Chapter 21: A Timely Interruption

Bel was even more flabbergasted by that attitude.
Seeing him growl as soon as the topic of apostles came up, Lema seemed to have quite a grudge.

“You’ll rob them if they’re apostles?”

“…To be honest, I’m not without a grudge.”

And Lema, while observing them, moved closer, suppressing his presence.

“That direction is definitely towards Lucilonia. Even if not an apostle, they could be priests or knights who follow Luxlon.”

“Hmm.”

Bel hummed a tune of unknown meaning.

“If you rob them, I’ll have to eat a knight or two.”

“…”

Lema stared at her.
The gaze on his cheek was quite persistent.

“Master.”

“Mmm, I’m not supposed to cause a disturbance?”

“You remember what I told you.”

“You say that too much.”

He had been hearing that nagging since he had brought this guy out of the slaver’s den.

Honestly, there was no big reason why Bel had decided to take this guy in.
First, he looked delicious, so she was going to take him around and occasionally snack on him like a packed lunch.

Lema’s opinion—that she shouldn’t stand out before finding the summoner—was quite plausible, though.

It wasn’t that Lema was essential, so it didn’t really matter.
However, there was a slight side effect to taking this guy around.

“I can just erase all the traces like last time.”

“Somehow, it seems like we’re heading towards the conclusion of killing everyone. For now, the goal is to get to Isen without any trouble.”

The unexpected part was that this guy was such a nag, and also stubborn.
She thought he would just tremble in fear like other humans, but that wasn’t the case.

Of course, it was true that he was somewhat afraid.
But Lema was a strange human who could temporarily suppress his fear for the sake of his duty to assist a god.
What’s more, he even seemed to welcome that fear to some extent.

However, it was a bit funny that it led to a conversation like this.

“You said you would rob them too.”

“I said if they were apostles, didn’t I? If I meet an apostle, it’s hard to just let them go.”

Perhaps because he had learned the language incorrectly at first, Lema Valkite often treated her with the tone of teaching a child.
Even though she had no problem understanding, only stumbling a little when speaking the language.

It wasn’t because he was ignoring Bel.
It was because his character was so upright, and that was also peculiar.

“The possibility of them being an apostle seems slim.”

“Really?”

“Yes, they’re not a common resource, so if someone manifests divine power, Lucilonia will call them in and give them a position. Since they’re heading in that direction, it might be the case, but…”

Lema, who was watching Bel’s reaction, cleared his throat once with an “ahem” and then spoke again.

“If there’s a reason to kill them, I will kill them. But for now, we just need to get to Isen, so there seems to be no need for that.”

“Hmm. But I’m starting to need a sacrifice.”

“A sacrifice?”

Bel nodded.
“If there’s no summoner, I’ll need them continuously.”

“…What happens if you run out of sacrifices?”

“I’ll just go around eating anyone.”

The meaning of Bel eating wasn’t just one.
But it was a problem in either sense.

Lema tried to say something, but in the end, he had nothing he could do in this field, so he chose to keep his mouth shut.

So if there’s no sacrifice, there’s a possibility of going on a rampage.

Lema pondered whether what he had seen at the auction house was a rampage or not.
She had suddenly said she couldn’t stand it anymore, broke the equipment, and killed all the men.

Whether that was a rampage, or something else entirely, he didn’t know the exact answer.
However, he knew a way to calm it down.

Either so many people died that the s*ave auction house was annihilated, or she ate one human who met Bel’s standards.

Lema didn’t know the exact criteria in detail.
But Lema knew that he met that criteria to some extent.
Even if he was inferior to the “summoner,” the real suitable sacrifice.

Then it meant that Lema had to be careful not to stand out by killing too many people until they found the real summoner.

In that case, once again, like that time…

Like a holy knight, he was naturally contemplating a solution, then his face turned beet red and he shook his head.
It was the first time he had lost his composure like that.
What’s more, he had lusted after his own supreme god and done such a thing not once, but several times…

Ah, let’s not think about it. Let’s not think about it.

