Chapter I’m Quitting Everything and Selling Cola Chapter 7
Chapter 7. Ugly Flower (3)
“Oh, porter bastard. At least you have some sense?”
“He has no sense, boss. If it were me, I would have run off in a panic the moment someone started following.”
“Are you really a porter? Sitting around with a fire lit in a Demon Realm… Your guts have really come out of your belly. Or maybe you’ve just decided to die?”
The trio that emerged from the shadows were thoroughly armed.
Though being armed in a Demon Realm is natural, aiming crossbows at people is a separate matter.
“Hmm.”
The Demon Realm had certainly changed a lot.
The Demon Realm when Jurgen stood at the frontlines as a Knight in the past and the current Demon Realm could be considered completely different places, from danger level to atmosphere.
However, Jurgen knew.
Time changes mountains, rivers, and Demon Realms, but it cannot change human malice.
Certain types of humans, the stereotypical evil acts they commit.
Even as time passes and eras change, they will continue to defile this kingdom unchanged.
“So you fellows were outlaws after all.”
“‘So’? You talk as if you knew?”
“He’s just putting on airs. If he knew, he would have run away long ago.”
“If you do anything foolish, we’ll drill a new hole in your forehead. Stay put.”
Criminals who establish territory in Demon Realms are called ‘outlaws.’
Their main sources of income are tax evasion through smuggling and trafficking, human trafficking, and pillaging adventurers.
They’re a chronic problem in Demon Realms and the main reason adventurers are more wary of humans than monsters.
Ethan rolled up his sleeves triumphantly, baring his yellowed teeth.
“You seem to be confusing us with some rootless riffraff. Even if you’re uneducated, you should be able to recognize this much.”
The lackey beside him also proudly displayed the tattoo carved on his forearm.
That mark was familiar to Jurgen’s eyes too.
“The Black Fang Gang.”
A tattoo pattern shaped like a viper’s fangs.
An outlaw group that made its lair in the red marshlands of the northwest reward room on the 5th floor of the Labyrinth Demon Realm.
Having their main habitat on the 5th floor means they’re quite strong.
It means they’re vicious criminals that ordinary adventurers wouldn’t want to deal with.
“You get the situation now, right? Let’s handle this well, okay? Don’t be troublesome.”
Ethan was confident that just showing the tattoo would make the conversation flow smoothly.
The opponent was just a clueless young lady sleeping soundly and an unremarkable porter.
Still, elite criminal Ethan wanted to be thorough.
The red-dressed young lady who had magnificently rejected Ethan half a day ago.
Her actions were amateurish and she was terribly rude, but the fact that she made it this far was proof she had something to rely on.
Looking at the palette hanging from her waist, she’s probably an alchemist.
The original plan of ‘joining the party then stabbing them in the back’ had failed, but as long as the result was good, the process didn’t matter.
“What do you want from me?”
“Put these restraints on the woman quietly. Don’t wake her up.”
“Magic shackles. It’s been a while since I’ve seen these. By the way, you fellows seem quite familiar with this kind of work.”
“What nonsense are you spouting? Hurry up and put the shackles on.”
“What do you plan to do after putting on the restraints?”
“Boss, shall I just handle it myself? That guy looks so clueless, I don’t think he’ll do anything properly.”
“Spare me. I’m sorry. I’m so scared my knees are shaking. If you give me a little time, I’ll definitely put them on.”
Scorn flowed at the porter’s groveling appearance.
“Kukukuk, first we’ll take everything they have, then we need to have some fun too. After that, we’ll sell her off.”
“If you cooperate obediently too, hmm? We can let you enjoy yourself moderately.”
Like a pack of hyenas discovering rotten meat, a strange excitement stirred with fishy laughter.
“Can’t you just pass by? I mean, as if we never met in the first place.”
After a brief silence, explosive laughter erupted.
“Uhahaha!!!”
“What a funny bastard.”
“Hey, you bastard. Are you crazy? We tailed you for a whole day and you want us to go back empty-handed?”
“Stop talking and put them on. It seems like that woman is about to wake up. If worse comes to worst, we can just blow both your heads off and be done with it.”
It’s not groundless bravado.
Even if the woman wakes up and resists, the three of them are confident they can subdue her.
An alchemist without preparation can lose their life even to a crossbow in a child’s hands.
They just want to put the magic shackles on first because there’s a possibility the merchandise might not remain intact in the process.
The moment the porter puts magic shackles on the woman, the two younger brothers will handle him.
Then.
“There’s a misunderstanding.”
A low voice rang in Ethan’s ears.
“I’m not a porter.”
It was strange.
That such a languid, tension-free voice should feel like it was choking his throat.
“I’m a gardener who pulls out poisonous mushrooms and weeds growing in the kingdom’s garden.”
“What bullshit?”
“From my perspective, you fellows are definitely weeds.”
The mere extra of a porter calmly put down one bag.
Red leather dyed to a lustrous finish, about 45cm wide and 30cm tall.
A briefcase that a civil servant rather than an adventurer would carry.
“Vic, it’s been a while since we played.”
