Chapter 17
[You have cleared a hidden achievement.]
[Blessing in Disguise!]
[You have obtained 15 coins.]
Blessing in Disguise was an achievement you got when you took down an opponent above your current level.
I frowned.
I had to cut down the risk.
The goal in this world was survival.
“Sir Joshua, are you all right?”
Talleon approached with a worried look.
Joshua summoned the fireflies again and lit up the area.
“I am not injured.”
“No, I meant about killing someone.”
“This guy would not have felt the slightest bit sorry about killing us.”
Survival in THE Survival always went hand in hand with death.
Back when I played as Kang Minhyeok, how many people had I killed?
I didn't know, but it easily went over ten thousand.
When I ended up inside this world, I had already accepted that there was no avoiding situations like this.
“What are we going to do now? We killed one of his men, so Austin is not going to leave us alone.”
“Don’t worry too much. This will blow over more smoothly than you think.”
Zenit had disobeyed an order.
On the way to Triden, he and I clashed several times.
Each time, Austin had used his fists.
Disrupting unit discipline was a major offense.
For a knightly leader, it was grounds for summary execution.
“First we must search the bastard’s body.”
I bent down.
I checked the corpse for anything worth taking.
The rock made it hard to get the armor off.
All that was left was the longsword.
Even that blade had snapped against the wall after he flailed it around.
I grumbled under my breath and pushed myself back up.
‘It would have been nice if he left us a little gift for the road to the afterlife. He is useless to the very end.’
Joshua walked toward the entrance where he and Talleon had come in.
The passage he had unsealed was still open.
He didn't go straight up. He calmly checked whether any zombies had come in.
“Talleon, let me see your pack.”
“Huh? Why all of a sudden.”
The boy was flustered, but he still handed over the pack from his shoulder.
I caught it and checked the contents.
He had picked up some food at the plaza, but it wasn't much.
It would take time for the chicken to start pulling its weight.
We had to secure food to last until then.
‘There is no point expecting the knights to share their rations. In that case… we have to try it.’
I put my weight on the ladder and started climbing, thinking it over.
Even when I played the game, things didn't always follow the book.
It was a disaster scenario, so unexpected events always happened.
My clash with Zenit was that kind of event for me.
I could turn this situation to my advantage.
It would take a bit of acting, but with [Cool] there was no problem.
* * *
Lucille sat on a chair inside the building and thought back on what had just happened.
It was right after they broke through the entrance.
Joshua had noticed the bell on the bridge and used it to lure the monsters away.
She had seen the same scene, yet the idea had never crossed her mind.
Neither had Austin.
They had only now realized that the monsters were sensitive to sound.
‘How pressed for time had I been, that I failed to notice something like that?’
When you worked as a hunter or a mercenary, gathering information on an enemy was the absolute basics.
Lucille had failed to do that.
The moment she faced living corpses under that vicious weather, it became impossible to stay rational on her feet.
How had he endured it?
On the way here, Joshua’s eyes had always remained strong.
He kept doing things that even she, despite her training, could not pull off.
‘Maybe he really had changed, just like Tania said.’
Her little sister had told her that he had skipped class because the academy’s low level of education didn't interest him.
It was hard to believe.
However, Tania wasn't the type to exaggerate someone.
If anything, she was closer to cold.
‘Or maybe he had always been a genius.’
The mana alteration formula Joshua showed them had been like a fragment of genius.
He drew just enough mana, never too much, then wove it together with speed.
Lucille remembered that she had never once seen Joshua’s true ability.
She had only judged him by the sight of him slacking off.
‘Whatever the Pallarion family is like now, in the past they produced many who were born with outstanding magical talent.’
The Pallarion line was the first mage family to discover the light attribute.
The first head had reached Deus, the highest human rank, rank one. Back when the family was at its peak, no one dared to lay a hand on them.
Their fall from grace had only happened in recent years.
‘But right now they are a mess.’
The current Pallarion lord was incompetent.
The people of the domain all cursed his name.
He treated his own children as nothing more than tools for his own advancement.
So the son was forced to the academy, and the daughter was pushed into a political marriage with another noble family.
“How ridiculous. Why am I agonizing over someone I used to look down on anyway?”
