Chapter 208 – Ancient Missing Link (7)
“Let’s go inside. It would be dangerous to stay here.”
I said that while listening to the zombies scratching the walls.
Even if the number of zombies increased, they would not be able to break through Veronica’s earthen wall. Wouldn’t it be impossible to save the population in a narrow well?
Still, if we were to find a way out, the only answer was to move forward.
If there is a magic circle or artifact that controls zombies, all you have to do is drive out the undead and escape! Even if that wasn’t the case, I didn’t know if there was another way out.
─Nod.
The party members saw Shobu through eye contact and chose to move forward.
It may not be welcoming to us, but there was no one to hinder us. I felt like an idiot for being a little scared of what if the white bones on the wall turned into skeletons and moved.
─It’s all over the place.
The sparrow golem moved along the path retracing its path.
The cemetery was narrower than expected. Our party, whose stride was wider than that of a sparrow golem, took less than 30 minutes to look around. It was a place where I had no idea what the ancient civilization was doing or why it was marked on the map.
“… The flow of mana exists within this. I made it so that mana does not escape from the outside.”
Said Veronica. Like I reasoned in the underground tower, did it have a shielding work so that the ‘enemies’ outside would not know about it?
Anyway, this time it was Veronica’s turn to sense.
There was nothing for Fran to be wary of. After following the direction Veronica pointed out, they were able to come out into a wide space in 10 minutes. Since it was a space without a door, she hid close to the wall.
─Swipe. With a gesture, he asked if the preparations were finished.
The answer was a Yes sign. After checking the distributed items and potions, we each grabbed our weapons and entered the wide area of the catacombs.
──It’s good that you took the first step carefully.
That was the first thing I thought of when I entered the solemn space. This is because in a large space like a dome stadium, a suspicious shadow stood with its back to us.
She was a woman wearing a blue robe with decorations.
It’s been a year since I acted like a wizard who appears as a villain in a fucking Western fantasy game. Are you a black magician? I tried to detect mana, but surprisingly, I didn’t feel any evil energy from mana.
Still can’t be careless They are doing this and that in a place like this. Even innocent babies have responsibilities. It was determined that the liability for negligence was approximately 5:5.
But my thoughts changed in 3 minutes.
The fruit fell short of 5:5. It is 0:10. The woman in the blue robe was wearing a veil, and even in the dark, 30 meters away, I could see her hair color.
“──────.”
It’s brown hair
What was hidden under the blue veil was her indigo hair. There are also elongated ears that have come out of her hair. It was an elf with blue hair.
I felt my chest cool as if it had been exposed to air conditioning. If I had a mirror, I would have been able to catch a glimpse of the frozen intent to kill even in my eyes.
Could it be that my murderous intent, which I suppressed and suppressed like that, leaked out a little?
Or did he wait for us to approach from the beginning?
“——Do you have human children? Sometimes they are mistaken.”
The elf, who stood with his back turned, spoke to us with such words as if it were natural.
“Elfs have lived for a long time, so the experience time will be completely different. Foolish. Although the weight of the petals does not become lighter just because they are held in the hands of a giant.”
The elf looked at the damaged wall and opened her palm in a feminine gesture. ─Fallang. In the elf’s hand, the same flower that bloomed on the mummy bloomed.
Dana and I didn’t know what kind of flower it was, but we remembered what kind of magic it was.
A magic that absorbs the blood or bodily fluids of monsters to subdue and kill them.
It was the magic of an elf I had seen hundreds of times while exploring ruins as a research student.
“Time flows equally for everyone. If anything else, it is. Is it about how much time you can accept? It’s probably just a difference in the bowl that accepts the time.”
A centipede crawled at the feet of the elf who said that.
Could it be the guy who crawled in from the ground? The elf tore off the flower petals and threw them at the centipede. The centipede ran away, writhing her on the petals that had suddenly rested on her body.
“Insects struggle under the weight of flowers and die if they are crushed by thick trees. But the forest is different. Even if flowers and trees end their lifespan and return to the soil, we elves must live through the dawn.”
The elf muttered to himself as if he had no interest in us.
“Maybe this is why there is a difference between the thoughts of humans and elves. Even if the perceived time is the same, the layers accumulated and the remaining time are different.”
─Kwadeuk! As the centipede ran across the mossy floor, she was eaten by plants rising from the ground.
The little carnivorous plant, more like a monster, mashed and devoured the centipede like her predator, then returned to her moss. Just like a shark eats a bird on the surface of the sea and sinks.
“So you are very surprised. It’s been about two months since we broke up, right?”
The elf hadn’t paid attention to us until then, and he only looked at me after he said that.
It was a face that hadn’t changed at all since the last time we met.
“It must have taken a very short time for you humans to reach me.”
Like an artist looking at an interesting material, his eyes seemed to evaluate a stone sculpture!
For some reason, those eyes reminded me of the persimmon tree that grew in the yard of my parents’ house. A tree that has not changed for over 10 years since I was a snoring dog.
Are creatures called elves so different from humans?
──No, no. Race doesn’t matter.
