Chapter 21 – Beast Hanger (1)

The world that had been out for a long time was unfamiliar. Warm wind. The air mixed with the savory stew scent. The sounds of loved ones laughing and chatting. It was all so awkward that I almost vomited at first.

Even the common sense I knew was completely denied. Leo became a hero who saved the world, and Bobby became the Archbishop of the Ennessic Order. Sera is a miracle saint. Rick and Nadia were lauded as a humble warrior couple who blossomed in love despite the threat of the world. Wherever I went, people chanted the names of the warriors who defeated the demon king, but there were no names of me or Eli.

Until a few years ago, they called me a warrior. People forget everything too quickly. We turn our eyes to flashy lies rather than the plain truth, and focus on the plausible future rather than the bitter past. While forgetting that the truth of the past so ignored will one day choke one’s throat.

So I decided to change this world to something more familiar. The mask he wore was soaked in blood and the screams of his enemies filled his distant ears. As I tried to find the things I missed one by one, before I knew it, the smell of blood came from my whole body, and I was able to breathe fully only then.

“Ha…”

But still something was strange. The world I knew was not so fragile. No matter where you touched it, it broke easily, and once it was cut, the traces did not easily disappear. While I was asleep, the world, engulfed in peace, had become so weak that even the slightest force would crush it.

I realized how long I had been asleep. I was asleep until you all grew old and weak. Otherwise it was not explained. To think that the world that seemed so rugged and rough had changed like this.

Or maybe I’ve changed too much.

As I was lost in thought and wiped the blood off my sword, a faint light leaked in before my eyes. There was no sound of laughter, no warm wind, no fragrant smell. Rather, a familiar feeling of hopelessness pervaded me to the point of shuddering.

Only then did the smile return to his lips. Okay. You are still the same as me You guys are still awkward in this peaceful world.

I moved slowly, hoping that they hadn’t weakened. Please hold out for a very long time. The by-products in the box he was carrying jingled and shook his senses of life.

“What is it? What are you doing when it doesn’t turn off?”

As Nadia and I stood motionless in the doorway, the baron’s angry voice came from behind. Nadia instinctively flinched, then she looked back and said.

“Hey…Rick…Now…I think I need to come back for a second…”

“Can’t you see he’s busy? And he’s the baron in front of people…”

Habitually irritable, he paused as if he had noticed something over Nadia’s shoulder. Then, after removing her hand from rubbing Lydia’s chest, he came towards her.

“What is that? Blood?”

He strode forward with a frown on his face, but as soon as he reached the door, he stopped his steps. For the first time, a feeling of bewilderment appeared on his face, which had been stained with arrogance and irritation.

“What the fuck is this…”

As he spat out a low curse, Luke, who was staring vaguely forward, moved his lips. He squeezed out all his might and managed to get out a word.

“Baron…Sir…”

“How did this happen, Luke? What kind of fuck are you?”

“…”

However, he lowered his head at the last word. The Baron tried to reach him to see if he was alive, but Nadia grabbed him by the shoulder.

“Now…Wait a minute Rick! What are you up to!”

“We’ll have to see if he’s dead or alive. And then we’ll have to figure out what’s going on…”

“Ah…No Rick! You…What if you end up like that…So please don’t leave Rick…”

“You’re talking shit bitch. Don’t keep shaking like a motherfucking bitch. The bitch called a knight of fame has a lot of needlessly timidity…”

He brushed the intrusive Nadia aside from her and headed out the door. I was also a little curious, so I stuck my head out and looked at the hallway.

And he was confronted head-on with the terrible smell of blood.

At first, I thought Luke was a meticulous assassin when he saw Luke’s wounds, where only tendons and veins were precisely cut. But he was far from that kind of person.

Down the dark hallway were the corpses of well over ten guards. They had such a terrible look that it would be more appropriate to say that they were murdered rather than murdered. There were few corpses with intact limbs, and the cut parts looked like they had been crushed by something rather than cut by a sword. I was even convinced that if I had enough time to collect the bodies, the number of limbs would never match the number of corpses.

