56 – 26. Corrupted Territory Brooks (1)
“I have no idea what’s going on.” Ariel’s pupils shook as if they were shivering with despair.
She didn’t understand why such crazy things were happening.
“I just came on a trip. Why is this happening all of a sudden?”
Wasn’t it supposed to be a healing trip?
She left for Brooks, where Bianca lived, longing for her scattered family.
She wanted to make her feel comfortable because she was someone important to her.
Of course, the reason she chose to travel wasn’t entirely for Bianca’s sake.
“I wanted to rest comfortably…” Ariel also needed recharging time.
The series of failures that started with war games had eaten away at her heart and plunged her into self-loathing.
Of course, there are times when you fail while living. Overcoming it is important.”
She was not unaware of that either. She had tasted countless failures and climbed to her current position by overcoming them all.
But for some reason, the feeling of defeat, which should have disappeared in a few days, remained intact.
In the end, Ariel couldn’t stay with Volkanov. If she saw Ian’s face, she felt like she would go crazy.
They might accuse her of fleeing.
She wouldn’t deny it. She simply believed that she needed a real rest.
“I wanted to strengthen my relationship with my friends…”
Celia suddenly lost her enthusiasm. Raina, who always smiled, was trying to create distance.
She didn’t know why they were acting like this. But there was one thing she could understand.
They needed time to reunite.
The reason they headed to Brookers was also because of that.
“Bianca lived there, and it’s also famous for its beauty.”
With a mild temperature and elegant buildings, Brookers is a must-visit destination ranked first on the travel list.
She thought that if they traveled there, they would surely be able to reassess their relationship. But…
The disaster came to them when they left for a break.
“What the hell did we see?”
“Could it be… a ghoul? When it comes to humanoid monsters, I can only think of that.”
“No, Celia. Ghouls don’t turn people into ghouls by tearing them apart. And he looked more like a corrupt person than a ghoul.”
A loud explosion was heard, and in an instant, the city turned into a bloody mess.
Madmen with tears of blood wandered the streets, devouring living humans.
Their bodily fluids and the blood of the sacrificed stained the streets.
They tried to stop them, but it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
“What the hell are we supposed to do?”
Thwack!
A madman, whose head was struck by the handle of the Holy Sword, fell to the ground.
Although he seemed to still be alive, writhing in pain, they couldn’t make sure by confirming the kill.
“We can’t kill them, but we can’t just stand still either.”
How can one deal with something that appears human?
She didn’t have qualms about killing a living person.
It’s not something to brag about, but while she was active as part of the Hero Party, she had killed countless mines, and not only that, there were humans who targeted her as a hero.
The problem was that they were innocent humans.
“Endure, Ariel. It would be difficult to compensate for hastily killing those who may still be cured.”
“But… Bianca unni, we can’t continue like this either.”
If they were truly irrecoverable, she wouldn’t hesitate. However, it wasn’t right to kill indiscriminately.
But the problem didn’t end there.
“There are people lurking between the buildings; we can’t keep fleeing like this.”
The battlefield felt smaller than before.
For them, who always utilized space expansively and overwhelmed with overwhelming firepower, this situation was nothing short of disastrous.
They couldn’t let their guard down even though madness was spreading. Moreover, the space was too cramped.
In the end, Bianca had no choice but to make a decision.
“I know. That’s why we’re stopping here.”
“We’re stopping?”
“Yes, we need to find out why this happened in the first place. We have to determine if it’s possible to cure the infected.”
“Is there a way to find out? Bianca?”
“Well, by capturing citizens who show no signs and interrogating them… So, we must meet the person responsible for this territory.”
Bianca answered Celia’s question and turned her head, gazing into the distance.
At the end of her sight, there was a massive mansion.
“I heard that the mansion we used before our family’s downfall is now occupied by Viscount Belos, who manages this territory.”
Viscount Belos should be there in the mansion. As the city’s authority figure, he might know why this calamity started.
“Well, then I guess we have no choice but to go there first. Do you know the way?”
“Yeah, since I lived here… If we move in the shortest route, we can reach the entrance of the mansion within five minutes.”
“Then let’s go quickly! We don’t know when more infected will swarm in!”
With those words, Ariel and her companions moved swiftly.
From Noble mtl dot com
Bianca, who had spent her childhood here, maneuvered through the gaps between buildings, carving out the shortest route. The mansion, which was previously distant, now stood right in front of them.
Though stray infected creatures occasionally rushed at them, dealing with a few of them posed no problem unless they came in hordes.
Just as they entered the garden surrounding the mansion, something unexpected happened.
Clank!
“Huh?”
“It’s dangerous! Ariel!”
As Ariel crossed the pathway leading to the courtyard, something shot up from beneath her feet.
