episode_0067

Jung Yu-shin quietly looked down at the assassins who were pissing their pants.

“W…why are we your teacher?”

The man with the eye patch stuttered as he asked.

“Didn’t you teach me parrying? By shooting a load of bolts.”

“C…crazy bastard.”

“Shut up!”

Jung Yu-shin shouted.

The harsh scream echoed through the cavern.

The assassins became as silent as clams.

“I’m sorry. Teachers, now I’ll show you a wild sword dance.”

“…”

Jung Yu-shin moved around and swung his sword.

The wide cavern.

Beyond the flickering torchlight, Jung Yu-shin’s shadow stretched long.

The assassins felt like they were going insane with terror.

Before their eyes, the Barbaroi was wielding his sword, creaking with bolts stuck all over his body.

A scene that was completely incomprehensible by common sense.

The bizarre dance continued for 3 minutes.

“Uwaaaaaaaack!!!”

The dance ended with Jung Yu-shin vomiting a bucketful of blood.

He gasped for breath, picked up the mace that had fallen to the floor, and approached the assassins.

“I’ll take a word on what you thought of the sword dance.”

He shoved the mace into the assassin’s mouth.

It was a guy with a mustache like Hitler, for an assassin.

“···S, save me.”

“Nope! Eliminated.”

He swung down the mace.

Smack!!!

Crack!!!

His skull shattered and his eyeballs popped out. The Hitler mustache guy’s head was crushed like a flounder.

1 death.

Jung Yu-shin swung the mace to shake off the brain matter.

“I asked for your impressions, you bastards.”

He aimed the mace at another guy.

“How was it?”

“…”

The assassin guy with the nose as big as a fist.

He was moving his mouth, unable to speak properly. Had he caught aphasia or something?

Jung Yu-shin nodded and swung down the mace.

The fist-nosed man’s head was crushed. His body convulsed, so he struck it a few more times.

Thwack!! Paaack!! Thwooack!!

Blood splattered on Jung Yu-shin’s indifferent face.

“Oswald, I know you’re watching. Come out.”

“…”

“Are you just going to leave your client to die?”

‘Is that how you want to play it?’

Jung Yu-shin leisurely looked for the next guy.

“I…I!”

An assassin missing an ear raised his voice.

Without answering, he swung down the mace and smashed his head.

The last guy left.

The eye patch man.

“We’re connected by fate, let’s at least exchange names.”

The eye patch man’s lips trembled.

Pssssssss.

The eye patch man couldn’t take it anymore and pissed his pants again.

Jung Yu-shin stared down at him to the end and spat out a word.

“You’re pissing freely. Good job, well done.”

He gently stroked the eye patch man’s head, then grabbed it.

“Were you having fun shooting bolts from afar? Didn’t expect it to turn out like this, did you? You pathetic bastards. Cough!!!”

He unintentionally spat a handful of blood on the eye patch man’s face.

“···Sorry.”

As a sign of apology, Jung Yu-shin opened his palm and wiped the blood from the eye patch man’s face. It didn’t wipe off well. Rather, it made his face covered in blood.

Jung Yu-shin made eye contact with the eye patch man again.

“I don’t have much time right now. I’ll ask just one thing. Are there more besides you guys?”

“…”

The eye patch man didn’t open his mouth. But his pupils flickered slightly.

‘Confirmation.’

He confirmed the most important information.

Jung Yu-shin stood up and gently stepped on the eye patch man’s neck.

Crackle.

The man with the broken neck trembled. He didn’t take his foot off and continued to step on it, blocking his airway.

“Kueeeeup!!!”

The man’s face turned blue and then white. Soon, he died.

Jung Yu-shin took his foot off the man’s neck and looked around.

4 people. All dead.

Jung Yu-shin’s body staggered.

“···Oswald, come out.”

Clap clap clap clap!!!

Applause came from right behind him.

He turned around and saw Oswald clapping madly with a reddened face.

“Amazing!!! Amazing!!! Scar!!!”

Oswald stopped his hands with a snap and grinned.

“You crazy bastard!!! Your guts, your venom, your resourcefulness, you’ve got it all. When I heard the news that the slave hunters had been wiped out, I thought some small fry was causing a ruckus in the eastern district, but you’re a gem!”

Jung Yu-shin stared at Oswald for a moment.

His way of speaking had changed quite a bit, perhaps because he was excited.

Is he no longer in clown mode?

“Okay.”

“Join our clan!”

“That’s not going to happen.”

