Episode 67
Episode 31. To Joachim (5)
A thick smell of blood spread through the mountains.
Natalie fiddled with her chain sword with an expressionless face.
“I’ll be fine! Please save my life! I will tell you everything I know!”
A bandit screamed desperately. He was the commander of the 10th division during the regular army in the past, and now he is the leader of the bandits.
Since they were from the regular army, they were scum who lived by killing people and raping women more efficiently than barbarians.
“Please answer one by one.”
Yuma asked questions step by step.
Since they were soldiers who worked at Yeongju Castle, they spat out quite a bit of information.
The commander’s response was as follows.
Baron Secron started going crazy half a year ago, and everyone in the lord’s castle was quiet.
However, from one day, he killed the officials one by one, and in the end, he ordered the people of the territory to be brought back.
It was also true that the ritual of blood and the use of monsters were true. It was the same with the existence of a transparent wall that prevented Joachim from escaping.
It must be because I can’t help but sit here even after watching the long crazy secron.’
Such barriers were impossible to open with any human magic. But for some reason, Evan didn’t recognize the wolf and the barrier didn’t work.
It was an issue that needed to be addressed gradually.
According to Evan and the bandits, not all of Joachim’s people became monsters.
Even the bandits were aware of the existence of ‘him’. The bastard called ‘He’ whom Secron had mentioned
seemed to have no shape.
“The lord sometimes referred to ‘him’
like a lunatic. That’s all we know!”
“i get it.”
Yuma leaned on his chin and looked around at the bandits.
“What do you think of Natalie?”
“what?”
“They were spitting out information we already knew, quite desperately. Shall I save you?”
“Ahaha… no. I’m a sensitive woman, so I was offended by their foul language.”
“That too. It would be wrong to let the bandit who tried to attack the rose wine live.”
“Hey, the promise is wrong! Help me!”
left hand!
The commander’s neck fell to the floor. Natalie began to kill the bandits as if she were cutting off twigs.
Zecca clicked her tongue and tried to cover Evan’s smile. However, Evan pulled out a short shod and approached Natalie.
“Oh, is my little boy moving?”
“The bandits in Joheim… especially those from the regular army are extremely nasty. Both Jenny and Martha were captured by bandits and used as soothers before they died.”
Jenny and Martha were Evan’s childhood friends. Of course, they were the children of commoners who had no power.
“That’s not what we did!”
“You guys are the same.”
Evan thrust his shortsword into the chest of one of the bandits. It was the location of the heart. The unfamiliar sensation of iron being pushed into his heart was terrifying.
His hair stood on end, but Evan didn’t stop and turned the handle.
The feeling of a pounding heart being twisted passed through my fingertips. It was the first year.
A vague feeling of guilt crept into his heart, but Evan was soon able to shake it off.
“You make the kid a really good experience.”
“No one here grew up in a greenhouse as a child.”
Natalie began to pull down the tent in response to Zecca’s words.
“That’s right. Evan I’m not good at explaining things, but… From the moment you get swept away by a certain boundary, it becomes very difficult to keep your humanity. Just keep that in mind.”
Jeka stood up and said. Evan didn’t answer.
“Let’s move. Leave those things as monster food.”
The party walked another hour and set up their tent again.
Except for Evan, no one felt physically limited, but he needed a break.
Could I have slept for 30 minutes?
After the bandits, there was a being who came to the party’s tent for the second time.
“Is it a monster this time…
Zecca woke up and shook her head with her forehead in annoyance.
The monster ate the corpses of the abandoned bandits and pursued the party in pursuit of the smell of blood.
“Kiaaaaa!”
It was a group of monsters made up of orcs and trolls.
There weren’t many. Yuma had the power to kill hundreds of Orcs by herself, so she couldn’t pose a threat.
However, irritation bordering on anger soared. It was because the whole situation felt like someone’s evil prank.
writing!
Ascalon cut a troll in half. It’s a troll with good regenerative power, but it didn’t mean anything to be cut vertically like this perfectly.
‘purple?’
But it was strange. The blood of trolls and orcs was originally black. It was also a common feature of all monsters except for the ogres. The ogre’s blood was a shiny color like an aura.
Purple was the color of the artificial monsters I saw earlier in the village. Secron’s black magic was already influencing the entire Joheim region.
Fortunately, the orcs and trolls did not seem to have any special powers.
Unlike bandits, orcs and trolls do not feel fear or fear.
The monsters rushed at Yuma like moths throwing themselves into a bonfire.
Yuma quickly cleaned up the monsters without giving a second thought to the sword. That one was slowly getting annoying.
