Forsaken Priest of the Hero's Party-Chapter 59: The Herald of Death is now Certain

“Our Duchy’s specialty product is horses. The Ferghana horses that are raised by eating blood grass have high endurance and physical strength, and are exceptionally intelligent, making them useful for long journeys.”

Since we must go straight towards the Capital once this matter is resolved, Mr. Layton arranged for these horses. He instructed the vampires of the merchant group to prepare three Ferghana, and the employees immediately followed the order.

The power of domination was gone, but the power of capital remained. Mr. Layton still had a lot of money.

“If you need to go urgently, it would be better to ride the horses directly rather than taking a carriage. the Ferghana have good stamina, so they can handle mountain paths well. By the way, do you know how to ride?”

“I learned it before. Roka, do you know how to ride a horse?”

“Hn. For a tribe living on the plains, horses are a part of daily life.”

Then there won’t be any problems.

With our transport arranged, it was time to do the requested task.

We headed to Mr. Layton’s house and felt the eerie energy lurking inside that large mansion.

Mr. Layton gulped as if preparing himself mentally. Ignoring the ominous energy flowing next to me, I grabbed the doorknob and opened the door.

Visit frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓ for the b𝘦st novel reading experience.

Creak...

“The inside is cleaner than I thought?”

The princess muttered as she looked around inside the open door. Of course, when we walked down the corridor and entered the inner room, she shut her mouth tightly. Blood and brain matter mixed together, making the floor sticky.

“Velon, Cynthia, Grandpa Azkada...”

Mr. Layton quietly recited the names of the dead. His eyes were filled with complex emotions.

Among the dead, there were those he was close to, those who owed him some favors, and those who despised him. But now, all of those ties were severed.  That’s what death is like. There are few things the living can do for those who are already dead.

“For now, let’s wipe the floor and take care of the corpses first.”

“I’ll clean up the blood.”

Roka walked over with short steps, keeping her tail from touching the floor, and concentrating mana between her hands. Everyone was surprised to see the shape that appeared there.

Because the queen that shines quietly when you look up at the night sky is now settled in Roka’s hands in the daytime. A brilliant full moon bloomed, and the moon absorbed the thick blood.

The pool of blood swayed and was sucked into the moon’s gravity. It soaked into the full moon, turning it into a red blood moon.

When that bewitching blood-colored moon floated in the air and dyed the interior in a red light, those beside me gulped. Because the atmosphere exuded by that red moon was too strange.

“When I first saw the wolf girl, I actually thought she was nothing if not for the power of the sun,”

As if enchanted by the moonlight, Mr. Layton muttered.

“While overcoming the sun, the girl overcame much more. I didn’t know she would develop this much in such a short time.”

“Hm? The brat already managed to shape her aura? Just what kind of enlightenment did she gain...”

Even the princess looked at Roka with an unusual gaze, but as if all that admiration was someone else’s business, the child paid no attention. Then she pulled back the curtain and sent the blood moon out the window.

The blood-red moon rushed towards the midday sun, then shattered into ashes and disappeared in the sunlight. The dead ultimately failed to overcome the sun and died, and the sun had no mercy even for the dead.

Roka, who finished the job, looked at me as if expecting praise.

Since it was such a place, she was slightly disappointed when I just lightly patted her head, but I couldn’t dote on Roka in front of the dead.

Splash!

I created a baptismal bottle and slowly poured it on the bodies.

Their bust heads bubbled and the wounds were washed away. Soon, the corpse was restored to its original state. Of course, this is not reviving those who are already dead.

It only exterminates the maggots, restores the wounds, and enshrouds those already dead.

It only returns the corpse to its living appearance, but cannot bring back the life that has disappeared. I don’t know if it’s because the Lord can’t do it or because He doesn’t allow me to, but I only guess it’s the latter.

“Priest...”

Mr. Layton, who had only briefly paid attention to the other corpses and immediately went to the deepest part of the inner room, called out to me. Just from the emotion mixed in his voice, I knew what he was going to ask of me.

“If... really if... if the one you serve could only revive the dead... I would do anything...”

“That can’t be done. It’s not that I won’t do it, but that I can’t. I’m sorry. That’s the one thing I can’t help you with.”

A female vampire who died by hanging. Probably Mr. Layton’s wife.

Even though he had been notified that she was already dead and had prepared himself mentally, the moment he saw her, Mr. Layton wailed. He cried out loud and couldn’t hold back his tears.

It’s ironic that while I can be resurrected, I cannot do the same to others.

No one knows that except myself. Yurinel doesn’t know, and Parnell doesn’t know. In the first place, I didn’t tell them and tried to hide it from the beginning. That’s the only thing I hide from others.

