Chapter 13 : Incidents(4)

It was the day of the decisive battle.

At sixteen years old in winter, I exhaled a cold breath and strung my crossbow.

The Master Sarkas.

A being the size of a bear, devouring its own kind, the very anomaly of this world.

Its immense presence had become increasingly impossible to ignore over time, growing into a threat to the ecosystem of the Luden Forest.

Its existence soon became known even to humans, and I decided that it could not be left alone.

Since that day, I devoted every day to magic training and Sarkas research.

The more I used Dark Bullet, the more my usage limit increased. After five years of practice, I could use it almost ten times—just barely.

Since I had created this anomaly, I would correct it with my own hands.

I diligently carried firewood for the stove.

Chopping firewood had now completely become my responsibility, and I could gather enough on my own.

Thinking back to the first winter I spent here… I still shiver from the cold.

Because the firewood I chopped was terribly insufficient, I remember everyone gathering in front of the stove for a whole month.

While I was carrying firewood, Heukgyeon came in carrying something.

“Take it easy. Haven’t you been doing too much lately? Like someone who’s about to leave.”

Thud.

I stopped my hand from putting down the firewood and briefly thought about what to say.

“Heukgyeon.”

“Yes?”

“I’m leaving this year. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you in advance.”

This winter, I would be seventeen.

The Academy’s manifestation ceremony, which I thought would never come, was just around the corner.

I had wondered when to say it, but in the end, I could only say it now.

“…I see. I understand.”

She was surprisingly calm.

She was the one who had spent more time with me than the captain, perhaps.

Of course, I knew that she wasn’t really okay.

“Shall we go eat dinner, Saya?”

“Yes. I’ll finish this up and go.”

She was about to go out first but hesitated and looked back again.

“..Saya.”

“..?”

“You’re taller than me now. It seems like just yesterday that you were so small.”

“…”

During dinner, she was the same as usual.

As always, she asked about everyone’s well-being and listened to their concerns.

A dinner table without her was already unimaginable for me.

In the middle of the night, when there was no light, I confirmed that everyone was asleep, got dressed, and headed for the forest.

The blade of the dagger, the tension of the crossbow string, and even the traps placed throughout the forest—I checked everything thoroughly.

Given its size, I could have asked the members for help, but I didn’t want to needlessly involve them and put them in danger.

The basic equipment was no different from that time, but now I had magic.

Dark Bullet.

The reason why the power of Dark Bullet increased as the surroundings became darker was that it absorbed the surrounding darkness and fired it in the form of a black hole.

Perhaps the name “Gravity Bullet” would be more appropriate than “Dark Bullet”?

The condition for this Dark Bullet to exert its maximum power was right now.

On a night when the clouds were thick and there was almost no moonlight, by blocking the light around with dark magic, it could exert its maximum power.

I checked the traps and set up bait.

The bait used was my clothes, stained with a lot of blood from the operation, which I thought would be enough to lure it.

Now all that was left was to hide nearby and wait for it to come.

…

Rustle.

‘It’s here.’

It was him.

As a creature that had been starving for humans for a long time, as soon as it smelled the blood, it appeared with its heavy body.

Was it my imagination, or did it seem to have grown bigger than before?

Thud.

As soon as it stepped on the pre-dug trap, the ground beneath its feet collapsed, pulling it down.

“Kraaaaa—!”

‘It fell..!’

I quickly checked inside the pit.

“..Huh?”

It wasn’t there. I definitely saw it fall.

It was the moment I was looking into the pit.

The ground vibrated, and a rumbling sound gradually increased.

“..No way.”

Piercing the ground on the opposite side, it revealed its huge body.

As soon as it fell into the pit, it dug through the ground and came out the other side.

“Anemos!”

I used the wind magic I stole from Gillian to push my body away and quickly create distance.

It was my mistake not to think about the rabbit’s habits, but I didn’t expect it to escape so quickly, even with the sharply sharpened wood densely installed at the bottom.

There were still more traps.

To lure it, I ran between the traps, avoiding the activation devices.

As expected, all the minor traps were smashed or crushed because they couldn’t pierce the hard skin.

But the real purpose was separate.

I lured it to the last trap I had prepared.

When the wooden support was hit by the huge foot and shattered, the wooden support holding up countless huge logs began to collapse helplessly.

“Krrrrr-!”

It screamed terribly as if it had been hit by the rain of heavy logs.

As if I had been waiting, I poured bloodstone arrows at it, which was being hit by the rain of logs.

Load, fire.
And load, fire, again.

Because of the tension of the string, the flesh of my fingers was tattered, but I didn’t care and kept firing.

The target was its eyes.

