64. Twisted Fate
64. Twisted Fate
A Murderer.
The most terrifying thing about turncoats who harbor malice against their own kind is that, when they make an effort to hide, they become indistinguishable from ordinary people.
That terror is especially pronounced in places cut off from society—like a dungeon.
[After your first night's rest, if you seek the room with the archive, a Murderer Clan member hidden in your party will soon begin their operation. It's a dangerous scheme to seize the base camp the Adventurer's Guild intends to establish within the dungeon, then eliminate all adventurers who come there seeking refuge.]
Just as Airi said, plenty of adventurers besides our party were inside this dungeon trying to clear it.
The larger the scale, the more critical supplies and rest areas become. Once a suitable spot is found during exploration, many adventurers would naturally attempt to set up a camp.
Though the dungeon's detailed structure shifted from time to time, the overall layout stayed largely the same, which made establishing a camp even more vital during the early exploration phase.
[If such a base camp were seized by the Murderer Clan, adventurers entering for rest would be violated, murdered, and robbed of their lives and spoils without ever knowing what hit them. And since heroes would be an obstacle to such a seizure, they've planted one Murderer Clan member in the parties of several heroes who entered this dungeon.]
[Even a Failed Hero cannot be underestimated when it comes to a hero's power, so she must have been targeted as well. After that, using her death as the signal, the Murderer Clan members who returned to camp will commence their full-scale operation upon receiving that signal.]
Well, even if she's been culled from the ranks, she's still a kid officially recognized as a hero.
Having witnessed her power firsthand, they must have felt a strong need to eliminate her by any means necessary. But since I hadn't earned my party members' trust either, there was no way they'd believe that story coming from me.
"Haah, seriously. I thought I hid it pretty well. Where the hell did they figure out my affiliation and name?"
So explaining the situation would have to wait until after I dealt with this bastard first.
Having reached that conclusion, I stood there gripping my spear in a standoff. The Murderer bastard aimed his crossbow at me and asked.
"So, what's your play? You revealed your own identity and exposed mine in the process... I take it that means one of us is going to die and respawn out of here, yeah?"
"Do I even need to say it? You've been gunning for heroes' backs this whole time. You ought to know."
"Kya~ Thought you were the strong, silent type, but you've got a sarcastic streak too~ Well, I guess this is the real you, isn't it~"
The Murderer bastard was talking big with a smug smile plastered on his face.
But contrary to his playful attitude, the crossbow aimed at me didn't waver in the slightest, and a murderous glint flickered in his eyes.
He seemed rattled that his identity had been exposed, but now that it was out in the open, he was accepting the situation and facing it with cold composure.
"Well, you must have your own reasons for wanting to protect that kid, partner. If your goal was simply to take her out, you would've waited until I finished the job and then backstabbed me to steal the credit..."
Of course, he probably didn't know who I really was.
All he saw was the infamous title of Hero Killer, and he was just making a rough guess that I, too, was a fellow Murderer or someone from the underworld.
"But still, just in case, let me ask. Did you actually grow attached to that kid? Or does it bother you that she got slapped with the Failed Hero label because of you?"
But the question that followed carried a bitterness that felt worlds apart from the way you'd address a villain.
Isn't that strange?
According to Airi's prophecy, this guy was an assassin from the Murderer Clan, notorious in the underworld, and he himself was calmly accepting the situation without denial.
So he should have been the kind of scum who wouldn't show mercy to his target. Why, then, did he get so emotional when talking about someone else's feelings?
"...Ehew, forget it."
Just as I was thinking that, the Murderer bastard let the tension drain from his body and lowered his crossbow to the ground.
When I flinched and raised my spear shaft, he lifted both hands above his head and made a show of his own defenselessness.
"...What are you playing at?"
"It's no trick. I just don't feel like it. The organization gave me orders to assassinate the hero in the same party when the opportunity came, but no matter how you slice it, killing a kid who hasn't even had her coming-of-age ceremony just isn't my style."
"And I'm supposed to believe that...?"
"Look, I do this to make a living, but to be honest with you, I'm getting sick and tired of this shit. Dirty work is one thing for a day or two, but telling me to kill a young hero who gets harassed by trash-tier adventurers—even I'm not a complete sociopath. That's not something a human being should do, is it?"
Not a sociopath capable of killing without guilt, but a victim-like, timid young girl with no one to lean on.
As he mentioned the part that anyone with a human heart would sympathize with, he raised his hands even higher and gave me a bitter smile.
"I actually kinda liked traveling with you, partner. Didn't you feel the same?"
