East Road Quest

Chapter 41: Redhill Village

Saph was lost, stranded under the shade of a rock, unable to find her way.

She knew that at night, she could use the North Star to navigate, and that she needed to head east to reach the Albite Valley. But maintaining a straight course in a featureless desert proved much harder than she had anticipated.

“I’m sorry. Perhaps because of me, you might end up dying too. We should have waited for a guide in Postrom Village,” Saph said to her horse, gazing out at the silent expanse of the desert.

“Still, we’re lucky. I thought we’d encounter monsters or bandits in the desert, but at least there’s been none of that. The nuns used to scare us with tales of heretics and demons living in the Red Desert. It seems those were just scary stories.”

Saph took a sip from her water skin, giving the rest to her horse.

‘If we don’t find anything, dying of thirst is all that’s left.’

She kept this thought to herself, not wanting to frighten her horse.

As evening approached and the sun began to set, she resumed her journey. The desert continued, unchanging.

‘Father Daniel once said that in vast places like deserts or grasslands, even if you think you’re walking straight, you’ll veer off course ever so slightly, ending up walking in a large curve and possibly returning to the same spot…’

Unbeknownst to Saph, the terrain changed from sand to dry land. There was still plenty of sand, but it wasn’t a complete sandbank anymore.

A wasteland stretched before her, and in the distance, a small village appeared.

“Ah, fortune smiles upon us for the first time on this journey.”

With a short exclamation, Saph spurred her horse forward. Even if it was Postrom Village, it didn’t matter. Any place with water would do.

As she neared the village, her brief hope faded.

It was a village long abandoned. Wooden houses, eroded by years of wind, leaned in one direction or had collapsed entirely.

At the northern end of the village stood a church, one-third of it destroyed, but at least the roof was intact, and there was a well behind it.

“Shouldn’t get my hopes up too high, should I?”

Saph approached the well with trepidation. Looking inside, she saw it was half-filled with sand.

“This must be Redhill Village. That means we’ve strayed as far from Albite Valley as when we first stopped in Postrom Village…”

Saph desperately tried to recall the map she had seen briefly at Granny Julie’s.

“Just a few more miles northeast from here, and we’ll reach Saint Santirimo Monastery. It’s a place forbidden to women, but at least we can get water. Let’s head there before it’s too late. If we hurry, we might arrive before nightfall…”

Just as Saph was about to mount her horse again, people emerged from behind the church.

They were armed and masked. Saph, blinded by the sun, thought she was seeing things until one of them shouted.

“Just one person! And it’s a woman.”

More people appeared from behind. Startled, the horse reared, and Saph let go of the reins.

One man grabbed the excited horse’s reins, while others approached Saph with their swords drawn.

One man lowered his mask and said, “Well, aren’t you pretty!”

He grinned, showing a few remaining teeth, and asked Saph, “Hey, where are you from?”

“Poe, Post… Postrom…”

Saph stammered in fear.

“What? Postrom Village?”

The man inquired.

Saph nodded. Meanwhile, other men had gathered around.

A second man gestured and said, “Let’s take her inside.”

“If we take her inside, she becomes the boss’s. Not yet, if we’re out here.”

The first man objected. The others seemed to agree with him. But the second man shook his head.

“Even here, she’s the boss’s. I’ve seen too many ‘cut down’ for acting without thinking. We have to take her.”

The first man and the others sighed.

“Ah, but such a pretty girl…”

The second man calmed everyone down.

“Think about it. Why would such a young woman be here? What if she’s a demon from the Red Desert?”

“If she’s this pretty, I don’t care if she’s a demon…”

One man said, and the others laughed.

Saph was too frightened to understand half of their conversation. She was dragged helplessly into the church by the men.

Inside the church of Redhill Village, torches and a bonfire were lit.

Everyone called the bearded man by the fire the boss.

Through their conversations, Saph learned they were the Karp bandits of the Red Desert, and the boss’s name was Karp. She also realized they were very angry about something that had happened during the day, and it was likely to affect her negatively.

“The boss can’t speak right now because he’s injured his mouth in a battle with a giant monster, so I’ll ask for him. Who sent you, assassin?”

The man standing next to Karp, who was glaring menacingly with a handkerchief to his mouth, asked.

Saph mumbled a response.

“Assassin? No, not me.”

“Then who are you?”

“I’m…”

Saph couldn’t organize her thoughts to explain.

“…a nun.”

‘Not strictly a nun, though. I didn’t complete the process to become one, and I left halfway through, so it’s unlikely I’ll ever be one.’

