The Hero's Coffin - Chapter 4

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Original publish date: 09/28/2024

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“That’s right, a leash. I have to make sure you don’t run off on your own, right?”

When Harenir waved his hand around a little, the red cord swayed gently in the air with it, and I could feel the vibration directly on my neck. It seemed like he could make the ‘cord’ appear at will whenever he wanted to, and it could be used as a means to rein me in.

“If you act against my will, I’ll activate the device around your neck, and your head will go bang—and explode. I would be careful about what I do if I were you. Oh, and if you try to take it off by force, it’ll also explode.” 

“...”

“No matter where you try to run, as long as you wear this collar, you’ll always be dragged back to me. So don’t get any ideas. What would we do if you were to get needlessly hurt after wandering a little too far?” 

His voice full of concern was extremely gentle. His eyes softened as if he was worried just imagining the types of injuries I could suffer from being dragged on the floor, bumping into trees, and even potentially falling into the river… 

Wasn’t there a way to cancel the quest? Could I not log out?

I stared at the black cat with those questions in mind, but all it did was let out a cute ‘meow’. Normally, cats would make noises like mrrrrw, or mew, or even some kind of purring noise, but this one only made such stereotypical meows. Maybe because it was an NPC? I kept trying to send signals by making eye contact, but the cat would just tilt its head as if it didn’t understand what I was trying to do.

Yes, NPCs were just a one-way street…

I sighed inwardly and closed my eyes. I wasn’t happy about the situation of being leashed as soon I was freed from my handcuffs, but that was the way it had to be.

As soon as the game is cleared, the log-out option will appear.

Chapter 2.    2%

We moved in the middle of the night using the bushes as cover.

“Let’s move,” Harenir said, turning his back on us as soon as the collar around my neck was fastened. The two people nearby followed behind him as if it were natural, probably knowing the destination already. I was the only one following without a clue in mind.

Those two were probably paladins, right? Maybe they’re his left and right hands, close enough to be let in on the truth that the captain was not really dead. Perhaps they had been the ones to falsely report the hero’s death in the first place. Didn’t they also carry the ‘coffin’ that was paraded through the streets today?

“Why did you have to fake your death?”

Harenir paused at the slew of questions. He turned around and looked at me, giving me the courage to ask a few more.

“Why do you need my necromancy? Is there a reason it must be me? There are many necromancers in the Empire… I’m sure I can’t be the only one.” That last question was thrown in for good measure. In fiction, necromancers were typically considered evil beings, and since this was the Holy Empire, they would be undoubtedly looked down upon even more. But surely, this body couldn’t be the only necromancer. There must be others, so why me?

Was this body so powerful that it was worth the trouble of breaking me out of prison? Or did he deliberately target someone with a weakness because he had to act in secret? Did he think a fugitive would obediently follow him? But wasn’t it still too much trouble to break into a prison?

“Why do you want to go to the Infested Zone?”

I was curious as to what an infested zone was, but that seemed risky to ask about. Since the two knights immediately understood what it was, it was likely something commonly known in this world. It was dangerous, that much was certain, so once I figured out their purpose in going, I could deduce even more.

Harenir smiled faintly. “Are you done with questions?”

“...For now.”

“Alright. Let’s keep going.”

His voice was so bright that for a moment, I thought I missed the answers within his kind reply. I took a moment to blink.

I asked him with his back turned against me, “Why aren’t you answering any of my questions?” 

“Did I ever say I would answer?”

Well, he wasn’t wrong. His response was so matter-of-fact that I nodded without thinking, only to be struck with a surge of irritation a moment later. The trap was that his voice made everything he said sound like an indisputable fact, and I kept walking right into it, accepting everything he said as if it were.

No, wasn’t it normal to answer when you’re asked a question? Like one of those unspoken rules of human communication? No matter how much you didn’t want to respect me as a person…!

“Your job is to summon spirits when I tell you to. That’s it, so what else do you need to know? As if you’d care about anything else unless it involves souls.” 

With a turn of his head, the blue eyes that scanned me were endlessly cold. He looked at me as though he thought my questions were all part of a deceitful act. It was hard to believe that a face that was always smiling could express such disgust… 

“But I’ll answer one. The reason it had to be you is because you went around searching for as many corpses as you could, extracting their souls to use as slaves. You’re the only one ruthless enough to command human souls by the tens and hundreds.” 

