Chapter 119 : Chapter 119

Chapter 119 - Hunting (2)

Kellyville.

A backwater village among backwater villages, where even the nearest city could only be found after driving for several days straight.

It was a village barely getting by on a meager fishing industry maintained by a few boats.

In Conqueror, it was a stage that appeared as a kind of instance dungeon.

“...”

Well.

It looked even more desolate in person.

The Wolf's Village, once ruled by Yelena, was also a place that had its share of desolation, but this place had a slightly different kind of gloom.

If the Wolf's Village was a place where people didn't care what happened, this was a place that felt openly hostile to outsiders.

“...Hmm. It seems we might have to fight the people here before we hunt the demon.”

“You can’t.”

I first stopped Cornelius, who was sensitively reacting to the hostile gazes directed at us.

Well, considering his position, he wasn't a person who would be used to this kind of emotion wherever he went.

Still, it would become a real problem if you started using your strength, so please hold back.

“...Well. It seems there’s something I need to pay more attention to than myself.”

And I had no choice but to agree with those words.

At least Evangeline, who was glaring at her surroundings with eyes that seemed several times more sunken than usual, was in a state several times more threatening than Cornelius.

No, seeing her return the glares of everyone looking at her one by one, it seemed like she wanted to pick a fight first.

“...I’m saying this just in case. Don’t cause any trouble.”

“Hmph.”

She would die before answering yes.

The coercive power of the contract would prevent any sudden actions, but.

“More importantly, with this atmosphere... it’ll be hard to find a place to stay comfortably. Is there a way?”

“There is.”

It wasn’t me who said that.

It was Evangeline, who had been continuously emitting a monstrous aura next to me, who spat it out.

“Follow me. There’s at least a place to stay for now.”

“...”

“...”

Cornelius looked at me with an expression that asked what was going on, but I just shrugged.

I had a rough idea, but, well.

“Let’s go for now.”

***

As we walked boldly across the entire village, murmurs pricked our ears from all over.

Roughly combining the keywords, they were fragmented whispers like ‘Could it be the witch’s’ ‘I thought she died back then’ ‘Don’t tell me again’ and so on.

And the target of that interest was Evangeline, walking ahead.

Commonly, it was what people muttered as if having a fit after seeing her fiery red hair.

“...Hmm.”

Cornelius stroked his chin again and looked around.

“Well, now... I can roughly guess what might have happened in such a backward town.”

“Is that so?”

“At least from a demon hunter’s perspective, that young lady has no problems. It means she’s not the kind of person who fits the word witch. But to the extent that such words come out... I can tell she has a ‘peculiar constitution’. There’s also what I saw last time.”

Well, that would be right.

Being born as a mana aptitude user was a phenomenon that appeared all over the world, but among them, there were those whose aptitude exploded ‘outwardly’ to an extreme degree.

Being able to handle powerful flames to a noticeable degree without being a mage or anything, like Evangeline, was one such trait.

Weaving spells through mana could manifest in all sorts of forms, but if one could interfere with ‘natural phenomena’ to such a conspicuous degree without using all sorts of complex catalysts like a mage, then that was just their constitution.

Such a type of mana user was called an ‘Overloader’. A constitution that could instinctively pump out sophisticated spells that others would have to rack their brains and invest decades to understand the principles of.

In my memory... there were less than 10 Overloaders in the entire world of Conqueror.

Among them, 3 were active as current climbers. 2 of them were already EX-rank climbers. The remaining one was Kim Kang-in.

It meant there was no need to further explain how powerful a characteristic it was.

So she must have easily risen to a terrifying position like a Knight of the Round Table.

However.

“...How a human who suddenly pulls out flames from thin air at a young age would have looked to people who knew nothing.”

“Indeed.”

Considering her age, it would have been before the ‘Tower’ officially appeared and before mana was clearly defined.

It meant it wouldn’t have been strange to be called a witch or what have you.

Just looking at the place Evangeline guided us to was proof of that.

A dilapidated hut on a quiet hill far from the village.

It was a place that reeked of being hastily built by a family kicked out of the village.

And next to it were two modestly made gravestones and graves.

“...”

“...”

Both I and Cornelius were people with tact.

There was no need to ask what those were.

“Come in. It’ll be enough to spend the night.”

“Then.”

As Cornelius’s giant body entered, the floor creaked, but the inside was definitely the form of a proper house.

“There aren't many huts that can withstand my weight after this long. The frame is sturdy. Was your late father a carpenter?”

“...He was. Though his work completely dried up after I was born.”

Evangeline said that and looked at the faded photograph hanging on the wall.

A family photo that was clearly taken when she was young. Seeing it, her eyes quickly became filled with melancholy.

“...”

“...”

A silence fell among the group for a moment, but it seemed Evangeline didn’t welcome this atmosphere, as she quickly changed the subject.

“...We’ll stay here tonight. What’s the plan?”

I shrugged at her words and replied.

“Actually, we don’t even need to stay here tonight.”

“What?”

“We’ll finish it within today and leave.”

“...”

Evangeline sent me a dumbfounded look, but there was no reason to invest a long time here in the first place.

I told you, didn't I? I just came here to ‘test’ a new item I got.

I just had to take care of business and disappear quickly.

“Then... why did we even come this far?”

“No, well.”

I replied vaguely and checked my watch.

