Chapter 61: Sword Demon (Part Two)
“There are a lot of people who have contracted a strange illness.”
Fortunately, she continued on with the rest of her words: “Those who live outside the castle, within a month or two, start to grow red pustules on their bodies, some even develop scales… and a few others become very strange.”
“Huh?”
“Pustules? Scales?” I retracted my sharp gaze, feeling utterly confused, and countered, “What do you mean by ‘very strange’?”
What on earth is going on here…
“Well, it’s like they can see some… things I can’t see, and they start hallucinating… acting all mysterious, whispering to themselves, becoming aggressive…”
The female swordsman said quietly, clearly struggling to describe it to me but seemingly at a loss: “I passed by there and didn’t stay long outside the castle… once I sensed danger, I didn’t dare linger, just felt like something was watching me… I can’t explain it…”
“… It’s not some sort of plague, is it?”
I asked, my attention slowly drifting away from the deer meat in my hand.
“No.” The female swordsman shook her head.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m very sure.”
“……”
I tilted my head, trying to dig through my memories for anything similar, but it seemed like there wasn’t anything; I couldn’t recall. After a brief silence, I said, “So you think it’s abnormal there, and that’s why you want to save those refugee children taken by the knights?”
“Yeah.”
The female swordsman nodded again: “Not only that, I know that anyone who goes there—those refugees—they become stranger and stranger, and the less they can leave… even if they want to go, the church people will order them to be stopped. And then… taken to the castle. I don’t know why, but that can’t be good. I’m very sensitive to danger, so I perceived it and didn’t dare get closer.”
“Oh?”
Her words left me increasingly perplexed: “You’re saying the church has set up preventative measures outside the castle to make sure those refugees don’t return?”
The female swordsman nodded at this but then quickly shook her head: “Not entirely… it seems only those who start to become strange get taken away. The rest… even if they’ve been outside the castle for a long time with pustules all over, if their minds are fine, no one bothers them. They just get regular food dropped off, and they can leave any time… but nobody wants to go. I’ve tried persuading them, but it’s no use; they know that if they go out, they’ll starve.”
She paused slightly.
“So the church doesn’t need to set up defenses. They built several camps around the castle, and those refugees are placed in batches in each camp, with some clerics and nuns living together there. They only focus on the ones starting to become strange… this only started happening in the last two months. Before that, everything seemed normal, but now… I don’t know; I have a really bad feeling.”
… In the last two months?
So, that’s why Rect didn’t mention anything about this…
Back then, everything was still normal…
In other words, regardless of what’s happening in the Silent Castle, there’s been new developments lately.
… Or perhaps, things have finally begun to deteriorate.
They’re using those people for experiments, aren’t they…
“Do you know what goods have been transported from Woodward Forest to Silent Castle?”
I looked at her and suddenly saw a puzzled expression on her face: “Woodward Forest? What…”
“Did you not see?” I frowned.
“No…”
The female swordsman looked completely lost: “I left after just a few days; I didn’t see any goods.”
“Hmm…”
Alright.
I thought for a moment and switched to another question: “Do you know what sort of dealings the church has been involved in?”
“What dealings…?”
She continued to seem confused, but then quickly thought of something, her little face becoming serious: “Are you talking about the experiments?”
I didn’t answer, adjusting my legs for a more comfortable sitting position, casually took a bite of the deer meat, chewing as I kept my gaze on her.
The female swordsman began to fidget under my stare.
“I-I don’t know… I only just heard about this in the tavern in the Northern Region… some drunk person was rambling… but I believe it.”
She lowered her head as she said this.
… You believe?
“Tsk…”
I couldn’t help but click my tongue.
The implication here is that you were completely in the dark about all this before, huh?
Working so hard for the church, yet you hadn’t caught wind of anything…
“On that night in Woodward Forest, you saw everything that happened, and you never questioned anything?”
“… I did suspect.”
In response to my questioning, the female swordsman’s reply sounded incredibly honest: “But I’ve always thought that those who overthink things don’t live long… I never dug deeper into anything, nor did I like complicated things—as long as I complete my tasks and get paid, that’s all that matters… That’s how I’ve always done things…”
“Don’t you think that makes you easily used by others?”
“Never thought about that…”
“Ha—”
I couldn’t help but sigh.
Looking at the curled-up female swordsman, I couldn’t help but link her back to my former self.
Seeing the surface of things, rushing to make judgments, acting based on sheer passion, thinking oneself clever enough to distinguish good from evil.
When was it…
How are we any different?
“Even now, you’re still like this, aren’t you?”
I couldn’t help but ask her that, which honestly didn’t even need to be asked. Why should I care about her now? I’d just said I wasn’t interested in her past, but somehow, the words just slipped out before I could think: “Believing in the existence of experiments without considering that what’s happening in Silent Castle might be related to those experiments?”
“I thought about it…”
The female swordsman lowered her head, starting to trace the engravings on her sword’s hilt with her fingers: “But I’m not really good at thinking… many times, I prefer someone to give me a clear goal; it makes things much simpler…”
This girl…
So easy to understand.
But for her to be so clearly aware of these traits in herself means she’s not exactly foolish… she’s just remarkably similar to my past self, at least in terms of not wanting to stress over things or think too hard.
Simple, easy to understand, used to relying on others’ judgments, yet having astonishing talent in battle—what a reflection of that naive girl once called “Peilo,” with her unique characteristics.
These should have been beautiful traits…
But looking at the female swordsman, I suddenly understood why I was easily manipulated by people like Angel and even Edward back then.
And the female swordsman before me, compared to my past self, carried an even greater sense of simplicity and honesty—an even more malleable character.
“So you don’t even connect these two matters, do you?”
I shifted my focus back to the deer meat in my hand, bowing my head to start eating.
It would be less tasty if it got cold…
“Um… no, going into the castle… um… taking a look?”
She mumbled incoherently with her mouth full, and it took her a moment to register.
“I’ve tried… but I couldn’t get in. The guards are too strict… However, I did see a cardinal; he was inside the castle.”
Cardinal?
“Who’s that…?”
“I don’t know him… but I know he’s a cardinal.”
“Gulp…”
I swallowed the deer meat, immediately took another bite, and squeezed the words through my teeth: “Blue guy?”
“Old man.”
Old man?
Hmm…
It shouldn’t be St. George, so he must be one of the other two cardinals I’ve never met.
I nodded, stopping my inquiries and focused back on finishing the deer meat in my hand, drinking some water, and once I placed the water bottle on the ground, I casually tucked her little salt bag into my waist pouch, patting my belly in satisfaction as I finally said to her: “You know you can’t leave, right?”
