The Priest of Corruption

r hunting.
Isn’t it the best way to improve your bow skills?”

Of course, to take out the poison sac, the snow spider’s stomach had to be cut, and in the process, more gunk was inevitably splashed everywhere.

“Let me do that since I’m already coated.
Just tell me where the poison sac is.”

Carmen laughed, wiping the fluid from his face.

“It’s a half-day drive to Kelton’s next city, anyway.
I’ll teach you how to collect the poison sac, so we’ll finish it together and go to the city to take a shower.”

“Good idea.”

We took two each, collected the poison sacs of the four snow spiders, and set off again for Kelton.
And not long after, we met who owned the blood coating the leg’s forelimbs.
Broken carriages and blood and flesh covered the road.

Carmen looked around with a hardened expression.

“It looks like the spiders that attacked us did this.
But it’s strange.”

Carmen tilted his head as he rummaged through the damaged boxes.

“Compared to the size of the wagon, the amount of items left here is too small.
Were they on the way back after disposing of the items?”

“There aren’t even corpses here.”

There was blood and tattered remains of organs, but there were no corpses.
The snow spider was a monster that sucked the blood out of its prey, so there was no way there weren’t corpses.

“Priest Marnak!”

“Yes.”

Carmen had already gone quite far in looking around.
I saw the clear traces of the snow spiders carved over the snowfields, accompanied by bloodstains leading into the forest’s depths.
Carmen pointed to them.

“It seems that the four we caught weren’t all.
It’s really strange.
When we get to Kelton, we must inform the Lord about this before there is more damage.”

I nodded.
There was absolutely no reason for us here to track down those spiders and uncover the truth of the case ourselves.

“I think the same.”

We quickly checked the wagon to see if there was anything we could pack.
Still, most of the remaining items were broken to the point of being unusable, so we set off again without finding anything else.
Now walking a little faster, we finally reached Kelton, and the city walls were in the distance.

“It’s good to inform the lord, but it’s good manners to wash your body first, and I think it’ll make us feel better.”

Carmen nodded.

“It’s definitely worse than I expected.”

As we slowly approached Kelton’s West Gate, the guards began to move with a surprised expression.
Before long, a guard jumped out and spoke to us.

“H-How did you get here?”

‘How did you get here?’

I looked at Carmen; both of us were confused.

“We came walking.”

“Didn’t you run into monsters on the way…?”

The guard stopped talking.
He seemed to realize how stupid he was asking such a question, given our state.
Carmen smiled bitterly and said to the guard.

“Can you tell us what’s happening in Kelton right now?”

The guard swallowed hard and answered in a trembling voice.

“Kelton’s roads have been blocked for three days now by monsters.”

Blocked by monsters? Had we just broken through the siege?

A more senior guard from the city came out to greet us.

“Lord Stren wants to see you two.
We will guide you to the Lord’s mansion.”

I answered, pointing to my head.

“It’s a personal opinion, but wouldn’t it be polite to see the lord after we showered?”

The guard looked between Carmen and me.

“Perhaps the lord will allow you to use the mansion’s bath.”

The lord’s bath.
It was a very attractive offer.
As I slowly turned to look at Carmen, he nodded slightly.

I replied with a smile.

“Let’s go now.”

*

The hot steam rising from the warm water pleasantly brushed my cheeks.
After washing my body roughly, I soaked myself in the prepared private bath to my heart’s content.

“Ahhhhh…”

‘K…i…l…l..’

Mother was already enjoying the hot water.

“The fact that a private bathroom is available for guests fits a proper lord.
My feelings for the Lord have already penetrated the roof with this warm water alone.”

‘Kill…’

Mother agreed by turning her palm over in the water.

After I had finished taking a hot bath, I put on the new clothes the mansion’s servants had prepared.
I wanted to lie down and take a nap, but of course, I couldn’t do that.

As I headed to the reception room, following the guidance of the servants, I found Carmen already there speaking with the lord.
I entered the room and bowed my head.

“Forgive me for being late.”

“It’s fine.
Please sit over there.”

The Lord of Kelton was a man who looked a little chubby and gentle, but he had a very youthful face.
He must’ve been in his mid-twenties at most.

As I sat beside Carmen, the lord gave me a friendly smile.

“Are you Priest Marnak, the Demon Slayer of Guise? Really, you don’t know how nice it is to have you come to our city.”

I bowed my head slightly, then answered.

“I’m not that great of a person.
I just put out the breath of a dying demon, and the real demon hunting was done by the three Reformations priests who gave their lives.”

“Slaying even a dying demon isn’t something anyone can do.
This Priest Marnak is a humble man.”

Just as the conversation was about to grow longer, Carmen changed the subject.

“I heard that the city is under siege.”

The Lord of Kelton, Stren Plkor, nodded, and his face turned gloomy.

“That’s right.
The reason I called the two of you here has something to do with just that.
As you two may have already heard, this siege isn’t normal.”

The Lord, licking his lips, said something very serious.

“It was all done by the worshiper of the evil god.”

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