The Wandering Priest in Dark Fantasy

[Translator - Peptobismal]

[Proofreader - Max]

Chapter 54: The Missing Children (4)

With the clanking of the door, footsteps approached.

Slow, dragging footsteps.

It was the old woman.

Slowly approaching Hamel, the old woman peered into the cell and frowned.

"Who is it? Who's saying they can't eat because it's cold?"

"It's me."

"This voice... isn't it our esteemed priest-nim?"

"Yes."

At Hamel's reply, the old woman let out a scoff.

"I don't know what you're scheming, but it's useless. There's nothing you can do now."

"..."

Hamel remained silent at the old woman's words.

He didn't know if it was the poisonous smoke from the firewood or some other poison she had given him after he collapsed.

But as the witch had said, Hamel was in no condition to even move his body properly.

The old woman, well aware of this, continued speaking with a confident sneer.

"I hear you're cold?"

"...I can't even sleep, let alone eat, because it's so cold."

Perhaps due to his weakened state, it was true that he was shivering from the chills.

"Still full, are we? You must have grown up pampered."

Scoffing, the old woman turned her head and spoke to the girl.

"Light the fire on the stove. Our priest-nim is cold, we can't have that."

"Yes, I understand."

The girl scurried over to the fireplace at the end of the basement and poured oil on it.

Then she struck the flint against the steel.

Red sparks flew as the steel clashed.

But the sparks didn't land on the oil, instead scattering in random directions.

That was because the girl was striking the flint outside the fireplace.

"What are you doing! Light the fire quickly!"

The old woman, who had been waiting for a while, shouted impatiently.

The girl trembled and replied,

"I-I'm sorry. But the fire won't light..."

"You idiot. You can't even light a fire at your age? I should just turn you into a tree too."

The old woman, seemingly angry, quickly approached the stove.

Then, she roughly shoved the girl standing in front of the fireplace and said,

"Get out of the way. I'll do it myself."

Snatching the flint, the witch struck it directly inside the fireplace.

With a ticking sound, the firewood caught fire, and the old woman frowned.

"Such a simple task..."

Hamel quietly prayed.

"Ehurshica."

Whoosh

Azure flames erupted from the fireplace like an explosion.

The flames, rising as if to devour everything, engulfed the old woman.

"Gah!"

Just as the old woman was startled and tried to step back,

"Heave-ho!"

The girl standing behind her pushed the old woman towards the fireplace with all her might.

"Aaaaagh!"

The old woman wasn't just caught in the Azure Flame; she was completely engulfed in the fire, struggling within it.

'It worked.'

Things were going even better than expected.

Just as Hamel was about to clench his fist in triumph,

"...Eeeeeek!"

The old woman sprang up from the fireplace like a coiled spring.

The Azure flames on her body quickly died down.

Like charcoal doused with water, the Azure Flame disappeared without a trace, emitting smoke.

Watching this, Hamel unconsciously gripped the bars tightly and shouted,

"That's impossible...!"

The Azure Flame was supposed to burn ravenously until the demon's breath ceased.

Of course, the higher the demon's rank, the more likely it was to extinguish the flames, but Vinea was fundamentally a parasitic demon.

Its own combat power and stamina were not known to be particularly outstanding.

But no matter how much Hamel denied it, it couldn't be helped.

"You... dare... you brats...!"

The unbelievable had already happened right before his eyes.

The old woman, her whole body burned and blackened, gritted her teeth.

Just then, the pendant on the old woman's neck snapped and fell to the floor with a clinking sound.

"Aaah...!"

Watching this, the old woman trembled with even greater fury.

"You... I'll tear open your jaws and stuff you all with the fruit!"

The old woman clutched at her melting facial skin.

Sizzle

And with the sound of tearing flesh, she ripped off her skin.

"...!"

The old woman's form ripped apart, revealing a face covered in bark, no, a face made entirely of wood.

'It wasn't Vinea...!'

