Chapter 29. Autumn Rain is Blood (2)
Chapter 29. Autumn Rain is Blood (2)
No one opened their mouth.
Amid the silence, only voices that were not ours rang out.
[The Goddess of Protection laments the heroes' foolishness.]
[The Demon King of Fall Rain bursts into merry laughter.]
It wasn't a voice only I could hear. Everyone's faces darkened.
Among them, the Paladin spoke with great, truly great difficulty.
"...Calm down."
Even after telling everyone to calm down, she kept her mouth shut for a while. How should she continue? Her expression showed she was carefully deliberating.
"Don't panic. Yes, perhaps the traitor has a skill for hiding lies. It sounds ridiculous, but there's also the possibility that someone with a split personality is hiding among us. Everyone has a hidden trump card, don't they? It's by no means impossible..."
"Or."
Thud.
The Sword Saint opened his mouth.
He was looking at the Paladin with cold eyes.
"Or, you could simply be a filthy traitor yourself."
"......"
The audience chamber turned icy.
Gazes sharper than blades crossed back and forth. Just moments ago, the Sword Saint and the guild leaders had been exchanging blows. The heat and sweat from that hadn't even cooled, yet they were already starting to clash again.
The Witch frowned.
"Are you suspecting us right now?"
"Indeed I am."
The Sword Saint readily admitted it.
"Even if the Paladin girl is not the traitor, the possibility that she lied to us is more than sufficient. You people. The leaders of the so-called Five Great Guilds have been close since long ago. A crow hides among crows. Aren't you all covering for each other?"
"Ha, you really are..."
"Of course!"
The Paladin shouted. Her voice was urgent. The Sword Saint and the Witch stopped their argument and looked at the Paladin. The Paladin struggled to compose herself and continued speaking.
"Of course, logically speaking, that could be the case. Yes. I could be the traitor."
"......"
"But what matters is that none of us lose our cool and composure. It's fine. We've broken through countless crises and obstacles so far. Haven't we! If we trust each other this time as well, we can get through this..."
"Ahahaha."
Laughter flowed out.
"The Vice Guild Master is naive. No, pure."
It was the Heretic Questioner.
"Trust. Hmm, trust. A beautiful word! But building mutual trust requires a great deal of time. It took us well over ten years to cooperate under the name of the Five Great Guilds. To put it the other way..."
The Heretic Questioner straightened his priest's hat.
Then he dusted off his attire with a pat, pat.
"I find it difficult to trust anyone outside the Five Great Guilds."
"......"
"And at this point, spending another ten years building trust with other hunters would be far too inefficient. Yes, what a waste of time!"
"...Wait."
Now not only the Paladin's voice but even her expression had grown desperate. The composure she'd had back on the 1st floor during the festival, when she'd asked me whether a woman who'd studied music had no charm—none of that could be felt now.
"Now is not the time to pursue efficiency. Heretic Questioner. Please..."
"Divine Art."
The Heretic Questioner quietly brought his palms together.
"Flesh God (肉神)."
White light enveloped his hands.
"Viper, you handle the 10th place."
The light spread.
"I will kill the 8th and 9th places."
"Heretic Questioner! Stop!"
"Divine Art, Sending the God (送神)."
The Heretic Questioner and Viper vanished. In the time it took to blink once, the Heretic Questioner was already behind one of the hunters. The hunter who had cleared the last stage in 8th place. That hunter instinctively turned to look behind him.
"...Huh?"
An extra who had stayed quiet all this while, hidden by the presence of the massive guild leaders. No, it felt wrong to dismiss him as an extra. After all, he had performed well in the last stage and earned his place here. Compared to the old me, he was a hunter with a far more promising future.
But that future never came.
"I'm sorry!"
The Heretic Questioner smiled cheerfully. Bare hands holding no weapon. But his long fingers were laced with pure white aura.
Shwaaak!
"Uh, ah...?"
A spray of blood shot up.
The hunter's body staggered.
Not affiliated with a massive guild and holding power, not solitary and lofty with martial strength like the Sword Saint, not allied and cooperating with other guild leaders like me—a hunter who had merely graduated from the 11th-floor stage with a slightly high score died just like that.
