Chapter 43: Unexpected Detour

“Just do your best for now.” Sally shook her head at me, as if lamenting the existence of such an unreliable angel, before retreating to the side to slowly heal Gavin, who was already cured, with water elemental magic.

Several hours had already passed by the time I had systematically treated all dozen or so individuals.

I finally let out a sigh of relief and plopped down onto a chair.

I had taken a few breaks in between, and the situation was actually much better than I had anticipated; I still didn’t feel particularly tired.

It was primarily the repetitive nature of casting the same spell over a dozen times, akin to copying an article more than ten times, that was mentally exhausting.

“Don’t bring any more people. Let the church’s reinforcements handle the rest.”

Seeing Sister Sheila about to approach me again to speak, I quickly stopped her from uttering a word. The families of the other patients had already thanked me and taken their loved ones home, and I feared she might try to foist another dozen people upon me.

“No, it’s not that. It’s already evening, and I wanted to ask if the Angel needs dinner prepared.”

‘Dinner? Is it already that late?’

‘Although the treatment was quite good, and I was indeed a little hungry, I wanted to return sooner. I worried Angelina might be concerned…’

‘Hmph, that one wouldn’t worry about me at all! I suddenly realized how naive I was. If she were truly worried, she wouldn’t have been nowhere to be found yesterday.’

“What about you?”

I turned to look at Sally, intending to ask for her opinion.

“Eat! Why wouldn’t we eat? I’m starving!”

Hearing my question, she stood up and replied, then headed towards the inner room.

“Do you have a place to rest here? I want to get some sleep. Wake me when dinner is ready.”

‘Hey, weren’t we supposed to leave right after finishing the treatments?’ I reached out towards her retreating back…

‘Never mind, it won’t delay us much anyway.’ I could only ask Sheila to quickly prepare the meal, so we could return immediately after eating.

During the lull while dinner was being prepared, I stepped outside alone to get some fresh air.

The streets were still largely deserted, yet I distinctly noticed a peculiar increase in dark elemental energy in the air.

‘What could be happening? Is it because night has fallen? But that shouldn’t be the case.’

I immediately returned to the church, went to a room in the inner quarters, and pulled Sally directly from her bed.

“What are you doing? Can’t I even get some rest?”

Having just fallen asleep and then being abruptly woken, she was clearly annoyed, thinking I was rushing her to leave.

“No, something’s happened.” I took her hand and led her outside. The concentration of dark elemental energy in the air was now noticeably higher than before, and it seemed to be continuously increasing.

“What in the world is this?” Sally’s expression shifted dramatically, as she, too, sensed it.

“Do you feel it? The aura is coming from all directions.”

Extending my wings, I flew high above the town, surveying the surroundings from above. Though the dark mountain forests were indistinct, I detected no movement, suggesting no magical beasts were nearby.

Still uneasy, I specifically flew out and circled the vicinity, yet found nothing amiss.

“This is truly strange.” After hearing my account of what I saw from above, Sally grew increasingly perplexed about what was actually happening.

“The situation is now beyond my sole control. We should hurry back to report to the Bishop and seek further assistance.”

She had no appetite left for dinner, and urged me to prepare for our immediate return.

“People here will soon collapse again; we must buy time.”

After bidding farewell to Sheila and Parish Priest Simon, Sally, just as when we arrived, had me bind her to myself again, and we flew south towards the Royal Capital.

****

It was a cloudy night with little moonlight. Flying high in the sky, apart from the faint silhouettes of mountains, everything on the ground was pitch black and indistinguishable.

“What exactly happened?” Shortly after taking off, Sally and I continuously discussed the mysterious source of the dark elemental energy in the sky, but we couldn’t grasp any definitive answers.

“Even if someone intentionally caused this, where would they acquire such a massive amount of dark elemental energy, and for the sole purpose of polluting an obscure, unknown town?”

“Anyway, once I report back and complete the mission, it will no longer concern me. And this time, I suppose I’ve been a great help, right? Your church hasn’t even shown any gratitude, like rewarding me with some gold coins or something…” Although I found it very strange, I didn’t want to ponder too much about such bizarre matters. My only wish now was to return quickly, so I focused intently on flying forward with all my might.

“Alright, I’ll try my best to apply for it on your behalf.”

Sally’s voice drifted up from below. Since she was bound to me, I couldn’t see her face, but her tone sounded quite impatient, likely because I had mentioned it several times before.

After all, gold coins were very valuable; a single gold coin was worth a staggering 10,000 Thalers.

“It looks like it’s going to rain.”

She observed the surrounding landscape turning hazy, then suddenly warned, though I couldn’t tell if she was intentionally changing the subject. It was only then that I realized we had indeed flown into a very low-lying dark cloud.

“If it rains, your wings will get wet. You should fly a little higher.”

