Darkness Keeper (5)
“Hyung! Noona! That’s…!”
“Shh. Wait. Just because it’s a treasure vault doesn’t mean there’s only treasure inside.”
The moment Lee Gilyoung spotted the treasure chest glowing beyond the blue light and opened his mouth, Kim Dokja clapped her palm over it.
“Exactly. A treasure vault always has a guardian watching over it.”
“…That’s right. There’s always a keeper in a place like this. Let’s wait here a moment.”
Kim Dokja looked at me in surprise at my words, then nodded in agreement and suggested we stay put. Gilyoung and I both nodded back and held our positions.
Before long, green eyes began to gleam from beyond the treasure vault.
Grrr… chik!
The green eyes belonged to mole crickets. Their mouths stuffed full of something, the creatures scurried forward and began depositing whatever they carried right in front of the treasure chest.
We held our breath and watched carefully. Then a voice drifted over to us.
“This is all because of you, Sangah!”
Someone blaming Yoo Sangah. The owner of that voice was Han Myungoh.
“Because of me? What on earth are you talking about?”
Through the faint light we could make out the two people who had been dragged off by the mole crickets. Thankfully neither looked seriously hurt, but both were tightly bound by root-like vines that had sprouted from the floor.
“I-If you hadn’t taken the subway that day, none of this would have happened!”
“What does me taking the subway have to do with any of this?”
Yoo Sangah’s brow furrowed slightly in irritation at Han Myungoh’s endless accusations. Anyone else would have already been cursing him out by now, yet she stopped at a mere frown. Her patience was impressive.
“Th-That’s… because you always ride your bicycle….”
“Wait a second. Did you steal my bicycle, Manager?!”
Yoo Sangah stared at the babbling Han Myungoh in pure shock.
“P-People, you know! I clearly offered to drive you! When someone shows you kindness, you should know how to accept it!”
“Answer me. Did you steal my bicycle or not?”
Yoo Sangah’s voice turned ice-cold as she pressed him.
Constellation, ‘Demon-like Judge of Fire’, dislikes the Incarnation, ‘Han Myungoh’.
“I don’t like him either.”
“Same here.”
“I understand how you both feel, but please be quiet for now….”
After reading the message from the Constellation Demon-like Judge of Fire, Gilyoung and I both chimed in that we disliked Han Myungoh too. Kim Dokja told us to keep quiet, yet the look of pure disgust on her own face as she stared at him made it clear she felt the same way.
“Fine! I did it! So what?!”
“Why are you raising your voice, Manager? Touching someone else’s property is theft!”
“Theft? You should’ve just gotten in the car quietly from the start!”
Constellation, ‘Prisoner of the Golden Headband’, dislikes this pointless argument.
Had they completely forgotten they were trapped in a den of monsters? Han Myungoh and Yoo Sangah just kept shouting at each other, faces flushed red.
“Are you finished talking?!”
“No! I’m not done yet!”
Tsk.
I stopped Kim Dokja as she prepared to step out and put an end to the thorn in our side. Instead, I drew the Glock 19 from my pocket and aimed it just past Han Myungoh’s head.
“Hey, Sangah. When did I ever hit on you? I never even asked you out! I just offered to take you home out of pure goodwill…! But you kept refusing, so I…!”
Bang!
The gunshot echoed through the treasure vault. The bullet grazed past Han Myungoh’s head, slammed into the wall, and clattered to the floor with a metallic ring.
“Waaaaaah!”
Constellation, ‘Prisoner of the Golden Headband’, is delighted.
You have received 100 Coins.
Something whistled past his head at high speed, and Han Myungoh screamed in terror.
“Wh-What was that?! What just flew by?!”
“Ah! Jinwoo! Dokja!”
Yoo Sangah beamed and called our names.
But Kim Dokja, Lee Gilyoung, and I weren’t looking at the two of them.
Crack! Crrrack!
Beyond the mole crickets, near where the bullet had struck, the darkness itself began to split open.
As the darkness before us fractured further, every mole cricket trembled in fear. At Gilyoung’s feet, the cockroaches burst one after another and died.
Sub Scenario ‘Eliminate the Keeper’ has begun!
A pitch-black form emerged through the dim light.
Every mole cricket pressed itself flat against the floor, trembling like slaves before their king.
I tore my gaze from the terrified creatures and studied the black silhouette carefully. It looked like a reaper, tentacles writhing along its back, standing at least ten meters tall—maybe taller.
When I glanced sideways, Gilyoung’s face had gone deathly pale.
“Ugh… Noona, I….”
“It’s okay. Go ahead.”
The instant Kim Dokja finished speaking, Gilyoung dropped to the floor and started dry-heaving.
“…Blaaargh!”
I patted his back while he retched and looked at him with pity. Every cockroach linked to him through Multispecies Empathy had burst and died. The mental backlash must have hit him hard.
“Gilyoung, how many more times can you use Multispecies Empathy?”
“…I think I can still manage one or two more.”
“Got it. Rest here for a bit.”
“Yeah, Gilyoung. Drink this and take it easy.”
