The Deceiver's Mockery (Chapter 6)
In the days before his name had become Ahin, when the memories of that other world had grown as hazy as smoke.
Sitting at his desk, the click of his mouse would draw the dazzling screen inside the monitor into sharp focus.
He burned through a mountain of monsters in a single strike.
Victims poured around him alongside the loot, praising his strength.
"You original dealer is the best, what about deallessness, if there's no dealer then the healer and the tank are useless?"
He had always stubbornly clung to that one path, spitting out words that could make the heavens themselves curse him.
"Please, teach me magic too. I'll take you as my teacher!"
Seeing the dream right in front of his eyes, anyone would have lost their mind.
"Ahin, what nonsense are you spouting out of nowhere!!"
"Yeah, you'll die for it! Before you die, at least try it!"
With fiery determination in his voice, Ahin declared, and for a brief moment Haru kept her gaze fixed on him.
"..."
At some point, the eyes brimming with madness softened again as she spoke.
"Disciple, I won't take you. And Ahin... can't do it."
"Whether I can or not, that's something only I can decide!"
"Ahin, give up already. After all, it's you, right? It won't work."
As if about to fly into a rage at Er's words, Ahin replied.
"A guy who can't even catch a single fly properly isn't the kind who should get an exception for magic."
"...No way, that's impossible. If that so-called god has even a shred of conscience, there's no way he'd treat me like this."
Speaking with eyes dull, Ahin turned his gaze toward Haru.
"There has to be at least one weak spot. So teach me magic!!"
"...Really, you want to learn?"
"Of course! It's my dream!"
While Ahin spoke so confidently, Haru reached out with slow, lazy movements.
Ahin, waiting with fingers spread wide as if hoping Haru would take his hand.
The moment Ahin noticed the thought, he grabbed the hand without a second's hesitation.
Crack! Crack!
Blue sparks exploded across his body as a scream tore from his mouth.
"Ahin!!"
"What the hell did you do...!"
"...Rejection reaction."
Haru caught the stumbling Ahin and spoke in her slow, measured voice.
"Ahin, you have no talent..."
"Cough..."
"Your sacred power rejects mana intrusion. If you try to use magic in this state..."
As she shook her head while saying that, Ahin felt an inexplicable unease and asked.
"What? Is it really impossible?"
"...It's better not to know."
"What the hell is going on?!"
Hearing the ominous words from Haru, Ahin asked in a frightened voice.
"Magic is impossible. But there are still things you can do even as Ahin."
"Really? What can you do?!"
Eyes sparkling with hope, Ahin asked as he heard Haru's words.
"Ahin... the operation of your sacred power is inefficient... that can be improved..."
"Operation?"
"It might not work. But... would you like to try once?"
Haru tilted her head while saying that. Er, who had been watching with a doubtful expression, asked.
"...So you're saying you'll teach Ahin your spell just by opening your mouth?"
"Once I hear that, I totally agree! Ahin, there's no such thing as a free lunch in this world!"
Bickering at Ahin alongside Er, Jina teased him relentlessly.
Haru shook her head with a dazed face after noticing the eyes filled with suspicion from the two.
"Not free."
"...What then?"
"I'll receive something in return."
"Money? Labor? Or maybe..."
Before Ahin could finish his excited words about offering whatever he had, Haru spoke.
"Blood."
"...What?"
"Warm, freshly drawn blood."
"...Even if that's the case, that's a bit much."
Hearing the follow-up words from Haru with growing unease, Ahin replied.
"No matter how desperate I am, I can't trust someone who asks me to hand over my blood and guts like that."
Noticing Ahin's thoughts, Haru tilted her head and said.
"It won't be much. Just... a few syringes' worth."
"...That still seems like a lot."
"It won't kill me..."
"...Ahin, let's stop."
Hearing those words, Jina said with a stiff expression.
"Whether it works or not, I'm not about to sell my blood just to learn magic."
"...No, if I can swap a bit of blood for a mage's know-how, I'd be the one gaining something."
