Chapter 153 : Chapter 153

Chapter 153: The Way of Medicine

***

The day before the trial by combat.

That is, the evening of the day right after Bihen had stormed the Krause family mansion alone.

“Priest, are you sleeping?”

“Priest, please open your eyes. Quickly.”

At the chattering voices, Bolero groggily lifted his eyelids.

Krnock and Deli were standing on either side of the bed, looking anxious as if something had happened.

“……Why are you all making such a fuss?”

A hoarse, cracked voice leaked from his chapped lips.

He had just regained consciousness and was still in a state where it was difficult to even properly support his body.

“Priest, we just heard an incredible story.”

Bolero glared irritably. A deep sigh escaped.

“Look, brothers. I need to be in absolute rest right now. This is no time to be idly listening to stories. To stand in the trial by combat tomorrow, I need every second I can get to recover.”

He had heard everything that had happened while he was unconscious.

From his experience fighting the Krause family in front of the Gunbel Trading Company headquarters, it was his judgment that Janson’s life would be in danger if things proceeded as they were.

Even after he said all this, Krnock and Deli showed no signs of backing down.

“While we were out for a run, we heard some villagers gathering and whispering. They said that the rainwater from last night was flowing down from the Krause mansion on the hill……”

“……And.”

“And that the rainwater was strangely all crimson.”

Bolero furrowed his brow. What does that mean?

Deli continued the story.

“They thought it was strange and went up to see, and they said there were bodies scattered all over, inside and outside the mansion. They were so surprised that they ran away on the spot.”

Bolero shot up. He bit his lip at the sudden throbbing pain.

“Is that really true?!”

“Yes! We heard it clearly.”

“It suddenly occurred to me, so I went to brother Bihen’s bedroom, and just as I thought, no one was there.”

Bolero’s eyes darted left and right. Soon, his face crumpled as if the pain had flared up again.

‘He’s more than capable of it. That man.’

It was as obvious as day.

It was the same during the civil war.

He was the type of man who would rather jump into the flames alone and end the fight than watch his comrades get caught in danger.

‘As soon as I heard about the trial by combat, I should have looked for Bihen first.’

He wasn't a man to be bound by rules set by the Imperial Capital Knight Order in the first place.

He felt pathetic.

Why had he forgotten that relentlessly persistent nature of his?

“Let’s go to the Krause mansion, quickly!”

Bolero tried to stand, then staggered.

Krnock and Deli supported him.

“Where are you going in this state! It’s dangerous!”

“If things had ended well, he would have returned without showing any sign of it. The fact that he hasn’t returned means something must have gone wrong.”

“Then, we’ll go and check!”

“Have you forgotten already? It was just the other day that you nearly died. There’s no telling what might happen if just the two of you go again.”

The three of them left the mansion.

Bolero grimaced with every step.

The poison that had not yet been detoxified pricked his entire body.

It felt like tiny glass beads were flowing through his veins.

“It’s over there!”

Krnock and Deli pointed to the top of the hill.

The exterior of the mansion was faintly visible.

Bolero swallowed hard.

A distance that would normally be covered in an instant felt impossibly far.

Cold sweat formed, but seeing the reddish puddles here and there brought him to his senses.

Creeak.

Krnock carefully pushed open the mansion's front door and pressed his eye to the crack.

“Priest, I don’t feel any presence inside at all……?”

Bang!

Bolero kicked the door open. His face was pale.

He had already tasted hell on the way up the hill.

He felt like he was going to stop breathing before he even found Bihen.

“We don’t have time for this. Hurry and search!”

The mansion was in the Imperial architectural style.

From the curves at the ends of the roof to the painted walls and wooden floors.

To those born and raised in the Kingdom, the scenery was nothing but unfamiliar.

“Aack!”

Deli let out a short scream.

Before long, scattered bodies came into view.

The smell of cold blood stimulated the tip of his nose.

And a little further inside…….

The air changed.

“Good heavens……”

“G-goodness gracious. What is all this……?”

As if on cue, the three of them stopped in their tracks.

While Bolero and Krnock were horrified, Deli covered his mouth, rushed to a corner, and retched repeatedly.

“This is truly a living hell.”

The expression ‘a river of blood’ was a perfect fit.

Bodies, torn to shreds, were rolling about everywhere on the blood-soaked floor.

Caw— Caw—

A flock of crows, startled by the footsteps, flapped their wings.

Each held a piece of intestine in its beak.

“Did brother Bihen do all this by himself……?”

“No way. Did he come with the Easton Guard?”

Krnock and Deli muttered, dazed.

Bolero silently shook his head.

It was absurd that Bihen had faced all of them alone, but it was even more absurd that he would have brought the Easton Guard to fight like this.

“Let’s go further in.”

There was a line of corpses as far as the eye could see.

It meant a fierce battle had been fought all the way inside.

The mansion was large and wide, but there was no chance of getting lost.

The three of them just had to follow the trail of bodies.

The three of them silently surveyed their surroundings.

Hoping that they wouldn't come across any part of Bihen.

The number of bodies decreased as they went further in, but they were clearly more concentrated.

It was as if the defensive lines that had been holding had collapsed one by one.

At the end of the trail of bodies, a huge door appeared.

It was so tall that Bolero had to tilt his head back just to see the top.

Drrrrrk.

Bolero opened the doors to both sides.

Soon, the three people’s eyes widened.

In the middle of the large, dark room, like a giant cavern, Bihen collapsed alone.

