Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: The Inevitability That Befalls a Mob
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No matter how much you hammer iron, you can't turn it into gold.
『My Uragan』
***
[Impressive. Truly impressive.]
Necromancer Buzum marveled from atop the titan's head.
Beneath his coffin, in the deep dent atop the titan's skull, a battered Iron Dung Beetle glared up at him with murderous eyes, dripping blood and filth.
Buzum, who had walked the path of mana for so long, could tell. The human before him had wrought a miracle. A miracle born of immense will and talent.
[I apologize for treating you as mere vermin. You fought splendidly, and you lost splendidly.]
He extended a hand toward the titan and chanted a spell. The spells embedded within the titan had already been destroyed, but necromancers excelled at recycling.
The remnants of mana still lingered, stirring at his command. Atop the titan's wreckage, chunks of flesh writhed and mashed together.
Soon, something burst forth from the mass of meat like pus from a boil.
A corpse slime, crudely stitched from flesh and bile.
It was a lowly thing, not even resembling a human form, but to the mangled Iron Dung Beetle, even that was a formidable foe.
[Do not be ashamed of your defeat. It was simply that fate had not permitted you to best me.]
"Sh...it..."
He barely managed that one word before vomiting blood. A harbinger of death.
[To obtain a gem like you on the eve of my great undertaking. This, too, is proof that fate sides with me.]
The corpse slimes under Buzum's control slithered around Iron Dung Beetle, slowly closing in.
The foremost one touched his foot. Iron Dung Beetle couldn't resist and yielded one leg to the slime.
That was the beginning. The slimes began to envelop his body.
[Death shall not be your end. I will personally carve your corpse and raise you as a Death Knight.]
Buzum descended slowly, watching as the slimes buried Iron Dung Beetle. He wanted to hear his final breath.
[The newly born you will join me in dyeing the academy red with blood...?]
The moment Buzum descended right before him.
Iron Dung Beetle shoved the slimes aside and thrust out a hand. In it was a shotgun slightly longer than his forearm.
BOOM!!
The shotgun roared. Buzum slammed his coffin lid shut in panic, but the silver buckshot pierced the profane magic shielding the wooden coffin and battered his true form.
[Graaaah!]
Pain he hadn't felt in ages engulfed him, and the bones struck by the silver shot crumbled.
But... it wasn't fatal.
Not a single shotgun pellet had pierced Buzum's skull.
It was a deed beyond luck—a miracle worthy of the name.
[Hahaha! A pity, gem though you are! Fate has ordained another as my nemesis, so you cannot slay me!]
Iron Dung Beetle offered no retort. He squeezed out his remaining strength, waiting for an opening to kill the necromancer.
But the necromancer mocked him by sending his coffin soaring high into the sky.
Once he floated beyond the reach of shotguns or grenades, Buzum declared coldly.
[Now, die.]
The slimes throttled Iron Dung Beetle's neck. Delicately, like a hunter's snare around a tiger's throat to preserve its pelt.
As Iron Dung Beetle's breaths grew shallow and his fierce gaze dimmed.
Far in the distance, a light reflected in his retinas.
Cleaving the sky... lightning?
[What?]
By the time Buzum sensed the turbulent mana and turned, a massive glowing object was already plummeting toward him—not descending, but crashing.
"Dieeeeee!"
Lightning crashed from the heavens.
A warhammer radiating blinding light, wielded by the girl holding it.
Buzum instinctively maneuvered his coffin.
The optimal path to evade the warhammer's straight drop.
In that instant, Iron Dung Beetle mustered his last reserves.
He shook off the slime and kicked off the ground.
His broken legs screamed, his heart felt like it would burst, but he leaped.
Feather Step.
The very footwork that had dodged the titan's fist propelled him up, kicking the coffin.
THUD.
His kick lacked the power to shatter the coffin. But it was enough to shove the fleeing coffin back into position.
[This is my fate...!]
Before Buzum could finish, the warhammer smashed through his coffin and pulverized his skull.
The warhammer didn't stop after obliterating Buzum. The lightning struck the pier's concrete floor.
KABOOOOOM!
The explosion shook the entire area, like a hundred grenades detonating at once.
***
Iron Dung Beetle was swept up in the shockwave and flung away.
He rolled several times across the ground before crashing into a collapsed container and coming to a stop.
"...Tch."
His head throbbed from the impact with the container. A mild concussion came on, but with no part of his body left unscathed, the pain wasn't severe.
He shook his head to clear the daze and turned his gaze toward the source of the blast.
There stood a girl in jeans and a jacket, holding a massive hammer.
As if the divine feat she'd just performed were a lie, her long black hair swayed lightly.
Her eyes shifted as she held the hammer still. They met the golden eyes of Iron Dung Beetle, who had been quietly staring at her, and her blue ones.
"Mr. Iron Dung Beetle. We meet again?"
Park Seti spoke first. She tucked her hair behind her ear and asked.