"Ahin!"
Seeing Ahin smile reassuringly at her as he called out to Er, he turned back to Haru.
"Blood, I'll give it when the method you showed me actually works."
"...That sounds fine."
"Ahin, really..."
"It's okay. If it doesn't work, then... you'll figure it out yourselves."
"Hahaha..."
Jina burst out laughing in disbelief at Ahin's utterly irresponsible words.
With Jina left behind, Ahin said to Haru.
"All right, I'm ready! Come on whenever you want!"
"Before that, there's something I need to confirm."
"Confirm?"
"Your sacred power... I need to study it first."
The sacred power overflowing inside Ahin.
Unlike the mana other people handled, that golden aura sparkling like sunlight was so vastly different that it was impossible to ignore.
"Your sacred power is different from mana. And... it's also different from the sacred power of other priests."
Hearing those words from Haru, Er tilted her head and asked.
"Ahin, is mana really that different from sacred power? Doesn't it just mean mana of a different color?"
"Um, that's the thing..."
While Ahin was trying to explain it to Er, he turned to Jina standing beside him.
"Hey, you try using your sacred power."
"Why?"
"Show me by comparing."
"Are you sure about that?"
"It's not for Er's sake. I have to explain it properly to Haru. If I mess up, something big could happen."
"...Why not just learn without doing that?"
Jina's words were a hundred times correct, but Ahin didn't seem to want to listen.
"Still, maybe there's a chance this damn curse could weaken...?"
"Ahin, you haven't given up yet..."
To Jina, who remembered all of Ahin's efforts over the years to somehow remove the curse, she simply shook her head.
In the end, Jina, unable to refuse his request, slipped her gauntlets on and carefully raised her mana.
White energy swirled around the gauntlets, emitting a faint light.
That was the mana Jina possessed, the so-called sacred power.
"This is the sacred power used by priests. Apart from how it affects the undead and demons more strongly, it's no different from regular mana."
For example, the blue mana used by Er or ordinary warriors was also largely the same as sacred power.
In the first place, sacred power was nothing more than mana of a different color that merely repelled certain monsters or magical forces.
"Mine is a bit different. Want to see?"
"Different...?"
As Ahin said that, he lit a small light on his palm.
It was a yellowish golden power, a bit more yellow than the white mana Jina used, like sunlight itself.
Realizing it was different from other mana or sacred power, Haru opened her eyes wide and said,
"...Research subject."
"Wha, huh?"
"...I'm curious."
As she said that and approached, the moment Haru grabbed Ahin's face and pulled it close to hers was when their faces were so near that one could feel the other's breath.
Ahin could see the faint sky-blue eyes of Haru, and she stared into Ahin's eyes as if they had melted his gold.
Their faces were so close that they might have touched if they moved even a little.
Without blinking even once, as if she could see through all of him.
It was just that moment when Haru, who had been staring into Ahin's eyes, opened her mouth, while Er and Jina were trying to separate the two.
"I don't know."
"Eh...?"
"It's different. It's all the energy I know and a different wavelength. Energy I've never seen..."
After saying that, Haru let go of his face and tilted her head while speaking.
"...Shouldn't I perform an autopsy?"
"St, stop!!"
"Yes, what kind of nonsense is that?!"
"Ahin's heart or lungs would be mine!"
"...Huh?"
At that moment.
Ahin, who couldn't hide his confusion at the strange conversation that seemed to have passed by, lost the chance to speak his thoughts.
For him,
"...Ahin, step back while taking Haru with you."
Er, with a grave expression, had hardened her face while looking beyond the underground passage.
The path where the flames that had burned the skeletons away was now pitch dark.
Like the underground where no light should enter, with only a magic-stone lantern and nothing else visible besides the light Ahin possessed.
Within it, the sound of rattling came again.
From within the shadows, skeletal soldiers spewing red eyes, dragging rusty iron swords while creaking.
Noticing that their companions had been burned to ash, those with filled with hostility approached Ahin and his party.
