Episode 76 The Hound of the Night (2)
Saint Mecca. Population: 160,000 It is famous as a resort area with dense forest and clean sea. One of the central cities where the prestige of the Quo Vadis family is directly affected.
People pass by in a solemn and reverent manner on the roads all covered with white marble.
When the bells rang from the tall clock tower, everyone stopped and prayed towards the star sign on the roof of the Quo Vadis family residence in the distance.
Even if gold coins fell on the floor, they were not picked up, and order and security were strictly observed due to the consciousness of the citizens themselves.
“……Where can I live without breath?”
Bikir stood on the roof of a tall tower and looked down.
The women covered their whole bodies with white cloth and walked around with only their eyes exposed. So did the men.
It is because lust and greed are strictly controlled for religious reasons.
A trade in all white, with no exposure or fashion.
The atmosphere was completely different from Balak’s village, a tribe living freely in the jungle with most of their bodies exposed.
Bikir, who had lived there for the past two years, found the atmosphere here in Saint Mecca to be stuffy and uncomfortable.
Eventually, after waiting until darkness fell, Bikir headed for the slums on the outskirts, far from the main street.
Broken windows, cracked walls, dirty water, lowlands and steep stairs.
The landscape of the slums is similar everywhere. It is the same even if it is a city where the power of Quo Vadis, a religious chant, reaches.
In particular, the religious chant Quo Vadis expelled those who committed sins from the center and sent them to the outskirts, so the people here were particularly harsh.
People who did not commit a felony enough to go to jail, but a misdemeanor such that they could not get into the main street.
What filters them out are the checkpoints installed in every corner of the city’s passageways and the sent out paladins.
Bikir climbed steep steps to enter the slums located on high ground.
It was the most remote and darkest place among the slums.
Before long, the bell announcing midnight rings twelve times from the other side of the darkness.
Few people had passed by then, but all who remained on the street bowed down on the ground and bowed to the Quo Vadis residence.
And when everyone fell down, only the hound of the night did not.
Bikir, taking advantage of the night, went to the well and took out a glass bottle.
It was the essence of the plague collected from the blood, sweat and tears of Aheul, the ‘Red Death’.
Bikir poured the liquid from the glass bottle into the well.
The Red Death was unleashed on the headquarters of the Quo Vadis family.
‘It’s an extremely contagious plague, so a response will come sooner or later.’
The incubation period for red death is at most ten days and at least one day.
If it enters the body, it can develop in one day, and it takes about three days if it comes into contact with mucous membranes, and about a week if it is through breathing or skin contact.
‘It’s the realm of religious chants, so it’ll be possible to save the dead before they come out.’
Bikir pondered for a moment about when to proceed with the next design.
at that time.
“……!”
Bikir caught eyes with some children approaching from the other side of the well.
The children seemed to be on their way to catch bugs, and they were holding collecting buckets, dragonfly nets, sugar water, etc. in their hands.
The eldest child in the front of them looked this way and asked.
“Is anyone there?”
The children stop in front of the well and hum. It seems that Bikir, completely immersed in the darkness, is hard to see.
Just in time, on a dark night with no moon, Bikir was even wearing a mask.
It’s not likely that his identity will be revealed, but he still had to be careful.
Before long, Bikir blew life from his eyes.
Red, blood-red eyes pierced the glasses of the gas mask and exploded.
[I will put a curse on this well.]
Upon hearing Bikir’s words, the children trembled and sat down on the floor. While getting tired of male urine.
Bikir warned the children firmly.
[Anyone who drinks the water from this well will inevitably die.]
In fact, there was nothing to do to this extent, but if I had to argue, this was consideration.
This is to ensure that children do not get caught up in it.
“Hey! It’s a ghost! It’s a demon!”
“Cursed is the well!”
“Ah! I will never drink!”
The children were terrified and ran away.
Bikir confirmed several times that everyone was gone, then buried something in the soil near the well.
It was a mark left by intruders who had recently entered the sea.
It was the mark of ‘extremely poisonous Leviathan’.
Vikir knew right away that it was the Leviathan family that had released the ‘Red Death’ in the flood.
‘Where do you guys try to fight each other so that it explodes?’
