episode_0019

7. Falcon Gang (3)

When we returned to the Mokdong settlement, we asked the people who had gone elsewhere if they had gotten any harvest.

I heard that while we were attacking the tower, we went out to search various places, but there was no news.

Then, Mr. Chunsik, who found out that we had arrived, came running and guided us to where Mr. Dusik was.

As expected, Mr. Doosik was with Mr. Kang Hancheol, and even we who had just returned could tell from their expressions that they were quite serious.

” Oh, you came? So you cleared the top? ”

But as if hiding his expression, Mr. Kang-cheol Kang smiled broadly at us and greeted us.

” Yes, there were some problems, but I conquered the top. If you look at the device, you will see that the reward has arrived. ”

Just like Mr. Kang-cheol, Hyun-seok hid his tired expression and talked to the two men about what happened at the top and the reward he got through the device.

” Hmm, I’ve experienced the wave-appearing gimmick once, but you’re saying there wasn’t a time to rest before the boss level appeared? ”

” Yes, it was a little dangerous because of that, but luckily Charlotte handled it well. ”

Mr. Doosik stroked his beard and looked thoughtful, and Hyunseok glanced at me before continuing to talk to the men.

I didn’t think I needed to get involved in their story, so I just sat on the sofa with Yeonseo and rested for a bit.

‘There’s no need to worry, since Hyunseok will take care of everything anyway.’

Then I discovered a piece of paper on the table.

” Huh? What is this…? ”

” Ahem, I left it there for nothing… ”

Mr. Kang-cheol Kang looked at us with an ‘Oops’ expression.

” Is this… a request from the guys who captured the old man’s daughter? ”

” Hmm, I can’t help it since I saw it… That’s right. That’s the request they sent. To be honest, it’s just ridiculous. ”

Well, after reading it, I think the same thing.

He tells them to gather the Awakened and come to the ‘Paris Park’ to take my daughter back by force, which is such a strange provocation that even if you grab any passerby and ask them, they’ll all say ‘What? Are you crazy?’

” But that’s strange. Are you telling me to gather the awakened people and come? Is that really necessary? ”

Yeonseo leaned against the sofa, looked at the note, then tossed it on the table with a ‘swish’ before asking a question with an indifferent expression.

” That’s the same for us. Even though there are Awakened people, to be honest, no one has such strong abilities except for me and Ara.

Most of them have nothing to do with combat, or are just good at handling weapons or strengthening them by moving magic power. ”

” Then I don’t understand even more.

Anyway, one of the powers has already been captured, so it’s no different from that.

There’s no way that the bandit here could defeat all of those guys on his own, right? And would he even try to fight in a situation where there’s an advantageous situation with a hostage? ”

Yeonseo’s cool analysis may have hurt the two men a little, but they didn’t seem to care.

” Ahem, I have nothing to say. ” Mr. Kang Han-cheol coughs and turns his head to the other side.

” Haha! Yeah, even if I have some skill, it’s not like I have the ability to deal with multiple people. ”

” Hey, Yeonseo? I’m sorry. Yeonseo probably didn’t mean anything else. ”

Hyunseok bowed his head and apologized to the two men.

” That’s okay. To be honest, that’s true. That’s what we thought too.

That Falcon Gang doesn’t have a huge difference in military power from ours.

The guy called ‘Han Jin-oh’, the leader and Falcon, is a little different, but it’s still strange for him to start an all-out war like this. ”

Mr. Kang-cheol Kang spoke to us while tapping his forehead as if he had a headache.

” The guy is an Awakened who has changed his body. All we know is that he has two large wings.

The guy uses that to his advantage and turns the fight into an aerial battle.

Other than that, I don’t know anything. To be honest, I’ve only heard this through rumors, so I don’t know how accurate it is.

But even if the direction of the fight is steered by that aerial battle, there is no need to do this. It will only result in a loss. ”

In the end, the story was that all he knew was that it had the ability to have wings capable of aerial combat.

While we were talking and sharing various opinions, I saw Hyunseok and Yeonseo starting to doze off.

