Do You Believe In God? (3)

It seemed I had stepped on a massive landmine that made Arka’s secret look cute by comparison.

Even if I wanted to talk to someone about it, the nature of it made it impossible to tell anyone.

The murder scene had been cleaned up, but there was no way the smell could be completely concealed.

Fortunately, the overpowering stench of blood seemed to have erased the scent of Semirena and me, but still…

“What am I supposed to do…?”

As I agonized over this newly emerged problem, the carriage passed through the forest and entered a mountainous region where brown rocks lay scattered everywhere.

Crossing the mountains would take too much time and effort, so we ended up making a large detour.

“There is something ahead, it seems,”

“Hm?”

I narrowed my eyes.

What gradually came into view was a small village.

It was a tiny settlement with only a handful of buildings surrounded by a wooden fence.

As the carriage approached, there was no sign of people.

“It looks like a village, but there’s no one here,”

Erika also looked around from the back of the carriage.

We reached what seemed to be the center of the village, yet despite standing out in the open like this, there was not a single person in sight.

Laundry was still hanging out to dry, and at a glance, there were clear signs of daily life, but…

Arka sniffed the air.

“Sniff, sniff… I can smell people,”

“Then they’re here?”

“Hmm, I only smell them, so maybe they were here until recently!”

It did not feel like a simple abandoned village.

After discussing it together, we decided to investigate the village for now.

We stopped the carriage in the open square and went around the houses one by one.

“Excuse me—!”

I knocked on the door and called out, but there was no response.

I tried two or three times, but still nothing.

I did the same at the next house, yet only silence answered me.

I stood in front of the final house.

Knock, knock, knock.

“Um, is anyone there?”

Silence.

The quiet remained unbroken.

“Looks like no one’s here! But I can still smell them,”

“They were probably here until recently… but…”

Worried, we decided to look inside the houses despite not having permission.

Inside, there were clear traces of people having lived there.

Some houses even had half-prepared meals left behind.

“It’s still warm,”

There must have been people here until just a few hours ago.

But now, no one was there.

The unnatural scene put everyone on guard.

We went back outside, returned to the village center, and exchanged opinions.

“Do you think they were attacked by monsters?”

Semirena asked.

I had thought the same, but Erika denied it first.

“That seems unlikely. If monsters had attacked, there would be far more traces left behind,”

“Yeah. The village is way too clean, and there’s no smell of blood either!”

Arka’s nose seemed to agree.

If they had been attacked, there should have been at least some bloodstains left.

The smell of blood was intense.

It was strange that Arka could not detect any.

“Soji-dono, there appear to be no people in the surrounding area,”

Kojiro, who had been quietly scouting around, returned.

It seemed there really was no one nearby.

“It’s like they were spirited away,”

Semirena reacted slightly to the word “god.”

I should avoid saying strange things.

“There are no people, but there is a strange presence lingering,”

“Strange?”

“Yes. It is… similar to me,”

Similar to Kojiro… a ghost?

So the villagers had been killed and were now lingering here as ghosts!?

“If that were the case, I would be able to see them, being a ghost myself,”

W-well, that made sense.

I did not understand the logic, but if Kojiro said so, it was probably true.

But if it was not a ghost despite a similar presence, then…

“Soji! Something’s coming from above!”

“—! Bones!?”

What descended from the sky was a mass of bones.

Giant wings and powerful jaws made of bone.

That shape was…

“A Skull Dragon,”

Erika muttered.

She had mentioned it during one of her lessons.

Among undead-type monsters, it was one of the strongest.

A wyvern that had turned undead.

Undead were resistant to physical attacks.

Their weaknesses were fire and light magic, but the most effective counter was—

“Please leave this to me,”

The power of a Saint.

With prayers empowered by the Goddess’s blessing, she could save and purify fallen souls.

However, the Skull Dragon instinctively sensed the danger.

It soared higher into the air, circling warily.

“It flew up!”

“At that distance, my prayers won’t reach it,”

“Then we’ll have to knock it down ourselves—”

“O Lord, grant my body the radiance of holy light,”

“Huh?”

As Semirena finished her prayer, she kicked off the ground and leapt high into the air.

It was an incredible jump.

She closed the distance to the Skull Dragon midair and drove a light-wreathed fist straight into it.

Struck by a heavy, fully committed punch, the Skull Dragon shattered into pieces and turned into bone dust.

“Uh…”

You had to be kidding me.

The Saintess punched a dragon out of the sky?

Semirena landed gracefully.

“It was a bit rough, but the soul has now returned to the heavens,”

“A-amazing, Semirena! You could do something like that!?”

“Indeed. Punching it directly is more efficient,”

Do not just accept that!

Semirena looked like someone who would never be good at fighting, yet she had thrown a devastating, perfectly grounded punch.

Did Saintesses in this world also train in hand-to-hand combat?

“Hehe, it is merely self-defense. I am nowhere near the true professionals,”

“Goodness me, that was more than enough of a blow!”

“This is not something to laugh about…”

Without the cursed blade, she might actually be stronger than me…

As expected of the leader of an extremist religious organization.

Just how many heretics had she crushed with those fists…?

“So the strange presence was the Skull Dragon?”

“No, it has not vanished yet,”

“What?”

The very next moment—

A jet-black barrier enveloped the entire village.

A chilling shiver ran down my spine.

My instincts screamed danger.

“O Lord, please protect us, your frail servants,”

Semirena hurriedly chanted a holy verse, trying to erect a divine barrier.

But the instant the black barrier was completed, the Goddess’s barrier she had deployed vanished.

“—! That can’t be… why?”

“Because that is the nature of this barrier, loathsome Saintess,”

“Who’s there!?”

From the blackened ground, a wrinkled old man slowly emerged.

Purple skin and crimson eyes.

It was obvious he was not human.

Arka pinched his nose.

“What is this stench of death… it reeks,”

“Yeah,”

I could tell too.

That sharp, nose-stinging odor coming from him…

He was probably undead.

“Pleased to meet you, Hero’s party. I am Zoi, one of the Demon King’s commanders—the harbinger of death,”

Zoi, the harbinger of death.

A high-ranking necromancer of the Demon King’s army—an undead lich.

I had learned about him in Erika’s lessons.

He could turn the living into the dead in an instant and command them as undead.

In pure combat power, Barbatos was superior, but in terms of sheer trouble, this one was worse.

If this man was Zoi, then this barrier was—

“This is troublesome. This ‘Dead Black Shroud’ is my greatest authority—one that denies the Goddess’s blessing and turns the living into the dead,”

Zoi glared at Semirena.

“Yet your loathsome holy power still seems to be functioning,”