Chapter 57
Chapter 57
Translator: XZY
Chapter 57: The Bloodstained Ball (4)
***
“You could get hurt, so please stay by the bed.”
“W-wait a minute... Derek. You’re suddenly breaking the window? If you damage the property of the Duplein mansion so easily...”
Denise, who had sat up while watching Derek, who was suddenly trying to commit a bizarre act, trembled at her fingertips for a moment after seeing his expression. It was because Derek’s expression was endlessly serious.
Crises often arrived without a prelude. Derek knew that fact better than anyone, so when he wondered if it was okay to do something, he was often the type to act first and see.
Overreacting was far better than reacting late. He had never once regretted adhering to this ironclad rule.
Crash— !
“Kyaak!”
The chair Derek had thrown flew out the window and rolled on the garden floor.
In any case, there was no one near the garden where darkness had settled.
After pushing away the remaining glass shards with his boots, Derek stuck his head out and looked around.
Even after breaking both windows, the space was quite tight for one person to get out. Still, since Denise’s build was on the smaller side, it seemed he could take her out.
“D-Derek. Why are you doing this?”
“Draw out your mana sense and focus on the corridor. The corridor is full of an unfamiliar aura of mana.”
Denise, too, had some knowledge of Detection-type magic.
As soon as she heard Derek’s words, she focused her mind and began to grasp the surroundings through the 1-Star magic ‘Mana Detection.’
It did not take long for Denise’s expression to stiffen.
The mana that had bloomed centered on the corridor was different in its very aura from the bluish mana she usually handled.
That mana, with its dark red, murky energy flowing, had an unusual feel to it from the start.
It was the very first time Denise had encountered this kind of mana, but Derek had seen and heard of it to some extent.
‘It seems to be related to forbidden magic. This is the first time I’ve encountered it since coming to this world.’
Combat, Transmutation, Illusion, Summoning, Detection.
He had heard that besides the five fields that divided magic, there were a few more forbidden magics that were banned on a continental level.
The way of using mana was completely different, and its growth method was also very different from star-rank magic.
There were many cases where methods that were far from the general ethics established by humans were intertwined, such as sucking human blood, absorbing souls, or eating corpses.
There was a reason why a taboo was a taboo.
“Excuse me.”
“Kyaak!”
Derek quickly picked Denise up in his arms.
Denise, who had blushed at the sudden contact, let out a gasp, but Derek, without even a moment to care, stepped on the broken glass shards with his booted feet and threw his body into the dark garden.
Fwoooosh— !
Jumping from a three-story height was an act no different from suicide.
However, as Derek drew out his mana and manifested the 2-Star Transmutation-type magic ‘Earth Wall,’ walls imbued with the aura of mana shot up one after another on the mansion’s outer wall.
Derek, who had thrown his body onto three or four earth walls in succession and jumped down, was able to land in front of the garden without difficulty and put Denise down.
“D-Derek...!”
Denise, who had barely set her feet on the ground, had an expression as if she were dizzy for a moment.
“...Something’s strange about the mansion.”
Derek, who had collected his mana after putting Denise down, looked up at the mansion with her.
It was a situation where Lady Diella had debuted in the social circle, and all sorts of distinguished guests had gathered to congratulate her.
However, the mansion he looked up at was strangely quiet.
And from all the window cracks and between the outer walls, a dark red aura of mana was spewing out like an eerie smoke.
That sight looked as if this huge mansion were bleeding. It was an unusual sight even for someone ignorant of magic to see.
“Wh-what is that... You’re saying no one noticed that?”
“I know there were quite a few 3-Star mages among the distinguished guests, and even two 4-Star mages were mixed in, so it’s strange that so many high-level mages did not notice this anomaly...”
Derek had memorized the list of distinguished guests who had been invited to some extent.
It was impossible to know all of them down to the lower-ranking nobles, but at least for the mages of 3-Star and above, he had tried to remember their names as much as possible.
They should have the skill to notice the fact that such an ominous mana was enveloping the mansion.