—Bwook
When he lightly nudged the leather bag with his toe, the bag’s zipper opened by itself like magic.
The slightly opened zipper gap somehow looked like the jagged teeth of a monstrous creature.
“I’ll give you candy.”
Ethan was an outlaw with considerable experience.
He had lived a life closer to beast than human, following instinct rather than reason to reach this point.
That Ethan’s instincts were sounding warning bells.
The two people Ethan had considered prey until moments ago might not be ordinary adventurers.
Perhaps they were ‘cleaners’ dispatched by the Guild or Merchant Union.
Perhaps they were opponents he shouldn’t have gotten involved with from the start.
His judgment was made.
This situation looks wrong.
He needs to run away right now.
Even though he was thinking this, he couldn’t flee as if his feet had taken root in the ground.
Like pulling the drain plug from a bathtub.
His consciousness was somehow being sucked into the bag’s gap.
“Uh… Ah…”
In the widened zipper gap, darkness exists.
This is an expression that isn’t logically clear.
Darkness is merely the absence of light, it doesn’t ‘exist.’
But at the same time, he realizes.
The darkness lurking in the bag’s gap isn’t merely the absence of light.
Unreality seeping into reality.
Perhaps a fragment of otherworldly distortion made manifest.
—Bwooook
The darkness that writhed like cephalopod tentacles slowly opened the zipper, flowing out and crawling out and seeping in and dripping stickily.
He mustn’t look.
But he absolutely cannot avert his gaze.
“Ugh… Ah…”
Before Ethan’s eyes as he drooled while staring into the unknowable abyss.
Like insects spreading their wings, eyes, eyes, eyes, eyes, eyes, eyes, too many eyeballs sprouted.
Eyeballs that seemed to excavate and destroy souls just by looking at them.
They multiply endlessly like fruit growing on grapevines.
Ethan tried desperately to close his eyes, but it was meaningless.
“In, in… there are eyes in my head. There are eyes inside my skull! In my brain, in my brain, in my brain!!!!”
‘It’ is the stern judge’s pupils that expose fear, sin, secrets and terror.
No. ‘It’ does not judge. It merely observes.
Like a god contemplating creation from the distant void where even starlight cannot reach.
Ethan felt his consciousness and ego shatter like a hammered mirror.
The sensation of ‘it’ slowly gnawing at those fragments crawled chillingly across his entire body.
“Guh… Guuuuu…!!!”
Ethan’s pupils slowly rolled back.
His trembling legs naturally knelt.
Ethan crawled forward like an insect and finally prostrated himself before ‘it’ as if in worship.
“Aah… Oh, ooooh, great being… Absolute ruler over all greed!”
“Mother.Mother.My mother who devours me.I repent.I become one with you!”
“I am hideous…! I am filthy…! Pluck out my eyes to become your eyes…!”
The trio simultaneously crawled along the ground on all fours, bowing their heads.
Repeating praise and worship.
And.
.
.
.
“Hmm, they must have been quite wicked fellows.”
Jurgen muttered while looking at the bag left all alone.
Not even a shadow of Ethan and his trio could be found.
Strictly speaking, Vic didn’t deliver judgment.
It merely rendered a verdict.
Ethan’s trio was crushed by the weight of sins they had committed.
“Snore…”
At the sound of quiet snoring, he turned around to see Penelope fast asleep with her mouth half-open, completely lost in dreamland.
Despite the considerable commotion, she must have been very tired.
The criminals were cleanly dealt with and Miss Penelope’s sleep wasn’t disturbed, so everything worked out perfectly.
Then an eyeball that sprouted like a snail’s antenna from the bag’s gap blinked while looking at Jurgen.
Vic stretched out thin tentacles and wriggled letters in the air like cat’s cradle.
[Hanbin] [Candy]
“Ah, I forgot. Vic, didn’t I say it’s Jurgen now?”
[Jurgen?] [Hanbin]
“It’s Jurgen, not Hanbin.”
With a bitter smile, he placed candy on its hand, and Vic seemed delighted, waving its tentacles like sea anemone before hiding the candy inside the bag.
“Wasn’t it difficult?”
[Vic] [Bad guys] [Hate]
“Same as always. Don’t forget to scare monsters like you have been until we leave the Demon Realm.”
[Roger!]
“Go on in.”
Knowing it would naturally go in after he finished speaking, Vic tapped his shoulder with the tip of its tentacle.
Its quite curious gaze was directed toward Penelope.
“Do you have something to say?”
[Hanbin] [That] [Female] [Like?]
“Hey, you shouldn’t call people ‘female.’“
When Jurgen tapped the bag, Vic reluctantly went inside.
***
She had a dream.
The Rosemore Count family’s garden on a spring day, maintained so perfectly that not a single weed could grow.
A gentle breeze brushing the green grass and birds chirping peacefully.
Young Penelope was running through the garden, beautiful as a landscape painting with short steps.
‘Sister! Sister Clarisse!’
Under the white canopy where warm sunlight poured down, Sister Clarisse was reading a book with her chin propped up.
