Chapter 589 – 589. Kurdel Mountains (2)
Devil.
The moment Erin heard those words, her body shuddered.
She shifted her gaze momentarily to the side to check Eunhyun’s reaction.
“… Hmm.”
He has an expression of contemplation on something and is estimating the level of seriousness of the situation.
After finishing her thoughts, Eun-hyeon immediately spoke to the guard.
“For now… It’s getting dark, so I’m going to stay here. Can we hear more about it later?”
“What is that? Just listen to the inn owner.”
“Thanks for the advice.”
Erin and Eunhyeon entered the village after bowing briefly to the guards who waved their hands and let them in.
“What do you think about it. Hyuna? Are there really demons?”
Erin asked Eunhyun what she thought, as she had experience with the devil itself and it was not a matter that could be easily overlooked.
“I wouldn’t rule out the possibility at all, but… The odds are probably very low.”
Eunhyun’s answer was very surprising to Erin.
Of course, I thought he would go into the mountains to confirm the existence of demons right away, but Eun-hyeon thought that demons did not exist in the Kurdel Mountains.
“Uh? Why?”
“They don’t go around exposing their identities so openly. If you make a mistake and form a subjugation party and come here, it will be annoying.”
Currently, the demons that can cross over to the continent are limited to low-level demons due to interference from restrictions, or intermediate-level demons that have been weakened.
At that level, even if there would be damage, subjugation itself was not impossible.
A succubus named Lyra, whom Erin encountered when she was a student at Aether, is a low-level demon who secretly attacked several noble men and absorbed their energy to accumulate her power.
In addition, Bifrons, who forcibly ran the dungeon into a stampede state and summoned a large-scale monsters, caused a massacre in the Mograf region and tried to extort the soul, Bifrons is also a low-level demon.
Lastly, the old hero, Raynon, who suddenly appeared during the vampire eradication operation, and the devil who was contracting with him could not be identified until the identity, but it was likely a middle-class devil whose power was limited.
Everyone was able to block the damage by minimizing the damage through Eun-hyeon’s intervention, but even without Eun-hyeon, the fight against the demons would have ended with the victory of the kingdom of Pernias.
The strength of the knights and magicians like Riod and Simon is strong enough to pull it off, and it is also the national strength of the kingdom of Pernias.
‘Well, in the case of Nosferad, Eleanor’s power was entirely great…’
There is no doubt that if it had not been for Eleanor’s spirit god, Nosferad would not have been able to stop the diseases spread and would have suffered near-annihilation damage.
Anyway, reversing the story, Eunhyeon explained her thoughts.
“The basic habit of demons is to hide themselves or use others other than themselves to harm and exploit people. Rumors of demons circulating in these mountains are very different from their methods.”
If there really are demons in the Kurdel Mountains, rumors spreading openly like this are like saying, “Please take me away,” So it’s not good for them either.
“Besides, speaking of countries around here, there is the sacred kingdom of Erenia.”
To the demons, the priests and paladins who deal with divine power are no different from their natural enemies.
One of the reasons why demons were able to flourish in Pernias Kingdom was that they were far away from the Holy Land of Erenia, where outstanding priests and paladins were concentrated.
Conversely, the Kurdel Mountains adjacent to the Holy Kingdom of Erenia are not a good place for demons to play.
“Still… Wouldn’t there be an if?”
“So I’m not ruling out the possibility at all.”
It’s just that some nonsensical devil could be here.
Or for some other purpose.
“Perhaps, the Holy Nation of Erenia will soon organize people and send them to this mountain range to investigate the truth.”
“Hmm… I guess.”
Erin listened to her explanation and nodded as if she understood.
If the devil really appeared, it would be the side of the Holy Nation of Erenia, not themselves.
It is annoying in many ways to go out, but in an ambiguous situation where it is very nerve-wracking to leave it alone, Eun-hyeon decides to first grab an inn and collect information.
Heading straight in the direction the guards explained, the two soon found an inn.
Even in the village, a fairly large building had a sign saying ‘Reindeer’s House’.
“I guess this is the place the guard was talking about.”
“Let’s go in.”
“Huh.”
Erin opened the door without hesitation and looked inside the inn building, but unlike the vast area, the interior was empty.
It wasn’t that there were no customers at all, but out of dozens of tables, only the three tables closest to the fireplace were occupied by customers.
As Erin opened the door wide, the attention of the people inside the inn immediately focused on Eunhyeon and Erin.
“…”
In the sense of a focused gaze, the emotions Erin read were interest, doubt, and irritation the most.
They must have been people he had never seen before, but as he wondered why they were giving him and Eunhyeon annoyed glances, a cold chill crept in from the wide open entrance of the inn that seemed to freeze his bones.
“Erin, you should close the door immediately after entering. A cold wind blows in.”
“… Ah!”
After hearing Eunhyun’s words, Erin hurriedly closed the door again.
He later realized why the guests inside the inn were giving him an annoyed look.
Certainly, it would be very distasteful for them to see the chill inside, accompanied by such coldness.
Erin, realizing that she had unintentionally acted very rudely, hurriedly bowed her head to the guests in the inn.