However, there was strangely no reaction from inside the mansion.
“I have to check what’s going on inside the mansion. Right now, this Duplein mansion is full of high-ranking officials who are famous throughout the continent. If anything happens... it will be uncontrollable...”
“From what I see, something has already happened.”
“...What?”
“That dark red energy... is either Necromancy-type Corpse Magic or Disease Magic.”
At those words, Denise held her breath.
Necromancy-type magic was the most famous taboo. It was because, in order to raise its rank, there were many cases where one had to eat a corpse or kill a high-level mage and absorb their realm.
That was the reason why the Necromancy-type mages who had left their names in history were all mass murderers.
‘Safety first.’
Derek quickly grasped the situation. There was nothing good about being near this mansion right now.
Securing Denise’s safety was the top priority.
“It is not a very wise choice to try to find out what is happening in this mansion right now. Let’s get out of the mansion’s main gate first. It would be better to observe the situation from there.”
The wisest choice was to cross the central garden and exit through the main gate.
If the main gate was closed, he could just smash it open. It was a foolish thing to be counting the value of property in a situation like this.
“O-okay! Derek! I-I’ll follow you!”
Denise did not say much.
When it came to an urgent situation like this, Derek was the expert. Denise judged that it would be better to follow behind Derek for now rather than expressing a different opinion.
Like that, Derek and Denise crossed the central garden and ran towards the main gate.
Denise held up the hem of her dress tightly, grit her teeth, and followed Derek’s footsteps, and Derek also ran while being as vigilant of the surroundings as possible.
Tadak, tak, tak— !
Only the sound of the two people’s footsteps was echoing in the quiet garden.
As they ran like that for a while, Denise became out of breath, but she was somehow able to endure it because she had been training with Derek.
It was around the time they had crossed the central garden, passed the tea tables set up in the garden for the distinguished guests, and passed the gazebo decorated with pretty rose vines.
A man guarding the path to the main gate came into view, and the two had to stop their footsteps for now. While Derek quickly got into a stance and became wary of the man in the darkness, Denise was barely catching her panting breath.
“Who goes there?”
“Derek, is that you?! It’s me, Delon! Head Butler Delon!”
It was a familiar face.
Among the people he had gotten to know in the Duplein family, that Head Butler Delon was the oldest.
His sharp eyes were still sharp, and the collar of his well-dressed butler uniform was stiffly raised.
However, there was a lot of blood on his butler uniform here and there.
Not only that, but Delon himself was panting and stroking his wound.
“H-Head Butler! It’s the head butler of the Duplein family!”
“L-Lady of the Beltus family, you were also safe. That is a relief. The mansion is in an uproar right now. A-a strange tribe of demonic beasts has pushed up from the basement of the annex... and is killing the servants indiscriminately.”
Blood was gushing out from around the wound Delon was clutching.
“I-I must inform the main building of this fact... Lady Denise, please evacuate outside the mansion for now... I, as the head butler, must head towards the main building and deliver the news...”
“You mean a tribe of demonic beasts appeared from the annex? How... how could such a thing happen in the middle of a mansion where people live?”
“I-I don’t know either. I heard that demonic beasts originally push up from a labyrinth... perhaps a place similar to a labyrinth has manifested in the basement of the annex... we can analyze the cause later, for now, evacuating the distinguished guests staying in the main building is the priority!”
“Y-yes...! The main building is full of representatives from influential noble families. It will be a big problem if even one of them gets hurt!”
Denise looked at Delon’s physical condition and took a deep breath.
One of Delon’s arms was already tattered and not functioning properly.
“H-Head Butler...! First, your own wound...!”
“I’m fine! Time is of the essence! Derek, I beg you. You must inform the main building of the appearance of the demonic beast tribe! Please.. please...”
The staggering Delon said, letting out a panting breath.
“F-first, support him...! The bleeding is too severe! We have to support him, lay him down, and treat the wound...!”
The moment Denise tried to quickly support Delon, Derek grabbed the nape of her neck and threw her backward.
