Chapter 53: The Ball (3)
Arlene jumped up to her feet and wiped away at her neck as she looked at the
bed. Croaking, groaning, the monster started to fall.
Appendages. The body of a human. That deaf wizard.
"A-are you alright?" Adam asked his sister.
"What in the world was that?!?" She touched her neck. There was a sting of
blood. A demon had touched her, damn it. "I-it’s that doppelganger, yes?"
"Doppelganger, fucking hell..." A body was splayed on their bed; fireworks
sounded in the distance. The ball and the entire party today had begun. Adam’s
heart had barely raced—maybe due to the alcohol, the danger to his sister, or
perhaps the sheer suddenness of it all—and it took them a few seconds to get
their bearings straight.
All the "rush" of such a situation struck when it was over.
"That’s that deaf wizard."
Even when he had used sign language to talk to him, the deaf wizard did not
react much. It was impossible to understand it then, but could they have?
To think.
A demon was with the CEF all this time.
Right then, their already open door creaked. Two CEF soldiers stood there, with
light injuries around their faces and hands. Adam traced them up and down.
They, too, saw the bed and the body of their friend, particularly the black
appendage leaking out of him. At that very moment, every person in that room
realized the same thing.
"Hah..." Adam moved first as Arlene held her neck tightly. "You bastards, you’re
all of the CEF. What did you say? That the Witch Queen was causing corruption?"
"W-we..." One of them stepped back out of the door. Adam moved ahead, leaking
his killing intent.
To kill them? There was no point in that.
This was the moment—a chance unlike anything else before. The CEF, which had not
just been present but even ran away from a four-corrupt situation in Serenia,
had a demon among their own ranks.
A deaf wizard—the communication wizard that all moving groups of the CEF always
had one of—was a demon.
"Where were you guys staying? In the city’s guest house, yes?"
The same place where four corrupt had risen from, though there was no need to
say that part.
"Lord... Lord Adam, we didn’t know." "It took us with as much of a surprise, I
promise."
Adam narrowed his eyes.
"That’s much, much worse." There was no escape. It was his chance. Even though
Adam was outraging, his chest was filling up with thoughts of what to do next.
They were the same thoughts that anyone in his position would have. They had
found their way to get ahead of the CEF.
A political masterstroke.
The Prime Minister or the CEF wouldn’t be able to take a stand anymore. The Blue
Danube incident? That was something minuscule compared to a demon being in the
CEF’s ranks themselves.
It was time for outrage. Just how many political benefits could they rake out of
this situation?
Adam grabbed one of the CEF soldiers by the collar and lifted him up.
"You rat. Are you all in on this together? Using a figure like the ’Witch Queen’
to excuse your own plans?"
What was he even saying? Adam himself could laugh at the absurdity of that.
These CEF soldiers clearly had no clue that a demon was among them.
"What were your orders? To rife the North with chaos? What are your goals? Spill
them right fucking now."
"I promise, I swear on the Holy Saint, the Goddess, and the skies. We truly
didn’t know. Truly." "Please, Lord Adam!" the other reached in, too. "Look, we
are injured, too. That bastard attacked us as well. It’s our fault, yes, but we
weren’t involved!"
Both the CEF soldiers pleaded with Adam. The one above saw behind him to Arlene,
who was holding her neck, and the black mark spreading around it, before he was
roughly tossed on the ground.
The CEF soldier fell on his back, and the other quickly reached in.
Adam glared at them, still angry.
"Summon your in-charge, Morphos was it? This is no small matter. Not only did
you guys leave a demon rampant among your own ranks; it caused corrupts to form
in the city, and then it even attacked the daughter of Reinvelt."
A black mark? The soldiers, trembling, looked behind Adam.
There lay the body on the bed, and standing near the wall, flushed red with a
hand on her neck, was Arlene Reinvelt.
Just the mere implications of what had happened here were enough to make anyone
piss their pants and fall. Simple little soldiers like them had absolutely no
authority at all in front of this situation.
She was bleeding, and a black mark was spreading around her neck.
The soldier who had been lifted by Adam was stunned. His breath hitched.
From the beginning, the CEF was trained for one thing.
One thing, and one thing alone—it was in their name: to eliminate the Corduil
Corruption.
There was no other option. Every incident of corruption led to the corrupted
becoming mindless, powerful monsters. They would wreak havoc blindly, some going
as far as ruining entire landscapes.
The Corduil Corruption was the worst disease that had to be controlled as soon
as it was found.
There was... no cure. And so, three things were seen to deduce the presence of
Corduil Corruption, though it was not always confirmable.
First — Corduil Corruption happened through contact with a demon. Not all
contact caused corruption, but any random contact could.
Arlene had been struck in the neck.
Second — it began with a fever, causing people’s breathing to be labored and
eventually leaving them bedridden. The stronger ones could last it longer.
She was flushed red.
Third — it caused a black mark, like wounds and blood clots, to spread over
one’s body.
"T-t-that..." The CEF soldier pointed ahead at Arlene, his eyes widening. "It’s
spreading. That black mark, on Lady Arlene..."
Adam was about to shut the soldier up when he saw both of them were looking
beyond him, as if he had disappeared from their minds. He slowly turned back.
There stood his sister, holding herself up on a table as she breathed heavily
and pressed down on her neck.
Arlene had been struck in the neck.
Arlene was flushed red.
Arlene had a black mark spreading on her body.
Adam gulped.
"She is... corrupted."
