Ch.67Chapter 67. Before the Last Night Begins

Anna was dead.

Just like Linna, she had become a dried-up corpse with all her blood drained.

The difference was that unlike Linna who died looking at the sky, Anna died face down with her buttocks raised indecently toward the sky.

Though fully clothed, it was a rather vulgar posture for a woman who had pretended to be cool and chic.

However, her empty eyes remained the same in death as they had been in life.

“This is troublesome.”

The expedition leader didn’t hide his discomfort as he stroked his beard.

“We’re starting to run short on hands.”

There was something off about that statement.

After spending all of yesterday asking around and investigating, the team members were either spending leisure time in their tents or poking around the entrance of the palace ruins looking for anything valuable.

To make such a comment when everyone was essentially idle was just looking for an excuse to complain.

He could have at least expressed anger about innocent lives being lost.

But a man who had openly encouraged everyone yesterday about their increased shares wasn’t likely to do that.

“It’s only been two days.”

“Two days wasted despite having a mage with us.”

While Tigria bristled and argued with the expedition leader, Lin noticed something unusual.

“That woman even had a child, didn’t she?”

“Still, she sent it away with plenty of money. Might be better off than us.”

Among the team members disparaging the corpse as they had with Linna, there was one person.

Someone was crying.

Clutching a crumpled letter, blankly shedding tears, she had eyes even emptier than Anna’s had been.

“Hannah! How about it? I’d like to invite you to dinner tonight?”

When Lin looked away, the expedition leader quickly interjected with an invitation to the team member, but the woman called Hannah didn’t move a muscle.

“Hmm.”

Scratching his chin, the expedition leader turned to Lin with exaggerated movements.

“This is my third invitation to you, how about it?”

“Well, from what I heard yesterday, you invite people to dinner to distribute meat. Wouldn’t it be better to bestow that generosity on your team members?”

But this time, the expedition leader wasn’t so easily deterred.

“Then let’s do this!”

Clapping his hands, he addressed everyone around him.

“With casualties continuing to occur, team morale is at rock bottom. Tonight we’ll have a feast! We’ll spend the evening eating and enjoying ourselves to the fullest!”

Then he extended his hand politely to Lin.

“The entire camp will be noisy, which might disturb your rest or investigation. What do you say? If you won’t join us, I’ll cancel the feast.”

How cowardly to drag others into this.

And as for disturbing rest or investigation, the expedition leader was already doing that with his nightly netorare activities.

Whatever.

The evening feast event had appeared a bit earlier than in the game, but Lin had already collected enough items, and Tigria didn’t seem likely to fall for this man.

Unable to drag out the sub-episode forever, Lin made a decision.

If they delayed any longer, Luci’s patience at the imperial palace would soon run out.

“Very well. Since it’s come to this, let’s make a night of it. Perhaps this way we can prevent any victims from appearing, at least for today.”

“A wise choice!”

The expedition leader was greatly pleased as he gave the order to disperse.

“It will be a wonderful time.”

As he subtly placed his hand around Lin’s waist, Lin pulled away with a serious expression.

Despite being rejected, the expedition leader seemed very pleased.

“Just like a cat.”

The expedition leader entered his tent, excessively thrusting out his firm chest.

The mage glared at his back.

“Can I kill him?”

“Please do.”

“Huh?”

Tigria blinked in surprise, not expecting agreement.

“Depending on what he does tonight.”

That was essentially equivalent to saying she would kill him.

Tigria nodded with satisfaction, fondling her special item, the ‘Horned Bird’s Horn Staff.’

—

“Shall we talk?”

Back to the afternoon questioning time.

Lin approached Hannah, who was crying alone, without bothering with the other team members.

Though she hadn’t responded to the expedition leader, Hannah moved her head slightly when Lin called to her.

She was a plump woman, short but curvy in the right places, though now her cheeks were sunken from her haggard state.

“…Alright.”

“Yes, then I’ll ask—”

“But over there…”

The place she quietly pointed to was the palace ruins.

“Hey Hannah! Without the leader’s permission, you can’t enter the ruins…”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Hannah cut off the other team member’s interruption.

“Nothing matters anymore.”

“Hmph, what a stupid woman.”

The team member wasn’t particularly insistent either.

Lin and Tigria entered the palace ruins entrance with Hannah.

Her steps were so slow that all the team members watched them heading to the ruins.

Soon they lost interest and one by one returned to their tents.

Vulgar moans could be heard coming from some of the tents.

“What happened?”

As soon as they entered the dark palace ruins, Lin questioned Hannah.

“Well… I don’t know about last night.”

“No.”

At Lin’s signal, Tigria subtly blocked the entrance with her body.

“What happened to you yesterday?”

“To me…?”

Tears flowed again.

They looked painful as they crossed her swollen cheeks.

“He died…”

“He?”

“My childhood friend… We were orphans who relied on each other. He was so handsome and wonderful that I questioned every day why he chose someone like me.”

Like a broken music box, Hannah slowly unfolded her story.

“We promised to earn money and get a small house together… So I joined the expedition team, and he became a servant in a wealthy household. But his good looks became his downfall—yesterday I received a letter saying he was beaten to death after being accused of seducing the lady of the house.”

Timing-wise, she must have received the letter when the golden carriage arrived.

“That can’t be true. He only had eyes for me. That lady must have tried to seduce him and then framed him when it didn’t work.”

Another tear fell.

“Learning of his death made my heart die too. It feels like there’s a huge hole in the middle of my chest.”

“Not okay?”

It was Tigria.

