192
Predation
“Look at this. He’s still sleeping. The youngest one is missing.”
I squinted my eyes at the teasing voice.
The high-pitched, sharp, yet playful voice was hauntingly familiar.
“Huh? Did you have a really rough time with Woodra yesterday? If that’s the case, you should have gotten separate lodgings. I told you it was so noisy that you couldn’t sleep.”
Udra? Oh, Udra. I muttered for a moment and then said out loud.
“Oh, Woodra is a brat. Are you saying you’ve learned everything you need to know now?”
I learned everything. To begin with, all I can do is use a dagger and play dice.
“Captain! He calls me a bastard! A bastard! He got all cocky after messing with Udra! How expensive is the dice technique I taught you!”
I opened my eyes to the loud voice. Then I saw a familiar face.
His hair was cut like a chicken comb, and his sharp eyes were extremely vulgar. The crude tattoo on his cheek added color to his identity.
Wayne was a total trash who loved women, alcohol, and gambling. He was still great at swordplay and sleight of hand, but trash was trash.
“Even if you suddenly praise me like that, I won’t notice.”
“That’s not a compliment.”
I looked away, scratching my cheek. It was a noisy bar.
Everyone was sitting around, having just finished a big mission. It was a custom among the mercenaries to gather together and have a drink after finishing a mission.
‘What was the big mission?’
He frowned at the strange coolness. Then Wayne suddenly put his arms around his neck.
I could have knocked him down with one punch, but I held back. Even though his way of expressing himself was strange, it was clear that he was trying to make me feel better.
‘Why do I feel-.’
The moment I muttered softly, the captain stood up from his seat.
“You all worked hard! This was quite dangerous, but! As expected from the Laughing Lion Mercenaries, you did a great job! I’m very proud of you!”
The captain, his nose red, screamed loudly.
It is unknown how the captain, who was a former member of the Imperial Knights, came to be a mercenary.
Wayne was sure he’d been caught having sex with the royal maid, but it seemed unlikely that the Captain would have done so.
The greatest luck was that the first person I met was the captain.
“You’re saying such disgusting things? What’s wrong with you?”
I quickly covered my mouth at Wayne’s nagging. I thought to myself, but it seemed to have leaked out.
“Get your hands off Aaron. Wayne. Before I kill you.”
“Eek-!”
Wayne fell down in a panic at Udra’s voice. Wayne stepped aside and mouthed to me, “You bit the wrong person.”
“Wood, Wayne just swore at me.”
“Hey! Aaron! You son of a bitch!”
“I’ll kill you and come back.”
Woodra, who had gently bit my forehead, chased after Wayne. Wayne jumped on the table as if he was performing a trick, but was quickly caught.
“Is it a fight?”
Gorgai, who had emptied the keg of beer in one go, jumped up and ran towards them.
The bar was in shambles in an instant. No one tried to stop it because it was a regular occurrence. Instead, they bet money and laughed.
As always, everyone walked towards Udra.
I sipped my beer and chuckled. My girl was really good at fighting.
Neither the legendary gladiator Gorgai nor the vile Wayne could ever defeat Udra.
“Aaron, are you okay?”
“Ah, Captain. Yes.”
I got up from my seat and nodded habitually. It had been quite some time since I got here, but I still had Korean habits.
“What a curious etiquette.”
The captain sat down next to me with a cool smile.
“I was really surprised when I first saw Aaron. A naked handsome man covered in blood, standing there all alone. I thought he was a kidnapped member of the royal family.”
The captain started talking about what he does when he drinks alcohol. I responded by filling up my beer and ordering some snacks.
Since the other guys didn’t listen to him at all, the captain was particularly fond of me. He said I was cultured and perceptive.
The Korean habits that still remained made me look like an aristocrat.
“Anyway, it’s really amazing that Aaron, who was like that, has become such a brave mercenary.”
The captain ruffled my hair with his big hands. I laughed along. I didn’t know I would become such a great killer.
“Oh, and Avery asked me for a favor, and the conditions are pretty good. The person who asked was Cell… I can’t remember what it was. Anyway, the compensation is so generous that everyone can retire.”
