Chapter 23: Southbound (1)

“If you keep on complaining, the monsters will come. Be quiet.”

“Arggh…ugh!”

Leona felt scared and trembled, and as soon as Charl finished burying the box, he dusted off his hands and smiled.

“What a weird crew we have.”

They had to stay the night at Ard Point anyway. Charl sat down on the floor, and Zin refused to leave during the night.

Zin used a flint stone to start a fire. They stayed at one of the abandoned buildings in Ard Point.

“This place feels spooky for sure.”

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The creepy feeling around Ard Point was probably not because all the residents were gone but because of the vagabonds infiltrating the village. At Leona’s comment, Zin looked outside the window.

“It still feels creepy.”

“… yeah, I think so.”

The ghost was dead, but the creepiness still lingered around Ard Point. Charl felt uneasy that Leona and Zin were expressing such an opinion. Leona and Zin didn’t talk about the final days of Ard Point, but the silence itself told a sad story.

“Now, I’m a bit curious. You’re too quiet now.”

At Charl’s question, Zin remained silent, and Leona had a bitter smile.

“I was going to settle in this village.”

Charl understood what had probably happened. The Reavers invaded, and Leona blew up the chip box in a rage. Leona was the sole survivor.

However, that didn’t explain why Zin had to take Leona to a safe place. Zin stared at Charl.

“Are you the curious type?”

“I won’t deny that. I think it’s good to know as much as possible, and I’m simply curious about seemingly insignificant things.”

Charl’s look reminded Zin of Baek-Goo.

Zin didn’t like that this brought back memories of Baek-Goo. He believed that curiosity should either be stopped or quenched. And Zin felt benevolent to the person who had rewarded him a huge amount of 1,600 chips.

“Are you curious about why that kid is tagging along with me?”

“Yeah. It doesn’t happen that often.”

To Charl, Zin was not the type of person who would babysit a kid. And since he was taking Leona with him, Charl was curious about how the two met.

And it did not seem like their relationship was that of a hunter and his aide. Nor did they seem to have a friendly connection as a rowdy kid and an old hunter.

“I promised to take the kid to a safe settlement. You can think of it as a request.”

“Do hunters get those kinds of requests?”

“I’ve searched for treasures for the Wargrave, so there’s no reason I can’t accept such requests.”

“Ha, I suppose so… Then, how did you two meet?”

Zin looked at Charl, and his eyes looked like those of a boy who was wildly curious about learning anything.

And in fact, to Zin, Charl had the appearance of a young adult just over twenty years old.

“I initially accepted a request from the leader of Ard Point.”

Zin explained to Charl how he met Leona. Zin was cooking some potatoes over the fire, and there was enough time to tell the story before the potatoes cooked fully.

Zin wasn’t the best storyteller, but he explained what happened in a simple and calm manner. Leona also wondered how he’d explain his version of the story about her, so she listened carefully.

Zin talked about the collapse of Zado City, how he speculated the cause of the collapse, how he found Leona trapped inside a safe, how they faced the maneater, how they went back to Ard Point, and how the Reavers attacked Ard Point.

The story was neither short nor long. but as soon as Zin finished talking, the potatoes were ready to eat, and Zin handed them out.

Leona laughed at Zin.

“You must be really stupid. How can you forget about the rewards owed to you?”

“You brat. My forgetfulness is the evidence that I’m still a human.”

“Well if you were trying to be funny, that was pretty good. You really are hilarious.”

Leona laughed again at Zin’s words. After a long chuckle, Leona felt an awkward silence and looked at Charl.

Charl looked at his portion of the potatoes with a heavy and hardened face.

“What’s wrong, Charl?”

“Thanks for telling your story.”

Charl looked dead serious.

“I want to confirm one thing. Was that all true?”

“I have no reason to lie.”

“I’m not fooling around.”

At Charl’s serious attitude, Zin took a bite of his potato and asked:

“What part of the story are you referring to?”

“About the fact that Giant Wolves attacked Zado City. You told me that they’re the type of monsters that don’t form packs, isn’t that right?”

“Yes, that’s correct. I saw their dead bodies. They fought each other in the central square of the city, and they all died. And a maneater emerged from one of the corpses..”

Charl seemed restless after listening to his story.

“… Sorry to keep on asking, but why do you think that happened? Any special reasons for that?”

“I wasn’t able to figure out the reason, and it wasn’t part of the request.”

Zin wasn’t lying, and sensing Charl’s weird attitude, Leona asked:

“What’s wrong? Is there a problem?”

“I can’t tell you. But… but I need to understand something. Hunter, can I ask you one more question?”

“As long as I can answer it.”

“You said that a pack of Giant Wolves attacked Zado City. And according to your knowledge, Giant Wolves don’t move in packs once they grow into adults. Then, those monsters that never form a pack collaborated together as a pack to attack Zado City. And after the collapse of the city, they attacked and killed each other. Is that correct?”

What Charl explained should have never happened, but Zin thought that this was the case based on his findings.

It was hard to be certain about something, but Zin nodded his head without hesitation.

“I don’t know if you trust me, but as far as I can see, that is the case. There’s no other explanation.”

Zin was certain about his findings. He had lived as a hunter for a long time, and he was certain of his conclusion based on his experience as a hunter.

