Chapter 220
Chapter 220
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 220
Chapter Title: Part 2 Chapter 8: Bait (1)
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"……Thank you."
At the words of gratitude, Jamie turned his head.
A ragged beggar boy was bowing with dead eyes.
His left cheek was red and swollen from a slap, and his already filthy clothes were caked in dust from rolling on the ground.
Jamie glanced back at the thugs.
They had passed out from the agony of More Pain.
He hadn't held back on the intensity, so it was more pain than any ordinary person could endure.
But two grown men—thugs, no less—tormenting a child for fun? They deserved the punishment.
They should be grateful he hadn't killed them.
Not wanting to look at them anymore, he reached out.
The two thugs vanished.
"A-a magician?"
The boy gaped as the thugs disappeared before his eyes.
"As you can see."
Jamie scanned the boy up and down.
He recalled the rumor he'd heard last night.
The rumor about the family that had cursed this village.
He'd been looking for them anyway, figuring he needed to meet that family first to track down the necromancer controlling the ghosts.
This kid seems to be one of them.
He'd overheard the thugs cursing him as one of the cursed ones.
"What's your name?"
"Pivion."
He was surprised at how readily the boy gave his name. The kid seemed wary, so Jamie had figured he wouldn't share it.
But since Jamie had saved him, he'd earned a bit of trust—at least enough to share his name.
"Alright, Pivion. Why were those guys picking on you?"
"……."
"Because of the curse or ghosts?"
Pivion's eyes trembled violently as Jamie hit the nail on the head.
It was true.
With wary eyes full of caution, Pivion backed away.
"A-are you here to torment me and my family too...?"
He must have been through hell— he started trembling like a drowned rat at a simple question.
Jamie shook his head, feeling a twinge of pity.
"I don't have hobbies like that. I just think I can help."
"Why would you...?"
"Because I came to this village to solve that problem?"
It was a lie, but Jamie smiled and raised his left hand.
The emblem of the Pyro Goddess glowed faintly.
Jamie slowly brought his hand toward Pivion.
Pivion flinched, but he stopped backing away as a warm energy touched his skin.
The divine power soothed his swollen cheek and healed all the scrapes from rolling on the ground.
"Wow."
As the pain vanished like a lie, Pivion stared at Jamie with his mouth agape in shock.
Jamie withdrew his hand.
"As you can see, I'm a hunter dispatched by the church to hunt evil spirits. I'm here to lift the curse on this village and exorcise the ghosts."
Jamie lied shamelessly without batting an eye.
But Pivion had seen the divine power firsthand—he had no choice but to believe.
"Really? For real?"
"Yeah. From the rumors, it seems the whole village has a misunderstanding about your family. If it's okay with you, will you help me resolve the incident?"
"Of course! If it means clearing the false accusations on our family, I'll do anything!"
Jamie nodded.
He felt a little guilty for deceiving the kid, but either way, Pivion and his family would be freed from their suffering.
The important thing was to exorcise the ghosts and take down the necromancer behind them.
If someone got saved in the process, it was killing two birds with one stone.
"Will you show me to your house?"
"Yes!"
Pivion nodded vigorously and beckoned for Jamie to follow as he took the lead.
At that moment, the shop door opened, and the owner stepped out with an awkward expression.
Pivion's steps halted then too.
"H-ha. It's all packed up, Pivion. Take it and eat."
Pivion stared at the owner with eyes as dead and dark as coals, as if his earlier joy had been a lie.
The owner cleared his throat awkwardly and held out the bag.
But when Pivion didn't take it, he crept forward, set it down in front of the boy, and said,
"I put three coppers back in the bag too, so buy something tasty with it. Well, I'll be going now."
With that, the owner bolted back into the shop.
Pivion stared at the fluttering bag.
Inside, there was more food than usual.
The owner must have added extra out of guilt, but the wounds etched in the young boy's heart hadn't healed at all.
"Take it."
Jamie patted his back as he came up beside him.
"You've gotta eat."
"……Okay."
Pivion picked up the bag of food.
He gripped it tightly, feeling its weight.
"Mom! Fiona!"
Pivion ran toward home with a beaming face.
The boy, usually so gloomy, was now brighter than anyone, swinging the bag of food as he went.
If it burst, dinner would be ruined—but for the boy, the joy of the moment mattered more.
"Mom!"
Thankfully, the bag held up on the way home.
Jamie, who had half-hoped it wouldn't, shook his head and scanned the surroundings with arms crossed.
People live here?
This spot was a bit removed from the village—an open wasteland.
It might have been fields once; a neglected scarecrow stood half-broken, head bowed.
Pivion's house looked abandoned if you didn't know people lived there.
Thick yin energy hung over the land.
Scarce trees, not a blade of grass in sight.
Traces of wildlife were present, but all from nocturnal beasts.
Overall, sunlight barely reached here—it'd make a fine graveyard.
Proof of how little life there was.
"Hey! Come in!"
"Right."
Jamie stopped observing and entered the house.
It was tiny and rundown; the floorboards creaked everywhere he stepped.
One wrong gust of wind, and the whole thing might fly away.
"O-oppa...?"
As Jamie entered the room, a cute girl clung right behind Pivion.
Pivion stroked his sister Fiona's head.
"It's okay. This big bro helped me."
"Helped you?"
"Yeah. He beat up those mean bullies."
"For real?"
"And he's gonna exorcise the ghosts too."
"For real, for real?!"
"Yeah, for real!"
"Yay!"
The girl, who looked about seven, jumped around excitedly, and Jamie couldn't help but smile.
It reminded him of his little sister Sara back in Hyes.
A girl the same age as his sister, scraping by in this rundown place.
The thought made his chest tighten a bit.
