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Chapter 78

But if it would be dangerous no matter where we went, then at least the shack could shield us from the cold.

“Here.”

Sharyl pushed something toward me.

I wasn’t sure what it was for a moment, but then I recognized it was a potion.

“What about it?”

“Use it... You don’t look too good right now.”

I looked down and checked my condition.

Due to the demon’s flames, my entire body was burned.

“It’s fine, so put it away. I’ll heal.”

Thanks to the regenerative property of the Strongest Fire Technique, a burn of this level could be healed in only a few days.

Although my skin itched somewhat, it wasn’t unbearable.

If my predictions were correct, we would encounter many more opportunities to use our potion in the future. There was no need to waste it here.

“This isn’t the time to act tough.”

“Luan, we’re really fine, so please use it.”

“I said I’m fine.”

“We’re not going to give it to you if you ask for it later.”

“Sure.”

“Hmph.”

Sharyl huffed as she took back the potion.

Another moment of silence passed.

“...I’m asking just in case... This isn’t, like, some special show put on by House Bednicker, right?”

Sharyl still didn’t look to have fully calmed down, but she seemed to have regained her composure somewhat.

I couldn’t help but laugh at her strange guess.

“What kind of crazy house would gather young heroes and bring in a demon to fight them?”

“Right. But you can’t know for sure with the Bednickers.”

“Is that how my house is seen?”

Evan was the one who answered that question.

“There are rumors about how Bednicker captures demons alive, imprisons them underground, interrogates them, and so on.”

“I’ve heard that as well!”

“Those are false rumors.”

“...I guess.”

Of course, unrelated to that, it seemed true that all sorts of secrets were hidden beneath Bednicker’s main house...

In any case, no matter how insane House Bednicker was, they wouldn’t do something as insane as unleashing a demon to increase the difficulty of their training camp.

Ignoring how implausible something like that was, it was impossible due to the nature of the family head.

The Lord of Blood and Iron, letting a demon live within his territory?

It would never happen, not even if the sky was falling.

...Of course, there were still a few possible explanations for the demon.

There were still traitors remaining within House Bednicker.

Hariba had just been a pawn; the true mastermind was likely still within House Bednicker, continuing to scheme.

If this was the fruit of that mastermind’s plan, it wasn’t unbelievable that something like this had happened within House Bednicker’s territory.

“...Sigh. It’s said that House Bednicker’s territory is one of the lands safest from the cult. I never expected something like this to happen.”

“Yeah.”

Had something like this happened in my past life?

I couldn’t remember anything of the sort at the moment.

If it hadn’t happened, then was this incident because of me?

I calmly began to compare my actions in my previous life to the actions I’d taken in this life.

The first thing that came to mind was how I’d killed Osel in the Gem Mountains and defeated Hariba in the main house.

These actions could have kicked the hornet’s nest...

The other thing that crossed my mind was Pam’s face.

If I hadn’t taken those actions, something like this might not have happened and Pam might still be alive.

In that sense, it could be said that I’d killed Pam.

Wuaaaaah...

An odd cry was heard.

“...”

“...”

It was from far away, but we immediately quieted down.

That was how strong the demon we had just fought was.

“...What do we do now?”

Sharyl was asking for my opinion, but she seemed a little different from usual.

Before, her tone had been “Sure. I guess I’ll hear you out,” but now it was more like she was shunting the responsibility of the team and even of thinking over to me.

As I immersed myself in that useless thought and didn’t answer her question, Sharyl grew impatient.

“What if we just wait here? No matter how large the forest is, it’s still Bednicker territory. The House should send someone out to deal with them.”

“Maybe...”

That would be nice... but it was too optimistic.

The ones who’d caused this incident weren’t some lowly pawns.

They were skilled enough to infiltrate Houe Bednicker. They were surely confident that they wouldn’t be found out.

Someone like that—someone who could create an incident of this scale within the grounds of House Bednicker—probably had a reason to be confident.

Even if help did arrive, it would take quite a while. Maybe they’d calculated that they could accomplish their goals before help could arrive?

...Of course, if I revealed my thoughts to everyone here, they would only fall further into panic, so I didn’t say anything.

“S-say something.”

“Why are you stuttering?”

“Because you usually talk a lot, but now you’re quiet!”

“...”

Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t been talking quite as much since seeing Pam’s body.

“Hmm... what did you ask me? My thoughts?”

“Yes.”

If you want to know so badly...

“I’m thinking about going back out to look for others.”

“...You’re joking, right?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

“Didn’t you hear the demon’s roar?” Sharyl said, sounding frustrated.

“I did.”

“And you’re going to go out again?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Because that gives us the highest chance of surviving.”

