Ruon quietly gripped the hilt of his sword, which was trembling slightly. And without realizing it, he smiled faintly.
It was not a smile of satisfaction, but rather a bitter laugh that escaped from his disbelief.
Ruin, who communicated his will through emotions rather than words, was saying this to him.
-There’s something in the village-
It was a different sensation from the mechanical reaction that Ruin showed when he faced evil beings or servants of the devil in his days as a holy sword.
An inexplicable and eerie certainty that made his hairs stand on end. Yes, intuition.
…What is this?
Ruon, who thought that the sword had sent a signal in response to the devil’s power, felt his blood drain from his face.
He was about to put down his sword with a hollow smile, when he suddenly furrowed his brow.
He realized that he had been too careless, relying on the convenience of the holy sword that had been hunting down evil beings and chasing the traces of the great devil.
When did I ever move only when I was sure?
As he recalled his past, when he had confronted anything that aroused his doubt or curiosity without hesitation, Ruon looked down at his sword.
The ego sword, influenced by him, was still shaking finely, as if to tell him to trust his intuition.
Ruon answered calmly.
“Alright. Let’s do that.”
***
Late at night, when the clouds swallowed the moonlight.
A man pulled out a scythe that was stuck in a haystack, with a vacant expression on his face.
His name was Philip.
He bent his knees and lowered his posture, then placed his scythe obliquely on a whetstone on the floor and started to move his arm at a steady speed.
Shush-shush.
A creepy sound that broke the silence settled in the air came from Philip’s fingertips.
After a while, he slowly got up and stared blankly at the blade that was shining coldly. He muttered softly.
“…Sonia, wait for me. I’ll be there soon.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Philip immediately gripped his scythe upside down. He pressed his face against the curved surface of the scythe and closed his eyes tightly.
Fear washed over him like a wave. To steady his shaking heart, Philip thought of Sonia’s face, who had died of a terrible fever with a swollen belly.
Then, as if it were a lie, his hand stopped trembling. That was it. All he had to do was lift his hand up. Then he would be able to meet his dead wife again.
That was when it happened.
“If you do it like that, you’ll only cut your vocal cords, not your artery.”
Startled by the dry voice, Philip dropped his scythe.
He looked down at the scythe that fell to the floor with a clang, then lifted his head. A stranger was staring at him intently.
Just then, the clouds gradually cleared and a faint moonlight poured over their heads.
The stranger said.
“You’re the first person I’ve seen who wants to die in such a strange way. It would be faster to cut your wrist with a kitchen knife at home.”
The stranger shrugged his shoulders and added, after giving him a too realistic advice.
“Of course, I’m not telling you to do that.”
Philip moistened his dry lips with his tongue and opened his mouth. A hoarse and unpleasant voice came out of his mouth.
“…Who are you?”
“A traveler.”
“Why are you in front of someone else’s house at this time?”
“I heard the sound of sharpening from afar, so I came to see. And it was you.”
Philip asked in a trembling voice.
“Do you know who I am?”
“I saw you crying when I entered the village.”
“…Then you must know why I want to die. Please pretend you didn’t see anything and go away. I’ll do as you advised.”
How embarrassing.
The stranger, Ruon, scratched his head at Philip’s voice, which had no trace of attachment to life.
He had no intention of saying something like ‘people who are alive should live’, but it felt awkward to just ignore him and pass by.
Should I have woken up Igor and come out?
As he was thinking that and standing still, Philip suddenly picked up the scythe on the floor.
He swung his arm to cut his wrist with the scythe, but Ruon’s strong hand grabbed his arm.
“Ouch!”
Philip’s face turned red with panic at his arm that didn’t budge even with all his strength.
Ruon let out a faint sigh and broke the neck of the scythe with his other hand, then threw it far away.
“Why! Why! Why are you interfering!”
Philip shouted with rage, but only a raspy wind sound came out of his mouth that had already run out of breath.
Ruon shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, I don’t know either.”
Philip was speechless at his honest answer, and after a while, he dropped his head and murmured weakly.
“I’m a worthless man who doesn’t deserve to live. Please let me atone to my wife. Please.”
Atone?
Ruon tilted his head at the unexpected word. He remembered that Philip’s wife had died of puerperal fever.
Death by infection was common in this place, where the hygiene level was dismal compared to the modern world.
Of course, in this fantasy world, there were all kinds of magic to heal wounds, but that was not applicable to ordinary villagers.
Anyway, Philip’s words, blaming himself for his wife’s death from infection after giving birth, were absurd, so Ruon asked him without delay.
“Making amends out of the blue? You didn’t kill your wife, what are you talking about?”
“That, that’s…”
Philip bit his lower lip and swallowed his words, realizing his mistake too late.