As if he was appealing to the bond we'd built while being together.
Sure, it had only been a day or two, but you can get a decent read on someone's character even in that amount of time.
Even though he was scum who had killed plenty of people, if I thought only about the image he'd shown so far, it was hard to see him as a complete monster with no human heart at all.
Even when cracking jokes, he never crossed the line. When gossiping behind that kid's back, he never chimed in by himself, and every now and then, he'd murmur words tinged with pity and sympathy for the hero...
"...I'll restrain you for now. Don't try anything funny."
"Thanks for trusting me, partner."
Pol Denian smiled with satisfaction at the trust I'd extended, those moments apparently fresh in his mind.
I closed the distance between us—him still with both arms raised—and made a conspicuous show of taking a multi-purpose rope from my pocket, openly displaying my intent to restrain him.
To win his trust through that gesture.
And then, the moment the distance closed, to switch stances and drive my spear into the bastard's leg.
-Crack!
And at that very moment, those raised hands began to descend toward me.
In them was a dagger that had suddenly shot out from his sleeve, ready to slit my throat.
Damn it. His dagger is faster than my spear.
Should I just trust my armor's durability and take the hit?
-Clang!!
But before I could make that call, the Ego Weapon moved first and reflexively smashed the dagger aside.
The blade shattered hideously against the sturdiness of the mithril. The Murderer bastard stared down at the fragments, then stepped backward with a stiff laugh.
"...Partner, isn't this a bit much? I threw away my weapon and surrendered voluntarily."
"Only a moron trusts a guy whose passive skill is deceiving people."
His acting was so natural that I was almost tempted for a moment, but I trusted Airi's prophecy absolutely.
And Airi had said this in her note.
If I didn't 'deal with' this guy here, a large-scale slaughter of adventurers in this dungeon—our party included—would begin.
-Boom!!
Anyway, if he was someone I could just talk out of it, she wouldn't have used the phrase 'deal with' in the first place.
Convinced of that, I hurled my spear to pursue the bastard as he tried to flee the archive. The spear smashed into the hallway wall, releasing physical force that collapsed a section of the passage he was heading for.
"Kya, so this is what it takes to earn the title Hero Killer, huh?"
"Stay right there, you son of a bitch!!"
"Only an idiot would stay put here! Woo-hyo-oh-oh~"
The Murderer bastard ran, making weird, teasing sounds as if to mock me.
By the time I recalled the spear embedded in the wall, the bastard had already moved beyond throwing range and was preparing to round a corner.
He stopped in his tracks for a moment and put on his signature smug smile, as if to provoke me.
"Sorry about this, partner! No hard feelings, but business in our line of work runs on trust, ya know! Honestly, I do feel bad for the little miss Hero, but I can't break a prior engagement!"
"So, I'll be heading off first, Mr. Spearman! You and the rest of your party mates can try to manage without a scout! Hahahaha!"
"Who says you're getting away, you bastard!?"
I glanced back briefly at the path I'd come from, then grabbed my spear and broke into a sprint through the dungeon hallway to chase him.
Chasing after him meant getting separated from my party, but I felt in my bones that this, too, was part of the flow laid out in the prophecy.
[If you fail to subdue him when you lure him to the archive, do not rejoin your party. Instead, drive him toward the opposite direction. If you go that way, you will soon find a number of adventurers attempting to establish a base camp there first.]
[Starting with him, expose the Murderers hiding among the adventurers, join forces with the hero to reinforce the base camp, and prepare for the raid that will follow. Simply by assisting her from her side, the infamous reputation of being a Failed Hero will be somewhat restored, and that will lead to benefits and safety for you, Hyosung.]
Indeed, according to the prophecy, the base camp wasn't far from here.
First, I'd drive him to the camp, seek help from the people there to capture and crush that bastard, then afterwards persuade my party members with their backing. That would make the situation easier for everyone to swallow.
Yes, if things went as planned, everything would be resolved neatly.
"Hey, base camp!! Over here!!!"
But although Airi could see fixed futures in detail, she had said she could only roughly prophesize futures that were in the process of changing.
As such, she couldn't detect all the variables that arose in an unfolding situation.
"There's a Hero Killer running wild over there! That bastard tried to murder our entire party!!"
"Th-that crazy son of a bitch...!!"
No sooner had I arrived at the place being used as a base camp as scheduled than the Murderer bastard was boldly shouting lies at the shadows gathered there.
Just because I'd been a little late in stopping him, I realized the situation was twisting into a complete mess.
