Chapter 87 |
In the instructor’s lodge, the meeting room... it could also be called the observation room, as there were a total of 128 communication crystals installed here.
In addition to observing the every move of every young hero, this setup allowed the instructors to quickly respond if a strong monster came too close to the training camp.
Usually, only three or four people tasked with observation were on standby here, but because the special test had been ongoing, most of the instructors were present.
A few people were openly sleeping in the room, so the meeting room became a lively place.
There were about twenty instructors in the meeting room.
...Hm?
Among them, the first person to notice that something was off was the Instructor of Survival, Soimond.
Of the 128 communications crystals, only 28 were observing the campgrounds.
The remaining 100 were installed in many places in a 10-kilometer radius around the camp.
“That’s...”
One of the communication crystals seemed to be in poor condition.
After blinking sporadically for a few moments, the crystal went completely black.
Since the crystal was in one of the corners, the other instructors didn’t realize immediately, and Soimond didn’t think much of it.
The Forest of the Butterfly was a mystical place. The flow of mana around the area itself was quite special, and the many divine artifacts and magic items set up in the area complicated the flow even more.
As a result, it was somewhat normal for a communication crystal to go offline.
Soimond noticed that something was wrong when five more communications crystals went black.
At that point, the other instructors also noticed the situation.
“What’s with the crystals?”
“Isn’t today the full moon? Magic items often malfunction at this time.”
“Even so, aren’t too many of them malfunctioning?”
“It’s probably not anything serious.”
After he said that, twenty more communication crystals went offline, and that feeling disappeared completely.
Even the relaxed instructors realized that something was going on.
“...I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Is one of the young heroes destroying the communication crystals?”
“It should be quite difficult for someone of their level to discover the hidden crystals...”
“But this can’t be explained away as an accident.”
At that, the knights went out.
“We will take a look around the area. Where’s the nearest crystal?”
“It’s in Area A-3... but will it be okay?”
“Of course. We’ll return within 30 minutes.”
The knight didn’t return even after an hour had passed.
By then, over half of the communication crystals had turned black.
I have a bad feeling about this.
Alongside the uneasiness he felt, Soimond also felt an inexplicable sense of wrongness. The one who should be the loudest in an emergency like this was nowhere to be seen.
“...Did anyone see where Instructor Juan went?”
“The Instructor of Martial Arts? I didn’t.”
“Me neither.”
“I think I saw him leave the meeting room some time ago.”
Soimond turned to the one who had said that.
“When was that?”
“I don’t really...”
This was why he felt that something was off.
Looking around closely, it wasn’t just the Instructor of Martial Arts who was missing. Several grand masters weren’t present.
Notably, it was the grand masters who had been supporting the Instructor of Martial Arts more than normal recently.
“...”
As Soimond’s sense of unease grew, he stood up and left the meeting room.
...More accurately, he tried to leave.
“I am here.”
Juan revealed himself at the entrance to the meeting room.
“...”
“...”
Usually, a lot of people gathered around Juan whenever he appeared, but that wasn’t the case this time.
Rather, silence filled the room.
Juan was covered head to toe in blood.
Those with good eyesight noticed that the blood wasn’t his.
“...Instructor Juan, where and what have you been doing?”
Juan took off his outer clothes covered in blood.
“You sent the knights into the forest, right?”
“We did.”
“I came back after killing them.”
“What...?”
At that moment, someone lept from between the instructors like a spring.
It was a quick and fierce movement reminiscent of a wild beast.
Tanko...!
However, the moment the Instructor of the Hunt’s body reached Juan, he stopped in midair.
“...!”
It looked as if he’d been grabbed by something invisible.
Tanko swung his fist to attack something but only hit empty air.
“Please stay still, Instructor of the Hunt. You don’t want to die yet.”
“...What did you do?”
“I haven’t done anything yet. You are an important sacrifice as well. Of course, if you annoy me any further, I may have no choice but to—”
Tanko kicked.
However, before his foot could reach Juan’s face, a loud sound rang out as Tanko’s body was slammed into the wall.
“I told you to stay still.”
“Instructor Tanko!”
* * * * *
* * * * *
Soimond hurriedly ran to Tanko, and his expression quickly solidified.
Tanko was dead.
“H-how can this be...”
Despite being a great warrior of the plains and a grand master, Tanko had died in a single strike.
“What do you think you are doing!”
“Instructor, did you know? Just one century ago, doctors didn’t even know that people’s blood had different types. They didn’t know that different types of blood mixing together would kill their patients, so they allowed all sorts of transfusions. Do you know how many people died because of that ignorance?”
Soimond felt fear toward Juan even as he asked, “What... what are you talking about?”
“Ignorance leads to tragedy. That is why Instructor Tanko died. He didn’t know an obvious truth, that attacking the high priest during the ritual would be met with death.”
“Ritual?”
A few people forced a smile.
“Y-your joke is going too far, Instructor of Martial Arts...”
“Haha. So you still think that I’m joking.”
“What is this if it isn’t a joke! Y-you killed Instructor Tanko just like that... Something is wrong!”
