It was a hoarse voice.

Regardless of whether it was male or female, at least it was certain that it was not a human voice.

Either you weren’t originally human, or you gave up being human.

It was clear that either of them was the kind of opponent they had fought before.

Being able to stay alive even after the upper part of the neck fell off was a characteristic of high-ranking apostles among the apostles of the church.

I took a step back and opened up the distance.

It was necessary to be cautious as the type of guy had not yet been accurately identified.

“How did you find out? I thought the disguise was perfect.”

The guy who picked up the head that had fallen on the floor put it back on his neck with both hands as if it was no big deal.

The cut surface, which had been neatly split, immediately connected the head and body and returned it as one body, as if it had never happened.

The fact that he is a guy who can disguise himself. And although I vaguely noticed that he was alive even after his head was cut off.

Seeing him return to his original body as if it were a wound he had never received, he was immediately convinced of what kind of apostle he was.

group of monsters.

It was a terrible experimental monster created by the Dark Church, where dozens of hundreds of souls moved as one body under one dominant mental body.

“You thought you wouldn’t get caught with that thin disguise? I can understand the level of thoughts in your head.”

“… … .”

“I only said there was a guy who raided the orphanage last night, but I didn’t say a word about whether it was a monster or a person, you idiot.”

The monster’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Huh, that’s right. With just that much slip of the tongue, humans wield swords at each other.”

“The alibi that disappeared at the time the monster appeared, the aura of magic that changed like a different person depending on the time of day, and even the wounds that were left untreated at the church.

There were many other ways to identify you anyway. Mistakes in words are only one of the mistakes you have made.”

“… … .”

“Why don’t you try at least a little to hide it? The smell of rotten flesh would have meant getting caught sooner or later.”

Cluster-type monsters can immediately recover from cuts and cuts, but they have a weakness that they cannot be undone if the wound itself disappears, such as exploding or exploding.

It’s not that you couldn’t regenerate it if you gave it enough time, but at least it was obviously impossible to get better in one night.

“yes. I’ll admit it. That you have a good eye for a mere academy student.”

“I don’t need your acknowledgment.”

“But will you be okay? If I die, the juniors who followed you will be very sad.”

“Don’t say anything that isn’t funny.”

If he was spared, there would be irreversible tears in Stella’s eyes and many more.

The option of skipping without killing him did not exist from the beginning.

“And what about the children here? Do you think the children in the orphanage will be able to live on their own if I disappear?”

“That’s my business, I don’t think you’re talking about it.”

“That’s right~. In order to protect his shallow pride, Conrad’s students don’t care if more than a hundred children are kicked out overnight without a place to rely on.”

“It’s much better than if you, the followers of Cardia, who became demons, centered around the orphanage and Waddle Village, expanded their power, suffering from being trapped in one body for the rest of their lives as each person became the food of the colony.”

“… How much do you know?”

Her expression, which seemed relaxed, turned ferocious at once.

It seemed that just a moment ago, they thought of me as an academy student and looked down on me.

As soon as I heard the contents of the information coming out of my mouth, I intuitively felt that it was not an ordinary opponent.

“Let’s do this for the rest of the conversation.”

It was a waste of time with further conversation, so I aimed the staff in my right hand at the guy’s left arm.

It was indoors, and the children were still sleeping upstairs, so it was impossible to use large-scale magic.

Instead, he lowered the range of the explosion to the limit and raised the destructive power by aiming accurately.

If you play it over and over again, it will be an annoying and long fight.

“Aagh!!”

With an explosion like a firecracker exploding, his left arm disappeared from the lower part of his shoulder.

Half-severed strands of tentacles were revealed within the bandages that had flowed from the impact.

As expected, it looked like it hadn’t played yet.

three places ahead.

“It hurts, you bastard!”

Of course, I ignored the monster’s words and immediately activated the second explosion magic on the monster’s right leg.

Once again, with the sound of fireworks exploding, the lower part of my right thigh was torn away from my body.

After falling to the floor, his legs wriggled a couple of times before losing their will and stopping their activities.

two places ahead.

“This bastard! You really know how to search!”

The whole body of the guy started discoloring to black, and immediately changed into a hideous figure like the monster he faced last night.

However, the tentacles that were supposed to be on the left arm and right leg had already been destroyed by my magic, so something was missing.

“… … !! … … !!!”

After uttering the same cries we heard last night, he stretched dozens of tentacles from his still-remaining right arm.

It was too close to deal with the explosion magic, so I probably had to deal with it in another way.

With a minimal swing of the broadsword held in reverse, I scraped off the tentacle from the tip.

It was a bit hard to cut at once, but not enough to withstand the cutting power of the blade containing arcane magic.

“… … !!!”

As if things weren’t going as well as I thought, the guy let out a nervous scream.

It was quite loud noise pollution to spit out in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep.

“Shut up, please.”

A ring of light was tied around his throat to block out the sound.

Since he’s an apostle of the church, he won’t have to suffer because he can’t breathe, but at least he won’t hear those frenzied cries again.

I didn’t want to wake up the children who were sleeping well.

In the meantime, my broadsword almost cut off his right arm, and the dozens of tentacles protruding from his right shoulder were shortened by less than a quarter.

The shards of tentacles crawling across the floor, somehow trying to get back together, were roasted to perfection with the Flame Citadel.

