Chapter 19: The story of how the party fell apart (4)

Chapter 19: The story of
how the party fell apart (4)

“‘Aaaahhhh!”

An
agonized scream echoed through the labyrinth.

I
brought the axe down with more force. I intended to end it once and
for all, but my aim was slightly off. Instead of the side of her
neck, I hit her in the collarbone.

“You,
you fucking bastard-!!!”

Deluna
dropped her casual tone and let out a thick stream of curses.

A
strange energy began to coalesce in her hands as I felt the
temperature around me rise.

I
instinctively retrieved my axe and stepped away from Deluna.

‘What
is that. Fire?’

My
judgment was correct.

Before
I could back away, flames appeared in Deluna’s hands, and a fireball
landed where I was.

Magic.
I’d known of its existence from the conversations of the explorers in
the tavern, but I’d never seen it with my own eyes.

The
searing flames are so fucking hot. If I got hit with that, I’d be
roasted in a second.

“Sister!
Are you okay!”

“You
assholes! Would you be okay if you were me?! What are you doing?
Hurry up and kill him!”

“Yep-
Kuck!”

The
girl who was answering while hugging Jeremy got punched in the jaw
and collapsed.

Jeremy,
free of the woman’s embrace, scrambled toward me.

“Ha,
I got one!”

“Yeah.
Good for you. But go get dressed.”

I
sheathed my axe in one hand and my dagger in the other, keeping as
little eye contact as possible with Jeremy.

“My
sister’s enemy!”

“How
dare you stab us in the back!”

You
tried to stab me in the back first, and your sister isn’t dead yet.

The
four women charged, each with a sword drawn.

It’s
definitely a different feeling than dealing with goblins.

Unlike
goblins, which all look the same in height, weight, and appearance,
there are big ones, medium ones, and small ones.

‘It’s
hard to tell.’

A
sword swung by a big guy has a different trajectory than a sword
swung by a small guy.

Of
course, different people handle swords in different ways.

With
all these people of different heights and sizes, it was hard to keep
track of the flow of the battle.

‘Then
I have to knock them out before they figure it out.’

The
overwhelming difference in physical ability made it possible. My
reflexes and agility overcame my lack of reaction time.

I
pulled the axe from the large woman’s neck. Along with a strange
resistance, I felt the sensation of slaughter at my fingertips.

“Hmph,
hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph. How can he slit
someone’s throat in one go?”

“It’s
not about strength, why is he moving so fast?”

The
combatants looked baffled at first glance.

Clearly,
I was outclassed in skill and experience, but my physical prowess
made up the difference.

“What
kind of man is that?”

It’s
probably a bit of a shock to the women of this world to be
overwhelmed physically by a man.

I
turned my attention back to the battle and sneak a glance to the
corner of the battlefield.

I
saw Deluna pressing her neck as if trying to stop the bleeding with
one hand and extending the other toward me.

“⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯”

Her
mouth moved quickly, and she must have said something, but I couldn’t
hear a word.

‘Is
she saying something?’

An
unidentifiable energy was gathering in her hand. It’s twice as big as
the last one.

I’m
going to be in a lot of trouble if I her finish.

As
soon as I thought that, I moved and threw the dagger.

-Pow!

“Ugh!”

With
the dagger in her stomach, Deluna opened her eyes. Who chants with
their eyes closed?

Perhaps
because she lost concentration, the unidentifiable energy subsided
slightly. I’m going to go take care of it right away.

-Pfft!

The
kick came out of nowhere and I rolled on the floor. I’d been
distracted by Deluna for a moment.

“Ouch,
let go of me!”

“No.
I won’t let go!”

-Thud!

“Get
off me!”

But
I wasn’t about to let up. I grabbed her by the calf as I was flying
away from the kick to the belly, and drove the axe into her thigh.

-Thwack,
thwack, thwack!

From
the thigh, up the abdomen, to the skull, I put axe marks all over her
body, like kiss marks.

As
I cleaned up the mess, I locked eyes with the dead creature, dripping
with brain fluid.

“⋯⋯”

My
stomach churned for a moment, then the nausea quickly subsided.

My
head felt cold. At the same time, my body began to burn with a
strange heat.

‘Don’t
think about anything. Focus on surviving now. Swing the axe at least
one more time, so I can live. Once I live, I can do something,
whether it’s finding my sister or finding a way back. So swing the
axe! Behind!’

-Bam!

I
slammed the axe into the shin of the one coming at me from behind.

Before
she can fall, I pull the axe out again, this time aiming for her
throat.

-Zzzzzzzz!

By
the time it hit the ground, the top of her neck was already gone.

“⋯hhh.
Shit⋯”

I
jumped to my feet, my heart pounding so fast I thought it would
explode, and I saw Deluna cursing in a broken voice.

The
mysterious energy that had gathered in her hands had already
scattered cleanly everywhere.