During her childhood, her sister was always reading thick, difficult books.
Young Penelope always thought such a sister was cool and admirable.
‘Penelope! If you hop around like a rabbit, you’ll get hurt, didn’t I tell you? You scraped your knee running around the garden before too!’
‘S-sorry, sister.’
‘Your wounds from before haven’t even healed yet and you forgot again and went running around?’
Sister Clarisse briefly closed her book and scolded Penelope with hands on her hips.
‘But, but… I wanted to give this to you, sister.’
But only for a moment.
At her young sister’s mumbling, the mask-like sternness melted away and a loving smile appeared.
‘Aigoo, this troublemaker. What is it this time that’s causing such a fuss?’
‘Lemon candy! I saw new candy at the shopping district and bought it!’
It was always like this.
When young Penelope lost her sister’s cherished brooch.
When she tore a dress trying it on without permission.
When her sister got scolded instead of Penelope for breaking a vase while playing hide-and-seek.
Her sister would only give harmless taps on the head and never actually got angry at Penelope.
Penelope liked her sister, and her sister liked Penelope too.
Yes, that’s how it was.
‘Candy? Again?’
‘It’s reeeeeally delicious! I wanted to eat it with my sister.’
‘Wow! What is this? It’s really delicious!’
‘Right?’
The scene of two sisters sharing candy harmoniously in the fairy-tale beautiful garden.
This is a dream.
‘……’
Penelope watched the worn-out memory from a distance like an audience member.
She saw her ignorant, childish former self. Sister Clarisse.
Smiling and giggling ticklishly at trivial things.
Even though she knew better than anyone that such days would never come again.
Then.
‘Penelope.’
Sister Clarisse called Penelope.
That call wasn’t directed at young Penelope.
It was directed at Penelope who stood blankly outside the stage lights as an audience to the dream.
A gaze without warmth that felt coldly severed, unlike moments before.
Contempt even lurked within it.
‘You really are… completely useless, aren’t you?’
Clearly pronounced cold words flew toward Penelope like stabbing.
“……!”
Long eyelashes trembled above her wide-open eyes.
She couldn’t say anything, couldn’t respond in any way.
Just as she was about to turn her back on Clarisse and run away to somewhere far beyond the stage…
.
.
“…lope.”
“Uh, uhhh…”
“Miss Penelope, did you sleep well?”
Penelope lifted her heavy eyelids.
Campfire, simple tent, blanket, Jurgen, achromatic gray walls, twilight.
Her thoughts, stiffened in sleep, slowly rotated to gather the information before her eyes.
Ah, that’s right.
She had come to the Labyrinth Demon Realm with him to obtain spices for cola.
Due to Penelope’s blunder, they ended up camping, and since they couldn’t sleep defensively in the middle of a Demon Realm where monsters roam, they had decided to take watch shifts.
“Is it my turn already?”
Even after drinking a sip of water, her voice was hoarse.
The inside of her clothes was damp with cold sweat from the nightmare.
Honestly speaking, it was the worst wake-up.
The unpleasant aftertaste of the dream clung annoyingly.
Her heart was beating fast and Clarisse’s sharp words left a cutting ache.
“If you’ve come to your senses, have some breakfast. The menu is chicken soup.”
“……”
Penelope blankly stared at the bowl Jurgen offered.
A light soup with onions, potatoes, and deboned chicken.
For Penelope, who rarely prided herself as a gourmet in Britannia, it wasn’t particularly special food.
Still, considering the potato pancakes Jurgen made yesterday, this soup would also…
Her train of thought briefly stopped.
Because there was an incomprehensible word in what he said.
“Wait. Did you just say breakfast? What about the night watch?”
“You seemed to be sleeping so soundly, I felt bad waking you up.”
“So you stayed up all night by yourself?”
“Staying up one night is something I used to do daily.”
Her drowsy mind, still grasping a thread of the dream, snapped awake as if doused with ice water.
What Penelope felt while looking at Jurgen calmly slurping soup wasn’t gratitude.
It was something close to an inferiority complex stemming from a sense of inadequacy.
No matter how nicely packaged, it was taking out her anger.
Without even realizing it.
A sharp thorn that hadn’t been filtered shot out.
“…You don’t trust me either?”
No.
The person before her eyes isn’t Clarisse.
Jurgen wouldn’t have had any ill will.
It would have been purely consideration for Penelope.
But what followed was uncontrollable resentment and passion, like having to let go when touching a hot kettle.
“I could have done it too. Even without your petty help.”
She barely managed to bite her lip and cut off her words, but it was already too late.
She could anticipate his reaction.
He’d be flustered and dumbfounded.
He’d probably think of Penelope as a mentally unstable woman and naturally distance himself.
But Jurgen didn’t get angry.
“Well now, that wasn’t the reason. If you’re upset, I’m sorry.”
“……”
He should rather get angry.
Seeing him awkwardly raise both hands, piercing self-loathing and belated regret left stains.
Penelope hung her head deeply.
Like a rose that had wilted helplessly under cold autumn rain.