While observing the carriage, Bel and Lema got closer.
It was a woman.
The other humans in knight attire were all women.
Looking more closely, there wasn’t a single man.

Women were the type Bel didn’t eat.

“Phew.”

“You were just relieved, weren’t you?”

“…No.”

Lema was putting on a stern face and pretending to be innocent again.

“Then let’s get closer. Even if we can’t ask for a ride, we can at least ask for directions.”

“Wait a minute.”

At Bel’s words, Lema immediately swallowed his breath.
And he suppressed his presence even more.

There were people approaching the carriage.
A large number of humans were closing in on the carriage, targeting it.

“Do you think they’ve noticed?”

“Perhaps. Seeing as they’re driving the carriage in a hurry, it could be.”

The carriage, which had been stopped for a brief rest, began to move again.

“Uh oh, they’re running away!”

“Get them!”

And as they began to flee, they openly revealed themselves and began to pursue.

“They’re not even trying to hide anymore. Should we follow them?”

“Yes. Let’s go.”

But it wasn’t long before the carriage rattled.
The horses seemed to be flustered as they tried to rush down the mountain path.

“Shoot! If we shoot the horses first, they won’t be able to go any further!”

“The important thing is what’s inside the carriage!”

In the end, the pursuing bandits took the higher ground and shot arrows at the carriage.

Neigh!

The horses pulling the carriage went wild.
It was a precarious mountain path, and the carriage overturned in an instant.

“Ugh!”

“Kyaaak!”

And it was also an instant for the carriage to roll down the mountain path like a cliff.

“My lady!”

“Damn it!”

A few knights tried to stop the carriage from falling and fell with it.

Oh dear.
It’s falling too far down.
Won’t they die if this happens?

In any case, I should go down and check.

“I’ll go first. Follow me right away.”

Bel said briefly to Lema and then jumped down the cliff.

Thud!

As Bel’s feet touched the ground, a heavy sound like an iron ball dropping echoed through the earth.

“Ugh, heuk…”

From inside, a woman’s faint moan, as if she were dying, came out.

A knight was pinned under the carriage, unconscious.
Her head seemed to be broken, and a considerable amount of blood had pooled in that short time.

She wasn’t dead.
Not yet.
But she would be soon.

Next to her, two horses were lying down, foaming at the mouth with broken legs.
Even if they were human, the horses didn’t need to die here.
It would be easy to take and use them.

Bel first approached the horses and grabbed the hind legs that were dangling with shattered bones.

The horses seemed surprised but didn’t kick.
It was partly because they instinctively knew that Bel was not a being to be trifled with, and partly because they quickly noticed that it was a hand showing them mercy.

“You’re a clever one. There. Get up.”

When she patted its forehead to say it was done, she could see it snorting and showing its pleasure.

It didn’t take long to heal the other horse either.

After helping the two horses to their feet, she suddenly felt a gaze and turned around.
She didn’t know when he had come down the cliff, but Lema was staring at her.

“Why?”

“Ah… It’s nothing.”

For some reason, his reaction was a little dazed.

“Lema, it’s only women here.”

“…”

Bel grabbed the moaning woman by the scruff of her neck and lifted her up.

Lema was horrified.
“You shouldn’t treat an injured person like that!”

“Then how should I treat an injured person?”

“First, it would be good to heal them so we can have a conversation.”

“Hmm.”

It wasn’t difficult to heal a human like this.
However, her body was more severely damaged than she thought.
Do people get hurt more severely in a carriage?

There was a reason she had lifted this woman to heal her before the knight with the broken head.
Well, Lema’s words were right too.

After healing the human, Bel casually threw her on the ground, then pulled the knight out from under the carriage and healed her completely.
Her back seemed to have snapped in the process of pulling her out, but she had put it back to normal, so it should be fine.

However, the physical shock was unavoidable, so both of them were unconscious and couldn’t wake up.

After healing two horses and two humans in a row, Bel let out a deep sigh.

“I’m a little tired. I want to eat a man.”

The fallen humans were both women, so they weren’t appealing.

Lema, who had approached, blushed at those words.

“H-here?”

“Yeah, you can give me some.”