The monster did not stand up to Ruon, who ran towards it with a red line.
It stepped on the bear’s corpse and jumped up, landing smoothly on a thick branch.
Its mouth, which dropped pieces of the bear’s flesh, opened.
“Who-are-you?”
Ruon narrowed his thick eyebrows at the monster’s question. He said,
“You can talk.”
He thought he had misheard it when it said daddy, but it seemed that was not the case.
How?
It was not a doubt about the process of sound coming out of the lips by the vibration of the vocal cords, but a question about the clear meaning contained in the sound.
How could a creature that was born only a week ago learn to speak and understand the meaning? At least in Ruon’s common sense, it was impossible.
Then a crunching sound came from the monster’s mouth.
“You-smell-like-daddy.”
The creature, which had been rolling its protruding eyes, opened its mouth wide.
“You-look-delicious.”
At that moment, the branch that the monster was standing on snapped.
The creature, which closed the distance in an instant, swung its front paw with hooked claws.
Ruon did not budge from his spot, even though the monster’s attack was so fast that the trajectory of its arm was blurred.
Instead, he lifted the rune in his right hand and cut off the monster’s hand. As the wrist fell off in vain, blood spurted from the cross-section, and Ruon’s fist slammed into the grotesque monster’s face.
Bang!
The monster flew back faster than it came and rolled on the ground.
It only stopped when it hit an arum tree, and a creepy sound came out of its crushed head.
“Ow-ow-ow-”
Ruon, who looked at it with a frown, sighed lightly and walked towards the monster.
He lifted his sword to finish it off, but he felt a strange sense of incongruity from the fallen monster and narrowed his eyes.
What is it?
As if to prove that Ruon’s senses were not wrong, the monster’s body began to twist slightly. Under its skin, as if alive, the bones and flesh moved and made a horrible friction sound.
As Ruon was about to strike his sword at the sudden change, a languid voice pierced his ears.
“You ruined my carefully crafted curse. Who are you?”
The direction of the sound was the monster’s body, which was so damaged that it was hard to recognize. Where the upper body had been, there were two large eyes and a mouth floating.
Ruon grimaced at the disgusting sight.
“Who are you then?”
The large mouth made of bones and flesh chuckled.
“I am the one who can be called the real mother of this child you killed.”
He confirmed the answer and said calmly.
“So you are Hella?”
“You know me?”
The large eyes rolled and scanned Ruon up and down.
“I didn’t see anyone with the same appearance as you among those who chased me. Aha, did this child’s parents tell you? Their name was Felic… no, Philip, right? I remember them because their faces were so stupid with anticipation…”
Ruon looked at the eyes that were fading and said.
“Is that why you showed up using the disgusting monster’s corpse? You have a good appetite. Why don’t you show yourself? I’ll smash your face.”
The large mouth laughed and said.
“You have a sharp tongue. Most people are busy gagging when they see me like this.”
Ruon did not reply, and the mouth continued.
“This child you killed was a rather important being that was supposed to devour its parents and villagers soon and offer their flesh and spirit to me. To die so miserably by meeting a warrior like you… It’s like a farmer who burned his field before the harvest.”
So what.
Ruon sighed with annoyance and raised his right hand. The blade of the rune turned red, as if reflecting his feelings.
Ruon swung his sword right away. The two large eyes that were swept by its trajectory were cut off in an instant.
He cut off the unpleasant gaze and said.
“I’m not interested in your nonsense.”
The mouth chuckled.
“You are an impatient warrior. You have to pay a price that matches what you have done. Don’t think it’s just your life. I’m a witch who rips out the guts of the other party even for a trivial quarrel. You can look forward to it.”
He felt sick of the sight and Ruon shrugged his shoulders and retorted.
“Sure, there’s also the case of the Grungrad cemetery. Come and pay me back for everything.”
“…What? How do you know that…”
I was right.
Ruon, who had no intention of answering, cut off his words with his sword.
The sword that pierced the disgusting mouth emitted a red light, and the monster began to convulse.
The connection between the corpse and the witch was cut off, and the monster’s body was literally shattered, spilling blood.
Ruon looked down at the meat soaked in blood and furrowed his brow.
It was not because of the insignificant experience.
It was not even a guilt for cutting down a monster that was conceived by the witch’s curse, a week-old creature.
Damn this world.
Ruon spat on the ground and turned around without hesitation. The forest was still dark.
***
Fortunately, Philip didn’t make any drastic choices like taking his own life while Ruon was away.
