What Sleeps on the Coastal Cliffs (1)
The village had been in an uproar since early morning.
The children, who seemed to vanish every other day, were now racing through the streets with bright smiles.
The boats that usually went out to sea were gathered at the pier for once.
Sailors’ songs drifted in from every direction.
Faces around the village were lit with delight, as though families long separated had finally come home together. Neighbors exchanged food over their walls and shared whatever they could spare for the festival.
The stage set up in the center of the village was meant for the gypsies.
As this was the day everyone had been waiting for, the gypsies and the musicians were busy checking their instruments and outfits.
It was Frang Village’s festival, a celebration for a bountiful catch and safe return.
Fresh fish would be offered to a god whose name no one remembered anymore, and on the final day of the festival, the offerings would be loaded onto a small rowboat and sent out to sea.
Even mercenaries were taking the day off in greater numbers than usual.
The ones who had rushed into the shops that opened from morning onward were already boisterously drinking and eating.
“You’ve got to drink on a day like this! Don’t you think?”
“Hahaha! And there goes a man with no money acting like he’s got a say in it.”
“So what? Tomorrow’s me will sort it out!”
They were all mercenaries who hunted hons boars.
They likely had at least a little money in their pockets. Even as they hurled curses at one another, the smiles on their faces never quite disappeared.
The harder life was from day to day, the sweeter rest became when it finally arrived.
There were dwarves inside the shop too.
Seated around a table, they were gulping beer straight from the mugs.
“Short little things can really put it away.”
“Short? Humans really don’t get it. Since when does being tall mean you can drink better?”
“You sure talk big for someone with a mouth that keeps running. If you gathered up all the beer we drink in a single day, the lot of you dwarves would drown in it!”
“What did you say? Fine. If there’s a human among you who can beat us in a drinking contest, we’ll pay for all of today’s drinks. But if you lose, then you pay for ours too. How about it?”
“Can’t refuse a challenge like that. Hey. You hear that? These fearless dwarves want to take us on in a drinking match.”
“A drinking match? Now that sounds good!”
Angry laughter flew back and forth.
On any normal day, fists would likely have started flying, but today was a festival, and everyone was in high spirits.
The sharp-witted tavernkeeper had already started carrying beer to the tables.
“Free drinks today!”
“Ten copper on the dwarf!”
“Five copper on our ugly friend Hitch!”
Lawrence crossed the noisy streets and made for the hillside road.
People were scattered along the slope in greater numbers than he had expected.
Whenever their eyes met, they quietly lowered their heads in greeting.
After spending the past few days helping clean the monastery, he’d begun seeing more and more villagers showing their faces now and then.
Well, everyone turned away the moment they saw the sister standing in front of the chapel.
Still, once the Bodyanoy affair was settled, he had a feeling the faithful would return to the monastery in no time.
Today, Luca stood in that place instead of Yekaterina.
She was sweeping when she spotted Lawrence and greeted him.
“Good morning, Lawrence.”
“You’re working hard this early.”
“It’s what I’m supposed to do.”
She had only been living at the monastery for a few days, and yet she already looked as if she had fully settled in.
“It’s rare for the festival to get underway. Don’t you need to go down and enjoy it?”
“I’m fine. Sister Elvira is busy too. Everyone is, really.”
Even while they talked, the broom never stopped moving.
Lawrence had more or less finished cleaning the garden, but the cloister was another matter entirely.
Dust and insects kept turning up no matter how many times it was swept.
A room that hadn’t been used for a long time had already become a spider’s nest.
There was no way Luca could finish it alone.
At minimum, half a month.
More likely, he should be prepared for a full month.
Even so, Luca hadn’t complained once.
She moved her hands quietly, as she had been taught, and spent her evenings studying letters and reading the Bible.
It wasn’t just his imagination that she seemed strangely happy.
Come to think of it, even when they first met, she had looked interested in the Order.
Rombamel was a city untouched by the Holy Cross Order.
And yet she not only knew the Order’s greeting, but had clearly been listening, learning, and collecting scraps of information in her own way.
That was probably why she adapted so quickly.
What she had only ever held in her heart had finally come true.
No matter what happened, she would never willingly let go of the rope she had grasped.
Just as Lawrence had when he first entered Saint Charmant Monastery.
