Surviving as a Barbarian in the Game - Episode 585
585hwa original (2)
a long time ago.
It's been so long now that it's safe to say that, but the memories are still vivid..
The first floor I entered after waking up in the barbarian's body was the Bloody Citadel..
Raven and Hikuro met there..
A desperate battle with a body without any essence against the Vampire Duke Cambormire, a level 5 monster and the guardian of a rift.…….
Of course, I remember the conversation we had back then..
[Strange, truly strange······.]
Even then, he looked at us and said something similar to what he said a moment ago..
Well, the lines that followed were quite different..
[When I look at you, my murderous will boils over and I can't hold it back. Do you guys know the reason??]
He was intelligent and could communicate..
it wasn't strange.
Among the top mutants, there were quite a few who spoke their lines..
Of course, this was the first time Cambormir had said such a line.…….
‘At that time, I thought it was just like that..’
At that time, the Blood Citadel was my first crack..
Also, it was my first time catching Cambormire..
So I didn't think deeply about the issue..
but…….
[I cannot be defeated. I shouldn't lose…···!]
The knight of the end encountered in the hut of the White Temple.
This guy was more desperate than any monster I've ever faced..
[If it's a lie that no one knows... Well, how could that be any different from the truth??]
4Guardian of the Floor Rift Doppelganger.
At the end, the guy uttered words of deep regret..
[…It's truly amazing. I vaguely understand the laws of the world..]
The mysterious being encountered in the reward room where we arrived after completing the Dreadfear strategy also uttered meaningful words..
[You must not open the door to the abyss.]
There is no need to mention the land witch, Ellis Groundia..
As the number of floors available for activity increased, I met more and more beings, and as I did so, my questions grew bigger and bigger..
What kind of place is the labyrinth?.
What are Guardians and Hierarchs?.
What lies beyond the gates of the abyss?.
‘……perhaps.’
We might be able to reach the answer today..
That intuition is stuck in my mind the moment I encounter that vampire..
“Hmm, don't you understand what I'm saying??”
A voice that seems more curious than wary.
Before my curiosity died down, I finished thinking about it and opened my mouth..
“As you said, we have met before. In the Bloody Citadel.”
“It's a bloody fortress.…….”
The vampire quietly pondered the name, then looked at me again and muttered..
“So I guess I don't remember anything. At that time, I had already become like this..”
The answer gave me goosebumps for some reason..
I was even more worried about what might have happened, but I was actually having a normal conversation with him..
‘There are no signs of sudden hesitation..’
However, since we did not know how long this situation would last, we hurriedly continued the conversation..
“What does it mean to be like this??”
“You'll know when you see it, right? This monster-like body.”
It seems to simply refer to a body that has become a vampire. I was expecting something like being trapped in a labyrinth or being dragged by a witch..
‘Hmm, so this guy was originally a human too??’
I wanted to make this point clear, but unfortunately the vampire guy was quick to ask questions..
“so… Where is this place? why am i here?”
To be honest, I had a hard time knowing what to say here..
“We, the Duke of Cambormire, must have been on fire due to the attack by the Three Gods.…….”
There is a barrier erected between this man and me that is difficult to explain in words..
It feels like a person from the past and a person from the future meet by chance and talk without knowing each other's circumstances..
“…This place is a labyrinth. I met you while exploring that labyrinth..”
“The labyrinth… what?”
Because there is a lack of common sense, the conversation cannot continue deeply and only becomes surface-level..
Therefore, I cautiously asked.
“Before I explain... can I hear your story first??”
“My story...??”
“Anything is okay. I'm just curious what your last memory was..”
“Hmm···….”
The vampire seemed to think for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth..
“The army of the Three Gods has come to subdue me. I was defeated in that battle, and closed my eyes, praying for peace. And now I'm awake.”
“…….”
“As soon as I opened my eyes, I saw you... … . I remembered meeting her somewhere. Oh, by the way, the mania that has been tormenting me so much is not going away. How long has it been since I've been sober?…….”
“……Right.”
“Now, will you tell me? This is where I am now... Where is this place you said was a labyrinth?.”
“Can I take a moment to gather my thoughts and answer??”