Saph swallowed the rest of her explanation. It wasn’t the time for such details.

“A nun? Don’t lie. There’s no convent nearby!”

“That’s… that’s…”

Saph struggled to respond when another man interjected smugly.

“There’s nothing to see here. She’s on her way to Saint Santirimo Monastery.”

Another man joined in.

“No! The monastery is no place for women. How could she go there? This woman is a spy sent from Rome to the Duchy of Luna. Look at the horse. That’s a military horse from Rome. She’s trying to hide her political situation!”

Then everyone started arguing.

“As far as I know, nuns can go to monasteries.”

“As far as I know, they can’t.”

“Nuns are clergy too, idiot.”

“Don’t act smart. Want to die?”

“You bastard!”

Karp gestured, and the man next to him drew his sword.

The arguing men quickly covered their mouths. It might have looked comical, but Saph was only terrified.

Karp briefly removed the handkerchief from his mouth, revealing a cut and severed lip, a mess of blood and pus reaching his nose.
Saph approached the wounded man, her voice laced with concern. “Are you hurt? It looks like a sword wound.”

Kapf glared at her with suspicion in his eyes.

“I can heal you,” Saph offered, hoping to ease the tense atmosphere with her gesture.

Kapf eyed her for a long moment before signaling to a man standing beside him.

The man asked on Kapf’s behalf, “Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Then do it. But if you try any tricks, you’ll regret it,” he warned, brandishing his sword carelessly.

As Saph moved closer, extending her hand, Kapf instinctively recoiled, his eyes threatening.

“It might hurt a little,” she warned.

She touched Kapf’s mouth, feeling the sticky blood and pus on her palm.

Closing her eyes, Saph summoned the healing light. As the light enveloped his face, Kapf screamed and kicked her in the chest reflexively. She tumbled backward.

Kapf removed the hand covering his mouth and shouted, “How dare you try to deceive me! Tie up this wretch…”

He paused abruptly.

His men had already drawn their swords on Saph, who had fallen.

“What? Boss, you can speak…?” Though blood still flowed, the change was undeniable.

Saph clutched her kicked chest, gasping in pain.

“Get her up. Do what you just did again,” Kapf commanded.

Forced by the bandits’ hands, Saph stood before Kapf again, still struggling to breathe.

“Hurry! But if it hurts like before, I’ll kill you for real this time,” Kapf ordered.

Saph shook her head.

“I can’t.”

“You’re asking to die,” he sneered.

“No, it’s just… this healing can’t be done without pain,” she replied, pressing her hands against her chest.

Kapf looked at her skeptically.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Then make it as painless as possible,” he ordered.

‘There’s no such way,’ Saph thought to herself, touching Kapf’s mouth again. The healing light resumed, and Kapf groaned in agony.

When the healing was complete, unable to contain himself, Kapf slapped Saph across the face. She collapsed to the ground once more.

“You wretched woman, it hurts like hell! I told you to make it painless!”

Kapf fiddled with his lips, then nodded belatedly.

“But it really is healed? This could be useful.”

The watching bandits murmured in astonishment.

One cautiously raised his hand.

“I was injured earlier; may I receive healing too?”

“Me as well, I got hurt during a mission.”

“Me too!”

“Me too!”

As they all stepped forward, Kapf waved them off.

“Silence!”

He knelt beside Saph, who was clutching her cheek and sitting on the ground.

“Look at her, isn’t she beautiful?”

He forcibly lifted her face by the chin.

“Ah, and she has blue hair?”

The man who had spoken for Kapf earlier approached, touching the blue hair that had spilled from under her hat.

“It’s true. I didn’t notice because of the dust.”

Kapf asked, “Which convent are you from?”

“Athena Convent,” Saph answered with difficulty.

“Where is that?”

“In Rome…”

Before she could finish, Kapf shook his head.

“Never mind. What does it matter? With such fascinating magic and a pretty face, you’ll be useful in many ways.”

He gripped her throat, lifting her up.

Saph whimpered, forced to stand.

‘I shouldn’t have healed him. The beggars in Rome were kinder.’

She dreaded to imagine what horrors awaited her.

“Is there a prayer room nearby? I’ll be back shortly, keep watch.”

Kapf dragged her by the neck as he spoke.

The man who had first captured Saph grumbled.

“See, I knew it would come to this.” As Kapf walked, he began to strip Saph’s clothes.

She wrapped her arms around herself in a futile attempt to resist, but the sand-worn, poor-quality fabric tore easily under his strong grip. He then removed her hat, which had been securely tied to prevent it from being blown away by the wind. As the string snapped, Saph staggered backward.

