Chapter Three: A Curious Beast

This place was called the sanctuary. It was a place to worship the erdgod. In fact, however, this was a sacrificial altar, and not the kind of thing that should be called a building. Although there were pillars and ceilings, there were no walls to partition the inside from the outside. It was simply a feeding ground for the monster called an erdgod—no, it was simply a dinner plate.

The sanctuary was empty now. Just the other day, a fierce battle had unfolded here, and the carcasses of those killed had been left here to rot. Yet now, they were gone without a trace, as if the whole place had been wiped clean. There weren’t even any bloodstains. The bodies of the erdgod and its familiars had suddenly disappeared.

“VUOOOOOoooOORRR...!”

A voice carried to the sanctuary from somewhere deep inside the nearby forest. It sounded like the howling of a beast, and yet it had something to it that was clearly different from any animal. It was the ring of intelligence. Compared to the voice of an ordinary human, it was terribly primitive, and alien... but that made it feel all the more raw.

Neither human nor animal, it was too uncanny for a single word to describe. That voice was the proof that animals that had discarded their animality had descended upon this land now that an erdgod “vacancy” had formed—just as Fiona predicted.

●

Dawn broke.

Yukinari and Dasa decided to take a walk around the town. In truth, the option of leaving the town as soon as possible remained very attractive, and Yukinari himself might have been prepared to do so. However, Dasa’s tiredness was more serious than he’d thought, and so they had decided to postpone their departure for the time being.

After checking the condition of Dasa’s eyes, Yukinari glanced toward her case. “Okay, let’s go check this place out. Make sure you bring Red Chili, Dasa. Just in case.”

“...Already have... it. Spare bullets... too.”

Yukinari slung Durandall over his shoulder, and the two of them started walking down the second floor corridor of the Schillings residence.

“Lord Yukinari—”

Berta was standing at the top of the staircase. Today, instead of that excessively seductive shrine maiden outfit, she had on the same kind of clothes any completely ordinary woman in this town would wear. Because of that, she looked somewhat more composed and brighter than when they had first met. She really did look like any ordinary girl now. However—

Don’t tell me she’s been standing there all this time?

That suspicion suddenly crept into Yukinari’s mind.

Unless you did something crazy like jumping out of a window, you had to go down these stairs to leave the Schillings residence. In other words, the position where Berta was standing was a key point to monitor so that Yukinari and Dasa couldn’t leave without telling anyone.

Of course, even if that were the case, it was probably not Berta who had wanted to do this. It was much more likely that Fiona or the priests had given her instructions.

“Are you going out?” Berta asked, tilting her head slightly.

“Yeah. Thought we’d wander about the town for a bit.”

Hearing this, a small and gentle smile rose to Berta’s face. “In that case, allow me to show you around. I was born and grew up here. I know every corner of it.”

“But you have things you want to do too, right?” Yukinari said carefully. “We’re just gonna stroll about for a bit, you don’t really need to guide us...”

“No, I am a shrine maiden,” Berta said, shaking her head. “Serving the erdgod is my role.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to—”

“My body and heart exist for the erdgod, too.”

She must have meant that her desire was to do something for Yukinari. She was probably still laboring over the fact that she couldn’t complete her “job” as a shrine maiden. She hadn’t been eaten by that monster, nor had she succeeded in using her body to service Yukinari the night before. She was probably feeling uneasy, as if everything had been left unfinished.

Of course, Yukinari did not regret helping Berta. However, it was undoubtedly the result of him having done so that her very position in society was now in danger. In that sense, Yukinari felt responsible for her.

“Okay. I think I’ll take you up on that, then.”

“Yuki...?” Dasa looked at Yukinari’s face from beside him. She seemed a little surprised. Berta’s expression also filled with surprise—and joy.

“Are you sure?!”

“Don’t ask me that when you won’t take no for an answer... Anyway, this town is pretty big. The last thing we want to do is get lost, so on second thought, we probably would be better with a guide.” The explanation was more for Dasa’s sake than Berta’s.

Berta nodded enthusiastically, her expression brightening. “Yes, Lord Yukinari! I will do my very best to show you around!”

“Okay, you don’t have to go too nuts...”

And so, Yukinari and Dasa decided to have Berta guide them around town. Perhaps Berta had indeed been tasked with watching them, because despite meeting the gaze of several Schillings family servants downstairs and at the mansion’s entrance, none of them said a word. They each merely gave a single, reverential bow. It was likely that Fiona had impressed upon them not to be rude. It wasn’t a bad feeling to be treated politely, but when Yukinari thought about the reason—that they expected him to be an erdgod—it weighed upon him quite heavily.

“This way.”

