A dull longsword and a heartbroken villager

"Let's just pretend it didn't happen." Bray crouched down and picked up the book that Rector had thrown on the ground.

Then--

He stuffed the books into his fanny pack one by one.

The small fanny pack was like a bottomless pit, continuously filling it with all the books.

Rector's eyes widened as he stared incredulously at the fanny pack next to Bray.

Let's not even talk about the endless space in a fanny pack.

Each book was larger than the fanny pack, yet they managed to fit inside.

How did they manage to do that? No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't figure it out.

"..." Bray ignored Rector and continued to pick up the book with a disgusted expression.

Bray felt uncomfortable about stuffing his own pockets with other people's things.

After clearing the books off the floor, he took a deep breath, as if he were more exhausted than if he had just fought a battle.

“That’s all, right?” Bray asked.

“Actually…” Seeing that Bray’s fanny pack could hold so much, Rick had an idea in his mind.

“I won’t allow you to say there’s anything else.” But Bray interrupted Rector before he could finish speaking.

“Okay,” the worker replied in an unusually dejected tone.

It has to be said that Rector was really greedy; he actually wanted to take the entire bookshelf away.

Unfortunately, Bray would never agree to this request.

“So far, I have exceeded your expectations,” Bray said, glancing at Rector with his right eye in a seemingly casual tone.

But these words were a warning to Rector.

Don't go too far, otherwise it will become more than just a matter of greed.

From concealing the truth at the beginning to his later self-destructive actions, the entire responsibility actually lies with Rector.

If Bray hadn't been completely devoid of design talent, he wouldn't have been willing to help this guy.

Honest? Dull-witted? No, Rector is quite the opposite; he's incredibly shrewd.

The only thing that's true is that he's timid and afraid of trouble.

"I...I understand." Rector, who thought he wouldn't have to break out in a cold sweat anymore, was once again drenched in cold sweat.

He was actually constantly testing Bray's bottom line, trying to figure out what kind of personality Bray had.

If the person is kind-hearted, he can take full advantage of them.

There are many things about people that can be exploited, and kindness is one of them.

So many people's kindness has been used to gain personal benefits, and those who have been exploited may never realize the truth.

However, it now seems that Bray is not a pushover.

"Let's go, back to work." Bray waved, signaling Rector to follow him.

The man in overalls didn't dare to delay and quickly grabbed his backpack and started walking.

Bray left the altar along the path he had come from, preparing to return along the "Path of Light."

But as soon as he stood at the door, his brows began to furrow.

“Go back to your original position and don’t come out of the altar,” Bray said to Rector.

"Huh?" Lekdo was confused by Bray's instructions to leave the altar and then return to it.

"The 'angels' of the whole city are coming to our door, understand?" Bray said calmly.

Yes, Rector understands.

But because he understood, his face turned pale.

Because it was so safe to follow Bray, he almost forgot that this was a city, a city belonging to angels.

He knew exactly how many people a city should have.

The angels we encountered before probably only represent a tiny fraction of the total number of angels in this underground city.

"Staying here for too long inevitably leads to this situation." It's likely that parasites have a unique way of communicating, and his existence has been made known to all the parasites.

Their choice was to "kill" Bray and Rector.

As for the priest, he flew away early and, by a twist of fate, escaped the calamity.

"Hide, don't panic."

"It should be finished in about two hours."

“But if you do something reckless during this time, I can’t save you. You should think about it carefully.” After saying this, Bray took a few steps forward.

The top of my head suddenly darkened without warning.

Countless wings covered Rhodes, and the feathers fell slowly like snow.

But at the same time, battle flags fluttered in the wind among these ruins.

A massive fortress shadow appeared behind Bray.

“What a nuisance,” Bray muttered, carrying two swords.

They even had to put on this show before leaving.

"Shh." The sound of wind and sand was all around.

Rector shielded his eyes from the glaring light with his arm, enjoying the cooler air compared to the underground city.

At this point, he and Bray were no longer in the underground city.

That's right, the entire army of parasitized angels was wiped out.

If he hadn't witnessed it with his own eyes, Rector would have found it hard to believe that this was something a person could do.

Just as Bray had predicted, only two hours had passed.

Rector cautiously glanced at Bray beside him.

Bray reeked of an overwhelming stench of blood, the blood of angels and the blood of parasites.

