Episode 585 Original (2)
A long time ago.
It’s been a while now, but the memory is still vivid.
The first-floor rift Bloody Citadel that you first entered after waking up from the body of a barbarian.
Raven and Hikurod met there.
With a body without a single essence, he had a desperate fight with the Vampire Duke Cambormire, a 5th grade monster and a guardian of a rift… Of
course, I also remember the conversation we had at that time.
[It’s strange, really strange…]
Even then, he looked at us and said something similar to what he said earlier.
Well, the dialogue that followed was quite different.
[Looking at you, I can’t stand it at all. Do you guys know the reason?]
He was intelligent and could talk.
It wasn’t strange.
Among the top variants, there were quite a few people who spoke lines.
Of course, it was unheard of for Cambormire to say such lines, but
…
At the time, the Bloody Citadel was my first crack.
It was also the first time to catch a Cambormere.
So I didn’t think deeply about the issue.
But…
[I can’t lose. I can’t lose…!]
The knight of the end I met in the hut of the White Temple.
That guy was more desperate than any monster I’ve ever faced.
[If it’s a lie that no one knows… What’s the difference between that and the truth?]
Doppelganger, guardian of the 4th floor rift.
At the end, the guy spat out words of remorse.
[…It’s really amazing. To think he understands the laws of the world, albeit vaguely.]
The mysterious being he encountered in the reward room after completing the raid on Dreadfear also spoke something meaningful.
[You must not open the door to the abyss.]
Needless to say, the land witch Elise Groundia.
As the number of active floors increased, I met various beings, and as I did, my doubts grew larger and larger.
What kind of place is the labyrinth?
What are Guardians and Hierarchy Lords?
What lies beyond the door of the abyss?
‘…perhaps.’
That we might be able to come to that answer today.
That kind of intuition is stuck in my brain the moment I encounter that vampire.
“Hmm, do you not understand what I am saying?”
A voice that seemed more curious than wary.
Before that curiosity faded, I finished my thoughts at this point and opened my mouth.
“Like you said, we’ve met before. In the bloody citadel.”
“A bloody citadel…”
The vampire chewed on the name quietly, then looked at me again and murmured.
“So you don’t seem to remember. At that time, it must have been after I was already like this.”
The answer gave me goosebumps for some reason.
I was more concerned about it, but I was really having a normal conversation with him.
‘Suddenly, I don’t see any signs of trying to hack.’
However, we hurriedly continued the conversation because we did not know how long this situation would last.
“What do you mean by being like this?”
“If you see it, you will know. This monstrous body.”
It seems to be simply referring to the body that became a vampire. I expected something like being trapped in a labyrinth or dragged by a witch.
‘Well then, this man was also originally human?’
I wanted to clearly point out this part as well, but unfortunately, the question from the vampire uncle was quick.
“So… where is this place? Why am I here?”
To be honest, I had a hard time figuring out what to answer here.
“Certainly, the Duchess of Cambormere must have been set on fire by the attack of the Three Gods…”
A barrier that is difficult to describe in words has been erected between this man and my conversation.
It feels like a person from the past and a person from the future met by chance and had a conversation without knowing each other’s circumstances.
“…This is a labyrinth. I met you while exploring that labyrinth.”
“A labyrinth… what is it?”
Common sense goes against them, so conversations can’t go deep and only go on the outside.
So I asked cautiously.
“Before I explain… can I hear your story first?”
“My story… you mean?”
“Anything is fine. I just wonder what your last memory was.”
“Hmm…”
The vampire man thought about it for a while, then slowly opened his mouth.
“An army of the Three Gods has come to subdue me. In that battle, I was defeated and I closed my eyes for peace. And waking up is now.”
“….”
“As soon as I opened my eyes, I saw you… and I remember meeting you somewhere. Oh, by the way, the madness that tormented me terribly is not recovering. How long has it been since you’ve been so sane…”
“…I see.”
“Now, can you tell me? This place where I am right now… Where is this place you said was a labyrinth?”
“Can I take a moment to organize my thoughts and answer?”
“However much.”
After taking permission from the vampire uncle, I hurriedly put together the given clues.
