388

Episode 388 This is an opportunity. (2)

The village, surrounded by a fence to prevent attacks by monsters and wild beasts, seemed quite quiet and peaceful.

A villager standing guard smiled at Raviere.

"Are you a traveler?"

"Yes, I came to take a short break."

"I see. I hope you have a pleasant journey."

On the surface, it appears as if the village is welcoming guests.

But the townspeople paid no attention to the bloodstains on Raviere's dirty robes. They didn't even ask him about his identity.

The townspeople passing by also smiled and greeted the travelers as if they were welcoming them.

"Oh my, it's been a long time since we had a traveler in our town."

"Wow, nice to meet you."

"Our town has really delicious cheese. You should definitely try it."

Raviere also bowed his head to them with a kind smile, unlike when he was fighting.

A peaceful yet very alien sight.

Dark, who was watching that scene, felt something eerie and got goosebumps.

They were laughing. Every single villager was laughing.

- What the heck, these guys? Why are they all reacting like this? Do they all know each other?

If this was a hideout prepared by the Salvation Church, then they would all be on the same side, so that could be possible. However, judging from Raviere's reaction, it seemed like they didn't know each other very well.

"Who are you?"

Only when the old man with the gray beard asked did Raviere stop walking.

"Are you in charge here?"

"I asked who you were."

The old man did not hide his wary eyes. This was not a place where outsiders could enter so peacefully.

Raviere spread his palms out in front of the old man.

Ss ...

Then, a black sun appeared on the empty palm. Underneath the black sun, there was writing that Dark did not know.

But the old man seemed to notice it and lowered his head and opened his mouth very politely.

"Hello, Your Majesty."

"Yeah, I guess I'll have to rest at the altar for a while."

The old man looked around and spoke as if he was in trouble.

"This is a place that even noble people should not enter without permission."

"I know. But I couldn't help it because of the circumstances."

"Um, I understand. But you can't stay here for long. The plan is almost over, and you don't want this place to be discovered, right?"

"Don't worry. We've definitely shaken off the pursuit."

The old man could not hide his uneasy expression, however, because Raviere looked as if he had suffered a great deal.

If the judge of doctrine had this much trouble, it means that the opponent was no pushover either.

The old man wished that nothing would happen in this peaceful village.

"Come in. It won't be nice for anyone to see you."

"Okay, I understand."

Raviere followed the old man with a displeased expression. However, he could not really punish him since he was the one who broke an important rule of the church.

The old man was the village chief. The old man who brought Raviere to his house lifted the carpet on the floor and touched something.

Gugugugugugu!

Soon the floor opened up and a staircase leading down to the basement appeared.

As the old man went down first, Raviere followed him.

The basement was a huge cavern. It was a very dark space with strange devices installed here and there.

A huge magic circle glowing blood red was carved on the floor, and various shapes of unknown meaning were drawn all around.

Raviere held his nose for a moment and frowned as he smelled something disgusting.

The old man looked at him and said.

"I'll prepare food for a few days. You can't stay for more than a week."

"Okay, it'll only take a few days, so don't worry."

As the old man bowed his head and left, Raviere sat down and began to heal his wounds.

"Once I recover, I must go to the Duke's house and tell him this news."

Everyone already knows that the existence of the religion was discovered because of him. However, they probably didn't know that the person they were dealing with was Earl Fenris.

There is clearly a traitor in the church, so Earl Fenris knows his name and title.

I had to get this fact out there as soon as possible.

Ss ...

Raviere tried to extinguish the energy of Giselle that was still running wild within his body.

If you can completely heal your wounds and replenish your consumed stamina, you will be able to easily break through the enemies and make it to the south.

And as his magical power gradually dissipated under the pressure of Raviere's aura, Dark's consciousness cried out.

- Ugh! Master! This guy tried to recover! He went to a safe place!

"Is that the town?"

- I hid in the basement of some old person's house! But… … .

"Why? Is there something else?"

Jiselle asked with anticipation. It was very suspicious that the place where Raviere was hiding had been an important place in his previous life.

Then Dark screamed.

― You guys are crazy! This place is full of corpses! Hundreds… …? No, if you count the bones, it looks like thousands! They're just piled up like a mountain!

"what?"

As Dark had said, the place where Raviere was resting was not an ordinary place.

Surrounding the blood-red magic circle were unknown barrels, containing people trapped inside.

And the strings connected to those barrels continued to supply people's blood to the magic circle.

There must have been so many dead people that the wide space was filled with human bones.

― Master… … . This guy has been stuck on your body for too long… … . I was barely able to stick with him, but now I've reached my limit… … .

The magical power was slowly disappearing as it had not been replenished for several days. In the meantime, when Raviere began to use his power in earnest, it could no longer remain.

Pus ...

― Phew! I can't see you anymore! You've been completely kicked out!

With those words, Dark's clone attached to Raviere's body completely disappeared.

Jiselle immediately summoned the knights with a stern face.

"Two hundred knights, arm yourself and follow me immediately. Move as fast as you can."

"yes?"

"There is no time. I will explain as I go."

"All right!"

This was not the first or second time that they had moved without explanation. The knights immediately armed themselves and mounted their horses.

"Gillian, keep your army ready to go to war at any time, as we don't know when the Duke and Marquis Rodrik will make their move."

"All right."

"Kaor, Belinda and Vanessa are coming with me."

Kaor smirked at the thought of going to fight again. Belinda, as usual, prepared the things she needed to accompany Giselle.

But Vanessa was not at ease.

