Chapter 153
The old woman's joints cracked sharply. Her movements were strange, like a puppet.
Damian subtly hid Bibi behind his back.
Then the old woman suddenly lunged as if to strangle Damian.
Damian twisted his body, grabbed Bibi's waist, and dodged left while swinging his wooden sword.
Slash!
The old woman's rotting body split in two, flying diagonally with momentum.
Damian turned to face the old woman, taking his stance.
The old woman's body, separated into upper and lower halves, floated in the air.
As expected, unknown mana controlled the old woman's body.
The old woman clapped mockingly and flicked her tongue.
"Ooh... such a waste to kill you here. Look at those tempting lips. If I were a bit younger, I would have nursed and raised you myself."
"I'm getting nauseous without having eaten anything."
"Ah, don't be scared, my child."
Damian took out a potion bottle and drank it in one go.
He maintained his composure despite the horrifying sight. Bibi could tell from being pressed against his back. Not even the slightest tremor could be felt.
"Be... careful."
"Stay away from me."
Damian ruthlessly cut the rope and gently pushed Bibi away with his fingertips.
Knowing she would only be a hindrance in this situation, Bibi obediently backed away.
A flock of crows flew to the old woman. Their feet carried a staff decorated with skulls.
The old woman grabbed the staff and chanted strange spells. Black smoke began pouring from the skull's mouth.
The smoke rotated in sphere form, enveloping the old woman, and began growing larger.
Damian surveyed the surroundings.
Ghouls began crawling out from the thicket behind the old woman. They started entering the black smoke sphere following the old woman.
The sphere kept growing larger. The area was gradually being eroded.
"Over here, my child."
Suddenly, the old woman's voice came from behind Bibi.
Turning around, the old woman had somehow approached and was trying to touch Bibi's body.
Bibi reflexively screamed, "Kyah!"
"...!"
Damian quickly pulled Bibi away and cut down the old woman. But when the blade touched her body, it dispersed into black smoke.
The old woman's laughter echoed from empty air.
"Ahahahaha!"
Then, suddenly a voice came from the side.
"Ooh, what a beautiful pair."
Damian turned to check, but there was nothing there.
"How blessed she must be to have such a prince protecting her?"
This time from behind. Voices were coming from all directions.
"But child, you mustn't be mistaken. Women are inherently cunning creatures."
"Hehehe, you think the wench will offer her purity to you just because you risk your life to save her?"
"We could build mountains with the knights who've died for that wench. One more corpse like yours won't even be noticed."
"Your sacrifice will be remembered only briefly. She'll soon forget and offer herself to a prince from a neighboring country. That's the filthy nature deeply ingrained in women."
Bibi's expression twisted.
"While you barely survive on your broken body and soldier's pension, that wench will be having parties with princes."
Bibi shouted, "Shut up!"
"Ooh... look how she flares up when her true nature is exposed."
The black smoke grew larger, gradually swallowing Damian and Bibi. They were trapped in a black sealed room again.
"Stay close to me now."
"...Alright."
The old woman's provocations continued, "It was a Principality knight who ruined my life. I cared for a lost and fallen knight, but when he came to, he smashed my poor brother's head like a dented pot and violated me."
"..."
It was an unpleasant story to hear, regardless of its truth.
"The Principality's kind deserves this fate. That wench will abandon you. You can trust me on this, child."
These provocations shook Bibi more than Damian.
While Damian had completely proven his faith in the Duchess through actions, Bibi hadn't proven anything to Damian.
The old woman, having watched their journey, skillfully wedged into this gap in their relationship.
Even now, she could do nothing. She could only mutter words.
She wanted to show her faith that she wouldn't abandon Damian after everything was over.
Bibi tried to overlap her hand with Damian's left hand with a trembling heart.
But because of Damian's sudden movement, they didn't properly connect and it failed.
Damian suddenly twisted his body and swung his sword.
Swoosh!
A ghoul that suddenly emerged from the smoke was split in two by his sword.
"Ahahahaha! How lovely you look, cowering like a frightened mouse."
Damian quickly pushed Bibi aside. And another ghoul pounced where she had been standing.
This one was thrown aside with its mouth pierced by Damian's sword.
"I can play this hide-and-seek all night long."
The old woman laughed mockingly.
Then she suddenly appeared beside Bibi and tried to scratch her.
Damian quickly reacted and cut off one hand, but couldn't block the other hand, leaving deep claw marks on his forearm.
"..."
When Damian stabbed his sword into her abdomen, the old woman turned to smoke and disappeared again.
They were being completely toyed with. This was magic unlike anything he'd seen or heard of. He couldn't see any way to handle it.
"The master of this land has already opened his eyes. The disaster has begun, and the end is predetermined."
Damian whispered to Bibi, "Can you sense anything?"
"Sense what?"
"It surely isn't immortal. It seems to be hiding and controlling the old woman's corpse and ghouls."
"Y-yes, that must be it. But what am I supposed to detect?"
"I'm not sure. Anything suspicious will do."
Another ghoul attempted a surprise attack but was deflected by Damian's sword.
Bibi trusted Damian and closed her eyes briefly. She focused on the strange energy felt around them.
