The Mysterious Child: An Adventure Tale Beginning with Numerology

Near the border between the Kingdom of Restamia and the Nogana Republic.

There was a dilapidated checkpoint, and beside it stood a solitary old church.

The sea wind rattled the church windows, making the candlelight flicker. A draft from somewhere made the inside of the church chilly.

"It's getting a bit cold. Ruruk, hmm?"

"What's with those outstretched arms?"

"I thought you could warm me up."

Ignoring Saaya's obvious ulterior motives, I threw Seori, who had subtly cozied up to me from the other side, at Saaya.

"Master, whyyyy?"

"Oh, Seori is warm too. So soft~"

"Eep! N-not there!"

"It's fine, it's not like it'll wear out. Come on, come on."

Saaya was sexually harassing Seori.

However, both of them were speaking in very low voices. This was because there were other people in the chapel besides us. Naturally, as it was late at night, everyone else was asleep.

The reason we were spending the night in such a place was that the ultra-fast golem carriage's weakness turned out to be strong winds, surprisingly.

Well, given that it floats, maybe it's not so surprising.

The carriage interior became hellish as it was shaken by the strong winds, and Lilith, who wasn't used to traveling, was the first to go down.

We had the golem slow down considerably, but when Nagi's face started to look unwell too, we spotted this church and decided to stop by.

Lilith and Nagi were sound asleep after Saaya cast sleep magic on them. By the way, Elen and Punisuke were already fast asleep from the time in the carriage. Their nerves are too thick.

"To think there'd be a church in a place like this. With no town or anything around."

"Seems there's a fishing village nearby. Though it looks like only about a dozen people live there."

When we came in, the soldiers who were staying here were awake, so we were able to hear a bit about the area.

Apparently, there's a small hut behind the church where an elderly priest lives. Judging from the roof and the symbol displayed in the chapel, this seems to be a St. Kianus Church. It's the sect with the most followers in this world.

"The Kianus Church must have it tough. They have to build a church wherever there's a settlement, right?"

"Yeah, because if you don't offer prayers, dead bodies will turn into undead when they decay."

One of the causes of humans turning into undead is when their souls can't be sent to the gods.

That's why one of the church's jobs is to mourn the dead. There are apparently other reasons for becoming undead, but due to the nature of the cases, research hasn't progressed much.

"Hmm. But monsters don't turn into undead, right? Neither do animals or plants."

"...Now that you mention it, that's true. I wonder why."

Come to think of it, I've only ever seen undead that were originally human.

It's not that other animals don't have souls, so there must be another reason.

"Well, since undead themselves are treated as monsters, it makes sense that monsters don't turn into undead--"

"M-Master... talk about something more fun..."

Seori was on the verge of tears.

I could tell through our bond that she was about to wet herself again. It's not my intention to make her have accidents three times at this age, so I should change the subject to something else. While I want to tease her for fun, I'll probably get scolded by Saaya again, so I'll refrain.

As I fell silent to think of a topic, the sound of wind hitting the windows and the flickering candles became more prominent, making the space even more eerie than before.

The situation of taking refuge in a seaside church added to the atmosphere.

"...This kind of introduction seems familiar."

"I thought so too."

We don't say what it's familiar to. Because it would scare Seori.

Saaya seemed to know some of the standard patterns too, and spoke with a slightly amused tone.

"But this pattern, given the situation, could turn into a psycho thriller, don't you think?"

"Like a panic scenario?"

"Yeah, exactly. First, the window breaks and the candlelight goes out. Then someone starts laughing, and in the pitch darkness, unpleasant sounds start to be heard."

"...And when someone manages to light up the place?"

"There are terrible bloodstains, but not a single person is missing."

"Oh! That sounds genuinely interesting."

It would be even more interesting with some mystery elements mixed in.

It's a different kind of enjoyment from pure horror.

It's just imagination, but since we're on night watch anyway, it's nice to have an enjoyable topic. While Seori, who doesn't know the concept of movies, doesn't understand, I'd like to expand on the story idea--

"Mm. Coming."

Elen, who was supposed to be fast asleep, had woken up at some point and was holding her staff, looking up at the ceiling.

Before I could use my x-ray vision, I understood why.

BOOM!

Suddenly, part of the roof was blown away. Lots of small debris rained down. Blending into the dark night sky, something huge was writhing beyond the opened hole.

Saaya was deflecting all the falling ceiling fragments out of range with her "Probability Manipulation."

"Come on, this development is a bit too unexpected, isn't it?"

Peering down from the pitch-black sky was neither a ghost nor a serial killer... but a giant shark.

It was about twenty meters long.

Three red eyes were glowing, all fixed on us. It had a ferocious look, as if searching for prey.

"A flying shark, huh... Isn't that old?"

"In that industry, most sharks are old."

It's a realm where if you think you've come up with an innovative shark, someone has already done it.

As we were having this tension-free conversation, the people around us seemed to have woken up from the sound of destruction. There was a commotion as they looked at the ceiling.

"Mm, I'll do it."

"By the way, the fins are said to be delicious."

"...Leave it to me."

Elen's nostrils flared.

Upon inspection, the flying shark turned out to be an A-rank monster called Otodus. I told her that the appraisal results showed its shark fin to be delicious.

Otodus stuck its head through the hole it had made and began to invade the church interior, causing further destruction. The soldiers screamed at the overwhelming sight of the huge shark trying to pass through the hole with a thunderous roar.