“However much.”
After receiving permission from the vampire man, I quickly put together the given clues..
Not only what this man said, but also everything I originally had..
[The Dark Continent is a real place..]
Information spit out at the round table by a clown outside the castle walls.
[The army of the three gods has come to subdue me..]
The three religions that exist in our world and are still thriving, etc.…….
It didn't take long to come to a certain conclusion..
Well, it's all just my guess..
Labyrinth was created based on actual events and place names..
and…….
“Cambormire, don't be alarmed and listen..”
“I will listen.”
“…One thing is certain: thousands of years have passed since you died..”
“……What does that mean? Am I clearly alive now?!”
From here on it was all just my guess..
“No, you are already dead. And now you are... There is a high possibility that it was created by someone..”
“…I can't understand at all..”
For the first time, hostility bloomed in the vampire man's eyes..
It was the reaction I was secretly expecting..
Who can take it kindly when a stranger suddenly tells you that you are already broken?.
‘……Still, this method is difficult..’
Actually, there was an easy way..
Leaving the truth behind, they deceive this man by telling him what he would have wanted to hear. If so, it would have been easier to find the information I wanted..
But, even though I knew that, I openly shared my guess..
In some ways, it was very barbarian-like..
Because I didn't want to do that.
It was time to graduate that way..
If you want to become a person who can be justifiably angry when something unfair happens,.
“Cambormire, calm down and listen. Let me explain why I thought that way..”
Sometimes you have to know how to choose the difficult path..
***
Afterwards, I took a long time to explain to the vampire man..
what is a labyrinth.
What is the city like now and how has the world changed?.
What I saw and experienced while exploring the labyrinth.
finally… Even what it was like when me and this guy first met..
Explaining it all was more cumbersome and time-consuming than I imagined..
The vampire man found it difficult to understand the gap in common sense that had widened over thousands of years, and sometimes he even got angry and denied what I said..
but…….
“……Stop it. Now I understand. why did you say that.”
In the end, the vampire man raised the white flag..
But was this one question a question??
“But there's something I don't understand.”
“…what? say it I'll explain it to you again and again until you understand—.”
“Why are you telling me so hard? According to what you say, I am just a created being. Maybe today will be erased from my memory. Like I forgot I met you that day.”
It wasn't the question I expected, but I just answered honestly this time..
“…If I were you, I'd still want to know the truth.”
“…….”
“So I said. I thought if I told you honestly first, I might be able to get your help..”
“is it…….”
The vampire man seemed to think for a while and then opened his mouth..
“Then tell me. How would you like me to help you??”
The line I've been waiting for so long.
I took a moment to catch my breath and opened my mouth..
“Cambormire, I want to know about you..”
“about me… What do you mean??”
“okay. How you lived, what the world you lived in was like, and what you went through to become like this. Like I told you one by one. All.”
The vampire man looked surprised as if he had heard something unexpected, but nodded with a serious expression..
“I will do it. I feel uncomfortable telling my life to a stranger, but as you say, aren't I just a doll anyway? rather… It would be nice to be remembered by someone.”
“…….”
“Still, it feels strange to suddenly talk about my life. Now then, where should we start… … . Ah, that would be a good place to start..”
“…….”
“I had a daughter.”
That's how the man's story began..
The estimated time is before the witch's curse struck the world..
“It was a difficult time. The witch's servants and the empire's army fought and shed blood all day long..”
The story of witches and humans confronting each other was a history I was familiar with..
But everything he said was important to me..
That's because ancient records were almost lost and were precious..
“As a duchy from a small border country, the Cambormire family was relatively unaffected by the war. Without joining either the witch or the empire, I quietly waited with bated breath for the day the war would end..”
Then one day.
“My only daughter got sick.”
It was a terrible disease that neither potions nor the sacred power of high-ranking priests worked. As each day passed by, her daughter's spark of life was fading away, and the duke could not bear to watch it..
“He was a child for whom I wouldn't mind sacrificing my soul..”
The duke, who searched everywhere, eventually reached out to the witch's servants. And they suggested a way to save their daughter..
