Calling A Typhoon (2)

Rumors about the plague spread quickly.

People sought hope at the temple but instead left having heard only strange rumors.

“There is a being inside the Amor temple that calls disaster.”

The first person to become the subject of the rumor was a servant who ran errands, cleaned, and did the dirty work for the priests in the temple.

It was strange enough that clerics or priests would have a servant at all.

Anyway, this vigorous male servant passed by the archbishop’s office and was startled by a chilling, wailing voice.

“Huu… Huuuk… Please… Huh… Kill… me!!”

Then he suddenly remembered hearing that the priests had trapped a woman possessed by a ghost here.

Perhaps feeling ashamed for being startled by her crying.

The male servant opened the archbishop’s office door slightly, cursed at the woman sprawled on the floor, spat at her, and slammed the door shut.

The servant who spat and cursed at Mae Young-ryeong was beaten to death by a displeased nobleman on his way home.

The room where Mae Young-ryeong stayed was technically the archbishop’s office, so of course a maid was assigned to clean her daily.

The maid who cleaned the archbishop’s office was usually content, as there was almost nothing to tidy.

But ever since the woman recently began using the room, the maid’s days turned into hell.

That day, when she opened the door, there was a strong smell of urine.

At that moment, the maid’s irritation from being scolded earlier by the head maid surged up and she took it out on the woman on the floor.

She spat, hurled insults, stomped on her, and only after that, looking relieved, finished cleaning and left the archbishop’s office.

The maid who spat on and assaulted Mae Young-ryeong later that evening, excited by news from her upset stomach, ran to the maids’ privy and fell into a cesspit and died.

When Mae Young-ryeong tried to enter an inn, the four paladins who had threatened her with swords were all paladins of the Amor temple.

Unlike other temples, perhaps because Amor is the God of Love, there was no taboo about sex between men and women among the priests and paladins of Amor.

To shake off the uncomfortable feeling, the four had teamed up and were drinking beer at their usual tavern.

Naturally, among the continentals living in Exorsus’ eastern district, no one would pick a fight with them or refuse their “requests disguised as threats” when they saw the Amor temple’s upside-down-heart symbol—mocked by some as a butt called Serpense.

“Sss! Pretty, huh? Hey miss, come sit here.”

At the sight of a beauty not often seen, the paladins cast their usual flirtatious glances.

According to the script, the woman should, whether she liked it or not, come over to the table where the paladins were drinking.

However,

“Fuck off. Just drink quietly and get lost.”

The woman responded completely differently, a reaction so fresh that it was shocking.

One paladin, feeling insulted, stood up and drew his sword.

“How dare you utter such blasphemy to this elder paladin of God Amor! You must want to die.”

Because some people occasionally failed to notice the Amor temple mark clearly emblazoned on his armor, he emphasized once more that he served Lord Amor.

With that, ten out of ten would apologize to him.

“You’re pointing a sword at me right now, aren’t you?”

The woman calmly looked at the paladin, took something from her bosom, and swung it.

Sss—thud—thump.

No one in the tavern saw clearly what the woman had done; she was that fast.

But there was a clear result that gave people some idea of what she had done.

A paladin’s head rolling on the floor with its neck severed, and another paladin’s body spraying blood, turning the table crimson.

Contrary to her beautiful and seductive appearance, the woman was incredibly skilled—and she seemed unsatisfied with just one victim’s blood.

“You got up too, so you’re going to come at me, right?”

At the alluring, somewhat husky voice of the woman, the remaining paladins swallowed and managed to speak.

“W-we are paladins of the Amor temple…!”

“So? I’m a representative.”

“Huh!”

The paladins who swung their swords at Mae Young-ryeong were found at a tavern called ‘God’s Grace’ in Exorsus’ eastern district: one with his neck cut and head crushed, the other three with their limbs severed.

Kro was an old cleric who had served at the Amor temple in Exorsus for twenty-four years.

He was stern by nature and a diehard Amor devotee who believed Amor was the only true god.

A few days earlier, Kro had been the irritable cleric who ordered Mae Young-ryeong brought in.

Kro began his morning by entering the prayer room and praying for about an hour as soon as he got up.

As usual, Kro passed in front of the statue of the goddess Amor and bowed respectfully when a dark shadow fell over his head.

The statue of the goddess Amor usually held a rope in one hand and a sword in the other.

The rope was taught to be a tool for capturing and reforming evils—demon gods like Serpens and their minions—and the sword a tool for cutting their throats.

For some reason, the sword held by the Amor statue broke in the middle and impaled Kro from the back of his head through to his forehead, lodging in the floor.

Kro, the old cleric who ordered Mae Young-ryeong captured, was impaled and killed by the broken sword of the Amor statue he served.

As the situation grew more ominous and rumors spread inside the Amor temple, no one wanted to go to the place where Mae Young-ryeong was confined.

No one would carry food or keep watch.

So the two representatives who had brought Mae Young-ryeong had no choice but to take turns standing guard.

Heitz and Raus.

Predictably, the two representatives were displeased with being reduced to guard duty in front of the archbishop’s office.

Benialis explained why they had to watch over the ominous woman inside, but they neither understood nor wanted to.

Raus kept muttering to himself.

“Fuck. Seriously, me. Agh, really. Oof! Seriously. Me! Agh! Seriously.”

The gist was like that, with a very timid jab at Benialis slipped in occasionally.

Then, as if struck by some idea, he let out a faint, fishy laugh and began to look around.

But ominous rumors about the room had already spread, and not a single ant was nearby.

They carefully opened the archbishop’s office door and saw at a glance a beautiful woman writhing on the floor.

Seeing her made Raus’s groin throb even harder, so he hurriedly closed the door and went in.

He casually placed his sword—without its scabbard, as always—on the table and hurriedly pulled down his trousers.