Well, for Elen, it was just an ingredient.

"'Ice Snipe.'"

A thin icicle was fired, piercing Otodus's forehead.

The shark's body pulsed once, then went limp, getting stuck in the hole and convulsing.

A single strike to the vital point, what amazing skill.

"Sleep. Eat tomorrow."

"Alright. Good night."

Elen, having finished her job, immediately lay down and started snoring in two seconds.

Thanks, good work.

For now, I feel bad for the soldiers who don't understand what happened, but we need to collect the fish meat while it's fresh.

I went around calming them down and had them leave the church once to prevent secondary damage in case of further ceiling collapse.

It was obvious at a glance that Otodus was already dead by looking up at the ceiling, so everyone left quietly without panicking.

We quickly retrieved Otodus, and Saaya reinforced the ceiling with earth magic. After sealing the hole and making it safe for the time being, we had everyone return to the church.

Some were anxious when they heard that a child had reinforced the ceiling with magic after looking up at it, but we managed to convince them by showing our adventurer cards.

"Hmm..."

When we returned to our original spot, Saaya was looking at the peacefully sleeping Elen with a troubled expression.

"What's wrong?"

"We were talking about psycho developments earlier, but... isn't the biggest psychopath perhaps Elenora?"

That's certainly true.

But since the shark movie itself is so over-the-top, let's not count it this time.

Looking at the self-paced sheep girl sleeping soundly, that's what I decided to think.

The next morning, the elderly priest was dumbfounded looking at the ceiling.

He suspected we might have destroyed it with magic, but when we showed him the defeated Otodus, his legs gave out. He was so shocked that I worried his lifespan might have shortened.

According to the priest, this Otodus had apparently been living in the nearby sea for a long time. He seemed to know it could fly, but said it rarely approached land.

The priest was quite puzzled as to why this Otodus had attacked the church. He kept glancing at us, so he might have suspected us of something.

As we departed from the scene of the shark movie, we walked to the checkpoint together with the soldiers we had spent the night with. We then entered the territory of the Nogana Republic, being thanked as we went.

"The wind's calm now, shall we ride the express again?"

"Shark fin."

"That's for lunch."

I told Elen, who was tugging at my sleeve.

We can't exactly cook at the checkpoint.

We boarded the golem carriage and sped along the highway.

Nagi and Lilith, who had been asleep and knew nothing about the shark movie or even the horror elements, were listening to Saaya's story about yesterday with interest.

"A shark crashing into a church, even a saint couldn't predict that."

"Indeed. In a way, it's a victory for the shark."

"Fufu. Even if told in a divine revelation, a saint probably wouldn't believe it."

"If I were a god, I wouldn't want to say things like 'Be careful, a shark is going to attack.'"

"A shark prophecy has no dignity whatsoever."

"Right? It becomes a joke."

"Were sharks such amusing creatures in your previous lives?"

"No, they're the scariest marine creatures."

"Indeed. Many people fall victim to them every year."

"...Then why are they treated like this?"

Lilith was genuinely puzzled. If you don't know about that subculture, I can really understand her feelings. I'm more surprised that Nagi knew about it.

"I thought Nagi was all about swords and didn't know much about subculture stuff."

"There was a shark movie set in the Bakumatsu period where they slashed Ishin sharks, so I learned about it from that."

"What's that? Sounds interesting."

That's too funky.

But that's also the good part of that subculture.

Saaya was explaining the genre of movies to Lilith. Since there are no video works in this world, it took a little time for her to understand, but as soon as she did, her eyes began to sparkle.

"So you were able to record light particles with just the power of science?"

"That's right. We connect those still images to make a video, and then combine it with audio to create a film."

"I see... A device that combines recorded images in sequence with sound... I might be able to..."

Lilith started muttering to herself, entering her empress mode.

Ah, I'm certain that another cultural hazard will occur in the near future.

"But it's surprising you didn't know about photographs. I would have thought Moe... I mean, Koneru would have taught you right away."

"I've decided not to take invention ideas from Koneru."

"Why?"

"Because we would probably end up arguing over idea fees and patent rights, and I might cause trouble for Brother Ruru."

"That girl, she tries to squeeze money even out of Lilith?"

"Yes. Koneru is a money-grubber."

"She hasn't changed at all from her previous life~"

No wonder Lilith's inventions hardly contain any elements from Earth.

Even so, isn't Lilith just too talented as an inventor to leap so far ahead of this world's culture?

"Ehehe. I worked hard to be praised by Brother."

"I can see wings on Lilith's back...!"

"There they go again. Brother complex and sister complex, go flirt over there."

We're not flirting. This is just normal sibling conversation.

At that point, surprisingly, Lilith provoked Nagi.

"Oh my, doesn't Nagi-san want to join in?"

"Huh? What are you saying, I wouldn't even if you begged me."

"You're not being honest."

"That is my honest feeling. Don't measure me by your clingy little sister standards."

"Hmm... Want to drink some alcohol? It might make you a bit cuter."

"Hey, shut up and sit there quietly! I'll crush you!"

"'Don't get violent.'"

Saaya and I admonished Nagi, who was yelling with a bright red face.

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Author Notes:

  [(Lilith grew up watching Ruruk's back. That's all I can say from the scene.)

(Also, the shark movie about slashing Ishin sharks is the author's imagination... but if you search, you might find one. That's the scary part about the shark subculture.)]

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