Not just what this man said, but all the things I originally had.
[The Dark Continent is a real place.]
The information that the clown who went outside the castle spit at the round table.
[The army of the Three Gods has come to subdue me.]
The Three Gods, which exist in our world and are still flourishing, etc…
It didn’t take long for a conclusion to be reached.
Well, anyway, it’s all my guesses.
The labyrinth was created based on the names of actual events.
And…
“Don’t be surprised, listen to Cambormere.”
“I will listen.”
“…one thing is certain, thousands of years have passed since you died.”
“…what does that mean? Now I am definitely alive!”
It was all my guess from here on out.
“No, you are already dead. And now you are… most likely a being created by someone.”
“…I just can’t understand it.”
For the first time, hostility bloomed in the vampire uncle’s eyes.
It was the reaction I had been expecting.
Hey, a stranger suddenly tells you that you’ve already died, and who can take it favorably?
‘…but still, this way is difficult.’
Actually, there was an easier way.
Putting the truth behind and deceiving by talking about what this man would have wanted to hear. That would have made it a little easier to get the information you want.
But even knowing that, I was open to my speculation.
In a way, it was a very barbarian reason.
Because I didn’t want to.
Now that was the way it was when I graduated.
If you want to be a person who can justly get angry when something unfair happens.
“Cambormire, calm down and listen. I will explain why I thought so.”
Sometimes you have to know how to choose the difficult path.
***
After that, I spent a lot of time explaining to the vampire man.
what is a labyrinth
What is the city like now and how has the world changed?
What I saw and what I went through while exploring the labyrinth.
Finally… even the circumstances under which this man and I met for the first time.
Explaining all of that was cumbersome and time-consuming beyond imagination.
The vampire man found it difficult to understand the gap in common sense that had developed over thousands of years, and at times denied my words in a fit of anger.
But…
“…Enough. now i get it Why did you say that?”
Eventually, the vampire uncle raised the white flag.
But was this one question?
“But there is something I don’t understand.”
“…what? tell me I will explain again and again until you understand—”
“Why are you talking so hard to me? According to you, I’m just a made-up being. Maybe today will be erased from my memory. As if I forgot I met you that day.”
It wasn’t a question I expected, but I just answered honestly this time.
“…If I were you, I would still want to know the truth.”
“…”
“So I said. I was wondering if I could get some help from you if I told you the truth first.”
“Is that so…”
The vampire man seemed to think for a while after that, and then opened his mouth.
“Then tell me. How would you like me to help you?”
The long awaited speech.
I took a moment to catch my breath and then opened my mouth.
“I want to know about you, Cambormi.”
“About me… you mean?”
“okay. How you lived, what the world you lived in, and what happened to you. Just like I told you one by one. All.”
The vampire uncle made a surprised expression as if he had heard the unexpected words, but nodded with a serious face.
“I will do it. It’s embarrassing to tell a stranger about my life, but according to you, aren’t I just a doll anyway? I’d rather… be able to be remembered by someone.”
“…”
“Still, it feels strange to suddenly talk about my life. Now then, where should we start… Oh, I think it would be nice to start there.”
“…”
“I had a daughter.”
And so the story of the uncle began.
Estimated time is before the witch’s curse hit the world.
“It was a mess. The servants following the witch and the army of the empire fought and shed blood all day long.”
The story of witches and humans confronting each other was a familiar history to me as well.
But the story that went on from his mouth was all important to me.
That’s because the ancient records were almost lost and precious.
“Our Cambormere family, dukes of a small border country, were relatively unaffected by such a war. I didn’t stick to the witches or the empire, and I quietly waited for the day when the war would end.”
Then one day.
“My only daughter is sick.”
It was a terrible disease that neither potion nor the divine power of the high-ranking priests could work. As time passed day by day, the daughter’s spark of life went out, and the Duke could not see it.
“He was a child who would not be wasted at all even if I offered up my soul.”
The duke, who had been searching everywhere, eventually reached the witch’s servants. And they suggested a way to save her daughter.
“As I found out later, they weren’t servants of witches after all. They were the ones who followed the evil god Karui and drove the world into chaos.”
