Chapter 101
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 101
Chapter Title: The Worm's Maw
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Schwaaak!!!
Without hesitation, I slashed his throat, severing his breath.
Even in death, his face looked utterly serene.
Leaving the fallen cultist behind, I fixed my gaze on the woman from the Moon's Watch.
"Do you know nothing about this situation?"
"I know nothing."
Really?
I smirked, and she returned an awkward smile.
"That's not good."
"Wha... what?!"
"Come on. Cultists or murder squads—honestly, aren't they all the same?"
I drew Black Spear and approached. She shrieked in horror.
"Kyaaak!! There's... there's a crazy murderer here!!"
For a ruthless killer who slew her targets without a drop of blood or tear, she seemed surprisingly human.
Normally, since I couldn't extract any info from the cultist, I'd have to wring it out of her by force...
But if she was willing to cooperate at least somewhat, there was no need to get rough.
From the start, the cultist's words suggested both groups were largely unrelated to this incident.
If he was telling the truth, she was in the same predicament.
In the end, I'd luckily stumbled upon perpetrators who weren't the real culprits, so there was nothing for it but to keep searching.
I sheathed Black Spear. She stared at me blankly before realizing she'd been fooled, her face flushing bright red.
Still, she didn't lash out.
I had no choice but to wander and search again.
Just as I turned to leave, she called out to me.
"Wait a moment."
"What is it?"
"Are you... trying to resolve this situation?"
I shook my head at her question. Quickly resolving it would be nice, but my priority was finding Luna and Melissa.
"I'll deal with them if I see them, but it's not that important. I need to find my little sister."
She quietly closed her eyes, then opened them.
"I have some decent skills, you know."
She summoned something like a black spirit onto her palm.
"It's a special spirit with a low contract success rate. With its power, I can probe this fog and locate the person you're looking for right away."
However, only she could wield the spirit.
"You said you're searching for your sister, so I'll help you."
"What do you get out of it?"
She chuckled at my question.
"We help each other. No reason for us to be enemies, right? We share the goal of overcoming this situation, and above all, you helped me execute that bastard."
She shot a chilling glance at the cultist's neatly beheaded corpse.
"Fine."
I described Melissa and Luna's appearances. She began communing with the spirit.
Black tendrils erupted from the spirit's body, shooting out in all directions at tremendous speed.
Its form and aura were quite different from the commonly known nature spirits.
About ten minutes passed like that.
She opened her eyes.
"Found her. The woman named Luna is currently with other survivors in a safe zone. She should be fine—no need to worry too much."
Luna was sharp. She could handle a monster or two with her own power.
"Where's Melissa?"
At my question, she closed her eyes again.
She seemed to commune with the spirit, then quickly opened them.
"Not far from here."
There was no need to worry about her lying.
If she was... well, I'd just kill her.
Fortunately, Melissa didn't seem badly hurt.
Good. I'd trained her rigorously in the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword—if she went down easily here, House Cascadia might as well shut its gates that very day.
And I planned to bar her from any external activities until she reached at least upper Sword Expert.
"Do you know anything about this phenomenon?"
The surrounding scenery shifted in an instant. It was a maze where a single wrong turn looped you back to the same spot, but the Moon's Watch woman's spirit swiftly navigated the paths within.
A number of monsters appeared along the way, but they didn't slow us down.
Those things just wandered aimlessly, charging at any sign of life—no tactics or coordination.
"This phenomenon?"
"Yes."
"Hmm. I thought it was the cultists' doing, but if not, we'll just have to dig deeper ourselves."
She seemed to ponder my answer for a moment, then increased her speed to match mine and slowly began sharing information.
"The entity creating this phenomenon is a monster that went extinct in ancient times."
"Ancient monster?"
"Yes. It's called Mist."
"Mist... That's strange. Mist isn't strong enough to cause something this vast."
Right—the familiar entity I'd encountered in Labyrinthos.
Mist was a monster that spread fog like a spiderweb to claim its territory, but it wasn't particularly powerful.
"I didn't expect you to know about ancient monsters. Actually, this land where Berner Territory lies was the site of some incident hundreds of years ago. The monsters existing back then got caught up in an event and were all sucked into a sub-space."