If they knew that, if someone else noticed this secret, it was all too obvious that they would bring the dead to me and ask for resurrection.

Because I knew that those who lost their loved ones would do anything to get them back. But I can’t help them, and even if I did, that’s not allowed.

No matter how tragic the ending was,

Even if it was a life with lingering regrets,

No matter how many people are left in this world longing for them, the dead cannot be brought back to life. I can only pray for their happiness in the afterlife.

“The dead are gone. And while I don’t know if they will reach you, My Lord...”

I put my hands together and offered a quiet prayer. I placed a candle in front of me and prayed with my hands clasped.

I don’t know what sins and good deeds the departed have. I also don’t know what remains after death.

“I pray that You guide their path with love and grace. Lead them with Your loving hand and grant them salvation. Enlighten their hearts with the Holy Spirit, and forgive even those who have sinned.”

“Fill their hearts with grace and blessings, and comfort those who grieve, unable to overcome their earthly affections. Grant rest to the departed, and let those who have fallen into despair lift their eyes to behold the new heaven and new earth. I pray only in the name of the Lord.”

I just did my best to do what I could as a priest.

Each time a person entered the coffin, I placed my hand on their forehead and offered a prayer. Even to Mr. Layton’s wife, who had the noose untied and scars left on her neck, I offered a prayer in the same way.

Only after all those prayers were over did Mr. Layton come to talk to me. In fact, he seemed to have wanted to say something for a while, but he couldn’t bring himself to interrupt the prayer.

“My son, my son is nowhere to be seen. Where on earth did Zig, Zig go... Did the being who committed this act kidnap my son? And who on earth... did this? Is it the work of demons? If not...”

“Now there is no room for doubt. This was the work of an Evil God.”

Eerie, evil, and dark energy. Ominous and inauspicious darkness.

An endlessly condensed grudge that can only be described as resentment. That was strongly felt in this mansion. It was definitely not mana, but another type of power, divinity.

“Evil God...Is, is that really the culprit who harmed my wife and son?”

“It may be hard to believe, but that’s probably the truth.”

The divinity was so dense that any priest other than me could have recognized it.

In the end, the worst situation has come, and a god has been born.

The bigger problem is that the Evil God has already left this place. If it had appeared before us right now, we could have subjugated or exorcised it with the help of the princess.

“Before the divinity in this place disperses, call the priests of the Trinity Church as quickly as possible and show them the mansion. We don’t know where the Evil God is now, so we need their help.”

The power of the Trinity Church is spread throughout the continent, so they will be able to respond wherever an Evil God appears. Mr. Layton nodded. His complexion trembled.

“Why did such a thing appear in this territory...”

“That, we’ll probably find out if we go to Mt. Meso.”

“Mt. Meso...? Could it be?!”

Mr. Layton’s face turned pale.

A god personally held a grudge against them and carried out revenge. It means that there was some kind of relationship between the dead and the god.

If this Evil God had been born in a foreing land, it might have played with the Vampires like toys for a little while, but there was no need to kill them while exuding so much resentment like this.

“For now, let’s check Mt. Meso. If that is really the origin of this Evil God...”

We might be able to dig up a little more information about it.

*****-Long live Her Majesty! May the Demon Empire be Eternal! Love Live Empress Harmael! Long Live!”

Through the crystal, the masked figure trembled as if worshipping a god, bowing in the reflected illusion.

Harmael was disgusted by the hypocrisy, but as an Empress, she couldn’t let such things show. Outwardly, she nodded as if satisfied with his praise.

“Lich Albatross. The new lord of the Underground Castle. It is truly a joyous day that you, representing the castle, swear loyalty to Us.”

-Your Majesty. Since our master was defeated by the hero party, our Underground Castle has also been in turmoil for a while. Only now that I have become the new lord and pledge my loyalty to Your Majesty, I am simply sorry for the delay in paying respects.

Sorry for what. They were just watching and waiting. They are nothing but those who belatedly threw themselves in only after realizing that she had truly become the dominant power.

If it were the Elder Lich, Balzac, the ultimate mage and seeker of death, even Harmael would not have looked down on him so easily, but she doesn’t care about his disciple or the like.

Still, the reason she doesn’t treat them recklessly is because she needs them now anyway.

To hunt the hero party, she needed the help of these undead.

The Underground Castle. A gathering place of lunatics that even demons are wary of.

Foolish people who wanted to live on, even as corpses to escape death, and a collection of necromancers who were rejected throughout the continent. They are those who are rejected by the continent and the Trinity Church, but that doesn’t mean they are welcomed by demons either.

