Chapter 236 : Chapter 236
Chapter 236 : The Demonic Doctor (4)
“Out of a person's nine orifices, the ear is the very last opening to close. When I check Sir Noser's pulse, his other organs are asleep, but the energy of the Auditory Palace connected to the ear is flickering, however faintly.”
“…….”
Ramba eavesdropped on the words reaching his ears while lying deathly still with his eyes closed.
It seemed they were diagnosing Noser's condition, but because unfamiliar words were mixed in here and there, it was difficult to properly understand.
Right then, a faint chuckle was heard. It was a sound made by the man performing the diagnosis, and the tail end of that laughter felt subtly goosebump-inducing.
“Look. Even now, his slow pulse races all the way to a rapid pulse before gradually settling into a moderate pulse. Although he's unconscious, his auditory awareness is alive, so he's responding to our voices.”
“Explain it so I can understand, McRay. You're just putting on airs.”
Ramba passionately agreed inside. It was exactly what he wanted to say.
“It means Sir Noser's soul is using our voices as a guide to find its way back.”
“Alright, then let's get started today as well.”
Soon, the sound of something moving busily was heard. Ramba sharpened his five senses. It seemed that the three people who had entered the bedroom stood side by side toward the lying Noser.
‘……What are they trying to do?’
The rustling of clothing was heard. It seemed the three of them took the exact same action simultaneously.
Ramba could not bear it any longer and subtly opened his eyes a crack.
Sure enough, the three people lined up at Noser's feet were abruptly crouching their bodies. It was a posture of bowing their heads as if appealing to Noser.
‘What are they doing?’
Just then, the three of them tried to raise their bodies simultaneously. Ramba hurriedly squeezed his eyes tightly shut.
Subsequently, the exact same sound was heard once more. They had repeated the same action.
“Are you sure two bows are correct?”
“I told you so. One time lacks sincerity, and three times is an avoided number called the Three Calamities.”
“Seriously, the more I see it, the more amazing it is. Who would've known that blockhead McRay would master The Way of Medicine and become this smart after shutting himself in a back room when Masa died?”
“It's the power of love. The power of love is great.”
After a few frivolous conversations went back and forth, a silence soon lingered.
A politeness different from before was steeped within the ensuing voices.
“We have now completely mastered the 'Benkou Illusion Swordsmanship' that the Cult Leader personally translated. Even the Empire army's basic manual and all sorts of military strategy books, all of it.”
“From the age-old ancient books that were stuffed inside Alkabang's treasure storehouse to nameless scriptures and all kinds of secret manuals, we have read them to the point of utter disgust.”
“Now, there isn't a single thing left to read inside this Brakenport. In our hearts, we want to go to the Imperial Capital or to the nearby western estates and completely ransack their libraries, but since the Cult Leader told us not to budge from here until he gives permission, we're at a point where we're going crazy from frustration.”
Ramba quietly closed his eyes and eavesdropped on what they were saying.
The three reported their achievements to Noser as if having a conversation. They seemed highly familiar with it, as if they had been doing this kind of routine for quite a long time.
“That guy was our only hope, though.”
Suddenly, Ramba felt a gaze concentrating on him. His skin pricked.
“It's about time for him to wake up, but he isn't getting up.”
“McRay, didn't you make some mistake? You said he'd open his eyes in a few days.”
“……This is annoying. He definitely should've woken up by now. Should I just wake him up?”
A chilling metallic sound was heard. It seemed he had pulled out an axe blade.
“Stop it. Last time, there was a guy who finally got saved, only to look at your face, get shocked, foam at the mouth, and die. Did you forget already?”
Only after hearing the sign of the axe being pulled back did Ramba manage to exhale the breath he had been holding. He was terrified that even the sound of swallowing his saliva might be heard.
Somehow, they felt like predators waiting for their prey to age well. It was certain that they had kept him alive for some purpose.
“By the way, what kind of guy is this? He looks exactly like a crafty petty thief.”
“Watch your mouth. He's a great thief who tried to embrace books and take refuge in them until the very moment his life ended.”
A dark shadow was cast over his eyelids. His entire body twitched at the gaze looking down at him.
