Chapter 126 : Chapter 126
Chapter 126 Hindra
“If it was going to be like this, you should have brought them with you.”
Simurtr said, looking straight ahead.
Degrate’s movement skill using illusion.
Beyond the exit, the desert landscape was visible.
Green waves rippled around the lone carriage. While staying in the Phantasmal Realm, Semenu had protected the carriage.
“The guest limit is one person.”
“Is that how it’s supposed to be?”
“No. I’m still inexperienced.”
Creating a Unique Phantasmal Realm isn’t the end.
It was called an authority, and its limits are unpredictable.
“The Captain can probably do it too.”
“It seems like it would take too long.”
“If it’s the Captain, maybe.”
“Your expectations are high too.”
“That’s because I’m a Baperr too.”
Semenu smiled faintly.
“The key?”
“I replanted it during the treatment.”
“Thanks.”
“……”
“Right. Well done.”
“Yes.”
“I’m going.”
He can meet Semenu whenever she wants.
The existence of the key makes his steps lighter. The future as well. Simurtr smiled, thinking of Basor.
His outstretched foot stepped on the soft, fine sand unique to the desert.
***
If all the sand of that great desert were to be sucked up, countless white skeletons would reveal themselves.
It was a past aphorism that had classified Hindra as a forbidden zone, but now it was a dead letter.
‘There’s even a map now.’
The reason it was freed from the four great forbidden zones was that the general level of humans had improved.
The reason the number of white skeletons swallowed by the sand was decreasing day by day was that Basor had developed the Magic Gate.
‘Still.’
The reputation of Hindra remains.
Hindra is a place where the existence of a map doesn’t really register.
The harsh winds change the location of the oases every month.
If you search Hindra, you will find explorers wandering in search of oases in various places.
They observe the constantly changing terrain and seek to re-establish ties with the desert tribes that would have moved their homes.
‘There are many demonic beasts too.’
In the Void, they are the humans.
I can’t empathize with Taparel’s words… but even Doom Species need water. They have bodies that require food and sleep.
For that reason, the Great Desert Hindra was a region quite free from the Doom Species.
The demonic beasts of the continent were almost annihilated, but the demonic beasts of Hindra are still going strong. Their numbers increased even more during the height of the Doom War.
‘On such a road, alone.’
5th circle.
Simurtr knows the achievements of the dead magician. Semenu found out from within the shadows.
He wasn’t even a high-ranking magician, yet he tried to cross Hindra alone? And with burdens?
‘Even if there were no problems with water and food.’
The magician had a subspace magic tool.
Inside, there was enough food and a magic tool that could substitute for a night watch.
Moreover, the Red Tower. For those who seek to master fire and wind, the cold desert nights would not be such a great hardship.
‘Then what about the demonic beasts?’
They could probably handle one or two.
The pioneer trail of Hindra is on the safe side. Lampina, Poruo, and the Ruo Holy See periodically clean the pioneer trail.
‘He came alone. Then it’s either a shift change. Or a rendezvous.’
But even so, that journey is not something to be endured alone.
They clean it, but they don’t do it every day. Attacks by demonic beasts happen surprisingly often.
‘The temple.’
The magician was looking for an abandoned temple.
Why? He said he had business there… but Simurtr was inside that temple. He destroyed it himself, and there was nothing useful.
‘The business wasn’t inside the temple.’
Rendezvous.
The abandoned temple must have been the place where the magician had decided to rendezvous. It would be a colleague from the same Red Tower.
‘Then the children?’
It is still unknown whether they are children meant to be used as a Matrix, or children born through experiments.
Simurtr approached the carriage. The green light that had enveloped the carriage had long since disappeared. The activated Sword Net was clearly feeling the inside of the carriage.
“……”
A presence that becomes clear only when many are gathered together.
Each one is still a young and weak individual. But those small presences… are surprisingly intense.
It is different from the human magic that flows calmly in peacetime, having been refined. It constantly runs wild. It resembles a crackling spark.
At a glance, it feels similar to a demonic beast. The identity of this jagged and violently flashing aura… Simurtr knows.
“Don’t come any closer.”
Kwajik. The carriage entrance suddenly breaks.
As the door rolled in the sand, someone jumped out like a beast.
“You’ve finished recovering while I was looking away. I’m going to kill you.”