Thud— !
“Kyaak!”
Denise, who had tripped on the hem of her dress and fallen to the floor, let out a scream.
Before she could even figure out what was happening, Delon’s fingernails cut through the empty air where Denise had been just a moment before.
Fwaak— !
Fingernails. She felt a sense of dissonance in that word. Derek swallowed a dry gulp of saliva.
The moment Denise let her guard down and closed the distance, Delon’s hand, which she had thought was tattered, had come flying. To be precise, it was not the same hand.
Budeudeuk, budeuk— !
A new hand was sprouting from Delon’s left shoulder.
It was too grotesque to be called a human hand. It was a form that had rotted away, with only the fingernails growing abnormally large.
At that nauseating scene, Denise’s pupils trembled.
Derek narrowed his brow.
The vitality disappeared from the eyes that had been filled with an intelligent light until just a moment before, and the characteristic stench of a demonic beast began to well up from here and there on Delon’s body.
Ghastly blood vessels shot up on his skin, and his gradually paling skin became as hard as a rock.
Delon, who had vomited a mouthful of blood, let out a rough sound like ‘u-eok’ and rushed at Derek.
Derek, without even a hint of panic, kicked him in the lower abdomen, twisted his rotting hand, and threw the monster onto the garden lawn.
Kwadangtang! Kwang— !
The neck of the thrown Delon was bent at a right angle, but he got up again, using the ground for support, without a care.
Looking at that grotesque appearance, it did not feel like a living creature at all.
“Wh-what... is this...”
“Get up, Lady Denise.”
“What... what is this... what... Kyaahaak!”
Puk, puk—
From the other side of the garden lawn, various shapes of hands were suddenly sticking out.
It was a scene of the buried dead raising their bodies one by one.
The scene, where each and every one of them reeked of a rotten smell, had the power to send a chill down a person’s spine.
Right next to Denise, an arm suddenly shot out and grabbed her wrist.
Denise gasped and tried to shake off the arm, but the grip of that tightly clenched hand had already far surpassed the level of a human.
It felt as if the slender Denise’s forearm bone would be crushed if it was held tightly for just a few more seconds. Just as strength was entering that gaunt wrist.
Seogeok— !
Derek, who had taken out a dagger from his thigh, cut the arm in half with a single stroke. Blood splattered with a ‘pak’.
The rotting flesh was stuck to her, and the sap that fell from between it flowed down Denise’s arm.
At that sight alone, Denise almost fainted.
“Kyaahaak! Heok... heok...”
“Lady Denise. Get up. The situation is urgent.”
“M-my legs... have no strength... Heok... aheuk... aheut...”
Denise’s thighs were trembling.
Denise herself could not believe what had just happened, and she was hyperventilating with dark red blood splattered on her face.
Derek quickly lowered his posture, placed his hands on both of Denise’s shoulders, and looked straight into her eyes.
“Regain your composure, Lady Denise.”
“Derek... De-rek.... Heok.... Heo-eok....”
Derek, who had jumped into countless labyrinths where all sorts of flesh was mangled, was quick to adapt to the situation.
However, for a young lady who had lived her whole life in a noble family’s mansion, to accept and deal with such a gruesome situation at once was too much to ask.
Therefore, Derek first stared into Denise’s eyes and matched her breathing.
Just as fear was easily contagious, composure also had a contagious nature.
In this hellscape where corpses were slowly raising their bodies from all sides, Derek, without even panicking, first calmed Denise’s startled heart.
It was a chillingly calm appearance of Derek. Before long, even Denise’s flown reason slowly began to find its place.
“Heok... Derek... I-I’m sorry... I... this kind of situation... I’m not good...”
“It is a natural thing. Can you get up?”
“Yes... for now... w-we have to escape to the main gate...”
Derek glanced towards the main gate.
The number of corpses raising their bodies one by one was increasing the further they went towards the mansion’s outskirts. It looked as if they were trying to trap all the distinguished guests inside the mansion.
