Chapter 65. Fine. Might as Well Try It Once
The Swamp Ruler.
No one knows since when this monster has existed, but among adventurers and mercenaries, it reigns as fear itself.
The true Hamelin Great Forest.
A hell called the Deep Reaches (深處).
One of the ancient species that flowed out from there!
“……No one knows. Why this ancient species escaped the Deep Reaches and settled in the wetlands on the outer edge of Hamelin Great Forest. But…….”
Raileigh trailed off there, swallowing the rest of his words.
That’s right.
In truth, for adventurers and mercenaries, what matters isn’t some list of causes and reasons.
Only the fact that the Swamp Ruler is a monster that has devoured countless adventurers and mercenaries for hundreds of years—that’s all that matters.
“Hmm…….”
Arms crossed, I leaned my back against a tree stump.
Hamelin Great Forest, now covered in darkness.
Crackle, pop.
We’d set up camp far from the wetland, lit a bonfire, and as if we’d made a promise, no one said a word.
After a while—
“Then why is something like that in the wetland?”
“That…… I don’t know either. Originally, it was settled in the Death Swamp, quite far from here.”
Even to Raileigh, it seemed truly unusual.
And of course it did.
‘He said it’s never left the Death Swamp for hundreds of years, right.’
That was the reason the Swamp Ruler hadn’t been subjugated despite being such a dangerous ancient species.
No matter how much of an ancient species it was, Hamelin Great Forest was a natural treasure vault.
The wealth that came out of it was beyond imagination.
The great houses, or other kingdoms and the Empire, might say, “Who cares about the Swamp Ruler?”—but mercenary companies couldn’t.
If it had been a threat, it was a being worth mustering a subjugation force for, even if it meant pushing themselves.
But the reason they’d simply designated the “Death Swamp” as a forbidden land and left it at that—was because of this.
“Still.”
“……Yes, go ahead.”
“Can’t we just avoid it properly and cross the wetland? Even if it’s made the whole wetland its territory, from what I see, it’s not like the wetland is small.”
No matter how powerful a monster was, it only had one body.
The wider the territory, the weaker the defense inevitably became—and somewhere, there had to be a gap.
But Raileigh gently shook his head at my words.
“……It’s impossible. It’s a persistent bastard. The moment you step into the water, its scent will cling to you. And it will…….”
“Follow that scent all the way to the end?”
“……Yes. Once, some eccentric noble ran an experiment. After luring the Swamp Ruler elsewhere, he had hundreds of slaves enter the Death Swamp, come back out, and then scatter…….”
“They all died.”
“Yes. There were only two cases where the Swamp Ruler failed to pursue. One was when they escaped outside Hamelin Great Forest. And the other was…….”
“The other?”
“When they entered the Deep Reaches.”
“Hm.”
I stopped talking for a moment after hearing that much.
Beyond the bonfire.
In the faint firelight, Raileigh’s face had gone pale.
He’d barely escaped his panic state, but it seemed the aftereffects still lingered.
‘Anyway, two methods.’
Run outside the great forest, or enter the Deep Reaches.
‘Neither is a usable method.’
Since we had to stop Destrow, running outside the great forest wasn’t even worth considering.
And as for the Deep Reaches……
‘It sits wrong with me.’
I’d gone into the Demon Realm and returned, but the Deep Reaches of Hamelin Great Forest were an unknown world.
A land of death that had swallowed countless soldiers, mages, and knights throughout history.
And among those were plenty of archmages and Master Knights who’d reached the very peak as knights.
“If you insist on continuing forward…… we’ll have to revise the route.”
“If we do that, what’s the estimated time?”
“It’s not a path I travel much either, so it’s hard for me to say…… but at minimum ten days. If it’s long, it might take up to a month more.”
Ten days to a month.
“Of course, if we do that…… I think we’ll skip the First and Second Base Camps and reach the Third Base Camp.”
“Is the wetland that wide?”
“It’s not that…… it’s because we’re not circling around the wetland. We have to detour. There’s a reason guides bothered to find a route that cuts straight through the wetland.”
After hearing that much, I looked at Oberon.
