Chapter 32
The mercenary patrolling the castle's inner walls walked carefully, even as the rain struck him.
If it had been any other day, he would have secretly skipped this sentry duty and gone to sleep, but a strange unease kept him awake.
The heavy downpour, the dark atmosphere, and the village devoid of people.
There was truly nothing more ominous.
The anxiety welling up inside him now might not have been his imagination.
"...Please, let this day pass without incident."
Wrapped in his waterproof robe, he used a lantern instead of a torch. Perhaps due to the cold temperature caused by the rain, the lantern had grown damp, its glass completely fogged with cloudy vapor. The light was very faint, but it was better than nothing.
"Hmm... Do we really need to patrol near the castle walls?"
At his comrade's words from beside him, the mercenary shook his head.
"You never know. Besides, this village... it's strange."
"...Don't say that. You have eerily good instincts, so when you say something like that, I start getting anxious for no reason too."
The comrade had lived with the mercenary for a long time, so their trust ran deep. Because of that, he too felt a strange unease at the mercenary's words.
The mercenary who had spoken of the village being strange shrugged his shoulders jokingly.
"But it's just a feeling at the end of the day. I admit I have good instincts, but they're not infallible. Besides, if something happens, they'll give some kind of warning at the gate or atop the walls."
The gate and the top of the walls were the best places to survey the outside situation.
However, on a dark night like this, when even the moonlight and stars were hidden by storm clouds and rain was pouring down, it was far from ideal for checking the surroundings.
Darkness blocked human sight, and the downpour deadened the senses of smell and hearing.
For nature, rendering humans this powerless was nothing at all.
The mercenary looked around with his lantern and flinched in surprise.
"...Hey, look at this."
He extended the lantern toward the castle wall.
It was a wall built of stacked stones. A long time had passed since its construction, and cracks and weaknesses were visible, making repairs seem necessary. But what the mercenary had discovered was not the wall's shoddiness.
A large hole had been pierced through one side. And smeared there was something sticky.
Seeing the wall stained with black liquid, the mercenary and his comrade tilted their heads.
The mercenary reached out and touched the wall's surface, then lifted his hand to look.
It stretched long like melted cheese. Wriggling within that stretched black liquid were red-tinted earthworms.
"...What is this?"
As the mercenary tilted his head, he felt intense pain in his hand.
A red earthworm had burrowed into his finger.
"What...! What is this!"
The mercenary panicked and shook his hand.
In an instant, the pain disappeared, and even the trace of a wound vanished.
As if he had seen an illusion, there was nothing but black liquid on his hand.
"...Did I just see that wrong?"
The mercenary who had witnessed this looked toward his comrade, but seeing the comrade who had put considerable distance between them, he made an awkward expression.
"Hey, what's with you?"
The comrade looked at him, turned deathly pale, and stepped back.
"D-don't come near."
"W-why are you acting like this?"
When the mercenary took a step closer in anxiety, the comrade drew his sword.
"...!"
"...Stay right there."
"What...! Stop joking!"
"I'm not joking! Come any closer and I'll kill you!"
The comrade looked around.
After confirming there was no one, he took out a small whistle from his pocket to call for help and blew it.
A sharp 'fweet!' rang out in all directions, and the mercenary turned even paler.
Judging by the atmosphere and his actions, this was no joke at all.
"Why are you... ugh!"
In an instant, the mercenary's insides twisted. His head spun and the strength left his legs.
"Wha...? Why is this... ugh...!"
He vomited everything in his stomach. No, he vomited things even worse than that.
As heavy clots of blood flowed from his mouth, the mercenary turned just as deathly pale as his comrade.
"W-what the hell... is happening... to me!"
His whole body throbbed with pain. His head was so dizzy it was becoming difficult to think.
Bodily fluids flowed from his eyes, nose, and mouth from the agony, and then blood began to pour from every orifice.
His skin grew ashen as if all the blood in his body had drained out, and every corner of his body writhed as if worms were crawling beneath the surface.
In terrible agony, the mercenary begged for a helping hand.
"S-save... me."
Stab!
But the hand he reached out, rather than saving him, took his life.
A sword pierced between the mercenary's lips.
"I-I'm sorry! Sorry! I'm truly sorry!"
The comrade, deathly pale, thrust the sword straight into the mercenary's mouth as if in agony. And pulled it out.
The mercenary's body collapsed as if dead.
"A-alarm! This is... a plague! Why is Worm Pest here...!"
The mercenary trembled in terror.
Worm Pest, a plague that creates the undead.
That plague, parasitizing the human body, would immediately upon infestation lay countless eggs inside, kill the host, and 'take over' the body to control it.
Once that happened, it moved with only two instincts.
One was hunger. The other was reproduction.
Strangely, they recognized only 'humans' as prey and devoured them.
And if they were in a state of fullness, they would bite their opponent and lay 'eggs' in the wound.
After infection, it possessed enough lethality to dominate the host in less than ten minutes.
"Now I know why there are no people!"
If such a plague had broken out, everyone would have fled without even packing their belongings, and there wouldn't even be any corpses.
Because these things sucked them dry without leaving a single drop of blood!
"...The Order! I have to inform the Holy Order! If the plague has spread, quickly to the paladins...!"
Then, the mercenary's ankle was grabbed.
"...!"
The mercenary who had been infected looked up at him with dead eyes and smiled.
His ankle was ruthlessly crushed.