However, it never occurred to me that emotions were involved in such a gruesome appearance. Just as we don’t crush flying flies with clear malice when we see flying flies in our ears, the feeling that we dealt with them just because it was right in front of us felt stronger. So when I put my eyes on the body split in half with the armor on, the baron stepped back in astonishment.

“What the fuck…My God…”

The baron hurriedly slammed the door shut, leaving behind a word that sounded like a death sentence. It slammed so hard that Nadia bounced off him, hitting his head, but he didn’t care. He desperately looked around, then blankly shouted at the servants surrounding him.

“What are you idiots doing! Don’t just stand there and bring something to block the door! Whether it’s a stick or a chair, it doesn’t matter, so hurry up!”

“Yes? Ah…Yes!”

“What kind of bastard dares to…”

I thought he was going to run towards the bow, but he went to the window first. Was he thinking of calling for help from the guards outside? But as soon as he opened the window curtains, he faced an unexpected guest.

“Aww!”

At least I almost screamed in surprise at his screams. I used my self-control to keep my mouth shut, but the rest of us didn’t.

They screamed at the sight of human intestines embroidered along the window cracks.

“Kyaaaaah

“Oh my God…God!”

“Shut the fuck up everyone! Shut up!”

The Baron screamed as if to hide his inner fear, and Nadia was already terrified and shivered all over him. I looked at each of them one by one and then approached the window where the baron was standing. The intestines that were sticking to them shook as if they would fall off with the blowing wind, and as soon as I touched them, they fell helplessly and crashed to the floor. The gaze naturally followed the intestines and out the window.

Another dreary scene unfolded before my eyes. Most of the corpses lying outside had no shape at all. It was a little far away, but the guards in front of the mansion had no clear shape other than flesh and gore, and the corpses after that had only their hands and feet left, but their bodies other than that had disappeared somewhere.

It was such a brutal massacre that no one in the mansion noticed. It’s partly because the baron made a fuss, but it’s probably because everything happened so quickly. I shuddered and put my hand to the crack in the door, wondering if I could get out through the window. But something on the ground under the window caught my eye.

“…Haha.”

As soon as I figured out its identity, I laughed out loud. Of course, there was another corpse. However, unlike the others, a fairly large lump remained. To be precise, two.

The unfortunate guard died with his body split in half. However, unlike a corpse that is usually split in half, that one would not be fully formed even if the two were put together. What remained in the middle of his body was sticking to the building wall in a straight line, as if painting a brush upwards. The intestines stuck to the window were one of them. Most likely, the mark was left on the wall in the same shape as the culprit raised it with his sword.

Only then did I realize that I was still misunderstanding the culprit. He was neither a meticulous assassin nor a brutal butcher. The corpses scattered on his back steps were less damaged as they came in from the outside, and the cutting techniques became more meticulous. What this meant was clear.

This monster was gradually learning how to control its powers.

At first, you were probably bewildered. He himself only swung his weapon, and his corpses were smashed and crushed. Perhaps this was the first time he had ever cut someone who wasn’t a monster like himself. After killing the last guard for a long time, he vaguely realized the power gap after he cut down the last guard outside.

Thanks to that, the killings within the mansion were a little less horrifying, but still unsatisfying. So he sculpted the last victim with the least amount of force possible. Rather than slashing his entire body, he took aim at only the most lethal weaknesses he knew, incapacitating his opponents.

At this point, he seemed to know his purpose. If he was simply thinking of killing everyone, he would have had to grind everyone out just as he was rampaging in the first place. However, the reason why he took the time and effort to learn how to control his strength must be because there are opponents he wants to kill. The opponent is probably a baron. Or most likely a baroness. He was now removing all obstructions in the mansion and making it his torture chamber.

But still, the most important question remains unanswered. Of course, now I felt that everything had nothing to do with me, but the question still dominated my mind.

So this monster. Where are you now?

“Get out of the way fuck!”

Then the baron shoved me roughly and put his foot on her window sill. Then Nadia hurriedly followed and grabbed him by the ankle.

