Return of the Apocalypse Knight

Chapter 19: Eyewitness

It was about two years ago that ordinary people like Byeong-seok became aware of the zombie outbreak.

Of course, it seems that the dead were found before that, but ordinary people like him didn’t know that.

In fact, strange rumors had been circulating on the internet for some time.

There were stories of cemeteries being dug up in a Siberian city, and reports from China of the dead breaking open coffins.

However, these rumors were quickly dismissed as rumors.

‘There’s a lot of zombie disturbances…….’

Byeong-seok saw the rumors and didn’t believe them at all, so there was no way they could have spread.

It was all the fault of zombie movies and internet fake news.

What he thought was a simple rumor turned out to be a cataclysmic event: a civil war in North Korea.

Even though the country was under an information blackout, it was impossible not to know about the artillery bombardment of various cities and the center of the capital, and the flight to China.

What began as a civil war soon became known as a civil uprising, then an epidemic, and finally, a zombie outbreak.

It was a bizarre situation in which the elderly and infirm were killed en masse like a plague, and then the corpses rose up and attacked people.

It was like something out of a zombie movie, but on North Korean soil.

As Byeong-seok and the rest of the country watched the news in horror, the South Korean government, as well as the governments of China and Russia, quickly closed the border with North Korea.

Alarms were sounded across the country, and reservists were called up, but fortunately, the panic was short-lived.

The zombie outbreak was confined to North Korea, Manchuria, and parts of Siberia.

For more than a few months, people were shocked and terrified, but unlike in zombie movies, the zombies didn’t escape the barriers put up by South Korea, China, and Russia.

In fact, from the sounds of it, they didn’t even try to get out.

Sure, the inside of the wall was completely cut off from the rest of the world, but the rest of the world, especially South Korea, had lost interest in the land to the north.

They didn’t think of it any differently than they had before, because it had never been heard of in the first place.

Of course, the religious and scientific communities, especially the medical community, were outraged by the absurdity of the dead coming back to life, but for ordinary people like Byeong-seok, it was a different story.

North Korea hasn’t gone back to the way it was before its collapse, but people’s lives haven’t changed much.

There were more protests and life became tighter, but that didn’t stop people from paying attention to the changes in the north.

But then, a week ago, the story of the country so far north became their own.

“That day, zombies that had been staying only above the 38th parallel suddenly poured out in all directions.”

Byeong-seok recounted the events to the three men in front of him, as if he were bemoaning his lot.

“We had two years to prepare, and we weren’t even prepared to stop the zombies.”

Even as he spoke, Byeong-seok looked at his listeners, a little perplexed.

‘Sheet metal knight, leather armored soldier, elf in North Korean military uniform…….Are these people running away from a cosplay event?’

To him, the armor and swords of the soldier and knight looked real.

‘Saviors that I don’t understand.’

Anyway, since they had saved him, he was going to answer all their questions.

So Byeong-seok didn’t stop to tell them the story.

“The cease-fire line was breached right away, and within three days, zombies arrived in Seoul, not many, but at that moment, the Han River crossing was over.”

The North Koreans didn’t descend, the bodies just arrived, but Byeong-seok couldn’t understand how the South Koreans were pushed back so easily.

“Well, the Chinese and Russian barriers were breached, and I heard stories of zombies all over the world, but I couldn’t afford to pay attention to those rumors.”

Even before the North Korean zombies arrived, the dead were rising across the country.

“The highways were clogged with people trying to flee south, so I got in a car and left Seoul, and then I got stuck here.”

With the south blocked off, the idea was to head north a bit before the zombies arrived and then take the national highway through the center of the country, but alas, the zombies were coming faster.

“There was a reason they didn’t come this way.”

He had been talking so excitedly about seeing people after so long.

Byeong-seok’s vision blurred with dizziness.

Seeing that, the armored knight pulled a glass vial from a small bag and uncapped it.

The water was refreshing and invigorating.

The man thanked him, then continued.

“The people who couldn’t escape the zombies gathered here and set up defenses, barricading doors and windows and making weapons to hide or fight back.”

He shudders to recall the scene.

Bodies spilling out, cars stopped, people fleeing in all directions, some inside houses, pushing others out.

“As expected, those who tried to fight back didn’t last more than a few minutes and were swept away by the zombie horde, while those who hid inside the building were able to survive. That’s when…….”

The people who were outside the house had survived by baiting the others, but that could not be said.

In any case, those who stayed inside didn’t last long.

“In the end, I was the only one who stayed in the house with the doors and windows barricaded, because we had enough food, but some people were badly injured.”

Soon after, fighting broke out again inside the building.

The dead rose up and attacked others, and the wounded killed others, and so on, until the place became a living hell.

“In the end, I was the only one left alive.”

No, he didn’t survive. He had killed everyone else, leaving only the sick.

It was hard to tell the living from the dead anymore.

Still, he survived.

As he spoke, he could see his surroundings again.

