I, Who Came From the Abyss, Will Save Humanity Again Today - Volume 2 Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Carlos is Dead

 

***

 

“Shh——! Keep your damn voice down, you idiot. If those knights hear us, we’re finished!”

 

The man kept his voice very low, being quite careful, but still couldn’t escape my powerful sensory abilities.

 

“……What are you afraid of, they’re too far away to hear us, and there’s no one else here……Hey, why don’t we take a quick hit here before going back?”

 

“Damn it, Lutz! Just work quietly, don’t make trouble for yourself.”

 

“Yeah Lutz, better listen to big bro, it won’t kill you to hold back. Tonight is special, with all these Church knights around, we absolutely cannot show our hand, don’t do anything stupid.”

 

“It’s fine, just two puffs, nothing will happen.”

 

What are they talking about? Why does it sound like there’s an addict among them?

 

I poked my little head out from behind the tree, squinting to try to see the situation in the distance, but my view kept getting blocked by the falling snowflakes, making everything blurry and unclear.

 

“……You idiot, what are you doing, do you want to die?! Put that away quickly!”

 

Following these words, a sturdy figure suddenly lunged at another person, and the two began wrestling, seemingly fighting over something in their hands.

 

“Come help me!”

 

“Lutz, you little bastard, damn!”

 

“Stop fighting, I won’t take any, I won’t take any……damn it, this is mine!”

 

The scuffle didn’t last long before stopping, probably because someone gave in. Then that voice continued:

 

“Whew—, damn it, you know who this shipment is for, right? If something goes wrong, it won’t just be you, your whole family won’t escape it, don’t you understand?! Don’t just think about your craving and forget everything else!”

 

“……I know, I know, I just wanted to smell it a bit, hehe. It’s just going without for a couple days, no big deal.”

 

“If you dare take that out again, I’ll kill you myself!”

 

“Big bro, calm down, hehe.”

 

“Though our boss might be the first one who can’t resist, haha.”

 

“That’s his business, now shut your mouth.”

 

…………

 

The figures gradually walked away.

 

I came out from behind the tree, not wasting any more time in the forest. After absorbing another animal, I returned to the group.

 

The knights had already lit roaring campfires, their light shining on the scattered white tents around them, appearing exceptionally bright in the twilight. About 200 meters from the camp, there were some scattered lights, that was where the merchants had set up camp.

 

Very clever, if they were really ordinary merchants, the closer they stayed to the Church knights, the more protection they would have. But if they were up to something suspicious, being too hesitant to interact with the Church knights would easily raise suspicion. This couldn’t be considered anything but a bold yet careful choice.

 

Carlos sat straddling a large rock by the fire, continuously making and throwing snowballs into the distance like a child. Seeing me approach, he immediately offered me the half-eaten dry bread he had been holding in his mouth.

 

“Want some?”

 

……This guy, what does he take me for, actually daring to offer me his leftover bread? Looking carefully, there was even Carlos’s glistening saliva still on it.

 

I immediately showed my disgust.

 

“No thanks, do you want to die?”

 

Carlos shrugged indifferently and quickly finished the bread in two or three bites.

 

“Why did you take so long to use the bathroom, are you constipated?”

 

I glared at him fiercely, then turned my head away huffily, showing that I didn’t want to talk to him right now. After a while, remembering what happened in the forest, I couldn’t help but ask him.

 

“Katakuri. What is guguo grass?”

 

Carlos, who was holding a snowball ready to throw at me, changed expression when he heard this.

 

“Where did you hear about that stuff?”

 

I gave him a fierce look, pointing my jade-white delicate finger at his nose.

 

“Calorie, you dare throw that snowball at me!?”

 

My almond eyes wide open.

 

If he dared throw that snowball at me, I would fight him.

 

“No.” Carlos immediately dropped the snowball and raised both hands in surrender, “Don’t get angry, let’s talk properly, what’s this about guguo grass you mentioned?”

 

“……In the forest, heard the merchants talking.” My finger changed direction to point at the merchant camp’s lights in the distance, “They have a big employer, very afraid of being discovered.”

 

After saying this I felt that answering whatever he asked made me lose face, as if I was being very obedient to him. Dissatisfied, I wrinkled my little nose, but felt too embarrassed to keep dwelling on the snowball incident. After hesitating for a while, I could only say huffily: “Only I can throw at you, you can’t throw at me.”

 

Then I bent down to make a snowball and threw it at his face, finally feeling satisfied.

 

“……Stop fooling around.” Carlos cleaned the snow off his face and fell into deep thought.

 

“What is it?” I asked him curiously.

 

“Guguo grass……it can numb people’s senses, earlier it was actually used by physicians as an herb to relieve patients’ pain. But shortly after that, someone discovered that when dried guguo grass is lit, the smoke can make people hallucinate, reportedly……able to forget all worldly troubles, as if entering a divine realm. But that stuff is extremely harmful to the human body, and very addictive. People who smoke guguo grass for years all end up becoming deranged fools. This thing is also considered a specialty of Sylgaria……a drug repeatedly banned by the Holy Church.”

 

“Oh.”

 

This is pretty much like opium.

 

“Since we know about this now, we can’t just ignore it.”

 

Carlos patted his bottom and stood up thoughtfully, then waved to the Knight Captain nearby.

 

“Sir Carlos, is something wrong?” The Knight Captain formally saluted us before asking.