“I see…”

Charl became even more somber, and slowly nodded his head. Zin wasn’t curious about the shock or worry going through Charl’s mind.

Charl was a curious person, but Zin knew that being curious did not help much in life. Since he’d completed the request, Zin had no reason or responsibility to figure out what the requestor was thinking.

But Leona was curious.

“What’s the matter? I wanna know.”

“Sorry Leona, I can’t talk about it.”

Charl stood up without eating his potato. Zin didn’t stop him and asked:

“Are you leaving?”

“…sorry for standing up so abruptly. I need to check on something.”

“No need to be sorry.”

“And I would like you to keep this event a secret.”

Zin knew that he was talking about the collapse of Zado City. But Zin gave him an odd answer.

“Hmm, hunters don’t do favors.”

Zin then made an ‘O’ shape with his thumb and index finger. It was a gesture referring to a blue chip.

Charl’s behavior implied that the secrets of the Wargrave might be related to the collapse of Zado City. Zin implied that Charl would need to pay him to keep the secret. At Zin’s action, Charl frowned.

Charl preferred not to get into an altercation with the hunter.

“So how much are you asking?”

“I’ll make it a special deal for you. A single chip.”

“… Hah. That’s too much of a joke.”

Charl took out a chip from his pocket and gave it to Zin. Zin put away the chip and nodded his head.

“Hunters don’t work for free.”

Hunters were a strange group of people. Charl thought about it and smiled. And Leona looked blankly at Zin for a moment.

Hunters don’t work for free.

The sentence echoed in Leona’s head.

“Going to Zado?”

“For now.”

“It’s four days west. It’ll probably take a day or two for you.”

“Thanks…”

Charl nodded, looking back as he stepped out of the building.

“…It was good meeting you, Zin and Leona.”

“Oh, yeah…”

Leona stood up slowly and walked toward Charl. Charl gently placed his hand on Leona’s head. For some reason, Leona thought that Charl’s hand was soft and warm.

“I hope that you get to place you’re looking for.”

“Um, uh… you too, Charl. I don’t know what’s going on, but be careful.”

“I will.”

Without hesitation, Charl swiftly ran out of Ard Point. From Leona’s point of view, he ran much faster than ordinary people. Leona stared at Charl’s direction as he disappeared. She wasn’t sad per se, but Charl had left so suddenly and in a strange manner.

“What was that about?”

Leona came back to the fireplace, murmuring as she ate her potato.

“Is Wargrave responsible for the collapse of Zado?”

“Well, I don’t know, but there must be something going on.”

It was suddenly just the two of them now, but they weren’t particularly sad about the farewell. Leona split Charl’s portion of the potato into two, and gave one half to Zin.

Zin looked at the half for a while and ate it at once.

“So, mister.”

“Go ahead.”

“Why was Charl acting like a man?”

At her words, Zin shrugged. With her instincts, Leona figured out the secret Charl was hiding.

Zin knew about the secret when he first met Charl. It was the first time the two were mentioning it.

“If you were wondering about it, you could have asked directly. Why are you asking me?”

“Well, I felt awkward.”

Charl had acted like a man, but Zin and Leona played along. Zin stayed still and looked thoughtful as if he was trying to solve a quiz.

“Charl… then her real name could be Charles, Charlotte. One or the other.”

“How do you know?”

“It’s hard to explain.”

“Then don’t even start talking about it in the first place.”

“I do whatever I want, kiddo.”

“Ah. You’re so annoying.”

Leona shook her head.

Zin sat down and looked at the fire.

The collapse of Zado was possibly a nuisance for the Wargrave.

Zin wasn’t actively seeking to understand why Zado was attacked. He thought that it was just one of many events happening in the world. However, there were reasons behind many accidents and weird events.

Cause and effect.

Zin thought about what the cause could be. He didn’t have to think about it before, but it was different now.

To Zin, it was a very strange incident. He would have let it go, but if it was a matter that a Wargrave officer would sensitively react to, that was a different story.

Zin thought.

There is a possibility that the Wargrave is involved with the incident at Zado.

If they are related, why didn’t Charl not know about it?

And even if Charl didn’t know about it, why did she react so sensitively to it?

Beside the question, it was important to understand what Charl’s responsibilities were. Most Wargrave soldiers hunted monsters within the MCP area. They were indifferent about the wilderness. Wargrave units traveling outside the fortress were tasked with transportation of supplies, and they were mostly escorted. It was extremely rare for one to act individually.

Charl’s rank was a lieutenant, his affiliation was unknown, and he was armed with a laser pistol. A laser pistol was a high-powered weapon, but it was a weak weapon for a Wargrave soldier to be carrying around travelling the wilderness alone. To understand who Charl was, it was important to figure out what she was trying to do.

Charl was not the officer assigned to the raided transportation unit.

She’d tracked the Reavers that attacked Wargrave all on her own. In the first place, Charl had mentioned to Zin that she was going to take care of the Reavers by herself. It meant that the laser pistol wasn’t the only firearm that she had.

Zin could think of one position that could act independently, use as many chips as possible, and assigned to enact revenge against the Reavers alone.

An executor.

An executor checked the status of each fortress around the world and was responsible for resolving any issues hindering the operations of a fortress.

She was a hunter dispatched by the Wargrave headquarters.