Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 176

176.

“Well, we’re almost there.”

The place we arrived at after a long walk was in front of a huge building covered in silver-white. As we entered, the interior, lined with splendid sculptures, greeted us. It felt more like a castle than a school.

Passing through the wide hall and reaching the corridor, rooms arranged at regular intervals began to appear. The assistant led us to one of them. Compared to the ornately decorated door, the interior was simply furnished with chairs and a low table.

“This is the reception room. Your companions can wait here for a moment. Miss Alisa, please follow me.”

“Yes? By myself?”

“The interview will be conducted one-on-one with the headmaster.”

Alisa hesitated, perhaps feeling burdened by the solo interview despite her sturdy demeanor. I could feel her anxious face looking at us, so I smiled instinctively. Then, as if regaining her confidence, Alisa took a firm step forward. The assistant, looking at her with admiration, spoke politely to us.

“My role ends here. If you wait, another guide will come and inform you of the interview results.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you for the guidance.”

“Not at all. Oh, by the way, what is the priest’s next schedule? If you’re available, would you like to join me for a cup of tea? I would like to take this opportunity to arrange a meeting where you can share your wisdom with the scholars here.”

“Excuse me? Ah, no. I’m sorry, but I just happened to stop by here. I have another appointment soon, so I have to leave.”

“I see. That’s a pity.”

*Is this what it feels like to have ten years taken off your life?* Watching the assistant smack his lips with a face full of regret, I took a deep breath inwardly. I’m so glad he gave up so easily. I almost broke out in a sweat trying to come up with all sorts of excuses.

“I can’t hold someone who is doing God’s work. Then I must say goodbye here.”

“Yes, it was nice meeting you.”

“The honor was all mine to meet a follower of the Demon God.”

The assistant, who had come closer, offered me a handshake with a benevolent face. It was when I inadvertently took his outstretched hand.

“The child has been successfully handed over.”

“…….”

A low voice brushed past my ear. It sounded like nothing special at first glance, but it had an oddly meaningful tone.

When I looked up without realizing it, the assistant gently curved his eyes, noticing my gaze. It was an unpleasant yet strangely familiar feeling. I quickly remembered where I had seen it before without even trying to figure it out. When I lived with my family in my previous life, they would exchange the same look when they excluded me and planned their schedules. It was the look of someone sharing the same secret.

‘Something’s wrong.’

I stared at the assistant’s back as he led Alisa away for a long time. Maybe it was just a sense of camaraderie as a follower of the Demon God, but his last words lingered in my mind like a thorn in my throat. I had a feeling that something I didn’t know was going on.

It seemed that I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. As soon as the two of them left, the air in the room rapidly grew heavy. Sibel was wearing an unusually unpleasant expression.

“Don’t you think that guy is suspicious?”

“Hmm, a little, right?”

“He has a lot of murderous intent in his eyes for a scholar. Followers of the Demon God tend to have a bit of a fierce aura, but even considering that, it’s too strong. The smell on his body wasn’t good either. I don’t think he’s just someone who studies normally.”

At that moment, a scene suddenly flashed through my mind. The sight of parents looking for their missing children in front of the academy.

I didn’t know why that scene suddenly came to mind. But if I heard correctly, one of the missing students was guided into the academy by an assistant from the faculty. The man who led us here was also an assistant working at the faculty. And he is also a theologian studying the teachings of the Demon God.

Students who go missing every year. A theologian who frequently interacts with the Demon God’s temple. The meaningful words he conveyed. Could all of those things really be just a coincidence?

“……What were the conditions for the sacrifice again?”

Isana’s face stiffened at my muttered words. He instinctively knew what I was about to say.

“Could it be…….”

The trembling in his voice was clearly felt. I could tell how shocked he was without even looking at his expression.

“Are you saying that……my uncle’s influence extends this far?”

“To be precise, it’s not the Duke but the power of the Demon God’s Church. Although it seems meaningless to distinguish them.”

“Then, then we can’t be standing here like this. We have to go save Alisa…….”

Isana, who muttered urgently, rushed to the door in a fluster. I managed to stop him from leaving by a hair’s breadth.

