The Return of the Iron-blood Sword Hound
chapter-157

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Chapter 157: Rules for Night Shift Workers’ Safety (3)

Vikir exhaled a light sigh.

“…What is she doing here?”

Saint Dolores. Wasn’t she headed to the shower room?

So why was she here in the 4th ward at such an ambiguous hour, far from the girls’ dormitory…?

Vikir adjusted his mask that covered his face.

He was ready to modify his voice.

Then, he reached out and lightly tapped Dolores’s shoulder.

“…Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil… Kyaah!?”

As Vikir’s hand touched her, Dolores jumped as if she might faint.

Then, she opened her eyes even wider, shivering as if she were extremely frightened. It seemed she couldn’t even think about opening her eyes.

“Our Father who art in heaven…”

“Stop reciting the Lord’s Prayer and open your eyes for now.”

Vikir said, deliberately scratching his voice.

Dolores, with her hands tightly clenched, carefully opened one eye.

“Ah!?”

At last, Dolores’s expression turned to shock.

For a long time, she simply stared at Vikir’s mask, and then she finally stammered.

“Ni-Ni-Night Hound…?”

“It’s been a while.”

As Vikir nodded, Dolores’s expression again became absent-minded.

Then, she barely managed to speak.

“Nice to see you… after a long time.”

She had a lot she wanted to say, but her words were too small.

She didn’t know where to begin, and her chest was tight. She had too many questions, such as why he vanished without a trace after the pandemic, why he had been attacking the Quovadis sub-guilds and orphanages, how he had been doing at the time, and, most importantly, who he truly was.

There were too many things she wanted to ask.

Despite being a seventeen-year-old girl, who had easily taken on roles like the Academy’s 3rd-year student council president, head of the newspaper club, and even the Saint of Quovadis, at this moment, she was just as flustered as an ordinary young girl.

Meanwhile, Vikir got to the point.

“Why are you here?”

“Um… Well…”

This time, Dolores started to hesitate for a completely different reason.

What she was recalling was just a few minutes ago.

After the boys had all left, Dolores finally came to her senses.

“Haah!?”

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It was only when she returned to her room after thoroughly washing herself with warm water that she noticed the neatly made beddings that her friends had prepared.

“I’m in big trouble!”

Dolores, who had been nearly out of her mind until now, finally realized the seriousness of the situation.

She had peed herself, but someone had falsely accused an innocent person. What’s more, he was the one who got blamed for wetting himself, even though he was the victim! Apologizing wouldn’t be enough to make up for it; the blame had been shifted to someone else. It was truly a situation where the roles of the victim and the perpetrator had been completely reversed.

If Dolores remained silent like this, Vikir would end up with the worst possible image. A 1st-year newcomer wetting himself on a 3rd-year senior, the student council president no less! This was a very serious matter, especially given the zealousness of Dolores’s fan clubs within the Academy, who might even go so far as to issue assassination threats.

“This can’t stand! I have to fix this!”

Although it was late, there was work to be done.

Dolores approached the female students who were gathered and gossiping.

“After peeing on the Saint’s lap, he still had the audacity to act like that. How absurd! But for some reason, it wasn’t uncool?”

“Standing there confidently, wearing wet pants… that unbalanced figure slightly thrilled me…”

“There’s something oddly pitiful about that pathetic sight that somehow awakened my maternal instincts… I want to protect him. Change his diaper, and feed him milk.”

The conversation about the incident seemed to be going in a strange direction.

But Dolores didn’t hear any of that. So she closed her eyes tightly and just spoke the truth.

“Hey, everyone! Vikir didn’t do anything wrong! I was the one who peed!”

Instantly, the eyes of the female students widened.

…

After a moment of silence, everyone, including Bianca, heaved a sigh of relief and patted Dolores on the shoulder.

“You really are the Saintess aren’t you, president..”

“Unni, you don’t need to take on that ‘pisser’ label for that guy.”

“Your sacrifice is admirable. If it were me, no matter how close we were, I don’t think I could have defended him to that extent. Let alone being a complete stranger…”

Everyone looked skeptical of Dolores’s words.

“No, no! Believe me! I was the one who peed earlier, not Vikir!”

Dolores, in frustration, revealed the truth, but no one believed that Dolores could have been the one who wet herself. However, they were in awe of Dolores’s selfless sacrifice in defending Vikir.

“Oh, I can’t stand it!”

Dolores decided to give up on explaining. Instead, she immediately took action to clear up the misunderstanding.

Even if it meant getting caught by the supervisors, she would go outside, meet Vikir, and formally apologize. It was late, but if she requested an urgent meeting with the supervisors, they might be able to bring Vikir from the boys’ dormitory.

“The sooner I explain, the better.”

Dolores left the girls’ dormitory floor and headed toward the boys’ dormitory. She wanted to express her gratitude for taking on her mistake and apologize for not explaining it earlier.

And at that moment, Dolores saw something strange happening on the outer wall of the dormitory.

“…!”

Dolores, who was heading to meet with the supervisors, abruptly stopped in her tracks. What she had just seen was undoubtedly a black cloak with a mask that resembled a crows’s beak.

The enigmatic thief who had been elusive, who had even appeared countless times in her dreams. An endlessly suspicious and unfathomable existence.

“The Night Hound” was roaming beneath the moon veiled by dark clouds.

Dolores had forgotten everything she had been thinking until now. She started moving in the direction the Night Hound was heading.

There was no thought of catching or stopping him. However…

“…I just wanted to talk.”

At Dolores’s words, Vikir chuckled beneath his mask.

He knew what she was curious about. She wanted to know why he stole the Saint’s tears and why he had been annihilating Quovadis’ orphanages and sub guilds-

Dolores’s hand tightly gripped Vikir’s collar.

Her pupils trembled like ripples on a lake.

“Why… Why did you do that? That day and that time… you disappeared without a word.”

“…”

“Tell me. You’re not like that, right? It wasn’t you who did those things to our family’s sub-guilds, right? There’s some misunderstanding, right?”

“…”

“Say something. Anything. Please…”

Dolores clenched Vikir’s collar with her small fists. Eventually, she lowered her head and pressed her forehead against Vikir’s chest, her voice filled with moisture.

“You’re not that kind of person. Everyone talks about you like some villain…”

How should he respond to this? In Dolores’s voice, he felt not just trust but also a kind of camaraderie deeper than he had expected.

‘…Is it because of the ‘Red Death’ incident from before?’

During the process of treating numerous plague patients, emotions resembling camaraderie or camaraderie could have sprung up.

However, the emotions Dolores was experiencing seemed much stronger and deeper than what Vikir had anticipated.

Before Vikir could open his mouth to say something…

“…!”

Vikir detected a strange sound in his ear.

Hoo… Huk… Grrkk…

It was as if the breath of a beast, mixed with the sound of bubbling blood, was coming from somewhere nearby.

Dolores also seemed to sense the ominous atmosphere in the air.

She grabbed Vikir’s collar with trembling hands.

“Did you… read the emergency message?”

“…Yes.”

Vikir nodded in response. They were standing on the emergency exit stairs, which were the background for options 4 and 14. And the unsettling sound they heard seemed to remind them of option 6 in the emergency message.

(6) If you hear strange breathing-like sounds even though there is nothing around you while patrolling the hallway, immediately lower your body, lie down on the floor, make your body as small as possible, and do not make any noise. Once the sound stops, call another staff member and find and erase the stain on the ceiling.

[Ephebo…]

‘He’s here’

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