Chapter 70: Strange happenings in the village
ㅤThe next morning, I overslept again.
ㅤ
ㅤ”Good morning…”
ㅤ
ㅤ”Oh my, you overslept. You must be tired, aren’t you?”
ㅤ
ㅤToruta-san said while preparing breakfast.
ㅤ
ㅤ”Maybe so. I had a bad dream.”
ㅤ
ㅤThe Dream Weaver.
ㅤWas that a figment of my unconscious imagination, or was it a real magician?
ㅤSince it was just a dream, I still don’t know for sure.
ㅤAfter that dream, I had a normal dream, and in that dream, I kept thinking about it over and over.
ㅤ
ㅤ”Here you go. It’s medicinal herb porridge.”
ㅤ
ㅤ”Thank you… Ah, it’s delicious.”
ㅤ
ㅤToruta-san is a good cook.
ㅤShe treated me to various dishes last night as well.
ㅤThe focus on wild plants and mushrooms is probably because the thick fog makes it difficult to hunt animals. In the first place, there didn’t seem to be many large animals in the Mist Forest.
ㅤ
ㅤ”The story about your dungeon exploration yesterday was interesting. You’re a skilled adventurer for your age, aren’t you?”
ㅤ
ㅤ”N-no, that’s not…”
ㅤ
ㅤOf course, I told her a heavily abridged and vague version of the story, but the people of this village, with their limited entertainment, listened with excitement.
ㅤ
ㅤ”Actually, there was someone from the neighboring village listening to the story yesterday. He said he would really like you to come to the neighboring village as well. We haven’t had a bard visit in a while.”
ㅤ
ㅤ”Y-yes… But my story isn’t that interesting, is it?”
ㅤ
ㅤ”What? That’s not true at all. Because you don’t embellish the story unnecessarily, it feels more immersive. As for bards, they tend to tell outlandish stories, thinking we’re ignorant.”
ㅤ
ㅤ”Is that so?”
ㅤ
ㅤTo be honest, I’m not good at speaking in front of people.
ㅤI’ve never really been listened to since I was a child.
ㅤMy parents would say things like, “Don’t worry about such trivial things,” “Think more positively,” or “Talking to you makes me feel gloomy,” and they would cut me off mid-sentence. If I persisted, a belt would fly at me as a whip.
ㅤMy classmates at school often told me, “You’re so boring.” Then they would go to other classmates and chat excitedly.
ㅤI don’t have the skill to tell short, amusing stories while gauging the other person’s reaction.
ㅤ
ㅤ”I’ll have my husband guide you. He can be a bit of a show-off, but I’ll tell him to be quiet so you can talk comfortably.”
ㅤ
ㅤ”But, I’m not very good at talking…”
ㅤ
ㅤ”――There are fragrant mushrooms in the neighboring village that we can’t get here. When simmered with potatoes, they’re quite delicious.”
ㅤ
ㅤ”Ah, in that case, I’ll go.”
ㅤ
ㅤOops. I answered immediately.
ㅤ
ㅤ（W-well, it’s okay. I’ll just tell the same story.）
ㅤ
ㅤSince I don’t have any particular goals anyway, indulging in food in this different world isn’t a bad idea.
ㅤ
ㅤAnd so, it was decided that I would go to the neighboring village with Hamuto-san in the afternoon.
ㅤ
ㅤ
ㅤ
ㅤ
ㅤ
ㅤ”It’s coming into view. It’s on the other side of that rocky mountain.”
ㅤ
ㅤHamuto-san said that about two hours after we departed.
ㅤIt’s hard to tell the exact time because the fog makes it difficult to see the position of the sun.
ㅤ
ㅤI strained my eyes in that direction――and frowned.
ㅤ
ㅤ”Wait a minute. Something’s wrong.”
ㅤ
ㅤI couldn’t say what it was, but… my Thief intuition sensed something amiss.
ㅤListening carefully, I realized there were no signs of people or sounds of life coming from the village.
ㅤ
ㅤ”I have a bad feeling about this…”
ㅤ
ㅤ”W-what’s going on?”
ㅤ
ㅤ”Hamuto-san, please hide here. I’ll go check things out.”
ㅤ
ㅤ”H-hey!”
ㅤ
ㅤI took out the Black Steel Sword from the Abyss Worm’s Infinite Stomach (a.k.a. my four-dimensional pocket).
ㅤPerhaps sensing the seriousness of the situation, Hamuto-san obediently hid in the shade of a nearby tree.
ㅤ
ㅤI cautiously approached the village with my sword in hand.
ㅤSince the village was on the other side of the rocky mountain, I carefully circled around the mountain, which was about 20 meters wide.
