I couldn’t say I didn’t understand their position. The villagers didn’t even know their own situation in the first place. They probably didn’t realize that, for all intents and purposes, they were no different from the dead. So to them, it must have looked like a group of outsiders had suddenly stormed in and wrecked their peaceful home. Even though, in truth, there had never been any “home” to begin with.
“Get out! Get out, I said!”
Before long, the crowd began shouting and pointing fingers, one by one.
“What if we get cursed because of you? Who’s going to take responsibility for that?!”
“You’re just outsiders, what the hell do you think you’re doing, barging in like this?!”
They weren’t words spoken with much thought behind them, just statements overflowing with suspicion and malice. Being the victim of an incident doesn’t automatically make someone virtuous, a fact some people find hard to accept.
“Tch, I told you we should’ve chased them out!” The boy named Jax, the same one who had thrown a stone at me earlier, now shouted angrily as well. “Kick them out right now! The castle collapsing, what if the curse spreads to us too?!”
He was just a child who didn’t know any better, probably acting on what the adults, and beyond them, the mage of this castle, had implied. Still, hearing it didn’t exactly feel good.
As the crowd’s agitation grew, threatening to turn into outright rage, Yu Hanul stepped forward.
“I understand that you’re frightened.”
Even in the face of this completely misplaced fury, his expression remained calm. Is that the kind of composure you need just to qualify as a hero?
“But please, calm down for a moment and listen to us. We are—”
“Wait! Everyone, calm down!”
Pushing through the crowd, the village chief stepped forward. But this time, even his attempt at mediation failed to quiet them easily.
“Chief, there’s no need to be nice to them! Just look at how they brought the castle down!”
“That’s right! We should’ve chased them out when Jax got hurt!”
“There are only three of them, anyway!”
“Yeah, all this mess is because you went soft on them, old man!”
Thump!
One of the enraged men shoved the old man hard in the chest. The chief couldn’t withstand the force and fell backward.
“Ugh!”
“Grandpa!”
“No! Chief!”
“Shut up, all of you!”
Some people cried out in shock and tried to stop him, but the man who had pushed the chief was clearly beyond calming down. Panting, he strode toward us in long steps. In his hand was a large shovel, looking ready to swing at any moment.
“You bastards, if our village ends up cursed because of you…!”
Thud!
He slammed the shovel into the ground. The display was more than threatening enough. “I’ll beat the hell out of you! Back in my day, I was—!”
“Hey, Yu Hanul.” Han Jaeyeong waved a hand in an irritated manner. “Just hurry up and tell them and get this over with. We don’t have much time left before the escape window.”
“…You want me to say it?”
“Better you than me or Daon, I think.”
At that, Yu Hanul glanced once at me and Han Jaeyeong, then let out a sigh. For some reason, I felt like I’d just been dismissed.
“…Everyone, please listen carefully.”
Yu Hanul spoke to the villagers in a solemn tone. It did feel like something he should be the one to say. Anyone could see he looked the part of a “hero”.
“This castle is not cursed. In truth, a mage cast a spell centered on this castle, and you all—”
“
Wait!
Stop! Don’t let him say any more!”
Just as Yu Hanul was about to continue, the village chief, helped up by others, rushed forward in a panic and stopped Yu Hanul.
“That’s enough. There’s no need to say anything more!”
And what that desperation implied was clear. Han Jaeyeong and I exchanged looks.
“Looks like he knows, doesn’t he?”
“Seems so. But how…?”
That wasn’t all.
“Old man, what are you doing? Just let him fin—”
“You, who know nothing, keep your mouth shut!”
The village chief shouted back at the man who had stepped forward, panting and clutching a shovel—and then, to everyone’s shock, he even dropped to his knees on the spot.
“Please, I beg you. No, please, I
implore
you.”
“Ch-Chief!”
“Grandpa! Why would you go that far…?!”
Even the villagers seemed unable to understand the chief’s actions, murmuring among themselves, but the chief steadfastly bowed his head toward Yu Hanul.
“I will apologize for every discourtesy up until now… so please.”
“...Please stand up.”
Yu Hanul looked down at the kneeling chief with a troubled expression. With the old man going that far, it seemed awkward for him to continue explaining things openly.
Honestly… too soft-hearted for his own good.
After helping the desperately pleading old man to his feet, Yu Hanul asked quietly, so the others wouldn’t hear, “…You seem to know what I was about to say. How did you know?”
The chief, his face dark, looked back and forth between Yu Hanul, me, and Han Jaeyeong, then finally let out a resigned sigh. “To be honest, I still don’t know everything. I only know that a massive spell has been cast centered on that castle, and that the spell affects us.”
“What kind of effect, exactly?”
The old man hesitated slightly, then confessed the truth. “We have been living like this for hundreds of years, without aging, without dying.”
That was a little surprising. Since the souls fixed inside this barrier served to absorb the surrounding mana, I had assumed they were naturally made unable to perceive the passage of time.
At the chief’s words, Yu Hanul’s gaze sharpened slightly. “So that’s why you’re stopping us from telling the truth and from destroying the castle? So you can live forever?”
“No, no. I’m the only one who knows we’ve been living for centuries.” The old man shook his head in alarm. “The others, without realizing it, are simply living the same day over and over.”
From what he said, just as I’d expected, the others had no idea how long they had been in this state. They were merely repeating the same day, unaware of anything else.
“I’m not always in my right mind either. I only came to my senses occasionally, when outsiders entered.”