“Still, meeting a thief who knows the value of books is a stroke of heavenly luck. Let's use him usefully as soon as he wakes up. So he can diligently transport books to us.”
“Heheh, this truly is a miraculous encounter.”
Ramba's tightly clenched fists trembled violently. Everything else was fine. However, he absolutely could not tolerate his writing being treated as stolen goods from a theft.
“A thief?! This is what I wrote! They're my children!”
Ramba shouted as he sprang up.
Subsequently, his eyes met with the three people: Ellen, Tiaro, and McRay.
A brief silence.
Ramba muttered in a crawling voice.
“……sir.”
***
After Ramba poured out his past in detail, back when he had quite a bit of influence in the Wild Dogs and Sewer Rats……
Before long, it was a pitch-black night.
Rustle, rustle.
Thanks to the three, Ramba was able to have a deeply moving reunion with his books, which he cherished more than his life. Although they were terribly torn or mostly lost due to the heavy rain that day, salvaging this much was a cause for profound gratitude.
Every time Ramba, sitting in front of the bonfire, turned a page of the old paper he had carefully dried, the burning firewood popped and crackled, adding a pleasant accompaniment.
“I-I tell you repeatedly, but thank you truly, milords. Thanks to you, milords, like this……”
The trio sitting across from him beyond the bonfire still stared at Ramba with sullen faces.
‘That beggar is truly……’
‘The author who wrote Knights of Elderwood?’
‘……I can't believe it.’
Knights of Elderwood was one of the numerous books Bihen had translated into the Kingdom's language before leaving for the west.
Coincidentally, all three were avid readers fascinated by Knights of Elderwood. The story of a stubborn and righteous hero carrying through with chivalry was more than enough to passionately fill the romance inside the hearts of those who had only recently learned to read and were about to officially enter the path of a martial artist.
‘To us, it was truly a textbook and a guidebook.’
Ellen, who sat upright and listened silently to Ramba's story, finally opened his mouth. His expression was past serious, even solemn.
“Where is Elderwood? Is it far from here?”
Ramba hesitated as he tried to answer. Come to think of it, it was his first time actually facing readers who had read his writing. Feeling a strange pressure that he shouldn't utter even a single word carelessly, he cleared his throat.
“Elderwood isn't an actual place name, milords. It's just a fictional estate I made up. Containing the meaning of an old tree…… hahat, yes. Well, it's a name given with that meaning—”
“I-It's fake?!”
“……Huh? Ah, yes, y-yes. Because it is a n-novel, after all……”
Their expressions looked as if they had received a shock that it wasn't a real story.
Ramba checked their moods. His already narrow shoulders shrunk even further.
‘Well, then again……’
Once again, this place was Brakenport, the worst lawless area in the Kingdom.
If they were people born and raised in a place like this, wouldn't it make sense for them to believe the romance inside the novel was real and cling to it?
Once he thought that, he was in the midst of suddenly feeling compassion for them.
“To put it bluntly, the ending of Knights of Elderwood was absolute dog shit.”
Tiaro spoke, crossing his arms.
Ramba's face distorted at once. Not just garbage, but absolute dog shit.
“The vow to save the world! The noble spirit that was never broken! The courage and will that didn't bend to any injustice! Cervantes was truly a hero!”
“……!”
“But to suddenly return home at the end? Does that make any sense? It's infuriating enough as it is, but it ended so ambiguously, becoming neither this nor that! I knew it then! The bastard who wrote this is definitely a dumb ass, prissy bastard who believes this is a cool ending!”
At that moment, Ellen and McRay, who had been listening silently from the side, each chimed in.
“Cervantes should've died on the battlefield instead.”
“Thinking about it suddenly makes me pissed off again.”
Tiaro, as if his anger wasn't appeased, huffed and gestured with his chin toward the book held in Ramba's hand.
“And that thing, if you say it's a sequel, you die by my hands today.”
Coincidentally, that book was a novel featuring an elderly Cervantes as the protagonist.
A kind of romance novel where Cervantes, who suffered in his youth, frolics with young ladies in his old age while struggling to maintain his own principles in his own way.
