Chapter 182 – Hesitation
Jing and I explained the current situation to Lia, along with our future plans and the identity of our enemy.
At first, Lia managed to remain relatively calm, but by the time we finished, not a trace of color remained in her face.
Perhaps because the priest who had attacked Lia and Jing across the river had revealed so much, she did not seem to think we were lying.
After remaining silent for a while, Lia spoke.
“I feel strange. I really feel....”
“Like shit?”
“Completely miserable?”
“Disgusted?”
All three of us simultaneously summed up Lia’s feelings in a single phrase based on our own experiences, causing her to laugh with a deflated sound.
“Yes, that’s exactly how I feel. Thinking that everyone who left the village—and my father—died that way makes me feel even more disgusted. They all left the village filled with hope.... Thinking about them certainly makes me angry, but I also feel as though getting angry would be wrong. And now I’m being told that even these emotions were merely implanted in me.”
“Some people believe that feeling this way is only natural. No, most people probably do—for now.”
When I added that explanation for the visibly bitter Lia, her lips moved as though she had something to say.
“If you have any questions, ask them all now. I’ll answer as honestly as possible.”
“...Why did you bring me along without telling me anything from the beginning?”
“I can’t say that I….had no intention of deceiving you.”
There had been far too many opportunities for us to teach Lia the truth for me to claim otherwise.
“I also thought there would be no point in telling you prematurely. Most people cannot even contemplate opposing the imperial family. On the contrary, they become aggressive toward anyone who attempts to defy them.”
“So the three of you here were different.”
Lia murmured while looking between Ratel, Jing, and me, but Jing bitterly shook his head.
“No, we weren’t. I served them from closer than almost anyone else, and I took other people’s lives without hesitation for their sake. If not for Lord Ran, I would never have escaped that position.”
Jing praised me in an embarrassingly excessive manner.
I thought he had gotten a little better, but apparently not.
It seemed that destroying one holy relic had not been enough to remove his rose-colored glasses.
Moreover, contrary to what Jing said, he would eventually have escaped the imperial family’s brainwashing even without my intervention.
All I had done was bring that moment forward slightly out of necessity.
I interrupted Jing before he could sink into another strange bout of sentimentality and changed the subject.
“More importantly, there is one thing I can guarantee if you travel with us.”
Perhaps she was still having trouble processing everything because she had been staring at me rather blankly, but Lia’s eyes lit up.
“What is it?”
“Revenge.”
In the original novel, avenging Edan had been Lia’s driving force.
Unlike in the novel, the current Lia had not lost Edan, but she still appeared angry over the deaths of her father and the villagers.
Even if it was not as powerful a motivation as it had been in the original novel, I thought it might serve as moderately tempting bait for Lia.
However, Lia did not appear particularly interested.
If anything, she seemed disappointed.
Was this unavoidable because the circumstances differed from the original novel?
In that case, I needed to change my approach.
“Lia, the temple has already seen your face, so you’ll have no choice but to live on the run from now on. If you’re destined to become a fugitive anyway, you should side with the people who offer you the greatest chance of survival.”
In other words, I was trying to convince her that accompanying us was the best option available.
Lia had been staring at the ground with an uncomfortable expression, as though a thorn were lodged in her throat, but she suddenly raised her head in surprise.
“No! Of course I want to follow you and Jing! Even without something like that, I just….”
She did not seem particularly reluctant to accompany us.
However, the way she trailed off and avoided my gaze was notably different from how eager she had been to embark on an adventure with us back in Lucha Village.
No matter how I looked at it, she appeared hesitant.
“Lia, this is a choice that will determine the course of your entire life. If you want to run, you can do so now. Resolve isn’t something that develops overnight.”
Of course, that was a lie.
Lia had already risked her life to steal the holy relic for Jing.
It would be stranger to believe that she would choose to run away now.
That was precisely why I was confused.
What was causing Lia to hesitate when she had already resolved to risk her life?
“I….”
Lia hesitated briefly and was about to speak when—
“This is an important decision, so you can give us your answer before sunset.”
Ratel abruptly interrupted Lia and imposed a merciless deadline.
When I narrowed my eyes at Ratel’s unexpected—and, more importantly, completely uncharacteristic—consideration, he raised an eyebrow as if asking whether I had something to say.
Some situations required a quick answer, while others did not.
If we pressured her for an answer now, she would only be left with the impression that she had been pushed into making her choice.
I needed to tell her to ignore that bastard and take more time to think it over.
