My life after returning to Darryl town had basically been revolving around making trips between the guild and the inn.
Waking up at the inn, going shopping with Selene, looking for a residence and jobs in the guild, and once again returning back to the inn.
Amidst such a robotic and monotonous life that continued for one week, I suddenly felt someone peeping at us from afar.
"«Sense Enemy»...... No result, huh? They sure are thoroughly prepared."
I used the detection magic that I had read in church’s magic books to search for malice or hostility.
Like undulating waves, my magical power spread out in a vast area, searching for such evil signs. However, it seemed that the opponent was aware of the detection magic, as they had also taken countermeasures against it.
There was no doubt that the opponent had come aiming for Selene judging from how prepared they were.
"The opponent possesses the same type of magical power as that disgusting curse."
"What do we do, Miss Witch?"
“I’m pretty sure if we escape downtown out of panic without any plan, they’ll come hunting us down.”
As such, staying in populated areas like our current schedule was the best course of action right now; even assassins would find it hard to lay hands on us right under the townsfolks’ nose.
"Aaー bu, buu~"
"Fufu, I wonder what has humored you, little one?" I said as I stopped in my tracks and suddenly hugged Selene, teasing her while gently rocking her.
We were in the crowded main street with lots of people passing by and many stalls opened.
"Miss Witch~ the grill skewers on this stall looks delicious."
"We just ate our breakfast though..... Fine, you can buy them."
"Tally-ho!"
Tet left me and went to buy skewers from the stall.
But just as I stopped on the edge of the street to wait for Tet to finish with her purchase, I suddenly felt a surge in the magical power that resembled that curse.
"Wha- don't tell me...... "
I was flabbergasted to think they would dare to act in broad daylight. With unprecedented vigilance, I hurriedly looked around my surroundings.
In such a crowded place, there was no doubt that the aftermath would leave many injured, or even dead.
"一一Go to hell!"
Assassins jumped out from the crowd and roof, and they immediately rained down magic and black magic attacks.
I erected 2 defensive barriers. One to keep myself and Selene from harm, and the other to stop the aftereffect of the magic as well as to suppress it.
"Guh!"
The sudden instantaneous use of barrier magic I wasn't familiar with made a groan escape my lips.
Panic ensued when the sudden light and sound caused by the conflict between the violent magic and the barrier spread in the main street.
"This一"
The bright light produced by the magic and the crowd of people trying to save their own hide by escaping to the surrounding areas made me lose sight of the assassins.
"Miss Witch!"
"Be careful, Tet! We were just attacked!"
As I shouted that, a throwing knife came clashing at the defensive barrier guarding me and Selene. I quickly turned to look at the direction it came from, but I once again lost sight of them amidst the crowd of panicking people.
"I can't even counterattack, else the general populace would be in it."
"Miss Witch! Are you hurt!?"
"I'm fi一 Wha, your clothes, Tet!"
"They're just slashed. I’m all-righto, I have beat them down soundly!"
It seemed that the assassin even targeted Tet, but only for tables to turn on them instead.
Tet held the Assassin’s dagger in her hand, while the defeated assassins sprawled down on the ground for losing in their own forte.
"Get ready Tet, we're going to make our escape."
"Right-ho!"
I hugged Selene with my right arm and grabbed Tet's hand with my left. Then, I invoked flight magic.
We soared into the sky while cladded in a defensive barrier. We then flew toward the northern direction of the town where the «Empty Wilderness» - the place that I was reincarnated to - was.
The assassins immediately strengthened their onslaught in panic when they saw us flying. However, this was also a double-edge sword to them since they had basically just ratted out their location to us very clearly.
"一一«Earth Bind»."
A gigantic earthen hand appeared, breaking through the stone paving of the town and restraining the assassins in its grasp.
Although this had caught all the conspicuous assassins, there was the possibility of their accomplices somewhere so I immediately made a beeline out of town with flight magic and landed inside the forest.