“That’s what he says.”
Oberon had been listening silently up to that point, and a deep worry sat on his face.
But—
“……Then it seems we have no choice.”
Oberon readily agreed with Raileigh’s opinion, as if accepting the situation.
Yet even as he said it was fine, the worry shading his expression only deepened.
“Let’s be honest. The situation inside—bad?”
Even coming this far, I hadn’t asked about the situation around the Fourth Base Camp.
‘I already cut travel time by pushing hard from the academy to Greentown.’
And I’d figured if it was truly urgent, Oberon would move the schedule up on his own.
“To be honest…… up until now, it’s been okay. But the situation deeper inside is changing rapidly for reasons I can’t explain. If it takes another month…… what will happen, I can’t—”
“So you’re saying it’s urgent.”
“……Yes.”
“Hmm. What do we do.”
I organized my thoughts for a moment.
‘The Swamp Ruler…….’
If you look at its danger level, sure.
It’s less like they couldn’t kill it and more like they left it alone because there wasn’t a reason to kill it.
The return wasn’t big enough for the effort, you could say.
‘If it had been outside the great forest, it would’ve been different.’
There are those kinds of people.
People who hunt—just to build a reputation—who deliberately go searching for monsters that are quietly holed up somewhere, minding their own business, and kill them.
They call it trophy hunting, and the Swamp Ruler was the perfect prey for trophy hunting.
Its notoriety was notorious, for one.
And the fact that it stayed planted in one spot, too.
‘Of course…… most of them would die.’
When Raileigh panicked and dragged us along,
it was only a brief moment, but I felt the fear packed into that roar with perfect clarity.
- Gwooooo—
Fear so terrifying it could shake the mountains and forests by sound alone, and summon instinctive terror.
So it really was an ancient species of Hamelin Great Forest.
Even I felt a chill in that instant.
‘……It felt just like the first time I saw an ogre.’
But was it something I couldn’t kill……?
‘Who knows.’
If the opponent was a mage or a knight, maybe, but if it was a monster, it wasn’t something I could easily measure.
If it were one of the common ones littering the outside world, fine—but this was Hamelin Great Forest.
And not just that—an ancient species believed to have escaped from the Deep Reaches.
Of course it wasn’t something you could gauge with ordinary common sense.
But.
“Yeah. Fine.”
I stopped thinking right there and made my decision.
“Then…… should I redraw the route?”
Raileigh asked as he pulled out the map of Hamelin Great Forest he had.
But I shook my head.
“No.”
“……?”
“We’re going to break through the wetland as is.”
At my single sentence, the two reacted in completely different ways.
“……Pardon?”
Oberon asked, eyes round as if he couldn’t believe what he’d heard.
“Wh—”
Raileigh almost let, “What kind of…” slip out, but realized his mistake and hurriedly clamped his pot-lid-sized hand over his mouth.
I looked at the two of them and grinned.
“Fine. Might as well try it once.”
You only really know things like this after you slam into them.
Maybe my words had shocked them.
A cold silence fell over the camp.
It wasn’t actually that quiet.
Crackle, pop. Crackle.
Nameless insects drawn to the bonfire threw their bodies into the flames.
Kie, kak! Crunch—
Crunch…….
Far beyond the bushes, somewhere in the distance, the sounds of nocturnal monsters hunting echoed faintly.
The reason our camp wasn’t caught in monsters’ sight was thanks to Oberon’s magic.
Like he’d done this more than once, he quickly set up a simple concealment barrier.
‘He’s a fairly usable worker.’
The reason I hadn’t called Oberon a freeloader even though he hadn’t killed a single monster on the way here was because of conveniences like this!
As I was thinking that—
“Um…… Mage. I think you didn’t understand what I said. It’s an ancient species. It’s no different from those monsters lurking in the Deep Reaches, I’m telling you?”
“And?”
“And what do you mean, ‘and’?! I’m saying it’s dangerous! The Swamp Ruler is insanely persistent. I’m telling you it will definitely follow us!”
Raileigh, face pale again, ranted heatedly.
“I think there’s been a misunderstanding.”
