Chapter 57: Chapter 57

Before the full-scale surgery began, Cheryn demanded cleanliness bordering on true mysophobia.

First, starting from the room where the surgery would take place, she had all the surrounding furniture and tools wiped down once with boiled water.

And when she went so far as to demand enough boiled water for everyone participating in the surgery, including herself, to bathe in, a woman timidly voiced a complaint.

“Um, it’s winter right now, so if we boil this much water, we’ll run out of firewood…”

The reason she brought up such a thing even with Shan standing right beside them was because the inventory of firewood was directly tied to their survival.

One could hardly freeze to death just because one did not want to be stabbed and killed by a sword.

The one who resolved this issue was Tata, the steward of the Weavers family.

He had the authority to use the family’s assets where necessary in Callion’s absence.

“Here you go. This should be enough, right?”

“Ah, of course! Ohhh…”

When given an amount of money that would leave plenty to spare even after buying a larger quantity of firewood from a nearby village, the villagers instead tried to sell firewood actively.

Even in such harsh times, there was bound to be at least one nearby village with leftover firewood.

After finishing all such preparations, the surgery finally began.

“You need to make an incision from here to here. Can you do it?”

“Of course.”

Having severely injured one arm, and not being particularly skilled with a blade anyway, Cheryn gave instructions, and Shan personally held the dagger according to her directions.

The sharply ground dagger lightly skimmed over the scalp, then smoothly entered as if digging into cheese.

As a result of his intent to cut through everything in his way distorting reality and supplementing his lacking strength to cut open the skull, which otherwise could not have been sliced.

“Good…”

Cheryn muttered from behind while watching this.

Originally, the process of incising the skull was not only difficult, but its durability also dealt a heavy shock to the body.

However, when a knight as skilled as him lent a hand, the work became far easier.

After creating a hole by cutting out a portion of the skull, Cheryn took matters into her own hands directly.

As she thrust her index finger deep into the inside of Callion’s head with a gloomy chant and pulled it out, a clump of clotted blood came along with it.

If someone had seen this from the outside, they probably would have considered it an evil spell that extracted a human’s brain.

“Ugh…”

The old priest behind them let out a discontented groan upon witnessing this scene.

However, it stopped right there; instead of rising from his seat, he gritted his teeth and remained seated, enduring it.

A moment later, Cheryn, having drained all the blood from the head, turned her head and spoke.

“Now!”

“O Goddess, here is a sick and pitiful soul.”

As he recited the prayer, a divine light welled up from the priest’s two hands and enveloped Callion’s head.

After repeating the process of extracting clotted blood from inside the head and treating it a few more times, Cheryn checked his condition with her clairvoyance magic and nodded.

“It’s finished. Now, let’s cover the skull back up for the last step and treat just that part.”

When all the treatment ended, Shan looked down at Callion, whose head was wrapped in bandages.

Although he had not regained consciousness yet, the old man’s face looked much more comfortable than before.

“It went well, right?”

“Yeah. He’ll probably wake up within a few hours at most. It was a success. That priest is more skilled than I thought.”

“Whew…”

Relieved, Shan expressed his gratitude by lightly tapping Cheryn’s shoulder, saying that thanks to her, he now had the nerve to face Roden.

Unlike the two of them, who were in a harmonious mood, the old priest was clutching his face and lamenting.

“I will fall into hell… To think I betrayed the Goddess and helped use the power of a devil…”

“Still, you saved a person. If she doesn’t even possess that level of tolerance, isn’t the name of the Goddess a bit too narrow-minded?”

At Shan’s murmur, the old priest glared at him, but soon let out a sigh as if his energy had drained away.

“May I return now?”

“Thank you for your hard work, Priest.”

Since he had helped anyway, Shan politely saw him off.

As if finding even that sight terrifying, the priest shook his head and left the room.

A moment later, when Shan stepped out of the surgery room and announced Callion’s recovery, everyone from the Weavers family rejoiced and cheered.

“Thank you so much, Young Master! Lady Ryn!”

“If something had gone wrong with the master…”

The people gathered here were all loyalists among loyalists who had not departed even while their master’s house fell into ruin.

