"Hmm...? It went down already?"
A man as gaunt as a skeleton tilted his head before a deep pit.
His cheekbones jutted sharply, his cheeks were sunken, and his pallid skin lent him an alien impression. The corners of his smiling mouth seemed pulled up more by habit than emotion.
A black coat hung long like a damp beast-hide robe, brushing the tips of his feet, while nameless bone talismans dangled in clusters from his neck and swayed.
"...It was a child made for destruction, but I didn’t expect it to be pushed back so soon. Now that is an unexpected harvest."
His words trailed off, and then he lowered his gaze.
"I wonder if you’ll be any different...?"
At his feet, a blood-soaked man lay face down in the mire, half dead.
His right leg had been crushed below the knee, and dried blood clung to his cheek, mixing with mud into a pulpy mess.
The man tilted his head, then slowly bent his knees.
"There were some bastards trying to run from this village."
The man spoke unhurriedly.
"They were dragged back from the nearby forest, barely breathing. They had plenty to say, but in the end, the last moment is always the same."
He nudged the mire with the tip of his foot.
"Defective goods. Useless trash materials, good for nothing."
His gaze turned as he spoke. At the edge of the forest, corpses already lay strewn about, mangled beyond recognition.
Burned-out torches, half-broken spears, and scraps of torn robes were scattered over the muddy water.
The muddy water spreading with blood spoke of death all on its own.
"...M-monster... Why, why are you..."
The collapsed mercenary, gasping for breath, forced his mouth open as if wringing out the last of his strength.
Both hostility and fear dwelled in his eyes.
That was when it happened.
Thud.
A heavy vibration approached from beyond the forest, as though rising up from deep within the earth.
Thud, thud.
With the sound of mud being crushed underfoot, the trees split apart with a grinding crack.
Something emerged from the darkness and mist.
It had two heads. One gaped like a hippopotamus, letting out a growling sound, while the other was a misshapen face that clumsily imitated a human form.
On its back, lumps of flesh that had grown grotesquely like a griffin’s wings flapped irregularly, and its legs were twisted as though the limbs of a goat and a bear had been forcibly stitched together.
As that being revealed itself, the man smiled faintly and said,
"This is the child I made this time. Its name is... well, I haven’t decided yet."
The mercenary, still gasping, convulsively widened his eyes and tried to grasp the hilt of his last remaining sword.
But it was already far too late.
"Child, it’s time to eat."
With a single step, the monster pushed aside trees uprooted from the ground, flicking its red tongue as it approached the fallen mercenary.
"U-uaaaaaaaagh!!"
Crunch—gnash, gnash.
A scream burst out. Blood and flesh scattered, and that horrific sound shattered the silence of the forest.
The man in black silently looked down at the sight, then slowly rubbed the blood splattered on the back of his hand.
"Have I finally found proper material?"
Looking toward the place where the signal had last cut off, the man smiled as he rubbed the blood over the back of his hand.
Thunder rumbled in the sky above, and the chimera stepped forward, trampling through the mire.
Beneath the thunder, the man’s revealed face wore a chilling smile.
***
"It’s really over, right?"
"Yeah."
We sank down right there on the spot.
It was on the rain-soaked mire, but no one cared.
We were gasping for breath, and a heavy fatigue had settled into every joint in our bodies.
Everyone looked close to death, but even so, none of us could hide our relief.
It had been a battle none of us could be certain about.
And yet, in the end, we had done it.
'I thought we’d never be able to kill it, but we actually did.'
I felt somewhat dazed.
At the same time, I properly realized for the first time just how powerful the spell called Water Bomb was.
At this level... I probably wouldn’t have to worry about getting beaten up by bandits anymore.
Just a few days ago, I’d been busy running from bandits, and now I was standing at the center of a scene where a monster had been taken down.
That was definitely growth.
I felt a little proud, and a little sad.
Because it also meant I’d been worked to death to get this far.
But that didn’t mean I wanted to fight again.
Even if I had grown stronger, death had still been right in front of me.
Even just now, if I’d taken one swing of that axe or one blow from its fist, I would have said goodbye to this world on the spot.
Reality was not a game.
