Ch.8080 – A Lingering Concern

<80 – Something Bothering Me>

The troll made the coachman an accomplice, and the coachman decided to become one.

I got the answer right, but the story wasn’t over yet.

“Let me tell you what happened next.”

Destroyer recalled.

The chilling wisdom of a monster who understood the human heart.

And the twisted, cruel decision of a human who became one with the monster.

* * *

Seeing the carriage heading toward the shortcut again, Destroyer asked.

“Isn’t that the path where the troll appeared last time?”

“Can’t be helped. In the past 10 years, the main road to the north has been blocked by landslides. Even after fixing it over and over, the continuous landslides made the lord give up.”

It’s because nature is angry.

It’s because the lord lacks virtue.

The coachman offered various explanations, but Destroyer knew they were mere excuses.

“Do you know about the law of scarcity, sir?”

The coachman explained.

“Let’s say you’re selling axes to a logging camp with a hundred woodcutters. If there are ten thousand axes, the woodcutters would think: ‘With so many axes available, why pay full price? Couldn’t we get them cheaper?'”

“But what if there are a hundred woodcutters and only ten axes? If those who get axes can definitely cut more trees and sell them at higher prices? They’d pay extra to get one.”

“Taking this shortcut has that kind of meaning for me.”

The modified carriage, with its cargo compartment longer than the passenger section, was loaded with goods.

An ordinary coachman couldn’t have earned enough in ten years from fares alone to expand and modify a carriage.

He had been making a tidy profit from inter-village trade.

“Even with that troll around?”

“That’s why I only used it when someone else went ahead.”

“Didn’t you feel guilty?”

“This is just an exchange. The troll conveniently minces people, and I can increase the scarcity of goods. It’s a convenient trade route that only I can use in the world.”

“Then why did you get back on this carriage, sir?”

The coachman asked.

“Don’t you also know this shortcut is faster, and that going around would take several more months? Haven’t you compromised out of necessity?”

We are accomplices.

Don’t blame me.

After the coachman’s indirect warning, there was no more conversation.

Until they reached the fork where the troll appeared.

Until they reached the spot where people were tied up, just like before.

One at the cliff path.

Five by the main road.

The troll had prepared the same test as before.

Seeing this, Destroyer made a decision.

To behead the monster.

There was no hesitation in the hands of Destroyer, a veteran warrior rather than a rookie adventurer.

The monster’s head fell off effortlessly, and Destroyer, holding the reins, stopped the carriage.

The headless coachman rolled under the carriage.

* * *

“Do you understand? The reason why veteran warrior Destroyer killed the coachman.”

“Because the coachman’s character was no different from a monster, using people’s lives, right?”

“Is that all?”

A spare carriage wheel.

A passage abandoned by the lord.

The fact that no other coachman would use such a road.

The information was sufficient.

No further questions were needed.

“The law of scarcity was just an excuse.”

“Why?”

“Because the risk-to-return ratio was too high.”

It’s not a difficult problem.

“The coachman sent people ahead as sacrifices each time and followed behind, but could six sacrifices conveniently be caught by the troll every time?”

“What if the troll accidentally ate one person? What if a mercenary secretly escaped? What if several fell off the cliff during a fight?”

“There’s no guarantee that he wouldn’t be among the six sacrifices. There’s also no guarantee that there would always be exactly six sacrifices. Yet the coachman was confident.”

That this road would make money.

That he could use it.

And he actually did use it and accumulated wealth.

“The coachman might have been incredibly lucky, but… even if he visited just once a year, that’s 10 times. Can we attribute all that to luck?”

Destroyer is a retired former warrior.

Someone who has seen countless human behaviors.

Not easily believing and being suspicious is a necessary quality to avoid an early death and adventure for a long time.

Distrust toward humans.

Faith in distrust.

That was enough to satisfy Destroyer.

“Of course it wasn’t luck.”

“The coachman’s hidden identity was a monster tamer who joined hands with the troll. The reality of the world’s smartest troll was a performance trained by a monster tamer who supplied food periodically, once a year.”

“It was a scheme to instill the perception that ‘this place is dangerous, don’t dream of subjugation recklessly.'”

The troll’s dilemma.

The main subject was not the monster troll but the human troll who betrayed his own kind.

Well, like in AOS games, trolls are scary everywhere!

