WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

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Chapter 65: As Expected, It’s Not Here

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I readjusted my grip on my sword and approached the door.

Just as I was about to turn the handle, Alicia stopped me.

"That's far enough."

"..."

"Unfortunately, hostility alone isn't proof that they're cultists. If it were, wouldn't that mean the imperial family was crawling with cultists?"

An Alicia joke.

Uh, well.

I had a lot to say, but decided not to say any of it.

"If we act before they bare their fangs, we'll only prove our own hostility. It'll just send them a signal."

"T-then what should we do...?"

Alicia gestured with her chin toward the mountains beyond the window.

"If they're tigers, then we're dragons."

She wrapped an arm around my neck and began rummaging through my clothes with practiced hands.

"Ah...?! Your Highness! The Main Gods are watching!"

"...What exactly are you doing?"

"Hold still for a moment."

I was startled by the sudden movement, but only for a moment. What she pulled from my pocket was an Antidote Herb I had saved from herbalism class.

"Would a dragon get bitten by a tiger as long as it kept its wits about it?"

The villagers were common believers at most.

We couldn't expect them to possess the martial strength of Maliaas or the bishops.

That was why, in the original game, they tried to poison the protagonist's party during dinner.

Without Ran, who was immune to poison, they had to fight with a poison debuff until the quest was complete.

That was why I had brought the Antidote Herbs with me.

"They aren't strong. If they fought us head-on, they'd certainly lose. If they hold hostile intentions toward us and plan to act on them, they'll inevitably use poison."

She had seen through the trap I had recognized through my knowledge of the original game using nothing but observation and deduction.

"...As expected of the Red Scales."

"Kuhuhuhu. Praise from a junior is especially pleasant. You may praise me more."

"But why did you have to search my pockets? If you'd just told me..."

"I'd rather hear only praise."

After tearing off a root of Antidote Herb and handing it to Mine, I tore off another and offered it to Alicia.

"I'm fine."

"Do you have another Antidote Herb?"

"No."

Alicia answered with a bitter smile.

"There probably aren't many poisons that work on me. Save it, just in case."

The things she must have gone through during the struggle for the imperial throne flashed through my mind.

Attempts to poison her had likely been an everyday occurrence.

When I placed the Antidote Herb in my mouth, its bitter taste spread across my tongue.

Once we had finished preparing, we opened the door and followed the innkeeper downstairs.

Dozens of villagers were already laughing and drinking on the first floor of the inn.

At their center stood an old man with a beard hanging down to his chest.

He was the chief of Ronwood Village.

"These are the mercenaries who recently arrived in our village."

Following the innkeeper's introduction, the chief welcomed us with a genial smile.

"Come, come. Sit over here."

After everyone introduced themselves, the innkeeper led us to the table in the very center.

It was covered in plentiful food we hadn't even ordered.

Before long, the promised local liquor was poured into glasses and placed before us.

An unfamiliar alcohol with a dark crimson color.

The Tartarus Cult's Black Flame was exactly that color.

"Now then, to the mercenaries newly arrived in Ronwood Village!"

At the chief's shout, every villager in the inn raised their glasses at once.

Their gazes were fixed on us.

At Alicia's signal, I lifted my glass of dark crimson liquid.

After the toast, we set down our glasses and began eating.

Even so, I kept watch over the chief and the other villagers.

They still didn't take their eyes off us.

Like wolves waiting for their prey to collapse.

"Hahaha! How is our village's food? Does it suit your tastes?"

"It's excellent. It's among the best food I've had recently."

"The duck is remarkably consistent."

Time passed.

If the food had been laced with deadly poison, we should have shown symptoms by now.

Yet we were perfectly fine.

At last, the smile disappeared from the chief's face.

"...Why are you all unaffected?"

As though his cold voice were a signal, every villager in the inn rose from their seats.

Each of them held a weapon.

In an instant, the inn that had been filled with laughter became thick with killing intent.

Mine and I swallowed the food we had been chewing, then slowly stood.

"Who knows."

Gripping the sword at my waist, I answered the chief.

"Perhaps the poison isn't taking effect because the food tastes too bad."

"...You knew."

"With all that hostility pouring off you, wouldn't it be stranger not to know? Be kinder to your guests in your next life."

At Alicia's mockery, the chief's face twisted with rage.

"Offer those bastards to our god as sacrifices!"

At his shout, every villager in the inn charged at us with their weapons raised.

Every weapon was wreathed in dark crimson Black Flame.

Irrefutable proof that they were cultists.

There was no need to hesitate any longer.

Mine moved before any of them.

She had been ready.

"May the Main Gods pass judgment upon these fools who serve the Evil God!"

A pure white flash filled the room with her prayer.

Holy Enchant was cast upon Alicia's and my weapons.

Swords shining with holy power.

That was our signal.

Without the slightest hesitation, I kicked over the table and charged toward the chief.

I cut down the few cultists blocking my way with Instant Kill and shouted.

"Ally! I need a buff!"

Now that the fight had begun, they would try to notify the branch somehow.

Our plan was to stop every last one of them from escaping, then destroy the branch before the day was over.

For that, Alicia's Fluidity-enhancing buff was essential.

For some reason, though, no buff came to me.

"Kuhuhuhu."

When I turned around, Alicia was sitting on the floor, laughing awkwardly.

"I said earlier that there weren't many poisons that worked on me."

"...You did."

"It seems this is one of the ones that does. It's probably paralysis poison. My body is numb, so I can't move."

"?"

"Ah, I should've taken the Antidote Herb too."

'You're trolling now?'

I was so dumbfounded that I couldn't even speak.

With no other choice, I slung Alicia over my back and swung my sword.

