Chapter 45
The early-summer night air brushed past Jeong Yushin.
The streets of the shantytown were dark.
Jeong Yushin's heart was no different.
A boar beastkin approached.
Was his name Snub Nose?
“Lord Ska.”
Snub Nose respectfully handed him a towel and a fresh coat.
Jeong Yushin took off his tattered coat and wiped himself with the towel. There had been so much blood on him that the towel reeked of it.
“Did I get most of it off?”
Jeong Yushin handed the towel back and spoke.
“Yes.”
“Then why did you wait?”
“Lord Aldein told me to check whether Lord Ska was alive, so I waited outside.”
“Really?”
Snub Nose looked at Jeong Yushin, then hurriedly lowered his head. His eyes were even cloudier and more feverishly gleaming than when they had first met.
“I’ll show you the way.”
“All right.”
The two men left the shantytown. They passed through dark alleys, then walked along the brightly lit streets again and exited through the Eastern District checkpoint.
The guard merely glanced at Jeong Yushin's body and said nothing.
After reaching the Central District, Jeong Yushin spoke.
“Go on ahead. I need to buy a weapon first.”
“At this hour?”
“Yes.”
Could Einhofer still be there?
He thought about it for a moment. He did not know whether Einhofer was there. Even so, he decided to visit the forge district in the west.
“I’ll go with you.”
“Go on ahead.”
“I’ll wait at the monster dismantling shop.”
“All right.”
Jeong Yushin watched the boar beastkin's back as he left, then started walking.
After walking for quite some time, he arrived at the forge district. Most of the lights were out, leaving it dark. All except one.
Boron’s forge.
Was he still awake?
He walked as though entranced toward the forge with light spilling out of it.
When he opened the forge door and entered, Boron was sitting in a chair. His head was tightly wrapped in bandages.
“Huh?! What brings you here so late?”
Boron asked with a startled look.
“I came to buy a sword.”
He had a feeling that from now on, he would never be able to sleep without a weapon.
Bang! Clang!
Hammering rang out beyond a wooden door in one corner of the forge.
“Einhofer?”
“Yes. What a stubborn bastard. Seriously.”
Boron crossed his arms and clicked his tongue.
“He doesn’t eat or sleep. He just keeps hammering iron. He’ll kill himself at this rate. Phew. Why did I take in someone like him?”
“May I watch?”
“Go ahead. But be careful. He has the Hand Tremor Imprint, so he occasionally drops the hammer.”
“Yes.”
Jeong Yushin walked toward the place where the hammering came from.
Creeeak.
When he opened the door, a wave of scorching heat enveloped him.
The heat and light from the furnace filled the room.
Einhofer was swinging a hammer before an anvil.
The hammer struck a red-hot sword.
Sparks flew.
Jeong Yushin slowly approached and sat down a short distance from Einhofer.
Einhofer's face was drenched in thick beads of sweat.
The sweat ran down from his forehead, pooled around his eyes, and trickled down his cheeks.
He looked as though he were crying.
Jeong Yushin lowered his gaze.
The hammer sometimes struck the sword and sometimes glanced off it to pound the anvil.
Bang!! Clang!! Bang!!
Since he could not strike with consistent force, the sword bent this way and that.
It looked like his own form, twisted by blows from fate. It resembled Einhofer, too.
One of them had received the labyrinth's ‘Darkness’ and was suffering from madness.
The other had received a negative imprint and was in no condition to live a normal life.
As he watched Einhofer, Jeong Yushin thought.
Today, he had killed thirty-one people and stopped himself from killing one more.
Those thirty-one had not even been worth the hope of rehabilitation. They deserved to die. He had no regrets.
The problem was Tarman.
Thinking about it more deeply, he was troubled by whether he should kill Tarman.
The madness squeezed his heart and tore through his mind.
Bang!! Clang!!
When Einhofer's hammer rang out, Jeong Yushin's sharp mind settled down.
Sparks flew once more.
Einhofer was crying. But he did not stop his hands. He did not give up, either.
A man who shed tears over the trials fate had imposed on him, yet did not yield.
He was an admirable man who insisted on following the straight path without turning aside. One might call him half-mad.
Bang!! Clang!! Bang!!
