(73)
Author’s words
Sorry for the
late
serialization . I forgot that a day had passed and set it to be serialized on
January 6th at 10:30 .
It’s my stupid fault . I’ll hit you in the
head ㅠㅠ
＜ 13. One-hit kill (1) ＞
Ti-dik, tick, tidik .
Sparks flew in the air and distorted. The bonfire was burning firewood and performing a twisted dance. It was a good look to stare at blankly. In fact, everyone around me was like that .
A cool night breeze knocked on the door. Occasionally, the cries of unknown monsters or beasts could be heard from far away. At first, everyone tightened their tension for fear of an immediate attack, but after realizing that it was just howling, they didn’t care .
“ By the way, we’re indoors, so can we light a bonfire like this …?”
It was Priest Emilia’s question. It would have been a valid question under normal circumstances, but it was a bit of an odd question to ask now .
Trisha’s answer came out subconsciously .
“ No one lives anyway, well. And isn’t it a little vague to say that this place is indoors ?”
It was as it was said. At the time when the roof was half destroyed, the house was already only half fulfilling its original role. The smoke that should have accumulated on the roof was falling over the night sky .
It wasn’t that Emilia didn’t know that either. It was just that this silence was awkward, so he came up with something to lighten the mood .
but still silent. The time to watch the dance of the bonfire continued .
The long story had just ended. Andrea told me what had happened with Bagratu. The planned operation worked well, and we sealed it outside the rift. After that, we had a brief conversation. It will probably be difficult to get out of there .
He pretended that Bagratu’s grudge was because of the enemy he met outside the dungeon. It is said that the refugees of Khalisis once denied the guests of Atala .
Of course this is an obvious lie. No one really believed Andrea’s words. However, everyone pretended to believe Andrea’s words, because there must be something wrong .
When Andrea said he was going to fight alone, there was no one who didn’t worry. Didn’t everyone see Bagratu’s ridiculous power? In particular, Emilia nearly cried halfway when she saw Andrea return safely. Compared to what he had done, it was a trivial task to settle a lie .
When he counted the rift stones he had stolen from Bagratu, they totaled a whopping 1000. It was a very large amount, but it was not surprising when you think about it .
Didn’t Bagratu kill the NPCs and wipe out the quest rewards? It was clear that this was also a part of what was dispersed and stored because there was not enough space in the subspace pockets .
Anyway, even the rift stone I just got is 100,000 gold when converted into gold. Even if you remove the 300 to use when escaping, you still have 70,000 gold worth .
The problem is that Bagratu killed all the merchants who exchange money. The merchant at the rift shop did not exchange money, so those rift stones were destined to be consumed within the rift .
It wasn’t a serious problem though. Each stat orb costs 5 stones. Speaking to the extreme, it means that you can raise 140 and go out with just your strength .
‘… I can’t use it like that, but .’
He had to equip himself with some equipment for Marco, Trisha, and Emilia, and he had to buy a new weapon that he could use. Unique grade equipment alone would be close to 100 stones, so it would be difficult to use it as much as I thought .
‘ It’s a pity that the crack shop doesn’t sell cards. You can buy some artifacts and equipment and use the surplus to buy stat orbs. Since the number of people is increasing, 70,000 gold is not that much money than I thought …’
I didn’t think it was worth it at all. Because they protect each other’s lives, in the end, it was also an investment for themselves. Andrea told the party about the items in the rift shop and asked for opinions on how to use the rift stone .
The process was complicated, but the result was simple. As it has been so far, Andrea will live on her own. It has been a truth of all times and places that it is better to leave it to the experts when you are not sure .
After that talk, there was nothing more to say. It was the reason why this silence came .
Tricia and Emilia were also quite tired from running through the cracks to find hidden rewards. I decided to rest until tomorrow morning and leave, but the sleepless night was getting deeper without a conversation .
Isn’t it like that sometimes? It would be nice to have a casual conversation, but when everyone has a lot of thoughts and shuts up. This was just such a moment .
The person who opens his mouth in this situation is the one who can’t stand the awkward atmosphere the most .
“ By the way, Trisha-sama, how did you end up in the dungeon ?”
Andrea talked about her resentment with Bagratu and told Emilia about her false past, that she was a refugee from Calisis. …
Anyway, after hearing that, Emilia became curious about other people’s stories as well.
It was in shape. But Trisha couldn’t open her mouth easily and hesitated .
Emilia hurriedly realized her mistake and waved her hand .
“ Ah, that, that, if it’s a difficult story to tell, you don’t have to tell it …”
“ No. Actually, it’s nothing special …”
Regarding the restless Emilia, Trisha began to openly tell her story .
“ As I told Marco and Andrea before, I was born in Helios. Both of my parents died early, but an aunt who was usually close to my mother took me in. But when I woke up after dinner on the first day I entered that house, I was trapped in a place I never saw with my arms and legs tied .”
Contrary to what I said before, it was by no means a trivial story. Following Emilia, Marco also became restless. It was something Andrea had already heard about in the game, but hearing it directly from the person in question had a different weight .
“ At first I thought it was a joke. Until I got kicked in the stomach by a slave trader. I knew it on the inside, but it was so hard to accept the reality. That the motherf*cker sold me out …”
“…”
“ The person who bought me was a man who became a rich man in gold mining. I don’t know if I should say this in front of the priest, but he was a real beggar ten-year-old. As soon as we met, without saying hello, they put this on my neck with a red-hot iron .”
Trisha removed her ponytail and showed the marks of two snakes gripping each other. Seeing the scars slashed on it, Emilia smiled .