“...”

“Does that suffice?”

Hmm. It made sense he’d be so disgusted with me, enough to show on that saintly face of his. I quickly accepted his words and didn’t continue talking. Even without any profanity in his answer, every single word had stabbed me as if each was a sharp accusation aimed directly at me.

사령술사 (salyeongsulsa), or necromancer in English. One who calls upon the souls of the dead to seek answers to current problems or predict the future. In fiction, this ability is typically depicted as evil. Summoning evil spirits, turning corpses into zombies without permission, conducting strange experiments on souls, and so on.

So I was expecting that much, but hmm… going around and hunting down corpses, extracting their souls, and enslaving them… the death penalty was completely deserved… 

I saw ghosts in my previous life, and now it seems I can’t escape them in this life either. Feeling both resigned and suddenly resentful, I thought that if I was put into such bad circumstances, it would’ve been better if the NPC at least clearly explained things clearly to me so I wouldn’t have to feel so embarrassed. I glared at the cat walking next to me, but all it did was meow back.

‘Status window! Quest Progress! Map! Inventory!’

No matter how hard I shouted the words inside my head, nothing appeared in front of me. I tried every trick in the book, hoping something would appear out of thin air, but it was no use.

What happened to H.N. from a little while ago? Did this bastard only come out when he wanted to? If this was how it was going to be, at least give me a “slap the hero in the face one time” ticket as a quest reward! As I fumed internally, the red-haired knight suddenly clicked his tongue.

“Tsk, of course you have a black cat with you.”

His voice was filled with disgust, making me briefly wonder if he hated cats. But then, I came to a startling realization. No one was surprised when the cat suddenly popped out of the bushes earlier, but rather, everyone reacted as though they expected it.

And even now, nobody questioned the cat who followed me wherever we went. Strange as it may seem, did this cat always accompany this body?

Isaf, were you perhaps a cat person…

“How did you get that familiar? Did you subdue the soul of a cat as well?” 

Aha, a familiar.

No wonder the cat had unusual purple eyes. So, it was a familiar. An animal bound to Isaf in a master-servant relationship? Somehow, I felt even more disconnected from this body, it was more repulsive than the part about extracting human souls. The red-haired knight suddenly stopped in his tracks.

The look on his face suggested that he thought my lack of a response meant I was ignoring him, so I reluctantly answered.

“I don’t know.”

“Ha. That’s a very reliable answer.”

The knight was being sarcastic, but I couldn’t do anything since I really didn’t know. Normally in games, there would be a name or information that appears above the characters, but not even that feature was provided. The UI sucks. No wonder I didn’t remember this game, I’m pretty sure I turned it off as soon as I started because of how inconvenient it was to play.

The man’s thick eyebrows shot up. He seemed offended that I didn’t respond to his rather harsh criticism. There was an overt disgust in those reddish-brown eyes that scanned me up and down. It was much more aggressive than Harenir, as if he was only holding back from beating me up because the captain was there.

“Aren’t you going to answer?”

“...I never said I would.”

“You son of a bitch!”

I tried using the tactic I learned from Harenir earlier, and of course it backfired. The knight got angry and grabbed me by the collar. I thought that since he seemed to greatly respect the captain, he’d also treat me like a colleague, like a “fanboy who remembers every little thing that his bias says”... But that wasn’t the case.

In fact, I threw back the words with the intention of provoking him a little, but I was surprised that my body floated up in the air as soon as he grabbed me by the collar. Was the knight that strong, or was this body a paper doll?

“Quiet down, Kalterik. We’re here,” the silver-haired knight said, cutting off the commotion. It wasn’t that she spoke out of concern for my collar being grabbed and me being lifted into the air, but simply because we reached our destination and he needed to stop making a fuss.

And Harenir also looked back, as if he was trying to give a warning as well. “Please refrain from any unnecessary commotion. And you too…” 

He looked at me with very strange eyes. He seemed quite dumbfounded by what I’d said in front of the massive, intimidating Kalterik. Even now, as I hung suspended by my collar, he was staring at my dangling feet which were floating limply in the air.

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T/N: Sorry, I'm supposed to be spending my time looking for a job right now... :cry:

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