Skull Island (5)

When I was young, I used to catch bugs with my bare hands.

I’d press the bug against the wall with my palm, then twist my hand to make absolutely sure it was dead. After that, I’d run to the bathroom, flush the bug down the toilet, and wash my hands.

As I got a bit older, it began to feel somewhat disgusting, so I started using tissues instead. Still, the method itself hadn’t really changed. I was simply using a shield in place of a tissue.

Squeeze. Press down. And.

Twist and pop.

Squelch—

The important part was doing the twisting and bursting properly.

If you failed to do it right, the bug might escape.

Slide.

As I slowly lowered the shield that had been pressed flat against the wall, a half-crushed woman collapsed to the floor with a thud.

“Looks like that wasn’t enough to kill her, thankfully,” I muttered, staring down at her.

Raven hurried over to my side. “But at this rate, she will die.”

“Parab! Get over here and cast a healing spell.”

Since there was no reason to waste money on potions, I called over our clan’s sole religious member to start the treatment.

Of course, since she might recover and run away, I made sure the woman was securely tied up. We stripped her of all her gear, bound her hands and feet, and laid her face down. To finish the preparations, I pressed down lightly on her back with my foot.

It’s not the prettiest sight, but what can I do?

Barbarians pursue true gender equality. No, not just barbarians; this entire world is like that. Whether you are a man or a woman, if you pull something shady, paying the price is just a matter of course.

Come to think of it, the woman was still lying facedown, pretending to be unconscious.

“You’re awake.”

“Kill me,” she replied at once. “I chose to do this of my own free will.”

Hmm, maybe “answered” didn’t quite fit here.

I was a little surprised. Even so, I didn’t expect her to say something like this the moment she woke up.

Kaislan let out a mocking laugh.

“She seems to think she’s some member of the Rose Knights.”

Regardless, it was an unexpected situation. She wasn’t some former royal soldier who had undergone high-intensity brainwashing, but just a member of a regular clan acting like this.

“What’s your reason for being so fiercely loyal to the Golden Ghost?”

“…Like I said, I acted on my own.”

“Ha, looks like we caught another troublesome one.”

I let out a deep sigh but tried again.

“What is Golden Ghosts’ goal?”

“As I said earlier—”

“Then what was your goal?”

“…Just kill me.”

“Is Golden Ghost holding your family hostage or something?”

At my question, the woman’s shoulders twitched faintly.

What the hell? I just threw that out there, but it’s actually true?

Just what kind of bastard was Golden Ghost?

I didn’t know, but this woman was clearly different from a soldier who had been subjected to intense brainwashing. In other words, she could be persuaded.

“You flinched when I mentioned family. Do you owe him something too? You know that if you die, the debt will fall to your family, right? And if they can’t pay the taxes, they’ll die next.”

At my speculative words, the woman’s shoulders twitched again. That made things a little easier.

“I swear on my honor and name as a warrior. If you tell me the truth, I will do everything in my power to help you.”

“As soon as we return to the city, we will protect your family. If you want, I am even willing to take them in as our retainers.”

The woman remained silent for a while. I told her she could take her time to think it over and waited patiently. But…

“…Kill me.”

Her answer was the same.

I couldn’t understand it at all. Given my reputation, shouldn’t it be far more rational to side with me, no matter what the Golden Ghost threatened her with?

Just what the hell did that Golden Ghost bastard do to make her act like this?

Still, the good thing was that this woman was not skilled at lying.

She was the type whose thoughts showed on her face.

I suppose managing one’s expression in an extreme situation where death is imminent is not easy.

“Is Golden Ghost still on this island?”

Flinch.

“Did Golden Ghost send you to kill us?”

Flinch.

“Hmm, if that wasn’t the goal… then it was just to investigate us from behind.”

Flinch.

“It seems he thought I wouldn’t have come to this island simply to hunt the Skeleton King.”

Flinch.

“If he caught on, it must have been then…”

“If he did notice, it must have been when I offered to let him go first in exchange for handing over Abman Urikfried. That was probably when he realised we weren’t here for the Skeleton King. He was clearly very curious about what we were actually after.”

“Raven.”

“Yes?”

“Block her ears. We need to talk among ourselves for a bit.”

“Yes, give me a moment.”

The woman seemed shaken by my deduction. She flinched again, then simply closed her eyes as if admitting defeat. She was trying to shut herself off so that she wouldn’t give us any more information.

After that, I had Raven cast a spell to keep our voices from reaching her, and we started discussing what to do next. Misha was the first to speak.

“First of all, I think it’s true that she didn’t intend to hurt us. She was probably only trying to find out what we were hiding.”

I agreed with that opinion as well.

Murdering a noble was an enormous crime, and it would be almost impossible to perfectly keep ninety witnesses quiet.

Even if Golden Ghost succeeded in harming us, a huge time bomb would be strapped around his neck.

“He’s a cunning bastard.”

“There is no physical evidence. Even if we return to the city and raise the issue, Golden Ghost will not be punished.”

“So what are you going to do with this woman? It seems like she has her circumstances, but letting her go out of pity… the labyrinth isn’t exactly a warm place, is it?”

Well, that’s true. I don’t intend to just let her walk free, either. Whether she was threatened or not, this woman tried to harm us, and from that moment on, we bear zero moral responsibility even if we kill her.

Right, so…

“Let me borrow this for a second.”

I borrowed Amelia’s dagger and pierced her heart in a single strike.

Thrust—!

Her breath left her in an instant while she remained cut off from the world, unable to see or hear anything.