Unexpectedly, however, Lia remained calm.
“That will be enough.”
Enough?
Did she mean that it was enough time to consider her decision, or....
Unlike me, however, Ratel did not appear to give Lia’s concerns much thought.
“Good. Then once dawn breaks, we should immediately devise a way to leave the island. We can spend the night cutting down trees and building a boat, or search for another method.”
“Should we start by cutting down some trees?”
Unable to continue watching the two of them brim with enthusiasm, Jing intervened.
“Both of you, wait. This isn’t something we should decide hastily. We also have to consider what we’ll do after leaving this place. And we must decide how to deal with the holy relic.”
“Wait, did you say the holy relic?”
I reacted to the term that could not simply be overlooked, and Jing quickly shifted back with an expression suggesting that he had just remembered something.
“Come to think of it, there is something I haven’t told you yet.”
Jing hurried over to the pile of fallen leaves where Lia had been sleeping and extended his hand.
A faint breeze flowed from his hand and scattered the dry leaves.
As if bewitched, I grasped the sword revealed beneath the leaves and lifted it.
The firm sensation of the metal against my hand felt unfamiliar.
Perhaps it was because Sierra’s power, which had once breathed life into the sword, was gone.
Deprived of its bewitching radiance, the sword now appeared to be nothing more than a cold, lifeless object.
“So Jing managed to escape without us having to destroy it.”
This differed from the original novel, in which the holy relic had to be destroyed before the curse was completely broken, even after Ratel absorbed its power.
Then again, Ratel had not compressed the power into a smaller form in the original novel.
Perhaps he had been unable to absorb all its power before the holy relic was destroyed.
“We brought it with us because we thought it might still be useful.”
“And leaving it behind would have felt even more unsettling.”
Jing stared uneasily at the sword in my hand as he spoke, and Lia added an explanation.
“Why were you sleeping on top of something that made you uneasy?”
Remembering how she had slept on a layer of leaves spread over the sword, I asked her, and Lia awkwardly shifted her gaze.
“Well….leaving it lying around on the ground would have been frightening too. I thought it would be better to keep it somewhere I could see it.”
“You can’t exactly claim that you kept it somewhere visible.”
“I was a little afraid to look directly at it…. No, why does that matter? What matters is that the holy relic remains. Anyway, couldn’t we deceive the people at the temple for a while by returning it?”
Perhaps aware that she had done something strange, Lia changed the subject.
For an attempt to escape an awkward situation, it was not a bad suggestion.
“You’re right. We could even make it appear as though Miss Lia was devoured and killed by the holy relic.”
Would that eliminate one of Lia’s reasons for leaving with us?
If we faked her death, there would be no reason for anyone to search for her.
Perhaps thinking the same thing, Lia also stared at the holy relic.
Her expression was peculiar, making it impossible to tell whether she looked anxious or excited.
“Hmm…. It’s a good idea, but I don’t think that will be possible either.”
Jing, who had been quietly observing Lia, finally spoke.
“There are still two things I haven’t told Lord Ran.”
There was still more? Just how serious was this problem?
“What is it? Please tell me everything at once. I’m not going to faint from shock.”
“No, I wasn’t concerned that you would be shocked. It’s merely that if I’m going to show you, Lord Ran will probably have to climb onto my back again.”
Waving his hands dismissively, Jing gestured with his eyes toward the path leading deeper into the cave.
“They still haven’t regained consciousness, so we confined them inside for the time being…. But I think it would be best for you to see them yourself.”
Once again, I had no choice but to grasp Jing’s awkwardly extended hand.
* * *
While being carried on his back like a piece of luggage, Jing methodically explained the first of the two things I needed to know.
“While Lord Ran was unconscious, the structure of the island and the river changed slightly. The river’s water level rose. As a result, the cabin was completely submerged.”
As I sat against Jing’s rigid back and rudely wondered whether crawling over the rocks might have been preferable, a faint voice came from somewhere nearby.
“Mmph! Mmmph! Mmph!”
It was unmistakably the sound of someone with a gagged mouth desperately begging for his life, but Jing paid it no attention and calmly continued his explanation.
“Do you remember the guide we left behind in the cabin?”
The moment I nodded, Jing stopped before the entrance of a small cavern not far from the main passage.
“Mmph! Mmmph!”
The source of the voice that had carried outside was exactly who I expected.
He was the temple guide who had spouted nonsense before Ratel knocked him out with a single blow.