"Ugyaaa, ogyaaaa!"
"There there, I'm sorry, Selene. That must be scary, right? Look, there are no scary people anymore. It’s all okay now."
I turned back to take a glance at Derryl town while soothing Selene, who had begun crying from perceiving the strange atmosphere as well as the flash and sounds from the magic attacks.
"To think those assassins would dare to attack without any care for the general populace...... we can't live in the town this way. We can't even secure a normal life..."
"Cheer-up, Miss Witch! Here, would you like to eat the skewers?"
Tet tried to comfort me a bit. However, she instead became dejected herself when she noticed that she was too busy fighting the assassins and thus, couldn’t buy any skewers.
"Tet, let's aim for «Empty Wilderness» and settle down there for the time being."
We advanced towards the northern direction of the forest with Selene in my embrace.
Three days after we began our journey, we spotted the remnants of the dungeon that I and Tet had cleared together. A day after that, we finally arrived at the wilderness 一一«Empty Wilderness».
"I never knew «Empty Wilderness» was here all along but...... "
If anyone tried to focus their magical power on their eyes using ‹Body Strengthening› magic, they could see a dome-shaped inviolable barrier near the boundary of the forest.
There was no influx of people, monsters, animals or even magic power on the outer area of the barrier hiding «Wilderness of Nihility».
There was just a bit of greenery with the seeds of fine flora and fauna spreading on the outer region’s plains.
Nonetheless, it still didn't change the fact that this dry region was a wilderness where nothing but the weeds infamous for their tenacity could grow. As usual, not a single tree in sight.
I looked around the surroundings and found out that the only things that could move freely between the inner and outer region of «Empty Wilderness» were either the famous puny monsters - slimes - or harmless animals.
"I heard that no one but a reincarnated person can enter...... "
I was able to pass through the erected barrier together with Tet and Selene. And when I did, I felt that the atmosphere had changed since the last time I was here.
"Rather than saying that the air is suffocatingly thin, it's the magical power that's thin here."
I hadn't felt it when I was reincarnated here because I was using magic subconsciously that time, but the barrier's inside was just as Goddess Liliel had said; the magic power was thin, no, I felt like it wasn’t wrong to say that there was almost no magical power at all.
I didn't understand it very well at the beginning with my measly magical power but now, I could, seeing as the surplus magical power emitting from my body was vanishing in the air at a fast rate.
"How are you feeling, Tet?"
"Hmm? It's a bit hard to recover my magical power but Tet has this!"
I smiled bitterly at Tet, who took out a magic stone after saying that and tossed it into her mouth.
"I see, Tet has such means for recovery. But you see一一"
"Aaa, uuu... "
It seemed the glittering shards of magic stones had caught the attention of Selene as she was stretching out her hands towards them.
"You're banned from taking it out in front of Selene, okay? It would be a disaster if she found one and accidentally swallowed it."
"I-I understand! I won’t show them to Selene!"
After that short exchange, we advanced to the «Empty Wilderness» that had nothing but thin magical power.
The deeper region was even worse since I couldn't feel a single hint of mana or any kind of vegetation. This contrasted with the outer region, which at least had thin mana and weeds growing out.
Even so, this was our sole safe-haven where assassins couldn't enter.
For now, my plan was to settle down and raise Selene here.
Side: Lord of the Darryl town • Margrave Reebell
I was shocked when I received the report and that dead body from my guards.
"This person is Lord Gaston! And they… aren't they the Escort knights of the royal palace?"
The slashed and torn clothes looked like commoners’, but their appearance was similar to the knights I had met in the royal capital before.
But that wasn't all. There were also people that seemed to be attendants and maids lying dead in a similar fashion. And when my gaze rested on the last person, I was left speechless.
"Elise-sama...... "
It was the beautiful face of a dead person. There was no mistaking it, she was the saint of the Church - Elise-sama - who had become the mistress of the Prince of Iscar Kingdom.
