Chapter 212: The Master Is Here (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 212: The Master Is Here (1)
“Darling~ Wake up.”
I opened my eyes to a sweet call, like one from a lover.
Alfia, who must have woken up a while ago, was already fully prepared for the day, looking down at me with a refreshing smile.
She held out both her hands.
When I took them, she pulled me right up.
“Here, water.”
Alfia swirled her finger, creating a stream of water that she guided right into my mouth. I swished it around a few times and spat it out. Then I drank some more.
Perhaps because it was spirit water, a single sip cleared my groggy mind.
“Are you awake now?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s wash up and have breakfast. I bought some food from the city.”
Though I hadn’t said a word, Alfia had taken care of everything. The same woman who had been so reluctant to go to Vestia was now taking the initiative.
Ever since our reunion, she seemed more vibrant and full of life than ever before.
I left the tent and washed my face in the lake. We had a simple breakfast with the boxed meals Alfia had bought.
I was grateful for her cooperation, but what happened yesterday still weighed on my mind.
“Will you be okay?”
“I can’t keep acting like a child forever. I’m a slave, and you’re my master, so I have to follow your lead.”
Alfia smiled bitterly, as if in resignation.
Then, a sudden thought.
“Darling, I have a question. Was what happened yesterday a punishment or a reward? I feel like we should be clear about it.”
“A punishment. For not listening to your master.”
“Does that mean if I listen to you, I’ll get a reward that feels even better than that?”
“That’s right. So listen to your master. If you just listen to your master, good things will come to you even in your sleep.”
“Hmm~ I understand.”
We finished our meal.
It was finally time to leave.
Alfia spread her wings.
Spirits enveloped us like a cloud.
“We’re going to Vestia, right?”
“Yes.”
“Actually, I’ve been wanting to go there myself. I want to see the face of whoever it was that tore you away from my side.”
*
Vestia, the kingdom of the beastkin.
Recently, a certain topic had taken Vestia by storm.
The Reaper’s Order.
A Reaper who had appeared out of nowhere was said to liberate people from their hellish lives. He made businesses prosper and healed the sick.
At first, it was dismissed as a baseless rumor, but the number of people who experienced these miracles grew steadily. Many wished to become disciples of the Reaper’s Order.
Rumor had it that even Vestia’s princess, Hilde the Lioness, had joined the Order.
It became common to see members of the Reaper’s Order on the streets.
However, many were displeased. There were those who couldn’t bring themselves to worship a grim entity like the Reaper, and then there was the Order of Balance.
The Order of Balance was spread throughout the continent.
Vestia was no exception.
Led by the high priestess in charge of Vestia’s cathedral, a unicorn beastkin named Iris, the faithful protested vehemently.
Even children knew the Reaper was an evil being, and it was painfully obvious that such a being would disrupt order.
But the Order’s fierce protests were not heeded.
“I hate them! They didn’t help Mastah before, they just chased him away!”
“I don’t like the Order much, either. They pretend to be righteous, but they’re just vain, awful people who torment the innocent.”
It was all because of the two girls.
Neither Mirabelle nor Rin had fond memories of the Order. Mirabelle, in particular, had lost her father and been sold into slavery because of them.
Of course, she had met Karami in the process, but one could hardly say it was thanks to them.
The two, harboring a grudge against the Order, carried out their sabotage with precision.
Rin bestowed the gumiho’s misfortune upon them.
Biting their tongues while eating, having bugs fly into their mouths when they yawned, or getting a sudden stomach ache right before an important task.
Mirabelle cast a witch’s curse.
She gave them nightmares and interfered with their thoughts, making them distrust their god. For a devout follower, it was a curse as terrible as death itself.
“Are you done?”
“Of course! I made them trip and spill delicious food right as they were carrying it!”
“…That’s it?”
“Is there anything more evil than that? What did you do?”
“I sowed discord in their faith. They’ll start to doubt whether the path their god leads them on is truly the right one.”
Rin tilted her head.
“What’s so evil about that?”
“I used magic to ruin the relationship between the god and its followers. To put it another way, it’s like I made you doubt Master.”
“Rin doesn’t doubt Mastah.”
“I’m saying I used magic to make you do it.”
“It wouldn’t work on Rin!”
“That’s… ugh.”
Anyway.
The followers of the Order of Balance were so plagued by misfortune and curses that it began to affect their daily lives. It was, after all, the handiwork of a Great Witch and a gumiho.
High Priestess Iris was no exception.
For example, a pure, childhood-sweetheart couple came for a blessing, only for it to be revealed that the woman was a fake virgin who had used healing magic to restore her hymen while secretly seeing another man on the side.
At other times, she would have frequent nightmares of being corrupted and turning into a bicorn.
As she was languishing day by day, a major incident occurred that would turn the situation around. A Saint had appeared in their home nation.
“A Saint! A virgin!”
The reason Iris had chosen the path of a cleric was that the Order had many virgins.
And now a Saint, the very symbol of purity?
Oh, shit.
Iris’s spirits were instantly restored.
She offered a prayer to the Saint she had never even seen.
And to her god, for good measure.
‘Thank you for sending us the Saint!’
Iris spread her arms toward the heavens.
This is why I became a priestess.
The Saint’s appearance meant that Mirabelle and Rin’s sabotage was no longer as effective. The followers’ faith, centered around the Saint, would not be shaken.
Consequently, the number of people wishing to join the Order dwindled.
