Chapter 443: Hatred, and Conflict.
Chapter 443: Hatred, and Conflict.
The sheer scale of the Sleeping Dragon Mountains can be summed up in a single phrase:
Vast and boundless.
It was so wide and immense that its end was never in sight; even in the first playthrough, we were never able to clear the entire region.
However, if our destination was the ruin, not the end of the mountain range, we could at least gauge how much distance we had left. After all, the ruin was the key to this whole expedition.
With that in mind, now, nearly three days after rescuing Hangyul, we had covered about a third of the distance. This meant we had safely passed the first gate at the entrance and the second gate, the ‘Land of Wandering.’
When we reached the fork in the road, which we expected to arrive at by tomorrow, we would finally enter the third gate.
The third gate of the Sleeping Dragon Mountains was unique in that it was split into two separate regions. In other words, the fork in the road served as a kind of branching point.
To the right lay a region called the ‘Land of Hatred,’ and to the left…
“I think I finally get it now.”
Just as I was lost in thought, Vivian’s characteristically clear and bright voice pulled me back. I lifted my gaze slightly to see three women gathered around the small, crackling campfire.
Kim Hanbyul, Cha Sorim, and Vivian. The three of them were on watch duty with me, which meant the other nine clan members were tucked away in their sleeping bags.
There was a good reason for us to be resting now. While we had succeeded in rescuing Hangyul, Ahn Hyun’s rescue was far from guaranteed.
Furthermore, the clan members were, knowingly or not, exhausted from the forced march and constant battles. Considering the journey still ahead, we needed to start recovering our stamina, even if just a little at a time.
“Kim Soohyun. I said I think I finally get it now. Huh?”
Vivian spoke to me again. Her tone held an unspoken plea, begging me to respond or at least look her way.
She must still be bothered by that one wrong guess.
I smiled to myself. With Cha Sorim and Kim Hanbyul being so quiet, the watch duty had been a bit dull. Thankfully, Vivian had broken the silence.
Trying to hide my amusement, I calmly poked at the campfire and spoke.
“Get what?”
“Why Baek Hangyul was wandering around. And by extension, what kind of place this mountain range is.”
Vivian’s voice was so triumphant that for a moment, I was tempted to just say, “Don’t bother.” I felt that if I did, I’d get to see a sight I hadn’t seen in a long time: Vivian on the verge of tears, burying her head between her knees. Besides, there was a high chance I already knew whatever she was about to say.
But then I saw Kim Hanbyul and Cha Sorim, their eyes sparkling with curiosity, and I immediately changed my mind. It wouldn’t hurt to hear her out, and this wasn’t exactly the time for idle pranks.
I stopped poking the fire and looked at Vivian calmly.
“Alright… tell me.”
“What’s with that condescending look? So annoying.”
“What?”
“Ah, no! That’s not it! It’s just… you mentioned something about a ‘Field Effect’ before, right? So I tried thinking about it from that perspective!”
I felt like I’d just heard something incredibly disrespectful, but her earnest effort to quickly change the subject was commendable, so I decided to let it slide.
I nodded for her to continue, and Vivian, looking relieved, went on.
“Ahem. So… the Dead are supposed to be humans whose lives have ended, right?”
“Right.”
“Okay. From that perspective, when a human’s life ends, everything stops. Their heart, their body’s movements, and their thoughts. But since we entered this mountain range, the Dead I’ve seen don’t seem like they’re actually dead. I’ve occasionally heard them speak, chant spells, and their fighting styles are almost identical to living humans. So here’s the question. They’re clearly humans whose lives have ended, so how can the Dead appearing here act so much like living people?”
“Grudgeful spirits, lingering attachments, resentment, curses… I don’t know. Something similar happened in the Frozen Forest, so there must be various factors that make what you’re describing possible.”
I answered quietly, then looked at Vivian. As if to confirm my point, she nodded vigorously and continued excitedly.
“Good, good. Then let’s circle back to the Field Effect. Think about it. Why on earth would this Field Effect even occur?”
