episode_0132

“With this, everything that needs to be done has been completed. Then shall we start the story again?”

Friede, who folded the completed report inside his luggage, took out a water bag and took a sip.

I urged her with an expectant expression.

Long-distance carriage journeys are extremely boring.

All I want to do is sit in a rickety carriage and stare at the scenery outside to pass the time.

Exploring the outdoors can be done for a day or two, but once you start going beyond four days, your patience will reach its limits.

I also felt like I was suffocating from boredom for a while.

‘It would be better if someone attacked me… ‘ To the point where I want stimulation like that.

In such a situation, what could be more exciting than a fight story?

It’s like a martial arts broadcast or something. There is nothing better to kill time.

He sat down against the back of the carriage and took out a cigarette.

If you smoke here, Friede or Millia won’t say anything.

Milia is sleeping in the first place, so it doesn’t matter?

The exhaled smoke was sucked out the back and its long tail waved beyond the carriage.

Like the smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe of a car.

“What did I say last time… .”

“Wasn’t it the part where a lot of monsters came out of the road on the right?”

“Oh, that’s right. It starts from there.”

Friede nodded and started talking.

I leisurely burned the tobacco and listened to her story.

“There was no problem until then. The monsters that came out were like imps or centipede snails, but because the passage was narrow, they couldn’t attack me properly.”

Well, the ceiling was low enough for my sword to touch, so there would have been no point in flying around there.

Wouldn’t it have been swept away like catching a fly?

Even a centipede snail would have had a hard time jumping through a narrow passageway due to its size.

“And then… A new room has appeared. From there, things got complicated.”

Friede’s voice lowered.

As if he was sick of just thinking about it.

“It was a pretty spacious room. Enough for the monsters to be active enough. There were broken beds and other things scattered around the room.”

“Bed?”

“Okay. Only the skeleton remained, but it was definitely a bed. I was confident that a few of them were not broken.”

Friede paused for a moment, perhaps feeling uncomfortable as she continued to move her mouth, and gently tugged on her collar.

The lace tie came loose, exposing her neat collarbones.

“The beds are too small to be furniture for people. At first, I thought it was a demigod’s bed. It wasn’t long before a monster came out and gave me the correct answer.”

Is this finally the main point?

You wrote in your report that you engaged in combat with a ‘cursed mother’.

I managed to win. That must be a pretty tricky monster.

Friede continued the story in a calm tone.

======[Friede and his party]======

“There are no monsters here… ?”

Milia entered the room and muttered in confusion.

It was a room where it wouldn’t have been strange if dozens of monsters were flowing out, but when I entered, the inside was empty.

“Isn’t this a good thing? It would have been difficult if I had met those guys here too. You won easily thanks to the narrow hallway.”

“But… .”

Millia still couldn’t hide her doubtful feelings.

It wasn’t my intention to deny Damian’s words. I actually benefited greatly from the passage.

They say it doesn’t matter since they’re imps and noobs, but centipede snails are a bit tricky monsters.

If it had been a wide area where they could freely swing their arms and tails, they wouldn’t have been able to take them down so easily.

After hesitating for a moment, Millia eventually nodded and suppressed her anxiety.

On the contrary, Friede shook his head.

‘That kid is right, there are no monsters in a place like this… It’s definitely strange.’

Friede had been feeling the same anxiety as Millia since earlier.

It was dangerous to be as optimistic as Damian.

Even monsters have intelligence.

Although not at human level, it is at least higher intelligence than ordinary animals.

The fact that they left this room, which was a battlefield that was advantageous to them, and came out to the hallway and attacked… This means that there must be a reason why it had to be that way.

‘… The concentration of magic energy is very thick. At this rate, a stronger monster than expected may have been summoned, but where did it go?’

Friede continued to look around with sharp eyes.

Hashal’s absence was once again disappointing.

With her sensing ability, she would have easily been able to tell if there were any monsters lurking around.

Even if it was difficult to deal with the three monsters that appeared, there was no need to worry because she would personally come forward at that time.

‘… There is no point in feeling sorry for someone who has disappeared. I have to do something here… .’

It was the moment when all three people entered halfway into the room.

– Coogugung!

