Chapter 111

“We’ve arrived.”

The carriage door opened.

Quilbion stepped down from the carriage and looked around. Far in the distance, houses were visible. Four-legged beasts wandered around the empty homes before disappearing.

“It’s deserted.”

Elcoco spoke.

Ruki, who’d dismounted from his horse, approached.

“The incident occurred throughout this general area. We’ve conducted several investigations, but there was nothing particularly unusual.”

Quilbion released ten cats. When the small black cats slipped between the soldiers, there was a brief commotion.

“Idril and I will examine the area within a 5km radius centered on the houses. The rest of you should investigate the outskirts.”

A slight headache arose from the flood of visual information pouring in all at once. Quilbion pressed his neck while moving forward.

“What about me?”

Elcoco followed behind and asked.

“Stay next to Ruki.”

“Can’t I come with you? My knowledge might be helpful.”

“I’ll call you after I’ve checked things out. If something happens to you, it’ll be trouble for me.”

She was a child Flan cherished. If problems arose with Elcoco, his relationship with Flan could sour.

“I’ll be careful.”

Quilbion threw a glance at Elcoco. With a trace of hostility.

Elcoco’s face instantly turned pale as she staggered backward.

“I don’t like saying things twice.”

“Ah, understood.”

He separated from the group and headed toward the cluster of houses. Idril, who’d been walking beside him, spoke.

“Ms. Elcoco must have been very frightened. Ordinary people have a hard time enduring that kind of gaze.”

“I know.”

“If you know, you should be a bit more considerate.”

“I’ll try next time.”

He recalled the cats that had been roaming through fields, pastures, and empty houses.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything problematic. Do you see anything, Mr. Idril?”

“There’s nothing particularly bothersome. But if this incident is because of a dogma, the time of day might be important.”

“There are entities that only operate at night, I suppose.”

“Even if not exclusively at night, some hide somewhere and only reveal themselves at specific times. Those types are easy to catch once you find their pattern.”

He opened the half-closed door and went inside. Clothing was strewn about. It was a space with a lived-in feeling.

Idril picked up a wooden ball lying on the floor. He blew a puff of air to scatter the dust.

“Looks like there were children too.”

“With about 150 settlers, there must have been quite a few children.”

“Nearly half the people dying from an unknown cause……”

Idril rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a small sculpture slightly smaller than his fist. It was in the form of a rat standing on its front paws with smiling eyes.

“What’s that?”

“It’s something I use when blessing the dead.”

“It’s a rat.”

“Yes. The form isn’t fixed.”

“Did you make it yourself?”

“I carve them in my spare time.”

Idril, who’d been looking around, placed the rat sculpture beneath a sunny window.

He knelt on one knee and began speaking in a quiet voice.

Quilbion surveyed his surroundings through his naked eyes, discernment eyes, and the vision his sixth sense brought.

Something was moving.

Something that was neither mana nor nark was reacting to Idril’s voice.

It was a strange sensation. It exists, but cannot be seen.

Quilbion went outside the house. Idril alone was enough to honor the dead.

He stamped his feet and rose high into the air. A little ways away, he could see a house site where only the foundation had been laid.

What caught his eye was the bone lying beside it. Using nark as a foothold, he changed direction.

After planting his feet on the ground, he looked at the bone. It was a calf’s bone. Had livestock died as well, not just humans?

He gripped the bone and examined it from various angles.

Death inevitably leaves traces. If slashed with a blade, there’s a cut surface. If torn apart by teeth, there’s tattered flesh. If burned, there are contracted muscles.

Quilbion smiled faintly.

Between the bones, very faint traces of intent remained.

It was an interesting phenomenon. Intent dissolves into nark, and when nark disperses, the intent typically evaporates as well.

The nark had vanished, but the intent remained.

Is the mind such a tenacious thing?

He crushed the bone.

Bone powder stained his palm white.

A scream was heard. At the same time, a strong hunger was felt. The owner of the intent didn’t crave flesh. It ravenously devoured souls, spirits, and mental images.

No wonder nothing could be seen even when examining the corpses of the dead.

The cause had changed from unknown death to death with a clear reason.

Then where was the culprit?

“What are you doing?”

Idril approached. It seemed the blessing had finished. Quilbion brushed his hands, scattering the bone powder.

“It looks like a goblin’s doing…… a dogma’s doing. I’ll need to examine more to be certain.”

“Did you find traces of a curse?”

Quilbion pointed at the calf’s bone. Idril pulled out black gloves, put them on, and carefully examined the bone.

“Hmm, I can’t really tell. I don’t see any residue.”

“You probably can’t see it, Mr. Idril. The curse’s source has disappeared, leaving only its remnants.”

“I see. Actually, my eye for discerning curses isn’t very good. My seniors told me many times to train my discernment eyes, but it hasn’t been working out well.”

Idril carefully set the bone down.

“Those cats from earlier…… they’re curses, right?”

“Since we’re on the topic, let’s clarify terminology.”

Quilbion lightly brushed his hand. Nark transformed into the shape of a rake and settled into his grip.

“You’d call this a curse, right, Mr. Idril?”

“Yes, it’s clearly a curse to anyone.”

“They say curses bring misfortune, so if I hold this, I should become unlucky, shouldn’t I?”

“Uh, well. I suppose so?”