“…There are two conditions for it to happen. Either someone created it artificially, or certain conditions aligned for it to occur naturally.”
“Exactly. And I focused on the natural occurrence. Because after putting together all the stories you’ve told us, I came up with a hypothesis.”
“A hypothesis?”
Vivian touched her nose as if to organize her thoughts, then stretched her arms wide, looking a little tired.
“Ugh, yeah. The part at the end of the myth, where the Dragon of the End, Magna Carta, laid a curse upon the humans. And the things you just mentioned—grudgeful spirits, lingering attachments, resentment, and all that?”
“So by ‘all that’… you’re saying it occurred naturally? That Magna Carta’s curse mixed with the humans’ grudgeful spirits, attachments, and resentment to create a single Field Effect?”
“That’s it! But, but… Kim Soohyun. Why on earth would humans harbor such deep resentment in this place? Was it really just because the dragon cursed them?”
“…”
I waited silently for Vivian to continue. By now, Kim Hanbyul and Cha Sorim were also focused intently on her.
Vivian glanced at the three of us, then smiled wryly and said, “No. They fought a war for decades to reclaim their sovereignty. They must have been prepared for the worst when they entered the mountain range, their final battleground. So, when the battle was almost over, they developed a deep-seated grudge just because a dragon threw a curse at them? I think that’s completely wrong. Of course, it’s probably related to some extent… but there must be another, more direct reason for the humans’ resentment. For example, a very important event that happened here, one that was never passed down in history.”
Vivian finally finished her long explanation. She was slightly out of breath, having rushed her words at the end without pausing. I found myself looking at her with a newfound sense of admiration.
“So? What do you think of my theory?”
She’s almost spot on.
In the first playthrough, users had proposed various hypotheses about the Sleeping Dragon Mountains. The one that gained the most support was that ‘some event we don’t know about took place here.’ Vivian’s words aligned almost perfectly with that hypothesis.
Of course, it was just a hypothesis. It could be right, or it could be wrong. The answer lay dormant in the ruin, but since Istantel Low had sealed it, the truth was buried forever.
In any case, I thought her theory was certainly plausible, but for some reason, I didn’t want to admit it so easily. There was no particular reason. I just didn’t want to see Vivian puffing her chest out in pride.
In the end, I just shrugged in response.
Seemingly dissatisfied with my reaction, Vivian smacked her lips for a moment. Then she whipped her head around to look at Kim Hanbyul, who was quietly warming herself by the fire.
“Jewel. What about you?”
“Shu… Be quiet. Why am I Jewel? I told you not to call me that.”
Kim Hanbyul’s eyebrows shot up, but she softened her expression after a glance at me. I had a sneaking suspicion she was about to say, “Shut up.”
“What’s wrong with it? You’re a mage who uses jewels, so you’re Jewel.”
“I said stop. Why do you keep doing it when I said I don’t like it? If you keep it up, I’m going to call you Alche.”
Kim Hanbyul protested fiercely. Vivian pouted and grumbled, then turned her head to the silent Cha Sorim.
“Then what about Speary? Did you hear my story?”
“…Vivian la Classidus. It is not wise to talk so much during watch duty. Please, be careful.”
Speary, huh. Is it because she uses a spear?
Cha Sorim’s voice was calm, but her hand was gently stroking her Arcus Valkyrie spear. I thought it was a rather amusing nickname, but the person being called that didn’t seem to agree. The tone of her final words, “Please, be careful,” was so full of killing intent that even I felt it was genuine.
As I chuckled to myself, I saw Vivian’s shoulders slump. Her face fell, disappointed by the lukewarm reactions to the plausible hypothesis she had worked so hard on. Thinking that this dejected look suited her best, I calmly enjoyed the sight.
It was then that Vivian, after a moment of muttering, suddenly lifted her head. Her face was filled with indignation, as if she was overcome with a sense of injustice.
Seeing her about to open her mouth to speak to me, I beat her to it.
“Shut it.”
“Then Swordy… Hey! What!”