The captain brought up the following story. The captain often asked me for advice because the other guys in the mercenary company were so uneducated and stupid.
He was a great man. It wouldn’t have been easy for a nobleman who had even served as an imperial knight to form a mercenary band, or for him to willingly seek advice from a young boy, but the captain did it without hesitation.
Of course, he didn’t have a single drop of sperm mixed in, but he was a mature man who felt like a father to him. The captain liked it very much when he often called him that after drinking.
Avery-. A strange sense of foreboding came over me for a moment. I turned my head and saw Avery drinking alone in the corner.
She was a crazy woman who didn’t wear anything under her robe. Of course, because she was so good-looking, she boosted the morale of others, but she also got into unnecessary trouble because of her outfit.
The rest of the mercenary group was reluctant to welcome Avery. Although the mercenary group accepted the wizard as a valuable talent, Avery felt strangely out of place and uninterested.
However, before she came in, she was the successor to me, the youngest. Because I loved my successor and my country, I paid the most attention to her.
For a moment, my eyes met with Avery’s. I quickly turned my gaze to Avery, who was lifting her robe slightly.
The drunken captain was looking at me, pressuring me for an answer.
Those straight eyes reminded me of when I first joined the mercenary unit. I too was ostracized. It was because I was handsome.
At that moment, I remembered what the captain had said to me.
“If the conditions are right, then I should go. Isn’t Avery a colleague too?”
The captain laughed loudly and patted my shoulder.
By then the fighting had calmed down. Wayne and Gorgai, as usual, had bruises all over their faces, while Woodra looked much more relaxed.
“Hug.”
“yes.”
At Udra’s command, he quickly gathered it into his arms. Udra hummed and dug in.
“I have a good idea!”
At that moment, Wayne raised his hand. Judging by the gleam in his bruised eyes, it was clear that he had some kind of plan.
Wayne’s barking was always funny, so everyone’s attention was drawn to him.
“Tell me. I’m curious.”
Even the captain gave him a slight push on the back. Then, a very excited Wayne jumped up on the table.
“You all heard that the Wandering Wolf Mercenary Brigade was recently wiped out? It looks like they got hit hard after causing trouble!”
Anyway, these guys here like to name things like wolves and trolls. Ignorant medieval guys.
“The world is dangerous! So let’s prepare for the unexpected! Come on, what if we’re in great danger!”
Wayne’s emphasis made Gorgai very angry and asked, “Did you miss that?”
Wayne, who was grabbed by the collar by an angry Gorgai, explained for a long time that he did not set the trap and that it was just an assumption.
Wayne, who had calmed Gorgai down like this, continued speaking.
“Anyway! Our Laughing Lion Mercenary Corps is screwed! So if only one cub survived! Let’s make sure that surviving cub lives long enough to take care of the rest!”
For some reason Wayne was talking so plausibly. To that, I muttered quietly, ‘Isn’t that guy left so pitiful?’
“That’s right! It’s pitiful! Everything we worked so hard to build up is going to be thrown away! In that sense, should we all share where we hid our money?”
Wayne’s eyes lit up sinisterly. It was clear that he was trying to run away with the hidden money. That’s the kind of guy Wayne was.
“No, I’m not trying to steal it···.”
“Thief!”
“What the heck?! Doo-doo-doo?!”
Wayne rushed at Gorgai again. Gorgai swung his fists, saying he was always open to a fight. The bar was a mess again.
“what do you think about it?”
Udra, who had been fidgeting, asked dryly.
“Huh? Oh, I think it’s Wayne’s trick. If that kid gets in trouble, he’ll run away without looking back.”
no.
Wayne didn’t run away.
“I’m fine. I’m selfish, so I’d rather have someone mourn for me. And I think the one who’ll survive until the end is Aaron, not Wayne.”
Udra spoke at length for the first time in a long time.
why?
I asked back angrily.
Udra smiled brightly at him. It was such a cute smile that it was hard to be angry.
“Because Aaron is handsome.”