She is this woman
This woman’s nature desperately did not mesh with mine.
“… Have you been healthy?”
I chewed on the elf’s question and answered.
“I wanted to see you, Professor Yerna.”
I consciously wrote a respectful word. It couldn’t have been because there was still respect. The reason I used honorifics was because I didn’t have the heart to go along with that bitch’s play.
I was here, because it seemed as if it was as noisy as if the mouse was chased by a mouse that I left in the lab.
“Whoops. Did you? Nor, I’m glad you look healthy too.”
Yerna’s reply was indifferently kind.
Doesn’t seem to care that I ignored the question. It was like a person in a different place and situation than I was. If I had to, I would think that this was a college lab from 3 and a half years ago.
I might have thought so if it wasn’t for the fresh bones dumped in the corner of a fucking graveyard.
Did they, like us, find traces of Yerna and get killed? The moss-covered white bones were tossed out with no respect whatsoever, in contrast to the white bones in the catacombs.
“You look very angry? There are a lot of guesses, so I can’t pinpoint the reason.”
─Cook cook. Yerna smiles kindly. That year must have noticed that we all knew about it, but it gave me goosebumps as the smile on my face was the same as before.
“… Yes. There are so many things I want to ask, so I can’t organize them, but this situation is easy to understand.”
Any questions? Something to ask? You can do that later.
I wonder if that motherfucker was waiting here to satisfy my curiosity. Thinking that Yerna would answer me if I asked him was something that only idiots would do.
My head wasn’t a flower garden enough to make me think optimistically after seeing this tail.
On one hand, it was downright pitiful. Look at the codfish that kidnaps and kills innocent adventurers. Now that I’ve seen that corpse, the future of me dragging Yerna’s hair and reclaiming ownership of the thesis is gone.
I stopped thinking. Predicting the hopeless future was a waste of time and concentration.
Yerna’s heels were soaked with the lethal water of adventurers. I pointed the spear at the murderer.
“——We’re not going to have a party while drinking, right?”
“… Whoop whoop.”
Yerna twisted the corner of her mouth. She couldn’t stand it, as if she had heard a funny joke, and Yerna, who had trembled her shoulders, covered her face and burst into laughter.
“Whoop whoop whoop! Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!”
Yerna’s lights resonated in the unnecessarily large catacombs.
─It tingles. Even without looking back, I could feel the party members exuding the spirit of no retreat. They, too, were intuitive. That the option of returning without a fight does not exist.
“Whoop whoop… Nor, do you know?”
Yerna, who was covering her face and splitting her face to see what was so funny, suddenly freaked out.
“All the people in this world are cattle and idiots. Garbage from Gu-shin and Woo-shin. Romanian apostates. The idiots of Tatarnia, senile in peace. Dumb bastards in the world who have lost the written words and even forgot the oral traditions.”
It was a murmur that grew more ferociously towards the second half.
A random expression of hate! From there, it seemed that Yerna’s true feelings were pouring out. I noticed that the mask of the nice and kind professor named ‘Jerna Gracie’ was now crumbling.
There was nothing to be surprised about. It was natural. Is there anyone in the world who is kind for no reason?
After all, everyone is calculating and selfish.
I don’t know what purpose or dream that bitch had, but nothing comes for free in this world. There is no free happiness. There was no emotion as pretentious as vague ‘kindness’.
It just came to my mind that good and kind people are acting pretentious anytime, anywhere.
“Life gets boring when you get older by hundreds of years among them. To the point where you want to find something to enjoy while doing what you have to do.”
Yerna, who had been chewing and spitting, looked at me while covering her face.
“——Welcome. I thought you would come after me.”
It was the look in the garden owner’s eyes as he enjoyed picking ripe fruits. An enchanting eye swept over our party.
“Whoops. Was Dana there too? It looks like you’ve seen all the places to play with your favorite Norr. Did you hear from Lillian about this location? I thought that if he came, he would come, but life in the world is not going the way we think.”
Yerna kicks her tongue as if she is dissatisfied after talking about her dick. It’s a way of talking that scratches a person’s temper. Well, with this personality, you pretended to be a good elf.
“Hey, can I ask? Ever since you broke up with me, what have you been thinking when you think of me? What emotions did you feel? Was it revenge? Or longing? If it was love, I would be very happy!”
─Kick-kick-kick. Yerna burst out laughing like a third-rate comedian laughing at her self-jokes.
Through her fingers, her well-groomed face contorted in the shadows. It was a smile ten times more blatant than the smile I saw in my sleep the day my thesis was stolen.
It seemed that it was because now there was no reason for her to hide her true nature.
“It’s a waste! Even if I hadn’t been caught like this, it would have been nice to hang out with you guys in love gambling for about a year or two.”
“… Crazy bitch.”
She snapped at Dana as if she had nothing more to say, and Yerna crossed her arms cheerfully.
“Why? It’s easy to know. If it’s ‘pretending to love’, I’ll be able to do better than you guys? Regardless of race, males only need to satisfy the pleasure and superiority of Hacho. A girl called my wife doesn’t even know how to fawn over a man, so what can we say because our Nord is pitiful?”
