"Haah...…"
After finishing dinner, Duanmu Huai leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath.
"Sir Knight, have you still not found the demon hound?"
Lorena walked over at that moment and asked curiously.
"It got away. Come to think of it, this whole waiting-for-the-dog-to-come game really doesn't suit me. I hate playing hide-and-seek more than anything."
Duanmu Huai waved his hand with a listless air, looking thoroughly unamused.
"It won't go and attack the townspeople, will it."
"Hard to say...…Come to think of it, why it's fixated on the Baskerville family in the first place is actually still a mystery."
A fairy tale was ultimately just a fairy tale. What had actually happened all those years ago was something only the ancestor who lived through it would ever know. Some players would use necromancy and similar magic to summon spirits and ask them directly, but unfortunately Duanmu Huai had no ability or skill in that area — he was a god of destruction, after all.
If it was crushing souls to powder, now that was more his area of expertise.
"How is the Baroness doing?"
"Her mood has improved somewhat lately, but her health isn't great...…mm, how should I put it...…"
Lorena paused to think for a moment.
"From what I can tell, the Baroness may be with child."
"Oh? Really — have you had her see a doctor?"
"She seems to have a sense of it herself. She was originally planning to have a doctor come after Christmas, but in my view it's more or less certain. As shrine maidens, we do handle matters like this as part of our duties, and her condition is very similar to the ladies I've seen at the church."
"Then you'd better keep a close eye on her. I have a feeling that dog may not have left precisely because of this."
At least from what could be seen so far, every member of the Baskerville family had been targeted by the demon hound. The Baroness had married into the family and strictly speaking had no blood relation to the Baskervilles — but if she was carrying a child of the Baskerville bloodline, that was a different matter entirely.
"Understood, Sir Knight."
Lorena gave a serious nod.
"In that case, I'll go out and take another look around."
Having finished dinner, Duanmu Huai was starting to feel restless, so he stood up and stretched lazily.
"Going out at this hour?"
"Just as you said, that thing might go after the townspeople. You stay here and keep watch over the lady and the others — I'll go take a look around town."
Duanmu Huai wasn't talking idly. In truth, the trail he had been following had led him all the way to the foot of the mountain before going cold. That meant the creature had very likely slipped into the town itself. Under normal circumstances that might not have been cause for concern, but the thing had been wounded by Duanmu Huai earlier, and wounded animals were dangerous. It was Christmas, and most people would be home at this hour, but to be safe Duanmu Huai decided he should go and check.
Duanmu Huai left the dining room and made his way to the front entrance. Just as he was about to head out, Mary came walking over.
"Hm? Mr. Duanmu, where are you going at this late hour??"
"I'm planning to go into town and have a look around."
"May I come along?"
Hearing his answer, Mary's eyes immediately lit up and she asked at once.
"You? Won't you stay and chat with your friends?"
"Ahaha...…well...…"
Hearing that, Mary couldn't help but smile somewhat wryly. That was exactly why she wanted to go out with Duanmu Huai. Ashelica and Shirley had simply not let up with their interrogation about her relationship with Mr. Duanmu. Mary herself felt there was nothing between her and Duanmu Huai, yet the two of them seemed absolutely convinced there was some secret — and well, there certainly was a secret, just not one she could tell them.
She could hardly bring up what happened in Antarctica with Shirley, not to mention the Old Ones, the Shoggoth, the monsters...…
The more Mary tried to hide things, the more Shirley and Ashelica became convinced she was guilty of something, and it was enough to make her want to cry. Ashelica she could understand, but Shirley — you're the one who started all of this...…of course, that was something Mary absolutely could not say to Shirley's face.
So the moment she heard Duanmu Huai was heading out, she jumped at the excuse to leave.
If those two kept cornering her like that, there was no telling what would happen.
"Sure, dress warmly so you don't catch a cold."
Duanmu Huai had no objection. On one hand, he had nothing better to do anyway. On the other hand...…he did want to see whether the demon hound would be drawn to the Golden Eye.
After all, it could be considered the Western equivalent of Tang Sanzang's flesh — what if the demon hound had a taste for that sort of thing?
If that was the case, dealing with similar situations in the future would be much simpler — just send the Tang Sanzang out as bait and lure the monster in.
Just like in Journey to the West — the demon comes to eat Tang Sanzang, then gets clubbed to death by Sun Wukong. Convenient.
So in that case, Mary is Tang Sanzang, he's Sun Wukong, and Lorena is Sha Wujing?
Then who's Zhu Bajie?
...well, it doesn't matter. It's not like they're actually going on a pilgrimage.
After changing clothes, Duanmu Huai and Mary left Baskerville Manor together and walked along the road toward town.
It was already deep in the night. Under ordinary circumstances the whole town would long since have fallen asleep, but because it was Christmas, every street was decorated with lights and lanterns. Far from being as dim as usual, the entire town seemed to be glowing, giving it a rather storybook quality.