Kapf stepped back in shock upon seeing her bare head.

“What is this?”

The men, unaware of why their leader was startled, began to react one by one.

“She has horns?”

“Horns?”

“It’s a demon! I knew it!”

They stepped back in fear.

Kapf waved the hood.

“Are you a follower of Yol? Then, our earlier actions were a mistake.”

Saph sat, cradling her head, looking at the startled men.

‘Who is Yol? But maybe I can use this to defuse the situation?’

She couldn’t say, ‘I’m not a follower of Yol.’ She also lacked the skill to lie. So she remained silent.

Kapf and the bandits watched her, waiting for her reaction.

Just then, the cathedral doors burst open with a loud noise. A man entered through the half-broken door, shouting.

“Vice-captain Pendale has returned…!”

The man who had spoken lost his head in an instant, his head rolling across the cathedral floor, leaving a bloody trail behind. Another man walked in, stepping over the body without a word.

“Poe?” he called out, looking around the cathedral.

Kap narrowed his eyes and asked, “Poe, where have you been? What happened to your men?”

The man who entered through the door silently scanned the interior of the cathedral.

Kap, confused, shook his head and asked again, “Did you just… kill my man?”

Poe, stepping over the decapitated body, walked straight to the center of the cathedral and asked, “And who might you be?”

“You don’t recognize the face of your boss?”

“You’re the boss?”

Poe smirked and continued, “Then your body must be the strongest.” As soon as those words left his mouth, a horrific scene unfolded.

The man closest to him was beheaded, the next man was sliced in half at the waist, and another lost his head. In an instant, the cathedral was drenched in blood.

The only ones left alive were Kap, standing dumbfounded, and Sapph, who clutched torn garments at a distance.

Having finished the massacre, Poe suddenly vomited. But it wasn’t bile that he expelled; it was clots of blood, as if he were vomiting his own heart.

“This body has reached its limit,” Poe said, spitting out blood-stained saliva before noticing Sapph belatedly.

“Hmm, what’s this now?”

Sapph could only stare blankly, paralyzed with fear, unable to even breathe.

‘Could this be a dream?’ she wondered.

Kap was equally immobilized with shock.

“P-Poe, please, spare me. I’ll give you anything… money, anything. From now on, you can be the boss. It’s Poe’s gang, not Kap’s!”

“You fool, can’t you see the situation? I am not Poe.”

Kap, desperate, asked, “Then who, who are you?”

“I am the god of this desert. Pray to me, praise me.”

The ‘being that was not human’ in Poe’s body declared.

Kap prostrated himself on the ground, pleading, “I beg you, spare my life.”

“You’re praying wrong. That’s not how you pray to me.”

Poe taunted him.

Kap, trembling, asked, “Then how should I pray?”

“First, stand up.”

Kap staggered to his feet. Watching his clumsy movements, Poe pointed at Sapph with a nod.

“What’s with this woman? She doesn’t belong in this desert.”

“I-I don’t know. She claims to be a nun, but I’m not sure of her true identity.”

“A nun?”

Poe looked at her with a gaze unlike the lustful stares of the thieves.

‘I know what that look means. He’s hungry. He’s going to eat me, and not in a metaphorical sense.’

Poe commanded, “You’re too slow. Now, open your mouth.”

Kap did as he was told.

“Good. That will make it easier for me to take your body.”

Black smoke poured from Poe’s mouth into Kap’s. As the smoke left, Poe’s body shriveled up as if it had been dried in the desert sun for decades.

Sapph witnessed a demon transferring from one body to another for the first time. But an even more astonishing sight caught her eye.

‘What is that? A name?’

As Poe expelled the black smoke, Sapph saw his name. And the name that had resided in Poe’s body transferred to Kap! It was neither Kap nor Poe.

‘That’s… the demon’s true name.’

Sapph realized instinctively.

Kap, momentarily unsteady, soon stood upright, the name vanishing from his body.

He spat out a mouthful of blood and said, “I had high hopes for the boss’s body, but it won’t last long either.”

Kap turned his gaze to Sapph. The ‘hungry look of Poe’ had now become ‘the hungry look of Kap.’

“The best body to possess is always a clergyman’s. From my experience, a body full of faith endures the longest, not one that’s physically strong.”

Kap approached Sapph quickly.

“What a waste. I thought I’d feast on fresh meat, but for now, I’ll have to use that meat to sustain my body.”

Sapph could only clutch her garments tighter to her chest.

‘I wasn’t lucky to find this village. It would have been better to get lost and die in the desert. Oh God, have mercy on me and end my life now.’