Chapter 12.4

Chapter 12.4

The man turned around to where Haruna gestured, where a few nobles, with a monk and knight in tow.

「What took you so long? We have intruders.」

「We just received word that someone was attempting to disrupt the ritual.」

Layotte answered with a straight face to the man’s bold-faced lie.

「Then why don’t you take care of that.」

「I will.」

As soon as Layotte had spoken, Julius swing his sword at the man, without so much as an indication before he sprung into movement. Despite having penetrated his barrier and cut open a large gash through his shoulder, the man appeared to be in no pain. The few nobles who witnessed this started accosting Layotte and Julius, and the room suddenly grew cacophonous.

「Have you lost your mind? They are the intruders, over there.」

「Now that you’re here, you’re an intruder, too. Besides…」

「The Goddess Alfemina has already given a divine message. These people were chosen by Alfemina, and as such, belong here at the Temple.」

「Oh really? You have proof for that?」

「Don’t exert yourself, Lord Barold. With how afflicted you have become, the ongoing Ritual of Purification must be agonizing.」

「Where are all these outlandish ideas coming from? Who’s afflicted now?」

「Stop talking, you miserable man.」

As the man continued to weasel, a girl emerged and shut him down.

「Elle-chan…?」

Haruna uttered, hesitantly. Her face, hair style, and body shape all looked just like Aearis from before. Even her clothes were the same. But her silver hair and blue eyes now shone in blinding, shimmering gold. Most of all, her attitude had changed from that of a friendly puppy to that of holy authority.

「I am sorry to have keep you waited. Hiroshi-dono. Haruna-dono. Mio-dono. Thanks to the three of you, this land has been purified.」

「…Who are ya?」

「Hiroshi-dono. You know who I am.」

Someone spoke, wearing Aearis. When she said this, the party understood. The Goddess herself had arrived.

「How much more will soil this land?」

「I think you’re the one who’s soiling this land.」

Facing the Goddess, the man didn’t back down but instead threw back brazen words of insult. Without batting an eye, the Goddess ignored him.

「Hm. The land may be purified, but the affliction remains. One more job to do here, then.」

The handful of nobles, who had been intimidated by the Goddess’ glance jolted in terror. Without paying any mind to their reaction, the Goddess released another round of powerful, purifying light.

「Agggghhhhh!」

「Stop! Please stop!」

「It wasn’t! It wasn’t my fault!」

As soon as the light hit the nobles, they began writhing in agony. As the party watched in shock, the Goddess continued:

「Now, this is about as much as my priestess can handle. Hiroshi-dono. I entrust her with you.」

「Hold on now, why me?」

In response to Hiroshi’s dismay, the Goddess only smiled, knowingly.

「Now then, Hiroshi-dono. Haruna-dono. Mio-dodno. Please give my regards to Makoto-dono and Tatsuya-dono as well. When the time is right, I should be able to tell you everything.」

「I’m askin’ ya, why ya trustin’ me with Elle?」

Still ignoring Hiroshi’s question, the Goddess left with some quasi-prophecy, purposefully putting on the show of a spirit leaving Aearis’ body. As they witnessed the Goddess’ form, exactly as described in legends, the holy air scattered out of the room.

「Guess she’s gone… After ignorin’ me.」

「What just happened…?」

Hiroshi and Haruna both stood there, mouths agape, still thinking of the Goddess who came and made a mess for the mortals to clean up. Watching them, Aearis stood with a smile as she was unsure what to say.

「In any case, ya did it.」

「So you’re job here is done, right, Elle-chan?」

「Yes. The affliction has been purified.」

As Aearis said, the affliction (that had been built up too much for a single castle) had now cleared completely. Affliction compiled every day, so if nothing were to be done, there would be enough piled up to affect the day-to-day. But now that the official Priestess Princess can come and go through the front, that shouldn’t happen again.

「True, this land may have been tainted…」

「Ugh! You’re still alive!?」

「You little weasel!」

Turning to the source of the voice, the man standing on a beam near the ceiling, halfway abandoning his human form, glaring down at the party, full of hatred. It seemed that the Goddess’ purification seemed to have severely damaged him, enough that he could no longer maintain his human form completely. Still, the fact that he didn’t die from it made him closer to a cockroach than a weasel.

「But if I purify the tainted priestess, this land will be pure again.」

He mumbled on, activating some sort of spell. On instinct, Hiroshi started running towards Aearis, but he was a split-second too late. A void open below Aearis’ feet, swallowing her whole, and transporting her into the man’s arms in the blink of an eye.

「Now, priestess. Repent and serve the righteous god!」

He declared, and concentrated a massive amount of affliction in the palm of his hand, which was obvious a curse, and tried to inject it into Aearis’ bosom. At the very last moment before the mass of affliction was about to touch Aearis, it dissipated with a snapping sound. It seemed like the man didn’t put enough power into it to push through the protections applied to her priestess robe, sword, and undergarments. They would never discover this fact, but, if it wasn’t for the underwear Hiroshi crafted (risking his life, according to him) Aearis may not have been protected here. Just like Mio suspected, the 30% difference in quality between Hiroshi and Mio’s craft was not negligible.

