[Translator - Peptobismal]
[Proofreader - Max]
Chapter 55: The Missing Children (5)
On the way up from the basent, the first thing he saw was a charred corpse.
The charcoal figure, which had once taken the form of an old woman, was now beyond recognition.
Judging from its position, it collapsed on the stairs, it seed it didn't even have the strength to climb up to the mansion.
Hal stared at it for a mont, then quietly stepped over it and continued upwards.
Clank.
He pushed the iron door, and it opened with a heavy thud, leading to the first floor of the mansion.
And the mont he stepped out,
"..."
He could sense that sothing was terribly wrong.
The interior was blackened.
The chandelier on the ceiling was rusted, and the wooden pillars were rotten and crumbling.
Cobwebs and mold were growing all over the walls.
"Where... where is this?"
Even the girl, who had gone in and out of the basent with the old woman several tis, was speechless at the changed scenery.
But Hal could confirm that this was the mansion they had visited.
From the entrance to the hallway leading to the drawing-room.
The structure was no different from before.
In other words,
"It was an illusion."
This luxurious mansion had been an illusion from the start.
Not only Hal and his companions, but even the children had been under an illusion from the beginning.
'No wonder I couldn't sense any demonic energy.'
Hal's party had said they found the problematic fruit near the mansion.
The area around the mansion was already the domain of Carnosa Vinea and its subordinate, the Trent.
They must have been gradually consud by the illusion even before entering the mansion.
'Did the illusion break because the Trent died? Or was it sothing else...?'
It was unclear why they had been affected.
But at least this mont, now that they were free from the illusion, must be reality.
Hal continued his speculation as he looked around.
Fortunately, there seed to be nothing dangerous.
Just old and dirty.
Just then, he heard a strange sound from sowhere.
Thwack
At the rhythmic sound, Hal sensed soone's presence.
"Lena, and Mr. Ono, please stay here with the children."
"Okay."
"Sir Daniel, please follow ."
"Alright."
Hal drew the sword he had retrieved while escaping the basent and moved forward.
The sound ca from behind a nearby door.
The mansion's garden.
Hal flung open the mansion door without hesitation.
And there, he found an unexpected person.
"...You."
"Ah, it's the priest-nim."
The gaunt man smiled amiably.
He was the man who had asked him to find his family at the cabin.
"How did you get here?"
"I didn't know there was a villa belonging to the lord so close by. I followed the priest-nim just in case, and it led here."
He stopped chopping wood and wiped the beads of sweat from his brow with his sleeve.
Hal silently stared at the axe in the man's hand.
He had found the source of the rhythmic noise he had heard from the mansion.
"What's that?"
At Hal's gesture, the man raised the axe and replied,
"Ah, it's nothing special... After the priest-nim left, I had this thought. Maybe my wife didn't abandon and run away."
"..."
Hal gazed intently at the man.
The man's smile faltered.
"That can't be right. That's different from what my wife told ."
"Told you?"
Hal asked with an impassive expression.
The man nodded.
"Yes. My wife clearly said she would abandon the children in the forest and co back."
The man's bloodshot eyes glead with madness.
"Then why is she here?"
The man raised his axe and struck the tree in front of him.
To his surprise, red blood oozed from the tree.
Looking closely, the tree had the shape of a woman.
Branches sprouted from her outstretched arms, and her legs had beco roots, embedded in the ground.
At first glance, it looked like an ordinary tree, but the woman's face was still clearly visible.
Hal had seen that face before.
It was the mother of the children, the one the girl had carried out of the basent on her back.
Hal roughly understood what was going on.
But there was one thing he wanted to ask.
"Why did you try to abandon your children?"
"...Are you going to condemn too, Priest-nim? But if I hadn't, both my wife and I would have starved to death this winter."
"Is that why you tried to abandon them?"
"I've abandoned them many tis already. But they always co back. Crafty little things."
The man spat out the words.
Hal finally understood the aning of the bread crumbs scattered on the road.
It must have been a way for the children to find their way back ho alive.
