Chapter 84 - Sewers (5)

THUD.

The instant the barbarian collapsed in a spray of dust, Amelia Reinweils gritted her teeth and doubled over.

'The price of letting my guard down?'

Her ribs were broken. The skin drenched in his blood had gone beyond stinging to burning, and her internal organs seemed badly damaged too.

'I can't even remember the last time I was in this state.'

Her body would recover on its own before long. But the pain, something she hadn't felt in so long, was painfully vivid. She had prided herself on being used to pain, if nothing else.

A rueful chuckle escaped her before she knew it.

Even if this was the result of her own arrogance, it was absurd to think that a barbarian only three months into his career had done this to her.

'What a curious man.'

It wasn't simply his abilities. It was his split-second judgment, the daring and decisiveness to act on it. Above all, that will to live.

A thought even occurred to her.

'If we'd met again a little later... the outcome might have been different.'

Of course, realistically, that was nonsense. She had grown up hearing that her talent was second to none, and had spent no less than twenty years venturing into the Labyrinth.

But...

'The fact that I'm even thinking it is the problem. It means he's that dangerous.'

Their first encounter had been only a month ago. Enough time for just one more trip into the Labyrinth, at most. And yet, how much had this barbarian changed? The barbarian who hadn't even been able to brush her clothes had left her in this state.

HISSS!

Despite having its entire neck blown away, his body had survived and begun rebuilding its flesh. Amelia walked slowly toward it.

STEP.

There were several abilities that could overcome death, like [Source of Darkness]. But that didn't mean they made their users invincible. This barbarian was proof enough.

STEP.

With his entire head shattered, he was utterly defenseless. So what if [Immortal] had activated and was rapidly healing him? Repairing injuries of this magnitude would take a tremendous amount of time, and even that would become impossible once his Magic Power ran dry.

In other words, she could kill him whenever she pleased. But without hesitation, she sheathed her dagger and took out a potion.

Whatever anyone might say, she was no bloodthirsty killer.

'They definitely weren't sent by the royal family. There's no need to kill them.'

* * *

There had been a clue. The voice coming from in front of and behind me at the same time. If I'd been a little smarter and calmer, I might have realized [Autoreproduction] was a factor. Then plans A and B would have been a little different too.

'Well, I doubt the outcome would have changed.'

Feeling the bizarre sensation of my shattered mind being pieced back together, I slowly opened my eyes.

"What monstrous regeneration."

The first thing I saw was the psychopathic bitch.

"All of that healed with a single potion."

"Po... tion...?"

I sat up, my voice cracking. Only then did I notice that my head was soaking wet. It didn't seem to be all blood...

Had this woman actually poured a potion on me?

"Why on earth—"

"Why didn't I kill you?"

I nodded.

Sure, I was happy to still be alive... But honestly, the moment I lost consciousness, I'd been certain I was dead.

The woman gave me an irritated look.

"You... haven't changed at all."

"What...?"

"You did this last time too. Why do you charge at me the moment you see me? I never thought I'd be saying this, but don't people usually try talking things out first?"

Put that way, I didn't have much of an answer. It was all because of my habit of always assuming the worst first.

I answered calmly.

"If you intended to kill me, I thought that was my only option."

While she still had even the slightest opening. Before the paralytic venom spread any further through my body. I'd decided I had to settle things then.

The woman merely let out a brief sigh.

"Why? I'm fairly sure I let you leave alive last time."

Her voice was still blunt, but somehow she sounded a little wronged. Yet I was the one with a real grievance.

"You said it yourself. You couldn't let us go now that we knew about this place."

If she hadn't said that, plan C—begging for my life—would have remained plan A. Did she think I'd wanted to fight a monster like her?

"As I recall, I said I couldn't 'just' let you go."

Same difference.

For some reason, she'd been acting more accommodating, so I ventured a bolder question.

"So, what are you going to do with me now?"

"I don't intend to kill you. So move your hand away already."

I stopped the arm I'd been inching toward my mace. Then I said firmly,

"You've misunderstood."

"Misunderstood?"

"I wasn't thinking of ambushing you with this. I was just—"

"Preparing for the possibility that I might change my mind?"

... Well, yes. Exactly. The best defense was a good offense.

When I neither confirmed nor denied it, she stared down at me, her eyes seeming to ask what kind of lunatic I was.

"You really haven't changed one bit."

With that, she spat on the floor. For a moment, I wondered if she was the thuggish type, but a closer look revealed blood, not spit. Apparently, my active defense before passing out hadn't been entirely without effect.

"... Didn't you take a potion?"

"My constitution doesn't allow it."

"I see."

It barely qualified as an explanation, even a brief one, but I held my tongue. Some Essences actually imposed penalties when you took a potion.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand.

"Barbarian, eat this."

The woman took something like a medicinal pill from inside her clothes. It was dark and looked like cat food that a cat had thrown up.

"What... is this?"

"Medicine made by an alchemist in Noark. Taking it erases an entire hour of memories."

"Erases memories...? Then why didn't you use it when we met in the Land of the Dead?"

"It's not easy to come by. I wouldn't even have this one if it hadn't been given to me for emergencies."

