Chapter 10: Rumors
“Truly, thank you for all you’ve done,” said the mother.
Her daughter echoed her. “Thank you so much!”
Once Ruri had finished healing the father’s wounds, she figured it was time they departed. Both the mother and daughter saw them off with deep, gracious bows. They also loaded her up with a heap of local gifts as tokens of appreciation.
“Oh, you shouldn’t have,” Ruri said gratefully. “Still, I would appreciate it if you kept the fact that we used dragon’s blood a secret. It might end up being trouble later down the road.”
“Very well,” the mother agreed. “This secret stays with us. We are eternally indebted to you. Thank you so much for all you’ve done. I’m so glad we didn’t have to resort to that shady religious group.”
“Religious group?” Ruri repeated.
“Yes, after my husband had his accident, a person claiming to be a believer of the religion of something-or-other came to us and said they would help save him. He said, ‘Our glorious leader has the power to resurrect the dead, so he can resurrect your husband should he die.’ But he added, ‘on the condition that you worship our god and swear your loyalty.’”
“Resurrect the dead...?”
“Yes. I certainly thought it was shady, but if my husband were to actually die, then I might’ve been left grasping for straws and accepting their offer.”
Resurrecting the dead? Glorious leader? Those were words Ruri had heard all too recently.
“This religion? Was it called the ‘Church of God’s Light,’ by any chance?” Ruri asked.
“Yes, I believe that was the name he gave.”
Ruri, Joshua, and Ewan all looked at one another.
“When was this?! When did that person come to you?” Ruri asked, abruptly and loudly.
The mother flinched but continued. “Let’s see. I believe it was about three days ago.”
Three days meant there was a good chance they were still here in the capital.
“We should report this to the Beast King, don’t you think?” Ruri suggested.
Joshua agreed. “Yeah, let’s get back on the double.”
After saying their goodbyes to the mother and her child, they made their way to the main street leading to the castle. But that was when Chi started whining.
“Aww, we’re leaving already? We barely got to have any fun yet.”
“We need to get back to the castle and report this, Chi,” Ruri replied.
“Oh, come on, we can be just a little late.”
Chi’s unwillingness to cooperate was an issue. Ruri looked at Joshua and Ewan in hopes they would have a plan, but Joshua just shrugged and Ewan awkwardly smiled.
“No harm in making a little allowance, right?” said Ewan. “If we drag him back, we’re just going to hear his complaints later.”
Ruri could imagine Chi rolling around on the ground, grumbling and complaining, so she reconsidered her stance. “All right, but just for a little bit. We can always come back again later, after all.”
“Sure thing!” said Chi.
And so they walked around town, following Chi so they wouldn’t lose sight of him—which was a huge ordeal since he was a bundle of curiosity. He would dash over to any and all things that caught his eye. If they looked away for one second, they would immediately lose sight of him.
Fighting back the urge to return and report, Ruri wandered around town with the others until a certain stall caught her eye. The person attending it was someone Ruri had seen before. Shocked, she approached the stall, wondering why this person was here.
“Amarna-san... That is you, right?”
Yes, the one attending the stall was the woman who was supposed to be back in the Nation of the Dragon King’s capital—Amarna.
Amarna looked at Ruri blankly, apparently not recognizing her with her glasses, wig, and hood.
“It’s me. Me,” Ruri said, taking off her glasses and sliding her wig off a bit before putting them right back on.
Amarna’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh my, Lady Bel—mgfh!”
Ruri rushed to cover Amarna’s mouth before she could utter the rest of the title. She had come here in disguise, so Amarna loudly proclaiming that Ruri was a Beloved would put her in a world of trouble.
“I’m Ruri. Not Lady Be-you-know-what! Understand?!” Ruri warned. She waited for Amarna to give a couple of firm nods before she released her hand.
“So, Amarna-san, what are you doing here of all places? Did you move from the Nation of the Dragon King?”
“No, I didn’t move. I’m here temporarily to study.”
“Study?”
“Why, yes! The Nation of the Beast King’s royal capital is the leader in selling merchandise with a Beloved’s seal of approval, so I’m here, acquiring the know-how on how to sell Beloved merchandise. Once I return to the Nation of the Dragon King, I’ll utilize that and rake in profit after profit...” Amarna trailed off into an eerie laugh as the prospect of money started to cloud her eyes.
“R-Right. Good luck with that.”
“Thank you very much. Oh, that’s right,” Amarna said as if she remembered something. She stuck her palm out in front of Joshua with a sweet smile.
“What?” he asked.
“You still haven’t repaid me for last time~”
Joshua’s face scrunched up into a sneer as he pulled out a few coins and placed them on her outstretched palm.
