Chapter 118

The boy, silhouetted against the sunset, leaned against an unmarked grave. The girl with crimson eyes wielded her blade, dispatching the grotesque monsters that lunged at the boy, one by one.

Ten gold at a time, the girl’s fortune steadily grew.

Moments later, the boy, the girl, and the elf began to walk endlessly through the vast cemetery.

Now and then, monsters like the ‘Pale Ones’ and ‘Restless Dead’ bared their fangs at them, but nothing managed to wound them.

Most problems were resolved at the tip of the girl’s blade.

In the process of guarding the two, Sion had already taken down twelve monsters.

The boy already owed the girl 120 gold. And their destination, the massive church, was nowhere to be seen, not even a shadow of it.

“How much land does a man need?”

The boy muttered, recalling a book as he watched the girl swinging her greed-stained dagger.

The farmer, Pakhom, died without even properly seeing all the money he had earned.

‘Why is she working so hard for money she won’t even be able to use anyway?’

The boy couldn’t help but watch the girl with pity.

And seeing the boy looking at her with such pity, Sion couldn’t help but fall into thought.

‘He’s definitely got some kind of plan.’

She had declared that she would extort at least 4000 gold from Bean.

“…A devil’s contract is absolute. The price *must* be paid. No matter how you calculate the possibilities, there is no choosing a path where you don’t pay *me*.”

Four thousand gold.

One gold is one hundred silver, one silver is one hundred pennies, and one penny has the value of a cup of coffee.

A sum equal to forty million cups of coffee.

No matter how wealthy the boy was, he couldn’t possibly be indifferent to losing *that* much money.

‘Is this just a bluff? What could he possibly gain by provoking me like this?’

Sion was certain he had some special scheme in mind, and she re-examined the contract she had drawn up, searching for any loopholes, again and again.

The boy, on the other hand…

“Whoa, this place is crazy huge. Let’s take it easy and rest for a bit. I’m starting to get tired.”

He didn’t have a single thought in his head.

…Well, to be accurate, it would be more correct to say, ‘He didn’t *need* to think.’

It wasn’t just because he was drowning in money.

‘No matter how much money Sion earns, she’ll never even get to use it properly before she spits it all back out to me.’

The boy anticipated that Sion would propose a new contract within the Archipelago of Mist. Resulting in her having to pay him an unimaginable sum.

‘The preparations for the next stage are more than adequate.’

Therefore, the boy simply enjoyed his leisurely sightseeing.

All while the girl wracked her brain, desperate to figure out what she was missing.

“Oh.”

Some hours passed like that.

The point at which the sum Bin owed Sion just barely surpassed five hundred gold.

“Found it.”

The colossal church revealed itself sooner than they anticipated.

* * *

The church revealed itself. As if the heavens had awaited this very moment, they became draped in fantastical hues. The sunset vanished, and skipping the night, the twilight of dawn descended upon the place.

A chilling wind brushed past their necks.

*Thump!*

The sound of a massive hammer striking a cracked bell reverberated.

“Prepare for the end…!”

A voice, inhuman and laced with despair, followed.

Raising their heads, they saw it: atop the church’s immense bell tower, a giant stood, wielding a gigantic hammer in each hand.

Barely reaching five meters in height, flesh clinging to exposed bone, a bloodied eyepatch.

*Thump!*

The giant hammered the massive bell, a relic rusted and seemingly on the verge of crumbling, repeating the same words over and over.

“Prepare for the end…!”

The giant was known as “The Burdened One,” a monster that, in effect, ruled the Archipelago of Mist – a boss monster, practically.

“Prepare… for the end!”

The monster, with a level a full 20 points above the Archipelago of Mist’s average, began to descend the exterior wall of the towering bell tower.

I steeled myself, focusing on the unfamiliar sensation within my chest.

Until now, I had wandered the Archipelago of Mist with the mindset of someone on a picnic, or a sightseeing tour, but this time, for once…

“10 gold extra.”

* * *

*THUD!*

My left vision swam with grass and dirt. A ringing slammed into my left eardrum, rattling my brain, and then the legs that had been anchoring me to the earth gave way.

It sent me sprawling onto the dew-soaked grass.

And again.

Crimson blood rained down.

The massive hammer that fell with it shattered headstones, tore into graves. Someone’s remains were flung out.

“Huh.”

Sion stood before the giant’s corpse, a jet-black dagger in each hand.

The head-lost giant toppled earthward, slowly.

Her ink-dark hair was now the same color as her eyes.

“That’ll be 610 gold, total~”

Sion had proven her skill once more.

“…There wasn’t even time to react. I wanted to be the one to deal with it this time.”

Lir had been gathering lightning on her staff, then dissipating it, over and over. She seemed eager to kill at least one monster, to lighten my load.

The fewer monsters Sion dealt with, the less I’d have to pay her, after all.

