Evening.
The Saint of Peace had a short meeting with the Death diocese’s leader in Stero – priest Towlser.
After that, a merry party was thrown by the town people, largely contributed by the rich merchants from the South to welcome the priests of Peace. The southerner merchants were all Peace religious, some of them specifically made a business trip to Stero to see the prestigious Saint. The party provided free food and alcohol, so Eithne made sure she had the chance to try out everything at the event.
Eithne sneakily stood behind many people and put on her Death believer’s cloak. Twenty steps away from where she was standing, Raphael Ascian raised his glass in a toast to all participants.
“May peace be with you!”
He said, then drank the red wine.
The crowd cheered and chucked down the alcohol.
Raphael was then busy talking with the southerner merchants. In Eithne’s eyes, they were blatantly having a fan club meeting. She wasn’t anxious to meet Raphael right away because she planned to confront him at midnight. Meanwhile, Barty was murmuring in her ears like a hungry ghost:
“Bacon… Soup… Steak… Rum… Pie….”
“Just point it.”
“The furthest left dish please.”
Eithne’s head was attached to Barty’s body so swallowed food travelled from her throat to the Fox’s stomach, which then Barty could get a taste of food. They were hardly picky eaters, so Eithne and Barty had circled the food table several times to fill their stomach with meat and booze. The Fox’s appetite was not much different than an average person, soon, both of them were full.
“Phew!” / “Keee!”
When Eithne and Barty were satisfied, they went back to look for Raphael but he wasn’t in the party anymore. Asking a few people around, they knew the Saint had excused himself to rest after a long journey, and he had silently exited the party without disturbing the eating mass.
“Hm…”
Eithne observed the inn where the Saint was supposed to stay. There were two priests standing guard at the front door, and she could sense more priests inside the house. How was she going to secretly confront Raphael now?
It was a shame that both her and Barty were too focused in eating and forgot their mission. They were homeless, cold and hungry, so food and booze just temporarily wiped off their plan of what should have done earlier.
“I’m sure that Raphael isn’t in the inn.”
Barty said.
“How do you know?”
Eithne asked, picking up her wine cup to drink.
“There were ten priests in total, including the Saint, right? Each person has a different breathing rhythm. I only differentiate nine rhythms.” – Barty explained.
Eithne raised her eyebrows.
“Wow. You are superb. Way better than hunting dogs!”
“Thanks!... But hey--- How are you comparing the great me to lowly dogs? I’m the greatest canine ever.”
Barty complained, but Eithne’s one gulp of sweet rum had shut its mouth.
“Keeek… Rum is good.”
Eithne stopped watching the inn since Barty already told Raphael was not in there. The Fox’s ability was truly terrifying. Despite her senses’ major improvement after absorbing chaos, it was impossible for her to differentiate the unique breathing rhythms in this crowded area. Regretfully, Eithne couldn’t resist putting sarcasm in talking, so she had to quickly compensate Barty with something before they got mad – which was the sweet, tasty rum.
“Oi! Enough alcohol! You will be drunk!”
Barty barked.
“It’s your stomach, why am I drunk?”
“Your head is connected to my body, remember? Keek, are you already drunk to not recognize where you are now?”
“Oh.”
Eithne signed. As an ex-priestess, she didn’t have many chances to waste on alcohol in the past.
‘Anyway, let’s be focused.’ - She reminded herself.
Eithne quickly did a divination on Raphael’s location, but she only saw darkness – that meant no result.
“He likely has a good artifact for thwarting divination.” – Barty speculated.
Eithne nodded. As a Saint of the rich Peace temple, it wasn’t weird to have such a precious artifact like that with him. It explained why the comic’s villain was always hard to find.
“Let’s go around the town to see if there’s any unusual spot. I suspect Raphael is onto something here.”
She told Barty, then they left Stero town to go into the nearby pine forest. Not beyond their expectation, they discovered nothing. After two hours of wandering around, Barty the Fox suddenly asked:
“Are we going to sleep in the forest tonight?”
Eithne was a little embarrassed as she had failed to find accommodation for both of them. However, having been treated with kindness by local people, she couldn’t smack her conscience down to sneak illegally into somebody’s house. There wasn’t any terrible person for her to lash out at them. On a side note, staying in the forest felt more secure since she didn’t have to worry somebody might discover and attack her in her sleep.
“I think I can ask the Death priests for a place to stay tonight, or I’ll try to get a room in the hotel after the workers are all drunk.” - She said.
“It’s okay if we sleep outside. I can make us a fox den!”
Barty’s head flew and landed stably on top of Eithne’s head. Now she could do the head-balance trick that she had been wanting to do without any effort, but Eithne couldn’t see the excitement in the Fox’s eyes.