“Bihen—!”

The three of them immediately approached.

Bolero’s expression brightened as he examined Bihen.

The flow of his ki was stable.

“He’s safe! Oh, Elzerus!”

“Priest, just in case, wouldn’t it be better to grant him divine magic first?”

“Bihen has no mana. And magic doesn’t work on Bihen in the first place.”

“Ah, that’s right.”

“Priest! Look at this!”

Krnock came running in a hurry. In both hands were a stone and a book.

“They were lying over there!”

Bolero took the stone first.

At a glance, it looked like an ordinary stone, but up close, it was not at all.

The surface was polished and smooth, and its shape was a perfect hemisphere, as if precisely cut.

“Priest, this is……”

Bolero cut Deli off by placing his index finger to his lips.

His gaze was fixed, as if to pierce through the hemisphere, without a hint of movement.

After a moment of silence, he took out the half-piece of the green Remnant Orb from his bosom.

As he slowly brought the cross-sections together, the two pieces fit perfectly, as if they were originally one.

“Th-this can’t be……”

“It’s the other half, Priest!”

The three of them let out a collective gasp.

The shape matched perfectly, but the stark contrast in color looked ominous to the point of being jarring.

“What’s that book?”

“It was with it. But, I don’t know what this is written in……”

Bolero put the two-pieced Remnant Orb into his bosom and this time picked up the book.

The character engraved in the center of the faded cover caught his eye.

(The Way of Medicine)

Krnock and Deli tilted their heads.

“What is it? A picture? Is it some kind of code?”

“Could it be an ancient language?”

Bolero narrowed his eyes.

“……It’s the Imperial language.”

“What? This is it?”

“I happened to see it once before. I remember it being similar to this.”

Bolero skimmed through the pages.

The densely written characters were in the same script as the one on the cover, so he couldn't read them.

Krnock asked as if he couldn't understand.

“Don’t the Empire and the Kingdom use the same language? Just look at Bihen, his accent is only slightly different, but it's the same. Even that, you wouldn’t know unless you paid close attention.”

“The Empire’s spoken language is similar to ours, but their written script is completely different.”

“Is that possible?”

“Of course. Just because the sounds are the same doesn't mean the form of recording them has to be the same.”

Krnock and Deli looked at each other.

They didn’t immediately grasp what the priest was saying.

‘Elzerus’ is written as ‘Elzerus’ anywhere in the Kingdom.

It was the same in the Imperial Capital or in the remote mountains.

“Well, we can just show this to Bihen. For now, we need to get out of here.”

Bolero carried Bihen on his back.

It felt like his body would break apart at any moment, but he gritted his teeth.

‘It’s always like this, so I feel ashamed to face you.’

The mansion was still quiet.

In the silence, the sound of undried blood dripping echoed intermittently.

The sight of bodies scattered everywhere somehow felt more brutal than before.

“Priest……”

Bolero looked back with an irritated glance.

He was in a hurry to leave right now.

Krnock and Deli had stopped walking and were standing blankly in front of a corpse.

Bolero’s irritation quickly subsided.

The anger that had flared up turned into a bitter sigh.

The face submerged in blood was that of a girl about Deli’s age.

Her unfocused eyes were open towards the empty air.

“There must have been a reason…… why brother Bihen had to go this far, right?”

“……Of course. Bihen is not one to commit a massacre for no reason.”

It seemed as if time had passed quickly.

The darkness was a layer deeper than when they had entered.

The three of them hurried their steps.

As they exited the mansion, they could finally breathe.

The salty wind washed away the smell of blood that filled their nostrils.

“Oh, Priest! Look over there!”

There was no time to catch their breath.

Red dots were visible below the hill.

They were coming up this way, and their undulating shape looked like torches.

While Bolero rubbed his tired eyes, Krnock and Deli, as if they could see clearly, rushed to report the situation.

“It’s the Imperial Capital Knight Order!”

“There are about a dozen of them, and it looks like they’ve brought a few villagers as guides.”

Bolero frowned.

“Damn, this has gotten complicated. Of all times……!”

Perhaps because of the long time they had spent together.

Bolero had no doubt.

That Bihen wouldn’t have done something like this without any plan.

Looking at his past actions, it might seem like Bihen had committed reckless acts with overwhelming power alone, but there was always a meticulous plan underlying it.

He thought this time would be no different.

He must have first isolated Conwell and then surely prepared a justification for why he had to move like this.

‘The problem is, I don’t know what that is right now.’

However, one thing was clear: if they ran into the Imperial Capital Knight Order in this state, the situation would become complicatedly tangled.

“Wh-what do we do? Priest?”

Krnock and Deli looked at Bolero anxiously.

They didn't know for sure, but they had a vague feeling that they shouldn't let them see the tragic state of the Krause mansion right now.

Bolero spoke as if he had made a decision.

“Krnock, Deli. Listen carefully. You two go down and draw their attention. In the meantime, I will take Bihen and escape from here.”

“Priest? That’s dangerous, no, then what about us……”

“There’s no time for long explanations. When you go down, make sure to relay the situation to Sir Jayden. And you two stay here for a while. The Lord of Aldenfort owes us, and he even promised to establish a branch, so he won’t be able to treat you harshly.”

This was the best course of action for now.

If they returned rashly like this, not only Bihen but also the Easton Guard, and by extension Conwell, would be in trouble.

“I’ll send word as soon as the situation is sorted out.”

The three of them exchanged glances for a moment.

No one said any lingering words.

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