Episode 70.
“Huu—”
I exhaled the breath I had been holding and gazed into the distance.
Before me unfolded rugged mountain terrain.
“Is it still far?”
A sigh escaped me at the fact that it was still far.
How many hours had it been now?
‘I think I’ve been traveling for roughly five hours.’
Deep within Chilgapsan, notorious for its rugged terrain.
I had already been trekking there for five hours.
I had obtained a sturdy physique through full body reinforcement, but that didn’t mean I didn’t get tired.
Physical fatigue was accumulating from five hours of continuous climbing.
But.
‘If I can obtain that, I should endure this much hardship.’
Enduring while thinking of the sweet reward.
The third omen had begun.
With the Guide’s direction, the prelude to the Fragment War had risen.
Of course, there wouldn’t be many who acted from the very beginning, but I was different.
Because I roughly knew how it would proceed and the locations of the fragments, I could move quickly.
‘The others are probably doing fine on their own.’
Obtaining fragments wasn’t something that required a large number of people like during the time of Qin Shi Huang.
Ah, of course, it would get more brutal later, but at least in the early stages, there was no need to be that careful.
The immediate goal was to gather four fragments and complete one tablet.
So the group had all split up and gone their separate ways.
‘It’s not that difficult, so they’ll do fine.’
It wasn’t them I should worry about, but me.
The place I was currently heading to boasted the highest difficulty of acquisition among the fragments that had fallen in Korea.
Crunch.
I chewed a Gongjindan and pushed onward through the mountain terrain.
How far had I gone like that?
Ssssssh—
Before I knew it, fog filled the surroundings.
‘Did I find it?’
I compared the information the Sage had transferred with the current situation.
‘It’s right.’
It was definitely right.
But this wasn’t something to be happy about blindly.
I focused my senses to the tips of my toes.
‘One wrong step and I die.’
Invisible because of the fog, the surroundings here were cliffs where a single misstep meant a plunge downward.
Normally, one would inevitably misstep in the fog and die.
But I was different.
The sharp senses obtained from consuming Jeokhwadan, and.
『Intuition』
Because I possessed a special sense that detected killing intent and danger.
Step.
One step, then another.
Focusing on my senses, I moved forward, and before long, the fog that had filled every direction disappeared.
“….”
Straight ahead stood the entrance to a village, where Cheonha Daejanggun and Jihha Yeojanggun were erected.
There’s still a village like this?
A serene landscape that naturally evoked such feelings, as if I had come to the Joseon Dynasty, captivated my eyes.
As I entered that village.
Bustling.
I could see quite a crowd moving about busily.
People in sagging t-shirts and baggy pants—shabby attire.
Smoke from cooking rose incessantly from the chimneys of thatched-roof houses that looked like they belonged in an old countryside.
“…Huh?”
The movements of the people, who had been busy like clockwork, stopped.
“An outsider?”
Because they had discovered me.
They stared at me with eyes round as if looking at a monkey in a zoo.
And after a moment.
“How fascinating. An outsider has come to our village.”
“Oh my, you must have had a hard time coming all this way.”
“Welcome. Won’t you have a meal with us?”
An outsider.
Yet everyone welcomed me gladly as if I were a long-lost friend.
“….”
They approached me friendlily, but I did not answer.
“…What?”
“He seems to be a man of few words.”
“Hey! That’s why I told you not to get too close.”
“He could be awkward. Everyone, stop staring!”
“Mister Kim. I told you to move this quickly.”
“Oh dear!”
Innocently concluding on their own that I was taciturn, they withdrew their attention from me.
It was a form of consideration, but they were also busy with their own tasks.
As if there were a feast in the village, everyone was working together to prepare.
“The fruits the Young Lady likes….”
“The gift for the Young Lady….”
“She’ll like it, won’t she?”
Listening to them, all they talked about was this person called the Young Lady.
The village feast was also prepared to celebrate that Young Lady’s birthday.
‘…It’s no different.’
The information of the Sage who had mastered all knowledge of the apocalypse.
The phenomenon occurring now matched that information exactly.
Step.
I moved north along the path in the center of the village.
“Hahaha!”
“Hohoho!”
Laughter that rang out whenever I walked along the road.
Unceasing laughter and people enjoying their own lives despite their shabbiness.
If there were such a thing as a happy village, wouldn’t this be it?
A sight that would make anyone who arrived smile involuntarily.
“….”
But the more genuine that laughter seemed, the more I couldn’t help but harden my expression.
That wasn’t only because of the Sage’s information.
‘「Aaaaah—」’
‘「Sob—」’
The senses and Intuition that had risen dramatically thanks to the Jeokhwadan allowed me to hear ‘something’ that others couldn’t.
It was mournful weeping.
A wail filled with such grudge that it seemed it would tear out one’s intestines right then and there.
“Hahahaha!”
Laughter and.
‘「Huueuu—」’
Weeping.
Walking for some time while listening to those contradictory sounds that rang out simultaneously.
‘It’s here.’
Straight ahead, a grand mansion appeared, unlike the shabby thatched-roof houses.
A hanok that high nobles of the past might have inhabited.
Beyond the open gate was a wide courtyard, and there a feast was in full swing.
“Come, come, eat your fill!”
“To celebrating the Young Lady’s birthday!”
Under a temporarily installed tent, the table was laden with all kinds of dishes.
People gathered in threes and fives sat there enjoying delicious food and drink, even getting up to dance in their merriment, spending a blissful time.
However.
‘「Hueuu—」’
‘「Hue, hueuk」’
I could still hear it.