“My life has been thoroughly twisted, but holding this doesn’t make some mysterious misfortune find me. This is simply a medium.”

He held out the rake. Idril recoiled in fright and stepped back.

“Let me ask a childish question.”

“Wh-what kind?”

“Do you trust me?”

“……I treat people with trust. I try to trust them when possible. Though it doesn’t always work out the way I want.”

Quilbion lightly flicked the rake in his hand. Idril’s pupils followed the swaying rake up and down.

“Alright. I’ll touch it. I want to trust you, Mr. Quil.”

Idril’s hand touched the rake.

“How is it?”

“For now, nothing’s wrong. When you touch a curse, you feel discomfort, and in severe cases the skin necrotizes, but this is fine. It looks like a curse but isn’t a curse……”

Quilbion gently let intent flow. Mental anguish he’d experienced countless times was momentarily carried by the nark.

Idril’s eyes widened. His bloodshot eyes knelt on one knee. A faint groan flowed from his twisted mouth. His pupils dilated and narrowed before his whole body trembled.

“How about this?”

“S-save……”

Quilbion withdrew the nark. Idril collapsed onto the ground with a thud. He seemed to have fainted.

He lifted the collapsed Idril and brought him inside the house.

The rat sculpture placed beneath the window entered his view. A smiling rat. Was it a representation of the giant rat he’d said he saw in his dream?

Quilbion wandered around searching for intent. He could have learned more by examining the settlers’ corpses, but they’d been burned long ago. They said all the bodies of those who died mysterious deaths were burned since burying them in the ground would bring misfortune.

He wandered through the vegetable gardens before entering the mountain adjacent to the village.

He summoned cats again to search the mountain.

About 20 minutes passed.

One of the cats evaporated.

Quilbion moved quickly to where the cat had disappeared. He examined the surroundings with his discernment eyes, but there were no unusual features.

A strongly connected thread of nark had been severed in an instant, which meant it had been attacked.

It was certain now. A goblin that had devoured human souls was nearby.

Did it have no intention of attacking immediately?

Quilbion neatly folded a talisman and formed hand seals. The surrounding trees began resonating.

Rustle rustle, the leaves shook mercilessly before falling to the ground.

The trees pulled up their roots and stood.

If he’d been in his original body, he could have uprooted hundreds at once, but as a mental entity, he had to avoid excessive sorcery.

If problems arose and the mental entity lost its substantiality, it would become troublesome.

Fifty trees moved with thundering sounds.

The first goblin he’d encountered outside had taken a dog’s form. That meant external goblins also possessed physical bodies.

There’s nowhere to hide in the sky, so if there was a goblin nearby…….

Quilbion narrowed his eyes and looked at the now-bare mountainside.

If he kept rummaging around, something would emerge.

Though he was in mental entity form, the nark transmitted through the gap remained constant. The amount of nark he could unleash instantaneously had decreased compared to his original body, but his sustaining power was no different from the original.

He settled himself atop a moving tree and stretched out his legs.

The sky, drained of light, had grown dusky.

“Come out already.”

Quilbion gently closed his eyes.

* * *

“Aaaaah!”

Idril woke with a scream.

He was drenched in sweat. It felt like waking from a fever.

For a while, he couldn’t gather his wits.

Just recalling it made him flinch—’that impression’ had turned his mind into a complete mess.

How many minutes had passed with his eyes open?

Idril finally managed to escape from the confusion.

He clutched his throbbing head and turned it. Only now did his surroundings register.

The window where moonlight seeped in, the wooden figurine he’d placed there, and.

“Ugh.”

Idril tapped his forehead with his palm. He remembered. He’d fainted after touching the mass of curses Quilbion had shown him.

At first it was fine, but then a strange energy surged in, transforming into unbearable agony.

What on earth was that?

Idril tried to recall the memory before startling himself into stopping his thoughts.

The act of remembering itself seemed like it would lead to pain.

“That’s a terrible curse.”

Cold sweat formed again.

He steadied his breathing. His mind gradually cleared and soon he could move.

He checked his body’s condition. Aside from his mood being terrible, there were no physical problems.

Idril lifted the wooden figurine and enclosed it with both hands.

“Great guardian of the mountain, please help us.”

It was as he finished his short prayer.

A faint vibration was felt. And thud, thud, thud sounds were also heard.

What’s happening?

He hurried outside the house.

In the distance, lights were approaching.

At the front was Elcoco. The rest were soldiers from the territory.

“Mr. Idril!”

“Ms. Elcoco, you shouldn’t approach……”

“Is that what matters right now? Don’t you see that?”

Elcoco raised her finger with a dumbfounded expression. He turned his body following the finger pointing backward.

Houses were visible.

What’s the problem?

“The mountain! The mountain!”

Elcoco grabbed Idril’s arm and pulled him to the right.

Only then did it enter his vision.

Far away, a mountain was visible.

The problem was that the trees that should be calmly rooted in the mountain were moving like mad.

Idril blinked before rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand.

The trees were still moving.

“Our territory is going to change in many ways from now on.”

The man named Ruki spoke filled with joy. Why he was so delighted, Idril couldn’t understand.

“Shouldn’t we go there?”

Elcoco spoke urgently.

“Please stay here for now. I’ll go first.”

A powerful curse-scent emanated from the moving trees. It was the same scent as the curse from Quilbion’s body.

While suppressing his rising fear, Idril moved toward the mountain.