The Druid Who Devoured the Great Nature

“Who are you?”

Joe McQueen had a somewhat detached impression. Even though he must have heard the commotion from the back of the train, he was calm. His gaze was directed at me, but it seemed as if he were looking at a distant place.

“……Wait. Yes, I’ve seen that face before. Was it Allen? I don’t think I heard that you were coming with us. Are you a guest I invited?”

“How could I be?”

There was a man next to Joe McQueen. Greasy, unkempt, curly hair. Half of his face shone with the characteristic color of metal. The unique appearance, which was half machine, matched the description I had heard exactly.

“Baryag, the leader of the veterans? Just as Drexier told me.”

“Drexier. I see, I thought he had been quiet recently. Did he betray us?”

“Rather than a betrayal, you guys set an absurd goal. Shouldn’t you leave a sinking ship?”

“An absurd goal? What do you mean?”

The atmosphere that Baryag exuded was the complete opposite of Joe McQueen’s. His cackling laughter was full of confidence and spirit.

“Look at this city now. The city government is on the road to ruin. Their greed and incompetence have been revealed to the world. Because of us! Our revolution against the city government has succeeded!”

“Didn’t you leave out the main point? You guys just moved like pawns on a board that Centream had set up. Rather than a successful revenge, it seems to me that you were just a sidekick.”

“It doesn’t matter. What’s important is that we embarrassed the city government. If we can just make the city government collapse, we can be used as much as they want.”

“I can’t get through to you.”

Baryag’s pupils were gone. He was the type to be able to offer up his own life to achieve his goal. He was the epitome of a man blinded by revenge.

“Why, did that friend Drexier tell you to try to persuade me if you met me?”

“He did say that.”

“That friend dreamed an absurd dream. Unlike us, he was treated well and even received a medal, so he doesn’t know how deep our resentment is.”

“Well, I think he was just trying to poke a persimmon he couldn’t eat. I personally thought it wouldn’t be bad if we could solve it by persuasion.”

“……What do you mean, it wouldn’t be bad?”

Baryag’s eyebrows twitched.

“Let me ask you one thing. What do you want by getting involved in this? Are you a contractor who wants to be a dog of the city government?”

“No way.”

The city government is a coercive organization. If I became their pawn, I would just be rolled around and stressed out. If there was something that would help my goal, I might have considered it, but that wasn’t the case either.

“The city government has nothing to do with it. I just have business with Centream.”

The veterans had achieved their goal of taking revenge on the city government. It was a result that was impossible for them to achieve on their own. In that sense, it was difficult for them to do anything more.

At best, they would be serving Centream. The job they were currently in charge of was to protect a Centream executive.

“……Is that so. Centream was keeping a close eye on you, but it wasn’t an overreaction. It seems that there were not a few cases where things went wrong for you in important phases, so you were actually aiming for Centream.”

Rather than aiming for them, it turned out that it was their doing. But at this point, such minor details were trivial matters that would not change anything even if I mentioned them.

“If you know that, why don’t you just get out of this? Centream may have supported you, but you don’t have the loyalty to give your life for them.”

“That’s right.”

Did the persuasion work? I was about to be relieved, but there was a lingering feeling that left a bad taste in my mouth.

“But I have no guarantee that you can beat Centream.”

And as expected.

“I don’t know what you’ve prepared, but I don’t think a mere contractor can stand up to Centream and win.”

“If you think I’m alone, you’re mistaken… no, it’s meaningless to talk nonsense.”

“Hehe, that’s right.”

It was difficult to change the other person’s mind with just a few words when they thought that way.

“It’s too late to switch sides.”

“You’ll regret it.”

“Nonsense. If I have no regrets, what regrets will I have?”

The negotiation had broken down. Further conversation was a waste of time.

The muscles and skin that covered Baryag’s prosthesis. It seemed that he was going to go all out from the beginning without even a probing battle.

I was the same. Waiting for the enemy to transform is something that only happens in cartoons for kids.

The wave of roots that rushed towards him. Baryag was swept away by it without being able to dodge.

It wasn’t the sound of sharp thorns piercing his entire body. On the contrary, Baryag stood up with thorns all over his body like a hedgehog and stopped the wave of roots by piercing it.

Body modification. It was a technology of Centream that had been developed using the spirit’s cocoons.

Has it developed to that level now? Well, it wasn’t surprising compared to the fact that they had almost restored the pure bloodline of the werebeasts.

Baryag kicked off the ground and jumped. An aura flowed through his entire body, making it seem as if a ray of light had taken a physical form and was rushing in.

Even if the cabin was spacious, it was still a cabin. By the standards of a superhuman who handled mana, it was a distance that could be reached in a single bound.

Furthermore, Baryag was a warrior who used his own body as a weapon without using any weapons. He was a type who was well-versed in fighting at close range.

That’s why it was easy to predict his actions. A straight-line rush without any variation.

I shot a bullet straight ahead. If he had heard about me from Centream, he would have known that it was not an ordinary bullet.

There was a great uncertainty in trusting the durability of his own body. But could Baryag dodge it?

It wasn’t that he didn’t have the physical ability to do so.

“……”

If he dodged, Joe McQueen would be exposed to the bullet. He probably thought that my goal was to capture Joe McQueen.

He would think that I had ignored him and aimed for Joe McQueen. He had no choice but to take it with his body…

Baryag sneered at me and dodged the bullet. He acted as if he didn’t care what happened to Joe McQueen, without a single moment of hesitation.