A clear fighting spirit is aimed at this side.
A beast. Against an orange background, ears with black and white stripes drawn on them twitch. Kwajik. A tiger’s tail whipped the carriage wheel.
“…Who?”
The swelling fighting spirit disappears in an instant.
Sniff, sniff. Sniffing the air, the tiger beastman who saw Simurtr tilted his head.
“You asked to be saved.”
***
Beastman.
A race with intelligence rivaling that of humans.
And a race with the instincts of a beast that humans cannot imitate.
‘It’s not a lion.’
A familiar race to a war participant.
If you traveled the battlefield, you could easily see beastmen active in various places.
‘This is the first time I’ve seen one in this life.’
It’s also nice to see one.
Beastmen were certainly reliable allies.
Humans steeped in supremacism belittle beastmen as beasts, but there are all kinds of beastmen.
Not all beastmen have intelligence close to that of humans. There are not a few who are consumed by their nature.
It was the reason the world ostracized beastmen.
‘But the beastmen have a lot to say about that too.’
It’s trivial.
In Simurtr’s opinion, humans are no different. How much trash is there in the world?
A straightforward beast is better. At least they don’t backstab you, do they? They charge you head-on.
“…Ayade Serilka.”
A name with a surname. An embarrassment stemming from the previous rudeness.
Isn’t this more human than the spellcaster who tried to kill him on their first meeting?
“Egna Harkinwagen.”
“Should I call you Mr. Harkinwagen? We haven’t had any interaction with humans.”
“Call me Egna.”
Simurtr looked beyond Ayade.
The children were gathered together, looking this way with sparkling eyes. They are small. If they stood up, they would only reach his waist.
‘A bear, a wolf, a dog, a cat, and Ayade of the tiger tribe.’
The origins of the children are all different.
‘…They were going to die.’
They are not completed experiments.
The spellcaster intended to take these children as a Matrix.
They must have wanted to create one experiment for each race.
“Where were you captured?”
No interaction with humans.
It means there is a place where only beastmen live.
Where? Simurtr looked at the half-broken carriage. The tail of the carriage was pointing northwest.
The location of the temple was far from the pioneer trail, but it was a desolate desert. There was no reason for the carriage to draw a curve.
It meant that they had come straight diagonally from the west, also to disappear from the sight of people on the pioneer trail.
And to the west is the Ruo Holy See.
“The Ruo would ostracize beastmen.”
“What? The Ruo Holy See?”
“Am I wrong?”
“No. We’re from Hindra.”
“Hindra? Here?”
“Yes.”
Simurtr looked at Ayade with wide eyes.
A beastman. They are a race with excellent adaptability.
Except for certain minority tribes, they are people who can easily adapt and live wherever they go. But a desert? Isn’t that a bit harsh?
“In this era, Hindra is the safest place for us beastmen.”
“……”
“That’s what I heard, though.”
Suddenly, Bahab’s Hella came to mind.
The auction house where elves were put up as auction items.
No matter how much it was the underworld, it was something that happened in a place managed by the hero family, Bahab.
‘That bastard who calls himself a hero.’
If even a hero family is like that, how much worse would other places be?
Now that the common enemy, the Doom Species, has disappeared… Humans are once again ostracizing other races and trying to put them under their feet.
‘Ruo was always like that.’
The most rigid-minded religious group in the world.
The Saintess was a sincerely wicked woman who would secretly kill other races even during the war.
‘Beastmen are better off. They’re a race that’s basically born stronger than humans.’
Hindra is the safest place?
No. Hindra is an already conquered forbidden zone. If humans really coveted beastmen, they could capture them.
‘It’s just that they’re not worth capturing to that extent. Beastmen’s resistance is fierce. And if things go wrong, they just turn into beasts.’
The opportunity cost is high.
‘They’re very different from the fallen elves.’
Elves were comrades-in-arms in the Doom War.
Along with beastmen, they were one of the few reliable allies of humans.
Spirit magic was more difficult than magic, and it helped a lot on the battlefield.
Akarr Bahab knows such elves well. A position where she should know them better than anyone.
‘Elves who have lost the world tree and cannot summon spirits are useless.’
Conversely, many humans began to drool.
Humans in history have always coveted elves, and the current elves are weakened.
If the elves had been in good health… Akarr would never have treated them as commodities. On the contrary, she would have valued them.