Juan laughed silently.
“There’s nothing wrong here. Everyone, this is the pinnacle of what it means to be Bednicker.”
Only then did Soimond realize the situation.
The identity of the person in front of him was clear.
“You dare say the name ‘Bednicker’ with that disgusting mouth...”
“Why shouldn't I? I am talking about one of the laws of Bednicker.”
“Which law?”
“The law of Strength.”
Juan opened his arms wide.
Black liquid started erupting from the ground and began consuming the instructors and knights in the room.
“Wh-what is this...!”
“Don’t panic! Take formation!”
“Our a-attacks aren’t working!”
The viscous liquid that moved like it was alive seemed immune to weapons, magic, and even blessings.
The liquid ignored all the instructors’ attacks as it approached and devoured them.
The instructors didn’t give up even when their entire bodies were covered in the liquid, but they only looked like animals who were struggling in vain after being caught in a trap.
The liquid settled down after consuming all the instructors in the meeting room.
“...The God of Disaster shall soon descend here, a being much stronger than House Bednicker’s Lord of Blood and Iron. That is why it is only right that we bow to him.”
...
“Is anyone having trouble following what I said?”
No one was left behind to answer Juan’s question.
***
“...”
“...”
The recording ended.
We stood there silently for a short while.
The video had simply and unexpectedly given us the true identity of the High Priest.
“The Instructor of Martial Arts was the traitor... This was beyond my expectations,” Charon mumbled to himself.
It seemed that was the case for him.
But it wasn’t that unexpected to me.
For some reason, from the very beginning, I’d had a weird dislike for Juan, the Instructor of Martial Arts.
I believed that those who went around laughing when things weren’t funny were very likely twisted on the inside.
“Was that the end of the recording?”
“It looks like it.”
We didn’t know where Juan had gone after this or what had happened to the other instructors.
However, Charon and I naturally turned back to start walking to the upper floors.
“...Wait,” Charon said. “The presence is starting to move.”
“What? Is it trying to run away?”
“No, it’s coming this way. At an unbelievable speed. It’s already—”
Step.
We heard a step outside the door.
I covered my fist with fire ki, and Charon lowered his stance slightly.
Creak.
The door to the meeting room opened.
“What the... You kids are still alive?”
It was a woman with a bored expression.
She had a familiar face and wore a sister’s habit.
One of the grand masters, the Instructor of Doctrine, Juniang.
“...”
“...”
Of course, Charon and I didn’t lower our guard.
We couldn’t know if this woman was our ally or an enemy.
While we were contemplating this, Junaing said in a dejected voice, “I thought reinforcements from Bednicker had arrived...”
“...”
Charon glanced at me, and I nodded.
We lowered our stances as we asked, “Instructor Juniang, what happened here?”
“Instructor? In this situation? Just call me Juniang... By the way, do you kids have a cigarette on you?”
“...”
Could priests smoke?
I didn’t know much about the customs of the Church of the Sun.
In any case, seeing how she was asking a young hero for a cigarette, she didn’t seem to be of sane mind.
“We don’t.”
“Really? That’s a shame.”
“What really Instructor happened here? We only saw that Juan revealed his true self and did... that to the Instructor of the Hunt.”
“You saw? Ah, you used the communication crystal. Quite smart.”
After saying that in a quiet voice, Juniang nodded to herself before sitting down on one of the bloody chairs.
“He already left. I was doing something out in the forest. Thanks to that, I survived.”
“Did the high priest not notice you?”
“Avoiding demons is my specialty.”
“...”
I knew that Juniang was a heretic inquisitor of the church.
She would be even better at fighting demons than Tanko.
“Do you know where the high priest went?”
“He’ll probably go toward the altar. It’s one of the tools necessary to summon the demon lord.”
Altar.
When I heard that, I thought about Sellen.
If Juan knew the location of the forgotten god’s altar... he could carry out the demon lord's summoning ritual there.
“Is it just the two of you?”
Charon responded, “There are a few more outside.”
“Really? Is Evan Helvin with you as well?”
“Yes.”
I looked at Juniang again.
She still had that bored expression from which I couldn’t feel any amount of faith...
“Instructor.”
“I told you to call me Juniang.”
“Could I request a reading of a few lines of your church’s scripture?”
“So suddenly? Right now?”
While Charon was looking at me like I was crazy, I nodded.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“We saw a demon on our way here, and I got really scared. I know that as a young, it’s shameful, but the fear consumed my body. I think I’ll be able to recover my courage if I hear a few lines of scripture from the instructor who is a true believer.”
Juniang looked at me as if I was bothering her.
“Hmm... doing it so suddenly is a bit... And the location is a bit off as well,” she said, looking around the bloody meeting room.
I brought my hands together.
“Even more so because we’re in this room. And I don’t think you’ve laid them to rest yet either.”
“Hmm...”
“Or instructor, do you—as a heretic inquisitor—not even know the scripture?”
“...”
Only now did Charon seem to realize the situation as he looked at Juniang with a hardened expression.
