55 – reunion

”Stop procrastinating! Write quickly!”

”Ah, don’t rush me…”

Apis’ wish to return to the party.

My intention is that I don’t want to meet the hero.

In the process of finding an agreement between the two opinions, the compromise we eventually chose was to convey to the warrior in writing a valid reason why I had no choice but to leave the party.

As long as the hero-sama agrees, we can part without regrets.

If you don’t understand, face the hero directly and talk again.

It was my creed not to look at bets where the outcome was uncertain, since I had no luck.

don’t run away

Could it be that Apis’ scathing scolding dulled my judgment?

In the end, I accepted Apis’ offer.

”But why are you doing that again?”

Apis pointed somewhere with her chin.

There, like a mob that had regurgitated some item, there was a nun lying on the floor with her belongings scattered randomly.

It had been that way ever since Priest Lan Novel had come and gone.

It was a heartbreaking sight, but there was nothing I could do for her now, other than to move her as far away from the window seat as possible.

Because I have to bear the agony of my own shameful actions.

”My Lord… How could you put me through such an ordeal…”

Although it was quite an ordeal to pretend not to hear the mournful voice of the nun that wet his ears.

”apis. At times like that, just leave me alone…”

like that.

Around the time I was about to shift my attention, which had been briefly distracted to the nun, to the stationery in front of me again.

It was then.

A chill passed through my consciousness as if the blood in my body had frozen solid.

Read at noblemtl.com

Kugoong!

Right after that, my body leaned toward the floor as I felt a ferocious vibration that seemed to shake the world.

”Quit!”

Fortunately, thanks to holding the chair with my hand before it was too late, I was able to avoid an unfortunate accident of falling over.

In my thoughts, which were dotted with an unprecedented sense of crisis, there was no space left for the beautiful sense of relief that my body was healthy.

”apis!”

”I know!”

When I called Apis’ name, she was already watching the situation outside the window with her elongated ears peculiar to the elves pricked up.

Its nimble movements seemed to be watching cats and animals with their natural enemies right in front of them.

From the appearance that his hands were tightly placed on his bow and arrow while watching the situation from afar.

It was not difficult to guess that she, like me, was in a state of extreme tension.

”Nimiral…”

Apis, who was one step ahead of me in grasping the situation outside, suddenly swallowed the curse.

After belatedly confirming the situation, I didn’t just swear, but I felt no different from Apis.

A gigantic model of a city created in miniature.

In the middle of it, a strange sight, as if a building densely painted with black crayons had been inserted randomly, hit my field of view.

Its appearance was as if a dark night, hiding from the dazzling sun, was extending its dark hands toward the vast sky, like oil gushing up from an oil field.

yes, for instance.

Like a shadow trying to swallow the sun.

”Sister. Take control of the surrounding area right now, and hurry up and call the high priests who are out of work.”

”What, what happened…?”

Did I insinuate the seriousness of the situation from my serious tone, which is quite different from usual?

The nun, who hurriedly settled her troubled mind, asked me a question with a clear voice of anxiety.

It didn’t take long for her expression to turn into astonishment when she heard the answer to that question from me.

”The dungeon appears to have been opened…”

◈◈◈

The place that I reached by running through the crowded streets was the place I had recognized through the window just a moment ago.

It was the epicenter of the shock that shook the heavens and the earth, and it was the very place where the black pillars that appeared out of nowhere had settled down.

”Warrior! Downa! Big team!”

As if he wasn’t even in a hurry to settle his fast breathing, Apis suddenly called out the names of his comrades one after another with a face overflowing with desperation.

The earnest voice was directed toward the huge, black pillar that had swallowed the entire building.

If my memory is clear, that building must have been a place where accommodations for tourists, which were quite famous in this area, were located.

As the ominous assumptions that popped into my head took shape, the color of my face gradually turned to contemplation.

”apis! Is that true!? Everyone in the party was staying here!”

I tried to calmly ask myself, but for some reason, the color of the words that came out of my mouth was an aggravated tone filled with sharp emotions.

