Chapter 41 – Seollang (3)

===================

Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

Colony, the desert nation.

At the center of Colony, whose capital shared the nation’s name, stood the colosseum, the city’s landmark. It was always steeped in the crowd’s cheers and madness, fed by the blood the fighters spilled.

Whether a fighter was stabbed or lost his life, everything that happened inside that colosseum was amusement to the public.

But now.

The colosseum was quiet.

That did not mean the crowd was absent.

If anything, the place was so full that it could be called packed, and the stairways people used to move around were clogged with bodies as well.

Was the match not starting yet? That was not it either.

Where the crowd’s eyes were fixed, hundreds of fighters of various ranks were already standing in the arena.

Only one thing was unusual.

On the right side of the arena stood hundreds of fighters, but on the left stood only a single man.

A match that looked unbalanced to anyone who saw it.

But the man standing alone on the earth of the colosseum wore a bloody smile, as though he had no complaint at all about the situation.

The dark iron gauntlets on both his hands gleamed.

“Match, begin!”

The referee’s words boomed out like an amplifier through magic, and the hundreds of fighters rushed the man at once.

Some carried swords.

Some raised their fists.

Others charged with axes.

A-rank and B-rank fighters alike, armed with all kinds of weapons, rushed to take a single man’s head.

Yet though they stared at him with vicious eyes, thick amusement lingered in the man’s gaze, while the men charging him were filled with tension instead.

That was because everyone here knew exactly who the man before them was.

One of Colony’s Baba Yaga.

The man who had held his place as a Baba Yaga longer than anyone.

Kalman Arentz.

The moment a bloody smile curled over his mouth, he took his stance.

His left foot slid behind the right. His right arm drew back along his leg.

The muscles of his entire body tightened in an instant.

And just before the fighters reached him, Kalman threw a punch.

Into empty air that touched no one.

A punch that would reach everyone.

Kwaaaaaang.

The shockwave exploded, and the hundreds of fighters rushing him burst away in every direction. At the same time, Kalman’s figure vanished.

Crunch.

The merciless slaughter began.

Every time one of his black gauntlets shot forward, another fighter who had been trying to recover had his entire body smashed apart.

Five minutes passed like that.

What remained in the silent arena were the fighters rolling across the ground and Kalman.

After a brief moment of silence.

“Waaaaaaaa.”

As if the stillness until now had been a lie, the crowd’s frenzied cheers filled the colosseum.

The spectators paid no attention at all to the fighters whose heads had been crushed and hearts destroyed by his hands. They only roared themselves hoarse for Kalman.

Slowly sweeping his gaze over them, Kalman smiled deeply and turned back into the colosseum interior.

The luxurious waiting room reserved for the Baba Yaga alone.

With the crowd’s cheers still ringing without pause, Kalman heard a voice behind him.

“There are still plenty of idiots around. To think they believed a few hundred men could beat a Baba Yaga.”

Kalman turned his head and found a man wearing a broad smile.

Like Kalman, he too was called a Baba Yaga.

Maliam, the Grotesque Beast.

Looking at the hideously warped half of his bald face, Kalman sat in one of the lavish chairs, and Maliam continued.

“Do you know who wiped out Bloodsand?”

“No. Did you find out?”

At Kalman’s question, Maliam answered without hesitation.

“Seollang.”

“…Is that so?”

A brief silence passed before Kalman spoke.

But no anger could be felt from him.

It was more like simple acceptance, as though he was merely saying, So that was what happened.

“You don’t seem very angry.”

Slightly puzzled, Maliam asked that, and Kalman leaned back lazily in the chair.

“Not really. I only kept them around because they brought in a bit of spending money if I let them be. Besides, we were going to kill her anyway, weren’t we?”

He answered with a bloody smile.

“True enough.”

“So what’s the plan?”

As soon as Kalman asked, Maliam gave a thin smile and opened his left hand before him.

Resting there was a black cubic substance.

“Oh. So this is that Abyssal Core? The thing that gives rank if a qualified person uses it?”

At Kalman’s upturned smile, Maliam nodded.

“Yes. With this, we should be able to split open that arrogant beastwoman’s skull.”

“Now that’s a welcome thing to hear.”

Kalman lifted the cube from Maliam’s palm.

Looking at the cube as dark as an abyss, as though it swallowed every scrap of light, he murmured with satisfaction.

“At last, we can kill that mongrel bitch who’s been tearing through Colony as if it were her own home.”

“I agree. She damaged me too a few days ago. And also…”

Nodding along, Maliam let a trace of emotion show before he exhaled a short sigh.

Seeing that, Kalman spoke.

“So when do we put the plan into motion?”

“Two days from now. At the ruins.”

“Fast.”

“Isn’t fast better? Once she dies, you can start gnawing away at the royal authority again.”

