#010. City of Lament (4)
Beojil and Player headed toward the sewer entrance located behind the lord's castle.
It was locked with a solid iron door, but before a greatsword, it was useless.
After striking it about twice, a pitch-black maw appeared, not letting in a single point of light.
Beojil extended his hand to Player, who was swallowing dryly.
“Here.”
“Thank you….”
Player stretched out her trembling hands and gripped Beojil's hand tightly.
Though it was the feel of a cold lump of iron, she felt her heart stabilize.
‘He's a surprisingly good person….’
Just as her opinion of Beojil was changing.
“…Aren't you going to let go?”
“Huh?”
“You don't know how to form a party?”
In the game, for Player to form a party with others, they had to cross and grasp each other's wrists.
Here, this action was called a sign of trust.
Naturally, she hadn't known that.
“Ah… I didn't know….”
Seeing Beojil frowning, she let go of his hand.
‘Bad person.’
***
“Captain, please have at least this.”
A young maid working in the lord's castle handed a hard rye bread to the guard captain.
“Thanks, Rena.”
She was a child raised by the Javelin family since young, and with her pretty face and kind disposition, she was beloved by all the residents.
The guard captain once stroked Rena's head.
As his hand touched her head, Rena's face reddened slightly and her expression changed a little.
“Aren't you scared? Hurry to the lord's castle and hide with the others.”
“Yes, after I bring you gentlemen something to eat.”
“I'll do it, so you go in.”
“No, I'll just do this much.”
At Rena's strong will, the guard captain smiled a fatherly smile.
What a good kid.
After instructing the surrounding soldiers to receive bread, Rena used a bread knife to cut it into easy-to-eat sizes.
“Thanks, Rena!”
“Oh my, this is so precious, how can I eat it!”
Thanks to Rena's actions, the soldiers' stiff faces relaxed and the atmosphere became harmonious.
Before long, it was the turn of the soldiers guarding the cart.
As Rena approached, the soldiers waved their hands to dissuade her.
Their faces full of worry made it feel like they truly cherished her.
The guard captain spoke toward them.
“It's fine. Take this chance to switch with Team Three.”
“Yes, sir!”
The soldiers answered spiritedly and received the bread.
After expressing their thanks to Rena, they looked around to find Team Three to switch with them.
Then, a large gap formed at the cart.
Clomp, clomp.
Rena walked into that gap.
“Rena!”
The guard captain was the first to react.
“Don't go near it!”
Despite his shout, Rena didn't stop.
She walked even closer.
She stretched out her hand and lifted the cloth wrapped around the ghoul mother's head.
-Kieeeek!!
The ghoul mother's bizarre shriek burst out from where she had been silent.
The soldiers' gazes converged.
The guard captain ran out to save Rena.
But she wasn't the one who needed saving.
Rena looked at the guard captain and tore her mouth open from corner to corner.
She raised the bread knife in her hand high and immediately brought it down.
Stab!
It pierced the ghoul mother's eye, embedding deeply, and rotten blood burst forth.
And a short phrase flowed from her blood-soaked lips.
“A blood blessing upon you.”
With that sentence, directed at no one knew whom, she collapsed backward, blood gushing from every orifice in her face.
The guard captain ran up and checked, but she had already stopped breathing.
Shortly after.
-Kyaak!
Something unimaginable occurred.
“C-Captain!”
“Everyone flee!”
The ghouls no longer just smacked their lips and rammed into the defensive wall.
-Kyaak!
The wall collapsed in an instant.
“Kuaaack!”
Beyond the broken barrier, the soldiers began to be swept away helplessly by the flooding rotten tide.
***
Beojil liked the heaviness of the greatsword.
When he swung it with all his might, he liked the sensation of his body's center twisting along with the sword.
Especially when he cut something down, he liked the exhilaration of tearing through with weight rather than cutting sharply.
That's why he liked this heavy, crude lump of iron.
Whooosh!
The sound of cleaving air.
Crack!
Feeling the heaviness in his grip, he returned four ghouls back to corpses.
And the great flaw of the greatsword arrived.
The opening caused by weight and length.
-Keeeek!
Two ghouls ran from behind.
At a speed and position where he couldn't immediately counterattack.
After such a powerful attack, an opening was always exposed.
