rak pulled Natida behind him and stepped forward.
"Stay back."
Rak shook out his wrist casually.
His axe, now drawn, was coated in sticky sludge. He frowned. It didn't feel like cutting living flesh. More like slicing into something already dead.
Flash.
The light orb Natida summoned illuminated the tunnel's depths. Rak got a look at the beast, now missing an arm. Standing on two legs, the magical beast's form was grotesque. Oozing sludge, crumbling flesh. Less alive than a corpse.
"......"
Rak eyed the beast's low growl and its claws. Sharpened to razor edges like blades. Comparing them to the gouges in the ground, they seemed a match. With that, Rak took another step forward.
The beast swung its remaining arm with a shriek.
Its gaping maw was clogged with chunks of meat, and that lone hand wasn't pure sludge—it looked woven from beasts and corpses of the Demon King's army.
Clang!
Rak parried the claws and plunged into the beast's guard. Then, crack—he dropped low and hacked at its knee with his axe. With a wet thud, the leg came off, and the beast's body tilted.
Whoosh.
Spinning the axe to shake off the gore, Rak cleaved through the remaining arm, nape, and shoulder in sequence. The silver-white arcs were sharp and ferocious.
"————!"
Limb-less in seconds, the beast still gaped its jaws wide in a final act of defiance, lunging to bite Rak's arm. But Rak grabbed its upper and lower jaws with both hands and tore them apart.
Thud.
He drove his axe into the fallen beast's spine and let out a short breath. Natida, who had watched with her mouth slightly agape, finally spoke.
"Thank you for the help. And... you kept it alive on purpose?"
Natida approached Rak and pointed at the sprawled beast. Black sludge dribbled from its torn maw, but it still twitched. Proof it clung to life, though not for long.
Its flesh had been crumbling since they met.
Her mission was to extract information before it fully collapsed.
Natida removed her gloves. She pressed her pale palm to the beast's head and drew a dagger from her bosom. Then, stab—she pierced both the beast's crown and her own palm.
A divine art, a type of miracle.
Natida's blood mingled with the beast's sludge.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 2.
The miracles that the Delorhim Church had developed over time: divine arts.
A saintess blessed by the gods could wield most divine arts, and in certain domains, none could match her prowess. The first saintess, for instance, specialized in the realm of 'life creation'...
The previous saintess, Sara, excelled in 'blessings' that enhanced others' flesh, healing, and mana potency. Sara was proficient in most divine arts and possessed immense holy power; aside from the first, she was the greatest in the church's history.
No other saintess had arisen with such broad talents and vast holy power.
And when Natida was named the next saintess after Sara's retirement, the church elders sighed. The divine arts she excelled in didn't align with how they wanted to use her.
So the church tried.
Experiments to erase her talents and artificially bestow new ones via holy relics. The results were half success, half failure. They couldn't eliminate the side effects.
"Urk, ugh."
Natida groaned, her body shuddering.
Dark red blood gushed from between her parted lips. It looked dangerous, so Rak placed a hand on her shoulder, but...
"Let go. I don't want to do this twice."
At Natida's cold tone, Rak withdrew his hand. She vomited blood for a while before yanking out the dagger from her palm. Sticky blood trailed as she collapsed to her knees.
"Ow, my head."
Leaning against the cave wall, she bumped the back of her head lightly against it and fumbled a cigarette from her bosom with trembling hands. She tried to light it with a flint, but her shakes kept failing.
"Hoo..."
Natida sighed and glanced at Rak.
"Um, young master?"
She smiled wryly and handed him the flint.
"Could you light this for me?"
Rak silently lit the cigarette for her.
"Thanks," she mumbled around it, taking a long drag. Only then did her trembling hands steady a bit.
"Investigation complete. We can leave the corpse here or call people later to clean it up. Now I just need to head back and write the report."
"...Already done?"
"I've got a knack for this."
Natida tapped her temple with shaky fingers. Her bloodshot eyes twitched. Unable to watch, Rak asked,
"You look in pretty bad shape."
"It's always tiring after... but today's worse. Makes sense, though. It's not just one or two things I had to read."
