Chapter 143

“Now, let’s clean out the rest of the dregs for you. Lady, it’s going to sting a bit, so try to bear with it, alright?”

Wharrrrr!

A brilliant white flame ignited deep within her ear.

Even though she had already rolled her eyes back and lost consciousness, the pain must have been extraordinary, as her body writhed and convulsed violently in my arms.

For the record, as a dragonkin, her height approached nearly 180 centimeters.
Having her massive, full-sized frame thrashing like that in my arms was quite a nuisance, especially since the situation required precise medical intervention.

“Dammit! You’re incredibly strong! Just stay still for a second!”

Pressing down firmly on the back of her neck as if I might break it, I quickly proceeded with the procedure.

Tchut-chut-chut-chut…

‘Tsk, this isn’t easy.’

As I mentioned before, Pure Spiritual Power was not a user-friendly energy. It would listen to me well enough when condensed around my hands or a weapon, but doing anything beyond that was difficult.

If it were that simple, I wouldn’t have thrown a throwing dagger every time I needed a ranged attack; I would have just blasted Pure Spiritual Power in a flashy, cool way like a Blaster.

The moment the Pure Spiritual Power left my body, it began moving erratically, so I concentrated all my strength into controlling it while grinding away at the remaining twitching tentacles inside her.

Kwajik, kwadeudeuk!

However, as I tracked down and cleaned out the remnants of those squirming tentacles, a moment came where I realized things were getting dangerous.

‘Good grief… these tentacles are rooted inside her brain. If I keep trying to handle this with Pure Spiritual Power, I’m going to scramble her brain before I even clear out the tentacles…?’

Yet, backing off now wasn’t an option either, because there was no telling what would happen if I left those tentacle scraps inside her head.

Had I never touched them in the first place, that would be one thing, but since I had already laid my hands on them, I had to see it through to the end.

‘Tsk, I don’t have time to waste like this. Isn’t there any other way…?’

I began reviewing the methods at my disposal one by one. The techniques I could use, magic, and even the scrolls and artifacts I had brought along.

The moment my thoughts reached priestly miracles, a sudden realization struck me.

‘This might actually work.’

One of the many characteristics of a priestly miracle was the power to smite evil—meaning, the power to purify wicked things.

However, the “wickedness” being referred to here wasn’t strictly moral evil.

‘It means exactly what the gods despise.’

And one of the absolute most detestable things to the gods were the “Outer Gods” that crawled in from other dimensions. The reason divine power worked so exceptionally well against monsters rather than humans was because those creatures originated from the Outer Gods.

And…

‘These tentacles… no matter how I look at them, their visuals are clearly related to the Outer Gods.’

To add a bit of an explanation, the reason most Outer Gods took on amorphous shapes like these tentacle monsters was because they didn’t comprehend what having a physical “appearance” meant in a three-dimensional space.

Consequently, during their process of adaptation, they simply assumed the form that was easiest for them to move in, which naturally resulted in those tentacle-monster shapes.
In fact, in the case of long-lived Outer Gods, there were quite a few individuals who assumed a nearly human shape based on their accumulated understanding.

Anyway, the important point was this. Priestly miracles exerted a powerful force against Outer Gods or entities related to them.

And if these squirming things really were related to the Outer Gods…

‘Then Purify will definitely work.’

For the record, Purify was an intermediate priestly miracle. Under normal circumstances, it was a miracle far beyond my current capabilities.

Fortunately, among the things I had extorted from Lumina through threats, an item that granted permission to use intermediate priestly miracles actually existed.

Now that the idea had come to mind, there was no reason to hesitate.

I immediately conjured the flames of purification with all my might. At that moment…

Ku-hwahwahwahwak!!!

“Whoa…!?”

Exceeding my expectations by a landslide, Lumina’s signature golden flames enveloped not just Carmen’s head, but her entire body.