“Hmm.”

My guess that he had dodged because he believed that Joe McQueen was a hidden master was also wrong. Joe McQueen couldn’t react at all even though the bullet had grazed past him.

He was definitely an ordinary person. He would have died if I hadn’t deliberately shot it to miss.

But his calm attitude was strange.

Electricity sparked from Baryag’s clenched fist. Even if he had covered his prosthesis with flesh, its essence was still a machine.

He seemed to be fine even while wielding electricity with his bare body.

Steam spewed from behind his shoulder. A fist flew out as if shooting a bullet.

It was a speed that could not be completely dodged even with a body that had been synchronized.

In the end, his fist slammed into my face. A heavy hitting sound, as if pounding meat with a mallet, followed.

Flesh fell off in chunks. It soon changed into something like the inside of a tree.

Baryag’s face, who had thought he had knocked me down with a splendid blow, contorted.

“An illusion…!”

“For an illusion, doesn’t it have a vivid feel?”

My appearance, which the fraudulent wolf had mimicked, was stripped away, and a plant that had taken the form of a person was revealed. It was a Trent created with a green will.

Even if it couldn’t create a large army like in a domain, one was enough. Baryag’s fist, which had pierced the Trent’s face, was stuck there.

A sticky sap was holding his fist and the Trent’s body together like an adhesive. As if that wasn’t enough, the Trent collapsed and clung to Baryag.

“Such a petty trick…!”

Baryag transformed his body again. The sharply transformed skin pierced the Trent, but it didn’t matter.

The Trent had done its job just by clinging to Baryag.

“Keuk!”

From the form of a person to the form of a plant. The Trent rapidly propagated and wrapped around Baryag’s entire body, regardless of his transformation.

“Kkeueueu…!”

Veins popped out on his forehead. The more he struggled to escape the restraint, the more densely the plants grew.

And in inverse proportion to the growth of the plants, strength drained from his body. It was a scene as if the plants were growing by using him as a nutrient.

“How can such an ability…!”

Baryag’s face, which had been deprived of its life force, became gaunt.

“You should have listened when I gave you a chance.”

The leader of the veterans was not much better than the other mercenaries in terms of skill. After all, he was a person who would have been just another cripple if it weren’t for Centream’s technology.

He was not a difficult opponent to fight with tension.

“Still don’t regret it?”

“Hehehe.”

The tone of the guy, who had become as gaunt as a mummy, was as dry as if it had been dried in the scorching sun.

“It’s too late anyway.”

“……?”

“You’re finished too…”

Baryag, who had left a meaningful last word, went limp. I noticed that the small light beyond the front engine room was getting bigger.

The end of the tunnel was already in sight.

“It’s as he said.”

Joe McQueen was consistently calm, even after confirming Baryag’s death.

“It’s already too late.”

No, it wasn’t that he was calm. It was closer to the attitude of someone who had given up on life.

Because he had prepared for the end, he was insensitive to external stimuli.

“I would have preferred to die cleanly. It would be better for you too.”

It wouldn’t have been strange if he had done it after I had defeated Baryag, but he had had the same attitude before he had even met me. It meant that he had been prepared for death from the beginning.

“I don’t want to be burned to death, and you’ll have to get away quickly to avoid getting caught up in it, so wouldn’t it be in our mutual interest?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“It’s unfortunate for you, but you won’t be able to do much damage to Centream by killing me. You’ve come in vain. Centream is planning to strengthen their justification by using me as a scapegoat. At the end of this tunnel, the train will be blown up.”

“……So that’s why Quadruple wasn’t mobilized for the security of a Centream executive.”

Had Centream no intention of protecting Joe McQueen from the beginning? Baryag’s dodging of the bullet, even though Joe McQueen could have been hurt, could be understood in the same context.

“If you knew that, why didn’t you try to run away?”

“I only noticed after I got on the train. Even if I had known before, it wouldn’t have changed anything. What can I do in this city when I’m on Centream’s bad side? It’s a relief that it ends with just me.”

Joe McQueen looked at Baryag’s collapsed corpse and shook his head.

“They are also scapegoats. Now that their usefulness has diminished, they tried to erase the traces so that the fact that Centream was the mastermind behind the terror they instigated would not be revealed.”

“Did Baryag obediently accept that?”

“He must have felt the same way as me. He had achieved his goal, so he probably didn’t have much attachment to life. Of course, that’s not all. They made a deal.”

“A deal?”

“In exchange for restoring their crippled bodies, they were unable to refuse Demian’s orders.”

“……”

I could quickly deduce what that meant. Body modification using the spirit’s cocoons.

Had they placed such a restriction on it?

“Anyway, don’t drag it out any longer. We’re almost at the end of the tunnel.”

“First, let me correct one misunderstanding.”

Although I had heard some unexpected circumstances, it was a blessing in disguise.

“I came here to capture you, not to kill you.”

“……I see you’ve heard about my situation within Centream. I’m sorry, but I refuse. I’d rather die cleanly than betray Centream and face retaliation.”

That must be because he thought I was trying to fight Centream alone, just as Baryag had.

“It’s Sylvester who wants you.”

“……Sylvester.”

“Do you still want to throw away your life in vain?”

No way. He had been pushed out by Demian and had even been pushed to be a scapegoat.

He would want to get back at Centream more than anyone.

“Then the story is different.”

There was no time to think for long. Joe McQueen stood up abruptly and approached me.

“I’ll cooperate.”

(End of Chapter)