“It’s been so long since the last time I slept in my den. It will be reallyyy comfortable.”
“Really?”
“Trust me.”
Eithne doubted it would work, but they had been walking in the forest for quite some time and she felt it wouldn’t hurt to see what Barty could do. She looked around and spotted a potential area.
“How about that place? Looks obscure enough for me.”
It was a raised area like a mini hill and well covered by pine branches. Barty agreed and they came to check the place. Little did they know, luck shone upon Eithne like an abrupt popping champagne, and they were shocked to see a person had taken this spot before them.
“!!!”
That person froze at his spot the moment their gazes met, he was surprised to which his jaw slightly dropped. He was not in his best state, holding the distinct Stero branded wine bottle that Eithne had memorized clearly for its explosive taste. There were five emptied glass bottles rolling freely at his feet, one of them was accidentally kicked by him in astonishment upon the unexpected encounter.
Clang...
The bottles hit each other gently.
Awkward silence diffused between them.
The guy was still dressed in white Peace priest’s attire. His face blushed like a ripened tomato, perhaps both for being drunk and embarrassed. The unique white hair exposed his identity even if people couldn’t recognize his face.
The virtuous Saint of Peace had been caught red-handed for excessively drinking alone.
“…”
“…”
“…”
Eithne smirked.
“Barty, would you mind holding my head for a while?”
“Sure.”
She lifted up her head from the Fox’s body and replaced Barty’s head in.
Crack! Crack! Their neck crackled to fit the head in.
Barty the fox-headed man brought Eithne’s head closer to face Raphael - who was still sitting on the ground in daze.
“Remember me, dear Saint?”
She spoke shakily, bringing back the corrupted shaky voice she used to have.
Eithne knew for sure that the sight of a talking head was terrifying, especially in the middle of night, so she took it further by a full demonstration of heads switching operation. Not stopping there, she let the corrupt energy slit the cracks on her face to reveal the appalling eyes under her skin. Those eyes were then focused on Raphael, doing their best to stare him directly in his eyes.
It was a full package of horror.
“You left me on the boat to die… Because of you, I became like this…”
Pressing each word with resentment like a tortured ghost, Eithne had gathered all of her theatrical talent to say this sentence. When she noticed Raphael’s shaking pupils, she knew her prank had succeeded in scaring him.
“You… you are supposed to be dead…” – He murmured.
Tears welled in his eyes as he gripped the neck of the wine bottle. It was as though the shimmering stars had descended into his gaze, those eyes were sparkling with a sad yet ethereal beauty.
His fearful reaction lit up Eithne’s smugness like a flaming sparkler. She got on full determination to act as a crazy ghost, yelling out loud in rage:
“I’m always in constant pain… I hate you and want you to DIE WITH ME!!”
When she was growling, the evil eyes in the cracks on her face moved in chaos to synchronize with her ‘immeasurable rage’. The crows in the forest were startled by her shout, just like paid actors, they cried awfully in the dark.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Craw! Craw! Waaaa! Craw! Craw! Craw! Waaaaa!
The situation couldn't have been more ominous with the eerie cries of the crows which resembled crying human infants.
Eithne saw Raphael shakily put down his bottle.
He looked weak and defenseless, just like a fish accepting his fate beneath the heavy knife of a chef, waiting for his head to be chopped off!
Eithne laughed evilly.
‘It’s my chance! Time to put out unreasonable demands while he’s drunk!’
This prank was clearly stupid and dirty, but as long as it worked, she wouldn’t mind the dishonor.
“Ha ha… If you wish for redemption. There are a few things that could help me to escape this pain…”
She paused for a moment to think. A few ideas quickly ran through her mind. Eithne was so occupied with her exciting thoughts that she didn’t notice Raphael clenched his right hand.
All of a sudden, a green light flashed.
Eithne/ Barty: ?
Crack!
The impact was large enough to be heard.
A burning, sharp pain came from the crown of her skull. Eithne felt her head separating into two halves.
Raphael had stood up with a cold look on his red face. An illusion of a long sword materialized from his right hand, mysteriously glowing like a train of green will o’ the wisps.
.
.
.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
Eithne screamed.
“Keeeeeeeeeekkkkk!!!”
Barty also screamed.
Her head was the only thing Eithne had left. She couldn’t afford to lose her head!
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god… AAAA!!”
“Keeeek!!! Keeeek! Calm down calm down! Oh Lord!!”
Barty clumsily handled Eithne’s head. They tried to keep two halves from detaching, but the dark corruption was already pouring out from her skull’s big crack. The corrupt energy condensed like mushy black threads, pulling several evil eyeballs to roll out from Eithne’s head along with the corruption. Unspeakably abominable things fell onto the ground and created a disgusting mess like a sloppy rotten cake, horribly squirming like a newborn creature.
