guide.
guide.
“Follow me. Let me guide you.”
The trumpeter of rest did not reply with a katabuta, but just fluttered his long black mortician’s robe and followed me.
Originally, the role of guiding him to the nest where the shady bees lived should have been taken by an official from the Northern Kingdom or Northern Empire, not me, but the officials hated having to meddle with the trumpeters of rest leading the group of the dead. Accordingly, I offered to guide the trumpeter of rest in exchange for a small sum of money from the officials of the border town.
Of course, the money I received after guiding the trumpeter of rest was a single silver coin, but I did not take this trouble for money. Since our plan to cross the border secretly failed due to an accident, we had to find another way to cross the border, and the help I am providing now is just a means to get the cooperation of the officials.
It was entirely by chance that I met such an old trumpeter of rest. It is only possible between the parties to distinguish the individual trumpeters of the Sabbath, who usually wear similar costumes. To outsiders like myself and the officials, they all looked like people wearing similar clothes and wearing white masks.
In fact, it was clear that I would not have known in my wildest dreams that this trumpeter of rest was the same person I had met at Eradico had I not pretended to know him first.
We quietly walked through the forest and headed to the nest of the shadow bees. The dead who followed followed us as well, moving their feet busily while maintaining a calm silence.
“How have you been?”
In the end, I was the one who spoke first in the silence. The trumpeter of rest glanced at my face and answered lightly.
“There is no reason to get along or not to get along. I live only because I am alive.”
I just quietly smiled at the answer as if I had a pessimistic outlook on life.
“Are you saying there was no accident?”
“It doesn’t happen very often that I get tangled up in a bunch of problems like you.”
I glanced over at the dead following us. I don’t know the exact number, but the number of the dead who followed him seemed to have increased, not decreased, if it had increased since the last meeting.
“The number of followers has increased slightly. What do you think?”
“… it’s not a very good thing that the number of dead people following you increases.”
“Is that because many people die without fulfilling their duty?”
Unlike the Northern Kingdom, where I confronted the worshipers of the evil god and prevented major incidents, I have heard rumors that in the northern kingdom, the worshipers of the evil god, to be exact, the libertio priests ran amok, and a great number of people lost their lives. .
“Life has no name. If it just dies, either voluntarily or unintentionally, that is the ‘life’ of that creature.”
“Then why isn’t that a good thing?”
“If the number of dead people leading increases, the number of things I have to do naturally increases, so that’s never a good thing.”
“yes?”
I was startled by the extremely mundane answer and doubted my ears, but he did not hesitate to answer my question again.
“Then why are you doing this?”
“Because I decided to do it. It just does.”
“Hmm. But if there are a lot of dead people, so if the problem is having a lot of work, shouldn’t we take the dead to where they belong?”
Although it was clear that he had heard my question, the trumpeter of rest quietly moved without answering. By the time I wondered if I was mistaken for asking a question. His voice was heard.
“Not all the dead have a place to return to. That is why the dead who have no place to return are with the trumpeter of our rest.”
“Then what about them? Are we going to just keep walking after the trumpeter like this forever?”
“Everything has an end. Since that is natural, the end naturally exists for the dead who have lost their place to go. A place to return to. It is up to you to decide for yourself. The same goes for the dead. When the embracing resentment runs out. The dead lay themselves there.”
The pure white mask looked directly at me. The trumpeter of rest looked at my waist and then stared at my face again.
“I can’t see you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“What did you do with the sword you took from me?”
If I knew I would meet someone I knew like this, I would have worn it on my waist. I had left the white bone sword he had given me at the inn where I had been holding it.
“The sword given to you is very useful. However, today I did not come out for the purpose of fighting, so I left it at the inn.”
“They left it behind because fighting was not their purpose. Then, what is that sword you are wearing around your waist right now? Are you going to stab yourself with that?”
Yes, now I came out with only a frost steel sword at my waist. If I had to compare the two swords, the bone sword given by the Trumpeter of Rest was lighter and sharper, but I was more comfortable and used to using this frost steel sword.
“Hahaha…”
“What happened? that has already been given to you It’s none of my business.”
After that, the trumpeter of rest did not open his mouth again until he reached the cave. No, to be precise, when I asked if he was angry because he didn’t carry the sword he gave me, he denied it absolutely. It seemed perfectly right to me.
“Is it here?”
“yes.”
The trumpeter blew the trumpet he took out of his belt. still. There was no sound from his blown trumpet. However, as if that was enough for the dead, several dead from the group jumped out and guarded the trumpeter’s surroundings.
“Go in.”
I silently nodded and led the way into the shadow bee’s lair. I haven’t figured out all of the complex structure of the cave yet, but while the workers come in and out several times to bring honey, I follow the signs that have been marked in advance to retrace the inside of the cave.
The trumpeter of rest led all the human corpses he encountered along the way to the group of the dead. The dead murmured in a voice I couldn’t understand and quietly followed us.
After walking and walking, we arrived at the queen bee’s room located in the deepest part of the cave. I smiled.
