Chapter 247: Merchant King of the Back Alleys (3)

“Ugh.”

Bertelgia squirmed within his breast pocket.

Beyond the door was a red meatlike object. Sungchul soon discovered that the pile of meat was actually a human’s rotting flesh.

“Adelwight…! Adelwight…!”

The man who was afflicted by a disease that had every right to be called divine retribution was squirming on the ground like a bug, calling out a familiar name with a strange pronunciation.

In his voice was wrath as severe as his affliction.

“Who is this man?”

“He was our previous appraiser.”

The king of merchants of darkness Grizzly turned to look at Sungchul and spoke with a low voice.

“At the moment with Ryze Hymerr dead, he’s the last remaining member of the White Snake clan.”

Grizzly called over one of his men to administer a shot into the meat-like being.

Sungchul could easily tell that it was a drug of some sort.

“How did he become like this?”

Sungchul asked as he watched Grizzly’s men cover the afflicted man in clean fresh cloth.

Grizzly’s golden eye flickered as he bit into the cigarette in his mouth.

It was a familiar looking filtered cigarette.

It was undoubtedly an item purchased from the Summoning Palace.

Grizzly took a deep drag of the lit cigarette before opening his mouth with a puff of smoke.

“According to him, Ruteginea… No, the current day Human Empire’s eastern terratory has a haunted forest, where the witch Adelwight who had placed this curse on him lives.”

“Adelwight?”

Sungchul doubted his ears.

She who lived an eternal life with a completely different set of rules from ordinary humans, for such an exceptional being as her to do something so diabolical. It was difficult for him to believe.

More than anything, he could not understand why Adelwight would do this.

“I don’t know anything about it. This is all that man’s accusation.”

Grizzly clicked his tongue and glared at the man who was now wrapped up like a mummy.

The freshly lain white sheet was dyed yellow with pus within moments.

“Even my illness is nothing but a common cold compared to that man’s disease. It wasn’t as bad when he first came here.”

“What a terrible disease.”

Even for someone like Sungchul who had lived and fought on the battlefield and experienced all sorts of hellish conditions, the illness this man carried was easily among the worst he had ever seen.

‘Adelwight used such an awful curse like this? That can’t be. She had lived in the haunted forest since the ancient times, living her long life with a strict rule of non-interference. He probably heard something from someone else and is mistaken.’

After a bit of time, the man covered in white cloth began to wake up.

The drugs have suppressed his pains somewhat and returned a bit of his sanity along with it.

But despite that, Sungchul discovered that the man still looked utterly delirious.

His body already carried more drugs than it can handle.

“Water… Water…!”

The rotting man demanded water.

One of Grizzly’s men took out a waterskin to hand to the mummified man.

The mummified man suddenly grabbed the arm of the Grizzly’s man.

“E…Ahhh!”

The face of the man who was grabbed became twisted in terror.

He shook himself free of the mummified man and withdrew his sleeves. But red pus filed spots was already spreading across the man’s arm.

“Uwah! No… No!!”

A terrible cry of pain filled the room.

Another one of Grizzly’s subordinate took out a sharp sword and said ‘sorry’ before cutting off the rotting arm of the man with a single cut.

Clack.

The arm that had begun to turn red and rotten fell on the ground and began to leak blood.

In the puddle of blood that formed, white parasite-like insects were squirming.

“…”

Sungchul did not say anything but even he was surprised. He had never heard or seen such a terrible disease.

‘I can’t believe such an illness exists. The disease is terrible on its own, but the speed of contagion is terrifying.’

Grizzly’s men took the newly armless and unconsciouis man out and away.

The mummified man seemed to give no attention to the world around him as he mindlessly drank away the liquid contained in the leather waterskin.

Sungchul was able to see that some of the water was leaking out the side of his face through some of the holes in his cheeks, along with pus and blood.

“Ugh…”

It was an unbearably disgusting sight that elicited sound of suffering from Bertelgia.

“Luckily, it doesn’t spread through air so you don’t have to worry. Now with that over with, let us begin our talk. It may matter little to an old man waiting to die like me, but this is no place for a young man full of bright future ahead like you to be here for long.”

Sungchul nodded and turned to look at the mummified man before asking calmly.

“Are you from the White Snake clan?”

The mummified man sat numbed before responding to Sungchul’s voice after a pause. He nodded and used one of his few remaining fingers to scratch the hole in his cheeks as he replied.

“Yes.”

His pronunciation was unclear and his eyes were unfocused and trembling.

Out of nowhere, the man suddenly let out a shout and came to tackle Sungchul. He was trying to spread his disease.

Sungchul simply flicked his clothes with a great force, which caused the man to fly into a wall.

“Ugh… Ugh….”

The man who was crumpled on the floor was trembling while letting out groans of pain.

Sungchul glared at him without much emotion as he asked.

“Do you know Ryze Hymerr?”

The man suddenly raised his head and let out a bizarre laughter upon hearing him.

“Ryze Hymerr…? Of course, I know her. The youngest daughter from the house with the red roof.”

Sungchul observed the man’s expression and body language with close attention. But the man had so little sanity remaining within him that it was impossible to ascertain whether he was telling the truth or not from his outward appearance.

Sungchul took out and showed the man a Letter of God tied with a red string.

The unfocused eyes of the man on the ground flickered.

He began to squirm as he began to speak towards Grizzly’s general direction in a turbid voice.

