Cradle of Heroes (14): The Underground Prison
The state of the underground prison couldn't be called good even as a polite lie. With no ventilation, the air hung damp and humid, mold blooming across every surface. The place reeked from the stains of every bodily fluid and blood that had never been properly cleaned. It was no place meant for human beings. Locking women inside and then neglecting them meant their condition was even worse.
The women trapped in the cells barely reacted when we entered. They simply stared up at us with dead eyes, completely motionless. It looked like they'd already abandoned every last scrap of hope.
"You're not as shocked as I expected?" Kim Da-jeong glanced between me and the others, who were visibly shaken and retching, her tone one of genuine curiosity.
"Well, it's that kind of world."
I'd predicted something like this the moment the basement appeared. When those worthless bandit scum went raiding, they only ever took two things: anything worth money and women. Since this mountain stronghold had neither, the only place left was this underground prison.
Still, it was in better shape than I'd imagined. Maybe my strong mentality had helped by unlocking even a low-grade talent related to mental fortitude. The scene didn't hit me as hard as it probably should have.
"I'm jealous~ When I first got here, I'd throw up and cry by myself every time I saw stuff like this."
"So what are you planning to do with the people here?"
"Hmm. If they say they want to live, I'll take them, but..."
Kim Da-jeong trailed off, then crouched in front of the nearest set of iron bars. She spoke to the woman slumped on the floor.
"Hey. What do you want me to do?"
"...Kill... me. Please."
The woman's voice was cracked and broken. Kim Da-jeong stood up quietly, picked up her axe, and swung it hard at the rusted bars.
Clang!
The iron bars shattered in a single blow. Kim Da-jeong stepped inside the cell and raised the axe high over the motionless woman.
"Wait! You're really just going to kill her?"
"Huh? She asked to die. Should I force her to live and drag her along, friend?"
When Park Hyun-jeong jumped in desperately to stop her, Kim Da-jeong rested the axe on her shoulder, frowned like she had a headache, and shot back.
"Still... she might want to die right now, but once she reaches the city she might change her mind..."
"Do you honestly think this woman can make it to the city alive?"
At Kim Da-jeong's words, Park Hyun-jeong's eyes dropped to the collapsed woman. Even she could see the woman's condition was so bad it was doubtful she could even leave the mountain, let alone walk all the way to the city.
"And let's say she does survive and reach the city. Who's paying for her treatment?"
"......"
"Fine, let's pretend the Church covers the medical costs. Then what? A woman with no connections or family—how is she supposed to earn money in the city?"
Kim Da-jeong's calm, logical words left Park Hyun-jeong with her head bowed, unable to respond.
"Anyone else have complaints? No? Then let's begin."
"...What the hell even is a Hero Candidate?"
Park Hyun-jeong kept her mouth shut tight, quietly swallowing her anger. Kim Da-jeong spoke in a low voice.
"If you can't kill the Demon King, none of us here are Heroes. We're just citizen number one, reborn in another world."
Out of all the women locked in the basement, only three asked to be saved. The other seven begged Kim Da-jeong to kill them and gave up on the rest of their lives. The expressions on the dead women's faces held more relief than fear. You could tell exactly how much suffering they'd endured in this place.
Unlike them, Kim Da-jeong's expression was grim. Which made sense. No matter how veteran she was, simply beheading innocent women couldn't have been easy.
After cleaning up the basement, we set off on the return journey immediately. With injured people among us, we left quickly to avoid further delays.
"Sigh... I'll bury them somewhere sunny before we go."
All three women who had found the will to live just yesterday were dead. No matter how slowly we walked, their ruined bodies couldn't handle it. They didn't last.
In the heavy silence, we buried the three in a suitable spot and continued on. Night fell before we knew it, so we prepared to camp. Everyone had grown used to sleeping outdoors by now and handled their tasks efficiently. Preparations were finished quickly. We ate a fast meal, assigned the night watch, and began to rest.
"Senior, when we get back you should have Gillen examine you."
"Why? I'm perfectly fine."
"From what I see, your mind isn't fine at all. After witnessing a scene like that, you still want to do this?"
I kept secretly groping Song Dayeong's ass whenever no one was looking. She stared at me like she couldn't understand. But that was that, and this was this. Sure, it hadn't been a pleasant sight. That didn't mean I was going to stop touching her ass.
