Chapter 91: When the Flower of Sin Blooms (Four)
“Yes.”
Sword Demon Miss seemed to pause for a moment before catching up, “There’s a knight’s corpse.”
“…Huh?”
I suddenly stopped in my tracks.
My brain processed this, then I quickly turned around, “A knight? Fresh?”
Fresh…
That word popped into my head and tumbled out of my mouth, and as soon as I said it, I thought it sounded a bit off, but I didn’t have the energy to correct myself. When I turned back, I saw Sword Demon Miss’s expression, calm yet somewhat nonchalant, as she nodded at me, “Yeah, just died not long ago. Still warm.”
So that’s what those folks who got here before us were up to…
“Where? Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
“…Over there.”
Sword Demon Miss blinked with an adorably foolish expression and pointed backward, “One is dead, throat slit by a blade.”
I glanced in the direction she pointed.
It was about to the left side of the garden’s center, behind a flowerbed. I could vaguely see several dried-up corpses that looked like they had been cleaned up by those who came after—probably the knights, moving them out of the way and piling them up on the side of the flowerbed, a location not particularly noticeable…
I guess that was why I hadn’t noticed them before.
In any case, among those corpses, there was one that wasn’t charred; it was wearing armor, and the armor still had visible bloodstains. At that moment, it was piled on top of those dried-up corpses, and through the garden’s sparse light, the reflection from the armor was quite eye-catching.
…Throat slit by a blade?
I shot a look at Sword Demon Miss and hurried towards that way.
When I got close to the pile of corpses, I caught the faint, putrid stench mixed with the smell of bl**d. Getting nearer, I could finally make out the face of that knight’s corpse.
Indeed a “fresh” one…
He looked to be between thirty and forty, lying on his back twisted atop a charred body, mouth slightly open, eyes wide in disbelief—just like that, he was gone…
His throat had been cut open; the wound was gruesome and bloody.
“He was taken out by his own people.”
Sword Demon Miss returned and said, “With a longsword or a dagger, a surprise attack from behind, a one-hit k*ll.”
“…Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?” I asked again.
Maybe it was just me being in a bad mood…
Even I could detect a hint of complaint in my own tone.
“I forgot.”
Sword Demon Miss replied, then paused as if considering her words: “While I was checking, I heard your scream…”
She hesitated, not continuing her sentence.
“Forget it…”
I waved my hand irritably, suddenly not wanting to continue this topic.
Furrowing my brows, I stepped forward and bent down near the corpse, pinching my nose to take a better look. Just as Sword Demon Miss had said, this knight had indeed been killed with a single stroke through the throat; besides that, there were no other injuries. The armor gleamed brightly, remarkably well maintained, almost no scratches to be seen, indicating he hadn’t resisted before he died.
A surprise attack…
But why?
“How are you so sure he was taken out by his own?” I turned to ask her.
She thought for a moment, replied earnestly: “Footprints.”
“…Footprints?”
Oh…
There were indeed a lot of messily scattered footprints around here.
I hadn’t noticed them at all…
“When I entered the garden, I carefully examined the footprints on the ground.”
Sword Demon Miss continued, “Those knights came in through the side door. The side door leads to somewhere still ahead. They probably turned back to come here, but not everyone—only about six. After arriving here, they had a quarrel…”
“Wait.”
I couldn’t help but straighten up, interrupting her: “You could tell they had a quarrel? From the footprints?”
“Mm.”
As I cast a skeptical look, I saw Sword Demon Miss nodding firmly: “When they were arguing, the footprints stopped and were chaotic, right over there—”
She said, raising her torch and pointing to the center of the garden not far away: “I checked it out earlier; the argument happened there, and the fighting was just a bit away.”
Following her gesture, I saw nothing but the same mess of gray earth, no different from other areas with footprints, and since we had walked over it, nothing was discernible—at least, I really couldn’t see anything at all.
Sword Demon Miss…
“They quarreled first, then turned back, and probably that’s when someone made a move.”
She started again: “Drew their sword, killed in one go. The man knelt down, bl**d slowly pouring from his throat… there are fresh bloodstains there as well, but mixed in with the older bl**d and guts, it’s hard to tell; you can only smell it.”
“…Oh.”
Even if it’s clear as day, I wouldn’t want to look closely…
I’d rather steer clear of it because it’s a bit queasy—I’m talking about the environment here, with dead bodies on the ground, sticky liquid, and bits of meat that you can’t even identify.
“If you can figure out what they were arguing about, I’ll consider you amazing.”
I said offhandedly, turning to glance at the dead knight one last time, then ignoring it, I raised my hand and patted Sword Demon Miss on the shoulder, interrupting her urge to keep talking: “Let’s go.”
Sword Demon Miss blinked in surprise.
“Aren’t we going to check the second floor?”
Maybe feeling I’d returned to normal, she finally asked this question.
“There’s nothing worth seeing here…”
I said softly, then sighed deeply: “Before we leave, let’s burn this place, let them rest in peace.”
I still couldn’t tell if what I saw and heard not long ago in front of the iron gate was an illusion created by the Eye of Wisdom or just my nightmare.
But that didn’t matter anymore…
I would destroy this place.
I wanted to destroy this place.
“Let those who should go to heaven go, and those who should go to hell go…”
“Mm?”
“…No, it’s nothing.”
Tap, tap, tap, tap…
The sky darkened.
The light filtering into the little church garden started to grow dim, and in the empty building, only our breathing and the sound of our footsteps could be heard.
“Those knights went in deep; the notes mentioned… do you think they were trying to take the Eye of Wisdom?”
“…I don’t know.”
“They probably don’t even know the Eye of Wisdom exists… just ordinary knights from the Second Knights Order, they couldn’t know much. They were only delivering coins, just those taxes. There must have been someone sending them continuously, for experiments, tricking more people into bringing suitable test subjects here; it’s just that before our arrival, the illusion hadn’t shattered, so no one noticed anything unusual…”
“Mm.”
“That thing is incredibly smart. Whatever it is, in whatever form it exists, its will clearly hasn’t completely faded. At least, it still retains some… I don’t even know if that counts as a characteristic of the ‘dream power’. In any case, normal visitors, like knights, like you, generally manage to leave, just forgetting some things…”
“Whether that’s intentional is still unclear, but it automatically excludes those ‘troublesome’ characters; otherwise, every knight coming here would disappear, and the church higher-ups would have noticed the anomaly long ago… but now, I’ve broken the illusion.”
“Those knights got suspicious, once they entered the city, they were suddenly surrounded by countless corpses, dead bodies… but they didn’t rush back to report; instead, they went into the little church… probably trying to figure out what’s going on?”
“Or maybe… after confirming that something was wrong, they intended to use that as an excuse to pocket the money themselves… some disagreed, and that’s why they got killed… hmm, sounds reasonable, don’t you think?”
“…Does that even matter?”
“True…”
“Doesn’t really matter, right?”
Thud, thud, thud…
Our footsteps traveled through the dim garden, entering the archway in the back, leading deeper into the little church. The sound of our shoes on the sticky path quickly transformed into the thudding rhythm of heels against stone steps, producing a ‘thud thud’ sound.
That sound echoed throughout the tower-like structure.
