CHGD 27

Chapter 27

Whether I understood or not, the village representative clenched his fist with a resolute expression, as if engaged in a struggle.

“I heard that person was entrusted with the mistress’s protection. But at some point, they disappeared, and we haven’t even heard word of them. Please, I beg of you—ask the yellow one to return that person to us.”

‘Protection… Ah!’

Then it dawned on me who they were looking for.

My original escort knight, who had been replaced due to Loaz and a third party.

It was Vallos.

That evening, after the conversation with the village representative ended, I faced Loaz in my bedroom. It was uncomfortable speaking into thin air, so I opened the wardrobe, placed a chair in front of it, and sat down.

Having recovered enough to take human form, Loaz sat cross-legged inside the wardrobe, resting his chin on his hand.

From this angle, he looked just like a child playing hide-and-seek in the closet.

“You’re having disrespectful thoughts again.”

“I’m right this time.”

“Tch!”

Now apparently not needing to use telepathy, Loaz opened his mouth in his boyish form and spoke with a sighing voice.

“Anyway, so you said you’d agree to return Vallos?”

“I only said I’d pass it along to the Count.”

I told Loaz everything that had happened today. It was to ask for his help. Because Vallos’s return wasn’t something I could accomplish with my will alone.

“Well, you couldn’t have said Vallos was dead right there. On the surface, you’re supposed to be unaware of Vallos’s fate.”

That was true. It was Loaz who had told me of Vallos’s death, and the Count had only explained that Vallos was temporarily away.

So I couldn’t tell the village representative with certainty that ‘Vallos will return.’

“But do you really need to worry about it? He’s already entered into a contract of subservience, didn’t you say?”

“Because I don’t want to make empty promises.”

Though unintentional, the fact that I had branded the village representative’s chest left me with a sense of guilt. I’d have to talk with the Count later to change the emblem’s effect or something—it felt unpleasant, like turning people into slaves.

“Empty promises… aren’t you the one who lies all the time about those things?”

I puffed out my chest with pride and said,

“Humans are allowed to do that.”

“…Why are you so proud about it?”

You’re monsters, so you should understand the weak human heart.

On this matter, I had no intention of backing down. For humans, whose only weapon is their tongue, this much handicap was necessary.

“Let’s get back to the topic. So what kind of being is Vallos to them? Why do they worship him as an idol?”

Loaz scratched his cheek with an annoyed expression.

“I never thought I’d be the one explaining Vallos… He’s a derived avatar created from a certain being. The deep-sea residents you called ‘fish’ worship Vallos’s original as their god.”

“Is that ‘original’ what Ikavel called the ‘being of the sea’?”

“To be precise, it’s a being above the gods they worship. Their gods exist beneath Vallos’s original.”

To summarize, one of the gods in the lineage the villagers worshipped was Vallos’s original, and to them, Vallos was like a child of their god.

‘Why was such an extraordinary monster serving as an escort knight? No, even stranger than that is…’

“Ikavel said the Count killed the being of the sea. So then… did the Count kill both Vallos’s original and the gods the villagers followed?”

Clack—Loaz gritted his teeth.

“That brat said that much? Loose-lipped little thing.”

Veins rose on Loaz’s pristine forehead. He was so angry that tree roots began sprouting like tentacles from the wardrobe behind him.

Loaz’s anger seemed somehow strange. Did he have some connection to the being of the sea and Vallos’s original? He was reacting sensitively, as if it were his own affair.

‘If it were his own affair… could they be Loaz’s family?’

As suspicions began to pile up, Loaz spoke.

“Yes, that’s right. Haster won the eternal war. He killed both the being of the sea and his sworn enemy. Afterward, he gathered the fragments of the beings he killed and created Vallos. The residents who lost their god were taken in as subordinates.”

‘For some reason, I sense both affection and resentment whenever he talks about Vallos.’

Though he didn’t seem to notice it himself, strong emotion was felt in the expression ‘Haster created Vallos.’ He wrapped up the explanation quickly, as if telling me not to ask further, so I didn’t add anything.

“So that’s why they want Vallos. But what do we do? You said he’s already dead.”

“Well, can’t we just revive him?”

Come to think of it, I had been told monsters could be revived.

The moment I thought I could just tell the Count, Loaz corrected himself.

“Ah—no. It might be difficult right away.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Haster suspects that I killed Vallos, right? And if I killed Vallos, I’d probably have hidden his head somewhere so he couldn’t revive easily.”

“His head?”

“His regeneration starts from the head. Though destroying the head isn’t easy either… Anyway, if it were me, I would have hidden and sealed Vallos’s head.”

Loaz asserted that the reason Vallos hadn’t returned to his post as escort was because his head couldn’t be found and he couldn’t revive.

