26

Splaaaaash!

As if the clouds that covered the sky were throwing a tantrum that they wouldn’t back off easily, rain poured down from the sky. The streaks were considerably thick, and the cold rain covered the view and deafened all noise.

Most people didn’t take a step outside their house. And even those who went out quickly came back inside after finishing their errands. However, some people welcomed this nasty weather.

Raindrops poured out like a waterfall from an upside-down hoodie. But inside the hoodie, a pair of eyes fiercely shone. It was Zich. While carrying Lubella who also shielded most of her face with a hoodie from the rain, he looked down at a house.

“Is it really that house?” Lubella asked without much confidence. After taking care of the statue in Sude’s house, Zich had set his next target. Because he had pointed out a place without a single clue, Lubella was quite surprised.

But Zich was sure.

“During the day, I checked the routes that the guards patrolled. Although it’s natural for them to patrol important places or areas where we might hide, they were intensively patrolling areas where there was no clear reason to do so. That obviously means that they are hiding something important in those places.”

“Are you saying that they are hiding Bellu’s statues there?”

“Yes,” Lubella nodded. Truthfully, it didn’t matter if Zich convinced her or not since she was one-sidedly relying on Zich right now.

“Then, let’s go.”

While carrying Lubella, Zich entered the house. As if Zich was right, they saw a tightly guarded border that had not been visible outside the home. However, Zich easily passed the border, knocked out the guards, and removed the traps. Then, after inspecting the building’s insides, Zich found a secret room like the one they saw in Sude’s house.

Zich was so skilled at finding hidden spots that Lubella suspected his career again; but regardless, Zich opened the door to the secret room. Inside, there was the statue of an ugly fish head that they had desperately searched for.

“It’s here.”

“What did I tell you?” Zich boasted, “These kinds of guys are simple. And since they have a lot to lose, they like to overprotect their belongings.”

“Still, I didn’t think that we would be able to find it so easily.”

“We didn’t really find it easily. He laid many baits, but it was because of my skills that we were able to find the real one.”

Zich didn’t seem like he intended to hide his achievements. Some people might have scowled at him because of his lack of humility, but because Zich’s abilities were really coming to light from this crisis in the city, Lubella complimented him without hesitation.

“That’s true. You really are amazing.”

“Ah, that’s kind of embarrassing.”

Zich had boasted just a moment before, but now he tried to be modest. It was because this was his first time receiving such a pure compliment.

‘Usually, when someone boasts, they are followed by all kinds of jeering and ridicule. Or they are met by shameless flattery.’

That was the kind of world that Zich was used to.

“That’s enough of hyping me up. Let’s just finish our business.”

“Yes, let’s do that.”

Their reason for finding Bellu’s statue was to disrupt the ritual from completing. Zich pulled out a paint box and a brush from his grasp.

“Lady Lubella, please.”

“Yes.”

Lubella instilled Karuna’s holy power into the paint. The paint’s red color sparkled for a moment and turned back to its original color.

Poke!

Zich dipped his brush into the paint. And as if he was about to make a masterpiece, he twirled his brush around Bellu’s status. Lubella watched him from behind in silence.

“Will this really work?”

Her eyes trembled a bit anxiously, but she believed Zich. Well, she didn’t have a choice. After getting betrayed by Sude and the Deputy Mayor, it was hard for her to trust people, but she couldn’t doubt Zich. I mean, wasn’t he helping her who was charged as the Witch, and fighting an immense force like the Bellid for the simple purpose of doing a good deed?

If she didn’t believe in Zich, she felt like she wouldn’t have the courage to believe in people anymore. So, she thought. However, there was still a difference between believing in the person and believing in the knowledge that the person held.

“It’s over.”

“…Is that so?”

After turning around, Zich placed his brush and paint back, and Lubella carefully inspected the statue behind him. The statue was inscribed with all kinds of lines and shapes from top to bottom. They were probably magic circles to hinder the ritual and give the life force back to those who had lost it.

But were Lubella’s eyes playing tricks on her?

The marks on the statue didn’t look like normal magic circles that geometricized the principles of holy powers, magic, or every type of nature or gods’ miracles; for example, they didn’t include symbols of galactical planets like the suns, moons, and stars or living creatures such as humans, animals, and plants. Frankly, they looked very crude as if a child scribbled them for fun.

Were these marks really a magic circle that would solve their problems? Even Lubella, who had significant knowledge and rank among the Karuwiman people had never heard of this method before.

“Please wrap this up now.”

Lubella nodded at Zich’s words and poured her holy powers into the statue. She had to continue to have faith in Zich. She had come too far now to begin doubting him, and Bellid’s ritual would begin any time now.

“Can we just leave the statue like this?”

“It doesn’t matter since your holy powers have already flowed down the basement. Whether we break it apart or not, we are done here.”

Zich started to walk out while saying that they should search for the other statues. Lubella soon followed Zich while staring at his back.