A sudden, heavy noise and vibration. The epicenter was behind my back.

The sight reflected in the eyes of the three people who urgently turned around was a huge iron bar falling down, blocking the entrance to the room.

Damian’s great sword, which he swung quickly, collided with the bars and bounced off.

If it had been ordinary iron, it would have bent instantly, but surprisingly, the iron bars were intact without any bends.

Damian clicked his tongue and corrected his posture.

“The door… !”

“Trap… Are you trying to keep us here… !”

“No, I’m trying to prevent you from running away. Damian, Millia, prepare for battle.”

Friede, who took out a saw, approached the group and gave an order.

My gaze was fixed on one corner of the room. Because a huge amount of demon energy was gathered towards that place.

It was a sign that a monster would appear.

And judging from the amount of demon energy, he must be quite powerful.

Damian held the great sword with both hands, and Millia aimed her bow in the direction Friede was looking.

The magical energy concentrated in one point explodes in an instant.

The black storm spread upward and downward, forming a swirling pillar.

“Aaaa!”

A horrifying howl came from inside the whirlpool.

A woman’s voice that seems to crudely imitate the cries of a child.

It was a strange, overlapping sound, as if the vocal cords had been torn into pieces.

Friede’s expression hardened.

A monster that makes the sound of a fetus crying. It was a reaction that came from already knowing its identity.

‘Why, at times like this… !’

Cold sweat runs down my neck. The right hand holding the saw trembled with tension.

If the identity of the enemy was as she thought, it was a difficult and dangerous opponent.

Eventually, the enemy appears, splitting the magic pillar.

“Ugh… !”

Millia let out a soft moan at the sight of the monster that caught her eye.

Friede did not criticize Millia.

It was a monster with such a hideous appearance that it would make you groan, even to yourself.

A large body reaching 8m. If you had seen it from a distance, you would have mistaken it for a deer.

If it had been closer, I would have wondered why the deer was wearing a dress.

If you saw it from that distance, you might be mistaken for its cute appearance.

However, the appearance of the guy I met in front of me was as different from cuteness as heaven and earth.

Hybrid monster, ‘cursed mother’.

It was one of the monsters that clearly used humans as material due to its external characteristics.

A shape that grabs a woman’s nose and mouth and pulls it forward, transforming it into a deer’s head.

There were clear traces of a person on the face, which had a protruding snout like an animal.

There were sparse, half-rotten teeth sticking out beyond the red, shiny lips, and a sour smell emanated from the inside every time it exhaled.

The curly fur hangs down like hair, covering the face and extending all the way to the tail.

The deer antlers sticking out through the hair were made of flesh, not bone.

A horn made by joining together dozens of arms and fingers of a fetus.

The fingers protruding from the surface wriggled disgustingly.

Its thick, long neck had gills, and its skin was mottled with age spots and tumors.

Old weapons were stuck here and there on the body, probably showing signs of a battle with someone, and yellow fluid was leaking.

The upper body stood straight like a human, and the lower body was horizontally long like an animal.

The two pairs of arms on either side of the upper body were so thin that only bones and skin remained, and their length was several times longer than that of a human being, commensurate with its size.

The eyes embedded in the back of the hand glared at Friede and Damien.

The clenched hands held four types of weapons.

Is it correct to say they are weapons? Two of them were clearly weapons… It was difficult to tell the purpose of the other two just by looking at them.

A sword, an axe, a toy with a bell, and a flesh doll that looks like a girl.

‘They’re toys for kids. ‘All four.’

Friede’s gaze turned towards the bell and the doll.

Because those were much more dangerous than swords and axes.

The cursed mother slowly approached them. Every time I take a step closer, the flesh flutters.

Three pairs of breasts stretched all the way from her chest to her abdomen, and beneath them, long, melted skin covered her entire lower body like the hem of a dress.

From the lower abdomen, three or four shapes that looked like the faces of fetuses bulged as if poking through the skin, then sank repeatedly.

Those were the reasons why this monster was given the name Maternity.

“What on earth is that… ? person… … ?”

“What kind of person is that? It’s just a monster. … It’s also a very dangerous monster.”

Friede raised the saw.