She was merely a Trent, one of the humans infected by Vinea.

However, he had never heard of a Trent possessing this level of ego and power.

"You're first. You dared to conspire and deceive me?"

The Trent took a step towards the terrified girl, who was trembling.

"...Sob."

The girl, her legs seemingly giving way, crawled away, but she was still trapped within the basement.

The best she could do was press herself against the wall opposite the fireplace.

"No!!"

The boy's desperate scream echoed from beyond the wall.

The boy shouted urgently,

"Get up! Get up and run, you idiot!"

"B-brother."

The girl whimpered, trembling.

"...I-I can't get up. Sob."

Watching this, Hamel gritted his teeth, rattling his handcuffs against the bars.

But the handcuffs wouldn't break.

Instead, Hamel's skin was torn to shreds, revealing the white bone of his wrist.

"..."

He had to do something.

Hamel gritted his teeth and glared at the demon approaching the girl.

'The Azure Flame definitely worked. The fire was extinguished... probably because of that pendant.'

There was no way to know the true nature of the pendant right now.

But just one more time.

If he could just unleash the Azure Flame on it one more time, he could finish it off.

But how?

If it came closer, he could try splashing blood on it, but Trent was already wary of him.

Hamel's eyes naturally fell on the fireplace.

He could still see the Azure Flame burning with his blood as the medium.

'If only I could move that...'

An unconscious murmur born of desperation.

At that moment, a possibility flashed through Hamel's mind.

His unique ability, the Azure Flame, was activated through prayer.

'That means...'

Perhaps the Azure Flame was also a type of incantation.

[TL/N: Words of Power→Incantation (Incantation is different from magic chants used while casting magic.)]

There was no time to weigh the possibilities.

"Move."

Hamel extended his mangled hand out of the bars and muttered.

"Move. Move. Move..."

As Hamel muttered like a madman, Trent glanced at him and chuckled.

"Have you lost your mind? Get a grip and watch from there. See what happens to that girl because of your tricks."

The Trent strode towards the girl and reached out to her.

There was no time.

But the Azure Flame still didn't budge.

Was his thinking wrong?

Would he have to watch someone die again because of his mistake?

Crack

'No.'

He couldn't bear to watch that happen, even if it killed him.

Hamel gritted his teeth so hard that they bled.

He would do it.

He would make it move.

Then, the conversation he had with Rena came to mind.

'Priest-nim, do you know the difference between signifier and signified?'

'For you, Priest-nim, the sun might be something dazzlingly bright and warm, hard to look at directly, but for someone else, the word "sun" might bring to mind the rising and setting of the sun.'

The basics of incantations.

It was about aligning the signifier and the signified.

In other words, unifying the trigger word he uttered with the meaning that word held.

'I commanded it to move... but was that really what I was thinking?'

No.

That wasn't it.

The trigger word was wrong.

Hamel was picturing a different image in his mind than the words he was uttering.

'It wasn't "move".'

What Hamel had been desperately wishing for and imagining all along.

It was—

"Burn."

The image of the demon burning miserably, that was all.

Hamel's low murmur echoed through the basement.

And then, in the next moment.

Whoosh

The Azure Flame in the fireplace surged and struck the demon like lightning.

"Aaaaaaaaagh!"

The demon, which had grabbed the girl's collar, twisted its body, trying to shake it off.

The Azure Flame blazed relentlessly, burning the tree-like demon fiercely.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

The fire blazed as if to engulf the entire basement, but the girl standing nearby felt no heat at all.

It was a ravenous flame that hunted only demons.

A divine punishment.

"Heeo. Heehoooo!"

The demon let out an incomprehensible scream and fled up the basement stairs.

As if believing it could survive if it just reached the top.

But Hamel didn't care.

There was no way it could escape.

This time, the flames would burn every last bit of it, even its bones.

The demon's screams gradually grew fainter and then abruptly stopped.

A calm silence fell over the basement.

The girl, frozen in fear, finally spoke in a trembling voice,

"I-is it over?"