“Heh… it’s one that I appraised. Ey, there Grizzly viceroy. Why don’t you give me work anymore? I may look like this but my abilities are still effective. So, give me work and put a blind lady in here like before.”

Sungchul glared at him and replied coldly.

“Lesser God Sigurea’s record.”

It was a short reply. But that one line of phrase was enough to cause the flailing man on the floor to freeze up completely.

“H…how…?!”

The man looked utterly surprised.

“You were a member of our clan…? No, your appearance is that of a Summoned…”

For the first time, the man was speaking seriously.

Sungchul stared at him without much interest and replied calmly.

“I am Sungchul Kim.”

“S…Sungchul Kim?! The Enemy of the World…?!”

“He has resolved calamities and obtained the Lector skill as a result. Therefore there is no longer a need for your pathetic ability.”

“T…that can’t be…”

The mummified man’s last vestige of dignity was crumbling away. His worth as the last surviving person with the Lector skill was lost with the appearance of another.

“Why did Kromgard destroy your clan?”

Sungchul asked.

The mummified man no longer had any strength or will to resist.

Drunk on the drugs administered to him, he began to say everything in a daze.

“We do not know the reason. But the elders have told us, that Kromgard is a man following the will of the Evil Gods.”

“…”

“He has had everyone in the village killed, except the youngest child Ryze Hymerr.”

“Why was Ryze Hymerr spared? Did she have some special ability?”

“Nothing like that. She was nothing but ordinary within the clan. But she was the youngest and therefore the most manipulatable. That’s why Kromgard left her alive. To keep her as his personal tool… Cough!”

The mummified man began to cough.

Within the bloodstained spit that was coughed out was a squirming white bug.

“Anyway, Enemy of the World. Since you’re here, there is something I want to tell you.”

The mummified man replied with a completely different tone. Sungchul noticed a cold rage gathering in the man’s unfocused eye as he nodded.

“…Speak.”

“There is just one thing I wish to say. Cough! Adelwight. This is the deed of that accursed woman. Ack!”

Whether it was from speaking too much or because of his drugs, the man coughed severely. He first only coughed up spit, but it progressed until he puked up blood.

Sungchul felt the terrible rotting stench as he asked the question.

“Do you think that Adelwight was the one to place the curse upon you?”

“It is not a thought, Enemy of the World. If you wish, see with your own eyes. You have the means to take a look into my status window, don’t you?”

Sungchul couldn’t quite believe it even as he took out a scroll from his Soul Storage.

A scroll of lower grade magic used to read the Status window of an another.

Though it was an invaluable item before he became powerful, it hadn’t been used much since he’d obtained godlike strength.

Sungchul ripped the scroll.

A magic formation appeared over his eyes and the status window of the mummified man began to fill his vision. The part Sungchul focused was just one entry.

‘Is this really…?!’

A deep crease appeared on his brow.

[Curse]

Adelwight’s Crepuscular Affliction (contagious, lethal)

All curses were labeled with the one who had cast it. And the mummified man had a curse that unquestionably carried Adelwight’s name.

But this was not enough to know for certain if it really was Adelwight who had cast this curse, because there was always a possibility that a different person sharing the same name was the true culprit.

Laughter from the ghastly twisted man could be heard as Sungchul was lost in thought.

“Adelwight… that witch is on Kromgard’s side. The truth shall not be forgotten and spread far and wide, of just how evil that bitch and shithead on the side of Evil Gods really are…!”

The mummified man alternated between laughing and coughing before closing his eyes.

He did not die. He apparently lost his consciousness.

“Are you satisfied with this much?”

Grizzly asked with a tired look.

Sungchul nodded emotionlessly.

The door was closed.

Darkness of the hallway concealed Sungchul’s face, but even such a darkness could hide the light of his eyes under the veil of shadow.

‘Everything is so messed up.’

“Are you okay?”

Bertelgia asked carefully.

Sungchul did not answer.

He was seriously pondering a question he had always been consciously avoid asking.

‘Just how much of this world has gone wrong?’

Languor he had forgotten recently returned and began to dominate him once more.

The rhythm of his heartbeat changed ever so slightly.

*

A speed ship arrived at the Aege Harbor. The beautiful airship that bore the flag of the Empire had the harbor workhands believe without a doubt that elderly high-ranking personnel of the empire had come on board.

But the one that disembarked from the airship was a young woman of nearly adolescent appearance.

The black hair and plain look advertised very loudly of her Summoned status at a glance. To the administrators of the harbor asking her affiliation and status, she gave a short reply.

“Ahmuge.”

She handed them documents from the Empire.

The eyes of the administrators grew wide.

‘She’s the commanding officer of the Capital Defense fleet…?! This young Summoned?!”

Ahmuge left the stunned administrators behind to take in the sight of the whole of Aege Harbor spread out below her feet.

‘Sungchul Kim. Why did he come to Illeboro? This didn’t happen last time.’

She had come to this land to sate her curiosity.

She leapt off with a fluid movement and used the air balloon to reach the ground. She walked to the streets filled with pedestrians.

A large poster stuck on the wall grabbed her attention.

[Rising star, singer Clarice Assam’s dinner concert!]

[Don’t miss this chance! This impassioned performance of the beautiful singer with a turbulent life of hardship!]

Ahmuge grinned before melting into the crowds.