ㅤ
ㅤOn the way, the Abyss Worm’s stomach vibrated.
ㅤ
ㅤI gently opened it, and a black, ominous staff jumped out.
ㅤ
ㅤ”The Wand of Regret is reacting…? Ugh, this feeling is getting worse…”
ㅤ
ㅤI approached the village with the sword in my right hand and the staff in my left.
ㅤ
ㅤAt the entrance of the village, in front of a small gate with a watchtower, a man who looked like a woodcutter was lying on the ground.
ㅤJudging from the amount of blood, he was definitely dead.
ㅤI approached and looked at his face just in case, but it was completely stiff, contorted in pain.
ㅤ
ㅤ”He’s holding a broadax… but he was cut down from the front.”
ㅤ
ㅤThis means the perpetrator slashed the woodcutter, who was like a forest guerrilla, from the front.
ㅤ
ㅤ”The perpetrator… is heading towards the village, I guess.”
ㅤ
ㅤThe perpetrator must have stepped in the pool of blood, as red footprints continued towards the village.
ㅤ
ㅤ”Ahaha… I have no choice but to follow, right?”
ㅤ
ㅤI concealed my presence and passed through the village gate.
ㅤ
ㅤ”Whoa…”
ㅤ
ㅤThe village was covered in blood.
ㅤWoodcutters, women, children, and even the elderly had been indiscriminately slaughtered.
ㅤ
ㅤ”I’m starting to understand, but these cuts aren’t from a sword. It’s probably a broadax.”
ㅤ
ㅤInstead of a clean cut like a sword, the wounds looked like they were hacked and forcefully pulled out.
ㅤ
ㅤ”The Wand of Regret… is pointing towards the center of the village.”
ㅤ
ㅤIt wasn’t a particularly large village.
ㅤI soon arrived at a small square in the center of the village.
ㅤ
ㅤIn the center of the square, an old man stood.
ㅤHe was a slightly hunched man with a white beard stained crimson with blood.
ㅤHe held a dripping broadax in one hand and stood there blankly.
ㅤSince he had his back to me, I couldn’t see the old man’s expression.
ㅤ
ㅤThe Wand of Regret was reacting to the old man in front of me.
ㅤ
ㅤ（He’s a living person, but…?）
ㅤ
ㅤI tilted my head in confusion.
ㅤAs if sensing my presence, the old man slowly turned around.
ㅤ
ㅤ”You…”
ㅤ
ㅤ”Huh?”
ㅤ
ㅤ”Are you going to laugh at me too?”
ㅤ
ㅤ”What are you talking about? More importantly, what happened here?”
ㅤ
ㅤ”Are you going to laugh at me too?”
ㅤ
ㅤIt’s no use, he’s not making sense.
ㅤ
ㅤ”It was all in vain. In a place like this, closed off by fog, I couldn’t even get a wife, and everyone around me ridiculed me as a slowpoke and a fool…
ㅤWhen the Northern Kingdom attacked, I risked my life and killed their knights, but then I was branded a murderer and thrown in prison.
ㅤI was released from prison when I was old and decrepit, but with no wife or children, there was no one to take care of me… My eyesight was failing, my hearing was fading, my legs hurt, but no one would help me…
ㅤI couldn’t even hold a broadax anymore, I couldn’t work as a woodcutter, I was just inhaling the forest fog, and I thought I would just die like this.
ㅤI collapsed in the forest.
ㅤI didn’t have the energy to get up anymore.
ㅤMy head gradually became hazy.
ㅤAh, I thought, my time has come.
ㅤBut, I was wrong.
ㅤI had a dream.”
ㅤ
ㅤI reacted sharply to those words.
ㅤ
ㅤ”A dream?”
ㅤ
ㅤ”I lured those foolish knights of Zamzaria into a trap, chopped off their arms and legs with my broadax, and drove them away, telling them never to come back…
ㅤI had a dream about the old days. I used my wits, slow as they may be, to make sure those bastards would never set foot in my forest again… I turned so many of them into ‘daruma’ dolls and left them where the other knights could see them… Kufufu… They were so surprised. They were so scared.
ㅤIt was the first time I had ever seen people so surprised and afraid of me… It felt so good… It didn’t even feel that good when I held my wife for the first time… It wasn’t very pleasant, so I tried choking her, and it got better, but she ran away, and I was ostracized from the village…”
ㅤ
ㅤThe old man muttered, staring blankly into the air.
ㅤ
ㅤI sighed.
ㅤ
ㅤ”It seems like it was a prophetic dream.”
ㅤ
ㅤAs I muttered those words, the blood-soaked old man raised his broadax and attacked me.