Chapter 244
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 244
Chapter Title: The Blind-Eyed Shrine Maiden (2)
The festival was over. The demons' feast of harvesting pain and despair had ended. The grand carnival of those wretched humans who had courted their own doom had drawn to a close.
Grand events always leave behind heaps of trash. With the demonic energy scattered and the full moon hanging overhead, the clearing was littered with human corpses—their throats slit, bellies torn open—alongside demon limbs like scythes and innards still slick with mucus.
The silver lining, at least, was that the one who'd made the mess was personally recycling the garbage.
Puuk—!
A man stabbed a dagger into a demon's artery. The red-haired girl standing beside him made a gagging sound, pretending to retch.
"Urk... What the hell? You're not seriously planning to save that and drink it later, are you?"
"That's right. Who knows when we'll run into another one? Can't waste precious demon blood."
"No, seriously... Can't you just not drink it? Every time you do, you get all weird, Kadim... Like, asking who I am and rambling nonsense, swinging your axe at thin air..."
"...But thanks to that, we survived, didn't we? If I hadn't drunk the demon blood this time, both you and I would've been dead."
"..."
True enough, that's how it was.
The enemy they'd faced this time was an upper-rank demon with two horns. Without Kadim drinking the blood to strengthen his body, it would've been an unwinnable fight.
But she didn't like the idea of her sole companion losing his mind... Well, he wouldn't be her sole companion much longer, but still, she didn't like it... So in the end, the girl mage, Melissa, had stubbornly insisted he not drink the blood.
"Anyway, if we just avoid situations where you have to drink it in the first place, right? This time, if we hadn't come to rescue that... woman, we wouldn't have run into some random demon."
"..."
Kadim's face hardened, turning serious. That remark was no different from suggesting they feed one of the hero's party members—destined to save the world—to a filthy demon.
Adding the woman to their party had already been agreed upon. Melissa quickly backed down, grumbling about feeling queasy for no reason while shooting a displeased glance at the woman who'd disrupted their twosome, then stormed off.
Only two remained in the blood-soaked clearing.
The hulking man methodically collecting blood in his canteen, and... the white-haired woman lying still like an inanimate object.
There was no focus in the woman's eyes. Her irises, faded to gray, held only a vacant moon halo, more akin to the eyes of the dead or a sightless blind man than those of the living.
And that made sense. She'd just lost everything. The villagers she'd known her whole life, the mission to seal the demon with her shamanic arts, the noble conviction to protect everyone until her dying breath, unrecognized though it was.
All by her own choice.
"..."
It had been unavoidable.
The demon sealed by the villagers' foolish mistake had broken free. No one had stood by her to the end; everyone had ultimately become the demon's slaves. Then, like a savior, this man had appeared, risking his life to protect her. His proposal was impossible to refuse.
'Tell me! To slaughter them all!! To butcher every last one of those wretched fools who chained you, and get me out of this goddamn hellhole!!'
'...'
She'd made her decision, and the man had faithfully carried it out.
Slaughtering demons and humans alike, without distinction.
Tchiiik—guguk! Kururuk...
Kadim pulled out the dagger. The canteen was full of demon blood. As he tightly sealed the cap, a single drop splattered onto his forearm. He licked it off absentmindedly.
At that moment, the woman's hazy eyes regained their focus.
What was the reason? Shock at the man's savagery in collecting demon blood like spring water? Awe at his fearless boldness against countless foes? Or perhaps... a twinge of emptiness at seeing the demon she'd devoted her life to stopping reduced to a mere lump of flesh?
There must have been countless questions, yet the first words from those pale lips were unexpected.
"What... does it taste like?"
"..."
For a moment, he met her moonlit gaze steadily.
Swallowing the lingering metallic tang on his tongue, Kadim answered flatly.
"Not sweet."
*
The bite of the cold wind grew sharper. The campfire flames flickered precariously. Icy reason subdued the boiling excitement.
As his head cooled, Kadim realized.
This was entirely different from that time. Cyril had lost her sight deep in the demonic realm. When they'd first met, she still had eyes that held the moonlight. This shrine maiden, blindfolded with a yellowed cloth, was not the white-haired shrine maiden from his first playthrough.
Yet the coincidence was eerily precise.
Of all things, a shrine maiden of the wilderness—one who'd gone blind, no less—appearing just as he drank demon blood, asking the exact same question Cyril had.
And above all... bearing the epithet 'Blind-Eyed Shrine Maiden'.
"...That title isn't originally yours."
"..."
"Didn't the previous shrine maiden tell you? Long ago, it belonged to the shrine maiden who felled a great demon and built a hundred ruins for me."
The great warrior's question carried a chill edge of anger. The Blind-Eyed Shrine Maiden, Yebril, answered calmly, unshaken.
"Dust can never claim the name of the land. If a place is called the wilderness, even if the winds sweep away the grains of soil and storms scour the earth, it will still be called the wilderness."
"...What nonsense is this?"
"That epithet is the land itself, and we shrine maidens are but nameless motes of dust drifting upon it. I've merely taken that position in place of the previous shrine maiden for now, but someday I too will leave it. Would it not be absurd for one grain of dust, larger than the others, to claim it is the wilderness itself?"
"..."
Three furrows creased his darkening brow. A vein throbbed on his forehead.
"So... you're saying it's not Cyril now, but you who's the real 'Blind-Eyed Shrine Maiden'?"
"Yes, that is correct. Great Warrior of Atala."
"...Have you no respect for your ancestors? Just because you're blind, you steal the title they built up?"
"Dust does not choose where it settles. I was merely swept here by the winds of the wilderness and silently carry on the legacy of the previous 'Blind-Eyed Shrine Maiden.' Just as you bear the title of Great Warrior and uphold the legacies of past 'Great Warriors'..."