Lucille was confused.
The pathetic sight of Joshua she had seen in the courtyard had not been an illusion.
He had been an irresponsible person.
His eyes back then said he didn't care what others thought as long as he was satisfied.
Those traits usually became dead weight in a disaster like this.
“If… he really has changed from the old days.”
If Joshua had truly turned over a new leaf, then the one who needed to correct their attitude was her.
Whatever the circumstances, he was the one who had saved her little sister.
She had to apologize.
When that time came, she felt like her face would burn with shame.
She decided she would not be stubborn anymore.
“You got here first?”
Austin reached their rendezvous point.
The pack on his shoulder looked heavy, filled up to the bottom.
“It is enough to feed ten people for five days. That should be enough for us to save face when we get back. What about you?”
“I managed to get supplies too, though it’s not much.”
“So we just have Zenit left?”
“No, we still have those kids.”
Austin tilted his head, puzzled.
“You mean Joshua? No matter how capable he is, I don't think the two of them can survive in this town by themselves.”
“Then why did you order us to split up? One of us should have stayed with those children.”
“It all happened too fast. I never imagined he would actually get the entrance open.”
“You were not secretly hoping they would die?”
“Come on, even I would not do something that cruel to kids.”
“...Sigh.”
Lucille stood up and looked out the window.
Outside, the number of monsters wandering near the dorms had grown, and the town was in turmoil.
“Looks like all the ones we lured to the entrance came back too.”
“Is it because we killed a few during scouting? That was careless.”
The monsters were weak.
They fell easily to a sword, and they burned under magic.
If it was only a few, she was confident she could take them down barehanded.
However, they could not be underestimated.
Each fang and claw was as threatening as if it were coated in deadly poison.
She had seen several comrades get attacked and lose their minds to the madness.
“We have already lost three. We might lose more.”
Lucille spoke in a voice thick with regret.
When they left the tower, the scouting party had numbered seven.
“The ones who can still walk have to live. There is not much point brooding over the ones who are already dead.”
“If you had been careful, there were people who didn't need to die.”
“And I told you I was sorry.”
Lucille found his attitude disgusting.
“What about those kids? We didn't even tell them we would be waiting here.”
“Use your magic to search for them.”
“When my condition is good, I can search widely. In this state though, that is hard.”
The cold night air wrapped around them.
Outside, the howls of the monsters never stopped.
Concentration was one of the fundamentals of spellwork.
In conditions like this, it was hard to draw out even half of her usual ability.
Would even ten meters be possible?
Lucille shook her head and bit her lip at her own weakness.
“Either way, we cannot go wandering around blindly. If we go out to look for people who might already be dead, we could end up in trouble too.”
Austin cut in flatly.
She could tell his coolness didn't come from putting the greater good first, but from fear.
They were surrounded.
The monsters were circling the area as if they had sensed people inside the building.
At some point, Austin had stopped watching the street through the window.
He was avoiding meeting their eyes.
“What are you going to do?”
“I plan to wait a little longer. If Zenit still does not show up, we are leaving him.”
“Why does it come to that? The right answer is to go look for him. And why are you leaving those kids out of it again?”
“The chances are high that they are already dead. Both sides.”
“So you are just throwing them away?”
“Yes. It means we choose the option with the higher probability.”
“Fine, then do you even remember the way back?”
Austin stayed silent.
On the way to Triden, they had walked through thick fog.
Joshua had guessed their location by the buildings at each crossroads, but that had been out of Austin’s reach.
Even so, he didn't want to change the plan, because he saw no other choice.
“You don't, do you.”
Lucille took his silence in the worst way.
Austin scowled, but he could not refute her.
“In other words, we got the food, but without that boy we are just as cornered.”
“Enough. Since when did you start taking Joshua’s side.”
“I am not taking his side. I am just stating facts.”
The mood grew hostile.
Maybe it was because the seven comrades had been reduced to four.
Both of them were on edge.
Lucille felt the spit she swallowed burn all the way down.
“What if we go out there ourselves and look? It is not just those kids. Zenit is running late too.”
“If he cannot make it back, we leave him. That only means he was never good enough.”
“Hold it. What kind of way is that to talk? Zenit might be stubborn and pigheaded, but he was still a comrade.”
