Episode 33
“…….”
He felt like he had been mistaken about something.
Roki turned his gaze toward the mercenaries.
In all of their eyes was naked hostility mixed with fear.
Albert, who had treated Roki kindly right up until they fell asleep, was now pointing his sword with eyes filled with unwavering resolve, the complete opposite of how he had been before.
‘This is getting annoying.’
He wanted to leave them be, but he wasn’t the type to sit still while someone dared point a sword at him.
Hadn’t he been the Roki who buried every foolish Nod that attacked him back on the frozen earth?
“N-now, wait a moment.”
Then Paul blocked the space between Roki and the mercenaries. And shouted toward Albert.
“He’s been infected, but there’s still, still hope!”
“……?”
“Just a moment… please stay still.”
At Paul’s words, the mercenaries gauged the situation. Killing Roki before them was the best choice, but they hesitated to act because they might catch the plague if they made the slightest mistake.
A few minutes passed like that, and Paul let out a sigh of relief.
“See. He’s not dead. He should die after being infected, but he hasn’t turned into a ‘Wight,’ and his mind looks fine too. I’ve heard of this. People with strong resistance have slower infection rates even with the plague.”
At that, the mercenaries were startled and grew noisy.
“Immunity?”
“Never heard of that.”
“Of course. It’s very rare, and it doesn’t perfectly block infection either.”
Roki looked at Paul with an expression that said he couldn’t understand.
He couldn’t understand the situation from earlier.
Why such monsters had popped out, and why the mercenaries were wary of him.
‘And infection? Don’t tell me you get infected just by touching the skin?’
But he didn’t feel infected at all.
As Roki was checking his body, something approached, writhing, from beyond the door.
Undead that had died from the plague, things called ‘Wights.’
Roki saw them and stepped back.
“This is troublesome.”
‘…It really is troublesome. I don’t want to deal with those guys.’
He had already gotten quite filthy from killing one earlier.
A nauseating smell had seeped into his body.
He couldn’t imagine how dirty he would get if he killed the others too.
Especially since writhing worms were stuck all over their bodies.
‘Of course, it wouldn’t matter if I killed them with a sword or something…’
The problem was that killing them made a nauseating smell assail his nose.
Would he avoid shit because he was scared of it? He was avoiding it because it was dirty.
Roki was reluctant to kill the monsters before his eyes.
The reason was simply because they were ‘dirty,’ but the mercenaries and Albert and Paul, who had no way of knowing that, thought Roki had been intimidated by the monsters’ threat.
However, they didn’t even think of approaching Roki.
Because black blood and chunks of dead bugs were stuck all over his body.
“…Sir Albert. I have a request. Can you stop the Wights from coming in?”
Albert glanced at Paul.
He looked surprised as he saw Paul take out a white bottle from inside his coat.
“My good man, is that…?”
“It’s holy water. Something made by the High Priests that can block Worm Pest infection.”
At Paul’s single sentence, the mercenaries stared at the holy water as if entranced.
“Holy water?!”
“That thing that can cure the plague…!”
The blessed potion that could block the plague, only obtainable from the Holy Order! With holy water that only high priests could make before their eyes, the mercenaries approached Paul as if their eyes would flip, but Albert, sensing danger, drew his sword and stabbed it into the floor.
The stone floor ‘melted’ and sank in like tofu.
“…This old man. I may be old, but…”
Albert swept his gaze over each mercenary and put on a benevolent expression.
“I have the strength to take on everyone here. Anyone who touches Paul will have their hand cut off without mercy.”
At the cold words that contrasted with his smile, the mercenaries backed away.
Albert subdued the mercenaries with momentum alone, then looked at Paul.
“Do you intend to use it?”
“We received help too. We should repay the favor.”
“Hah, you’re too kind for your own good. That ogre back then was practically…”
“Even so, I can’t pretend I don’t know.”
Paul approached him without hesitation.
“Th-this, here.”
Paul carefully held out the holy water.
His face was full of fear that he might catch the plague, but he was holding it out, mustering his courage.
“……”
“Hurry! Or you’ll die!”
“…Thank you.”
As Roki reached out his hand, Paul flinched and recoiled, but barely managed to hand over the holy water.
Because of an atmosphere that made it hard to refuse, he ended up taking the holy water in a daze.
In fact, the group before him with serious expressions and Roki’s inner feelings were complete opposites.
‘This… is really awkward.’
Roki felt even more burdened by the fact that the human he had met by chance was more decent than he had expected.
If they were the cold-hearted, backstabbing sort, Roki would have known exactly how to treat them. But to try to share even holy water, which was obviously a precious lifeline…
‘Interesting humans.’
They were rare kind souls in this cruel world.
Paul saw Roki’s smile and, perhaps misunderstanding, smiled bitterly.
“You don’t need to be so moved. We live by helping each other. Stay still. I’ll dispel the ‘curse’ on your body.”
Paul raised his staff, pointed it at Roki, and muttered small, incomprehensible sentences.
Then a stream of water formed in the air and cleanly washed away the black blood and bugs stuck to Roki.
“Curse?”
“Those bugs, I’ve researched them before. They’re created by a ‘curse’ made with black magic.”
‘…So that’s why I felt mana?’
“Here! Drink quickly. That way. You’ll be cured!”
Roki looked at the holy water and drank.
The feeling of it going down his throat was chilly. Yet strangely, it also stung.
