Chapter 72 (1/2)
The expression of the village head didn't change much as he read the doc.u.ment. Seol Ji-Hu got the next phase of the conversation started.
”Up until now, the subjugation efforts never failed. Always, without a doubt.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
He kept his voice level and continued on.
”Of course, the kingdom voluntarily sent subjugation forces twice before. However, their action is understandable if you consider the fact that they wanted to improve the stability of Haramark region by beating back the frequent appearances of the variants.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
The village head listened quietly until then but began displaying hints of not following the youth now.
”I don't understand what you're trying to tell me here, young man.”
”You said that you always issue the request.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”Yes, I did.”
”The team that received the mission three months ago consisted of four Level 2s, one Level 3, and one Level 4. And the average Level found in Carpe Diem is 3.75. Although he didn't come today, it indeed is a big difference that we feature a high-ranker in our team line up.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”The reason why I sent the request to Carpe Diem is not just because you're famous, but I heard the rumour that you also take on smaller work, as well.”
The village head lightly shook his head and handed the doc.u.ment back to Seol Ji-Hu. The old man wasn't wrong about that. After all, he did go along with Cho Hong as a courier or worked as a guard several times already.
”….I may sound presumptuous here, but,” (Seol Ji-Hu)
Seol Ji-Hu slid the doc.u.ment back into his inner pocket and cautiously opened his mouth.
”But, I'd like to know how you could issue requests this accurately all the time, village head.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
The village head's brow arched up ever so slightly.
”There weren't any detailed information on the variants, but you always issued these missions to the teams that can easily handle them.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”……”
”Fine. You could have been interested in how the Earthlings operate. And as the head of a village with a population of several hundred people, you'd be burdened with the responsibility of their safety, as well. I'm not trying to criticise you. No, I believe that you made the right choices.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”……….”
”However, I heard that, because the remains of the variants quickly wither away into nothing after their deaths, it's practically impossible to perform any form of research on them. And, it isn't as if there is someone giving you information, either.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
Seol Ji-Hu took his time and quietly continued on.
”But then, you have always sent out requests to those teams capable of solving the situations as if you could see what would happen next. And it wasn't just once or twice, but over twenty times in a row.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
The village head quietly closed his eyes. He then let a long sigh escape from his lips and spoke up.
”In the end, you're suspecting me of something, aren't you?”
”Not at all. Regardless of what you were doing, I believe that you were trying to protect this village in the end. I respect your effort in doing so.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”Respect, is it….”
The village head grinned brightly.
”What a strange thing this is. You could have simply glossed over it. And, for an Earthling to hold this much interest, too. What was the term again? The Quest NPC? There was this one Earthling that called me that in the past. Well, I certainly feel better than that time, that's for sure.”
”A Quest NPC…..” (Seol Ji-Hu)
Treating a real person as an NPC…. Seol Ji-Hu could only form a wry smile at realising there really were people like that out here.
”I see what you're curious about now. Since you say you don't suspect me of wrongdoings, I will say that you're quite correct on that one. I shall take it as you being purely curious and nothing else.”
”Does that mean….?” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”However, it's not as grand as you make it out to be.”
The village head closed his eyes.
”Seven years pa.s.sed by since the variants made their very first appearance.”
He slowly built up some suspense as he continued on.
”At first, we didn't even need to issue requests. The security force of the village was enough to deal with them, after all.”
”I see.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”However, I realised that, as time pa.s.sed and new variants kept appearing, their strengths began increasing bit by bit. In the end, we even suffered a casualty. It was my oversight that we underestimated the threat, and I fully accepted the responsibility. After that, I began issuing requests.”
”I get what you're saying. However….” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”Let me finish.”
The village head opened his eyes.
”I'm well aware of what kind of beings you are. I hear that you become stronger through the grace of the G.o.ds. What an enviable thing that is. However, that doesn't mean we're powerless civilians waiting around like fools for aid to come.”
His aged eyes gleamed as if white flames were burning inside.