” Gentlemen, can we go in and rest for now? ”

” Oh, right! That’s right. You must be tired from conquering the tower, so rest for now. I heard you were injured, right? I’ll send someone to give you some medicine. ”

” Yes, thank you. ”

And I winked at Mr. Dosik and made a promise to meet again, and led the two of them into the room.

*****

After putting those two to bed in the room, I left the room and met with Uncle Dusik again to talk.

” So when is the deadline? ”

” You’re asking the right question. They told me to come to the Paris park by noon tomorrow. ”

” Hmm, no matter how much I think about it, I don’t get it. Why would you go that far? ”

Mr. Doosik shrugged his shoulders and moved them.

” Well, I’ve met him before, but back then… I was out of my mind. ”

Judging by the old man’s mood, it seems like it’s probably a story related to his dead daughter.

I felt like asking, so I opened my mouth to talk about a different topic.

” Charlotte, I guess I can tell you about ramen. ”

The man leaning against the wall nearby was coming to the Mokdong settlement with his daughter.

He told me that he was attacked by those guys and that he couldn’t protect his daughter and the people he came with.

” That’s a sad story. ”

” It’s already in the past. It must have been around that time. That’s when Ara’s powers awakened. ”

” Really? Hmm, so that’s why I kept looking for news. ”

” Of course. To Ara, he was like a real younger sibling. ”

The eyes of the old man who raised his head and looked at the sky were filled with various emotions such as sadness and regret.

Losing someone precious must be so sad.

While I was thinking like that, Hyunseok came to mind.

‘Why… is that guy’s face coming to mind…? ‘

I think it was because he saw right before his eyes that he almost died.

I shook my head and decided to hear more from the old man.

” But who brought that note?

Mr. Chunsik said he wandered around earlier but didn’t get any results. ”

” Huh? That guy was living in a shantytown.

I heard that he was out looking for something useful when he got found by the guys and got a note from them. ”

” Are you going outside? Oh, are you a resource explorer? ”

” No, as far as I know, he just travels alone.

I wasn’t even part of any exploration team we had decided on. ”

At that moment, I felt a ‘tingle’ in my head as if I had found a new clue.

” Wait a minute. You were just exploring without being part of a team? That’s pretty weird. ”

The old man listened to me and thought for a moment.

” Hmm, actually, being part of the exploration team is pretty hard.

The first condition is that you must have the ability to explore to some extent and protect yourself.

You can’t just leave an innocent person to die, right?

And it is said that people living alone like that are quite common in settled areas.

There are many reasons why it’s better to be alone.

But in a way, Charlotte, I guess I was aiming for that weak point, just like you said. ”

” I have to go find that person right now. ”

I quickly went to a shantytown outside the settlement with my uncle.

While looking for that person, I heard a loud noise like ‘Kwaang!’ and people screaming.

” Fire!!! ” ” Everyone, run!!! ”

When I went to find the place where the noise was coming from, I saw a building that looked like a chapel, and the building was burning brightly as if it was illuminating the dark night.

” Should I turn off this fire..?! ”

People nearby brought buckets of water, but it would be difficult to put out a fire of that size.

But now that I have ‘Durandal’ and ‘Kurtana’, I can turn that kind of fire into ‘Holy Fire’ and control it freely.

” Get out of the way! I’ll do it. ”

” What are you talking about, kid! It’s dangerous, get out of the way…? ”

The old man who had been stopping me was speechless when he saw me freely controlling fire.

I quickly put out the fire and went into the burning building with the old man, but I heard a sound that shouldn’t have been heard there.

With a ‘Kkieeeek!’ sound, a strange monster wearing tattered clothes rushed towards us from inside.

” Mister! ”

I quickly sent divine power to Rosario, equipped the armor, took out ‘Durandal’, and moved my body while throwing a sword of flame at the guy.

The old man also seemed to have figured out the situation and started evacuating people, and I ran towards the guy in front of me with the tip of my sword raised.

*****

The monster’s movements were very simple.

It’s as if a sick person is just causing a ruckus.

So I quickly approached him and cut off both arms that he was lowering from below.

After cutting off the guy’s leg by striking down from above again,

He cut off the head from the body of the falling guy.

” Whoa, why on earth is this guy here? ”

Strangely enough, the monster did not leave behind any magic stones, but instead withered away, leaving behind a foul smell like a rotting corpse.

