Arnold looked around. Despite the commotion, there was no soul in sight.
People weren't stupid; no one wanted to risk their own and their family's lives for a stranger. Even if some hot blooded men wanted to, their parents or wives would stop them.
Overall, things had worked out in Arnold's favor, but they still needed to hurry.
He helped his tired and numb lover stand up, and they silently moved the corpse.
They first tried to clean the crime scene as much as possible in the limited time they had. Once Arnold was satisfied that the blood stains were barely visible, he put Trent Baker's corpse inside a large bag they had brought with them. It had been used by Rose's father to store manure fertilizer, so it was quite fitting in both size and, well, function.
As they dragged the heavy bag, Arnold would stop every few steps, listening carefully to his surroundings.
He noticed that his hearing had slightly improved after leveling up, and he could now pick up the guards' loud footsteps from a few streets away.
Once or twice, he had to motion at Rose and change their route.
In the end, they safely made it to Rose's uncle, Sirius Vitalis', flower garden. Of course, there was a tall wooden fence blocking their path.
No shop would leave their backyard open to thieves and robbers.
Arnold could perhaps rely on his improved physicality from the level up to climb the fence, but there was no need to. Rose took a look around and fiddled around one spot in the fence, soon finding a key to the front gate.
Her prudent uncle had still neglected to remove the spare key; he never would've expected his dead brother to have told Rose about it beforehand.
…
Arnold had previously traveled for months to get from the northern Gundam Republic to the Temple, built in the center of the continent. The journey was long and filled with dangers, so he had paid a hefty sum to join a Class Holder caravan.
That turned out to be the right choice. Not only did they encounter bandits, that would've killed him in a second had he been alone, but the young man had also learned a lot from the Class Holder adventurers.
He didn't think some of that knowledge would come in handy now.
The young man carefully dug a large pit in Sirius' garden, and rolled Trent Baker's corpse into it.
Rose watched as her savior then pricked his finger with a thorn and used his blood to draw a pattern on the soil.
She felt like she was going insane.
"A-are we… summoning the devil?"
Rose whispered, as if afraid the devil would hear her.
The man who had actually contracted a Devil Lord looked at her weirdly and chuckled.
"You sure have a lot of imagination."
Rose blushed and didn't know what to say. Seeing her like that, Arnold decided to explain a few things as he kept drawing strange symbols.
"An unholy yet harmless combination of spirit and blood magic; that's the essence of Corpse Fertilization. It may look creepy, but it's probably the least dangerous Ritual in existence."
Arnold had been lucky enough to learn a lot from those Class Holder adventurers, and Rose carefully listened to these secrets that only Class Holders had access to.
"Magic in this world can be classified into the Invocation and Ritual types.
Most modern spells are Invocations. These are quick to cast and only need Magic Power (MP), but they still hold immense power and potential."
Rose moved to wipe the sweat from Arnold's face. He was tired and wished he could fall asleep right there and then, but he still had to focus on the task at hand.
"... In comparison, Rituals require time and ingredients, so they haven't been popular in centuries. Nowadays, they're often associated with dark magic and devils."
Corpse Fertilization was an ancient and bloody Ritual. Other than the main ingredient, it also required a Pentacle drawn with human blood and covered in Alzahir powder.
This last ingredient was, luckily, a relatively common plant that was rumored to contain spiritual energy.
Rose once again realized the vast difference between normal people and the mysterious world of Class Holders.
…
A few minutes later.
He had to prick his finger again and again, but at last, Arnold was done.
Of course, with his half-assed knowledge, he could only repeat the same three characters over and over again. They read as Korh, Hikda, and Nikma.
In the Ancient Tongue, these words meant hatred, grudge and resentment.
It was a shame, but the young man had only learned a few Ancient words from that friendly old wizard in the caravan.
At the time, that old man said that Ancient words were essential when playing with Rituals.
Arnold didn't know much about the Corpse Fertilization Ritual, but thinking that something was better than nothing, he wrote these words down to help.
'It should be fine… right?'
Because the Cathedral had no way to trace blood back to its owner, Arnold felt safe as he finished his preparations and sprinkled Alzahir powder on the Pentacle.
They now had to contact the Cathedral and doom Sirius Vitalis to a fate worse than death.
Standing next to Arnold, Rose stared at the ominous looking ritual and couldn't help but hesitate.
Were they truly doing the right thing?
But she was already far too deep into this revenge, and she would have to see it through to the end.
…
9th of April, before dawn.
Arnold woke up in a sweat. He looked at the shivering Rose next to him and noticed she was also having nightmares.
Staring at the window, Arnold realized that the sky was still dark. He had slept for less than two hours.
A few hours ago, they had barely made it back to Rose's shop. Arnold had long prepared a bucket of water for their return, so they quickly washed off Trent Baker's blood before falling asleep in each other's arms.
Arnold once again realized how naive he really was. If not for Rosalind, he was certain that he would've died last night.
If he were to take a single hit from that big guy, Arnold would die. He thought that he could rely on his new Brawl skill to easily knock out his opponent, but he ended up passively waiting for Rose to help.
He had burdened the poor girl with far more than she could handle.
He wiped his sweat and sighed.
'Fuck.'
Arnold Grim didn't like swearing, but the stress was getting to him.
Perhaps, he had been in too much of a hurry after losing Azazel.
He sighed again.