Chapter 97: When the Sin Night Bloomed (10)
“The sound, it’s gone…” I muttered instinctively.
When did it disappear?
I hadn’t noticed at all…
Feeling a bit panicked, I didn’t dare to just waltz through the door. So, I glanced sideways to see that Sword Demon Miss had also caught onto the problem. With a piece of cloth stuffed up her nose, still a bit bloody, her rather comical little face quickly turned serious. “It’s found us…”
You really think I didn’t know that?
We stood at the door, exchanging a look.
Then, I stepped back a bit, pointed at the big door, hiding my inner turmoil, and said in a very calm tone, “You go in first.”
“……”
Okay, she was too lazy to bother with me.
Just stood there thinking for a bit. Just when I thought she had sensed the danger inside and was about to back out, Sword Demon Miss suddenly started stepping forward without a second thought.
Oh—
I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.
She’s not running…
Is she really that obedient?
The thought flashed in my mind, and in the flickering torchlight, the little squirt nicknamed Sword Demon made a few steps right up to the doorway, leaning her body slightly against the open wooden door, her left hand resting on the sword’s hilt, tilting her head to press her ear against the crack of the door, carefully listening.
“… What are you listening for?”
After waiting a moment, I couldn’t help but ask.
“Shh!”
To my surprise, Sword Demon Miss suddenly turned around and made a serious “quiet” gesture to me—she looked pretty fierce at that moment. Does she dare to be fierce with me?
“What’s going on…”
“… There’s something alive inside.”
“What?” I was taken aback.
“Not sure what it is.”
Sword Demon Miss lowered her body even further, like a predator stalking its prey, and whispered to me, “But there’s something alive, wriggling…”
Wriggling…
What the heck is wriggling?!
Don’t gross me out…
My scalp began to tingle again.
Just as I was getting a bit dizzy, I suddenly saw Sword Demon Miss reach into her waist pouch and rummage around for a moment. Then she pulled out something shiny… was that a dart? A throwing kn*fe?
Before I could even get a good look, she tossed it into the door.
“Hey…”
Almost immediately, a series of “ding-dong clang” sounds echoed from the darkness. Sword Demon didn’t throw it hard, so it probably didn’t fly far before hitting the ground, bouncing a couple of times off the stone floor, and then there was a strange “poof” sound. I had no idea what it hit, but then it went quiet.
In the midst of that noise, Sword Demon quickly stepped back two paces.
Is she testing the waters…?
Realizing what the little squirt was up to, I quickly backed away with her, but after the room fell silent again, we stood at the door for about ten seconds, and nothing happened. No more strange sounds.
Suddenly, Sword Demon Miss turned her face towards me and nodded.
“Mm.”
Her big eyes were filled with determination.
…Huh?
What are you doing…
I didn’t get it.
But she seemed to think I understood her perfectly, making several hand signs at me. I blinked, recognizing those as the military commands of the Church Knights Order, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of it—I never learned those gestures.
But Sword Demon didn’t care. While I was still pondering, she had already crouched down and without a glance at the torch she had left on the ground, she dashed into the darkness behind the door.
“Hey, you…”
By the time I raised my hand, she had vanished into the darkness behind the door.
That gal—
I hurriedly followed a couple of steps.
Standing at the doorway, I could still hear the faintest sound of her footsteps inside, but they quickly faded away, and I couldn’t hear anything at all anymore. The inside returned to complete silence.
“…Sword Demon?”
I felt flustered, standing at one side of the door, peering into the dark, and tentatively called her name. After a moment of waiting, there was no response.
That little squirt went far away…
Forget it, let’s go in.
With just the torch, there’s really nothing to be afraid of.
“Hu—”
I patted my face and took a deep breath.
There’s really nothing to be scared of…
If something suddenly jumps out to scare me, I’ll chop it into pieces, and let it know how to spell “regret.”
Holding the torch high, I steeled my nerves and stepped into the door.
“Uh…”
I nearly brushed against the bl**d-red vines tangled on the door, squeezing into the deeper darkness. Once inside, that pungent medicinal smell became even stronger.
“Cough cough…”
I was a bit choked, it was so awful I couldn’t help but cough a couple of times. Then I suddenly panicked and covered my mouth, crouching down, widening my eyes, glancing around.
This place…
It’s so dark.
All around it was pitch black, the torch only illuminating about ten meters ahead. Aside from the bl**d-red vines spreading out at my feet, I couldn’t see anything else; it was hard to tell exactly where I was…
But I was probably right above the first-floor hall.
The space should be about the same size as below…
But after looking around for a while, it seemed like I couldn’t even find a window.
All sealed up, huh…
No wonder this smell is so nauseating.
“Sword… Demon…”
I bent over, putting one hand on my lips and softly called out again, but got no response. So I started to shuffle along, lowering the torch a bit, holding it in front of my eyes and slowly moving forward.
d*mn that little squirt…
Where did she run off to?
As I walked, I tried to stay alert, listening carefully for any sounds around me. But in that whole darkness, the only thing I could hear was my own shuffling footsteps and my anxious breathing…
Other than that, it was dead silent.
Something felt off…
What’s going on…
I was confident in my senses. Though I didn’t want to show that in front of Sword Demon, if it came to hearing, I was probably better than her.
But ever since that little squirt went through the door, I hadn’t heard her footsteps at all…
It had only been a short while…
She definitely couldn’t have gone far.
Why?
It’s like she suddenly vanished…
And not even a footprint—
“Clang!”
“Ah—”
Suddenly, I seemed to kick something. The kick wasn’t hard, but in the dead silence, it made an incredible loud thud that scared me to the brink of jumping out of my skin. My heart felt like it was suddenly squeezed, stopping my breath.
What…
What was that?!
A human head!?
Gurgle gurgle gurgle—
The thing I kicked slowly rolled away, out of the torchlight, and then it seemed to hit something with a “thud,” rolling back into view once more.
…That was a human head-sized container bottle.
I covered my mouth, frozen in place for several seconds, feeling all the hairs on my body stand on end. In that moment, my brain felt like it was about to burst. Heart pounding, I went into overdrive mode, alert to every sound around me, ready for anything to leap out of the darkness.
But after a few more seconds, still nothing around.
“Ha…”
Safe…
Once I calmed down a bit, I realized I was sweating on my forehead, and I quietly sighed in relief, while trying to crouch lower, comforting myself, “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, whatever comes you can beat it.” Slowly, I walked over to the container bottle on the ground.
It was a yellowed, dirty container bottle…
The mouth was sealed, half-filled with a yellowish, urine-like liquid that looked murky and disgusting.
And the grossest part was that in the liquid, there was a tumor floating…
“What is this…”
The moment I saw that tumor, my pupils immediately constricted.
I recognized that kind of tumor…