It was obviously because there was an event I had triggered.

At the same time as the alarm on my watch went off, the sound of someone roughly knocking on the door echoed inside the hut.

***

“...This is almost classic.”

“I agree.”

Torches. Pitchforks. And other household tools held menacingly by the villagers.

Seeing that scene spread out beyond the door, Cornelius muttered in an incredulous voice.

Could there be a scene that better encapsulated the image of a stubborn rural village ostracizing someone?

“I couldn’t believe it, but seeing you come straight here... so you were the witch after all!”

“Hang her!”

“Burn her!”

Such murmurs spread around in an instant.

My personal sentiment was that I would have preferred they all engage in their own livelihoods instead of bickering like this, but if they had that kind of intelligence in the first place, they wouldn’t have chased an innocent family out of the village.

“Young men have been disappearing lately! That witch must have bewitched them!”

“As expected of one who inherited her parents’ sins! How dare she brazenly reappear in this village!”

Evangeline’s face, which had been expressionless no matter what the other party spouted, contorted horribly as soon as the word ‘parents’ came out.

“...My mother and father did nothing but build houses for this village, dedicating their entire lives! If you hadn’t kicked them out for such ridiculous reasons...!”

That would be right.

Considering Evangeline’s background, it was a natural thing.

She was just an ordinary girl when she was young, and her parents were ordinary village carpenters.

But because their child had an obviously strange ability, they were banished from the village that feared it, and the couple who had spent their entire lives in the village grew old and died lonely outside the village, never accepted until the end.

It was an annoying story.

However, what was more annoying.

“L-look at that! Her true nature comes out as soon as things go wrong! Our village doesn’t need someone like you, you witch!”

“Get lost! Take the outsiders you brought with you and disappear!”

“...”

Was a certain red-headed idiot who couldn't even think of properly retaliating because the village was the last remaining trace of her parents, even though her family had suffered for a reason that was clearly unfair to anyone.

Even now, she was just listening to the endless stream of verbal abuse, her hands clenched into fists and trembling, her expression hardened.

I remembered it was because her parents’ last words were ‘Still, don’t hate those people’.

In the game, if you somehow managed to recruit Evangeline as a companion and brought her to this village, this was an event that always appeared.

‘And...’

In that event, Evangeline could never harm this village. That’s how important the ‘last remaining trace of her family’ was to her.

Because it was the last proof that she was human.

Her usual way of talking, like ‘for a human’, ‘human this’, ‘human that’, was ultimately her own expression to consciously keep a distance from that psychology.

“Damn it! We should have burned this hut down long ago!”

“...You bastard!”

And as soon as those words came out, I grabbed the scruff of Evangeline’s neck as she was about to explode.

“You...! What are you doing, now! Let go of this!”

“Ah, don’t worry. I’m not stopping you. I want to beat all those ignorant bastards to death just as much.”

“...”

“But I want to handle it my way. You’ll be better off that way too, right?”

I gave a smirk to Evangeline, who was looking back at me with a dumbfounded expression, and turned my head with that same face to the villagers, whose expressions had become a little more hostile after hearing my words.

“Now, then. You barbarians who attack first if you see something you don’t know. Shall we talk like civilized people?”

“We have nothing to say to outsiders! Get lost!”

“No. You will.”

I said that and checked my watch.

“From now... within 10 minutes. I guarantee it. You guys will be on your knees begging me to help you. So in preparation for that, I’ll state my demands in advance.”

“What on earth are you talking about...”

“I want an apology. Not to me, but to ‘Evangeline Rhyker’ here.”

I caught the sight of the person behind me widening her eyes out of the corner of my eye.

Well, to be honest.

Even if I said I wanted to beat them to death, if I really killed everyone here, that girl’s sleep would be more troubled than mine.

In the first place, that idiot was a person who was reluctant to harm even these people who were tormenting her, just because ‘her parents used to be close to them’.

In the game, if you caused a ruckus in the village, her favorability would drop drastically. If you killed someone, the relationship would turn hostile.

So, this was the alternative.

At the very least, I had to make them bow their heads and say they were truly sorry.

“First, this girl is not a witch. I want you all to understand this fact properly.”

“...You.”

“And second, her parents were also good people. They were carpenters who dedicated their entire lives to this village. Admit that you kicked them out for ridiculous reasons, saying they were not members of the village.”

These were all the grudges Evangeline’s parents had held in their hearts until they died.

In other words, these were the ‘things this girl deserved to be apologized for’.

“To the people you tormented to death, offer at least the minimum human decency. That is my demand.”

“...”

Until I finished speaking, Evangeline was looking at me with an expression as if she had seen something unbelievable.

Her breathing also seemed ragged. What was this?

“...You.”

The voice of the person speaking was almost mixed with tears.

Huh. Was she annoyed that I was only getting that much?

Still, it couldn’t be helped. Even if I wanted to extort something, there would be no valuable items here.

More than anything, I always thought this event was annoying too.

So I was going to solve it my way.

“...Your grasp of things is remarkably different in areas you understand and areas you don’t.”

Lord Cornelius.

What on earth do you mean by that all of a sudden?

***

“...Huh?”

“Climber Seo Ah-in? What is it? Suddenly in the middle of training.”

“No. I feel like Kim Gyu-sik is hooking one more person...”

“...What on earth are you talking about?”

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