“This is the end. Now I just have to go back…”
– Are you guys? Are you the one who ruined my apiary?
buzzing sound. Well, it was foolish to believe that the person or organization that led to this situation really did not exist, looking at the iron skewer stuck in the body of the queen bee.
I turned my head in the direction the sound came from.
Five pairs of eyes shining on a hard carapace. Huge pincers and a carapace covering the whole body. Above all, the venomous sting of the tail is clearly menacing.
A purple scorpion the size of three adult males glared at us, to be exact.
– Answer me. I asked you if it was you who stole my apiary.
I just quietly smiled and drew my froststeel sword.
“You dare to call it an apiary, but it seems that all you did was leave the queen here with injuries, right?”
The gigantic scorpion seemed to have good dexterity and refuted my words clearly.
– That’s my beekeeping. In the first place, shade bees don’t make honey except when the queen is in a hurry, so this is the best way for shade bees to make and store honey on their own. I’ll ask again. What did you do with my honey?
“You mean you want to get back the honey that is produced by eating people?”
– You took it too.
“As expected, you did it even though you knew that people would surely die. Then I have only one answer for you.”
I smiled at the scorpion.
“I will make good use of the honey you made with all your hard work. Well, to be precise, the shady bees worked hard, so it’s not your hard work.”
– Give me my honey right now. If you don’t give it up, I’ll beat you to death right away.
As the purple scorpion threatened me with an extremely bloody voice, the trumpeter of rest took a step back.
No, you’re taking this out by yourself? here?
I said quickly to the trumpeter of rest.
“Is that so?”
“You created a problem again.”
“Aren’t we still friends who have been through the cave this far?”
“My position is that there is nothing in this cave since we went through the cave together. Do not expect me to step into a dispute you have created.”
– honey!!! give it away!!!
The enraged scorpion lowered itself so that it could pounce on me at any moment. an imminent situation. I pointed at the scorpion with a wink and said.
“Because of that one scorpion, countless people were devoured by demon beasts.”
“I do not move for the dignity of the living. All I care about is the delusion of the dead.”
“Even though the corpse was eaten by demon beasts?”
“It is extremely foolish to get angry at a beast for eating a human corpse. If you get angry with a beast, do you think the beast will understand what you’re saying? Whatever it is, I have no intention of interfering, so you can put an end to the matter with that scorpion yourself.”
The trumpeter of rest retreated away from me and widened his distance. After waking up all the dead in the cave, it wouldn’t be strange if he left right away, but rather than leaving, he seemed to have decided to watch the scorpion fight with me.
bang!!!
A huge scorpion jumped up and swung its pincer without hesitation. It is a self-evident fact that the body will be pierced by that thick poison needle the moment it is caught by that tongs. I quickly lowered my body to avoid the pincers and attempted a counterattack.
Aaaaang!!!
A clear metallic sound rang out as the frost-steel sword clashed against its carapace. I now realized what the purple metal skewer was made of.
It was a skewer made from the carapace of this scorpion.
– It doesn’t even tickle!!!
A huge poison dart swept the surroundings with a menacing sound. After checking the distance with the tail, I spurned the spot and avoided the tail with a short distance.
Aaaaaaa!!!
I pierced the seam where the carapaces met, but the result was the same as when I tapped the carapace.
No, the whole body is so hard, how the hell is it possible to move so naturally?
chin!
After I was floating in the air, of course I didn’t have the talent to kick the air and jump again, so I was extremely defenseless.
-This rat is like a mouse !!!
Aiming for that gap, the giant claws grabbed my body as it was.
Gnaw!
The lines of Immortalium protruding from the bracelet became armor that covered my body, defending my claws. With a clanking sound, the butcher emerged from the back of the gauntlet’s hand.
Why aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!
rotating saw blade. Without hesitation, I rammed the butcher right into the scorpion’s head. The butcher’s saw blade slashed through the carapace, which frost steel could not penetrate, without hesitation, as if tearing through soft bread.
– Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!
Scattering body fluids and shell fragments. I didn’t care at all whether the scorpion screamed or not, and I separated the scorpion’s head from my body forever.
The severed head of the scorpion tumbled on the floor, dripping thick bodily fluids.
is it almost over These carapaces seem to be worth quite a bit of money, so I’ll have to send someone to take care of them when I get back.
I roughly brushed off the butcher’s blade and smiled at the trumpeter of rest.
“Now you can go back and get some rest.”
He reached out and pointed behind me.
“That beastman isn’t dead yet.”
You’re not dead yet?
As I turned my head, a woman with long, dark purple hair hurried toward me and pointed at the butcher in my hand.
“That’s petty!!! really!!!”
Why hey hey hey hey!!!
Once again the Butcher let out a scream. I swung my arm lightly, and the woman’s head, torn off by the saw blade, tumbled on the floor once more. I smiled another smile at the trumpeter of rest, drenched in bright red blood.
“Let’s really go back this time. I want to soak myself in warm water soon.”