Unfortunately, it was correct.
***
“This little monster? Why is its leather so tough! Damn it!”
“Shut your mouth and get to work.”
When I opened my eyes in excruciating pain, I saw the guys breathing heavily.
Two gloomy-faced men, sweating profusely, were thrusting their swords at my neck.
A knife to the throat, a fucking medieval alarm clock.
The sound of the rain and their heavy breathing mixed together to sound like horrible music. The smell of the water and their sweat mixed together to create a foul stench. It was a great medieval introduction.
I coughed slightly. The blood I had been holding in flowed out.
“What kind of throat is this? Isn’t this a monster?”
“Shut up, you little brat. How did you get that chance······. The Knights of the Holy War and the Knights of the Imperial Palace are wandering around right now. You have to hurry and get out.”
They seemed to be non-professionals, and they were muttering loudly while swinging their swords.
I didn’t come to my senses until these guys put a sword to my throat. It seemed like my physical condition wasn’t very good.
‘I think it’s been a long time since I had a good dream.’
I felt a deep regret.
It was unclear whether the regret was due to not being able to continue the dream or to waking him up.
I clicked my tongue and swung both fists at the same time.
The face of the right bastard was pierced by the sword and he fell down with a crunch.
The guy on the left got hit hard with a fist, but his head didn’t explode. He stared at me with a dumbfounded expression.
‘Oh, the one on the left was a baby’s fist.’
I sighed and pushed my right hand further in. With force, the blade pierced through the head of the guy on the right.
I pushed him and scratched the left bastard’s temple. His eyes widened. He didn’t fight back, just shivered.
If you were going to hold a knife to someone’s throat, you should have been prepared for something like this. You were weak.
“What did you say?”
“Yes… yes? Yes?!”
The guy shouted in a dazed manner. My skull shook for a moment. I tried to hold back the force that was going into my hand.
“What about the Templar Knights and the Imperial Knights?”
“Ah… Ah! Yes! Right now, the Knights of the Temple and the Knights of the Imperial Palace are in pursuit of the Great Demon!”
“The Great Demon Nimmi?”
“Yes… yes! Your Majesty!”
“Is there a great devil here?”
“······yes?”
The guy rolled his eyes. It was exactly the same expression you get when you ask Berman, “Am I handsome?”
I was reflected in the eyes of the guy with the jaundice.
Traces of erosion remained here and there, and the hideous shell was thick. The pupils were so bright yellow that they glowed even at night, and the corners of the mouth were filled with red blood. And there were ugly scars too.
Anyone could see that he was a great demon. To this extent, he was clearly an outstanding demon even among demons.
‘I was the great devil.’
I clicked my tongue and pushed my hand in. The two heads penetrated each other smoothly.
I only ordered imperial knights, but it seems that even temple knights came out as a service.
As he pulled his hand out, grumbling, red blood filled the floor.
Looking at the cool red blood that had just been drawn, I felt a strong thirst. I felt a sense of regret for the blood flowing to the floor. I swallowed my saliva without realizing it.
In a situation where you have been branded as a great devil, how can you not eat human blood? Since ancient times, it has been said that a place creates a person. The place has already been created.
And since these guys were already dead, they probably wanted their bodies to be put to good use. Although there was no donation certificate.
‘······This is crazy.’
I pushed them away, muttering curses. They rolled around in the black puddle.
‘Is it rumored that I’m the Great Devil? If so-.’
My mind became complicated. If the rumor that I was the Great Devil spread to Cassidy due to the false offensive of the bad guys…
In an instant, a sharp pain struck me as if I had been stabbed by a knife. When I looked down, there was a huge ladybug stuck to me. Stab- The bug was vicious.
‘I guess I don’t have to go to church anymore.’
Maybe work could have been excluded. It was a bit of a shame, since the fun of rip-offs was quite substantial.
I stuck the bugs on the fallen guys and giggled. The bugs seemed satisfied and cried again.
Then I took a deep breath and forced myself to get up. My legs were shaking and my body was trembling.
Beep- beep-.