“As I found out later, they weren't even the witch's servants after all. They were the ones who followed the evil god Karui and drove the world into chaos..”
However, the duke, who did not know this, accepted their offer. This was because the empire had accumulated a lot of bad karma, and I had heard many stories of humans being saved by becoming servants of witches..
The duke had a neutral view of the witch..
“That was the beginning of all misfortune.”
Karui's priests treated her daughter in a strange way. Screams were heard every day from her daughter's room where she was receiving treatment..
One day, his daughter begged him to stop the treatment, but the duke turned away because it was for your own good..
And so time passes…….
“My daughter woke up from the hospital bed.”
The daughter regained her health and the evil priests left..
At first the duke was happy to have his normal life back, but it didn't take long for that happiness to be shattered..
The duke said calmly.
“It started to swell..”
My daughter literally swelled up..
Slowly, as if pus was filling up all over my body..
“When the wound bleeds, everything around it corrodes and melts. Also, he lost his temper and became violent..”
The duke locked his daughter in a dungeon..
It was inevitable..
If the news that their daughter had turned into something like this became known, not only the Cambormere family but also their daughter could not be safe..
I was planning to keep it hidden for now and find a way to treat it..
“But the problem was that I didn't eat..”
No matter how much delicious food I fed her or forced it down her throat, my daughter, who had changed, could not accept it..
“I felt my daughter dying day by day. She couldn't open her eyes properly because she had no energy. When I took her pulse I could tell her heart was dying.”
There was nothing the duke could do..
It was a day when I watched my daughter dying so helplessly..
“……One of the knights was attacked and killed by his daughter while he was bringing her food..”
“…….”
“Only then… He ate it.”
There was no need to ask what I ate..
“The child who used to get upset even when a fly flew by... I was eating. very ravenously.”
The duke fainted at the sight, but his daughter regained her strength later that day..
And the duke, who needed time to come up with a solution, brought in criminals and fed them to his daughter..
But the more I ate, the bigger my daughter got..
The dungeon could not accommodate her, so she was moved to a place that was used as a water storage facility..
The amount of food they ate increased to the point where it was difficult for criminals to make up for it, and it got to the point where innocent people had to be framed and brought in..
“If it were me, I would never have made such a foolish choice. but… … . Those who follow the evil spirit did something to me too..”
The Duke at the time was incapable of rational thinking..
Violence stirred, guilt faded..
I felt mania intermittently..
Such changes were not limited to the mind but also applied to the body..
Fangs are growing.
I can smell better.
Saliva leaked out of my mouth when I smelled the scent of blood..
I was able to use black magic that I had never learned, and there was no inconvenience in using my reversed body like a butterfly naturally flapping its wings..
Finding food for my daughter just got easier.
As his disappearances became more frequent and even his vassals left one by one under the cruel hands of the Duke, his hometown began to be called the Bloody Citadel..
Naturally, the news reached the ears of the empire that was at war with the witches and the three religions..
“From now on, it will be just like what I said before. The army came and I was defeated.”
A space created deep beneath the castle by the duke, who had a cruel disposition, for his secret hobbies..
There, the paladin's sword pierced the duke's heart..
“It's funny, but I prayed.”
The duke, who was about to die, prayed.
There is no way the gods of the three religions would forgive him..
“I prayed and prayed again and again to the witch, who was called the enemy of mankind, calling her a goddess and asking her to save me. It was okay if not me, but to save my daughter. And when she opened her eyes it was here.”
I realized it too late, but in a way, from the duke's perspective, that incident had just happened a while ago..
But how can I say it so calmly?.
When I asked carefully, the duke shook his head and said he didn't know..
“I don't know, but... It feels like a very long time has passed. If what you say is true, a lot of years have actually passed.…….”
I didn't have anything to say so I just listened, and the man looked at me and asked.
“Do you know? What you told me today was the cruel truth..”
I fully understand.
I thought about it, but I didn't say it out loud..
Actually, there is no way I fully understand it. After hearing that story, those thoughts became even stronger..
“but…….”
the vampire uncle said.
“Still, thank you. For telling me honestly.”
“…….”
“Thanks to you, I can stop dreaming in vain.”
It was a very strange feeling..
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