"Argh!"

The cries of dying cultists rang out from all around us, but the situation wasn't good.

Even if Mine held hostility toward followers of the Evil God, I couldn't expect much from her considering what she had shown in the dungeon.

In the end, I was the key to this operation.

Yet at the moment I needed a speed buff, I had ended up carrying a log on my back instead.

"Pick up the pace! Ah, they're getting away!"

"Please stay still!"

"Over there! We need to break through that side first!"

Alicia even started tap dancing atop the log.

'...Should I just throw her away?'

Then the moment finally came.

The cultists had watched their companions die helplessly to Instant Kill, and fear began to fill their eyes.

A few of them turned and began to run.

'We're screwed.'

That was when it happened.

Boom!

A flash erupted from behind me and pierced straight through the back of a fleeing cultist.

It was Mine's Holy Calling.

Five cultists charged toward her at once.

"Rosia, this way!"

I immediately reached out to Mine, but she only shook her head.

At some point, she had taken hold of the Shattering Mace, now imbued with Holy Enchant.

Mine's expression twisted at the demonic energy flowing from the cultists' bodies.

"You blasphemous wretch!"

Crunch!

"Keurgh!"

"...?"

Mine swung her mace and smashed one cultist's skull apart.

The Shattering Mace, which could crush a monster's shell like tofu, had struck a human head.

The girl who had panicked at the sight of a single spider.

The useless Saintess who had recorded zero kills for an entire week.

That same girl had just burst a person's head like a watermelon right in front of me.

What was this?

I wasn't the only one shocked.

The other four cultists charging at Mine, along with Alicia on my back, had frozen in place too.

Mine, on the other hand, showed no sign of agitation.

As she readjusted her grip on the mace, her eyes held only the disgust of someone looking at bugs.

"Who's next?"

Mine's icy voice shattered the cultists' will to fight.

"Y-you...! What are you doing?! Kill them at once!"

Taking advantage of that opening, I kicked off the floor with Alicia still on my back.

Slash!

My sword cut through the air, and the chief's head fell to the ground.

At the same time, Mine crushed the shoulder of a cultist rushing at her with her mace.

A few minutes later, the only ones still moving in the inn were the three of us.

I carefully set Alicia down on the floor.

Then I looked at Mine, who was staring coldly at the corpses.

"..."

There was no remorse or guilt in her eyes.

She had already taken out a Purple Cloud Herb and put it in her mouth, faint smoke rising from her lips.

'She can do that well, yet she couldn't have done it sooner?'

A Saintess who could smash cultists' skulls without batting an eye, but trembled before dungeons and monsters.

This selective dungeon phobia of hers was ridiculous.

Still, something felt off.

Mine in the original game had hated cultists too, but most of that feeling had been pity and sorrow.

This Mine was far too violent.

For some reason, my eyes kept drifting to her Purple Cloud Herb, but we had a more urgent matter to deal with first.

"This side was much more capable than planned, and that side was much more incompetent than planned. Thanks to that, we survived."

"Ally, don't you have any...?"

"Ah. Hesitation only becomes poison. Once you've decided, you must act immediately."

I had meant a conscience.

Unfortunately, there was no time to respond to that nonsense.

Suppressing a sigh, I spoke.

"We don't have time. We need to go to the branch immediately, before word reaches them."

"Yes, we do."

Alicia held out both hands to me.

She wanted me to carry her.

Hmm. As expected, she doesn't have one.

I put Alicia on my back again.

Leaving the bloodstained inn behind, we crossed Ronwood Village beneath the falling darkness and began climbing the mountain path.

Fortunately, I didn't sense anyone following us.

⁎⁎⁎

The Ronwood Branch of the Tartarus Cult was a small villa built halfway up the mountain.

From its appearance alone, no one would have guessed it was a cultist den.

Its interior, however, was completely different from the outside.

The mansion was filled with a dreamlike fragrance so thick that it felt as though one's mind would be emptied if one didn't remain alert.

The reason this ordinary branch had become filled with such a strange scent was that a woman had arrived two weeks ago.

A massive magic circle was carved into the floor.

Around it lay the corpses of imperial soldiers.

They were members of a reconnaissance unit who had discovered the branch's location, observed its movements, and been captured.

What was strange was that every corpse, regardless of sex, was completely naked.

More than that, their faces bore not pain, but the utmost ecstasy in death.

At the center of that grotesque scene was a woman loosely draped in black silk clothing.

Reclining sideways on a long chair, she swirled a glass filled with red liquid.

"Ah, look. Such beautiful expressions."

With a languid hand, she caressed the cheek of the nearest fallen female knight and whispered.

"They have escaped their painful reality and fallen asleep in eternal bliss. This is the greatest mercy and love our cult can bestow."

At that moment, a low-ranking cultist entered the room and reported.

"Fourth Bishop. We've lost contact with the village."

"Oh my. It seems we have guests."

She had been dispatched here under orders from the Cult headquarters not long ago.

The death of the Seventh Bishop, Maliaas Geren, and the clearing of the Temple of Rest.

She had come as a follow-up measure for the consecutive events that were not supposed to have happened yet.

Normally, once a branch's location was discovered, they would erase all traces and flee. This time, the Cult headquarters had made a different choice.

They expected the Empire to send its most renowned sword here to search for the missing soldiers.

Among the Empire's swords, which one had been most effective lately?

None other than the Funeral Sword.

"How fortunate. I can love them here."

A sly, snake-like smile bloomed on the woman's lips.

Her name was Eliver Han.

She was the bishop who had originally managed the Doll Dungeon, a woman commonly called the Lover.

Footnotes:

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