Chapter 30 – From Ancient Times.

Kerner couldn’t stop running, even though his breath was rising to the tip of his chin and his heart felt like it would burst at any moment from fear.

– Close to close!

After all, if you stop running even for a moment, you’ll be eaten alive by that giant insect-like monster. If there was an advantage to such a secluded rural village, it was that monsters did not invade. I don’t know the specific reason, but according to the adults, I heard that it was because the monsters were reluctant to enter the forest surrounding the village. Compared to other villages near the forest that were occasionally attacked by monsters and suffered a lot of damage or were destroyed, considering that this place had never been attacked by monsters, it wouldn’t be wrong.

But why? Could it be that today, a monster that has never attacked before has invaded this place? Today was a day not so different from other days. If there was anything special, it was that Mascapir had been held for several days, but I heard that such a festival had been held in this town for a long time, so I couldn’t think of it as the cause. Even if he wanted to know what the problem was, he had no time to spare as he continued to run according to the intuition that filled his head and that he had to run. When the limit to breathing finally came.

“Hey! Hey! Stop!”

Connor, who was running frantically, stopped his running steps when he barely recognized his friend’s voice coming from behind. I took a weary breath and turned around to see Robert catching his breath just like him.

“Why?! I have to run farther…!”
“I told you several times that I can’t hear them!”
“Huh? That’s right?”

When I thought about it, I realized that I couldn’t hear their ghastly cries anymore. It must have been that they somehow got away with it. It was only after realizing that fact that Kerner collapsed onto the roots of a nearby tree. Robert also sat down beside him. Like the great forest outside the village, the trees were big enough for them to sit side by side leaning against their trunks.

“…Come to think of it, it’s out of town.”

As I ran away from the monsters, I didn’t even realize I was leaving the village.

“That’s something a village needs to be concerned about.”

Robert’s melancholy bruise returned when he thought he had inadvertently broken the rules. Yeah, his worry about breaking the rules was something he could only care about when he had a town with those rules. Then what comes to mind is the name of another friend who has recently been estranged.

“What happened to Usher?”
“I don’t know that kind of guy.”

Robert replied curtly, as if he was still mad at him. It wasn’t even that he couldn’t understand him. They hadn’t even heard Usher’s real reason for keeping his distance from them.

“Rather than that, are you worried about others right now? Let alone our family, we have to worry about our own lives first.”

He wanted to say something about what Robert said, but he didn’t say anything wrong, so he had nothing to say. The village they had to return to had been occupied by monsters, and they had already lost their way to another village outside the forest. I didn’t know what to do next. For once, it was a time when we sat without saying a word to each other to rest our tired bodies from fear and fatigue. Robert was the first to speak.

“Hey, but don’t you think I’ve seen you somewhere here?”
“Because it often came out when the adults were digging trees. Of course.”

At first I thought it was some kind of bullshit. It feels different because it is a forest at night, but in the end it is the same forest. If you’re not used to it, that’s weird.

“Mistress! That’s not it! Back when we went out of town without the adults knowing!”

As I looked more closely at the forest, it was clear that something was familiar. The old forest did not change unless the tree was dug once, so I could vaguely feel the appearance of the place I had seen only once before.

“No way.”

In fact, they had broken the rule not to go out of town unless they were digging trees about seven years ago. I don’t remember the details, but I’m sure I’ve been out of town. When I think about what the trigger was, I remember that it was probably because I was curious about why there were such rules and what was out there outside the village. In fact, it was difficult to tell the difference between one place and another in the forest, but at that time, everything in the forest was just amazing, so I jumped and played. Then Kerner tripped on something and fell.

“Evil!”

At first, I thought I had simply tripped over a tree root. The root of a tree that was rugged and big enough to protrude from the ground was something I often got stuck in while playing frantically. But when I look back with a different feeling. What was there was nothing like the root of a tree.

“Is this a hand?”
“What hand? Why is it on the ground?”

Upon discovering it, Kerner and Robert were intrigued. It was buried in the ground and only part of it was above the ground. If you touch it lightly, it is made of an unknown material. It could not be clearly identified as a human hand, but the shape was definitely a human hand.

“Let’s dig once!”
“But.”

Kerner wondered if it would be okay to wave this, but seeing Robert already starting to dig, he had no choice but to help. I remember that the ground in the forest was too hard to dig directly with the children’s weak hands, so I picked up a suitable stone nearby and dug it out as if scraping it. The lower part of the hand was buried quite deep, which made for quite a bit of hard work, but they did not notice the passing of time and concentrated on digging. I just want to dig something, but at the time, that alone was really fun. How much time had passed like that? When the intensity of the sunlight that leaked through the gaps in the trees gradually decreased and even the color changed to red.