”Right now, I am a head of a small, insignificant village. But, once upon a time, I was a loyal soldier of the Empire. I even fought against the abominable Parasite horde as well. The experiences and insights I gained wouldn't suddenly fly away because I've grown old.”
”I didn't mean it that way.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”You believe that is all? This is a very poor village that can't pay the kind of rewards that Earthlings would be interested in. But, what do you think will happen if I issue a request to the first team I find and they get annihilated instead? Have you thought about what kind of a ramification such a story would have on this village in the mid to long term?”
Seol Ji-Hu closed his mouth shut.
”If I was mistaken about something, then I have no excuses to offer you. However, I believed that teams not caring much about the reward money would take on this village's requests. And that is why I continued to issue requests. Those are my reasons.”
Seol Ji-Hu didn't accept those words, but now that the village head was coming out like this, he didn't know what else to say. Also, the old man had shut his mouth now, as if to indicate that he said all he wanted to say on this matter.
4-5 seconds of silence later, the village head opened his mouth again.
”Is there anything else you're curious about?”
His tone of voice was now far closer to ‘Get out' than before, but Seol Ji-Hu endured on patiently and asked another question.
”You said that you were a part of the Empire's army.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”You're still asking me about that? Didn't I say it earlier? I was….”
”By any chance, have you heard of the secret research the Empire conducted after the Parasite's invasion and during the subsequent war?” (Seol Ji-Hu)
The eyes of the village head went extrround from surprise. His reaction was above Seol Ji-Hu's expectations.
”And where have you heard about that?”
”I found it in the historical records. It said, ‘A report on the experiments the Empire conducted during the war had been recovered. The research was about ma.s.s-producing special types of soldiers to combat against the Parasites. Although there were a couple of minor successes, in the end, it was deemed a failure, and the total shutdown of all research centres had been swiftly ordered. There had been strong resistance to this decision, but the research was eventually shut down'.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”I see that the history book's version is rather short and concise.”
The village head smiled ruefully.
”Was that wrong?” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”Well, only by a little bit. It was sort of an open secret, after all.”
”Can you tell me more?” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”Hmm, I wonder. Even I don't know all that much.”
The village head haltingly stroked his beard.
”The top bra.s.s of the Empire felt threatened by the parasitic ability of the Parasite horde and began the research, that part is correct. But, from what I can remember, they just announced the failure of the project one day and started shutting down the research facilities around the countryside.”
”Seeing that there was fierce resistance to that decision, there must've been some potential in the project.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”I wouldn't know about that. I was only a foot soldier, so what were you expecting from me?”
”Oh. I'm sorry.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”No need to apologise for that. However, unless we're talking about the request itself…. Talking for a while like this is tiring me out, you see.”
The village head roughly breathed out. Seol Ji-Hu quietly stared at the old man's fatigue-laden visage and slowly got up. He still had his ‘Nine Eyes' active all this time.
”….Very well. Thank you for taking your time out to talk to me.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”I don't know why you brought up that story, but well….”
When the youth turned around to leave, a hushed, aged voice came from behind him and stopped his movements.
”That's the part of history with no relations to the village of Ramman whatsoever. If you wish to learn more of that topic, perhaps it'll be better to seek out any survivors from the Duchy of Delphinion.”
”Duchy of Delphinion?” (Seol Ji-Hu)
Seol Ji-Hu turned his head halfway.
”It was a dukedom cooperating with the Empire on that research. I believe that the main research centre was in their territory as well. Well, they were destroyed eventually and their land belongs to the Parasites now, though.”
The village head let a long sigh escape from his lips.
”But… I heard a rumour that a certain wizard from Delphinion couldn't accept the decision to abandon the research, and….. And, he couldn't give up on the research, stole the data and important equipment, and hid somewhere, apparently. If he wasn't killed in the ensuing years, then I'm sure he's still alive somewhere.”
”Is that so….” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”That's as far as I know. I pray that my ramblings have been of some help to you.”
Seol Ji-Hu performed a bow as he left the house.
When he finally made his way back to where the rest of the team was, Cho Hong immediately became angry at him.
