How to Suck Honey at a Warrior’s Party

The man’s name was Oberyn.

“I was so, so scared….”

Oberyn said he started going to church with a neighborhood friend.

For him, church was a good place. They gave out ‘medicine’ to sick people and told them that if they prayed hard enough, they could defeat magi. He didn’t believe it at first, but when the church started in his village, the witch began to recede. He couldn’t help but believe it.

Once the church had gathered enough believers, the church announced something new. They told us something new: if we received the ‘grace of Badel’, we would be completely free of magi. It was hope. That God would save us this time. The faith in the Lord, which he had had since birth, had lost its shine in the face of an unstable reality. It was no wonder that all the gentry who had decided to devote themselves to the church wanted to be favored.

And that included Oberyn. More than anyone else, Oberyn hoped for a safer, more stable life, and he was more determined than anyone else.

In desperation, he sneaks off to see Serpine, who is rumored to have the power to choose his followers and asks for a favor.

But it was the biggest mistake of Oberyn’s life, especially sneaking up on Serpine and kneeling before him.

‘You have promised me that you will be a ‘faithful one’, loyal to Lord Badel with your body and soul.’

“Yes! Yes, of course! Believe me!

And at that moment, smoke, a mixture of black and purple, erupted from Serpine and enveloped Oberyn. Oberyn looked at his black and white reversed pupils and knew something was wrong.

‘You will be graced next week, as promised.’

Even though it was just eye contact, Oberyn felt an intense sense of fear for Serpine, a pressure that made him feel like he should be pissing himself and crawling at his feet at any moment.

He wanted to scream out that this wasn’t right, that something was wrong, but he couldn’t. The slightest thought of denying Serpine’s words sent a dull ache through his heart.

‘O, of course. Thank… you.’

Even if it was just a faint dull ache, the fact that he was feeling pain in a place he’d never been aware of before was enough to make him panic. It was his heart. He forced the corner of his mouth to lift. Serpine smiled in satisfaction and walked into the church building.

Time passed quickly.

And the day of the scheduled grace.

Oberyn wandered the marketplace, unable to consume all of his allotted medicine. Suspicions about the pills had been creeping up on him since the day after his secret meeting with Serpine.

The number of pills he had distributed with his own hands was too high to ask what they were.

That was the reason he made up not to look back at the horror. It was an excuse he gave himself to avoid thinking that he was sinning in his horror.

‘I had no choice,’ Oberyn muttered as he wandered down the street, his body steadily moving away from Serpine, but he couldn’t bring himself to run. The thought of running made his heart ache, for it was against Serpine.

There was a crowd of druggists clamoring for his medicines.

Through the staggering crowd, Oberyn saw Serpine take someone other than himself.

‘Brother, it’s almost time for afternoon prayers.’

Oberyn recognized the man’s similar build and knew he was mistaken. He hadn’t recognized Serpine either, until now, because they were all wrapped in robes. But now that he was here, it was a naïve mistake.

He simply didn’t recognize the species.

Oberyn swallowed hard as he watched the demon follow him out the door. ‘Now, wouldn’t it be possible…?’ A shaky voice came out, trying to sound calm.

‘B, brothers…. You need some medicine, don’t you… this way… shall we go?’

The junkies obediently followed Oberyn deeper into the junkie alley.

He didn’t feel the dull ache in his heart. He still felt the constraints that bound him, but they didn’t hurt. Oberyn couldn’t believe he had managed to escape.

And at the same time, he remembered a person who would receive grace without knowing anything because he was sitting on the sidelines. The robe man was obviously not a churchman. Oberyn has lived in this village all his life, and thanks to that, he was good at distinguishing and recognizing people even in the church where everyone was wearing robes.

Oberyn’s imagination went from bad to worse, for he had heard of grace in words, but not exactly what it was.

And then Herrin spoke to him. At once, Oberyn realized that it was a stranger who had been taken to the church instead of him.

“I-I know it’s wrong, I know it’s wrong… but!”

Zap-!

Oberyn’s head snapped to the side, and his hood came off. His plain, bronze-coloured hair fell out.

“Do one thing: beg for forgiveness, or run away shamelessly.”

Mohan was resolute, not a trace of emotion for Oberyn anywhere on his face.

The lack of anger in his face frightened Oberyn.

In truth, Mohan was grateful that he had learnt to hide his emotions from a young age.

It was a lesson that had been of little use when he was adventuring with Cylon, but not now that he was gone. Mohan was a nobleman who had spent his life restraining and censoring himself. He feigned peace for a moment, then spoke.