Ruon read the secret burden in his eyes, which were anxiously twitching, and asked.
“What did you do?”
Philip, who was driven to the edge of his sanity by the thought of killing himself, collapsed at the simple question.
“I didn’t know it would turn out like this!”
He fell to the floor and started mumbling like a madman.
“We, we just wanted to have a child. I wanted to braid my daughter’s hair like Sonya someday, and Sonya always said she wanted to play ball with a son who looked like me. We, we…we just needed a child.”
Ruon let go of his arm, which was shaking like an epileptic, and asked coldly.
“So?”
Philip trembled his chin and continued.
“But no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t have a child…so…so…”
His story became incoherent. There were parts that Ruon couldn’t understand because of his hoarse voice, but he could still figure out what had happened.
One day, a strange woman came to the small inn that the couple ran. She stayed for a long time, and during that time, she became close enough to talk to the couple.
The woman, who introduced herself as Hella, had a mysterious aura about her. The couple, enchanted by her, confided their biggest problem to her.
The problem of not being able to have a child despite their efforts.
‘I can help you with that. I just need a few ingredients.’
Hella asked for these ingredients with a smile.
Sonya’s hair and nails, and a cloth stained with her blood from menstruation.
Sonya, who came to her senses at the creepy request, refused, but Philip did not.
He, who was desperate, secretly prepared the ingredients and handed them to Hella, who replied briefly.
‘You’ll have good news.’
Surprisingly, her words were true.
A few weeks after Hella left, Sonya started to have morning sickness.
Thinking that it was a good thing, Philip didn’t tell Sonya anything about Hella. He thought it would be bad for the baby in her belly if he did.
The two spent the happiest months of their lives. As Sonya’s belly grew bigger, so did their happiness.
And misfortune always came at such times.
“Yes, the labor started much earlier than expected. I tried to call the midwife quickly, but Sonya’s scream was not normal. So, I checked it myself…”
Philip closed his eyes tightly, as if it was painful to recall that moment.
“What came out of her body by itself…was not human. It was just…”
A monster, he muttered and breathed heavily.
Ruon, who was captivated by an unknown feeling, listened to his story quietly.
“In an instant, it crawled away…I couldn’t even muster the courage to chase it. I just watched it. Stupidly.”
Philip came to his senses and quickly gathered the villagers, but Sonya, whose body was ruined, had already crossed the point of no return.
“Sonya died without even knowing that she gave birth to a monster. Until she died, she kept saying that she wanted to see the baby…that she wanted me to show her…”
Philip started to sob, clutching his chest, and Ruon looked down at him.
“What did you tell the others?”
“I said she died…that I buried her.”
It was a pathetic story.
Ruon got up with a stiff expression and remembered something he had erased from his memory a long time ago.
Grungard, nobility, mistress, ghoul, monster that gives birth to ghouls, witch, and Hella.
He instinctively thought that the woman named Hella was the same person as the witch who defiled the graveyard of Grungard.
It was not because he found a great connection. It was just a feeling close to certainty.
“I killed Sonya. I killed Sonya…”
Philip, who had revealed his secret, looked like he had aged ten years in an instant.
Leaving him alone, Ruon moved on. Soon, he stopped at the stable.
“Don’t pretend to sleep.”
At his words, Nightmare opened his eyes slowly.
“Come on.”
Ruon got on the back of the black horse, who came out of the stable on his own, making a sound.
“You said you were exposed to the curse for a long time, so you must have some knowledge of curses.”
He stroked the mane of Nightmare and added.
“There’s a cursed monster near this village. Find it. You have to earn your keep.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Nightmare’s mane began to flutter. He turned his head for a moment and fixed his gaze, then slowly started to roll his feet.
Hee-hee-hee-hee!
The black horse roared and swept the night street in an instant. He quickly left the village and crossed the plain of wheat fields, then entered the forest next to it without hesitation.
He passed through the trees without hesitation and went on. At some point, he stopped and stood still.
As if he had arrived, he thrashed on the spot and Ruon got off his back. He looked at the dark forest and raised his senses.
[Elf’s Hearing] was activated and he heard a disgusting sound of something chewing.
“Wait here.”
He stroked the body of the black horse and walked toward the sound.
He didn’t take long to find the monster.
Under a large tree with a broken waist, he saw a grotesque creature eating the side of a bear the size of a house. Ruon drew his sword without hesitation.
The red runes on the blade of Ruin lit up and pushed back the darkness of the forest. The monster’s body stopped with a thud.
The monster’s face slowly turned to Ruon.
Below the twisted face, the organ that looked like a mouth opened with a clack-clack sound.
“Da-da-daddy?”
Who’s your daddy?
Ruon slammed the ground.