Squeeze!!
Loud whistles and wyvern cries could be heard from all directions.
It seems like I’m more popular than I thought.
Until yesterday, I was caught by the abbot and dragged to a service, and now I’m being chased by a great devil…
‘This place is consistently shitty.’
He muttered a curse and moved his heavy feet. His feet hesitated, so he hit him a few times. His feet started moving again. Anyway, he had to be hit to get him to listen.
I didn’t feel a connection with the tenants.
It seemed like he had reached his limit.
It was a shame that I couldn’t use Devil Candy, but I somehow survived even when there was no Devil Candy.
‘It’s nice and quiet.’
I took heavy steps, shaking my right hand.
A large blue light flashed in the distance.
The earth shook with a belated roar.
It seemed like they were also trying their best.
“Yes, for a very long time······.”
I muttered and turned to walk in the other direction.
***
‘Are you planning to cut down the entire mountain? You ignorant bastard.’
The old man clicked his tongue and grabbed her shoulder tightly.
I thought I had made quite a distance, but the sword’s owner swung his sword and cut through all the places he could see. One arm was caught in the end.
‘···Cursed genius.’
The old man muttered the bastard’s nickname and put his grandson’s gift in his mouth.
‘There’s only one left.’
The old man groaned softly in the excruciating pain he felt and looked at the master of the sword.
Because all the trees around him had been cut down, he was getting drenched in the rain.
Red blood and bite marks everywhere. Fallen flesh and the snarling annoyance of the bastard. It seemed as if he was extremely heated.
The sword master had always been an impatient and easily irritated man. Of course, that was only for a short while.
As things didn’t go the way I wanted, I started to think more and more about my old self.
Even though he only had one arm left, the old man was not impatient. A hunter always had to be relaxed.
The old man looked at him with his eyes wide open. The sword master was catching his breath. He seemed a little tired.
‘The area has shrunk.’
The area cut by the bastard’s sword was smaller than before. It could simply be because he used too much force, but-.
‘The area has been shrinking since I got excited.’
The old man nodded. On the contrary, the old man’s strength was increasing.
Looking at the bastard’s face still made him angry, but his daughter’s face kept coming to mind and blocked his view.
It seemed that emotions influenced the power of transcendence. This was a hypothesis that followed from what the sword’s owner had said about the past.
‘Is transcendence something where the more you erase yourself, the stronger you become?’
The old man wiped his face with his hand. Damp water ran down his fingers.
It seemed like a very slim possibility.
‘If only I had forty-eight more grandchildren’s gifts.’
The old man looked up at the sky with a bitter smile. It was hidden by the trees. All he could see were the drooping, drooping leaves. And among them, there were bugs.
I had no idea how long I had dragged on. Still, it seemed like a long time considering I was fighting the master of the sword. He had quite a few scars on his body. He had also eaten him.
However, it wasn’t enough to brag to my grandson.
‘I’ve gained quite a bit of weight.’
The old man chuckled.
Then the face of the man who resembled my daughter came to mind. My heart ached at the thought. The marks engraved on the man’s face were curves.
I had no idea what kind of life he had led, but it certainly wasn’t all that smooth. He must have been exposed to the full force of the rain, having no roof.
The old man recalled his daughter’s face and recalled his memories. This was enough.
When he heard footsteps behind him, the old man spoke to the man inside.
The old man didn’t know what it was. It had been inside for some time.
I couldn’t tell if it was from the time I was born, from the time I lost my blood relatives, or from the time I transcended.
I realized its existence while eating my grandson’s gift. If not, I would have never known about it until I died.
The old man called him a predator.
The bastard’s deep hunger rang in my head.
The old man let out a small breath and glanced at the sword’s owner.
The guy was approaching me with a tense look on his face, perhaps because he had been through something.
What is there to regret now?
‘Eat it.’
The old man ordered the bastard to prey.
The target of predation is-.
It was himself.
‘Predator… What a funny name.’
The old man laughed in vain at the emptiness that was creeping upon him.
The sword rolled on the floor.
***
‘Useless thing···.’
