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Chapter 41. The Best, 13th Party (5)
“You! Do you even know my name?”
“I don’t! Know your name!”
Sharan carefully initiated a talk with the hunchback sitting far from her.
The Hunchback answered with a strange voice with a characteristic accent, just like the first time.
The intense battle suddenly turned into a state of a lull.
The Commuds were staying at their spot just flicking their tongues, not seeming to show any aggression towards us.
“How are you able to control these Commuds?”
“My friends! They keep their promises! I reconciled their friendship, so they promised to do me favors! When they do, they treat me like a King!”
The hunchback said as he naturally hugged the neck of the Commud he was on.
Sharan and others seemed to be feeling guilty for killing so many of the Commuds.
Honestly, I was almost feeling frustrated with what they were doing.
But would I dare say these words to those who are following the same path I have taken in the past?
Or perhaps, I was still dumb just as before.
It was just that this whole virtual reality game was so complicated. The intense feeling of reality of the game didn’t just give us pleasure, thrill, and fun.
“If you bring down this hole, all the villages around here will be buried down here! Then everyone will die!”
Guile carefully followed Hunchback’s hand gestures as he talked. The hunchback replied with laughter revealing his sharp teeth.
“There are more bones here than there are villagers up there! Abandon them all! Mom and dad! And the kids!”
The ugly truth of the town that had entrusted the quest to the Information guild began to come out of his mouth endlessly.
“That village! The king! Abandons everyone! Who has lumps! And no arms or legs!”
“Oh my god.”
Sharan shook her head slightly.
“If they disobey! The king! Kills! Mom! And dad!”
***
Reaper Scans
[Translator – Dawn]
[Proofreader – Karane]
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***
Swordsman suddenly got up from his seat as if he just remembered something and walked towards me.
“Mose, have you been in a situation like this before?”
“Yes.”
I carefully answered his question.
He smiled for a moment at this and opened his mouth as he looked at me cautiously as well.
“It ain’t something to boast about but… I too had an experience like this before. Not here, but in ‘real life’.”
I looked into Swordsman’s eyes after hearing what he said.
Swordsman’s character appearance looked like it didn’t go through any customization whatsoever, in other words, it was vanilla.
However, at that moment, his eyes were drenched in the excellence of the past.
“It’s not even an old story. My wife and I had something to do in the early morning. I just loved doing anything with her back then. Since we could rely on each other whenever we needed each other.”
He said as he stared at the hunchback who was restlessly talking to Sharan.
“Then one day, I found a very young student walking around in a narrow alleyway with a little church that had dying lights.”
He continued, as he pulled out a cigarette from a wooden box and looked at me.
“Do you mind?”
“Not at all.”
He lit the cigarette after he asked for my permission. After taking a deep breath from the cigarette, he exhaled the smoke out of his mouth and continued speaking.
“My wife and I carefully observed the student. That little girl was constantly looking around for people as if she wanted them to discover something.”
“Okay…”
“On that cold winter day, the student let out her breath hundreds of times and carefully pulled out something from her arms, and soon a fuzzy breath leaked out of it.”
The story he was telling me seemed familiar to me. It was one of those sad stories shown on the news that emerged as a social problem, but the content he delivered came to me as more vivid and sad.
“And that little student opened the little church window where the lights were going out, carefully put the child away, and closed the window meticulously.”
Swordsman’s eyes reddened.
“On that day, my wife and I shed tears together quietly after we got back home. Funny, yeah?”
“Not at all…”
I hurriedly shook my head in reply to his question.
I too lowered my head without realizing it.
“It made me ask a question. ‘What have I been doing to this age that I couldn’t even give out a helping hand to a girl who was desperately in need of help?’.”
Then he put the cigarette back in his mouth and inhaled.
“When the girl came out of the alleyway, my wife and I ran away as if we were being chased by a villain. We couldn’t afford to help anyone when we were having trouble feeding ourselves.”
Swordsman rubbed his finished cigarette on the floor to turn the light off.
“And I started playing this game, undeservingly so and started to earn some fortune. However, the biggest fortune I had was meeting you, Mose.”
And he chuckled to himself.
“I heard the youngsters nowadays call it, ‘hyper luck’?”
I too showed a smile towards him as I nodded my head.
“It is all thanks to you that I was able to go on a quest with such a huge reward, and if it weren’t for you we would’ve all gotten wiped out.”
“That’s not true. It wouldn’t have been possible for me to clear this quest by myself.”
It was true. Even if it was possible, that kind of mindset would’ve slowly eaten me away. I’m talking about conceit.
“And now we’ve come to face this situation.”
“Yes.”