“Alright.” I acknowledged, and immediately flapped my wings, ascending rapidly. Within a few breaths, we burst above the clouds, and in that instant, the view before us became utterly clear. Soft moonlight poured over us, and the entire world suddenly felt hushed and serene.

“How beautiful…”

Sally gazed at the bright moon overhead, uttering a sigh of appreciation.

On the surface of the clouds beneath us, we could even faintly discern our rapidly passing silhouettes.

We both fell silent, seemingly captivated by the beautiful night.

“How much longer? We must be close now, right?”

During the flight, I yawned, confirming that my energy was indeed much lower at night. I thought to myself, then took out my watch and checked it. We had been flying for an hour. We should be arriving soon, so I began to descend.

The clouds remained as thick as ever, showing no sign of dispersing. I could vaguely see numerous flashes of lightning interspersed within them, which made me quite nervous, fearing I might be struck by accident.

Fortunately, our speed was considerable, and we passed through them in no time.

Descending below the clouds, we were fortunate that it wasn’t raining. However, with the moonlight obscured, the ground below was a pitch-black expanse, entirely invisible, with no trace of any lights.

“Don’t you feel like something’s off?”

Sally suddenly sensed something and spoke to me.

“We’ve flown so far, yet the level of dark pollution around us hasn’t decreased. In fact, it seems to have intensified slightly.”

‘Could the area of dark pollution be spreading this rapidly?’

Prompted by her observation, I immediately noticed it too. I carefully scanned our surroundings.

“Strange, how did we fly past it?”

I found that there was nothing visible ahead of us, but behind us, a vast area glimmered with firelight.

“That’s not Navareli, is it?”

Sally heard me and, turning her head, saw it too. However, she immediately realized that the place was entirely different from the city where she had lived for years.

“Those light sources are clearly flames. The Royal Capital adopted magic lamps countless years ago.”

“But it also looks like a town…”

I naturally saw it too. Amidst the light sources, I could discern the silhouettes of many houses, but they were all very low-slung, lacking the towering structures of the Royal Capital.

This struck me as very strange, as I remembered not passing any cities or towns on our way here.

“Did you fly in the wrong direction?”

Sally asked me suspiciously, likely viewing me as inherently unreliable based on her first impression.

“It shouldn’t be.”

I remembered that before we set off, just to be safe, I had specifically taken out a compass to confirm our direction. This was the first time after a mission that I realized it was hard to discern direction in the sky, so I had specially bought it. Angelina and I each possessed one, making it almost impossible to get lost.

Yet, the reality seemed to tell me that we had indeed deviated from our course.

“So what do we do now?”

Forced to hover mid-air, I looked back and forth, torn between continuing south or investigating the city below. “It’s all your fault! You must have flown in the wrong direction. We’ve wasted time reporting back to the Royal Capital, and it’s all your mistake!”

Unable to comprehend the situation, she immediately placed the blame on me. Although I felt wronged, the current circumstances made it difficult to argue. Moreover, if I had truly made a mistake, flying further south would never lead us to the Royal Capital.

“How about we go ask first? If we find out where this place is, we can confirm our location.” I finally made up my mind, descending with her towards the city. “And we can also warn the people inside to be wary of dark elemental pollution.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have agreed to let you be my escort. You can’t even get the way right!”

Along the way, Sally kept grumbling incessantly. The tiny bit of good image I had managed to salvage through the purification spell completely crumbled in her eyes.

However, as we gradually approached our destination and saw the city’s full appearance illuminated by the firelight, both of us felt an even greater sense of unease.

“Hey, are there any towns in the Asante Kingdom that look like this?”

“The more I look, the more it resembles a primitive village surrounded by abatis…”

While it was undoubtedly large, at least half the size of the Royal Capital, the houses within the city looked like they were constructed from thatch, and many roofs were adorned with two enormous, horn-like structures.

Even more terrifying, numerous flagpoles along the city walls displayed strings of round, white objects that looked exactly like… skulls?

“Stop!”

Sally suddenly shrieked, and I felt her body begin to tremble slightly.

“This is a beast… a beastman settlement.”

“Beastmen?”

Upon hearing Sally’s fragmented words, I immediately stopped our advance, turned, and fled, soaring with all my might into the sky.

Unfortunately, we discovered it was too late. We were already quite close, and Sally’s scream had quickly alerted the people—or rather, the beastmen—in the city below.

Behind us, a loud horn blared. I looked back to see the city walls swarming with figures, and in the next moment, several enormous, insect-like magical beasts, flapping wings reminiscent of bees and dragonflies, chased after us through the air.

“What is going on?”

I had no idea what was happening and could only fly forward frantically, but the monsters behind us relentlessly pursued, making it impossible to shake them off.

“Aren’t we in the Asante Kingdom? How did we end up in a beastman city? Does your kingdom even keep beastmen?”

“What do you mean, ‘keep beastmen’!”

Sally spat, not forgetting to retort even in the critical moment of our escape.