CH 379

“Well, it’s not a good idea to use Qliphoth to get into town, ‘Return’.”

“Guuooooooohhh ……”

After leaving the village of Gariada, Aiatsubus was approaching the town of Yark. She put the Qliphoth back in the seed, hold Dasha in her arms, and mutter to herself as she look toward the city.

“What should we do with this child? I could just leave her here, but ……”

She thought about it for a while, then smiled wickedly and started walking toward the town.

“I guess it’s better to take her with me as I go, since they will probably be chasing me anyway. If it comes to it, I can use her as a shield. If they don’t come after us …… I can take her back and make her a believer of the Gospel’s Descent. It’s easy to brainwash children, after all. But still, that damned Treant …… how dare it put a hole in my chest ……!”

Aiatsubus, who has decided to keep Dasha at hand because she will not be at a disadvantage, looks at the wounds inflicted by Sephiro and spits. As she proceeded to hide her slightly leaking haze, she eventually arrived at the town, where she was stopped and spoken to by the gatekeeper.

“…… A monk …… no, a priest, perhaps? Did you walk through the wilderness with no horse and no gear like that?”

“Yes. this is also god’s trial, so it’s no hardship.”

“It’s not surprising that a pretty girl like you would be attacked by a thief, but I’m glad you’re okay. That girl is?”

As the gatekeeper was about to invite her in, he spotted Dasha at her back and asked, to which Aiatsubus replied with a laugh.

“She is my apprentice. I’ve been gathering followers all over the world, and this time I’ve taken in a child without parents.”

“Oh, that’s great ……!?”

When the gatekeeper looked into the child’s face, he looked shocked and clammed up.

“What is it?”

“N-No, it’s nothing …… So that child doesn’t have any parents ……”

“I guess so. Well, I’m tired from a long trip, so I’ll leave you to it.”

“…… Yeah.”

Aiatsubus walked straight into the town and threw herself into the crowd. At a distance, the gatekeeper, who had been asking questions, called out to the other fellow.

“Did you see it?”

“Yes. That was Dasha, wasn’t it? So that’s the one Quela was talking about, the one DIbit-san’s people are after …… Okay, I’m going after her. I’m guessing she’s going to an inn, but I’m going to go straight to Quela’s place after I confirm where she’s staying. You take care of this.”

“Okay. Be careful.”

◆ 　 ◇ 　 ◆

“So, the person Quela mentioned is at the inn. She’s got Dasha with her, so I’m sure of it.”

“Good work, thank you for your help. It seems that’s the case, but what will you do?.”

After listening to the gatekeeper, Quela-san turns to us and asks us. I’d like to go attack her and rescue Dasha quickly, but I raised my hand and replied.

“The battle here is likely to cause damage to the town, so it would be helpful if you could keep an eye on things. Have you heard anything about her going somewhere?”

I put my hand on my chin and opened my mouth to ask the gatekeeper.

“The owner of the inn casually asked where she was going. She said she’s going to the castle on Sandiola tomorrow.”

“So there’s a good chance that Darva will be nearby. I guess I can go to the castle ahead first. Since he hasn’t caused any trouble yet.”

“Let’s see, Dibit-san will go to the castle ahead of us, and we’ll follow Aiatsubus. We’ll attack once we’re outside the city.”

Both DIbit-san and Fath-san suggested it, and I nodded in agreement. I nodded and agreed. At the time we actually confront them, I told them to make her look at Fath-san and Makina and I would use levitation to secure Dasha from above.

“Leave it to me. If she tries to kill Dasha-chan, I’m going to jump on her.”

“Please. Sephiro, if Qliphoth shows up like last time, move while aiming on her back. Since you’re small, Qliphoth will make a good wall.”

“!”

“Kuoon!”

“Ash, stay in the back of the carriage, okay? You can’t fight yet, after all.”

“Kuoon ……”

“Grruuu ……”

When he showed my motivation and said that to Ash standing on two legs, he was disappointed and weakly made a whimper. And then Radia came in and comforted him by licking his face, which was hilarious. 

“Schneider, please distract them too. You’re the fastest one in this room, even if everyone here is added together, after all.”

“Woof!!”

“Good luck, Schneider. Then we have to get ready to move! Don’t worry, I can fight to not get [unstable].”

As Makina bumps her arms with enthusiasm, we get ready, and the gatekeeper leaves, saying he’ll contact us when he knows more.

Aiatsubus, according to Sephiro, she says that she “shouldn’t exist”. After waking up from Sephiro’s dream, I and Makina, who had remembered what we had talked about in the dream, are discussing how to defeat Aiatsubus.

Either way, I was bracing myself for tomorrow, but things were going badly.

That night, as we were going to bed to prepare for tomorrow, we were awakened by the sound of someone hurriedly banging on the door and shouting.

“T-There’s a problem! The castle, the castle is turning red!’

“What did you say ……!?”

“What is it ……?”

We followed Quela out into the dark town and noticed that only one direction was strangely bright.

“The castle is …… on fire ……!?”

“Damn it, Darva, you’ve finally done it! Hey, Lars, I’m going to the castle. I’ll leave you in charge of Aiatsubus!”

“Oh, wait a minute, Dibit-san!”

Before I could stop him, Dibit-san disappeared from the scene. I’m sure he’s been there once before, so he must have used transfer magic to get to the castle. Normally, there is nothing to worry about ……

“I’m sure his magic hasn’t fully recovered yet, is he going to be okay?”

“What, It’s not as if he went without thinking. More importantly, at this rate–“

Just as Fath-san said that, another man came running in.

“Quela! The girl in the priest’s uniform that I was watching has left town, she left by walking but I lost her right away, I’m sorry.”

“Well, don’t worry about it, because that’s what happens when you get a Qliphoth in the dark of night. Lars, the plan got mixed up for a little bit, but it doesn’t change what we have to do, let’s go follow her.”

“Yeah!”

We got into the carriage and rode out into the wilderness at night!

I skipped a letter twice because of my keyboard ……

Thank you for reading!

[Afterword Theater]

“One step closer to meeting Helena and Retzel!”

Now then, what will happen? First up is Reiss ……!