Chapter 389: Heaven and Hell
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 389: Heaven and Hell
It seemed their party had a skilled archer. They were keeping a set distance, waiting for us to get farther from the city. In truth, they could have attacked by now without much trouble, which probably meant they were wary of Ha Yuri, too.
“How much farther to the hunting grounds?”
“We’ll be there in a bit. You’re in better shape than I thought. We’ve walked a lot, but you don’t look tired.”
“I’m good at walking long distances. But honestly, it is a little tiring.”
At my words, Ha Yuri casually handed me her waterskin. The water wasn’t great, but I accepted it with a familiar ease and tipped it back. As she’d said, we had walked quite a long way. If we were on the surface, we’d be seeing a forest by now, spotting a monster or two. But here, there wasn’t a single ant in sight. I glanced at Ha Yuri and muttered.
“Are there actually any monsters here?”
“Would I have come all this way if there weren’t? This land is huge… We have to go a little deeper. Once we’re near their habitat, hunting a few of them will be a piece of cake.”
“Going all the way into their habitat…”
“I told you, it’s dangerous. How are you supposed to find monsters wandering around a forest? It might be different if we had an archer who could track them, but we don’t have anyone like that here. And if we get surrounded by monsters, even I’d be in danger. We’ll mainly hunt the ones that have strayed from the pack. What, are you scared?”
“It’s not that… but it would be easier if we found a professional party.”
“You think there’s anyone trustworthy here?”
I’d made a pointless suggestion. There probably wasn’t a single person here who could be trusted.
“It’s harder to hunt when they swarm you. If our coordination is off, we’ll pull aggro all over the place and be in trouble. And you have no idea how many bastards are just waiting to stab you in the back… At this point, it’s easier to trust a damn beast. Besides, most of the people who ended up here did something wrong to deserve it. I’m not saying that includes you, but didn’t the humans here get dropped into this place after getting their asses kicked for enslaving elves? The Japanese started it, didn’t they?”
“Yes… that’s what I heard.”
“I think I have a pretty good idea of what the creator of this place wants. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. They must be the kind of bastard who loves that saying.”
She’d guessed correctly.
“And the people who live here usually try not to come this deep. I especially wouldn’t recommend coming here with people you can’t trust. So even if you wanted to find party members, you couldn’t.”
“……?”
“Did I not tell you? This place is a monster habitat, but it’s also their territory.”
“Whose?”
“The Inquisitors.”
“Why…”
“It seems they come here sometimes to cull the monster population. I’ve only seen them from a distance, but I saw them for sure. You could say they’re intentionally limiting the number of monsters. It’s a really well-made system. Honestly, it’s so good I almost want to give the one who made this place a round of applause…”
I felt the same way. The creator of this place deserved nothing less than applause. An image of Lee Wanyong jumping to catch his food flashed through my mind. In any case, hearing such words from Ha Yuri was quite unexpected. Curious about her thoughts on the situation, I slowly spoke again.
“What do you think of this hellish place?”
“……”
Ha Yuri muttered to herself for a moment before slowly opening her mouth.
“I told you when we left, didn’t I? That you wouldn’t believe anything I said…”
I nodded.
“Just listen to it as bullshit. You can think it’s a lie, I don’t care. I once created a city similar to this one. The situation there was better than here, but it was just as miserable, I’m sure. It would be more accurate to say I accepted those who climbed up and looked down on and despised those at the bottom. I was at the pinnacle. The pinnacle of all humanity.”
“I see.”
“You’re not as surprised as I expected.”
“You don’t seem like the type to lie.”
“Is that flattery?”
“Of course not.”
“Anyway, I once stood at the top. I was probably even higher than the elves who look down on us from above.”
“……”
“When you climb that high, you know…”
“……”
“Humans look like ants.”
“……”
“I’m not speaking metaphorically. They really… they look like ants. You start to wonder why they live like that. You think they’re all idiots. I would just quietly watch those ants from above. Sometimes I’d step on them to kill them, other times I’d cheer them on… I’d drop them in water or flick them with my finger… The ants, of course, would look up to me in awe. They’d struggle and claw their way up, trying desperately to reach the top. To be honest, watching them was incredibly entertaining… Not that I still feel that way, of course.”
“I see.”
“I thought the fault lay with them. I never thought it was my fault. It seemed to me that the ones struggling to live were the foolish ones.”
Ha Yuri let out a small sigh before continuing.
“The responsibility doesn’t just lie with the ants who can’t climb up. The one who made the anthill also bears responsibility. It took me a while to realize that.”
In other words, Ha Yuri was comparing society to an anthill.
She wasn’t blaming those who couldn’t climb, but criticizing the system itself—the very structure of the hill that made it impossible to ascend. I had never imagined she held such thoughts, and my mouth fell slightly open.
“I’ve talked too much.”
“So you’re not usually the talkative type.”
“Of course not…”
“……”
“It might be because you seem similar to me.”
“Hmm…”
“It’s just my personal opinion. Forget I said anything.”
She didn’t specify whether I was similar to her past self or her present self. It could have been both, but for now, I kept my mouth shut. We were slowly pushing through the forest, getting closer to the habitat.
