Clues (5)
As soon as I entered the back alley, the agent burned the beggars in sight and advanced deeper… The development did not happen.
In the first place, if I really did such a crazy thing, I would have stopped it, but I didn’t see any beggars to burn before that.
“Something is really strange.”
Seeing the slums without a single person, the Knights also pulled out their swords as if they felt something strange.
As I moved a little further inside, strange traces gradually began to stand out.
“This…”
It is a street in a slum that is already messy, but it goes beyond the level of being disorganized and becomes a mess as if something has started a riot.
Bloodstains dripped in large quantities that were clearly recognizable even on a road overflowing with slimy filth.
The agent covered my gaze with his body, as if he had discovered something beyond that.
It wasn’t hard to imagine what was at the end of that bloodstain.
“Rita-sama. It was a sight you would see anyway.”
“It’s not even worth seeing.”
“We have to track and follow such a sight now.”
“…”
I thought it was not wrong, but after thinking about it for a while, the agent stepped back in front of me.
And as I started walking along the bloodstains, I began to see something.
Your eyesight is really good. Did you see this from that distance?
Thinking of such a carefree thought, I tried hard to make up my mind, but the sight in front of me was quite shocking.
Human bodies were scattered here and there like garbage, and even the bodies were not in perfect condition.
As if someone had eaten the corpse and then discarded it, there were plenty of torn marks here and there, and decay was progressing here and there, as if it had been a while since it had become a corpse.
As soon as I began to feel the rotting corpse in earnest, a disgust came over me.
“Whoops!”
The patient I was following took a step back and was gagging.
While the knights frowned and covered their noses, only the agent approached the mess and began examining the strewn corpses.
The spleen is also good.
I was still dizzy from the rotting corpse, but if the agent found out something, I had to find out right from the side, so I put up with a disgusted feeling and approached the agent.
There are things I want to find out.
“You don’t have to come this close.”
“Rita-sama is like that.”
“I’m used to things like this.”
Getting used to this kind of life… not at all pleasant.
Having nothing to say, I decided to look around and satisfy my curiosity.
The corpses didn’t show anything unusual that I see in people these days.
It was natural to not see an aura from a dead person, but it was a bit disappointing not to see any information about that person.
It may not be useful right now, but if information can be extracted from a dead person, it could be useful somewhere.
Swallowing my regret, I turned my gaze back to the agent.
“Did you find out anything?”
“It’s almost certain that this catastrophe happened in the aftermath of the fall. And the orcs must be roaming around.”
“Is this what those mutated orcs caused?”
“That’s right.”
The agent who answered picked up something like a grain of black rice from around the corpse.
“Can you see it?”
Upon closer inspection, what the agent picked up was a dead fly.
“The aura of corruption cannot be endured unless the 4 races receive the grace of the race god. Unless they have received the grace separately, other creatures will slowly die just by being around them.”
Come to think of it, the corpses had decomposed this much, but I couldn’t find any flies flying around them.
“And the fact that the flies that have gathered on these corpses are dead means that there are periodically corrupting beings roaming around here, presumably orcs.”
According to the agent’s words, the existence of the orc group seemed to be a definite fact.
By the way, such a fraudulent effect. At this level, the holy energy should be revived just by being exposed to it, so the balance is right.
…what?
While complaining about the fraudulent nature of corruption, I was overcome with a puzzled feeling at the agent’s words.
If it’s because of the tribal god that I can withstand corruption, well, even if I’m fine because of the unidentified god’s protection, shouldn’t humans be immune to the energy of corruption in this situation where Orion has ＜apart＞ no matter how I think about it?
For a moment, I turned my attention to the knights and the patient who was retching.
There was no sign that they suddenly died or anything unusual happened.
Orion This man is saying that he is in the same place.
“Once the case is resolved, extensive incineration and purification will be required.”
After digging through the corpse for a while, the agent said so and stood up.
“Can’t we just proceed as we do?”
When I asked this out of pure curiosity, the agent hesitated for a moment before answering.
“If you want to proceed with the incineration operation, you do not know what will happen due to the nature of this area with a lot of flammable materials.
“hmm…”
“I fully understand the intentions, but we do not have the time or money to treat the lion with respect.”
No, that’s not what I meant.
I didn’t want to do purification and incineration work to have respect for the lion, I just didn’t want to leave any elements that could be a sequel.
What if we left it behind and suddenly the corpses suddenly rise up and attack us?
It seems difficult to see that the agent, who is supposed to be an expert in this field, does not think of such a possibility.
Still, wouldn’t it be better to be sure?
The intention of stockpiling divine power was certainly a reasonable argument, but the image of a ‘flame that only burns targets’ that I could think of was so clear that I didn’t think that more than necessary sacred power would be wasted.
It would be easier to just show it than to explain it to everyone.
Forgiveness is easier than permission.
Having come to a conclusion, I began to raise my divine power.