“Did you learn any lessons from this story?”

“Beware of trolls that give quizzes?”

“When you go to unfamiliar places, don’t trust humans carelessly. Especially if they show kindness.”

“Yep!”

“What’s with the ‘yep’? The same goes for the Academy. Don’t be fooled if an unknown professor tries to lure you with snacks or elixirs.”

Because you never know when you might encounter a troll who enjoys laying down their own kind on the road and trampling over them.

* * *

After Oknodie left.

Destroyer returned to his private room.

Slaughtered sheepskin. Double-barrel shotgun. Tobacco pipe.

Among the decorations hanging on the wall like exhibits, what caught his eye was the tobacco pipe.

That day, what the coachman had loaded onto the carriage was a large quantity of tobacco and tobacco pipes.

‘Taming monsters with drug-laced tobacco. What a crazy fellow.’

He didn’t know what was mixed into the drug, but even a veteran warrior like him couldn’t hide his astonishment when the headless body suddenly stood up and put its head back on its torso.

‘No one would have known that was the origin of the immortality drug that caused an uproar across the continent.’

A drug that heals any injury or wound when smoked for a long time, and literally makes one immortal even if the heart stops or the brain is destroyed.

Of course, such a miracle couldn’t come without side effects.

The brain deteriorates and intelligence decreases.

The body turns green and gradually grows larger.

Eventually, the body swells uncontrollably, becoming a massive lump of flesh that can neither die nor live properly.

By increasing cell division infinitely to recover from injuries, the division runs wild to the point where the current form can’t be maintained, swelling to ten times the size of a person.

A drug that creates “sacrifice humans” that black magicians who perform sacrifice rituals and summoning ceremonies love.

‘Well, they do die if burned completely without leaving a single piece of flesh.’

If he hadn’t identified the nature of the tobacco through drug testing later, he might have carelessly handed the tobacco to the guards, potentially flooding the area with the immortality drug.

It was a truly close call.

On the other hand, he also wondered.

How much did the warrior Nyarlathotep know?

That the troll was trying to make humans accomplices?

That the coachman was actually a beast tamer?

That the tobacco the troll smoked was the immortality drug and what its side effects were?

About the future of black magicians who would distribute drug tobacco to poor villagers to create mass sacrifices for summoning rituals?

Whatever the case, now that he’s alone, it’s all unknown.

From that perspective, Oknodie is lucky.

If this were a time of war, the Academy’s lectures would have been more practical.

15 years ago.

And 5 years ago.

Oknodie would have experienced with his comrades what he had gone through as a rookie warrior and a veteran warrior.

‘But… that dream is somewhat concerning.’

After the first lecture.

He visited the alchemy professor to request the production of drugs needed for sleep training.

It was meant to be a curriculum survey to identify Oknodie’s weaknesses and supplement them in the next lecture.

But didn’t he increase his height to 2m 30cm and skillfully wield muscles that weren’t his own, literally tearing and grinding monsters?

Seeing him go berserk with blood magic that activates through blood as a medium, what this child needs is not combat experience but vigilance.

‘Where could he have seen such a giant human?’

It bothered him.

The movement of the muscles was also unusual.

It wasn’t just exerting power beyond common sense because it was a lucid dream.

It was a movement that clearly understood the performance of the body and the power that muscles could exert.

As if he had observed and analyzed the body, the movement of muscles, very closely for a long time.

‘Unless it’s himself, it must be an instructor.’

Before entering the Academy.

Oknodie’s instructor.

“It’s me. I have a reason to use the external communication network after a long time.”

Destroyer placed his hand on the communication magic circle.

He spoke.

About the specs of the giant he saw in Oknodie’s dream.

“The strength of Oknodie’s master is extraordinary. Find out his identity as carefully as possible.”

A response came from the other side of the communication magic circle.

Wiheomhae Foundation.

That child is a foundation child, is it okay to investigate?

“It doesn’t matter. I’m a retired former warrior. There’s no reason to be mindful of suspicious foundation directors.”

Please determine the policy in case of friction.

To the communicator’s request, Destroyer replied.

“Avoid engagement in safe situations. Immediate repulsion if identity is at risk of exposure. After identity is exposed, handle it thoroughly. Everyone can be killed except Oknodie’s master.”