"How's your body holding up? You okay?"
"...As you can see, I'm fine."
Broken ribs stabbed his chest, and blood surged up from deep in his gut, but somehow, it didn't feel like a mortal wound.
Of course. This was a body that had come back from a severed head. He could feel bones throughout his body clicking back into place even now.
"You look like you have a lot of questions. Want to play a question game? We take turns asking and answering."
"Do I have a choice?"
"Of course. Though the police might not give you one."
A blatant threat. Iron Dung Beetle paused, then nodded.
"...Fine. But I ask first."
"Go ahead. The order doesn't really matter."
Iron Dung Beetle stared straight into Seti's smiling eyes and posed his first question.
"...Who are you?"
"Starting with a philosophical one? Hmm... Should I answer Hegelian-style, or Nietzschean?"
"..."
"Just kidding. Don't make that face."
Park Seti leaned crookedly, using the warhammer's long handle like a cane.
"Name's Seti. Birthday's October 31st, born in Kaesong Research Complex No. 2, clan from Hamhung Hong."
"...Hamhung Hong?"
"Oh, right. My family name's actually Hong, not Park. Seti's my real given name, though. Hong Seti. Heh, sounds like some chemical compound, huh? Weird name."
She shrugged and continued.
"Ahem. Occupation: prospective special admittee to Lord Howe Academy. I hate silver and beans. That's all off the top of my head."
"...Do I look like I was fishing for that kind of answer?"
"Then phrase your next question more precisely. My turn now, right?"
Iron Dung Beetle moved his right hand, sensation slowly returning, and patted his waist.
Two grenades left.
He gauged if two grenades could buy him escape from Park Seti—no, Hong Seti.
'Impossible.'
Maybe if his body were whole, but not with broken legs. Especially not after seeing her soar in swinging that gleaming warhammer.
Ending his brief deliberation, Iron Dung Beetle decided to keep this bizarre conversation going until his legs healed.
"...Fine. What's your question?"
"Do you remember your mom or dad's face? Was one of them not human?"
...What? Iron Dung Beetle frowned slightly at the unexpected filial impiety.
"Oh, that came out wrong. I mean, do you have some special bloodline?"
"Special bloodline? What the hell are you talking about?"
"Celestials, monsters, beastkin, fairies, otherworldly races, that sort. Dwarf blood's obviously not in the mix..."
It was a question of whether his parents were inhuman, or if he'd been born from one sleeping with an inhuman. Iron Dung Beetle couldn't think of an answer.
A brief silence followed, then he sighed.
"Don't know. Like I said at the bar, I've never met them."
"Aw, then I wasted my question."
Hong Seti spoke insincerely. Her vacant smile was chilling.
"...My turn now."
Iron Dung Beetle thought of a question to buy time. Moments later, he voiced a rather provocative one.
"What are your parents like?"
"My parents?"
"Yeah. Naming their daughter Seti doesn't scream normal parents."
Hearing Iron Dung Beetle's question, Seti grinned, baring her teeth. A lewd smile, like a girlfriend finding her boyfriend's porn mag stash.
"Our parents... hmm, pathetic pretty much sums them up."
"...What?"
Filial impiety followed by self-roasting? Iron Dung Beetle blinked in disbelief.
"...I won't tell you to love your family, but tone it down. Insulting family boomerangs back on you."
Despite his unintended sincerity, Hong Seti just shrugged.
"Ours are junkies and whores. 'Pathetic humans' is already pretty tame, no?"
"..."
Iron Dung Beetle's face twisted. He wasn't used to such crass talk.
"My turn now?"
While Iron Dung Beetle reeled from the self-roast, Seti continued breezily.
"Why'd you kill the government guy?"
"..."
"If you were only after the necromancer, no need to lob a grenade at the fed, right?"
Catching the implication, Iron Dung Beetle snapped to.
"...You were watching from the start."
"Anyone with a scope and the will to stick it out could manage."
Iron Dung Beetle swallowed a sigh at her brazen admission of stalking.
The shock wasn't being stalked, but failing to notice her tail.
'Too hasty.'
Regret was brief. Lessons from mistakes could wait. First, probe her true intent.
"Why do you care if I killed a government stooge? Murder's murder."
"Answering a question with one breaks the rules."
"...Better than lying."
"You're ruining the point of this game, Mr. Iron Dung Beetle."
Hong Seti curled her lips in amusement, clearly enjoying this.
"Not to worry, it's not me siding with the government. I hate them too."
"...Everyone paying taxes says that."
"I'm a student. Don't pay taxes."
She glanced away, opposite Iron Dung Beetle.
"Hmm... How's this? I'll show you why I hate the government. If you find me credible, answer properly."
Pier 13's sole entrance, untouched by the titan's destruction.
Following her gaze, Iron Dung Beetle narrowed his eyes unwittingly.
Beyond the night's darkness, car headlights approached the pier.
* * *