“Calm down, Isana. It’s just a guess. What are you going to say if we catch him now? Even if we interrogate him without any evidence, he can just deny it. Besides, we don’t even know where the two of them went.”

“But, but…….”

“What are you talking about?”

Sibel, sensing the serious atmosphere, asked with a puzzled face. I realized that he had only heard about the previous journey and didn’t know about the other things the Duke was plotting behind the scenes. That’s because Isana hadn’t told him that far.

To be honest, I had completely forgotten about that part as well. I was filled with anger, considering it a heinous act that abandoned humanity, but I thought it wasn’t something that needed to be resolved immediately. But to think that I would be involved with that matter again in such a distant land. I felt bitter, as if I had caused this by not being more proactive at the time.

“I see. A burnt offering that sacrifices young humans…….”

As soon as he heard the details, Sibel quickly hardened his face as well. The agitation was clearly visible in his blue eyes.

“And they extract the blood from the heart? Did they really say it was that kind of method?”

“Yes, that’s what I heard.”

“Hmm, that’s possibly……no, but…….”

“Sibel?”

Sibel nervously stroked his chin repeatedly with an anxious face. It wasn’t just that he didn’t like the sacrificial method itself, but he seemed to be more serious about a different issue. Puzzled, I called out to him, and Sibel looked at me with a troubled expression for a moment before saying with a sigh.

“That might be dark magic.”

“Dark magic?”

“I’ve heard of a spell from a long time ago that steals the life force of others to increase power. I think the process of squeezing the heart of a young human and drinking the blood was part of that spell.”

“Drink, drink the blood?”

“Yes, but it was a spell that was too evil and was discarded. Even then, I only heard about it through ancient texts because I belong to a clan that deals with magic. Ordinary people wouldn’t know about it. The possibility that it’s really that spell is quite slim. But still…….”

Even as he spoke, Sibel kept biting his fingernails, as if he was uneasy.

“Still, if that spell is completed……and if it’s been going on for over 10 years, it could become quite serious. An evil god might be born.”

“Evil god?”

As I listened to the unfamiliar term, Sibel nodded with a gloomy face.

“A god whose very existence is evil, born to oppose the main god. If the main god is this world itself, the evil god is like a terrible poison that invades it. If it’s born, the middle realm [the mortal world] will be cursed entirely. Or so they say.”

“A curse…….”

“An evil god is a mass of curses in itself. Its very origin is made up of the vengeful spirits of countless children. They say that when it’s born, the vengeful spirits in that blood awaken and wail together. Their cries spread throughout the world and poison everything that lives. Disasters and famines lurk everywhere, and conflicts and wars never cease. The spirit realm, unable to withstand the contaminated energy, will be sealed on the spot, and most of the gods will be corrupted or lose their power.”

Scary words poured out with each word he uttered. It felt like listening to a terrible prophecy. Sibel smiled awkwardly as he looked at me and Isana, who had stiffened without even breathing.

“Anyway, that’s what I know. But as I said, that spell was completely discarded a long time ago. For now, it might be more accurate to say that they’re just imitating it in a similar way. And of course, it has to be. Of course, that itself is a terrible thing, though.”

“……If the spell is really in progress, is the Duke trying to become an evil god?”

“I guess so. Or maybe he’s an assistant to someone who’s trying to become an evil god.”

“…….”

My heart grew heavy rapidly. It was much better when I just thought of him as a bad guy. I thought he was just a human trash who coveted the throne and kicked out his nephew, but the more I learned, the more I felt like I was seeing a monster who had even shed his human skin.

Although the journey I started was to help Isana, it was just a game from my point of view, so I was going to leave everything related to the Duke entirely to him. But if all of this is true, I won’t be able to do that anymore. Sibel patted my shoulder, perhaps worried that my expression had become too stiff.

“Don’t worry too much. If the situation is that serious, the divine realm won’t stand still. Besides, you said they’re taking the form of a burnt offering for the gods, right? Then the person receiving the offering must have already figured out the truth.”

“The person in question……you mean the Demon God?”