“He couldn’t have taken the head outside the castle, and destroying it is impossible too, so it’s definitely somewhere in this castle. If you find that head and bring it to Haster, Vallos should be able to revive.”

‘So you’re saying I have to find the head that was dismembered? With my own hands?’

It felt like the difficulty of the request, which I thought would only require delivering a message, had suddenly shot up.

Perhaps because I was clearly making an unwilling face, Loaz spoke as if doing me a favor.

“I can help find it. I have the ability to sense Vallos when he’s nearby. If you bow your head and ask me…”

“I’ll bow. Will you find it for me?”

“…Isn’t that bowing a bit too fast?”

When I bent over and asked, Loaz muttered as if dumbfounded. If I could gain practical benefit by sacrificing a little pride, I was more than willing.

Finding the tug-of-war childish, Loaz cleared his throat and stepped out of the wardrobe.

“Huh? You can come out?”

“I can’t use my power, but moving around is fine. Since we’re on the subject, let’s go out now and find the head.”

“Do you have a place in mind?”

“I sent familiars to every corner of the castle while I was resting. Now that I think about it, there’s a place that’s suspicious.”

It was a sealed-off space where Loaz couldn’t gather information. Precisely because he couldn’t get information, it was even more suspicious, he said.

“It’s night right now. You want to go out now?”

“That’s exactly why we should go. There’ll be less surveillance. Get up, quick.”

I felt uneasy for some reason, but due to Loaz’s coercion, I embarked on an untimely night walk.

There were no servants roaming the hallways, so we were able to leave the annex unnoticed.

Surprisingly, the destination wasn’t far away.

“It’s here?”

On the opposite side of the annex and garden, in the central part of the castle, stood a large cathedral. Loaz pointed to the entrance of the cathedral and nodded.

“It’s sealed off inside, so I can’t sense anything. If Vallos’s head is in the castle, this is definitely the place.”

“But this is…”

‘A place the Count said was unsafe.’

We had already strayed far from the area the Count had given permission to enter. And now, entering a suspicious cathedral that anyone could see—my feet wouldn’t move forward.

From the outside, it seemed ordinary, but upon closer inspection, there were more than a few oddities.

The spire, where the Empire’s main god should have been engraved, was broken; every window was made of dark red glass rather than stained glass; and strange characters I had never seen before were inscribed on the main gate like a warning.

‘I feel like I’ve seen this in a horror movie…’

And with a foolish friend saying it’s safe while I’m scared, it’s a perfect match.

“It’s just a cathedral, what’s there to hesitate about? If it’s dangerous, we can just come out.”

Why are my predictions never wrong?

As I sighed, Loaz boldly flung open the cathedral doors.

Unlike me, who stayed back ready to flee at any moment, Loaz walked inside without hesitation.

At that moment, light flooded the cathedral.

“Welcome, noble one.”

Dozens of candelabras lit up at once, and beneath them stood a person in a yellow robe.

He looked straight at me, not Loaz, and spoke. Sinister green eyes glowed from within the robe.

“I have been waiting for you.”

Not knowing how to react, I blinked, and the robed figure pulled something from his bosom and spoke.

“Here, what you are looking for is…”

What emerged in his hands was—

“This?”

An octopus. A lively, fully alive raw octopus.

It was so strong that it clung desperately to the person’s arm.

“……?”

I’m looking for a head, not an octopus.

Thinking I was frightened by the vigorously moving octopus, the robed figure let out a strange chuckle and slowly approached.

“Hoho, what’s the matter? This is exactly what you were looking for. The fragment of the sea demon that the fishermen so feared… Do you not want it?”

“Hey, step back. You don’t need to see it directly.”

Loaz tried to shield me with his arm. Being protected by a tiny child felt odd, but since Loaz couldn’t currently use his power anyway, I pushed him back.

“Hey!”

“Now, what do you say? Noble one, how does this demon look to your eyes? Is it the seed of a demon? Or your ally? Or perhaps…”

“It just… looks like an ingredient to me.”

“…Pardon?”

I didn’t understand why Loaz and this person were making such a big deal out of it.

From what I could see, it was just an octopus, wasn’t it?

I didn’t sense any presence of a monster from it at all.

“Well, I like raw octopus.”

Thinly sliced and dipped in soy sauce as sashimi—it’s a delicacy.

At my words, Loaz’s face turned pale, and the robed figure stepped back.

“Raw, raw… you mean you’d eat this alive…?”

“Are you giving it to me to eat, or are you offering it for me to cook? Who are you to be raising octopuses anyway?”

The village representative said he raised fish too—was this person the same, raising octopuses?

In this world, opportunities to eat proper seafood were few. If they were offering it, I’d enjoy it well enough.

At my words, Loaz muttered softly.

“You… eat that?”

It’s delicious, octopus.

It felt a bit hurt that they were treating me like I was the strange one.