Chapter 182: Prophecy(5)
I had to avoid the goddess’s prophecy, one that had never once been wrong.
I thought that the legendary archmage, the Witch, might know how.
“I know of no such thing as a way to break a prophecy.”
“....”
The Witch spoke, her voice still sulky and muffled from under the covers she’d pulled over her head.
She wasn’t just lying because she was sulking, was she?
This was a pretty serious problem.
Should I just come clean and tell her my life is on the line?
Kerry shook his head.
The Witch had been trapped in this place for so long that her mental fortitude was considerably worn down.
I didn’t want to burden her any more than necessary.
“I told you this was incredibly important, my lady. If you’re just messing with me…”
The Witch answered from beneath the blankets.
Her voice was quite serious, but the sight of her was so ridiculous I couldn’t help but find it funny.
“Did I not tell you just a moment ago? There has never been a case of a goddess’s prophecy being wrong. It is not limited to a goddess’s prophecy, either; it is simply the nature of all prophecies.”
“....”
“Is there really no way? Something… something… I don’t mind if it’s difficult or arduous.”
“...What cannot be done, cannot be done, Kerry. Why are you so obsessed? It’s not like you.”
Because my life depends on it.
Lina would handle it somehow. She must have a way. That must be why she’d regained her composure. If not, it wouldn’t be strange for her to hide me away somewhere right this instant.
Maybe it’s not a prophecy about me dying… but a similar prophecy about something else.
The more I thought about it, the more complicated it got. Am I going to die or not?
Whatever it was, I had to do everything I could.
Even if there were only a few days left until the carriage reached their hideout.
“My lady, could you look into the prophecy in more detail for me?”
“....”
The Witch didn’t answer, perhaps because she was still sulking. I suppose I had to placate her first.
Kerry casually lay down on the bed.
He slipped his body under the covers the Witch was hiding beneath.
Just then, his eyes met the Witch’s.
“!”
The Witch was wearing a mischievous expression under the blankets.
Busted. She wasn’t sulking, she was just pretending.
The Witch quickly changed her expression and turned away, but I’d already seen her playful smile.
“My lady.”
“...What is it? More importantly, get out of my blankets at once.”
“I saw you smiling.”
“....”
I could see the back of the Witch, pretending to be upset under the covers.
Her small shoulders were so cute that I gently hugged her from behind.
She didn’t seem to mind, as she didn’t push me away.
In fact, I could even feel the pounding of her heart reverberating through the blankets.
“...Why were you pretending to be sulking? Are you getting revenge because I forced you to say you liked it last time? Trying to make me say I’m sorry?”
“!”
I felt her body flinch in surprise. Bullseye.
“...That is not the only reason.”
“Then what else is there?”
The Witch hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“Kerry, you… you left without even trying to soothe me when I was angry. I was truly hurt by that.”
“But I didn’t have time then, I couldn’t help it. Besides, is this the first or second time you’ve sulked?”
“I have told you time and again, I was not sulking, I was angry!”
“Same difference.”
“....”
I slowly pulled back the hand I was hugging her with and touched her breast.
“Wh-where do you think you’re putting your hand all of a sudden!”
“I wonder. It’s hard to see under the covers. Was this your stomach? Or your waist?”
Her breast filled my hand, soft and supple.
The hand she used to push me away had no strength in it at all.
Finding that amusing, I groped her chest to my heart’s content before moving my hand to her armpit.
“My lady, where is this? Your butt?”
The Witch, surprisingly, was very ticklish. The moment my hand slipped into her armpit, she absolutely lost it.
Before long, the Witch’s anger had subsided.
And, as Kerry had requested, she began to investigate the prophecy in detail.
While the Witch was investigating, Kerry focused on his training.
He had never forgotten to train whenever he had a spare moment.
Thanks to that, he could now use other basic spells besides Fireball.
He also couldn’t neglect absorbing the residual elixir left in his body.
In terms of mana capacity alone, he now possessed an amount equivalent to seventy years of accumulation. This was truly incredible.
It was the amount a normal person would have to build up over an entire seventy-year lifetime.
Of course, this wasn’t the end.
The energy of the Doll Ginseng still remained inside Kerry. It would take more time to absorb the rest.
On top of that, he still had the elixir Titania had given him.
How could I possibly die with all this?
He was receiving the utmost protection from the hero party, and he had the Relic Bracelet Lina had given him.
The shield created by the Relic Bracelet was something not even a considerably skilled person could break through.
Most importantly, he had the Dimensional Veil, one of the Witch’s spells.
It just didn’t feel like he was going to die.
He started to think that maybe it wasn’t a prophecy about his death, but a different one.
There must be a reason Lina regained her composure. There has to be a way.
For now, all he could do was trust Lina.
*
The next few days passed in a flash.
I thought there might be some kind of interference on the way, but there was none.
The party arrived at the village closest to the hideout.
But something was strange about the village.
A desolate feeling, without a single sign of life.
Here and there were the broken and shattered signs of a struggle.
It didn’t look like they’d been able to put up much of a fight, but there was clearly not a single person left in the village.
Lina gritted her teeth with a sharp grind.
“Those bastards… they’re always like this. They have no respect… for the lives of others.”
Lina’s shoulders were trembling slightly.
Knowing her personality, she was probably blaming herself for this, too.
“They probably… sacrificed all the villagers. It’s all my fault…”
See? I knew it. Kerry grabbed Lina’s trembling shoulders.
Only then did her shaking stop. Lina met his eyes as if to say she was okay now.
