THUD!
“Ugh….”
Alex jolted awake at the sudden impact.
Awake…?
Questioning his own thought, Alex hurriedly looked around.
He was in his office, bathed in the blue light of dawn.
“…Was that a dream?”
He must have dozed off while sitting in his chair, because he had toppled sideways onto the floor.
All around him, the various documents he had scribbled on however they came to mind were scattered everywhere.
As Alex picked them up one by one to tidy the mess around him, he muttered without realizing it.
“…No wonder I had a dream like that.”
The papers were filled with all sorts of plans.
Various methods for dealing with the Siren, and the mandatory events connected to the Siren.
Among them, Alex stopped for a moment with a sheet of paper about the Black Star event in his hand.
“The Black Star….”
An event that usually appeared after the Siren emerged.
Of all the events that could occur, it was the one he judged to be the absolute worst under their current circumstances.
‘The event where the Magical Beasts in the Old Quarter and the port run rampant… and even the Barbarians living there begin invading the Domain….’
If the Black Star was the ominous event that had been foretold.
He simply could not find a way to minimize the damage.
After rereading the strategies he had organized before falling asleep, Alex put everything down for a moment.
“….”
But at the same time, the more he thought about it, the more he had no choice but to admit it.
If the Siren had been born, the Black Star was the most likely event to follow.
The worst possibility, and yet also the most probable.
The event the Ominous Compass was warning him about was most likely the Black Star.
He had spent so long agonizing with a quill in hand that his entire hand was stained with ink.
‘Do I really need to go this far?’
With both his mind and body exhausted, the thought suddenly occurred to him.
At first, he had acted simply because he did not want to die.
As a result, he had now created a situation where he no longer needed to worry about dropping dead while merely walking down the street.
Even if a catastrophe like the Black Star occurred, the people of the Domain probably would not blame him.
‘Even if I only think about finding a way to survive somehow….’
As Alex entertained that thought, the lively marketplace he had seen yesterday and the scene from his dream kept alternating in his mind.
“There’s no meaning in a life where all you do is avoid dying….”
Alex pressed his tired, aching eyes with the back of his relatively clean hand.
A state where one simply remained alive without dying.
Alex already knew how meaningless a life that consisted of nothing but that could be.
No.
Hyomin knew.
‘Everyone lives like this. Why are you the only one making such a fuss?’
‘It’s because you don’t have enough willpower.’
‘We’re only saying this because we want what’s best for you.’
Hyomin recalled the things he had heard until he was sick of them throughout his life.
That was what his life on Earth had been like in the first place.
The life of an ordinary young man in South Korea did not involve the desperate struggle between life and death that existed here, but neither did it offer much interest or stimulation.
You simply attended school because society told you to, went to whatever university your grades allowed, and chose some suitable major.
For most ordinary people, their available choice was a life whose goal was simply to live like everyone else until the day they died, buried beneath an endless stream of assignments.
“….”
That was precisely what it meant to live simply because you had not died.
But he was no longer the insignificant Lee Hyomin he once had been.
He was Alex Goldenwood.
Life here constantly offered him a clear direction.
Only after becoming Alex in Carcosa had he discovered his true potential.
“Right. Because I can do this….”
Looking at the faint blue light of dawn rising outside, Alex steeled himself.
Even if the Black Star appeared, he would find some way to deal with it.
The safest method.
The method that would save the most people while gaining the greatest benefit.
He simply had not found it yet.
There had to be a way somewhere.
If only they had a little more combat power, the situation would change considerably….
“….”
Something suddenly occurred to Alex, and he looked at the system window that always occupied one corner of his vision.
[Incursion Risk : Magical Beasts 76%, Barbarians 45%, (Locked)]
“…Who says I have to stay inside the rules?”
***
Only after washing up did Alex finally regain a clear head, and he looked outside to find that morning had already arrived.
Alex roughly sorted out the plans he intended to discard and threw them into the fireplace.
By the time he finished tidying his office, Hamilton and Elizabeth entered.
From Hamilton’s grave expression, it seemed Elizabeth had already told him at least some of what had happened with the Siren.
“Did you not sleep again last night?”