Berta walked a few steps ahead of Yukinari and Dasa, frequently turning back to talk to them. Soon they reached the center of the town and the main street that ran through it like an artery.

It was a small town, but still very busy, and there were street vendors everywhere selling their wares. However, most of them only had food and daily necessities; there were only a few shops dealing in luxuries and sundries. The town as a whole was probably poor. It looked like it had all the elements of a reasonably respectable town—there were no issues with the buildings, and the districts looked well organized—but Yukinari supposed that luxuries were something they couldn’t afford to think about.

“I see...” muttered Yukinari.

This was a remote town in the countryside, where the quality of the harvest had a direct effect on the population. It was perhaps no surprise that they would want to pray to the gods for help. But—

“They aren’t completely disconnected from the capital, right?”

“I don’t... think so...” Dasa answered.

Last night, they had eaten dinner at the Schillings residence. There, they had been provided with a whole assortment of tableware that appeared to have been industrially mass-produced. In particular, the sets of knives, forks, and spoons that had been set out had all been made the same way, and with such precision that it was impossible to imagine that they could have been handmade.

In other words, there were industrial products flowing here from the capital, even if they were extremely limited. And apart from that, there were also metalworkers in this town. In which case—

“This is the orphanage where I grew up.” Berta’s voice interrupted Yukinari’s thoughts, and he looked in the direction she was pointing. There towered a surprisingly impressive-looking stone building.

“Orphanage, huh.”

“Would you like to see?” Berta asked with a tilt of her head.

“...Yeah. Please.”

“Okay. In that case—”

Berta went through the gate and into the building. Yukinari and Dasa followed behind.

Inside the building, a number of girls were in the middle of cleaning. One of them noticed Berta, and a look of shock spread across her face.

“Berta...!”

Once they heard that name, the other girls immediately stopped what they were doing and came running up to them, still holding their cleaning supplies.

“Didn’t you go to the ritual...?”

“Berta!” a younger girl said. “But how?!”

The girls’ expressions were filled with disconcertment. It wasn’t that they were pleased. Rather, they looked as if they had seen the dead walking among them—

“Some things happened and... I’m back.” Berta said, managing an ambiguous smile.

There was a certain awkwardness in her tone of voice, too. To her, it might have seemed like these girls were criticizing her for coming back without doing her job, just like the townspeople from yesterday. But—

“Then, Sis, Sis, can you live with us again now?”

A few of the girls who were especially young were clinging to Berta with their faces lit up. Maybe they didn’t yet understand the meaning behind “shrine maidens” and the “ritual.”

“I’m... not sure.” Berta looked a little troubled and at a loss for an answer. But at the same time, she looked somehow happy.

“...Yuki...”

“Yeah?”

Dasa called Yukinari’s name from beside him, as if she had suddenly thought of something.

“I’m glad we... saved... her.”

“Yeah.” Yukinari nodded.

Dasa was probably seeing Jirina and herself in Berta and the young girls.

Jirina had been Dasa’s only family. She had no parents that she could remember. For all intents and purposes, Jirina had been the one who had raised her. That was why being robbed of her had left such a big hole in Dasa’s heart.

There was nothing more Yukinari could do for her in that regard, but—

“I’m glad, too.” He nodded and plunked his palm on top of Dasa’s head, then started to run his fingers through her silver hair.

“...mn.”

Behind her glasses, Dasa’s sky-blue eyes crinkled into a happy smile.

●

While Yukinari’s group was visiting the orphanage, Fiona was talking with the priests in her office at the Schillings residence.

Specifically, the priests had been around investigating the state of the town and the sentiments of its residents, and were now giving her their reports.

“...So,” one of the priests said with a clouded expression, “the people are growing suspicious of that man, the woman with him, and Berta as well.”

“In particular,” another priest added, “because Berta came home alive without doing her job, many are fearful of incurring the erdgod’s anger. There are even calls for the ritual to be conducted anew, with his female partner as a second offering.”

The townspeople weren’t thinking in their wildest dreams that Yukinari might have killed the erdgod. Indeed, had Fiona not received the initial report from the priests, even she would not have believed it—even if she had been told of the erdgod’s demise by Yukinari personally. So it was no wonder that the townspeople were convinced that Berta had simply run back home. And because there hadn’t been a sacrifice at the sanctuary, the citizens were wary that the erdgod might be angered by this violation of their contract and attack the town.

The fact that the erdgod had died—that Yukinari had killed it—was being kept very quiet. A gag order had been placed on the priests, and there were very few people who had all the accurate information. But eventually, someone would go to visit the sanctuary, and once that happened, it would not be long before it became known that the erdgod had been killed. No—before that, the next erdgod might be born, and might come to the town seeking a contract. Once that happened, they wouldn’t be able to keep it a secret anymore.

