TRSTD 06

Chapter 06

Arina left the temple at the same time as yesterday and headed for Acklein Castle.

It was obvious that she would be turned away from the door as soon as she arrived, but since she had already told her fiancé that she would come back, she had to at least try going.

Clatter!

The carriage jolted violently once, probably hitting a stone.

Arina hurriedly gripped the bag beside her with both hands. Knowing that the top-grade holy waters were safe, she let out a sigh of relief.

“This won’t do.”

To protect the expensive items, which cost 50 gold pieces each, she pulled the heavy bag containing them into her arms.

Arina lowered her head, looking at the bottles deeply infused with her divine power, and curled one corner of her lips into a crooked smile.

If I tell them that drinking this will prevent morning sickness during pregnancy and eliminate labor pain, he’ll definitely fall for it.

There would be nothing more tempting than this for the Duke, who had been distant from his wife in their ordinary relationship, yet loved her more than anyone else.

“And if even this doesn’t work, I’ll negotiate by offering to personally bestow the blessing of the regressed saint…”

At that moment, the carriage shook violently again and came to a complete halt. Wondering what was going on, she looked outside and saw that the horse refused to move forward and was just stamping its feet in place.

“Strangely, the horse won’t move forward at all.”

The coachman glared sharply at the horse, which was whining and struggling as if terrified by something, treating it like a nuisance. In response, Arina smiled kindly and said it was fine.

“It’s not very far, so I’ll walk the rest of the way from here.”

“You have luggage, will you be all right?”

“Yes, so please don’t scold the horse too much.”

“Grr… As expected of a Priestess.”

With his eyes shining brightly, the coachman waved at the receding Arina, telling her to be careful.

Whether he did or not, she wiped the smile off her face and walked silently along the road. And then, she felt a sinister aura.

“So this is why the horse didn’t want to go.”

Even though they were quite a distance away, the hairs on her arms stood up. Such a powerful and dense demonic aura was pouring out from the Acklein Duchy.

Surely, my dear fiancé isn’t throwing me a surprise party just because I came.

She tried hard to take the situation lightly, but reflecting on the chaotic state of the mansion, she passed through the main gate almost at a run.

“Did everyone come out?”

“His fever is too high. Someone bring some water here!”

It was pure pandemonium.

Arina shifted her gaze from the panicked people who hadn’t even noticed her arrival to the mansion.

A vicious demonic aura was spreading throughout the entire mansion, originating precisely from the third floor where Lucius stayed.

There were quite a few people collapsed on the floor, as if poisoned by it. Looking closely, she saw the butler, who used to grate on her nerves, lying there too.

“Butler! Pull yourself together!”

“H-His breathing is stopping.”

“Is the doctor still not here?!”

There were roughly about ten people in critical condition. The rest seemed to be more or less out of danger for their lives, but…

“I’m not a doctor, but may I take a look?”

“Wh—Hk!”

“It’s Lady Aria.”

“Lady Aria!”

At the sudden appearance of their savior, color began to return to faces that had been filled with despair.

Arina infused her divine power into the butler, whose condition was the worst.

As the demonic aura was gradually purified, color slowly returned to his corpse-like pale skin, and his breathing grew slightly heavier.

After treating him just enough so that he wouldn’t die, she quickly moved on to the next person. At the same time, she commanded the people.

“You three over there, have the people here drink the holy water I brought, and the rest of you, take the patients and go as far away from the main building as possible.”

Under the command of a reliable ally, the servants moved in an orderly fashion.

Seeing people slowly coming back to life with the holy water she brought, Arina let out a small sigh of relief.

We won’t run out of holy water.

Having barely finished the treatments, she stood up and approached the knights blocking the entrance to the mansion.

Duke Acklein and his adjutant, Ron, were not to be seen. Her red eyes, searching for them, soon fixed on a woman with reddish-brown hair.

She spoke to the vice-commander, who held the highest rank in the knight order after those two.

“How many people do I need to rescue? Sir Rosaline.”

“Three people.”

“Three. By any chance, is the Duchess among them?”

“No. The Duchess is currently resting in the annex.”

“I’d like to check on her condition, but I probably don’t have time, so take this holy water to her instead.”

“Understood.”

Looking somewhat relieved, she handed the holy water she received from Arina to a subordinate and shouted at them to run quickly.

“I’ll go inside alone, so please step aside.”

“Step aside!”

At Rosaline’s command, the knights guarding the door—which had been newly replaced yesterday because of Arina—split to both sides.

Before going in, Arina gave the knights three bottles of holy water to use for emergencies, and then stepped inside the mansion.

