Chapter 32
Jeong Yushin grasped his sword.
‘The neck and heart. I only need to protect those two.’
He knew all too well that he was lacking in skill.
There was only one way.
Give up flesh to take bone.
Repeating that to himself, he looked at Karin.
At that moment, Karin’s ears perked up.
“Lucky you, Barbaroi.”
Karin snorted and took several steps back, removing her hand from her dagger.
Karin’s gaze shifted past Jeong Yushin.
Jeong Yushin also took his hand off his sword and stepped back several paces.
He turned his head and looked toward the cave entrance.
A torch flickered in the distance.
Someone was approaching.
Seeing that Karin wasn’t moving, he assumed they weren’t enemies, at least.
After waiting in the clearing for a while, three people emerged from outside.
Their faces were familiar.
They were Karin’s party members.
Gilsion spotted Karin and ran over.
“Karin!!”
“Did only our party come? What about the others?”
“New monsters have appeared throughout the fourth floor. The high-rank explorer parties have gone out to stop them, but they said it would take some time, so our party and Captain Hans’s party came first.”
“Really? What do the new monsters look like?”
“They look like centipedes.”
“Is that all?”
“We didn’t get a good look because we hurried here.”
“Tch.”
Karin clicked her tongue and looked at Jeong Yushin.
Jeong Yushin met her gaze.
‘What are you going to do, Karin?’
Would she mobilize her party members and beat him down?
Or would she bury the conflict and quietly move on?
Karin exhaled through her nose once, long and hard, then turned around.
She had chosen to put off their quarrel for the moment.
“At a glance, it seems Hans’s party transferred to another area. Let’s go to the city. We should be able to meet them there.”
“Understood.”
Gilsion answered and took the lead.
Jeong Yushin shouldered the luggage lying on the ground and took up the rear of the party.
Roynel sidled up beside him and whispered.
“Nothing happened, right?”
“Yes.”
He decided to put his quarrel with Karin aside for now.
The objective had been achieved: the party had regrouped.
That was enough. At least for now.
Jeong Yushin suppressed his emotions.
Karin’s sharp, obsessive intensity had eased once her party members rejoined them.
It was different from when only the two of them had been isolated from the party. Perhaps she had found at least a little breathing room.
Maybe Karin had been anxious too.
‘Let’s just do what needs to be done.’
He readjusted the heavy load and followed behind the party.
The party left the clearing and descended the slope.
The farther they descended, the more the cityscape that had been visible at a glance disappeared, until all they could see were the towering city walls.
After descending from the clearing, they reached the ground. In the distance, the walls revealed their imposing majesty.
Ahiman, who had been standing beside Jeong Yushin, muttered something. It was in a language he couldn’t understand.
Ahiman’s eyes were fixed on the city, and a flush colored their face.
Jeong Yushin asked Ahiman,
“Did something pleasant happen?”
Ahiman turned and looked at Jeong Yushin.
Their eyes had turned completely black.
“Umtahusi soryohumta.”
‘What are they saying?’
“You mean you’re happy? Yes. I see.”
Roynel, who was just ahead of them, turned to glance at Ahiman and spoke.
“Don’t worry about it. Mystics are like that sometimes.”
“Why are they acting like this?”
“I hear it happens when their communion with a god deepens. I’ve heard that their tongue gets twisted when divinity enters their body. I don’t know the details. Ask Ahiman later.”
“Yes.”
Ahiman continued staring at Jeong Yushin.
With nothing in particular to say, Jeong Yushin raised his thumb toward Ahiman and gave them a thumbs-up.
Karin’s party crossed ground bare of a single blade of grass.
The city was farther away than it looked, so it took them quite a while to arrive.
The walls drew closer, and the city gate came into view.
Karin’s party stood before the enormous gate.
‘Wow. It’s huge.’
Overwhelmed by the size of the gate, Jeong Yushin’s mouth fell slightly open.
The gate was so tall that he had to crane his head all the way back to see its top.
The metal gate stood slightly open.
Gilsion was about to enter through the gate when they hesitated.
Karin, standing behind Gilsion, asked,
“Why?”
“...Nothing.”
Gilsion mumbled evasively and walked through the gate.
Once they passed through the gate, Gothic-style buildings filled the city.
Pointed, angular stone buildings.
Alleyways stretched between the buildings like a spiderweb.
The city was silent, and not even a rat scurried along the main road running through its center.
“Strange.”
Roynel muttered.
“What is?”
“Hobgoblins.”
Roynel’s face, lit by the torch, had grown somewhat tense.
