The Banished Black Swordsman Wants a Peaceful Life with the White Saint in the Frontier ~Huh? You Want Him to Come Back with the Saint? It’s Already Too Late~ - 39

Chapter 39: The Purification of the Holy Light

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The mucus and mud slowly sank into the ground.

The shattered fragments of the slime’s core surfaced as blackened bubbles, which soon melted away and vanished. Each time the lantern’s yellow light traced along the wall, the things clinging between the stone surfaces glimmered faintly. The stench clinging to the back of the nose was still strong, making the membrane of his throat feel as if it creaked.

I defeated the slimes, but… Could this well even be used anymore?

Lloyd lightly flicked his sword tip to shake off the mucus, shifted his footing, and looked around the bottom of the well. Slime, blackened moss, layers of mud. The area around the waterway’s entrance and exit was especially bad. The stone was thinned and eaten away as if burned by acid, and there were places that would crumble if poked with a finger. Even if all the monsters had been cleared out, it hardly seemed usable as drinking water.

“Lloyd, are you hurt!?”

Lusha’s voice fell straight down from the well’s opening. In the darkness above, the edge of her hood swayed faintly. Hearing her voice, unable to hide her worry, Lloyd caught his breath and answered briefly.

“I’m fine. Didn’t I tell you? Monsters of this level are easy.”

While speaking, he leaned against the wall and took a deep breath.

Since he had said it was easy, he had to look the part. In truth, there was some throbbing from the Curse Mark, but he hadn’t overdone it in the fight. There was no actual problem. The only issue was that enemies carrying miasma might affect the Malice Glyph in unknown ways, forcing him to fight more cautiously.

“Then, is it all right if I come down too?”

Without hesitation, Lusha asked timidly. Lloyd couldn’t help but smile wryly and looked down at his ankle half-sunk in the mud.

“I don’t mind, but… You’ll get dirty.”

“It’s fine. I don’t care.”

Her answer came instantly. When Lloyd tugged the rope twice as a signal, the pulley creaked, and a light presence came descending along the line. Soon, her hooded silhouette and silver hair slipped into the yellow light as she carefully touched down in the muck. Even as mud crawled up the edge of her shoes, she didn’t so much as twitch an eyebrow. First, she gave Lloyd a long, careful look from head to toe.

“I’m glad… Thank goodness, you’re not hurt.”

Lusha smiled and exhaled in relief.

“I said I was fine.”

Lloyd gave a small shrug, then gestured with his chin toward the wall.

“We took care of the cause, but… Honestly, I think this well might be beyond saving. The contamination’s gone too far.”

As he spoke, he noticed the weight of resignation mixed into his own voice. Even in a town, losing a single well wasn’t just an inconvenience. It cut out a vital part of daily life. People living nearby wouldn’t be able to continue their routine. They’d have to haul water from another source, requiring more time and effort… Thinking of the residents’ hardship, he felt guilty making a careless declaration that the well was done for.

“It’s okay.”

Lusha looked around the well, then smiled serenely.

“Huh?”

“Please leave it to me.”

At the bottom of the dark well shaft, a pale blue-green light softly glowed. Her tone was quiet, but carried unmistakable confidence. Lusha stepped into the center of the well, checking her footing on the mud, and brought her hands together before her chest.

A posture of prayer, yet unlike the formal gestures he’d seen in churches or the way she used Repair Magic the day before. She lowered her center of gravity slightly, adjusting the position of her joined fingers with her breath.

“O Mother who governs the earth… Cleanse this land and restore the water of life. 〈Purge Prayer〉.”

Her lips parted slightly, and her breath carried the echo of prayer. That voice rang through the bottom of the well, its lingering resonance faintly rippling the water’s surface.

The air changed…?

That was Lloyd’s impression. Somewhere within the layer of damp, stagnant chill, an invisible breeze seemed to pass. It felt like a thin film clinging to his skin was being peeled away. The tingling from the Malice Glyph, which had lingered until now, slowly eased.

Lusha’s eyelashes lowered, and a droplet of white light lit between her fingers. It pulsed, bridged her palms, filled the outline formed between them and then… The light fell.

No, descended might be the better word. Like fine snow, or like morning mist spreading across a lake, it expanded from the bottom toward the sky and from the sky toward the bottom, filling everything at once. White streaked across the slime clinging to the walls as if soft feathers brushed over it, sweeping away the color of miasma. White rings bloomed across the mud surface, overlapping one another, and he clearly sensed the rotten sweetness fading.

Incredible.

Lloyd unconsciously held his breath. It was what people called purification, he supposed. But it couldn’t be described with that word alone. His vocabulary was nowhere near enough. It wasn’t like flames burning away threats or blades cutting illness from flesh. It simply removed what did not belong and restored things to the shape they were meant to have. Without sound or shock, yet overwhelmingly.

The rings of light slowly reached the well’s mouth. Faint murmurs from above, people’s presence mixed in. Passersby or nearby residents, most likely. Anyone would stop if they saw white light blooming up from inside a well.

“What was that light?”

“Hey, look! The well…!”

“Don’t tell me those two…?”