He died simply.
[One hero has died.]
[He was not a servant of the Demon King.]
A voice rang in my head.
[The Goddess of Protection is saddened.]
[The Demon King of Fall Rain lets out a low sneer.]
It was a murder carried out in the blink of an eye.
"H-hiik!"
A hunter who had cleared the last stage in 10th place screamed. Fortunately or unfortunately, he didn't need to scream for long.
Seogeok!
Viper, teleported by the Heretic Questioner, swung his sword. One strike. The hunter's neck split in a single blow, and his head fell to the floor with a heavy thud.
[One hero has died.]
[He was not a servant of the Demon King.]
Blood flowed across the marble.
[The Goddess of Protection closes her mouth.]
[The Demon King of Fall Rain roars with laughter.]
Seureureung!
The sound of a sword being drawn rang out from somewhere. It was the Sword Saint.
"You bastards, you're finally showing your true colors!"
The old man's face was twisted with fury.
"You vile wretches! You haven't changed one bit from the old days! Stop this at once. If you do not stop, I will personally..."
"Divine Art, Sending the God (送神)."
With a flash of light, the Heretic Questioner vanished.
The hunter who had cleared the last stage in 9th place. That hunter had fled the moment he witnessed the deaths of the 8th and 10th places. The fact that he fled without screaming showed the hunter's prudence. But the moment he tried to slip through the main gate, the Heretic Questioner teleported right in front of his nose.
"Ah,"
The hunter reached out his hand.
"W-wait just..."
"Yes!"
The Heretic Questioner beamed.
"I'm sorry!"
The hunter's head burst.
He collapsed in the exact same posture—hand outstretched, saying "wait just." Thud. The headless body fell lightly. The blood and chunks of flesh that burst from his head scattered in every direction.
[One hero has died.]
[He was not a servant of the Demon King.]
The voice flowed quietly.
[The Goddess of Protection falls silent.]
[The Demon King of Fall Rain is clapping.]
"Hmm."
The Heretic Questioner pulled a handkerchief from his breast pocket.
His face was stained bright red with the dead man's blood. The Heretic Questioner wiped that face with a gentle touch. After two or three swipes across his face, the handkerchief was quickly soaked in blood.
"All three were innocent!"
Silence reigned in every direction.
"This situation has become troublesome. I was certain that one of the three was the traitor! Ahahaha. If it's not one of the three, then it truly means the culprit is among us. The trust the Five Great Guilds built over nearly ten years is about to collapse in an instant!"
The Heretic Questioner tossed the red handkerchief to the floor.
The handkerchief landed in a pool of blood and drifted like a paper boat.
"I said wait..."
The Paladin's shoulders were trembling.
"I told you to wait. I clearly said it... Did I not ask you! I begged you to stay calm, Heretic Questioner, and you went and did it again, just like before...!"
"What a strange thing to say. Vice Guild Master! I am calm right now."
The Heretic Questioner smiled brightly.
As if that weren't enough, he pulled out another handkerchief with his right hand.
"I thought calmly and determined that the probability of those three being the culprits was the highest. The result turned out to be a wrong judgment, but! There is meaning in having eliminated the most suspicious individuals first. Ah, it would have been a disaster if the media had been watching, but fortunately no one was filming, so..."
That was the moment.
The handkerchief flew into the air.
The still-pristine white handkerchief, not yet used to wipe blood, fluttered. Before it could land on the floor, something slightly heavier plummeted down first.
A right arm.
It was the Heretic Questioner's arm.
"Ah."
Perhaps it was fortunate that it ended with just an arm.
If Viper hadn't blocked the strike the Sword Saint had unleashed, what fell to the floor would have been a head, not an arm.
"Fuck...!"
Viper spat curses as he exchanged blows with the Sword Saint.
"Hey, you religious nut! If you're gonna kill someone, give a damn signal first!"
"Ahh."
The Heretic Questioner narrowed his brow and looked down. The handkerchief landed on the severed right arm a moment later. The white handkerchief soaked up the blood and quickly turned red.