The two girls held a strategy meeting.
“I never thought a Saint would appear.”
“What’s a Saint?”
“At this rate, it’ll be hard to expand the Order before Master returns.”
“What’s a Saint?”
“We need to find another way.”
“Are you ignoring Rin right now!”
Rin shot to her feet, hands on her hips in protest.
Mirabelle let out a deep sigh.
“I don’t really know either. And you wouldn’t understand even if I explained it.”
“That’s true.”
She sat back down.
Living with Rin, Mirabelle had seen her many different sides. Right now, she was like a young child, similar to Mirabelle herself, but when they first met, she had been a mature woman.
At other times, she would become a moderately grown girl, and sometimes she would even transform into a fox.
It wouldn’t have mattered if only her appearance changed, but her way of thinking and her actions changed with her form.
If asked why, she would only repeat, “Acting is the soul of shapeshifting.”
In her child form, Rin was an absolute handful. She played the part of a troublemaking kid so perfectly that Mirabelle didn’t even want to bother talking to her.
“If you have a complaint, change your form and then come talk to me.”
“Rin likes this form!”
Because this was the form she was in during her happiest moments with her master.
Rin liked this form.
In any case, it seemed they would need an innovative solution to expand the Order’s influence.
*
Rin says Heaven is fickle.
It insists the world must follow the Mandate of Heaven, yet it changes a person’s fate on a whim if something displeases it.
Those who pretend to be good are the most dangerous.
That was a truth Rin had come to realize.
The Order of Balance was the same.
By any common sense, how could a priestess who only likes virgins be normal?
She was bound to snap at some point. She would surely impale someone with that hard unicorn horn.
That moment came sooner than expected.
It was another tedious day.
Rin wanted to go find Karami, and Mirabelle was stopping her. They had no choice but to wait endlessly for their master’s return while running the Order.
Heukbi, who was chatting in the Celestial Pavilion, took a sip of her tea.
“I have a bad feeling. I can sense an ominous energy.”
“It seems there’s a problem in the Holy Kingdom.”
Even without her Heavenly Eye, Yuhwa’s insight was as sharp as ever. As the Celestial Fox who moved according to Heaven’s will, she was not entirely disconnected from the gods.
The balance that maintained the power of the gods was wavering.
If the balance wavered, the faithful would not be immune to its effects.
That included the followers within Vestia.
Yuhwa’s prediction was not wrong.
A strange phenomenon occurred among the followers of the Order of Balance, especially Iris, whose faith was the strongest.
Her hair turned black, and her rainbow-like pupils were stained red. Her appearance was closer to that of a bicorn than a unicorn.
It wasn’t just her appearance that changed. The members of the Order went collectively insane and began attacking innocent citizens.
“Our chance has come!”
For the Reaper’s Order, it was a golden opportunity.
When night fell, Rin and Mirabelle went around the city, subduing the renegades who were running rampant.
“Help me!”
CRASH!
A renegade was threatening a pig beastkin.
Rin came crashing down on top of him.
She didn’t kill him, just knocked him out.
“Eek?”
“You okay, miss?”
“Th-thank you… A-a gumiho?”
Rin wagged a finger.
She was currently cloaked in a black hood.
“Nope. I am an agent of the Reaper, dispatched from the Reaper’s Order.”
“But you have nine tails.”
“…The important thing is that you are now indebted to the Reaper’s Order.”
“W-well, that’s true, I guess?”
“No need to thank me. Thank the Reaper. Three cheers for the Reaper’s Order.”
“But I’m an atheist…”
Zzzing!
Rin’s mismatched eyes flashed menacingly.
The pig beastkin was terrified.
“H-hail the Reaper’s Order! Hail the Reaper’s Order! Hail the Reaper’s Order!”
“Gooood, pig.”
Rin regrouped with Mirabelle.
Mirabelle’s attire was also different from usual. Instead of her typical short maid outfit, she wore a robe and a large, pointed hat. It was a cute witch costume.
Their opponents this time were clerics.
They intended to subdue them in the guise of witches, whom the clerics despised. It was a small act of revenge.
“How did it go?”
“Perfectly! How about you, witch?”
“Me too.”
It was a redundant conversation.
For the clerics, praying for their god to manifest would have been more rational than trying to find an opponent who could stand against these two.
“There’s something strange.”
“What is it?”
“The way these people are acting is similar to vampires. All the people who were attacked were bitten on the carotid artery. And the ones who were bitten have changed, too.”
“Rin can smell the stench of blood, too.”
Just as Yuhwa had said, there was clearly a problem in the Holy Kingdom of Kassilon. Could it have been taken over by vampires?
They would find out the details if they went there. But Mirabelle was worried about acting rashly without their master’s orders.
“Hm?”
“Huh?”
Just as they were pondering what to do.
Mirabelle and Rin let out questioning sounds.
Mirabelle’s staff trembled.
Rin’s ears twitched.
The two, who had been staring blankly in one direction, met each other’s eyes.
A silent confirmation of the energy they both sensed.
The moment the confirmation was complete, they moved in unison.
Rin leaped across the rooftops, while Mirabelle flew on her staff.
The energy they felt was one and the same.
“It’s Master!”
“It’s Mastah!”
It was the energy of their master, Karami.
Where they arrived, they found Karami, who had flown in on a wind of spirits with Alfia.
“It’s been a while, everyone. Have you been well?”