Chapter 230
The two were greatly shocked and flustered.
Tika barely managed to say.
"We're going to... die...?"
"If things continue as they are now, that will certainly happen. But I won't let it come to that."
"What, what are you going to do?"
Not only Tika, but Shan was also looking at him with a frightened face.
Without saying anything else, he patted both their shoulders and stood up.
"From now on, I'll handle all outdoor activities. You two stay inside the house for the time being. Fortunately, it seems those things can't get inside the house."
"Then only Yesung will go outside? That's ridiculous!"
"You're overexerting yourself! At the very least, if we could go out nearby to help-" "No. That might actually be more dangerous. If it were just one, I don't know, but if they've started acting as a group, it would be difficult for me alone to protect you two."
If a combat character like the filial son version of Yurik or Leandros had been here, it might have been different,
But it was rather difficult for him alone.
Tika and Shan immediately closed their mouths at his words.
They must be anxious and worried too.
But this was the best way for now.
"I'll make something for you to eat. I'll stay by your side until you two fall asleep. Don't worry about me - you two don't have enough time to worry about yourselves. Do you understand?"
The two nodded their heads.
Seeing that they had barely accepted it, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Ah, raising children was too difficult. How on earth had he raised Yurik back in the day?
He somehow managed to cook a meal with the remaining ingredients for the two,
And after putting them to bed and reassuring them until they fell asleep, he felt completely drained.
After watching the two sleeping peacefully while holding each other's hands, he quietly left the house.
The moon was already large in the sky, making the night path brighter than expected.
Walking along the path covered in deep blue, he suddenly picked up a stone from the roadside that fit well in his hand.
It was a white stone that sparkled prettily in the reflection of the moonlight.
So there were such fascinating stones by the seaside too.
Rolling the rough texture in his hand as he walked, he found himself near the forest where he and Tika often went.
There were many shrubs bearing wild fruits here.
If he went just a little into the forest, he could occasionally find mushrooms too,
But just in case, he had made an agreement with Tika beforehand not to go too deep.
But now he stood here completely alone. How far did this forest extend?
Without hesitation, he headed into the black forest. There wasn't even a proper path, but it didn't matter much.
He wandered around rustling like that for quite a while.
Eventually, when he had walked so much that he was starting to sweat, a very small sound came from somewhere.
[...doing, ...so, ...ing...]
[That's right... that guy too... all of them...]
Following the direction of the sound, the unclear voices gradually became clearer.
[...doing that, so I'll take this bone...]
[...doing that, then I'll go over there...]
Crossing over fallen trees and stepping only on moss-covered stones, there were shallow pits dug as if someone had deliberately made them.
The voices became increasingly clear.
[If we catch the one with the mark, let's bury the bones under the tree.]
[If we catch the two with the mark, let's drop them in the river.]
[If we catch one, let's eat up their fingers.]
[If we catch two, let's beat them until they cry.]
Over there, in a corner of the forest where even moonlight didn't enter, something was dancing.
The things dancing while flailing their chubby arms and legs had no color.
They had various fallen leaves or moss-like things placed on their heads, and the way they shook their stocky bodies back and forth was bizarre and amusing.
About ten of these dwarfs were wriggling around in a circle.
[If we catch one, let's pull out all their teeth.]
[If we catch two, let's hang them upside down and leave.]
[If we catch one, let's drop them in a trap and cover them with leaves.]
[If we catch two, let's hang them on the top of the highest tree.]
The dwarfs had sharp claws on their hands and feet.
The content they were chattering about excitedly was utterly disgusting, but listening to it, he could understand what 'one' and 'two' meant.
'One' was Shan, who had seen them too many times.
'Two' was Tika, who had seen them for the first time but bore their traces like Shan.
Perhaps that's why the punishment 'one' would receive sounded particularly harsh.
He listened carefully to the singing, then revealed himself to the dwarfs.
When the first one to see him let out a sharp cry and jumped up, the others also spotted him and made angry sounds.
[Caught! Caught!]
[Caught again! Again!]
[Is it one? The marked one?]
[No! Not marked! It's three, it's three!]
[If we see again, we'll kill, we'll kill!]
Murmur murmur, chatter chatter.
For some reason, these dwarfs seemed quite displeased about being spotted by someone.
They got angry and each tried to flee deeper into the forest.
He barely managed to catch one of them, grabbed its neck, and lifted it high.
At the pig-like screaming sound, several of the scattering dwarfs turned back and attacked his legs while snarling.
His legs got scratched thoroughly by the sharp claws and something trickled down, but he wasn't particularly bothered.
Instead, he quietly watched the dwarf in front of him struggle and opened his mouth.
"Someone I knew well long ago, whoever it was, told me to pity other people."
[Kiyaaaaaaaa! Kieeeeeee!]
"I tried my best to do that. But suddenly I'm thinking this. Do I have to cover for creatures who say they'll pull out people's teeth and hang them on trees?"
[Die! I'll kill you! Die!]
"This is my personal opinion, but I think what that person said was a bit strange. Don't you think? He didn't tell me from the start that I couldn't become like other people. So... there must be errors in that person's story too. For example, that the 'other people' he mentioned don't include strange species like you."
He slammed the dwarf to the ground while gripping its neck.
Along with a heavy scream, he swung the stone in his hand.
