Chapter 41 - Seollang (3)

The desert nation of Coloni.

At the center of its capital, which shared the nation's name, stood its landmark colosseum. The blood spilled by gladiators always filled it with the crowd's cheers and frenzy. Whether a gladiator was stabbed or killed, everything that happened in this arena was entertainment to the spectators.

But now, the colosseum was silent.

It was not for lack of spectators. The colosseum was packed to capacity, and even the stairways meant for people to move through were crammed with bodies.

Had the match not begun yet? That was not it either. Hundreds of gladiators of various ranks already stood where the crowd was looking.

There was only one unusual thing about them. Hundreds of gladiators had gathered on the right side of the arena, while on the left stood just one.

It was a fight anyone would call lopsided. Yet the man standing alone on the colosseum floor wore a vicious smile, as though he had no complaints whatsoever about his circumstances.

The dark-iron gauntlets on his hands gleamed.

["Begin—the match!!"]

The moment the referee's magically amplified voice rang out like a loudspeaker, hundreds of gladiators charged at the man.

Some wielded swords. Some fought with their fists. Others carried axes. Armed with these and all manner of other weapons, the A- and B-rank gladiators rushed to take a single man's head.

Despite their murderous gazes, the man's eyes were full of amusement. By contrast, the charging gladiators' eyes were thick with tension.

Everyone here knew who the man before them was.

One of Coloni's Baba Yagas. The man who had held that position the longest.

Kalman Arentz.

With a vicious smile, he settled into his stance. His left foot slid behind his right. His right hand drew back along with it. Every muscle in his body tightened in an instant.

Then, just before the gladiators reached him, Kalman threw a punch.

Into empty air, where it touched no one.

A punch that would reach them all.

BOOOOM!!!!

The instant the shock wave erupted, the hundreds of gladiators rushing toward him were blasted in every direction. Kalman's figure vanished, and—

CRUNCH!

A merciless slaughter began. Each thrust of his dark gauntlets shattered the bodies of gladiators struggling to recover.

Five minutes passed.

All that remained in the silent arena were Kalman and the gladiators rolling on the ground. After a fleeting moment of silence—

"Waaaaah!!!"

The crowd's frenzied cheers filled the colosseum, as though the quiet until then had been a lie.

They cheered wildly for Kalman, paying no heed to the gladiators whose heads he had crushed and whose hearts he had destroyed.

He slowly surveyed the crowd with a broad smile, then turned and went inside the colosseum.

In the luxurious waiting room reserved for the Baba Yagas, Kalman listened to the crowd's unceasing cheers.

"Still plenty of idiots around, I see. Thinking a few hundred men could beat a Baba Yaga."

He turned toward the voice behind him and found a man grinning broadly.

Like him, the man was a Baba Yaga: Maliam, the Grotesque Beast.

Kalman regarded the bald man, half of whose face was grotesquely distorted, then sat in a lavish chair. Maliam continued.

"Do you know who wiped out Bloodsand?"

"No. Have you found out?"

Maliam answered without hesitation.

"Seollang."

"... Really?"

Kalman spoke after a brief silence, but there was no particular anger in him. Merely an acceptance that amounted to: So that was it.

"You don't seem particularly angry."

At Maliam's mildly bewildered question, Kalman leaned back leisurely in his chair and replied with a vicious smile.

"Not really. I only kept them around because they brought in a bit of pocket money. Besides, we're going to kill her anyway, aren't we?"

"True enough."

"So, what's the plan?"

At Kalman's next question, Maliam smiled slyly and opened his left hand before him. In it lay a cube of black material.

"Oh? Is this that Abyssal Core? The one that grants stature if someone qualified uses it?"

Maliam nodded as Kalman's lips twisted upward.

"Yes. With this, we should be able to split that insolent beastfolk brat's head open."

"Now that's welcome news."

Kalman picked up the cube from Maliam's hand. Gazing at its abyssal darkness, which seemed to absorb every bit of light, he murmured in satisfaction.

"At last, we can kill that fucking bitch who tears through Coloni like she owns the place."

"Agreed. She cost me a few days ago, too. Again, I might add—"

Maliam nodded in agreement, then let some emotion show as he heaved a sigh. Seeing this, Kalman spoke.

"So, when do we put the plan into action?"

"At the ruins, two days from now."

"That's soon."

"Sooner is better, isn't it? Once she's dead, you can go back to devouring the royal authority you've been nibbling away at—"

"—And you can swallow up the entire underworld?"