"Hell if I know who those guys even are."
As he spoke, Kadim subtly gripped the handle of his hatchet. Yebril feigned composure but couldn't hide the slight tremble at the corner of her lips.
Kadim caught it.
'She's even using Mind's Eye. Just like Cyril...'
'Mind's Eye' was an advanced shamanic art that substituted for vision with the eye of the heart. It explained how a blind woman had made it here alone. Cyril had continued her journey in the demonic realm after losing her sight thanks to mastering Mind's Eye.
But the more they talked, the more the sense of déjà vu—like seeing an old comrade—faded.
This shrine maiden maintained an extremely detached demeanor even while looking at him. There was no trace of the excessively devoted woman who'd always prioritized the Great Warrior's well-being above all else. Unlike Cyril, who spoke bluntly and directly, this one twisted her words like other shrine maidens—unable to clearly divine and reveal heavenly secrets due to insufficient spiritual power.
A thick wave of disappointment soon crashed over him.
Because he'd leaned toward seeing her as merely an inferior successor to Cyril, because she knew nothing of Cyril's whereabouts, and because... he intuited that Remillion's prophetic dream had pointed to this very moment.
'...I saw you meeting a white-haired shrine maiden with bandages over her eyes... Feeling both searing heat and biting cold at once...'
Sure enough, the dream wasn't a prophecy of reuniting with Cyril. Sealing heat and cold? What, from just a campfire and a chilly wind...? Kadim let out a self-deprecating chuckle.
Still, it wasn't for nothing. When he asked about the shrine maiden and sacred object from the ruined relic, Yebril produced a radiant needle.
"Here it is. Please take it. The daughter of the wilderness, who endured long years of imprisonment... entrusted this sacred object to me as her final mission before returning to the earth."
The 'Engraving Needle.' The new Blind-Eyed Shrine Maiden had faithfully delivered her predecessor's legacy.
No, it went beyond mere delivery.
"But... don't you lack demon blood worthy of engraving right now?"
"...Once I get decent blood, I'll handle the engraving myself. Don't worry about it."
"That's one path, but it leads to a blood-soaked pit you can't escape. Allow me to guide you to another fork. Among the marks you possess, is there one whose power you'd like to elevate to a higher realm?"
Kadim's eyes narrowed slightly. After some thought, he pointed to the tattoo on his back—the one against mysteries and miracles that had always proven spectacularly effective: the tattoo of the devouring demon, 'Aculanos's Tattoo'.
Yebril pricked her finger, staining the 'Engraving Needle' with her blood. Then, stroke by stroke, she added lines to the tattoo on his back.
Wuuuung—!!
The existing pattern glowed red, connecting with the new strokes. With gentle hands, she stroked his firm back and murmured softly.
"Devouring Demon... A power to summon a predator that swallows mysteries, but only once. From now on, you can call forth a greater predator with this mark, or sustain it continuously."
"..."
Those words rang true.
Wuuuuung—
After testing it once, Kadim realized a new form had emerged for 'Insatiable Predator.' Until now, even with the 'Engraving Needle,' the lack of usable blood had rendered it useless... but if it could be used this way, that worry was gone.
The shrine maiden's contribution didn't end with opening new horizons for the sacred object. On a whim, Kadim asked if she knew why Elga couldn't kill him with 'Heavenly Punishment.' Her response was a substantial clue.
"'Great Warrior' is the pact held by the God of Struggle and Wilderness, rooted in the divinity of battle. Through this pact, the sons and daughters of the wilderness receive the blessings bestowed by the Father of the Wilderness. It is because you were absent, Great Warrior, that the shrine maidens lost their spiritual powers—and have now regained them."
"..."
"But if the core of that pact is destroyed by an irresistible heavenly will... the War God would not stand idly by, and great chaos would erupt in the heavens. The same if the opposite occurs. Should lofty heavenly wills clash, no absolute being would emerge unscathed."
In simple terms, the adults were checking each other to keep from meddling in the kids' fight.
Kadim was somewhat taken aback.
In the natural flow of conversation, he'd nearly overlooked it, but he'd never mentioned what 'Heavenly Punishment' was or its connection to Atala. Meaning she'd grasped the full story solely through her spiritual insight and answered accordingly... which contradicted her earlier evasive speech patterns.
The suspicion he'd buried resurfaced. Kadim casually gripped the haft of Star Pulverizer.
Guuung...
Then, activating the stigmata 'Star that Pierces Truth,' he asked.
"Cut the crap and answer only 'yes' or 'no.' Your true identity—is it Cyril?"
"..."
A heavy silence descended.
The lonely winds whipped the cloth fringes, faint moonlight filtering through the clouds, until her pale lips parted.
"No, it is not."
Guuung...
The stigmata trembled faintly, emanating blue light. The Blind-Eyed Shrine Maiden spoke the truth.
Savoring the fading metallic taste on his tongue, Kadim bowed his head bitterly.
*
Atala's Great Warrior departed. Shouldering the entire night sky, bearing the vast, heavy emptiness of the darkness.
The Blind-Eyed Shrine Maiden, Yebril, lifted her head to gaze at the night sky.
Once accustomed, the eye of the heart reveals more than the eyes of the flesh. How far those stars shine, how arduous the path that warrior has walked, how selfish her own actions have been, and how brightly... that crescent moon smiles.
"...The place we must reunite is not here, is it, Lord Kadim."
Once more, from the lips of the lightless shrine maiden.
An ancient promise, worn smooth over three hundred nights.
"Someday, in a field where the sun never sets, may we meet again, smiling like the moon..."