It felt like drinking a carbonated drink.
‘…Come to think of it, didn’t Roki have fire and darkness attributes? If it’s holy water, would it be light attribute?’
Perhaps because of that, the feeling was unusual.
“How is it? Do you feel better?”
“It feels like I drank cool carbonated water.”
It was when Paul tilted his head in confusion.
—Kraaaaah!
As the monster, the thing called a Wight, tried to leap toward the door, Albert quickly ran out. And swung his sword with all his might from below to above.
The hard and tough Wight’s body seemed to split in half by a flash of light, and as it died, it scattered black blood and worms in all directions.
Albert calmly distanced himself and dodged it. However, his face was tinged with tension.
The bugs clinging to his sword sparked and burned.
Albert’s divine ability [Thunder].
It was the ability to flow lightning through his sword.
‘…Attacking is my specialty, but for defense, Rapilta, who uses a shield as her main weapon, would be ideal. I wonder how long this old man can last.’
“Hah… where is that so-called knight when people are in crisis. Ah, he was in charge of defending the castle gate.”
Albert shook his head.
“He’s good at running away… so he’s probably safe.”
Albert glanced behind him.
The mercenaries were either cowering in corners in fear, staring blankly at the empty holy water bottle, or looking at Albert with astonished expressions, that was all.
“What are you all standing there so blankly for! You youngsters are slow-witted! Quickly bring things to block the entrance!”
“Huh? Ah! Yes!”
“Move—!”
The mercenaries moved heavy furniture to block the entrance. But perhaps that alone was insufficient, as the furniture shook with thumping sounds.
Each time it shook, dust and fragments flew, a monstrous strength no ordinary human could produce.
The reason Worm Pest is scary is because of its high infection rate and fatality, but what is even scarier is that when the dead revive as ‘Wights,’ they gain physically absurd strength and speed.
It is said that ordinary swords and spears of normal people can’t even pierce their hide, making them difficult to kill.
Roki was being examined by Paul as he looked at the entrance.
Whether Wights kept flocking or not, the door at the entrance shook even more violently.
They would probably only last a few minutes.
“Are windows and such fine?”
“…Surprisingly, Wights cannot perceive things like windows. Covering windows might provide some prevention, but it’s not completely safe.”
“You know a lot.”
When Roki spoke, Paul gave a bitter smile.
“Because this plague broke out in my country. Wizards, alchemists, healers, pharmacists… countless people researched to find a cure somehow. I did too. Of course, everyone failed and gave up due to the risk of infection, but…”
Paul bit his lower lip as if frustrated.
“…….”
“Stay still. I’ll check your condition.”
Paul took Roki’s hand and muttered incomprehensible sentences. Accordingly, light permeated Roki’s body and Paul manifested a spell to examine his body, but before long, the spell stopped.
Paul looked at Roki’s hand with a surprised face.
“…Why isn’t the examination spell manifesting?”
“…….”
Roki smiled awkwardly.
Among the settings when creating the Roki avatar was resistance to magic. It repelled most magic, including low-level spells.
Healing magic or support magic that raised physical abilities was allowed, but if something tried to intrude into the body, a repelling force acted against it.
Unable to check Roki’s condition with magic, Paul asked with a serious expression.
“How do you feel?”
Paul was trying to check Roki’s condition one by one, seemingly quite worried.
Roki waved his hand as if it were nothing.
“Do not worry. I know my own body well. I don’t know what Worm Pest is… but thanks to the holy water Paul gave me, there seems to be no problem.”
“Haah-, that’s a relief. Truly…”
Paul let out a sigh of relief. Because he truly seemed to think so, Roki was left with a good impression of him.
“So, what shall we do now? Aren’t all the entrances blocked?”
As Albert approached and asked, Paul looked around inside the castle, thinking carefully.
“First… let’s find a secret passage.”
A secret passage?
Not only Roki and Albert, but the mercenaries too looked at Paul.
“Even if this is the countryside, this is a fortress where the lord lives. There should be a secret passage to escape through in emergencies.”
“I see! Then I can survive?!”
Azar had approached at some point.
He had been trembling in terror at the mere mention of Worm Pest until just now, but upon hearing Paul’s words, he had jumped up as if gaining hope.
Azar pointed his finger at the mercenaries and shouted.
“Hey! Quickly find the entrance! There will be a secret passage!”
And so they scattered to find the secret passage.
Roki entered the noble’s room where Azar had stayed.
Roki looked around his surroundings.
‘Usually, there are secret passages in the lord’s chamber.’
“I wonder where it is.”
Roki scanned the surrounding walls, ceiling, floor, and around the bed with a feeling as if he were a detective.
After confirming that there was no one there besides slaves, he lifted the bed with one hand to check underneath as well.
“Nothing.”
Roki smacked his lips.
He looked around, but couldn’t see anything resembling a door.
Naturally, since it was a secret passage, it would be hidden somewhere tightly.
‘In something like an RPG game, you often find a hidden door by pulling a book from a bookshelf or something.’
With that thought, he pulled out all the books from the bookshelf, but there was no reaction.
Feeling disappointed, just as Roki was about to turn around, a strange wind sound came from the bookshelf.
“…I see. Rather than a secret door, it was simply covering the back.”
Roki mercilessly kicked the bookshelf.
The bookshelf collapsed with a thud, and behind it, a secret passage made of stone walls was revealed.