Chapter 38

Chapter 38

“Dad, there’s no need to do this, is there?”

“If we do not listen to them, our colony and caravan cannot survive.”

“Do you really think they’ll keep their promise if we do this?”

The voices of two people arguing echoed through the caravan.

The owners of the voices were none other than the son Damian and his father Belov.

Damian clenched both fists and looked up at Belov.

Belov looked slightly troubled as he gazed at his son.

Damian said,

“You’re the one who said a caravan’s life is its credibility.”

“I know.”

“Then why are you listening to them? They don’t even treat us as humans.”

“Haa! What can we do? That is reality.”

Belov let out a deep sigh.

His face looked much older.

Belov glanced down at his feet.

Deioden and Zeon were lying there side by side.

It was because of the sleeping drug in the jerky and alcohol they had consumed.

He had mixed in a sleeping drug powerful enough to put even a gigantic monster to sleep at once.

Because it was not poison, even Awakened with extremely powerful resistance had no choice but to be helpless against it.

Damian looked at the two lying there while biting his lip hard.

His eyes were full of resentment toward his father.

It was not that he did not understand Belov’s position.

He was the head of the caravan and carried the heavy duty of being responsible for Kamchatka Colony’s economy.

He had to think and decide everything from Kamchatka Colony’s perspective.

“Haa! I really don’t know anymore.”

Damian let out a heavy sigh.

“You only need to leave everything to your father. I will bear the blame and hatred, so you need only polish your ability.”

“Dad?”

“This caravan can be maintained only because you exist. So please do not think of anything else and focus on your duty.”

At Belov’s words, Damian shook his head and walked to the front of the warehouse. It was the seat from which the mammoth was driven.

Belov watched his son for a moment, then gave orders to his subordinates.

“Hurry. We do not know when the sleeping drug’s effects will end. We must reach the meeting place before then.”

“Yes!”

His subordinates answered and moved busily.

Meanwhile, Damian gave orders to the mammoth.

“There are shifting sands ahead. Turn a little to the right.”

Then the mammoth turned right, as if it understood Damian’s words.

The warehouses attached behind it followed the mammoth one after another and changed direction.

Damian’s instructions continued after that as well.

“Turn here and go north.”

The mammoth faithfully followed his instructions.

Damian’s ability was very special.

Navigator.

In other words, a guide.

The reason a caravan could find the correct direction and travel long distances even through the vast desert was precisely because they had a guide.

Every large caravan had a guide. But even among them, Damian’s ability was very special.

It was that he could sense danger in advance.

He could sense the desert’s shifting sands and monster habitats beforehand and avoid them.

Thanks to that, the caravan led by Belov had been able to come this far. Without Damian, it would have been impossible.

“Phew!”

But Belov’s feelings as he looked at Damian were complicated beyond words.

His son’s ability was both a blessing and a curse.

In this world that had turned into a desert, the ability of a guide was absolute.

Guides were extremely rare, and among them, none could sense danger in advance like Damian.

If anyone else learned of Damian’s ability, they would surely covet it.

“Phew!”

Belov let out another deep sigh.

Although he had achieved his goal, his nerves were far too complicated.

Then the voices of his subordinates snapped Belov back to his senses.

“The destination is in sight.”

“It is the Valley of Death.”

Belov came to his senses and looked ahead.

Far away, a canyon of strange form could be seen.

The canyon was made of sandstone, formed from hardened sand.

The canyon, continuing in smooth waves, was as beautiful as a work of art.

No one knew such a place existed in the middle of the desert.

Belov too would never have discovered this place without Damian’s ability.

This was their destination.

Then a group of troops rushed out from the Valley of Death.

Like Belov and Damian, they too wore turbans on their heads and Deraa on their bodies. It was an unavoidable choice in order to operate in the desert.

The only difference was that they wore leather armor beneath the Deraa.

Those who came out of the Valley of Death were humans.

Humans with brown skin tanned by the sun and sharp eyes. Their builds varied, but a hard aura was being emitted from their entire bodies.

When he faced them, Belov felt as if his whole body were shrinking.

He hurriedly climbed down from the warehouse and approached the humans who had come out of the Valley of Death.

Belov bowed his head and said,

“A-as promised, I brought them.”

“Are you certain?”

The man who seemed to be the leader opened his mouth.

At that instant, Belov felt a chill as if the desert’s temperature had dropped sharply.

There was no warmth at all in the voice, which contained no emotion whatsoever. Instead, it was full of venom and murderous intent.

If a desert rattlesnake evolved, it would become exactly the man before his eyes.

Belov hurriedly gestured to his subordinates. Then his subordinates brought Deioden and Zeon, who were hanging limp.

“It...... is true!”

After confirming Deioden’s face, the leader’s eyes shone.

He pulled a scimitar from his waist and walked toward Deioden.

At that moment, Belov blocked the leader.

“I kept my promise. Now you keep yours. You promised not to touch our caravan and colony.”

“Of course.”

The leader smiled, revealing white teeth.

At that instant, Belov felt a chill run down his spine.

Unconcerned, the leader continued speaking.

“We Kurayan people always keep our promises. But only to fellow Kurayan people......”

“What?”

SHAAK!

At that instant, a chilling cutting sound rang out.

Belov blinked.

That was because he suddenly felt terrible pain in his chest.

When he looked down, his chest had been split open in a long line, and he could see his own organs.

Drip! Drip!

