I Became the Main Character’s Demon Sword

19

What would be there would probably be just human experiments with blood and screams everywhere. If there was anything else, it would be the corpses of countless people who died from the experiments.

It’s a scene he would see someday. Even Rohan in the original story, who raided the cult’s branches, had seen it countless times. But not yet. It was too cruel a reality to show to such a small child.

“Why… won’t you take me?”

“Rohan.”

Arpel ended his reverie at the hand carefully grasping his clothes. It was an anxious face he hadn’t seen much since the child first expressed his true feelings.

Looking at Rohan like that, he stroked his head and touched his cheek a little. Sensing the affection in the touch, Rohan’s anxious face relaxed slightly.

“It’s not a pleasant scene to see.”

“But we went together before.”

“This is different from then. It’s a place where many people have already died, and I will kill many more.”

The child’s body flinched at those words. Arpel carefully removed his hand from the cheek he had been touching and asked in a soft voice.

“Are you afraid of me?”

“…No. I’m not scared.”

It was a very clear voice. Rohan valued Arpel more than the lives of many people. Even while thinking this wasn’t right, Arpel felt pleased at the clear answer.

“Later, will there be days when we go together?”

“When you’re bigger.”

“I wish I could grow up quickly…”

The mumbled line that escaped was the child’s true feeling. Arpel, who ended up smiling slightly, patted Rohan gently with a slow touch.

“I’ll be back.”

Affection overflowed. Arpel bent his knees to lower his head to the child’s eye level and briefly kissed the chubby cheek.

For a moment, Rohan blinked blankly, not knowing what had happened, and then his cheeks suddenly burst into flames. It was a pleasing reaction for something done rather impulsively. He should do it often from now on.

Arpel gestured to Lexia to take care of things and immediately left the room. Left in the room were only Rohan with his bright red face and Lexia, who was staring blankly, unable to respond.

Lexia, who had thought the relationship between Arpel and Rohan was very interesting until just now, burst into a hollow laugh. It was a situation that could only elicit such a laugh.

‘No, who is that?’

It’s just a different person.

***

Although he had left Rohan in Lexia’s care, since he was an untrustworthy fellow despite his capable skills, Arpel decided to handle the job as quickly as possible and return.

The distance to the destination wasn’t that far. He roughly calculated the distance while running quickly along less populated roads to avoid being spotted by people and causing trouble.

The village that the fraudster had mentioned was about two days away from the lord’s castle. Fortunately, the village where Arpel and Rohan were staying wasn’t far from the branch location.

Villages not far from the lord’s castle were usually about a day’s carriage ride away. Since it was a place with frequent movement of goods, the lodging business targeting people traveling by carriage was quite profitable. People who traveled by carriage for a day tended to stay in the village they saw as the sun began to set, rather than passing it by.

Whatever the reason, it was good news for Arpel that the distance wasn’t far.

The village he arrived at after about half a day was quieter than expected. He entered the forest path on the side of the village, without giving a glance to the street lined with stalls or people soliciting customers.

“Are you trying to enter that forest now?”

A woman spoke to him from not far away. Her voice was concerned, but it didn’t evoke any response from Arpel.

Nevertheless, the reason he didn’t leave immediately and looked at the woman was because of the small child holding her hand.

The child looked about Rohan’s age. The tiny fingers tightly grasping the much larger hand resembled Rohan’s. Although it was a very small detail, it reminded Arpel of Rohan, and his expression immediately softened.

“I don’t know why you’re trying to enter the forest, but that forest is dangerous. Quite a few people have gone missing in there. Because human feet rarely touch it, it’s become too dense, and now even locals avoid it…”

“It’s fine.”

“Ah, wait…!”

Arpel, who had been staring at the child, nodded once and turned his back. He heard an urgent voice saying something from behind, but he didn’t pay attention.

Having decided to return early, he would have usually just gone on his way even if someone tried to stop him. He hadn’t expected to pause at seeing a child who resembled Rohan only in age. There were really no other similarities. Rohan was cuter, prettier, more handsome, kinder…

Despite only having seen the child briefly in passing, Arpel endlessly compared the child to Rohan. It was a thought that anyone would see as doting, but he didn’t feel anything strange about it. Because he considered it a natural fact.

