Chapter 22 - Battle Behind the Orphanage ②
Around the time a priest discovered the Revenants in the church's backyard, Katherine at the orphanage was in her bed in her room, thinking of Catherine, who had headed east on horseback.
When she heard Catherine was going to hunt Revenants, she was surprised, but Catherine had simply told the three of them, including Katherine, "I'm just going for a bit, so I'll leave the rest to you." Katherine had said she would go along, but she was told to stay behind and reluctantly obeyed.
When Katherine asked Jennifer if she would be alright, Jennifer replied, "It's better than her saying she's going to defeat the Demon Lord," which left Katherine feeling deflated.
Katherine first met Catherine six years ago. It was when she was working as a mercenary in the Kingdom of Engrio during the previous war. She was nineteen at the time. In a certain operation, a relatively small unit had passed through the border forest and attacked a certain village in Sertoria, but they were easily surrounded almost as soon as they arrived at the village.
The unit commander at the time was the third son of a noble, a man appointed to the position solely because of his bloodline. The action that commander took was to take the villagers hostage. He declared that if the encirclement wasn't broken and the enemy didn't move far away, he would slaughter all the villagers.
Katherine thought it wouldn't succeed. Villagers were always being abandoned by nobles. However, unbelievably, the enemy accepted the conditions and actually retreated.
The problem came after that. The unit commander began to cut down the gathered villagers with his own sword.
Katherine was born in a poor village in the southern part of the Kingdom of Engrio and was a war orphan. At the age of nine, her parents had been tortured and killed before her eyes. It was a common occurrence. No, such things happened all the time. However, while being killed in the heat of battle was one thing, being killed out of spite for one's own failure while the enemy had guaranteed safety was unbearable to watch.
When a couple was killed, their two children wailed loudly. Katherine, unable to take it anymore, thrust her spear through the unit commander as he was about to point his sword even at those children. She thought she had turned from one who is robbed into one who robs, but she was naive. She couldn't go through with it completely. She was immediately apprehended. She thought they could kill her if they wanted, but the unit tied her to a gate and withdrew. Not taking her back was likely an act of mercy from the rest of the unit. Having killed a noble, she wouldn't escape the death penalty even if she returned.
She was later captured by the Sertorian army that returned, but thanks to the mediation of the villagers, she was released. They even returned her spear. She was thinking of going to the Sertorian Royal Capital to look for a mercenary job, but perhaps because she was deemed trustworthy for having avenged their parents, the two children insisted on following her.
The enemy captain was a reasonable man and lent her a carriage. He told her to take the children to a nearby town called Nakanohara. He said he had also sent a messenger by fast horse. And the one who came galloping on a horse was Catherine.
That Catherine had casually said to her, the mercenary carrying a spear:
"You, become a priest. Let's look after these children together."
As if asking an acquaintance to have a meal together. Katherine told her she was a mercenary who had killed many people, but Catherine just laughed and asked, "What of it?"
She had nowhere else to go anyway. If the Engrio army found her, the mercenaries who helped her would also be held accountable. Intending to hide in a sanctuary, she accepted half-desperately. She could just run away once things cooled down.
Since then, Katherine has lived at the orphanage with Catherine. The children grew up safely and found jobs in Nakanohara. Since the war ended, they have gone to visit their parents' graves together every year on the anniversary of their deaths.
Katherine's reminiscence was suddenly broken by the sound of a knock on the door.
"Katherine-sensei, please wake up."
It was Jennifer.
When she opened the door, Jennifer said something that seemed unlike her usual calm self.
"A swarm of Revenants has attacked. They're holding them off at the gate of the church's backyard, but we don't know when it will be broken. As you know, the church's backyard and this orphanage are connected, so this place will eventually be attacked too. I'll have Emily-sensei evacuate the children. We will prepare to intercept them."
Shortly before a priest was killed in the church's backyard, Katherine put on chainmail in her room at the orphanage and left the room with her spear. It was equipment from her mercenary days, but she had kept it carefully because Catherine told her to hold onto it. The spear was made of silver, its tip glowing faintly white, and was a memento of a man she had been involved with during her mercenary days. This was the first time she had held it since coming here.
When she went outside, Jennifer was carrying a box filled with a large number of bottles to the gate leading to the church's backyard. Three boxes were already placed around the gate.
"Oh, Katherine. That's a brave outfit. It's reassuring."
She noticed Katherine and spoke to her. A priest wearing metal armor and carrying a spear would normally be expelled. However, perhaps because those with Catherine were somewhat different from ordinary priests, she praised her.
"What's that? Those?"
Katherine asked, pointing at the boxes.
"Holy water. I made a lot of it thinking something like this might happen. We'll throw these and hit the Revenants. If you hit them right, one bottle can purify about one of them."
The bottles were apparently things she had picked up, washed clean, and saved while doing town cleaning during service activities.
Looking at the gate, several chairs had been lined up. It seemed they intended to use the chairs to stall them while throwing the bottles of holy water to purify them. This gate had no door from the start. It was so the children could play freely in the backyard.
"With this, they'll break through in no time."
She reflexively spoke her honest thoughts, but an unexpected answer came back.
"Oh, that's fine. The enemy will gather at a place that looks easy to cross, right? If they were to climb over the walls all at once, we wouldn't be able to intercept them at all."
Where did this person learn such things?
"The children's evacuation is finished," Emily said as she carried a bucket of water with both hands. It seemed to be holy water. She had a bow and two quivers slung over her shoulder and was wobbling under the weight. There were probably about fifty arrows. She said they could defeat Revenants if they used arrowheads soaked in holy water. Emily was from a hunter background, and she herself could use a bow.
