No to Being the Suffering Heroine!

Lower class butcher, Hugh Casval.

The moment he casually boasted of his infamy, my sword was already flying towards his neck.

My body reacted faster than I thought.

Swing your sword. Kill the enemy in front of you.

It wasn’t a strike imbued with the power of [Kangwank]. If I had absolute confidence in my own strength, it might be different, but hitting a finishing move right from the first strike is nothing short of madness.

For me now, [Kangwank] was a gamble between life and death. If it succeeds, the enemy dies, and if it fails, I die.

It’s not a technique I would pull out against an enemy whose abilities are a mystery.

It’s like playing a card game and going all in without looking at the cards on the enemy’s table.

So I couldn’t use [Kangwank] yet.

What if I swung my sword at full power, risking exhaustion, and he dodged?

What if he blocked it with an unexpected move?

What if he regenerated even after being sliced in half?

I had no idea what kind of hell I would face afterward.

The risk was too great.

Thus, my instincts told me to unleash a maximum speed strike that I could normally perform instead of activating [Kangwank].

The black iron blade shot out like lightning, scattering rotten blood.

Thwack!

…But it didn’t hit.

My lightning-fast swing of the longsword swept through empty air, just a step away from the old man’s neck.

“Cough…!”

It wasn’t a failure in distance control.

Even though I had killed enough enemies to make a hill, there was no way I could misjudge the distance between me and him at this point.

“Dangerous, isn’t it? Quick judgment, I’ll give you that. I’d believe you were a knight.”

The old man, who had taken half a step back, pointed down with his slightly revealed fingertips and smiled.

My legs halted just before taking the final step, caught by the half-rotting hands that suddenly popped out from the ground.

“Grasp of the Dead.”

A binding magic that summons the hands of the dead to hold an enemy in place.

That’s right. The reason my swung longsword missed wasn’t because of my mistake; it was because my legs were caught by his magic.

“Just stay put. At my age, struggling with a young lady is a bit burdensome.”

Hugh Casval raised his right hand, pointing at me while joking around. A translucent gray mass pulsed within his outstretched hand like a gaping claw.

“Shut your mouth…!”

I glared at him, my eyebrows furrowing.

My first attack was easily shut down.

If I had activated [Kangwank] and swung the sword, could I have broken the binding magic and cut him down in one go?

Well, probably not.

I couldn’t imagine that a Abyss Priest capable of instantaneously activating binding magic would willingly go down just because that one challenge was broken.

…Anyway, I couldn’t just remain trapped like this.

“Something like this!”

I grabbed the grasp and slashed it with my sword, breaking it, and spun to throw my body toward the old man.

“Here! Right here, there’s a real Abyss Priest!”

Drawing the attention of the adventurers who thought they had already won with a loud yell.

I still hadn’t found my helmet, so I wanted to avoid drawing attention, but given the circumstances, worrying about my face could wait until later.

“What? Just now, what did they say…?”

“Abyss Priest…? A ‘real’ Abyss Priest?”

The adventurers enjoying a break after the battle turned their heads toward me in confusion.

“Hilde? Wait, that’s…”

“Eek…! I’m not wearing my helmet!”

Gerda and Friede also rushed toward me, surprised.

“Haah!”

Ignoring their astonishment, I dashed toward Hugh Casval, who was retreating like a ghost.

Keeping an eye on both his raised right hand and the ground beneath my feet.

“Are you trying to gather your allies? Quick judgment indeed. It’s a standard tactic.”

“What nonsense. You think you’re some kind of sage? A butcher’s subject.”

“A butcher? That’s a bit exaggerated. I haven’t killed enough to be called that.”

He kept retreating while giving his ridiculous self-defense.

“Laughable. Then what about those undead?”

If you combine the number of undead left in the dungeon with the ones I hunted yesterday and today, it must be at least hundreds.

To say he’s not a butcher after killing that many people? That excuse wouldn’t work!

“That’s just reanimating corpses. Corpses are resources laying everywhere. I’ve found it surprisingly interesting how many are overflowing lately.”

However, he continued his shameless excuses with a nonchalant face, as if feeling no guilt.

He just gathered the scattered corpses and resurrected them. He didn’t personally kill all those people one by one.

“Shut it…!”

Unbelievable. There’s no way corpses would be strewn everywhere like wild weeds.

Even with how many raiders I killed, it barely reached a hundred or two.

“There’s no reason for me to lie. The situation wouldn’t change even if I did.”

The Abyss Priest chuckled lightly as he spread his right hand that was aimed at me.

Kyyyyeee…!

The gray mass that had gathered in his right hand shot at me like a bullet, growing bigger as it approached.

What is that?

Is it going to explode?

It’s gotta explode, right?

Realizing it looked bound to explode, I jumped sideways to avoid the glowing mass hurtling toward me.

Glimpsing the grasp of the dead popping up ahead where I had been running just moments ago.

BOOOM!

Then, the gray mass that had veered wide exploded with a great noise. The shockwave cratered the ground and sent earthy gravel flying in all directions.

See? I knew it would explode! He was planning to catch me and blow me away!

