The bastard child becomes the empires royal consort Chapter 49

"It’ll be okay..." Sister Lily whispered for the hundredth time, by now her voice had lost the original conviction it held.

She held the four girls close to herself, keeping them within her grasp, offering the same monotone comfort like a broken record.

The four girls stopped sobbing long ago, their tears dried against their cheeks as they stared at the closed door with hollow expressions.

Sister Lily didn’t know how much time passed, her mind was still trapped, continuously replaying the same scenes over and over again.

It was just another day, the morning commenced as usual, with believers of God arriving and offering their devoted prayers.

Priests held their sermons, until nightfall arrived, with a cheerful atmosphere, they closed the church doors and wiped the nave.

The four girls bickered around with playful grins, mucking around rather than cleaning, getting scolded by Sister Lily as per usual.

Until the trembling started, the floor of the church began violently vibrating, at the same time, they heard an announcement.

[Evacuate! This is an emergency! Evacuate to the ce—]

The announcement abruptly cut off, never finishing the message it tried sending, panic quickly took hold of the place, the increasing tremor didn’t help.

Sister Lily was the first to act, she immediately pushed the four girls into a room and ran out of the church, through the earthquake, just to check on the situation.

And the very first thing she saw was the enormous royal castle, the very same structure so large it could be seen from outside of the capital, under attack.

Then a loud explosion interrupted her dazed state, spinning her head to the side, she saw a cloud of flames rising into the sky, somewhere in the centre of the third district.

As the church was atop the very end of the hill, it had the advantage of granting a greater position to view the entire district.

Numerous explosions erupted from various parts of the district, engulfing the buildings in flames, not only that, but in the distance she could see the second and first districts causing bursts of lights.

But what truly caused her blood to run cold was something else, through the streets she saw blood and heard screams, focusing she noticed figures running and slaughtering humans down below.

Her breath caught in her throat, her eyes trembling, it was beings she didn’t recognised, creatures with characteristics of beasts, but at the same time it wasn’t, instead appearing as an uncanny mixture of human and beast.

She ran back to the church, hurrying over, cold sweat dripped down her face, but her attention was elsewhere, to inform the others of the situation.

Then she heard a scream, not from down in the streets of the third district, but from somewhere inside the church.

It didn’t take long to find the reason, in the centre of the nave was a creature with a snout like a bat and long, lanky human limbs with dark, scaly skin.

In its grasp was a body hanging lifelessly in its grasp, the head was half torn off, the creature chewed with blood falling off the edges of its mouth, it opened its jaws once more, with pieces of brain matter stuck to its teeth.

And bit down, devouring the remainder of the corpse.

Sister Lily wanted to scream, but couldn’t breathe, she wanted to run, but couldn’t move her feet, she wanted to cry, but couldn’t blink her eyelids.

She was frozen, trapped in raw, primal fear from witnessing a sight she never thought she’d ever encounter.

’The kids.’ The thought of the four girls gave her the momentary clarity she so very desperately needed.

So she ran, hurrying down the corridors with tears flooding her eyes, she had to listen to the guttural dying screams of those she knew personally.

So many thoughts ran through her head as she moved, ’where should I take the girls? To the underground cellar? ...No, we can’t move with that creature roaming around...

Bang

Sister Lily kicked the door open. "Girls, we need to go!"

The four girls looked very confused, as well as trembling, shaking with unknown fear.

"What is happening...?" Hailey asked very slowly.

"There isn’t time to ex—" Sister Lily stopped speaking, with a hardened face, she glanced down the corridor.

And there it was, the face she least wanted to see, four crimson eyes rapidly rolling in their eye sockets, observing their surroundings.

"Oh no..." She whispered and quickly entered the room.

"Wha—" Hailey tried speaking, but Sister Lily pressed a hand against her mouth before Hailey could utter a word.

