I Became the Main Character’s Demon Sword

20

“What is that?”

“Haha… It’s quite disgusting, isn’t it? I’m very annoyed that I have to have these things, but since the main church ordered us to research how holy power and magic are stored in artifacts, I had no choice…”

“Has there been any progress?”

“Unfortunately, no… The power of specters is far more noble than holy power and magic, so they can’t be put on the same level. If there were progress, we could contribute to the device being researched at the main church.”

“What kind of device?”

“Well, one that compresses and stores the power of specters…” The man who had been speaking calmly suddenly stopped, finally sensing something amiss. He turned to look at Arpel with a confused face.

“Why… why are you asking about this? If you’re from the main church, you should know about the device.”

Arpel stared at the man’s face, thinking. He had gotten all he needed, and even a hint about the device being researched at the main church… This man was now useless.

“Thank you.”

He decided to say a word of thanks to someone who was about to die. The vague unease that had been lingering suddenly spread across the man’s face. As if instinctively sensing something was wrong, he opened his mouth wide to call for people outside, but no sound came out.

A shadow that had crept along the floor opened its maw and swallowed the man whole. Only a faint tearing sound announced his final moments. It was an anticlimactic end for someone who had taken countless lives in the name of experimenting with specters.

Arpel briefly skimmed through the research journal and dropped it on the floor, where the lurking shadow quickly devoured it. As he was about to move to retrieve the previous records in the adjacent room, a faint groan caught his attention.

As if instinctively recognizing Arpel as someone who could free him, the person who had been trembling with lifeless eyes until just now was now looking directly at Arpel. A glimmer of hope shone in his eyes. After silently meeting the man’s gaze, Arpel decided to grant his wish.

Soon, a jet-black line was drawn between Arpel and the man. It pierced precisely through the man’s chest, quickly taking his tenacious life.

“…I’m glad I didn’t bring him.”

Not letting the shadow devour the man’s corpse was Arpel’s best attempt at consideration. Even so, Rohan’s face came to mind at that moment.

The child would want to save this man. But Arpel made a different choice. There was no need to forcibly save someone who wanted to die.

Perhaps it wasn’t consideration, but coldness. It was simply a matter of strictly distinguishing between those inside and outside his line. Though it was unlikely, Arpel had no intention of killing Rohan even if he begged to die in such a state. He had to keep him alive, even if it meant reaching into illegal activities or betraying the power granted by the Celestial God.

As his thoughts progressed, Arpel recognized his own selfishness. He had once thought he could grant anything if it would make Rohan happy.

Now he saw that wasn’t true. He wanted Rohan to be happy, but… that was only on the premise that Rohan was alive. Even if there came a time when Rohan begged to die, Arpel would certainly save him out of his own selfishness.

‘If you knew these thoughts, would you avoid me?’

Would you find it a bit creepy? Would you finally be scared?

That’s something no one could know. As long as Arpel was by his side, Rohan wouldn’t be in danger. So there was no chance of the child discovering this selfishness.

After briefly gazing at the corpse that maintained a human form despite its indiscernible gender and age, Arpel immediately headed to the adjacent room.

He dropped all the stacks of paper onto the floor. Each time, the shadow approached and quickly devoured the papers. These would all be regurgitated later in front of Lexia. Though the amount was vast, being records accumulated over several years, there was no reason to sort them.

Moreover, there was a bit of personal satisfaction mixed in. The final research journal, which had been the first thing put into the shadow, would now be mixed in with the vast amount of documents that followed. Thinking of the person who would have to rack their brains to find it put Arpel in a fairly good mood.

‘I wonder if they discovered this place in the novel too.’

A curiosity suddenly arose.

There had been no mention of someone like Lexia. It meant he wouldn’t meet Rohan in the future either.

Despite his efforts to keep the Salvation Church in check, he rarely showed his face. If he had at least asked the temple for help or become Rohan’s assistant, things might have been easier.

That question was soon answered. As someone with excellent sources of information, capable of planning to raid a branch of the Salvation Church, he might have guessed that there were spies planted in the temple.

‘If not that, then…’

Was there a reason he couldn’t reach out to the temple?

While ransacking the room, a commotion was heard from outside. It seemed to be the people who had been kneeling in reverence earlier.

“Damn it, the test subject is dead!”

“Where did the chief go?!”

They must have sensed something was wrong when no one returned after some time. Arpel had been thinking it was about time, so he didn’t feel particularly threatened. Even if he hadn’t known, there was no reason to feel threatened by them anyway.

