Chapter 40

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※Contains graphic content

□【Paladin】Ray Sterling

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We rescued Rebecca in the alley and then headed straight for the Gouz Maze Bandits' hideout to save her brother.

So, when we stormed in, I knew almost nothing about the Gouz Maze Bandits.

I only knew they were "kidnappers and murderers of children."

I knew nothing.

But even if I had known what they were up to beforehand... the outcome probably wouldn't have changed.

It would have only been a matter of sooner or later.

◇◇◇

The white smoke from Hugo's 【Marshal II】's 【Smoke Discharger】 had seeped into the interior of the fort, allowing me to pass through the entrance unnoticed and reach the connecting corridor.

Despite the white smoke filling the room, it didn't obscure what was where.

This smoke, when I focused my eyes, became translucent.

It likely didn't impair the vision of Hugo's party members.

How such a selective effect was possible was unclear.

『Well, we're inside, but we don't know the internal structure.』

Nemesis and I moved through the corridor without speaking, communicating telepathically.

Occasionally, we passed bandits who seemed unaware of our presence.

『Master, where do you think the children are?』

Somewhere in a room above the second floor that doesn't face a window, or in the basement if there is one.

『Why?』

From their perspective, placing kidnapped children on the first floor increases the risk of escape.

Also, rooms on the upper floors that face windows are different.

The walls were covered with ivy, which could be used to escape.

By process of elimination, it's either upstairs or in the basement.

『Then it's probably the basement, right?』

Why?

『If kidnappers lock up children, it's usually in the basement.』

...I suppose that makes sense.

It's a possibility, and we should check it out.

As I thought, a crossroads lay ahead. I peered down the straight path, the left turn, and the right turn.

The right path led to a staircase descending to the basement, as if inviting us.

I chose the right path and headed down the stairs to the basement.

“...!”

As I took a step onto the stairs, a strange odor wafted up from below.

It was a smell I had encountered before but couldn't quite place, or perhaps didn't want to remember.

But I couldn't stop now.

I steeled myself and descended the stairs.

The basement stairs, like the floor, walls, and ceiling, were made of stone.

The ceiling was surprisingly high, more than twice my height, and the corridor was even wider. It seemed there would be no inconvenience in swinging Nemesis.

However, the places other than the floor, which was frequently walked on, were covered with dark green moss and had a unique dampness.

『It's gloomy.』

It's the basement.

But this moss and dampness... it suggests there's a leak of groundwater from somewhere.

『It was originally an abandoned fort, after all.』

Leaving children here for a long time would make them sick.

『If they cared about the children's health, they wouldn't kidnap or kill them.』

That's true.

In the real world, I remember there being a business where kidnappers treated their victims well to extort ransom, but these people are different.

From the low-level bandits we defeated and the people in the carriage, it's clear they don't value the lives of children.

Thinking about their words makes me feel sick.

“...”

『By the way, have you noticed, Master?』

Nemesis didn't specify what I had noticed.

But I had noticed it too, even without being told.

“Around the time we descended the stairs. I finally remembered where I had smelled it before.”

I answered aloud, not through telepathy.

There was no need to hide anymore.

Whatever was at the end of the corridor had already detected us.

『It's there...』

“Yeah.”

The surroundings were dimly lit by the few lights on the walls.

Stone floor, walls, ceiling, moss.

The smell of dampness, the smell of stale air, the smell of “blood,” the smell of “rotting flesh.”

I recognized this smell.

It was the same smell I had inhaled all night in the <Tomb Labyrinth>.

In other words,

『Ooaaaaaaoo...』

『...KaraKara...』

The smell of “Undead.”

The 【Wounded Zombie】 shuffling toward us, moaning, with rotting flesh hanging from their bones, and the 【Civil Skeleton】 approaching with a clattering of jawbones, devoid of flesh.

“...”

They were the same type of monsters I had defeated countless times in the <Tomb Labyrinth>.