Even after leaving the ruins, Bray's blood was still somewhat dried, making him even more terrifying than he was then.

Rector still vaguely remembers peeking out from the altar, trembling, and seeing the scene.

Countless angels vanished, and a man stood panting heavily, stepping on a pile of blood-stained feathers.

The already tattered coat was torn apart.

Many attacks tore through his clothes and cut Bray.

Although there weren't many wounds, each one was terrifyingly deep, and you could probably see the bone if you went any deeper.

"Mr. Bray, are you alright?" Rickard couldn't help but ask.

Bray is not much better off now than before he left the ruins; his wounds will not be healed anytime soon.

"I won't die," Bray said nonchalantly.

His injuries are not too bad, he's just too tired.

If possible, Bray doesn't want to face any military force; he doesn't have the ability to clear out an area within a hundred miles with a single sword strike.

To deal with the endless stream of enemies, the only option is to honestly cut them down one by one with each sword strike.

"However, it's still better to treat it." Bray had already used the medicine, but the wound was still not healing quickly.

“Come with me to a place, then we’ll go back to the safe zone,” he said, turning to Rector, who was taking a deep breath.

"Go somewhere?"

“Go heal your wounds,” Bray said.

This left Rekdo completely bewildered. Why not go back to the safe zone to heal?

But Bray was about to leave as soon as he finished speaking, leaving Rickdo no choice.

Moreover, before leaving, Bray shattered the ground with a single sword strike, reburying the entrance to the underground city.

"Mr. Bray, what are you doing?!" Rector exclaimed in surprise upon seeing this.

Bray has effectively cut off any future access to underground cities.

"You still want to go in?"

"Of course, the area we're exploring this time is probably less than one-tenth of the city."

"Then you'll have to figure out how to get in yourself," Bray said quietly.

His casual sword strike was merely to prevent any other parasites from escaping from the ruins.

Even though there are enough thieves, who knows if some might slip through the net?

If it's not buried, a parasite might sneak into the safe zone and threaten everyone's safe zone.

Bray certainly didn't want to see that the woman he was buying groceries was parasitized.

“Uh…” Rector was taken aback.

Leaving those words behind, Bray left the spot and walked in a certain direction.

Bray disliked Rickdo, not just because he was too simple-minded, but for many other reasons.

I reckon Levy would never put on a 0v0 expression if she stood in front of Lector.

The reason is that Rector has absolutely nothing to do with being a "good person".

In peacetime, this guy might be the kind of person who would cause a lot of harm in the name of research.

Rector's current humble posture is only because the other party is not in a dominant position. If he were in a higher position, his personality would change completely.

"Wait, don't leave me behind!" Rector looked longingly at the ruins, then ran to catch up with Bray's retreating figure.

---

In the wasteland, some distance from the safe zone of the capital, there was an unusual tranquility.

There were no rampaging monsters there, and a small number of buildings were remarkably well-preserved.

If you go even closer, you can see several incredibly huge corpses.

There were no carrion-eating creatures on those corpses.

As for why there aren't any? The reason is simple: these are all corpses of the Silver race.

Even if a demigod dies, he is still a demigod; it is quite difficult to corrupt him.

Father Thun, who lived here, had been troubled for a long time by these corpses that were too heavy to move or cut.

In the end, he gave up on dealing with the corpses of these demigods and treated them as part of the scenery.

He sat in front of a small house whose interior was charred but whose exterior was intact, holding a book in one hand and eating a small piece of biscuit with the other.

Food was scarce, so Father Thun was always very frugal.

Only on certain occasions will an adventurer bring his own supplies or a gift from a nun to this place.

Is life here interesting? No, it's very boring.

If it were someone else, they would quickly be driven mad; only a few people can maintain their individuality in such an extremely lonely place.

Father Thun has the ability to return to the safe zone and to be with the people he knows, but he simply chooses not to.

He must protect what lies behind him with his life.

“Father Thun.” A familiar voice rang in the priest’s ears.

Father Thun closed the book with a sigh, then carefully put away the food and looked up at the person who had spoken.

"Help!" Bray said to the priest expressionlessly.

“Mr. Bray, you don’t think you’ve reached the point where you need to call for help,” Father Thun said with a smile.

He noticed that Bray was covered in blood, but Bray's injuries were not actually serious.

Of course, this is relative to the fact that Bray's injuries are not serious compared to usual. If these wounds are left untreated, they can easily worsen.