Volume 3 Chapter 3 The Village of the Dead
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”This place is like a ghost town.”
It’s strange that my searching skill isn’t picking up anyone.
It’s a village with no sign of people, like a ghost town.
I hope it’s not one of those dead streets you hear about in ghost stories.
Compared to Toyata village, this place is huge.
There are moats and stone walls that remind me of the ones in Heian-kyo.
The buildings are so weathered, it looks like no one’s been here for hundreds of years.
But this is a world with magic, so judging by looks alone could be dangerous.
* * *
I switch my searching skill to full-scan mode and peek into one of the buildings, probably a wealthy merchant’s house with a spacious courtyard.
”Excuse me.”
Even though I know no one’s here, I call out just in case.
When I touch the half-open door, a pair of decayed butterflies crumble apart, and the heavy wooden door falls inward with a thud.
The dust that’s been piling up for years swells up, so I step back outside for a moment.
Ms. Ant and the others react to the noise, readying their weapons.
”It just looks all rusty and falling apart, not my fault it broke.”
I make excuses to no one in particular: I didn’t break it.
After the dust settles, I let Ms. Aqua take the lead.
I’m not reliable, and with my low level, there’s a high chance I’d die from an accident.
Ms. Aqua moves with precision, storming in like SWAT.
The dining room table has dishes lined up.
The food is long gone, of course, but from the dishes, you can sort of imagine what the soup and salad might have been like.
Was that cage in the middle of the table for bread?
And that looks like a butter jar – they must have been well-off.
The study-like room shows signs of looting, with a locked box hacked open by an axe or something.
When I touch the scattered books on the floor, they crumble and fall apart.
How long has it been for the paper to decay like this?
In the corner of a room that looks like a bedroom, there’s a human-like figure huddled.
In a place like this, I was prepared, but… when I realize it’s a mummy, I almost scream.
”Poor thing.”
Ms. Nina’s voice helped me calm down.
If you look close, you see she’s a young woman, holding a mummy of a tiny kid.
There were dark stains on her clothes and the floor; looked like blood.
”Something’s wrong. Let’s check out the church.”
In this world, when you die, you get sent to the church and come back to life.
If resurrection fails, you’re lost and only a handful of ashes stay, no normal body left.
Even demons come back through their dark churches.
Only unbaptized heathens die for real.
No cross, but the big tall spires made it clear it was a proper church.
Though it’s holy, it felt way too creepy──like a vampire movie set.
If I was alone, I’d never go in. It’s just too spooky.
Ms. Aqua and Ms. Nina don’t seem scared at all.
They just storm right inside without stopping.
I left Ms. Joa and Ms. Claire to watch the wagon, then Me and Ms. Ant followed Ms. Nina inside.
Ms. Ann and Ms. Lime stayed by the gate as comms.
This was for the usual “door suddenly locks” trick.
Even if we got split up, High Slime Ms. Lime could move anywhere.
Inside the main dome, tons of bodies stacked on each other, all lying there.
They were mummified, sure, but still, seeing so many dead was rough.
”Look here. The resurrection orb’s smashed.”
Ms. Nina was checking the shrine’s center decoration; looked really important.
”If this breaks, Resurrection Summoning Spell can’t finish. That can’t ever happen.”
Huh, breaking the resurrection spot means you can’t come back from death.
Makes sense, but that system is kinda fragile.
Ms. Ant was coolly inspecting the mummified bodies.
Looks like they died from a special hand axe called “bull’s horn.”
”Bull’s horn, huh? Looks like this village got wiped by the Grace Knights.”
Grace Knights?
Sounds religious, and a bad vibe all around.
Ms. Nina said it was a brutal cult, Armed Cleric soldiers living by strength.
The bull horns look like small one-handed straight swords, but they’re really a kind of hand axe with an iron blade fixed to the tip of a wooden sword.
The monks of the Blessed Knights carried this light, cheap weapon as a backup, I guess.
The weight is mostly at the tip, so it’s not as good as a real sword, but for unarmed enemies, it’s deadly enough.
Most of the fallen victims lay piled up, killed by getting a bull horn smashed down on their heads.
Their skulls had a special hole left behind.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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