Chapter 7: The Beast Of Disaster

Watching Aria lightly break through the wall, I was surprised by her monstrous strength, but at the same time, I also felt a sense of relief.

‘···Is she escaping because of the guards?’

It seemed like Aria could easily handle a few guards, but perhaps due to her status as a saintess, she appeared to be quite cautious.

‘Is there a reason she needs to maintain her status as a saintess?’

Aria, who seemed simply mad, also appeared to have some principles of action and ‘boundaries’.

‘She seems to have already fallen, but it’s still a bit different from the original.’

In the original story, after her fall, Aria becomes so lost in slaughter that she loses her reason.

Normally, even ‘having a normal conversation’ would be impossible.

Unless ‘someone’ forcibly suppressed her madness.

‘···There probably isn’t anyone who can do that.’

In the original, she was a character who even blasphemed gods, so even gods couldn’t quell Aria’s madness.

There were other things that came to mind, but for now, escaping was urgent.

‘The entrance or exit is probably swarming with guards by now, so is this the only way out?’

Right, the hole Aria broke through.

It was just big enough for one person to barely pass through.

Just as I was about to move to escape.

Suddenly, an ominous thought came to mind.

‘No way, she’s not waiting outside, is she?’

It might be overly cautious, but could Aria possibly be ‘pretending’ to leave and waiting in front?

–Damn it. The bastards who caused trouble must have already escaped by now. Why is everyone making such a fuss?

–I know, right? Well, if the higher-ups tell us to jump, we jump.

“Damn.”

The sound of footsteps is getting closer.

It seems there’s no time to hesitate.

I hurriedly threw away the fox mask I was holding and squeezed myself into the hole Aria had made.

As soon as I got out, I surveyed the surroundings, but thankfully, there was no one outside the wall.

“Phew.”

Sighing in relief, I headed towards the Varhen family’s castle.

Drip-

On the way.

Blood I hadn’t managed to spit out flowed from my mouth.

‘Hiss. Did I bite too hard?’

Perhaps because I used too much force back then, the bleeding still hadn’t stopped.

‘Isn’t this… a little dangerous?’

I should be careful about excessive bleeding…

I had overcome crises before, but I couldn’t die futilely from bleeding.

‘For now, I need to hurry back and at least apply pressure with a cloth.’

As I quickened my pace with the thought of returning quickly.

The ‘Dagger of Distortion’ I was holding began to twitch and move slightly.

‘Huh? What’s this?’

***

I can smell blood.

It’s ‘his’ scent.

The woman, with her empty, purplish eyes, communed with her divine artifact.

In the current world, divine intervention is limited due to the law of causality, but it was different if there was a divine artifact.

If he was in contact with the divine artifact, she could pull him into her domain at any time.

Light began to grow in her empty eyes.

A feeling of ecstasy and pleasure she hadn’t felt in almost tens of thousands of years.

His body and soul.

The result of her summoning the divine artifact to take all of him.

“???”

No one was summoned.

Only the abandoned dagger lay there forlornly.

She was flustered by this futile result, but nothing changed.

***

Having returned safely to the castle, I bit down on a cloth with a slightly uneasy feeling.

‘I threw it in the sewer just in case, but it should be fine, right?’

The Dagger of Distortion was, in the first place, a dagger imbued with the aura of an evil god.

Originally, I was going to keep it thinking it might be useful later, but as soon as the dagger started trembling ominously, I threw it into a nearby sewer.

‘There’s no harm in being careful.’

Just like with Aria before, the current ‘original story’ should only be used as a reference; I couldn’t trust it completely.

There might be side effects not indicated in the original, and above all, my ‘hunch’ was too bad.

Strangely, ever since I came to this world, my hunches had been excessively sensitive.

‘Is it just a gut feeling derived from survival instincts?’

I wondered if it developed because I had experienced so many crises.

‘More importantly, the crucial thing is probably the origin of all this.’

Philia demanded to break her engagement with the protagonist she liked, and Aria, who should have been helpless, instead killed the assassin.

Seeing their actions, which were the complete opposite of the original story, I could finally realize the true nature of the incongruity I had felt until now.

“Ian.”

Now, I could no longer deny that possibility.

“Ian…?”

It’s hard to believe, but the current ‘me’ is…

“Ian!”