Every time she breathed in, humid and heavy air filled her lungs. It was a demonic aura dense enough that an ordinary person would have collapsed from poisoning after a few breaths.

However, to her—a former saint and candidate for the next saint—it was just heavy air that made her chest feel a little stuffy.

I need to find Sir Ron first.

Duke Acklein wouldn’t die anyway, so she had to rescue the dying first.

Please let me find him quickly.

Praising that thought, she climbed up to the third floor in one breath, and saw Ron collapsed ahead of her.

She hurriedly approached and checked his pulse; fortunately, he was still alive. However, he had been exposed to the demonic aura for too long, and his skin had turned purple in patches.

Arina purified the demonic aura that was consuming him with her divine power and then generously poured top-grade holy water into his mouth.

“Sir, pull yourself together. If you don’t, you’ll be heading straight to the Lord’s side.”

“…Kuh.”

His parched lips twitched as if trying to answer.

That sense of relief lasted only a moment. A bizarre sound echoed from the corridor filled with black smoke.

It sounded like a groan, or perhaps the roar of a beast, prompting her to shout urgently.

“Your Grace, are you alive?!”

As if responding to her call, the faint sound of coughing could be heard.

Arina hurriedly got to her feet and rushed into the particularly condensed demonic aura.

“Where are you…!”

The demonic aura was pushed back by the divine power surrounding her body, but because it was right up to her nose, she couldn’t find him easily. In times like this, I’ll trust my intuition, she thought, running this and that way as her heart pulled her, when a woman’s voice grazed her ear.

—Go to the left.

She didn’t know who the opponent was, but she felt a strong urge to follow those words.

So, as she obediently moved her feet where the sound led her, the smoke cleared to reveal Duke Acklein thrashing about on the floor.

“Your Excellency!”

Engaged in a fierce fight with someone, the moment he saw Arina, he hurled whatever he was subduing right toward her.

That crazy bastard!

Arina hurriedly twisted her body to dodge. Then, she swiftly sprinkled the holy water she was holding onto the troubled figure.

“Ugh… Aaaah!”

Covered by a sheet, the body of the entity—presumably her fiancé—flinched as if in agony.

With that struggle, the sheet dropped down to his feet.

Seeing the entity that finally revealed itself, Arina couldn’t help it and just bit her lip.

The pupils split vertically like a beast’s, and the two horns protruding from between his hair looked very much like the ‘demon’ she had read about in a book last night.

Is it too late?

Just as Arina’s hopes—hoping he was still human—were crumbling away completely, a fierce, venomous gaze fixed upon her.

“U, Ugh—!”

Her completely mad fiancé charged at high speed toward Arina, who was standing frozen like stone.

Just as she belatedly moved to dodge, the wicked entity instantly pounced upon her small body. Together, the two of them tumbled and rolled across the hard floor.

Sharp grown nails tore through her snow-white priestly robes, leaving red scars.

Arina gritted her teeth and stared intently at the face of her fiancé, whom she had encountered for the first time in six years.

He can no longer be called a human.

After quickly reaching this conclusion, she placed her hand over her opponent’s left chest.

If she released her divine power right here and made his heart burst, the demon would die. She could be certain of it because she had done it a few times in her past life.

Now was the opportunity, while his movements were temporarily slowed by the holy water. But unlike her mind, which told her to kill him immediately, her body did the opposite.

“……”

She lifted her hand from his vitals and carefully stroked his blood-stained face.

The hungry beast’s eyes wavered slightly, and his pupils slowly dilated.

A faint smile bloomed on Arina’s lips.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come to find you until it came to this. If I had known it would turn out like this, I should have come sooner.”

“……”

“From now on, I will never leave you alone.”

No sooner had those words finished than Lucius’s body violently flinched and he opened his mouth wide toward Arina.

Crunch.

Avoiding her snow-white neck, he bit down hard on her shoulder.

Arina suppressed the scream trying to escape her lips, placed her hand on the back of his head, and directly injected her divine power.

A blinding white light illuminated the corridor filled with black smoke. At the same time, the vast divine power rapidly purified the demonic aura.

Before long, the surrounding view cleared up, and suddenly the body pressing down on her became heavily burdensome.

“Ugh…!”

Unceremoniously shoving aside her fiancé, who had passed out and was about to crush her to death, she swept her gaze around.

The demonic aura still lingering around, the surroundings completely smashed to pieces, and the men who couldn’t even control their own bodies.

A complete mess if there ever was one.

Is this the divine punishment God has inflicted upon me?

A deep sigh echoed quite lengthily through the silent corridor.