Chapter 24
Episode 24
An alarm blared inside my head.
‘Monster sighted ahead!’
Shit. I don’t even have a weapon!
I whipped toward Ninabel and demanded,
“Nini, can you drive them off?!”
“S-Sorry, Masteeer~!! Nini can’t do something like that…! Waaahhh~!! I can’t be of any help to Master! Nini’s trash!”
The spirit threw herself face-first onto the dirt and began spiraling into self-loathing. I left her there for the moment and urgently called out to the system.
‘Hurry and help me! At this rate Muriel’s going to die!’
The system’s objective was for Muriel to safely change her fate. There was no way it would let her meet a pointless death here.
Sure enough, a bluish window flashed into existence and displayed a message.
Unique Trait, ■■■ ■■■ ■■’s Blessing activates.
‘Divine Intervention’ occurs.
‘Huh…?’
A higher-dimensional being, ■■■ ■■■ ■■, sits upon a sacred throne and looks down upon you.
W-What is this…?
I blinked rapidly in confusion.
■■■ ■■■ ■■ grants you special supplies to overcome this crisis.
‘Special supplies?’
I perked up and waited. A few seconds later, a pitch-black hole opened in midair and spat something out.
I snatched it up and examined it. A solid hilt. A smooth silver blade.
“A sword?”
And not just any sword—it looked profoundly holy.
‘You want me to swing this…?!’
As if!
How was someone like me, with no arm strength, no leg strength, no core to speak of, supposed to wield a sword?
Stunned, I suddenly turned to Lycian.
“Lycian, do you know how to fight?”
“I do.”
“With a sword? Can you use one?”
He let out a small laugh, then answered with easy confidence.
“There isn’t a weapon I can’t use.”
“…?”
How was that even possible? Was he exaggerating?
Still, the fact that he could handle a sword was a relief. I quickly thrust it into his hands.
“I’m counting on you…!”
“Yes. Just trust me.”
He accepted the sword with a relaxed air, but inside, I was anything but calm.
The number of monsters charging toward us… there had to be at least thirty.
‘Why are there so many…?!’
And every single one of them was raging, thrashing wildly—like they’d gone berserk.
As far as I knew, there were two major causes for something like this.
The first was the emergence of a dungeon.
No one had yet uncovered the true cause of dungeon appearances. They manifested one day alongside an earthquake, and the larger the dungeon, the stronger the tremor.
And in the days leading up to a dungeon’s appearance, nearby monsters would grow unusually violent.
‘The second is….’
Someone deliberately controlling the monsters.
But who? And why?
What was the goal? To kill Muriel? Or just some psychopath getting a thrill out of sending monsters to attack travelers?
‘Someone who wants Muriel dead….’
…There are quite a few, actually.
But hiring a mage just for this? It felt too inefficient.
“Master, please get on the cart.”
“O-Okay!”
I hurriedly scooped up the still-self-flagellating dewdrop rice cake and climbed onto the cart.
Only then did Ninabel snap out of it. She spread her body wide and wrapped around me like a blanket.
“Master! Nini will protect you—even if it costs me my body…!!”
“Yeah, okay. Thank you. That’s really reassuring.”
They say even whales will dance for praise. It seemed Ninabel needed a bit of the carrot rather than the stick.
“M-Masteeer~!!”
The spirit burst into tears, shouting in emotion. I gave her a few absentminded pats and looked ahead.
The monster horde was already almost upon us. One at the front roared and lunged at Lycian.
“Gasp—!”
I clapped both hands over my mouth, eyes wide. But in the blink of an eye, the monster was cleanly split in two.
“…?”
‘What just… happened?’
With my perfectly average eyesight, I hadn’t caught a single thing.
The two halves of the monster’s body hit the ground with a dull thud. As their leader fell, the others hesitated.
Only for a moment.
As if enraged by the death of their kin, they shrieked and charged, even more ferocious than before.
“Lycian…! Be careful!”
“Don’t worry.”
Even in a one-against-many fight, he radiated confidence. I soon understood why.
‘Is this even real…?’
His movements were like a video fast-forwarded several times over—almost impossible to follow with the naked eye.