Only toward that one point did I persistently shoot arrows.

“Kraaaaaa-!”

By the time the quiver was almost empty, it escaped from the trap.

Because the joints of its hind legs were shattered by the wood, it dragged them and charged with only its healthy front legs.

Moreover, because of the dozens of arrows stuck in its eyes, it couldn’t see in front, but it chased me with terrifying determination, focusing only on its sense of smell.

Its appearance was truly fear itself.

Without time to calm my pounding heart, I threw my hood, which I was wearing, at it as it ran straight.

The one wearing the hood was confused by the sense of smell and frantically dug up the surrounding ground.

‘Scotadi!’

I quietly chanted the spell and spread a dark curtain with a radius of five meters.

‘Let’s focus on the sound..!’

The only drawback of the Dark Bullet trick is that it blocks your own vision as well.

It was a blow that my vision was blocked, as it was a magic that was aimed and shot at a target.

“Kraaaaa-!”

Fortunately, because it was rampaging, I could aim the Dark Bullet without any problems.

I stretched out my hand in front, recalled the darkest memory I could, and shouted,

“Dark Bullet!”

Paaaaang-

The largest Dark Bullet I could make, absorbing the surrounding stones and soil, was fired as if shot.

“Kyaaaaaaaa-!”

The Dark Bullet, which hit its torso properly, penetrated the armor that seemed absolutely impenetrable and passed through its body like a bullet.

After a sandstorm, I could check the condition of the one that was directly hit by it.

With a wound that would be strange if it didn’t die instantly, half of its torso was shredded, and only the bright red organs inside the empty torso were pounding.

Only the head could move now, but it was still definitely alive.

Dark Bullet alone could not bring death to it.

With this dagger made of special material, I had to directly destroy the ‘core,’ the organ that protected the bloodstone, to end its life.

I readjusted my grip on the daggers in both hands and ran toward it when—

It suddenly raised its head and cried out in a strange voice.

“KrooOOOOOOO-!!!!”

That cry, with a different tremor than before, spread throughout the forest.

‘What…?’

It was a signal.

The cry of a rabbit-type Sarkas to summon its kind.

As the Master Sarkas, it had all the rabbit-type Sarkas of the Luden Forest under its control.

At its cry, countless rabbit-type Sarkas, who knows where they were, rushed in like crazy.

Because there were so many of them, it felt like seeing the invasion of a swarm of locusts in the harvest season.

“Kieeeek-!”

“Kyaaaaak-!”

‘Crazy, there are too many..!’

No matter how many there were, they were opponents that could be defeated with a single swing of the sword, so it wasn’t a huge crisis.

The problem was the Master Sarkas.

It was rapidly recovering from its wounds by frantically devouring the approaching Sarkas.

The small Sarkas were also formidable.

They abandoned their survival instinct and only followed orders, biting their bodies, which was different from what I usually hunted.

The flesh of my legs was torn off by the clinging Sarkas, and my posture was gradually collapsing.

‘Damn, damn, damn…!’

I was almost there.

With one more swing of the sword, I could have defeated it.

Now that my vision was covered in black by the Sarkas, I didn’t know if I could even survive.

Paang-

‘..?’

The moment my vision was completely covered in black by the Sarkas, countless Sarkas that were covering my vision were thrown into the air by something.

The warm wind, unfitting for winter, ruthlessly blew them away.

“Gillian..!”

Where the wind originated, there was Gillian.

“You were going out every night to do something, and it was this crazy thing! Saya.”

He had a bad leg, but when did he come after me?

I was grateful, and worried.

“Why did you follow me!? Stalker!”

“If your friend is going to commit suicide, would you not come out?”

That’s true.

“Anyway, since you’re here, help me.”

I gave Gillian one of the daggers and said,

“Can you use a dagger?”

“Of course. I’ve been cutting with a knife in the kitchen for years.”

“What about your leg?”

“It’s fine as long as I don’t have to run.”

Well, it’s Gillian, who has even done butchering beyond kitchen work, so I believed there would be no problem.

With Gillian’s support, I cut down the Sarkas that rushed in front of me one after another.

They gathered in front as if to protect their master, forming a single wall.

If I hesitated here, I’d be back to square one.

After taking a deep breath, I dug into the Sarkas group.

‘Move, you guys….!’

Sarkas in front, Sarkas above, Sarkas on the sides, and below—all Sarkas.

Squeezing through the gap where I could only swing one arm, I faced the red light.

It had been long.

Five years since the chaos occurred.

With this dagger, the time had finally come to put an end to it.

“Die..!”

Putting all my strength into my arm, I thrust the dagger into its red glowing core.