Luca would do well.
Rising from the ashes, she was walking by her own will.
Even if the lantern before her were to dim for a moment, she would no longer stop walking.
“Junior.”
Yekaterina emerged from the chapel and handed Lawrence a bag.
“Carry it carefully and come with me.”
A bag?
He didn’t know what was inside, but it was heavy.
“Luca.”
“Yes, Sister Yekaterina?”
Luca stopped sweeping and trotted over to her.
“We have to go out for a little while now. We’ll be back before nightfall at the latest. Just because I’m not here doesn’t mean you can grow lazy. Do what you’re supposed to do.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Good. Your senior believed in you, so I believe you’ll do fine too.”
“Yes! I won’t bring shame to Lawrence’s name.”
At her spirited answer, Yekaterina messed up Luca’s hair.
“Ready to go?”
“Yeah. We should leave before it gets any later.”
She led the way down into the basement.
Just in case, Lawrence gave Luca a quick warning.
“Keep a crossbow within arm’s reach.”
“Yes. I’ll put it in front of the cloister.”
“And if we don’t come back, go find Elvira.”
“That won’t happen. The Goddess will protect the two of you.”
Her reply carried such steady confidence that his own worries eased a little.
“Right. See you in a bit.”
“Please be careful.”
Lawrence followed Yekaterina down into the basement.
* * *
Dim strands of light filtered in and illuminated the underground passage.
The monastery basement had been flooded by water that had seeped in from somewhere.
It was nothing like the Ulbazar Swamp in the rainy season.
Below the water that covered his ankles, he couldn’t see a thing.
Lawrence tried to stop Yekaterina from lighting the lamp.
Shadow Light.
The shadows gathered together and became a sphere of light.
The wide corridor stretched out on both sides beneath the glow of Shadow Light.
Whether the water had flowed in through the sea and found its way beneath the monastery, or something else had happened, the passage was cluttered with all sorts of objects and debris.
“Magic really is useful.”
“So you do agree two people are better than one.”
“I didn’t say that much.”
“Ahaha. Then I’ll take the lead.”
At Yekaterina’s sharp retort, Lawrence laughed.
Lighting the corridor with Shadow Light made moving around much easier.
Even just being able to see the floor improved things enormously.
He walked carefully so as not to step on anything washed in by the seawater.
“If it’s like the other places, there’ll probably be a refectory and a bathhouse here too.”
“There probably is. But no one knows what’s inside them now. If stray hon boars came in here, those would be the perfect places for them, same as any room.”
“Then it’s better not to provoke them for no reason.”
“Exactly. No need to make our lives more annoying than they already are.”
There was no reason to fight here.
Besides, the hon boars affected by the anomaly were not weak.
There was no sense in taking unnecessary risks in a cramped place like this.
If he could snipe them from far away with a Shadow Spear, that would be ideal.
But actual combat rarely went the way one expected.
“How long does it take to reach the Lost Sanctuary from here?”
“Hard to say. I’ve never gone down since it changed like this. Before that, I’d guess it took about three or four hours.”
“So not especially close.”
“No. And now we’ve got to avoid those things too, so it’ll take longer.”
That wasn’t very encouraging.
“Already regretting it? I told you not to come along.”
“Honestly, Sister, why don’t you just admit it? You’re relieved I’m here, aren’t you? Walking through a place like this with only one lamp to light the way would be hard on anyone who wasn’t made of steel.”
“Enough with the jokes. Do you still think I’m some ordinary sister?”
“Call yourself an inquisitor and I still wouldn’t know what that means.”
The Order’s one and only armed force was the Temple Knights.
Only the paladins, as they were commonly called, wielded swords in the name of the Goddess.
But he had never even heard the name Celestial before.
As for an inquisitor, he knew absolutely nothing.
“I should just stop talking. What’s the point of getting angry at a junior who doesn’t know anything?”
“Do you know what, Sister?”
“If you don’t, don’t say it.”
“You’re actually a pretty interesting person.”
Mostly because of her reactions.
“Oh, sure.”
Yekaterina curled her lips in disbelief.
Onward. Just onward.
How long had they been moving into the darkness, like a sea without horizon?
The scenery of the passage began to change.
The structures built by human hands started melting back into nature.
Walls streaked with water.
