The festival, which was overflowing with cheers and laughter monts ago, fell into a chilling silence as if soone had poured a bucket of ice-cold water over it. The villagers stared in confusion, backing away at Professor Baldwin’s sudden outburst.
“Uh, Hero?”
“What’s the matter?”
Without sparing them a glance, Professor Baldwin gripped Chief Oliver’s collar even tighter, her hand trembling with fury.
“H-hiiik!” Oliver shivered uncontrollably as he buckled under the suffocating killing intent radiating from the infamous Cursed-Eye Spider. “I-I only did what I was told!”
Professor Baldwin’s face twisted in rage. “What you were told?”
As her violet evil eye glowed, she scanned the crowd. Then, a slow, mocking round of applause echoed through the now-silent square, and a voice rang out.
“As expected of the Cursed-Eye Spider. I put in quite the effort to mask my mana trail, but... what a waste.”
Professor Baldwin’s eyes turned glacial, her glare sharp enough to cut steel. Grinding her teeth, she locked eyes with the man approaching them. “You’re... Harris.”
It was the man who had first reported the kidnapping incident. Far too well-grood for a rural villager, he gave a pleasant smile and nodded. A sneer tugged at his lips, and he said in a voice soaked with mockery, “But it seems even the fad Blessing of Insight isn’t all-powerful. You don’t even notice a demon standing right in front of you.”
With theatrical flair, Harris bowed deeply before Professor Baldwin as if he were performing on stage. “Allow to reintroduce myself.”
One side of Harris’s face bulged grotesquely, the flesh around his right eye splitting open and grotesque tendrils bursting forth. “I am Bishop Harris, a loyal servant of Lord Jackal.”
“You’re Harris?”
Harris chuckled and shrugged as if it were nothing. “Oh, that’s not my real na, of course. But I’m using this human as my host now, so feel free to call Harris. After all, he and I are now one and the sa.”
Professor Baldwin bit her lip hard, a look of alarm flashing across her face. The being in front of her was a parasitic demon, one that possessed and controlled another person’s body. Unlike typical demons, this kind left behind no visible soul stigmata and no trace of mana. Even with the Blessing of Insight, their identity would be nearly impossible to detect.
“What did you put in the cider?” Professor Baldwin asked.
“Why, Lord Jackal’s blessing, of course.”
“Cut the crap. Tell the truth.”
Harris stretched his arms wide, his expression alight with madness. “It is the truth. To abandon the weak, fragile shell of a human body and attain the flesh of a beast! What could be more blessed than that?”
I frowned, glancing at the spilled cider staining the ground. In my previous life, there had been rumors during the war against the Archbishop of Beasts, Jackal. It was said that he had transford the people of an entire city into his monstrous servants using this very thod.
The flesh of a beast. It’s a poison that turns humans into demonic monsters. So, he was planning to feed this to us...
This whole kidnapping incident was nothing but a trap set by Jackal to ensnare us. More precisely, it was a trap targeting Professor Baldwin. I clicked my tongue softly, eyes narrowing at Bishop Harris, who hadn’t even once looked in my direction.
Harris smiled sweetly at Professor Baldwin. “Don’t you agree, Lady Elisha?”
“I have no interest in your twisted cultist ideology,” she replied.
“Is that so? What a sha.”
Professor Baldwin silently drew her threads of silver, spreading them out in a delicate net across the ground, ready to strike at any mont. “Where is Jackal now?”
“Oh, he’s not here.”
“Is that so? What a pity,” she said. Dozens of silver threads suddenly lifted from the ground, floating into the air. “Die.”
Professor Baldwin’s “web” launched toward Harris like a flurry of needles.
“Now, now, no need to be so hasty. I still have sothing I want to discuss with you,” Harris said.
“I don’t think there’s anything left for us to talk about,” he replied.
A sinister smile played on Harris’s lips, the tendrils writhing from his face twitching obscenely. “Oh? I wonder if the villagers feel the sa way.”
Professor Baldwin narrowed her eyes at his unshakably smug deanor. “What are you talking about?”
“The cider you so rudely spat out? The other villagers accepted Lord Jackal’s blessing with open arms.”
Professor Baldwin’s eyes flew open in horror. She turned quickly and saw the empty cider bottles scattered across the tables. “You bastard!”
Does that an every single jug of cider the villagers drank has been tainted? I thought.
“Ahahaha! Not just the cider, every dish served at this festival has been infused with his blessing. After all, it wouldn’t be fair for the children to miss out just because they’re too young to drink, would it?” Harris said.
Chief Oliver’s face drained of all color, and he shouted, “W-wait! W-what are you saying? You promised! You said if I did what you asked, the villagers wouldn’t be hard!”
“Yes, I rember that promise quite clearly.”