“If I don’t get hit, it’s fine!”

And just like that, I dodged it easily.

I placed my left hand on the ground and regained my balance from the sudden shift while charging again toward him.

“Hmmm.”

The Abyss Priest observed me with interest as he stroked his beard and twitched his lips. He reached out with his left hand, drawing a small circle in the air.

Voooom…!

The gray circle inscribed in the air trembled with a soft sound, from which a cold mist erupted.

“Chill of the Nether.”

A curse that disperses chilling air to slow down those who approach.

“What a trivial thing…!”

It felt as if I had fallen into a lake with a thin layer of ice.

My body, tough as Brunhilde’s, wasn’t shaking to the point of falling apart, but still, I couldn’t avoid the slight slowdown in my movements.

“Enduring, are we? Impressive. This isn’t a curse a mere adventurer could withstand.”

The Abyss Priest regarded me with a mix of admiration and disdain.

“How weak you must be. Want to try? There are plenty of adventurers laying around!”

Since my sword wasn’t yet in reach, I quickly drew the dagger at my waist and hurled it toward him like lightning.

“Haah.”

Hugh Casval let out a low laugh, opening a black magic barrier to block my dagger. He then pointed his hand behind me, opening his mouth again.

“Do you still think that?”

And then…

“AAARRRRGH!”

A scream bursting through the darkness.

The sound of flesh slicing and the clanging of metal as weapons clash echoed chaotically.

“That bastard’s attacking the priest!”

“This crazy bastard! What the hell…!”

Voices of shock ought not to be heard arose.

◆◆

With the Abyss Priest before me, I couldn’t turn around, but it was clear what was happening.

“GAAAH!”

“It’s betrayal! There are traitors among us!”

Just hearing the shouts made it obvious.

Betrayal.

Some adventurers, who had abruptly stood up at my cries, suddenly changed their stance and attacked their fellow adventurers.

“Were you in it from the start?!”

“Damn, let’s kill that bastard first—Cough!”

From the sounds, at least one in three among them.

“Kyar! What the hell are you doing?!”

The desperate shouts of the adventurers reverberated.

It was the voice of those plunged into chaos, filled with disbelief at the betrayal of those they believed were their allies.

“Damn it! You think I wanted this? That bastard cursed us! If we don’t betray, our heads will explode!”

A traitor named Kiyar shouted indignantly.

They weren’t doing this because they wanted to, but because of the curse.

“Bastard! I tried to comfort you when you came back alone…! You were with that Abyss Priest! If you were, you should have just died!”

“You can say that? You think you’d be any different?!”

I grasped the situation roughly.

The search party that returned after losing members. They weren’t lucky to escape unharmed. It was the Abyss Priest who let them go.

“Shut up! Just ask the priests to remove the curse!”

“Damn! If it could be undone, I would have done it long ago! They said it would kill us if we spoke!”

He placed a curse on them, making them his puppets, and ordered them to stab their former allies.

A cowardly but effective tactic.

“Are you aiming for my back? You’re a traitor too!”

“Cough! No, I’m…”

“Hamilton! You dare…!”

So effective was it that the panicking adventurers began to suspect each other of being traitors, turning everyone except themselves into the enemy.

“Damn, damn! They’re all crazy! Crazy!”

Warriors swinging swords everywhere in warnings.

Wizards firing fire arrows at the one who killed their lover.

Archers half out of their minds fleeing into the woods.

The battlefield was in complete chaos.

◆◆

The countless adventurers who had achieved miraculous victories against the undead were dealt severe damage due to the betrayal of those they thought were allies.

And it all happened in an instant. Like a joke.

The losses were almost unbelievable for something triggered by a single curse.

However, one thing I couldn’t understand was…

“A killing curse that activates just by uttering certain words…?”

I barely kept myself from looking back, swinging my sword at the Abyss Priest as questions floated in my mind.

“If you have the skill to use such high-level curses, there wouldn’t be a need to employ such troublesome methods in the first place.”

A curse that kills just by mentioning the priest?

If an Abyss Priest could use such a powerful curse, there would be no need to compel adventurers to betray.

They could have wiped us out easily just with their own power.

“Ahh. You have some knowledge about curses, I see? Quite unusual for a mere adventurer. Very interesting…”

Hugh Casval stroked his beard, his smile widening.

“Right. That’s correct. Such high-level curses are something I can only dream of at my current level. If I genuinely placed a curse, the goddess’s hounds would have noticed.”

“What? No, then….”

“Just as the lady thinks. I merely burst the heads of some among them and threatened the rest with curses. Adventurers like them wouldn’t have any idea about curses. They fell right into my trap.”

That’s right. The betrayers weren’t truly cursed from the beginning.

They were merely mistaken, thinking they were cursed because he said so.

That was all that was needed for him.

A knight or priest, or a wizard might have known, but mere party warriors wouldn’t.

“This is how lies are told. Look at this. The simple threat and a single lie led to this result.”

The Abyss Priest, Hugh Casval, spread his arms wide and laughed.

Boasting of his success achieved through deception and trickery.

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