Chapter 11
“Ea… what?”
“Do you know what choice people make right before they starve to death?”
“……”
“They eat the flesh of dead Creatures.”
Seo Won’s grip tightened. Feeling the pressure on his arm, Baek Rak glanced at him briefly before swinging his sword again. Black blood splattered through the air.
“Some people choose to live even if their appearance changes. Turncoats are the ones who survived that way.”
Seo Won looked around with a pale face. The ground was completely soaked with black blood, and severed organs were scattered between the dismembered corpses.
“Urgh.”
Bodies that had once been human, just a different color.
Turncoats weren’t similar to humans—they really were human.
“What? Do they still seem like people to you?”
Baek Rak continued killing the remaining Turncoats that kept charging at him. Without a single pause, without any mercy in his hands. He swung his sword relentlessly while asking whether Turncoats still felt like people to him.
How long had it been? After killing the last Turncoat, Baek Rak landed on a pile of stones where traces of them remained.
The smell of death vibrated from all directions. The fishy stench of rotting corpses seemed to seep into his entire body.
Perhaps from the moment they ate Creature flesh and became Turncoats, their bodies had already started rotting. They must have eaten to survive, but could that really be called living? Now he understood why such a strong smell of rotting corpses came from them.
Seo Won gripped Baek Rak’s arm a little tighter and looked at him.
His blue glowing eyes showed no disturbance whatsoever. Even knowing the tragic lives of what had once been ‘human,’ he seemed unable to feel even a trace of sympathy or pity.
‘The reason is probably……’
Seo Won slowly opened his mouth.
“Turncoats are……”
Beings who abandoned their humanity by choice. Knowing they would become enemies of humans, they still chose that path, so regardless of feeling sorry for their past, he didn’t feel like defending them.
Baek Rak probably thought the same. For whatever reason, Turncoats attacked and devoured humans.
“Creatures.”
Hearing Seo Won’s answer, Baek Rak’s eyes curved slightly.
“At least you’re not an idiot.”
His unfiltered words were brutally honest. Seo Won sighed quietly and said,
“I have no intention of offering my body to things that are trying to eat me.”
“You’re unexpectedly the realistic type?”
He turned his head away, avoiding those staring blue eyes.
“……I suppose so.”
Honestly, while he had agreed to hunting Turncoats, that didn’t mean he couldn’t think about the background of their wrong choices.
If someone had to be blamed, wouldn’t it be this world that drove people to desperation and the Creatures? At least he didn’t want to ignore them, their desperate lives.
Seo Won checked the corpses of Turncoats scattered here and there, then raised his head. The things that had seemed only disgusting when he thought of them as Creatures now felt different.
Somewhat lonely and hopeless.
“……”
Like beings whose strong attachment to life had been pathologically distorted, or like beings forced to choose in a world full of malice. His heart ached because he could only guess at their pitiful situation.
Somehow, he felt like he could now endure this stench.
Seo Won clenched his fists tightly and squeezed his eyes shut.
***
After leaving Yangjae Stream, Baek Rak headed somewhere. Remembering his words about going to another safe zone, Seo Won asked,
“Where are we going?”
“Guryong Mountain.”
“Is there a safe place there?”
He had asked for a detailed explanation, but what came back was a steady gaze.
“Would I go if there wasn’t?”
Seo Won shut his mouth and glared at Baek Rak. It wasn’t like he had asked something he shouldn’t have. Always snapping back like this, even when he tried to see him in a good light, it made him want to be contrary.
He was wondering if Baek Rak wanted to fight when something subtly caught his attention.
Both just now and yesterday too, Baek Rak had been giving only direct answers to questions without considering the flow of conversation. Once he realized this difference, he could understand why communication with this guy had been going wrong all along. Of course, the fact that he ignored others’ words and only said what he wanted was a separate issue.
Anyway, to get the answer he wanted, he needed to ask direct questions like Baek Rak.
“What’s at Guryong Mountain?”
“An underground bunker.”
An underground bunker. Then it must be quite safe, right?
Seo Won asked Baek Rak with hope,
“Are there other people there by any chance?”
