Chương 20: Angrily Smiting an Unbeliever… as a Rock?!

as a Rock?!

Chapter Twenty Angrily Smiting an Unbeliever… as a Rock?! Urd did not even bother to hide Alice the Rock as she hurried down the busy street.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" The Girl's apology almost felt like a prayer. Urd loosed a constant stream of misery as she darted from one street corner to the next, avoiding heavily-laden carts and the revolted looks of passersby.

"Don't worry about it," Alice said numbly. She felt oddly tired after the exhilaration of her escape from the abbey. It was a tired she had not felt in over a decade.

"Didn't I say I would keep you safe?" Urd froze midstep.

"Oh." The noise left her in a squeak, and she quickly began back down the road.

"Y-You did... and now w-we're... we're safe..." [Tyri Karlvold]'s prayer has been fulfilled. Received experience! Received faith! Alice snorted noiselessly as the notification flashed across her eyes.

"More experience and faith..." The Girl jumped and almost fell over.

"G-God? Did you...?!" Alice slipped back into Urd's skin. She had not even realized she had fallen out of her senses. The Girl was hungry. Whatever stew Kuonrat had spoken of, Urd had clearly not taken even one bite. But beyond the pangs of hunger, The Girl did not seem to be in much pain.

"D-Did you... speak to me?" Urd asked, slowing slightly as she looked down at Alice the Rock.

"Don't worry about it," Alice said, and the strange exhaustion lay even heavier across her nonexistent chest. The rest of the run was done in silence. She received another infusion of cursed energy, and soon enough the familiar ruin reappeared. Someone had dragged Red Shirt's corpse away, but the blood remained. Urd crawled in through the same tunnel of debris and reached the same cramped room full of blankets. None of Alice's other believers were inside.

She wondered idly if any of them would come back after the day's excitement. With a reverence Alice felt she did not deserve, Urd lowered Alice the Rock onto an elevated bundle and then collapsed onto the floor, her face pressed against the dusty boards.

"I'm... I'm sorry...!" Urd squeaked.

"I should have... have...!"

"Don't worry about it," Alice said forcibly, not sure and not particularly interested in what Urd should have done. She really didn't want to hear Urd's apologies right now.

"A-And the Priest!" Urd said, biting her lip.

"P-Please forgive him for... He said terrible things, but he is... He can be nice...?"

"I forgive the Priest," Alice said dully, but she was just so tired all of a sudden. She had been so excited about having a little flock just a few hours ago, but now... now all she wanted was to be alone.

"Urd? Urd, you should go get something to eat."

"Eh?" Urd looked rather surprised. She shook her head quickly.

"I-I'm not hungry, Master Merry Weather!" Alice felt a flicker of annoyance at Urd's lie, but the dark emotion passed quickly.

"Go and get something to eat," Alice whispered, hoping the desire took root without too much resistance.

"You are hungry and want to find food."

"Go on," Alice said immediately afterwards.

"Find some lunch. I'll be... Just leave me here." A familiar battle played out across Urd's face, but she obeyed. With a few mournful looks over her shoulder, Urd crawled out of the tunnel with her nonexistent tail hanging between her legs. When Alice was finally alone, she let out a deep soundless sigh. It was strange how excited she had been about this whole god business just a few hours ago. Now, she couldn't care less.

"It's that [Priest]'s fault," Alice muttered darkly. Making her think about Thomas. The hours ticked by, her cursed energy refilled, and Alice did nothing. It had been so long since she had been able to do nothing. By the lake. At the bottom of the pond. She had been spared the need to worry about anything at those two sanctuaries, and wasn't that what she had asked The Voice for? You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

She had turned down the excitement of being an eagle, of being a shark. All she had wanted was to be free from worries. All she had wanted was to be free from pain, from discomfort, from all the ugliness of her old life. Her melancholy was interrupted by a familiar human noise.

"Urd?" Alice called out. But a small boy appeared from the haphazard tunnel instead. Alice thought he might have been one of her believers, but he was a new face. He had an arrogant look, as if he was personally offended by the room's shabbiness. His petulant stare came to rest on Alice the Rock.

"What's that...?" he asked the air. He drew closer. Alice knew she should try to stop him, but... but she just didn't care. Curse Spread: Faa d Brettow Severity: Powerful Received experience! Received cursed energy!

"What a weird rock," Faad said as he picked up Alice the Rock. He let her fall unceremoniously onto the floorboards a moment later, however, which made a nerve pop in Alice's nonexistent head.

"Must be that rotface's. She's always finding weird stuff."

"You little brat..." Alice sneered as her mood darkened. She grabbed hold of the boy's miserable little ears and whispered.

"Faad Brettow!" The brat spun around in search of Alice's disembodied voice.

"How dare you disrespect my vessel!" she hissed into his ears.