Startled for a split second, I almost canceled the miracle, but then I remembered that these flames were not meant to harm humans and began analyzing why this was happening.

‘…The Pure Spiritual Power blended with the divine power. Resonance? Or is it amplification?’

I decided to note this phenomenon for later. It could very well be a vital clue toward utilizing Pure Spiritual Power in the future.

Caught in those overwhelming flames of purification, the tentacles couldn’t even put up a semblance of resistance before they were incinerated without a trace.

Judging by how the flames tore savagely from her head through her cervical and thoracic vertebrae all the way down to her tailbone, those tentacle bastards must have encroached upon a significantly larger portion of her body than I had thought.

“Mmm…!”

The time she spent unconscious was shorter than expected. After completing the purification, I cast intermediate healing on her a few consecutive times, and she painfully opened her eyes with a faint groan.

“…Ugh.”

“Are you back to your senses?”

She looked around the room as if trying to grasp the situation, and when she belatedly realized she was practically buried in my embrace, her face flushed crimson and she bolted upright.

“Y-You…!”

“Ah, don’t get the wrong idea. I was just pulling out the squirmy thing that was latched onto your brain.”

She turned her head in the direction I pointed.

The moment she laid eyes on the dark red clump of tentacles I had extracted, she collapsed to her knees and began retching violently.

“Blegh! Bleeogh!! Khweeeeogh!!!”

“Whoa, easy there. You alright?”

Since she barely had anything in her stomach, she spent a good while throwing up nothing but stomach acid, and when she finally stood back up, a ferocious crimson flame was burning in her eyes.

“Judging by your expression, it looks like you kept your memories.”

At that, she offered a grim, tragic smile.

“…I have them. I absolutely do.”

“…….”

“From the exact moment I was done in by that ‘bastard’ ten years ago up until this very second, I remember every single thing I did and every single thing that was done to me. Without omitting a single detail, all of it…!”

Suppressing the raging fury in her heart with great difficulty, she slowly dropped to one knee before me and bowed her head low.

“This humble one does not know who you are, sir. However… for the grace of saving me from that hell… I shall repay you even if it costs my life.”

“No, I just handled it on my way to dealing with my own business. If you want to repay me, I’ll gladly accept… but it’s not something to talk about trading your life over.”

“No. Those bastards plundered and trampled over everything that made me who I am. My thoughts, my emotions, my memories, my body, my martial arts, my family, and… my honor and pride. Had it not been for you, my benefactor, I would have continued to live like that forever.”

“…….”

“On the other hand, you, my benefactor, left behind the easy solution of killing me and explicitly chose the difficult path of saving me instead. How could I possibly fail to return this ultimate favor?”

“It wasn’t really that difficult… fine. Well, whatever, do as you please. More importantly, judging by the way things are going, I think I have a rough idea of what happened… but what exactly went down here?”

Faced with my inquiry, she bowed her head low once more while remaining in her kneeling position.

“I will tell you everything. In fact, that is exactly what I desire. However… before that, could you grant me a bit of time?”

“Time?”

Dripping with raw bloodlust, she flashed a bright white smile.

“…Shouldn’t I repay at least a fraction of the debt I owe to the ones who reduced me to this state?”

And exactly ten minutes later.

She returned to the hall, dragging along about ten people who had been beaten to a pulp, binding them all together with her rose vines like a string of dried fish. Looking at their condition, it was quite obvious she had already vented her rage on them once.

Glancing around at the landscape of the hall, which had changed slightly over the past ten minutes—or to be precise, had been utterly demolished even further—she questioned me.

“…Benefactor. Did something happen while I was gone?”

Sinking deeply into the throne in a thoroughly natural manner, I replied nonchalantly.

“Ah, a few weird things crawled in here. It’s no big deal. More importantly, who are these guys?”

Seeming to find nothing strange at all about me lounging on the throne, she answered in a flat, ordinary tone.

