The Revenge of the Soul Eater

who showed disdain towards me for leaving at a time like this, but nevertheless, I convinced them that I was going in order to bring Larz, Iria, and priest Sarah to help with the city’s defense. 

 

  And then after I departed from Ishka, I did not run into any trouble that’s worth mentioning and arrived at the village of Melte quite ahead of schedule.

 

  It’s thanks to Clau Soras’ effort that we got here faster than expected.
He probably misses priest Sarah’s food.
I think he really liked the boar dishes from before.

 

  Looking down from the sky, the view of the village looks the same as before.
It doesn’t look like they got attacked by monsters or fought the other villages over the spoils of the orcs.

 

  However, I noticed that there aren’t that many people going out of the village.
The atmosphere somewhat feels the same as the time I came here before.

 

  With a vague sense of unease, I got off Clau Soras just outside the village.

 

  I realized that uneasiness wasn’t just me overthinking things when I heard the voices of those kids that I knew coming from afar.

 

  The little brats number 1, 2, and 3――Ain, Zwei, and Dora who I reunited with were all crying their eyes out.

 

  At first, I jumped to conclusions and thought something had happened to priest Sarah, and I got goosebumps over my entire body. 

 

  What filled my mind was the horrible faces of the people who were infected with the poison.

 

  However, I don’t know if I should call this lucky, priest Sarah was not infected by the deadly poison.

 

  ――The one who was infected was her daughter, Iria.

 

◆◆◆

 

  There is a type of phantom beast called the aquatic horse.

 

  This beast that is known by the name “Kelpie” has the appearance of a horse like its name suggests, and it appears by rivers.

 

  It has a mane of aquatic plants, a tail of a fish, and countless scales on its torso and four feet.
It can run on the surface of the water as if it’s on the ground, swim in water like a fish, and it can also submerge underwater for long durations without running out of breath. 

 

  Moreover, a Kelpie has the ability to shapeshift; it can change its appearance to a normal horse’s.

 

  Why does it have such an ability? It’s so that it can trick humans to ride it as a horse.
The aquatic horse’s back is sticky, so once people get on, they wouldn’t be able to get off on their own.

 

  The appearance of a normal horse makes its prey drop their guard, and the aquatic horse will go deep down into the water and drown its prey.
After that, it will take its time to devour the prey whole.

 

  Basically, the phantom beast known as a Kelpie is categorized as a man-eater type of demonic beast.

 

  There is a theory that says Kelpies don’t eat human livers, but even if that’s true, that is no consolation to the people who were eaten by one.

 

  While Kelpies do exist, just like the term phantom beasts suggests, they don’t really show themselves before humans very often.

 

  There would be sighting reports that come up in rumors once every 10 years or so.
Their appearance rate is around just that.

 

  For an extremely rare demonic beast like that to appear in Melte at a time like this…It is no doubt the influence of the anomaly in the Titis forest. 

 

  The ones who discovered the Kelpie first were these children.

 

  One day, when Ain and the others were gathering fruits and nuts from the forest located on the edge of the village, they noticed a horse walking toward them slowly.

 

  Wild horses are careful and timid, so it’s rare for them to show up where humans live.
They would almost never get close to humans on their own.

 

  However, even the oldest one out of those three was only the 10-year-old, Ain.
It would be too much to expect from him to know that something was not right. 

 

  Ain and the others naturally brought the horse back with them.
Not only are horses good for farming, but they can also be sold for a high price――They weren’t thinking that deep into it, it was a reason much simpler; they just wanted priest Sarah to praise them.

 

  After that, the Kelpie revealed its true colors and ended up forcefully carrying Ain and Zwei to the Kale river.
Dora, the only one who was safe, ran back to the village in tears and told Iria and Larz, who would occasionally visit the church, about what happened.

 

  To be exact, Dora wasn’t able to tell them what happened properly since she couldn’t stop crying, but those two determined that something had happened from the way Dora was acting and the fact that the other two kids were missing and rushed to the scene in a hurry.
It was surely due to their intuition as veteran adventurers.  

 

  And so, Iria and the others ran to the river following the footsteps that the Kelpie left behind, dove into the water, rescued Ain and Zwei who were about to drown, and exterminated the Kelpie as well.

 

 

 

  If the story ended there then it would have been a happily ever after ending, but later on that day, Iria’s body condition suddenly started to deteriorate.

 

  Antidotes and priest Sarah’s healing magic would help her momentarily, but the symptoms would return before long.

 

  Kelpies have the power to curse, and they can curse the ones who killed them too.
priest Sarah who is aware of that tried using decursing magic as well, but even that had no effects. 

 

  While that was going on, more people in the village with the same symptoms as Iria started to appear.
Each one of them had been exposed to the water of the Kale River for some kind of reason. 

 

  It was at that time that I arrived at the village.