"This has gone beyond troublesome and become serious. Ahaha. Without both hands, I cannot form the hand seals for Divine Art. I apologize, everyone! I can no longer serve as combat strength on my own!"
"Is that, really, the problem right now...!"
Viper was struggling even from a distance. The Sword Saint's attacks came not only from his sword but from all directions through aura. Viper was narrowly blocking the attacks that poured down like a rain shower.
"Someone, fucking, help me! I'm dying! I'm seriously gonna die! The Heavenly Martial Sect Master is gonna die today, you bastards!"
"Kim Gong-ja!"
The Paladin shouted.
"I will entrust you with full authority! You may have the power of life and death over me!"
It was a sound close to a scream.
"You are the only one who did not receive a reward! Any one of us could be the culprit with even a 1% chance, but you are the exception! You are 100% not the traitor!"
"......"
"So, please, I beg you! Stop the Sword Saint!"
The clash of swords echoed loudly through the audience chamber. Before I knew it, the Witch and the Count had joined in and were fighting the Sword Saint. Only the Paladin stood helplessly with her shoulders slumped, looking at me.
For a moment, I watched the fight unfolding before my eyes.
'Sword Emperor, sir.'
-Hm? What?
'...Am I fated to be loved by psychopaths or something?'
I had expected chaos to break out.
The hunters had already seemed to be on bad terms. If a traitor appeared here, I'd expected them to raise their swords at each other without hesitation. That was why I'd given up on the reward entirely.
But.
'I didn't expect it to be this much of a shitshow...'
I sighed.
"Ah, that's a good idea. Not a bad idea at all!"
The Heretic Questioner interjected between the Paladin and me. He had taken out a potion by himself and was stopping the bleeding in his arm. Astonishingly, without showing a single expression of pain or agony.
"In a situation like this, majority rule is nothing but a hindrance. Let us abolish the Five Great Guild system for the time being. It's inefficient! It is better to concentrate power in someone who is absolutely not the traitor."
"That means..."
"Yes!"
The Heretic Questioner smiled brightly while holding his severed arm.
"I too will delegate all judgment to Hunter Kim Gong-ja!"
"......"
"Hmm. I was certain one of the three was the culprit, so I have no excuse. But what's done is done! Until we catch the traitor, I will not trust my own judgment. Hunter Kim Gong-ja. I will follow whatever you decide!"
The guardian spirit muttered.
-Yeah. Yep. You do seem fated to be loved by psychopaths. Lunatics like this are rare. Even when I was climbing the Tower, there was only about one of them.
It was a truly unpleasant fate.
'I've suddenly been handed full authority by the Vigilante Corps Vice Guild Master and the Pantheon Guild Master...'
-You've moved up in the world. Congratulations. Didn't you give up the reward knowing it would turn out like this? I was secretly admiring you for that.
'I knew it'd be a mess, but did I know it'd be this much of a mess? What about those three innocent people who died over there? I'll have to regress at least once later anyway...'
I glanced back at the Paladin.
The Paladin stood still with her face in her hands.
"Hey. I have a question."
"...Right."
Did she already know what I was going to ask? The Paladin's sigh leaked out between her fingers.
"He's always been like that."
"Like that" obviously referred to the Heretic Questioner.
"When we first entered the Tower, the chaos was immense. The religious issue was especially severe. People who believed in different religions, no, even people who believed in the same religion but belonged to different denominations, split apart and fought repeatedly. That's when the Heretic Questioner appeared and..."
"And?"
"...Killed them all."
The Paladin sighed again.
"He killed everyone who started fights over religion, regardless of nationality or origin. He assassinated them as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He's a person who's only ever known methods like that..."
"Wow."
I had simply assumed that religious groups that had repeatedly clashed had reluctantly joined hands to found the Pantheon guild. That's what the media had reported. But behind the scenes, a thorough massacre had taken place...
"I'm, seriously! Dying! Here!"
Viper screamed from afar.
It felt like his voice went up an octave with every passing minute.
"I'm dying! You, fucking, bastards! This is really it! The Heavenly Martial Sect Master is gonna die today, you assholes!"
"Ahahaha."
The Heretic Questioner adjusted his hat with his one remaining arm.