“Then why? Why would you poison their food with sothing so monstrous?”
Harris tilted his head, puzzled, his tentacles twitching with amusent. “Did you just call Lord Jackal’s blessing... a monstrous poison?”
In a flash, the tendrils wrapped around Chief Oliver’s body.
“Hiieek!” He was yanked forward, dragged helplessly until he was right in front of Harris.
The Bishop narrowed his eyes, face inches from the trembling man. “Listen closely. Accepting the blessing of our lord is not a curse for your people. Quite the opposite, in fact.”
“Ugh!Ah!”
Harris snapped his fingers with a bright smile. “Now, why don’t you experience it for yourself? Then you’ll understand exactly what I an.”
“Uwaaaaaaah! S-spare !”
With a chilling sound of bones breaking, Chief Oliver’s body began to grotesquely swell. From his torn skin, red muscle sprouted like budding plants. His teeth sharpened into fangs, and claws extended like daggers. In the blink of an eye, the village chief had turned into a demonic monster, snarling nacingly.
Harris chuckled as he shrugged at the newly transford demonic monster. “Isn’t it great? Much better than when he was human, don’t you think?”
The villagers panicked at this sight, their screams echoing through the square.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
“T-the Chief... the Chief turned into a monster!”
“What? What the hell is going on?”
Amused by the chaos, Harris shifted his gaze to Professor Baldwin. “Now do you understand what’s going on?”
Her eyes turned icy cold. “You pulled a pathetic trick.”
A smirk curled on Harris’s lips. “Really? Funny, your eyes seem to be trembling for soone so unimpressed. Doesn’t this bring back mories? A tiny village with barely a hundred people... The rampaging demonic monsters, the scent of blood, and the screams echoing through every street.”
He was referring to a hellish nightmare a young girl had once endured. Now, that sa hell was unfolding again before her eyes.
“So, what will you do?” Harris dramatically raised his hand. “One snap of my fingers, and every villager here will receive Lord Jackal’s ‘blessing.’”
Professor Baldwin bit her lip. Even if she moved fast, there was no way to take him out before he snapped his fingers. Yet surrendering and obeying the commands of a demon was not an option.
Trembling with fear but still clinging to hope, the villagers looked to Professor Baldwin.
“H-Hero.”
“M-mom, am I... am I going to turn into one of those monsters?”
“Don’t worry, dear! The heroes will definitely save us!”
Professor Baldwin turned away from their gazes and stepped forward toward Harris. “I told you. It was a pathetic trick.”
“Oh?”
She firmly said, “A tiny village wiped out by a demon? That’s nothing new. It’s a common occurrence.”
Her voice was cold and detached, like this matter was nothing at all.
She continued, “Go ahead. Turn them all into demonic monsters if you want. I’ll kill every last one of them, including you.”
Perhaps because it was not the reaction he expected, Harris frowned, letting out a low hum. However, terrified screams echoed across the village.
“N-no! Please don’t abandon us, Hero!”
“Please! Don’t leave us!”
“Noooo!”
Professor Baldwin didn’t even glance at them. She simply took another step toward Harris. Biting her lip hard, she clenched her fist so tightly it threatened to shatter.
***
“It’s... A common occurrence...”
Yes, just like what I had gone through decades ago, it was rely one of many tragedies. So, I could not grieve. It was sothing that happened everywhere. This wasn’t unique, and I wasn’t special. So, I could not falter.
No savior of the world was dying today. Even if all these people turned into demonic monsters and died horribly, no one in the world would bat an eye. If we ranked the value of human life, the villagers here would fall to the very bottom. So, I could not hesitate. Saving a few ignorant villagers wasn’t worth it if it ant losing the chance to eliminate one of Jackal’s servants. This was the efficient, rational choice.
Blood trickled from my bitten lips. My clenched fist trembled. “I...”
I rembered the girl who had scread, watching her village burn that day, decades ago.
“Soone, please! Please save us! The village... our village!!!”
No hero had co for that girl, and today was just the sa. I turned my back on the villagers’ screams and charged toward Harris.
Then, a quiet voice rang in my ears. “When sothing’s common, does that make it hurt less?”
“Dale...”
“If everyone gets hurt often, does that an it hurts any less when it’s your turn?”
I shot Dale a sharp glare. “Don’t act so arrogant.”
He simply gave a crooked grin. “The one being arrogant is you.”
“What?”
“You’re just dressing up your inability to save the villagers as so noble sacrifice to defeat one enemy. Sounds a lot less heroic when you put it that way.”
My face twisted with fury as I stepped toward him. “You little...!”
—Listen carefully.
Dale’s voice rang directly in my head. Startled, I looked at him. He raised a finger to his lips and grinned.
—I’ll tell you how to fix this “common occurrence.” So, listen closely.
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