”Where have you been all this time? You know how late you are? I was really worried that you bailed out on us or something!” (Cho Hong)
”What's the matter? Did something happen?” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”……No, not really.” (Cho Hong)
She averted her gaze with an unhappy face. Meanwhile, Maria must've recovered in full as her complexion was noticeably better now.
”So, what do you want to do? The sun's still up.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”Let's get going. I mean, wouldn't dealing with the variants first make it easier to solve the mystery?” (Veronika)
Veronika, a.s.signed the role of the header, voiced her opinion. The rest of the team displayed hints of agreeing with her, so Seol Ji-Hu also nodded his head.
Having decided to get rid of the variants before the end of the day, the team quickly departed from the village of Ramman.
They walked on without the aid of carriages; Maria and the porters were obviously positioned within the centre of the formation, while Gierszal and Cho Hong stood on either side of them. At the front, it was Veronika as the header and Mikhail acting as her escort. Seol Ji-Hu took on the rearguard position. He couldn't help but feel odd at finding himself in the position once occupied by Dylan.
Thanks to their rapid advancement, the team was able to arrive at their destination about one and a half hour later.
This place was referred to as the ‘night fog zone' because an unknown fog would cover the area as evening approached.
When they got there, they were greeted by a completely contrasting scenery from Ramman. Never mind the picturesque mother nature, they could only see a dry, stripped-bare rough patch of ground covering up a hilly region.
Seol Ji-Hu cautiously studied the layout of the land. He could spot three, four interesting things about this place. First of all, the inclines were rather steep, and there were hundreds of tall points within the scope of his vision. The heights of the hills also were all over the place, so there were many areas that he couldn't immediately see.
The soil itself seemed strange, as well. The greenery had dried up into yellow husks, and there were many strange-looking mysterious holes on the ground too.
And finally….
‘….It's yellow colour.' (Seol Ji-Hu)
Seol Ji-Hu sucked in his breath after scanning the landscape with his ‘Nine Eyes' active. The entirety of the night fog zone was glowing in the colour of ‘Attention Required'.
”Veronika! Can you see anything? It doesn't matter what it is.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”There isn't any. If there's one thing that's really troublesome about these variants, then that would be them not leaving behind any traces of themselves.” (Veronika)
”Yup, it's a famous story, that one about a really amazing ‘Pathfinder', a high ranker among the Archers, having to give up on pursuing the variants. And this whole thing became a mystery afterwards.” (Mikhail)
Mikhail grinned and added something as well. Seol Ji-Hu fell into deep contemplation.
His calculations were off. He thought that, once he got to the location, he'd activate ‘Nine Eyes' and search for anything suspicious. However, if the entire area was in this colour…..
‘For now, I should stay alert and keep an eye out for anything weird.' (Seol Ji-Hu)
Seol Ji-Hu grasped his spear tightly and scanned his vicinity. He feared missing out on a single thing, so he paid extra careful attention.
Suddenly, Veronika's steps came to an abrupt halt.
”What's….” (Mikhail)
Mikhail was about to finish saying …the matter, but immediately unsheathed his sword the moment Veronika got down low and sent out a quick hand signal. Gierszal also raised his spear and s.h.i.+eld up, and Cho Hong also got ready, glaring all around her. Only Maria yawned grandly until her jaw almost fell off, and then she nonchalantly clicked her tongue.
Five minutes pa.s.sed by after they came to a halt. Veronika slowly raised her body up again.
”That's strange. I swear I heard….” (Veronika)
Just as she tilted her head and looked to her side, something fell and pounced on top of her crown.
Seol Ji-Hu reflexively crouched into position, but then, heard the lengthy ”Uwaahhhk!”
He immediately regained his wits and lowered his gaze to find an ash-coloured object coiling around Veronika's head and torso.
”Ahhhk! Ahahahk!”
She flailed about and struggled. Mikhail next to her hurriedly sliced at the object with his sword. The cut itself was deep, but he couldn't manage to break it off from her.
”G.o.d d*mn it!!” (Mikhail)