WeTried Translations
Translator: [IncomeElastic]
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◈ I Became an Undetected Priest Impersonator ◈
Chapter 25
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I Became a Demon Hunter (4)
The carriage rattled along the dirt road.
The ride was far from comfortable and my backside ached, but I didn't let it show.
More than that, I was bothered by the knight sitting across from me, Sir Irsil.
‘They seem way too scared.’
Sir Irsil hadn't managed to meet my eyes even once for a while now.
It didn't seem to be self-reproach over the mistake, or embarrassment at being subdued by a priest.
-They just seem scared, don't they?
‘For a knight, their mental fortitude is weak.’
Of course, I admitted I'd gone too far.
I'd been ambushed in the middle of the night, so I was a little angry.
Perhaps because I was admitting my temper control hadn't been up to its usual standard, the goddess, who had been oddly fidgety, glanced at my mood and spoke up.
-Then I'm gonna go out for a bit, so be careful!
‘Where are you going?’
-Mm.. Mommy scolded me for waking Daddy up on my own.. I have to write an apology letter.
"…"
Even after the goddess left, the carriage kept running without rest for a good while.
Suddenly, a small question from the early morning came back to me.
"It seems there's no shortage of ways to travel back and forth quickly, so aren't you using one this time?"
I asked it with feigned innocence, recalling the Saintess's words that my presence had been detected in the dungeon between evening and dawn.
At that, the Saintess looked puzzled, then nodded as though she'd just realized something.
"We just had the knights run over quickly, check, and come back."
‘So it was simply their bodies that suffered.’
It was a rather disappointing answer.
We reached the dungeon before long.
But early arrival aside, I couldn't simply be glad.
"The soldiers are lying on the ground."
Around the entrance to the dungeon, soldiers lay collapsed, unconscious.
"Was it like this yesterday?"
"..No, it wasn't."
The one who answered was Sir Irsil.
"When we came yesterday, they were definitely standing guard."
Which meant it had happened sometime during the early morning.
I approached the nearest soldier.
There were no visible wounds.
But the soldier was unconscious, sweating cold, and groaning now and then.
"Ugh.."
It was the Saintess who attempted treatment.
A warm light, quite different from Heal, enveloped the soldier's body.
"..?"
A flicker of confusion crossed the Saintess's face.
The soldier's pained reaction hadn't changed at all.
I could guess why easily enough.
‘A mental attack.’
There was nothing wrong with the Purification itself.
It was because a human mind isn't suddenly fine just because the cause is resolved, the way a machine part would be.
The solution was simple.
All it took was refreshing the mind.
‘Mental Cleaning.’
Only then did the soldier's complexion ease, as if washed clean.
"It's a kind of mental attack. After Curse Removal, restore the mind along with it."
"..Thank you."
"Don't mention it."
She didn't seem to have much experience with patients hit by mental attacks.
Considering the Saintess's young age, it was easy enough to understand.
Still, there didn't seem to be any need to worry.
From the heat of her energy, quite different from my own, I could tell healing wasn't the Saintess's forte.
"Let's go inside."
The interior of the dungeon we entered had barely changed since I last saw it.
If anything, the one difference was that something was being assembled on the beach.
Priest Patch studied it closely and raised a question.
"There's an artificial structure in the dungeon. Could this be the demon's doing as well?"
"It's ugly, but it's probably a ship under assembly."
"…"
Priest Patch quietly closed his mouth.
Pretending not to notice Priest Patch's reddening face, I turned my gaze to the Saintess.
"Do you see any traces of the demon?"
The Saintess closed her eyes briefly and surveyed the surroundings, then shook her head.
"They're faint. I can tell it's here, but I can't pinpoint where."
"I see."
"Perhaps it hasn't recovered its strength yet and is hiding to avoid a fight."
By the time she finished speaking, the Saintess's gaze had turned toward a corner of the forest.
‘That's the direction of the Magic Stone.’
I nodded, feeling the Magic Stone, or more precisely my own presence lodged inside it.
I thought I could see what the Saintess intended.
"..Once the dungeon is gone, not even a demon can keep hiding, can it?"
Or it would show itself before that.
And I rated the latter as the more likely.
But, contrary to expectations, the Demon showed no reaction at all the whole time we moved.
That was still true now, standing before the Magic Stone.
"Then let's destroy it."
"I'll do it."
At the Saintess's decision, Sir Irsil drew a sword and stepped forward, as if to make up for the last mistake.
Crack-
Sir Irsil's sword traced an arc and struck down on the Magic Stone.
That was the moment the Magic Stone shattered.
