Chapter 55

The wound on her shoulder from Jin’s strike couldn’t be fully closed with a standard recovery potion.

Eventually, she would have to find a back-alley medic to treat it properly, but that was a problem for later.

First, she had to get out of this country.

Mora pressed on through the mountains with desperate strides, her entire body concealed beneath a cloak and hood.

It was over.

That was the only thought echoing through her mind.

When the plan to faking her own death began to unfold, she knew she should have just killed them all if that was the route they were taking. But honestly, as an adventurer—a profession that constantly straddled the line between the surface world and the underworld—slipping into the shadows didn’t seem like such a big deal to her.

She figured as long as the conquest was called off, it would be fine. Yes, if everyone simply believed she was dead, that would have been enough.

The Underearth Labyrinth of No Return—a dungeon that even the most renowned adventurers couldn’t conquer. Even Brad, who had survived it once before, was dead. She had hoped everyone would grow to fear that place.

With Hunt and Brad gone, she alone could decide how to cultivate that dungeon from now on. She alone could create a dungeon of death and mystery that would go down in history—one that no one could ever clear.

That was how it was supposed to be.

Grinding her teeth, Mora suddenly felt a strange detachment from her own emotions.

“How peculiar,” she muttered.

If that was truly what she wanted, she should have just kept it that way from the very beginning, back when she first discovered the dungeon’s secret all by herself.

But she hadn’t. At the time, such a thought hadn’t even crossed her mind.

She had only thought about how she could use that secret to make money.

That was all.

So, she had teamed up with Hunt and Brad to kill adventurers, scavenge their corpses, and promote the dungeon.

In the beginning, that was the extent of it.

But before she knew it, as the dungeon became the subject of rumors fueled by terror and curiosity, Mora began to experience a strange sensation.

There was a bizarre sense of euphoria in knowing that she had created it—this dungeon that existed nowhere else in the world, living only in the imaginations of the ignorant, far removed from reality. The world’s most difficult, unsolvable, mysterious underground labyrinth.

That feeling had grown more intense with time.

Intense enough to kill those two.

“No,” Mora corrected herself.

She hadn’t gone completely insane or anything like that.

Hunt was always a bit detached from reality; she felt like he might just idly confess their crimes at any moment. Brad, on the other hand, was far too suspicious—she felt like he might kill her first, and there was an unidentifiable creepiness about him.

She had killed them to protect herself.

Mora kept telling herself this as she walked briskly through the mountain night.

“Guh…!”

The wound Jin had carved into her shoulder suddenly flared with pain, forcing a groan from her lips.

That had been a blunder.

Mora felt a wave of regret, even though she knew it was far too late for that now.

Yes, it must have been an act. All of it. She could see that now.

But back then, she hadn’t been thinking clearly. It was that man’s fault.

Mora gnashed her teeth as she remembered that enigmatic detective, Kijiitsu.

He had suddenly started acting on his own, wandering the labyrinth and gathering items.

At first, she hadn’t understood what he was doing. But after watching him repeatedly check the items he found rather than simply collecting them, she finally realized.

That man had caught onto the secret of the dungeon. He was testing to see if he could find items of higher quality than what should have been available on the upper floors.

Once she realized that, Mora had no choice but to attack Kijiitsu.

Then there was Kijiitsu’s counterattack after he had already taken a fatal wound.

Mora still got goosebumps thinking about the moment weapons sprouted from his entire body. In that instant, she had desperately stifled a scream.

In the end, she had managed to kill Kijiitsu without taking a hit herself, but there was no denying that the incident had knocked the gears of her plan out of alignment.

“Dammit!”

She spat out the curse at no one in particular.

This was the end.

That dungeon would be reduced to nothing more than a uniquely structured labyrinth used for common crimes. The mystery and danger were gone.

Mora felt bewildered by the overwhelming sense of loss she was experiencing.

Regardless, she was no longer a corpse; she was a criminal.

The powerful figures of Pace would surely scramble to capture the person who murdered a son of the Treasure Family.

She couldn’t stay in this country any longer.

“Ah, there you are.”

She had been lost in thought while her legs moved mechanically, but Mora froze at the sudden sound of a dry, youthful woman’s voice.

A woman? Out here in the mountains at night?

Setting aside the fact that she was a woman herself, Mora moved into a defensive stance.

“You’re Mora, aren’t you?”

Dread washed over her as she instantly dropped into a combat stance.

If someone knew her name in a situation like this, she had to assume they were an enemy.

Eventually, a young woman emerged from between the dark trees.

She possessed a doll-like beauty, framed by silver hair and eyes, and was clad in a white lab coat. No, it wasn’t white anymore. The garment was stained with dark red mottling—the unmistakable, dried remnants of blood splatter.

“Ah, no doubt about it. It’s reacting.”

The woman held what looked like a compass in her hand.

“…You’ve got the wrong person.”

“Ahaha.”

The woman let out a laugh, though her porcelain face remained almost entirely motionless.

“Are you saying a Holy Relic would mistake one person for another?”

“A Holy Relic?”