However, I thought it was dangerous to leave it like this, dried and twisted, so after talking to Mr. Du-sik, I decided to burn it with a ‘holy fire’.

As I watched the guy burn due to the ‘Holy Fire’, I saw a fine black line flying into the sky.

‘That’s… something that appears in those who worship evil spirits…? Why on earth is it here…?! ‘

” Charlotte?! Are you okay? ”

The old man saw my serious expression and grabbed my shoulder and spoke to me.

” Oh, yes. It’s okay. I got rid of it with ‘Holy Fire’, so you don’t have to worry. Do you know anything about that monster? ”

” Well, I’ve never seen a monster like that. I just feel like it’s similar, but it can’t exist. ”

” What is that? ”

” It’s similar to the virus infection that appeared due to the Ryan incident.

The movement is also like the appearance of drying up and twisting after falling down. ”

It seemed like this insignificant girl’s misconduct was bringing about the winds of a major incident that would occur in the future.

*****

A basement where groundwater drips down from the ceiling like ‘drip, drip’ and creates a puddle in front of you.

There, a girl is talking to a man while her hands and feet are tied to the wall.

No, rather than talking, it would be more like interrogation or torture.

” Hey, miss? You’d better answer quickly. I’m not a very patient person.

Ah~ I see you’re thinking of taking me by surprise with your abilities, but you’d better give up.

Those chains that bound you for four years are quite peculiar.

Back in the old days when the US government was still running, it was a tool used to block the abilities of those who had awakened from above. ”

As the girl’s eyes opened wide, the man chuckled and walked closer to her.

A man with two large wings on his back knelt down on both knees and asked the girl who was chained to the wall and collapsed.

But the girl lifted her face, who had been hit countless times, smiled faintly, and spat out the blood that had accumulated in her mouth.

” Ha! Fearless!! ”

The man got up and kicked the girl in the stomach, wiped the blood off his clothes, and opened his mouth towards the girl again.

” I see that there are other guys from other settlements besides that stupid bandit-like guy. Tell me quickly!! ”

” I have nothing to say to someone…like…you…! ”

” Really? Then you won’t say anything?! ”

I hear a ‘thud’ sound as a fist strikes me and a ‘slap’ sound as it sticks sharply to my cheek.

And only the sound of a girl writhing in pain echoes underground.

” Ha, yeah! It doesn’t matter anyway. With this, I can beat any guy. ”

A man takes out a glass bottle full of pills that seem to emit a strange aura from his arms and shows it to a girl. Han Jin-oh

He grabbed the girl, Kang Ara, by the hair and shook the glass bottle, saying:

” You know what? If you eat just one of these, even a weakling like you will be strong enough to break free of those chains and take me down in an instant? ”

At those words, Ara’s eyes turned to the glass bottle.

” Okay, let me be kind and leave this here.

So either come kill me after you eat or stay tied up like this

You can die without even seeing your precious family members bleed and collapse. ”

Han Jin-oh leaves a pill right in front of Ara.

In Ara’s eyes looking at it, a desire for power and fear of the unknown coexisted.

*****

” I’ll be back soon, so take good care of that girl and the other guys!! ”

One of the subordinates who followed Han Jin-oh as he kicked open the door and went out asked him.

” Brother, why on earth did you show that to that kid? What if he actually eats it and comes after me?! ”

At the words of such a subordinate, he smiled with a distorted and mean smile.

” Don’t worry. No matter how much of a ‘success’ they made, after you eat it, are you nothing but a monster?

Looking at all the guys I fed them just in case, it turned out like that. It’s not a ‘success’, it’s just a ‘failure’. ”

” That’s… that’s what happened. ”

The two recalled the day not long after the pills arrived.

A priest of the Obelisk sect, who proudly declared that it was a ‘success’, took the medicine with a few of his subordinates.

Everyone showed that they had become stronger, but soon they lost their senses and attacked those on their own side.

” So we don’t care whether that girl eats or not. If she doesn’t eat, we can just make her despair.

What if I eat it? Just send it to that precious family and let them die. Kik! ”

” As expected, you are my brother! ”

So the two headed back to where the gang members were gathered for the settlement raid that was to take place tomorrow.