“Are you here to ask for my help, perhaps?”
One of the villagers jumped and spun around. The other didn’t react right away but then slowly looked at me.
I recognized their faces. They were two new male members of the village, built similarly to me, with average looks.
“Sir…that’s right! We came to warn you of the large waves of monsters coming.” His voice was so hoarse I could barely understand him.
“Thank you for going to the trouble. But I’m afraid I don’t quite understand. I was the one who raised the alarm in the first place. Didn’t you hear me?” I asked, deliberately making things awkward.
“Is that right? We’re sorry, we didn’t hear—”
“Why are you holding lit torches? It’s the middle of the afternoon. And what’s in that leather bag? It couldn’t be oil, could it?” I narrowed my eyes at them.
The speaker glanced at the other man, then drew his sword. “How long have you known?”
Every time I spoke to these two in the village, they seemed like pleasant young men. That pleasantness was gone, replaced by hostile glares. The hoarseness in the speaker’s voice disappeared, and now it sounded oddly high-pitched and feminine. The other unsheathed his sword as well. He remained silent.
“I’ve known from the start.”
More accurately, it was since a certain person left the village. Ever since then, I’d kept a close eye on this particular villager.
I had my reasons for being suspicious. My first tip-off was a few days ago, when I asked Sewatari-san a question just before hanging up the phone.
“Can the corrupted gods only control monsters? Or do they have human followers, too?”
Sewatari-san told me that they did have some human followers, although not very many. Her answer got me thinking. So it would be possible for a corrupted god to send infiltrators to my village. It was the most basic of plans; sending spies and saboteurs into an enemy’s base was a very common strategy in stories.
So the question became, if the corrupted gods were sending spies into my village, what would their mission be?
Assassinating key village leaders was obvious, but Gams was a strong fighter. They weren’t likely to get very far. So if not that, what else could they do? If it were me, I’d destroy the God of Fate statue so we couldn’t use the golem. And I would do it with fire. It would destroy our trump card and cause panic when it spread.
“What did you do to the real villagers, by the way? And what’s wrong with the guy next to you?” I asked, though I already knew the answer. The worst-case scenario. I asked anyway, just in case.
The speaker had clearly taken someone’s place. The guy next to him was likely an innocent victim being controlled by a miracle. Everyone knew everyone else by name in this village. Any spy would be recognized instantly. The enemy’s infiltration options were limited.
“You sure know a lot.” The spy’s tone was cheerful. The outline of the villager in front of me seemed to warp, disappearing to be replaced by a woman in a black robe.
“Nice to see you, Salem.”
Salem smirked at me. I never expected her to be a follower of a corrupted god.
“You knew, did you?”
“It was simple logic,” I lied. I needed her to believe I was smarter than I was. It wasn’t logic at all, just knowledge of the game and previous experiences I’d had in Hokkaido.
I knew about illusion magic because I’d seen Habatake use the same trick. The game app had a feature where I could tap any villager on the map and learn their name and some basic biographical information. When I tapped on her, it showed me nothing, just like it had with Murus before she officially joined the village. That started happening the day Salem left. She probably only pretended to leave before taking on the disguise and sneaking back in.
The villager beside her had his info show up as normal. He must have been being controlled by the punk’s miracle, either asleep or drugged.
“Do you mind surrendering yourselves? I don’t want this to drag on too long.”
I had more pressing matters right now. I heard villagers bellowing behind me, their voices mixed with the cries of monsters and crashes of battle. The full-scale fight had begun. I needed to get the golem out there as soon as possible.
“I am a follower of the God of Charms. I can’t back down, even if I wanted to. Apologies, but I’m going to have to end your life here. The Lord told me that your body is just like any other human’s, despite your title of disciple.” She pulled a twisted dagger from the sleeve of her robe. “You’re a little late, I’m afraid. We’ve already spread the oil all over the tent. There’s just one thing left to do.” Before I could stop her, Salem tossed the lit torch behind her. It fell toward the tent and set it alight. The flames spread across the cloth in an instant, whooshing up in a giant pillar of fire.
“There, you’ve lost your lifeline. Now we just need to deal with you.” Salem’s lips twisted into a smile, and she and the other villager slowly approached me.
I ignored them and pulled out my phone instead.
“Huh? What do you think you can do with that tiny—gah!”
A slash sounded through the air, and the two fell to the ground facedown. Behind them stood the God of Fate statue, its gallant figure backed by flames. This wasn’t the time to admire it, but man, it looked pretty majestic.
Even though the statue stepped out of those raging flames, it showed no damage. That was no coincidence.
“You can come out now.” The hero of the show poked its head out of my coat pocket. I patted it on the head. “Thanks, Destiny. You saved me again.”
Destiny had used its powers to turn the wooden statue to stone. That meant it wouldn’t burn and was much harder to break. That was why I didn’t panic. I wasn’t much help when it came to physical labor or fighting, but I did have plenty of time to think. My previous experience with my enemies allowed me to come up with a counter plan. But this was no time to get cocky.
I used the golem to break down the tent, then activated the weather miracle to summon a downpour and put out the flames. Since this tent was usually the village’s church, it was built a distance from their homes, and the fire didn’t spread.
I could’ve used a breather, but the real fight was only just beginning.
“This time’s gonna be different!”
All that remained was getting rid of the monsters, and I wasn’t going to let anyone else get in my way. I was going to save this village with my own two hands!