“If we want to survive, we have to be cold. We need to be able to cut ties, no matter what kind of relationship it is.”
“Sounds like you would throw me away too huh?”
“Haha, that won’t happen so don’t worry. You are the daughter of a prestigious house, and as a mage you are very useful.”
Lucille frowned.
Austin’s judgments didn't value bonds with comrades.
His seemingly cool decisions really put individuals first, and only himself at that.
Distrust kept piling up.
Could she really trust this person?
‘Please, just don't let this frustration explode.’
She stared blankly up at the ceiling.
She felt like the helplessness weighing down her whole body would crush her where she sat.
Bang! Something suddenly collapsed with a crash.
“Mm?”
They both sprang to their feet without thinking.
They moved toward the source of the sound and peered out.
A door on a nearby building had shattered to pieces from some kind of impact.
“Uuurgh!”
Monsters rushed through the broken doorway like a flood.
Was it Zenit?
But she erased the possibility from her mind almost at once.
If it were that hotheaded Zenit, he would have charged straight in and gone head to head with the monsters.
But she saw no sign of a human figure.
“Ah!”
Lucille quickly started preparing a spell.
The building wasn't far, so even with her current ability she judged she could manage it.
A ripple born from her body slipped between the walls as it spread outward.
“There are two people! They are inside the house with the blue roof.”
“...Tch.”
Austin drew his sword.
With all the monsters’ attention fixed elsewhere, this was their chance.
They slipped out of their hiding place and cut down the zombies in the street.
Lucille stayed at his side, covering him with blades of wind.
“From here on, follow slowly.”
By the time they got close to the building, they had a brief moment of peace.
No one attacked them right up until the moment they forced the door open and stepped inside.
“Huff, huff.”
Their breathing turned rough.
Cold sweat ran from every part of their bodies and soaked the inside of their armor with tepid dampness.
Ignoring the unpleasant feeling, Lucille started searching for the boys.
“...You guys are in here, right?”
As she called out softly, a shadow stirred in the back of the room.
It was Joshua and Talleon.
But Joshua’s face as he approached was twisted with anger.
He grabbed Austin by the front of his shirt and slammed him against the wall.
“Why did you try to have me killed?”
Caught off guard, Austin could not even shake off the boy’s hand before he answered.
“What are you talking about?”
“Zenit tailed and ambushed us. We barely even got to scout the area. We only got away with our lives.”
Austin understood at once what had happened.
That damned Zenit!
He just barely held back the curse that wanted to spill out.
Zenit had gone and acted entirely on his own again, and now it was biting him.
“First, calm down. Hard as it might be to believe, I never gave Zenit that order.”
“And how exactly do you plan to prove that?”
“There is no way. But if he comes back, I can prove it. Do you know where he is now?”
Joshua let go of his collar and took a step back.
After a breath or two, the flush in his face faded away with startling speed.
“I don't know. We just shook him off and ran. If he is alive, he will be chasing us. If he is dead, he is lying somewhere out there.”
Austin heaved a sigh that seemed to drag the floor down.
He looked the boy over carefully.
He had small wounds here and there, and some of them looked like cuts from a blade.
Monsters didn't handle weapons.
The dirt smeared on his clothes showed how desperate their escape had been.
‘He actually took action himself. That is on me. Stupid bastard! He is an annoyance right to the end.’
It was his own failure to keep his subordinate in line.
Even so, under normal circumstances he would not have had to let a boy like this push him around.
‘It is nothing new for nobles to cover up the wrongs they committed. It could have been the same this time as well, even if it was murder. But this time is different. We need Joshua.’
No matter how vile Zenit’s misconduct had been, it could have been excused with a few convenient words.
He himself would have slipped past punishment.
That was because they had judged Zenit to be worth keeping alive.
However, that did not work in front of this boy.
Joshua had carried out his role as their guide perfectly.
A moment ago, he and Lucille had been arguing about that very fact.
Frustration surged inside him.
If Zenit were standing here, he would have wanted to wring his neck.
“...I want to hear what you think.”
Lucille cut in.
“Let us wait until dawn for Zenit.”
“And if he does not come back?”
“In that case, you will not be able to dodge responsibility.”