After checking Alex’s complexion, Hamilton’s expression darkened further.
“I slept. Anyway, you’ve heard most of the story too, right, Hamilton?”
He had slept, which was why he had dreamed.
Technically, it was not a lie this time either.
The two retainers exchanged doubtful looks, but Alex did not consider his sleep the important issue right now.
“The Siren’s main forms of attack are curses that throw the human mind into confusion, and attacks using feathers that are as sharp and hard as steel.”
“…Those feathers are weapons? Her wings… were enormous.”
Elizabeth replied uneasily.
“Yeah. Basically, it’s like fighting an enemy with thousands of daggers that she can control freely.”
It could hardly have been a worse matchup for Elizabeth.
She might be able to withstand physical impacts, but as long as Elizabeth was human, there was nothing she could do about blood loss.
Whether she was cut in thousands of places or had her mind enchanted until she lost herself.
Either way, it would be difficult to actively use Elizabeth in a battle against the Siren.
“This really bruises my pride….”
“Once you get close enough, killing her is easy. She doesn’t have any other means of defense. That’s why we need several people to distract her so thoroughly that she can’t keep track of everything. The more people, the better, right?”
No matter how many feathers the Siren could launch, there was a limit to how many targets she could deliberately send them after.
Obviously, it was safer for ten people to dodge three attacks each than for three people to dodge ten attacks each.
“We currently employ sixteen guards. I believe taking all of them with you would be quite helpful.”
“Elizabeth. How capable are the guards?”
At Hamilton’s suggestion, Alex asked with a sigh.
Elizabeth, who had been training the guards whenever she had time, also let out a deep sigh and shrugged.
“…They’re just farmers holding spears.”
At Alex and Elizabeth’s words, Hamilton sighed as well.
There was no doubt that putting them into this situation would be dangerous.
But being a guard was, by definition, a job where one was paid in exchange for taking risks to protect the settlement.
It was obvious that Hamilton was already weighing their potential sacrifice in his mind, so Alex tapped the desk a few times.
As always, a map lay spread across it.
Alex’s finger pointed at a small island off the coastline beside the Old Quarter.
“So… I’m thinking I’ll go bring some Barbarians over.”
Use one enemy to stop another.
And if the enemy he intended to use was human, they could potentially be controlled through negotiation and conversation.
[Incursion Risk : Magical Beasts 76%, Barbarians 45%, (Locked)]
Of course, the system classified the Barbarians as enemies.
But situations that had never once occurred in the game were already happening again and again.
Why should Alex obediently follow the system’s distinction between friend and foe?
“Lord…. They are the ones who invaded Carcosa.”
The Barbarians had raided Carcosa whenever the opportunity arose.
In particular, when Carcosa had been prosperous and powerful, they had not even been able to approach it.
Yet they had appeared precisely when Carcosa was collapsing.
During an already difficult period, they had plundered as much food as they could from the people of the Domain.
“But that was already decades ago. It was before you were even born, wasn’t it?”
In the end, however, it was all part of a distant past.
Since the Old Quarter and the port had become completely overrun by Magical Beasts and sealed off, the two sides had not even encountered one another.
Hamilton himself had only heard the stories from his father.
“…That is true, but I do not believe they are particularly docile people.”
Long ago, the Barbarians had wandered the seas until Magical Beasts left them stranded in the waters off Carcosa.
They had been ruthless.
During the height of those incidents, the people of the Domain had been so weakened by the Magical Beasts that they had barely been able to resist and could only watch their possessions be taken.
By that point, most of the soldiers who should have protected them had already been killed or injured by Magical Beasts.
“I know. But that’s exactly why we need to use them.”
Alex understood Hamilton’s concerns.
From a common-sense perspective, the Barbarians probably had never even considered the possibility of interacting with the people of Carcosa.
“I’m going to make them an offer, and I’ll have them defend our land.”
Protecting something sometimes required fighting back or making sacrifices.
But Alex did not want to sacrifice his own people merely to deal with the Siren.
And frankly, if the Domain’s guards managed to resist the Siren’s mental attacks and actually sacrifice themselves in a way that served their intended purpose, that would almost be fortunate.
