Chapter 3

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3. Get a head start.

Dialin hurriedly came to her senses and took a priestly posture.

“You were here.”

But all that came back was rough breathing that added to the anxiety. Dialin unknowingly slipped the whistle that had been wrapped around her wrist into her sleeve.

The man shook his head.

Their eyes met and her body felt like it was going to freeze.

Like a true member of the 8th Division that brings death, fear spread from the man’s very existence. It was such a fear that Dialin had to face from now on.

She took one step closer to the man in tension.

The man’s eyes shone sharply.

“…….”

“…….”

It was a confrontation with the beast.

Shining eyes that seemed to bite at her, at any given moment. Dialin looked at him without avoiding it.

When dealing with beasts, getting a head start is important.

Dialin’s eyes, who was wary of not getting bitten in any way, were bitter not to lose. Although crouched, the man’s body was huge.

It was different from being overweight.

He was a beast.

He had a sharp, sleek body.

When he was alone he had rough and trembling breathing, but the sound subsided after he found Dialin. That heightened the tension even more.

Dialin stopped, keeping a safe distance to some extent.

“Nice to meet you. Greetings from God-.”

“…uhh….”

The man growled and Dialin closed her mouth.

The man’s breathing, which had subsided, became harsh again.

Whoops, whoops.

It was like a razor-sharp sword was standing in the breath he exhaled.

Dialin opened her mouth again.

“I am a Priest.”

“Argh!”

The man’s shout cut off her words. He screamed and slammed the floor with the broken leg of the desk. With each blow, shattered pieces of wood bounced in all directions.

‘Wow…….It’s crazier than I thought.’

Dialin swallowed her dry saliva.

This was different from just leashing a wild dog. Division 8 members were sensitive and crazy. I knew it well, and I was prepared, but I did not know that I would be blocked right up from the greetings.

Dialin just stood blankly because she had no idea how to open her mouth again. She couldn’t move, because the only way she could turn around was to run away.

She couldn’t even let him find out that she had lost her composure.

How long has it been?

The man slowly got up and approached one step at a time. Dialin swallowed dry saliva at the growing pressure.

“…Gulp…”

Alas, the sound of swallowing was annoying.

With those words, she wiped out the dry saliva she was about to swallow in her mouth. If she kept making the sound of swallowing, he would separate her salivary glands from her airway.

First of all, I have to live.

‘This is okay, right?’

Dialin smiled as if confirming and nodded her head.

Of course, she did a great job, but the same answer didn’t come back.

Is it because I moved? The man looked more unstable than she had seen on the battlefield. Division 8 members were always on edge, but it wasn’t so unstable that they couldn’t control themselves.

“Well, then.”

“Arghh!”

“…….”

As I was about to take one step closer, a scream broke out.

If this keeps happening, I’m staying in this place all night.

Dialin, with her benevolent smile, tried to persuade him in a divinely small voice.

“To help the warrior…”

“Aww! Arghh! Aaaaah!”

…It didn’t work.

However, the man’s condition was unusual.

The desk legs seemed to not be enough, it felt like he’d tear anything he could get his hand onto. Humans were also included in that category.

Dialin retreated to the door once, with batted breath.

I am the furniture, I am the door…….

However, it seems that the man has already recognized Dialin as ‘intrusive’.

“Aaaah! Aww!”

He ripped off his hair, and even rolled over on the floor, covering and uncovering his ears. Then he raised his bloodshot red eyes.

‘Ah.’

It’s done. It’s gone.

His mind is completely gone.

Humanely pacifying him is already impossible.

Dialin grabbed the whistle under her sleeve.

Almost at the same time, the man ran towards her.

She blew the whistle without hesitation.

Pyoo!

The sound of the whistle was plain and shorter than expected. It couldn’t even be heard in a crowded place.

‘Isn’t this a scam?’

And the moment she was anxious, the man who was running at her fell to the floor with a bang.

“……uh?”

The man who collapsed in a posture of throwing his limbs away did not move. Even after waiting for a long time, he remained the same.

Dialin’s thoughts hardened.

“What’s this……?”

I looked down at the whistle I was holding in my hand. There was a very slight divine power-like energy, but there was nothing special about it.

This energy, such a weak and small energy, was strong enough to sink that raging man in one shot?

She couldn’t believe what she saw, so she alternated looking at the whistle and the fallen man.