Raphael’s pupils shook upon seeing the muddy mess. The sword illusion in his hand dispersed. He leaned weakly on the pine tree and hurled.
“Blargh!!”
The sour stench of vomit magnified the situation’s dismay.
“AAAA!!” – cried Eithne. “I can feel my brain falling out!”
Barty immediately barked.
“Stop shaking! Calm down! Let me seal your head before it’s too late!”
The Fox decided to take things in its hand. The dark domain listened to their call and enclosed Eithne’s head within the inky matter. She quickly accepted them to enter the bone structure of her skull to pull her head together. It wasn’t as painful as she thought, perhaps because Eithne had endured worse pains before. When her head felt stable again, she even thought that her head – excluding the amount of corruption lost on the ground – was much lighter than before.
“Thank… thank you…”
Eithne thanked Barty from her deepest gratitude. She was teary for the fear of death.
“Keek! Don’t move! You’re not actually healing, I’m just temporarily mending your skull.”
Barty the Fox grunted, holding her head in place until its shape was restored. The operation took a few minutes, before Eithne felt her head could function as normal again. She glared angrily at Raphael, enduring the slight pain in her crown.
“M***! You almost killed me!” – She cursed.
“Ek! Your head separates again, stop shaking!”
Eithne was about to spew more curses, but she stopped. Unexpectedly, the attacker seemed to be more devastated than the victim. Raphael knelt on the ground, his face was as pale as milk. He couldn’t stop vomiting next to the pine tree, to the point that he was crying when his stomach pushed out its last drop of acidic bile.
“Blergh!!!”
Raphael limply leaned on the tree, then sliding down to land on his butt to the ground.
“Tsk!”
Eithne clicked her tongue.
She had started this bullshit first, so she had to reap what she sowed.
Raphael’s reaction had been completely normal, even for a drunk person. Eithne would do the same if she met an ugly monster like her, but still, she held a bit of grudge since her head was chopped in halves like a watermelon being cut open.
“You should take the eyeballs back.” – Barty reminded her.
“What? Those eyes on the ground?”
Eithne didn’t want to. Those cranky things looked gross and dirty on the ground, but she eventually had to summon them back, because those eyes were big parts of her power. But the filthy corruption? Hell no!
“It’s trash.” – Thankfully, Barty also agreed to dump the mushy corruption.
“Will it disappear on its own?” – Eithne asked.
“Yes, after some time if it’s isolated from humans. I advise you to cover it up with dirt.”
“Okay.”
The black corruption had a pungent metallic smell, like rust and blood mixing together.
Barty switched Eithne’s head on their body, while their head went into hiding in the pocket subspace. They made it clear that they withdrew from cleaning the litter from Eithne’s head. Eithne sighed. She resisted the gross feeling and had to pick up the eyeballs herself from the muddy corruption. Woefully, receiving heavily injury in her head caused a disturbance in her control over some eyes, so she couldn’t remotely summon them back.
Eithne frowned hard as she listened to Barty’s whisper in her mind about the method of taking the eyes back in.
“Urgh… That’s the easiest way, you said so easily…” – She muttered.
Eithne caught the eyeball between her two fingers and shook the dirt off them.
Raphael stopped vomiting and had barely caught his breath. He turned back from his corner, just right at the time which he could fully witness Eithne threw an eyeball back into her mouth.
“!!?”
“Bleargh!!!”
His stomach instantly churned. He couldn’t hold in, puking next to the pine tree.
Eithne paused awkwardly. She approached Raphael from behind and asked:
“Are you… okay?”
After retching a few times, Raphael finally stopped. He sat on the ground, blankly looking up at Eithne. The man was so bedraggled – untidy clothes, disheveled hair, sweaty pale face, teary puffy eyes and running nose – as if he had gone through a traumatizing battle of life and death. Or perhaps he truly did - fighting with his stomach?
Raphael silently looked at her in a few seconds, before he weakly spoke:
“Can you please… bring me home?”
His voice was as weak as the last dried leaf on a dead tree’s branch.
“…”
Eithne’s eyelid twitched.
She didn’t reply in words, instead, she picked up his arm to pull him to stand up. However, Raphael was like a rag doll without bones to stand on his own.
“What should I do?”
She asked him, wearing a stiff smile on her face. The man gave her a blank look as answer.
‘No brain detected at the moment, it seems.’ - Eithne thought.
…
“Don’t you dare dirty my new cloak.”
Eithne grinded her teeth, talking to Raphael who was lying weakly on her back. She ran through the forest at Barty legs’ fastest speed, praying the drunkard wouldn’t puke on her clothes.
‘Why did you help him? Just call somebody to pick him up.’
Barty spoke in her mind.
‘I have a plan.’ – Eithne replied.