"Exactly."

Smiling as they confirmed that neither man's intentions had changed, Maliam said,

"We probably won't fail."

"Because of the Abyssal Core?"

"That too, but I also have friends over there who share our aims."

Then he added,

"Oh, and if you see that noble who was with Seollang, I'd appreciate it if you disposed of him as well."

"Why?"

"Someone made a small request. Besides, I hear that noble is Seollang's mentor. Wouldn't it be fun to kill him in front of her before we kill her?"

"Well—that does sound rather entertaining."

With Kalman smiling just as he was, Maliam ended their conversation by saying they would meet in two days, then disappeared.

"At last..."

Seated upon his throne, greedier than anyone, Kalman smiled broadly.

####

About two days later, having rested well at the guild, Alon boarded a carriage bound for the ruins with Seollang.

Some time into the journey, when they were nearly there, he watched Seollang chatting with members of the Golden Mane Tribe while escorting the carriage from outside.

'She really is nothing like the rumors.'

He had spent only four days or so in Coloni, but that was enough to gain a clear understanding of Seollang's reputation there.

'Mad Dog...'

Alon wore an odd expression. Since most of the rumors called her Mad Dog, he was naturally curious. Apart from their initial meeting, she had never once shown him that side of herself. For most of the past three days, all he had seen her do was grin and wag her tail.

"Mentor?"

"Hm?"

Seollang had stopped talking to the other beastfolk and was looking at him. Her call roused him from his thoughts.

"You looked like you were thinking? Really hard? About what?"

"Oh, nothing much."

As she tilted her head so far to the left that he wondered whether her neck might snap, Alon considered his answer briefly.

"Just—you seem to take good care of your guild members?"

"Of course! They're all my family!"

"Family?"

"Yes! They're all my people! You have to look after your own people! I don't need anyone else, though."

"Really...?"

"Oh, but that doesn't include you, Mentor!"

Having said that, Seollang began staring at him with a serious expression. She even frowned, as though grappling with an important problem.

"You come... um... after my family?... No, after Yutia...?"

"I see."

"Yes. Even you and Yutia aren't my blood kin..."

She offered this conclusion with a slightly apologetic expression, as though she had wrestled with a terribly difficult question.

Alon, however, merely shrugged.

'That's higher than I expected.'

Behind his expressionless face, he was pleased. He had barely even spoken with Seollang, let alone exchanged letters, so being third on her list was immensely satisfying.

'Hmm... If I'm her third priority... that means I could probably call on her for help at least once if I'm in danger later, right?'

Just as Alon was wrapping up his thoughts in a rather cheerful mood—

"We've arrived!"

The carriage reached Kahara, the city of the old gods.

####

They stood at the entrance to what was now known as a ruin—a city he, as a player, had known as Kahara, the City of the Old Gods.

Alon stepped down from the carriage and began organizing his thoughts as he walked into the dark cave.

'Where should I look?'

He had visited this place many times in Psychedelia, but only for a side quest to deal with the bandits hiding here. He had never come to uncover any secrets.

'I vaguely remember a place with a lot of writing.'

Using his knowledge of the game, he was picking out a few locations from memory to investigate closely once he entered Kahara.

How long had they been walking?

Just as boredom was beginning to show on Seollang's face, Alon spotted a group far ahead, walking faster than his own party. Before long, he learned who they were.

"Oh, Count Pallatio?"

"Riyan...?"

The woman approaching through the darkness with a Light spell was Riyan Agulus, the daughter of the Red Magic Tower's master whom he had met on his recent journey to the desert city of Coloni. With her were mages from the Red Magic Tower.

Alon was briefly taken aback as the puzzled looks of the mages—at least twenty of them, by his reckoning—turned to mild surprise.

"Have you come to investigate the ruins too, my lord?"

"I have."

He nodded at Riyan's question and naturally fell into step with the Red Magic Tower's mages as they headed into the ruins.

Some more time passed.

"There's the exit."

At Evan's voice, Alon turned toward the exit. Like Seollang, Evan looked a little bored.

The moment they finally emerged—

"Wow!"

The mages, the beastfolk, and even Seollang exclaimed in involuntary wonder. Beyond the exit lay an enormous fortress in a vast underground cavern.

Alon, however, had no particular reason to be surprised by the sight. He had already seen this enormous fortress many times.

Yet his eyes widened a little more than usual despite his otherwise impassive expression.

For a voice reached his ears that no one else could hear—

["At last you've come, mage."]

—a voice audible to him alone.