“This isn’t good...” Fiona said, sighing.

It was conceivable that the people of this town could attack Yukinari, his companion Dasa, or Berta. What would Yukinari do then? If he felt like fighting... it might not be a total massacre, but dozens, no, hundreds of people could end up dead. There needed to be some kind of compromise. For example—

“Now that the erdgod has been killed, in the not-so-distant future, demigods and xenobeasts will sense that it is missing, and they will come here. Can we not at least superficially position that man in the sanctuary as a new erdgod?”

This question came from the high priest and seemed to represent the thoughts of all the others. Essentially, even if it wasn’t possible for Yukinari to “settle” in this land like an erdgod—to form a spiritual bond with the land and protect the region—perhaps he could still carry out the other role of an erdgod: protecting the town from the threat of demigods and xenobeasts. Given that Yukinari had killed an erdgod, it was certainly true that he had the power to make that possible.

“It’s up to you, Deputy Mayor.” The priest pressed Fiona for an answer, a serious expression on his face.

“He is still not convinced, unfortunately...”

Yesterday evening, Fiona had again ordered Berta to win him over. The words she had actually used were simply, “Just service him somehow and get him to like you, any way you can.” However, it didn’t seem to be going very well. It was likely because of the girl he had with him—Dasa. The relationship between her and Yukinari was unclear, but there could be no mistaking that she was precious to him. Then...

“If we had to, we could take the girl hostage.”

“You actually mean that?” Fiona asked, honestly hoping for them to say no.

However, every one of the priests, the high priest included, nodded back. They were deadly serious.

●

Yukinari learned that the orphanage was, as a matter of fact, being run by the priests. The reason the building was so splendidly built was something to do with it being created as part of the sanctuary—not the ritual site, but the place the priests were stationed. That sanctuary was just beyond this orphanage.

In that case, Yukinari thought, he might bump into those priests soon—but he was told that they were all out. So, with no sign of any trouble on the horizon, Yukinari was taking it easy while the orphans showed him hospitality.

“I’m afraid it isn’t anything special...” Berta said. She and the other young girls had brought him some tea.

“Thanks,” Yukinari said, and took the wooden cup and saucer that Berta was offering him.

There was something on the saucer that looked kind of like a tree root. Was this a snack? Or were you meant to stir the tea with this to... add flavor to the tea or something? He turned back towards Dasa and gave her a questioning look. She didn’t seem to know either, and replied by shaking her head.

“Hmm...”

He didn’t want to repay Berta’s kindness by doing something really stupid. Unfortunately, she had stepped out of the room—presumably having something to do—and so he was unable to ask her what he was meant to do with it.

Yukinari sipped his tea to buy himself some time while he considered his options.

“Mister?”

Yukinari looked beside him to see that a young orphan, about five or six years old, had appeared from somewhere and was now watching him with a curious expression on her face.

“Aren’t you going to eat it?”

“Ah, so you do eat this thing.”

“Yeah. You bite it. And then, it tastes sweet.”

“Right...”

Apparently, it wasn’t a kind of fruit or flower, but a plant more like sugarcane that stored sugar directly in its stems, leaves, and roots. Yukinari took the root in his hand, and—

“Hm?” He glanced in the girl’s direction again. She was gazing straight at his hand with her mouth half-open.

“You want it?” Yukinari finally asked.

“Can I?!” Her face brightened immediately, and she stretched out her hand for the root. Yukinari handed it to her, and the girl used both hands to snap it in two, then snapped each of those halves again, splitting it into four.

Then, turning around, the girl said, “Hey, come see what he gave me!”

Two young girls of about the same age came running from the doorway. Evidently, they had been watching Yukinari from there for a while. It was rare for the orphanage to have visitors, so this was understandable behavior for children full of curiosity.

But—

“Hey! What are you doing?”

Berta had come back into the room. Her words indicated that she was admonishing them, but her tone of voice wasn’t very stern. Yukinari got the sense that she was in disbelief at how brazen these young girls were.

But in any case, this changed his impression of Berta slightly. Berta had always mostly given the impression of a mature but somehow timid adult, but the way she treated her “sisters” that shared the orphanage with her was definitely more reminiscent of an older sister.

The priests took minimal involvement in the management of the orphanage, so the older girls had no choice but to take command over the running of day-to-day life. The result was this system, where the older orphans looked after the young.

Berta crouched down in front of the girls and gently told them off. “That sweet is for our visitor, remember?”

“But he gave it to me...”

“When that happens, you say, ‘No, thank you.’”

“Aww,” the girls cried out in a chorus of disappointment.