And his strength? Every time he swung the sword, the monsters were cleaved apart like blocks of tofu.
The air filled with the stench of blood. The monsters’ blood was pitch-black, like ink. Standing amid the pooling darkness on the ground, Lycian turned to look at me.
Not a single drop of blood had splashed onto him. He was pristine.
And yet a chill crept up my spine.
“Muriel.”
“…!”
The low sound of my name snapped me back to myself. I must have been staring blankly without realizing it.
Slowly, I looked around. The countless monsters now lay scattered as corpses across the ground. It had all happened in mere minutes.
“…Are you alright? Were you very startled?”
With a single flick of his blade to shake off the blood, Lycian asked.
He didn’t come straight to me. He hesitated—like he was worried that he might be what had frightened me.
If I were honest, it would be a lie to say I hadn’t been stunned by his inhuman battle.
But I wasn’t so ungrateful as to treat the person who had just fought off monsters to protect me with cold indifference.
So I forced a faint smile.
“I was a little surprised… and scared. But I’m okay now.”
“…It’s rare for monsters to leave the deep forest like this. Something’s off. We should stay cautious for a while.”
“Yeah….”
I nodded, still slightly dazed.
Just what kind of life had Lycian been living…?
He stood beside me, examining the sword. Not a single drop of blood clung to the silver blade. It was that smooth.
The hilt was adorned with gold, exquisitely beautiful—ornate without being gaudy. A sword that truly looked as though it had been granted by a god.
Lycian seemed to feel something similar; his eyes gleamed as he looked at it.
“Let’s… put that here for now.”
I climbed down from the cart as I spoke, and he nodded.
He carefully set the sword in a corner of the cart.
‘It doesn’t even have a sheath. That’s going to be a pain to carry.’
I stared pointedly at the empty air, thinking at the system, Can’t you at least provide one?
Right on cue, a pop-up appeared.
Would you like to purchase the item ‘Decent Sword Sheath Made from an A-Rank Monster’s Horn’? (Price: 500 Coins)
Five hundred coins. Expensive… Is it because it’s made from an A-rank monster’s horn?
Grumbling under my breath, I pressed purchase anyway. I couldn’t just leave such a sharp sword lying around.
Soon, a black hole opened in midair and spat out the item. I grabbed it and handed it to Lycian.
“Here. A sheath.”
“Ah… Thank you.”
He accepted it with a small smile and examined the ivory-colored sheath carefully. The smile at his lips deepened.
“It’s a fine piece. I’ll be able to use it for a long time.”
“Really? That’s good.”
It seemed to be worth the 500 coins. That was enough. I could always earn more.
The road, stained with monster corpses and blood, was thoroughly washed clean by Ninabel’s barrage of water bombs.
We quickly left the area and headed toward the farm at a faster pace than before.
Thankfully, we didn’t encounter monsters again.
Meanwhile.
Those who had eaten the strawberries and vegetables Muriel harvested were experiencing something remarkable.
“What’s this? I don’t feel tired at all today.”
“You too? Same here.”
The chronic fatigue that greeted them every morning had vanished. As if by a miracle.
And that wasn’t all.
“Mom, my cold’s completely gone.”
“What? Already?”
“Is it because of those strawberries we had yesterday? They were really good.”
“How could that be? It must be the medicine Mr. Balzac prescribed working well.”
Each of them experienced mysterious effects, but not one suspected it had anything to do with the produce they’d bought from Muriel.
However, Balzac—the village’s only apothecary—found it suspicious that so many people had simultaneously recovered their condition.
Before long, he discovered what they all had in common.
The day before, they had purchased fruit and vegetables from a certain newlywed couple.
The couple had said they came from afar. When someone asked if they would return to the village, they’d replied that they weren’t sure.
Though he lived quietly on the outskirts of the village like a reclusive master, Mr. Balzac was a highly skilled apothecary with extensive connections.
He decided he ought to report this matter to His Grace, the Duke of Winterberg, with whom he had long maintained ties.
[To His Grace, the esteemed Duke of Winterberg….]
The letter thus written would reach the Winterberg ducal estate two days later.