“That’s wrong! It wasn’t me!”
Jean, shouting with a bewildered expression while brandishing his knife, slashed at his astonished companions as he turned around.
“Jean!?”
“What are you doing!?”
“N-No, it’s not me, Slay, Cara!”
Cara stepped forward to protect Slay, who had been slashed on the arm, but she couldn’t bring herself to point her weapon at Jean, who was spouting incomprehensible things.
“Step back.”
I slipped in between them, striking Jean’s side with my right palm.
“Guh!?”
I felt the sensation of ribs breaking through the glove lined with Magic Steel. Normally, that would render someone unable to move properly, but Jean stood up in a strange posture, his body bent sideways, and swung his knife at me again.
“It’s not me, please stop attacking!”
“…………”
Jean’s words and actions were clearly abnormal. Is he being manipulated? But if that were the case, the meaning of the word “not me” wouldn’t make sense.
“It hurts more than before… but endure it.”
The analysis can wait. First, to neutralize him, I returned the Knife to its sheath and stood quietly.
“Please, that’s not it!”
As Jean said that, he thrust out his knife, I deflected it by placing my hand on the flat of the blade, and while entangling my arm with his, I shattered Jean’s bones with an upward knee strike.
“Gyaaaaah!”
He can still move…? I swung my raised leg down on Jean’s neck, slamming him into the ground, and with a loud thud, Jean finally stopped moving.
“Ugh… gack.”
“Jean!!”
Cara rushed over to Jean, who was convulsing and groaning.
“Hey! You didn’t have to go this far, Colette! Heal him quickly!”
“O-Okay!”
“Wait.”
I stopped Colette from approaching and knelt in front of Jean, who was still crouching.
“Jean, are you conscious?”
“You…”
Cara snapped at me for prioritizing interrogation over treatment, but Jean, who was being protected by her, seemed rational but not sane.
“I’m sorry, Cara, please stop. I didn’t make this ‘promise’…”
“…Jean?”
“…’Promise’?”
As I echoed the strange word that didn’t fit the situation, Slay, who was holding his injured arm, stepped in to protect Jean.
“I’m sorry. Jean seems confused. I’d like to get him treated first, so could you forgive him today?”
“…………”
At that moment, I intuitively felt that “questioning him would be pointless.”
They were surprised by what Jean had done, but they didn’t seem to think it was a “bad thing.” I couldn’t tell if that was due to their personalities or if they were becoming as strange as Jean, but even if I wanted to restrain them, it would be useless to rely on this town in a dispute between Adventurers.
For now, should I let them swim for a bit and see what happens…?
Is there something to Jean’s word “promise”? I thought the anomalies in this town were “Miasma” and “Undead,” but I have a feeling that the idea itself is wrong.
“…For now, why don’t you take him to the clinic?”
“Sorry, we’ll do that.”
As I said that, Slay put his shoulder under Jean, who was still making some kind of “excuse,” and stood up.
“I’ll take a room near the Adventurer’s Guild.”
“Ah, got it.”
Only Slay’s voice replied as I called out to their backs. Cara, who was supporting Jean in the same way, glared at me, but behind her, Colette, her face pale, stared at me as if pleading for something.
After parting ways with them, I headed towards the cemetery where the Orc Zombies had appeared, observing the town. Villagers have gone missing in this town, but surprisingly, the atmosphere among the residents isn’t that dark.
Some of them had anxious expressions, but when I passed by, they erased their expressions and blended into the town’s scenery.
But that’s not particularly unusual. It’s common for rural towns to be cold to outsiders. The town where the Orphanage I grew up in was located was about the same size as this one, but it was very cold to orphans, who were a burden on the town and its residents.
So, perhaps Colette and the others, who might leave this town in the same way, are being shunned. A closed-off town… and how is that related to the word “promise”? How does it relate to the Miasma and Undead?
The cemetery was outside the outer wall surrounding the town, behind the Chapel. There were graves inside the wall as well, but they must have run out of space after the town had been around for over a hundred years.
The outer cemetery was surrounded by a wooden fence, and there was a section of the fence that had been destroyed in one place, so I guessed that was where the Orc Zombies had appeared.
There is certainly Miasma. Still, as the receptionist at the Adventurer’s Guild said, the Ostール family seems to have purified it, and there isn’t enough dense Miasma left to make corpses move.
“…As I thought.”
That’s why I was convinced that a “Devil” was involved in this matter.
Normally, all creatures that become Undead have Magic Stones from the start. Skeletons have Magic Stones inside their skulls, and even incorporeal beings like Specters exist with Magic Stones as their core.
The Orc Zombie’s Magic Stone was certainly stained with Miasma, but the amount of Miasma was clearly small.
Devils feed on Miasma, but their true form is a spiritual life form that uses Mana, the same as Spirits, as their life force.
In other words, those Orc Zombies and the bones that the Devil was manipulating weren’t true Undead, but rather Devil puppets created by Mana, right?