 

“There’s something suspicious about those merchants……”

 

Carlos told him what had happened.

 

When the Knight Captain heard there might be people trafficking guguo grass, his face showed disgust.

 

“Little Syl heard them mention having a big employer, so this definitely isn’t as simple as just delivering supplies to an orphanage. Let’s go take a look.”

 

“Alright.”

 

The Knight Captain agreed and called 20 knights to go with Carlos to the merchant camp. Since I had nothing else to do, I followed along just to watch the excitement.

 

The merchant camp was very lively, with various crude conversations and laughter that could be heard from far away. When they saw the Church knights approaching, everything immediately went quiet, with obvious wariness on their faces.

 

The Knight Captain looked around with a grim expression and asked:

 

“Who’s in charge here?”

 

“I am, I am……um, honorable knight sirs, what can we do for you?”

 

A somewhat plump middle-aged man stepped out from the crowd, bowing and scraping to the knights with an awkward smile on his face.

 

I remembered him, he was the one who had made eye contact with me before, whose gaze had made me feel deeply uncomfortable at the time.

 

“I’m going to inspect your goods.” The Knight Captain said this without asking for their permission and waved to the knights behind him, “Open their cargo boxes, look for dried leaves or black-gray powder.”

 

“Yes!”

 

“Keep your eyes sharp, all of you!”

 

The knights pushed aside the merchants blocking their way and went to the wagons to pry open the boxes and start checking.

 

“What are you doing! You can’t do this!”

 

Anyone who tried to step forward to stop them was roughly pushed to the ground, and the scene immediately became chaotic. Seeing this situation, the lead merchant became somewhat anxious, wanting to stop it but not daring to. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he said timidly:

 

“No, sir. We’re just merchants doing errands for the Holy Church, earning some hard money, isn’t there some misunderstanding here?”

 

“Whether there’s a misunderstanding or not, we’ll discuss after we finish checking.”

 

The Knight Captain remained unmoved, directing the knights to open all the wooden boxes and roughly search through the goods.

 

Looking at the chaotic situation before me, I twisted my mouth corner somewhat speechlessly.

 

Looks like the Church is used to violent law enforcement, this scene makes it look like we’re the bad guys.

 

“Sir, I don’t know what you’re suspecting, we’re just delivering food to the orphanage children, you…you can’t do this!”

 

The lead merchant was sweating profusely with anxiety. Seeing the Knight Captain completely ignoring him, he looked at me standing gracefully to the side. After his gaze lingered for a moment, he still turned to Carlos for help.

 

After all, according to normal thinking, how could a little girl like me make these rough knights obey, Carlos looked more reliable.

 

“Sir, please tell us what crime we’ve committed, can we speak plainly?”

 

Carlos spread his hands at him, looking uninvolved.

 

The merchant’s face showed a pleading expression, looking quite pitiful. But I saw him secretly reach one hand behind his back to make a gesture.

 

Hmm, there really is something suspicious.

 

I gently pulled on Carlos’s sleeve.

 

“Hmm? What is it, did you notice something?”

 

“Mm.” I nodded to him, then expressionlessly held out my right hand, palm up, “Give me food.”

 

Suddenly feeling a bit hungry.

 

Although I had just devoured an animal, that could only satisfy spiritual hunger, I still hadn’t eaten dinner.

 

“……”

 

Carlos looked at me somewhat speechlessly.

 

“Don’t have any.”

 

Though saying this, he still took out a clean white cloth bundle from his shirt. Under my expectant gaze, he opened it to reveal the pies wrapped inside.

 

“Earlier, why didn’t you give me any.”

 

“You didn’t ask me for any.”

 

Carlos showed an innocent expression, then took out one piece to give to me.

 

“Give me all of them!”

 

I snatched all the pies.

 

By this time the goods had basically been checked, and a knight came over to report.

 

“Captain Klar, no abnormalities found.”

 

“Sir, I told you, we really are just ordinary merchants.” The lead merchant secretly breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile.

 

The Knight Captain didn’t acknowledge the merchant’s words, but looked at me with furrowed brows.

 

“Munch munch munch……find someone……munch munch……called Lutz, search him.”

 

The smile hadn’t yet faded from the lead merchant’s face when his color suddenly turned deathly pale.

 

The Knight Captain caught his reaction and looked at him with an ambiguous smile.

 

“Who is Lutz.”

 

“……Sir, we don’t have anyone here called Lutz……”

 

I elbowed the Knight Captain and pointed to some rocks in the distance.

 

Under the faint moonlight, a furtive figure carrying a large bundle was trying to quietly slip away in the darkness.

 

“Who’s that!”

 

“Someone’s trying to run!”

 

“After them!”

 

Seeing that he was discovered, the figure scrambled to run away, and the Knight Captain directed people to chase after him.

 

I swallowed the food in my mouth and picked up the second pie to bite. Just then, there was a sudden flash of electricity beside me, Carlos moved.

 

“Bzzt——”

 

“Bang——”

 

A thick blue electric arc flashed for an instant, and the next moment, he had lifted that person up.

 

Then, the fierce wind finally arrived, blowing my hair into disarray, spattering dots of mud onto my dress.

 

“Plop.”

 

I was startled and my small hand trembled, dropping all the pies on the ground.

 

“……”

 

My face darkened.