Someone might be living there. The thought that he might meet other people made him unable to hide his excitement.
“No.”
However, Baek Rak’s firm answer quickly cooled his excitement.
“Why aren’t there any?”
“Because it’s not a good place to settle.”
“You said it was safe. But there are no people?”
“Go and see.”
Seo Won clicked his tongue in disappointment and looked at Baek Rak. Then he suddenly realized that the conversation was flowing relatively smoothly.
‘Even though I changed how I asked questions, why is he answering so well for once?’
This guy who always only said what he wanted to say is being so cooperative?
As he stared at him intently, Baek Rak, who had been looking straight ahead, turned his head. He looked him up and down and said, as if he knew what he was thinking,
“I guess having no knowledge means having no caution either.”
“……What?”
“I don’t want variables created by your ignorance. Like earlier.”
Seo Won remembered the cause of Baek Rak’s fight with the Turncoats and pressed his lips shut. But he felt a bit wronged. What did being surprised by something strange suddenly passing by have to do with ignorance?
While he was considering making an excuse, Baek Rak said something absurd.
“Here, you need to know how to control even reflexive actions.”
“Is that even possible?”
“If you can’t, you’ll die.”
“……Why are you so extreme?”
Baek Rak turned his head again. After scanning the surroundings, he changed direction and moved. There were probably Creatures or Turncoats nearby. Following Baek Rak who had slowed down and muffled his footsteps, Seo Won also kept quiet.
Only after putting some distance between them did Baek Rak pick up speed again. While doing so, he continued his earlier explanation.
“They become weak during the day, but strong at night. If the same situation as earlier had happened at night, I couldn’t guarantee my own survival.”
“……I’m sorry about that. I’ll be careful from now on. But why at night? Can’t we just move during the day?”
Baek Rak let out a hollow laugh at something funny in his words. He could clearly feel the derision.
“The very idea that you’ll be in a safe zone every night.”
“……”
“The problem is not knowing that’s wrong.”
Baek Rak treated him like someone with safety insensitivity. Seo Won’s face gradually heated up.
“No, that’s why I asked you to tell me from the beginning.”
He had definitely asked first. To tell him about this world. Yet when he asked about anything, Baek Rak was the one who cut him off or ignored him!
He couldn’t be more wronged even if he tried.
“I am telling you.”
“Don’t you think it’s too late?”
“Well. The timing probably didn’t work out.”
“Wow……”
He was going to get out of it like this? Since conversations kept getting interrupted whenever Creatures came, it was ambiguous to protest. His homeless grievance wandered alone before quietly subsiding.
Baek Rak glanced around and changed direction again. Seeing him gesture to be quiet, there seemed to be Creatures nearby.
Right, this was why Baek Rak could be so confident. Because they had to be careful due to Creatures that could pop out anywhere, anytime.
‘But if I have to do this every time I talk to this bastard from now on……’
He sighed automatically at the feeling of darkness before his eyes. Living in this world really wasn’t easy. It was already pitiful to have fallen into such an absurd place. Seo Won shook his head slightly and pressed his lips shut.
It was when they had moved some distance.
Baek Rak stopped at a giant hill where dirt and stone piles were stacked like mountains. There were no buildings or roads around. No hiding places where they could conceal themselves were visible. At most, around some rocks. Other than that, it was barren wasteland like a desert.
Baek Rak set Seo Won down on the cracked, parched ground and walked toward the pile of stones. Watching his retreating figure, Seo Won turned his gaze to the giant hill. He said they were going to Guryong Mountain, but where exactly was this place?
Looking around at the hills connected to other hills, Seo Won looked at Baek Rak again. He was using his sword to clear away stones and dirt here and there. As if searching for something.
With an eerie feeling, he looked around again. At this place with nothing but dirt and stones.
“Don’t tell me…… Guryong Mountain?”
Hearing Seo Won’s murmur, Baek Rak turned around. He found Seo Won standing there dazed, just rolling his eyes as if he couldn’t believe it.
“First time seeing a mountain?”
“A mountain? Really? This is Guryong Mountain?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
