Kelton.
Kelton.
A white wall covered with snow all night.
The priest of blue flames was standing in front of the East Gate of Gus. There was no particular reason why Gwyth was chosen among several options. I just came here because I heard a rumor about a demon slayer who killed a huge demon with a single sword.
After going through a simple ID check and entering Gus, busy workers came into view.
The city that had once collapsed was slowly and steadily regaining its original form. Seeing the traces of destruction caused by the devil, the priest of the blue flame raised his inner evaluation of the demon slayer a little higher.
Across the rebuilding city, the priest of the blue flame headed to the lord’s mansion. When he announced that he was the blue flame of the Seonghwa Church, the guards quickly ran out and informed Tredon Filian, the lord of Gus, about their visit.
It was clear that the manor house, which had partially collapsed, was merely pretending to roughly block the openings here and there. The priest of the blue flame was guided to the lord’s office.
“Welcome to Guiss.”
His taciturn eyes and cool atmosphere, although his hair was slowly peeling off, he was a man with enough weight to make such minor flaws completely invisible.
“I apologize for the rudeness I had to face in the office because the reception room collapsed. Besides, I’m in a state of health.”
Yeongju, who gently lifted the wooden prosthetic hand, burrowed into the chair and sat comfortably.
“I am okay.”
“By the way, it would be very rare for the blue flame of Seonghwagyo to make a pilgrimage in person. Why did you come here?”
“Please watch this for a moment. Have you ever seen this man?”
What the priest of the blue flame held out was a picture. This painting was a drawing of the face of a thief who stole the holy relics of the Seonghwagyo Church.
Officially, this relic thief does not exist. Even though the holy relic was stolen from the headquarters, he was caught after a few days of pursuit, and since he had already died, there was no official wanted badge with his face on it. So, inevitably, the priest of the blue flame had to draw his own impression of this man.
The problem was that the painting was of such a level of promiscuity that the modifier that it was simply poor was undeserved. In addition, the person who presented this painting had unfounded confidence that he had portrayed it quite well.
But as soon as the devil saw the crude drawing, he recognized with extraordinary intuition that it was a painting of Marnak’s face. After checking the picture very naturally, he slowly opened his mouth. He still had a hard face, as if he didn’t know anything.
“Do you mind if I ask who this guy is that the blue flame of the Seonghwagyo is directly following him?”
The priest of the Blue Flame sat quietly and looked into Tredon Fillian’s eyes. As if trying to find out what lies behind those dark eyes. After a short time, the priest of the blue flame slowly opened his mouth.
“It’s for personal reasons.”
“is it.”
The demon slowly examined the face of the priest of the blue flame.
Long blue hair neatly tied together and piercingly blue eyes showing no emotion. A glimpse of her firm will was visible from her tightly pursed lips. Seeing a beauty that would attract anyone’s attention at least once, the devil was lost in thought.
‘I don’t think they’re following you for good reasons. There’s no need to tell me.’
“If this is all your business, then let’s go. I’m busy, so it’s a bit difficult to give you more time.”
“yes.”
At the lord’s clear order to celebrate, she picked up the picture without hesitation and put it in her arms and stood up. It was because he hadn’t come to the lord’s mansion with high expectations in the first place.
The priest of the blue flames left the mansion and went out into the streets, grabbing passers-by and holding out paintings while walking down the street, but of course, no one recognized that the crude painting was of Marnak.
“Did you go to another city?”
Never realizing that her drawing was wrong, she came to the conclusion that she had misplaced the city.
“I heard you were assigned to the capital city?
“I’ll come over when I get a chance!”
“There’s nothing to play here, empty words…. Take care of yourself on the way! Traveling is always dangerous.”
“I’m not going alone, so don’t worry too much…”
In the conversation between the red-haired woman and the grocer, the word “capital” tickled her ears.
“Sudora…”
Anyway, even if I went to another city now, the probability of finding him was extremely low, unless there was a search method. In the first place, the current pursuit stemmed from her slight doubt. There was no physical evidence that he was still alive.
The blue flame of Seonghwagyo made up its mind.
Let’s use the intelligence dealers in the capital to find him who is a fugitive.
***
Why aaaaaaaaaaaaa!
The butcher shaved off the second snow spider’s head. Sticky bodily fluids spurting towards the face. I really wanted to wash my face in warm water.
– Hey hey hey hey!
While I was lost in thought for a moment, the last snow spider lunged at me and gave me a sharp paw. But I wasn’t alone.
hooked!
The flying arrows accurately penetrated the snow spider’s forepaws, delaying the attack. Yes, this gap is enough. The butcher spat out another rough start-up sound.
Why hey hey hey hey!
I swung the butcher and shredded the snow spider’s head. Finally the last snow spider fell to the floor. I looked around for a while with my senses on edge, but there were no additional objects approaching.
He gestured toward Carmen, who was still nervous with the arrow still attached to the string.
“I think this is the last one.”
“Is that so?”
I roughly brushed off the bodily fluids from the butcher and wiped my face with the hem of my priestly robe. The bodily fluids splashed on my hair still made me feel bad, but I felt a little better after wiping my face.
Carmen approached before I knew it and pulled out the sword she was wearing around her waist and skillfully cut through the snow spider’s skin.
“What are you doing?”
“Oh, I’m collecting poison sacs from snow spiders. Their venom has a great anesthetic effect, so it’s useful in many ways. It’s okay to use it on an arrowhead, and it’s quite expensive even if you sell it as it is.”