"I am aware that I made a wrong judgment and stirred up trouble over nothing. I am ashamed, but Hunter Kim Gong-ja! In exchange for receiving my full authority, could you please stop the Sword Saint!"
"Haah. You... No, never mind."
I shook my head.
"Let's talk about what kind of person you are later. At length. Right now, Viper really looks like he's about to die, so let's deal with this first."
"Yes! Please!"
I left the Paladin and the Heretic Questioner behind and walked forward.
'Well, if I get to control the Vigilante Corps and the Pantheon even for a little while, it's a gain. They're both massive guilds...'
I convinced myself of that as I walked.
A fierce battle was raging on one side of the audience chamber. It was intense and dazzling. Honestly, at my current level, it was hard enough just to follow with my eyes. Jumping into a fight like this would be no different from suicide.
But I knew the magic words that would stop the Sword Saint.
"Sword Saint, sir!"
No response.
"Sword Saint, sir! Didn't you bow your head to me today! Since you've already bowed, please listen to what I have to say! Stop fighting and let's talk things out among ourselves first!"
Still no response.
Ah, I have no choice.
I took a deep breath. I amplified my voice with aura and shouted.
"I will ask your granddaughter out!"
He flinched.
"If your granddaughter enters the Tower, yes. I'll do a meeting, no big deal. I don't know whether we'll end up dating or not, but surely she's charming since she's the Sword Saint's family. So, speaking as someone who might possibly become your son-in-law, please stop fighting!"
The Sword Saint turned to look at me without a word.
A quiet silence flowed for a while.
"...I have not forgiven these bastards."
"Yes."
"I am by no means stopping this fight because I listened to what a young man had to say. However, while crossing swords, a thought occurred to me: these bastards could be killed at any time. If that is so, it would be fine to first find the traitor and then slaughter them all. Is that not right?"
Why are you asking me that?
Instead of asking that in return, I obediently nodded.
"Ah, truly wise words. You can kill them a little later."
"Hmm."
The Sword Saint slowly sheathed his sword.
Across from him, Viper was gasping for breath.
"Huh...? What? I-I'm alive? Is it over...?"
Nothing was over.
Only the immediate fight had been patched up.
"Everyone, please calm down for now."
I spoke while looking at the hunters.
"I don't know who the traitor is here. We might not even be able to find the traitor. But that's a secondary issue. We can get through this crisis even without finding the traitor."
"...How?"
The Paladin spoke.
"The very fact that the traitor chose the Demon King's Reward means they're already after our lives. We don't know when we'll be stabbed in the back."
"Look at this."
I pointed at the marble floor.
Three corpses lay scattered there, blood and chunks of flesh were strewn about, but above all, there were letters the Heretic Questioner had carved.
+
[Goddess of Protection]
Description: The goddess who protects the Aegim Empire has been moved by your devotion! The goddess has decided to entrust you with an important position in the empire.
You may become the empire's chancellor, its grand general, or the commander of its knight order. If you choose a position, the abilities and fame of that position will be inherited as well!
Hero of the goddess! Join forces with your fellow heroes.
And destroy the Demon King's core located on the 20th floor!
+
"It says the Demon King's core is located on the 20th floor."
I looked at each hunter's face, one by one.
"Don't focus on how to find and kill the traitor. It's a trap. Don't fall for it. The traitor might be terrified right now, trembling on the inside. Maybe the system forcibly selected the traitor. Who knows?"
"......"
"Let's all go after the Demon King first."
The room fell quiet.
"If we eliminate the Demon King, the Demon King's Reward disappears too. It's a simple problem. No matter what bullshit trials the Tower throws at us, no matter how much it tries to sow internal strife among us, the solution will always be simple."
A voice came into my head.
[The Goddess of Protection's eyes shine.]
[The Demon King of Fall Rain clicks his tongue.]
I spoke with emphasis.
"Let's climb the Tower."
This was my answer.
"And smash the Demon King's core on the 20th floor."
It was an answer not only for the hunters, but an answer shown toward the Tower itself.
And there was a voice that answered my reply.
[A 12th-floor quest has been issued.]