To them, Callion’s recovery was truly akin to the sky collapsing and then sticking back together.

While they were rejoicing for a long time like that, a woman approached carefully and spoke.

“The village chief asked me to prepare a meal for the guests; would you like to eat?”

After hearing those words, a sudden hunger rushed in only then.

It was only natural, since the last time they had filled their bellies was the previous evening, and the sun had already risen high into the sky.

A moment later, a simple meal was brought out at the village hall.

From stew containing meat and vegetables to coarse bread and cheese, these were meals commonly eaten by commoners in Pendia.

Before everyone prayed to the Goddess and ate it, Cheryn raised her hand to stop them.

“I’ll try eating it first. Just in case they put something strange in it.”

“Pardon? No way…”

“Who knows how people whose lives were threatened might act?”

Indeed, hearing that, it was not wrong.

Since everyone had heard Shan threaten the priest using the villagers’ lives, someone might have harbored a grudge.

“But what if something goes wrong after Sister Ryn eats it first?”

“I have immunity to weak poisons. A poison strong enough to work on me couldn’t even be made in a village like this.”

Having said that, Cheryn first tasted a little of all the food, then nodded saying it was fine.

While everyone gobbled up the food to satisfy their hunger, Shan munched on bread and asked Cheryn.

“How do you build up immunity to poison?”

“By eating poison together with a special antidote. Are you interested by any chance?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll help you later if there’s an opportunity. Even if it doesn’t work against fatal, deadly poisons, it’s quite useful in minor ways.”

While she explained how to build immunity to poison, a groan was heard from the side.

It was a sound made by Callion, who had been moved to the hall after finishing the surgery, as he regained consciousness.

“Ugh…”

“Master!”

“The master has awakened!”

Whether the part where his skull had been incised hurt, Callion grimaced and turned his head.

Perhaps because he had been lying unconscious for several days, far from getting up, he could not even properly hold his neck straight.

“Master, have you come to your senses?”

“Where… is this…”

“It’s Wheat Bran Village. A small village located to the east of Hasra.”

“Why…?”

Whether because his brain was damaged from being struck on the head, Callion could not remember recent events well.

He could not even properly understand that Shan had departed on a campaign to subdue the ogre, but upon hearing the subsequent explanation, he was barely able to grasp the current situation.

“Is that so…”

“Yes. Thanks to the help of the young master here… Sir Shan and Lady Ryn, we barely managed to escape and receive treatment.”

“Lady Ryn, you say?”

Callion’s two eyes, widened in surprise, only then turned toward Cheryn, who was standing behind them.

“Princess!”

*

After her identity was revealed, a great commotion broke out in the village hall.

The servants of the Weavers family, who had treated her simply as a lady good at magic, bowed their heads as if they would dig into the ground to apologize for their rudeness.

“No, I said it’s fine. Everyone, don’t pay it any mind.”

Even after Cheryn said so several times, the awkward atmosphere around her did not easily fade.

Certainly, Shan or Roden were the unusual ones, and this side was the normal attitude for commoners receiving royalty.

Fortunately, because the villagers were not inside the hall, rumors did not spread.

If they had, they would have had to leave the village immediately.

Because if Conrad learned the fact that Cheryn was here, the possibility would arise that he might send an army even while bearing a certain degree of risk.

“Sigh, I’m tired… It was more comfortable when I was just Ryn the mage.”

After the situation calmed down to some extent, Cheryn stepped outside the village hall together with Shan.

It was because the servants felt burdened just by her being right next to them.

“They’ll get used to it as time passes.”

“I hope so.”

Cheryn nodded in agreement at Shan’s words.

For the servants of the Weavers family to get used to Cheryn meant that Shan accepted her proposal and would go together with her in the future.

“Come to think of it, about when do you think Roden will arrive? People are probably coming from the north around now too, so it would be troublesome if we miss each other.”

“If you attached spiders to him, can’t you see him?”

Cheryn shook her head at Shan’s question.

“It’s not such a convenient magic. There’s quite a limit to the connection distance. It doesn’t even reach the capital from here. Besides, I can only view one perspective at a time.”

