Chapter 70 – Karma (Complete)
About a year after the demon lord subjugation.
The warrior party was disbanded and the Horde, which escaped from the capital as if they were running away, was living day by day earning money from place to place.
Rumor has it that the rebuilding of the Azul Kingdom is under way with the support of the Biltan Kingdom, but he had no intention of heading there.
That’s also true, there are heroes in Azul Kingdom, and where there are heroes, there is a high probability that there will be girls.
They were once the playthings of the Horde, but now they have turned into assassins seeking the Horde’s life.
“Ouch…”
Just the thought of their faces made Horde’s hands and feet tremble in fear of death.
‘Fuck…’
He thought that fleeing far from the capital would give him peace, but he did not at all.
Rather, when the news of the two did not come, I couldn’t sleep without alcohol at night because of anxiety.
He even thought about changing his name, but now that the Demon King has disappeared and the Demon Beast has calmed down, he couldn’t get a job unless he had the experience of being a porter for the Hero party.
This anxiety of not knowing when, where, and how I might die until I go to bed… No, it continued even after I went to bed.
Horde was usually a sleepy person, but after running away, he would wake up in a panic at the slightest sound from beyond the door.
As his mind became extremely sharp and he couldn’t sleep or eat properly for several months, Horde’s body and mind became increasingly exhausted.
Her cheeks, like inflated balloons, were thin, and her complexion darkened like that of a seriously ill person.
It has been a year since I lived such a hellish life carrying a bomb that could explode.
– Tumble.
Hod was awakened by the usual soft footsteps beyond the door.
Due to the nature of their jobs at this cheap inn, there were many people who changed day and night, so it was always a thing.
“Tsk…”
Horde clicked his tongue and went back to sleep, but tonight was something different.
Normally, the footsteps that would have passed Horde’s room stopped in front of Horde’s door.
“…”
Horde, realizing that this was no mere coincidence, perhaps because he was extremely nervous, put on his shoes and prepared to run away.
Horde’s room was on the second floor, but there was a pile of trash right under the window, so Horde could jump off it too.
When I raised the window’s feet so that I could jump out at any moment, I heard a knock at the door.
‘… Knock?’
If you use magic, it should be easy to break and unlock the room.
He wondered if he hadn’t noticed that he was still here, but it would be enough to ask the innkeeper downstairs with some money to find out where and who was staying.
‘Aren’t they them?’
Even if you jump out the window and run away, you’ll be caught soon. Hod approached the door holding the poison that Lina had given her the other day.
And he spoke in a voice so low that I wondered if he had told me to listen.
“Who, who… ?”
“Are you still awake? It’s me! Reena!”
“… Reena?!”
To be honest, Horde wasn’t very happy with Lina’s visit.
However, there was no change in the fact that he was better than the two of them, so the Horde cautiously opened the door.
Unlike Horde, who had weakened after a year, Lina, who was seen when she opened the door, had not changed at all from a year ago.
To put it bluntly, could it be that his clothes, which were light for an adventurer, have become lighter as if he were on vacation?
Without a bow and wearing only a light dagger for self-defense, Lina looked more like a tourist or traveler than an adventurer.
“Here… What are you going to do?”
“Huh? I don’t have anything to do, but I heard that you were here while on vacation, so I visited you once. However… Are you okay? It’s not a stupid thing to say.”
Horde, who was annoyed by Lina’s words but was relieved, was so relieved that he lost his strength and sat down on the floor.
“What… Are you really okay?”
“… It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”
Hod, who got up on his knees, stumbled over to the bed and sat down on it.
She went inside and shut the door, Lina frowned at the bottles rolling around her room and the stench wafting from under the windows.
“Leaving aside the issue of cleaning the room… Even if you choose, what kind of room would you choose?”
“There is only room like this to escape in case of emergency.”
“Do you think you can escape with that body?”
“…”
Like Lina said, Horde knew very well that this was a futile struggle.
However, even if she knew it was futile, she couldn’t bear it because she was anxious unless she prepared at least one route to escape.
“… So, did she really hear that I was there and only come to see her face?”
“No, of course it’s a lie.”
– Clap.
The sound of a lock being locked echoed coldly in the room without a single light.
Hearing the dry rattling of iron, Hod immediately moved to the window, but in too much haste he slipped on the bottle and fell forward.
“Ooh, ooh… !”
“It’s hard to kidnap people without anyone getting caught. It must have been too much for just the two of them.”
Lina slowly approached the fallen Horde and whispered in Horde’s ear.
“… Two people are waiting outside. I guess you have a lot more grudges than I thought. I won’t let you die for a while.”