“Kraaaaaaaaaaaaa-!!!!”

With a deafening scream, its body shattered into the air and scattered.

Only a huge bloodstone remained where it was, losing its red light and cooling down.

“Kieek?”

When it died, as if the control was released, hundreds of Sarkas scattered into the forest all at once.

When the tension was released, I lost all strength in my body and sat down on the spot.

‘It’s over, really.’

I lifted the huge bloodstone.

It was a bloodstone the size of a heavy boulder.

If I kept it, it might be useful somewhere.

“Do you need help?”

Gillian asked.

“Tsk. Who needs help from whom? You’re the one with the crutch.”

Even while saying that, I was obediently helped.

My legs were weak, and I couldn’t move them.

“..It reminds me of the orphanage. Doing this.”

“…”
I walked while talking a lot with him.

From the story of the boys who were beaten by Luna in the orphanage,

to thinking that what Baekmyo threw was human flesh and crying while eating it, only to find out it was rabbit meat.

The story of how my intestines couldn’t adapt to the meat I ate when I first came to the hideout, and I lived in the bathroom for several days.

“..Gillian, what are you going to do in the future?”

“….”

I had to leave here now.

The transportation cost to the capital was quite tight, but if it was two people, it was barely possible.

“I’ll stay here. If I leave, there will be chaos in the kitchen.”

“I see…?”

He was the one who had been with me for almost ten years since I parted ways with Luna.

Was I feeling sad that I wouldn’t be able to see him now?

Gillian, who was helping me, stopped and asked me.

“Saya, if..”

“Huh?”

“..Never mind. It wasn’t anything important.”

“What? What were you going to say?”

Gillian kept changing the subject.

What couldn’t he say now? What a strange guy.

When the end of the forest was visible, I said,

“I’ll miss the food you make. It was delicious.”

“Me, not the food..?”
“Just kidding. Idiot.”

While making such trivial jokes, we moved to the bandit hideout.

I never did hear what Gillian was going to say.

Without time to celebrate the victory, the day I had to leave was just around the corner.

Because it’s a terrifying distance that takes ten days on horseback from here, Luden, to the capital, now, a month away, is just right.

I finished saying goodbye to the other members, but there was still one person left.

‘Baekmyo.’

Feeling a little nervous, I opened the door.

Baekmyo was lying on the straw as usual, with her legs crossed.

“Captain, I..”

“I already heard from Heukgyeon. You’re leaving here?”

“Yes.”

She continued speaking without looking at me.

“It’s been ten years since you and Gillian came here. At first, I thought all humans were disgusting.”

“And now?”

“Still disgusting. Just looking at humans makes me want to vomit, and I can’t sleep. Don’t come near me. It makes me want to vomit.”

There was no twist, just like Baekmyo.

She had now completely turned her back to me.

“But, I clearly understood that there are useful humans like you. So I won’t hate all humans.”

She had been a s*ave to humans from birth.

For her, even accepting us was a test in itself.

“You said you wanted to be a spirit master.”

At her words, I nodded.

“You know from your own experience what kind of relationship the spirit masters and the bandits are in.”

I knew.

I had felt it to the bone in the battle five years ago.

“Someday, we might have to point blades at each other. I’m honestly not confident, Saya.”

She handed me the dagger.

“So that I don’t have to cut you down in the future, stab me in advance.”

It was a long silence.

What kind of nonsense was she saying?

“Aren’t you going to stab me?”

“There’s no way I’ll stab you.”

“..I guess not?”

I heard that the first leader also died at the hands of a spirit master.

Perhaps, when I became a spirit master, the conviction that I would not face the Black Dog Bandits again…. Honestly, there wasn’t.

Baekmyo, who took back the sword, told me,

“If the day comes when we have to point swords at each other in any form..”

She said, smiling as usual.

“I’ll kill you without hesitation, Saya.”

“..I won’t hesitate to kill the captain either.”

“You just hesitated. You fool.”

I smiled foolishly facing the captain.

“From today, I expel you from the Black Dog Bandits. You dirty traitor. From now on, don’t even piss in the direction of the bandits.”

Why piss..?

“..Your words are just.”
That was the end of the conversation with the captain.

I don’t know if it’s a conversation suitable for the end, but Baekmyo treated me like herself until the end.

I went back to my room, packed my things, and prepared to go outside.

Needless to say, there was no such thing as financial support.

I was a traitor to the group, so all I had was the transportation money I earned myself and Sarkas by-products.
I couldn’t expect a farewell party now.

‘Shall I go.’

With a backpack as big as my body, I came out of the cave.

Ten years since I joined the bandits.

I took my first step back into human society.