Of course, strictly speaking, it was a completely separate story that didn't have a shred of relation to Knights of Elderwood, only sharing the same name.
“I-I didn't know……!”
Ramba suddenly raised his voice. The three who had been throwing a fit at the sudden reaction froze.
“……Because I didn't know if chivalry truly existed.”
“…….”
“I also thought Cervantes was just fake.”
Suddenly, only the sound of crackling firewood was heard amidst the silence.
Ellen opened his mouth after a long time.
“Does Cervantes truly exist?”
Ramba raised his bowed head. His eyes reflected in the firelight shone moistly.
“He does. He absolutely exists.”
Only then did the three wear smiles, as if relieved.
***
“Ah, come to think of it…….”
Ramba fumbled at his chest as if only just remembering.
“Th-The pain has completely vanished.”
It was a type of seizure where a lump-like thing stuck messily around his chest caused a burning sensation as if lighting a fire from time to time.
His inside felt refreshed, as if the lump had been completely washed away.
“You cured me, milord. I truly do not know how to repay this grace, milord.”
Ramba bowed his head to McRay. His figure performing the operation was clear in his sparse, passing memories.
“I thought it was a terminal illness without a doubt, so I was slowly sorting out my mind, milord. Haha, now that it's turned out like this, my mood is—”
“It's not a disease, though.”
“……Huh?”
“It's sorcery. To be exact, a curse.”
Ramba merely blinked his eyes. He understood curses, but sorcery was unfamiliar. At any rate, hearing it wasn't a disease left him bewildered, completely at a loss for words.
Right then, McRay rummaged inside his wide sleeve, pulled something out from within, and carelessly tossed it to Ramba.
Ramba received it in a daze and looked; it was a multi-legged bug about the size of a pinky finger.
“Hieek! Wh-What is this, milord?!”
“A cursed object. A kind of consumable item that causes the curse you believed to be a disease.”
“……Whaaat?”
Ramba looked down at the limp bug upon his palm. Fortunately, it didn't budge, as if dead, but the disparate sensation touching his skin gave him full goosebumps.
“You were lucky. Planting a cursed object in the body to cause a curse is a method of the most basic level. Lifting the curse is just as easy.”
McRay continued speaking as if it were no big deal.
“According to the Sorcery Manual, that guy is a cursed object called a Synchronization Insect. They're a male and female pair; if you plant one inside the target's body, it borrows their eyes and ears to transport information to a distant caster. To put it easily, Ramba, you've been playing the role of a spy puppet all this time.”
The Sorcery Manual. It was a book published as a pastime by Kuhn, who had nothing particular to do other than act as a folding screen by his side when Bihen was translating various books before leaving for the west.
McRay happened to see it by chance after Kuhn secretly sandwiched it between the books without Bihen's knowledge upon its completion.
At any rate, Ramba shuddered from the shock. If McRay's words were true, it meant he had been used by someone since a very long time ago.
‘Don't tell me, the Leader……?’
The pieces clicked perfectly together. Somehow it was strange. He couldn't understand the reason why the Wild Dogs and Sewer Rats tenaciously targeted his life when he no longer had any power.
“I-I didn't know at all, milord. Why on earth did they put such a horrible thing in my body……?”
“Of course it's hard to notice. During the parasitism, it holds its breath completely so that the host feels no sensation. Then, if one side dies, the remaining side shares the same fate, which is why it's a Synchronization Insect. When that time comes, due to its instinct to survive, it begins to swallow up the host's vitality at random. In a manner of speaking, it takes the host down with it.”
“Ha, what kind of…….”
“Either way, you were lucky. Because I discovered it before the guy devoured all the way into your bone marrow.”
Even though they had learned about the world through books, all three knew well how disparate sorcery was within the Kingdom. Sorcery is an exclusive secret art of the distant Empire.
Here, McRay captured one decisive link. It was the fact that the energy of the assassin who had attacked Masa in the past bore a heavy resemblance to the distinct atmosphere of sorcery.
Hence, the conclusion was one. It was clear that the mastermind who planted the cursed object inside Ramba's body and his own enemy were either the exact same person or at least a group sharing the same roots.