-Thud!
It made the sound of stone hitting stone.
As he had expected when lifting the dwarf, their skin was hard like stone, unlike Shan's or Tika's.
-Thud! Thud!
Was their entire body made of stone?
But that didn't matter.
If their insides were stone too, he just had to keep hitting until they broke.
-Thud! Thud! Thud!
Several dwarfs' screams mixed and echoed.
The dwarfs that had been scratching his legs demanding he release their comrade fled hastily,
And only the one struggling and making squeaking sounds beneath him remained.
-Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Cracks appeared in the dwarf's gray skin and disgusting pink liquid burst out.
Seeing that, his first thought was,
Just relief that this wasn't a minion of Yog-Sothoth.
The white stone, with sticky pink liquid slowly dripping from it, was already losing its light.
Looking down at the writhing dwarf, he caught his rough breath and whispered.
"Erase that mark."
[Grrrr.]
"If you're going to say you can't erase it, or that it's already too late, give up. Erase it by any means necessary."
[Grrrrrr.]
"Don't whine this much. I know this won't kill you. We're similar creatures. I know your kind well."
[You saw... us! You saw... us!]
"Those two saw you. But is that such a great sin?"
[I'll kill, I'll kill you...]
The dwarf's small eyes were filled with nothing but malice.
At that moment he realized.
Sympathy and pity were too good for such creatures.
There was no reason or logic needed for wanting to harm others.
They just wanted to, they killed because their self-made rules were broken.
Even if they created innocent victims, they would feel no regret or remorse.
The strange life forms living on this land,
And furthermore, beings that would be called demonic beast species in the future, were fundamentally different from humans.
They lacked a sense of guilt. They had no morality, ethics, sympathy, or pity.
They were creatures different from humans from birth. These things were originally like this. They were beings that operated on such logic.
These things needed nothing but malice.
The moment he realized this fact,
-Smash!
The long-lasting, troublesome dilemma finally ended.
*
"Where's Yesung?"
"He hasn't come back yet. I don't hear footsteps either. He must have gone far."
"What should we do, Shan? He definitely went out because of us. We should have told him not to do that before going to sleep!"
Tika was already going around the room for the 97th time.
Seeing her chewing on her fingernails, she seemed quite anxious.
But Shan was just as anxious.
When he suddenly woke up, Yesung wasn't there, and he hadn't returned even when the sun was high in the sky.
So worry began to fill both their minds.
Tika stopped abruptly, grabbed her hair, and shouted.
"I want to go out!"
"No. Yesung told us not to go out."
"But what if Yesung got hurt dealing with those strange things again, and is staggering around naked and collapsed in front of the house!"
"You're overthinking too much."
"But you can't guarantee that won't happen either, right?"
"...I'm worried too, but Yesung told us not to come out. Think about it. What would happen if we went out and got attacked by those things? Yesung would just suffer twice as much."
"Ugh."
Tika plopped down on the spot.
Being stuck inside the house was frustrating,
But more than that, she was scared to death that Yesung had disappeared without saying where he was going.
But since Shan's words made sense, Tika just stared pitifully at the door and groaned.
Shan sat down and kept shaking his leg restlessly.
While the two were struggling to suppress their rising tension, they suddenly heard light, familiar footsteps from outside.
"Good morning, I'm too late..."
"Yesung! Where were you!"
"Where did you go!"
Suddenly receiving the two's lion-like roars, Yesung blinked his eyes in bewilderment.
A faint confusion crossed over his face, which was always expressionless when he wasn't laughing or troubled, making it difficult to guess what he was thinking.
"No, I remembered that when you two ran away yesterday, you dropped what you had gathered and came back empty-handed. I went to pick that up..."
"What?"
"You looked so disappointed that it bothered me. Did I make some mistake?"
No, so you went out at night to pick up the fruit we dropped and came back in the morning?
Shan and Tika blankly stared at the blue and red fruits nicely contained in Yesung's clothes.
"You, you picked all of that up?"
"I couldn't pick up the ones that were trampled and crushed. They were dried and stuck. But I think shrubs might grow there again in a few years."
Yesung, who had entered the house, spoke gently as he poured the fruit into a basket woven from broad leaves.
The clothes that had contained the fruit were stained with juice in patches.
Tika seemed bothered that Yesung's clothes had gotten dirty,
So she went over and fiddled with his clothes for a while before making an "Ah" sound.
"Yesung, what got on this? And it's damp too, did you wash it because it got dirty?"
"Ah."
At the hem of Yesung's clothes, on one side that touched his legs, there was a faint brown stain.
He pulled the hem from Tika's hands and naturally shook out his clothes.
"Yeah. My knees got dirty when I knelt down. Don't worry about it. It'll come out completely if I wash it more later."
It must have been quite dirty. He even washed his clothes himself.
Tika thought she would give Yesung's clothes a thorough wash later,
But things didn't go as she wanted.
Yesung went out alone every night,
And returned just before dawn.
Each time, Yesung's clothes were completely damp. Sometimes even his hair was wet when he came back.
Shan and Tika guessed that Yesung might have developed a new hobby of washing himself alone at night,
But Yesung never told them why he had to go out every night to wash.
When his strange nightly outings didn't end but kept getting longer, A bizarre ritual was being performed in the black forest.