Chapter 290

2.

Heptarion was clearly the territory of the Rieskan Kingdom, and fitting for a land known as the Knight Kingdom, there were many knights.

They were also called conquerors.

And this land, Heptarion, was territory that had been taken in that very manner.

It was a city built after driving out the natives who had originally lived there.

In the past, their relationship with the natives had been extremely poor.

But how could the natives stand against the knights?

They chose submission and tried to maintain some form of interaction, but the citizens of the Rieskan Kingdom did not welcome such natives.

Although discrimination was rampant.

They didn't go out of their way to expel those who tried to settle in the city.

After all, cheap labor was always needed everywhere.

The natives were far sturdier and stronger than ordinary people, so they were often called upon for manual labor.

Those with a different appearance from the city people, who were struggling to carry the stones for a new house being built.

Their bodies were covered in tattoos, and their skin was tanned a bronze color.

Their builds were also much larger than ordinary people, so they were impossible to miss.

A supervisor shouted irritably at such a native.

“Hmph, do you think anyone else would hire scum like you if it weren't for me?”

“……..”

Despite such harsh discrimination, they silently performed their given tasks.

They carried stones and laboriously dug the ground.

They worked three to four times harder than others.

But their wages were only half of theirs.

After enduring another harsh day, the trudging native turned his head at the sudden feeling of a presence behind him.

He could see nothing.

But he felt it.

“……Who…… is there?”

As he spoke with a slightly uncertain voice.

As if to prove it wasn't his imagination.

Someone suddenly appeared.

The one who appeared out of the darkness was a knight wearing the magic tower's armband.

The native’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Greetings?”

“Ah, greetings.”

Although his speech was a bit awkward.

It was clear that he could communicate.

The person who appeared before the native was, of course, Seonghyun.

The native, upon spotting him, became extremely wary and hid today's wages behind his back.

Looking at the native, Seonghyun cautiously opened his mouth.

“My name is…… Yoosung.”

“Yoosung?”

He was about to reveal his original nickname.

But the stern knights were still roaming the streets.

So he decided to use the alias he was using at the magic tower.

The native relaxed his guard a little and likewise told him his name.

“Taukhan. I am Taukhan.”

Despite his awkwardness, his eyes were bright, and Seonghyun looked at the native, no, Taukhan, and said.

“Could you spare me a moment of your time?”

“……Kkeung.”

Although his guard was lowered.

Taukhan was lost in thought, still unable to fully trust him.

However…

“Ah…… I understand.”

Since Seonghyun looked like a knight.

He answered as if he had no choice.

He wanted to clear up the misunderstanding.

But if he did that here, he might just leave.

Seonghyun looked at Taukhan and asked.

“Do you happen to know why the natives in the forest have disappeared?”

But then.

“Eu, eok!?”

Startled, Taukhan's body trembled with fear.

Seonghyun was in turn surprised to see it.

‘Could it be that he knows something?’

With that thought, he swallowed hard and looked at Taukhan.

Fortunately, although he was trembling, he didn't run away.

And Taukhan looked at Seonghyun with an even more guarded gaze than before and asked.

“Wh-why are you…… l-looking for us.”

Though afraid, Taukhan spoke as if he had to.

At that sight, Seonghyun's eyes lit up and he said.

“To find the culprit and deal with them.”

Taukhan flinched at Seonghyun's words.

Looking at his upright gaze and expression, Taukhan, for some reason, swallowed hard.

A thought of whether he could trust this person flashed through his mind.

And he quickly looked around.

Then, as if to say it was alright, Seonghyun casually waved his hand.

A faint veil of darkness covered the surroundings, preventing any sound from leaking out.

Although startled by Seonghyun's action.

Taukhan swallowed hard and said.

“We…… moved. Far. Very far. Many villages disappeared…… Reason, unknown. But some brothers saw. The land of blood.”

At those words, a new message appeared before Seonghyun's eyes.

[You have cleared the scenario quest, 『The Vanished Natives』.]

[You have obtained the reward.]

[The follow-up scenario quest, 『The Natives' Village』 is created.]

At the story that the natives' villages had moved, Seonghyun's eyes lit up.

Taukhan said.

“W-we had to pretend to have disappeared. Something. Is targeting us. So some came to the city.”

So.

Some villages had moved.

And to hide that, quite a few came to the city, is that it?

It seems they used their heads.

However…

‘Does that mean the demons have taken over the original village sites?’

As Seonghyun had that thought.

Taukhan explained.

“W-we cannot g-go to our original home. It is blocked.”

‘So they can’t go back to their original home.’

Seonghyun, having gathered that much information, scratched his head as if he were in a bit of a bind.

‘If they moved far away, would I be able to find them?’

It didn't really matter if he canceled the scenario quest, but he doubted the demons would just leave that place alone.

He also wanted to know where they had moved to, but.

“We who came to the city… d-don't know where they moved……. Want to go back to the forest…….”

Looking at the downcast Taukhan, it seemed he didn't know the location.

The quest was indeed to find the relocated village, but if it was quite far from the city, he wondered if it would even be possible to find.

“How long has it been since you moved?”

“I-it’s been a while. Three nights of the full moon have passed.”