Natasha also hugged Kerry tightly from behind, her heavy breasts pressing against his back.
The sight of the village might have reminded her of her own tribe.
The kind-hearted party members wore somber expressions as they looked upon the empty village.
Of course, there was also someone who had to kill the mood.
“What are you all just standing around for? If you want to honor the dead, you should finish this quickly.”
“....”
It was the Saintess. As the journey neared its end, she had become more proactive.
Perhaps she thought she might be set free once the hero’s mission was complete.
If not that, maybe she just wanted to be freed from her role as a baggage carrier as soon as possible.
But I have no intention of letting her go until her Obedience reaches 100.
No need to tell her that, though. It was better for her to be positive.
The Saintess, in a manner that didn’t suit her at all, took the lead. Did she even know where to go?
“A vile energy is overflowing everywhere. It feels like my nose is rotting. For some reason, these bastards don’t even seem to be trying to hide their presence.”
It seemed that now that they were close enough, the Saintess could also sense their location.
Lina spoke, her expression still bitter.
“They must have realized they can’t hide.”
True, with Lina the Regressor destroying all their hidden bases on her way here, it would be strange for them to think they could hide.
They couldn’t run, either. The third and final Black Monolith was in their hideout.
So this was a checkmate.
Lina walked beside Kerry with a worried look in her eyes. She’d been like this constantly lately.
Thanks to that, Natasha’s vigilance was at an all-time high.
“Lady Lina. Why do you keep walking next to my husband!”
“....”
“Get away from my husband. Go walk way over there!”
“...I cannot do that.”
Lina, too, seemed to have no intention of yielding on this point.
In the end, I had no choice but to pat the head of the glaring Natasha.
Just then, the Saintess, who was walking ahead, spoke.
“That’s enough chatter.”
She was right. I could feel the malicious energy growing thicker.
I could feel malicious energy? Was it because I now had divine power? This is nice.
Ghouls began to rise from the ground. I thought this every time I saw them, but they had some seriously fucked-up faces.
“Trying to stop us with mere ghouls at this point. How foolish,” Natasha said confidently.
The other party members also looked full of confidence, as if ghouls were no problem at all.
Was this all they had prepared?
There aren’t even that many of them.
Kerry used the Goddess’s Eye. Only then did he understand the move his enemies were aiming for.
“Saintess. Cast a top-tier purification on the party!”
“We don’t need something like that for mere ghouls.”
Talking back to me. Is her training still insufficient?
Unseen by the others, Kerry shot her a fierce glare, and the Saintess hurriedly cast the buff.
“Blessing of Light!”
A faint golden light began to shimmer around the party members’ bodies.
Victoria looked at Kerry and asked, “Kerry, may we fight now?”
“Yes. Go wild without any worries.”
The first to charge the ghouls was Lina.
The moment Lina cut off a ghoul’s head with her Spirit Sword, a noxious-looking green smoke spewed out from its severed neck.
Pshhhhhh-
“It’s poison gas!”
The same poison gas erupted from the other ghouls the party members attacked.
But it wasn’t a problem at all.
“Huh? The Protection of Light! The Protection of Light protected us! Husband, how did you know beforehand?”
“It was nothing. They just looked different from normal ghouls, so I was just being cautious, just in case.”
“Kerry, you saved us!”
“Huhu. As expected of the man I’ve acknowledged.”
Actually, that was a lie.
Those things looked exactly like normal ghouls.
But the naive party members believed Kerry’s words without a doubt. Man, my conscience hurts.
Lina swiftly cut down the ghouls.
Her movements were sharp and focused. Every time Lina’s form blurred, ghouls died at a terrifying rate.
Damn, the hero party is strong. Dozens of ghouls, gone in an instant…
The area was filled with the poison gas the ghouls had released, but thanks to the Protection of Light, there were no issues.
“This is too easy.”
I didn’t think this was the final card they had prepared.
Back at the border, hadn’t they gathered a force powerful enough to bring down the fortress walls?
“It seems there are no enemies left nearby. Let’s move.”
Lina sheathed her Spirit Sword. The party walked along the mountain path, remaining vigilant.
They climbed the mountain, which was shrouded in an eerie fog.
Something was too quiet. He couldn’t even hear the common sound of birds chirping.
It was as if every living thing had died.
There was nothing but silence on the foggy mountain.
The Saintess, who was walking up front despite being backline support, spoke.
“This is it. The evil energy is overflowing from this place.”
There was nothing in front of where the Saintess stood. There was only the mountain path the party had been climbing.
“Is it a barrier?”
“Yes. It seems to be a rather elaborate one… but, hmph. Now that I’m here, it’s nothing special.”
She was a bit arrogant, but the Saintess was certainly useful. It was no wonder Lina had gone to such lengths to bring her along.
The Saintess clasped her hands in front of the barrier and began to mutter.
A transparent film that had been invisible before started to appear, then crack.
Only then was the true path, hidden by the barrier, revealed.
At the end of that path stood an ominous-looking castle. Arwen looked at it and said,
“That must be it. But that castle feels strangely empty, too, as if no one’s there. Don’t tell me they all ran away? They can’t do that…”
They wouldn’t have run.
If they really had run away… that wouldn’t be so bad. The Black Monolith would still be there, anyway.
But Arwen was fidgeting, worried that the enemy might have actually fled.
Then, I heard Arwen’s small whisper.
“They can’t run away… I need to do well… so I can get my ears stroked…”
I never would have imagined that was her reason for not wanting the enemy to escape.