Chapter 135: Fog (2)
The inn I entered looked ordinary.
In other words, it looked ordinary for an inn in a village where something incredibly suspicious had happened.
Tables and chairs, which had been haphazardly pushed to block the door, were scattered around, having been lightly pushed back by my magic.
The interior was somewhat dark due to the wooden planks nailed over all the windows. However, thanks to the fire burning in the large fireplace located on one wall, there was no great difficulty in examining the inside.
Scattered tables and chairs.
And the clear presence felt between them.
Clang
The mercenaries, with hardened expressions, drew their swords. Their faces, already filled with considerable anxiety due to the ominous fog surrounding the village, stiffened even more.
And the wary footsteps that followed.
It was a natural reaction from their perspective, not knowing anything yet.
“W-Wait! Don’t attack!”
A shout rang out. The man who appeared to be the innkeeper emerged from the kitchen, waving his hands in the air.
The mercenaries still seemed wary, but I looked at the innkeeper’s pale face and calmly asked.
“It’s quite a valuable genuine article. Where did you get it?”
“P-Pardon? What……”
The man, momentarily bewildered by the sudden question, followed my gaze.
A small symbol hanging in the center of the inn’s wall.
The Papal Rosary.
“Ah……”
Finally understanding my question, the innkeeper’s face seemed to relax a little. But then, seeing the armed group and the last mercenary entering the inn through the still slightly open door, he quickly came to his senses and said.
“The door, close the door!”
A loud yell. The startled mercenary took one last look at the swirling fog outside and immediately closed the door.
Only then did the innkeeper breathe a sigh of relief. He seemed afraid that something might come into the inn.
I looked at him and said calmly.
“Don’t worry. Now that I’m here, nothing unholy will dare enter.”
The mercenaries lowered their weapons, and the innkeeper, hearing my words that gave a strange sense of assurance, seemed to realize that we were not here to harm him. However, he still asked in a slightly cautious tone.
“E-Excuse me, but who are you?”
Instead of answering immediately, I looked quietly behind the innkeeper.
Judging by the additional presence felt inside, it seemed that more people had taken refuge here.
Perhaps that was why, despite being filled with fear, he still tried to confirm until the very end. Seeing how he boldly blocked all the doors and windows and took people in, he seemed to be quite a brave person.
As they say, fortune favors the brave and righteous.
“……”
I looked at the rosary on the wall, almost completely burnt black.
“That was close. If it had been any later, this place would have been finished.”
“Inquisitor-nim, what does that……?”
Bergen, the mercenary captain, asked in a puzzled tone, still not fully grasping the situation. But the person who reacted most strongly to Bergen’s question was someone else.
“H-Heretic, are you an Inquisitor?!”
He finally seemed to relax, staggering and sitting down on one of the chairs scattered around.
Leaving the mercenaries standing awkwardly behind, I approached him and asked.
“Now, I’d like to hear about what happened in this village.”
“Well……”
He seemed to be considering where to begin, pausing for a moment before finally starting his story.
🔹🔹🔹
The innkeeper, who introduced himself as Jason, told a long story.
The fog that covered the village, the missing people, the unidentified something wandering outside.
It would have been an unfamiliar and frightening kind of ghost story for the people of Kaments, but it wasn’t anything new to me.
I listened half-heartedly to Jason’s lengthy story, now that his fear had subsided, and recalled the words of Chairman Markel Pavlino.
He said that the identity of the heretic disturbing the Hesterica region was likely the Amadrid Catacomb.
It was an accurate guess, befitting the Inquisition, who knew demon worshippers all too well.
The specialty of those who worshiped the Demon of Purity, Amadrid, was to unfold nightmares and fears into reality. The methods and processes varied, but the result was the same.
The curse that had struck this village was probably a similar power.
Everything was more or less as I had expected. Except for one thing.
“What was the name of the priest who gave you that holy relic?”
The innkeeper Jason frowned at my words. It seemed he couldn’t quite remember, as it was before the village was trapped in the fog.
“Hey, what was the name of that positive priest?”
Several other villagers who had been hiding in the inn with him tried to recall the name in response to Jason’s question.
“What was it……”
“Ah! It was─”
I turned my gaze away from them and looked at the symbol on the wall, emitting a faint light.
The holy relic that had protected this inn until now, although its power was almost depleted.
“Je…… Zero? No. Jelly?”
I asked again, with a hint of certainty in my voice, despite the improbability.
“Jerit? Jerit Frinagen?”
The villagers’ faces brightened at my words.
“Ah, that’s right! Jerit. That was his name.”
Hmm.
I nodded and asked once more, just in case.
“By any chance, wasn’t he with a clumsy guy and a gloomy woman completely covered in a robe?”