The Mist that devoured a corrupted spirit went berserk. Breaking the extremely low odds, it fused with the spirit and triggered this massive fog manifestation.
But if it had been subjugated then, there'd be no issue. Unfortunately, it was sealed instead.
The deranged Mist accumulated power over a long time, growing into a monster powerful enough to cause the current situation.
"What about the monsters here?"
"Probably ones caught up in it at the time. Truth be told, besides the artifact, I came here on a direct secret order from our leader to investigate what would happen in this place. I never imagined it'd be an ancient monster."
A band of murderers who slaughter people actually cared about something like that?
"So why is it rampaging all of a sudden now?"
"There are several hypotheses, but the most likely one is..."
She paused briefly and pointed to one side.
"Someone tampered with a hidden seal somewhere in the territory. And they did it deliberately. It would require someone with access to high-level information about that seal."
Was there a person in this city capable of that?
As that thought crossed my mind, something enormous began to emerge through the fog.
It resembled a giant earthworm.
But unlike a mere worm, Melissa's head protruded calmly from its massive maw, her body entirely swallowed.
It looked like her head was just sticking out from the worm's compressed mouth.
"...What the hell are you doing there?"
"Can't move. Feels completely crushed."
"What about the undead I assigned to you?"
"I... gave it to a friend in the safe zone."
She'd abandoned the undead meant to protect her?
She spoke so calmly, she didn't even seem to sense the danger to her life.
More than that, her—trained in the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword—losing to a mere worm like this didn't make sense.
I glanced around and spotted the corpse of a massive magic beast.
It was the same type I'd encountered on the way here. In terms of level alone, it was a powerful monster that even Melissa's current skill would have to take seriously.
She'd probably been ambushed right after dealing with it.
A mix of pride and exasperation welled up at the sight.
"But... why are you here?"
"Why? I received an oracle and came."
"Oracle? You mean the Saintess's? What the hell have you been up to..."
I'd have to roughly explain my deal with the Saintess later, but it wasn't important right now.
"No, save me first? I'm starting to struggle here."
I stared at her in disbelief, and the Moon's Watch woman wore an equally baffled expression.
"Countess Melissa Cascadia... is like this..."
"Ugh. Hurry up and save me! I'm slipping!"
Seeing the urgency creeping onto Melissa's face, I couldn't help thinking it'd be more fun to just leave her.
"What were you gonna do if I hadn't shown up?"
She averted her gaze slightly and murmured quietly.
"Gather my aura and blast it out."
Ah, that would work. Of course, she'd have to swim through its guts in the meantime.
"Good grief."
Shing!!
I lightly drew my ghost sword and slashed downward through the air. A clean line appeared on the giant worm's body, and it burst apart.
"Kyak! So disgustingly real!"
Covered head to toe in the worm's fluids, she screamed and tried to approach me.
"Don't come near. You stink."
"..."
Comprehensive data analysis indicates the highest probability points to Prince Dorn Lu Pascalia.
'But he was out saving survivors.'
If his real goal was devouring the Mist's power, that behavior made no sense.
He should've rushed straight to absorb the Mist instead of wasting time on that.
"Looks like you have someone in mind."
"An imperial would at least have access to that kind of information."
She narrowed her eyes at my response.
"Imperial? In a territory like this? Wait..."
Her eyes widened.
"You don't mean the collateral prince, Dorn Lu Pascalia?!"
She asked again in shock.
"What's the problem?"
"Big problem! Prince Dorn isn't that kind of person!"
As I argued with her, Melissa shook off the fluids clinging to her body, sneaked up, grabbed my clothes, and started wiping her face on them.
"Towel's pretty good... Ack!"
I flicked her forehead and turned back to the woman.
"You talk like you know the prince pretty well."
She hesitated for a moment before sighing.
"I'm Merrill Dyna, the prince's guard knight."
"Seemed like a different identity earlier."
"The guard knight role is technically a cover."
So, publicly a guard knight serving the prince, and in the shadows, a member of the Moon's Watch? Ridiculous.