28 episodes
A few days have passed since the raid on the guard post.
Treatment of the wounded went smoothly, and the treatment of the dead was swift.
The tent that had been erected in the square was dismantled.
Instead, the wounded were taken to a treatment center.
When the urgent fire was extinguished, the upper level entrusted the treatment center to Ethan and Nyx instead of the high priest.
Even though he was busy treating the wounded, Ethan listened to the news around him.
However, the princess did not rise and fall in people’s mouths.
It was clear that she was hiding the existence of the princess from the outside.
It was just as Ethan expected.
Instead, a new incident occurred in Nouvel.
“How many days is this?”
“I know. Aren’t the dark followers gathered around here?”
“You man, don’t say such a bad thing!”
The workers chattered when they saw the knights and soldiers gathered in the inner city of Nouvelle City.
Knights and soldiers scoured the inside and outside of Nouvelle City for several days.
He seemed to be looking for something important.
Even the recent raid on the post and the movement of the search corps were all just unsettling things.
It was natural for people to be upset.
On the other hand, it was about that time that a soldier with a strange wound came to Ethan’s treatment center.
“How did you get here?”
“Sir, priest, my legs are strange. Please fix it.”
The soldier limped towards Ethan.
Ethan took off the soldier’s shoes.
“… … .”
The soldier’s injuries were bizarre.
Even though he wasn’t hurt, his feet were rotting.
Ethan’s eyes narrowed.
“Is the whole leg like this?”
“yes. Until last night, only my feet were like this, but this morning, my thighs were like this.”
“You mean the symptoms started in the feet? The condition of the feet is the most serious.”
“Hey, what now?”
The soldier was on the verge of crying.
“it’s okay. Don’t worry, I’ll treat you.”
Ethan was treating the soldier and asked this and that.
It was a question I had asked to patients who had come before me.
“Have you ever had these symptoms before?”
“no. This is the first time.”
“Since when did this happen?”
“After exploring the forest yesterday, my feet suddenly started to hurt, and this is what happened.”
“Are you talking about the Forest of Reception near the northern guard post?”
“yes. I went there all day yesterday.”
“Have you ever touched a strange animal there? or touching something strange.”
Ethan’s eyes widened as he asked that question.
“I was walking through the forest, so I touched branches and weeds. But I didn’t see anything strange. I couldn’t even find what I was looking for in the first place. oh. Hey, forget this. It’s confidential… … .”
The soldier was confused and stuttered.
Ethan nodded as if it was natural.
“That’s right, what. The treatment is over, would you like to wake up?”
“Hey, already?”
The soldier looked at his legs in disbelief.
The two legs, which had really started to rot, were instantly healed.
“Oh my gosh! It was just a blink of an eye. Priest, thank you so much! Thank you very much!”
The soldier grabbed Ethan’s hands and kept his head down.
The soldier soon left the treatment center.
Ethan glanced at his back and fell in thought.
‘Something is strange. I’ll have to watch the situation for a while.’
Over the next three days, Ethan saw seven more soldiers with similar symptoms.
‘The same symptoms and the same answers are the same.’
It was strange that a search party was suddenly formed in the first place.
And the soldiers wounded during the search had one thing in common.
‘It’s the forest near the northern guard post… … . It must have something to do with the attack on the princess. It was said that the princess and her party had been kicked out from there.’
Because of her unique constitution, the princess rarely had contact with people.
Not to mention going out.
The princess was like a bird in a cage.
‘When you see that such a princess is wandering outside the new empire or that the search party is looking for a specific item, it smells like something.’
There was another element that added confidence to Ethan’s conjecture.
He looked at Aurum’s delegation gathered outside the clinic.
“You said you were the first to help the wounded?”
“I can leave without knowing it, but it’s amazing.”
“I don’t know if he’s doing this to look good in the church.”
I could hear the chatter of passing workers.
As the workers said, Aurum’s delegation has not yet left.
There were speculations about the action, such as whether it was done with good intentions or flattering the denomination.
But Ethan didn’t think so.
‘because… … .’
Matilda Harper turned her head in amazement when Ethan’s eyes met.
Ethan snorted.
‘It’s suspicious that that girl is still here.’
In fact, it was rather good for Matilda and the princess to be here.
If they leave, the clues about the Demon King will be cut off.
‘So there is no need to be in a hurry until then.’
Ethan struggled to be patient.
Then Knicks appeared.
It seemed that he had come to rest after caring for the wounded.
“uh? Did you come out to rest too?”
‘Annoying bastard.’
Ethan just nodded his head.
“These are the soldiers of the reconnaissance corps who come these days. Don’t you think your symptoms are a bit strange?”
“… … .”
When Ethan didn’t respond again, Nyx tilted his head.
Then he said, ‘Ah!’ and convinced himself.
“Somehow, he said he didn’t say anything, and he seemed to have fallen asleep while standing. I haven’t slept in the past few days, and I’ve only been focused on treatment, so it’s worth it.”
In any case, it was an attempt to find out the cause of the search party’s injuries.
But again, he seemed to have misunderstood.
Ethan chuckled.
Nick suggested.
“Go back to your dorm for a moment and close your eyes. I will tell the other priests.”
“I am not very tired… … .”
At that moment, a thought suddenly ran through Ethan’s mind.