She couldn't sense any mana source that could be called the main body.
"...There's one thing."
"What is it?"
"Suddenly... that appeared again. That mass of mana without substance that flickers before us."
"Where is it?"
"It's near us... moving. Very slowly..."
Bibi pointed to a spot with her hand and moved her arm in the direction it was moving.
Damian's gaze followed her hand.
"We should follow it."
"Y-yes."
As Damian moved in that direction, the frequency of ghoul attacks increased. As if in resistance.
The old woman suddenly fell silent. It had been enough time for her to mock and clap hands.
Now even Damian began to see the blue deer's form.
Damian also seemed quite puzzled by the sudden appearance of the blue deer.
A blue light dimly emanated from beyond the black smoke.
Then it suddenly stopped. As if pointing to something.
There was a spot where the flow of black smoke subtly changed. Thanks to the Griffin Potion, Damian could keenly detect this.
And he threw his wooden sword without hesitation.
It pierced through something.
"Kiaaaaaaah!"
Simultaneously, a chilling old person's scream rang out.
Damian grabbed Bibi's wrist and ran toward the source of the sound.
The black smoke began dispersing slowly, having lost its focal point.
Where they went, an old woman with an oily face and belly fat that jiggled from overeating was writhing while clutching her chest. Her appearance matched exactly with the priestess they had seen, and the skull staff lied fallen on the ground.
The starved and pitiful appearance had also been deception. The old woman was the most well-fed among Barbisia's settlers.
Damian's wooden sword had pierced precisely through her chest. The old woman seemed unable to comprehend how this had happened.
"H-how..."
Damian threw out a mocking comment.
"If you're going to deceive, you should have held your breath too."
"S-soon, the master of this land... not long..."
The old woman couldn't finish her words and collapsed. She didn't move again.
The black smoke had now almost completely dispersed. Damian kept his hand on the pocket containing bombs, still wary of ghouls as he surveyed the surroundings.
The ghouls had fled and no enemies remained.
Bibi quickly assessed the situation and examined Damian's wound.
"You're bleeding. Will you be alright?"
"I'm used to seeing blood. However..."
Damian stopped mid-sentence, clutched his head, and staggered.
Bibi startled and supported him with her whole body.
"W-what's wrong!"
And Damian's body that touched her was burning hot.
"There seems to have been poison on her claws."
"Do you know how to neutralize it?"
"There's no way to know what poison it is. And my recovery potion only works on external wounds... it has no detoxifying effect."
Bibi's face turned pale.
"We must find some way. There was an alchemist among my guard, if we capture him..."
"Too dangerous."
"..."
"We need to move first. This place is too exposed."
***
Fortunately, there was a solid path trampled by human feet in the swamp. Bibi and Damian followed this path first. They could risk reinfection if they moved through the swamp needlessly.
"A village! There's a village ahead!"
They saw a village that looked abandoned for over a decade. Given the urgent situation, they were in no position to be picky about where to rest.
She led Damian into a house with a relatively intact roof and laid him down.
"I'll go find some useful items."
Damian was too exhausted to respond.
Bibi searched through empty houses for useful items. She gathered pots and bowls that looked in decent condition. While collecting books for firewood, her eyes widened upon finding a notebook containing folk medicine recipes.
She flipped through the notebook pages checking recipes. And searched for a poison matching Damian's symptoms.
[Affected area turns green and high fever develops.]
[About Gorondis arrow poison and its antidote…]
When she found the antidote recipe matching this, her face brightened.
"Heaven is helping us."
She quickly memorized the needed ingredients and ran to Damian. When he tried to rise, Bibi forcefully pushed him back down.
"Wait here. I'll gather herbs quickly."
Then Damian responded through his fading consciousness.
"...No. It's dangerous."
But Bibi insisted.
"If you die, I'll die anyway. This isn't the time to worry about such things. What does danger matter?"
"...No."
Having reached his limit, Damian lost consciousness. Seeing him like this pained her heart.
She laid Damian, who had collapsed against the wall, flat on his back.
Bibi rolled up her sleeves and went outside.
When she returned after gathering all the herbs, the sun had almost set.
Her legs and forearms were a mess of mud and insect bites. Yet she was in too much of a hurry to tidy herself.
Damian was still unconscious.
"Just wait a little..."
She lit a fire and put water on for the medicine. The recipe was relatively simple, and she tended to him while the herbs steeped.
Damian laid still but was drenched in sweat.
She brought abandoned cloth from the village, boiled it, and removed Damian's upper clothing to wipe his sweat.
"..."
She became solemn seeing the traces of the past carved into his body.
How could this be the body of a teenage boy?
She stroked his abdomen with her finger. A bumpy sensation. Real scars.
She could imagine the unimaginable pain it took to become so hardened.
Damian, seeming delirious, muttered nonsense, "I'll, I'll protect you..."
Bibi placed her hand on Damian's cheek and stroked it slowly.
Is he seeing things?
Something welled up inside her. This man who had been so strong and unwavering now seemed so pitiful.
Then Damian muttered someone's name, "I'll protect you... Lisa..."
"...Lisa?"