Beojil knew this flaw well too, and had thought of two ways to overcome it.
First was responsiveness.
He pulled out the matchlock pistol from his belt and quickly pulled the trigger.
Bang!
A hole formed in the running ghoul's head.
Once more.
Ta-ang!
One more collapsed.
The rapid-fire count of this matchlock pistol named Somnium was 2 shots.
Now he had to reload, but that method was very cumbersome.
-Keeeek!
Another ghoul excited by the gunshot leaped in.
Here came the second method.
Rapidity.
He swung the matchlock pistol quickly.
The dagger tied to the end of the barrel slashed the ghoul's throat.
Sschaak!
Spraying green blood into the air, it fell face down.
This short dagger made from a makum's beak was hard yet weightless, making it perfect to attach to the end of a matchlock or crossbow.
-Kyaak!
Another ghoul rushed from the side.
Stab!
He embedded the dagger in its eyeball.
Thanks to the barrel length of about one span, even a short dagger could maintain sufficient distance.
That made four.
All actions were accomplished with only the left hand.
The right hand merely held the greatsword.
This was how to offset the greatsword's flaw: filling the moment of opening with a weapon possessing both responsiveness and rapidity.
Still, when the flaw caused by the greatsword's weight continued to bother him, it was a matter of turning the flaw into a virtue.
Just like now.
Whooosh!
The greatsword escaped from Beojil's grip and tore through three ghouls at once.
It didn't stop there.
This lump of iron with tremendous weight pulverized the bodies of other ghouls behind them.
Crunch! Crash!
Only after embedding in the sewer wall did the greatsword's killing power subside.
There were no more moving ghouls in the vicinity.
“Wow… so cool….”
At Player's exclamation, the ring above her head shone brightly, signaling a level-up.
“So fast….”
Beojil left her in her daze and walked to retrieve his greatsword.
Player followed and asked him.
“Hermit, why do you keep throwing your sword?”
“Because it's heavy.”
“Ah….”
An expression that said, ‘Is that all?’
Beojil looked around and sat on a relatively clean stone.
“Let's rest a bit.”
They had entered the sewer and hunted ghouls for an hour.
The two took a break for the first time.
“How many times have you leveled up here?”
“Five times.”
Perhaps because it was a sewer receiving dungeon designation, the experience gained was greater than outside.
It was also convenient to set Player aside.
“Good. We start again in five minutes.”
Beojil took off his helmet, leaned against the wall, and closed his eyes.
Player was surprised that this monstrous man could also get tired, and Beojil thought that precisely because of such inefficient time, it was better to travel alone.
Player looked at Beojil and asked.
“Hermit, why are you always frowning?”
“Four days….”
“Huh?”
“I haven't slept for four days.”
“Oh my, what to do…. You should rest….”
“From the start, I have a body that cannot sleep.”
“Ah….”
Was he sick? Insomnia?
Curiosity arose in Player, but she asked no more.
“Can you sleep?”
“I sleep well. These days I don't even dream.”
“I'm jealous.”
“Um… could it be that you told me to learn this spell is related to that?”
“It would be a lie to say there's none. But that doesn't mean it's useless.”
“Shall I try it now?”
Beojil stared at Player's mask.
“If you're confident, try it.”
“Yes.”
Player got up from her spot and gripped her staff with both hands.
She mumbled a spell and stretched her arm straight toward Beojil.
“ācer quĭes!”
A spell to put the target to sleep was cast from Player's staff.
Thin smoke flew quickly and covered Beojil's face.
“Success!”
“…….”
Unlike Player who liked it, Beojil felt no reaction whatsoever.
He waved his hand to clear away the smoke.
Seeing that, Player quickly became sulky.
“Work harder.”
“Yes….”
Beojil had expected failure.
He didn't know what initial values were set for this Hermit's body, but his rank itself looked different from Player's.
He had her learn it just in case, but had not a shred of expectation.
And who knows.
Perhaps through this, she might grow into an archwitch and put him to sleep.
Of course, he had no intention of staying with her until then, and with a comrade he had in mind, his need for sleep would be resolved quickly anyway.
“Ah, and….”
He looked at Player with an expression asking what now.
“…Are you really not someone who came from Earth?”
Player spat out the words she had been holding back.
A curiosity she had wanted to ask from before but was too scared to bring up.
