56. Salvation Church (6)
That is blood. When the Count coughed, I saw liquid pouring out of his mouth.
The only possibility other than blood is vomit or spit, but it doesn’t even make a sound to be called vomit, and there’s no color or substance to speak of, and there’s no way he would spit that much, so in the end, all that’s left is… ‘Is it the devil’s curse
? Or were you attacked because your identity was discovered?’
The interior doesn’t look very chaotic, considering it was attacked. Are you trying to end the incident as quietly as possible, as if nothing happened, to avoid confusion?
The devil’s curse. And his identity was discovered.
The former is not good, but the latter is worse. If the two overlap, it’s literally the worst.
Without worrying about which one to take, Lien assumed the worst.
‘When it comes to protecting your lord, you must always assume the worst.’
So, the Count infiltrated inside and faced the risk of death when his identity was discovered. He barely escaped, but was injured in the process, and to make matters worse, he was also cursed by the devil.
And because they mistook me for a pursuer, they had to run again before I could catch their breath—
‘What did you do when you went back inside?’
Satisfactory evidence may not have been obtained.
‘Oh my god, you can’t give up until you get to that point. As expected, the Count…’
I hastily suppressed the feelings that were about to get stronger. The driver must not lose his composure.
What matters now is how you deal with it.
Should I go pick up the Count, whose condition and situation are both presumed to be bad, or should I wait outside?
‘If you go in, you might get confused.’
In that case, things get more complicated.
But what if the Count was in a truly critical situation? So what if you need some help?
‘…shit.’
I let out a long, silent sigh and covered my head. I was terrible at making choices like this.
That’s why I was extremely satisfied with my job as a knight where I only had to listen to orders, but I never thought I’d face such an ordeal.
Lien, who was at the crossroads of making the choice of a lifetime, was unable to make a decision and was hesitating, when a voice he had heard before was heard in his ears, which had become sensitive due to nervousness.
If you walk a little bit from here and turn around, you will see the entrance to Guwongyo Bridge.
“Call the guard captain right now.”
“Huh? What are you saying all of a sudden…”
“Suddenly?”
“….”
It’s a voice I’m sure I’ve heard before, but it’s unfamiliar. Is this not the person I’m thinking of?
no. The voice definitely belongs to the woman who smiled brightly at the entrance and chased him out. It’s just that the atmosphere is so different that you wonder if it’s the same person.
A voice that drips with chills like that.
When the other person also fell silent, as if embarrassed, Ye’s cold voice continued.
“An intruder came in. You didn’t even know it yet.”
“…!”
“If your opponent wasn’t a hero, you wouldn’t have any heads left by now. You would have been replaced for the crime of incompetence. Consider yourself lucky.”
hero!
Lien was quietly shocked.
The prediction was correct. The Count’s identity was revealed.
What followed was even more shocking.
“For now, I’ve dealt with him on my own, so don’t make a fuss and call the security commander. We need to discuss strengthening security.”
I can’t believe I handled it! That means the Count…!
There is no reason to think further or hesitate. Lien turned around and started running towards the place where Deon had disappeared.
‘Count!!’
He hadn’t even remembered that the woman said ‘Hero’ instead of ‘Deonhardt’ and that there wasn’t just one ‘Hero’.
Wow!
Because he disappeared so quickly, one of the knights, not knowing for sure which window Deon went through, noisily jumps over the visible window.
And disaster struck Salvation Church.
***
Of course, the Salvation Church has a prayer room. It is a space where guards are placed to prevent anyone from entering without permission, except at certain times.
Of course, only ordinary people could enter without permission, and the hero Cruel was an exception.
Tuk.
A small but foreign sound spread in a space filled with silence and no one around.
Cruel, a man with black hair falling from the ceiling, looks around in a familiar manner. Inorganic green eyes scanned the interior.
A space exactly like the blueprint. Arrived properly.
Cruel quietly lowered his eyes, remembering the paper in his arms.
I’m sorry Deon, but this game was unfair to begin with. He started with a blueprint, but he did not.
[This is a blueprint. So try to finish this game as safely as possible. Surely you can’t do that, right?]
[….]
As safely as possible.
I couldn’t understand what those words meant. Cruel just kept his mouth shut and lowered his head.
but.
Can Deon really understand the one-sided outcome of this one-sided game?
It might go wild. They may raise suspicions and try to argue with me in front of the duke. If that happens…
‘….’
Cruel, with his mouth set as if remembering something, strides forward. Without hesitation, I headed to the window and then reached for the lock.
The hand that seemed to hesitate for a moment, unable to reach it and hovering around it, soon began to skillfully release it.
“What are you doing?”
“….”
All action stopped for an instant. The hand that touched the lock falls off.
Saerin glanced at the completely dismantled lock and opened her mouth again, looking at Cruel’s back.
My body, which had been tense because I thought it was an unfamiliar intruder, had not yet relaxed, and a stiff voice came out.
“No, you don’t have to answer. It’s obvious even if you don’t hear it. Did you come in through the window? I’m sure all the windows in this building were locked, so I don’t know how you came in… I’m sorry.”
I glared at him with pointed eyes.
If it weren’t for him speaking so calmly because he was serving the same master, he would have called security a long time ago.
“I know your purpose. What you’re after and where it is.”
“….”
“Of course I have no intention of helping you.”
Saerin is smart. As soon as she understood the whole situation, she realized her master’s intention.
I didn’t bother to ask Cruel to do something that would have been easily resolved if I gave him an order. That would mean they would test him.