“What?”

“A house divided against itself cannot stand. Haven’t you heard that before?”

“I haven’t.”

“What about ‘those who seek death shall live, and those who seek life shall die’?”

“Never heard of it.”

Really?

Well, these were random phrases that my third senior brother had said a lot, and I had never heard anyone say them but him...

But I felt like those sayings were applicable in this situation.

Even though I didn’t know for sure how many demons there were, there would be at least a few dozen.

Even if I entered my White Flame form, there was no chance I could kill all those demons.

“If we keep hiding here, we’ll be safe for a day, maybe two if we get lucky...” I paused for a moment before asking, “But what about after that?”

“What?”

“Three days, four, five, six... maybe even a week. Do you think the demons won’t have found us by then?”

“That’s...”

I looked at my team members.

“We’ll have to fight a demon at least one more time, and it’ll probably be two demons at the same time. If we want to live, we must increase our numbers. We need to find at least one more living young hero.”

This test wasn’t the main goal at all anymore, nor was the competition.

Honestly, what I was most curious about wasn’t the state of the other young heroes.

The instructors.

The instructors, the grand masters... what were they doing now?

* * * * *

* * * * *

Instructor of Doctrine, Juniang.

She was an official priest of the Church of the Sun, a heretic inquisitor, and a grand master of House Bednicker.

Among the grand masters, she was a special case.

Usually, those who came to Bednicker and became a grand master cut off their connections with outside organizations and no longer performed the jobs they’d had outside.

That wasn’t the case for Juniang. She was still a priest of the Church of the Sun and its heretic inquisitor.

There was no grand reason she’d accepted the role of one of Bednicker’s grand masters.

The Lord of Blood and Iron, the family head, was said to instill fear even in demons. She just wanted to have a close friendship with such a man and see his skills.

Of course, the Lord of Blood and Iron was a very busy man.

Sometimes, she couldn’t even think of him as the family head of one of the Great Houses. From what she’d heard, he rarely stayed in the main house for even a month out of the entire year.

Juniang couldn’t say how true that was, but after her first meeting with the Lord of Blood and Iron, it had been quite a while before she was able to see him again.

She’d accomplished her goal about three years after becoming a grand master.

Due to some circumstances, she’d ended up going demon hunting with the Lord of Blood and Iron.

A grey land already deeply infected with demonic energies, land which had become the territory of demons and monsters, a so-called dead land...

Although this was a job given to the heretic inquisitors of the Church of the Sun, the Lord of Blood and Iron had ended up joining up with her in the middle of her mission.

There, Juniang had realized something.

The Lord of Blood and Iron wasn’t like any demon hunter.

One of the heretic inquisitors standing next to her had mumbled, “...I can’t tell who the real demon is.”

He’d received a warning for that.

Though Juniang hadn’t shown it outwardly, she’d agreed with the sentiment.

Generally speaking, a great deal of preparation was needed for a hunt.

All sorts of weapons, tools, and information about their target, even a method of escape if the worst came to pass.

The reasons were simple.

Even veteran heretic inquisitors couldn’t be sure of victory in a direct confrontation against either the cult or the demons.

That was why what the Lord of Blood and Iron had shown them couldn’t be called a hunt.

People usually didn’t call the act of killing two hundred demons in under 10 minutes “hunting.”

“...Nothing to report here.”

As she received a report from one of the knights, Juniang raised her head.

They were from the Fang Knight Order.

She couldn’t remember their name.

“What do you wish to do? It doesn’t seem there’s any point looking any longer...”

“...”

The knight was subtly expressing his tiredness.

The others around her seemed to be in the same boat.

I guess this is it.

This was the limit of how much she could command the knights with her position as a grand master.

Juniang nodded.

“All right. You may return.”

“What about you, Instructor?”

“I will look around a little more.”

She’s wasting time.

That’s what the knight’s expression said as he lowered his head.

“Understood.”

As the knights walked off, she could hear them complaining.

“...I don’t know why she had to be out here so early in the morning.”

“A weird omen in the forest... Has that woman never heard about Sir Asad’s barrier?”

“Heretic inquisitors are always weird.”

“...”

Juniang could hear their whispers clearly, but she didn’t call out to them or chastise them.

Since she was the one who’d used the excuse of “weird energy coming from the forest” to call them here, she could at least forgive them for thinking that.

Of course, Juniang didn’t say what she was really thinking. There was no way she could.

Who would believe that she’d felt demonic energy within Bednicker territory?

“...Hm.”

Juniang raised her head.

A dense forest, a dark and cloudy sky...

Maybe a cool rain would improve the situation.

“...Lord Aton.”

Please let all this be a mistake.