The man, his anger still burning, raised his axe again towards his wife.
"...!"
Daniel, who had been watching the situation from behind, drew his sword to stop the man.
Thud
Hal stopped Daniel, who was about to step forward.
"Hal?"
"Wait."
Hal said, pointing at the man with his eyes.
Sothing about the man's condition hadn't seed right from the start.
"...Ugh!"
A mont later, the man started coughing violently, spewing out a mouthful of leaves.
"...What's that?"
"That's the middle stage of infection."
Hal watched the man writhing in pain.
The man's fingernails lifted, and fresh branches began to sprout.
His legs twisted, roots sprouted, and he rooted himself to the ground.
Crack
With the sound of tearing skin, branches sprouted from his chest, eyes, and mouth.
The man, transford into a tree in an instant, beca completely still.
Daniel couldn't help but frown at the grueso sight.
"...How horrible."
"It seems the fruit from the cabin was also a seed of Vinea."
To have progressed this far, he must have eaten the fruit quite a while ago.
"So what happened?"
Daniel asked, still seemingly confused.
Hal approached the man-turned-tree with an expressionless face and replied,
"As he said, it's likely true that they decided to abandon the children together because they couldn't overco their hunger."
"Then why did she deceive her husband and co here?"
"I don't know."
Perhaps, as her husband suspected, the woman took pity on the children and fled with them.
Or maybe she simply discovered this mansion and entered it when she was about to abandon the children.
Only the woman, now a tree, would know the truth, but it didn't really matter anymore.
"Then... what are we going to do now?"
Daniel asked, looking around at the trees in the mansion's garden.
Although he wasn't sure, many of them must have been humans who had turned into trees.
Hal swung his sword, leaving a small cut on the man-turned-tree.
Then, sheathing his sword, he replied,
"There are stages to Vinea's infection."
The early stage was when plants grew from the body of a living human.
The middle stage was when they completely turned into trees, losing their human consciousness.
And the final stage was... the stage where they were resurrected as Trents, like the old woman in the mansion.
"A human form will appear on the roots of this tree. When the ti cos, it will dig its way out of the soil. That's what's called a Trent."
Fortunately, there were no signs of Trents in the final stage in the mansion yet.
But these trees, laden with fruit, would soon beco Trents and revive.
In the early stage, they could be restored to their original state with just salt water.
But unfortunately, from the middle stage onwards, there was no way to turn back into a human.
They had already beco beings belonging to the demon.
And Hal only knew one way to deal with demons.
"We have to burn them all."
With a cold, heavy voice, Hal clasped his hands together.
Azure flas erupted from the body of the man-turned-tree.
Pushing back the darkness of the night, the Azure Fla, shining brighter than the moonlight, fluttered in the wind and scattered around.
The Azure flas landed on the trees in the mansion's garden one by one.
Whoosh
In the blink of an eye, the Azure flas surged like a sea, spewing out brilliant light.
It was then.
With a creak, the front door opened.
Ono, Lena, and the children cautiously walked out of the mansion.
"Wow..."
"...So pretty."
The girl and boy gasped in amazent at the dreamlike scenery.
Although they didn't make a sound, the others also gaped at the overwhelming sight.
No one spoke, only watching the spectacle before them.
Naturally, even amidst the surging flas, they felt no heat.
The Azure sparks fluttering like flower petals only gave a cozy feeling.
How much ti had passed like that?
Hal slowly lowered himself and t the eyes of the two children.
"I have sothing to tell you."
"Oh, what is it?"
When the two children tilted their heads and asked, Hal continued calmly,
"I forgot to ntion it, but your father asked us to take care of you. He said he had so business and would be leaving the cabin for a while."
"...Oh."
The boy and girl looked at each other, seemingly bewildered.
Hal made a suggestion to them.
"We're on our way to et the lord of Lonely Ridge. Perhaps there will be a place for you to stay there. Would you like to co with us?"
"..."
The children didn't hesitate for long.