He had thought of it as a transcendent ability to look into all of Pendia using countless spiders, but it seemed there were indeed some restrictions.

Indeed, had it not been so, she would not have been caught without being able to escape.

“Ah, come to think of it, I should have mentioned this… Could you keep the magic that controls spiders a secret from Roden as well?”

After Cheryn said that, as if guessing Shan would naturally refuse, she quickly added.

“This is truly a secret I haven’t told anyone. To Kagon, Aran, my maternal uncle, and even the Society Master. If possible, I want to keep it a secret between just the two of us.”

“You really didn’t tell anyone.”

“Because the moment it’s known that an ability like this exists, it loses its power. If Conrad or Elvin knew of the existence of this magic, they would have held all important discussions in the middle of an open corridor, guarding against any spider approaching. I wouldn’t have been able to obtain the necessary information.”

Muttering that it was truly a matter of her life being at stake, Cheryn’s face was incomparably serious.

Shan remained silent for a long time before nodding his head.

“All right. I won’t tell anyone. Not even Roden.”

Even though he did not believe Roden would carelessly spread rumors if informed, he felt it was right to answer like this here.

Because this was strictly an individual’s private domain.

Just as he tried to keep secret the fact that he possessed a thousand forms.

At Shan’s answer, Cheryn let out a deep sigh of relief.

“What a relief…”

“However, if Sister Cheryn stays with me or Roden in the future, please don’t secretly attach spiders to us either. If there’s something you’re curious about, we can just ask each other, right?”

It was unfair for her to peek from over there when this side did not even know such a spying method existed.

At the natural demand, Cheryn bit her lip tightly and then painfully nodded.

“All right. Honestly, just imagining it makes me feel like I’m going crazy with anxiety… but I should do so.”

“Are you anxious?”

“Yeah. Unless I attach spiders to the people around me and monitor their behavior, I can’t feel at ease at all. Because I never know when someone might try to harm me from behind.”

Showing anxiety bordering on true paranoia while gnawing on her fingernails, Cheryn’s appearance was unfamiliar.

Perhaps this was her true appearance hidden behind her outward demeanor, which had always seemed so relaxed.

“Is there a reason why you feel so anxious?”

Although it might just be her innate disposition, he had an intuition that it was probably not that.

After a moment of silence passed, Cheryn spoke in a slightly raspy voice.

“I had a wet nurse. She was no different from a mother who died right after giving birth to me.”

It was a common story among high-ranking nobles.

Was it not said that sometimes wet nurses who formed a stronger bond than birth mothers even reigned as the power behind the scenes controlling nobles or royalty?

“I trusted her enough to think that if I had a mother, I wished she would be a person like this, and shared everything with her.”

The only thing such a Cheryn hid from her wet nurse was the process of developing the magic to synchronize consciousness with spiders, which was completed on her twelfth birthday.

It was because at an age when puberty was in full swing, she at least had the awareness that secretly peeking at others was a bad thing.

“Even so, I intended to tell her about this magic too. Just once, after peeking at what people were up to.”

Cheryn could look into every corner of the royal palace at will through the eyes of spiders.

Neither the royal knights and guards strictly on watch, nor the magic traps set everywhere stopped a mere spider.

Having fallen deep into the pleasure of secretly spying on others, the last subject she sought out was her wet nurse.

It was because she was curious about what the wet nurse did when she left her side, saying she periodically had to attend to personal business.

And before long, she came to know that the wet nurse had entered the king’s chamber.

It was a situation that could be called terrible misfortune for the wet nurse, and heaven-sent luck for Cheryn.

“In that place, the wet nurse was telling my father everything about me. How smart I was, what I could do and tried to do, and even what I liked and disliked.”

At the action of the wet nurse, whom she had believed to be entirely her person, Cheryn received a great shock, but she tried to understand and move past it.

Because after all, the wet nurse’s employer was the king, not Cheryn herself.

However, what exceeded even the bounds of such understanding was the next set of words that came out of the king’s mouth.

“My father ordered her. He said since I had talent, he would wait and see for now, but if I tried to lay hands on an excessively dangerous technique, dispose of me appropriately and then report back. Using the medicine he had given her before, that is. The wet nurse replied that she understood.”