The chief explained that he had been under a compulsion to tell outsiders never to approach the inner castle. But the moment an outsider actually entered the inner castle, he sensed something was wrong.
“Why were you the only one who noticed the discrepancy?”
“Perhaps… because I, too, was a mage. I was a mage who studied souls, however insignificant.”
It was a plausible explanation. To begin with, any outsider who could break through the outer barrier and enter the outer castle was already exceptional. It meant they possessed enough power to resist unconsciously absorbing mana. And if such a person reached the inner castle, the mana structure there would move in order to absorb the outsider’s mana. When the mana structure moved, gaps would inevitably form. At that moment, the chief, once a mage, was temporarily freed from the compulsion.
“I tried somehow to escape it… but I didn’t know how. Whenever the castle swallowed outsiders, I’d lose myself again…and go back to living like a lab rat running endlessly in a wheel.”
“Then if you know all that, why won’t you let us tell the villagers?”
“They wouldn’t be able to bear it. Who could possibly endure such a truth?”
The old man clutched his chest with a pained expression, then turned around. At the end of his gaze was his grandson, Jax.
“Now that the castle has collapsed, the magic will soon be undone anyway. In that case, I want the others to die without ever knowing the truth. If they learn it, they’ll only suffer more.”
“But—”
“I beg you. It may sound shameless, coming from someone who drove outsiders away and failed to save them, but please…pity these ignorant villagers who know nothing…”
“Wait a moment,” Han Jaeyeong cut in with a sigh. “For us, it’s fine to just leave like this. But now that the inner castle is destroyed, they’ll start perceiving the flow of time. They’re going to feel something is wrong, no matter what.”
"I know."
“If we leave without saying anything, all the blame will fall on you, sir. They’ll accuse you of siding with the outsiders.”
“That’s something I’ll bear.” The old man’s face looked almost peaceful, as if he were finally facing something he’d long prepared himself for. “If the castle has fallen, then our annihilation is not far off anyway. It’s just a matter of enduring a little longer.”
“If you don’t drain the pus, a wound won’t heal.”
“What’s the point of draining pus from a corpse? I simply want to meet a quiet, peaceful death.”
“That’s your own desire. The others might not feel the same way… honestly.” Han Jaeyeong shook their head slowly. “Enough, Yu Hanul. I don’t think there’s any need to listen further. Just say it. No, let me…”
“…Then, I’ll give you some time.”
“Hey.”
Han Jaeyeong frowned, but Yu Hanul paid it no mind.
“I understand that you’re confused, sir. But as my companion said, the others have the right to know the truth as well.” As he spoke, Yu Hanul helped the chief fully to his feet and placed his staff back into his hands. “So until the next time I return here, please take the time to think about how you’ll tell the others the truth. I, too, will come back with a way to save you all by then.”
“What… what did you say?” At those unexpected words, the chief’s eyes widened. “A way to save us? Th-there’s such a thing?”
“To be honest, I’m not certain. But I intend to try.”
“M-my goodness.” The chief’s mouth fell open. He clearly hadn’t expected Yu Hanul to say something like that. “You mean…there’s a way for us to live?!”
“I believe there’s a possibility.”
“Oh my… is that really true?” The old man tightly grasped Yu Hanul’s hand. Desperation was evident in the gesture. “How on earth… no, why are you helping us like this…?”
“It’s not me. It was something another one of my companions said.”
With that, Yu Hanul suddenly pointed at me. I flinched, having been standing a step back and watching passively until then.
Why me, all of a sudden?
“She said she wants to help you somehow.”
As Yu Hanul looked at me while saying that, his gaze felt lukewarm.
That was irritating.
“She said the villagers aren’t at fault.”
Wait, don’t tell me…
Did I just get acknowledged as some kind of “hero’s companion” or something?
Why do I keep getting chills lately? I rubbed my arms vigorously. The goosebumps didn’t seem like they’d fade anytime soon.
“My goodness. I can’t thank you enough…” Still holding Yu Hanul’s hand with his wrinkled one, the chief looked at me with tearful eyes. “Thank you. Thank you! No,
truly
, thank you so much…!”
“For the time being, this barrier will remain in place. Until I return, please make sure no one approaches the inner castle. There could be unintended victims.”
“Y-yes, of course. I’ll make sure to tell them properly!”
The chief nodded unconditionally to Yu Hanul’s requests. Hope had returned to a face that had clearly resigned itself to death.
Handing the conversation to Yu Hanul really had been the right choice. I didn’t have the confidence to face expressions like that myself.
And soon, the system’s preparation time ended.
Time until dungeon escape becomes available: 00:00:00
The system will protect the user until dungeon escape.
"I'll go first."
Dungeon escape begins with the weakest.
I waved at Han Jaeyeong and Yu Hanul. My body turned transparent and vanished from the others’ sight, and I heard the villagers gasp in surprise.
Flash!
Then, one after another, Han Jaeyeong and Yu Hanul disappeared as well. After that…
“Wh-what?!”
The chief jumped in shock when I suddenly reappeared before him.
“Wh-what on earth is this…?”
At his question, I shrugged. “There’s something I still need to do.”
Due to a system error, dungeon escape for User “Jeong Daon” cannot be executed.
Since I’d cast invisibility in front of Han Jaeyeong and Yu Hanul to make it look like I’d left, I’d have to finish quickly and return before they noticed.
I hurried my steps to fulfill my true purpose; the one I’d used Yu Hanul to achieve.