”Yes, priest…”

The nun who came with me flinched as if she was afraid of me, but I didn’t care and was about to continue talking.

”Kyaaak!”

”Look over there! There are still people around that black thing!”

”Quickly, someone go and get some priests!”

The spectators who were trembling in fear gathered together and pointed somewhere.

There, a large man lying on the ground, holding someone small in his arms, lay there.

”Big team!”

There was no one to say who was first.

An unidentified sculpture that may pose a danger.

A dangerous act of approaching someone who is lying sick everywhere.

Even if the slightest hesitation creeps in, even in a situation where no one can be held accountable.

In the behavior of Apis and I, not even a speck of such anguish could be found.

”Priest!”

Fiercely resisting the hand of the nun who tried to dissuade me from my reckless behavior, I rushed to the side of my fainting colleague.

”Big team! hey! Are you okay!? You this…!”

”Get out of the way! apis!”

Fortunately, it seemed that his breath was still attached.

However, judging from the appearance of Apis, who checked the condition of the big team ahead of me, was impatiently out of breath.

That he was in a serious condition that required some kind of action was a fact that could be known even without examining his body.

”Big team! Can you come to your senses!?”

”Ugh…”

”This, this is…!”

The person the big team was holding was Dauna, who was in a state of fainting.

It seemed clear at first glance that he was trying to protect Dauna from something related to that black pillar.

Right now, there are issues that need to be dealt with more urgently than that.

Minor issues like the order of things deserved to be put aside for a while.

”Stand, hurry up! Hurry!”

”My Lord. I’m your finger mere lamb. I will bring rest to all on earth under your power. I give all the glory to you.”

Leaving behind Apis who urgently sent me away, I quickly began to recite a prayer.

Victim and Downa. There were black spots engraved on the bodies of the two people, and there was no question about their identities.

curse.

It’s also a fairly high-concentration curse.

It’s not as good as his sister, who has reached the point of invulnerability, but the victor is a first-class tank with strong resistance to all kinds of poisons and curses.

Such a curse as to make him wander between death and death like this.

You have to focus all your attention on prayer.

Read at noblemtl.com

Just by imagining the subject of the curse for a moment, the cold talk without notice was truly brutal.

Fortunately, unlike Viktim, who is in a critical condition, the curse on Dauna’s body was not that serious.

After all, it must have been thanks to the big team who saved her by throwing themselves.

It was an occasional boon.

Even if it’s an ordinary wound, I don’t know, because a disease or curse that has penetrated the body is difficult to heal multiple people at once.

What if Downa was in as serious a condition as Big Team?

If Dauna’s curse was at this level, it seemed possible enough to cure Dauna’s curse while healing Victim’s curse.

”Oh, how! Do you think you can get better!?”

”Don’t tell me. I’m in the middle of concentrating right now.”

Read at noblemtl.com

Just like that, when I was devoting myself to prayer, listening to Apis’ urging with one ear and letting it out with the other.

A reasonable question crossed my mind.

The prayer for today must have already been used when healing Apis’ broken hand…

”Ugh!”

”Rain, Big Team!”

”Big team! It’s okay…”

It was then.

Before the doubts in my head could take shape, the dark-stained Victim furrowed his brows and let out a moan with clear signs of pain.

That familiar sight that reminded me of sometime in my memory pushed a heavy phrase from the past buried in the swamp of oblivion into my retina.

‘Who are you! What have you done to my sister!’

Let alone pray, a vision that seemed to stop my breath for a moment passed through my forehead.

Shaking my head from side to side, I roughly shook off the tough distracting thoughts that were entangled in my thoughts.

”Noona, noona…”

”Bee, Big Team! Are you okay!? Come to your senses!?”

”Big team! You can’t even talk! No, don’t tell me!”

At that moment, Victim, who had regained his senses, licked his dry lips.

”sister···. My sister is still inside…”

It was right after that.

My bewildered gaze turned toward the black pillar.