Chapter 155
Chapter 155
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 155
Chapter Title: Ansgar's Dream (1)
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Joy was short-lived. We hurried toward the castle. Draven stayed behind to calm the still-confused townsfolk, and in his place, the ever-energetic three hunting dog brothers and a few other beastkin joined us on the way to the castle.
-Flutter!
-Whoosh! Whoosh!
As we drew near the castle, a strange sight caught our eye. Something was struggling desperately in a black puddle left behind by the "black rain."
I stopped in my tracks and approached the puddle to peer inside.
It was a crow.
A crow without legs.
"So it ended up like this after all."
The crow didn't cry out. It merely fluttered its wings faintly. I knelt down and carefully scooped it up. Black rain and blood were oozing from its body.
"......"
This was partly my fault. I hadn't just let it go—I'd used it to send a message sowing confusion among its kind.
-Whoosh......
I placed my hand on the crow's body and activated [Wound Healing]. Blue mana spread through its wounds. The crow seemed to writhe in even greater pain, flapping its wings before suddenly closing its eyes.
Fortunately, it wasn't dead. The agony of "healing" had simply overwhelmed it, causing it to pass out. Whatever energy had infested its body made my skill feel like torment instead. It would get better as its body gradually recovered and purified. I couldn't regrow its legs, but I had to care for it as best I could. I tucked it into my bosom and resumed walking.
"......"
The castle was eerily quiet.
With all the soldiers already pulled toward the underground temple, there were no guards to block our path as there should have been. Even the castle servants were nowhere to be seen.
-Squeak! Squeak!
-Squeak squeak!
In their stead, the castle was overrun with rats. Every window was curtained off, and the shadows darting through the dim interiors were all rats. The silver lining, if any, was that they seemed to be ordinary rats.
-Step. Step. Step.
-Squeak! Squeak!
-Tap tap tap!
Every time we took a step, we heard rats fleeing from us.
"El, draw the curtains."
"Yes, Master."
-Swish!
El and a few beastkin pulled back the curtains. The rats scurrying across the castle floors scattered into shadows and rat holes to escape the flooding light.
We pressed onward, parting curtains and illuminating the castle's depths step by step. In the center of the castle, laid with its red carpet patchy from moth damage, sat an unexpected figure at the far end.
"Come......"
"......"
"at last......"
The lord of Dehide, Haynes.
From what the villagers had told us, Haynes was supposed to be quite young and healthy. But the man before me now looked on the verge of death from old age. His skin was shriveled and wrinkled, his white hair sparse and thinning, his nails rusted-looking, and his belly grotesquely swollen.
He couldn't even lift his head properly.
"......Are you truly Dehide's lord, Haynes?"
His murky gray eyes, clouded as if veiled, fixed on me. There was something chilling about that gaze—empty as a void, yet somehow brimming with something unseen.
-Cough, cough.
With each cough from Haynes, thick globs like old blood sprayed out. And beneath his clothes, his belly seemed to heave.
'This isn't normal.'
My instincts told me so. I exchanged a glance with Lloyd. He nodded, having noticed the lord's abnormality as well.
"Haynes."
"......"
"Barvason is dead."
To be precise, it wasn't "dead," but sealed away in the underground temple for thousands or tens of thousands of years—it was as good as dead. For ordinary folk, this was the simpler explanation.
Haynes said nothing. He merely coughed a few more times and squirmed as if trying to rise.
Had he not understood?
"Haynes."
"......Yes, yes. So it ended that way. It had to end that way."
Haynes muttered to himself with his head bowed. Then, his grotesquely swollen belly began to heave again.
At that unnatural sensation, I signaled the others with my eyes. They each gripped their weapons, readying for battle. But Haynes paid no mind.
I slowly approached him.
He lifted his head at the sound of my footsteps and looked at me with those murky eyes. His face twisted into something between a smile and a sob as he uttered one word.
"Regrettable......"
At the same instant, his body convulsed violently. As if something thrashed beneath his skin.
"......!"
I hurriedly leaped back. By a hair's breadth, something lunged at where I'd stood.
It was a "rat."