It was cruel content hard to imagine as instructions given by a father to his young daughter’s wet nurse.

It meant that Gizel III perceived the still-young Cheryn as a threatening entity to that extent.

Indeed, considering she had developed such magic at twelve years old.

“I asked the wet nurse who returned back and forth indirectly several times. Where she had been, whether by any chance someone had given her something strange… I desperately hoped she would answer truthfully, but the wet nurse smiled warmly as always and said: nothing happened.”

That night, Cheryn fed her wet nurse sleeping pills and pushed her off the terrace.

Her death was processed as a fall due to drinking.

“Even after that, as I attached spiders to everyone around me including my father and disposed of spies every time they attached one, they eventually gave up. Thanks to that, I gained the nickname of the Witch of Pendia, and none of the palace maids tried to wait on me, though.”

On Cheryn’s face after pouring out the whole story, an emotion as if relieved was settled.

It seemed she had wanted to tell someone about the stories accumulated over time, no matter who it was.

After listening to all the stories, one could not say Cheryn’s suspicion was excessive.

The story that the wet nurse she trusted and relied on most was an assassin was just that powerful.

After a moment of silence passed, Shan intentionally shifted the subject to change the atmosphere.

“Is the magic to control spiders difficult?”

“Yeah. Magic like getting closer to animals like in storybooks exists, but borrowing an animal’s eyes and ears is a completely different domain. Although I had good spiritual compatibility with spiders, separate from that, I had to raise the synchronization rate through various methods.”

“What kind of methods?”

“Various. First, raising or touching spiders to foster a sense of familiarity, and later I even ate them raw directly. Do you happen to know what spiders taste like if you eat them?”

“They taste bitter. Depending on the species, smaller ones have a slightly stronger sour taste.”

“…How on earth do you know that?”

“I ate a lot of them in the past.”

Shan recalled the time when he used to live in Willow Village in the past.

In those days when he could not possibly fill his stomach with just the leftover food scraps of the village chief’s family, all kinds of bugs moving around the barn were good food.

Ants, cockroaches, grasshoppers, even fleas…

Cheryn, upon hearing that story, let out a sigh.

“I was trying to brag that acquiring this magic wasn’t that easy, but I only made myself look ridiculous.”

“I wasn’t trying to say that what Sister Cheryn did was nothing.”

“Well, that would be so, of course.”

After chatting like that and the atmosphere thawed a bit, Shan brought up the story he had intended to tell.

“Sister Cheryn.”

“Hmm?”

“We’re keeping it a secret for now, but if we end up staying together, I hope you can tell this to Roden too later on. He’s a friend who’s truly trustworthy.”

Shan’s words did not sound to Cheryn as merely guaranteeing that Roden was a trustworthy person.

Those words felt as if they were telling her that she might as well open the door to her heart a little more in the future and try trusting people.

“…I’ll try.”

That was the best current Cheryn could do.

*

Shan’s party did not move further east, but stayed for several days in Wheat Bran Village.

Callion, who had just regained consciousness, and Cheryn, who had injured her arm, were not in physical condition to travel yet, and the servants also did not want to head out after having been terrified by Pendia’s terrible natural environment.

While others rested, Shan checked the equipment obtained from Kamad and verified its performance.

Thanks to Cheryn’s help, he was able to learn its functions in fairly great detail.

“This spear is an item called the ‘Spear of Intense Flames’.”

“It seems to have gotten its name because the tip of the spear explodes.”

“Yeah. It’s a magic tool discovered quite a long time ago. To use it, you just need to imbue Fighting Spirit that wishes for an explosion.”

Upon hearing Cheryn’s explanation, Shan moved with light steps while riding Arwin and aimed the spear at a rock in front of his eyes.

‘Explode…’

Fighting Spirit generally acted only in ways that were intrinsically plausible for the target it was imbued in.

One could cut or pierce something with a blade-less sword or a club, but magical feats like making something burn or freeze along with slashing were impossible.

However, this magic tool, the Spear of Intense Flames, made such things possible.