“Ha… Ha…”
Horde’s breath became rough, as he foresaw the coming pain that could not be compared to before.
What now?
Even if he jumped out of the window, would he be able to escape from those two and his excellent scout, Lina?
Even if I tried everything I could now, I couldn’t see a way to survive here.
‘Then I’d rather…’
The poisonous bottle that Horde tried to drink several times but couldn’t drink because he didn’t have the courage came into his eyes.
I still fear death, but it is better to end my life here than to die in great pain.
Having judged that, Horde hurriedly opened the bottle cap with trembling hands and drank the poison in one go.
“Now, wait… !!”
Lina, who belatedly noticed Horde was holding the poison, tried to stop it, but it was too late.
Hod, who inhaled her poison at once, said to Lina, who was bewildered with an expression that he had eaten her one shot.
Haha! I’m dying soon! Now they can take me… !”
“That was just a joke!! You wretch!!”
“… What?”
Hearing Lina’s words, her horde stiffened, but soon she came to her senses with an intense pain in her chest.
“Turn it off… !!!”
Horde’s body felt like being stabbed in the heart with a heated needle.
And from Horde’s mouth, a muddy clot of blood continued to pour out.
“Guwehehe!!!”
Lina frowned and covered her nose at the sour-scented vomit that spilled out with her blood.
“How… What is that… !!”
Horde asked Lina as blood poured not only from her mouth, but also from her eyes, nose and ears.
Lina looked at Hod with a trembling expression, then opened her mouth.
“… Literally, I was just kidding. I can’t believe I even took poison…”
“This, this crazy bitch… ! Um, what a prank… !! Queueeeee!!
Thick blood poured from Horde’s mouth once more, as if his organs had escaped.
Anyone, not even a doctor or a priest, could see that the Horde would soon die.
Standing on the brink of death, Horde squeezed all his strength one last time and spoke to Lina.
“Do it, decipher… Antidote!! Quick, fast… !!”
“Who in the world carries an antidote while on vacation? And… I don’t want to say anything in this situation…”
Lina’s subsequent words pushed the Horde into a pit of despair far deeper than the fact that she was about to die.
“Actually, I came to retrieve the poison today. Looking at the state of those two, it didn’t look like they were going to get revenge.”
“… What?”
If that statement is true, the painful year we spent until today… What the hell does this chest pain mean?
“… Keu!! This, this bitch… !!”
“… I can’t argue against this. But you’ve done a lot of bad things, haven’t you? Think you’ll be punished for that Anyway, I will die after only living for 40 years. It doesn’t make much difference whether I die today or after 40 years…”
“Don’t give a damn… !! Ku-Hup!!!”
Horde’s words were blocked by the blood that rose from his throat.
As Lina watched her compassionate gaze, she turned her back on Horde and left her post.
“Oh, where are you going… !!”
“You are running away. It’s a long-awaited vacation, but I don’t want to be held at the guardhouse as a murder suspect.”
After her words, Lina closed the door of her room and left her room as if nothing had happened, and left the inn through the window in her hallway.
When Lina left, she was left alone in a dark room with no light, and Horde fell on the floor, bleeding endlessly.
The pain that had been felt in her heart now spread through her body like a contagious disease and hacked her whole body to pieces.
“Do… ! Help… !!”
Even when she tried to raise her voice for help, her voice did not come out, probably because her vocal cords had melted.
The body is hardened like a stone and does not move.
Of course, there’s no way anyone will come to visit at this hour, so there’s no way someone will come to help.
It’s all over now.
All that was left for Horde was to wait for death alone in this cold, dark room where no one visited.
‘Did you say 5 minutes until death? .’
Accepting his own death in continued pain, Horde prayed for the pain to end as soon as possible.
But time passed, and by the time Lina had said five minutes had passed, and by the time of daylight, Horde was still alive, albeit barely.
‘Uh, why… !!’
Writhing in his pain, Horde desperately wondered why he hadn’t died yet, but Horde’s head, which had been incapacitated by hours of pain, didn’t even notice the simple fact.
The ring of life worn on Horde’s hand.
To be precise, it was a ring of life support that increased vitality and kept it from dying.
While the hero and other party members returned the magic tools after subjugating the demon king, the Horde did not return them and wore them because they wanted to live a long time.
As a result, ironically, he became greedy to live long and strangled Horde.
After that, Horde didn’t die for a while, writhing in pain and coughing up his blood without even being able to scream.
It wasn’t until the afternoon, about 10 hours later, that Horde was freed from suffering.
The guardhouse’s investigation found that Horde’s death was treated as suicide, as is often the case with lower-class porters and lesser adventurers, and his body was disposed of along with the other nameless dead in an unknown graveyard.