“Let’s find somewhere to rest first. We’ve been walking too long.”
Karin said.
Karin’s party entered an alley, found a small house, and went inside.
The inside of the house was deserted.
A thick layer of dust covered the table and chairs. Still, someone seemed to have used the fireplace recently, since half-burned firewood lay scattered around.
The party members tidied up the surroundings and sat around the fireplace.
Jeong Yushin unpacked, took out a blanket, and covered the window.
“We won’t light a fire this time.”
Karin said.
Jeong Yushin nodded and fixed the torch Gilsion had given him inside the fireplace.
“Are you going to use alarm magic?”
Ahiman asked. Their words came out clearly, but they seemed excited.
“I will, but we need someone to stand watch. You never know.”
“Understood.”
In front of the fireplace, which gave off a faint light,
the party members began eating in silence.
Whether they were tired, tense, or lost in their own thoughts, no one opened their mouth.
Jeong Yushin also rummaged through his luggage and took out something to eat.
The meal was jerky and biscuits—things Darmong had packed for him.
Jeong Yushin picked up a biscuit.
Its shape was a little unusual.
‘A teddy bear?’
Pfft!
Roynel suddenly spat out their food.
The party members all turned to look at Roynel.
Roynel coughed several times, as though they had choked.
“Kgh. It’s nothing.”
At Roynel’s words, the party members turned away and resumed eating.
Roynel suddenly began snickering.
Had Roynel lost their mind? How could they laugh at a time like this?
Jeong Yushin asked impassively,
“The shape is unusual, but is it really funny enough to laugh at?”
Roynel abruptly stopped laughing.
“Now that I think about it, I guess it’s not that funny.”
A moment later, Roynel began laughing quietly again.
Jeong Yushin asked,
“What’s so funny? Let’s laugh together.”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
‘Are you the Joker or something?’
A chill ran down his spine.
Looking around, he saw that the atmosphere was strange.
Gilsion was staring fixedly at the teddy bear biscuit in Jeong Yushin’s hand.
“Would you like one?”
He took out a biscuit and waved it at Gilsion.
“...I’ll take exactly one.”
Gilsion stealthily approached and snatched the teddy bear biscuit.
Seeing that, Ahiman remarked,
“Inkaritu ahuyam.”
“Yes. Here, have one.”
He handed a teddy bear biscuit to Ahiman as well.
They were certainly an unflappable bunch, to be craving teddy-bear biscuits even in this situation.
Maybe that was what being mid-rank explorers was like.
Or perhaps they believed they would meet Hans’s high-rank explorer party.
Maybe they assumed that since they had come to the fifth floor, Hans’s party would naturally have come here too.
Jeong Yushin stopped his train of thought, put the biscuit in his mouth whole, and chewed.
Darmong must have packed it with plenty of honey; it was sweet.
Jeong Yushin stole a sidelong glance at Karin.
Karin was looking down at the floor, apparently deep in thought.
“Lady Karin, would you like one?”
Jeong Yushin held out a biscuit.
“No.”
Karin raised her head and refused coldly.
‘She is really angry.’
He didn’t think he had said anything wrong, but apparently it had dealt a considerable blow to her pride.
Since he was the bigger person, he decided to make the first move.
Licking the teddy bear biscuit with the tip of his tongue, Jeong Yushin said,
“Lick, lick. It’s sweet. Do you really not want one?”
Karin stole a glance at the way Jeong Yushin’s tongue flicked out.
Karin’s face flushed slightly.
Why was she backing down before this man?
Only a few hours ago, they had glared and growled at each other as though they meant to kill.
Yet as she watched that tongue, the anger boiling inside her subsided.
This man’s scent was different from everyone else’s too.
It was familiar and comforting.
And arousing.
She was certain there had to be some kind of trick behind it.
Could it be imprinting?
Karin’s expression stiffened slightly.
‘Whether it’s imprinting or whatever, I won’t lose. I’m the daughter of the representative of the Beastkin Alliance. I will overcome it.’
Karin steeled herself.
“Give it to me.”
Karin snatched the biscuit from Jeong Yushin’s hand and put it in her mouth.
‘That was the one I was licking.’
Jeong Yushin turned his head away.
Roynel was staring fixedly at him.
“Would you like one?”
“No, I don’t like sweet things.”
The meal ended.
The group drew lots to determine the watch order.
Finally came the alarm magic.
Ahiman closed their eyes and began chanting.
A bizarre language spilled from their mouth.
Gilsion continued to frown and tremble.
Jeong Yushin closed his eyes.