"Alpoy! You should be studying and not playing while I'm away!"

"Oh, then! I like studying the most!"

Vanessa looked at Alfoy's confident shouting with a puzzled expression, but she had no choice but to believe him.

Jiselle and the knights, who had prepared in an instant, moved immediately.

"Move as fast as possible on the road."

No one knew why the lord was in such a hurry. But as always, they followed him, thinking there must be a reason.

Roads were laid throughout the princely territory, and the knights were quite skilled in horsemanship.

Thanks to this, they were able to move at extremely fast speeds.

As she moved, Jiselle constantly used information from her past life to infer her current situation. She gained more information than she had expected.

'I was thinking of finding out more about the other people or hideouts of the Salvation Church... ... but I didn't expect to go to a place with cracks.'

In the previous life, unidentified monsters emerged from the place called the Gate of Tribulation, or the Crack.

These monsters grew in number and filled the continent, and eventually people had to fight them in limited areas.

In the previous life, all the magicians and scholars put their heads together and discussed, but no one knew why the rift occurred.

I couldn't help but think that their location was random. The cracks appeared all over the continent without any particular rules. Sometimes, when one place disappeared, it would suddenly appear in another place.

No one knew its identity or cause.

end.

Everyone thought that the 'end of the world', which is written in the scriptures of the four major religious groups, had begun.

Some struggled, while others humbly accepted it.

The same was true of the four major religious groups. Some fought to the end, while others insisted on following the will of the goddess.

'It was the Salvation Church that appeared at that time.'

The Salvation Church was different. They constantly cried out to help people.

― Our God will protect you and save you.

And he said that they should fight against the goddesses who had brought about the end of the world.

In this way, the four major religious groups and the Salvation Church became like mortal enemies.

'This is an opportunity.'

I learned through Raviere that the Salvation Church guys were connected to the time of tribulation.

However, I still didn't know how to open the crack. I thought it opened randomly, like I knew in my previous life.

Even when I found out that Raviere had gone to where the crack had opened, I just assumed that the Salvationists knew about the crack in advance and were trying to do something about it.

'But what if it was actually they who opened all those cracks!'

Jiselle's heart began to race. This was truly an unexpected opportunity.

He had been a mercenary and had fought against countless monsters while wandering the continent. That was why he knew the locations of most of the cracks that had formed throughout the continent.

Of course, he can't stop all the cracks. He has a hard time leaving this kingdom right now because of the Duke.

However, if we make good use of the current situation, we can significantly reduce the number of cracks. If we do that, human life will be much better than in the past.

Of all the information she had from her past life, Jiselle could say with certainty that the information regarding the location of the rift was the most valuable.

Because he was preparing to fight fiercely against the cracks as well as the Duke.

"Run! We have to get there as fast as possible!"

It wasn't to catch Raviere. You can catch and kill that kind of guy any time.

I had to see what was in that town with my own two eyes.

Doo doo doo doo doo doo!

Fortunately, the place where Raviere was hiding was the territory of a lord of the royalist faction. The road leading there was smooth and there were no obstacles.

"Get out of the way! It's Earl Fenris!"

Thanks to the cries of Giselle and the banner of Fenris, they were unstoppable.

Because he had been roaming the capital so much, any knight at a checkpoint would open the gate just by seeing Fenris' flag.

He didn't even ask why. To that extent, Jiselle was now revered as a big shot of the royalist faction.

Doo doo doo doo doo doo!

By the time they passed through the north and near the capital, Jiselle's force had grown to a thousand men.

This is because Jiselle withdrew some of the royal troops stationed near the capital.

The commander of the royal army, who was ordered to cooperate unconditionally with Fenris, lent his troops to Jiselle without asking why, because she said it was urgent.

They were to be witnesses. Giselle had deliberately dragged them away to spread the rumor throughout the kingdom.

Doo doo doo doo doo!

After several days of forced marching, Giselle and her party were able to reach the village where Raviere was hiding.

"Soldiers, surround the village immediately!"

At Giselle's command, the soldiers quickly dispersed. Giselle and the knights charged straight into the village.

The townspeople had all gathered in one place, as if the guards had already announced their arrival.

They looked at the invaders with expressionless faces.

Chaang!

Jiselle dismounted from her horse and aimed her sword at them, saying:

"Bring the person in charge here."

"… … ."

No one spoke. No one looked frightened. The knights who followed felt a strange chill at the sight of their wax-like expressions.

And Jiselle, who knew about that phenomenon, smiled coolly.

"I guess I'll have to kill them all."

As if those words were a signal, the townspeople's condition became strange.

Knock, knock! Knock!

There was a sound like bones breaking, and the bodies of the villagers twisted grotesquely. The movements continued without stopping.

The knights of Fenris muttered with bewildered expressions.

"What, what is this? Are those people people?"

"What is going on?"

Knock! Knock! Knock!

An even stranger phenomenon occurred to the villagers who were twisting their necks and bodies back and forth several times.

Tick, sizzle, sizzle.

Their heads split open from the crown, and they began to shed their human skin, as if peeling off a shell.

And what emerged from within the peeled skin was a shockingly disgusting creature.

It was as if thick tentacles were writhing around in the human brain, with mineral-like things attached to them here and there.

There was a red, glowing ore attached to what appeared to be the head, like an eye.

It's a creature whose identity is completely unknown. I've never seen anything like it even in the Demon Forest.

While everyone else was speechless and just gaping, Jiselle took a step forward.

"They were already mutated."

These were 'mutants' who had been consumed by the energy of the cracks.