Professor Baldwin’s words surprised . I asked, “He’s lying?”
I recalled the conversation we just had with the man nad Harris. However, nothing appeared odd to . Tilting my head slightly, I glanced at Professor Baldwin, who was smoking a cigarette.
“Did you sense that through the Blessing of Insight?” I asked.
Professor Baldwin gave a bitter smile and shook her head. “No. The Blessing of Insight doesn’t co with such a convenient function as detecting lies.”
“Then why did you think Harris was lying?”
“The ti.”
“Ti?”
What was wrong with the ti? Still puzzled, I looked at her.
She took a slow drag from her cigarette and calmly explained, “Harris said he woke up around one in the morning because of a commotion outside and went out to investigate, right?”
“Yes.”
“How did he know it was one in the morning?”
Wait, that’s right. How did he know?
Despite being doubtful myself, I offered an explanation. “Well, he must’ve looked at a clock, no?”
“There wasn’t a clock in Harris’s house. And he wasn’t wearing a watch either.”
“Oh.”
Heroes carried Hero Watches, so they could always check the ti. However, Harris wasn’t a hero.
Professor Baldwin continued, “Of course, he could have asked soone else, but...”
I finished her conjecture for her. “But nobody in their right mind would run to another house to ask for the ti while people were being dragged off alive by a monster.”
Professor Baldwin gave a faint smile and nodded. “Exactly.”
I felt admiration at her sharp insight. “That’s incredible!”
I knew full well that I wasn’t exactly the brightest, but I had always prided myself on having a good eye for things thanks to my past life experience, if nothing else. However, there was no beating soone with natural talent. Professor Baldwin had seen through soone’s lie with just a few lines of conversation; it was proof that her level of perception was nothing short of astounding.
She ground out the last of her cigarette underfoot and sighed. “What’s there to be impressed about? It’s not like I have any clue why Harris would lie in the first place.”
“We need to hear what the other villagers have to say,” I replied.
“Agreed.”
Professor Baldwin and I went around to nearby hos to gather more witness accounts. After speaking to a few households, we gathered that there wasn’t anything in the villagers’ statents that contradicted Harris’s report.
“So it’s true that a monster appeared and abducted a villager.”
“And the description of its appearance and the number of its eyes match Harris’s testimony.”
Contrary to the initial suspicion that Harris had falsified his statent, the villagers’ accounts all aligned with what he had said.
Professor Baldwin’s expression turned slightly awkward as she swallowed her words. “Hm, seems I may have misjudged things.”
“In that case, we’ll have to track the monster down ourselves,” I said.
The appearance of the so-called crocodile demonic monster that abducted one villager each night resembled the eight-eyed demonic monster that had interrupted the midterm evaluation. If we faced it directly, perhaps we could find the connection between this incident and the Archbishop of Beasts.
“Alright. Then we’ve got no ti to waste here.”
“Let’s go.”
Professor Baldwin and I headed for the mountain behind the village, the direction in which the crocodile demonic monster had supposedly fled.
Just then, a middle-aged woman with deep, dark circles under her eyes hesitantly approached us. “Um, e-excuse , a-are you two heroes by any chance?”
“We are.”
She fell to her knees, eyes sparkling like a devout priest who had just witnessed the Seven Gods. “Ah! I knew it! You really are heroes! L-last night, my child was taken by that monster! P-please... Please save Lumi from that monstrous thing!”
Tears stread down her face as she bowed her head low to the ground. “I may be just a lowly country woman, but Lumi... ever since she was little, she was brighter and more gifted than any of the other children! M-maybe... maybe soday she could awaken a soul stigmata and beco a Hero! So please!”
“Calm yourself.” Professor Baldwin gently lifted the woman from the hard-packed dirt. “If your child’s alive, we’ll bring her back. I promise you that.”
The woman wept with overwhelming gratitude. “T-thank you! Thank you, Hero!”
Professor Baldwin walked away with a bitter expression. When we were far enough that the woman was no longer in sight, she pulled out another cigarette, lit it, and clenched her teeth.
“Another promise I probably won’t be able to keep,” she murmured regretfully.
I clicked my tongue quietly. “The chances of the child being alive... are slim, right?”
Professor Baldwin gave a grim nod. “Most likely. If there’s any hope at all, it’s that this monster might be abducting people for amusent rather than slaughter, but I doubt that gives us much to go on.”
She took a deep drag, chewing her lower lip. While she was trying to keep a calm facade, the sorrow was unmistakable in her dark purple eyes.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
Professor Baldwin shrugged and kept walking. “Heh! How many tis do you think I’ve been through this? In a village like this, losing a child to a monster’s attack is just... a common occurrence.”
I could not muster up any response.