With the smell of burning rotten meat, the wriggling pieces of flesh stopped moving.

Is this the last one now?

The boy’s movements became hectic.

Since three of his limbs had already been broken and ruined, it was as if his means of attack had already disappeared.

Finally, after destroying only the left leg. If only the soul, which is the core of his body, was destroyed, everything would be over.

Perhaps for the final attack, the body of the guy who was supported on one leg was laid on the bed behind his back.

Then, the tentacles from the left leg were lifted into the air and the tentacle strands collided with each other as if wriggling.

I almost burst out laughing at his ridiculous last attempt.

“Is it takeover magic now? Until the very end, they do everything they can.”

Instead of casting spells with your mouth, magic is activated by moving your fingers.

I had expected that this monster could use magic since last night when I was hit by a flash of light it caused.

I didn’t expect it to be takeover magic.

Among the souls it absorbed, the soul of Miss Hermia, a former sorceress, was also included, so takeover magic is probably one of the knowledge included in her soul.

‘pop.’

I aimed and activated the final explosion magic at the last limb of the guy who was actively teasing the tentacle strands in the air.

Since the remaining tentacles were gathered in one place to complete the takeover magic somehow, the remaining tentacles were scattered into pieces with just one explosion.

“Let’s finish now.”

I approached the guy whose pitiful body was left and searched for the soul remaining in the body with precision magical power detection.

I was able to find only one disparate and ugly soul in the aura of hundreds of souls compressed.

This guy is undoubtedly the one that corresponds to the main body of this monster.

I didn’t want to mess up the scene more unnecessarily, so I aimed my radiant strike at his soul as the final blow.

A blow made of light passed through the center of the monster’s body, and at the same time, the soul of the monster burned with the scorching heat of brilliance.

‘… … !’

‘… ? … !!’

‘… … … .’

As soon as the controlling spirit dissipated, a chill began to permeate the room.

It was the aftermath of the souls that had been gathered by the guy getting out of the body in an instant.

It was a colony of souls that had been forcibly attached from the beginning, so as soon as the cause disappeared, they appeared to attain Buddhahood in an instant.

There must have been some souls who had lingering attachments to this world, but more than that, it seemed that they had a greater desire to escape from hell as soon as possible.

Perhaps Hermia’s soul was there, as well as the souls of other children who were abducted before Belle.

Wishing that it would be a small blessing for them all, I prayed silently in my heart to those who attained Buddhahood.

“Senior Conrad?”

It wasn’t until a while later that he realized that Stella had been watching the scene.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

There was a slightly awkward atmosphere.

When I asked where he had been looking, he replied that it was from when I used the last blow.

I thought I heard something strange downstairs, so I came down just in case.

As soon as I opened the door, it must have witnessed me using a brilliance on the monster’s soul.

fortunately it was At least there was no needless misunderstanding.

If it seemed to Stella that I was trying to kill Hermia, it might have taken her a little longer to convince her.

Fortunately, the end of the guy Stella witnessed was the same as the monster I dealt with last night.

There was no point in hurting feelings due to a useless misunderstanding.

“Senior Konrad, if you don’t mind, can you explain what happened?”

Of course, it wouldn’t have been possible to grasp all the circumstances at once, so I had to explain all the context to Stella, who eventually witnessed the scene.

The case of the disappearance of a child at a nursery school that had already started for over half a year.

The identity of the monster that attacked the nursery school last night was disguised as Hermia and was hiding in the nursery school.

Even the fact that Hermia, the original owner of the orphanage, has long since passed away.

The stories were by no means light, but she deserved to hear all the inside stories.

“Is that so.”

I couldn’t even imagine how much of a shock Stella must have been after hearing the whole story.

He was slightly biting his lower lip as if he was trying to hold back the tears that leaked out, but the atmosphere was like he was about to burst into tears if he even touched his finger.

Stella tried to hold back the slightly crying voice, but this time Stella opened her mouth.

“Senior Conrad.”

“yes.”

“I have a story I want to tell you outside. Could you spare a little time?”

“outside?”

“Yeah. If you don’t cool your head with cold air… I can’t seem to get the words out.”

After quietly nodding his head, I walked with her to the yard of the nursery school.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

They walked beside Stella and organized their thoughts until she felt like opening her mouth.

The chilly night breeze not only helped to cool the emotions in Stella’s head.

It also played a huge role in waking up my slightly tired body.

By the time we had walked step by step with Stella in silence for about 10 minutes, her mouth opened for the first time since coming out.

“Senior Conrad, until now I have been lying to you.”

As soon as I heard the first sentence out of Stella’s mouth, I vaguely guessed the content of the conversation that would follow.

“I told you that I am the eldest daughter of the Arwen family and the daughter of Professor McDowell… . In fact, not a single piece of it is true.”

The story of the background Stella was hiding from me, which I hoped would someday be told by herself.

“My hometown is not the Earl of Arwen, and my biological father is not Professor McDowell.

I don’t even know the faces of my real parents, and the last home I remember is an old nursery school in a remote place.”

“… Is that so?”

Since I was talking with a reaction as if I was committing a great sin, I answered with an indifferent answer as if it was not a big deal on purpose.

“Right here, this Cherryfield Orphanage is the oldest home I remember.”