「Dancing…!」

「Elle! Don’t ya play that card, yet!」

「Elle! Purification! On the max!」

Hiroshi stopped Aearis from activating the special ability of her sword, Mio chimed in with what she should do instead. Obeying Mio reflexively, Aearis activated Purification, with maximum power. The Purification spell struck the man directly as he was taken aback from having his affliction evaporated, burning him to the core.

「…How insufferably annoying!」

Forsaking his human form (and his joking attitude entirely,) the man snarled. Glaring at Aearis, who had gained a good distance between them even on the constricting space of the ceiling beams, and pounced towards her to finish the job.

「Elle!」

「Coming!」

Hiroshi called out right before the man reached Aearis, and Aearis jumped off the beam without hesitation, as the man’s attack rips through the space where she had just been standing. Hiroshi caught Aearis with ease, and produced something from his coat. Aearis was staring at Hiroshi with intimate, shimmering eyes.

「We’re takin’ her for now!」

After glancing at the Head Priest and Layotte to see that they had nodded in response, Hiroshi activated the item in his hand. In an instance, despite no activation of a transportation spell, all four members of the party disappeared from the room. Even the Skulking Cloaks were no longer strewn about on the floor. They must have gathered them somehow. Hiroshi had used The Legendary Thief’s Last Trick (dubbed the Super Jammer among craftsmen) a disposable item that disabled any and all detections against the user’s party, albeit for a very short time (30 seconds, max). As demonstrated here, even when the user was right under someone’s nose, or even being touched by someone, they could no longer sense the existence of the user.

「What!? Where did they go!?」

「Take it easy. I know them well. When the time is right, they’ll be back with my sister.」

Layotte said.

「Are they…!?」

Asked one of the allied nobles. Layotte ignored it, and looked around.

「Now we have to prepare to bring them in. Our first stop, I suppose, is hunting down the demon that got away.」

Layotte continued, giving out orders for their next move. As soon as the man’s attack had missed Aearis, the soldiers had initiated an attack against him, but despite what appeared to be an unimpeded assault, the man had disappeared with a blinding explosion. When the dust had settled, all that was left was a broken window. The man was nowhere to be seen.

「Yes, My Lord.」

Everyone there knelt in obedience to Layotte’s orders. And so, the nation of Farlane had dodged a critical bullet, thanks to the help of a party of outsiders.

By the way, Hiroshi had kept Aearis in his arms during their entire escape from the Temple grounds, and…

「H-Hiroshi-sama!?」

「Elle-chan! Give him some space right now!」

After they had fled back to the workshop with a special Transportation Stone, Hiroshi was in a dark corner of the workshop, covered in his own vomit, convulsing from his color-drained head to toe.

If anyone was wondering what Douga and Rayna were doing in the meantime…

「I suppose they don’t know where we are, do they?」

Douga said.

「Jeez. Did they really think these guys could pull off sneaking into the Temple?」

In front of the hidden pathway (the one that they presumed had been discovered by the enemy) Douga and Rayna had taken down a sketchy-looking gang that clearly worked for the other side. Since sending an entire troop to guard the location could cause an unnecessary scene, Layotte had assigned Douga and Rayna, two of the most skilled warriors in the country.

「Still, you’ll have to give these young men credit for summoning a pack of Cerberuses, instead of, say, Hellhounds.」

「Only three of them. And what’s the point of that if they can barely control them?」

The two of them remarked, as if to say the ordeal wasn’t thrilling enough for their liking, as they looked at the three Cerberus corpses, and the dozen or so Summoners they’d slain without putting up much of a fight themselves. Watching this, the Summoner who had (just barely) survived attempted to flee in a state of terror, and was suddenly engulfed in a pillar of black flame. Upon closer inspection, all of the corpses had also been burnt to crisps.

「They won’t give us a chance to take prisoners, huh…?」

Rayna remarked.

「Even if we were to capture them, it would be difficult for us to hand them over to authorities. In a way, they saved us the trouble.」

「That’s true. What should we do with the bodies, then?」

「If we bring them back, they could produce some useful materials.」

「We kind of teared them to shreds, are they still salvageable?」

Rayna pointed out, to which Douga responded by contemplating for a moment. On average, by the way, a Cerberus was often more formidable than a Wyvern. Ordinarily, they would only appear in the Hell-themed dungeons, and while it was one of the weakest creatures you could face off there, that was only because the other monsters around them were ridiculously overpowered.

Looking up at the corpses of the three-headed canine, still looming taller than a horse, Douga tapped his shoulder with his shoulder with his spear (far larger and heavier than anyone could expect him to wield) and slightly regretted if he had gone too wild. On his other hand, he was holding a towering shield (also ridiculously gigantic). Despite his age, Douga maintained an impeccable physique. Combine that with his massive equipment, and most would run away at the sight of him. What was more impressive was that he moved so fluidly with them.

「It’s been a while since I got to play outside. I think I got carried away. Well, if we get them back, they’ll figure it out.」

「Sounds good to me. No sense in making any decisions ourselves when the most materials we could identify are hide, meat, bone. And fang and claw, I suppose.」

「Very well. Let’s chop them up and throw them into our bags.」

Nodding in response, Rayna began separating the corpses by body parts. After all, they were beginning to think just like Hiroshi and Haruna when it came to things like this.