“As you might have already guessed… these two here are the Count of Evas and his second son, Diablo Duncan Evas, who used to play the role of my husband. The very wretch I was calling my lord until just a few moments ago.”

“…And the ones tied up on the opposite side?”

“They are the direct bloodline of the Evas family who resided in the castle.”

“Why them?”

“Even though they knew fully well that I was brainwashed, they watched my public disgrace and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. This outfit that leaves almost nothing to the imagination was also forced upon me by them.”

“Ah… I see. Are you going to kill them all?”

At my words, she bit her lower lip hard. She must have assumed I was opposed to mass slaughter.

“That is my intention… but if you do not wish for it, my benefactor, I shall spare the rest except for the Count and Diablo.”

“Spare them? Why?”

“…Pardon?”

“If they did things worthy of death, then they should die. Kill them all. Why on earth would I stop you?”

“Ah, aah….”

“More importantly, can you tell me now? Just what on earth happened here in this count’s domain? And why did you have that squirmy thing shoved inside your head?”

“It is a bit long. Will you listen to it?”

With that, she casually drove her blade straight into the throat of her former husband—no, Diablo—who was panting heavily and trying to say something, before offering her calm reply.

Immediately, a tangled mass of tentacles wriggled out from the hole in the wretch’s neck to seal the wound and stop the bleeding. It was a truly disgusting sight.

“It’s fine. My objective was the Count anyway, and the Count is already in my hands. Ah, a dead Count works just fine too, so feel free to roast him or boil him however you like.”

At that, an astonishing tale began flowing from her lips.

The crimson flames that had briefly settled in her eyes flared up violently once more.

“It happened ten years ago. That wretch, the Count from the Baran Empire, suddenly came to visit the Kiadran family.”

“It was during the time when the former patriarch and my father had passed away, and my paternal uncle, ‘Obikan Sonya Kiadran,’ was serving as the acting patriarch.”

“And I was scheduled to officially become the patriarch two months later. It is quite rare for a woman to inherit the title of marquis… but based on both my skill and achievements, it was only natural. In fact, it was precisely for that reason that I had resigned from my position as the supreme commander of the United Kingdom and returned to my hometown.”

“However, my uncle could not easily accept that fact.”

“In truth, that itself wasn’t a major issue. Uncle Obikan possessed neither the strength nor the backing to express his discontent openly.”

“…….”

“And around that time, that wretch the Count of Evas and his second son arrived from the Baran Empire, using a marriage proposal as their pretext. Everyone mocked them. Because it was a completely absurd marriage proposal. I was a renowned Sword Master even within the United Kingdom and the master of the Kiadran Marquisate—a domain that a mere count’s territory couldn’t hope to compare to—whereas the opponent was nothing but the second son of a count’s family, and a thoroughly ordinary idler who didn’t possess a single damn thing to his name.”

“…….”

“Prior to meeting me, they held a meeting with my uncle first, using his status as the acting patriarch as their excuse. And three hours later, my uncle politely reported to me regarding the conversation he had exchanged with them, and during that process, he offered me a glass of wine.”

She bit her lower lip so hard that blood began to seep out, forcing her words out as if chewing them up and swallowing them.

“I drank it without the slightest suspicion. And with that single act, it was the ‘end’.”

“…….”

“When I lost consciousness and woke up again, I was already no longer myself. The absolute instant I opened my eyes, I dropped to my knees and bowed deeply before the Count and his second son. Calling them the Great Elder and my lord.”

“…….”

“And the very next day, in front of the entire family, I renounced my succession to the patriarch position and announced my marriage to Diablo Duncan Evas. There was an immense amount of opposition… but I ignored everyone and forced the ceremony through, and the moment the wedding concluded, I immediately relocated to the Count of Evas’s domain.”

“…….”

“On that fateful day, the count’s domain gained a Sword Master slave in the form of myself, and my uncle became the patriarch of the Kiadran family.”