The Peerless Kobold (WN)

From the square in front of the auditorium of the Royal Academy of Magic, a white masked Phantom escaped in bloody smoke runs through the streets late at night in an action somewhat lacking glory.

"Huh... so damaged... received Kesgi, Taka..."

Why am I being pushed this way too? Alvesta thinks with a head possessed by paranoia and no longer working properly.

"Blood, blood, blood no...... smell, ca?

It would have been something I would have noticed sooner... but two hundred years after his appearance, his uninterrupted paranoia had prevented him from making a normal decision.

Yes, I won't let him make the decision to withdraw from the King's Capital even now.

"... wa, i ha... mada, stop mare... nai,

One demo... Doc, my brother-in-law... wake up!

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Think of it, everything went crazy from the return of an injured adventurer to the city of Edna in the Eastern Forest Zone.

"Ugh, uhh..."

When the adventurer's man was brought to the cathedral church treatment center, he had a high fever, a small amount but also vomited blood.

"... Priest, how about it?

"It involves bleeding, sounds like a fever... but the magic of healing doesn't work. All we can do is pray, let's tell his people from me..."

To Jill, a nun who refrains behind, Aleph answers with a sunken look.

The survival rate of patients, which is usual but does not work with healing magic, is low and I can only pray to myself. It has been more than a decade since I became a priest at the earliest, and I have prayed a great deal to people who, if I were aware, would die.

In the general theory that the Church speaks of, “those who are to be saved” and "those who are not to be saved” are defined by the will of God by their daily behavior. This doctrine is deeply rooted in the Cathedral Church and I have been taught that since I was an apprentice, too.

In other words, God's hand in salvation can be reached by those who have done good deeds and those who have high faith... but it's not like there was no question.

Suffering from the disease, dying, that they didn't do any good?

Can you say that to a family holding a patient's hand and praying?

"... terrible things, such as me and others trying to take into account the will of the Lord"

I bow my head with my hands together in front of my chest, ashamed of myself for even a moment thinking about such an indiscretion.

"What have you done?

"... no, it's nothing. Jill, you may have an infection, so wash off the blood on it and change your clothes, because I will, too."

"Yes, priest. It would be tough if even the children in the orphanage were possessed by the devil."

He then told his fellow adventurers the same thing and asked the owner of the accommodation to contact him. Later on, I thought there might have been other measures I could have taken if I had knowledge of medicine.

But as a priest acting for God's miraculous sacred magic, there can be no such thing as that knowledge of me, who had doubts about its power and fears of studying medicine.

I also hear about the doctor saving a patient whose healing magic did not work, but it was saved by the Lord's will, not by the doctor... not by him.

(If you study medicine poorly, you may create suspicion of the Lord in my heart... that is so horrible)

Later on I will despise the idea from the bottom of my heart...

The next day, following the first adventurer, the innkeeper's daughter and her fellow adventurers came to the treatment center fluttering with similar symptoms.

"Priest, this is uhh!!

"I still don't know how serious the disease is... but it's an infectious plague! I need you to inform the Lord's representative and encourage him to take action."

"Yes, I'll let Anna go!

"Huh, healing miracle here, ex cure light!

"uhhh... uhh... priest"

A strong holy light wraps Liana, the innkeeper's daughter lying in bed, but there is no indication that the medical condition will ever subside.

We know that healing magic is not omnipotent. Whatever the simple injuries, because the facts that do not work in some illnesses have been confirmed in the history of the diocesan Church.

"Liana, be strong. I am well aware of your faith and your daily deeds. I'm sure the Lord will not abandon you."

I shook her hand in the heat and said so.

"Ha, maybe I can't do that then. He's taking down quite a few demons."

From the bed next door, the adventurer's woman twitches like that.

Even if I'm lying sick, I guess I don't like the dark atmosphere.

"Some of you will have been saved by defeating demons, and the Lord knows that."

"I hope so"

Neither the woman of this bright character adventurer, nor Liana, who is pleasant, will be able to walk on her own by the time about ten days have passed, just like the first adventurer.

By then, there had been countless infections, including Liana's parents.

The infection spreads via the patient's blood, saliva, diarrhea, etc., and small animals living in cities such as rats are also applauded.

And the cathedral church treatment centers in each compartment can no longer accommodate patients any more, and doctor-run hospitals are already in the same condition.

"Priest, it's painful..."

"... morning prayers, I wonder if it's a retribution"

"... it's all right, I'm not going to get hit like that."

(Sorry, all I can do is pray)

At this point, there's no way the orphanage kids are safe, and there's no one left on the bed already.

... Note that I also had signs of infection.

Perhaps in a few more days, it will be impossible to move.

Thus, on the fifteenth day, the first infected man, the Adventurer, died, and the next day Liana and several of the early infected died. On the seventeenth day, the children of the orphanage also die earlier than the others, given the period of infection.

No one was any closer to the cathedral churches, hospitals and other medical facilities where patients were already housed. Enough that I can barely walk, too.

I manage to squeeze my last strength and head to the chapel.

I'm not going to pray.

I'm going to make sure.

Patients are also rolling inside the chapel.

I manage to get to the altar so I don't step on them and kneel.

"And, Lord... Mili, who just died, has only lived six years. Was that child guilty of something?

There is no answer.

Naturally, I have stood on this altar many times, but I have never given the voice of the Lord.

"Lio often fell asleep and lacked a morning prayer, is that enough to lose his life..."

Again, there is no answer.

So I repeated my inquiry and prayer for about three days, and with the time of death approaching, I just understood.

"Oh, God, there's no such thing! Assuming......, uhh, even if I were there, I would never reach out for salvation!!

I wonder how much attention a being that transcends a person will give to a person like him?

I just know one thing.

Prayer is meaningless!!

The next thing I hold is anger towards myself. It saved many with healing magic, but it is tantamount to doing nothing against those that it does not work. Regret pushes over this period.

Anger against God also gushed, but its existence is no longer even vague to me, and there's no point in hitting anger on things I don't know if I'm there.

I felt that the fact of dealing with even some demons showed it, which I can only question about the relationship between Holy Magic and God until here.

"One, we have to tell..., prayer and other worthless,... than that, we have to overcome difficulties with our own, people's power..."

But I'll be dead soon.

Ha ha, my eyes are blurred and I can barely see.

(Oh, thoughtless...... I wanted to pass on the sight I got to someone)

At the end of the day, Aleph dies, but a white death mask rises on his face.

Even though he is a priest, so his magical qualities are sufficient, and his carelessness... in which case it is rare for the dead to come back as undead.

"G, duh!!

However, in his case, he seems to have become the Phantom of the Half Immortal... but it doesn't change the way he acts in an attempt to clear his mindless mind.

"Huh, Telling E, Nakeleva......, Faith Nad, Meaningless Datto!!

He thinks with a head captured by paranoia.

Thus, the blood-mediated magic interference causes a "bleeding disease” that is pseudo-hemorrhagic fever, showing the pointlessness of prayer, and a white masked Phantom seeking self-relief appears in the world.

Later, he reproduced in other cities where he visited ”Bleeding Disease”, which struck the city Edna by cutting his own magic, and repeated his action that if he used up that power, he would enter a temporary sleep unknowingly.

And it becomes known by the people as the "Alvesta of the Black Rain”, the whole of the Seven Disasters.

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