Chapter 16: The Big One Is Coming
Steven was extremely curious. Whether it was those monsters that crawled out of the sea—the creatures known as Seaborn—or the so-called followers of the Church of the Deep, who technically had nothing to do with him at all, they all seemed unusually interested in Gladiia.
Sure, the girl was very pretty, but he didn't believe the reason they were all trying to take her could be that simple.
He was pretty handsome himself, wasn't he? So why hadn't any monsters come after him?
There had to be some deeper reason behind this. It was probably related to Gladiia's title—Abyssal Hunter.
"Hah! You think I'd tell you?" the elderly village chief sneered viciously. "Don't think this is over just because you defeated me. The Church of the Deep will never let you go! You damned Ægir monster—prepare to face the endless vengeance of my brethren!"
"…So, uh," Steven tugged at the corner of his mouth, wiped the purple-black longsword in his hand, and casually asked the lantern-bearing girl beside him, "would you mind if I killed him? Not answering properly is bad enough, but now he's resorting to personal attacks. People like this really don't deserve to live, you know?"
"Absolutely not," the girl replied sharply as she stepped closer, her eyes full of caution. After glancing down at the old man who had completely lost the ability to resist, the girl—whose hair fluttered like that of a little sparrow, strands mixed with small feathers—shot Steven an exasperated look. "He's a prisoner of the Inquisition. And you too—put your weapon away!"
Just from that single strike earlier, she could tell how terrifying this stranger combat strength was. He was absolutely not someone easy to deal with. In fact, she wasn't even confident she could block that breathtaking slash herself.
And yet, this same man was calmly cooperating with the Inquisition's investigation. He even asked her, an inquisitor, for permission before dealing with someone who had just attacked him.
Anyone who didn't know better would think he was some law-abiding, model citizen.
Still, out of professional instinct, Irene wouldn't let down her guard. The harder this stranger was to read, the more dangerous he might be.
Fortunately, Steven was very cooperative. After hearing her demand, he obediently sheathed his longsword and walked over to Gladiia's side. He gently patted her head, soothing the amnesiac girl who had clearly been frightened earlier.
Fine, if he wasn't allowed, then he wasn't allowed. Most of what he wanted to know, he had already more or less figured out anyway.
Steven was perfectly willing to respect local laws. And since he had a fairly good first impression of this young girl, there was even less reason for him to argue.
She only asked him to put away his weapon, she wasn't slapping silver handcuffs on him, after all.
Seeing this stranger comply so readily, the girl finally crouched down to carefully examine the fallen old man's injuries.
The Minecrafter strike had been exquisitely precise. Combined with the apparent mutation in the old man's body, even though all four of his limbs had been severed, there were no signs that he was about to die from blood loss.
On the contrary, the moment the girl approached, the old man's gaze turned feral, so savage it looked as if he wanted to devour her flesh and bones.
"I don't know why you harbor such deep hatred toward the Inquisition," Irene said coldly, "but that doesn't give you the right to violate Iberian law. Colluding with the Church of the Deep is a crime you cannot deny."
She wasn't shaken in the slightest by the hatred-filled glare of the old man. As if she had long grown accustomed to such looks, the girl calmly recited his crimes.
"Therefore, both you and this village will be subject to an investigation by the Inquisition."
"Hahahaha! You bunch of hypocrites," the old man sneered, his eyes brimming with mockery. "If you just want an excuse to punish us, then say it outright. Don't dress it up in all these lofty words, pretending you're doing it for Iberia."
He let out a cold snort.
"You think you've won? Impossible. You'll perish together with this village. They are coming!"
Whether it was hallucinations brought on by excessive blood loss, or some kind of premonition, the old man's eyes suddenly grew deranged. He began muttering words no one could understand.
The girl frowned deeply at the man who could no longer comprehend reason, then shifted her gaze toward Steven, who was off to the side casually rubbing Gladiia's head while watching the show unfold.
"Hey—you over there, the Ægir," she called out. "Do you know what he's talking about?"
"First of all, I'm not 'hey,'" Steven said lazily. "My name is Gary St—ah, no, wait, forget that. You can call me Steven. Second, I'm not an Ægir. Third, I don't know this guy at all. If you ask me, who am I supposed to ask?"
He held up three fingers, neatly pointing out the three errors in her short sentence, then shrugged with an expression that clearly said beats me.
"That said," he added, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "I think I get the gist of it. If I had to sum it up, he's basically saying: something big is coming, right?"
After all, in the movies and manga he had seen, whenever a villain said something like that, it usually meant the next big boss was about to show up.
"Something… big?" The girl blinked.
"How would I know what kind of 'big'?" Steven replied. "Maybe people from the Church of the Deep. Or maybe some other weird thing."
Looking at the girl, who now had a giant question mark practically floating over her head, Steven couldn't help but notice that despite her serious demeanor, she still occasionally showed a bit of age-appropriate cuteness.
Like right now, tilting her head unconsciously while waiting for him to explain.
"He's not wrong. There is something coming."
A middle-aged man's voice sounded from behind the girl, interrupting their exchange.
A man wearing a uniform identical in style to the girl's stepped forward from behind her. Unlike her, who left her delicate face uncovered, the man wore a dark green hunter's hat, and his face was hidden behind a strange-looking mask, making his features impossible to discern.
The moment he appeared, the inquisitor girl's face lit up with relief, as though she had found her anchor.
"Sir! Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," the man replied calmly. "Dealing with Church of the Deep cultists hiding among the villagers isn't enough to trouble me. However—" His tone grew heavier. "The sea is growing restless. I've already discovered traces of Sea Terrors near the village entrance."
He nodded to the girl, then lowered his gaze to the old man who had completely lost his fighting ability, before turning to look at the stranger.
Their eyes met only briefly, yet in that instant, the man felt a crushing pressure radiating from this stranger.
It wasn't something perceived through the five senses, it was instinct.
He had seen countless murderers drenched in blood. But someone like this stranger, whose entire being exuded an overwhelming stench of slaughter, as though he had massacred an entire world and carried that killing intent with him…
It was something that simply shouldn't exist in this world at all.
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Note: Character Illustration is in this Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iuyfwNVFHzIi9H4rWNT_lAm7jTSiah_M