The Quo Vadis, a religious chant, and the Leviathan, an extremist reader, had been enemies for generations.
Perhaps what would happen if the Red Death spread to the home base of the Quo Vadis family?
Since it is the stronghold of the Quo Vadis family, the suppression will be in an instant, but after that is the problem.
‘I must move quickly.’
Already some people can be seen coming up to draw water from the well.
The Quo Vadis had to be pulled out before there were any innocent civilian victims.
Only then will he be able to quickly keep his promise to Iyan.
* * *
The night hound moved diligently and visited the official residence of Quo Vadis, a religious chant in the heart of Saint Mecca.
Even though it was late at night, several wagons were lined up in front of the mission.
It is true that it is said that sickness does not sleep at night.
Even at this moment, there were a lot of people who wanted to treat their bodies by visiting religious chants.
Most of them were aristocrats and wealthy people who rode in fancy carriages, and all of them knocked on the door of the religious chant with neatly dressed faces that contrasted with their sickly faces.
“I heard that the saintess is here for a vacation! I want to inquire about her safety, so please open the door!”
“Oh, Holy Lady! I came to know that you are here! Take care of my illness just once!”
“Please let me see John An, saintess!”
It seems that rumors have spread secretly that Saint Dolores, a direct descendant of the Quo Vadis family and the owner of the small household, is currently in the official residence here in Saint Mecca.
Saint Dolores, the pride of the Quo Vadis family, was a second-year student at the Imperial Academy and was a model student to the point of holding the position of vice president of the student council.
Rumors that she was taking a break here during the academy’s vacation made nobles and wealthy people come a long way.
All of them were wealthy people with a lot of money.
Soon after, a voice came from inside the door.
“…Who are you to visit me at this late hour?”
A soft and delicate voice, but with a subtle power.
It was probably the voice of a saintess.
The nobles and the rich were thrilled to hear the voice of the famous saint Dolores directly.
But even for a while, they scramble to answer.
“I am the empress of the Dortsmile region, a viscount of the empire, the eldest son of the Jonathan family that has produced high-ranking knights for generations, and the son-in-law of the Alphonse family, who are related to the in-laws. I keep it as a family crest…!”
“I am the general manager of the Ibsen Guild Association, which is in charge of supplying subcontracts for the bourgeois family, and I have been serving as the president of the Ibsen Hometown Association for five consecutive years. At the same time, I have recently been granted the title of Baron by the Empire, and as a squire of the Boston Terrier Count Les Baskervilles, a renowned knight. An honorary knight with two years of service experience…!”
“I am the second son of the Child family, and if you can cure me of my chronic illness, I will gift you the whole fertile granary far from the home of Quo Vadis, as well as a villa on the warm southern coastline and a dedicated carriage. number……!”
but.
No matter how powerful or wealthy a person was, they could not open the door to the Quo Vadis family.
Saint Dolores closed the door tightly and did not open it to anyone.
“I don’t know if your status and wealth are a reason for me to open the gate at midnight.”
Nobles and riches. Everyone had to leave exhausted and lonely after loudly appealing how great they were and how much money they could pay for treatment.
By the time the night gets deeper and deeper. The lines all disappeared and the last Bikir left stood at the door of the legation.
It was so quiet that I couldn’t even tell if there was anyone behind the door.
Standing in front of him, Bikir politely knocked on the door.
just as expected. The voice of the saintess came again this time.
“Who are you to visit me at this late hour?”
Bikir thought for a moment.
All those who had just been listing their own identities at the top of their voices were talking nonsense.
‘A saintess’ taste isn’t like that.’
Vikir knows who Saint Dolores is.
Before returning, I had seen her many times on the most disastrous front lines of the battlefield.
The intense look of treating the wounded while covered in blood.
The white clothes dyed red all over and the white divine power that was constantly bursting out.
The sight that I saw even from a distance was truly holy and sublime.
After a while, Bikir gave a short answer.
“…just a lost lamb.”
Then, for a moment, the door beyond the door became quiet.
Bikir waited in silence.
yet. The door of
Quo Vadis,
a religious chant that had not been opened to anyone while being tightly closed, opened.