Jamie crouched to meet Fiona's eyes.
"What's your name?"
"Fiona."
"How old?"
"Seven."
"You're young, but you talk well."
As he spoke, Jamie patted Fiona's head.
She usually shied away from strangers, but oddly, she didn't this time.
Pivion seemed surprised by his sister's reaction too.
"Fiona doesn't usually let strangers touch her like that...?"
Jamie chuckled and stood.
Then a weak woman's voice came from inside.
"Pin, you're back?"
"Mom!"
Pin must have been Pivion's nickname.
As he went into the inner room, their voices carried outside.
Jamie waited until invited.
He glanced at Fiona, who stared blankly beside him.
She quickly looked away when their eyes met.
Sara got shy outside too, so Fiona was similar in that way.
"Hey, come in."
"Right."
Jamie carefully entered the inner room, wary of the floor collapsing.
A woman sat leaning against the wall.
Quite thin and haggard from illness, yet strikingly beautiful.
Pivion clung to her arm like a cicada.
Footsteps behind—Fiona had come in too, latching onto her mother's other arm.
They looked like a family of cicadas.
Jamie shook off the silly thought and greeted her.
"I'm Bain, an evil spirit hunter from the Pyro Church."
"P-Pyro Church... I'm Irina, Pin and Fiona's mother."
"Nice to meet you, Irina."
"Yes... But what brings you to such a humble place...?"
"Mom! This big bro healed all my hurts!"
Pivion tugged his mother's arm excitedly.
He looked every bit the little kid like this.
Irina peered closely at her son's face with mild surprise.
"Oh my. The wounds really are gone."
She rubbed his cheek to confirm.
Then she bowed repeatedly to Jamie in thanks.
"Thank you. Truly, thank you. For healing my son like this. I heard church treatments cost a fortune, yet you used such precious power..."
"It's nothing. I just..."
"Hey."
Pivion called out, shaking his head with a face pleading not to say more.
He wanted the earlier incident kept secret.
Jamie had no intention of spilling that anyway.
"I'm merely following the goddess's command to show mercy."
He was invoking Pyro's name a lot today.
At least she was an ally, so it didn't feel too bad.
Using one of the other 12 Gods' names would have been humiliating enough to make him want to end it all.
If it were evil deeds, I'd have no qualms invoking their names left and right.
But that might draw pursuit.
Jamie looked at Irina.
"That said... I heard the rumors circulating in the village are about the people in this house."
"Hey, we really don't know anything."
"I'm not here to interrogate. Just confirming facts."
"Confirming facts...?"
Irina cautiously asked while hugging her daughter's head.
Jamie got straight to the point.
"May I verify the truth of those rumors myself?"
As he channeled divine power into his left hand, Irina hesitated.
Jamie sensed something from her expression.
Moments later, she decided.
"Pin, Fiona. Go outside for a bit. The adults need to talk."
Jamie flinched slightly at "adults."
Forgetting his past life, he was only thirteen now.
"Mom."
"Mooom..."
Fiona clung tightly, not wanting to let go.
Irina smiled reassuringly and stroked her daughter's head. She nodded at her son, and Pivion reluctantly took Fiona outside.
Once the children's presence faded, Irina slowly rose.
She opened a small chest in the corner.
A pure white rosary lay inside. Jamie's eyes narrowed slightly.
That's...
Divine power emanated from it.
He didn't know whose, but the rosary's aura enveloped the house protectively.
As if barring undead from approaching.
Irina knelt with the rosary.
"A priest gave us this rosary before we came to this village."
"I sense divine power."
"......He said it would protect our family from evil spirits."
"Which means..."
"Yes. The rumors... they're true. Because of our family."
He'd half-expected it, so it wasn't shocking.
It would have been stranger if she'd denied it.
A ghost tormenting villagers on a whim? A mage wouldn't waste time on pointless fun.
The rosary kept it from approaching.
But questions remained.
Jamie asked Irina seriously.
"Why are the ghosts targeting you?"
"That's..."
Irina's face darkened.
"I have a guess."
"A guess means you don't know the details."
"Yes."
"Tell me that much. I glimpsed it yesterday—it's no ordinary ghost. I need information."
"Well..."
Steeling herself, Irina met Jamie's eyes squarely.
"I think it's related to the children's father."
"Come to think of it, I don't see your husband."
"......He's dead. Betrayed."
Jamie blinked in surprise.
"Pardon?"
"He was a knight commander in the Silteo Kingdom. But a coup broke out from within, and he was killed. He sent us a letter warning us to flee before the assassins arrived, so we escaped in time."
Silteo Kingdom.
The country where the dynasty changed three years ago.
Unlike Harmonia, it wasn't corrupt, but when the king died, the lowest-ranked prince seized the empty throne via coup.
He didn't know the details, but it succeeded.
The prince discarded the royal surname and founded a new dynasty.
"Maybe they're doing this to kill us because of that..."
But it was odd.
Silteo was in the far west of the region.
This place was quite a distance north.
Even for a knight commander's family, was there reason to relentlessly hunt a powerless woman and her young children?
Hiring a necromancer, no less?
In a land ruled by the 12 Gods, would a king issue such a mad order?
Getting caught would mean the kingdom itself vaporized.
Whatever the case, the ghost was targeting this family—confirmed.
Surprising backstory, but who didn't have one?
He himself had deeper entanglements than most.
I'll reap what I've sown and move on.
Jamie told Irina,
"I heard you out. What a tragic tale. Good thing. As an evil spirit hunter, I'll set you free."
"What should we do?"
"Mind if I ask one demanding favor?"
"A demanding favor...?"
"Be bait for me."
Irina tilted her head at "bait."
Jamie smiled.
"Bait to catch the ghost."
To catch something, you needed bait.