And the answer came.
“T-That’s right! You must know them very well!”
“Thank God!”
A detailed description of Jerit and Lephra’s appearance. The villagers’ faces were filled with relief once again, realizing that I knew them well.
An unexpected trace.
It seemed that those guys, who had probably stopped by here briefly before the incident occurred, had left quite a good impression.
Judging by the fact that they left a holy relic, it seemed they had sensed something suspicious here before the incident broke out.
That act, which was nothing more than a small favor, had become a great fortune for the people of this village.
Of course, regardless of that.
“……”
The fact that they felt something suspicious enough to leave a holy relic, but still left the village immediately, meant that they had something more urgent to attend to.
Of course, according to the villagers, there was no fog when they left the village, and I nodded.
Jerit and Lephra were not the kind of people who would just leave upon seeing a suffering village.
Of course, they felt something slightly suspicious and left a holy relic, but they didn’t resolve anything beyond that.
I smiled slightly, having unexpectedly ended up dealing with the incident they left behind.
Well, it wasn’t anything new. No. In a way, it might even be a good thing.
Thanks to that, the person who could be called the most expert in this field was facing the incident.
“I’d like to hear any legends or ghost stories that have been passed down in the village.”
“……Yes?”
The villagers blinked at my sudden question.
🔹🔹🔹
It started with a look around the village.
To see where this vision-obscuring fog originated from.
“A-Are you sure it’s alright?”
One of the villagers spoke. He glanced nervously at the nailed-up window cracks, his face filled with fear.
“T-There’s definitely something out there. Something that took the people!”
An unknown monster wandering the village beyond the thick fog. It was a story perfectly suited to stir up people’s fears.
And to some extent, it was a true story.
Even during our long conversation, we occasionally heard the unpleasant sound of something scraping against the walls of the inn.
“……!”
Screech At the sound of something sharp scraping against the outer wall, everyone, including the mercenaries, gathered near the faintly glowing holy relic, away from the entrance with pale faces.
Of course, I wasn’t one of them.
“It’s alright.”
I replied calmly and opened the door. Even the mercenaries hesitated to follow.
Only the innkeeper Jason, who knew the village roads well, and the mercenary captain Bergen bravely followed me.
Creak
As I lifted the latch and opened the door, the thick fog rushed in.
“Sigh”
I stepped outside with Bergen, who seemed tense as he drew his sword, and the innkeeper Jason, who clung close behind me.
Thud
As the door closed, the relatively noisy sounds from inside the inn abruptly ceased.
Despite the material not being particularly soundproof, a sudden silence enveloped us as if we had moved to a different space.
An abnormal stillness and thick fog.
I continued walking through the white veil, which seemed even thicker than before. In this situation, holy power was more effective than demonic energy, a similar power.
Clang
As I raised the drawn holy sword, the clear light emanating from it illuminated the surroundings.
The nearby fog slightly receded, revealing a short stretch of the ground path. Bergen let out a gasp of admiration.
“Oh……!”
I began to examine the village, holding the sword up like a torch.
“The rest of the people, you said they all disappeared?”
A search in silence. Startled by my sudden question, the innkeeper Jason flinched and nodded a beat later, answering.
“Y-Yes. According to the people who fled to the inn, they all walked outside as usual, as if possessed by something, and never returned. I thought they might have left the village, but……”
Bergen replied with a thoughtful expression as Jason trailed off, his face filled with anxiety.
“Didn’t we notice anything suspicious while heading to the village?”
I nodded at his words. There was nothing strange outside the village. Which meant.
“Then it must be somewhere in this village.”
I replied calmly and started walking towards the area where the fog was getting thicker.
And just as we were moving, using the holy sword as a torch to light the way.
Click, clack
Far away. Somewhere in the fog, where the direction and distance were unknown, a clear sound of footsteps could be heard.
“……!”
It seemed I wasn’t the only one who heard it, as I felt the two men flinch in surprise.
Click, clack, click, clack
“Who’s there!”
The mercenary Bergen shouted loudly, raising his sharply honed sword.
And instead of an answer, the sound of footsteps came again.
Click, clack, click, clack, click, clack
Footsteps, sounding like one person or many, were coming from all directions.
“A-Are they the villagers?”
The terrified innkeeper Jason asked, clutching the hem of my cloak. I spoke without looking back at him.
“No.”
Ssst I tightened my grip on the holy sword, its bright light beginning to condense as if it were about to ignite, and continued speaking calmly.
“Those aren’t human footsteps.”
The sounds echoing faintly in the fog, which obscured not only vision but also some of the sound, were not the sounds of human bare feet or leather shoes.
Click, clack, click, clack, click, clack
To be precise. It was the sound of hooves, made by something with the legs of a beast.
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