Chapter. 21. Another Solo Play (12)
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Slowly –
The hurried steps did not include any consideration for the people following.
There was no one to follow in the first place.
[Go. I will follow you soon.]
[I already showed you the way to Castle City.]
“…You idiot. It doesn’t match up. “Why do you ask if the person you’re going with knows the way?”
Perhaps, having fulfilled his duty of mercy until the end, he returned to the arms of the goddess with the pain he had endured alone. The noise of the battle, which I could no longer hear, lingered in my mind like an echo.
‘This road was built in the early days of the curse in the capital. The brothers of the church and all the knights who came from outside rushed in.’
‘You know what. Just as the mutes are born and flock endlessly, the Emperor’s cursed knights and soldiers are also endlessly created. To be precise, it is not decreasing. The knights and soldiers who died in the capital will walk out of the castle in equal numbers the next day and fight again to defend the capital.’
The voice of Frauch, who was returning to the temple through this passage just a few hours ago, came to mind.
‘That’s why the battle between Mute and the Emperor’s army has been going on without a moment’s rest for the past three years. Mute, which has taken root at the entrance of the capital, absorbs nutrients from the bodies of its dead compatriots to create new compatriots, and the emperor binds knights bound by oaths to the empire and the emperor with a curse and uses them as seedbeds for cursed flowers. This is how the endless battle continues.’
‘As a result, the ground has become a situation where it is impossible to break through without risking great damage. So the knights and brothers created a path to the imperial castle through underground rather than above ground.’
‘That crack. The cracks in the capital, which were created when the strata were misaligned due to the warping of dragon veins, reach all the way to the center of the castle city. The end of this passageway made through the building leads to the crack that leads to the basement of the capital. ‘
…. I thought that maybe he instinctively expected a bad ending. For someone who doesn’t talk much, it was a fairly detailed explanation.
“If it’s a crack. “It must be the place where I almost fell when I first entered the capital.”
I could tell from the sound that the end of the passage was approaching.
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo!
A vibration that shakes the building along with the axis of the earth.
“Ka-Ubliakt! Hume Night! Uraka!”
『Do not set foot on the emperor’s land….!』
A shout heard in Mute’s native language and the crackling shouts of the cursed army opposing him.
A sound like a swarm of bees when an auror that is louder than a breaking sound is swung.
“Towards Hwangseong. The number… is about 10,000 in total.”
Even though it was hidden behind the wall of the building, it made me shrink even more. Among mutes, there are some with extremely good eyesight.
I heard that small-scale battles of this type constantly occur on the road to the castle city through the ground. It was a ‘small-scale battle’ with at least a hundred cursed knights that Frauk and I rushed in and managed to catch.
‘It’s too risky to go into hiding.’
If it were just the cursed army, they would hide and try to break through somehow, but the problem was that the army rushing in front of them, talking incomprehensible words, was the power of Mute.
A race with wildly different characteristics for each individual. Even in the 3rd world, we had a hard time with all the unique mutes, but in the 4th world, the single queen was divided into hundreds of mute lords, each producing them at their own will, making it even more difficult to find mutes that had something in common.
Among the guys running wild in front of me, there may be one that can distinguish the scent of everything passing by, and one that has excellent hearing, can smell the scent of humans crawling while holding their breath, or can detect the opponent’s location through vibration of the ground, etc., and has various other organs. This means that there may be this.
It’s just dangerous, but you can’t predict what abilities the enemy has? Going in is suicidal.
…. Therefore, it is safe to say that there is virtually no path through the ground.
The only thing left is the path that goes down the crack that you can see out the window right now…
Whiuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
“….that’s the only way out there.”
Truly to the honor of Pathfinder, there was no ‘road’ down there.
Of course, someone must have gone. The wind blowing up the valley is so stingy that it stings your eyes, and as the brewery passageway has already proven to be a man-eating cave, just looking down at the bottomless cliff-like cliff distorts your vision and twists your stomach, but in any case, someone has built a structure that can be called a staircase. Because I shaved it off.
Yes, there were stairs. The cliff, which had been carved out by knights with aurors, looked as if it had been carved out by a poor mason with the strongest chisel, and continued down the cliff in the form of stairs.
Above is a monstrous cursed knight who raises Aurors to the same height as him, and a Mute with great personality who is not influenced by those crazy guys.