But then, that doesn’t explain Jean’s words and actions. But now is not the time to come up with an answer. It should change depending on what she brings.
“…Aria-san.”
That night, “she” visited me at the inn near the Adventurer’s Guild.
“Alone?”
“…Yes.”
I invited Colette, who had come alone at night, into the room.
I had her sit in the only chair in the room, and as I sat on the bed, Colette, looking around hesitantly, began to speak little by little.
“…The reason I said ‘the town is strange’ isn’t just about the Undead.”
The clear anomalies are the Miasma and the Undead, but she had been feeling a “sense of unease” even before that.
It was such a small sense of unease that you wouldn’t notice it unless you were told, but Colette was gradually becoming more and more anxious about it.
Starting a few weeks ago, someone, somewhere, started saying “promise.” No one clearly stated “who” they made the promise with, and they didn’t talk about its contents, but in a closed-off area, they valued harmony with the people who had been there from the beginning, and above all, they were afraid of deviating from it. So no one touched on the contents, and the days passed.
But one day, when the Adventurers who had been using that word went outside, several of them returned covered in blood. Colette, who still had friendships with other Adventurers among her companions, asked one of them, and he said with a troubled expression.
“I didn’t make the ‘promise'”–he said.
Since then, people have been disappearing more often. All the people who disappeared were either people who came from outside or people who had lived in other towns.
At first, the guards were searching for the missing people. Their families also made search requests to the Adventurer’s Guild, but after a while, no one mentioned it, and while they were doing that, the Miasma incident occurred, and no one cared anymore.
“When did Jean’s words and actions become strange?”
“Today… Yes, he hasn’t become strange. Before and after receiving treatment, he was really just as usual.”
“What about the ‘promise’?”
“I didn’t really understand even when I asked, but probably… ‘I saw it in a dream.'”
…Another strange word came out. To summarize Colette’s rambling story, Jean seems to have seen a scene in a dream where “someone” made a “promise” with “someone.”
Even he doesn’t know who he made the promise with. But, because of that promise, he attacked me?
But, if that’s the case, then everyone who doesn’t question it may have seen that “dream,” and I felt a little chill.
“…Colette?”
“I, I haven’t seen it.”
Colette hasn’t seen that dream. If it’s related to the disappearance of the townspeople, then people who don’t question it are also suspicious.
But if that’s the case, then one question arises. The two Devils that were witnessed didn’t show any such abilities. There’s a possibility that they were hiding it, but another possibility came to my mind.
“…Nightmare…”
The third Devil…
“…Eh?”
“No, it’s nothing. More importantly, Colette should leave this town.”
“But, everyone… Cara…”
“If Slay and Cara are still sane, persuade them and take them out. If Jean refuses, you should leave him behind.”
“I can’t do that…”
In the worst case, I’ll be facing the Bone Devil and the third “Nightmare” at the same time.
If that Dream really is the work of a devil, then we should evacuate the people who haven’t seen it yet, but this town’s isolation is getting in the way again. Did it choose this place knowing that…?
Probably, the residents of this closed-off town won’t believe the story of a mere Adventurer. There was also the option of persuading the town’s lord to let them escape, but the lord of this town is a representative of the Ostール family.
It doesn’t seem like there’s any time left to gather evidence or ask Elena-san for instructions. If that’s the case, then there’s only one solution I can think of.
“I’m going to the lord’s mansion. Colette, if you know anyone who hasn’t seen the ‘Dream’ of the ‘Promise,’ please talk to them.”
“O-Okay…”
Colette’s reply also lacks energy. She herself probably knows how difficult it will be. That’s why I’m going to defeat the devil who’s the source of it all.
I prepare for battle and leave the inn with Colette. Colette will head straight to our usual inn to persuade Cara-san and the others.
“…Eh?”
When we go outside, it’s night, but there are still some people on the street. Colette couldn’t help but raise her voice when she saw one of them, and when I looked over there too, Jean-san, who I thought we had immobilized, was there.
“Colette… I’m sorry.”
“Jean-san?”
For some reason, Jean-san was looking at Colette with a tearful face. Seeing his expression, I remembered the first sense of discomfort I felt when I saw this town.
At that time, it was “apparently” normal. But somewhere, I felt an indescribable sense of discomfort. I realized what it meant when I saw Jean-san. Why can’t I feel any life force from him now?
“Help me…”
Jean-san muttered, shedding tears of blood, and dark blood spilled from his mouth.
“N-Noooooooooooooo!?”
Before Colette-san, who screamed, Jean-san shed dark blood from every hole in his body, and turned his dead fish-like eyes towards me.
“That’s wrong… That was… ‘Me’.”
I may make minor adjustments again at the time of the next update.
I want to write about the horror of the devil, but the work I wrote a long time ago is like that, so it lacks a sense of urgency lol.
Next time, Part 4: How many will survive…?