She might have been kind to him, but unfortunately, she was wary of Cruel.
“The duke may be planning to test you. I intend to faithfully follow his wishes. He would have handed over the really necessary information to you long ago, so there is no need for me to help.”
“….”
“I was being as considerate as I could just by not calling the security right away, so please do your business quietly and leave without making any fuss. Oh, and make sure to lock that window again. I’m the security chief. “Because I need to meet you.”
I heard that Deon Hardt received the same mission.
If Cruel, a sturdy warrior type, is allowed to invade, Deonhardt, who has agile movements, will be even less able to catch him.
Considering that the other person was a hero, it was natural, but Saerin left the room quickly because she had no intention of accepting it with her eyes open.
In the quiet space again, Cruel glanced at the door she left through and then turned his back. I didn’t even look at the lock on the window.
He jumps up onto the stage, examines the floor carefully, and then quickly pulls back the purple curtain behind him. A pure white wall was revealed.
‘…this prayer room won the most in the design award.’
Is it an illusion?
The duke gave us a blueprint, but it is not complete. It was an omitted blueprint that did not indicate anything like a secret space.
The duke only provided the bare minimum of information and did not provide any support whatsoever.
Well, it may be a ‘test’.
In any case, if it’s not here, you’ll have to go back to the beginning and investigate again. Just when Cruel thought that and turned around to let go of the curtain
– murmur.
I heard the window opening.
He quickly caught the sound and hid behind the curtain, and almost at the same time, someone came inside.
***
The place I entered was a fairly sacred-looking room. Should I say room?
Long wooden chairs lined up. There is a podium in front, and even the expensive-looking marble floor and clean white walls make it hard to believe that it is located in a slum.
Additionally, the purple curtains hung mysteriously in harmony with the background, so what I felt was a strange sense of sacredness and mystery.
‘It looks like a prayer room…’
The room is bigger than I thought. I looked around slowly and then headed to the platform that stood out the most.
As I was trying to climb up the chest-high platform with my hands, I found a staircase in the corner and calmly walked up it. My body is precious.
‘It’s not as big of a deal as I thought.’
I quickly lost interest and this time I focused on the strangely hanging curtains.
I understand the hanging around the window, but it’s a bit surprising that the curtains are hanging on the wall behind the podium, which shouldn’t have any windows. Of course, if there were nothing but white walls, it would be boring and wouldn’t be able to create the current mysterious atmosphere, but this is still a slum, right?
It seems a bit out of place to follow the aristocratic way of thinking of putting curtains on bare walls as decoration.
‘Or is there really a window behind this?’
First of all, all you can see through the curtains is the wall.
I gently grabbed the curtain. It was meant to be removed, but unfortunately, my actions did not achieve their purpose.
Because I heard several footsteps outside the door.
What should I do?! Where do I hide?
The damn homing instinct reacted at times like this. In a hurry, I left the curtain right next to me and went down to the platform and hid behind the curtain next to the window I came in through.
It was about 3 seconds later that I realized my foolish behavior.
‘…What did I do, bastard?’
I feel like I want to bang my head against the wall. But then the door flew open and I had to stop and hold my breath.
About twenty people can be seen through the gap in the curtain. There are also familiar faces mixed in between them.
There was clearly a girl named Siia who was talking to me and a boy named Paul who was glaring at me.
Does that mean this is the prayer room?
“Now, let’s pray for salvation today too.”
Each person sits on a wooden chair, and a man in priestly clothing who brought them up goes up to the stage and opens a book.
It was a book with a fairly luxurious shell.
‘What the hell is there in the Bible? ‘It’s very varied.’
The guy starts reading the book. The content, like other Bibles, was so specious and boring that my expectations of what it would contain were meaningless.
‘…and it’s long.’
It doesn’t have to be the same. Aren’t those people over there who close their eyes and pray actually sleeping, not praying?
…I think that guy over there just dropped his head? Was it really true?
How many times did I yawn silently? My legs began to feel unbearably numb and I thought it was really dangerous, and the priest finally finished speaking.
The guy closed the book and smiled.
“So, another devout believer came in today? Most of you probably already know this, but I’ll explain briefly for the newly added believer.”
“…?”
“From today, rather than ending with this simple prayer, I will tell you more about true ‘salvation’.”
Salvation? If it is salvation, it is salvation. How can I explain it in more detail?
I instinctively sensed that it was going to be very important, so I pricked up my ears.
The guy’s speech, which seemed like he was going to explain briefly, was longer than I thought. It was even possible to summarize it!
In the end, I want to say, ‘Salvation is real.’ Even Remember’s harsh words disguised as nagging would be shorter than this!
“You will hear the explanation separately in a room that only devout believers can enter.”
Oh, what the priest just said wasn’t what he said. These were the words spoken by the woman who opened the door and came in at just the right time, as if by design.
My eyes widened for a moment at the appearance of a few familiar faces.
‘…It’s a familiar face. ‘You’re the girl from a little while ago, right?’
The woman who took off the hood of my robe.
Even though they broke in like this, no one stopped them, not even the priest who was speaking, so it seems that they are in a higher position than I thought.
As she speeds up her steps and climbs onto the platform, the priest quietly retreats. It was a natural replacement.
A woman places her hand on the wall between the curtains behind the podium.
It was an action so natural that one was not conscious of it, but the result was anything but natural.
‘uh? Huh?Wait a minute, what is that?!’