It'd be even better if a Father Christmas showed up right about now.
"How have things been lately? Has everything been going smoothly?"
Duanmu Huai asked casually as they walked along the street. As for Mary's appearance — Duanmu Huai hadn't really been surprised by that, for reasons he'd rather not get into.
"Quite well. Everyone has settled back into their everyday lives, and I'm happy about that. Those days were a bit unsettling, but...…looking back now, it all seems worth it."
She looked up at the snowflakes drifting down from the sky, and a feeling of quiet wonder washed over her. It reminded her of the days when she had set out for Antarctica, and now that she was back here, thinking back on everything that had happened, Mary could almost convince herself it had been a dream...…or rather, even now, it still felt strangely unreal.
Though, speaking of which...…
"Next year I'll have to start thinking about graduation...…"
"What have you decided about what I mentioned before?"
"Ah...…you mean the invitation to work for the Inquisition?"
"That's right."
Duanmu Huai nodded and looked at Mary. The Golden Eye really was something remarkable...…honestly, Duanmu Huai wanted one too, but unfortunately that wasn't possible.
He had also heard from Mary what had happened at the time. She was just an ordinary young lady, yet she had been able to use the Golden Eye to see through her opponent's attack trajectory and dodge and fight back on pure instinct — what kind of ridiculous [BUG] ability was that?
Truthfully, compared to Mary's Golden Eye, Duanmu Huai felt his own system wasn't nearly as impressive.
After all, his system still needed to be leveled up, but Mary's Golden Eye was genuinely all-purpose from the start.
The only weakness was that Mary herself was still on the frail side — but with consistent training and some basic combat knowledge, combined with the power of the Golden Eye, reaching the level of a Night Warden probably wouldn't be out of reach.
Now that was what you called a real [cheat].
Duanmu Huai hadn't heard of Mary as an [NPC] in the game, and didn't know whether she simply hadn't appeared or whether players had just never found her. Though he thought the latter was unlikely — setting aside the Golden Eye entirely, a girl as beautiful as Mary was absolutely the kind of thing veteran player scoundrels would never overlook.
After all, when players recruited [NPC]s, it generally came down to either strength, appearance, or rarity.
Mary with her Golden Eye ticked all three boxes — strength, rarity, and looks. In the game, she would have long since been all over the forums' [NPC] tier lists, at minimum a Tier 1.
Could she fire lasers from the Golden Eye, by any chance?
Something like a Shijiro Beam or whatever?
Ugh...…probably not.
"Working for the Inquisition...…will it be dangerous?"
"Strictly speaking, extremely dangerous."
Duanmu Huai didn't hide it — it was the truth, and moreover, given the nature of the Golden Eye, going to the Inquisition might actually put Mary in far greater danger than she was in now.
"I'll protect you as much as I can, but you'll need to train — learn how to fight, how to deal with enemies. And the work of the Inquisition can be brutal at times. At least everything you've faced up to now is basically child's play by comparison."
He had to be upfront with Mary about this. The Golden Eye was genuinely invaluable, but Mary was also about as ordinary a girl as one could find, and that was something of a headache for him on this front.
This world was more peaceful compared to most others he knew. In a place like a starter village, even young ordinary girls would either be accustomed to combat or at least aware that monsters existed and threatened their lives, which made them far more adaptable in that regard.
The Manaria Academy students from before, for instance — they were roughly the same age as Mary and just as well-bred noble young ladies, yet when faced with enemies and demon-kind, they showed no hesitation. They killed when killing was needed, and often in great numbers at that. That was because they had been born into that kind of world, and had long since grown used to the reality of magical beasts threatening their lives.
But Mary was different. She was more like a person from the real world — even when faced with danger, her first instinct wouldn't be to fight back and kill. Put her in a country like Lyssa or Seth, even facing magical beasts, and Mary would probably still struggle to bring herself to raise a hand against them.
That was what gave Duanmu Huai something of a headache on this front. He wasn't sure whether she could change.
Mary was a kind person — but in the Inquisition, kindness was often not a virtue.
"...…"
Sure enough, hearing Duanmu Huai's answer, Mary fell into silence.
"You don't want to do dangerous work?"
"Nobody wants to do dangerous work. I do want to try, but I don't want Shirley and Ashelica to worry about me...…"
Mary sighed. That was one of the things she was hesitant about. Going to work for the Inquisition did seem like it might not be a bad choice, but if it was too dangerous, it would worry her friends, and that made her waver.
"It is something to think carefully about. If you really were to work for the Inquisition, the risk would be considerably higher than anything in the films."
"Hm? That dramatic?"
"Of course."
After all, the worst a film could do was blow up a building or two — but the Inquisition handed down extermination orders on a planetary scale.