In the face of death, Water Bomb, magic, none of it meant a damn thing.
'Still... I guess it’s good that I survived.'
Lying on the rain-soaked mud, I caught my breath and thought.
Whatever the case, what mattered was the fact that we had killed the monster and survived.
"But what was that chain earlier?"
Sailreon asked, unable to hide his interest.
His gaze was directed at the servant collapsed beside the merchant.
'...Ah, right. He wasn’t there when we were making the plan.'
It hadn’t been some grand plan, but there was something the merchant had briefly explained while we were putting it together.
I hadn’t dug into it deeply either, but he had definitely called it a binding relic.
Strangely enough, I also remembered him saying that the servant was the only one who could handle it right now.
The servant still hadn’t gotten up and lay face down in the mud.
But judging by his eyes, which moved faintly, he didn’t seem to be dead.
Whether his body was paralyzed or it was some kind of side effect, at least judging by the merchant’s expression, it didn’t seem urgent.
Of course, I couldn’t rule out the possibility that the merchant was simply insane.
Just as I was about to open my mouth to explain, the merchant spoke first.
"It is a relic."
"Wow, a relic?"
Sailreon’s eyes openly sparkled.
Recalling the chain from earlier, he seemed to have lost all reason at the word relic.
Perhaps because his gaze was so intense, the merchant flinched and drew back slightly.
"What kind of relic is it? From what I saw earlier, it tied the monster down... It just stopped, like you’d cast magic on it. Bam!"
Consumed by curiosity, Sailreon took a step closer and asked again.
In his ever-calm voice, the merchant answered very simply.
"I do not know its exact name either. It is something handed down in our family."
"F-family?"
Sailreon blinked and asked back.
I flinched at that too.
Family? This was the first I’d heard of it.
The merchant quietly lifted his gaze.
Beneath his rain-soaked brows, a shadow seemed to pass for a moment.
"My name is Ranseun Robane. The House of Robane is... a name almost forgotten now, but it was once a noble family renowned for researching and preserving relics."
Sailreon cleared his throat for no reason and straightened his posture.
Baldik awkwardly brushed at his mud-stained collar, then lowered his head and kept coughing dryly.
'...If he’s a noble, are we supposed to greet him or something?'
An ambiguous tension hovered among the group.
As commoners, we rarely had occasion to face nobles, and especially after fighting for our lives like this, hearing something like that only made it harder to know what to do.
Then Ranseun smiled faintly and shook his head.
"There is no need for that. Now, I am simply... a person who wanders while doing trade."
The words came out humbly, but something like old resignation was buried within them.
The servant beside him still lay collapsed, catching his breath, his eyes wide open as he silently stared at Ranseun.
"We no longer have any territory, and even when I say the name, it is rare for anyone to nod in recognition. Still, items like this chain remained."
He looked at the chain wrapped around the fallen servant’s arm.
The light had gone out for now, but its patterns and color still exuded an aura both unfamiliar and profound.
"In the family, this was called the [Chain of Resolve]. It was an item that symbolized a family’s oath, responsibility, solidarity—things like that. But now I... merely carry it around as if it were the price of my life."
"...Is that why you turned back when you were running away?"
When I asked cautiously, Ranseun silently looked up at the sky for a moment.
In his eyes dwelled a gray deeper than the rain-filled dark clouds.
"...That is correct. My pride was broken long ago, but... if I had run away like that, I felt as though the last thread of my existence would have been severed as well."
He slowly exhaled.
"Even a fallen noble, if he holds something that can be called an inheritance, ought to take responsibility for that name at least once, should he not?"
At the end of those words was neither sorrow nor pride, but a strangely serene blankness.
Sailreon pressed his lips shut, and Baldik quietly nodded.
And I, too, silently looked at him.
Somehow, his words were strangely convincing.
Perhaps the reason Ranseun, whom I had expected to run, had ultimately sent his servant and even used the relic was not simply calculation.
Sailreon scratched his nose awkwardly and said,
"Well, thanks to that, we did survive."
The servant was still lying on the ground, breathing only faintly, but if not for his sacrifice, it wouldn’t have been strange if any one of us had died by now.