The truth hidden behind the falsehood called happiness, their sorrow.
Ignoring that truth with effort, I gazed at the wooden veranda.
“Thank you, everyone.”
The protagonist of this feast could be seen.
A girl wearing a saekdong jeogori.
She who wore a full smile was definitely the Young Lady the villagers kept mentioning.
“Young Lady! What are you doing here?”
“You should join us.”
Led by the people’s hands, she mingled and danced with them, enjoying the moment.
A heartwarming sight like a painting.
‘「Hueuu—」’
But to me, it was nothing more than an exceedingly sorrowful falsehood filled with grief.
I didn’t think I could endure it any longer.
“Hey, how about a glass of makgeolli? Don’t put on such gloomy airs for no reason….”
A middle-aged man holding a tin kettle approached and offered makgeolli.
“….”
Staring at him intently.
‘I have to do it.’
I steeled my resolve.
And at that moment.
Flash!
A flash erupted from my hand, its trajectory grazing the middle-aged man’s neck.
“Huh?”
The middle-aged man opening his eyes wide in question.
Spurt—
His head fell and rolled across the ground, accompanied by a fountain of blood from his neck.
“….”
“….”
At first, there was silence.
They had confirmed a person’s head had fallen off, but they could hardly believe it.
Usually, at times like this, people said this.
That they had lost their sense of reality.
The death of someone who had been laughing and talking with them just moments ago must have given them a great shock.
“Kyaaaahk—”
“Mister!”
Then screams burst out.
People who had thrown aside food spattered with blood scrambled to run out the main gate.
But.
Shwishwishwish!
Throwing knives plastered with hit rate increase effects chased after them.
Thud!
“Kkueuk!”
They pierced the heads accurately.
I had thrown dozens, but not a single one missed.
It was impossible for them, mere ordinary people, to dodge my throwing knives.
The intrusion of an outsider named me.
Because of that, the feast that had been filled with happiness just moments ago became a feast of death.
“Kyak!”
“Euaaak!”
Laughter turned into screams.
Slosh—
Alcohol and drinks became fresh crimson blood.
But more than anything, the greatest change was the bodies of the villagers who had met their deaths.
Sssss!
A change occurred.
Their bodies, which had clearly not been dead long, rotted rapidly.
Moreover.
Squirm squirm—
Maggots crawling among the rotten corpses.
They had changed into corpses that looked like decades had passed.
‘This is the truth.’
It was the moment when the truth hidden by the falsehood called happiness was finally revealed.
And to pull that truth into reality.
Thud, thudthudthud!
I had to massacre the villagers.
That was clearly something difficult for an ordinary person to do, something only possible for someone like me whose emotions had been worn down.
That was why I had come here.
Because even someone like Jeong Dohwan wouldn’t have the ability to tear apart the falsehood called happiness.
This was a path of blood that only I could walk.
“….”
Silence fell upon the mansion that had been boisterous with the feast.
Buzz—
What filled the surroundings were decaying corpses.
All the villagers who had been laughing and talking failed to escape my hands and met their deaths.
If there was one exception.
“…Why?”
In the center of the courtyard, the one expressing anger at the people’s deaths.
A young girl who had yet to lose her baby fat, the existence the villagers had called the Young Lady.
“Why on earth?”
Her reaction was strange.
If she were an ordinary girl, she should be crying and running away in the face of terrible death.
But this one didn’t even think of fleeing, instead standing rooted to the spot and glaring at me.
Flash!
The resentment dwelling in those eyes was not something an ordinary girl would possess.
Moreover, her eyes.
Like the eyes of a cat, they were not human, but those of a beast.
“You ask why?”
“….”
“Isn’t it obvious? No matter how dull my emotions are, there’s no way I could just look at people writhing in pain and resentment and do nothing.”
“Don’t make me laugh. Everyone was happy….”
“Happy?”
Ha, what absurd nonsense.
“The people?”
“Yes. You must have seen it too. Their happy daily lives….”
“Weren’t you the only one happy?”
“…W-what?”
“Don’t turn away from the truth. Do you really believe these people are happy?”
I pointed at the surrounding corpses, at the rotted bodies.
‘「Haaaah—」’
‘「Hueuk—」’
Trapped in a false space from which they could never escape, they were wailing.
Those who should have found rest long ago.
But because of someone’s obsession, they had been bound to this space.
That protagonist was precisely this girl, the one called the Young Lady.
“Your twisted obsession stole their rest.”
“Don’t make me laugh!”
“Aren’t they pitiful? That those who should have found rest long ago suffer because of your desire and obsession.”
“No, no. We are happy….”
Her voice gradually trailed off.
Realizing her mistake from this and a happy ending?
As if that would happen.
In this apocalypse, a happy ending was nothing more than a story that might appear in legends.
“If I kill you, we will be happy again.”
Rip!
The saekdong jeogori she was wearing tore apart.
Along with that, what was revealed was thick brown—no, fur closer to reddish.
And.
Sway—
It was two tails.
The true identity of the Young Lady who had removed her mask was a gumiho.
‘No, I should call it an Imi (Two Tails).’
A gumiho’s number of tails increased according to the spiritual power it possessed.
A true gumiho with nine tails was a spiritual creature that could govern all things in creation.
What was before me was not a gumiho but an Imiho with two tails.
‘「You, you made us unhappy!」’
Kwaaaaah—
The spiritual pressure it emitted pressed down on my entire body.
Even with just two tails, it was an existence in the realm of monsters.
It was an opponent that even the current me couldn’t afford to let my guard down against.