Ariel, who quickly turned around with Celia’s swift assistance, looked at what had surged up.
“This… is it a wall?”
It was a solid object, resembling a finely carved stone at first glance. But it didn’t seem like it would easily break when tapped.
I don’t know much about it, but it was probably built to prevent enemies from infiltrating the mansion.
“Bianca Unni, if you have something like this, you should at least mention it…”
Ariel, surprised, blurted out a playful remark to lighten the mood.
“Bianca Unni?”
There was no response.
Looking around, only Reyna, Dias, and Celia could be seen, gaping at the wall.
That’s when Ariel realized.
“Hey, what’s going on? It can’t be…”
“Unni…?”
That Bianca was left alone.
***
“Unni! I’ll break down the door! Stay away!”
“Don’t get excited! Ariel! This wall has the property of absorbing mana, so it’s not easy to break through!”
“But if we attack it multiple times—”
“It might shatter. But inevitably, it will make noise, which will attract the guards outside!”
Reaching the point just before bringing down her Holy Sword, Ariel had no choice but to yield to Bianca’s rational judgment.
Though she was annoyed, she couldn’t argue with the fact that Bianca was right.
The guards they had seen. They were the ones who reacted strongly to loud noises.
In order to break this wall, it would generate a considerable amount of noise, putting them both in danger.
“If we fail to break the wall, Bianca Unni will be trapped.”
Bianca possessed formidable firepower. Wasn’t she a mage?
If there were no capable individuals to withstand the front lines, they would quickly find themselves in a dire situation.
“But I don’t have the confidence to break the wall all at once…”
What should they do? Leaving Bianca alone would be dangerous. But they couldn’t break through the wall either…
Ariel’s dilemma was resolved when Bianca opened her mouth.
“Listen carefully, Ariel. After you pass through the courtyard where you all are, you’ll see the mansion’s entrance. Inside, there’s a lobby with a statue, right? Let’s meet there.”
“What about you, Unni?”
“I’ll be fine. There’s a passage to the lobby through the adjacent basement. Just wait for me there.”
“Woah, this is dangerous.”
They meet in the lobby after going into the basement.
It’s definitely the best choice in the current situation.
But is Bianca not too risky?
It’s an unthinkable choice to dig through the cramped basement when we don’t even know if the mansion interior is safe or not.
As if knowing Ariel’s concerns, Bianca laughed to lighten the mood.
“Don’t worry. You know, I lived here. I’ve been wandering around this mansion since I was a child, so I know the building’s structure better than anyone else.”
“Sister.”
“So, don’t worry and let’s meet at our lobby. Understand?”
“I’ll definitely see you alive. If it’s dangerous, I’ll shout! We’ll come to save you!”
As they finished speaking, they could hear the sound of the group running beyond the wall.
Now, all that was left was for Bianca to reach the lobby safely.
“Phew….”
Taking a deep breath and slowing her steps, she approached the basement.
After taking a deep breath and opening the door, she entered the basement slowly.
And then she saw it.
“Screaaam!”
“Raaawr!”
The inside was also overrun by monsters!
“Gasp!”
Startled, Bianca stumbled and accidentally kicked a box.
“Creak!”
“Screaaam!”
The monsters’ gaze fell on her.
Bianca, gripping her staff tightly, drew mana into her body.
“I didn’t want to use this… in a space filled with childhood memories that I wanted to protect. But in the end, do I have to use it?”
Just as she was thinking that, she concentrated her mana.
“Whoever you are, get over here right now!”
“What? What is that?”
The ventilation shaft opened, and a hand reached out.
A hand that seemed to beckon to be grabbed.
“I don’t know much about it.”
Wouldn’t it be better than fighting with the monks in front of her?
Bianca hesitated, then grabbed the hand.
A powerful whirlpool swept her up.
***
“The enemies at the Brookes event are the Resistance and the zombies.”
Those who wouldn’t look out of place buried in the ground.
A little weaker than ghouls, but it was simple to deal with the large numbers of zombies.
“It’s about killing them as soon as possible before they infect others.”
That’s why.
Pew, Bang!
“Grrr….”
Crack!
What hesitated in splitting the zombie’s skull.
Of course, just a few minutes ago, they were human. But from the moment they turned into zombies, there was no turning back.
If that were possible, then this event wouldn’t be called the Realm of Corruption, Brookes.
It was too late to turn them back.
So Ian calmly killed the zombies, but Natalie, who was oblivious to the situation, trembled in fear.
– Ian, what is this?
“These? They’re zombies.”
– Zombies? I know ghouls, but this one I’m not so sure about…
Zombies and ghouls… Not unreasonable to mistake them based on their appearance alone.