She continued, “Well, I suppose this is your first ti witnessing sothing like this, since you’ve never served as a hero before.”
No, this wasn’t my first ti. If we were talking about experience, I had likely witnessed far more despair than even she had. Those who had lost loved ones to demonic monsters, and those whose lives had been trampled by demons. Tragedies ran rampant in corners of the world untouched by the hands of heroes. It was a common sight, nothing special, and just another ordinary misfortune.
“Let’s go.” Professor Baldwin ground out her cigarette with a twist and walked ahead with her usual lazy gait.
“Okay.”
I quickly followed her.
***
Professor Baldwin confidently strode forward, her cursed eye glinting with a faint violet glow. “The monster’s habitat seems to be this way.”
“It’s nested pretty close to the village,” I remarked.
“It probably didn’t think anything around here could threaten it.”
The monster wouldn’t have been wrong, that was, if we hadn’t shown up today.
Professor Baldwin pointed to a large cavern nestled between jagged cliffs. “That cave, over there.”
“A mutated monster that evolved from a crocodile, living in a cave... Given the number of eyes it has, I’m certain it’s a powerful one,” I replied.
Most demonic monsters retained their original instincts before mutation. But that was usually only true for those with a low number of eyes. The more deeply corrupted they were by dark mana, the more their original nature faded away.
“Let’s go in.”
“Yes, Professor.”
Professor Baldwin and I cautiously entered the cave, staying alert. The faint sound of water rippling echoed throughout the cavern, and we could hear a low, feral growl erge from deep within. A crocodile monster, sprawled out on the rocky ground, stirred as it noticed our presence and slowly rose to its feet.
“It’s coming.” Professor Baldwin spread out thin threads of silver around her, preparing for the upcoming battle.
I stepped forward and held her back. “Wait, Professor.”
“What is it?”
“Look there.”
Scattered across the cave floor were seven unconscious people. Three of them had already stopped breathing, but the other four were still alive, albeit barely. Among them was a young girl, probably the daughter of the middle-aged woman whom we had t in the village.
Professor Baldwin stared at the freckled young girl with orange hair, trembling slightly as she noticed the faint rise and fall of her chest. “She’s alive.”
“I’ll take care of the demonic monster. Please focus on rescuing the survivors,” I said firmly.
“But...”
“Your webs are far more effective at protecting them than my sword.”
Once the real fight began, the cave would shake, and shards of stone and stalactites would fly in all directions. It could be fatal to an ordinary person without a soul stigmata, especially to those already on the brink of collapse.
Professor Baldwin nodded. “Understood.”
She stepped back and raised her hands. Hundreds of silver threads wove themselves into a protective web around the survivors.
At that mont, the crocodile monster let out a savage roar. Its body was covered in iron-like scales, with a protruding snout, razor-sharp claws, and a whip-like tail.
It was the sa type of monster as the one from the midterm evaluation. While I wasn’t sure whether it was connected to the Archbishop of Beasts, it was definitely the sa monster I had fought before. Back then, I had barely defeated it using Ignition. I wondered how I would fare now against it.
With a crooked grin, I said, “I’ve gotten a lot stronger since then, you know?”
I bit into my hand. Blood trickled from the torn skin, forming the shape of a sword at my fingertips. It was the Demon Sword, Veskal. Veskal was a demonic sword that granted overwhelming power in exchange for blood. The mont I gripped it, a surge of vitality flooded my entire body, as if Iris were blessing herself.
The demonic monster roared again and charged forward, its each step sending tremors through the cave. Its claws ca slashing for my neck. Sword and claw collided, but unlike last ti, when I had been knocked back helplessly, my stance held firm as if my feet were rooted into the earth.
The demonic monster staggered backward instead, glaring in disbelief with its eight eyes. “GRRR?”
It couldn’t understand how a re human, barely half its size, had overpowered it. This ti, it whipped its long, tail-like limb, slicing through the air with a shriek of wind. The tail, covered in armored scales, could split a boulder with ease.
My instincts told dodging this one was the better choice. So, I started to shift my stance, raising my sword and preparing to step back. But suddenly, Yurina’s words echoed in my mind.
“The swordsmanship you use. Honestly, it kind of doesn’t suit you.”
In this life, I possessed a body and mana reserves different from those of my past life. However, my mories were still trapped in that vast, frozen wasteland of the past.
“Guess it’s ti I try sothing new.”
Since that was the case, instead of retreating, I poured all the mana in my body into the sword, like I was causing a detonation. Ash-gray aura and flas surged along the edge. Then, I stepped forward and slashed straight into the monster’s swinging tail.
The cavern erupted with a deafening explosion. Amidst the ash and fire, the monster’s severed tail crashed to the ground with a thud.
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