Below is an abyss-like cliff built in the middle of the capital that, even to an outsider, looks like it is openly advertising, ‘This place is a curse and a stagnant place.’
“I have no choice.”
If I had to choose between a path where I was certain to die and a path where I felt like I would die for some reason, the answer was almost certain.
I looked back at the passage I had passed just in case, but I could not hear the sound of clanking armor that I had been expecting. I have no choice but to put aside my regrets by carving an arrow at the end of the passage.
I took steps that I couldn’t bear to take, heading towards the stairs.
The wind blowing against the cliff sounded like a whimpering sound.
****
Wooooow….
Chick crackle!
“You ran out of magic power? already?”
It’s been four hours since I came down the cliff stairs.
The air was humid and the wind had a strange warmth like breath, and the stairs exposed to that environment, combined with the environment of the Western Imperial Territory, where a lot of moss grew naturally, resulted in a terribly slippery descent.
Moreover, the person who carved the stairs was an improvised Auror mason who had trained only with a sword his entire life.
It didn’t take long for him to go down with his sword in hand, guarding all directions, and to crawl on all fours with a magical power attached to his forehead for a moment. When
the magic stone
was
replaced with the magical power lamp running out of power, a bright light returned along with a sound like scraping inside. Of course, even if the light came back, it would barely illuminate the area beneath our feet. The darkness here was so great that it felt like you could scoop up a handful if you stretched out your hand.
Whiuuuung –
before I knew it, the wind blowing from below was heading forward. This must be proof that we are almost at the bottom of the valley.
“Hey…”
At that moment, I heard someone whispering from below where I couldn’t see anything.
‘person?’
“Hey, there’s a light…!”
Whoa!
I turned the magic light to maximum and shined it downwards. A gently sloping staircase leading to the floor and a black robe crouching beneath the staircase.
“…Darikh the Faceless?”
“Hyde, that light… turn it off immediately!!”
‘Why is he here?’ Before the thought even reached my head, I threw up my magic lantern at the voice whispering urgently.
Whick!
The magic lantern, struggling to emit light in the darkness, spins and is thrown upward.
The moment the light was barely able to shine on something approaching, it
was lost –
all that was left was the sound of the small magic light being swallowed up by the darkness.
I listened with bated breath in the thick darkness at the bottom of the stairs until I was sure it had moved away.
“…I think this is the second time. “I helped you there.”
What broke the silence was an unpleasant voice from my memory.
“Was it the warlock Daric…?”
“Why am I here after being separated from the temple, how did I come before you, and why did I meet you again like this?”
“You know me well.”
The warlock, whose face had melted and all his facial features had disappeared, came to my side again without me knowing.
Fortunately, perhaps because I had experienced it once, I was able to bring the tip of the knife to my neck in time this time.
“Is it like this? Between us?”
“Well? “I don’t particularly remember having a relationship with you.”
“If we received help twice in this rotten capital, wouldn’t we have a very deep relationship? To be exact, that person is the one who needs to be very, very grateful to me. “I helped them both.”
“That would be the case under normal circumstances. “If there was any ‘intention’ to it, I think it would actually help me in many ways if I stuck it out right away.”
Before, he was a suspicious but helpful guy, but now his suspiciousness has gone beyond the limit.
“What is it? Why are you following me? “What do you want from me?”
If I didn’t answer even one question correctly, I was going to blow my head off. I had no intention of moving with someone whose intentions were unclear when I was in the middle of enemy territory with no information and no one to watch my back.
“three. There are three questions you need to ask in order to get past this incomprehensible suspicious entity… That’s quite generous, isn’t it? “Hehehehe!”
Darik responded with an unpleasant smile.
“The crack that extends to this castle city was not split by the twisting of the dragon vein. “When the curse of the underground castle was released, the impact of it distorted the axis of the earth.”
“….hey.”
“If you go straight along this road, you will come to a place where survivors are gathered, similar to the temple I showed you to last time. There weren’t many seats in the Temple of Mercy. “Those who were one step behind came down this canyon following the knights and remained here, between the power struggle between Mute and the imperial army, waiting for rescue.”
“What just hit your magical power is a curse called ‘living darkness.’ In terms of magic, it is a great curse of the 7th or 8th level, and the effect is, as we saw earlier, to find the light source and eat it. It is more famous as a catalyst for curse, symbolizing darkness. “He’s probably the one who came out of the lab in the basement of the Imperial Castle.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“But it’s also the answer you need! Isn’t that so, Hyde who finds his way!”