After all, demons are also made of flesh, no different, and there’s no way they would welcome weirdos who raise the bodies of dead family or friends again.

Still, the enemy of an enemy is a friend, so they secretly allied against the Church. Now that Harmael has unified the Demon Realm, they have finally bowed their heads first and come under her command.

It wasn’t a complete lie when Harmael said she was pleased.

Because she had elicited the submission of the Underground Castle, which no demon had ever shown before. Not only would it further consolidate her authority, but it would also make the plan to hunt the hero party more convenient.

-Your Majesty. The hero party is the mortal enemy of our Underground Castle. Just give the word and the undead army of our castle will sortie against the hero party at any time.

“Aren’t you underestimating them too much even after being defeated by them once already?”

Harmael’s eyes changed. Have their brains rotted too?

The guy named Albatross seems to have forgotten to embalm his brain while becoming a lich.

She couldn’t understand how they could be so confident with their remaining remnants, when even at the peak of the Underground Castle, with an army of thousands of death knights and liches, and their leader Balzac intact, they couldn’t defeat the hero party and were subjugated.

-Your Majesty. That incident was unavoidable for us as well. But to say one thing for our honor, our master did not fall to the holy sword. The great army of the Underground Castle didn’t even get to fight the hero party.

The lich Albatross gritted his dentures tightly.

-But this time it’s different. Because we confirmed that the priest is not by their side.

Honestly, it couldn’t even be called a fight. Just as one can’t call it a fight when the Vampires are exposed to the sun. It’s just a one-sided slaughterer.

The Divinity of Hope is not an aggressive one, but for the undead, it acts as nirvana.  It’s called nirvana, but from the undead’s perspective, it means returning to being a corpse.

The effect is exactly the same as the relationship between vampires and the sun. One side is the unilateral natural enemy of the other.

If they are even slightly touched by divinity, no, if they are just exposed to light, they can neither avoid it nor refuse it. The army of 400,000 corpses that the Underground Castle confidently mobilized went from a group of living corpses to just a group of corpses. The moment the Beacon of Sanctuary rose, everything just ended.

The reason Albatross survived was because at that time, he had not yet concocted himself into a lich. Only a small number of necromancers who had not yet become undead survived and fled.

Everyone was so dumbfounded that they couldn’t even shed tears. What kind of thing like this happens in the world?

Over the past hundreds of years, the successive lords had gathered their forces with all their efforts, but they were scattered like leaves in the wind with a single Miracle. The funny part is that, because of the Beacon, the soil of the original Castle became sanctified.

They rebuilt a new Underground Castle where they fled, but they couldn’t even dream of revenge. The one miracle shown by Kyle completely overwhelmed them.

Only after he disappeared did the horde of corpses crawl out again. The target of revenge was of course not Kyle, but the hero party. When such a terrifying human left on his own, would they go and pick a fight with him again?

Unfortunately, the undead are selfish and calculating beings. The bond between master and disciple is not that great either. Although their master died, thanks to that, Albatross could become the lord, so he actually had no great attachment to revenge itself.

He only planned to owe a debt to Harmael on this occasion and solidify his position under the pretext of revenge. Anyway, the political calculations of the two matched, so everything proceeded smoothly.

Have this meeting not been held by a Crystal Ball, they would even have shaken hands.

-Your Majesty Harmael, then I will see you again later.

“We too shall await the day We meet you again.”

After satisfactorily concluding the meeting, Harmael stretched on the throne and instructed her aide, Sharon. Although Albatross didn’t tell her about the incident that could be considered their shameful history, the mention of that ‘priest’ somehow bothered her.

If it was something only Albatross had brought up, she would have just ignored it, but didn’t Grimudo, the Ancient Demon King, also mention the priest of the hero party?

She couldn’t help but be concerned about it.

“Sharon, look into that priest a bit.”

“There wasn’t much of significance written in the data we have...”

“Once is a coincidence, but twice is not.”

She slowly got up from her seat. The Duchess Shmira was no longer even in her mind. The Demon Empire had just been founded and there was so much to do, how could she remember that blowhard?

When the Demon Empire invaded the Empire, she didn’t expect from the beginning the so-called backstabbing promise that they would disrupt their rear.

Even if the Empire doesn’t know, does the Church look like an easy target?  Are the holy knights of the Theocracy a joke?

It’s something that’s good if it happens, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t matter, so of course she didn’t keep it in mind.

“So have someone look into it. There might be information we don’t know.”

So she will soon stop caring about that priest too. Unless someone mentions that priest for a third time.