Chapter 56 - The Village of Fog (2)

Little ones are without sin.

And yet the ones sacrificed first are always the little ones.

Vlad had seen it in the back alleys, like a mire.

Adults who stole from children to survive, or to have more for themselves.

The robbed children starved to death, froze to death, and died exhausted from crying as they searched for the mothers who had abandoned them.

In that hellish place, Vlad had held Zemina and Haven close and made up his mind.

He would not become an adult like that.

He would not live that way.

The rules for living that he had set as a child so as not to be swept away by life in the back alleys still lived and breathed in Vlad's heart.

They were rules the boy had made for himself.

Rules were meant to be kept.

And knights were those who protected.

Right now, in this place, there were children dying.

※※※※

Vlad was walking through the damp air surrounding the village.

The buildings made of gray bricks were darkening the surroundings together with the fog.

[Looks like this is the place.]

"..."

Vlad raised his head and looked at the building before him.

A building larger than any other around it.

A bell tower thrust high like a horn came into Vlad's eyes.

A church.

The place closest to God.

A sacred place that protected the young, the weak, the old, and the sick.

A place that had to be that way.

"I'm going in."

[Yes.]

Vlad took off the hood he had been wearing and walked toward the gray building.

The only thing in this place now that possessed its original color was the blond hair Vlad had been born with.

"..."

An empty church at midday.

It was the hour when everyone in the village would be occupied with their own livelihoods, so Vlad was the only one who stepped into the chapel.

'Do you see anything suspicious?'

[Not right now.]

Vlad slowly walked around the chapel, moving so the voice could see any wicked signs or ominous evidence.

The World of voices was a world rich in color.

A world that must contain a hundred more colors than the boy's world would surely be able to find colors that did not belong in a sacred place.

While the voice searched for wicked signs through the boy's sight, Vlad slowly grasped the church's layout and prepared for any contingency.

From the outside, it appeared to be a two-story building, but given the nature of church buildings, which tried to keep similar structures whenever possible, there was surely a basement as well.

If he could, Vlad wanted to look there.

[Someone's here.]

But just as every land and building had an owner, this place was no different.

As Vlad slowly looked around the chapel, he felt someone's gaze watching him from behind.

The gaze that looked upon an unpermitted guest settled on him heavily.

"..."

Noticing the gaze, Vlad naturally dropped to one knee and began assuming a posture of prayer.

He could not let it look as though he were investigating this place.

But he had to be ready to draw his sword at any moment.

Because this village was wrapped in an ominous fog.

STEP. STEP.

Though one knee was bent, Vlad's eyes were wide open as he measured the distance between himself and the footsteps and prepared to draw his sword.

Vlad's blue eyes were gradually being dyed in his own color.

"You are someone I have not seen before."

But the man approaching from behind did not create the worst situation Vlad had imagined.

He merely greeted the strange outsider in a warm voice.

"... I entered this place yesterday morning."

"Ah. You must be those mercenaries. I heard."

Neatly combed-back brown hair.

A thick Bible held carefully in his hands.

His frame, as slender as Joseph's, gave the impression of a scholar rather than a priest if judged by first impressions alone.

"I apologize for entering so suddenly, Father."

"Not at all. God's embrace is always open, wherever and whenever."

Vlad looked at the priest smiling at him and lightly touched the hilt of his sword.

[I cannot see anything. At least not now.]

"..."

But what he heard was a denial.

He had come here following the place indicated by the girl's necklace, yet there was nothing to be seen.

"I fear I may have disturbed your prayer, brother."

"No. I would rather ask permission. It puts my mind at ease. I will leave as soon as I finish praying."

The priest, having witnessed a praying mercenary, something not easily seen, waved his hand and smiled.

"This is a church. It is the house of all who seek God. Do as you wish."

Though the man before him was wearing a good-natured smile, Vlad could not relax.

Through the help of the voice, the boy had pierced through the hidden world and noticed that something unusual resided in the village.

He must not let down his guard.

"... Thank you, Father."

Vlad decided to withdraw for now.

Unless he intended to cut down the priest in front of him right now and rummage through every corner of the church building, he would not be able to find any more suspicious traces.

To be honest, he wanted to do exactly that, but Gregory had given him instructions.

"... Then I suppose I should offer a prayer as well, while I have the chance."

Beside Vlad, who had settled down again to pray, the priest approached soundlessly and knelt.

The boy pretending to be a mercenary and the man he could not be sure was a priest knelt side by side before God.

An empty chapel.

This place where only two men knelt before God.

"May the epidemic sweeping this area not reach your companions, brother."

'Epidemic?'

Seeing Vlad show signs of confusion, the priest's lips drew a small arc.

"And for our children as well."

With those words, the priest bowed his head.

His posture, made neat through countless prayers, was certainly the very image of a devout priest.

"..."

But Vlad could find a single thread of incongruity within that sight.

The church's emblem that should have been engraved atop the bell tower was hidden in the fog.

But the emblem Vlad first encountered after entering the church looked strange somehow.

The church's emblem was upside down.

Before the God to whom he prayed, the priest was holding the Bible upside down.

※※※※

'...'

After leaving the church, Vlad was deep in thought.

Through Black Bear's tip and the confessions of the men they had captured, the investigation party had made it all the way to this village in Baron Uthman's domain.