“And you can swallow the entire underworld.”

“Exactly.”

Confirming that neither of their intentions had changed, Maliam smiled.

“There probably won’t be any chance of failure.”

“Because of the Abyssal Core?”

“That too. But there are friends on that side who share our purpose.”

Then, along with those words.

“Oh, and if you happen to see the noble standing beside Seollang, it would be nice if you killed him too.”

“Why?”

“I have a small request. I heard that noble is Seollang’s benefactor. Wouldn’t it be amusing if we killed him in front of her before we killed her?”

“Well now, that does sound like it would be fun.”

That was Kalman’s answer, wearing the same kind of smile, and Maliam vanished after saying he would see him in two days.

“So it’s finally time…”

Seated on a throne greedier than anyone else’s, Kalman wore a deep smile.

* * *

About two days later.

After getting enough rest at the guild, Alon boarded a carriage with Seollang and set out for the ruins.

After some time had passed, when they were not far from arriving, Alon watched Seollang talking casually with the Golden Mane clan members while guarding the outside of the carriage and thought:

Her reputation really doesn’t match.

He had only been in Colony for about four days, but that was already enough for him to grasp Seollang’s reputation there with certainty.

The Mad Hound.

A strange expression crossed Alon’s face.

Most of the rumors described Seollang that way, so he could not help growing curious.

After all, except for the first time they met, Seollang had never once shown him that sort of side.

For the past three days, most of what he had seen from her was a grinning face and a wagging tail.

“Benefactor?”

“Hm?”

At some point, Seollang had stopped talking with the beastfolk and was looking at him.

He came back to himself at her call.

“It looked like Benefactor was thinking really hard about something. What is it?”

“Nothing much.”

Seeing Seollang tilt so far to the left that it looked like her neck might bend, Alon thought for a moment before answering.

“Just that… you seem to take good care of your guild members.”

“Of course. They’re all my family.”

“Family?”

“Yeah. They’re all my kin. You have to take good care of your kin. I don’t need the others at all.”

“I see…”

“Ah, but not you, Benefactor.”

After saying that, Seollang stared at him with a serious expression.

As if she were wrestling with a matter of great importance, she even furrowed her brow.

“Benefactor is… um… after family…? No, after Yutia…?”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. No matter what, Benefactor and Yutia still aren’t blood kin….”

Seollang offered that conclusion with a slightly apologetic expression, as though she had gone through a very difficult internal debate.

But Alon only shrugged lightly.

That’s higher than I expected.

Behind his blank face, he was satisfied.

He had barely even exchanged letters with Seollang, let alone talked to her properly, so the fact that she cared for him as the third-most-important person already pleased him greatly.

If she considers me important enough for third place… that probably means I could use a one-time call for help later if things get dangerous.

By the time Alon finished that thought in a fairly pleased mood.

“We’ve arrived!”

The carriage reached the City of the Old Gods, Kahara.

* * *

The entrance to the place now called ruins.

As far as Alon, who had once been the player, knew, it was a city named the City of the Old Gods, Kahara.

Getting down from the carriage and starting to walk deeper into the dark cavern, Alon organized his thoughts.

Where should I start looking?

In Psychedelia, Alon had come here many times.

But that had only ever been for a side quest to deal with the bandits hiding here, not to dig up any sort of secret.

I vaguely remember a place with a lot of writing on it.

So he planned to enter Kahara first and use what he remembered from the game to focus his investigation on a few places that had remained in his memory.

After walking for some time like that.

Just as boredom was starting to color Seollang’s expression, Alon spotted a group walking ahead of his party in the distance.

Not long after, he realized who they were.

“Ah, Count Palladio?”

“Riyan…?”

The woman approaching through the darkness while maintaining a light spell was none other than Riyan Agulers, the daughter of the Red Tower Master whom he had met on the way to the desert city of Colony, along with Red Tower mages.

There seemed to be at least twenty mages in the group. Alon noticed their puzzled eyes shift into surprise and was momentarily taken aback.

“Did you come to explore the ruins as well, Count?”

“I did.”

He nodded at Riyan’s question.

And naturally, they began walking deeper into the ruins together with the Red Tower mages.

After some more time had passed.

“That’s the exit.”

At Evan’s voice, which carried the same boredom Seollang’s expression had shown, Alon turned his gaze toward the exit.

And the moment they finally stepped outside.

“Wow.”

The mages, the beastfolk, even Seollang herself let out unconscious gasps.

Because what they saw beyond the exit was a massive citadel inside the underground cavern.

But Alon had no reason to be surprised by that sight.

He had already seen this enormous fortress many times.

And yet, the reason his normally expressionless eyes widened a little more than usual was this.

At his ear, where no one else could hear.

At last, you’ve come, mage.

A voice that only he could hear sounded out.