Sadly, compared to his rugged muscles, it was pitifully small.

But Raus, as if determined to perform despite its inadequacy, led with it held high and approached Mae Young-ryeong.

Perhaps the carpet hadn’t been cleaned for days; in his arousal, Raus stepped on a bulging part of it.

The carpet shifted, a kettle that had been wobbling on the floor rolled and bumped the table leg.

The table wobbled for a moment. Luckily the items didn’t fall, but an oddly long, heavy, sharp sword hovered through the air.

Whoosh—whoosh—screech.

“Huh? Heh… Guhk! Aaaaah!”

Indeed, the pitiful thing—hardly a target even if one tried—was cut off like a pupa and writhed on the floor.

Raus, the representative and swordsman who aided in kidnapping Mae Young-ryeong, became castrated.

Heitz, the representative and mage who aided in kidnapping Mae Young-ryeong, had his tongue cut out.

Benialis was pulling at his hair in the luxurious office where he always worked.

The beginning had gone as he expected, but that bizarre woman was the problem. Ever since she appeared, all his plans had gone awry.

At first, when servants began dying and paladins were killed by representatives, he didn’t think much of it—such things could happen.

But the statue of Amor at the Amor temple had its intact sword broken and used to kill an old cleric?

A goddess statue, especially one in a great temple like that, would be imbued, even faintly, with Amor’s blessing.

Yet that statue was desecrated and used to kill a loyal old cleric—this was no ordinary matter.

Whatever it was, it meant that something about that strange woman had the power to break Amor’s blessing.

Only then did Benialis realize the gravity of the situation and decided to get that madwoman out—out of Exorsus.

But the “setting” interfered. Mae Young-ryeong’s condition was so dangerous that the “setting” prevented any action to protect the representatives.

Unknown to Benialis, the victims in the rumor who suffered after Mae Young-ryeong was trapped in the archbishop’s room had been struck by misfortune—what could be called a curse—and the backlash of the “setting.”

“Damn! What kind of woman is that! Damn! Damn! There’s no choice. We must hurry. More, more! Hurry up.”

Benialis, nervously trashing the room, bit his nails and muttered without pause.

He looked grotesque, almost like someone addicted to drugs.

But would Mae Young-ryeong’s misfortune—which even toppled the statue—stop with Benialis, the one primarily responsible?

A week had passed since he ordered the plague to be spread across the continent.

By then, infected people were appearing not only in the Dark Empire but in Exorsus as well.

Clutching the report detailing this, Benialis kept repeating himself.

“Yes, I hold the initiative. I still hold it. I can control it.”

As if he wished it to be true.

Benialis, who ordered Mae Young-ryeong’s abduction, failed to read the situation and was taken advantage of by Kim Han.

It had been ten days since the sudden arrival and capture of the representative who healed the plague.

In that time, the unprecedented effects of the plague had inflamed public sentiment across the continent, and tensions between the Holy Realm Alliance and the Dark Empire were sharper than ever.

Benialis grew more haggard by the day.

More than half of the people who worked at the Exorsus Amor temple had already quit, and most priests fled to the Holy Realm Alliance on one excuse or another.

The incident of the priest being brutally killed as the goddess statue fell—though it was the sword that broke, it was distorted into news that the Amor statue had collapsed—was well known not only in Exorsus but throughout the Dark Empire and the Holy Realm Alliance.

Thus there was a shortage of workers, and nothing—food, clothing, or even latrine needs—was plentiful.

With most vendors refusing to sell food despite gold, Benialis faced a rock-hard bread and a strangely flavored soup he had never tasted in his life.

“You brought this for me to eat now?”

“…Damn it. It’s food we can’t get anyway. If you don’t want it, give it. I’ll eat it.”

The pitiable man Raus, now castrated, grabbed the tray in a blunt tone.

Things between them had already become irreparable. The reason was this.

A few days ago, in his pain and shock over losing his precious part, Raus suddenly thought of someone who could fix this situation.

So, cradling his severed member carefully with both hands and with his lower garments off, he ran toward Benialis.

Forgetting to knock, Raus barged in and begged Benialis.

“Lord Beniaris. Please, please heal me.”

But there is a fact we must know.

To successfully reattach a severed arm with a healing spell, the wound must be thoroughly cleansed with sanctity, and if the flesh is torn, it must be cleanly cut with a sanctified sharp blade before reattachment.

The process of reattaching the arm also requires a cleric to physically hold the arm and align it with the shoulder nerves as closely as possible.

That’s how it is. That’s how it will attach.

Benialis, of course, roughly slapped Raus’s hand away as he thrust the writhing pupa-like thing before him.

It floated aimlessly through the air.

Raus later confessed that in that moment the world seemed to slow down.

His gaze followed his precious thing as it floated, and when it finally fell weakly to the floor, a humiliation more shameful than the pain washed over him.

And Benialis’s next words completely turned Raus’s heart away.

“Where do you think you are shoving your filthy pupa! Filthy bastard! Get out!”

And a peculiar smile tugged at the corner of Kim Han’s mouth as he watched the whole scene.

Benialis, who ordered Mae Young-ryeong’s abduction, was betrayed by his own hound and taken advantage of by Kim Han.

Benialis, having had his breakfast taken in a not-so-subtle robbery, nibbled jerky and checked the time. It was ten o’clock.

Then suddenly,

KRAAAANG! Rumble rumble.

A tremendous explosion and the temple trembling were heard.

“Amor, you filthy bitch! Eat shit!”

The deranged voice shouting profanities not fit to utter in front of the Amor temple sounded like a hallucination.

The true misfortune of Benialis, who ordered Mae Young-ryeong’s abduction, was only beginning. The full-scale disaster had not yet started.