─It’s hard. An unknown person gnashed his teeth at Yerna’s farm work. Once I wasn’t Probably one of the wives.
“Ahahaha!! Thanks to the thesis Nord wrote, even the idiots are frothing and running wild, and I’ve been progressing on my own goals for the first time in a while! If I can’t repay this grace and it ends, I’m so sorry! Being one of Nord’s collectibles must have been fun for a few years, and I’m sorry for myself.”
Yerna spread her hands exaggeratedly, as if even the reactions of such party members were her spice.
“Then Nor. Will you answer me? At this rate, I feel like I’ve dropped my saved candy on the dirt floor without even tasting it. Before you get rid of your corpse, tell me what you think of me.”
Yerna’s distorted smile was crushed with anticipation. Whatever answer I give, as if this situation becomes a tangly fizzy drink to her own life.
──”How”.
I thought about it while being wary of her Yerna.
Honestly, she would be lying if she said she hadn’t thought about it.
Let’s be honest I’ve been thinking too. Just in case, I wondered if an elf named Yerna Grasier had stolen her thesis to protect me from some danger.
It is a case in which I am a party. Isn’t it natural to think twice or three times more than others and imagine why? In fact, hundreds of possibilities have passed through my neurons to this day.
So, when I saw the orders Tabula had, I was a bit hopeful.
She had no intention of forgiving Yerna, but really, if Yerna had stolen my thesis out of good intentions, would she be able to get her thesis back!
It was a good possibility 100 times compared to Yerna, who was reunited someday, with a straight face, or laughing at the master’s bastard who stole her thesis.
It was because of that that I wished that something had happened to Yerna.
Of course, I didn’t really believe that would happen either.
If Yerna had really stolen her papers in good faith, she should have tipped me off.
After all, if I report it to the academic world or write another thesis on the same topic, how can I just fly away to a foreign country alone like that?
Yerna didn’t even want to leave a single line in front of me.
If I had left a letter, everything would have been fine.
How could a talented bitch who even received a contract offer from a top university make such a stupid mistake? In other words, the hypothesis that Yerna may have penetrated my thesis with good intentions is that there were many holes from the beginning.
It’s the same with the Pursuit Order you got from Tabula.
Is there any guarantee that a person will be good just because his life is being sought by vicious bastards? If you put it that way, the leader of the thieves I’m close to is also destined to be beaten by Tabula’s kid, so he must have been a good kid.
The more I thought about it, the more likely it was that Yerna was a bitch.
As expected, she took off her mask and uncovered her bottom line. Yerna was a psychopath who enjoyed using other people’s lives as toys to relieve her boredom.
‘She seems to have been a bitch a thousand times older than I thought.’
Well, how are you? Because it was clear what I was supposed to answer.
I answered with 100% sincerity.
“Thanks.”
“… … … What?”
Her heightened emotions in Yerna cooled down as if cold water had been poured on her. I twisted the corner of her mouth. She was half in a good mood and half in a pitiful mood.
“Thanks to you, I met the wife I love. She never got chased by crazy bastards she couldn’t handle. Regardless of what you stole my thesis for, or whatever your nature is, I am grateful for what I have gained thanks to you.”
Yerna is a world-class bitch that exceeds my expectations. But whatever the reason, facts are facts. I had to admit that that egoism-filled move turned the course of my life in a positive direction.
What if that bitch hadn’t left me at the slave market or stolen my papers.
If that were the case, I wouldn’t have been able to get the beast return in Sardagis or meet Fran. I wonder if Dana would have been able to realize her self-love if she had been away from me.
They must have passed by without even knowing it with Lalilura or Veronica, and a cloud hung over their future as well.
The power, freedom, and encounters I have obtained are acquired through my talent and hard work. But wasn’t Yerna’s trolling present in all of those occasions?
“——So, thank you.”
For being trash until the end.
I sneered at Yerna, who was taken aback by her unexpected reply.
Thank you for everything. I couldn’t act like a beast just because I was dealing with a beast, not a human child. With this, I have done all my duty as a human being.
All relationships to be liquidated have been liquidated.
To put it bluntly, I am truly grateful. Because the bitch, who was difficult to beat because of her social position, couldn’t hide her true nature and came down to where my spear could reach.
There was only one thing left between me and Yerna.
──The fact that my thesis was stolen. Isn’t that the only one
– Hwareuk!
A white flame burned in the inner world. Brilliant mana enveloped me. I raised my mana as if I were praying with my forehead on the spearhead.
The condensed anger was released.
Emotions are consumables, so if you waste them, they disappear.
That’s why I’ve been saving myself from even thinking about Yerna for the past time.
Perhaps that was the case. When I released the rage I had accumulated over months, I wasn’t surprised at all if it was accompanied by a hatred powerful enough to stir my entire consciousness.
Rurrrr
The pure white rage that dyes the sight! Exploding emotions turned into a well-forged spear!
I unleashed the rage I’d been gathering into the mana of Roar and Beast Return.
“Your head is all right, you bitch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