"Well, I wasn't planning to go all the way."
"You can't anyway. Not with this many people around."
"So you're provoking me?"
"...It was a joke, right?"
I hadn't actually planned to do anything right then—maybe sneak something during night watch later—but Song Dayeong, scared by my acting, fell for it and pushed her ass out for easier access. After amusing myself by molesting her butt for a while, I fell asleep.
"Senior, you need to wake up."
It didn't feel like I'd slept at all. The junior waking me made curses rise automatically. Fucking night watch. I'd been through the military twice and still ended up pulling guard duty. It felt especially shitty, but I endured it and got up.
"Did you usually stand night watch?"
"No, but I wanted to talk to you."
Kim Da-jeong smiled as she added firewood to the campfire. I dropped down heavily beside her.
"What kind of talk needs you to take my watch shift?"
"Nothing major. Any thoughts about joining our mercenary group?"
"Out of nowhere?"
"These things usually come out of nowhere."
Was this really the same person who'd sliced those bandits in half with that massive axe earlier? Watching her cute face offer a playful, charming smile while recruiting me, I clicked my tongue inwardly.
Still, the Seoul Mercenary Group. I'd looked into them a little. They had a decent reputation. The fact that they recruited veterans from the Cradle was basically a seal of approval. People I'd asked gave them good reviews too. Since they mainly accepted Koreans, it would be convenient. Even among strangers, someone from the same homeland felt more comfortable. That was a huge advantage.
Of course, there were drawbacks. Being mostly Korean meant limited scale. Even if they accepted every Korean they could, the group's size would barely grow. Since they were selective even among Koreans, their scale was inevitably small.
Thinking about it that way, it's actually impressive.
I didn't know how many Koreans had been brought here, but it had to be fewer than the numbers from countries with larger populations. So how had they climbed this high?
"So? Are you in?"
"Do I have to answer right now?"
"If it's not a no, then...?"
"Then I'll say it's on hold. I can't answer yet."
"What kind of speech is that? You say everything you want and then pretend you didn't?"
Kim Da-jeong glared at me in disbelief, but I simply shrugged. There was no way I could make such an important decision while standing night watch. I'd go back, think it over calmly, and decide then.
"Fine, whatever. Then tell me about Earth. What year was it when you came here?"
"2026."
"Wow, I came over in 2018."
"Hold on."
2018? Hadn't she said this was her fifth year here? That would make it 2021... For a second I thought she'd gotten confused after being here so long, but her expression said otherwise.
"Why? I said I'm in my fifth year. Is 2018 that strange?"
She must have read every thought on my face. Kim Da-jeong chuckled and tapped her foot.
"Stop teasing and just explain."
"Ah, I'm really teaching you a lot today. Think about it. How many Hero Candidates do you think there are here?"
"I don't know exactly, but a huge number, right?"
Just from the stories I'd heard, far more Hero Candidates were active in this world than I'd imagined.
"Exactly. And when you factor in all the ones who died, it means an enormous number of people have been brought over. No matter how many accidents happen on Earth, how often do forty or fifty young people die at the same time?"
Was that how it worked? I didn't have a clear sense of how frequently people were summoned or the cycle, so it was hard to grasp.
"That's why it's like parallel worlds. There are countless dimensions, and the goddess picks one and brings people from it."
"So people from the Joseon Dynasty can come too?"
"The time gaps don't get that extreme, but there are people from the Korean Empire era."
I understood the concept clearly now. Among Earth's many parallel worlds, the goddess selected one and pulled people from it. It might be dizzying for someone hearing it for the first time, but after experiencing possession myself, it wasn't that shocking.
"It's not that important. Just something to know. There are occasionally weird ones, but most people who come here share similar histories."
At this point, it really didn't matter. But learning this fact made me wonder about something else.
Could there be someone here from the same dimension as my previous life?
The world I'd possessed into wasn't drastically different from my original one, but there had been subtle discrepancies. I'd simply never paid much attention. There were moments when I'd think, Huh? without realizing why. Now that the existence of multiple dimensions was confirmed, I couldn't help but be curious. I wondered if there really was someone from the exact same world as me.