I laughed at that thrifty look. As a result of living together, Carmen had a very strong life force, unlike a young boy from an aristocratic family.
“How the hell do you know that?”
“Because I often participated in monster hunting. Isn’t actual fighting the best way to improve your bow skills?”
To take out the poison sac, of course, the stomach of the snow spider had to be cut open, and bodily fluids inevitably splashed out in the process.
“I’ll do it while I’m covered in bodily fluids. Tell me where the poison sac is.”
Carmen smiled coolly, wiping the bodily fluids from her face.
“It’s half a day’s drive to the next city, Kelton, anyway. I’ll teach you how to collect poison sacs, so let’s finish it together and go to the city to cool off.”
“good idea.”
We took two each, harvested the venom sacs of four snowspiders, and set off again, covered in bodily fluids, towards Kelton. And soon after, I met the owners of the blood on the front feet of the snow spiders.
Broken wagons and blood and flesh splattered here and there.
Carmen looked around with a stiff face.
“Anyway, it looks like the snow spider that attacked us did it. But it’s strange.”
After rummaging through the broken boxes, Carmen tilted her head.
“Compared to the size of the wagon, the amount of items left here is too small.
“There aren’t even corpses there.”
It was full of blood and flesh, but there was no corpse of an important person. The snow spider is a monster that sucks the bodily fluids of its prey, so it can’t be that there aren’t any corpses like this.
“Priest Marnak!”
“yes.”
Carmen had already gone quite far and was looking around. As I approached quickly, I saw the clear traces of the snow spider carved on the snowfield, along with bloodstains, leading deep into the forest. Carmen spoke out, pointing to the marks on the floor.
“I guess the four we caught wasn’t the end. It’s really strange. When we get to Kelton, we must inform the lord there about this incident. Before more damage occurs.”
I nodded. There was absolutely no reason for us to pursue those snow spiders and dig up the truth of the incident.
“I think the same.”
We quickly checked the wagon to see if there was anything we could pack, but most of what was left was broken beyond use, so we set off again without taking anything else.
After walking a little faster, we finally arrived at Kelton. The city walls visible in the distance. I said, rubbing my cold hardened head with bodily fluids.
“It’s good to inform the lord, but it’s polite to wash your body first, and I think it’ll make us feel better.”
Carmen nodded in response.
“It’s definitely more disgusting than expected.”
As we slowly approached Kelton’s West Gate, the guards who spotted us began to move busily with surprised faces. Soon after, a guard quickly jumped out and told us.
“Uh, how are you?”
how did you come
I looked at Carmen with a bewildered face and started talking.
“Did we come on foot?”
“If you run into monsters on the way…”
The guard paused before asking a question. Seeing us covered in snow spider bodily fluids, he seemed to realize what a stupid question he had raised. Carmen smiled bitterly and told the guards.
“Could you tell me what’s going on in Kelton right now?”
The guard gulped and answered in a trembling voice.
“Kelton has been blocked from all roads for three days now. Monsters as well.”
Being tamed and blocked by monsters? Could it be that we broke through the siege with our own hands and came to an isolated city?
A more senior-looking guard jumped out of the city and spoke quickly to us.
“Lord Stren wants to see you two. I will guide you to the lord’s mansion.”
I answered by pointing to my head.
“This is my personal opinion, but wouldn’t it be polite for us to wash up and then meet the lord?”
The guard glanced at me and Carmen before replying.
“Perhaps the lord will allow us to use the mansion’s bath.”
It’s the lord’s bath. It was a very tempting proposal. When I turned my head slightly to look at Carmen, he also nodded slightly with a slightly leaning look.
I replied with a smile.
“Let’s go quickly.”
***
The hot steam rising from the warm water grazed my cheeks pleasantly and floated up. After roughly washing my body, I soaked myself in the prepared private bath, and the moderately hot water bathed my body to the fullest.
“Huh ah ah
ah …
” .
“The lord is indeed right to have a private bathroom for guests. Just this warm water alone is already enough to pierce the ceiling.”
“Kill… kill…”
My mother conveyed her positive intentions to me by flipping her palms in the water.
After taking such a hot bath, I was in a dry state, put on new clothes prepared by the mansion’s servants, and went to bed. I thought I wanted to lie down and take a deep breath. Of course I couldn’t.
Following the guide of the employee, we headed to the lord’s reception room, where Carmen arrived first and was talking to the lord. I entered the room and bowed my head.
“Forgive me for being late.”
“It’s okay. Please sit over there.”
The lord of Kelton was a rather plump and gentle-looking man, but he had a very youthful face and did not look very old in reality. If you have to hit it a lot, it’s around the mid-twenties.
When I sat down next to Carmen, the lord gave me a very friendly smile.
“Are you Priest Marnak, the ‘demon slayer’ of Gus? Really, I’m so glad you came to our city.”
I answered after lowering my head slightly.
“I’m not that great of a person. I was just suffocating demons who were dying, and the real demon hunting was done by three reformed priests who gave their lives for the right cause.”
“Even suffocating a dying demon is not something that a criminal can do. This is a very humble priest Marnak.”
Just as the words were about to grow longer, Carmen changed the subject in an aristocratic way with a skillful and gentle tone.
“I heard that the city is under siege by monsters.”
Stren Flekor, lord of Kelton, nodded with a melancholy look.
“That’s right. The reason why I called you two here has something to do with it. As the two of you have already felt, this siege is not just a mob of monsters.”
The lord, slightly moving his lips, brought out a heavy word.
“It’s all the work of a worshiper of an evil god.”