“Rick! Uh…Where are you going. There…”

“Let go of this, you idiot! Run through a window… No, you’re not going to have to escape!”

“But it’s too high here! I…You know I’m pregnant. Huh? You can never jump from a place like this!”

“Who cares about you? If you can’t follow me, don’t get in my way!”

“No…Don’t leave me Rick…Please!”

Kang!

Then, as if to clear my doubts, there was a huge knock on the iron door. Everyone inside slammed their bodies against the wall in terror, but the Baron and Nadia especially looked towards the door in horror.

“What…What the fuck…!”

“It can’t be… It can’t be…”

Nadia muttered something like her elongation in disbelief. The sound continued to resonate over her voice.

Kang!

…

Kang!

…

Kang!

“No no…!”

“Damn it… I can’t believe it…”

It was just an ordinary metal sound to me, but they trembled excessively as if this sound meant something special. Nadia, in particular, sat there, white as if she had been traumatized by the sound.

Kang!

…

Kang!

…

“My bow…Bring my bow!”

When the baron shouted, one of the servants who was barely awake hurriedly brought a bow. No, maybe he was soaked in the vain hope that this illusory hero would do anything for him. But Nadia shook her head frantically, as if she disagreed with such a silly idea.

“No Rick! You can’t even shoot a bow anymore…”

“Shut up your mouth fuck! You think you can’t handle anything you’ve ever touched just because you don’t have at least one finger?”

Kang!

…

Kang!

…

Kang!

With a stronger sound than before, the chair or desk that was blocking the door collapsed, and the door opened very slightly. Black darkness flowed through the cracks in the door, and someone’s orderly breath flowed out.

“…”

“Fuck…Fuck…!”

The baron muttered a series of swear words and pulled his bow as hard as he could. Although he does not have an index finger, his posture was perfect and his aim was unwavering, befitting a legendary archer. But Nadia didn’t look at all happy with her husband’s trustworthiness. It’s like someone who knows his defeat has already been decided.

Kang!

…

Kang!

…

Clink!

Eventually, the door that protected this humble haven was smashed to pieces, sending metal and wood shards everywhere. And as soon as the shape of a shadow was revealed between them, the baron shot an arrow with amazing reaction speed.

“Damn it, you fucking bastard!”

The powerfully shot arrow caused a gust of wind and drove away all the floating dust and darkness. The arrow flew at the speed of light and headed straight for the intruder’s forehead, giving the illusion that the sound of the arrow shooting could not catch up with the actual projectile and was barely catching up.

Bang!

…

However, before the arrow pierced the middle of the forehead, the intruder’s hand came out first. He caught the arrowhead with his fist, not the shaft, as if he were catching a thrown ball. The baron looked at it and lowered his bow in vain.

“Such…Who the hell…”

Hearing his despairing words, the intruder emerged very slowly into the light. The first to speak upon seeing his face was neither Nadia nor the Baron, but Professor Hayd.

“Will…?”

If it’s Will, that coachman?

As the professor said, he was definitely the coachman who brought the carriage to the mansion. But now, when I looked closely, I felt a strange sense of incongruity. A strange sense of incongruity, as if a monster were wearing human skin.

He slowly brought his hand to his chin, keeping his gaze fixed on the Baron. Then, grabbing the tip of his chin, he peeled off his entire face.

“Ahhh…”

The facial skin that once belonged to a man named Will fell to the ground, revealing the face of a young man soaked in blood. He was a young man with such a common impression that if he had met him on the street other than in this situation, he would have forgotten his face as soon as he saw it.

“No way…”

The Baron and Nadia looked at the young man as if they were seeing a ghost. Soon, the young man’s name came out slowly from the baron’s mouth.

“Luca…”

“Rick.”

The young man called Luca called his name as if he was answering his call. Then she turned her head to Nadia and called her name in a deep voice that seemed to have squeezed through the years. The three-letter name, which had been called many times today, fell heavily as if it were a synonym for the coming destruction.

“…Nadia.”