“What are you doing?”
As soon as the agent questioned, white flames began to burn on the scattered corpse fragments.
“Oops, no sparks! How far will the flames spread…?”
Confused and trying to stop me, the agent couldn’t finish what he was trying to say and started looking around.
Both the knights and the patient, who had a haggard face until now, all stared at the burning flames with their eyes wide open.
“Can this be…a sacred fire…?”
It doesn’t deserve such a great name.
Of course, I also borrowed the basic frame from the image of a sacred fire that sticks to the evil things and doesn’t go out until all the evil things are burned and doesn’t cause damage to the surroundings, but I don’t know if it will be completed even if I hit all the holy power that is there.
It’s not appropriate for this situation. Can a corpse be called evil? In the first place, who sets the standard for ‘evil’?
It’s just a normal flame, except it burns what it’s meant to burn and goes out without attaching.
After all, there was no difference in difficulty from scattering divine feathers with a healing effect.
As the flames flared up and the corpses around them disappeared cleanly, the agent looked at me with an expression of disbelief.
“This is…wonderful.”
It’s a bit embarrassing to react that way.
“Are you feeling okay? Are you overdoing it?”
“I’m fine. This isn’t something grandiose like the sacred fire Rita-sama said.”
“The flame that burns only what you want according to the will of the caster is not a sacred fire.”
It’s not like a flame that can be adjusted according to my will. After burning what I originally wanted to burn, it disappears, and if I change my mind in the middle, the burning one doesn’t burn. In the first place, there’s nothing special about the flame, so it might go out if you spray water on it.
As I opened my mouth to explain these misunderstandings, I suddenly had an idea.
…But do I have to clear up the misunderstanding?
The more I thought about it, the more I began to think that it wouldn’t be bad if they misunderstood me.
It’s not just one or two images of me that I’ve uploaded so far, but now it’s like this.
In the end, instead of an explanation, I gave him a faint smile that I was used to.
Seeing my smile, the agent carefully stretched out his trembling hand, and the next moment, as if he noticed something, he turned his head in a certain direction, raised both hands, and began to take a guarded posture.
“Rita?”
“The flames seem to have stirred up the orcs. They’re coming this way.”
Will we finally see the orcs in person?
Nervous, I applied buffs to the agents and knights to preserve the manpower who would fight for my safety, to be exact.
Please take good care of me. By the way, this guy’s buff is still ineffective.
While I was regretting the loss of divine power that was incomparable to the flames earlier, I felt the agent staring at me with surprised eyes.
Why again?
“How can a servant give grace to another priest…?”
what else do you mean
“I’ll take care of those orcs and ask them.”
The agent, who was about to ask something more, began to entwine a halo of light in his hand, and took a combat stance again.
And soon, strange monsters began to appear here and there, breaking the cluttered boards with a roar.
“Heeik…! What the hell is that!”
At first glance, he looks like an orc.
The agent said with a frown that he was thinking that while staring at the green-skinned monsters that looked like pigs.
“There are more orcs than I thought. It seems that all the orcs in this area have gathered. It will be difficult to avoid the siege.”
As he said, Orcs were showing up from all sides.
It was quite a terrifying sight, but oddly enough, I was less nervous than when I was looking at the pile of corpses.
Maybe it’s because it’s more like a fantasy.
“You guys should concentrate on escorting as much as possible. In case of emergency, you may leave the battlefield. I will organize and follow you.”
Just looking at what he said, it seemed that the number of orcs was not the problem, but that he was worried that I would get hurt by the sword blinded by the siege.
Then there is another way.
Again, I raised my divine power and began to spread the divine curtain around us.
It would have been best to create a shield that could pass through from the inside and not pass from the outside, but since it consumed quite a bit of divine power, he created a shield-like shield with gaps in between.
As the party panicked at the sudden appearance of the curtain, I exhaled and said,
“I made it up. In this way, I don’t have to worry about being surrounded, and I just have to deal with the approaching orcs, wouldn’t it?”
The agent wanted to knock on the tent to check the robbery, then turned his gaze to me and asked.
“How long can you keep this holy magic?”
“Uh… I think I can do it all day…?”
It was just a solid curtain without a single special function. As long as there was no shock beyond imagination, the rate at which the divine power filled up was faster than the rate at which it was worn out.
“…That was a stupid question. At least it makes sense.”
After answering that question, the agent warmed up and asked again while looking at the orcs who were now close by.
“Could you close all the gaps in this barrier?”
“It’s possible, but then we can’t attack, can’t we?”
“You don’t have to worry about that. When I go out, please fill in the gaps.”
what?
The agent who didn’t even give me time to answer and went out through the cracks in the wall I’ve worked so hard to build.
Did I get angry because I kept acting out of my own way?
For now, the barrier is changed into a tightly closed form without any gaps, but if the agent is injured, the barrier is released and ready to support.
And none of my worries were useless.