I was in a position of social distrust, but unless his identity as a Murderer was revealed, he was indistinguishable from any ordinary adventurer.
There were also a few Murderers hiding in the base camp already, albeit a small number for now. If they deliberately incited the crowd, people who didn't know the situation would inevitably be swept along.
"Everyone, look this way! Here, right here!"
Damn it. What do I do?
First, I should put my mask on and try to persuade them too... Wait. Something's off with the atmosphere here.
If this is a base camp, you'd think they'd at least have a few lamps or campfire kits lit. Why is no one lighting a fire in an enclosed space like this?
"Hey, can't you hear me!? Oi!"
But maybe because he was being chased, he hadn't noticed that anomaly?
The Murderer bastard approached the darkness-shrouded crowd without hesitation, and only after closing the distance did he seem to register something and freeze in his tracks.
"Uh, wait. What the hell is this?"
-Uwaaaahhh...
A groan.
But it was far from anything an ordinary human would let out.
Low, eerie, and without the slightest trace of life...
It sounded exactly like a noise a Dead person—not a living human—would make.
-Uwaaahhh, aaaahhh!
"Kyaaaaaaaaahk!!"
But by the time he noticed, he was already caught.
Dragged straight into the shadows, his flesh began to burst with blood as gaunt hands and rusted weapons tore into him mercilessly.
"Ah, Aak! H-help... Khuk!!"
Crunch, crack!
An unending cascade of horrifying noises that made his previous bright, noisy self unimaginable.
I realized it was the sound of a human body being butchered in real-time, but even that wasn't being done cleanly with a single blow to the neck.
Starting with the skin, then the hide, then the organs—indiscriminately digging through, tearing off pieces bit by bit and stuffing them into their mouths...
"S-save... me..."
The Murderer bastard, being nibbled away piece by piece, barely managed to break free from the crowd—but by then, the skin of his face had been completely peeled off, leaving a hideous sight.
-Uwaaahh.
As if even that resistance would not be permitted, the Dead seized his body again, dragged him back, and resumed tearing him apart with their hands, devouring him greedily.
Some of them turned away from the living corpse, now little more than a rag, and fixed their madness-drenched eyes on me, mouths gaping wet with gluttonous hunger.
-Krrraaaaa...
-Uwaa, kyaaaa...!!
Yes, they were Undead.
The people who had been stationed at this base camp had, for some reason, transformed into something zombie-like and now occupied this place.
"What the hell..."
This is insane. Why did the adventurers in this dungeon turn into Undead?
No matter how much a dungeon is a place where space and time are twisted and you never know what might appear, there's generally still a consistent theme based on the environment.
Why was a situation that wasn't even in the prophecy suddenly unfolding in a place where only statue-type monsters like Gargoyles should have appeared?
[Before you read the note containing the prophecy, please make sure you read this part first.]
At that moment, the words written at the very beginning of Airi's note surfaced in my mind.
The warning placed before the main point was more than enough to make me understand this incomprehensible situation.
[Hyosung. In most situations, my prophecies will hold true, but I cannot claim they are absolutely perfect.]
A prophecy about the future is not perfect.
That confession would be fatal to anyone relying on a Prophet's words, but Airi had also written the reason such a thing could happen in her note.
[The reason is that beings called 'Transcendents,' who can interfere with the future I read, exist in this world in small numbers.]
Transcendents.
Beings whose actions even she, a Prophet, could not dare to predict. In a sense, existences that had reached a level beyond cognition—beyond even that of a hero.
The reason I understood immediately when she mentioned such beings was that I'd already encountered several who fit that description after coming to this world.
The vampire I met not long ago was one. Vivian can blow away an entire building with a single finger. And I suspect Tachia, who handles an Ego Weapon so casually, is also such a being—though I still don't know her exact identity.
[So, if you feel the situation is unfolding differently from the prophecy, immediately destroy all the notes I gave you and get away from that place. Once a Transcendent has twisted the future even once, all previously prophesized futures that follow will be twisted in a chain reaction.]
Yes. At some point, a Transcendent capable of twisting the future Airi had prophesized appeared in this dungeon, reached the base camp before me, slaughtered all the adventurers, and resurrected them as Undead.
And if it's a faction that includes transcendent beings associated with Undead, there's only one in this world.
"Fucking... why the hell are boss-level monsters like the Four Horsemen popping up in a dungeon meant for small fries."
Corpse Lord.
One of the calamities threatening humanity, having created an army of the dead under an ideology of turning all living things into walking corpses.
One of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse who follows him, for some unknown reason, had begun extending their reach into this dungeon at this very moment.