Chapter 122
Chapter 122
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 122
Chapter Title: Chapter 23: Survivors (4)
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While digging through the dirt, my thoughts turned to the bunker we'd found near Bicheta Castle.
Could there be another place like that?
Had this one not fallen, and were there still survivors here?
If so, why were the footprints so small?
Were there really dwarves living underground?
After pondering all these questions, I dug a tunnel big enough for an adult man to pass through—and kept digging, and digging some more.
'There's a lot of them.'
Other sources of mana besides the search party appeared on my map.
They were clustered together in one spot, all showing up as blue dots.
'Biharin, apparently.'
Were they allies of the subhuman races, or traitors who'd defected to the enemy?
Heading in without knowing anything made me tense in every way.
'But I can't let someone else steal the credit at the end.'
There's that old saying about fattening a dog with rice you'd prepared for the dead.
If I'm starting this, I'll see it through myself.
I'd prepared everything I could for any dangers that might come, so there was no hesitation.
One hand gripped a barrier stone tightly. Up front was tanker Yang Tae-ho, and behind me was sub and ranged dealer Kim Yul.
We advanced through the tunnel in the most stable formation for a three-man party.
I'd already concluded during the expansion that there was no bunker here.
The narrow burrow ran at a consistent width and depth for a long stretch before heading toward the surface.
'No matter what's there, don't panic.'
I steadied my nerves and proceeded carefully.
It wasn't long before faint murmurs reached us from afar—whispers, rustling voices.
Soon, we arrived at the spot where the blue dots were packed tight together.
Yang Tae-ho manifested an earth-based spell and emerged from the tunnel first.
"......What the hell is this?"
A stunned mutter followed, along with shallow cries and a stir of commotion.
I quickly followed behind Yang Tae-ho and exited the tunnel.
The place we'd reached was inside a rocky mountain—an empty clearing like a cavern.
Huddled there were children dressed in rags crudely cut and sewn together.
Startled by our sudden appearance, dozens of them backed away from me and Yang Tae-ho.
Unlike Yang Tae-ho, who was thrown off by the sight, I grasped the situation immediately.
I'd recognized the brands on the children's bodies.
The shape, like a beast's tooth, was definitely something I knew.
'Farm brands.'
A feed storage for the monsters made from subhumans who hadn't escaped in time.
That sentence was the brand stamped on the subhumans raised there.
Seeing those characters I'd learned from documents actually etched into human flesh wasn't pleasant.
Was it because most of the branded ones were kids not even ten years old?
Something indescribable welled up inside me.
Nausea, rage—something I couldn't quite distinguish, nearly making me retch.
"Pa-Palawo-nim?"
A fragile voice reached me, like a candle flame about to flicker out.
Forcing strength into my rigid body, I turned my head and spotted a little kid.
Just a bit taller than Belta.
A child who looked no older than five or six, eyes trembling mercilessly.
I'd wondered where their gaze was fixed—it was locked on the mark above my head.
Then came an answer I truly hadn't expected.
"Ar-Are you the Apostle-nim?"
That couldn't be right.
I was just an outsider permitted entry to this world with Palawo's guarantee—not an apostle chosen by the gods.
But this child didn't know that distinction, something any Biharin should recognize.
The children's misunderstanding didn't end with me.
"Temoria......"
"Th-That's Pinelpenia-nim."
Murmurs spread.
After a brief commotion, the frightened kids who'd backed away began gathering around us.
The little one who'd spoken to me was among them.
"Ap-Apostle-nim, please save us. Please, let us live."
In front of the child reaching out with trembling, tearful hands, I knew exactly what to say.
"......You'll be okay now."
I replied in a slightly hoarse voice and took the child's hand.
"Ahh, O God!"
The area turned into a sea of tears in an instant.
* * *
By the time Yang Tae-ho and I managed to calm the crying children, Kim Yul returned from relaying the news to the main force.
Baron Volvita was among those who came with him.
"What in the world......"
After taking in the clearing, dismay washed over his face.
All the Biharin who'd arrived with him wore similar expressions.
They understood the rough situation, just like me.
On the other hand, Kim Yul and Yang Tae-ho seemed clueless about the whole thing.
'They wouldn't know about the farms.'
Why would the Biharin bother explaining that to Players?
I wouldn't have thought of it either without seeing Rashaar's records through Pinelpenia's authority.
Farms were hard to grasp with common sense.
Classifying intelligent beings like humans as livestock was an alien concept.
'Humans applying the idea of husbandry to their own kind is the weird part to begin with.'
It was natural that Kim Yul and Yang Tae-ho didn't know about farms.
I suppressed a sigh and kept a straight face—until a clear laugh suddenly rang out.
Kim Yul had spotted Pinelpenia's emblem and was playing hand games with the kids gathered around him.
Peering at the children's smiling faces, the gloom from moments ago had vanished.
'They were crying like the world was ending just before.'
Maybe because I could guess what had happened before that laughter?
The scene before my eyes felt strangely eerie.
My expression nearly twisted from the frustration.
I forced my lips to stay steady, and that's when Yang Tae-ho approached.