“Don’t call me that.”
“No! It’s my choice! What’s wrong with it?!”
“By the name on our contract, I command you. Please keep that flippant mouth of yours shut forever…”
“I was wrong. I’m so sorry.”
Vivian, who had been defiant despite being in the wrong, immediately prostrated herself. It was a very simple suppression.
And so, the night deepened.
*
The next day.
After resting for two hours each in three shifts of four, I immediately announced our departure to rescue Ahn Hyun.
The clan members didn’t know the full details yet, but as soon as I confirmed Ahn Hyun’s disappearance, I had already concluded that we had to enter the ruin. That was where the missing users were most likely to be.
Of course, this too was merely a hypothesis from the first playthrough. The Sleeping Dragon Mountains remained an unexplored region where nothing was certain.
Although we had set out in the morning, the mountain terrain was so rugged and the trees so dense that it was impossible to tell if it was morning or afternoon.
After three battles, we arrived at the fork in the road Hangyul had mentioned, two hours after we started.
A fork in the road.
Being a mountainous region, there were branching paths everywhere, but this one was special. It was clearly a fork, with the path splitting into two distinct directions around a massive tree.
“This is… the fork?”
Nam Daeun muttered to herself, her voice still breathless from the battle twenty minutes prior. Her gaze was fixed on the enormous, withered tree before us, which looked like it would crumble at the slightest touch.
I glanced once at the left path and once at the right, then looked down at Hangyul, who stood beside me with an anxious expression.
“You’re saying you took the path to the right here?”
“Y-Yes. I’m sure of it.”
“How deep did you go?”
“Not that far. About ten minutes…? And then…”
Hangyul tried to continue but suddenly grimaced and let out a faint groan. He was no longer as uncontrollably anxious as when we first rescued him, but the shock seemed to have left him in a state of confusion.
“Just tell me when you see the last place you remember reaching. We can talk again then.”
“…Yes. I’m sorry.”
Hangyul bowed his head and turned to move to the rear. Watching him walk away listlessly, I immediately called over Shin Jaeryong, who was currently in charge of Hangyul’s care.
I spoke quietly.
“Is Hangyul’s condition very bad right now?”
“It is, if you want to call it bad. What exactly are you asking?”
“…I’m wondering if he could, with a little push, properly participate in the rescue team.”
“Absolutely not.”
Shin Jaeryong shook his head unequivocally. His voice was firm.
“…Is it that bad?”
“Yes. If it were up to me, I’d want to turn back right now and let him rest.”
“…Hah.”
“Of course, I know we’re doing this for Ahn Hyun’s rescue… but we need to manage this properly from the start to minimize any lasting trauma. I don’t know what you have in mind, Clan Lord, but please, reconsider having Hangyul participate. Just being in this place might be a burden for him right now.”
At his repeated, earnest plea, I nodded in understanding. Then, looking at the fork in the road before me, I let out another deep sigh.
Vivian’s words from last night came to mind. It didn’t really matter whether we took the left or right path to get to the ruin. However, the right path, the one Ahn Hyun had taken, was the one with the terrifying Field Effect known as the ‘Land of Hatred.’
To be protected from that Field Effect, we desperately needed Hangyul’s defensive ability, but if I forced him in his current state…
Should I just use the Mind-Calming Pills?
The thought occurred to me because I had brought the pills we had, but I immediately shook my head.
I had swept up the entire stock from the warehouse, but we didn’t have many to begin with—barely enough for one per clan member. Moreover, we had left in such a hurry that there was no time to craft pills with effects potent enough for this mountain range.
Also, considering the Field Effects of the remaining regions, the Mind-Calming Pills would be more effective if used at the fourth gate rather than here at the third, the ‘Land of Hatred.’
For now, we just have to go in.
The only option left was to go to the place Hangyul remembered. Concluding that we had no choice but to face it head-on, I composed myself and started walking.
I took a brief step to the left, then immediately turned toward the right path. I glanced back at the clan members.
“Alright, let’s move out.”