“Yes. This compass is a Holy Relic that points to the person who killed its owner. My master found it in a dungeon ages ago and has been keeping it hidden ever since. It’s terrible, isn’t it? If the authorities found out, it would be grounds for execution.”

Mora felt a chill at the woman’s casual tone, lowering her center of gravity so she could strike at any second.

“Who is this master of yours?”

She didn’t know if the woman was insane, but she was definitely dangerous.

Mora decided to keep her talking; the moment she saw an opening, she would kill her.

“Django. Oh, I haven’t introduced myself yet, have I? People call me by that troublesome title, ‘Slaughter,’ but I think it’s quite rude.”

She’s Slaughter? One of the three disciples of Django of the Wasteland.

How? No, if that was the case, then the likely owner of that compass was…

Thoughts raced through Mora’s mind.

“I once borrowed over a dozen death-row inmates for research and drove them all to a state of fatal madness, but don’t you think the moniker ‘Slaughter’ is a bit much for just that? In terms of reputational damage, I think Kijiitsu is the one who truly deserves pity.”

At that name, the pieces clicked into place for Mora.

“I see. So this is revenge for a fellow disciple.”

“Poor Kijiitsu. He never actually killed anyone, yet everyone calls him ‘The Genocider.’ It’s quite sad. Well, we’re the ones who spread those sensational rumors in the first place.”

The woman ignored Mora’s comment entirely.

Enough. I’m killing her.

The moment Mora resolved to move and took her first step—

“Hah!?”

A sharp heat stung the back of her neck.

With animalistic reflexes, she leapt away to put distance between herself and the woman, spinning around to look at the spot where she had just been standing.

A grumpy-looking boy stood there.

Despite having the skills of a master assassin—someone capable of completely erasing their presence—he looked utterly ordinary. Too ordinary.

“Honestly, I can’t believe I’m being dragged out for something like this.”

“My apologies, ‘Unarmed.’ But since our opponent is a high-ranking adventurer, I was worried about facing her alone.”

A distraction via conversation while the boy moved behind for the attack.

So that had been the plan from the start.

Mora clicked her tongue, reaching up to the spot on her neck where she felt the heat.

“So, did you inject it properly?”

“Yeah. A needle coated in your special blend, right into the neck. I definitely got her.”

“Later,” the boy said, turning his back and walking away.

“You—!”

Mora tried to shout a complaint—likely to God or whoever would listen.

But before she could, a sudden paralysis surged through her entire body.

“Even a small dose is enough. Once that’s in your neck, you won’t be able to move.”

Just as the woman said, Mora could do nothing but collapse on the spot, her body trembling uncontrollably.

Her vision began to darken. Her consciousness was fading.

Amidst the haze, the woman’s voice rang out with eerie clarity.

“To continue what I was saying… if the secret behind Kijiitsu’s ‘trick’ got out, it would be bad. So, we overwrite it with flashy rumors. It wouldn’t do if people realized he’s died multiple times. Everyone loves a story about a cruel, flashy ‘Genocider,’ right?”

The woman giggled, her face still showing almost no expression.

“Kijiitsu intentionally puts himself in situations where it’s easy for a culprit to kill him. Then, after he’s dead, we use this compass to identify the murderer. See? It’s quick and reliable.”

The woman tucked the compass back into her coat.

Mora was on the verge of blacking out.

“By the way, I did the programming myself. It was quite difficult, but I’ve gotten used to it lately. Since you killed him, he’ll be the sixth generation. I’ve finally gotten the hang of speedy manufacturing.”

Gently, the woman picked up the immobilized Mora.

“Since a big name like Bent Treasure was involved this time, Master went to negotiate personally. Apparently, it went well.”

The woman spoke as if singing a lullaby.

“Bent—and everyone else there, for that matter—gave their consent. They’ll help spread the rumor that Kijiitsu killed the culprit along with the civilians, and they’ve agreed to let me have my way with you. All in exchange for the guarantee that you’d be caught.”

The woman began to walk, carrying the limp Mora.

“I’m looking forward to this. The Kijiitsu you killed was originally just a common bandit, so honestly, I couldn’t make him very well. But you… you’re excellent material. Probably the best yet. You’ll make a wonderful Kijiitsu.”

A giggle echoed through the night mountains.

“Oh, that was cool, wasn’t it? Embedding weapons inside the body. I’ll do that for you, too. I started doing that from the fourth generation, and I’ve grown quite fond of it. Now then, first, we’re going to my laboratory. I’ll restrain you and wait for you to wake from your dream. Then, I’ll turn you into Kijiitsu. Don’t worry. I have to start by breaking your personality with pain, but I’m used to that now. As long as I have a knife, tweezers, some sharpened iron rods, and my chemicals, I can probably break you in three days. After that, I’ll take my time remodeling your body and your mind. I’ll make you into Kijiitsu, Mora.”

Without a change in expression, the woman’s voice sounded genuinely delighted as she spoke. Then, the woman and the captured Mora vanished into the darkness of the mountain night.

TL/N: Next chapter is a Character List for the next arc.