But by the time Lir even registered that “enemies were nearby,” Sion had already hacked them to pieces. It was the same story every time.

…In my case, more often than not, I didn’t even *realize* there *were* any enemies.

“Hmph…”

Casually stepping over the giant’s corpse, Sion shot up the bell tower to survey the surroundings.

“Tch, all clear~”

Zion was standing quite a distance from me. And yet, that clicking of the tongue echoed so vividly.

“You must be terribly disappointed there aren’t any monsters left around here.”

“…After painstakingly seeking out and slaying monsters hundreds of meters away, it would be stranger if any were still lingering.”

“Are you really alright? You’ve already amassed 610 gold.”

“Just how much do you think land costs in the capital?”

Lille really worries about the most useless things.

“Adding up all my assets, it’s just a little over 50,000 gold.”

“…Really?”

“The Imperial household’s servants have no reason to lie to me, do they?”

“…I feel like all my worries have been for naught. I was so concerned about what would happen if Master Bin became penniless.”

“What’s so bad about being penniless? I was a homeless vagrant to begin with.”

“Losing something you had is a different feeling than never having had it at all.”

“What are you two whispering about~? Can I join in on the fun~?”

Zion, atop the clock tower, shouted loudly to Lille and me.

“You heard everything, didn’t you?”

“Your senses are immensely sharp. Even I, an elf, can’t compare. Of course, you heard.”

“Thanks for the compliment, sis!”

Zion waved her hand largely above her head, replying to Lille’s words.

That kid and us are at least over 500 meters apart.

…Setting aside the fact that her oversensitive senses let her overhear our conversation for the moment.

Just what manner of lungs possessed such a booming voice?

It felt as though he were conversing right beside me.

If the world were filled with people like that, the telephone would be rendered obsolete.

“Hmph.”

Standing atop the bell tower, I averted my gaze from Zion, who was vigilantly scanning our surroundings for any overlooked monsters.

Walking deeper inside, the decapitated corpse of the giant finally lay revealed before my eyes.

It resembled that of a person who had been dead for days.

Should I offer a prayer for its soul?

I knew it was a monster, but somehow, its form wasn’t so different from the inhabitants of the continent, and it bothered me.

“Well… Astella will take care of it, I suppose.”

Leaving behind a prayer that barely qualified as one, I grasped the door handle of the church.

A space filled with dust swiftly welcomed us.

“Wow, a scene that looks like it hasn’t been cleaned for maybe three thousand years.”

Zion, who had inexplicably appeared beside me, uttered such foolish observations.

Three thousand years.

He almost seems like sixteen years old again when he says things like that.

I walked straight toward the platform, following the long path stretching out before me. On either side, wooden chairs, laden with thick layers of dust, stretched out endlessly.

The closer I approached the platform, the more I felt as though someone was watching me from both sides.

In one section, the scent of barley filled the air, and then, with the very next step, the stench of rotten apples or eggs tickled my nose.

The sound of someone’s laughter echoed in my ears.

Lir, who had been trailing behind me, stopped dead in the center of the church, his face turning a ghastly pale. He seemed overwhelmed by a colossal, unidentifiable dread.

“If it’s too much, just wait at the entrance.”

In the game, this part was usually represented by text: ‘An inexplicable terror grips you!’

Experiencing it firsthand… well, it was beyond what a person with an average constitution could endure.

It felt like centipedes were crawling up my arm, inserting their antennae into my ear canal. Like finely ground human bone was filling my veins. Like an overwhelmingly powerful presence was making me feel infinitely small.

…Though, to me, they were all moderately tolerable.

“I have to admit, your nerve is impressive.”

Sion remarked with a hint of amusement, watching me walk toward the platform as if I felt nothing at all.

Ugh, you cretin.

How many times do I have to tell you?

[Composure] is invincible, it’s divine.

I ascended the pulpit, pushing through the cacophony of screams and bizarre sensations assaulting me.

The moment my foot landed, a corpse dressed in black priestly robes suddenly filled my vision.

Its eye sockets were teeming with nameless insects, and it stretched out its arms to block my path like a zombie—a classic jump scare straight out of a B-movie horror flick.

“Get out of the way, I’m busy.”

I casually shoved aside the corpse that had materialized before me. The priest’s arm snapped like a rotten twig.

Then, it crumbled into dust right there.

I stepped over the remains and immediately picked up the Bible resting on the platform.

[Therefore, ye shall sprout anew.]

The Bible, containing a powerful miracle capable of resurrecting the dead, was now in my possession.

“……Well, that’s awfully bland.”

A crusade so serene, it bordered on uneventful.

Having capable escorts truly made for such ease.

‘Perhaps recruiting Zion as my complete subordinate would be….’

But then, with the scripture tucked under my arm and as I was about to descend the platform, something caught my eye.

Hidden by the thick books, a massive hole had been bored into the center of the dais.

I, as if possessed, turned my gaze to the darkness within that hole.

“What is this now.”