Chapter 64

“I can,” Woojin answered calmly. “If it’s for my family’s sake.”

That was probably the answer the game wanted. Chason and Harterwin might be important figures, but ultimately, the player was the one clearing the dungeon. And the protagonist always had to walk the righteous path.

▶ Eliminate the successive heads of the Bolton family.

When the quest’s objective changed, Woojin had already suspected that killing Chason was part of the goal.

“Hey, let me ask you something.”

[“Heh heh... What is it?”]

“Does morning come here, too?”

[“Of course. The sun rises and sets every day. We shall live here forever.”]

“... I see.”

At Gilbert’s answer, Woojin looked out the hall’s windows. The darkness was lifting. Dawn was beginning to break.

‘How much time...?’

[The city is gradually sinking into the sea.]

▶ Time Limit: 13 minutes

Woojin bit his lip as he looked at the system window.

“Ruen. I’ll handle those two. You take him. He probably won’t be much trouble.”

“Understood.”

“Everyone, pray.”

“What?”

“Pray the sun rises in time.”

Woojin shot forward. Ruen and Setsuna watched him go with bewildered expressions, apparently unable to understand what he meant.

[“Heh heh...! Human blinded by greed! So you would even kill your companion to bring our family to ruin!”]

“Greed, my ass... Get your facts straight. You bastards started this fight. And—”

CLAAANG!

Woojin’s sword collided with Chason’s.

“You’re the one who created this situation by summoning Harterwin.”

[“Heh heh. And?”]

Utterly at ease on his throne, Gilbert sneered at Woojin.

“Just wait.”

CLANG!

Woojin knocked Chason’s sword upward.

“I’ll take my time annihilating you.”

[“Bwahahaha! Just try—!”]

BOOM!

An explosion erupted above Gilbert’s head mid-shout.

“You really do talk too much.”

Ruen took aim with her bow again.

[“You... damn wretch...!”]

Pulling the arrow from his forehead, Gilbert shouted at Ruen.

BOOM!

[“Aaargh!”]

Ruen had appeared behind Gilbert and fired another arrow into the back of his head. The impact sent him tumbling forward off his throne. She gave a thumbs-up to Setsuna, who had cast Mist Step.

[“You wretch...!”]

Sprawled on the floor, Gilbert scrambled up and tried to chant a spell at Ruen.

WHOOSH!

But an arrow struck his staff-wielding right hand.

FWOOSH!

A Double Enchant of fire and wind.

The flames lodged in the back of his hand coiled around his entire body like a snake in an instant.

[“Aaargh!”]

Another arrow plunged into Gilbert’s screaming mouth.

[“Gah...! G-gah...!”]

With an arrow embedded in his throat, Gilbert flailed and fell forward once more.

“He really is a pushover, huh?”

Ruen let out a disbelieving laugh. She had been so tense, yet Gilbert could barely put up a fight.

“Master! Should I just annihilate this bastard?”

“Do what you like. Though I doubt you can.”

“... What? Why?”

“Because if he dies, Harterwin will disappear, too.”

Harterwin was a spirit Gilbert had summoned. Naturally, a summoned being vanished when its summoner disappeared.

‘But there’s no way they’d let us defeat Harterwin, the heart of this dungeon, like that...’

Gilbert was most likely a monster whose stats favored Health and Defense over Attack. Or he might be a special entity that couldn’t be killed by ordinary attacks.

“You can still make him suffer, though,” Woojin told Ruen. “Shoot him all you want.”

[“H-huh?!”]

As though she had been waiting for permission, Ruen drew her bow.

“Haaaah...!”

Just then, Chason lunged at Woojin. The five-meter gap closed rapidly. His irregular strides confused the eye as he unleashed a furious assault, seemingly forgetting his injury.

CLANG! CLANG!

It was an unpredictable sword style, cunningly mixing feints with lethal strikes. The polar opposite of Dragon Heaven’s single, cleaving blows, it proved harder to fend off than Woojin had expected.

[“Aaargh!”]

On top of that, Harterwin’s sword was coming for him, too.

SLASH! SLASH!

In an instant, sharp cuts opened all over his body.

“Chason. What is it you want to do, then?”

The dungeon in the black fog had set the player a test.

Could they commit murder to clear a dungeon?

Yes. Murder.

Unlike players, who could resurrect, an NPC’s first death was their last. That was what this dungeon was asking: could you kill the NPC companion who had come with you, all to clear the dungeon?

‘So much for a perfect AI... What a stupid thing to do.’

Could you kill an NPC?

It sounded like a momentous question, but it really wasn’t that difficult for a player. Clearing a dungeon mattered far more to them than an NPC who was merely a program.

‘Players kill each other all the time. Killing an NPC wouldn’t make them feel a thing.’

Ironically, though, Woojin was different. Was it because he had experienced another world? The NPCs he met here felt like real people to him.

Perhaps he was too immersed.

But it was also true that this attitude had kept him from killing Chason and allowed him to reach the black fog, which had gone unconquered for years. That meant this wasn’t merely some foolish scenario devised by an AI.

Perhaps [Ethan] had known from the start that only someone who couldn’t readily kill NPCs would make it here. Still, Woojin couldn’t understand why it had arranged this.

Was it asking him to see NPCs as individuals?

‘... I’m reading too much into this.’

Woojin clicked his tongue and collected his thoughts.

“Is turning your sword on me really what you can do for your father?” he asked Chason.

[The city is gradually sinking into the sea.]

▶ Time Limit: 8 minutes.

“You know, too. Those waves raging outside the gates—the waves that terrified you. They’re tearing this city apart.”

CLANG!

Woojin knocked Chason’s sword aside with a blow, then turned to block Harterwin’s attack.