Voices drifted down on the wind. People were gathering. But Lusha did not waver. The light between her palms shifted, folding into a deeper clarity. From pale pink to white, white to transparent. The light didn’t fade. Transparency filled everything. Each grain of murk dissolved one by one.

How much time passed? Tens of breaths, hundreds of heartbeats—eventually the light calmed, and the well’s air carried the chill scent of fresh water. Lloyd took a deep breath without thinking, surprised that the irritation in his nose and throat was gone. The mud pooled at the bottom even seemed lighter in color. The slime coating the stone walls had vanished, and the old stone regained the texture of old stone.

Lusha slowly released her hands. The last droplet of light fell to the ground and disappeared. A bead of sweat slid down her cheek.

“It’s finished.”

Lusha lifted her gaze to Lloyd and smiled warmly.

“…That was incredible.”

The words slipped out. He knew they were far too plain for what he had seen, but nothing else fit. Lloyd knelt, brushed mud aside, and dipped his hand into the water. Moments ago it had been warm and sticky, but now it felt light. Coldness seeped pleasantly into his bones. There was no murk. When he spread his fingers, light passed cleanly through.

“Can it be drunk…? No, wait. Better to replace the water entirely first, just to be safe.”

“Right. Let’s fill it with fresh water.”

Working in unison, they checked the plugs and channels, scraped out the remaining grime, and finally Lusha used the Element Gem to generate water. Transparent threads of water fell more lightly than before, and soon the well’s bottom became a still mirror. Lloyd lowered a bucket and signaled upward. One of the young men who had gathered above leaned over and grabbed the rope.

“Haul it up!”

The bucket rose with a creak, and the moment it appeared at the mouth of the well, a few people gasped. The surface of the water caught the sunlight and gleamed like a round silver plate. It was probably a sight they hadn’t seen in a long time.

“W-wait… The water is actually clear.”

“There’s no smell…”

“Hey, can we drink it? Is it safe?”

Voices rose in excitement. Lloyd answered upward.

“I’ll drink it first. If there’s no problem, use it.”

There was no muddy odor, no stinging bitterness of miasma. He wet his lips and swallowed. When the coldness settled in his stomach, no alarm bells rang in his body. Instead of giving a thumbs-up, he simply said.

“It’s good. No problem.”

A ripple of chatter burst into applause-like sound around the well’s edge. An elderly man with white hair held the bucket with trembling hands, took a sip, and widened his eyes.

“This… This is like when I was young… No, even better. Oh… Ooh…!”

Tears spilled from the corners of his eyes, and a nearby woman rushed to steady him. Another man shouted with relief, a child stretched on tiptoe to peek, someone murmured “That light must’ve been…”, another put their hands together in gratitude.

Their gazes dropped toward the bottom of the well, toward the two of them.

“Hey, you two down there!”

It was the thin man from earlier. Lloyd looked up as he shouted with lowered brows.

“We can use the well again! Really, thank you!”

An elderly woman leaned over, hands pressed together.

“Thank you, dear. Now we can wash and cook again.”

Lloyd nodded once and glanced to the side. Within the shadow of her hood, Lusha wore a soft smile. Seeing her prayer-soaked hands, still damp with mud and water, stirred a quiet pride in him.

I’m glad.

He truly felt it. Swinging a sword and defeating monsters, he had done that countless times. But work that rebuilt someone’s daily life then and there? He’d barely ever had such a job. They needed help, and he was able to answer. That sense of accomplishment filled him like the cold clarity of the water.

“Let’s go up.”

Lloyd grabbed the rope and offered his hand to Lusha. She nodded softly and took it. They checked the footholds, climbed using the wall’s protrusions, and slowly ascended. Light approached, and they emerged onto the surface. As he narrowed his eyes against the sun, voices of thanks rained down. The white-haired owner of the well approached unsteadily and wrapped Lloyd’s hands in both of his.

“Oh, our benefactor! Your name… What is your name?”

“No need for that. We just did the job we were hired for. If you want to thank someone, thank the ‘boy merchant.’”

Lloyd shrugged and glanced at Lusha, who only bowed politely. Seeing this, the old man nodded again and again. His voice was trembling with joy.

“Even so, we truly are grateful. Thank you. Thank you so much.”

A middle-aged man held his hat to his chest.

“We already paid the fee to the trading company, but aside from that, I just wanted to say it. With this, we can live like before.”

Lloyd answered with only a raised hand, scanning the crowd. Mixed with the surprise and relief were curious, observant stares. Many had seen the light. If he talked too much, rumors would spread. He kept his words to a minimum. Suddenly, someone tugged at his sleeve—Lusha. From the shadow of her hood, her eyes smiled faintly.

“Our first job as a ‘handyman’ is a huge success!”

“Yeah. This is a nice warm-up indeed.”

He joked lightly, then lowered his gaze. Behind the joking tone, quiet fulfillment spread through him. The smell of miasma was gone. The wind passing over the well carried a faint, refreshing moisture. Sheep bleated in the distance, and the shouts of the market returned from deep within the town. Their first job as “handymen” had ended like this. Request complete.

There was only one person they needed to report to. Imagining the face of that boy merchant, Lloyd folded up the request form.

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