Suddenly, I felt Ha Yuri’s hand clamp over my mouth. The way she frantically dragged me down behind a rock seemed truly desperate. I already knew why she was taking such an action. When I turned my head to look at her, her forehead was drenched in a cold sweat. She was tense.
‘The Inquisitors.’
Hssshhh… Hssssssshhh…
The rhythmic sound of breathing from behind a gas mask-like helmet carried from the distance. The thudding of footsteps continued to assault my ears. Strangely, the sound of the Inquisitor’s breathing was clearer and sharper than the human voices I could now hear.
“Aaaaargh! Please… please… spare me. Please…”
Hssssssshhh…
“I’ll never… come near this place again.”
“P-Please, have mercy… I’ll beg the Savior for… for forgiveness…”
“Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!”
“Gack!”
It seemed another party had been setting up camp here and ran into an Inquisitor. Even without seeing it, the situation began to play out in my mind’s eye. The sound of tearing flesh echoed in my ears, and the smell of burning skin was sickeningly vivid.
“God… dammit…”
Ha Yuri’s eyes began to fill with anxiety. The human voices had already fallen completely silent. Not a single sound could be heard from them. Instead, though it was a poor substitute, the sound of footsteps was getting closer. They had probably spotted us. It was highly likely they had seen my true form as well, since the magic I was using was only meant to deceive those in the underground.
Hssssssshhh…
“……”
Hssssssshhh…
Perhaps thinking I would scream in fear, Ha Yuri was still desperately covering my mouth.
The steady thud, thud, thud of the footsteps felt like something out of a horror game, and for a moment, I forgot my own situation and became genuinely tense.
“S-save… me…”
Just then, another human voice came from not far away. There had been one more person hiding nearby.
“P-please… I’m beeeeeeegging you!”
Hssssssshhh…
“Aaaaaaaargh! My… my arm… my arm!”
Hssssssshhh…
CRUNCH. CRACK.
Sounds so gruesome they made my skin crawl just imagining them continued to echo. Ha Yuri had her eyes shut, biting her lip. Having once been in a position of power, she could probably guess what was happening. Assuming the enemy’s senses were even slightly sharp, finding people hiding at this distance would be child’s play. She was undoubtedly preparing for the worst-case scenario.
I heard the sound of someone swallowing hard nearby.
The breathing and footsteps were gradually fading into the distance, but Ha Yuri didn’t move. I didn’t know how long we would stay here, but the sky was already growing dark.
“Huuu…”
“……”
“Fuck…”
“We were lucky.”
“We really… were lucky.”
Just as I was about to get up, Ha Yuri muttered to me.
“What are you doing? We’re sleeping here tonight.”
“What?”
“It’s gotten dark. It’s impossible to hunt like this.”
Seeing my somewhat complicated expression, Ha Yuri’s lips curled into a smirk as she mumbled.
“Don’t look so scared. We’re not going to have some illicit affair born from the subtle emotions that blossom between a man and a woman who’ve overcome a crisis together. I’m not going to eat you, either.”
That wasn’t what I was worried about. It was Choi Seulgi. I had actually planned on pushing myself to return within the day. She was probably seething with anger right now. She could appear behind me at any moment, glaring at me with a fiery expression. If she found out I had spent an entire day and night with Ha Yuri, she would be incredibly pissed.
The only reason she hadn’t shown herself yet was partly because she trusted me, but also probably because she thought her appearance would be a hindrance.
While I was lost in various thoughts, a shelter had surprisingly already been completed. It was a little too cramped to lie down in, so we had to lean our backs against the rock, but the position wasn’t too uncomfortable.
“It gets cold at night, so we’ll have to sleep a little close. I’m not making a move on you, so don’t get any funny ideas.”
“Okay.”
We lit a campfire and ate the small amount of jerky we had brought. Being here with her like this felt quite burdensome.
“That woman. She’s pretty. Do you love her?”
“Yes. Isn’t it the same for you?”
“Of course.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know either. I thought I’d been hooked, but that wasn’t it. He cherishes me. That was probably the beginning. Not many people have ever cherished me before. At most, it was my former father whom I met here… but I thought that was a lie too, so I ruined it with my own hands… It’s just complicated. It’s not something I can put into words.”
“……”
“Fuck, what even is love?”
“I don’t know either.”
“Even if I’m hungry, annoyed, and pissed off, if I’m happier now than I was before, is that abnormal?”
“It depends on how you look at it. If you value your current life more than your life at the top… there must be a reason for it.”
“What about you?”
“I love my wife. I didn’t live a very happy life before, but I think there were happy moments. It’s probably the same here.”
“That’s right. Sometimes you like it, sometimes you hate it, and then you like it again…”
A little more time passed, and I heard the sound of soft, steady breathing from beside me. She had walked for a long time at a fast pace using only her physical strength. It was only natural that she was tired. Since there was no talk of a night watch, it seemed she had a way of detecting any threats that might approach.
I casually tossed a nearby branch into the campfire. The flickering flames began to dance for a moment.
Just as she’d said, it was needlessly complicated.