“I...”

Chason struggled to answer.

At that moment, Woojin swiftly reached out and twisted Chason’s wrist.

CLATTER!

Chason let out a short scream and dropped his sword.

“It’s hard, isn’t it? It’s hard for me, too.”

Strangely, Woojin’s words didn’t seem directed at Chason alone.

“I don’t know why you made a shitty dungeon like this, but you must think you’re some kind of god. Putting players to the test.”

He was addressing [Ethan].

“I don’t know the answer, but I won’t let a stupid game like this push me around.”

[The city is gradually sinking into the sea.]

▶ Time Limit: 6 minutes.

“Master! We’re running out of time!”

[“Aaaaargh!”]

Just before Harterwin’s sword reached Woojin,

[Activating Blazing Flames.]

The damage Woojin had taken moments earlier turned into flames that engulfed Harterwin.

“Father...!”

Seeing Harterwin rolling about with his hands over his face, Chason hurried to his feet.

“... Gah!”

But Woojin seized him by the throat and pinned him against the wall.

“G-ghh...!”

[The city is gradually sinking into the sea.]

▶ Time Limit: 4 minutes.

Then it happened. The dark hall began to fill with brilliant white light.

The sun was rising.

“At last. A new day.”

Standing with the sunlight at his back, Woojin looked as though a halo shone around him. The dazzling rays kept Chason from seeing him clearly.

[“Aaaaargh!”]

As the flames on his body died down, Harterwin charged at Woojin again.

[Using Pilgrim’s Cross.]

▶ Purification activates.

Woojin pressed the cross in his hand against Harterwin’s forehead.

“Come to your senses, Harterwin.”

HISSSSS!

As the light pouring from the cross touched Harterwin, pitch-black smoke burst forth as though he were burning.

[“Aaaaaaargh!”]

A desperate scream rang out, different from the cries the flames had drawn from him.

“You should at least say goodbye to your son.”

At that moment—

[“I... I...”]

For the first time, human words came from Harterwin, who until now had only howled.

* * *

Harterwin Bolton.

He felt as though he were dreaming. Instead of the sightless darkness that had filled his vision, he could now see the things he had longed to see.

[“The Bolton family is cursed. One day, the black fog will devour everything you hold dear.”]

At first, he hadn’t believed it. He had thought he could overcome a mere curse.

But he had been wrong. When he lost his wife, he realized that he, too, had failed to escape the family’s curse.

Then, suddenly, it struck him.

What about the son he still had?

He couldn’t lose his son. What was he to do?

He thought and thought, until he reached a single conclusion. If the curse stole everything precious to the head of the family, didn’t that mean the family head himself would at least remain alive?

‘I just have to... die first.’

And so he had sailed like a madman in search of the black fog. He had broken through it and arrived here.

A dying city.

Yet the moment he saw it, he felt relieved.

Thank goodness.

Now his son would be able to live.

[“... Chason.”]

He wanted to see his son.

“... Father!”

At the voice, Harterwin halted his sword.

[“Am I still dreaming?”]

Something rushed into his arms.

“Father...! Father...!”

Harterwin gazed silently at him.

CLATTER.

Then he threw aside his sword.

[“... You’ve grown so much.”]

With fingers that were nothing but bone, Harterwin embraced his now-grown son.

“Waaah... Waaaah.”

Setsuna began to cry as she watched them.

“So that’s why you needed a new day to begin.”

Ruen spoke joyfully, seemingly impressed by Woojin’s idea.

“Right. I used the cross once on the first floor. A day has to pass before I can use it again.”

“If... I’d been a little stronger and could have held out against the other family heads, could we have purified them, too?”

“Hm?”

It was an unexpected question.

“Well... Maybe. But that wouldn’t bring the dead back to life. In the end, they still have to be annihilated.”

Woojin glanced at Harterwin as he spoke.

“Even so, how you meet your end matters.”

“Hmm...”

Her answer gave Woojin pause.

Being killed, or choosing to end your own life.

He wondered whether her answer was what [Ethan] had wanted to say.

[“Heh... Heh heh... You speak as though it’s over.”]

Just then, Gilbert, still lying on the floor, addressed them with a nasty laugh.

[The city is gradually sinking into the sea.]

▶ Time Limit: 2 minutes.

[“The city will fall regardless. None of you will make it out ali—Gah!”]

“Harterwin’s curse has been lifted. You can die now.”

[“... What?”]

CRUNCH!

At that moment, the [Seawater Sword] burst through Gilbert’s chest.

“Because of you...!”

It was Chason.

[“Heh... Heh heh... Damn it.”]

The water surging from the blade swallowed Gilbert.

“Hah... Hah...”

Breathing hard, Chason looked at Woojin.

“The sword’s holy power shouldn’t disappear just because you aren’t of our bloodline.”

He handed his sword to Woojin.

“Thank you. Because of you, I got to see my father again.”

His voice trembled.

“I’ll stay with my father.”

His gaze wavered, too.

“I’m a head of the Bolton family as well... I have to die, too, to break the curse.”

At his words, Ruen looked at Woojin with an expression that said the inevitable moment had arrived.

[The city is gradually sinking into the sea.]

▶ Time Limit: 1 minute.

“There’s no time. Hurry!”

But Woojin gave a bitter smile.

“Right. There’s only a minute left. Instead of wasting words on me, spend a little more time talking to your father.”

“What?”

“This really will be your last chance.”

Harterwin slowly nodded to Woojin.

“It seems your father knows about this cross’s other effect, too.”

“What do you...?”

“That Remove Curse can only be used on the living.”

[Using Pilgrim’s Cross.]

▶ Remove Curse activates.

Woojin lowered the cross onto Chason’s forehead.