Jung Yu-shin cut off Oswald’s offer like a knife.

Oswald chuckled.

“You’re a talent, is that it? You’re also talented at making people squirm. I like you more and more? Is there something else you want?”

“There’s something I want to ask.”

“Anything!”

“Where did you go?”

Oswald’s smile deepened at Jung Yu-shin’s question.

“It’s as you expected. I went to slit your party’s throats.”

“…”

His heart sank.

News so shocking that the pain disappeared in an instant.

Jung Yu-shin gripped his sword.

Oswald quickly continued.

“But I just came back. When I thought about it, it seemed like a pointless thing to do.”

Jung Yu-shin glared at Oswald.

“Where is the Fifth Prince’s nanny?”

“Here.”

As he stepped aside slightly, the figure of an old woman appeared.

She had lost consciousness, but she was in relatively good shape. Unlike the last time he saw her, she wasn’t in a serious condition, spitting up blood from her mouth.

Jung Yu-shin grabbed his sword and stepped forward.

He confirmed everything.

If he kills only Oswald, everything will be over.

He was calmly facing Oswald, but his physical condition was rapidly deteriorating to the worst state.

‘I have to end it quickly.’

Oswald glanced at Jung Yu-shin’s sword and quickly stepped back, waving his arms.

“Hey, why are you so eager to kill me?”

“Because you tried to kill me.”

“That’s not true.”

Oswald said with a straight face after hearing Jung Yu-shin’s answer.

“I was just acting according to the request I received. Besides, I saved your companion too. I even told you that this old woman is the Fifth Prince’s nanny, right?”

“Oswald, aren’t you looking down on me too much?”

It’s annoying to even bother refuting each point.

“Haa, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I was actually enjoying it a bit. It’s because I didn’t recognize talent like you.”

Oswald sighed and apologized.

“Shut up and come fight.”

“Really? Your party is running here right now?”

Jung Yu-shin’s body stiffened.

Oswald’s eyes rolled back.

“Are you trying to die here together? Scar, aren’t you looking down on me too much?”

“…”

Jung Yu-shin and Oswald made eye contact in silence.

Oswald opened his mouth.

“I’ve conceded a lot. No matter what my intentions were, I saved your party and even spread information. Besides, I didn’t even touch you when you were fighting. I’ve never been this nice. In that sense, grant me just one request. Of course, it’s not for free.”

“···What is it?”

“Come visit our clan in the underworld sometime.”

“Why bother?”

“Because I like you. Just stop by for a tour.”

“I’ll visit sometime when I’m bored.”

‘Crazy bastard, do you think I’d go?’

Jung Yu-shin answered contrary to his true feelings.

“Good! Then I’ll take this old woman. I’ll take good care of her at our clan until you come.”

Taking the Fifth Prince’s nanny as a hostage?

Jung Yu-shin wrung out his brain and rolled his head.

The assassins were targeting the Fifth Prince’s nanny. Which means, the nanny’s identity has been confirmed.

If he takes her, she won’t be safe even outside the dungeon. She might be attacked. Not only himself but also Darmon’s Inn is in danger.

In short, the Fifth Prince’s nanny is.

‘A bomb.’

“Okay.”

He desperately finished his calculations and answered.

“Then next time…”

Oswald stopped speaking and turned back to point at the eye patch man.

“Ah, that’s right! Make sure you take the bag those assassins have. It’s a bag with magic enchantments on it. It’ll be pretty lucrative. And take this too.”

Oswald took out a stone from his chest and threw it.

Clang!

He swung his sword and knocked the stone to the floor.

“···No, take it, friend. Don’t knock it away. It’s a pretty expensive mana stone.”

“Why are you giving this to me?”

He couldn’t rashly accept such a suspicious stone from an enemy.

Oswald shrugged his shoulders once at Jung Yu-shin’s question and opened his mouth.

“A likeability play?”

“…”

‘Is he really crazy?’

The clown-like guy who was jumping up and down, thrilled that it was hunting time, suddenly changed his face and suggested recruiting him, showing him favor.

His overheated head couldn’t keep up with the confusing situation.

‘There’s no one normal among the underworld bastards in the eastern district.’

When the suspicion didn’t disappear from Jung Yu-shin’s eyes, Oswald sighed and opened his mouth.

“If you’re that suspicious, just sell it to the Explorer’s Guild. It’ll be worth some money. Then see you later.”

Oswald shouldered the Fifth Prince’s nanny and disappeared from the spot. As if it were a magic trick.