As he watched Einhofer hammer away in a daze, a small light rose from a dark corner of his heart.
Darmong's way of surviving in the labyrinth city.
Aldein's way of surviving in the labyrinth city.
Einhofer's way of surviving in the labyrinth city.
Each had a different way.
He closed his eyes.
He gathered Darmong's kindness, Aldein's ruthlessness, and Einhofer's stubbornness together.
And then.
He mixed in Jeong Yushin's resolve.
He etched Einhofer's hammering into his mind, driving nails into the rampaging madness.
Bang!! Bang!! Clang!!
Jeong Yushin slowly opened his eyes.
His eyes, in which pure and murky energies mingled, flashed in the furnace light.
‘Ah.’
Einhofer dropped the hammer. It flew toward Jeong Yushin.
Jeong Yushin reached out and caught the hammer.
“···Ska.”
Einhofer was staring blankly at Jeong Yushin.
Jeong Yushin handed him the hammer and spoke.
“Please make me a sword sometime.”
“···Can I make one?”
Einhofer's voice trembled.
“Of course. I believe in you.”
Einhofer's lips twitched.
The two men met each other's eyes in silence for a long time.
Jeong Yushin rose from his seat.
“I’ll come by from time to time.”
“···All right.”
When he opened the door and stepped out, Boron was standing there.
“Give me a longsword.”
Jeong Yushin spoke.
Boron gave the sword in Jeong Yushin's hand a sidelong glance.
“Isn’t that a single-edged sword used by elves? You already have a weapon, so why buy another?”
“I won’t be using this one.”
“···I see.”
Boron went to the weapon rack and took out a longsword.
“Use this.”
“How much?”
“Ten silver coins. What happened to your light armor?”
“It was destroyed.”
“Good grief. Come back and have me handle it later. Bring the money then, too.”
“Yes.”
Jeong Yushin strapped the longsword to his opposite hip and left the forge.
Dawn was approaching.
He walked slowly and arrived at the monster dismantling shop.
A campfire was burning in the monster dismantling shop's yard. It was a familiar spot—the place where they used to grill meat with their companions after finishing work at the shop.
Aldein was sitting there.
The boar beastkin was nowhere to be seen.
Even when Jeong Yushin approached, Aldein did not move. He merely stared at the flames.
“Why did you spare one of them?”
Aldein spoke.
Instead of answering, Jeong Yushin held out the saber.
“Just take it.”
Aldein glanced at the saber, then turned his gaze back to the campfire and spoke.
“I don’t want it.”
“Why?”
“Because it reeks of blood.”
Aldein accepted the saber Jeong Yushin had offered.
“Come by from time to time. Show your face. Do some work, too.”
“Let’s do that.”
“Come closer.”
When Jeong Yushin approached, Aldein raised his head and peered into his eyes.
“What irritating eyes you have. Take the coat with you. It suits you.”
Jeong Yushin turned around and left the dismantling shop.
Jeong Yushin disappeared from view.
The boar beastkin came up behind Aldein and quietly stood there.
“That Barbaroi never asks what sort of people we are, right to the end. Is he not curious?”
Aldein grumbled.
“If he asked, would you tell him?”
“No.”
“I expect Lord Ska thought the same.”
Aldein turned his head and looked at Snub Nose.
“Why do you keep using honorifics with Ska?”
“It’s very difficult to explain. I’m not sure whether to call it dignity or menace···. I don’t know, but he was someone I found difficult to meet eyes with. That must be why I keep using honorifics without realizing it.”
Snub Nose tilted his head and answered.
“Enough about that. How did he fight?”
Aldein asked.
“Well...”
“Why?”
“It was savage.”
“Tell me in detail.”
Snub Nose hesitated, then told him about the fight in the tavern.
A long enough time passed to drink a cup of tea.
“He bit through someone's throat? Are you sure?”
After hearing the story, Aldein scratched his head as though dumbfounded, then asked again.
“Yes. He bit through a man's throat, chewed the flesh and bone, and spat it onto the floor.”
“Huh.”
Aldein let out a strange sigh.
“And? How did he kill the boss?”
“The boss stabbed Lord Ska in the stomach with a knife, but...”
