NOVEL NEXT Episode 104
Episode 104
Ryuseong had one question.
‘The form of the boss monster I faced.’
…It’s an element Cassice Demillang doesn’t know about, but Ryuseong is generally quick at grasping the situation.
That’s why, after making the tent, Ryuseong checked the faces of the people around him while making warm food to deliver to Cassice. If one of their traumas became so huge that it turned into a human form, there would be no way to distinguish between real humans and trauma monsters.
Before regression, Ryuseong witnessed quite a lot of human deaths due to that very problem. Some who died then may have been innocent. Some were definitely demons. But no one wants to know the truth.
That’s why Ryuseong said he would guard the very last line.
In general, the very back line of a raid team is one of the most dangerous positions. In normal monster “hunts”, the very front line would be the most dangerous, but in demon raids, the very back line is as dangerous as the very front line. Because unlike monsters, demons or named ones have the brains to use both strategy and tactics.
It means they can use the strategy of a rear ambush.
From the very moment of facing demons beyond monsters, it’s war. So the raid commander who didn’t know Ryuseong well didn’t assign the very back line to the youthful-looking Ryuseong. It was common sense not to give a big role to a rookie during war, and he followed common sense. However, as the surviving raid team members gradually decreased, Ryuseong naturally acquired the commander’s armband, and the first thing Ryuseong did when standing at the very back line was this.
‘Check whether the teammates we considered our trauma and directly killed were human or demons.’
Usually, they don’t check. If you check such things one by one, humans will go crazy. But Ryuseong was already crazy since walking through the wilderness in his childhood, so Ryuseong saw it. Sometimes they were people, sometimes they were demons. We had to make a choice. I know. But Ryuseong decided not to kill people. Because.
…Because they may not be enemies.
This world is so cruel that it confusingly mixes allies and enemies. So Ryuseong absolutely won’t kill those who look human, those whose identity as demons or humans is uncertain, hoping that at least they will live. Please live. Live.
He wanted to say that, but mostly failed.
After all, it’s easier to kill than to save.
Still, since some point, colleagues who knew Ryuseong was a pacifist always finished things off for Ryuseong. Then Ryuseong habitually checked whether “it” was human or demon. Even when everyone told him not to, the habit didn’t easily disappear. Gripping the knife handle with fingers that distinguished the realms of demons and humans by piercing through flesh and rummaging through guts, stepping with blood-soaked steps, drip, drip…
That was the life of Ryuseong after graduating from the academy.
So there was one more incomprehensible point.
‘There was no human who looked like that among the raid forces.’
It also didn’t make sense to say it was trauma created by civilians who had been trapped here long ago. If so, a dungeon break would have occurred much earlier. To that degree, it was trauma, a demon, and
It was chilling to recall again.
‘To the point of doubting what I saw…’
Ryuseong fell silent as he confirmed blood soaking through the bandages wrapped under his clothes.
And he recalled the scene he had seen.
‘Black eyes. White skin. Black hair.’
On the blood-covered floor. Among the half-chewed chunks of meat, it was smiling.
‘No, was it really?’
The memory is unclear. But what is certain is that it had bewitchingly curved eyes. Black eyelashes, red blood-stained lips, and the pale aesthetics of slightly protruding fangs. A man who looked tall just because he was wearing an oversized shirt, slim but solid for his thinness. That, terrifyingly captivating and eerily beautiful, had no shadow in the pouring light, yet its mere existence felt shaded, so what kind of presence would it have if clad in darkness? It was a realm Ryuseong couldn’t even understand.
But…
‘No one here looks like that.’
However, there is someone here with that kind of aura.
“…”
Ryuseong slowly turned his head and looked at Cassice Demillang.
And he closed his lips.
“Aww, how cute. Yes. Is that so? Were you hungry? Are you happy I’m giving you food?”
“Heehee!”
“Try saying ‘I love you, big brother.’ Hm? Quickly. ‘I love you, big brother.'”
“…Stop it. ‘That’ can’t speak.”
Ryuseong struggled to speak. Then, contrary to when he had sweet eyes looking at the young and terrible monster, Cassice Demillang was brazen.
“Why are you discouraging our child?”
“…What nonsense are you saying? Why is that thing…”
“Oh… You said you’d take responsibility for me, but it was all a lie. This is a capital offense. No. Should I stuff you? Drive nails into your joints and make you live and breathe…”
“What I’m saying is ‘that’ can never be our child.”
“But I gave birth to it.”
Ryuseong’s head started to ache.