Even if they broke through all of them and got out of the mansion’s main gate, there was only an open field.
If they had to face the legion of those corpses in such a place, their stamina would run out first.
‘It would be nice if we could escape by carriage, but there’s no way the coachman would be in his place.’
Derek quickly grasped the situation and re-established his strategy.
“Let’s return to the mansion for now. The outside is more dangerous. Not only do we not know how many of those corpses there are, but Lady Denise’s stamina will run out before we can properly put some distance between us.”
“R-really?”
“There are distinguished guests inside the mansion. Among them are quite a few 3-Star mages, and I know there are also some 4-Star mages. If possible, it would be better to find those who are safe and join forces.”
Although the fact that the main building was quiet even while such an uproar was happening was a big anxiety factor, it seemed better than recklessly running into an open field without any countermeasures.
Derek quickly supported Denise and started running towards the mansion.
Numerous corpses, led by Head Butler Delon, began to follow, staggering.
“Eoh... heok...”
Denise, who had barely started to hold her breath, seemed to be getting her head back on straight.
Fundamentally, Denise was quick-witted. However, she was still just a girl of her age.
In front of a grotesque scene where human flesh was being torn apart and an arm was sticking out after tearing the skin of the back, her thoughts were bound to stop.
However, as soon as she regained some composure, Denise made the most rational judgment she could; her quick-wittedness was on a great level.
“The west wing of the mansion is a space entirely for the rest of the distinguished guests. When we came out of the west wing, there was no reaction. They’ve either all escaped, or...”
“...Or?”
“There’s a high possibility that they’ve already been subdued in some way. I-I don’t know why this is happening right now, but if I were the one who planned this... I would have tried to subdue the high-level mages among the distinguished guests first.”
It was a valid logic.
Something strange was happening in the Duplein mansion right now. He didn't know what purpose the mastermind of this anomaly had, but if they were going to cause such a public uproar, they would have had to prepare countermeasures against the high-level mages gathered in the mansion.
“You said it was an anomaly that a mage of 3-Star or higher could sufficiently detect, right? In fact, you, Derek, noticed the strange sign and moved first.”
“Yes. Besides me, there were quite a few mages of 3-Star or higher among the distinguished guests.”
“Yes. They must have used some trick to subdue them.”
“But... I am fine.”
“Derek’s realm isn’t well known. It’s not easy to predict that a commoner-born mercenary is a high-level mage of 3-Star or higher.”
Derek’s existence itself was a variable.
Although the world was wide and there were many mages, it would not be easy to guess that there was a person who could use Detection-type magic of this level at this age.
In fact, the number of people who knew Derek’s realm could be counted on one hand.
“In the worst-case scenario, you might be the only one among the mages of 3-Star or higher who can act properly right now, Derek.”
“...”
“Then you have to move and check the condition of the other mages.”
“That won’t be a big problem. In any case, let’s check the well-being of the distinguished guests, gather those who can be of fighting strength, and secure the safety inside the mansion first.”
As Derek calmly summarized the situation and conveyed it, Denise took a deep breath.
Only then did her trembling fingertips calm down. Denise, with her teeth grit, was led by Derek’s hand and headed towards the mansion.
“I showed a disgraceful side of myself.”
“Faced with a situation like this, anyone’s body is bound to tremble. I was just quick to adapt because I’ve seen much more gruesome sights than this while traveling through labyrinths.”
“Yes, you’re reliable. But the other noble young ladies inside the mansion must all be trembling in fear. If things go really wrong, the damage will increase exponentially.”
“...”
Denise’s words were right.
Derek, while running towards the mansion, once again recalled the list of distinguished guests who had attended today.
Except for a few high-level mages, they were all people without practical or battlefield experience.
Especially when it came to the noble young ladies, there was a high possibility that they would be killed without being able to do anything, paralyzed with fear, if a situation like this occurred.
A situation where human flesh was splattering, blood was flying, and a grotesquely shaped demonic beast was roaming the mansion grounds.