“”…””

After digging up the ground and checking the overall appearance of the hand, no one could easily say something. Its overall shape and size were human-like. But it’s different. It might look like a human in outline, but it wasn’t anything that could be called human at all. Its body was made of hard material, like a hand partially exposed to the ground. Iron, but obviously not iron. If it was iron, the rust would have been wiped off, but I couldn’t find any rust at all. It was so smooth that I couldn’t find any angular parts when I touched it.

“Is it armor?”

Robert murmured, but Kerner immediately denied his words to himself. If it was an armor, it was obviously something made for people to wear, but the thing wasn’t structured to be worn by people, and when I tapped it, it seemed to be filled with unknown things. Besides, I tried to lift it and move it, but it was too heavy and I couldn’t budge. Above all, that feeling of intimidation that I still remember. It gave too much intimidation to those who found it to claim that it was an empty armor. As if facing a huge predator. They were overwhelmed by the fact that had been completely revealed after being silent for such a long time. Realizing that it was late, I had to go back to town.

“Shouldn’t I bury it again?”
“Then let’s go back and bury it later.”

Still, they had promised to bury it again, but they never saw it again. Because when the grown-ups found out they were out of town, Kerner and Robert were beaten with wooden sticks by their respective parents. Also, on that day, a local sister who had left the village like them was found as a miserable corpse, so they never thought of leaving the village again. Completely forget about what you dug out of the ground.

“Is that still there? Check once…”

But Robert’s words were cut off. Because something fell from above them. I got goose bumps. Sticky and transparent, it was clearly the monster’s saliva. Was able to know that.

-Kirrrr!

It was because of the cries of insects coming from above them. If you lift your head and look up, it creaks like a rusted doorknob. There was a huge insect that salivated as it looked at them. When they forgot to even scream. It happened suddenly. Push shook! Something like the sound of wind came exactly three times in succession.

-Kigigiggeek!!!

At the same time, insects dripping down, splattering unpleasant brown blood. Directly below, they startled away from the falling insects. Almost run over by a giant insect, they found three neatly drilled holes, one on its head and two on its chest. The insect twitched slightly and stopped moving. One of the monsters that ravaged the village died in an instant. As Kerner and Robert stared at the monster’s corpse, dumbfounded, they heard a sound as if something was walking right in front of them. Thinking it helped them, they looked where the sound came from, but it was not a savior.

“Uh?”

Conner blankly wiped something warm that had splattered on his cheek with his hand. It was dark and difficult to see, and it gave off a metallic smell. If you look at the spot where it splattered, you won’t see Robert’s figure. I had to look a little further down to see him collapsed. One on the head, two on the chest. His hands were shaking. When I heard footsteps again, what I saw was seven years ago, what I saw that day, with red eyes shining. The flame drew a ring. That moment was his last memory.

Tom never doubted that when he awoke the day would always be the same. It was an awkward and unstable village, like putting broken dishes together, but despite the anxiety, the village was peaceful, and he said that the day of bickering with his nasty twin brother would continue.

“Aagh!!”

Hearing in his sleep a scream coming from somewhere, he thought it was a dream at first. He was too tired to wake up now, and his slightly awakened mind was about to be buried in drowsiness.

“Brother Brother!”

Then he heard the voice of his twin sister, Lena, and seized his mind. I felt a little bit puzzled by the fact that my twin brother, who usually didn’t even call me brother, let alone call me that, but it wasn’t enough to chase his drowsiness. Drowsiness made even the voice sound like it came from far away.

“Please wake up! Please!”

He said annoyedly that he was forced to wake up by beating him with both hands as hard as he really could.

“Oh, really, why are you waking me up?”

The room Tom looked up at was still full of darkness, so he thought it was night. For some reason, I really didn’t want to wake up because of the drowsiness that kept trying to bring him out of consciousness and my limp body, but I thought it was because it was a time when I would normally have been asleep.

“How long have you been sleeping! You really thought you were dead! Huong!”

However, Tom was puzzled by what she said, and forcing her to sleep, Tom rubbed her eyes with his arm and looked at his twin sister, Lena. And he was perplexed.

“Hey, are you crying?”

It was dark in her room, but I could tell that she was crying by the faint light that shone somewhere in her. What was even more embarrassing. She was that her appearance was a mess.

“Why is it that way again?”
“Huh! I don’t know! Why did it happen now!”

Lena’s appearance was nonsensical. Her hair was wild and her face puffy from crying. Realizing that something was wrong with her, Tom said, shaking off the drowsiness that still gripped him.

“Calm down for now. Speak slowly. What happened?”
“Yeah, that’s it.”

Even while Lena was talking, she looked around her nervously as if she was frightened, and she was often startled by the sound of a small grass insect, so it was hard for her to listen to the story. Still, barely able to hear all of her circumstances, he wanted to tell her that she had been having a frightening dream of her. However.

– Knock Knock Knock
“Huh! It’s here again! It’s here again!”
“What is that?”