“When did you give birth? No, where did you give… No. That’s not it.”
Pressing his temple, Ryuseong asserted.
“Cassice Demillang, ‘that’ is just a lump of my trauma.”
“…”
“It’s not alive. Don’t cherish it. To completely end the burst dungeon, we have to kill all the boss monsters scattered around, and ‘this’ is one of them.”
“What’s the difference between knowing that and giving it love?”
Cassice Demillang spoke as if he didn’t understand, but Ryuseong didn’t understand those words either.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what’s the reason you can’t pour love into it?”
“I told you. If you love something you have to kill anyway, you’ll only hurt your heart. So don’t do that…”
At that moment, Cassice laughed.
“Ahahaha! No, haha, what I’m saying is…”
Like some trauma.
“…I’m asking why you assume you can’t kill the one you love…”
With a smile so wicked it’s beautiful it’s chilling.
[Hello, my beloved Ryuseong… Nice to meet you. So…]
He said.
[Die for me.]
* * *
I was wondering what Ryuseong was saying. I mean. Why can’t you kill someone you love? Isn’t that really strange? You can kill even if you love. Right?
No, am I the only one who thinks that way? Does everyone have flowers for brains? Do they live in the world of Romeo and Juliet? Like singing serenades under the house and saying let’s die together if we can’t be together, that kind of bullshit?
‘Ahem, ahem.’
Sorry, was that too crude? But I’m fucking dead serious.
‘Hey. It’s fucking business, not love!’
Even if you get married and live together, if it doesn’t work out, divorce is totally possible, no? I’m not saying that’s right, but, no, there are people like that in the world, you know? And Cassice Demillang is a villain, right? Then of course he can kill even if he loves, don’t you think? Am I the only one who thinks that?
‘No! Everyone would think that way!’
The way I see it, Ryuseong seems to be caught up in a fantasy. Tsk tsk. Cassice Demillang was always this kind of bastard. You’re a dumb one for not knowing that. You idiot.
Anyway, I was about to throw even more sarcasm at Ryuseong, but in the meantime, Ivan Karpin, who had disappeared between the couple, finally acquired
“Uh, um, excuse me! How about we gather our forces instead of doing this?”
“Oh? That’s a good idea. Why didn’t you say so until now?”
“I kept… I kept kept saying… No, never mind. More importantly, I think it would be good to find and gather our troops and the attackers gathered nearby. After all, we need numbers to do a raid.”
Ryuseong made an expression like “Is that so?” But fuck, Ryuseong, you have to remember that you’re the protagonist who rolled through a 13-volume hardcore dark fantasy series. Ordinary people form teams and fight together. Got it?
So we had Ivan Karpin use detection magic. Oh, right. Why didn’t I do it when I’m much better at magic than the military guy over there?
“You want me to use blood magic again after I lost so much blood?”
“…Then Ryuseong.”
“I’m still an academy student.”
“Is Ryuseong in a position to say that?”
“Yes, I’m only good at swordsmanship, not magic.”
“Are you crazy?”
“Should I show you my report card?”
Of course Ryuseong’s magic score is zero since his power source is ki. Ivan Karpin also meant detection spell when he said magic, so understand it that way. But through a series of conversations, Ivan Karpin lost the will to talk. In the end, he had to use detection magic himself…
‘Kekeke. The plan to gradually chip away at the mana of someone who’s not an ally, successfully carried out without a hitch…!’
Though I’m not sure what help that would be.
But anyway, Ivan Karpin used detection magic well.
Well enough to gather all the surviving “forces”.
‘Wouldn’t this be enough?’
* * *
Cassice Demillang asked the surviving attackers and soldiers. In summary, the questions were like this.
Yo, why are you the only ones who survived?
What did you see? Did you see the boss monster?
How did you come back alive?
Of course, the actual words that came out of his mouth were a bit more kind and delicate. At least that’s what Cassice Demillang thought.
However, the soldier burst into tears.
“There was something so terrifying there. That, that…! Ah, if I had known there was such a thing, I would have even cut off my legs to be discharged…!”
Cassice thought it was a dilemma. What should I do if he has a fit? Would he calm down if I really cut off his legs? Just kidding though. Anyway, what should I do… While thinking.
“That monster revealed its name to be Jeongeun…!”
“Oh dear.”
Cassice thought it was a real dilemma.
‘I expected me to appear, but still.’
Ryuseong couldn’t have possibly met “me” in the meantime, right?
‘No way. The dungeon is so vast.’
I’ll have to plan the paths so we absolutely can’t meet in the future. Right?