It was a situation where it was natural to tremble in fear and be unable to do anything.
<><><>
Pushuk! Puk— !
A corpse in the shape of a servant that had burst into the room was hit by a mana arrow. As its rotting arm was torn off, dark red blood covered the room once.
Chwaak— !
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!”
A tea table was overturned with a ‘kwadangtang’ sound, and a lower-ranking noble young lady who had been sitting there was screaming.
Thud—
The fallen corpse knelt and fell over. Before long, it rolled on the floor, and its severed neck rolled on the floor and met the eyes of the young lady.
“Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikkk!”
That young lady, whose name she didn't even know, had disgracefully wet herself.
Elente decided to pretend she hadn't seen that scene. It was because there were almost no people who could maintain their composure in a situation like this.
It was not long after Derek had run out of the mansion that the corpse had burst into Elente’s room.
Just as she thought an aura of mana was flowing from outside the door, a servant had come in with a tray of tea.
However, the servant dressed in a neat butler uniform had slowly twisted his body grotesquely, and then, just a moment ago, he had vomited blood and rushed at Elente.
She had been in the middle of a conversation in her room with a lower-ranking noble young lady she had become friendly with at the tea party.
Although she was surprised by the sudden attack, Elente calmly drew out a mana arrow and dismembered the rushing corpse.
Elente, whom the lower-ranking noble who was shedding tears was looking up at, was just shaking off the hem of her dress without even batting an eye, even in a state of being covered in dark red blood.
“What... is this...?”
She had heard the rumor that she was the shining star of the Belmeade family, but to be calm even in a situation like this was a strange thing.
However, to Elente herself, it was not such a strange thing.
When she was engrossed in training, a mercenary-born magic teacher had taken her to all sorts of labyrinths that were no different from a hellscape.
There, she was a person who had seen not only the sight of human-shaped demonic beasts’ body parts being severed in all sorts of ways, but also scenes of them being torn apart flesh and all, or a person’s body being cut in half.
The time when she would tremble her body just because a corpse-shaped demonic beast had splattered some blood had already passed.
‘...She’s completely terrified, isn’t she? It doesn't look like she’ll be of any fighting strength...’
Elente let out a sigh while looking at the noble young lady who was trembling like a leaf.
Before long, she stuck her head out into the eerie corridor and looked around. There was only silence.
‘Should I check the condition of the people in the other rooms first...? Is it better to stay still...? I don't know how I should decide on a course of action...’
Watching Elente slowly look around, the young lady who was rolling on the floor was dumbfounded.
Certainly, maintaining composure in a situation like this would not seem normal. However, from Elente’s perspective, it was not such a strange thing.
Elente occasionally closed her eyes and imagined the labyrinths she had traveled with Derek. It was a gruesome sight that would appear in her dreams whenever she was about to forget.
Compared to then, just a few corpse-shaped demonic beasts lying dead was not even child’s play.
In a way, Elente was not normal either.
Sadly, this too was Derek’s influence.
‘In any case, grasping the situation before things get bigger is the priority...’
Elente, who was muttering to herself and looking at the corridor again, her breath stopped.
The west corridor of the Duplein mansion. A space lined with waiting rooms for the rest of the numerous distinguished guests.
There... grotesquely shaped servants who no longer had any reason left were dragging all sorts of distinguished guests out of their rooms.
Most of them looked like limp corpses.
Looking at the faces of those distinguished guests being dragged on the floor, there were not just one or two whose names were known throughout the entire continent.
That sight looked as if they were preparing sacrifices for some ritualistic event.
‘No matter what... this... is too big of an incident...’
Elente, who was holding her breath, had an intuition.
If they were really all corpses, this incident would be recorded as a great disaster that would be talked about for a long time to come throughout the entire continent.
She was now in the middle of that scene.
Elente swallowed a dry gulp of saliva and thought.
‘Derek... where is he...? Derek must be somewhere in the mansion too...’
Who was there to rely on at this point in time?
Strangely, that veteran mercenary was the first one that came to mind.