Chapter 33: Old but Not Dead |
Jacques had finalized his resolve with this decision.
Operating in the wilderness came with unknown risks, which meant the schedule was equally unpredictable.
Currently, there was a designated route for caravans traveling between Finback Village and Tail Fin Town, a journey that typically took about three days.
Straying from this path greatly increased the chances of getting lost and drastically prolonged the trip.
Because of this, the Church Branch in Tail Fin Town had given him a rather generous timeframe to return.
Even if he did exceed the time limit, the worst he would face was a minor penalty. As someone of noble descent, he still enjoyed certain privileges.
He simply refused to scurry back in disgrace. Instead, he intended to use this opportunity to shift from the light into the darkness, secretly monitoring Finback Village''s every move.
He firmly believed that his apparent departure would make his targets think they had won. Swept up in their own arrogance, they would naturally lower their guard and inevitably expose their flaws.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the village, Opper indeed breathed a faint sigh of relief.
After a series of shifts, the dark entities fully submerged and fell still.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Opper hurriedly called for his newly hired servant to prepare the goods.
"We will not restart the Whalehide Ore excavation just yet. We will rely on our existing stockpile to hold us over."
"The supply of those special drugs cannot be interrupted."
"Our current stock is running low. I still need to find a way to extract that stuff myself," Opper sighed deeply, adjusting his mindset.
He had originally thought he could tame the Nest Beast and turn it into his personal animal companion.
However, he had severely underestimated the sheer ferocity of a Dangerous Creature.
He had been raising this monstrosity for seven years, yet it remained completely feral to this day.
He was forced to spend exorbitant amounts of money buying specialized medicine from the Calamity Cult just to suppress the Nest Beast''s savage nature.
The Calamity Cult was a heretical organization dedicated to studying the Earth Calamity, seeking to harvest power directly from the disaster itself.
According to their doctrines, the calamity was not actually a disaster, but a Righteous God. It had only been twisted into a catastrophe due to the Gods'' Evil Conspiracy.
But such claims were best taken with a grain of salt. Every cult loved to boast that they were the orthodox faith worshipping a Righteous God.
Opper had never wanted to associate with such fanatics, but given his current predicament, avoiding them meant certain death.
"This damned world, these damned cultists, this damned Church... and that damned Old Priest!!" Opper''s psyche fluctuated wildly before finally settling back into a grim stability.
Now that the miners had been silenced and the mine shaft blown to pieces, he was in a tight spot.
Clearing the tunnels and recruiting enough new miners would be an incredibly troublesome endeavor.
Every day delayed was another day of lost profits.
Over the past dozen days or so, that newly arrived Holy Knight had been sprinting all over the village under the guise of morning jogs. He had even scoured the surrounding hills and ravines, leaving no stone unturned. Wherever he spotted the slightest trace of human activity, he would rush over to investigate.
Wasn''t his true purpose to find the very mine shaft they used for excavation?
In contrast, that Trainee Priest had merely lingered around the church, taking only the occasional stroll through the village proper.
Opper had been tempted more than once to gather his men and restart the mining operations.
But for now, he could only endure.
Because he was still waiting for a signal.
——
On the other end of the village, Nemus suddenly sensed something and stepped into his basement.
At this moment, Leah was thrashing about violently, her entire body covered in deep red marks left behind by the constricting Oath Rope.
"Is she succumbing to the Whale-ification?" Nemus muttered, observing her dire state. He couldn''t help but reinforce the sealing power of the Oath Rope once more, but the results were far from ideal.
Back when the Watchman had stirred up all that trouble, Leah was already entering the critical stage of Whale-ification. It was Nemus who had subsequently suppressed her condition using the Oath Rope. While he was busy researching Whale Transformation Sickness and helping Purr harness the power of Whale-ification, he had also managed to make slight adjustments to her condition.
Yet he had never anticipated that Leah''s transformation would become entirely uncontainable, the feral urge of Whale-ification growing stronger by the minute.
"As expected, anything related to the Floating Whales is never simple," Nemus remarked. As he watched Leah writhe in agony, his mind drifted to a morbid question—where could he procure some fresh organs for her?
The Watchman''s homemade dried organs had been completely consumed. If Leah did not ingest more during her Whale-ification process, there was a very high probability she would simply die from the Whale Transformation Sickness.
His Oath Rope could only keep her restrained for another day or two at most.
"I cannot let her die just yet. If the contract breaks, the Watchman will likely become an unreliable tool," Nemus said, furrowing his brow.
"Now is not the time."
"Wait..." Nemus suddenly narrowed his eyes, a previously overlooked question leaping to the forefront of his mind.
Where exactly had the Watchman been getting those organs before?
Sifting through Nels''s memories, Nemus realized that while people in the village did occasionally pass away, there were very few instances of bodies actually going missing.
Most of the corpses would be...
''Buried in the Cemetery behind the church!'' Nemus was startled by the realization. His mind raced as various theories quickly took shape.
This was a massive detail he had completely neglected.
''The Old Priest often presides over the funerals.''
''Given his spiritual cultivation, whether the Watchman stole the organs before the burial or dug them up from the Cemetery afterward...''
''...there is a high probability that it could not escape the Old Priest''s perception.''
''My attention was entirely focused on the Whale Transformation Sickness earlier. Because the seal suppressed her need for organs, I naturally overlooked that aspect.''
''Now that I think about it carefully, this was a potentially fatal error.''
''This mistake caused me to completely misjudge the Old Priest''s true nature!'' Previously, Nemus''s impression of the Old Priest had largely been that of an aging, soft-hearted, and hesitant man.
At most, he had been curious about the secrets the old man harbored—such as why he had come to this remote village in the first place, and why he possessed a Treasured Sword inscribed with Holy Script.
But at this moment, Nemus could clearly sense the sinister malice the Old Priest had been hiding all along.
''It is highly likely he discovered the Watchman''s secret.''
''And the specific theft of organs would undoubtedly expose the presence of Whale Transformation Sickness.''
''A priest of his advanced age, having lived through the Whale Transformation Sickness riots decades ago, could not possibly fail to recognize it.''
''Yet he discovered all this and did absolutely nothing to stop it.''
''All of his supposed kindness is nothing more than a carefully crafted disguise.''
''If that is the case, then his previous warning about Opper was likely not an accidental slip of the tongue, nor was it out of his usual indulgence toward "Nels".''
''It was a very deliberate orchestration.''
Even Nemus couldn''t help but realize just how thorny dealing with this old fossil would be.
''He has probably been watching every little thing that happens in the village with cold detachment. He wears a mask of benevolence on a daily basis, but in reality, he is quietly enabling all these atrocities.''
''Whether it is the Watchman''s daughter suffering from Whale Transformation Sickness, Opper''s illegal excavation of the Whalehide Ore, or even the fact that Nels colluded with a Demon like me—he must have known about it all to some extent.''
''But that leaves one glaring question: what exactly is he trying to achieve?!''