The same type, but there was a crucial difference.

It wasn't the number. There were dozens of Undead, but the significant difference was something else.

It wasn't their strength.

They were likely weaker than the Undead I had fought in the <Tomb Labyrinth>.

The difference was what they had once been.

“...This is a joke.”

I repeated “This is a joke” in my mind at the sight before me.

『It's cruel.』

At the scene before me, I clenched my teeth, feeling more pity for the Undead than fear, even more than Nemesis, who was afraid of them.

The Undead standing before us were small.

Compared to me... “about half my height.”

Such Undead filled the corridor.

What they had once been... was obvious.

“Disgusting...”

The small Undead extended their hands and approached us.

Each held a tattered weapon, coming toward us, the intruders.

Except for their size, it was the same scene as in the <Tomb Labyrinth>.

But Undead created from human corpses were... entirely different from those created from the start.

Their appearance stirred emotions that couldn't be contained in my heart.

『Hmph, there seems to be a Necromancer in the bandit group. They're reusing the children they killed.』

“Are you okay, Nemesis?”

『Hah. Before I could be afraid... my insides are boiling.』

“Me too.”

Staring at the Undead before me, I thought.

Is there any way to save these children?

The answer was no.

If there were a way to revive the dead, it would have been used in this country, which lost many important figures in the previous war.

So either such a method doesn't exist, or it's beyond the reach of the country.

I certainly don't have it now.

“Hey, Nemesis.”

『What is it?』

“What happens when Undead die?”

The Undead we fought in the <Tomb Labyrinth> were artificial, not made from someone's corpse.

But the 【Wounded Zombie】 and 【Civil Skeleton】 before us, while sharing the same names as those in the <Tomb Labyrinth>, were once living beings.

What happens to the souls of these children?

『I don't know. Some are just using the body, while others have souls inside. I don't know what happens to the souls after they are destroyed.』

“I see...”

『But I think we should end their suffering as Undead.』

“...Yeah.”

The distance to the child Undead had closed to about five meters.

Among the illuminated 【Zombies】, some still retained traces of their former faces.

“...”

I closed my eyes tightly once.

When I opened them again... I extended the back of my left hand to them.

“Sorry.”

I released the 【Inferno Gauntlet】's flames from my left hand, burning away the dozens of Undead children.

The thin bones, the thin rotting flesh, the tufts of hair that remained, all burned instantly in the super-high-temperature flames.

They lost their HP in that instant and collapsed, burning as corpses rather than Undead.

Black smoke rose but flowed along the ceiling to the first floor, mixing with the white smoke.

When I stopped the flame emission, they stopped burning and became cremated bones.

【You have exceeded 100 kills of monsters that meet the criteria for <Level-Appropriate Undead>.】

【You have met the job requirement for 【Paladin】 and the cumulative kill requirement for 100 monsters that meet the criteria, and have learned the active skill 【Silver Light of Sanctification】.】

An announcement appeared, informing me of the skill acquisition, but I felt no joy, no surprise, nothing at all.

Just a heavy feeling in my chest.

“...”

I slowly clasped my hands together.

As if at a gravesite... I prayed for the peace of the children's souls.

Suddenly, perhaps due to the air currents from the heat, a slight breeze blew through the underground corridor.

[Th...a...n...k...y...o...u...]

My ears picked up this voice mixed with the sound of the wind.

But it was probably just an auditory hallucination.

A hallucination born from my wish that at least their souls were saved.

『Master.』

“...Is this what you meant, Nemesis?”

I placed my hand on my chest, holding the weight that had settled there, and asked Nemesis.

“Is this... this feeling, what Yugo was trying to say back then...?”

『...Yes. If the <Master> of a Maiden doesn't think of this world as a “game” in their heart... if they recognize the lives in this world as real, just like us...』

“...”

『Then, in this <Infinite Dendrogram>, you feel the weight of life too much.』

“Feel the weight, huh.”