“I
wouldn’t have touched him if I’d known he was such a crazy monster.”

The
one who casually beat people and sold them into slavery called me a
monster.

“Heh,
heh, heh, don’t come, don’t come!”

Deluna
began to cower and run away, her once calm and bold demeanor fading.

‘Yeah.
Monster or whatever.’

I
can be worse than a monster to fulfill my purpose.

“You,
do you know who’s on top of me, huh?! No!”

“I
don’t know, bitch.”

Fuck!!!

I
slammed the axe down.

***

“Ahhhh.”

Denshi
blacked out and woke up, looking around dazedly at her bloody
surroundings.

The
master who had spent the last decade demanding one-sided loyalty and
obedience from her was dead.

Not
only that. All of those who had done violence to her under her master
command were also dead.

Denshi
felt her heart clench with an unknown emotion.

It
was the most complicated feeling she had ever felt in her life.

It
was a dizzying mix of emotions, but one thing was certain.

It’s
not an unhappy emotion, like sadness or depression, but something
closer to elation or joy.

Denshi
felt the magic in her soul change.

Slave-binding
magic, the magic that made a slave exist as a slave wavered uneasily
as it lost its object of attribution.

She
was not completely freed from slavery but had only temporarily lost
her master.

‘Time
is running out⋯’

The
magic of slave binding, specially modified to prevent harm to the
master, will take the life of the slave if he is not indentured to a
new master within three hours of the master’s death but she’s in
the Labyrinth and there was no way you could find a new master right
away.

And
even if she did, it wouldn’t be a normal master.

‘Even
if I get out of the Labyrinth and rejoin the organization, I’ll
probably end up working for a bitch like Deluna again.’

With
a life like this, is it even worth living?

“Grumpy.”

The
familiar voice made her shoulders twitch. Instinctively, Denshi wound
throbbed with pain.

Automatically,
her mind flashed back to what he’d done earlier.

How
he’d casually driven his axe into a woman’s throat, and how she
fought like a wild beast.

She
turned around, and there he stood, covered in blood and dripping with
fat and red flesh, clutching his axe.

Her
whole body relaxed.

Denshi
had been through a lot of rough things, but his appearance now was so
intimidating she couldn’t help but pee.

She
could feel her underwear getting wet, and she started to soak the
floor.

“Huh.”

She
couldn’t see his face through his helmet, but she knew he was looking
at her.

He
chuckled in amusement, then pointed the axe at Denshi.

Immediately,
Denshi realized.

Ah.
I still want to live a little longer.

Earlier,
she had briefly considered death, but it was a stupid idea.

The
way she was shaking like this, it was clear that she wanted to live,
even if it meant being a slave again and living a miserable life.

“Whose
side are you on?”

⋯Whose
side is it?

‘Are
you telling me that I still have a choice?’

“You
told me to run away from that bitch. Why did you do that? For what
reason?”

He
must have wondered why the woman who had once tried to sell him into
slavery, and worse, rape him, was trying to help him.

Denshi’s
face flushed.

‘How
can I say that, how can I say that⋯!’

It
was never for the right reasons. She hadn’t even realized it in the
first place.

Instead,
Denshi had hanged herself.

She
could feel the collar he’d tied around her neck with the magic rope.

It
had been a month since the incident, and she still hadn’t taken it
off.

She
had put off taking it off for reasons such as it was a nuisance and
it was fashion, but only now did she realize its true meaning.

“Master,
it is a slave’s duty to protect you⋯”

“⋯What?”

Hmph.

Denshi
knelt down, bowed her head to him and held out her palm above her
head.

On
top of her palm was the handle of the leash.

Forehead
to the ground, she trembled, handing him her lifeline.

“Please
be my master.”

An
indentured servitude can never be broken by the will of the slave,
unless the slave can pay the price, or the master frees him.

If
you mess up, you can be enslaved until you die.

She
would give this man everything she has, even her life.

As
a woman, she felt a tremendous sense of defeat and humiliation, but
it was quickly transformed into an indescribable pleasure.

And
most of all, Denshi knew what face was hidden beneath that helmet.

‘I
rather like it⋯’

Honestly,
it was a profitable business.

***

“Don’t
sugarcoat it, say what you really mean. Make it easy to understand.”

“⋯I’m
destined to be a slave. I’d rather roll under a man than roll under a
woman⋯”

“You
said that long ago but you haven’t changed at all, you’re still the
same low-life sex freak you were when I first met you, but you’re a
hundred times better than those slutty bitches. Okay. Pass.”

-POP!

The
leash was pulled.

***

In
the stillness of the night, a woman opened her eyes.

Immediately,
she saw thousands, tens of thousands of dolls.

The
woman stared at the dolls, whose threads had just broken, and closed
her eyes again.

“One
bug died⋯”

Sissy
said.