Don't Be Holy! - Chapter 34
“Oh my goodness! Eir, are you alright?”
But Eir, with a handkerchief stuffed in her mouth, couldn’t answer. Sarah, who had approached Eir as she lay groaning from her hard fall, noticed her hands were tied behind her back. Shocked, she quickly sat down beside Eir and began untying the rope.
“What happened here? What’s going on?”
The ropes were tied so tightly that her hands had turned blue. Was she robbed? All the men had already gathered to fight the monsters, who could have done this?
As soon as her hands were freed, Eir pulled out the handkerchief from her mouth and rubbed her aching chin, not realizing what thoughts were running through Sarah’s mind as she helped her.
Only after the pain had subsided somewhat did Eir lift her head with a sigh of relief, meeting Sarah’s intense gaze that seemed to have been waiting for this moment.
“Did you…… see who did this?”
Eir felt a headache coming on at the female solidarity seeping through that voice. She had no idea how to resolve this situation where there appeared to be only a victim and no perpetrator.
“It’s, it’s not like that.”
Eir answered awkwardly, swallowing a groan. Sarah’s eyes lit up as she asked:
“Then what?”
“It’s, well. It’s nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Yes. It’s nothing.”
You know what? Repetition doesn’t help establish an opinion. If anything, the more you repeat yourself, the more firmly the other person’s suspicions settle in a different direction.
It’s not a robbery or an assault. Then how did she end up tied up? Could it be something intimate? Is that why she’s fumbling for words? If it was intimate, with whom? Could it be with Mr. Lu? But didn’t Eir say she had no interest in him?
Eir could read all these thoughts as they flashed across Sarah’s face. But she couldn’t bring herself to deny it again.
If she denied it, Sarah would surely press her with ‘Then what happened?’ until she got a satisfactory answer.
Since Eir herself couldn’t think of any other reasonable explanation for why someone would end up tied up like this, she decided it might be better to stay quiet, even if it was embarrassing.
At least it was better than the truth about criminal matters…… right?
“I see.”
Sarah acknowledged with an ambiguous voice that suggested a much greater emotional distance.
Forcing herself to keep her head still despite wanting to look around, she belatedly explained:
“I’m sorry. I came in without knowing the situation. Father told me to check on you before he left. Since your house is close to the mountain, he was worried the monsters might have gotten to you.”
Though the phrase ‘came in without knowing the situation’ was mortifyingly embarrassing, Eir deliberately changed the subject with a composed face.
“How’s the village? I heard the warning horn earlier.”
“Seems like Hecmel and Slaum invaded the village.”
Neither Hecmel nor Slaum were particularly dangerous monsters. Both were slow-moving creatures that even adult women could kill if they observed carefully. However…….
“Two species at once?”
While corrupted land naturally spawns monsters, it usually takes time for two different species to appear. But for this to happen so quickly, not long after the Alupu appeared, something felt very wrong.
‘Could there be another witch here?’
Actually, something similar had happened a year ago when Granny was still alive.
A witch had come then. Though the village borders were more strictly guarded then and she couldn’t enter, she somehow knew of Eir’s existence and used the excuse of wanting to leave flowers at an acquaintance’s grave to pass along a cursed flower basket.
The witch’s story had been so flawless that even the guards were moved to tears, telling Eir to help quickly.
‘Go place these at the grave before dark. You visit that grandfather’s place often anyway.’
Eir had intended to do just that.
How could she refuse after hearing the story of someone who had come looking for their sick father’s grandfather, only to learn today that he had already passed away?
The woman, who introduced herself as Mary, had even hurriedly bought flowers after hearing from the guard about the grandfather’s death.
But on her way to the grave with the flowers, something felt off.
A strong gut feeling that this wasn’t right.