Not just a few.
It seemed that all the skeletons that had escaped Haru's magic range had gathered, and three bony soldiers advanced toward them.
"...It looks like something is definitely there inside."
As Ahin said that, he turned his head to Haru and spoke.
"Still, we have a mage! One good spell from me-"
"...No."
"Wha, huh?"
"Magic can't be used right now."
As she said that, Haru pulled her hand from her large robe and rubbed her stomach while speaking.
"I'm hungry..."
"...Hey."
"And I'm sleepy..."
"Hey, hey, man!!"
"Ahin, come here!"
Kaka-kaka!
As if Er's dying words had signaled something, the rough-sworded skeleton swung its sword heavily and slammed it against her shield.
It was a lighter sword than the one she had faced before.
But for some reason.
Her eyes and memory insisted that the skeleton's movements were exactly the same as the one she had faced previously.
"...Huh?"
Her sword easily pushed aside the skeleton's sword.
And then, with almost no force, one strike.
A simple stab that seemed to require no power shattered the skeleton's shoulder bone and sent the sword clattering to the floor.
"Why is this...?"
"[Smash]!!"
Kwaang!
The skeleton soldier that had lost its arm shattered into pieces from the impact of Jina's gauntlets.
No matter how much it was undead, if the very bones that formed its body were broken, it couldn't stand back up.
Jina, who had instantly destroyed one skeleton, said in an astonished voice.
"Er, did you see that?"
"Eh, really...?"
"Yeah, it's better than during the werewolf fight!"
As she said that, Jina pointed at the remaining two skeletons and spoke.
"With this level, I can handle one each!"
"...Be careful just in case."
"Don't worry!"
As she said that, Jina stepped forward.
The distance between her and the shrinking skeletons.
As someone who valued only speed and destructive power, she closed the gap at a speed impossible for the undead's slow movements, and once again raised her mana.
"[Smash]!"
With a dull thud, the skeleton's sword flew away.
The sound that spread through the underground was so metallic that it felt impossible for metal to collide, and at the same time, Jina's mana-enhanced foot shattered the skeleton's leg bone.
She was not sloppy enough to miss the opening when the center of gravity collapsed and it fell.
Soon, the follow-up strikes shook the skeleton's bones, and before long, only the broken remains of the skeleton that had lost its eyes rolled across the floor.
It was at that moment when Jina, the one who had created it, turned her head to face the last remaining skeleton.
The rusty iron sword raised by the skeleton snapped in two.
Er, who had broken the skeleton's sword without hesitation, swung her sword downward without a moment's delay, and the skeleton, having lost its weapon, could only clatter its jaw.
With the sound of bones cracking, the skeleton soldier collapsed.
What remained in the spot where it had been was a skeleton that might once have been someone's corpse and one half-broken rusty iron sword.
"...Was I really this strong?"
Er, looking at her own hand with a blank expression after an unexpected result, muttered.
"Even with [Bless] received, it wasn't this strong...?"
"Hasn't experience accumulated? This is the second time facing a skeleton, right?"
"No, rather than that..."
As she said that, Er closed her mouth and didn't speak.
As she looked at Er, Jina tilted her head, but soon turned her head to Ahin with an unconcerned expression.
"Ahin, it's over─"
"Munch..."
What entered Jina's eyes was the face of a small girl quietly chewing something.
Behind Haru, who was munching with an expressionless face, Ahin shook his head repeatedly.
"...There's sad news."
"Eh?"
"That guy ate all the preserved food we brought."
"...All of it?"
"Yeah, not a single piece left, all of it."
Their supplies were never lacking.
Lately, when Er and Ahin were isolated, they paid special attention to preparing supplies for emergencies.
There should have been enough preserved food for all four of them to eat for several days.
While Er and Jina were dealing with the skeletons, Haru had eaten everything with her own mouth, speaking with a very faint smile.
"I'm full..."
"...What kind of person is this guy really?"
No one in this place could answer that question.
[Smash]
-[skeleton HP]