“Yes, all the things done in the name of God are reported to that God. I don’t know what that Duke is thinking, but he’s been wrong from the start. To think he’d use the Demon God out of all the gods, he’s chosen the wrong opponent by far. The Demon God is quite strong, so ordinary people can’t stand up to him. He won’t tolerate the act of trying to create an evil god by selling his name. He’ll stop it before the situation gets out of hand.”

……But what if the Demon God is also complicit in that act?

It’s not just once or twice that we’ve caught the Demon God’s Church cooperating with the Duke’s side. Besides, there are suspicions that the Demon God’s temple is involved in the mysterious disappearances that are happening here right now. If the Demon God’s Church is helping the Duke with what he’s doing, can’t we say that it’s the Demon God’s will?

My thoughts are leaning in a bad direction. Isana seemed to have the same thought, but he bit his lip, unable to say it out loud. I shook my head, trying to swallow the rising sigh.

Anyway, now is not the time to worry about this. First, we need to check if Alisa is safe. Maybe all of these things are just our excessive worries. If we’re misunderstanding, we’ll be really sorry to the assistant. But I’d rather apologize on my knees, so I hope that’s the case.

“How about it, El? Can you find her?”

“Um, wait a moment.”

Leaving Isana’s anxious gaze behind, I slowly focused my consciousness on my eyes. I thought I’d start by reading the memories of water to figure out Alisa’s location, since we might get separated if we just set out aimlessly.

*Splash.* When I opened my closed eyes, I began to feel the sensation of small water droplets mixed in the air rippling like waves. The familiar sensation, as if I were the only one in this world, wrapped around my body.

At the same time, my vision was quickly moving beyond the space I was standing in to another space. Starting with passing through the hallway outside the door, countless unfamiliar places flashed by in an instant like a rewinding video.

How much longer did I wander like that? After circling around a few more passages, I was barely able to find Alisa’s sight in a secluded space. She was sitting leisurely on a brown sofa, talking to someone. The other person was a young woman. She didn’t seem to be the headmaster of the academy, so she was probably an employee working here.

“The headmaster has some urgent business to take care of, so she’ll be a little late. Here, please have this while you wait.”

“Oh, thank you.”

When she handed her a teacup, Alisa accepted it with a delighted face. Assistant Ursula was nowhere to be seen around her.

‘Was it just a worry after all?’

I wanted her to be safe, but seeing her so carefree that my worries were overshadowed, I felt drained. Alisa, who had no idea about these circumstances, had a bright face. She seemed a little nervous as she kept sipping the tea she had been served, but she didn’t seem to lose her composure. I was relieved that there wouldn’t be any major problems if things continued like this, and I was about to cut off contact.

“……!”

Suddenly, Alisa’s body seemed to lean to the side, and she fell onto the sofa as she was. Even as I watched the scene clearly in my vision, I didn’t fully realize what had happened for a moment. It was that sudden.

The female employee was also watching the sight. But instead of being surprised, she calmly approached Alisa and checked her consciousness. It was as if she knew it would happen.

‘What…….’

At that time, the closed door opened and someone appeared. I swallowed a slight groan at the sight of the familiar man’s face. It was Assistant Ursula.

“Is it done?”

“Yes, she’s asleep.”

The female employee answered his question with a nervous face.

“Since she’s a spiritist, I used a little stronger medicine than usual. She won’t wake up for half a day.”

“Good.”

The assistant nodded with satisfaction and walked to the sofa, placing something on Alisa’s unconscious hand. It was a restraint that looked like a bracelet.

“A mana control bracelet.”

“Yes, it would be troublesome if she woke up and summoned a spirit.”

“Huhu, to be an intermediate spiritist at such a young age, she’s really an amazing child. You said that the more talented they are, the greater their value, right?”

“Yes, it’s quite a big harvest. I didn’t think there would be any useful children this time. The cart was coming in two days, so we were quite lucky.”

“We should thank the priest who visited at the right time.”

It was obvious who they were talking about when they said priest here. It seems they really recognized me as an accomplice.

Seeing that they regarded me as one of their own without even testing me, who was clearly a stranger, it seems that the only purpose of the Demon God’s followers who visit this place is one. So, of course, they couldn’t have thought that we were all in the same group. It was my lie that I blurted out that led them to our tail.