Is it the Dark Veil effect? What an OP engraving.

Thud.

As soon as Oswald disappeared, Jung Yu-shin knelt down.

All the strength drained from his body.

It was because the body, which had barely been holding on with the Avenger engraving, had reached its limit.

‘I’m going to die.’

Beyond the flickering vision.

People were running from afar. They looked familiar.

Soline?

Not only that, but Gallaheim and Pyrion, who had healed their injuries, were also visible.

Oswald was right.

That’s why it was even more confusing. What on earth is that crazy clown up to?

“Scar!!!”

Soline shouted and ran over.

What a hopelessly nice party they were.

Jung Yu-shin smiled and closed his eyes, then immediately opened them again.

Soline was grabbing his shoulders and shaking him like crazy.

Jung Yu-shin’s body moved back and forth, swaying like a scarecrow in the wind.

“Don’t die!!! Keuek!!! Damn it!!!”

“Sol…Soline.”

Jung Yu-shin barely opened his mouth.

“What is it?!”

“D…don’t talk about the F…Fifth Prince’s nanny outside the dungeon.”

Not only Soline but all the party members stared blankly at Jung Yu-shin.

“T, that’s not what’s important!”

Soline shouted.

“T…That’s the most important thing. And ta…take that one-eyed guy’s bag.”

Jung Yu-shin pointed with his chin at the eye patch man and continued.

“I…It’s expensive. And my helmet too…Ah! And this stone too…”

Jung Yu-shin stopped talking and lowered his head.

He had more to say, but he was too tired.

He instructed them to take everything they could get their hands on. He didn’t know if it would be funeral expenses or not.

People were shouting around him, but the party members’ voices were fading from his ears.

Darkness came.

* * *

“···We have to get out of here quickly!”

“···We’re almost there!!!”

“Scar, just hang in there a little longer···!”

His vision swayed back and forth. Someone kept talking to him.

“Break through!!! It’s just hobgoblins!”

Soline shouted bravely.

Kaaang!!!

Ssweek!!!

The sound of weapons clashing against each other.

The sound of flesh tearing and the screams of monsters were heard nearby.

What happened?

He didn’t know.

It seemed like quite a bit of time had passed.

Blue light.

Clear air.

Did they get out?

Someone shouted again. The voice was a little different.

“No, crazy! How is he still breathing after getting hit by so many bolts?!”

“F, first, call a priest!!!”

His body was laid on a soft bed.

His intermittently flickering mind sank beneath the surface of the water.

* * *

It seemed like he had a pretty long dream.

Memories of cracking open a beer with a friend in front of a convenience store in the evening.

Memories of running on the park track in the cool evening breeze.

Memories of going camping with his family and counting the stars in the night sky.

Beloved family and friends.

He opened his eyes.

A familiar ceiling.

It was his room in the inn.

The warm morning sunlight was coming in through the window.

His chest felt heavy.

He barely lifted his stiff neck and looked at his chest.

A white rat, Lynn, was buried in his chest, making a drowsy snorting sound as she slept.

All the bolts stuck in his body had been removed.

He laid his neck back on the pillow and looked at the ceiling.

He survived.

Once again.

How long had he been unconscious?

Originally, he should have woken up in the relief center.

Various thoughts flashed through his mind.

There were unresolved issues.

There were so many things he was curious about.

How did they get out of that dungeon?

Jung Yu-shin tried to move his stiff body, but stopped.

He wanted to enjoy this peaceful moment a little longer.

Jung Yu-shin closed his eyes again.

At that time.

“Mr. Scar?”

Someone called his name from outside the door.

A soft voice. It was familiar.

It was definitely Mion’s voice.

He didn’t have any strength in his body, and he was feeling playful, so he lay there without answering.

Squeak.

The door opened and Mion came in.

Shuffle. Shuffle.

The sound of footsteps carefully stepping on the wooden floor grew closer and closer.

The mom scent that calmed his mind wafted into his nose.

“Mr. Scar, are you awake?”

Mion came closer and spoke to him.

“…”

Mion’s soft hand gently grabbed Jung Yu-shin’s hand.

‘Now!’

The moment Jung Yu-shin tried to open his eyes.

Something touched his cheek.

Chuuut.

Something moist and soft.

“Huuut. Huuut.”

Mion’s breath tickled his cheek.

Lick.

Something warm and wet tickled his cheek.

‘Huh?’

Chuuueup. Chuuueup.

His cheek was being sucked.

‘What is this?’

Jung Yu-shin’s eyelids fluttered.