The shadow, which had been searching the floor for any more falling stacks of paper, slipped out of the room following Arpel’s gesture.

And in an instant, the outside fell silent.

Sensing the presence that had disappeared without leaving even a drop of blood, Arpel hurried his steps. It was time to clean up elsewhere.

Arpel killed everyone inside except for the three people Lexia had mentioned. There were no exceptions, even for those being experimented on.

He could extract the power of specters, but he couldn’t heal bodies. All the people in the lab had already been broken by merciless experiments and were writhing in pain. He saw several who couldn’t even maintain a human form and were wailing.

They all wanted death.

Although it had been quite crowded with people when he first entered, now it was an empty space with nothing left. It was also an eerie place due to the silence, with not a single breath or presence of a person to be felt.

Despite having created this scene with his own hands, Arpel moved on without any particular emotion. He didn’t even look around. There was no further purpose in a space devoid of any living beings.

“…I miss Rohan.”

It was time to go and keep his promise.

***

Lexia let out a deep sigh as he watched Rohan, who showed little movement. He could already clearly envision the future where Arpel would return and give him a hard time. Anyone could see that Arpel doted on Rohan, so he might grab Lexia by the collar immediately.

Perhaps due to the effect of the kiss on the cheek, Rohan, who hadn’t been able to properly see Arpel off and was left alone, came to his senses belatedly. The problem was that the child started acting strange from that point on.

With the blanket pulled up to the top of his head, the child was holed up in bed and showed no intention of moving. Even to Lexia, who had no experience raising children, it seemed like a very strange sight. But since he had only been asked to watch over the child, not to take diligent care of him, he just left him be.

“Kid, aren’t you going to eat?”

When dinner time came, Lexia brought up some food suitable for the child from downstairs, only to make a dumbfounded expression seeing Rohan not budging at all.

“If you don’t eat, I’ll tell Arpel?”

He soon found a method, though Rohan did glare at him with eyes that were quite fierce for a child.

Am I being disliked?

He couldn’t help but seriously consider it. It was quite an unfair situation for Lexia, as he prided himself on not having done anything particularly worthy of hatred.

“…I ate well.”

Although it was fairly good quality and tasty soup and pork steak for what could be eaten at an inn, Rohan only nibbled a few times before putting it down.

“Are you done eating?”

“Yes.”

Without any further explanation, Rohan left his seat. Lexia was momentarily at a loss for words as the child crawled back under the blanket. Should he be grateful that Rohan at least thanked him for the meal?

Although it was just once, Lexia had seen Rohan eating before. It was at the restaurant where he had approached to both request a job from Arpel and test him. Although he had almost been attacked, he had obtained quite satisfactory results. Regardless of how it happened, Arpel was now off doing the job Lexia had requested.

There, Rohan had definitely been stuffing his mouth full of food. Even Lexia, who usually didn’t pay much attention to children, had found that sight quite adorable. So he thought giving food might improve the child’s condition a bit.

In reality, the food he had eaten didn’t even empty half the bowl.

“Why is this kid acting like this…?”

Although he didn’t eat much, he was quiet, so Lexia wasn’t too concerned. But as if kicking away that thought, as soon as night fell, Lexia found himself facing another crisis.

Lexia, who had been dozing off crumpled in the chair, opened his eyes when he heard groaning sounds. Roughly rubbing his sleepy eyes, he approached Rohan on the bed and was suddenly greatly flustered.

“Ugh… huh.”

As if having a nightmare, Rohan was tossing and turning, crying so much that both his cheeks were soaked. When he suddenly started trying to scratch his neck repeatedly, Lexia hurriedly grabbed both his hands to stop him from moving.

When he still couldn’t calm down, Lexia had no choice but to wake him up. Blinking slowly as he came to his senses, Rohan twisted his body to escape from Lexia’s hands. Then, sniffling, he tried to go back to sleep.

It was a bewildering incident, but Lexia thought it was enough that he had woken him from the nightmare. Except for the fact that this happened about three more times throughout the night. By then, Lexia began to feel the seriousness of the situation. The child had cried so much that he seemed to be developing a fever, but Lexia couldn’t give him medicine because he would start scratching his neck the moment his hands were free.

In the end, he had to spend the entire night holding Rohan’s hands to keep them from moving. Naturally, he didn’t get a wink of sleep.