But not like the ordinary ones infesting the castle. The rats bursting from Haynes's body were forearm-sized, their fur matted black with viscous blood, eyes glowing red, tails tipped with barbs.
-Hiss!
My hand brushed a barb on its tail, and the spot began to blacken and burn.
'Poison.'
But I had the [Merciful Monster] totem. It nullified all poison effects while equipped. The grazed wound healed instantly. For the others, though, it would be highly toxic.
"Cut off the tails first! They're poisonous!"
I drew my dagger from my waist and shouted to the group. First things first—we had to exterminate these vermin. Enough was enough. We'd just dealt with ratmen, and now rats again!
'......This has to be the last.'
We fought off the endless swarm of rat pups crawling from Haynes's gut.
-Thud!
-Squeal!!
-Slash!
-Screeech!
Kicking, slashing, stabbing, crushing. As I'd suspected, these weren't ordinary "rats."
-Boom!
-Puff puff......
The one El sliced spewed black smoke, crumbling to dust and vanishing. The others did the same—vanishing upon death.
-Ahhh......
What was odd was the eerie whispers or cries emerging from the smoke.
-Ansgar......
"......glory......!"
-Ahh......ah......
-Hay......nes......!
Voices like an old man's, a frail woman's, or a child's—strange murmurs or screams.
-Splat!!!
I crushed the last rat pup's skull underfoot, and a sob-like sound accompanied the smoke.
"......glory......!"
"......"
What madness was this? Barvason's final trick? Filthy to the end.
'......That mention of Ansgar nags at me, though.'
Why bring up long-destroyed Ansgar? Frowning, I approached Haynes again. His body, now emptied of rats, had deflated like a punctured balloon, his head drooping.
"Haynes."
I gripped his chin and lifted it. He looked up at me with a weary face. His eyes, unlike before, were clear and blue.
"You are......"
"Theodor. A druid."
What use was giving my name to someone on death's door? Still, I observed courtesy.
"A druid....... Why......here......"
"Do you know what happened in Dehide?"
"......"
"As its lord, did you summon the demon?"
"......Barvason."
So Haynes had indeed summoned Barvason.
"Barvason is dead."
"......!"
"He committed atrocities to turn Dehide into his kingdom."
"Barvason....... Impossible. He's my friend. He promised me a new Ansgar......"
A new Ansgar.
That was it.
Come to think of it, Haynes had blond hair and blue eyes—the classic look of Ansgar's descendants. Like the imperial family of the Barak Empire.
To reclaim Ansgar, he'd conspired with Barvason.
"I....... For my mother, a new....... Ansgar......"
"......"
"Cough......!"
Mid-sentence, he vomited black blood again. With the demonic power sustaining his body ebbing away, the pain was overwhelming him.
"Everything Barvason said was a lie. There's no new Ansgar anywhere. The underground temple was merely a demon's lair, and Dehide nearly became a rat den."
"......"
"Haynes. You made a pact with a demon. Without it to sustain you, all that's left is suffering—no glory."
If Barvason were truly dead, Haynes would have vanished too. But Barvason was sealed at the temple's depths—not quite dead. Strictly speaking, Haynes was doomed to endless torment without perishing.
"If you wish."
"Cough, ack......"
"I'll end your suffering."
-Stab!
I plunged my hand into his cloak-covered body. It was hollow as if he'd never existed, and where his heart should be writhed one final rat pup in desperation. I seized it, squeezing as if to kill.
-Ah, spare me. Spare me, my son......
"Show this pitiful mother a new Ansgar, please......!"
-Haynes......, Haynes!
The rat pup in his heart spoke more clearly, its voice crystalline and fragile—beautiful yet delicate.
"M-Mother......"
"......This isn't your mother. It's just Barvason's remnant."
"Ah......"
"......"
"What have I done......"
A hot tear rolled from Haynes's eye.
Human frailty invites evil. Barvason must have scented Haynes's weakness after losing his mother and nested in Dehide.
"Theodor."
"......Yes."
"End this pain......"
Haynes spoke in a voice that could give out any moment.
Without hesitation, I crushed his heart—the thrashing rat pup.
The suffering ended.