The newly dug tunnel was definitely much more rugged and littered with rocks compared to the tunnels we had walked through so far, indicating it hadn’t been properly maintained.
Strangely, there wasn’t a single miner in sight, though they had been bustling around just a while ago. If it were a new tunnel, they should be continuously digging the walls and transporting the debris to the surface.
Even as I continued to go deeper, the strange sound kept echoing, and by now I had a rough idea of what it might be.
The lanterns hanging at regular intervals on the walls became sparse and then suddenly stopped. A thick curtain of darkness enveloped the areas beyond the reach of the light.
I put on my night vision goggles and stepped into the darkness. Amplifying the faint light coming from behind, my vision turned green, allowing me to vaguely make out the rock fragments on the floor.
When I reached the end of the tunnel, I could clearly see the source of the sound.
As always, my ominous premonition was never wrong.
There were overturned carts and abandoned pickaxes, and on the ground lay extinguished lanterns and severed arms.
Huge trolls were squatting, holding miners’ corpses in both hands, munching on them.
The end wall of the tunnel had completely collapsed, revealing another crude tunnel beyond.
I understood the whole situation. This tunnel had been dug into a troll den on the other side.
As I drew my Holy Sword, the trolls, hearing the sound, turned their heads toward me.
Sensing the holy power, the trolls shielded their eyes with their arms from the blindingly glowing sword.
“Come quickly. I will kill you.”
The trolls threw aside the corpses they were holding and charged at me, screaming.
I raised the Holy Sword and slashed the neck and side of the leading troll. Hot blood splattered all over my upper body.
“Fuck…!”
I cursed involuntarily at the disgusting smell.
As the split troll’s corpse collapsed forward, another troll reached out to me.
It was too close to use my sword, so I just twisted my body to dodge and punched its face.
My fist, embedded in its bumpy nose, crushed the bone and drove deep into its head.
The horrible sensation of breaking through the skull and into the brain made me shudder as I pulled my hand out. My glove was a mess with blood and marrow.
I kept cutting everything in my path as I moved forward. Even in the darkness, the trolls were being continuously cut down by the gleaming trail of the Holy Sword.
The trolls I initially encountered were already dead and reduced to chunks of meat, while more trolls kept pouring out from the breached wall.
I wanted to wipe them all out at once, but doing so might cause the mine to collapse entirely from the shock.
When the trolls’ corpses piled up, blocking more than half of the tunnel, a smaller one suddenly burst out from the gap and brushed past me.
It was a juvenile that had been hiding among the corpses, which I hadn’t noticed.
Although it was slightly smaller than a human, it wasn’t something the miners here, armed only with pickaxes, could handle.
I immediately turned and chased after it.
“Aaaaah!”
I heard a tearing scream from the other side of the tunnel where the troll had fled. It was near the fork where Pelée was waiting.
“Pelée!”
When I ran outside, I saw several miners sitting on the ground, trembling. Their gazes were fixed on a juvenile troll that had risen to the ceiling of the tunnel.
The troll’s neck was gripped by a thick, scaly hand, with claws similar to those of a raptor digging deep into its body.
“Pelée…?”
“Ah…”
Pelée, her arm fully transformed and covered in scales up to her jaw, saw me and hastily let go of the troll. Her vertically slit snake eyes darted around in confusion.
As the shredded troll fell at my feet, the miners foamed at the mouth and ran outside.
The resilient troll was still struggling, so I severed its neck with the Holy Sword. Even after the troll was completely dead, the Holy Sword continued to glow white, sensing Pelée’s liberated form.
Looking back, Pelée’s arm had reverted to its human form. A delicate white wrist was visible outside the torn, tattered sleeve. The Holy Sword’s light gradually faded as well.
“Let’s get out of here. It seems there’s nothing left here.”
I grabbed Pelée’s wrist, who couldn’t take her eyes off the dead troll’s corpse. She flinched and looked at me.
“Let’s go, Pelée.”
“Yes…”
Pelée followed me, her wrist held in my grasp.
With the noise from inside and the fleeing miners screaming, there was no one left in the tunnel.
When we stepped outside into the bright light, the miners were all standing, holding pickaxes and other metal objects.
“What happened to the trolls!”
“They’re coming after us! Block the entrance quickly!”
The miners cursed at my lie and rushed past us towards the mine entrance. I hurriedly ran towards where the hellsteed was.
“That…that woman is a monster! She summoned the trolls!”
The miners who witnessed Pelée’s transformation caused an uproar and called out to their colleagues.