Hearing the sound of the giant insect that Lena had been explaining so hard, Tom was speechless when he saw it through a crack in the house that was blocked off on all sides by something like wooden boards. It was a creature that looked like a giant katydid. The thick-shelled guy, as if he were wearing armor, crawled lazily and lazily around the house with his huge body, and Tom stopped breathing himself. How many times have I heard him crawling around the house? By the time he left, Lena was nervous enough to catch her breath.

“Go, did you go?”
“Oh, I’m gone now.”
“Really? Did you really go?”
“I’m gone! Calm down!”

Will he hear Lena’s voice and come back? Tom, who spat out the words nervously, was sorry, but even hiccupped, he sighed as he watched her holding his breath. An awkward silence filled the house, and the only sounds outside were the sounds of grass insects and wind, giving it a dreary feeling. Lena says there are a lot of giant bugs out there that they just saw. That feeling is not necessarily an illusion.

“Is that story all true?”

It was he who spoke first. I couldn’t believe it, but I had already seen the giant insect clearly.

“Really, hiccup, tell me how many times.”

The story I heard from Lena was so shocking and strange that I couldn’t believe it until I saw the giant insect. Giant insects are said to have suddenly invaded in the middle of the night. Awakened by the screams of the villagers, Lena and her mother discover the goons trying to break into the house and reportedly wake Tom. But somehow he didn’t wake up no matter how many times he woke up, so he thought he might be dead, but he was still breathing, so her mother carried him out on her back, who didn’t wake up. Seeing them attacking the villagers, they said that they somehow thought of Usher’s house in a corner of the village, which was quite far away, while looking for a safe place.

“Then this is your brother’s house. What about Usher?”

Looking at the house in the light coming from outside, it was definitely not their house. It must have been Mom’s work to block the place with boards or trees, but the house was empty with only scattered blankets and small drawers.

“Sniff, I don’t know. My mother said she knew they attacked first and she might have run away.”

Saying that, Lena had an expression full of betrayal, as if she was already convinced that Usher had run away first. At first I thought it was night, but when I looked outside through the cracks in the light, it was now broad daylight.

“Mom is?”
“Before my brother wakes up. He said he would go get something to eat again.”

They are said to be active at night, but clearly sluggish during the day when the sun is up. So the mother says she left them in a safe place and brought as much food, drink, and clothes as possible during the day. So I went out today.

“Mom screamed.”
“What?”

Tom felt his blood run cold.

“Was it really your mother’s voice?”

The owner of the scream that I thought was a dream earlier belonged to my mother and not to anyone else? He didn’t want to believe it, he looked at Lena with her hard face and asked, but she just said something else while shedding tears again.

“Ugh, what should we do now?”

Lena’s cries seemed to be saying instead that their mother was dead, and Tom was drained of energy.

“They don’t seem to be active during the day.”
“Huh, I don’t know. He said he didn’t move.”

Just now they had already seen him loitering outside the house in broad daylight. In fact, during the day, he looked weak and sluggish, but he was walking around fine. Then mom too. The house was once again filled with silence, and only Lena’s cries could be heard. Suddenly, Tom smelled something strange.

“What smells like this… No, did you pee?!”

He even felt a lukewarm bite on his fingertips and quickly knew what it was.

“Sniff, yes.”

Lena had peed on her. He was annoyed at his twin brother for doing this in the usual sudden, absurd and frightening situation. The room was almost sealed to prevent insects from entering, so the smell didn’t come out well.

“Go outside and pack!”
“But if I go out, I might die! I’d rather be inside!”

At that, Tom bit his lip. He remembered what he wanted to forget. But the smell of urine was too strong in such a small place. It was a problem when I was sleeping to wipe with a blanket, and I needed to wipe with something else. What caught his eye was Lena, who was still sobbing.

“Hey, take off your clothes.”
“Hey, why?”
“Stop talking and take it off!”

At first, she hesitated at Tom’s words, as if feeling reluctance, but when he forced her, Lena took off her clothes. Although she originally tried to wipe it with one pair of pants.

“Eugh, was it wrapped in clothes?”
“But, suddenly, my mother screams. My brother doesn’t wake up. Heck, I think I’ll be left alone.”

At her words, Tom frowned at her and took off her top to wipe off the urine. Still, the smell doesn’t go away.

“Hey, wash up a bit. It stinks!”
“No! They’re out there!”
“I told you I was already gone!”

After arguing with her, Lena finally decided to wash herself. But.

“I can’t move my legs.”
“Ah-oh.”

Eventually Tom had to take her to her bathroom to get her washed. He carefully looked outside the room, holding up the clothes on which the urine had been wiped to be washed. I said they weren’t there, but just in case you didn’t know. After confirming that they weren’t there, Tom quickly took Lena to the bathroom of this house. He fortunately found a small bathroom connected to the kitchen and took him there. I could see a large wooden bucket full of water.

“Now, wash up. I have to wash your clothes.”
“I, wash me.”
“Hey, you really…!”

Tom was confused by the situation himself now, but her tantrums and her insistence made her feel like it was going to explode.