“And Mose, I feel like you’re watching over us making a decision, no?”
“If I were to just disregard your feelings, then I wouldn’t have made this party in the first place.”
“So you’re saying that you are respecting our wills, is that right? Thank you, Mose.”
“No problem at all. This is something you are entitled to. It’s the least polite attitude you can have as a human being. In the beginning, I was also pretty much clueless.”
Swordsman showed a smile after hearing my words.
“Then I hope you learned a thing or two from the story I told you.”
Then he continued to talk with sharp eyes.
“Very ironic, and selfish of me to want to help that abandoned child over there. Even though I couldn’t help someone back in the real world.”
All I could do was nod my head as I looked at Swordsman.
“But this selfishness is truly endless, that I don’t want to just give up the reward we will be getting when we complete this quest. That money will give me a chance to stand proud in the real world.”
He did not put only a sense of justice, nor only greed for money.
He stood on a rope of neutrality skillfully and amicably, something that could be expected from a middle-aged man with a family of his own.
“How about we persuade him?”
I listened to everything he said without a word.
I stood up from my spot with Swordsman.
I approached the hunchback who was having a cheerful talk with Sharan, and bowed my head.
“I am sorry, I killed your friends.”
“My friends do bite! I know because they bit me too! I understand! But I do not understand!”
He continued to babble nonsense while being on guard against me.
Then Swordsman approached him and started to speak to him in a calm manner.
“I cannot imagine the sorrow you went through when they threw you down this hole.”
“I wasn’t sad! Mom lived because of it!”
“You’re a good kid.”
“I am good! Mom said so!”
Swordsman continued to speak skillfully.
“But if you get rid of this hole, then your mother may lose her life.”
Sharan continued to speak, waving hand gestures.
“There’s a very huge village around the outside of this hole! The place you were born in.”
Swordsman started talking to the hunchback again, who seemed to have understood what Sharan just said.
As if watching a ping-pong game, the hunchback’s head turned in the opposite direction again.
“If this hole collapses, the town will be devoured by this hole.”
“That! No! Mom’s village! It must not collapse!”
The hunchback quickly shook his head at Swordsman’s resolute words.
Then I took a deep breath, knelt down on one of my knees, and gently grabbed the hunchback’s hand.
The Commuds roared at the same time I grabbed his hand and began to swing their tails like crazy.
I stared into the hunchback’s white eyes amidst such a situation.
“You’ve done well protecting the children who fell down this hole. But if you block this hole then the children who will be thrown away in the future will not receive your care and end up becoming lonely bones.”
“No…”
Then the hunchback dropped his head in a lost spirit.
“And we are going to scold the king that ordered your mom to throw you away.”
“The king? You are going to scold him?”
“Yes, he’s in big trouble.”
Then I held out my pinky towards him. He reacted in an exciting way after looking at me taking such action.
“You will even make a promise?!”
“Yup, I promise.”
The hunchback held out his cold and wet pinky and we made a promise. A child-like smile began to appear on that cold, monstrous face.
“Now that we’ve made a promise, could you do us a favor? LIke your friends did for you.”
The hunchback hurriedly nodded his head.
“Okay! I will!”
“Once we scold the king, there won’t be more children coming down to this place. So you will have to leave this hole in order to protect the abandoned children elsewhere.”
“For the abandoned children!?”
“Yup. They’re waiting for you.”
The hunchback started to shed tears. Then he nodded to himself and staggered his feet.
It was the best expression of emotion that a child could make for being recognized for his or her worth.
“I-leave! This hole!”
Come to think of it, this hunchback had improved in terms of talking a lot during our brief conversations.
Since he did not have the opportunity to communicate with other people, this encounter had unintentionally become the best time for education.
He is such a great talker and a kind child, but he was dropped down into the abyss just because he had a lump on his back, which led him to have molds and one of his eyes melt.
“Yup, you promised.”
The hunchback rode the Commud and led the group down below. Only then, Swordsman and I were able to let out a deep breath as we looked at each other.
Sharan and Guilie just stood still as if they still hadn’t gotten a grasp on the situation, taking turns looking at Swordsmand and me with their eyes wide open.
“Time to go get our rewards.”
The two of them were finally able to put a smile on their faces after hearing Swordsman’s words.
And so, after having Sharan and Guile head out of the mine first, Swordsman looked at me and grinned.
“Time to start our plan.”
“Yes.”
Admiring the swordsman’s plan to kill two birds with one stone, I smiled back at him.
Now a huge change will find its way to the village hiding such an ugly truth.
Change to the very person who led this whole massacre, and to the guilt of the parents’ who had to throw away their own kids down the abyss.