But the two monsters were distinctly different.
“Ghouls are humanoid monsters with a cannibalistic nature. But zombies are humans who have changed.”
While they shared a common trait of showing blind aggressiveness towards humans, the differences were clear.
“First of all, while zombies can cause infection, ghouls cannot. Secondly, ghouls have all their senses intact, except for their ears, whereas zombies have lost everything except for their hearing.”
In short, zombies were much weaker than ghouls but had a powerful infectiousness.
“What kind of monsters… I’ve never seen anything like this, Ian.”
“It’s inevitable. This is my first time seeing them too.”
The reason this episode is called “Corruption of Brookus” is simple.
It was the outstanding alchemist Count Velos who ruled over the Brookus territory.
On commission from the imperial family, he experimented with ghouls to develop potions that could enhance the knights’ abilities but accidentally ended up creating zombies.
He succeeded in imbuing them with a strong desire to kill the enemy but the potion caused them to lose their humanity.
Count Velos fully acknowledged his failure and disposed of the potion, but he couldn’t handle the situation with the zombies.
“So, he was developing an antidote to reverse the situation after sealing them…”
That’s when the accident happened, the resistance.
“To minimize accidents during the process of treating the zombies, Count Velos prohibited everyone except essential personnel from entering or leaving the family residence. But in the process, the truth became distorted, spreading strange rumors.”
They say Count Velos developed a divine potion that would grant tremendous power if consumed.
The commoners who had always been persecuted, especially those with passionate personalities, joined the resistance seeking power.
They believed that if they, who had given up due to the barriers of talent and education, were to consume the potion, they would undoubtedly gain incredible strength.
They thought they could start a rebellion against the empire.
“But it’s not like they rushed in blindly. Each case needed careful handling, which led to the separation of the resistance into two factions. Those who wanted to gather more information and acquire the potion, the Ontopas, and those who wanted to charge in immediately, the Hardliners.”
This event was entirely caused by the Hardliners.
They threatened and coerced those who worked for Count Velos’ family to gain access to secret passages and launched a surprise attack.
What happened next… It’s hard to put into words.
“As you see. There was no divine potion or anything like that. Once the sealed zombies were released due to the attack, the city turned into ruins. They carried out such foolish acts, claiming they would create a better world to live in.”
How could they be so ignorant… No, if I think about it, their goal might have achieved some level of success.
“If their objective was to create a rebellion that threatened the empire, then they could consider it successful.”
Of course, they also suffered losses themselves.
“I’m not particularly sorry. In the first place, it’s not my concern.”
I didn’t want to dwell on what would happen to the rebellion they started or how to deal with those transformed into zombies.
I didn’t want to think about it at all.
There was only one thing I had to keep in mind.
“Safeguard Ariel and win Bianca’s favor.”
That’s all I needed to remember.
Thump. Thump.
Even though he tried to silence his steps, he couldn’t hide the squelching sound of stepping on wet grass.
It was when he carefully walked through the unpleasant noise from the muddy grass soaked with blood; the scene where the entrance to the courtyard was blocked by a wall came into view.
“How curious…!”
Ian made up his mind, having touched the walls for some time. “It’s blocked, and since it seems to be made of a different material than other walls and drawing on mana, it is likely to have popped out as part of the defense system.”
As expected, they had installed it to prevent enemy attacks.
“Since there are very few signs of battle taking place here, it is likely that the defense system was activated because of Ariel’s party.”
The grounds for that judgment did not end there.
“Ian! Take a look here! The floor is dented!”
“Hmm. It certainly looks like something has pressed down on the ground.”
Between the footsteps made of leather shoes, a trace of poking the ground with something like a cane was made.
It is highly likely that it belongs to Bianca.
“All other footprints were cut off here. So that she might have broken away here alone.”
But choosing to fight zombies alone would be too reckless of her.
“She must have chosen a safe way to move around while avoiding the zombies.”
Although other people may not know, as a magician, Bianca knew enough about building structures to consider them fully.
However, it was not the end for Bianca to know the structure of this place.
“I’m not bragging. I died 40 times just in this section.”
He could not boast of splendid play just as an old groggy person but he had self-confidence.
In the end, was it not himself who had cleared the game by drawing the structure of the building on inked paper?
Ian never forgot that memory.
Thanks to that, reassuringly, he could figure out Bianca moving to the basement.
No matter how much she thought about it, the only place Bianca could choose was to move through the basement and into the interior of the building.
There was no need to hesitate once the decision was made.
“Let’s go, Neltalion.”
– Yes! If we meet zombies next time, can I hit them instead of Ian?
From Noble mtl dot com
“Sure, I’ll let you hit them until you’re sick of it.”
Ian quickly moved his feet.