The whistle was still a whistle, and the man had fallen.

With such a strong control method they rolled the infamous 8th Division, which was called crazy dogs even by allies, around the battlefield. At the same time that it was understandable, she slowly became worried about the man.

It’s been a while since he collapsed, and he’s still in that position.

It was hard to tell whether he was dead or alive.

“Excuse me……?”

Dialin cautiously called the man from far away.

There was no answerback.

“Hey?”

Still silent.

I know he’s not the kind of guy who’s sly enough to pretend he’s dead to trick people, but there’s nothing wrong with being careful.

Dialin crept closer.

As she approached, she reached right next to the man. Still, the man kept his eyes closed, repeating light breaths.

‘What?’

A reddish mark was seen around the man’s neck. She reached out and pulled down his collar to look closely at the red marks. There were traces of strangulation with something like a rope.

‘Huh?’

Dialin looked at the whistle in her hand and the traces left on the man’s neck. Under the circumstances, the sound of the whistle choked the man’s neck.

‘No, no matter hard I try, I can’t do this to people…’

Knowing the principle of how it worked, the whistle suddenly felt disgusting. I didn’t want to hold it in my hand, so I quickly tucked it into my sleeve.

It was a precious item that will protect my life for the time being, but seeing the strangled marks on the man’s neck, I don’t think I will use it at all.

‘For now….’

I couldn’t leave the person who collapsed like this on the cold floor.

“Hey.”

This time I tried to shake the man’s body, but there was still silence. There was only a faint moan that unconscious came out of his mouth.

“Uh….”

The strangled marks on his neck were like bruises on a hanged corpse. No matter how strong the body, the impact would not have been light. It seems difficult to wake up right away.

Dialin decided to lay the man upright for once.

“……?”

However, the man was heavier than expected.

“Huh?”

Despite his size, he was slender overall and I thought it would be light enough to turn over.

It was hard to even lift one of his arms.

“Ugh, uh!”

The weight of the muscles and bones was staggering. Dialin used her strength as if in a tug-of-war and managed to get the man straight.

“……huh. Oh my god.”

I already want to give up and go home.

Dialin squatted next to the man for a moment and buried her face in her lap. The world was hard. But when she lifted her head again, the world remained the same.

The situation did not change, and there was no one to help her.

“……He won’t die even if he sleeps on the floor.”

The force applied to his neck appeared to be temporary.

As time passed, the man’s complexion and breathing returned to normal. He didn’t look like he’d wake up anytime soon. Dialin was placing a pillow from the bed under the man’s head and found a less healed scar between the open collar.

“…….”

At first glance, the red flesh stands out, it was a recent wound.  It hasn’t been long since the war ended. It was a period in which the wounds from the battlefield could not yet heal.

Dialin pretended not to see and tried to cover him with a blanket.

“……Oh, come on.”

However, she spat out half a curse on herself and half on the world and took off the blanket.

Although she became a priest unintentionally, because the precept that she should help people filled her mind more than she would like, she had no choice but to act.

Dialin indifferently unbuttoned the man’s shirt.

It was unimaginable for any noblewoman, but it was nothing to her, who had been called up to the battlefield twice. On the battlefield, a top is not a problem. Many emergencies had to be treated by peeling the top and bottom of the patients’ clothes. She did it too, so it became blunt.

The difference was that this man’s body was closer to the state of art compared to ordinary soldiers. But she didn’t have time to appreciate it thanks to the wounds he had here and there.

“Is this your body?….”

When she peeled it off, she saw that there were not one or two wounds. There were countless others besides the wounds that were visible through the collar.

Old scars that were disappearing, small scars that seem to have just appeared, bruises dyed blue and dark here and there…….

No matter how crazy he was, if he’s cut, he will bleed and if he’s hit, it will bruise.

Dialin clicked her tongue and started healing one by one. She hoped that dinner was prepared a little more generously.

If she used a lot of her divine power, she would need sugar.

“Sigh, there is no end.”

By the time she said that the sun was already setting and the man did not wake up for quite some time. In the meantime, Dialin had healed half of the man’s wounds. Older wounds were more difficult to heal because they were too deep.

The more wounds one has, the more sensitive they are.

Dialin decided to at least get rid of the visible wounds.

But before that, the man woke up.

“……Oh, are you awake?”

I barely said a word, but the man’s pupils shrunk in a vertical line.

“Hic?!”