“ Oh, aren’t you sick? Shall I treat you ?”
Trisha smiles and shakes her head .
“ Don’t worry. It doesn’t hurt at all now .”
“ I was going to talk about it before, but I couldn’t because it seemed to be an unwelcome topic for you… Isn’t that the stigma of the Dominican family ?”
Those were Marco’s words. As soon as he heard that, Trisha’s eyes turned cold in an instant .
“ How do you know that ?”
Seeing those eyes, Marco panicked and panicked .
“ Oh, no. Don’t get me wrong. Aren’t I from Helios too? One of my friends who went to the temple with me was a slave from the Dominic family. He was the one who shouldered the duty of military service instead of his master. He had the same stigma on his neck .”
It took less than 10 seconds to finish speaking. It was the first time Andrea had ever seen Marco talk like that. He seemed to be the type to speak quickly when in a hurry .
Trisha’s complexion darkened for a moment when she heard the word
‘ holy war’, but only Andrea noticed it. Tricia quickly erased her expression and made her usual face .
“ Well, it’s fortunate that Marco-san doesn’t have a big connection with you. Actually, that Dominican family guy, I killed him. It wasn’t intentional .”
“ Yes ?”
As the story grew more and more serious, Emilia’s tongue twisted and made strange noises. Perhaps because of this, Tricia showed no sign of stopping her words .
“ He was a sadistic pervert who enjoyed seeing little girls suffer. He had other slaves torture the child and himself watched through a small window, and after the torture was over, he would apply medicine directly to the wound and talk kindly. I was fooled until I was tipped off by a child who was in the same situation as me. I didn’t even know he was watching, I just knew he would rescue me soon.”
” Uh, uh… Trisha-sama …”
Emilia’s complexion turned pale. I knew there would be some bad past history, but I didn’t know it would be like this. A look of remorse for not having said it in the first place. Nevertheless, Trisha’s story continued without hesitation .
Trisha eventually manages to escape from the Dominic Mansion. In the meantime, I bumped into the owner, and the owner seduces Tricia to forgive her if she returns even now .
Tricia pretends to be fooled and approaches the owner and bites his finger so hard that it nearly cuts it off. The owner screams and struggles, then hits his head on the wall and dies .
“ After that… it wandered aimlessly and was picked up by a hunter. I found out later that I had crossed the border. The Dominic Mansion was near the border between Helios and Cleitos. So although he is from Helios, his heart is closer to Cleitos. When the priest said he was the priest of the Earth God, I was a little glad .”
Kleitos was a country named after the land god Kleitos .
Emilia put on a painfully ambiguous smile. There was an endlessly unfortunate story, and then suddenly, when the story of being happy came out, the drop was so big that I couldn’t adapt .
“ Nothing has happened since I was picked up by the hunters. I lived among stinky and talkative men, learning a little bit of slang and shooting a little bow… One day, I got lost in the woods, and I ended up here .”
Andrea slightly narrowed her eyebrows. that was a
lie
The dungeon allowed entry only to those who had a desperate and earnest desire. Even after becoming a hunter, Trisha went through a lot of things, but the atmosphere was too calm, so it seemed that she was not going to talk about that .
There was no need to scrape to make a swell. Andrea nodded. If Trisha was going to talk about that far, all she had to do was respect that idea .
sober atmosphere. Marco struggled to open his mouth .
“ You must have had a lot of trouble …”
“ Ah, okay. It’s all in the past .”
Tricia said something she didn’t mean to, as if she was embarrassed that the atmosphere had been created like this. There was no way that those memories wouldn’t be traumatic. It probably means that you don’t want to be comforted in a modest way .
Marco waved his hand as if it wasn’t like that .
“ No, I’m not talking lip service. It’s not like what you’re talking about. I also have a little daughter I left outside the dungeon .”
“ I said it was .”
Trisha suddenly remembered the past when she doubted whether Marco could be trusted one day. A person who did not hesitate to commit inhumane acts for his daughter .
However, after seeing his human side while traveling together, I came to reconsider that it was too hasty a judgment. Even if his life was infinite, he hadn’t he saved himself at the risk of death anyway .
The more you know someone, the harder it is to hate that person. Much of Trisha’s wariness toward Marco has disappeared. She also wondered what kind of life Marco had been living .
“ By the way, Mr. Marco, come to think of it, I have never heard it properly because I always only listened to it in fragments. Can you also tell us how Marco lived ?”
“ Heeep .”
Emilia hiccupped. He also seemed to be worried about what kind of reaction he would have to show if a dark story came out and the atmosphere became more subdued here .
Andrea was worrying in a different way… not worrying. The relationship between Tricia and Marco, which he was suspicious of. If you listened to Marco’s story, there was a high probability that you would be able to confirm the truth .
If so, what effect will that fact have on the party ?
. . . It was
unknown . For some reason, I thought that even if the suspicions turned out to be true, a touching reunion would not happen .
Still, it was a story that had to be brought out at some point. To find out the result, I had no choice but to watch in silence .
Remnants of the past flashed by in Marco’s eyes, and his tightly closed lips opened .
“ I was born in Helios, also in a small village near the port of Lesbos. It was a very normal town, except for the overgrown dandelions.”
At first, the stories were nothing special. A childhood spent with parents who were farmers, a meeting with his wife who was a childhood friend, and a marriage that took place under the blessings of the villagers .
It was just the story that I could hear normally .
“ My wife was unable to bear children .”
＜ 13. One Kill (1) ＞ End