He leaned against a straw mat, staring blankly at the sky. He slowly turned his head towards Ruon, who was walking towards him.
“Did you kill it?”
He raised his voice again, showing some signs of sanity.
Ruon nodded lightly and sat down across from Philip.
Philip looked at the bloodstains on Ruon’s body with a pale face and asked.
“Did I see it right?”
Ruon hesitated for a moment and nodded again.
The two men looked at each other’s faces in silence.
How much time had passed? Philip licked his trembling lips and tried to calm himself.
“That child… it didn’t want to be born like that.”
He clutched his left chest, feeling his heart ache as he spoke. His eyes reddened.
“Maybe… maybe… that child was never… meant to be ours. Maybe if I hadn’t been greedy… it would have come…”
His words were muffled by his cracked voice and sobbing, but Ruon heard them clearly.
A precious bond. That’s what Philip said.
“I don’t know either.”
Ruon replied in a dull voice, looking at the man who had lost everything.
A son? A daughter? The child they had waited for with happy anticipation was a twisted monster. And the wife who gave birth to the monster died in horrible agony.
And it was all because of his greed.
Ruon didn’t know any magic words that could ease his despair and guilt. In fact, he didn’t know if there were any.
So he said what he could.
“I’ll kill Hella for you.”
Philip’s eyes widened as he understood Ruon’s calm words.
“What?”
Ruon said.
“So you don’t have to live with unnecessary vengeance.”
Philip bit his lip with a frozen face and asked.
“Can I… can I live?”
Tears streamed down his eyes.
“That’s your choice.”
Ruon answered dryly and added.
“But it wouldn’t hurt to stay alive until you hear the news of Hella’s death.”
He finished his words and got up. He was about to walk away when he heard Philip’s wet voice from behind.
“Can I ask your name?”
“Ruon.”
With that short answer, he walked away towards his home.
Kyle, who was outside peeing, saw Ruon coming from afar and tilted his head.
“Where the hell did you go at this hour… huh? Blood?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Nothing? What do you mean nothing? Was there a minion of the devil in this village?”
“No.”
Ruon snickered at Kyle’s frustrated gesture of pounding his chest.
“I promised to kill a witch. That’s all.”
“A witch? You’re going to kill Belducias and you’re worried about a witch?”
Ruon entered the house and said.
“She’ll come to me sooner or later.”
***
Inside the sharp spire hidden in the swirling dark clouds, a woman sitting on a throne in the middle of a huge spell circle drawn with the corpses and blood of dozens of crows opened her eyes.
“Ugh-”
She vomited blood as soon as she opened her eyes. Another woman who saw her was startled and said.
“Hella! What’s wrong?”
The woman, Hella, gasped for breath and looked at the floor covered with her blood. She gritted her teeth.
“Damn it…”
The woman who approached Hella narrowed her eyes and asked.
“You were cut off before you could disconnect? Who was it? A paladin? A high priest? Which church did they belong to?”
Hella glared at her with a hawk-like eye and growled.
“Shut up. Nadia. You’re annoying.”
She tore off her blood-stained shirt and got up.
She walked towards a table full of ominous objects.
She found a sharp dagger thrown on it and cut her palm without hesitation. Then she shouted.
“Crystal ball!”
Nadia handed her a crystal ball, and Hella dropped her blood on it.
Surprisingly, the blood did not flow on the surface of the crystal ball, but seeped into it and spread like paint inside.
Nadia looked at it and asked.
“What the hell is this?”
“I found the one who killed the mother ghoul in Grungrad.”
“What?”
Hella saw someone’s figure taking shape inside the crystal ball and smiled fiercely.
“That’s him.”
Broad shoulders, sturdy build, thick face, and a sword at his waist and a bow on his back.
Nadia stared at Ruon’s figure, which was clearly revealed, and muttered.
“He doesn’t look like a paladin or a priest. Is he a mercenary?”
Hella licked her palm with her red tongue and answered.
“Mediane… the stupid bitch who can’t even keep her husband… I guess she hired him.”
She looked at the crystal ball with greed in her black eyes.
“I could tell the moment I was hit. The huge power boiling in his body… that power would far exceed hundreds of mediocre sacrifices. Maybe even more.”
Nadia asked.
“So what are you going to do? Are you going to kill him yourself?”
Hella shook her head slowly.
“Not now. I still have a lot of things to do… let’s focus on the north for now. We can’t let Belducias have all the fun.”
The witch who served the ‘Crouching Rotten One’ sneered.