Kim Dokja propped him against a pillar while I pressed a 500 ml bottle of water from the general store into his hand. Then the two of us headed toward Yoo Sangah and Han Myungoh.
“S-Save me! Hurry, hurry…!”
“Dokja! Jinwoo!”
As we drew closer, Han Myungoh thrashed in panic from the Darkness Keeper and screamed for us to free him. Yoo Sangah simply called our names with a bright, happy expression, as if she were glad to see us again.
What kind of person is she? How strong is her mental fortitude?
I stared at Yoo Sangah in mild disbelief. Any normal person would be panicking, yet she stayed perfectly calm.
Kim Dokja pulled out a multi-tool knife and sliced through the vines binding them. The moment the blade finished cutting, the part that had touched the vines simply dissolved away.
“Stay back.”
She picked up the spear made from a mole cricket’s spine that Han Myungoh had dropped.
‘Darkness Keeper’ receives the blessing of the Demon King it serves.
“Kamun. Der. Itur.”
“What’s that thing babbling about, Dokja?”
“I’m not entirely sure either….”
‘Darkness Keeper’ emits ‘Fear’.
The Darkness Keeper muttered something. Black haze began to shimmer around its body, then shot toward Kim Dokja and me at high speed.
Clang!
“Graaaah… Itur…!”
The black haze slammed into Kim Dokja, who stood in front of me. The instant it touched her, a sharp cracking sound rang out and the haze vanished completely.
With its attack nullified, the Darkness Keeper roared at her.
“M-Mom?”
“Sangah, are you saying you miss your mom right now? Regression to childhood is a bit inconvenient in this situation….”
“Th-That’s not what I meant! And I’m perfectly sane, Jinwoo!!”
While Kim Dokja and I tensed up watching the Darkness Keeper, Yoo Sangah’s voice came from behind us. When I asked if she was missing her mother after hearing her say “mom,” she flushed bright red and denied it vehemently.
“Sangah, I told you to stay back! You’re still there?”
“No, it’s just… that monster just said ‘mom.’ So… Ka, Kard, Emiren?”
The Darkness Keeper flinched at her words and turned its head toward her.
“Ah, is that not the right pronunciation? Akedu?”
“Kalidu!”
The Darkness Keeper nodded, then pointed a finger at Yoo Sangah.
“Wait, you can understand that monster? That’s amazing, Sangah!”
“Ehehe… Thanks for the compliment, Jinwoo.”
“…So what is it saying?”
“Ah, ahem! Well… it’s been saying ‘Become my mother’ this whole time….”
“Kalidu!”
When Yoo Sangah repeated “Become my mother,” the Darkness Keeper nodded again and pointed at her while shouting “Kalidu!” Yoo Sangah’s face crumpled into a miserable expression.
“M-Mother?! I’m not even married yet!”
Hearing her answer, the Darkness Keeper pointed at Kim Dokja next.
“Kalidu!”
“I’m not married either, so I’m not a mother.”
Kim Dokja firmly shook her head with a stony face, rejecting the monster that pointed at her and demanded she become its mother.
“Kalidu…!”
“You wanna die? Put that finger away.”
This time it pointed at me and told me to become its mother. When I refused hard, it looked dejected and turned its finger toward Han Myungoh.
“Kalidu…?”
“W-Why am I the mother?! I’m the father!”
The moment Han Myungoh finished speaking, the Darkness Keeper’s eyes flared. One of the tentacles on its back shot straight at him.
Pshuuush!
“Mmmph!!”
The tentacle plunged precisely into Han Myungoh’s mouth. His face turned black the instant it entered.
A wet gulping sound followed as something slid down his throat.
Kim Dokja, Yoo Sangah, and I stared back and forth between the Darkness Keeper and Han Myungoh in absolute horror after witnessing the scene of them creating a child right in front of us.
“Sangah, you’re not planning on having kids anytime soon, right?”
“Of course not!”
“Whoa, this is not a scene we can show Gilyoung. Way too steamy!”
“Instead of spouting nonsense, either back off like Sangah or help me out here!”
“You got this, Dokja!”
“You…!!”
At Kim Dokja’s words, Yoo Sangah quickly retreated while Kim Dokja glared at me and sprinted toward Han Myungoh.
Reaching his side, she swung the mole-cricket spine spear and severed the tentacle connected to his mouth.
“Graaaaaah…!! Kaliduuu!!”
The Darkness Keeper let out a scream mixed with pain and rage as its tentacle was torn.
“Hey, Dokja.”
“What.”
I spoke to her, and she answered curtly. She was probably sulking over what just happened. But that wasn’t important right now.
“You just tore that monster’s tentacle, right?”
“Yeah?”
“That tentacle… if I had to compare it, it was basically the guy’s… you know. And you just ripped it off.”
“Huh…?”
Even Kim Dokja hadn’t realized it until now. She stared blankly at the screaming Darkness Keeper. Behind us, Yoo Sangah covered her mouth with both hands and looked at the monster with pure pity.
“…Amen.”
I quietly offered a prayer toward the Darkness Keeper, which stood there clutching its torn tentacle with a sorrowful expression while wailing.