The moment the will to ‘explode’ was imbued in the form of Fighting Spirit, the spear shone brightly just as when Kamad used it in the past.

The rock facing the spear tip exploded with a boom, and stone fragments scattered in all directions.

“Oh my!”

“What on earth is happening…”

Thanks to that, there was a minor incident where several villagers nearby were terrified, but at any rate, he was able to definitely learn how to use this weapon.

Cheryn warned Shan, who was smiling with satisfaction.

“That spear doesn’t have an automatic repair function like the magic tool I made for you. Since it’s harder, it won’t break easily, but think of it as finished once it breaks.”

“Yes.”

Although it was somewhat troublesome to grip and swing freely in terms of shape, having acquired a more powerful and useful weapon simply for a lance charge was not bad at all.

Not only the spear, but Kamad’s sword and shield were also all magic tools.

No, strictly speaking, the shield was not a magic tool.

“It’s a holy relic.”

“A holy… relic?”

“Yeah. What is commonly called a sacred object. Usually, when prominent priests die, they are made from their remains. Only the Holy See knows the exact manufacturing method.”

The Holy See was the holy land of Old Faith believers located in the capital of Libert, and the place where the Pope, the spiritual pillar of all Old Faith believers, resided.

Cheryn added, like a mage hostile to the Old Faith, that it was a place that ought to be burned down someday.

At any rate, the function of the sword was to electrocute enemies touched by the weapon, but it seemed it had not been noticeable because the Guardian of the East was a magic sword mixed with True Iron.

The shield had the function of adding vitality to the user.

“Then I can just use this for my shield from now on. Since the one I used before broke.”

Of course, to do that, Kamad’s emblem drawn on the front of the shield would have to be scraped off.

Unless it was meant as a provocation.

Lastly, Kamad’s armor was nothing particularly grand, but something made by a skilled craftsman and blessed by priests, equivalent to being enchanted with stronger and longer-lasting magic.

Since it was already damaged in various ways by Shan’s slashing, fixing it would likely yield no more value than ordinary plate armor.

“I’d like to give this to Roden. Even though he can’t wear plate armor because he’s not a knight.”

“Should I dub him a knight?”

At Cheryn’s question, Shan went ‘hmm’, contemplated, and then shook his head.

“Thank you, but Roden said not until he proves his qualifications himself.”

“Edged weapon?”

“Yes.”

At his expression of ‘as expected, you eavesdropped’, Cheryn brushed it off with a smile.

Revealing that she knew by eavesdropping was her own way of showing goodwill.

“Come to think of it, I was going to mention this… could I touch up your armor a bit later too?”

“My armor?”

“You said you have an ogre’s mana stone. If we make your armor into a magic tool using that as material, it will be effective. We’ll also have to examine your body.”

Shan’s body was in a state where some change had occurred after hunting the ogre, but he had not been able to properly diagnose it yet.

It was because all the various magical tools required for that had been taken away when Cheryn was captured by Elvin.

Only after contacting the Magic Society again in the future to bring them under her command or create new ones would diagnosis become possible.

“Just in case, I’m not saying I’ll only give such help if you help me. This is a price I ought to pay as the value of my life.”

If Shan had not helped, Cheryn would be starving to death right about now in the tower of the Blue Palace.

Perhaps she might have already died.

When she added so that he would not misunderstand, Shan smiled and nodded.

“Thank you, Sister Cheryn. I won’t forget it.”

While the two were conversing like that while bringing up various magic tools, a manservant ran urgently toward them.

Deeply bowing to Cheryn first, he spoke to Shan.

“Young Master! The eldest young master has arrived from the east!”

“Oh, really? You’re not mistaken, right?”

“Of course!”

Since he had already mistaken groups of traveling merchants for Roden several times, Shan quickly rode Arwin and headed east of the village.

When he climbed up onto the wooden palisade, he saw the people lined up ahead and Roden positioned at the front.

“Roden! You’ve… come?”

Shan’s smile faded from his face as he was about to wave his hand in greeting.

It was because the number of Altoans lined up behind Roden was not the twenty-eight present when he first left, but so many that it was about five times that.