He heard a scratching sound in a corner of his mind, but it was bearable compared to the first time.
When the chant ended, Ahiman opened their eyes.
“It’s done.”
Jeong Yushin wrapped himself in his robe and flopped onto his back. The wooden floor smelled musty, but it was neither damp nor cold.
‘This isn’t so bad.’
He comforted himself and closed his eyes.
* * *
Jeong Yushin opened his eyes at the sound of rustling.
When he got up, he saw the party members organizing their luggage.
The party members’ faces looked haggard.
They had laughed, if only briefly, the previous day, but once they lay down and closed their eyes, tension and fear crawled up their backs and squeezed their hearts.
They had passed through the black portal, something they had never seen before in their lives.
Fortunately, they had reached the fifth floor, but the circumstances were different from usual.
The oppressive air and desolate atmosphere drifting through the underground city were sounding alarm bells in their minds.
The party members, including Jeong Yushin, tossed and turned in shallow sleep.
With bloodshot eyes, the party members organized their luggage, gathered before the fireplace, and ate.
Roynel spoke.
“Shouldn’t we consider another route as well?”
Their voice came out hoarse, as though they had inhaled a great deal of dust.
“The transfer stone in the central district is the fastest route.”
Karin replied.
“We need another plan too. It’s not as though there’s only one transfer stone there.”
There were three transfer stones on the fifth floor.
The transfer stone in the central district led to the “Corridor” district.
If they crossed the city and continued all the way to the end, there was another transfer stone that led to the “Forest” district.
Finally, if they descended beneath the city, there was a transfer stone that could take them to the “Sewer” district.
Each of the three districts was governed by a different “law.”
The nearest transfer stone was currently in the central district. But Roynel was suggesting another option.
“Where are you suggesting we go?”
“‘Forest’ isn’t a bad option either. If we quietly pass along the outskirts of the city, we can safely reach the next level.”
Gilsion cut in.
“Roynel, have you forgotten? We’re an investigation team acting under orders from the guild and the council. We have a duty to at least find out what’s happening in this creepy city.”
Ahiman nodded as if agreeing with Gilsion.
“Gilsion is right. Karin, Roynel, don’t lose sight of our objective. Getting there quickly isn’t everything.”
Karin frowned and looked back and forth between Gilsion and Ahiman.
“Do you sense something? Tell me.”
Gilsion fiddled with their helmet.
“If I had to put it into words, I sensed a power similar to the mystic’s magic.”
Ahiman chimed in.
“The nature is different, but it is definitely power from another realm.”
Karin sighed.
“All right. Then let’s circle the city and investigate carefully. Everyone ready?”
The party members nodded.
* * *
Karin’s group left their camp and went out into the streets.
Not a sound could be heard in the dark, desolate streets.
They wandered the streets for several hours but encountered nothing worth mentioning.
They spent an entire day surveying the southern district of the city.
They found nothing.
They couldn’t find Hans’s party either.
Karin’s party returned to the shelter where they had stayed.
After tossing and turning wide awake for several hours, they went back out into the streets.
Everyone except Ahiman grew more and more grim-faced as time passed.
Hobgoblins rarely appeared on the city’s main thoroughfares, since many explorers traveled along them. But this was the first time they had seen the streets so utterly empty.
“This is too quiet.”
No one answered Karin. But they were all thinking the same thing.
The eerie silence did not end even after they passed along the main road and reached the central district; instead, it grew heavier.
‘This is starting to look really fucked.’
A bead of cold sweat trickled down the back of Jeong Yushin’s neck.
He had a bad feeling.
‘Is something big coming? Ah. Please.’
He knew it was dangerous. Even so, Jeong Yushin had chosen to join as a porter.
Why?
‘How could I say no to a gold coin?’
He also wanted to know for himself what on earth was happening in the labyrinth.
He trusted the strength of mid-rank explorers.
He also trusted the hard-won experience of those who explored the unknown.
He had weighed and deliberated over all the conditions before making his decision.
He had calculated that with a high-rank explorer party along, he wouldn’t die, at least—but the situation unfolding was anything but reassuring.
His meticulous calculations had begun to warp the moment he was swallowed by the black portal.
A short while later, the party arrived at a wide plaza.
The central plaza.
A statue with its upper half collapsed stood in the middle of the plaza.
Hundreds of people and hobgoblins had gathered around the statue, gazing up at the underground ceiling.
The explorers who had disappeared until now.
The hobgoblins who had been nowhere to be seen.
They were all gathered there.
‘Ah.’
He didn’t know what it was, but one thing was certain.
‘We’re completely fucked.’