The weight of life.

“Maybe...”

This world is too real, indistinguishable from reality.

Tian, for example, feels like she has a heart and a soul, and my heart senses it.

Even though I know it's a game, I can't deny the feelings I've developed.

That's why, like with Tian, when someone's life is lost in 【Galdlanda】, I feel a bad aftertaste.

When it came to Miriane, I moved to avoid that ending, didn't I?

And it's the same now, coming to save Rebecca's brother.

But now, before my eyes, were countless endings.

I don't know their stories. I don't know how they ended up this way.

My hands couldn't reach them, and I didn't know about them.

But the ending was too cruel to be summed up in one word, "tragedy," and the emotions it stirred in my heart were all that remained.

The burning, bitter aftertaste—only sorrow and anger remained.

『In a world where lives are lost more easily than in your world... isn't that incredibly painful?』

“...Yeah.”

Even now, I feel like crying.

I feel like giving up, like crying.

If I continue to experience this feeling, if I repeatedly taste the same loss and sorrow as in reality, some might choose to leave <Infinite Dendrogram>.

There must be people who have.

It's a choice I might impulsively make now.

“But I... I'm not there yet.”

I haven't given up yet.

I haven't saved the children who are still alive.

I haven't fulfilled my promise.

Most of all—this scene, the bastard who created it, I can't forgive him.

Whether <Infinite Dendrogram> is a game or not.

I can't let him go.

“...”

I directed my gaze to the remains of the children.

There were metal fragments left in their bodies... and on them, written in the official language of <Infinite Dendrogram>:

【Maze-made juvenile individual utilization type 【Civil Skeleton】 No. 87】

It was a tag.

To the one who attached it, it was just a tag.

But what those words and numbers mean... is that I can never forgive this.

Whether <Infinite Dendrogram> is a game or not.

I can't let this go.

“Let's go, Nemesis. It's definitely this way.”

『...Yes!』

I moved forward with Nemesis, heading down the corridor.

◆◆◆

■Gouz Maze Bandits' Second-in-Command 【Great Necromancer】 Maze

“Hm?”

I noticed a decrease in the capacity of my subordinate capacity, and some of the Undead under my control had disappeared.

The ones that disappeared... ah, the trash I made for amusement and left in the underground corridor as an alarm.

They were weak Undead meant to be destroyed. It's not a loss.

But I sensed intruders wreaking havoc above ground, and now they're here underground too.

“Gouz”

I activated the magical communication item connected to the surface.

『Oh.』

“How's the situation above?”

『About five or six minutes. It should be over by then.』

“Then crush the intruders after your subordinates are all wiped out. I'll take care of the rats in the basement. Once that's done, we move out.”

『Oh. Yeah, prepare the item boxes for the corpses since we'll have a lot of them.』

“I know.”

There should be several empty item boxes for corpse collection.

I plan to take them all, along with the item box containing my treasures and secrets.

“Wait at the gate after repelling the intruders.”

『Oh.』

I cut the communication.

The situation above is under control.

The opponent above, though just low-level jobs, is strong enough to wipe out my subordinates.

But Gouz's combat power is on a different level.

He has maxed out the level cap for high-level jobs and is one of the top five fighters in the country.

Even without Figaro, Gouz could have been a 【Super Fighter】.

And so am I.

I have maxed out my level and possess the highest necromancy technology in the country, reaching the level of a super-class job.

I don't know who the intruders are, but they're not worth fearing unless they're <super-class> or a super-class job.

But it's strange.

“What is the purpose of the intruders?”

They should know that defeating us isn't worth it anymore.

Are they after treasure?

That makes sense. The funds from kidnapping are enormous, even after the portion sent to Cardina.

It's not a bad target for a quick fortune.

But the kind of person who plans such a reckless future is predictable.

“Well... let's prepare to welcome the <Master>.”

To be continued

The next post will be tomorrow at 21:00.