"Haah...…"
Mary sighed again. She was genuinely torn. The work of the Inquisition sounded dangerous, but she felt she owed Duanmu Huai a debt of gratitude. He had helped her so many times — yet if the work was too dangerous, wouldn't it be counterproductive? And besides, what could she actually do for the Inquisition?
With that thought, Mary turned to Duanmu Huai and voiced the question on her mind.
"The Golden Eye, of course. That eye of yours is of tremendous value to the Inquisition — you just haven't realized it yourself."
"Honestly, I've never felt like there's anything particularly special about this eye...…"
Hearing Duanmu Huai's answer, Mary touched her right eye with a somewhat complicated expression. Duanmu Huai had said it more than once, and those creatures had always seemed to be targeting her right eye specifically — but Mary truly couldn't see what was so remarkable about it. If anything, it just let her see certain things a little more clearly...…
"The greatest power can often be the simplest...…that's precisely what makes it so formidable."
Watching Mary's reaction, Duanmu Huai quietly sighed. A true [BUG]-tier ability was exactly something like the Golden Eye — the person who had it seemed to barely notice anything was special, but to everyone else, being able to see straight through illusions that others couldn't even begin to pierce with a single glance was already extraordinary enough. Especially against creatures like the Pink Dread-Wraith, which specialized in transformation and illusion — even Duanmu Huai could only rely on his Fear Halo or his experience as an Inquisitor to tell them apart. But Mary could see through their true form at a single glance — the gap between the two was like the difference between weapons used in the First World War and those of modern warfare.
In the old days, soldiers hidden in the undergrowth were hard to detect, and only an experienced commander could sense them. But in modern warfare, a single infrared drone could lock onto every last one of them without needing any technique at all. That was what a generational gap in capability looked like.
Mary's Golden Eye was like the latter — used well, it was pure, uncontested dominance.
And the remarkable thing was it barely cost her anything at all.
"If you're willing, you could always give it a try first. And beyond that, you'd make excellent bait as well."
"...…Hm? Bait?"
"That's right. Like right now."
As he spoke, Duanmu Huai came to a stop. Mary, walking beside him, stopped as well and looked around — and was startled to realize that without knowing when, they had arrived near the central plaza of the town. It was decorated with lights and lanterns here too, with lamps everywhere. But for some reason, thick fog seemed to have been gradually gathering around them, and under the glow of the lights all that was visible was a dense haze on every side — even the buildings not far off had become indistinguishable.
And that wasn't all...…
"Grooowl...…"
"What's that sound? Mr. Duanmu, is it a wild dog?"
"Who knows. At least it's clear that Tang Sanzang's flesh is proving quite tempting after all."
He didn't have the Golden Eye himself, but in truth Duanmu Huai had already sensed something tailing them through the dark some time ago. It was clearly not coming for him — after all, every previous encounter in the forest had ended with it turning and running the moment it found him. The only explanation was that the Golden Eye was simply too enticing, and now it seemed the creature had reached its limit and was willing to make a gamble.
Was this thing really that tempting?
In Journey to the West, the demons wanted to eat Tang Sanzang because it granted immortality — so what would eating the Golden Eye give them?
Well, that could wait.
"Be careful — get behind me."
Duanmu Huai clenched his fists and spoke to Mary. His old cane had been used up in Antarctica, and he hadn't gotten a new one yet — but against a mere wild dog, bare-handed was fine.
"ROARRR———————!!!"
At last, the thing seemed unable to hold back any longer. With a low howl, a dark shadow suddenly lunged out of the fog in the next instant and launched itself straight at Mary.
"Wah!"
Faced with the sudden attack, Mary seemed startled — yet even so, her body seemed to instinctively spin backward, and she dodged the shadow's strike.
The Golden Eye really was something else.
"ROARR—————!!"
The shadow, having missed its first strike, extended its claws and swiped at Mary again. At the same moment, Duanmu Huai spun around in a sudden burst, clenched his fist, and drove it straight into the shadow before him.
"BANG!!!"
His iron fist connected squarely with the shadow's body. The blurry dark form shattered under the impact of Duanmu Huai's punch, bursting apart like a popped balloon. But it was clearly not over — almost immediately, a chorus of barking erupted all around them. Turning to look, dark hound-like shadows had appeared in every direction.
"Woof woof woof!!"
"Woof woof———!!!"
The barking came from all sides, and it seemed as though hundreds of phantom hounds had materialized out of the fog and completely surrounded the two of them. Even Mary, seeing this, had gone rather pale.
"Mr., Mr. Duanmu!"
"Don't worry, this is nothing. Do you see anything strange?"
"Well..."
Hearing Duanmu Huai's question, Mary looked around, then fixed her gaze on a small alleyway not far off.
"There seems to be a strange shadow over there...…"
"Let's go!"
(End of Chapter)