READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 177
EP.177 Rampage (2)
Oh no.
There was no need for deep thought.
Even a three-year-old could easily tell how desperate my situation was.
”You’ve returned to normal! Priest! I’m so relieved!”
That powerful voice seemed like any other day, but only the tone remained intact.
With both hands on the floor, the Hero bowed his head mournfully, radiating a thick emotion of despair.
”It seems like your words and actions don’t match…”
Apiss, lost in her own thoughts, seemed to share the same sentiment.
Thud thud.
At that moment, something came pouring out from the Hero’s embrace, momentarily blurring my vision.
The identity of the numerous clothes spilling out was high-quality children’s wear.
From adorable pajamas shaped like animals to short sleeves that would freeze anyone to death this time of year, and shorts, overall pants, and even a rattle toy meant for infants.
I felt chills run down my spine.
I could easily guess why the Hero had purchased such items.
I was incredibly relieved that the body had returned to its original form.
As I felt the anxiety lift, fleeing from a potential horrible disaster that could have befallen me, I started to calm my racing heart.
”Hey, Hero. Are you okay…?”
After sobbing for a while with his head hung low, the Hero showed signs of bursting into tears, prompting Apiss to worryingly ask.
”I’m alright, I’m okay, Apiss. The little Priest’s disappearance means the big Priest is still here. How could there be two suns in this world? Where there’s a meeting, there must be a parting! As a Hero! I will accept this farewell and bravely move forward!”
”Is that so…”
”But! I won’t say goodbye! The little Priest will now be created together by me and the big Priest! I will never give up on the adorable form of the little Priest! Or the mature form of the big Priest!”
”Uh, sure… Hang in there…”
Something felt off.
From appearances, it seemed like a noble spectacle of a Hero overcoming despair and declaring hope against severe hardship.
Yet, my eyes were deeply consumed by despair as I watched the series of events unfold.
This is bad.
If I keep sitting here doing nothing, I might really become the kid’s father.
”Then I’ll go wash off this sweat for a bit! Apiss! Priest!”
”U-uhm… Okay…”
”G-go ahead, Hero…”
Bam!
With that, the Hero left the room.
It was rare for her to not come close to me at all.
Seeing her rush to wash off the sweat, it seemed she had truly sprinted all the way from the neighboring city.
If she wanted to ease up to touch me, she could’ve just done some muscle training right there in place.
Was it simple-mindedness, or honesty?
Every time I saw the Hero’s excessively upright nature, it puzzled me.
But it was that virtue that saved me.
”Looks like we weren’t caught…”
”I don’t know. It seems she didn’t notice right now, but it won’t last long…”
In the suddenly calm room after the Hero left, Apiss and I briefly discussed.
The Hero’s early departure was definitely an unexpected turn of events, but thankfully the minimum necessary precautions had already been taken.
The scent of the incident in the room and on us had been deodorized to the maximum of Apiss’s magical abilities.
And in case the Hero realized the situation and tried to harm the Sister, I had hastily put the Saintess in the Sister’s room as a guard.
We barely managed to pull it off.
It was the first time I realized how sprightly my body could move.
”For now, let’s keep the Sister’s room as inaccessible as possible. And I’ll refrain from getting too close to the Hero for a while…”
”I don’t think that’ll work…”
Apiss frowned momentarily, seeming quite displeased with my desperate plan.
Yet I knew better than anyone how slim my chances were.
Devising such clumsy tricks against someone like the Hero was like looking for a needle in a desert.
That’s why I had already prepared to sacrifice myself if everything fell apart.
While it was an act for my own protection, it was also for the Hero’s safety.
No matter how calm she had been lately, I couldn’t predict how the Saintess, who was just as obsessed as the Hero, would react if she found out I had been with the Hero.
So right now, there was nothing else I could do but cling to the faint hope right in front of me.
”Maybe I should wash again just in case. Or, since it’s come to this, I might as well roll around in a dung hill and come back…!”
”Hey! No, that’s a bit much, don’t you think?”
”Yes! You really don’t need to do that!”
”─!?”
It was just then.
A voice as clear as a bell echoed sharply through my drowsiness.
That vibrant tone seemed to resonate directly into my consciousness, stopping my steadily beating heart for a few seconds.
”H-Hero…?”
”H-Hero…?”
Apiss and I both turned to follow the voice.
And there stood the Hero, smiling cheerfully between us, with an arm around each of our shoulders.
When did this happen? How? Why?
The bubble-like doubts that flashed through my mind were mercilessly burst by a wave of rising fear.
Smile.
Her expression, though clear and innocent as always, only heightened the anxiety of the situation.
Hiss. Haah.
In the immediate silence, I could only sense the unfathomable malice distilling in her ominous breaths.
”So it is true. The Sister has broken her promise with me.”
I barely had time to comprehend the absurdity of the Hero’s behavior as she pieced together the events solely from the scent in the air.
It was painfully clear what emotions the Hero would unleash once she realized that the Sister and I had been entangled the previous night.
‘I’m going to kill you.’
As her intentions seeped into my awareness, not as thoughts but as instincts like sticky ink.
”Wait! Hero! It was an accident! Yes, it was an accident!”
”Hero! Calm down! If you cause trouble here, it won’t just end with one or two deaths!”
With every breath the Hero took, the atmosphere trembled as if frightened.
That was an unspoken signal that her rage was reaching a breaking point.
Apiss and I desperately held on to her, with me taking the upper half and Apiss the lower.
Perhaps in any other situation it would have been manageable.
But the Hero was utterly drained of energy at this point.
It was reckless to think we could take such a gamble.
But we wouldn’t realize how absurd we had been until it was too late.
Creak. Crack.
Around us, furniture began to splinter under the Hero’s overwhelming power.
Once the flickers of consciousness in the Hero’s eyes completely extinguished, a new form of danger flooded in.
Boom!
”Cough!”
With a thunderous Pangongseong, Apiss was thrown against the wall.
Immediately, I tried to stop the advancing Hero, who was now moving like a command-input robot, but of course, it was futile.
”Hero─!”
My desperate cry to lift her drowned reason fell flat against the layers of fury consuming her consciousness.
Click!
Just then.
The Hero’s hand, flailing in the air, violently grasped the Holy Sword resting on the desk.
The worst situation just topped another worst one.
In the hands of the Hero, stripped of reason and left with nothing but the instinct to kill, the greatest weapon of humanity was now drawn.
”Gah! Bawngwi!”
Chwa-reul-leug!
I called out to Bawngwi at the last moment and wrapped it around the Hero’s body, but I instinctively knew it would be another futile struggle given all my previous experiences.
Stop.
But in that moment, something unbelievable happened that I couldn’t trust with my own eyes.
The Hero’s advance, which seemed like it would never stop until her goal was achieved, suddenly halted.
”Hoo, hooho!”
That eerily light laughter, blending into the deadly silence, was definitely the Hero’s, yet somehow also not hers.
”Finally! The day of retribution for that day has finally come!”
Mixed in with the Hero’s booming voice was another mysterious presence.
Just a single sentence uttered revealed an arrogant attitude I had not thought of for a long time, suddenly resurfacing memories I had long forgotten.
”It’s been a while! Ha Gye In!”
Something that had once tried to devour the Hero during the dungeon incident. No, someone was calling out to me through the Hero’s mouth with a casual greeting from our reunion.