The pot sitting over the campfire that had burned through the night was boiling. I looked down at the bowl Billy had handed me. Billy served himself a portion as well. The pot was now completely empty.
Did I even deserve to eat this?
Feeling guilty, I took the hardtack pouch from my bag.
“This is all I can give you right now.”
When I took out a handful of hardtack and offered it to him, Billy’s expression turned subtle. I could see him forcing up the corners of his mouth. A flash of disappointment seemed to cross his face, but what could I do? It was the only food I had at the moment.
If I caught an animal later, I should try butchering it.
“……Haha, thank you. This too is sust-sustenance bestowed by the Lord.”
After thanking me, Billy put the hardtack into his bowl. He set the bowl on the rock where he had been sitting and stood up.
“Please start without me. I believe I need to relieve myself.”
Billy soon disappeared between the trees.
‘I should eat it that way too.’
I broke the hardtack in half so it could absorb the soup better, then dropped the pieces into my bowl. I stirred the hardtack and soup together with my spoon. The pieces slowly softened as they soaked up the broth.
“This man knows his food. He said he’d lived outdoors for two months, and that experience really shows. If I eat it like this next time, I can soften anything, whether it’s hardtack or bread hard as stone.”
Praising Billy, I began spooning up the soup.
“Hm?”
‘This tastes a little sour.’
The soup seemed to have gone bad overnight. It had a slightly sour taste. Billy had said he added the remaining ingredients, so those must have spoiled.
I supposed it couldn’t be helped. This world probably didn’t even have the concept of expiration dates.
“Tsk. Missing one meal won’t kill me, and getting an upset stomach in this situation would be a problem.”
The soup still left a sour taste in my mouth. Tasting it again killed my appetite completely. I hadn’t even escaped the Black Forest yet. Getting an upset stomach or food poisoning here would be disastrous.
Billy might be a good person, but a Priest without any Divine Power…….
“Huh?”
My vision suddenly spun. Nausea rose in my stomach, and the sensation in my hands and feet became strange.
Clatter.
The bowl and spoon slipped from my hands. My body tilted sideways.
“Krgh.”
I hurriedly thrust out one arm to support myself, but my body refused to obey.
I felt the same fear I had experienced when the shaman goblin’s bone awl paralyzed me.
“You finally fucking ate it? You bastard. You’re suspicious as hell.”
Billy’s voice cursed from behind me.
THWACK.
Something blunt struck the back of my head. The arm supporting me lost its strength, and I collapsed forward.
“Ghk.”
Billy pushed me over with his foot until I lay flat on my back. Then he stole the crossbody bag slung diagonally across my torso. Holding my bag in one hand and the machete in the other, the bastard planted his foot on my chest and spoke.
“You fucking bastard. I saw you lying there with your eyes cracked open instead of sleeping last night.”
He bent down and placed more weight on the foot pressing against my chest. It became hard to breathe.
“I was going to put an arrow through the back of your head and finish this cleanly, but you had to make things such a fucking pain.”
The bastard tapped my cheek with the machete and looked down at me with a snickering grin. His entire air had changed so completely that it was hard to believe he was the same Billy I had been speaking with moments ago.
A moment before, he had seemed like a perfectly virtuous priest.
Now he looked like a robber through and through.
“Ha. Usually, no one suspects you if you walk around in priestly robes. But you just had to be so fucking suspicious and make me work for it. You were going to die like this anyway.”
“…Who are you?”
“Me? For starters, I’m not Billy. Billy was the owner of these clothes. He’s already gone to be at Lord Ru’s side. When you meet him, give him my regards and tell him Brian is making good use of his story and clothes.”
With that, Brian straightened his upper body and raised the machete over his head.
Has that blade always been so long?
“In your next life, try not to be so damned suspicious. You’re exhausted…….”
“Bullshit.”
STAB.
I drove the bone awl hidden in my pants pocket into Brian’s Achilles tendon. An unpleasant sensation traveled through my fingertips.
GRIND.
I instinctively twisted the embedded awl.
“Aaargh-!”
Leaving Brian clutching his ankle on the ground, I crawled away. I rummaged through my crossbody bag, which he had dropped when he fell.
“U-Uweeeergh!”
I shoved a hardened, fist-sized lump of salt into my mouth. The resulting nausea made me vomit violently. I emptied the contents of my stomach until I worried my stomach itself might come pouring out.
GULP, GULP.
I plunged my head into the stream, swallowed water, and forced myself upright. My vision was still shaking, but I put strength into my body.
If I collapsed because I was dizzy now, I would never get back up.
“You fucking son of a bitch-!”
Through my swaying vision, I saw Brian crawling away.
“Huff, huff.”
The poison made me feel as though I might collapse at any moment, but I forced myself to keep my balance.
My tongue still tasted as though it had been pickled in salt. Even so, perhaps thanks to that, my mind was clearing. My vision and bodily sensation seemed to be returning little by little.
I remembered the face of the goblin that had gifted me the bone awl.
It had been hideously ugly.
Still, thank you.
You saved my life.
I saw a vision of my goblin friend in the sky giving me a thumbs-up. I raised my own thumb in return.
CLICK.
At the sudden sound of a crossbow mechanism, I instinctively threw myself into a roll.
WHIZZ—.
“Crazy bastard. You dodged that?”
The bolt grazed my hair and buried itself in a tree, its shaft trembling violently. Brian was aiming a crossbow small enough to hold in one hand at me.