So it was valuable. But that raised another question. It definitely wasn't something I should be saying in my position...

"It would be easier to just kill us. Why go to all this trouble?"

There was a saying that nothing was more precious than a human life. That only applied in the world I'd once lived in. This world had countless things worth more than a person's life. Even now, up on the surface, plenty of people were dying simply because they couldn't pay their taxes.

And yet...

'She's using a valuable consumable just to let us leave alive...?'

I spoke with conviction.

"You must have some reason you need to do this."

"... What makes you think that?"

"If you killed all five of us, our equipment alone would be worth tens of millions of Stones."

The woman fell silent for a while at my incisive observation. I thought I'd hit the nail on the head. But what she eventually said was unexpected.

"What exactly do you think I am?"

"Well..."

As I was wondering whether I could answer honestly, she cut me off.

"Don't bother. I think I know."

Apparently, she had a guilty conscience herself. But perhaps she didn't feel like making excuses.

"Forget it. Think whatever you want. It won't change anything anyway."

She bent down, forced my mouth open, and shoved the pill down my throat. It dissolved smoothly, leaving me no chance to spit it out later.

It felt as though flames were flaring up inside my head. The sensation was entirely different from pain.

"... Hey, I'll really just lose my memories, right? Nothing else?"

"If not, do you have another choice?"

Uh, put that way, there wasn't much I could say...

She gave a small chuckle at my speechlessness.

"I haven't heard of any side effects. So sleep easy, barbarian."

Well, in that case. Honestly, I didn't feel reassured at all, but I closed my eyes. Just then, she spoke as though something had finally occurred to her.

"Oh, so what was the other one?"

Huh? The other one?

"The two ways to make someone angry."

Oh, that.

"That would be..."

And I lost consciousness.

* * *

「Lete's Blessing seeps into the character's soul.」

「This soul cannot receive blessings. The blessing that seeped into the soul is removed.」

* * *

When I opened my eyes, I was in the sewers. The equipment that had been stripped off me was scattered haphazardly nearby, and the same was true for my companions.

TAP.

Bracing myself with one hand, I slowly pushed my filth-covered body upright. As I gathered my equipment and put it on, my companions began coming around one by one. They all looked bewildered.

"Huh? The sewers...?"

"W-what in the world? We were chasing that wicked woman..."

"The video-recording orb! If we check the video-recording orb... Damn it, it's broken!"

Apparently, the psychopathic bitch had been telling the truth: none of my companions remembered anything. From what they said, their last memory was following Hans E to the hideout...

'... Why am I fine?'

Even when I slowly went back over my memories, everything up until I lost consciousness came back clearly. Why on earth? As I was pondering the reason...

'Wait, then what happened to that bitch?'

The belated thought of Elisa jolted me alert.

'... Did that bitch take her away alive?'

At least, she was nowhere nearby. Damn it. If I'd known this would happen, I should have forgotten the bounty and killed her back—

"Everyone, look over there!"

"Huh? Isn't that the woman?"

What?

I immediately turned my head and spotted a woman lying a short distance away. Blonde hair caked in filth. A dainty little back of the head that begged to be smashed. It was definitely that bitch Elisa.

"Sh-she's dead!"

The dwarf rushed over, checked her pulse, and pronounced her dead. That only deepened the confusion.

"Th-this is utterly inexplicable. Why do we have no memories, and why is this woman dead...?"

"D-Dwalki, could that monster you mentioned have shown up?!"

All sorts of speculation flew amid bewildered voices. Rotmiller, who had managed to remain relatively calm, offered a plausible hypothesis.

"... I suspect this was all her doing."

"What? Her doing?"

"We probably found her after pursuing her. And presumably won."

Rotmiller pointed to Elisa's limbs as evidence. Apparently, it would be difficult to crush them so thoroughly with anything short of my mace.

"C-come to think of it, I can sense traces of my magic on her too."

Dwalki soon found remnants of [Paralytic Poison] in the corpse, lending weight to the theory.

That left them with just one question.

"Then why can't we remember anything?"

Why had they lost their memories?

"If I'm right, we were planning to take her back to the city alive. But... perhaps she regained consciousness then and pulled something."

It was a fairly plausible story. If I'd lost my memories too, I was sure I would have analyzed the situation the same way.

"Indeed... With an evil god's powers, about which so little is known, something like this might be possible."

"Hahaha! Still, seeing her dead like this, we must have managed to sort it out somehow!"

"... Bjorn, what do you think?"

"Well..."

I thought for a moment before answering. The conclusion they'd speculated their way to and accepted was quite far from the truth I remembered, but...

"I think Rotmiller is right."

There was no need to tell them. If word got out that I hadn't lost my memories, who knew when that psychopathic bitch might come looking for me again?

"Let's get out of here and visit a temple first. We may have more than memory loss to worry about. Something could be wrong with our bodies."

At Rotmiller's worried words, everyone hurried to get ready to leave. So I brought my own musings to an end.

'Something hidden beneath the sewers...'

A secret in this world that I knew nothing about. As a veteran player, I'd be lying if I said it didn't pique my curiosity, but...

'I'm never going anywhere near the sewers again.'

My life was more important than my curiosity, wasn't it?