Ethan suddenly changed his mind.
“No, I was just sitting there thinking about it. Please take a break for a while.”
Ethan left the clinic.
Nyx, who was watching the direction he was going, exclaimed.
“Ethan, that’s not the way to the hostel!”
Ethan responded to him as if it wasn’t a big deal.
“To investigate the strange symptom you mentioned.”
“… … !”
Nick’s eyes widened.
‘By the way, over there is the library, isn’t it? Are you going to investigate the disease without taking care of myself?’
Nick clenched his fists.
“This is not the time to rest. I want to take care of at least one more patient!”
But contrary to Knicks’ expectations, Ethan had no intention of going to the library at all.
‘If you go out the front door, it will be annoying, so let’s use the side road.’
The only way out of the interior was near the library.
Misunderstandings just kept piling up.
* * *
bum bum.
A personage appeared near the forest to meet.
He was Ethan.
Ethan bowed his head and looked down at the floor.
Footprints believed to have been left by knights and soldiers stood out.
“You’ve come to the right place.”
That was then.
Paddy!
A flock of birds sitting on a tree flew into the sky at once.
Ethan shook his head.
“Is that?”
An ominous black energy was rising like a cloud above the forest.
It was something that only Ethan with jet-black eyes could discover.
If the knights or soldiers had seen this scene, the priest would have been mobilized immediately.
‘The place with the most energy… … .’
Ethan’s eyes moved in a hurry.
Soon, the darkest concentration of dark energy was discovered.
‘There!’
Ethan instinctively recognized that it was the source.
He flew the new model and arrived at the source in an instant.
“This was the cause.”
A small chest lay on the dirt floor.
Suddenly, I remembered what the search corps soldier had said.
– I didn’t even see anything strange. I couldn’t even find what I was looking for in the first place. oh. Hey, forget this. It’s confidential… … .
stuff to find. airtight.
Judging by those words, this was probably what the search team was looking for.
‘Because I walked on a land full of magic, my legs were corrupted from the beginning.’
What if the soldiers had received treatment late?
Perhaps his whole body was decomposed.
Ethan continued his guess.
‘The princess must have been passing through this place for some reason and heading to the new empire. And it must have been that a search party was sent to the Pope to find this item that was lost in the raid.’
Ethan knelt down on one knee and picked up the small ark.
‘Is this why the Dark Followers aimed at the Princess?’
But soon Ethan’s eyebrows twitched.
“… … !”
Because the inside of the small ark was empty.
What was inside was only the silk cloth that was supposed to have wrapped the contents.
“damn.”
The outside of the small ark was densely engraved with sacred inscriptions.
But there was no more light.
‘The holy magic that sealed what was inside was broken.’
Ethan got up and looked around.
‘Where the hell did you go?’
I don’t know what the contents were, but finding a clue was my urgent priority.
Ethan scoured the area near the bush where the Ark had fallen.
After a while, something strange appeared in Ethan’s eyes.
There was something dark red in the thick thickets of trees.
Ethan looked at it closely and rubbed it with his hand.
“blood?”
Ethan pushed through the thicket and dug inward.
Then something hit my foot.
Ethan looked down and the corners of his eyes convulsed.
‘It was human blood earlier.’
What Ethan stepped on was the torn flesh.
The things that should have been there were nowhere to be seen, and the only clue left was bloodstains.
What’s more, it contains magical powers and magic.
Then there was only one answer left.
‘Someone touched this thing.’
Big or small, some kind of damage was sure to happen.
‘First, we chase after this bloodstain.’
Following the bloodstains on the floor, Ethan flew the new model.
* * *
Meanwhile at that time.
crumble crumble.
At the sound, the soldiers at the beginning of the forest turned their heads.
Soon something popped out of the bush.
“Who are you?”
The soldiers stood vigilant and thrust their spears forward.
What appeared before them was none other than the same search party soldier.
“what? Why is this guy like this?”
The soldier’s face was very pale.
His whole body was covered with blood, and his gait was precarious.
It looked like it was going to collapse at any moment.
“Did you meet any monsters inside?”
“Before the search, the knights would have killed them all.”
“Bring a stretcher right now!”
The soldiers considered him wounded and hurriedly carried him on a stretcher.
He was quickly escorted to Nouvelle City.
A blood-stained dagger was clenched in his hand, swaying on the stretcher.
But no one noticed it.
“Priest, you are wounded!”
After a while, the soldiers moved the wounded to a treatment center in Nouvel City State.
The priest hurried to the side of the wounded.
“You suffered. You can just go and see.”
Nyx, who was nearby, approached the priest.
It was because he was also supporting the treatment of the search party.
“Can I help too?”
“no. Let’s do it alone for now.”
“Call me if you need me.”
Nyx moved to look after another patient.
“How did you get hurt like this, Won?”
The priest clicked his tongue and looked at the wounded.
Then he found a dagger in the hand of the wounded.
“No, what sword?”
The surprised priest tried to pull out the dagger.
That was then.
Suddenly, black energy began to condense on the dagger.
The injured man, who had been drooping, woke up with his eyes wide open.
“uh?”
The surprised priest’s eyes widened.
At the same time, the wounded dagger stuck in the priest’s neck.
“… … ?!”