The sword’s owner swung his claws, his face crumpled in frustration.
A long line was drawn in front. After a while, the tree fell over with a scream.
Once that guy started to really get on my nerves, it became quite annoying.
He wasn’t like that originally.
He was a foolish and reckless guy who would roll his eyes and run towards you before dying. And not only did he retreat in front of you, but he also got on your nerves by making a fuss like this.
‘···If I had been late, it could have been dangerous.’
The sword master nodded. As expected, there was a reason for his footsteps.
If the old man could retreat before himself, he might one day be able to let go of the past.
Even the sword’s master hasn’t completely taken it out yet. But if he did, even an old man could be in danger.
The sword’s master wished for the old man to transcend, but did not want him to rise above him.
If I had given him more time, I might have ended up with an ending I didn’t like.
‘···I have one arm left.’
The sword’s owner muttered as he adjusted his claws. The last time he saw the old man, there were two arms hanging from his waist.
He cut his shoulder, so he must have eaten another one to heal him.
Now he only had to kill her twice more. There was absolutely no time left for him.
Either way, his footsteps were heading towards him, so it was over.
The sword master stopped walking when he saw the old man standing still.
The old man just stared blankly at the sky, drool dripping from his mouth and his eyes unfocused.
It was a funny appearance, as if he had lost his mind in the face of impending death – but the sword’s owner felt eerie.
It was a fear born of instinct.
The sword’s owner hurriedly raised his claws and blocked the way.
The old man simply looked up.
The sword’s owner seemed to have no regard for him.
My instincts were screaming at me to run away. I took a small step towards him.
The feet turned backwards. The old man was no longer the target.
Now, the old man was no longer a threat. Otherwise, it meant that the swordsman could not catch the old man.
If it had been the original, he would have turned around without hesitation. However, the sword’s owner stopped in his tracks.
‘Am I afraid of him?’
He was the one who had been running away from me just now.
He had only one arm hanging from his waist, and he even seemed to have lost his mind.
How could the master of the sword feel fear in front of such a guy? Ha, the master of the sword burst into laughter. His breath trembled slightly.
‘You’re trying to pass it off as crazy.’
The sword’s master adjusted his claws.
He was the master of the sword who had never been defeated in his life. He could not understand his own fear. No, he could not admit it.
Even his opponent was an old fool who had lost his mind due to old age. It was the loser who had to run away, not himself.
The master of the sword must always win.
Such was its fate.
“That’s it.”
The sword master took a deep breath. He lowered his posture. He raised his claws.
It was lacking to this extent.
The sword’s master did not interpret that deficiency as fear.
This is just his enthusiasm for swordsmanship.
The sword master breathed deeper.
The sword wasn’t simply swung with the arm.
From the fingers holding the sword, to the wrist, forearm, shoulder, waist, thigh, leg, knee, calf, ankle, and then to the toes, even the smallest parts of the body were involved in swordsmanship.
Simply swinging a sword wasn’t swordsmanship. True swordsmanship was the breathing of the body.
The sword master turned his aura around in turn. He filled in every single detail without missing a single one.
The flow slowed down. The sword master felt his own breathing. His claws were completely under his will and hummed.
My toenails were getting heavier and heavier. I couldn’t remember how long it had been since I felt them so heavy. My breathing continued.
His claws gradually became harmonized with his breathing. Even his inexplicable fear subsided.
The sword’s owner slowly pulled back his claws. Soon, they expanded like a bow with its bowstring drawn.
I took another deep breath. The bright blue light that had spread out gathered into a single point. It continued to condense. My breathing stopped.
Raindrops began to fall slowly. Knock. The moment the raindrops between him and the old man stopped-.
The master of the sword put a condensed period.
The dots continued on. The dots continued, but because the raindrops had stopped, they were dots, not lines.
Before the bullet reached the old man, he turned his head.
Knock. The old man moved with a small sound.
The raindrops were still. The point where they were shooting had slowed down like raindrops. I couldn’t understand it.
The stopped raindrops fled away, avoiding the old man.