"Shh." Sister Lily pressed a finger against her lips, the usual kind and endearing sister they knew was gone, replaced by a face which seemed to be on the verge of breaking.

The four understood the situation wasn’t normal and closed their mouths.

Sister Lily released a long, trembling sigh, then stretched her arm forward, a small surge of mana coiled around the air in front of her arm.

She was an awakened, possessing the lowest rank possible, Rank1, she was nothing compared to Alan or Lucian, she didn’t even have an affinity.

Still, it didn’t mean she couldn’t manipulate mana, doing whatever she could to suppress every noise in the room and attempting her absolute hardest to avoid the creature’s attention.

"GAAAAA—!" The first scream erupted from a room just nearby.

The four girls flinched, their eyelids flying open in pure horror, but just before they screamed, Sister Lily pressed her hand against their mouths.

’Endure.’ Sister Lily mouthed, begging them to hold back their reaction, with trembling eyes, the four girls nodded their heads.

"GAAAA—!" The second scream.

"GAA—!" Third scream.

"GA—!" Fourth scream.

"—!" Fifth.

Then it stopped, the heavy creaking of the wooden tiles suddenly ceased, Sister Lily instinctively knew the creature was right outside the door, the very same door they were hiding in.

Knock Knock

It tapped its fingers against the wooden door, sounding far too calm and natural for the situation.

Sister Lily drained her mana, utilising her core to the max to hide any sound, but it couldn’t hide the tears, she had tears flowing down her cheek, the four girls weren’t any better, in fact, they were faring even worse.

The deafening silence stretched far longer than it should have.

Step Step

The creature walked away, without breaking down the door.

Sister Lily didn’t even let out a sigh of relief, she was afraid the creature would somehow hear her.

Crunch

A dull, echoing sound penetrated her ears, something damp and crunchy, the very noise of it was grotesque.

Sister Lily held her mouth once more, this time holding back the vomit that was rising up her throat.

Crunch

The gruesome sound continued for a long time, leaving behind the nun and four girls in silent trauma as they forgot how to even breathe properly.

Then the door gently opened itself, without any warning.

Sister Lily’s heart leapt out of her chest, in an instant she readied herself for an attack, believing the creature had discovered her.

But to her surprise, it wasn’t the creature.

It was a young man, he had a shoulder-length wolf cut with purple undertones, it was a face she recognised.

The very same man who dropped off the very same four girls she was protecting right now, he occasionally came to the church for the first week, then suddenly didn’t appear again for the next three.

Although the last time she saw him, he was covering his eyes with his hair, this time the boy was wearing a peculiar blindfold.

The boy nodded, signalling it was okay, and gently closed the door.

Sister Lily was terrified, this time for the boy’s sake, she didn’t know how strong he was, but at the same time a small spark of hope ignited in her chest.

BANG

Not long after the sound of explosions occurred, destroying the church walls, Sister Lily didn’t know what to think of the situation, so she did what she always did, she prayed.

"It’ll be okay." She whispered, patting the backs of the four girls as she devoutly prayed in her mind.

...

"It’ll be okay..." Sister Lily’s voice was dry as she blankly stared ahead, then noticed something.

"Sunlight...?" It was Tania who voiced the question.

Slowly, the five of them looked behind, to the window attached to the wall.

"How long were we here for...?" Sister Lily muttered, It was sunrise, dawn presented itself, announcing to the world the arrival of a new day.

The last she remembered... it was nightfall, did they really spend that much time hiding?

Then she noticed facts she previously didn’t, there weren’t any noises around them, not for a really long time, the tremors disappeared, the explosions were gone.

Were they... safe?

As she was dwelling on such facts, the door gently opened, once again without any warning.

"Yo." And in came the same young man from before, except his appearance was different and extremely messy.

Cuts ran along his shoulder and stomach, exposing his skin beneath, not to mention the black blood soaked into the fabric of his attire.

Despite the filthy display, he was grinning ear to ear.

"Ready to go?"