What I had not expected were the two other people lying beside him while he rolled across the ground with his limbs bound.
The two wore armor that clearly belonged to the temple and were unmistakably temple knights.
“Mmph!”
“He was more tenacious than expected. Perhaps he escaped before the cabin was submerged, but he drifted all the way to this island.”
Jing concealed himself behind a rock and whispered quietly.
Even then, the guide continued his frantic yet meaningless struggles.
“He has plenty of stamina. How long has he been doing that?”
“He suddenly regained consciousness while we were moving him into this chamber. Unfortunately, Lia was the one carrying him.... We didn’t expect matters to turn out this way at the time.”
Well, nothing could be done about something that had already happened.
Thinking that Jing had not really made a mistake, I raised my hand and pointed at the two people lying beside the guide.
“Then who are those two? They appear to be temple knights.”
“They’re the ones who were devoured by the holy relic alongside me. They still haven’t opened their eyes. They probably experienced something similar to what I did, so I understand why.”
Their experience had probably been even worse.
Jing had temporarily escaped the curse’s influence with El’s help, but it was unlikely that El had helped the other two as well.
There had been no reason for him to do so.
“Perhaps they’ll never wake up.”
“What?”
Startled by my quiet murmur, Jing questioned me, but I changed the subject.
“Let’s go inside now.”
“What? There’s no need for Lord Ran to show his face.”
“No. Of the four of us, I’m probably the best person to go.”
Jing obeyed when I urged him to stop arguing and enter.
The moment the guide spotted Jing and me, he convulsively tried to lift himself, only to fall forward again.
He seemed to have something he wanted to say, but it did not appear worth hearing.
“Please put me down for a moment.”
This time, Jing lowered me to the ground without protest.
My legs trembled slightly, but I could still walk this much.
I was certainly capable of taking two or three steps toward the guide sprawled before me.
When I removed the gag from the mouth of the man who had been furiously cursing me with his eyes, he erupted into a fit of violent coughing.
His mouth, finally reclaiming the role his eyes had been performing in its place, immediately went to work.
“You lunatics! Do you think you can survive after daring to do something like this?! You’ll all be executed! Every last one of you will be executed! Once I return...!”
“How strange.”
“W-What did you say?”
Perhaps my reaction differed from what he had expected after his threats, because the guide began to stammer.
“Why do you assume you’ll return alive? There’s no one here who can save you.”
“W-What kind of nonsense are you talking about? I’m from the temple....”
“So you still don’t understand your situation? We’re the people who stole a holy relic from the temple, so why do you imagine your worthless status will protect you? I’ve been wondering about that for a while.”
“.......”
Despite his remarkable tenacity, the guide sorely lacked perception. Only then did he appear to understand his position and close his mouth.
“Listen carefully. I’m not in particularly good condition either, so if you start shouting, I might not be able to control my irritation. Then I might throw you to the orcs as food without giving it much thought. Don’t you agree?”
The longer I spoke, the paler the guide’s face became.
“W-What do you want me to do? You locked me up because I’m useful too, didn’t you? What do you want from me?”
I rose while looking down at his trembling body.
“There’s nothing I particularly want.”
“W-What? Then why did you come all the way here? You even removed my gag! Didn’t you want to extract some information from me?!”
Of course not.
I probably knew more than a low-ranking temple employee like him.
“It was merely a small act of spite.”
“What does that...?”
“You were a terrible guide.”
At my answer, anger filled the eyes that had been staring blankly up at me.
“You fucking lunatic...!”
As I moved away from the guide, who had once again begun cursing, I gestured to Jing. Jing immediately struck the back of the raging guide’s head.
The guide lost consciousness without so much as a squeak.
While Jing placed the gag back into the unconscious man’s mouth, I felt his piercing gaze on the back of my head.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You seem rather similar to someone.”
“I don’t know whom you’re thinking of, but I do have a common face. I have black hair and black eyes, after all.”
“No, I wasn’t referring to your appearance...”
Jing opened and closed his mouth as though he had more to say, but soon shook his head as if it were nothing and pointed at the unconscious man again.
“I don’t understand. Was there any need to appear before that man and heighten his vigilance?”
I stood and headed toward the entrance, stopping Jing when he tried to support me again.
“I was frightening him. It needed to be firmly imprinted in his mind that the people here could easily kill someone as insignificant as a temple guide. Only then would he feel sufficient fear. Fear always clouds one’s judgment.”
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