Flesh and blood scattered everywhere.

It had solidified, but the traces of hell were still there.

The scene replayed itself in Byeong-seok’s mind.

It was like being back in hell again.

The feeling of killing people,

‘I cut my friend’s throat.’

Thinking of all the time he had spent alone in this hellish place, he was angry at the people who had come too late.

“Why, why come now, it’s too late!”

Byeong-Seok unleashed his anger on those who stared at him.

He should have been grateful, not angry,

What had happened to his head during this hell? Byeong-seok’s anger only grew stronger.

“Why do I deserve this? Why are you all still alive? Why, why, why, who did this to me?”

His thoughts were scattered by his anger.

In his fury, Byeong-seok’s eyes caught sight of the half-empty glass bottle the knight was holding.

He wished he could drink the water from the bottle again, so that his anger would subside.

But, strangely, unlike earlier, the odor from the bottle was very unpleasant.

Just then, the woman dressed as an elf spoke up.

“I don’t think he can do this anymore,” she said, “He’s just getting angry.”

For some reason, Byeong-seok wanted to slap the woman but strangely, he couldn’t move a single step.

Could he be tied up? That’s right. He can’t move because he’s tied up.

Byeong-seok realized that he had been tricked by the three.

He believed them…….No wonder he was angry.

“Untie me now! I won’t leave you alone!”

Byeong-seok yelled, but the villains stopped looking at him.

“@#&%!#$@#*%^%.”

“&*&%$&*@#$@#$@#$.”

Furthermore, the two men began to chatter in a language Byeong-seok had never heard before.

Listening to them, Byeong-seok was filled with rage.

His body trembled.

The angrier he became, the more his bound body moved.

Now his upper body began to move.

‘Just a little more.’

Byeong-seok began to twist and turn as he watched the humans chattering amongst themselves.

* * * *

Thank goodness.

I was able to get the information before I even arrived in Seoul.

It was an unexpected stroke of luck.

Sure, I had to spend a lot of holy water to get the information, but it wasn’t a losing proposition.

“I don’t think he can do this anymore, he’s just venting his anger.”

I nodded at Zahina’s words.

He held on for a long time.

“Why don’t you try some more holy water?”

“I’ve heard all I need to hear.”

Instead of sprinkling holy water, I capped the bottle.

-Burrrrrrr.

The moment I closed the lid, the whole house rumbled.

Hee was angry.

This time, however, I did not ask Zahina to translate.

The children of the World Tree communicate differently than we do, with something akin to telepathy.

The same was true when they spoke to us.

Curiously, the telepathy felt like words, but it was definitely not speech.

So, when she spoke to us, she moved her mouth in time with her telepathy, but what she said and what we heard were often incorrect.

In any case, it allowed us to communicate with humanity on another world.

Somehow, they telepathically understood what we were saying and made their will known to us.

And when we came to this world, this ability was one of the reasons we brought them with us.

The mystical ability to understand any language.

However, I never thought it would extend to evil spirits.

What I saw inside the rest house was the first demonic spirit I had ever seen in this world, a ghost.

In the midst of the flesh and blood that had congealed into a slaughterhouse, stood a bloody ghost.

It hovered over a dead body leaning against the kitchen wall.

The corpse had a kitchen knife embedded in its chest that appeared to have been driven in by itself. The ghost was staring at us, looking exactly like the corpse.

As soon as it saw us, it turned and tried to lunge at us, but I was a little faster.

Before the ghost could lunge at us, I reflexively took out holy water from my bag and sprinkled it on the ghost’s body.

We didn’t have a priest or priestess, so we couldn’t exorcize it, but we could use holy water to make it come to its senses for a while.

“Oh my…….We don’t have a priest, so there’s no point in trying to wake him up.”

I muttered in frustration, and Zahina turned to me.

“If the ghost is speaking, I can hear it. The ghost is happy to see us.”

I was relieved.

Although the sight of a bloody ghost with a kitchen knife in its chest waving at us was not a pretty one,

With Zahina’s help, we were able to get some information out of the ghost.

As expected, the ghost, who was briefly awake, didn’t think he was dead.

Furthermore, every time the holy water wore off, it tried to turn back into an evil spirit, but luckily we were able to get the information we needed before it ran out.

A demonic spirit trapped in a house, killing each other, and finally escaping from a corpse that committed suicide.

It was a common, if not the most common, evil spirit in a place full of death energy.

The Demon King even had an army of them among his forces.

It wasn’t my first time getting information from demons and it wasn’t the first time I’d gotten rid of them.

The writhing evil spirit began to move a little to take over our bodies and drive us insane.

-Kaaaaaah!

I raised my sword toward the approaching evil spirit.

The sword began to glow dimly with mana.

I swung the sword as I heard the demonic spirit scream in rage.

The glowing sword dissipated the spirit.

Night fell, but I could not sleep in the pile of corpses from which the spirit had sprung.

We set fire to the rest house and started moving again.

Toward Seoul.