***
When the whistle sounded, Rapilta jumped in surprise and looked toward the citadel.
Standing guard at the gate, he couldn't help but find it strange that a whistle was coming from the inner walls despite the main gate being intact.
"What! What's going on!"
Rapilta shouted to the mercenaries atop the wall, but they too seemed not to know and shook their heads.
Then, a scream rang out.
"Uwaaaaaaaaack!"
"...?!"
The mercenaries on the wall, perhaps flustered, shouted hurriedly.
"Let's go down and check. If anything happens, blow the whistle immediately!"
The mercenaries on the wall disappeared, and Rapilta flinched in surprise as he looked ahead.
From below the hill, in the village, some group was gradually climbing up.
Those striding boldly through the rain.
A horde of monsters in human shape with dark red skin.
Seeing that, Rapilta's face turned ashen.
"Worm Pest!"
***
Following the whistle, a scream was heard from behind. Roki furrowed his brow.
Perhaps having heard that sound, the sleeping mercenaries too rose one by one.
Ajareu was startled and tumbled out of the room.
"What! What's going on! My slave...!"
Perhaps more worried about his merchandise, he asked the mercenaries again.
The mercenaries, unable to properly come to their senses from sleep, looked at Roki.
Since he was the one patrolling inside the castle, he would know the situation better than those who had been asleep until just moments ago.
"What is the matter?"
Albereu too seemed to have woken from sleep and raised his sword with a tense expression.
Pol was asleep beside him.
Although he had been patrolling inside the castle, Roki had just finished dealing with mercenaries who tried to steal slaves, so he knew nothing.
"...I'll go look around."
Leaving those words, Roki stood before the door and grabbed the handle.
As he tried to open the door, a presence was felt beyond it. And then...
Smash!
The door shattered and a hand shot out, snatching Roki by the nape.
"...?"
Inside the crow mask, Roki blinked in surprise and looked at the hand.
He had barely sensed any presence. Moreover, the speed was extraordinary as well.
'...That's not human, is it? Besides... the grip is strong.'
The hand, covered in red leather, gripped Roki's nape tightly.
Its muscles writhed as if trying to tear with all its might and pierce Roki's neck with its fingernails.
But no matter how much force was applied, Roki didn't receive a single scratch.
"What the!? That's...!"
The bewildered mercenaries jumped to their feet.
Roki grabbed the arm clutching his neck and twisted it as it was.
Crack!
The arm twisted in an abnormal direction, and black, rotted bone pierced through the skin and jutted out. And along with thick, rotting blood, unknown grubs poured out.
The grubs smeared onto Roki's arm and struggled desperately to pierce his skin and burrow in, but they couldn't.
"Disgusting..."
Before Roki could finish speaking, the door completely shattered and a monster burst in.
Its melted face and torn mouth opened wide.
—Kuaaaaaack!
As if to swallow Roki's head whole, its jaw stretched to a degree unexplainable by human anatomy.
From its mouth, something black wriggled alongside a nauseating rotting stench.
Roki struck it down with his fist.
"...Guh."
The monster's skull shattered, and rotting blood and grubs flew in all directions. Among them were worms thicker than a finger.
The headless monster's body collapsed to the floor, but the remaining hand kept moving, desperately trying to grab Roki's ankle and break it.
Roki stomped on it, but worms wriggled up through it.
Staring at something so repulsive, Roki stepped back.
'What are these things...?'
More than fear, it was filth.
Feeling disgusted by the sensation of them crawling on his body, Roki put strength into his hand and brushed himself down. The threadworms climbing up his body burst and died.
'...I'll have to wash later. What the hell is this?'
"...It's... Worm Pest."
At someone's shout, Roki turned around.
"How can the plague...!"
"Heavens...!"
"R-run...!"
"No, before that, that Nodeuin...!"
The mercenaries' faces turned pale.
Pol, who had barely woken at the mercenaries' shouts, looked back and forth between them and Roki in confusion, then turned pale seeing the thick rotting blood and wriggling red bugs on Roki.
"...He's infected."
Infected? What was that supposed to mean?
Roki looked at the grubs.
Could they be talking about this? But...
'Infected? Don't tell me... is this what they call the plague? But this is less of a plague and more just...'
Roki looked at the corpse.
'...Parasites, isn't it? Though they contain a bit of mana...'
Grubs wriggling inside the corpse.
They contained mana, however faint.
Considering their size, that mana was at quite an enormous level. The reason they could pierce human skin so easily was likely due to that mana.
They had struggled desperately to pierce Roki's skin by any means, but it was skin that couldn't be pierced even by sharp claws. Such skin would never be pierced by mere bugs.
'Don't tell me... if this enters my body, would I become like them too?'
Ha, nonsense.
This isn't some third-rate zombie movie...
Roki laughed awkwardly and shook his head.
"But..."
Roki furrowed his brow and focused his senses inside the castle.
Hidden by the sound of rain, it was hard to hear, but countless monsters were already rampaging inside the castle.
'...I didn't notice? Why?'
No matter how much the sound and smell were obscured by the rain, to think he hadn't sensed this level of presence...?
"Is it because these things aren't alive?"
The headless corpse before him moved, but it could not be considered alive. However, the bugs were alive.
To detect them, one would have to sense the bugs' presence.
"...H-he's infected!"
"What do we do?!"
"Kill him! Kill him!"
The mercenaries raised their weapons and pointed them at Roki.