‘What if he attacks you again? Aren’t you too careless?’
Eithne glanced at her back. She heard the heavy air flow from Raphael’s breath. The dark domain wrapped around them like a thin veil. It was her sole protection against unwanted outcomes.
‘I’m keeping him in check. If he gathers mana, I’ll know.’
Barty yawned.
‘Kek… Before other people see you, use this trick to hide your face.’
A new knowledge was transferred to Eithne’s mind. It was a technique to control the dark domain to distort light over her face, so that her appearance was indiscernible under weak light condition. The trick would be extremely useful for her at this nighttime when people might use lanterns or candles to check her face.
Barty had understood what Eithne was trying to do.
‘Thank you.’
‘Keek… Good luck. I need to sleep now. See you later.’
‘Good night.’
The Fox’s voice sank into the stillness of Eithne’s mind. Barty had gone to sleep though it had just woken up a few hours ago. It seemed that whenever they used the dark domain, they spent an incredible amount of energy and were exhausted.
Eithne stealthily ran into Stero town. The party had almost ended. People were startled when she appeared, but they dropped their guard upon seeing her Death believer’s cloak. She pulled her hood down to cover her face as much as she could, and let Raphael down.
Several worried Peace priests came over to support the Saint. They were confused as to why the Saint left his room and returned in a drunk state.
“Thank you for your help.”
A priest lightly bowed to Eithne.
“No big deal. I just coincidentally found him outside.”
She smiled.
“Can I please know your name so that we can repay you back?”
The priest suddenly looked up directly at Eithne at the angle that her hood couldn’t hide her face. She smiled more brightly.
“My name is Otis.”
What a coincidence. They had met before. He was caught by Eithne in the royal palace prior to the bombing incident, and then rescued by Raphael. The guy must have suspected her.
The Peace priest flinched. This voice sounded somewhat familiar, but he couldn’t see the person’s face clearly. While the man was doubting his eyesight, Raphael went past him to approach ‘Otis’.
Eithne lightly clenched her fist to gather dark power in her hand. Raphael came too close. His expression was calm, yet ominous. His attack pattern was unpredictable, much like the critical slit he inflicted upon her head. Confronting Eithne, the man locked eyes with her. His gaze pierced through the illusion veiling her face as if undeterred by its façade.
Eithne lightly furrowed her eyebrows. Her coat pocket suddenly felt heavier as Raphael secretly dropped an item in.
“Come to this address tonight.” – He whispered.
After that, the Saint turned back and went inside the inn, leaving behind several subordinates cautiously observing Eithne.
She casually said goodbye to them and left.
.
..
…
-
Raphael collapsed on his bed. The bed was so comfortable that he had to question himself why he didn’t go all out with alcohol in his own room, but to go outside and seek more trouble.
Life was full of questionable choices.
There were a lot of incidents happening these days. The War temple accused the Saint of Peace for causing a War priestess’s death. The Empress was furious, so her subordinate – Raphael must endure a lot of hardships. Eventually, the Death temple stepped in and requested the help for subjugating the monsters, so the Peace temple decided to send their Saint by means of “Raphael’s volunteer” to the front battle to make amends for his mistake.
Raphael sighed deeply.
“Just endure it a few more months…”
He muttered to himself. The Peace temple’s authorities totally cowed themselves before Demir Noceur, so they insisted it was his fault to cause Eithne Noceur’s death. How irritating.
Raphael had been drinking alone to ease his stress, but to his dismay, he encountered a monster that could mimic Eithne Noceur’s face. People said treating such mimicking beasts as human until an escape could be secured. If Raphael wasn’t too drunk, he would kill it right at the spot. However, to think that he managed to fool the monster into carrying him home safely, that monster’s intelligence wasn’t too high.
“What a shame… Dumb but useful, I could have used it more…”
He quietly laughed in a drunken sense.
Raphael gave the monster a piece of paper that wrote the secret meeting location of foreign spies. He had just acquired this information a few days ago and planned to observe the spies’ activity, but he changed his mind.
“Isn’t it exciting… an unfortunate incident of monster attack on shady business…”
The man sighed contentedly, reaching his hand into his pants pocket. As per habit, he tried to empty the personal items he carried on his clothes before going to sleep.
Surprisingly, Raphael couldn’t find his wallet anywhere, instead, he pulled out a wrinkled piece of paper.
“Uh… Isn’t this the address paper…? If it’s here, then what did I give to that monster…?”
Where was his wallet?
Forget it, he was too tired to think now. He would think tomorrow.
Raphael happily lay on his bed, snuggling into the warm blanket.
-
In the middle of the pine wood, Eithne confusedly examined the object that Raphael gave her.
“What?”
There were nine gold coins in the wallet.
Was nine a lucky number?
_
END CHAPTER 18