Her characteristic of throwing facts at anyone except Lin was clearly displayed.

“If there’s a hole, why not go to the leader over there and ask him to fill it? Your mind might be dead, but your body would be very satisfied.”

“I’m different from those women!”

Though she reflexively got angry, Hannah soon gave a hollow laugh.

“No, I’m not different… I’m worse…”

“What exactly is the state of this expedition team that makes you say such things?”

When Lin, who had been quietly observing, asked, Hannah lowered her gaze.

“You know already. They’re all women like me who have loved ones but sleep with the expedition leader. You know what? When you have dinner with the expedition leader, he mixes a little aphrodisiac and drugs into the meat. He uses that to stimulate the loneliness of women who can’t satisfy their desires in a distant land, then he sleeps with them and makes them obey.”

She started cackling like a madwoman.

“The drugs, his superior physique, and the sense of taboo make it impossible to escape.”

But soon that vulgar laughter mixed with self-mockery and regret.

“But all that becomes meaningless in front of the artifact.”

“Artifact?”

“We discovered something incredible a few weeks ago. A large jewel, black on the outside but containing an orange light within.”

That was it.

That jewel was the key to opening the dead end inside the ruins.

Neither Lin nor Tigria interrupted, letting Hannah reveal everything on her own.

“Explorers are all money-obsessed bastards, aren’t they? They spout grand words about pursuing mysteries, but they’re just idiots wanting to make a fortune from ancient artifacts. I discovered the jewel, but the leader forcibly took it for himself. Then he went deep inside alone and stopped all exploration of the ruins.”

“Then why not quickly sell it and divide the money?”

“Why share?”

Hannah questioned back.

“If you kill everyone and take it all, everything becomes yours, right? What conscience remains in women who have betrayed their lovers? The only salvation, whether it’s atonement or laundering, is to take money back to family or loved ones in their hometown.”

Only after hearing those words did Lin understand why the expedition members were so hostile to each other.

They were all competitors fighting to monopolize the artifact.

“Foolish. Even if you want material compensation, dying makes it pointless.”

“You can still give it even if you die. Everyone took out life insurance from the golden carriage.”

Life insurance?

Does such a concept exist in this world?

Even Lin was hearing this for the first time.

Hannah giggled again.

“We arranged with the golden carriage postal service to take half the value of any minor artifacts we secretly kept from the leader if we died, and send the other half to our loved ones back home.”

Whether it was fortunate or the last shred of conscience from the expedition members.

More than anything, Lin just found it disgusting.

“Since the leader took the jewel, there’s been a death every night. All of them were women who had dinner with the leader that day. The culprit is probably the leader.”

“With that much evidence, everyone must have known the leader was the murderer. Why did they keep accepting dinner invitations? Why did everyone just watch it happen?”

“There’s nothing to lose. From the dinner guest’s perspective, he’ll definitely make a move, so you can enjoy it and then try to kill him when he’s exhausted and steal the artifact—lucky! From those not invited, if one of them dies, that’s one less competitor—lucky!”

It was giving Lin a headache.

In the original game, the serial killer was Denaruah.

That information came from her own dialogue before the boss battle, where she admitted to killing them one by one out of disgust.

But in reality, it was just the expedition team, degraded below human level, engaging in one-on-one murder disguised as dinner.

And with the vulgar preparation of mixing bodies beforehand.

There was something strange too.

If the expedition leader was the culprit, how did he manage to drain all the blood from the victims?

Perhaps that was the power of the jewel.

“It’s all pointless now.”

Hannah was self-deprecating.

“Even if I earn lots of money, or die, the person who would receive the value of my life is gone now…”

The woman, truly left with nothing, was alone in her emptiness.

“Why not find a new man? As long as you can do it every night, isn’t that enough?”

“It’s not like that… It’s not like that… This emptiness isn’t like that…”

Hannah didn’t react to Tigria’s scathing criticism.

“Don’t you want revenge on the expedition leader who made you like this?”

“Will revenge bring him back?”

She didn’t respond to Lin’s suggestion of revenge either.

Finally, unable to contain it anymore, contempt burst forth toward her.

“Then die, why are you wallowing in self-pity after ruining everything yourself.”

It wasn’t Lin.

The one who expressed hatred in a clear, proper sentence was Tigria.

With a very angry face, she conveyed her intense emotion in just that one sentence, then turned away.

Hannah thought Tigria’s suggestion wasn’t bad.

If she died, could she meet him in the afterlife?

She shook her head.

That would be impossible since she was a sinner who would go to hell, while he was good and would be in heaven.

Nevertheless, there was no reason to stay alive.

Hannah pulled out a rather long knife from her pocket.

As she held it to her neck, memories with him flashed before her eyes like a kaleidoscope.

“Ah.”

A tiny bit of vitality returned to her.

Even if she was going to die, she wanted to reminisce about their memories one last time.

“If it’s alright, my story…”

Hannah lowered the knife and raised her head.

No one was there.

Lin and Tigria had already left the entrance and were walking far away toward the camp.

“Haha…”

Terrible loneliness came over her, and Hannah could barely open her mouth in emptiness.

For someone who had committed infidelity and lost her loved one, there was truly nothing left—

Slash

“Hmph, disgusting thing.”

Despite the harsh words, Hannah’s neck fell off smoothly.

Though she probably didn’t feel any pain, her severed head was still shedding tears.

“Did you not commit adultery knowing this would happen?”

Denaruah mocked the rolling head as she shook the blood from her sword.

“Love is not carnal desire, but the union of affection and loyalty, you fool.”