"Ease up that look."
He said my face looked sharp as a blade, dripping with killing intent.
Thanks to his light pats on my shoulder, I finally relaxed my mouth.
"Hoo."
I let out a long breath to sort through my tangled emotions.
"You know what's goin' on here, right?"
"......More or less."
"Damn curious as hell, but......"
It didn't seem like the time to satisfy his curiosity.
Yang Tae-ho nodded low and jerked his chin to the side.
Baron Volvita was approaching.
"He said come once you're done with Yul."
"Got it."
No sooner had Yang Tae-ho stepped away than Baron Volvita arrived and spoke freely.
"You're the outsider who first spotted the traces?"
"Yes. They call me Kai."
"I've heard a lot about you from Jerome. You must've had it rough. If not for you, we'd have passed right by and left all these kids behind."
Honestly, I wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone.
The emotional turmoil was intense; I wanted time alone to compose myself.
But I wasn't green enough to show it.
"Just doing what needed doing."
"Good to know you see it that way. Makes me feel secure. Outsiders are so fixated on gaining mana, I couldn't trust them......"
A scoff nearly escaped me.
"You're trustworthy. Jerome wasn't just flattering you."
There had to be a reason for praising me while putting me on a pedestal above the others.
"You might not know, but the children seem to find comfort in the outsiders' emblems."
As expected, the baron laid out his intentions plainly, without any prodding.
"They must attach great meaning to seeing the gods' traces directly."
So, stand by his side like a decorative prop to ease the kids' wariness.
That's what he was getting at, roundabout as it was—and it didn't sit well.
I had no desire to be used so easily.
But I was curious about these children's story too.
So for now, I nodded along.
"If I can help, I should."
Baron Volvita led me along as he moved.
Jerome and several of the baron's aides were already talking to some kids.
It didn't seem to be going well, though.
Wary of strange adults, the children clung to each other and stayed silent.
'That's why he called me over.'
I exchanged a quick glance with Jerome, then lowered my eyes.
They immediately met those of a kid who'd been peeking at me.
About up to my waist—probably around ten years old.
Easier to communicate with than a toddler whose thinking was underdeveloped.
I crouched down to match the child's eye level, easing their guard.
"Hi."
I greeted them as softly as I could, and the child's face flushed bright red.
Meanwhile, Baron Volvita, who'd brought me, furrowed his brow slightly.
'He wouldn't like me jumping in so eagerly first.'
He'd meant to use me as a mere prop to soothe the kids, after all.
But I had no intention of playing along.
'He can't stop me anyway.'
The moment the kids associated our emblems with the gods, the outcome was set.
'In their eyes, I'm closer to the divine than those guys.'
The world tree on the knights' chests was man-made; the emblem I bore was shaped by otherworldly power.
If he tried to interfere, it might heighten the kids' wariness.
In fact, the baron didn't actively try to stop me.
Far from it—he crossed his arms and switched to spectator mode, like he was giving me free rein.
'That way, if I fail or things go south, he can dismiss it cleanly without getting involved.'
I could feel his "let's see what you do" attitude prickling my skin.
I brushed off his gaze lightly and focused on the child.
"I'd like to hear what happened to you all. Can you tell me?"
The child fidgeted their lips and averted their eyes, then glanced up at the mark over my head.
For a moment, I wondered if this emblem was more than just an outsider's brand.
But there was no time to dwell; the child, after much hesitation, began their explanation.
"There were rumors that an army with the world tree emblem was coming......"
The story was jumbled, but sorting it out wasn't hard.
As the church forces moved in earnest to retake Kalom Castle, talk of withdrawal spread among the monsters.
Traitors in Kalom Castle spread the rumors to the subhumans in the farm, and soon moves began to clean it up.
"Th-They said they'd eat us all, devour us. That they'd dispose of us......"
A traitor sorting subhumans into different pens for the farm had laughed and shouted it.
The child explaining broke into sobs.
I clenched the hand hidden behind my back, out of the child's sight.
Even as I hid my agitation, the child doggedly continued recounting what had happened.
Separated from the adults into another pen, they'd found a crack in the rock there.
"I'd heard that if wind comes through a cave, the other side is open too......"
Shivering as they spoke, the child hugged their own body with both arms.
"If we were gonna die staying there, or get caught escaping and die anyway, we figured we'd at least try to run. I-I didn't want to die. So we got out."
The older kids had comforted the younger ones and squeezed through the narrow gap.
But it wasn't long before their escape was discovered.
"All our village kids were gathered there...... The ones coming after couldn't make it out......"
Just as the lead group escaped, the cliff connected to the exit collapsed entirely.
'The ones who didn't get out must be buried.'
The successful escapees fled blindly into the mountains.
Some were devoured by monsters roaming the tainted lands; the rest, lacking the nerve to go farther, hid here.
Eventually, hunger drove the bolder ones to venture out.
That's when they used the burrow we'd found.
The moment I grasped the full story from the child's account.
"So only you all made it out? What about the others? The adults didn't escape?"
Baron Volvita's abrupt question drained the color from the child's face.