"Yes, we would. We'll go anywhere with you, Priest-nim."
The two children, uncharacteristically mature, smiled at each other.
Their composed reply sohow made his heart ache.
Perhaps the children had noticed Hal's lie.
After all, they were children who had noticed their parents trying to abandon them and returned ho several tis.
Hal placed his hands on their heads and stroked them, asking,
"Very well. I swear on my life to keep you safe. What are your nas?"
The boy seed to realize that he hadn't even introduced himself, letting out an "Ah!" of surprise.
Then, he made eye contact with the girl, smiled, and introduced himself.
"I'm Hansel. And this is my sister, Gretel."
"It's a pleasure to et you, Hansel and Gretel."
"The pleasure is ours."
Hansel and Gretel bowed politely and then raised their heads.
"Wow!"
The children's eyes widened at the sight of the sky covered in Azure flas.
It was truly a blue sky blooming in the darkness.
The Azure flas continued to burn brightly, showing no signs of fading.
The scene, like sothing out of a fairy tale, was truly beautiful.
***
On the road to Lonely Ridge Castle, Daniel was at the forefront, as always.
Behind him, Hal and Lena rode their horses, each holding a child in their arms, and Ono followed at the rear, keeping watch.
Fortunately, nothing else happened after that.
They had departed at dawn, so they should be able to arrive before sunset.
The children, their tension relieved, let out a rumble from their stomachs.
"Shall we have a al here?"
"Good idea."
Just as Hal nodded in agreent to Lena's suggestion,
"Wait. There's soone up ahead."
Daniel said, reining in his horse.
Hal, who had the furthest sight among them, rode his horse next to Daniel.
As he said, there was a group of people under the shade of a tree, a little off the main road.
They were all clad in armor, feeding their horses hay and having a simple al themselves.
"Knights... no, with this many, it's a knight order."
Hal looked closer to find a banner, but there was nothing noticeable.
It was strange that there was no banner if it was a knight order.
But after a mont,
The group seed to have noticed them as well and beca noisy.
"...What should we do?"
Daniel asked Hal cautiously.
Being a knight himself, Daniel knew well what kind of people knights were.
There were few knights who pursued honor and justice, like the ones children admired in novels.
Most knights were killing machines who took money to kill people, regardless of right or wrong.
Even those who fought under the command of their lord were considered fortunate.
Poor wandering knights without a master sotis resorted to plundering, so encountering knights on the road was not a pleasant experience.
"Let's go."
Hal spoke plainly and urged his horse forward.
His confidence wasn't baseless.
Firstly, the opponents' armor looked expensive and well-maintained for re wandering knights.
Their numbers were also considerable.
They were probably not the type to go around looting.
'And the other reason is...'
He was confident he could escape even if they had to fight.
If he used Dragon Blood, he could buy enough ti for his companions to flee.
Moreover, his group included Daniel, one of the top-ranking knights, Ono, an elite mber of the Order, and Lena, the top graduate of the Magic Tower.
With this much power, they weren't likely to be easily defeated.
'Well, even so, it would be reckless to fight against that many knights.'
Therefore, Hal and his companions cautiously approached, slowly closing the distance.
The knights on the other side seed to soften their stance as they saw the group approaching slowly.
This was especially true after they got closer and saw Hansel and Gretel.
The knight sheathed his sword and asked,
"Who are you?"
Hal showed them his exorcist priest badge.
"We're from the Order."
"Exorcist priests? What brings you here...?"
The knights' eyes widened in surprise as they muttered.
"Step aside."
One of the knights rode his horse in front of Hal.
The other knights stepped back and bowed their heads.
Hal looked at him and asked,
"Who are you?"
The man, who had been gazing intently at Hal, took off his helt.
White skin and black hair.
The handso young man slowly opened his mouth.
"I am the ruler of Dekkan and the protector of the northern Empire. Rupert Glenvale of the Glenvale clan."
[TL/N: Glenval→Glenvale]
[Translator - Peptobismal]
[Proofreader - Max]
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