Arc 3 Chapter 8 : Mansion

[Raul PoV]

Several days passed. After our first patrol, we were only assigned to patrol the roads connecting Cataluna Fortress City with the smaller towns, leaving me unable to investigate or search for these demons.

On the day of the raid, eight of my members were borrowed by the military to help carry out an assault on the monster nest.

When I volunteered to join that operation, they refused, since they needed me to lead the rest of my group on patrol duty instead.

Fortunately, none of my members who joined that raid were killed. Still, it seemed Ariel had come away somewhat traumatized, having witnessed so many soldiers die during that raid.

After the raid's success, the good news was that monster activity across the Margraviate of Cataluna had decreased. But the number of missing villagers kept climbing.

I had no idea when the demons would launch their major operation, but there'd been no follow-up action from this region's authorities regarding the missing villagers.

Having no power or influence was truly frustrating. All you could do was sit there, unable to do anything to change things.

It seemed the demons had already established some kind of base to serve as their operational headquarters.

Even though my strength had grown considerably since before, it still wasn't realistic for me to infiltrate their base alone and wipe out every demon inside.

I wasn't a protagonist...

If I were a protagonist, I could easily talk Emilia into anything with the kind of "talk no jutsu" protagonists usually possess.

Honestly, I still had one favor owed to me by Marquis Fran, after defeating Emilia in the tournament. But I wanted to save that for when actual war broke out.

This morning, I watched the members training on the field near the barracks. Scarlett kept trying to coat her body with fire magic.

So far, it seemed she still hadn't managed to awaken her Codex.

"How's your progress coming along, Scarlett?" I asked her.

"No change at all," she answered curtly.

She fell silent for a moment, as though wanting to say something to me.

"Captain, how can I become stronger?" the red-haired woman asked me. "Honestly, I feel like I've hit a dead end right now."

"Try to stay calm when you're cornered in a fight," I answered her.

Scarlett looked confused hearing that. Still, that was the only hint I could give her regarding her Codex.

"Captain!"

I heard someone calling out from behind.

Turning around, I saw Piers running toward me, holding a sheet of paper.

"What is it?" I asked him.

"We finally got an assignment to patrol a village!"

Finally, the moment had arrived. I hoped this assignment wouldn't last just a single day.

Taking the paper from Piers's hand, I read through its contents.

It stated that our group would be assigned to help maintain security in Graniola Village for five days. It also stated I had the authority to conduct independent operations if necessary. But...

"I need to get authorization from the Vice Captain of the Patrol Unit, Emilia de Cataluna..."

Ughhh... would she be joining this mission too?

"That's right, I'll be heading there myself with 20 patrol soldiers as additional support."

I suddenly heard a familiar voice approaching.

Lifting my head, I saw a brown-haired woman carrying a spear walking toward me.

"Senior Emilia?" I greeted her.

"Hurry and get all your members ready. We're departing in ten minutes," she ordered.

After receiving her instructions, I gathered my other 15 members.

Our group and the unit led by Emilia then headed toward the northern gate to travel to Graniola Village.

"Senior, how are things in that village? Any more reports of missing villagers?" I asked her.

"You were right about this, Raul," Emilia answered, her expression grim. "Now, even one patrol team stationed there has gone missing during a night patrol. We'll find out the details once we arrive."

After a two-hour journey, we finally arrived at Graniola Village in the evening.

The village's atmosphere felt gloomy and eerily quiet. It seemed the residents were too afraid to let their families walk outside the village.

After speaking with the village head about deploying my members and Emilia's unit, we immediately discussed the topic of the missing villagers.

"Village Head, what's the current condition of this village?" Emilia asked.

"You can see it for yourself — the villagers are too afraid to leave their homes once evening sets in," the middle-aged man answered. "Over the past ten days, about 20 villagers have gone missing, likely killed by whatever's out there."

Combined with the total number of missing villagers across other villages in this region, the death toll had already reached 100 people. This couldn't be allowed to continue.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Village Head, is there a cave, a forest, or some large abandoned building nearby?" I asked him.

"No forest, and as far as I know, no caves at all around this village," he answered clearly. "But there's a large mansion about 10 kilometers west of the village."

"Does that mansion still have any occupants?" I asked further.

"I don't know. That mansion belongs to a wealthy merchant from the Duchy of Grenaut," the village head answered. "They only visit occasionally, for vacations, to get away from the noise of the city. But since this security crisis began, we haven't dared go check on the mansion's condition."

Hearing the village head's explanation, I glanced over at Emilia. Her expression seemed to say, "What do you want?"

I signaled to her that we should discuss this privately.

She sighed and turned back to the village head. "Thank you for the information. We'll try our best to secure this village."

"No need to thank me — I should be the one thanking you, for coming all this way from the capital to help us," the village head replied humbly.

The two of us then left the village head's residence.

Emilia gave me a sharp look.

"What exactly do you want, rushing our meeting with the village head like that? You'd better have a good reason," Emilia said coldly.

"I want to borrow your entire unit to investigate that mansion he mentioned," I told her.

"Why should I agree to that?" Emilia asked back.

"Because relying on my group alone, there's no way we'd survive if we ran into three or more demons," I answered her directly.

Hearing my words, Emilia rubbed her temple as if suffering a headache.

"You're still going on about demons..." she murmured, sounding resigned.

Still, I kept my gaze fixed on her, serious. This was our chance to find a trace of these demons. If I let this opportunity slip, the number of victims across the Cataluna region would only keep rising, pointlessly.

"Hahhh... fine, but I'll be coming with you there too."

"Ughhh... you won't be disrupting my chain of command or anything there, will you?" I asked her, wanting to confirm.