Saintess, it was the status conferred to the female magicians specialized in healing magic in the Church that worshiped the five great gods.
Even among them, Elise-sama, who wandered from one place to another throughout the Kingdom, healed the populace there, and offered her prayers, had made a name for herself as the Head Saint at a young age.
I remembered how such a sublime and beautiful Elise-sama visited the Adventurers, Knights, and soldiers fighting against the monsters at the frontier and healed their wounds.
The romance between the noble Elise-sama and the Prince began when the Prince fell in love on the spot at the appearance of Elise-sama, who had been dispatched by the church as the military healer for logistic support during the monster subjugation that was Prince's first battle.
Even after she had married the Princes as his mistress, she continued doing voluntary services like visiting the orphanage around the royal capital.
This was off topic, but there had been a time when people valued the ideology that Saints and clergymen would only be a truly sacred entity if they kept themselves away from worldly desires.
At that time, such an Oracle was passed by the goddess 一一 「Saints and Clergymen alike are the human beings too, it is thus natural for them conceive a child and raise them. While excessive desires do destroy one, it goes against the Goddess's creed to suppress them.」
Goddess Liliel, one of the five gods worshiped by the Church, was the goddess with the most motherly disposition out of the other gods.
In other words, she was the goddess that protected a person's right.
It was written in the documents that the Church at that time had decided to ignore the Oracle passed down by the goddess. And eventually, divine punishment was given by Goddess Liliel.
Henceforth, the Saints and clergymen could too indulge in worldly desires in moderation and were able to marry.
Well, enough reminiscing.
I considered the possibility that the person might just happened to resemble Elise-sama, but a certain dagger - the proof of the royal family - and a mithril cross - the symbol connected to Church - was also found beside her.
In addition, there was also a written letter.
It seemed to be a letter addressed to Illzet Church by the King.
It said that believers of Evil Cult had snuck into the royal palace with the aim of sacrificing Elise-sama to summon a high-ranking demon.
The believers of Evil Cult, even the low-ranking ones, apparently possessed the same level of strength as the knights by using some external methods to let demons possess their bodies.
The letter was basically asking the tightly guarded Church to give Elise-sama refuge for a while since it wasn't possible to lay a magic that neutralized that external method in the royal palace, making it unsafe for Elise-sama.
"What in the name of Goddess...... "
The king has written in the letter that not only Elise-sama, but Seleneril-sama - the child of the Saint and the Prince - also had a high chance of being targeted. Thus, they hoped that the church, which had strict countermeasures against the demons, could look after them.
I assumed that their plan was to let Elise-sama and Seleneril-sama spend their time in the church until they were done with sweeping the Evil Cult members from the royal palace and then call them back once everything was over.
However, they were attacked by the Evil Cult when they were on the way to the Church.
All the assassins that had attacked them were also carrying the symbol of Evil Cult and the tools and medicine necessary to strengthen themselves through external means.
"Ah, there's no time to waste. I have to quickly protect Seleneril-sama, the child of the Prince and the Saint...... "
I’d received the information that a baby called Selene was being looked after by an Adventurer. I had to quickly protect her and send her to Church in place of Elise-sama and the escort knights.
But before I could make any move, new information made its way to my desk.
It was about Evil Cult members causing a ruckus in the middle of the town, and the female Adventurer duo that were taking care of the baby leaving the town with flying magic after restraining the Evil Cult members with magic.
The town was sealed off and all the hidden members of the evil cult were captured.
Although they were fiends who had made a contract with the demons, they were merely lodging the mana similar to a curse inside themselves to increase their strength.
As soon as the ins and outs were known, the soldiers and knights were immediately equipped with purification magic and holy water to neutralize them.
The silver lining of this incident was that all the devil worshippers lurking in the town had been caught. And while there were injured people, no one died.
However, the whereabouts of Seleneril-sama had remained unknown ever since.