Amarna looked at the bit of coin in dissatisfaction. “This is too little! Far too little!”
“What’re you talking about? It’s a reasonable amount. You do realize that those ‘Reapers’ the other day were imposters, right?”
“And might I ask what you’re talking about? I said that there were people calling themselves Reapers in the capital. I technically never said they were real.”
“Don’t get technical with me.”
Ruri wasn’t exactly following their argument, but their familiar attitudes with one another suggested that they were already acquainted.
“Do you two know each other?” she asked.
“This is one of the informants I’ve been using,” Joshua explained.
“Informant? Aren’t you a vendor?”
“It’s my side-job~” Amarna replied. The sweet and smiling woman didn’t seem like she would be working a job as shady as an informant.
“I got my intel about the Reapers being in the Nation of the Dragon King and their hideout from her. Well, the Reapers ended up being bogus, but still,” Joshua said, glaring at Amarna. He still felt some resentment for being fed fake information.
“I simply told you the information I gained without a single embellishment. What my clients parse from that information is solely up to them~”
“Well, don’t you just have a way around words? Anyway, I’m not paying you a single coin more.”
“Aww, is that any way to treat me? Here I am with new information too~”
Joshua looked at her, skeptical. “Don’t tell me—more fake nonsense?”
Amarna brought her face up to Joshua’s and whispered, “It’s rumors about the Church of God’s Light.”
Ruri and the others shifted their brows in intrigue. Joshua gave her a look, prompting her to continue, but Amarna grinned from ear to ear and held out her palm. He was going to have to cough up the dough if he wanted to hear the rest.
Joshua bitterly and reluctantly plopped a few more coins on her palm. Amarna smiled in satisfaction and began to speak.
“Beyond the royal capital is a volcanic mountain called Mt. Ulawoon. One day, there was an incident in a village at the foot of that mountain—all the villagers started to die of unknown causes.”
“Was it sickness? Or were they raided?” Ruri asked.
“No clue. I don’t have many details. The village has always been closed off without much exchange with the outside world, so the causes are unclear. And considering it might be because of a pandemic, no one has dared to come near the village. They say the corpses were left to the elements and littered every street in the village.”
Ruri envisioned that sight and shivered, rubbing her arms in discomfort.
“One year later, assuming the illness had died down, looters went to the village to steal anything left worth of value. When they did, for whatever reason, there wasn’t a single corpse to be found and the villagers were walking like normal.”
“So, they weren’t dead after all?” asked Ruri.
“No,” Amarna said, “they definitely died. But there they were—alive. Or rather, brought back to life.”
“Brought back to life? No way.” Ruri looked at her with obvious doubt.
“Do you think it’s a tall tale? That village isn’t the only one with news of people coming back from the dead. There are a few rumors of other villages where people who died of illness sprang back to life. And it’s said that the person responsible for that miracle is the leader of a religion called the Church of God’s Light.”
“The Church of God’s Light?!”
Just as Ruri started to wonder why she was bringing up villagers dying and coming back to life, Amarna linked it back to the Church of God’s Light.
“Noah-kun talked about his ‘leader’ too. He said he could bring back the dead.”
First, there was Noah who targeted Ruri in order to resurrect his dead parents. Then, there was the member of the Church of God’s Light that visited the carpenter right after he was severely injured. However, Ruri wasn’t willing to completely believe Amarna’s story just yet. Bringing the dead back to life was something that even Kotaro and the other spirits said couldn’t be done.
“So, just how much of that can we take as fact?” Ewan asked.
Amarna simply shrugged and replied, “No clue. I’m only going off rumors; I haven’t bore witness for myself. However, the only thing that’s for certain is that all of the rumors started from the small villages at the foot of Mt. Ulawoon. The stories have apparently been around for years now, but they never spread since those villages don’t do much exchanging with others.”
Ruri and everyone stood in silent contemplation. But all of the thinking in the world wasn’t going to provide solutions.
“Why don’t we try going to this village with the raised dead? We might be able to find some clues about the Church of God’s Light,” Ruri suggested.
At Ruri’s feet, an extremely excited-looking Chi emphatically replied, “Hey, now that sounds like fun. A village where the dead come back to life? Count me in. I gotta come for this!”
“First, we go back to the castle and report,” said Joshua. “This is the Nation of the Beast King, after all. We can’t just act all willy-nilly as reps from the Nation of the Dragon King.”
“All right. Let’s hurry back, then.” Maybe it was because he had his sights set on a new playground now, but this time around, Chi didn’t whine over going back to the castle.
“Okay, see you around, Amarna-san.”
“Take care now~” Amarna said, waving her hand.
After saying their farewells to her, the group rushed back to the castle.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login