“Aagh! Why do things keep coming out!”
Natalie shouted and untied the tent again.
Regardless of the level of physical strength, it was extremely tiring to continue moving and setting up the tent. He was so angry that his fingers trembled.
In the end, the party did not sleep until morning and crossed the mountain range and came down to the plain.
On the way down, there was a harvest of catching a few rabbits. The party made a fire and groomed the rabbits with familiarity.
It was a part that showed what kind of childhood the four of them had.
“Are you surprised? I know how to do this.”
Natalie looked at Yuma gently and peeled off the rabbit skin. Jecca seasoned the red meat of the rabbit with salt.
“I know how to groom a snake.”
When I was a war orphan, I had to survive by eating whatever I could find.
It was common to catch and eat wild animals while receiving Haka’s education in the fishing village of Ferol and Duran’s training in Ahmad.
Really sad.
The party couldn’t eat the roasted rabbit, which had begun to brown.
Five little children, who must have been seven years old, came to the party’s tent.
The children were all very skinny, as if they hadn’t eaten in a long time. Needless to say, her hair was tangled because she couldn’t wash her hair, and her body was black like a monster.
“It’s not common for women to hate kids like me…
Natalie sighed. It was because it was expected what kind of choice Yuma would make.
If the leader of the party had been Natalie, she would have made a different choice.
“Come here.”
Yuma served the well-roasted rabbit to the children. Jerky and grain powder were left anyway.
The children hurriedly started tearing apart the roast rabbit with their black hands.
His hands must be very hot, but he didn’t seem to care. It had been a long time since hunger hit the pain.
“Why give it to me?”
“I have to give them to the kids.”
“Were you such a stuffy man?”
“I know that those children have guardians.”
There was an old adage in the empire.
There are no beggars or orphans in Joachim.
Even before Secron came, Joachim was famous for being harsh.
Such a maxim exists because the weak, such as beggars and orphans, can never survive.
It was natural since it was a land run by robbers and monsters.
However, it is one thing that there are children like this. That there is a protector somewhere.
That’s why Natalie thought of not giving her roast rabbit.
“Where do you guys live?”
After the children finished eating the roasted rabbit, Yuma asked quietly.
The children looked into each other’s eyes with a smile.
“Am I in a bad mood right now?
talk fast You fucking kids.”
Natalie snapped, and the child who was in charge of the distribution opened his mouth even while eating the roast rabbit in a hurry.
“Are you going to do that?”
It was an unexpectedly calm tone. Yuma looked at the child with her eyes shining.
“No, I’m asking to help.”
“What if I don’t tell you?”
“Then you can just go.”
“Then I’ll just go back. The rabbit ate really well. thank you.”
The children backed off.
“You’re a wild kid.”
Zecca said while looking at the back of the children running away.
“Let’s take a break for three hours and go after those kids.”
“Why are you chasing that again?”
“Don’t you think that a human being who would step out and protect such children in this situation would somehow know something? If we intimidate children, will their guardians act favorably toward us?”
When Yuma explained the reason, Natalie had nothing to say.
Their goal was to attack the lord’s castle immediately and kill Baron Sekron. However, the information that has been uncovered so far has been absurdly small.
“Anyway, we need a break too.
No one seems to be visiting anymore, so let’s take a break for three hours. Satisfy your hunger.”
The sun was rising now, but the party took turns checking the surroundings every hour.
The first order was Yuma. Yuma sat down on top of the bar and sorted out the things she had done so far.
‘Somehow, it doesn’t seem like a coincidence that I’ve come this far.’
Yuma felt strangely certain.
After three hours, the group removed the tent.
Children, of course, left numerous traces. Seven-year-olds couldn’t have had Track in mind in this situation.
The group followed the footsteps of the children and moved. There were areas where footprints were erased along the way, but Natalie was a woman who was an expert in concealment and could find her even if she decided to hide.
Jangmihoe was good at tracking. Natalie, the owner of the club, had nothing to say.
After walking through the grass for a long time, I saw the children’s hiding place.
The hiding place was not an ordinary house, but a natural cave. The grass near the cave was full of feces wrapped up by children.
“There are also adult stools. Like one person.”
said Natalie plaintively.
“Okay let’s go.”
Small traps were set up from the grass to the cave. It was a trap that could make an ordinary adult man in trouble.
Of course, such a crude trap could not harm the party at all.
When Yuma came to visit, the children who were crouching inside the cave were terrified and covered their mouths. It was to avoid screaming.
“Are you the guardian of the children?”
Yuma said while looking at the back of the man sitting next to the children. The man got up and approached the party.
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