Discovery
Discovery
I tapped a raindrop clinging to the window frame with my finger.
The cold moisture flowed down the back of my hand and seeped into my sleeve.
A damp and unpleasant sensation. But it was far more refreshing than the air inside this room.
Behind me, Goro's gasping, ragged breathing and the wet, fleshy sounds of the goblins were still mixing together.
"Now, next is Jack. It's your turn."
I slowly turned around and approached Jack, who was crawling on the floor.
Every time my footsteps drew near, he hunched his shoulders like a prisoner hearing the footsteps of an executioner.
"Ri, Rion-nim... Please, please... I didn't... I didn't force myself on Elina-nim! It was because of the curse, she was the one who first...!"
"Jack, why are you shaking so much? Do I look angry?"
I gently placed my hand on the crown of Jack's head.
"No, Jack. I'm not angry. In fact, I'm grateful. That new way of using magic you taught Elina. It was something I hadn't even thought of, even after teaching her for 10 years."
I pulled a pouch filled with very thin silver needles from my pocket. They were sensory amplification needles specially crafted to react sensitively to magical reactions.
"Hiiik...!"
I pulled out one needle and slowly stabbed it near Jack's spine.
"So, I'm going to try and recreate it. That heaven you gave Elina... so you can enjoy it forever, too."
"Ah... Aaaah...!"
The moment the needle was embedded, Jack's eyes rolled back.
The magic needle spread through his nervous system to his entire body.
Now, he would feel a stimulus mixed with extreme pleasure and pain just from dust in the air touching his skin, or even from his own heartbeat thumping through his blood vessels.
"Jack, now you can be happy all by yourself. Even your own breathing will drive you to climax."
I looked back at Elina.
She was huddled in the corner, covering her mouth.
"Ah... Aaaah... Rion-nim... Please... stop..."
In her eyes, there was a swirl of shock at seeing the knowledge I taught her being used this way, and guilt that I was acting like this because of her.
"...... Ke-ek...... Keo-eok...... Kkeo-eok!!"
Jack wailed, slamming his head against my instep.
But I gently pushed him away and finally turned my head toward Old Man Hoji.
Perhaps having already foreseen his own future, he was banging his head against the wall while having wet himself.
A disgusting smell wafted from the old man's body, a mixture of musty old-man odor and the scent of fear.
"Elder, you've been waiting a long time, haven't you?"
I took a small flask containing a purple liquid from my pocket.
A mutation cure.
"This was originally a failed drug developed to treat beastkin with hereditary diseases, but when a human drinks it, it produces a very interesting result."
I grabbed the old man's jaw and forcibly poured the reagent down his throat.
"Keo-heok! Cough! Uwaaak!"
The old man writhed in agony, clawing at his chest. Something began to squirm and rise beneath his skin.
The bone-chilling sound of bones breaking and rearranging echoed through the room.
"Elder, you are going to lose human language now. Your intelligence will drop to a level worse than a dog's. Try experiencing it yourself by becoming a beast with a tail."
A hideous, hairless tail sprouted from near the old man's tailbone. His ears elongated, and his fingernails turned into beastly claws.
"Miu, go and say goodbye to the elder, okay?"
I called Miu. Miu approached me, trembling as if she had seen something she shouldn't have.
"Oppa...... I'm sorry...... I was wrong...... Oppa, please...... can't you go back to how you were before?"
Miu grabbed my hand and tried to place it on her head.
I didn't refuse. I just stroked her hair very gently and kindly, just like before.
"Miu, I'm not angry. Really."
"......Really?"
A glimmer of hope appeared in Miu's eyes.
"Yes. ......Where would you find someone who gets angry at the victim?"
I withdrew my stroking hand and pointed to Old Man Hoji, who had turned into a beast and was lying at her feet.
"Take this old man and dump him in the village sewer. That is the last revenge you can take on this person. Gift this old man the life of the beast you hated so much."
The old man was now licking the floor, emitting only beastly groans of "Kkeuuu......" instead of words.
The room was now a living hell.
Goro, who was being violated by goblins and making sounds of his intestines rupturing; Jack, who was writhing and rolling his eyes in forced climax just from the vibrations in the air; and Old Man Hoji, who had turned into a beast licking his own excrement without even a fragment of reason left.
I stared at the scene quietly.
"Well, now it's really over."
I opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.
The hallway was still dark and damp. As I headed down the stairs toward the inn lobby, I heard the loud sound of horse hooves from outside.