“He stabbed him? What happened? Hurry up and tell me.”
Aldein urged him on.
“He didn’t even blink. He used that··· imprint ability.”
The boar beastkin stopped speaking, stepped in front of Aldein, and waved his body around as he reenacted Jeong Yushin's actions.
“He drove a golden dagger into the boss's stomach. Like this. Thunk.”
“...”
“And then.”
“There’s more?”
“Yes. Lord Ska went over to him, grabbed the boss's mouth, and tore it open.”
“Tore it open? You mean he grabbed it with his bare hands, forced it apart, and ripped it open?”
“Yes.”
“Huh··· seriously. His stomach was pierced, yet he insisted on walking over and tearing the boss's mouth open? This guy’s completely insane. I didn’t know he could fight that well, being young and mixed-blood, but I suppose that’s what makes him a Barbaroi. You really didn’t help him?”
Aldein glared at Snub Nose.
“Yes. I only watched. But what should we do about the remaining slave hunter cells?”
Snub Nose asked.
“Leave them alone. They’ll scatter on their own. They’re just men with money. Business has been difficult lately, so they seem to be trying to get a foothold in the labyrinth city, but do they really think that’s easy?”
“Couldn’t they take some other action because of this? Rather than intervene directly, they may try to exert influence over the labyrinth city indirectly.”
“They’re still stones that rolled in from elsewhere. In a city crawling with fiends, any stone that rolls in will only be crushed. And we’ll think about that when the time comes. Go.”
“Yes.”
Snub Nose bowed deeply and left the campfire.
Aldein stroked the red single-edged saber.
“Well?”
The saber trembled.
“You liked him that much? You finally found your perfect match.”
Aldein spoke in a surprised voice.
“···You want to stay with him? Let’s wait a little for now. I think we’ll meet again soon.”
The fight had probably spread throughout the Eastern District by now.
It must also have reached the ears of the fiends crouching in the darkness of the labyrinth city. If he merely waited patiently, Ska, worn down by the labyrinth city's malice, would come to him.
“Little brother.”
Aldein muttered as he stroked the saber.
* * *
He walked alone beneath the predawn stars.
As he walked, he arrived in front of Darmong's inn.
Looking closely, he saw someone kneeling in front of the inn.
His head had been bizarrely shaved in sparse patches.
It was Tarman.
Jeong Yushin approached him.
“···I told you to leave.”
“I have nowhere to go.”
“Are you saying you want to die by my hand?”
“How can I abandon my friends from the village and go somewhere else? Please take me in.”
Tarman raised his head.
The man who had trembled and wet himself in the tavern was gone.
No.
There was unmistakable fear in Tarman's eyes.
Even so, his love for his friends could be seen there.
Was he truly unable to abandon his friends and leave?
Jeong Yushin raised his head and looked up at the sky for a moment.
The breeze of the quiet predawn street brushed past Jeong Yushin.
‘Darmong.’
The sight of him frantically rushing off after learning of his wife's affair had lodged itself in Jeong Yushin's heart.
Jeong Yushin slowly opened his mouth.
“Do you still have your explorer's iron badge?”
“Yes.”
“Give it to me.”
“Pardon?”
“Hand the badge to me.”
Tarman fumbled through his clothes and took out the iron badge.
Jeong Yushin accepted it and tucked it into his clothes.
“I won’t ask how you got here. Work here.”
No doubt Aldein had sent him. Did he intend to leave him as a contact? It did not matter.
“Yes.”
“If you pull any more shit, one of us is going to die. Understand?”
At Jeong Yushin's warning, the color drained from Tarman's face.
“···Yes.”
Tarman barely managed to open his mouth and answer.
“Can you cook?”
“A little.”
“I see. Shave your head close. I don’t know who cut it, but it’s unpleasant to look at.”
“Yes.”
“Good. It’s nice to see you trying to reform.”
“Thank you.”
Jeong Yushin tilted his head for a moment at Tarman's answer.
“···Now that I think about it, I’m a little pissed off. Stand outside a little longer before you come in.”
“...”
Jeong Yushin patted Tarman's shoulder once, then entered Darmong's inn.
The dawn was gradually brightening the dark streets.