* * *

Not long afterwards, Lubella felt foolish for doubting Zich. After they drew those silly-looking magic circles on Bellu’s statues and poured holy powers on them, they soon encountered an unexpected creature.

“It’s a zombie.”

“Yes, it’s a zombie.”

Under the cover of darkness, Zich and Lubella were trying to find another statue when they met a zombie. It wasn’t strange to see a zombie in the city when Bellid’s ritual was close to complete, but Lubella thought the zombie looked odd.

“Why is it acting like that?”

The zombie approached them while staggering. That part wasn’t unusual since zombies often moved strangely. However, the zombie’s movements went beyond simply strange. As if it was wearing invisible armor, its movements were extremely stiff like it was restricted.

“Hm.”

Zich went closer to the zombie. Like all zombies, it stretched out its hands to take away Zich’s life force— to make Zich like itself. However, the zombie’s movements were very awkward and slow, so it didn’t feel threatening at all.

Zich struck the zombie’s neck. It was a simple procedure like striking the head of a dead fish.

“It became weaker.”

“Weaker? The zombie did?”

That seemed like good news to Lubella, and her heart thumped with expectations.

“Yes, it became weaker for sure. Thankfully, it seems like what we are doing is not useless.”

Zich’s words were basically a confirmation for her. The doubt that took place in the corner of her heart quickly dissolved.

“Ah, thank goodness! That’s really a relief!”

Like that, Lubella got onto her knees and prayed to Karuna. Because she felt like they could end this harsh plight without a great sacrifice, her eyes teared up.

“I don’t know how I can express my thanks.”

Then, Lubella abruptly got up and grabbed Zich’s hands. She couldn’t bear that she had doubted him before.

“I’m sorry. To tell you the truth, I doubted you.”

“Uh, that’s a bit disappointing. How many people do you think would be kind enough to help you with their life on the line—that you doubt me?”

Zich winked. And because his eyes didn’t seem to hold any grudge against her, Lubella burst out into laughter.

“I didn’t doubt you, as a person. I can’t thank you enough for helping me so far. But I had a bit of doubt about your method of hindering the ritual. Although I have access to valuable information from Karuwiman, I didn’t know about it, and the method is…”

“Because the method is drawing ridiculous and suspicious-looking scribbles that don’t even look like magic circles?”

“…To tell you the truth, that was it. I’m sorry.”

“There’s no need for you to be sorry. I understand. Even I wonder what the person who made it was thinking. I don’t know if I should call the person a genius or an idiot.”

“I think the person is a genius.”

“Since you think that, I will also think the same.”

“Can I ask how you learned this method?”

“Ah, that is a secret.”

Since she had been refused before, Lubella didn’t really feel disappointed.

“Then, please, you must teach me the magic circle later.”

“Don’t worry about that. I will teach you all later. Of course, with a price.”

“That doesn’t matter. For us, Karuwiman, that magic circle is priceless, and the Church will grant pretty much anything you ask for.”

Maybe it was because they saw the effect of their works, but their moods were much brighter than before—despite the fact that they were still getting chased and the Deputy Mayor was still alive and well.

“Now, we just have to take care of a couple more statues. Then, the Deputy Mayor’s power will decrease significantly, and we can attack the Mayor’s mansion again. But we have to be more careful since they will increase the number of guards as the number of statues decreases.”

“I understand. But how can they place so many statues without a single rumor spreading? Many people should have disappeared as offerings.”

“They probably blocked people’s mouths with money and power. There are a lot of excuses to choose from, like, ‘Let’s keep quiet for now since people can start panicking.’ Since this is a city sensitive to the economy, that probably worked well.”

The whole truth was impossible to realize if one didn’t realize that the city was covered by a black curtain, specifically the Bellid group. In fact, before he became aware of what was going on, even Zich thought the appearance of the undead was a new happening since public sentiment was still relatively calm.

“But that won’t last for long. Let’s take care of the rest of Bellu’s statues and save the city.”

“Yes!”

Feeling hopeful, they disappeared into the city’s darkness again.

* * *

Since then, Zich and Lubella found a couple of more statues. On the magic circle that Zich drew, Lubella generously poured more holy power. And their results became more and more visible. In the end, they reached a point where they couldn’t find a single undead all over the city at night.

Of course, this didn’t mean that the undead completely disappeared. They might have missed one roaming around in a back alleyway. But generally, they could sense that the total number of undead had definitely decreased.

“Okay then, let’s go to the Mayor’s mansion and destroy the center statue there. If that still exists, everything we did will be for nothing. We can only delay the ritual and not stop it.”

“Where do you think the Deputy Mayor is?”

“I also don’t know, but he will probably be at the Mayor’s mansion. Since the mansion is the center of this ritual, that guy probably can’t leave the area.”

“Then we should go to the mansion. When are we going?”

“Is there a reason for us to take our time?”

Zich stared at the area where the Mayor’s mansion was.

“Let’s go tonight.”