“Sorry. Uncles! I didn’t know!”
“Hmmmm. What… In case you didn’t know…”
“If it’s not intentional…”
“You just have to be careful next time. Hmm.”
The reaction of the guests who heard Erin’s sincere apology was less hostile than expected.
He bowed down like that and apologized to her in a respectful manner, but it seemed that no one had a bad personality enough to say anything about it.
Besides, even though she has just become an adult and has a youthful appearance, it must have played a part in her outstanding off-white color.
When all the guests inside the inn forgave Erin without saying anything, she straightened her back, where Erin had bowed.
“From now on, close the door immediately. That’s manners.”
“Lol. Okay.”
Erin, who smiled shyly, nodded her head.
Eun-hyeon took her Erin and headed to her counter.
“… Are you a guest?”
“Yes.”
“I thought he was from here because his luggage was lighter than I thought.”
The only thing Eunhyeon and Erin are wearing is a backpack.
I didn’t prefer a big backpack because I usually put all the necessities I needed while traveling in my inventory.
Especially for those who come from far away, the farther away they are, the more luggage they have to pack.
“I am an adventurer.”
“Hmm… I guess so.”
The innkeeper didn’t show much interest in Eunhyeon’s brief introduction of herself and Erin.
This is an inn where many adventurers from all over the world stay to mine Orichalcum.
The innkeeper who runs this inn had never seen adventurers like Eunhyeon and Erin, but he wasn’t picky enough to pick out their whereabouts or identities.
“It’s 30 silver coins for a room.”
Even within the Duchy of Armitas, there were a number of inns that accommodated merchants flowing in from outside, but considering the price of those inns was between 10 and 15 silver coins, it was an absurd amount.
“Wow, expensive… ! Breath!?”
It was a word that I threw out inadvertently in surprise.
Erin realized her own mistake and hurriedly shut her own mouth.
The innkeeper’s stare at her was unnerving, so she lowered her head once again.
“… Is this lady using an inn in this province for the first time?”
“Yes. Until now, everyone had camped out.”
Eunhyun replied with a bitter smile.
It’s not wrong to say that we originally slept hugging each other on a bed made with the chair seat folded back in the Retona with a full heater.
“… You’re crazy. Camping out in the cold.”
However, the innkeeper, who did not know her story, could only understand the story of Eunhyeon and Erin sleeping in a tent outside in the snow.
“That’s why I don’t know much about the inn rates in this region. I am sorry.”
“Sorry, sorry…”
“Ah, okay. It’s not like I’m complaining and bargaining for a discount, but that’s about it.”
Erin’s startled expression on her face meant that she really didn’t know, so the innkeeper wasn’t too upset.
“Rice is?”
“I’ll unpack and take a break and come down in an hour. I will place my order then.”
“I will.”
“More than that… I heard from the guard earlier, but he doesn’t recommend going into those mountains right now. They say there’s a demon in there.”
The innkeeper frowned at her as if he didn’t like her.
The reason why the first floor of the inn, which should normally be crowded with adventurers, is so quiet is because of that devil, so I can’t like it.
“… I heard about it.”
“Could you listen closely to the story?”
“It’s just literal. From two months ago, news of the adventurers who often went up to that mountain began to disappear one by one.”
Just as adventurers who live at risk cannot predict their future at all, it is only natural for news to be suddenly cut off.
An adventurer is a job that is not uncommon for someone who happily sat together at an inn today to drink and eat meat, but the next day after being bitten by monsters, a cold corpse is scattered on the floor and forgotten in the memories of others.
So even the innkeeper didn’t care much when the number of her guests dwindled at first.
What she felt strange was when the regular adventurers who often came to the inn to procure Orichalcum fled to the village from the top of the mountain range.
A party that went into the mountains with his comrades was wiped out, and only one survived to reach the village, and his body was full of wounds.
The surviving adventurer’s back was dripping with blood as if it had been torn off by the claws of a large beast, and one arm was torn off as if it had been roughly torn off.
“Besides, one of his legs was broken. To have come down the mountain range desperately to live in that state, it was almost a miracle that he was alive.”
The innkeeper frowned and did not let go, as if the surviving adventurer’s face was still not forgotten.
“… Where is that adventurer now?”
Eunhyeon asked where the surviving adventurer was.
He still lives in this town and is receiving treatment because he wanted to hear more.
But even that wasn’t easy.
“… Dead.”
“Uh? Didn’t he live?”
When Erin asked with a puzzled expression, the innkeeper said with a confused expression.
“I committed suicide. He put a knife to his own throat in the guest room of my inn.”
“…”
“While we found her and treated her wounds, she kept repeating the same thing over and over again. ‘The woman is coming’, ‘You have to run away. Anywhere, anywhere.”
Erin also frowned at the incomprehensible and terrible story.
“It was really incomprehensible… And as the news of the adventurers who continued to enter the mountains was cut off all at once, our village had no choice but to be sure. There is something in that mountain.”
It wasn’t even an unfounded story.
The existence of ‘that woman’ that the adventurer who survived kept mentioning, and the fact that she chose to commit suicide for an incomprehensible reason at the end.
The villagers concluded it to be the work of the devil.