‘No. In the first place, there’s no way they would have been captured as slaves.’
Even before the Doom War, elf slaves were rare.
Elves, blessed by the world tree and connected to spirits, were beings that humans could not easily hunt.
“Here.”
Simurtr threw Elder to the children who were looking this way with shining eyes.
It’s an age where they’re curious about swords. It’s also rare for beastmen to use weapons.
“Just don’t pull it out.”
White magic stuck like glue to the seam of Elder and its scabbard.
Even when the strongest bear beastman kid struggled, it wouldn’t come out.
“Wow.”
Ayade, who saw the scene, was looking at Elder with curious eyes.
A delicate application. It was something difficult to imitate with the rough aura unique to beastmen.
“But why were you captured? It seems like that spellcaster from before would have been easy for you.”
“It was my first time seeing a magician… and it was also my first time with a poison that blocks magic.”
Magic alone was overwhelming, and she was also hit with poison.
“Still, I killed five of them.”
Her fangs were impressive.
***
He wasn't alone.
The five magicians Ayade killed.
The corpses, which would be buried in the sand by now, made Simurtr's heart much lighter.
“He said there were personnel he was supposed to rendezvous with at the temple.”
The fewer the variables, the better.
If the support troops hadn't arrived yet, Simurtr intended to wait in the carriage until they did.
“Are they having trouble finding it because the temple collapsed?”
“No. I can smell blood in the sand. And the smell of raw meat.”
“Isn't that my blood?”
“No. The smell is different.”
“How so?”
“Um… Egna's blood is… um.”
Ayade furrowed her brow and sank into thought.
It must be a delicious smell. Simurtr recalled the impressions he had heard in his past life.
Weren't there many who even drooled openly like vampires? There was also a lion beastman who asked for it instead of water because he was thirsty.
“It's bitter.”
“What?”
“Or is it astringent? Nauseating? It makes my stomach churn. It wasn't a smell I wanted to smell.”
“…Didn't you smell it wrong?”
“No. The children said so too. Right?”
Yes! The four children shouted in unison.
“…There's no way.”
Simurtr's expression contorted.
‘Is it because my body has changed?’
He hadn't wanted to hear compliments about how delicious his flesh or blood was… but hearing insults didn't feel very good.
A delicious one is better than an openly nauseating one.
“How many smells are there?”
“There are six types.”
“Six people?”
“Yes.”
The six magicians who were supposed to rendezvous at the temple.
And all six of them were dead.
“Can you find the biggest one? I want to see why they died.”
“It's over there.”
The corpse couldn't be detected by the Sword Net, so Simurtr followed behind Ayade.
She strode forward and began to dig into a sand dune that came up to her chest with both hands.
Before long, something too wretched to be called a corpse was pulled out.
Only the upper body remained, and so much flesh was missing that the ribs were clearly visible.
“Did someone eat and leave it? I don't smell any saliva or other smells.”
Sniff, sniff. Ayade put her nose to the ribs where the flesh had been torn off and sniffed.
As she tilted her head, Simurtr laughed lowly.
‘It was me, wasn't it?’
The six magicians.
They were swept away and died in the secret technique of the Star-Breaking Style, Pagon, which he had pulled out to kill Taparel.
It was a cause of death he had seen to the point of being sick of it in his past life. Many Doom Species had died like that.
“Let's go.”
“Aren't you going to look for the culprit?”
“I'm fine now. Where's your home? I'll take you there.”
There were no more variables to consider.
The rest were problems to think about after entering Lampina.
Just taking these children there.
“I don't know.”
“You said you live in Hindra. Isn't it nearby?”
“It doesn't seem far… but I can't find it. It's a place that's usually hidden by a barrier.”
“You were captured. Wasn't the barrier breached?”
“Those mere magicians?”
Ayade snorted.
It wasn't something to say for someone who had been captured, but she was serious.
“He said it's a barrier that won't be breached even if the head of the Magic Tower comes in person.”
“Then why were you captured?”
“I came out to play for a bit. Because they wanted to play.”
Ayade pointed to the children.
“You should have played inside. Why outside? It's dangerous.”
“There are no demonic beasts inside.”
“What can you play with demonic beasts?”
“We play tag, don't we?”
“…Do you guys get caught too?”
“Then it wouldn't be a game.”