Chapter 39

The pond was slowly regaining its original color, starting from where the potion had touched the water.

“Just how many Holy Waters do you have on your person?”

Ilian looked at me as if he were wondering where I kept pulling these potions from. It was such an obvious question that I hadn’t even prepared a cover story for it; caught off guard, I chose to remain silent.

‘I should start carrying a bag or something from now on.’

Fortunately, he didn’t pry any further. Everyone else was too busy staring blankly at the pond as it finished turning a vibrant, clear blue.

-Ooh, is it actually being purified?

-It’s totally transparent now.

-Wait, does a tree normally drink water like that? Is it a beast?

-Obviously not.

The tree rooted in the pond was making audible gulping sounds as it sucked up the water. It was a completely nonsensical sight.

“Uh… the tree roots…”

“They’re rotting away.”

The protagonist spoke calmly, but there was a subtle tremor of excitement in his voice.

-Huh? Shouldn’t the tree be getting healthier if the water turned clean?

-Maybe it’s because the environment changed too suddenly?

Arianne provided the correct answer a moment later.

“The fact that the pond was purified by Holy Water while the tree died must mean that the tree itself was a magic beast.”

Thinking about it, it was strange that the tree had been perfectly fine in contaminated water to begin with. All the other flora and fauna on the surface had crumbled and died the moment they touched the demonic energy.

“Then we can conclude that this was the Mother.”

…!!

“Wh-what? You’re saying this thing is the Grade 10 Mother?”

-Ah, right lol

-They said no other magic beasts could survive besides the Mother.

“A plant-type magic beast was the Mother…! I never would have imagined it.”

The protagonist nodded with a hardened expression.

“Since it was labeled Grade 10, I naturally assumed it would be a massive creature.”

“Well, isn’t this thing technically massive as well?”

The ceiling blocked our view, but the trunk likely stretched all the way to the surface, making its total size quite substantial. The group let out dry laughs at Ilian’s comment, though they still felt a lingering sense of emptiness.

‘Besides, these people were inside a barrier.’

Since the barrier prevented them from detecting demonic energy, they couldn’t gauge just how threatening the energy radiating from this beast truly was.

“If the Mother is dead, does that mean the demonic energy contamination is resolved?”

“Demonic energy naturally dissipates back to normal levels over time, as long as a Mother isn’t constantly replenishing it. Since the source is gone, it’s safe to say it’s resolved.”

“I see! As expected, everything works out perfectly when we follow the Saintess’s word!”

Hmm. I wouldn’t say everything is solved just yet.

“There is still one more issue aside from the demonic energy.”

…!

I flinched, thinking the protagonist had read my mind.

“It’s something we heard earlier…”

The protagonist then shared the information he had gathered from the employees earlier.

“The Countess has a self-destruct mechanism?”

“Why on earth would she have something like that?”

“Who knows, Sir Hereis? Only the Countess would know.”

“It’s shocking enough that the Mother was in her suspicious basement, but this is just getting ridiculous.”

Sighs broke out from all sides.

“Then we should avoid provoking her as much as possible. I had planned to interrogate her about this basement.”

“Let’s just report that we successfully escorted the rescuees and see how things go.”

“If we don’t head back soon, she’ll get suspicious. We’ll have to postpone the rest of the basement search until tomorrow. Given the structure, it seems quite vast.”

They decided to call it a day, agreeing that resolving the demonic energy contamination in a single day was already a massive achievement and there was no need to rush.

“Before we go, should we double-check just to be safe?”

The protagonist asked as he pointed toward the withered, yet still intact, magic beast.

-True, better not to leave any loose ends.

This beast was either already dead or on the verge of it since its demonic energy had been forcibly purified by the potion. Chopping it up might not mean much now, but I liked the idea of completely removing any potential for future trouble. It never hurts to be cautious.

“I think that’s a good idea, Sir Hereis.”

“I shall assist you.”

“Thank you, Sir Ilian.”

As the protagonist and Ilian focused, a shimmering light began to swirl around their blades. They swung simultaneously, and the flying Sword Energy demolished the thick trunk.

K-boom!

The roar was loud enough to make me worry the basement might collapse, but the two of them precisely severed only the beast’s trunk, leaving behind a completely decimated pond.

“Is the demonic energy contamination really over with this?”

Arianne spoke, sounding somewhat underwhelmed. I answered her in my head.

‘Not at all.’

-Oops, flagged it.

-There’s no way it’s over.

-It’s too easy for this to be the end.

-This is probably just the beginning.

If you checked the surface, you’d see flowers blooming where the tree used to be. And those flowers weren’t just located here. The point was, we were far from finished.

The next day, we successfully rescued a total of five employees to the safety zone. On the way back, we stopped at the area directly above where the Mother had been planted…

“Gasp! To think the true identity of the magic beast was a flower!”

A field of flowers, now colorless and completely withered, spread out before us. Priest Kalat murmured in awe as he touched a petal that crumbled easily under his fingers.