But in the village they had reached by following the traces of the missing pregnant women, only a thick fog and sinister rumors were waiting for them.

'A disease that only kills children...'

After hearing the priest's prayer and sensing something strange, Vlad quickly asked nearby residents about the epidemic.

And at the answer he heard, Vlad ended up biting his lip.

If women had gone missing in Soara, children were dying here.

This calamity, which showed aspects much like an epidemic, was not only occurring in the fog-covered village, but also in most of the villages belonging to Baron Uthman's domain.

The ominous signs were continuing.

"... I need to find proof. But it's not like I can show them this."

It would not be an epidemic.

He had a strong conviction, but there was no evidence to prove that conviction.

After all, he could not show his companions the black hand he had seen in the World of voices.

Just in case, he had brought the holy relic he had taken from Soara to the child at the inn and held it near the child, but the reaction he had expected did not come at all.

[Given that it does not react to the holy relic, it seems like a curse made by an accomplished black mage. At the very least, a properly trained priest will have to judge it personally.]

'How did you recognize something that impressive?'

[... I do not know that either.]

At the voice's still vague answer, Vlad roughly tousled his hair and vented his frustration.

No matter how much one knew, it was useless if one could not act on it.

The boy, who had only just barely gained a world of his own, once again stood before a realm he could do nothing about with his own power alone.

"Hm?"

As Vlad was about to leave the alley corner, wondering how he should explain this situation to Gregory, he witnessed a suspicious sight there.

A small square in the center of the village.

There, a person wearing a robe pulled over their head stood before a young girl.

"The church gave this to me."

The girl, holding out the cursed necklace proudly in response to someone's question.

The unknown person took the girl's necklace and was fiddling with it.

※※※※

Vlad was a former pickpocket.

He had also been a former thief, and sometimes a robber as well, but in any case, the work he had spent the longest doing was slipping wallets out of other people's hands.

It was work he had taken a certain pride in, too.

[It seems they have noticed you.]

'I know I messed up too.'

As he followed the suspicious person wearing a robe pulled over their head, Vlad realized he was gradually heading toward the outskirts of the village.

They were luring him.

To a place without people.

'I should go back.'

Vlad stuck out his tongue and stopped his advancing steps.

The boy did not overestimate his own skill.

Because he had seen countless skilled people until now, he knew very well that he was still nothing more than a mere pup.

Moreover, he was in such a suspicious village, so of course he had to be careful in his actions.

'I should report to Gregory.'

He had confirmed the person's appearance, so he only had to report to his superior.

Perhaps through this person, he might be able to tell them what was suspicious about the village...

[They're coming!]

But life never flowed only according to one's intentions.

Perhaps noticing Vlad's intention to slowly retreat, the robed person suddenly charged.

'Like this?'

He had not even left the street lined with houses yet.

But unlike their cautious behavior until now, the unknown person was rushing at Vlad recklessly.

'Damn it!'

He had not predicted it, but he had time to prepare.

Vlad calmly drew his sword and received the unknown person.

CLANG!

Sword and sword collided.

And just as the boy was startled by the weight of the sword coming in heavier than expected.

[Left!]

Using the rebound from the clash, the sword, raised high into the air before he knew it, dug in toward Vlad.

"...!"

In that brief instant when he could not bring his sword up in time, Vlad unconsciously slipped out of the blind spot with flexible footwork.

It was the footwork his one-eyed master had drilled into the boy as if hammering it into him.

CRASH!

Looking at the ground that had been violently gouged out, Vlad was certain.

'A knight!'

Now he could tell just by crossing swords.

Those with the skill to subdue the boy.

People like that could only be knights.

While the unknown person was briefly flustered at seeing the boy let their attack flow past him like water slipping through fingers.

Vlad quickly closed one eye toward the person who might have been a former knight or a current one.

The boy's world began to flow out through the unadorned sword.

The principle of a one-strike kill came from the unexpected.

Because the boy had revealed his hand first, his chance existed only at this very moment.

A single chance.

"Hup!"

With a short shout, Vlad shot toward the person before him.

The unknown person, flustered by the boy's unpredictability, hurriedly raised their sword.

[... Vlad!]

There was a bright light pushing back the heavy fog.

CLAAANG!

Facing the boy, who felt completely different from before, the unknown person urgently blocked Vlad.

But Vlad did not stop.

Those who targeted children were hiding everywhere, but the boy was angry at himself for being unable to do anything at all.

Just like his younger self.

He did not want to live as nothing anymore.

The boy's anger at having broken his own vow grew sharper and more ferocious as it flew toward the opponent before him.

An unceasing barrage.

Following Jager's teaching that he should always think of the next move, Vlad relentlessly drove the opponent before him back.

[Stop! Stop!]

Sparks flew between sword and sword.

The robes the unknown person had been wearing were cut away.

And the figure of the opponent he now faced was.

[That person is a holy knight!]

Green, like what he had seen on the blue meadow.

Green eyes that reminded him of Oksana.

Amid flowing hair, there was a woman looking at him with startled eyes.

Vlad had closed one eye to look upon the world within him, but both of the woman's eyes were looking wholly at the boy.

Because her world was already upon the earth.

Beneath the word of God.