The old man moved roughly while everything was frozen.
At that moment, the sword master’s mark stopped. The old man continued forward even though he could have easily avoided it.
A small dot appeared on the old man’s chest. A long black blood flowed out after that. Then the black blood stopped flowing. It looked exactly like a wing.
The old man neither frowned nor stopped.
It just came.
There was nothing in the old man’s eyes. No emotion, no focus, no pupils. Just emptiness.
‘transcendence-.’
The sword master realized that what he had thought was transcendence until now was not transcendence at all.
The transcendence that I finally encountered was-.
Woodduck.
The sword master watched blankly as his arm was torn off. The rain had stopped falling, so no blood was splattered.
The thing wearing the old man’s mask greedily swallowed the torn arm. Then, as if its hunger was still not satisfied, it turned its head away.
The old man’s mouth opened wide towards the sword’s owner’s head. Inside were sharp fangs. Each and every one of those teeth was sharper and more pointed than a claw.
The sword’s master stared blankly at him, forgetting even the will to resist.
[······.]
At that moment, the old man stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes rolled back.
Pitter-patter. The raindrops that had stopped are falling again.
The old man remained still in that state.
The surrounding area was hollowed out, as if a legendary giant god had taken a huge bite. It was dug out to create a huge pit.
The sword master, who came to his senses late, waved his hand. It was a pathetic struggle that was neither swordsmanship nor anything else.
The old man was pushed back by that hand.
As the pressure disappeared, the sword master desperately ran away. Then, his foot slipped and he got up and ran, even though he was covered in mud. He somehow managed to escape the pit and get away.
The old man looked up at the sky again in the silence, as if even the sound had been absorbed.
A shining sword bearing the imperial seal was stuck into the old man’s heart.
There was a huge hole behind it.
Black blood gushed out of the hole and began to fill the puddle.
***
Creepy-.
Those climbing the mountain simultaneously turned their heads at the eerie sensation they felt from afar.
“Did you just feel it?”
“Isn’t that level of presence not enough for us? Even if he’s a great demon······.”
The crowd began to murmur. Even the golden knights in imperial armor and the knights of the temple with their sun-painted shields recoiled in instinctive fear.
No one dared approach.
Unlike them, the Abbot of Brighton looked the other way.
The dense forest, which made it difficult to see even an inch ahead, seemed to beckon. Brighton grabbed his Bible and started walking.
How long did it take to walk like that?
‘···Is this hell?’
Brighton said a small prayer as he looked at the bodies strewn around him.
From demons to warlocks, and then to the impure – countless corpses lay lying there. They were clearly impure, but the corpses were so horrific that I wished for their peace.
Should he go back and call someone? Brighton hesitated for a moment and walked along the path of corpses.
After walking for a while like that, real hell appeared.
What happened was that a bunch of huge trees had been snapped and a vacant lot had been created.
In that empty space, there were so many corpses piled up that it was ridiculous to think of anything I had seen so far.
Some looked like mercenaries, some looked like warlocks, and some looked like devil servants.
They were all lying face to face. They were pointing to the center of the open space.
There was a short tree there, and something huge was leaning against it.
It was covered in red and black blood. It was covered in shells here and there, evidence of erosion. There were fewer intact parts.
Just being in front of it made my legs tremble and my mind shake with instinctive fear. It seemed to suck everything out.
‘······Great devil.’
It was clear that this was the great demon that the Knights of the Temple and the Imperial Knights were searching for with their eyes wide open.
If he wasn’t the Great Devil, how could he have such a presence and despair?
I didn’t even think about running away or approaching because of the heavy pressure. I just hoped that its gaze wouldn’t reach me.
As I muttered my prayer, the size of the person I was talking to seemed strangely familiar.
Brighton suppressed his fear and looked around carefully.
Knock knock knock.
Cold raindrops tapped my forehead.
Brighton’s mouth fell open as he came to his senses. His wandering breath soon took shape.
It soon turned into shock.
“······Aaron, Honorary Vice-Abbot?”
Brighton’s eyes widened as if they were going to tear apart.