Hamel nodded and reassured her in a calm voice.

"Yes. It's all over, thanks to you."

"Ah..."

As if her strength had left her, the girl's body slumped.

But after a moment, she began to sob softly.

Soon, her crying became uncontrollable.

"...Why are you crying... when it's over... sob."

The boy beyond the wall seemed to scold the girl, but then he started crying too.

Hamel quietly waited for their crying to subside.

He hoped that by doing so, they could release their pent-up emotions from this place.

***

Click

Hamel gently touched his wrist, freed from the handcuffs.

It felt itchy as the torn flesh regenerated.

The girl had used the basement key dropped by the demon to release everyone.

"Ugh..."

As time passed, the others, freed from their restraints, also began to open their eyes one by one.

To think they had slept through the entire fight with the demon and only woke up after it was all over.

Should he call this good luck?

'No, I'm the lucky one.'

He didn't know if it was because he hadn't eaten the fruit or because of the Azure Flame, but if Hamel hadn't woken up early, they would have met a terrible end by now.

As Hamel gazed at them, Daniel, who had regained consciousness, sat up and said,

"Where... what happened?"

"A demon."

Hamel waited for everyone to come to their senses before explaining the situation.

Ono, who had been listening quietly, frowned and asked,

"What? So you're saying there's a weed growing on my head right now... It's real."

Ono patted his head with a strange expression.

The weed, which had grown a bit more in the meantime, was now about two spans long.

"That's amazing. What's growing on my head?"

Rena, who had been staring blankly at it, tilted her head.

"You're curious about that now?"

"Yes."

When Ono asked in disbelief, Rena calmly nodded.

Ono sighed, deflated.

Hamel carefully examined their heads for a moment and then nodded.

"Miss Lena, it's an olive tree. Mr. Daniel, an apple tree. And Mr. Ono... a maple tree."

"Amazing."

Lena's eyes sparkled, which was rare for her.

On the other hand, Ono touched the plant on his head with a disgusted expression.

"So this is, a high-ranking demon, Carnosa Vinea's spore, you say. I've only heard of it... How do we get rid of this?"

"...Hamel. We can get rid of this, right?"

At Ono's muttering, Daniel looked at Hamel anxiously.

Hamel calmly nodded.

"Yes."

There were two ways.

One was to diligently drink salt water.

That alone would cause the spores rooted in a person's body to wither and die.

And the other way was...

"To kill the main body of Vinea."

"...Didn't you say you killed the old woman?"

When Daniel asked with a puzzled look, Hamel hesitated for a moment before continuing.

"That's right. But the old woman wasn't the main body of Vinea, just its subordinate, a Trent."

"That means..."

"Yes. The territory is in danger."

A high-ranking demon.

It was a being with enough power to wipe out a small territory.

Vinea, among the high-ranking demons, was one that could be dealt with relatively easily if suppressed early on.

However, as time passed, the damage and difficulty it posed would increase dramatically.

The problem was the Trent they had just defeated.

Since its subordinate was already roaming the outskirts of the territory, it was highly likely that the infection had already progressed considerably.

'Above all...'

Hamel picked up the fallen pendant.

The strange object that had extinguished his Azure Flame.

It was engraved with a familiar mark.

"That's..."

Daniel, recognizing the mark, frowned.

"Yes. The same mark as the one David used."

The shape of a beast with a mane.

It was the same symbol he had seen on the Spider Woman who had recently murdered the Tower Master.

'This again.'

Hamel instinctively felt that David, or the faction he belonged to, was deeply involved in this incident once more.

Perhaps the reason he had stayed in Lonely Ridge was also related to this.

'I need to report this to the Order urgently... But right now, the Lonely Ridge territory is in danger.'

Hamel carefully wrapped the pendant in cloth and put it in his bag.

Something was happening.

He had a feeling that he needed to hurry.

[Translator - Peptobismal]

[Proofreader - Max]