Someone called me strongly.

Judging by the shrill voice, I thought it might be Lucy and turned my head to the side.

“Lucy. Why are you yelling like that… Ah, Young Lady?”

Philia was staring at me with a cold face.

“I apologize, Young Lady. I was lost in thought for a moment.”

As I hurriedly made an excuse, she questioned me as if angry.

“…What happened to you?”

My current appearance was with a blood-soaked cloth in my mouth and my hair somewhat disheveled.

‘Hmm, it’s not exactly normal.’

“Ah, I fell while working and got a little hurt. Haha.”

As I tried to laugh it off as nothing, Philia suddenly grabbed me by the collar.

“…Young Lady?”

As I was flustered by the sudden closeness.

Philia, seeing the clear handprint on my neck, muttered lowly.

“Your neck too. Who did that?”

At this point, it felt like something would happen if I didn’t speak properly.

But I couldn’t honestly say that the saintess did this, so I made up a suitable excuse.

“Well… actually, I went out for a bit today and got mugged by some neighborhood thugs. They were choking me and demanding money, so I just gave it to them obediently.

It was really terrifying. But I reported it to the patrol, so it should be resolved well.”

Was it because of the experience from the confrontation with Aria?

I had somehow become a skilled liar.

‘I feel like the boy who cried wolf.’

Well, in a big city like Katalvel, there were quite a few thugs and underground organizations, so it was something that could plausibly happen.

Philia, who was listening to me, said nothing and just stared intently at my neck.

“You don’t have to worry too much. I will make sure it doesn’t interfere with my duties.”

“……”

What should I say?

This was the first time I had seen such an expression on Philia.

It wasn’t just a cold expression, but an expression as if ‘any’ emotion had truly disappeared.

In a way, it was a scarier expression than Aria’s crazed look.

Less human, more like something inhuman…

“…Ian. Be careful next time. Your body isn’t just yours.”

“Understood.”

‘Does she mean it belongs to the Varhen family?’

Well, even if a servant wasn’t a s*ave, broadly speaking, it could be considered the property of the Varhen family, so it wasn’t wrong.

Philia looked at me with an unreadable expression, then gently caressed my neck and left.

‘What was that?’

It might have been a misunderstanding, but the expression Philia made at the end was definitely…

Before I could get lost in thought, I first felt something strange in my body.

“…Strange. The pain is already gone?”

The stinging pain in my mouth disappeared in an instant.

Besides that, even the minor aches and pains in my body vanished as if washed away.

***

Philia, who had used high-level healing magic on Ian, left the castle and slowly headed towards the back alleys.

Originally, she was confined and unable to go out, but with simple cognitive manipulation magic, she could leave the castle without anyone knowing.

Of course, it was simple magic only at Philia’s current ‘level’; ordinary people couldn’t learn it even if they spent their entire lives trying.

When Philia first saw Ian’s injuries, the ‘demon’ inside her unexpectedly almost burst out.

Naturally, the moment the demon inside her emerged.

The city would be destroyed, and even Ian would be affected, so Philia desperately suppressed it.

She didn’t care about the lives of the people nearby.

Only concerned for Ian’s safety, she planned to refrain from using her power as much as possible until he became stronger.

The deeper one went into Katalvel’s back alleys, the gloomier it became.

At first, there were beggars sitting around and begging, but the further in one went, the more it was filled with an eerie silence.

Of course, nothing could naturally block Philia’s path.

Organizations operating in the shadows of the back alleys and cultist groups rampant with fanaticism, etc.

Seeing various groups, she passed by without a word.

Eliminating those who dared to harm Ian was too simple for her.

Of course, since she didn’t know exactly ‘who’ had harmed him, she decided to just kill them all.

A minuscule fraction of her power.

Releasing only an extremely small amount of power, she scattered ‘seeds’ throughout the back alleys.

“Grow up strong.”

The next day.

Red spider lilies bloomed profusely in the back alleys of Katalvel.

***

Rumble-

A storm approaches with thunder.

It was too enormous to be a mere living creature.

A colossal body, large enough to occupy half of the Western Continent.

The granddaughter of thunder, and the ascetic burdened with the curse of gluttony.

The beast that calls forth disaster.

Behemoth.

In front of the magnificent giant, the man let out a hollow laugh and raised his sword.