Natida let out a hollow laugh.
She stared at her limp legs, then looked up at Rak and pointed to them.
"Young master, sorry to ask..."
She said sheepishly.
"Could you carry me? Not over the shoulder like before—properly. It makes my stomach flip."
It was no trouble.
Rak piggybacked Natida out of the cave. Even during the trip, she sweated like rain; by the time they reached Baekya Castle, she had passed out.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 3.
The report from Natida arrived.
Lania read it carefully.
It analyzed the entity behind the bizarre traces in the North and confirmed they'd secured its corpse.
『Detection via divine arts confirms intervention by the apostate. Determined to be a magical beast 'created' by the apostate Gletus.』
『Immediately attempted 'interference.' At the first moment, the apostate named it the 'King of Magical Beasts.' The one spotted in the North was a failure, and we estimate the 'success' is already complete.』
Natida was a capable aide, and based on her new intel, Lania pieced together the puzzle. The shocking part was that the magical beast from the front lines had made it all the way North.
"So the traces in the North were from the failure."
She'd suspected as much facing the King of Magical Beasts, but now it was certain. Time to send reinforcements. Lania turned to the next page.
『Escaped from a lab that looks like a workshop.』
『Due to the subject's unstable state, some memories are missing, but it likely reached the North via some means and resolved bodily collapse through predation.』
A failure that should have crumbled and died the moment its black sludge hose detached. Yet according to Natida, it had reconstructed its failing flesh by devouring and hunting other magical beasts.
『Its will to survive is extraordinarily strong.』
『The thoughts I read during interference were nothing but pure obsession with survival.』
Obsession with survival.
"Hmm..."
Lania stroked her chin at the words.
Even a failure was based on the King of Magical Beasts itself. A bizarre creature that learned, grew, and evolved to survive. It had even inherited that will.
A failure that couldn't last three minutes without the hose had survived for over a month.
The fact made Lania shudder in annoyance. If a mere failure was this bad, what about the completed success she'd faced in the workshop? Unimaginable.
"This is a hassle."
The King of Magical Beasts's whereabouts were unknown.
Tracking via Kalt showed only that it had vanished deep into the demon realm. No further pursuit possible, so Lania pinched her brow.
The birth of a new calamity.
An incomplete calamity now, and the heights it would reach once mature. Factoring it all in, this was a massive variable. One that could upend her carefully laid plans.
"Hoo..."
Lania leaned back with a long sigh. The report wasn't over, so she skimmed the rest.
『Pushed my divine arts too hard and wrecked my body, hero. Mind if I recuperate in the North?』
『Well, not full recuperation.』
『Might be good to stick around and monitor the situation a bit longer...?』
In short, she wanted a vacation.
Lania recalled Natida's divine arts. Unlike Sara, who could burn through holy power recklessly without issue, Natida had side effects.
'Her energy flow gets tangled?'
Unlike past saintesses with pure, untainted qi like clear water, Natida's was murky. The result of drugs and artificial procedures. Her output was exceptional, but...
'Her self-recovery is slow.'
That murkiness often wrecked her body.
Unlike others, purifying the tangles took Natida considerable time, leaving her bedridden.
Three recovery methods.
Wait for natural healing, or have someone like Lania, who precisely handled starlight, untangle it.
'And the last...'
Untainted holy relics.
Prolonged exposure to pure white relics. But in this era, none such remained—third option might as well not exist.
'Before the church's corruption, relics from centuries ago... but where would those be?'
As Lania thought that, she blinked.
"Huh?"
What was a holy relic?
An object packed with miraculous divinity.
In essence, anything infused with divine, stellar power and touched by a saint could be called one. So wasn't 'that' a holy relic?
"It... still exists?"
And right near Natida, no less.
Nothing could top it as a relic.
The most sacred entity in history, used for the longest time. Lania immediately scribbled on stationery.
『Tell Rak I asked for this.』
『Ask to see the greatsword he carries.』
The first hero, Ganicardt van Galatrick.
The first holy sword—or star sword—he'd wielded, called a saint. Lania figured nothing surpassed it as a relic.