Chapter 56. The Forest Clan's Necklace.
Chapter 56. The Forest Clan's Necklace.
ㅡ Grrrrooooong...!
The moment I saw the necklace, a colossal surge of Mana came crashing down over the whole Bukhansan area.
The instant that necklace registered in my vision, time shattered—seconds broke into fractions of a second—slowing until I could track the individual wingbeats of the flies buzzing nearby. My heart began to pound.
When I'd left "them" behind to return to Earth, I'd felt nothing. I was leaving anyway, and "they" had congratulated me on going home. I'd been fooling myself, thinking I just saw them as comrades. Seeing this necklace now, I finally realized I'd come to think of "them" as family. Even someone who had reached my level of mastery felt his emotions surge and his breathing quicken in that instant.
"Hah, haaah... Sihu...!"
I looked forward and to the side. Everyone was struggling, fighting desperately just to keep themselves from collapsing. I quickly pulled myself together.
'Hah... I'm not usually the type to get this emotional...'
"Commander, radio Terion and have him come here right now."
Caught off guard by the sudden command, the Special Forces Commander looked at me before pulling out his walkie-talkie and requesting Terion be brought to our location. Terion was already bound to me by a Contract. Upon receiving the call, he didn't ask for our exact position, simply said he was departing immediately, and hung up.
"【Haaah... What was that aura just now... Is that really a human?】"
"【Lord! We will join you.】"
"【How dare you interfere in a sacred warrior's duel!】"
I sheathed my sword for a moment, clenching and unclenching my fist, cycling my energy, and waited for Terion. At the same time, I stared at the bastards, wondering why the hell that necklace was in their hands.
Had the Forest Clan gifted it to the Orcs? Or had the Orcs invaded and looted it from them? If they'd looted it, where were the rest of the clan? I mulled it over while I waited. About ten minutes later, Terion arrived, having returned to his main body.
"【A Lich...!】"
"Hm? Not just an Orc Lord, but his subordinate generals too. What's all this?"
"Terion... sorry, but can you protect the group? I think I might have trouble controlling my strength."
At the mention of losing control, Terion's jawbone creaked with tension. He quickly moved the group slightly back and deployed a defensive spell art. Chaeyeon explained the situation to Terion and asked,
"Terion, do you happen to know why Sihu is so angry? Also, we can't hear what they're saying..."
Terion immediately finished deploying the defensive spell art and cast Translation Magic. Then, having grasped the situation, he gave them his assessment.
"I suspect... he reacted to that ornament on the Orc's forearm. Since I wasn't at the 'Calamity's' side back then, I don't know the exact story, but it seems there's a history there..."
'Right now, the 'Calamity's' heart is filled with rage...'
"I'll only ask you once, so answer properly. Where did you get that trinket on your forearm?"
"What are you suddenly blathering about?"
I rushed straight into the bastard's guard. Unable to react to the blinding speed, he had one ear seized by my bare hand and ripped clean off.
"Kyaaaagh!!!"
"This time, I'll gouge out your eye. Answer properly."
"Kh-heuk... I-It was claimed as spoils of war...!"
"Spoils of war? Then where is the owner of that necklace? What did you do to the clan?"
"..."
When he refused to answer, I drove my index and middle fingers into his right eye socket, hooked them, and ripped the eyeball out. Again, howls of agony filled the air. Judging their Lord to be in danger, the generals split up, moving to attack both me and my group.
"Don't move a single step. Unless you want to be buried nice and cozy right beside your Lord."
I stared them down as a wave of Mana, far denser than before, descended upon them. But of course, there's always one with an excess of misguided loyalty.
"W-We must protect the Lord...!"
I extended a hand, palm open, toward the one thrashing and trying to move. Then my open hand simply clenched the empty air.
ㅡ Bwoom!
The bastard was instantly compressed into a sphere the size of a fist, dropping pathetically to the ground. Witnessing that, the other Orcs began trembling so hard they started dropping their axes one by one.
"G-Great being... I-I deserve death for my sins..."
"Don't mistake me for those arrogant, insolent lizards."
Then, for the ones who still kept their heads stubbornly raised, I poured Mana into my fist and slammed it into the ground. The earth cracked, and the ground began to shudder as if an earthquake had struck. The impact wave rippled out and shattered every last one of their legs.
"Gaaah...!"
On their knees, the Lord and the generals all stared at me, one hand clamped over eyes gushing blood. Only then did they seem to realize something. Their heads slammed into the dirt, and their trembling grew far worse.
"'Th-The Calamity...'"
