NOVEL FROG Chapter 213
EP.213 Entering (7)
It felt like I was facing an uncanny valley.
She was definitely smiling with the face of the Hero and speaking in the Hero’s voice, but she was absolutely not the Hero.
As I confronted that distorted being, an unsettling type of discomfort surged within me that I had never experienced in my entire life.
Not only was her identity unclear, but her intentions were also ambiguous.
The most plausible hypothesis I could come up with was that she was also a member of the Saint Candidates, trying to lead me into lowering my guard with that disguise.
However, there were far too many suspicious elements in the current situation to just brush it off.
“Did you… kill… them?”
“…?”
As I forced my stiff tongue to move and asked the question, a look of bewilderment began to appear on her face.
My anxious gaze pointed sequentially to the three corpses sprawled around her.
The gruesome sight of their necks and heads twisted in an abnormal direction looked closer to the actions of a beast than of a human.
Even I, who had seen countless wounds in my capacity, couldn’t help but furrow my brow at such a brutal spectacle.
Furthermore, one of them appeared to be a young child who had just started losing baby teeth.
A tumultuous storm of unease raged in my thoughts.
But the source of the agitation I was feeling right now was not the slaughter I was witnessing before me, but the image of the innocent girl who had greeted me with a bright smile in the middle of it all.
“Yes! I killed them! They dared to threaten the Priest!”
It was the moment when her strong conviction flipped into an overwhelming sense of disgust.
The actions of the woman before me seemed almost indistinguishable from what I knew of the Hero.
How she worried excessively about my safety, for instance.
Or how she tried to stop the woman approaching me in fear.
If someone who had just newly met the Hero were here, they might have easily been deceived.
However, from my position, having observed the Hero closely for so long, her disguise was so clumsy it was unbearable.
Suddenly!
The Hero would never draw a sword against a child.
During the wedding incident, the Hero did not take any action when the Saint used the child as a shield, proving this fact.
That was partly due to the Hero’s unfortunate past and partly due to some words I had muttered in the Hero’s presence.
I never wanted to associate with anyone who would harm a child.
Even the thought of that declaration, which I had said in a rarely agitated tone, caused all the comrades, including the Hero, to break into a cold sweat in shock; that scene was still vivid in my memory.
Even if the situation were desperate and unavoidable.
If it were the Hero I knew, she would surely have chosen to swiftly relieve the pain by cutting their throats, not inflicting such harsh torment.
Suddenly!
“Ha ha! I’m really glad I made it in time!”
Before I could utter a single word, she suddenly enveloped me in a strong embrace.
It was truly bizarre.
Both her appearance and actions resembled the Hero so closely, yet how drastically different it felt depending on who was inside.
My stomach churned endlessly from the burning rage.
With hands stained with blood wrapping around my body without hesitation and rubbing her head against me as if demanding praise, her actions felt like a desecration of the Hero.
“Come on! Let’s join up with the others quickly! Hah! A bright idea came to me! This place is far too dangerous for the Priest! So, how about we hold hands and move together? I’ll be responsible for you—”
“Shut up.”
“Eh? What did you just say, Priest?”
“With that voice. With that mouth. Don’t say another word.”
“………”
I had carelessly blurted out the words that had crossed my mind as reason burned away in my brain.
I was a bit surprised, but if you asked me if I regretted it, that was a definite no.
No matter who the opponent was, I couldn’t bear to see her humiliate herself in front of me.
“Oh my, you noticed quicker than I thought? I shouldn’t say this, but the appearance and actions should be a perfect copy, right?”
At that instant, her voice drastically changed.
No, it wasn’t just the voice.
The likeness of the Hero she had wrapped around herself began to dissolve like ashes scattered by the wind.
Whoosh!
What lay beyond was a face that I couldn’t say I recognized, yet it etched an unforgettable memory into my mind.
It was the face of an assassin who had lurked in the darkness to target the Hero.
“Ah, what a shame. I thought by acting as the Hero’s girlfriend, I could win the affection of my dear you…”
Her expression was full of disappointment, and suddenly she buried her face in my chest.
They say that a beautiful woman’s body contact has a soothing effect.
I learned through this opportunity that such effectiveness varies from person to person.
No matter how stunningly beautiful she was, if she was the one who humiliated my precious person, her actions only served to intensify my fury.
CRACK!
If I weren’t being suppressed by an unknown force, I would have certainly thrown this woman off me right away.
“Hehe, but at least there’s been some reward. If I hadn’t pretended to be the Hero, snuggling warmly with Regis Priest like this would have been nothing more than a dream. If I were to be greedy, I’d want to hold hands and stroll around this area together, but as a servant of the Will of God, I shouldn’t be too greedy, right?”
“………”
“I think I owe my heartfelt thanks to the younger siblings who sacrificed themselves for me countless times.”
“……..!”
The girl with flushed cheeks spoke to me as if she were shy.
It took me a significant amount of time to realize that the ‘younger siblings’ she mentioned referred to the corpses scattered around us.
By impersonating the Hero, she aimed to foster a natural body contact with me.
It was a lunatic’s mindset that she would go so far as to sacrifice her comrades’ lives just for such a cheap trick.
“Y-You…!”
SWISH!
Just as I was about to shout in outrage, her slender finger blocked my mouth.
Her movements were as meticulous as playing piano keys, yet the dark desire lurking behind it reached me through that feeble contact.
“Raiza. Please call me Raiza. Regis Priest. No, our savior…”
“Kuh—!”
With that stern declaration, something invisible began to tighten around my neck, or rather, my entire body.
How long had it been since I felt the pressure, like being slowly swallowed headfirst by a giant snake, tightening around me?
I felt the force that was squeezing my neck loosen just a little.
“Now, say it. Just like that night, sweetly call me ‘my Raiza.’ As softly as you can. Yes! For example, in a tone you’d whisper to a beloved spouse after marriage…”
It was clear that her actions didn’t stem from compassion, just by seeing her dry, unfeeling eyes watching my desperate gasps.
She was coercing me to act as she wished. No, she was threatening me.
If I refused such a proposal, she would undoubtedly break a bone of mine without a moment’s hesitation.
If I refused again, she would target another bone.
If I continued to refuse, she’d treat my wounds herself and then restart her process.
Using pain to oppress a believer with a strong rebellious streak was the most typical method deployed by the interrogators from the Vatican.
“Come now. Don’t be shy. Just say it out loud…”
Suddenly, her voice ceased.
The reason was simple.
Instead of following her words, I had been mischievously expressing my disdain by merely lifting one side of my mouth into a smirk.
“………”
The faint smile that adorned her face completely vanished in that instant.
The incomprehensible force wrapping around my body became more aggressive.
“It seems I’ve been a bit mistaken in my approach to asking you.”
“──!?”
CRACK!
As the pressure around my throat intensified, my vision instantly faded to white.
Not even a scream, not even a faint breath could escape my lips.
No matter how long I struggled against suffocation, I’d say around ten seconds at most.
And more than half of that was consumed just by my futile flailing.
“Don’t worry. I’ll personally fulfill the virtues of a savior for Regis Priest—”
CRUNCH!
The chilling sound of flesh and bones being crushed echoed painfully in the fading depths of my consciousness.
Could it be that I was dead?
That was the first thought my oxygen-starved brain could conjure.
“You damn bastard, you’re gonna burn me alive—!!! Let go of that hand right now—!?”
Apis’s fiery voice harshly jolted my fading consciousness awake.