"Depends. If what you're doing turns out unreasonable, I'll have no choice but to intervene, since I'm the one responsible for your group."

Even though this would complicate my plans somewhat, I needed to compromise for the sake of the Cataluna region's security right now.

"Understood."

[Ariel PoV]

What were we doing out here, in the darkness of night, so far from the village?

Right now, I and ten other members were walking toward a large mansion, alongside Senior Emilia's group of 20. Raul said we were only going to inspect the building.

Still, I noticed his expression looked somewhat hesitant when he said that.

Would we be fighting monsters there? Thinking about it brought back memories of the horror from the monster nest raid a few days ago.

Even with an entire battalion of 500 soldiers, 10 mages, and 10 priests, 48 people had still died. I'd even suffered Mana Exhaustion from constantly healing wounded soldiers.

Blood splattered everywhere, and the terrified screams of soldiers facing death had left a deep trauma in me even now.

I hoped this time wouldn't turn into another horrifying battle like before.

After walking for two hours, we finally arrived at a large, dark mansion. From the outside, it seemed no one occupied this building.

"Tazz, Piers, and Vista! Break down this gate," Raul ordered.

The three of them nodded and began kicking and slamming into the eight-meter-tall gate with all their strength. Crows scattered into the sky, startled by the loud noise.

Once they broke through the gate, thirty of us began entering the mansion's outer grounds.

—Kruk... kruk... kruk... (x2)

The sound of an owl echoed, making this place feel even more eerie.

Opening the mansion's front door, we stepped into the dark interior, our lantern serving as our only light source.

Two staircases appeared, seemingly leading to two different sections of the building.

"With a building this large, it'd be faster if we split up to sweep each section," Senior Emilia suggested.

Raul thought for a moment before nodding, accepting the suggestion.

We and Senior Emilia's group parted ways. Raul then turned to face us.

"Stay alert and watch your surroundings. If you notice anything unusual or strange, report to me immediately, understood?" Raul warned everyone.

We all nodded in response to his words.

"Alright then, we'll form up as usual. But this time, Scarlett will replace Tianna's position on the left flank," he continued.

We resumed sweeping through the building.

Honestly, given its sheer size, the building we'd entered felt more like a castle than a mansion.

We entered a fairly large room. After illuminating the surrounding area with my lantern, I saw books lined up on a massive bookshelf.

Hmm... this seemed to be a library.

I picked up a book from the shelf, and inside I found writing in red that I couldn't understand.

Was this a rune? But it looked slightly different.

I put the book back where it belonged and continued examining the room.

"...!"

Ughhh... I was so startled I nearly fell over, seeing that repulsive object.

As I brought my lantern closer to another section of the shelf, I found a glass jar containing a decomposing human head.

"What is it, Ariel?" Viera asked, steadying my body.

I simply pointed at the jar containing the head in response to the archer's question.

Viera then took it and called Raul over to examine the human head.

"We need to bring this to the village for identification," Raul said, placing the jar with the head into a bag. "It might be one of the victims from Graniola Village."

"C-could this be a gathering place for the Devil Cult?" I couldn't help but ask.

The Devil Cult was rumored to frequently conduct forbidden experiments involving human bodies. That was one reason they were so heavily hunted, aside from worshipping demons.

"Most likely. We should look for other clues, evidence we can bring back to headquarters," Raul answered casually. "Let's continue sweeping the rest of the building."

Once we finished checking the library, we left to move on to another area.

We arrived in a fairly long corridor, which seemed to connect the front section of the building to the middle section.

But just as we were about to exit this corridor, I felt something drip onto my hair.

A red liquid kept dripping onto the robe I wore. Looking up, I saw something crawling along the corridor's ceiling.

My heart pounded faster and faster. I held my breath, seeing something truly the most horrifying thing I'd ever witnessed in my life.

The creature then fell to the floor. Fortunately, I managed to dodge in time, avoiding being crushed by it.

"Uno mas..."

"Melorine...?"

"Hakuna matata...?"

All three of them murmured something I couldn't understand.

This creature... consisted of three humans, a tube inserted into the mouth of the first person and exiting through their rectum. That tube continued into the mouth of the second person, and so on into the third.

This sight reminded me of a certain kind of animal.

"Human Centipede..."

I heard someone murmur those words.

Raul then stepped forward toward the creature and drew his sword. His expression looked serious, as though he'd steeled his resolve for something.

"You can all rest peacefully after this," Raul said, then beheaded each of them, killing them instantly. "Forgive me..."

Was this one of the heretics' experiments? Why would they do something this cruel to their fellow human beings? What satisfaction could they possibly gain from doing this?

My emotions surged as I thought about it.

I never imagined something this cruel was allowed to happen out there.

"Let's continue on, and bring these heads with us when we leave later," Raul said, sheathing his sword again.

Before walking on, I knelt to pray for their souls, that they might find peace beside the Goddess in the next world.

Leaving the corridor, we entered an extremely spacious room — it seemed to be a hall meant for large gatherings, like a dance ball.

The interior here looked incredibly luxurious, even surpassing my own family's, despite being nobility at the rank of Count.

Large windows surrounded this hall, letting the moonlight outside faintly illuminate the space.

"Ahhh... a girl who follows Goddess Diana..."

I heard a woman's voice say that.

Glancing upward, there was a domed skylight showing a beautiful full moon from inside. But my body trembled as I saw a pale-skinned woman standing atop that window, smiling at me with her blood-drenched mouth.

"You'd make a fine sacrifice for the upcoming summoning ritual, kikiki..."

The woman laughed as she spread her wide wings, generating a powerful gust of wind strong enough to shatter the glass of the domed window.

Cold sweat began pouring down my entire body.

"Th-that's a Vampire!"