“You son of a bitch-!”
“Oh, fuck.”
Brian knocked over his backpack and spilled the bolts inside. I could see his frantic hands hurriedly trying to reload.
I threw myself forward, snatched up a jar, and hurled it the moment it entered my hand. My waist twisted like a baseball pitcher’s.
The rotation traveled from my waist through my shoulder and elbow, carrying force all the way to my fingertips as the jar flew.
SMASH—!
The jar shot through the air like an arrow and struck Brian square in the face.
“Ghk.”
I rushed at Brian as blood burst from his nose and planted a soccer kick into his face. Then I kicked the hand crossbow from his grasp, sending it flying away. I aimed the machete I had picked up along with the jar at him.
He kept coughing up bloody foam.
“Why did you do it?”
“Pfft. P-Please, spare me.”
Brian spat out the blood that had run into his mouth. Fear had already settled into his eyes. Just as he had done to me, I planted a foot on his chest and asked again.
“Why did you try to kill me?”
“S-Sugar.”
“Sugar?”
He had tried to kill someone over sugar?
Was this bastard insane?
Did he really expect me to believe that shit?
“That’s a lie. Tell me the real reason!”
“…You must’ve been born a noble and never learned how valuable sugar is. Sell it in a city, and you can trade it for twice its weight in gold. Haven’t you heard of it called white gold?! It’s a luxury favored by noble brats like you.”
Had sugar really been that valuable a luxury in the Middle Ages? Then again, some demons in the game had demanded food or sugar as payment for their contracts.
“If I hadn’t had sugar, would you have left me alive?”
“……Yes.”
“Another lie.”
I could tell just from his expression. He would’ve tried to kill me even without the sugar.
“Why didn’t you kill me while I was asleep?”
His face twisted violently.
“You’re asking me that after you shoved a blade at my throat when I came over to switch watches?”
Apparently, the blade I had swung in my sleep had frightened him out of attacking.
“I’ve told you everything, so spare me.”
Did this bastard think I was some brain-dead sucker?
There was nothing else worth hearing.
I raised the machete over my head.
‘I can do it. I can.’
I could kill him.
I had already killed more than ten goblins and wild animals. This would only add one more p-person.
I just had to close my eyes and swing.
I tightened my grip despite my trembling hand and brought down the blade.
STAB.
***
[‘Quest: Bloodstained Coin’ generated.]
***
“…Fuck. I can’t do it.”
I pulled the machete from where it had buried itself beside Brian’s face. Our eyes met as he stared up at me.
-Weak bastard.
‘I know.’
-You pathetic bastard. He tried to kill you, and you’re letting him live? What a fucking sucker.
‘Shut up. I’m not like those psychopathic murderers.’
-That’s right. You’re different. You’re just a cowardly bastard.
I leaned forward and put more weight on the foot pressing against Brian’s chest.
“Never let me see you again. Next time, I really will kill you.”
Right.
This was enough.
I wasn’t a murderer…….
“Th-Thank you so much—like hell, you son of a biiiiitch-!”
Brian swung the bolt in his hand toward my neck as I bent over him.
“Oh, fuck.”
I hurriedly straightened and avoided having the bolt buried in my throat. Instead, it plunged into my thigh.
STAB.
“AAAAARGH!”
I drove the machete into Brian’s shoulder.
“You bastard! I spared you!!! Why would you do that?!”
“Spare me. It w-was a mistake.”
Did this bastard seriously think I was an idiot?
GRIND.
My jaw tightened on its own, and my molars ground together. At the sight, Brian burst into laughter as though he could no longer hold it back.
“Puhaha! So what, you idiot? Just because you spared me, I’m not allowed to kill you?”
“…What? Someone forgave you and spared your life, and you tried to kill him?”
“You must’ve been born sheltered and know nothing about how the world works. The one who gets fooled is the one at fault. You think you’re sparing me right now? You fucking mangled my ankle. If you leave me in the forest like this, do you think I’ll survive?”
“…….”
“I’m already dizzy from blood loss. I should’ve smashed your skull open from the start.”
My stomach churned.
Ah.
So this really was that kind of world.
“Fine. I understand.”
“Ha—. You think you’re any different from me? You’ll soon die just like…….”
“Your tongue’s getting longer. You must be pretty scared.”
“Heh-heh. Listen, young master. You think killing is easy? Even if you manage to kill someone, a coward like you will probably spend every night hiding under the covers, crying for your mother until dawn. So stop pretending and…….”
“Thanks for the advice.”
SCHNK—.
Brian’s head rolled several times across the ground before stopping.
My eyes met Brian’s after it came to rest.
I didn’t look away.
I had decided not to run anymore.
I could feel something inside me change. I didn’t know exactly what it was.
Still, I didn’t think I would hide under the covers and cry.
I had killed a man.
And I obtained one map, one compass, a dagger, a pocket watch, a canteen, a backpack, a tent, nine iron rods, one set of flint, medicinal herbs and bandages, one bottle of Low-Grade Healing Potion, preserved rations, a snack pouch, one bottle of poison, a Hand Crossbow with ten bolts, thirty-two Copper Coins, and more.
I had forgotten.
The most expensive thing in this world was always a bloodstained coin.
***
[The character has committed their first murder. Karma increases by 1.]
[‘Quest: Bloodstained Coin’ completed.]