However, the duke, unaware of it, accepted their offer. It was because the empire had accumulated many bad karma, and among humans, he had heard many stories of being saved by becoming servants of witches.
The duke had a neutral gaze toward the witch.
“That was the beginning of all misfortune.”
The priests of the Karui cured the daughter in a strange way. From the daughter’s room receiving treatment, screams could be heard every day.
One day, the daughter begged to stop the treatment, but the duke turned away because it was for you.
And that’s how time goes by…
“My daughter woke up from the hospital bed.”
The daughter regained her health, and the evil spirit priests left.
At first, the Duke was also happy that he had returned to normal life, but it didn’t take long for that happiness to be broken.
The Duke said calmly.
“It’s starting to swell up.”
Literally, my daughter swelled up.
Slowly, as if pus had filled up all over his body.
“When the blood burst from the wound, everything around it corroded and melted. He also lost his temper and became violent.”
The duke imprisoned such a daughter in a dungeon.
It was unavoidable.
If the news that her daughter had changed into something like this was known, not only the Cambormere family but also her daughter couldn’t be safe.
I was thinking of finding a way to cure it while hiding it for now.
“The only problem was that I didn’t eat.”
No matter how delicious food was served, even if it was forced into her throat, the changed daughter could not accept it.
“I can feel my daughter dying every day. I had no energy, so I couldn’t even open my eyes properly. When I checked the pulse, I could tell that the heart was dying.”
There was nothing the duke could do.
It was one day when I was helplessly watching my daughter die.
“…one of the knights was attacked and killed by her daughter while bringing her food.”
“…”
“Then… they ate it.”
There was no need to ask what they ate.
“That child who caused a fright even if only a fly flew away… was eating. Very ravenous.”
The duke fainted at the sight, but the daughter regained her strength after that day.
And the Duke, who needed time to come up with a way somehow, brought the criminals and fed them to his daughter.
However, the more she ate, the more her daughter grew.
The dungeon couldn’t handle it, so the daughter was moved to a place that was used as a water storage facility.
The amount of food eaten increased to the point where it was difficult for criminals to cover it, and it reached the point where innocent people had to be framed and brought back.
“If it were the original me, I would never have made such a foolish choice. But… the evil spirits did something to me too.”
The duke at the time was unable to think rationally.
Violence squirmed and guilt faded.
The madness flared up intermittently.
Such changes were not confined to the mind, but also to the body.
Fangs grow.
I got a good sense of smell.
When I smelled blood, saliva leaked out of my mouth.
He was able to use black magic, which he had never learned, and there was no discomfort in using his changed body like a butterfly flapping its wings naturally.
Picking up something to feed my daughter just got easier.
As his disappearances increased and even his retainers left one by one in the cruel hands of the duke, his hometown began to be called the Bloody Fortress.
Of course, the news reached the ears of the empire, which was at war with the witches, and the Three Gods.
“From now on, it will be the same as the story I told you earlier. The army came in and I was defeated.”
A space prepared for secret hobbies deep under the castle by a duke with a cruel temper.
There, the paladin’s sword stabbed the duke’s heart.
“It’s funny, but I wished.”
The Duke, who was facing death, prayed.
The gods of the Three Faiths couldn’t forgive him.
“I begged the witch, who was called the enemy of mankind, to be saved by calling her a goddess, and I prayed again and again to save my daughter. And when I opened my eyes, I was here.”
It was a belated realization, but in a way, from the Duke’s point of view, that incident had just happened.
But how can you say it so calmly?
When asked cautiously, the duke shook his head, saying he didn’t know.
“I don’t know… but it feels like a very long time has passed. If what you said is true, many years must have passed in reality…”
I had nothing to say, so I just listened, and the man looked at me and asked.
“You know? What you told me today was the cruel truth.”
I fully understand.
I thought so, but I didn’t put it into words.
Actually, there’s no way I’m fully understanding. After hearing that story, that thought deepened even more.
“But…”
said the vampire man.
“But thank you. For being honest.”
“….”
“Thanks to you, I can stop having empty dreams.”
It was a very strange feeling.