Even so, Katherine thought. These people seriously intended to fight a swarm of Revenants with just the three of them.
While she was carrying a table to use as a footing with Jennifer, five guards came rushing in. Their equipment consisted of iron spears and bows and arrows. Katherine shouted at the five, who were surprised by her appearance, telling them to put down their spears and soak their arrowheads in holy water if they didn't want to die.
Katherine, who had experience fighting Revenants during her mercenary days and possessed a silver spear, volunteered to be the one to stall them in front of the barricade. Then, the four with bows, including Emily, and two guards, including Jennifer who insisted she would throw them herself, stood on tables placed behind the wall to attack with bottles and arrows from the left and right respectively.
The gate leading to the communal cemetery was not visible from here due to a small, intentionally placed grove. The sound of things being destroyed could be heard, but it finally stopped. The door to the backyard must have been broken. The bell in the bell tower had been ringing, but now the church was silent.
Eventually, two priests came fleeing. Since the church doors were closed, they had come this way. They were surprised to see Katherine's appearance, but she ignored that and pulled them inside the wall. The role of throwing the holy water bottles was switched from the guards to the two male priests. This was because the effectiveness of holy water depended on one's faith. The two guards were given the task of putting arrows with heads soaked in holy water into the archers' quivers.
Waiting further, figures began to appear one by one, and eventually they increased until it seemed they would fill half the backyard.
Katherine saw the shadows wriggling in the moonlight.
Roughly a thousand, huh.
She looked up at the sky; there wasn't a single cloud. The full moon was directly to the south. Tomorrow, Catherine would return. That Catherine who had subjugated the Demon Lord. Their role was to buy as much time as possible.
A bonfire was burning behind Katherine. While looking at her own long-stretched shadow, she remembered her former self. She had gone through many life-and-death situations during her mercenary days.
Suddenly, a phrase often said among her mercenary comrades when they hit a difficult battle crossed her mind.
"Today is a good day to die."
"Heh," Katherine smirked, her mouth twisting.
There's no way the day you die is a good day. Such lines are for irresponsible men who want to look cool. I'm a priestess of an orphanage. Tomorrow morning, I have to feed the hungry children. For that, I'll survive even if my arm is cut off or my leg is bitten off. War isn't about numbers. It's about guts and spirit.
"Ptooey," she spat on her right hand and regripped her spear. She put her left foot forward and lowered her hips. Toward the swarm of Revenants slowly advancing, she pointed the tip that glowed faintly with the light of exorcism.
"O glorious Mother in the heavens who watches over us,
I here offer my devoted prayer.
Purify the earth born of the Heavenly Consort.
Protect the established laws."
Jennifer began to offer the prayer solemnly in a clear voice. The rest followed in unison.
"Give courage to those who stand against the wicked.
Restrain the power of the evil ones."
It was called the [Chant of Exorcism]. It was also chanted at the departure ceremonies for armies going to fight the Demon Lord's forces. Even on the battlefield, word had reached Nakanohara that the Sertorian Kingdom's army began their charges while chanting these words of prayer.
An arrow fired by Emily pierced one Revenant. The place where the arrow struck crumbled away like loose soil. While chanting, she nocked and fired the next arrow handed to her; the Revenant, whose chest was turned to dirt by the first arrow, lost its torso and fell apart.
Katherine pierced the chest of one in front of her. At the same time she pierced it, she pulled the spear back to her and jumped back.
The movements of her body from her mercenary days had not dulled. Told by Catherine that she must not deny her past life, she had not neglected her daily spear training, even if only for a short time.
When Jennifer threw a bottle of holy water while offering the words of prayer, it hit one perfectly. Holy water gushed from the broken bottle, and the body of the Revenant that was directly doused in it crumbled.
Katherine skillfully parried the enemies in front and broke their bodies, leaving the left and right to the archers and throwers behind her. Perhaps due to the difference in faith, there was a large gap in the effectiveness of the holy water between the priests and the guards. However, since the guards were aiming below the waist, it was sufficient for stalling.
Against Revenants equipped with armor and helmets, she swung her spear and struck them repeatedly, then sent a well-aimed strike once their posture was broken.
She defeated them one after another. Parts of the bodies that hadn't completely crumbled were wriggling, but she had no time to deal with them individually.
Because Katherine did not retreat a single step, the swarm of Revenants stagnated, and the distance between individuals became closer. Thanks to this, throwing holy water bottles no longer resulted in misses, and a single bottle began to deal significant damage to multiple Revenants.
A Revenant that tried to throw an axe at Katherine had its body broken by a fired arrow. Those with bows were prioritizing armed Revenants.
In front of the gate where Katherine stood, the remains of the broken Revenants piled up like a semi-circular ridge, and the Revenants had to climb over it to advance. She used that ridge as a defensive wall while wielding her spear.
"The holy water bottles are running out!" one of the guards shouted.
The eighty or so holy water bottles they had prepared were exhausted. When Katherine called out to the back, the reply came that the remaining arrows were also few.
"Katherine-sensei, we're retreating. Please enter the gate for now."
At Jennifer's instruction, she turned around, leaped over the chairs of the barricade, and tumbled inside the gate. When she asked if there was any holy water, the reply was that they had consecrated the water stored in the bathtub just in case. If the Revenants hadn't attacked, the children would have been taking a holy water bath tomorrow.
Thinking quickly, she told Jennifer a plan she had just come up with. The plan was approved, and Emily and one of the guards ran toward the street.