“I saw it clearly! I saw her arm covered in scales!”
“What kind of nonsense is that in this situation?!”
The miners who hadn’t seen it themselves stopped and just stared at each other in disbelief.
“There are more inside! The tunnel is connected to the troll den!”
When I shouted in anger, the miners murmured and turned back towards the mine.
“One of her sleeves is torn! I’m telling you, she’s a demon! She’s definitely a demon! We have to catch her!”
I ignored all of it and dragged Pelée down the hillside.
After we had moved far from the mine, I finally stopped the hellsteed.
“Are you okay?”
Pelée was crouched forward, trembling slightly. I took off my right glove and handed it to her.
“Put this on for now.”
But she shook her head, refusing the glove, so I ended up forcibly putting it on her right hand.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No…”
Pelée’s voice, usually so cold, was trembling unusually. Even though she was a demon, was this her first time in a situation like this, having only done administrative work in the Demon King’s castle?
“You did well. You saved the miners’ lives.”
“But they found out…that I’m a demon…”
“They’ll probably just think it’s nonsense. Don’t worry about it.”
However, Pelée’s trembling didn’t stop. The shock of having to kill a troll with her bare hands in the dark must have been significant.
Two mines left ahead… Looking back, the sun was already setting, and it seemed barely enough time to reach even one.
We should ride the hellsteed right now…but…
“Let’s stop for today and look for the rest tomorrow.”
Pelée looked up at my words.
“It’s fine, let’s go quickly…”
“Are you really okay with that?”
Pelée didn’t say anything more, just nodded. So, I moved the hellsteed to the next destination.
When we arrived at the third mine, Pelée gasped at the sight of the dark mine entrance. Judging by her expression, she seemed unfit to enter the mine.
“You stay here. I’ll go in alone.”
I left Pelée behind and talked to the mine officials before heading inside.
I went in deep enough and half-unsheathed the Holy Sword, but it showed no signs. Another dead end.
When I came out, the sun was already halfway over the western ridge. In that light, Pelée stood with her back to the mine.
“Nothing here either.”
When I spoke from behind her, Pelée flinched and turned to look at me.
“Then the remaining place…”
“It’s too late to go there. We can’t find anything once the sun sets. We’ll have to stay another day in Appenzell.”
I calculated while coming down to where the hellsteed was.
I had brought seventy silver coins from Rithelm and spent thirty on lodging last night, so I had forty left.
The plan was to catch Asenarisi today, rest for a day, and then go straight to Rithelm tomorrow, but it went wrong.
If we catch Asenarisi right in the morning, it might work, but if it goes past noon, it’ll be a problem. Even if we leave immediately, the sun will set before we reach Rithelm.
I need to save more money just in case… Pelée must have a single room, so I’ll just sleep in the dormitory.
To avoid any unnecessary trouble, we must catch Asenarisi tomorrow. If we can’t, we’ll just have to return.
We returned to the inn and adjusted our rooms. Pelée kept the room she used yesterday, and I moved to a dormitory for six people.
Pelée was uncomfortable knowing we were short on money, but there was no other way. Unless there was a bank nearby.
During the meal, the innkeeper kept glancing at Pelée’s torn sleeve.
“What on earth did you do?”
“We went mountain climbing.”
“Ha!”
After the meal, I greeted Pelée in the hallway on the second floor.
“Good night.”
“…Yes.”
After seeing Pelée enter her room, I went into mine.
The room, cramped with three bunk beds, had people of various skin colors lying around haphazardly.
Feeling fortunate not to be sleeping outside in the dead of winter, I lay down on an empty bed in the corner.
In the middle of the night, I woke up. I heard a sound mixed with the snoring of the people in the room and the biting wind outside the window.
It was a conversation from the first floor, between the innkeeper and some man.
“Are you sure they are staying here?”
“A clean-looking man and a cold woman, right? The woman has a torn sleeve.”
“Yes. Where are they? Second floor?”
I underestimated the Greyhands of the North. I thought they would just ignore it as nonsense, but they’re meticulously checking.
I packed my bag and went to Pelée’s room. The door was locked, so I knocked quietly.
“It’s me.”
Pelée, seemingly awake, opened the door immediately.
“Pack your things. There are people outside.”
With that one sentence, Pelée grasped the situation and immediately packed her bag and put on her cloak.
As soon as Pelée was ready, someone knocked violently on the door.
“Open the door!”
I kicked the door with my foot.
The door fell off completely, and the person standing behind it was slammed into the opposite wall of the hallway.
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