The Thief King’s Labyrinth #3

 

Once I started doubting, there was no way to stop.

Rodri watched Dread and Windy with suspicion.

Of the two, the more suspicious one is obviously Dread.

I didn’t like this guy from the start. His first impression was filthy.

It’s not right to judge by appearances, but Rodrigo believed in physiognomy to some extent.

‘If the child of Dread was Akasha, I would cut him down without hesitation.’

I was actually hoping he would disguise himself as Dread.

Rodri looked at Dread with a look of blatant distrust.

“What are you looking at? Is this your first time resting?”

Shoooo—

Dread, who was urinating on the wall, looked back at Rodri with a sinister gaze.

“Unexpected. Are you interested in men? You don’t look like one, but you’re a pervert. Why, do you want to suck this?”

Dread chuckled, waving his big, dark thing around.

Rodri looked away, cursing.

But, thinking about it, it was hard to be certain that Dread was really a disguised ghost.

‘I thought Akasha was a woman.’

Is it possible for a woman to skillfully portray such a vulgar and shallow male character?

Well, Akasha is a master of disguise, so she might be able to do it again.

But Dread’s every move, even though it was unpleasant, was too natural to be acting.

‘If you look at it that way, it’s highly likely that it’s Windy.’

It was easy to act because they were the same gender, but Windy was passive and reserved in everything.

If you plan to hide your identity and act secretly, this is the perfect character for you.

Even if Rodrigo was Akasha, if I had to disguise myself as one of these, I would choose Windy.

‘Besides, Windy always put the party in jeopardy at crucial moments.’

I remembered what happened in the poison arrow trap.

The person who accidentally triggered the trap was none other than Windy.

No. Was that really a mistake?

No one knows except Windy herself.

“Stella said so. Windy triggered the trap sixty-five times.”

Even if the same situation is repeated, it is not something that can be passed over as a mistake.

People are not goldfish, and their learning ability cannot be that poor.

If it was all an act, it would be a different story.

What if you were planning to intentionally trigger a trap and wipe out the party?

“Yes. Dredd actually helped me avoid the trap. He’s a bit of a loser, but there was nothing to fault with his handling of the situation. Windy, on the other hand….”

Rodrigo frowned and thought deeply.

Dread or Windy?

A terribly difficult choice.

Rodrigo couldn’t easily come to a conclusion.

“It’s strange I didn’t suspect anything until now. How did I not know until now? When and where did these guys get mixed up in the party?”

Dread and Windy both suddenly joined the party, like a poorly edited, improbable movie script.

Rodri’s throat was parched. Sticky sweat poured out incessantly, and he gulped water repeatedly.

In a labyrinth exploration where supplies are not guaranteed, you have to drink water sparingly, but you don’t have the luxury of worrying about that.

The guarded attitude was clearly reflected in his actions.

Rodri was always tense, his hand on the hilt of his sword.

Naturally, the mental strain was enormous. Living in constant tension, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

“Ugh! Get out of here.”

“yes?”

Rodri jumped in surprise. Windy, who had placed her hand on Rodri’s shoulder from behind, was equally startled.

“I thought you were hot, so I brought you some water… I’m sorry. I didn’t expect you to be so surprised.”

“⋯Please don’t touch my body without permission. Especially don’t approach me from behind without making a sound.”

Rodrigo warned with a menacing expression. Windy’s face turned pale, and she nodded silently before hastily leaving.

‘I almost blew it.’

Rodri stared blankly at his right hand. The veins were bulging from the grip he’d been holding on the sword’s hilt.

If Windy had shown even a little more suspicious behavior, Rodri would have swung his sword without hesitation.

Whether she was Akasha or not.

***

The thought came to me out of the blue, without any warning.

‘Is Stella someone I can trust?’

Rodrigo stared blankly at the campfire with bloodshot eyes.

Unknowingly, several days had passed. Now, Rodri barely spoke to his colleagues.

The other party members were the same. Both Dread and Windy became quiet.

Stella often spoke to him in her usual manner, but Rodri’s response was lukewarm.

‘Why did I believe everything Stella said without a second thought?’

Rodri couldn’t believe he was only just now thinking about this important question.

Anyone can see that Stella is also suspicious.

No, Stella is the most suspicious.

It is true that she told Rodri the truth about the strange incident and information about Akasha.

But then again, isn’t it as if Stella designed this situation itself?

Rodri was helplessly shaken by Stella’s three-inch tongue.

“That girl was so rambling that she completely dispelled my suspicions. Now that I think about it, she’s incredibly intelligent. I was completely fooled. That’s why I limited the Akasha candidates to just Dread and Windy.”

Rodri has strong mental strength, so he is able to endure the curse without completely succumbing to it.

If Stella was the disguised ghost of Akasha, her purpose was clear.

Draining your mental power and making you like Dread and Windy.

There’s no need to bother with it yourself. If even Rodri falls under the curse, it’s all over.

‘You’re deliberately leaking information to me, making me suspicious of Dread and Windy… You’re constantly keeping me on edge… You’re making me lose my mind.’

In reality, Rodrigo’s spirit has now reached its limit of endurance.

Suspicion and doubt.

The suspicion that had spread like a great fire in his mind had reached an uncontrollable level and was completely eating away at Rodri’s thinking.

“Rodri.”

“⋯.”

Stella quietly called out to Rodri. Rodri didn’t answer, but stared at her with sharp eyes.