While having these idle thoughts, Arpel went deeper into the forest. The woman’s words about it being a forest untouched by people seemed true; although there was a path for people to pass through, weeds had started to grow, and it seemed that soon it would be difficult to distinguish the outline of the path properly.

Finding the highest point was easy. When he came up following the clear path, he saw a bird beak-shaped rock that the fraudster had mentioned on one side. There wasn’t a continuous path, but if you looked closely, there were traces of people passing by.

“…Three times, was it?”

He rubbed the tip of the rock three times. Then, the rock, which seemed to be about five times the size of a human body, began to shake with a rumbling noise.

The visibly shaking rock strangely moved sideways. The entrance that the rock had been guarding was revealed. It was a narrow passage that seemed just wide enough for one person to enter. After staring at the pitch-black passage leading downwards, he turned his gaze towards the rock that had just moved.

‘If I didn’t feel it wrong…’

The power felt when the rock moved was holy power. The power used by priests who serve the Celestial God.

Priests couldn’t sense the power of wraiths as well as people belonging to the Salvation Church or Arpel, who directly contained the power in his body. But not being able to sense it well didn’t mean they ‘couldn’t sense it at all’. In fact, in the original story, when major conflicts arose between the temple and the Salvation Church, the priests found all the branches of the Salvation Church, even if it took a long time.

However, this rock was imbued with holy power, not the power of wraiths, so even if they thought it strange, they wouldn’t doubt it.

He didn’t dwell on the source of the holy power. There would already be spies planted in the temple, and the person who touched the rock was probably one of them. It would certainly play an excellent role in deceiving the eyes of other priests.

Ending his thoughts, he stepped into the passage below. Arpel didn’t have much time. He had promised Rohan he would return by tomorrow. It was already getting dark, so considering the time needed to thoroughly search inside and return to the inn, time was tight.

When he finally reached level ground after descending the rough stairs that led deep inside, Arpel sensed the presence of many people gathered ahead.

“We greet the executive!”

“We greet the executive!!”

Through the dimly lit surroundings, he could see numerous people in the same attire kneeling. Somehow, he felt a throbbing in his head.

Being sensitive to the power of wraiths, they must have sensed Arpel’s aura from when he moved the rock. It was similar to what happened at the lord’s castle.

Naturally, they thought he was an executive of the Salvation Church since he contained the power of wraiths in his body and directly opened the door to enter. It was unavoidable since only executives could walk around normally containing such power.

‘Should I kill them?’

They couldn’t even manage their overflowing emotions, not knowing what thoughts their object of loyalty was having. Arpel, who had been contemplating with narrowed eyes, abandoned that thought. The branch wasn’t very large, but it wasn’t small either. It would clearly take a lot of time to investigate everything one by one without knowing anything.

Is there a need to go around? There are people here who can find everything.

“I’ll see the research results. Guide me.”

“Yes!”

The older man who had been kneeling at the very front quickly stood up. He was satisfied with guiding the way without any suspicion. How loyal they were, to accept the situation without question even though the sudden appearance of an executive made no sense.

As he guided deeper inside, the smell of blood intensified. The faintly heard screams of people also grew louder. As Arpel’s brow furrowed, the man guiding him laughed awkwardly.

“I’m sorry, it seems noisier than you expected.”

“It’s fine.”

Without smoothing his furrowed brow, Arpel stepped into the dirty research lab.

Inside, there were iron cages holding people. Bodies that couldn’t even scream and were just wheezing shook finely from terrible pain. They were naked without a single piece of clothing, but due to prolonged exposure to the power of wraiths, there were so many deformed areas that it was impossible to properly distinguish their original gender.

“Ah, this is one I’ve been quite fond of lately. Although various parts have been deformed, it still maintains a human form, and its life is quite tenacious. Let’s see, the research log…”

Empty eye sockets stared at Arpel. It was a gaze that had resigned to everything, but nevertheless, it was clearly desiring death.

“Here it is!”

“Are there no other materials?”

“I have the data on all experiments conducted in this branch. What I’ve shown you now is the most recent result, and the data on experiments we’ve done so far are collected in the next room.”

Arpel, who had received the research log, suddenly turned his gaze towards something that bothered him. There were various accessories scattered in the corner of the desk. The strange thing was that they were all artifacts containing the power of holy and demonic energy.