“I don’t care how you feel, you’re a sinner who has made a pact with the devil, and I’m a warrior who must drive him and his demons from this land.”

Oberyn wished he had kept talking. Still beneath his mohawk, Oberyn rubbed his head against the dirt. It was a painful gesture.

“And a mate to the weak and innocent man who was taken in your place, do you understand?”

“….”

“No matter how proud you are, no matter how remorseful you are. You’re going to church with us.”

Blood and tears mingled and soaked into the dirt.

The first thing I saw as I descended the stairs was a huge iron gate. It was round, like an air defence door, and it had a strange picture on it.

My mind went blank as I tried to make sense of it. It was a strange feeling. I felt like I was in a dream, even though I was clearly standing upright.

-Cylon, you’re in a church, are you okay?

-Euaak!

-What are you doing!

-…Cylon?

“Ah….”

The warrior’s voice from the communication orb jolted me awake. The damn demons must have rigged this door with some sort of device.

As expected of the warrior. The warrior given by the Lord. Our great warrior.

I patted my chest in surprise and brought my mouth to the comm orb.

“Yes. Thank you.”

-Ah… haha. Yeah. I’ll be right there.

A sweet voice tickled his ear. There were many screams behind the warrior’s voice, but they were deafening.

Cradling the communication orb in my arms again, I approached the iron gate and saw a doorknob waiting for me. I deliberately tried not to look directly at the picture on the door.

For a moment, I thought I saw two eyes glowing red.

The iron gate was very heavy. No matter how hard I tried, it would swing open for a moment and then slam shut again. Finally, after casting a buff spell on my arm that instantly increased my strength, I was able to open the door.

Tong-!

The sound of the door closing was not unusual. I rubbed my road-weary arms.

But I hate exercise. Fantasy worlds with magic are the best.

Beyond the iron gate was a long corridor. The corridor was painted red, and it could be called a stench. I’d do anything to avoid being seen as a demon. Magi’s color is dark purple, but I don’t know why they put red on it.

The whole corridor smelled fishy, a mix of chemicals and something else that reminded me of something else. The corridor was just a long stretch, and I didn’t see anything that could have caused the smell.

The smell was strong, and I cast a protective spell on myself. It was a good thing it didn’t take much magic to maintain the protective spell, as it drained me at full strength.

As I walked down the corridor, calling myself a light, I heard a strange sound coming from the wall.

I pushed my way through the creaking walls. I put my ear to it and held my breath.

It was the sound of bubbling water. It was also the scream of a terminal life form. It was the clinking of beakers and the flipping of papers.

The occasional swear word told me someone was on the other side of the wall.

“Oh?”

It was a sound I’d heard many times before in the tower.

I quickly pulled out the communication orb in my hand and spoke.

“Mohan, I think I’ve found my nodal point, so I’m going to hang up now!”

-Cylon, danger…!

-Trrong!

I tucked the communication orb back into my robe.

I rubbed my hands together. I stretched hard. I wasn’t used to stealing, but I wanted to make a big deal out of it. If I’m going to make something big, I might as well make it big.

This is why I was the most popular person in the lab.

I stretched out my index finger. I compressed the fire into a tiny dot on my fingertip. Smaller and hotter than the flame that had caused the church to explode earlier.

A cold sweat broke out on my forehead as the energy drained away. I gritted my teeth. I can’t give up, not after what I’ve already spent. Even if I collapse from exhaustion, I’ll leave a piece of the church in your arms…!

A trembling finger touched a corner of the wall. It was the one that made the least noise.

Crackle, crackle…

There was a small crackle of fire. Soot smeared the wooden wall. Using the sensation of my fingertips, I nudged it to the side. It was barely big enough for a man.

When I had only about ten per cent of my strength left, the opening was complete. Carefully, I pulled the round wooden slab away from the wall. I peered over the edge and saw a grey stone floor.

There were no intuders nearby.

I am the floor. I am one with the floor. I am a centipede crawling low on the floor.

The self-brainwashing worked wonders. The room I crossed undetected was, as I expected, a laboratory.

Not a chimera, not an alcohol experiment, but a demon experiment.

My eyes were drawn to the half-man half-horse in the long vat. Instead of a human form, it had two legs, one arm, and a left breast in demonic form. The rest of his body was human. The connection between demon and human was too natural for a chimera.

There were two cylinders side by side, with a similar looking half-man half-horse.

I frowned for a moment.

No matter how much I examined and thought about it, I couldn’t tell which demonic part of the experiment belonged to which demon. I wondered if I hadn’t seen them because they were rare, but I couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable.

‘This is bad….’

Intuitively, I knew something unexpected was happening.