Stalactites and stalagmites jutted out here and there.
Stone columns connecting floor and ceiling reminded him of the cave he’d once seen in the Ulbazar Swamp.
The water kept rising.
What had once reached only his ankles now swallowed half his body.
Fortunately, the entire passage wasn’t like that.
In some places, the ground sloped lower; in others, it rose higher.
Down and up, up and down, over and over again.
At the same time, the corridor grew even wider.
As though proving it was a natural cave, the surroundings were full of all kinds of formations shaped by nature itself.
Because the ground was slick, he lost his balance several times.
And with the water now so deep, even Shadow Light couldn’t reveal the bottom any longer.
The water itself wasn’t exactly clean either.
Its gray tint only deepened the sense of unease.
If an Eligator were in a place like this, wouldn’t you die without even knowing it?
That thought crossed his mind because the passage was difficult enough to make his skin crawl.
“Are we going the right way?”
“The only thing you should be worried about right now is my cigarette.”
There was clear irritation in Yekaterina’s voice.
“It wasn’t this bad when I came here before….”
“What was it like then?”
“At worst, the water reached my ankles. Even the deeper dips only rose to my knees at most. It never got to the point where it covered your body like this.”
“Then it’s possible the water’s just pooled here and hasn’t drained out.”
“That wouldn’t necessarily be bad. If that’s the case, the hon boars probably haven’t come all the way in here. Even if they were affected by it, they shouldn’t be able to ignore this much water entirely.”
“That seems not to be the case….”
Hidden behind a rock, Lawrence raised his fist.
Seeing the signal, Yekaterina moved in behind him.
Holding his breath, he carefully sent Shadow Light forward.
There, half-submerged in the water, a hon boar was roaming about.
A semi-transparent body.
Gills opening and closing.
It was an anomalous hon boar.
“Those things are downright disgusting. So they can even go against their own instincts.”
“When we met them outside, they ignored the red ones too. The influence from that spirit Bodyanoy seems to be stronger than we thought.”
An anomaly.
He didn’t know who had named it, but the term was certainly apt.
Should he kill it?
Right now, he could probably snipe it with a Shadow Spear.
There was enough open space now to hide and cast magic.
“I’ll kill it.”
“Can you take it down in one shot?”
“More than easily.”
“Oh? Then what do you plan to do about the sound?”
“We’ll just have to hope there aren’t any other hon boars nearby.”
There was nothing they could do about the noise.
And they couldn’t exactly ignore it and pass by either.
If they were attacked from both sides in a place where movement was already hampered by the water, there would be no good way to respond.
They might make it through safely now.
But the more the creature wandered the area, the greater the chance they’d run into it again.
Rather than take that risk, it would be better to deal with it now and leave no loose ends.
At least there were no other hon boars behind them for the moment.
“I’ll handle the sound problem.”
Yekaterina’s hand disappeared beneath the water.
When it rose again, she was holding a small dagger.
“You’ve got a plan?”
“There are plenty of ways to silence a sound.”
There was a small hole in the end of the dagger’s hilt.
She threaded a lock of hair through it and tied it in a loop.
“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only what is good for building up others according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
She murmured the prayer under her breath.
The dagger slipped from her hand and lodged itself into one side of the cave.
At her gesture telling him to begin, Lawrence raised his hand.
Shadow Spear.
The shadow spear manifested.
Predicting the hon boar’s movements wasn’t difficult.
It wasn’t chasing anyone; it was merely wandering aimlessly.
There was no need to bother with ropes.
Too much power might even bring the cave down.
The dark cavern was split apart by Shadow Spear.
The upper half of the roaming hon boar was blown away.
No sound echoed.
The Shadow Spear vanished after leaving a small wound in the wall.
The hon boar’s body floated up, bobbing on the water.
“So there really wasn’t any sound.”
Honestly, he was a little surprised.
No matter how it was, he couldn’t stop the water from rippling under the force of the blow, but if the sound itself was suppressed, their options multiplied by a lot.
“You’re more capable than I expected. I thought at most it was magic for helping you play the part of a gardener.”
Yekaterina retrieved the dagger, now that its job was done.
“You need at least one thing to rely on if you’re going around searching for sanctuaries, don’t you?”
At Lawrence’s answer, she let out a small laugh.