"Pick it up! Put it back!" Faad literally leapt off the floor as Alice's [Malevolent Whisper] washed over him. When he landed, his right foot broke painfully through the room's rotten floorboards.

"Wh-who's there?!" Faad called out angrily as he struggled to pull his leg from the hole he had made.

"Where...?!"

"I am Master Alice of the Merry Weather!" Alice boomed in his ear, though she did not think the [Malevolent Whisper] would carry her full volume.

"I am God of Waterhold, and you have upset me!" What color remained to the boy's face vanished as he continued to spin around, desperate to find Alice's disembodied voice.

"St-stop it!" he called out in a frightened shout.

"Iver?! Is that you?! This isn't funny, you oaf!"

"Is he ignoring me?!" Alice fumed, only dimly aware of her mounting fury.

"I told him my name! Why is he pretending that...?! Why is he...?! Why does everyone...?!" [Smite] activated the next moment as Faad's other foot made a second hole through the rotten floorboards. He cried out in pain as the shattered wood carved a bloody line into his leg. He toppled forward, cracking his head against the floor. Alice knew a moment's revulsion, a moment's shame, but then...

"G-Good!" Alice said savagely. Faad whimpered on the floor, curled up protectively as though to shield himself from more phantom blows.

"He shouldn't have...! He should have just listened to me!" She hated it. Being stolen by the Priest. Being stolen by Dale. She hated how everyone took control away from her. Even here! Even in another world! She had been reborn as the protagonist of a fantasy isekai adventure and still people tried to step all over her!

"Stop your whimpering!" Alice whispered into Faad's ear. The boy went very still.

"I have told you who I am! I am Alice the Rock, God of Waterhold, and I won't let s-some snot-nosed brat make fun of me!"

"A... A god...?" Faad whimpered, and Alice's nonexistent face twitched." BELIEVE IN ME!" She planted the desire in the boy's trembling and blood-stained head." WORSHIP ME!" An unbeliever has been converted. Received experience! Received faith! Alice's nonexistent chest inflated with satisfaction...!... and then deflated with shame.

"A bully..." she muttered noiselessly to herself as Faad bowed his bleeding head against the floorboards towards Alice the Rock.

"I bullied some... malnourished brat..." She blessed him and used [Serpent's Whisper] to hurry him away. And then she was alone. She always seemed to find herself alone. A little while passed before Urd reappeared. She looked at the broken floorboards smeared with blood in wide-eyed astonishment.

"What... What happened...?" she asked. Alice opened her nonexistent mouth, but she was just so tired.

"Don't worry about it." Everything seemed to demand too much time and effort. She did not want to explain anything. Just for today, she wanted to be alone, and so she explained to Urd that Alice of the Merry Weather had to meditate, that she would be... unavailable for the rest of the day. Hour bled into hour. None of the other boys reappeared. Alice did not experiment with [Haunt Object] or with... She could not even remember what else there had been to test.

She tickled Urd's senses with a [Serpent's Whisper] or two to keep her cursed energy from leaking out, but other than that she simply... existed. Night soon swallowed the dilapidated house. Urd's sleep was illuminated by the starry night overhead. Her chest rose and fell fitfully, and Alice simply watched. She realized she did not particularly care if her new believers all abandoned her. She did not care if Faad or Iver or Mouse never came back. All she needed was Urd.

Perhaps the child's pathetic nature reminded Alice of herself, but all she wanted was for Urd to believe.

"Which means I need more followers," Alice groaned to herself. She needed to become a real god otherwise she would lose Urd's faith. A shadow fell over The Girl's face. Alice did not think much of it at first. But then a pair of feet entered her vision. A full-grown man fell through the hole in the ceiling. He was followed quickly by a second. Both men were dressed all in black with their faces concealed behind thick hoods.

"That must be it," the shorter man said, pointing at Alice the Rock.

"You grab the girl. And be gentle or the Priest'll knock out your teeth." Panic filled Alice like a drug. The Priest knew! She had no idea why the unwashed man had let her leave the abbey, but his [Assess] had clearly shown him something was wrong with Alice!

"Wake up!" she shouted, slipping into Urd's skin.

"Get up, get up, get up!" Urd screamed awake, flailing her arms and legs. The two men staggered away in alarm. Urd looked around as she scrambled to her feet. Her eyes grew wide when she saw the two strangers, and then she started to scream.

"None of that!" Tall One said, clamping a hand roughly over Urd's mouth.

"Don't scream! We're friends, we're friends!" Alice had been about to [Smite] both of them, but the man's comment gave her pause. She grew even more confused as Short One turned to Alice the Rock... and bowed.

"Forgive us for all this sneaking!" Short One said, his hooded head still bowed.

"We were sent to collect you. We are friends, spirit!"