"He will get up soon. It works by exchanging the user’s body, so it merely requires a little time."
"Body...?"
The idea of exchanging one’s body did not easily sink in.
As if reading my momentarily pensive expression, Ranseun added,
"I mean it literally. That chain can bind anything designated as its target. In exchange, however, a price of equal weight follows. Part of the user’s body becomes paralyzed."
"...To what extent?"
"It depends on the case. At the least, a finger, or one arm. In severe cases, the entire body can be paralyzed. The greater the target’s resistance, the heavier the burden becomes. In fact, there was once a case where the chain encroached as far as the heart."
For an instant, cold air brushed over my skin.
Without realizing it, I looked at the collapsed servant.
His fingertips twitched as if convulsing, his jaw was stiff, and though he was conscious, he could not get up.
'It was only deployed for such a brief moment...'
The binding had lasted only an instant, but the price that came back did not look light at all.
As though he had signed some fraudulent contract.
"That is why... it is a relic that requires resolve."
Sherin’s tone was calm, but self-mockery toward himself seeped within it.
"For a coward like me, it will not even respond in the first place."
It was a short sentence, but the weight it contained was by no means light.
The regret and sorrow he carried came through more clearly than words.
'A chain that binds the enemy in exchange for one’s life... This thing is practically a contract with the devil.'
The relic before my eyes could not be seen as a mere weapon or tool.
It was the trace of some deeper, darker decision.
Just as I was lost in that thought, the merchant opened his mouth again.
"If anything, I am the more astonished one."
"...Pardon?"
"I never thought I would see a mage in a remote place like this, and in the middle of such chaos no less."
He let the end of his words trail off quietly and looked straight at me.
"That magic earlier. If I may be so bold, it was truly magnificent."
His gaze did not seem to contain falsehood.
Compared to his usually composed attitude, he even looked somewhat excited, which was rare.
"You overpraise me. I merely... used it to survive."
I answered briefly and avoided his gaze.
I wasn’t particularly used to receiving praise.
More than anything, having my identity discovered was dangerous in this world.
The merchant did not press any further.
He simply adjusted his collar once and muttered as if to himself.
"So it truly... did exist. Real magic, the kind I had only seen in old books."
Was it because of that excited look?
Even the serious things he had said moments ago, the story of a fallen noble’s dignity and resolve, somehow felt lighter.
'Wait, at this point, didn’t he just help because I’m a mage?'
Maybe I had been the only one mistaken.
For some, it might have been resolve to protect the village; for others, it might have simply been seizing an opportunity.
...Of course, thanks to that, we did kill the monster.
So what? Uneasy was uneasy, and this strange distance still lingering between us had not been resolved.
I glanced sideways at Baldik and Sailreon.
Both were resting with tired faces, but I probably wasn’t the only one who felt this awkward atmosphere.
'Should I suggest we split up even now?'
That thought briefly crossed my mind.
It wasn’t that this group was dangerous, or that I couldn’t trust them... just, something.
Something felt a little uncomfortable.
'Anyway, is this really the end?'
That monster that had been rampaging until just moments ago.
Its deformed appearance, even the shape of the fetus that had burst out.
It was impossible to believe that such a being had formed naturally.
It looked as if it had been created deliberately, and if so, perhaps there was some separate being that was the true source of all this.
A memory flashed through my mind.
Right before the battle, when I had opened my Blue Eye, I had clearly seen one monster ahead, and three on the outskirts.
There should have been four in total.
"...Then that means one is missing."
My heart dropped with a thud.
Anxiety crawled up from deep within my chest.
The relief from moments ago vanished like an illusion sunk into the mire, and a cold dizziness washed over me.
That was when it happened.
"Ah, so you really did kill it."
The voice that came from behind me was calm, but strangely left the sensation of something tickling the nape of my neck.
His tone sounded somehow playful, yet the presence contained within it was cold.
I reflexively turned around.
There stood an unfamiliar man I had never seen before.
A man in a black coat, standing atop the muddy ground without so much as dirtying it.
Exuding an alien air, he looked at me as if he had been there from the very beginning.
"It was you...?"
The eyes set above his twisted smile were darker than the darkness itself.