Roughly, if the full moon had passed three times, it meant it had been three months.

He was a little surprised that it hadn't been that long.

He wondered if he might be able to find them, but then thought they might have already been attacked by the demons.

Taukhan said he didn't know anything else.

When Seonghyun thanked him and gave him some money, Taukhan was overjoyed and thanked him repeatedly before going on his way.

‘Should I find the village first?’

If he looked for the village, he thought he might be able to find the demons as well…….

The problem was that he didn't even have a clue where the village might be located.

Perhaps it would be faster to find the demon.

It was certain that the demon came and went from the magic tower.

So if he just waited there, he was sure to find out eventually.

However, he didn't know how long it would take.

‘It would be good to search the forest for the village after I get off work.’

It also seemed like a good idea to have his vassals search while he was at work.

After making that decision, he was about to log out when he saw a woman on the city street, grumbling and annoyed.

“Isn't he crazy? Why is he coming to the Magic Tower???”

Hearing a familiar voice, Seonghyun looked in that direction.

Sure enough, the familiar female NPC, Serena, was grumbling with all sorts of annoyance.

‘Why is she so annoyed?’

As Seonghyun watched, wondering what was going on, she shouted, grumbling loudly enough for everyone to hear.

“Seriously!!! Is he the Sword Saint or the Demon Saint? Why is he coming to the Magic Tower, why!!!”

“Gasp! A-Archmage!!! The knights will hear you!!!”

“Let them hear!!! What's this about preparing because he's coming in four days??? I'm already busy as hell!!!”

Watching Serena go while grumbling like that, Seonghyun's expression hardened rapidly.

‘Who did she say is coming in four days?’

Hearing that, Seonghyun swallowed hard.

And…

‘This has gotten complicated.’

Of all people, the Sword Saint was coming.

Why was he coming?

‘There’s no way I’ve been found out.’

If he had been found out, the Sword Saint would have surely tried to capture Seonghyun before coming in person.

No, in the first place, he couldn't understand why the Sword Saint would try to obtain magic weapons when he could already make them.

‘Come to think of it.’

He heard from his sister last time.

Magic weapons were appearing in this area.

And after that.

‘Did she say the Rieskan Kingdom collected them all?’

She said they naturally took them.

The fact that they were secretly making magic weapons meant they needed that many magic weapons.

Was the reason for his visit this time also to collect magic weapons?

As he was thinking that, he suddenly remembered his fight with the Sword Saint.

The Sword Saint who had said he would take all the magic weapons he possessed.

‘Perhaps…….’

He might be thinking that he would come here.

Or he could be trying to change the location of the demons.

There were too many possibilities, and his mind became complicated.

Seonghyun wondered if he should hide, and he became a little anxious.

‘I have to kill the demon before then.’

He didn't know what the Sword Saint would do.

But if he dealt with the demon before then, the Sword Saint would not be able to achieve his goal anyway.

That's why Seonghyun thought he had to find and eliminate the demon as quickly as possible within that time.

He couldn't just stand by and watch the Sword Saint succeed.

‘Let's go.’

The alleyway where Seonghyun had disappeared.

After he was gone, someone belatedly found the place.

A person with a massive build and bronze skin covered in tattoos.

Taukhan looked at the spot where the now-disappeared Seonghyun had been.

And once again, he stealthily hid himself and disappeared somewhere.

3.

The shabby shantytown of Heptarion.

In that shantytown, which could only be reached by going deep inside, people with huge builds were gathered.

People with bronze skin and bodies full of tattoos.

Both women and men were huge and covered in tattoos.

In the city, they were called natives and discriminated against.

But their gazes showed that they were by no means people to be ignored.

Among them.

An old woman holding a staff made of an old tree looked at the man standing before her and asked again.

“So you relayed the information about us?”

“……I did.”

“Kekeke, well done, Taukhan. A lie hidden in the truth is the hardest to see through.”

At those words, Taukhan bowed his head.

The man was none other than Taukhan, who had told Seonghyun the story about the natives.

The lie hidden in the truth that the old woman had mentioned.

It was none other than the truth that they had moved their village.

But by mixing in the lie that they had gone far away, Seonghyun had no choice but to be deceived.

But it was not a lie told with malicious intent.

They had already suffered countless times.

They had no choice but to do so to protect themselves.

However…

“Kekeke, but there was no need to lie to the new lord who has appeared in this city.”

“Gasp!?”

At those words, Taukhan's body trembled as if in shock.

A lord.

Great beings that even the natives knew of.

That's why he couldn't help but be surprised.

To think that the person he had met was a lord.

Then again, he had looked impressive.

As Taukhan trembled like that.

The old woman spoke again.

“If he seeks us out again, guide him to me.”

“Ah, I understand. I-I will bring the lord who will save us.”

“That’s right. I don't know if he will save us, but. He can at least get rid of the wicked things, can't he?”

Saying so, the old woman chuckled and muttered again.

Then she looked up at the ceiling of the shabby shack and at the stars peeking through it and muttered.

“We don’t have much time either. That is what our ancestors are saying.”

As the old woman said so with a sad expression, Taukhan said.

“I will do as the Great Shaman says. For the spirits of our ancestors.”