As the energy lodged inside burst out, the entire dungeon, kept up by the catalyst, began to shake.
The dungeon was about to vanish again.
"Let's hurry out before the dungeon collapses."
But I had no choice but to stop mid-sentence.
Because, as if it had been waiting for the Magic Stone to be completely destroyed, a voice reached us.
-Thank you.
-For clearing away that bothersome Magic Stone on my behalf.
The fragments of the Magic Stone, which should have fallen to the ground as they broke, floated into the air.
At the strange sight of the pieces rising one after another and beginning to clump together again, the Saintess hurriedly unleashed her power, but the change didn't stop.
And the moment the last piece attached, a voice full of delight rang through the entire dungeon.
-With this, this dungeon is completely mine.
The Demon, who had appeared at some point, gripped the blackened Magic Stone and thrust it up toward the sky.
A thick pulse surged out of the black Magic Stone that blotted out the sun.
And then, the pulse swept across the surroundings.
‘..I'm screwed.’
I couldn't tell exactly what was going on.
But I could make a rough guess from what I could see.
Until now, the Demon had been unable to fully take over this dungeon.
Ironically, it was because of the Magic Stone that had been keeping the dungeon in place.
‘And I smashed that Magic Stone without knowing?’
In a way, you could say I'd been played by the Demon.
‘Nothing ever goes right.’
Looking down at the unconscious Saintess and the people sprawled beside her, I could only sigh.
"Demon friend, how about we just call it a draw?"
I made the request, looking straight at the figure shrouded in dark mist.
"If so, I'll quietly withdraw."
After a moment, a voice tinged with amusement came back.
-Well, well. I've never seen a priest try to hold a conversation with a demon.
-It's rather interesting, but is there any need for me to?
"What if I waive the monthly rent? I'm the one who fixed the dungeon in place, so in a way I was the landlord."
-Oh, that's a fair point.
-But what a pity, the landlord is me now.
As if to say there would be no negotiation, another mental attack bore down.
I reflexively raised a Mental Barrier.
Under the force rummaging through my head, dizziness rushed in, as though my consciousness might collapse at any moment.
-Holding out when even the Saintess couldn't, how surprising.
-But impressive as your willpower is, your Tier looks low.
‘This is too degrading to put up with.’
Another wave churning through my mind came crashing in.
And I knew by instinct.
I wouldn't hold out this time.
My consciousness went dark after the pulse from the Magic Stone slammed into my head.
And when I opened my eyes again, the sight, one I hadn't seen in a long while, left me no choice but to let out a rueful laugh.
...
The Demon stared at the fallen priest.
An interesting person.
Not least for holding out against a mental attack even the Saintess couldn't withstand.
A priest who would speak to the Demon so unreservedly was a type never encountered in all the long years of living.
-You did fix the dungeon in place too, come to think of it.
-If you weren't a priest, we might have become good friends.
This was undoubtedly sincere.
-Now then, shall we see what nightmare you're having?
The Demon was left speechless.
-Gah! What is this!
Because while peering into the nightmare, Flowie's hand, awake at some point, had clamped around the throat.
-You escaped my nightmare, which replays your most terrible memory, this quickly on your own..? That's absurd..!
"I'm sorry, but."
Steadying my throbbing head, I cut the Demon off.
"Unlike the people around here, the place I came from had very well-developed psychiatric care."
-..?
"How much do you think I spent at the hospital?"
PTSD was something I'd dealt with long ago.
The Demon immediately scattered into mist and slipped out of my grip.
-Phew, I'll admit your willpower is excellent. But what can you possibly do all by yourself?
-With even the Saintess unconscious!
The power of the Demon, gripping the Magic Stone as if to crush it, surged.
I roughly gauged its caliber.
A 6th Tier on the verge of the wall.
Definitely not an easy opponent.
"Well, that's true."
In the end, there was only one way to break through.
And I raised my hand forward, just like the Demon gripping the Magic Stone.
-What are you doing? Have you lost your mind?
"It's nothing important. But I do have a bit of a sense of responsibility, you see."
All I did was write a post asking the gallery's understanding.
Title: Notice of Temporary Gallery Closure.
Author: ㅇㅇ(123.123)
The gallery is temporarily closed due to personal circumstances.
Date: Starting now.
[Aaaaaaagh!]
[Abandoning the gallery is not allowed..!]
[Ugh.. Mr. Jjuttakkeu.. I feel sick right now..]
[Dump the gallery? Dump the gallery? Dump the gallery? Dump the gallery? Dump the gallery? Dump the gallery? Dump the gallery?]
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