‘What kind of sophistry are you trying to deceive me with again, you witch?’

Now I’ve decided that no matter what Stella says, I will never be fooled.

In this labyrinth, you must not trust anyone else. Only what you see and hear with your own eyes and ears is the truth.

“Why is your expression like that?”

“⋯Don’t worry about it. I guess I’m just a little tired.”

“Okay… I’ll press the switch over there. You take the other side.”

Stella pointed over her shoulder to the end of the fork in the road.

It was a device that had been breached several times while exploring the labyrinth.

There is a switch at the end of each branching corridor, and the door to the next floor opens only when all switches are pressed simultaneously within a certain timing.

The purpose is clear: a section that forces the party members to scatter.

When you press the switch, you must be careful of the killer beetles and poison arrows that suddenly appear around you.

It wasn’t a particularly difficult section. Since it was a party of S-rank adventurers, they wouldn’t have gotten lost to this extent.

More than that, what I’m concerned about is⋯

“No. I’ll go over there.”

Rodrigo cut Stella off.

Stella squinted her big, pretty eyes slightly.

“⋯Really? Well, I don’t care. Do whatever you want.”

Rodrigo headed towards his assigned switch.

Only when he was left alone did he smile triumphantly.

‘I won’t take everything you say at face value.’

Clearly, if he went to the place Stella had mentioned, he would have been caught in a trap. Rodri had anticipated this.

By now, Stella must be stamping her feet in anger.

Although they would continue to come up with various schemes, Rodri was confident that he could deal with them all.

Step, step.

I walked alone down the dark hallway.

Rodri was tense. The darkness beyond, not knowing what awaited him, was frightening, but what lay behind him was even more frightening.

If you listen closely, you might hear another set of footsteps following Rodri.

This situation, where the party members are scattered, is the perfect opportunity for Akasha’s ghost to reveal its true colors.

“Phew… phew.”

Rodri swallowed hard. His throat felt parched, as if he’d been wandering the desert for days.

Being alone in this situation was unbearably tense and scary.

But being with other party members was scary in its own way.

I just hate this labyrinth.

Whether it was treasure or Akasha, I was sick of it all now and wanted to just give it all up and escape.

Sasasak—

I heard the sound of something crawling quickly.

Not in front, but behind.

“Who are you!”

Rodri turned around with a gleam in his bloodshot eyes.

I reflexively aimed the tip of my sword, and saw a cockroach crawling by.

“⋯Fuck.”

It’s clear what’s wrong with my head. I can’t even tell if the sound is a person or an insect.

A series of rapid tension and relaxation. Rodri felt so exhausted he felt like he was about to collapse.

That was the time.

—Gyaaak!

A scream was heard nearby.

It’s a woman’s voice. Windy, or Stella—

Rodri hesitated for a moment, but then drew his sword and ran.

“I heard it nearby. Not far away. Probably next to the hallway I entered.”

Rodri looked around to determine where the sound had come from.

In the hallway he ran into, Rodri found a body.

“Windy!”

Windy’s slender body lay in a pool of blood.

Rodrigo clashed his teeth with a heavy heart.

“So Windy wasn’t Akasha’s ghost after all.”

Even if I were to be objective, that thought came to me first.

It’s truly terrifying that the only way to prove one’s innocence is through death.

He checked Windy’s pulse, but it was too late. Rodri closed Windy’s eyes with his palm.

“I will never forgive you, Akasha⋯.”

I clenched my fists and trembled, and then I saw something lying nearby.

A torn cloak hem.

Although it was soaked in blood, its color was familiar to Rodri’s eyes.

‘A green cloak. It’s the cloak of a Dread child!’

Rodri’s mind was bleached white with anger.

“That bastard was the one. I knew it would be like that from the start. I won’t let you off the hook, Dread! No, I guess I’ll have to call you Akasha from now on.”

Rodri clutched the torn hem of his cloak tightly.

At that time, Stella arrived at the murder scene late.

“Windy got hit… As expected, she killed the healer first.”

Stella shook her head and spoke in a calm tone.

“Did you know you were going to target Windy?”

“To some extent. I warned Windy herself, and even tried to help her if necessary, but she refused.”

When Rodri asked reproachfully, Stella shrugged her shoulders as if she had no other choice.

I understood what the situation was like without having to see it myself.

Just like Rodrigo, Windy probably didn’t trust the other party members at all.

It was a tragedy that was destined to happen.

“The culprit is Dread.”

Rodrigo said forcefully.

“There’s nowhere for him to run. Whether upstairs or down, all the paths are blocked. Even if we play hide-and-seek here, we’ll eventually find him.”

“Rodri. I’m so emotional right now.”

“Find him and kill him. Leave it to me. I will kill him with my own hands.”

Rodrigo raised his eyes, his eyes gleaming with life. His gaze was like that of a wounded beast.

“I understand how you feel, but in times like these, you need to stay calm even more. To avoid losing your mental strength… Are you listening?”

“How can you be so calm at a time like this, as if you were talking about someone else’s business? A party member died? I don’t understand you even more.”

“That’s how you survive.”

Stella spoke firmly, but Rodri didn’t listen.

“Fine. Now that Akasha’s identity has been revealed, I can just kill her. I don’t need your help anymore. You can just hide like a rat somewhere.”

Rodrigo walked into the darkness, sword in hand.

Stella seemed to be saying something behind me, but I didn’t look back.