And the inn's old door was flung open violently, and knights in silver armor burst in.
"Rion!"
The one who called me from the very front was Freya, the vice-captain of the Imperial Holy Knights and Serin's older sister.
She was also a reliable ally with whom I had discussed strategies and shared drinks for a long time.
Freya gasped as soon as she saw my face.
"Rion...... you, what is this state you're in....... I heard the news at the guild. Party disbandment? What is that supposed to mean? And what about those disgusting rumors going around town!"
Freya grabbed my shoulders tightly. Her hands were trembling.
"Where is Serin? Where are Serin and the other kids? I came here to cut the throats of whatever crazy bastards are spreading those bullshit rumors myself. You...... you tell me. That nothing like that happened. That you all returned safely from the ruins and there were no problems at all!"
Her eyes were filled with desperation.
Trust in her sister, and faith in the man that is me. She was hoping that this situation was just someone's malicious prank.
I looked at Freya quietly.
Freya-noona. She was a truly good person.
A kind older sister whom Serin would ask for advice whenever she lost her way as a knight.
To her, I would still be the leader of the Dawn's Light party.
"Noona."
I placed my hand over hers. Freya flinched at my coldly chilled body temperature.
"Rion...... why are your eyes like that? Why are they so......?"
"It's nothing. I'm just a little tired."
I gently removed her hand. And pointed toward Room 302.
"Serin and the kids are upstairs. It'll be faster if you go see for yourself, Noona."
"Rion, what on earth happened! Tell me! Who did this to you!"
Freya tried to grab my collar, but I slipped past her touch. It was a movement without any strength, like a ghost.
"Noona, rumors are......."
I paused for a moment and smiled. Just like before, I gave her that eye-smile she used to like.
"Rumors are usually exaggerated compared to the truth, you know. Go check for yourself. I...... think I need to get some rest now."
"Rion! Where are you going! Rion!!"
Leaving Freya's shouts behind, I walked out of the inn.
I heard the sound of Freya and the knights clattering up the stairs. And a moment later.
"......Ah."
A scream from Freya, the likes of which I had never heard before, echoed from the second floor of the inn.
The screams of beasts, the bizarre cries of goblins, and the wail of the Knight Captain who had witnessed the state of her own sister.
Followed by the knights' shouts of shock and the sounds of vomiting.
"Serin! Why...... why are you like this! Elina! Even you!! What on earth is this......!"
Freya's voice pierced through the sound of the rain and struck my ears.
Her voice was tearing with despair. It was the sound of pride for her sister and faith in her comrades being plunged into the gutter in a single instant.
Ah, I feel sorry for Noona.
I thought that for a moment, but soon even that faded away.
Kuuung!
The outer wall of the old inn crumbled down with a massive impact.
Freya burst out from the dust and debris as if she had been rolled out.
"Explain....... Rion, please explain......!"
She grabbed my shoulders as if to crush them.
"Inside there...... what on earth is that? Why is Serin...... why is she in that state? And who are those men! Why are the goblins there......!"
Freya-noona's voice cracked. It was as if her brain was rejecting the scene she had just seen upstairs.
I turned my head to look at Noona. And very slowly, I drew an arc with my lips.
"Noona, there's blood on your face."
I took out a clean handkerchief I hadn't finished using from my pocket. And carefully wiped the fishy bloodstain from Noona's cheek.
"Rion......?"
Noona's body stiffened. In her eyes, meeting mine, was an indescribable terror.
"What is there to explain? It's just as you saw. Serin, Elina, Miu...... they are all just doing what they want to do. It might look a bit intense, but they seem quite engrossed in it."
"What they want to do! What are you......! That's madness! Serin wasn't in her right mind! She was wailing, calling only your name, Rion!"
"Ah, is that so."
I nodded indifferently.
"Calling my name...... I guess she still has lingering attachments. She doesn't need to do that."
At my calm reaction, Freya-noona gasped for air. Veins popped on the back of her hands. She shook me and screamed.
"Rion! You know! What on earth happened during those 7 days! What happened in the Antika Ruins that caused the kids to be ruined like that! You...... you should have protected them! You were the party leader!"
Leader. Should have protected them.
Those words touched a rusty nail embedded somewhere deep in my heart.
But it didn't hurt. It just felt like a cold wind was blowing in and out of the spot where the nail had been pulled out.
"That's right, Noona. I should have protected them."
I placed my hand over Noona's hand. My hand was soaked with rainwater and as cold as ice.