Ye’s strangled laughter could be felt through the tip of the knife.
“Ah, yes. Since you’re a smart guy, you probably know that I have a purpose and that I’m following behind you. Are you going to Hwangseong? Then I have no choice but to help. “Because I have something to go to the imperial castle too!”
“Frauch, I had high expectations from that friend! I thought that one day, when that rotten Temple of Mercy festers and explodes, that guy will clear a way for me, and then I can follow him and go to the imperial castle! But this guy… he’s so nice that I fell for him. I instinctively felt something was wrong, but at the same time I instinctively refused to think about it. He instinctively knew what to do if he burst that rotten pus, what would happen to the people who entrusted themselves to the temple. Indeed, he is a Holy Knight of Mercy. “I have finally completed my duty.”
Darik raised his voice as if he was excited and then started whispering again, being aware of his surroundings.
“Three questions and three answers. Is this enough?”
“It wasn’t the answer I wanted.”
“It’s the answer you wanted. And if I were to tell you who I am here and what I came to do, would you believe it? “Can you accept that as the answer?”
“….”
“Look. “Guidance on the path ahead is 100 times more valuable than a meaningless answer.”
“I will help you wherever I can from time to time. All you have to do is get that help and head to the imperial castle. “I will follow, and as a result, we will help each other.”
“What if your intentions are impure?”
“I have to endure it. “Isn’t a threat that you can at least be wary of safer than a threat that could attack you without knowing anything on the way to the capital?”
After listening to what he said, I looked into it carefully and thought about it.
….Suddenly.
And he took away the sword he had pointed at him.
“Thank you.”
“So, are we going to accompany you like this?”
“no. As I said before, I can’t move where the Emperor’s curse touches me. “What you need is a magical symbol.”
“symbol?”
“okay. The knights of the past three years were typically those who opposed the emperor’s curse and headed to the imperial castle to stop it. So, the path the knight took has a magical symbol: ‘The emperor’s curse has been broken.’ If I use that level of symbolism as a catalyst, I can move within the realm of the curse to some extent. That’s why we need people who move towards the imperial castle.”
“…In addition, permission from the target ‘advancing person’ is required for that? “Magically.”
“Okay. “This type of technique involves a lot of complicated and cumbersome procedures.”
As if he wanted to hide the last one, an uncomfortable sigh was heard through the darkness.
“That’s it, so please don’t fail and arrive at the imperial castle safely. “I will help you both materially and spiritually.”
“for now. “I know that’s the case.”
Darik’s presence began to fade again, as if he had achieved what he wanted by receiving permission.
Suddenly, one of the things he said came to mind.
“Darik.”
“Something?”
“From what I heard, it sounds like you’ve been keeping an eye on Frauch.”
“…I watched it for three years. “I wish that guy with a heavy ass would climb up while the other knights were heading to the castle.”
“then. “Were you watching just a moment ago?”
“…Hehehehehe.”
He smiled quietly as if he understood the intention of the question.
“…I’ll tell you one thing. If the temple hadn’t turned out that way, you and Hyde would have had a hard time. The group that flocked to the temple now were the ones that were originally wandering around the city. Those who follow mercy always lose. “The goddess and those who follow her.”
“It’s just like that this time too. “Be like guys.”
With those words, Daric fell silent. It took me a while to realize that it had disappeared as quietly as it had appeared.
“…That’s why I dragged you in.”
Darik’s actions were clear.
[Heads to the imperial castle.]
[For that, someone is needed to clear the way.]
That’s all he said.
[Contrary to the warlock’s expectations, Frauk showed no signs of heading to the castle.]
[He found me and had expectations.]
[He guided me to the Temple of Mercy. As he saw it, I, who have excellent observation skills, discovered the festering problem of the temple and exploded it.]
[The sacred power of the temple disappeared. Most of the imperial army protecting the city of Dragons flocked there, and the new guide ‘Hyde’, who had his expectations, We arrived at the canyon safely.]
And this is the story behind it.
He really did his best to help me head to the imperial castle.
In the process, the priests in the problematic Temple of Mercy and all those who had entrusted there were replaced.
“….Damn it.”
Until I heard Darik’s answer, I had to admit that I had expected Frauk to follow.
As useful as that help was, my steps became heavier.
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