Blood dripped from the scimitar in the leader’s hand.

Only then did Belov realize what had happened to him.

The leader had cut open his chest with his sword.

“W-why? You promised......”

“Did I not tell you? Promises are made only to fellow Kurayan people.”

“You...... Cough!”

“Dad!”

Seeing Belov collapse while coughing blood, Damian ran over like a madman.

The leader said to his subordinates,

“He is a precious guide. Leave only him alive and kill the rest.”

“Yes!”

His subordinates answered and launched themselves onto the caravan’s warehouses.

“Kraaaagh!”

“S-spare me!”

Belov’s subordinates screamed and collapsed.

A considerable number of them were Awakened, but they could not handle the Kurayan people.

Kurayan Awakened were like machines born to kill.

Like their leader, they used scimitars as weapons, and the crescent-shaped blades were already stained red with the blood of the caravan people.

“How can this be?”

Damian trembled.

It felt as if he were having a nightmare.

He had never even dreamed that he would lose his father before his eyes.

The leader lifted Damian’s chin with his scimitar.

“Guide! From now on, you work for us. Do you understand?”

“U-ugh!”

Damian trembled and nodded.

In truth, his mind was blank, and he could not think of anything at all. He had merely nodded unconsciously.

A fishy sneer appeared at the leader’s lips.

“If I had known we could subdue Deioden this easily, we would not have needed to bring the others.”

Mounted troops appeared from the Valley of Death.

They were dressed similarly to the leader. However, their appearances were quite different.

Some had pointed ears, while others were short, with broad shoulders jutting out sideways.

They were elves and dwarves.

One of the elves hurried over.

She was a female elf with abundant blond hair and beautiful blue eyes.

Looking at the scattered corpses, she let out a sigh of lament.

“You promised to let these people live. Aren’t you being too cruel to your fellow humans?”

“Who says they are fellow humans? They and we are entirely different species.”

“Haa! Hammerson!”

The elf sighed.

The leader’s name was Hammerson.

He was a human who had crossed over from Kurayan.

Despite being human, he was a supremacist who considered Earth’s humans less than beasts.

His extreme disposition was so severe that even the allied elves and dwarves who had come with him were flustered by it.

Then one of the dwarves approached and said,

“Heh-heh! Well done. Showing mercy to humans of Earth? Ridiculous.”

“Haa! Gofrey, you too......”

The elf sighed.

Then the dwarf called Gofrey grinned and said,

“Stop being hypocritical, pointy-ear! Acting noble all by yourself.”

“Gofrey.”

“Elves, dwarves, and humans alike are all in a position where we carry out the orders of the Gold Dragon Haieltun. Pride and honor were thrown into the gutter long ago, so don’t act like you’re different or pretend to care. It’s honestly disgusting.”

At Gofrey’s sharp condemnation, the elf closed her mouth firmly.

That was when it happened.

“Heh-heh! So that’s how it was. The damn lizard bastard put you up to this.”

A voice that absolutely should not have been heard rang out.

It was Deioden’s voice.

He had definitely been unconscious from the sleeping drug until just a moment ago, but before anyone knew it, he was sitting up and looking at them.

Beside him, Zeon was sitting as well.

Hammerson wore a bewildered expression without realizing it.

“How? Once someone takes Hydra’s Tear, they should not wake for at least three days.”

“So what was mixed into the vodka was a monster’s tear? No wonder it felt unpleasant. Heh-heh!”

Deioden was baring his white teeth.

Before anyone knew it, his eyes were rippling with madness.

Watching him, Zeon let out a slight sigh.

That was because the tragedy that was about to unfold was clear before his eyes.

But apart from that, he too was angry all the same.

He had never thought that humans approaching in the middle of the desert would be acting out of goodwill.

His life had been far too harsh for him to trust people so easily.

Deioden was the same.

One thing they had in common was that neither of them ever trusted others easily. Let alone eating food and alcohol given by someone they had never met before without suspicion. That was impossible.

Deioden used mana to burn away all the alcohol that had entered his stomach, and Zeon pretended to chew the venison before spitting it into his subspace. Then they pretended to lose consciousness.

It was to figure out their intentions.

That was why they had stayed still even when Belov brought them to the canyon called the Valley of Death.

Zeon looked at Hammerson and said,

“Are all humans who crossed over from Kurayan as ignorant and shameless as you? Who do you think made Earth end up in this state?”

“Shut up!”

“You shut up! I’m really pissed off for the first time in a while. I don’t know where you were hiding before crawling out, but the humans here aren’t so insignificant that bastards like you can treat them however you like.”

The more he spoke, the angrier he became.

Yes, he could understand elves or dwarves treating humans carelessly. Their species were different to begin with.

But Hammerson was the same human.

Even if he had crossed over from a different dimension, a different world.

And yet the way he acted as if he were a special human, as if he were an entirely different race, grated on Zeon’s nerves.

He did not know about anyone else, but Hammerson at least was someone he wanted to execute with his own hands.

Then Deioden stood.

“It seems Haieltun is not far away. Seeing that he sent all these vermin at once. Heh-heh!”

He reached his hand into the air. Then Crayon, which he had left on top of the warehouse, flew over and landed in his hand.

From Crayon, which had fused with Akaruk’s sword, terrifying energy flowed like threads.

“I will cut all of you down and make you fertilizer for the desert. Then perhaps the miracle of a single blade of grass growing will happen.”