“They look like ordinary flowers…”

“…As you’ve all likely noticed, something is wrong. If the Mother beast is dead, there should be a visible difference in the demonic energy concentration, but there hasn’t been any change at all.”

Ding!

With a cheerful notification sound, a set of choices appeared before the protagonist.

Oh, so the choices changed based on how the story shifted. These weren’t in my memory. For the record, if this were the real Saintess’s route, the progression would be incredibly smooth without any need for such a roundabout approach. Then again, doesn’t a game story need a little drama?

‘In the original game, they showed this through the subjugation of the Mother in the County event.’

Perhaps they wanted to showcase the overwhelming power of the Saintess against magic beasts. In the case of the true Saintess, Ivanke, she would pour out Divine Power the moment she entered a contaminated zone, repelling the Mother’s demonic energy instantly. The scene where the silver Divine Power clashed against the dark purple miasma on a desolate, lifeless land was quite spectacular. The situation would be neatly resolved as she subjugated the Mother while the demonic energy was suppressed.

Of course, I can’t do that, so I’m looking for a different way. Actually, the basement was a place Ivanke’s party discovered by pure chance when they visited the mansion after purifying the area. Our current situation and progress are vastly different from the original story.

‘Which one is the right choice?’

“Ah~ seriously, nothing is easy, is it? It’s not like there are any hints. There are way too many ‘Die if you don’t know’ moments!”

-Dead game.

-It’s only a hidden route if the difficulty is hard.

-Probably because Je-won found the hidden route too fast lol.

-Yeah, there’s probably info you’d only know if you’d finished other routes first.

Mo Je-won clutched his head and agonized over it with his usual over-the-top dramatics.

“I mean, they all sound plausible~!”

-Lmao.

-Just look up a walkthrough.

In truth, even if Mo Je-won picked something weird, I could just object… but the fact that these were official system choices bothered me. The game system provided them directly; there had to be a reason.

‘What exactly is this hinting at?’

Moreover, I had this feeling that some great will was intervening—that no matter what I said, things would go according to the will of the protagonist, or rather, the system controlling him.

‘This isn’t reality, it’s a game. I shouldn’t think about it with common sense.’

There was no guarantee I was right, but I had to help him pick the best possible option. Having reached that conclusion, I quickly typed out a donation message.

“Life of Conviction-nim, thank you for the 10,000 won donation!”

-Is that so?

-But isn’t Option 2 a waste of time too?

-Sigh, I feel like we need to see more of the basement.

-I agree that 1 isn’t it.

“It’s either 2 or 3. Ah, there’s no point overthinking it. Let’s just go with Option 2!”

“Let’s scout the area around the mansion more. I suspect there are more flower beds like this.”

The party nodded immediately. It was a swift agreement, as if the protagonist’s Persuasiveness trait had just activated.

“Now that I think about it, the Countess wouldn’t have made just one magic flower bed. The fact that the demonic energy concentration hasn’t changed would be explained if there are more Mothers remaining.”

Even Ilian, who loved to nitpick, chimed in.

“Don’t flowers spread seeds? It would make less sense for them to be in only one spot!”

“Priest Kalat, magic beasts cannot reproduce.”

“Ah…”

“Ahem. However, Sir Hereis has a point. In history, there has never been a record of a plant-type magic beast being a Grade 10 Mother. I have a feeling there’s more to this.”

Even the cold-blooded Arianne, whose affection level with Kalat wasn’t exactly high, was on board…

‘The power of the Persuasiveness trait is something else.’

I was almost jealous of the protagonist.

“What do you think, Saintess?”

I responded with a bright smile.

“I agree with Sir Hereis.”

Following Mo Je-won’s cheers, Kalat’s timid voice spoke up.

“Th-then, where should we head first…?”

“Shall we try circling the perimeter of the mansion?”

It was a good suggestion, especially since we were under the constraint of having to return before sunset to avoid the Countess’s suspicion. It was decided that we would move toward the north of the mansion from our current position. We walked for quite a while until…

Vrrr—

The Sacred Armor of Bamea in my pocket vibrated slightly. When I snuck a peek, it was pointing in a different direction from where we were heading.

‘And here I thought it was broken.’

Since it couldn’t even find the beast in the basement, I had assumed the Holy Relic was malfunctioning due to the demonic energy.

‘Why is it working now?’

I didn’t know the reason, but if a Holy Relic that finds the location of nearby magic beasts was working, it was clearly pointing toward a Mother’s flower bed.

‘I should do my job for now.’

It was confusing, but I’d think about it later.

“Everyone. I feel something from over there…”

I pointed my finger in the direction indicated by the armor and spoke meaningfully.

“It is merely a hunch, however…”

I added an excuse that I didn’t really know why I felt it, but I felt compelled to share it anyway.

“If the Saintess says so.”

No one objected; they all just nodded. And then…

“It really was here.”

Exclamations of awe broke out at the beautiful scenery before us.

-It’s pretty?

-This is a magic beast?

Mysterious-looking flowers with five-parted red petals were gathered together, forming a vast colony.