At worst, they could become enchanted by the Siren, get in one another’s way, and die like dogs for nothing.
But the Barbarians of the sea were different.
They were beings who, together with the Magical Beasts, had once posed a threat to the Domain.
Having survived in that curse-filled sea, they possessed a basic resistance to curses.
“We need manpower, Hamilton.”
Preferably manpower tough and strong enough to survive even those brutal seas.
Hamilton seemed to understand Alex’s reasoning, but he still looked as though he wanted to stop him.
His words had been less an objection than an expression of concern and worry, so Alex smiled bitterly.
“I have to do it. Because I can.”
In the end, no one could stop Alex once he had made up his mind.
***
Unlike usual, Alex entered the Old Quarter alone that day with a large backpack strapped to his back.
The number of Mimics gathered near the entrance to the Old Quarter had already doubled.
“….”
Books tangled together, overturned tables, doors torn from walls and lying flat on the ground.
Mimics disguised in all manner of forms were fleeing from the Siren.
“When am I supposed to clean all this up….”
At first, the sight had simply looked grotesque, but after growing accustomed to it, Alex now found himself worrying about the future instead.
If people were ever going to move here and live, they would have to eliminate the Mimics completely….
“Screeeech….”
Alex stomped hard on a small Mimic shaped like a hand mirror that was rolling near his feet, killing it.
Even that probably would not be too difficult if he succeeded in winning over the Barbarians.
Partly to avoid the Siren’s voice if possible, Alex took a wide route around the outskirts as he crossed the Old Quarter.
Since Mimics did not attack first, Alex avoided the objects around him as much as possible while walking through the silent city.
Eventually, Alex reached the low cliff he had chosen as his destination.
“It really is a spectacular view.”
Even knowing that the waters beyond were filled with Barbarians and Magical Beasts, the scenery was beautiful enough to draw admiration.
From the low cliff spread a vast view of a vivid blue sea and a sky dotted with cottony clouds.
A white sandy beach lay right beside it, the sort of place where children might have happily played by diving into the water.
“….”
But for now, it was nothing more than a temporary landing point for the Barbarians’ boats.
Alex’s first plan was to approach one of the traps near that landing point.
“Haah, even this isn’t easy.”
Land bordering a hostile faction was naturally bound to be littered with traps.
Knowing full well that traps were there and deliberately wandering around in hopes of getting caught in one made Alex feel strange.
“Why did they have to hide them so well?”
Even deliberately getting caught in a trap was surprisingly difficult when you knew it was there.
Just as Alex voiced the ridiculous complaint to himself, he finally felt the ground suddenly give way beneath his feet.
“Damn…!”
Even though he had known he was going to fall, Alex still sucked in a breath from the heavy impact as he crashed into a sand pit two meters below.
He had rolled awkwardly in an attempt to protect his backpack and only succeeded in hurting his shoulder.
Having fallen neatly into the Barbarians’ trap, he rubbed his aching shoulder and looked up at the vivid blue sky.
“….”
A Barbarian who had probably been watching from somewhere nearby would soon approach.
They were a people who had spent countless generations wandering the seas.
They were only Barbarians from Carcosa’s perspective.
In truth, they had a culture of their own.
‘They did call themselves Dark Elves.’
The Dark Elves were especially cautious in everything they did, which made them more troublesome opponents.
Alex knew that well, having fallen into their traps several times in the game.
When the thing caught in one of their traps was a human rather than a Magical Beast or animal, their warriors did not make hasty decisions.
They took the captured human back to their island so that the Council of Elders, made up of the oldest surviving members of the tribe, could decide what to do with them.
‘For now, my goal is just to get onto the island, even if this is how I have to do it.’
He had anticipated and prepared for all of this, but as always, thinking about something in his head and actually experiencing it were two different things.
Alex tensed slightly when he suddenly heard people approaching.
There were several sets of footsteps, but the first thing he heard was a woman’s voice.
“…What kind of fool got himself caught?”
White hair and white irises contrasted sharply with dark skin.
Pointed ears and beautiful features.
Alex looked up at the Barbarian peering down at him.