“Ah, a misunderstanding? I thought…… I thought you meant we were just going to cross the wetland as is, and I nearly died from shock.”
Am I crazy?
“Of course not.”
“Right? Of course not?”
At Raileigh’s desperate question, I nodded.
‘A persistent bastard like that—why would I be insane enough to drag it behind us?’
The scariest thing in the world is a persistent bastard.
If it’s only strong, you can avoid it well enough, and if it’s smart, you can beat it down.
But if it’s persistent, no matter what, it sticks to you to the very end.
So what do you do?
“We’re not just breaking through.”
“……?”
“We have to kill it.”
“No, f*ck.”
In the end, Raileigh couldn’t hold it in and cursed.
But I understood the feeling, so I let it slide generously.
“Ugh! Hk!”
After only hitting him twice.
Anyway.
“They said the schedule is urgent. Right?”
“No, Mage. Is this a schedule problem? In Hamelin Great Forest, you try to get there a few days earlier, and you end up going a few decades earlier.”
“That’s a good line. While you’re losing your mind because you want to live a few days longer, have you ever considered you might go right now instead?”
“…….”
Raileigh shut his mouth tight.
But he wasn’t the only one casting a dissenting vote.
“Um…… Senior. It’s okay if it’s because of me. I’m grateful you came this far, but you don’t have to take this kind of risk…….”
Oberon cautiously expressed his opinion, face dark.
Even in a situation like this, he was worrying about others—an absurdly, transparently pure guy.
Maybe because of that—
“The hell are you even saying.”
“……?”
Oberon stared at me with his eyes wide.
His gaze was full of bewilderment, and somehow that only made me more frustrated.
“You’ll die.”
“Ah, uh, I…… I’m sorry—”
“Not you.”
Heart, beliefs, whatever.
If you have this half-and-half mindset, you die.
The problem isn’t that you die—it’s that the people around you hesitate and die because of you.
“When it’s time to do it, you just do it. If Destrow comes, are you going to hesitate like that too? What if you end up in a situation where you have to kill your master and Destrow together? What will you do?”
“That’s…….”
Life is a choice every moment.
There are better choices, but there is no best choice.
No—there is, but unless you’re one of an extremely small number of people, you don’t have the qualifications to pick the best choice.
“Anyway, there are no objections.”
“…….”
“…….”
At my firm tone, both Raileigh and Oberon pressed their lips shut like mutes who’d swallowed honey.
Crackle, pop.
With the sound of the bonfire spreading as a faint background, I declared again.
“The Swamp Ruler. We kill it tomorrow and move on.”
Was this truly the right choice?
Even I couldn’t easily guarantee it.
But it was better than chasing safety in a wishy-washy way, missing the timing, and regretting it later.
“When it’s time to do it…… you just do it…….”
Oberon, as if shocked, repeated my words under his breath.
That was when he opened his mouth.
“Then…… I think I can help.”
“You weren’t going to?”
Was he someone who needed mental re-education?
I was about to slowly clench my fist when Oberon gently shook his head and added.
A face filled with resolve, different from before.
And then he said—
“It’s a talent that hasn’t fully awakened yet…… but it will definitely help.”
“Talent?”
“……Some people call it a Gift.”
A Gift.
At the uncommon name, I furrowed my brow.
‘A Gift? A Gift…… ah.’
A vague memory surfaced.
Sometimes, there are people.
Whether mage or knight, people born with a talent that excels in one direction.
This “talent” isn’t what you call the “genius” talent of people like Demian.
It’s not magic, because you can’t understand its principle.
But it’s not psychic power either, because it’s closely tied to magic.
Still—
‘He had a Gift?’
I looked at Oberon, puzzled.
He spoke.
And when he finished—
I could tell that this Gift he had was quite usable.
“My Gift is…… Overclock. I can explosively ignite a target’s latent ability in an instant. Of course…… it hasn’t fully awakened yet, so there are some restrictions.”
Overclock. A power that makes a target’s latent ability explode.
I straightened from where I’d been leaning against the stump and leaned forward.
“Tell me in more detail.”