"You know me? I've never seen a piece of trash like you before."
"Th-The oral traditions of the Orcs speak of a great being who treats the mighty as mere insects, known by his black hair, blue eyes, and pitch-black sword..."
"Then this conversation just got a lot easier. Your answer to what I asked earlier?"
"Th-This is an object we found while passing through the territory of the Forest Clan... W-We absolutely did not attack them or kill them to take it...!"
"Can you swear that on your lives?"
"「W-We swear it...!」"
"Then explain in detail why you passed through the Forest Clan's territory and what happened to them."
What I heard from them was quite interesting. Their homeland had gradually become uninhabitable, so they'd been wandering aimlessly to survive. They stumbled upon the Forest Clan's home territory, but there was no one there; the necklace had been lying on the ground by chance. Because of the Mana they felt emanating from it, they'd claimed it as personal loot.
"The environment changed, you say?"
"Yes... Suddenly, Dimensional Rifts opened in the void, and Mana began slowly being sucked into them, devastating our homeland and making it impossible to live there... That is why we were wandering in search of a new home."
'Is the high-concentration Mana of Titan being drained into the low-concentration Earth...?'
"Right. I fully understand that there's no lie in your words."
"Th-Then..."
"But you've already attacked my people. And more importantly, you've displeased me."
With that, my expression utterly blank, I sliced their heads off. Then I called Terion over and asked him to turn them into Undead.
"Give me some warning before you unleash your power like that... When you slammed your Mana into the ground, for a split second my barrier nearly shattered..."
"Khm... Fine. Anyway, since they're decently strong, at least hauling cargo around will be easy."
I carefully untied the necklace from the Lord's wrist, wiped off the dust, and tucked it inside my coat. My group and I then secured the bastards' supplies, boarded the helicopter, and returned to Gimpo.
* * * * * * * *
People gathered immediately in the Assembly Hall to learn what had happened. But I'd gotten blood splattered on me during the fight, so I took a shower first and entered the Hall last. My companions had apparently already explained everything; they were chattering amongst themselves, but the moment I walked in, all eyes were fixed on me.
"Mr. Sihu, you've worked hard."
"It was nothing. By the way, how are the survivors we rescued a little while ago, and the ones we just brought back?"
"According to the report, they've safely completed their abortion surgeries and haven't woken up yet. However, they're not in a coma; they're simply sleeping due to accumulated fatigue. We plan to proceed with the same treatment for the survivors rescued this time."
"Good. Ah, right. Do you plan to inform the United States about our work here?"
"Yes. They're a fairly friendly nation, so we should keep them informed. We also owe them for what they've given us."
The President mentioned the weapons and whiskey we'd received, chuckling to himself. Then his face turned serious as he asked me,
"This is a personal question... If it's too sensitive, you don't have to answer. I heard you became enraged the moment you saw the necklace. May I ask what it was?"
"Hm... You could have just asked Terion. No need to wait for me."
"I did ask Mr. Terion, but he said he couldn't speak of it before the person involved did."
I glanced pointedly at Terion, thinking to myself. Terion, feeling my gaze, looked back at me.
'He's a surprisingly loyal skeleton with a tight lip...'
"Hm. Isn't it incredibly rude to bring up someone else's story without their permission?"
"Mr. Sihu, is the necklace perhaps some kind of treasure imbued with an incredible magic...?"
"No, it's not... It's just an object with memories attached to it. Maybe that's why I reacted so strongly."
"Memories... you say..."
"Yes. It's a necklace I gave to one of the Forest Clan members back when I lived among them."
"By Forest Clan, do you perhaps mean Elves?"
"Yes, that's right."
I was just about to casually recount the old days when a frosty voice came from beside me.
"Oppa, was the owner a woman?"
"Sihu. Was the owner a woman?"
Terion, in the tone of someone watching a house burn down across the river, looked at me with pity in his eyes as he spoke.
"A true king must possess the virtue of being able to mediate so that his women do not engage in needless squabbles."
"Oh my~ Our son-in-law wouldn't have given a necklace like this to a man, now would he~?"
"Kh-khm...!!!"
"I had no idea Mr. Sihu had this side to him."
Finding the subject fascinating, my entire group was now staring at me with sparkling eyes. Even the President was watching with a face full of curiosity. And for some reason, my father-in-law and mother-in-law were looking at me too—though my father-in-law's expression was pretty uncomfortable. And really, isn't gossiping about someone else's love life the most entertaining thing in the world?
'Hmm... I'm pretty sure I'm fucked.'