Beojil too intuitively felt he could no longer postpone it.
“I….”
“Ah!”
The moment he was about to answer, Player suddenly sprang up.
The pupils behind her mask turned toward empty space. As if she were reading something.
Beojil realized she was looking at her notification window.
“H-Hermit….”
“Stop wasting time and read quickly.”
“Sudden quest… The maid Rena, dominated by an unknown black magician….”
“Only the important part.”
“Save the people trapped in the lord's castle! Time limit twenty minutes! The reward is….”
“Let's go.”
The two ran toward the entrance.
***
When they escaped from the sewer, it was already a scene of utter chaos.
Various places in the lord's castle were engulfed in flames.
“Damn it….”
The halted quest progression had started again.
Beojil once again felt that this was not a game but a living world, as things did not flow as intended this time either.
“Follow me!”
“Yes!”
The two ran toward the entrance of the lord's castle.
Ghouls leaped out from everywhere and charged boldly, but before Beojil's greatsword, they were helpless.
The inside of the lord's castle was not safe either.
The beautifully maintained flower beds were trampled, and all sorts of artworks were terribly destroyed.
It was a lord's castle that had shone beautifully under the moonlight, but now, thanks to ghouls clinging everywhere, it looked like a ghoul sanctuary.
“How many people are left in the quest window?”
“Thirty… twenty-nine!”
“Time remaining.”
“Eight minutes!”
There was no time.
Player asked Beojil, who looked urgent unlike usual.
“What happens if we fail this?”
“I don't know exactly either. We might have to give up on Javelin and leave.”
If that happened, the next destination would change, and Beojil's plans would go awry.
“Then….”
“For now, run.”
Beojil ran toward where the ghouls were heading.
Their heads pressed densely against doors and windows alike were all heading toward the library in the corner of the lord's castle.
Judging by their numbers, it seemed the survivors would soon be in grave danger.
Beojil pulled out his matchlock and fired toward the sky.
Ta-ang!
Even with the loud noise, he failed to draw their attention.
Because the fresh living beings right before their eyes were more enticing.
“Damn….”
Beojil threw the gun needing reload to Player.
She caught it easily and with skilled hands pulled out two lead bullets from her bag and reloaded.
Thanks to the system assisting, it was quick.
As she tried to throw it back to Beojil as she had practiced, he raised his hand to stop her.
“Hold onto that and step aside for a moment. If anything happens, shoot.”
“Huh?”
“Quickly!”
At Beojil's shout, Player quickly ran and hid behind a half-collapsed building.
“Further!”
“Y-Yes!”
This time she entered a building with relatively few ghouls.
Having confirmed that, Beojil pulled out a skull-shaped flute.
Its remaining uses were one.
Just in case, he had saved it, but it seemed he would have to use it now.
He blew forcefully.
-Kwaaaeeek!!
A terrible shriek echoed through the lord's castle.
It didn't stop there but leaked beyond the castle walls.
The ghouls scratching at the library wall suddenly stopped their movements.
They turned their heads toward Beojil.
Hundreds of rotten gazes flew and stabbed toward him at once.
A brief silence.
-Kyaek!
-Keeeek!
The ghouls' shrieks rang through the lord's castle.
Even Beojil with his strong heart felt a chill down his spine.
Soon they began charging like beasts in heat.
To taste it first, they pushed and even bit their own kin.
Objects in their path were crushed and swept away.
“Damn it….”
Beojil chewed and swallowed an awakening stimulant he had bought from a witch.
As the extrasensory feeling he had experienced before returned, his eyes became bloodshot.
-Kyaek!!
Ghouls rushed from everywhere.
They rushed as if fresh meat had been thrown among starving predators.
Beojil swung his greatsword.
With the heavy ringing of steel, dozens of ghouls ended the lives they had regained.
Crack!
Lost in a trance, he cut down the ghouls.
Dozens of heads soared into the air as rotten blood painted the surroundings, but their numbers showed no sign of decreasing.
By the time Beojil's body had been stained with rotten blood for over ten minutes, limits were gradually creeping up on him.
The greatsword grew heavy, and the sensation in his legs dulled.
But the remaining ghouls were still many.
Should he take a sip of elixir?
Or chew through an entire bottle?
Amid such worries, support flew in from an unexpected place.