“…We can remove the voice-control magic now.”

That was the only mercy I could offer in the labyrinth.

“So what do you plan to do now?”

I didn’t answer right away. My mind was still tangled with thoughts.

“Shouldn’t we obviously go and confront them? Secretly tailing other explorers in the labyrinth is a major crime punishable by immediate execution!” Erwin suggested.

“Do you think he’ll admit it?”

“If he doesn’t, we should make him admit it!”

Seeing that Erwin was being unusually aggressive, Misha voiced a careful objection.

“B-but wouldn’t it be better to do what we came here to do first, then deal with those people after we return to the city…?”

“…Why?”

“There are ninety of them, aren’t there? It’s too dangerous for just us to deal with them.”

The Guild Master agreed with Misha’s words.

“True, there are rumours about the Golden Ghost. He grabs hold of the weaknesses of all his members and works them like slaves. If even half of those rumours are true, they will be completely different to the clan we met on the fifth floor. They’ll come at us in a life-or-death struggle.”

The Guild Master’s words were probably accurate. In fact, just looking at this woman proves it. Despite offering her a way to survive multiple times, she ultimately rejected it.

‘It was the same with Mr. Bear…’

I couldn’t know what his circumstances were, but Mr. Bear never asked for my help until the very end. But fighting an all-out war against a clan made up of ninety such people? There would definitely be casualties.

But it wasn’t something I could just overlook until we returned to the city.

As I sank deeper into thought, Amelia offered her opinion.

“I’ll stay behind and keep an eye on them.”

“Huh?”

“They don’t know yet that this woman was caught by us. They’ll just be waiting for her to return. I’ll keep watch, so you guys go inside and finish what you have to do.”

“…It could be dangerous.”

“It’s fine. I have this.”

Amelia picked up one of the items we had taken from the woman: No. 16, the Ebony Insignia. When worn, it greatly strengthened the user’s stealth-related abilities. That was why the detection spell at the entrance had never gone off. Even Beleg hadn’t noticed we had a rat tailing us.

“Honestly, if Amelia wears this, she probably won’t get caught in normal circumstances. But…”

Even so, I couldn’t bring myself to give her permission. Noticing my hesitation, Amelia walked over to me.

“Honestly, having you worry about me isn’t such a bad feeling,” she said, resting her hand on top of mine. “It’ll be fine. Nothing is going to happen.”

“Yeah—” I hesitated

Before I could even give her a proper answer, she let go of my hand and disappeared before my eyes.

I couldn’t hear the sound of her footsteps, but I knew instinctively that she was gone. She was already sprinting toward the outside of the cave.

“Phew…”

I let out a sigh as I stared down the opposite passage, the one Amelia must have taken. Then, I suddenly felt several gazes settle on me.

“……Why are you all looking at me like that?”

Kaislan answered on behalf of the group.

“Are you asking because you really don’t know?”

I had no idea what he was talking about.

“Forget it. We’re going to pretend we didn’t notice. Instead, please save that kind of stuff for when you have some privacy. It’s enough to make my legs give out from cringing.”

“Legs?”

“……If you don’t get it, never mind.”

I feel a bit wronged.

‘…No, what did I even do?’

I simply cherish my allies.

***

After Amelia left to keep watch on the Golden Tree Clan, we resumed the exploration that had been briefly interrupted, starting by moving away from the strange place where we had ended up while catching the rat. Thankfully, the actual entrance was nearby.

“…This is the entrance? It doesn’t look any different.”

After returning from the crossroads, we took another short passage and arrived at yet another dead end. But this one was different.

What do you mean it doesn’t seem different? There are forty-four torches attached to the passage.

Similar to the Crystal Cave on the first floor, the layout of Skeleton King’s Island’s cave shifted each cycle. However, the route to the next stage always appeared in the corridor with forty-four torches burning along the walls.

Even so, there were still other requirements that had to be fulfilled before the entrance would open.

Anyway.

“Adnus. Go and touch the wall.”

With that, the guild master, who had been entrusted with the very “important” role for this expedition, stepped forward and placed his hand on the wall. The moment he did, the ground gave a faint tremble, and the wall slid aside.

「The cursed one has discovered the Memory of the End.」

「A piece of an old story has been completed.」

The hidden portal revealed itself at last. Unlike the dimensional headstones that shifted through various hues of blue, this portal was the color of fresh blood.

Whoooooom!

Looking at the portal, I quietly steadied my breathing.

So I really ended up coming here.

I had planned everything myself and made it all the way to this place, yet my chest still tightened, as if my body was resisting for some reason I couldn’t understand.

But…

‘Well, what can I do.’

I had to go in.

There were three graduation essences inside that I could feed to my allies.

「The character has entered the Memory of the End.」

How many would we be able to obtain?

Then, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

“Adnus, by the way, do you know the Golden Ghost’s name?”

“……You didn’t know?”

“Would I be asking if I knew?”

“Well, you did introduce yourselves to each other. His name is Bill Ironlad.”

Right. Since I had no memory of him, then “Bill Ironlad” clearly wasn’t the name I was looking for.

I had asked for nothing.

“However, if I remember correctly, he changed his name once.”

What?

I slowly asked, “What was his original name?”

“Hmm, I don’t know. It happened before he became well known. But according to him, things started going his way only after he changed it.”

“R-really?”

“At any rate, I’m sure it was a very ordinary name. He said he changed it because he hated having the same name as so many others.”

My heart started pounding.

No…

“An ordinary name…?”

Those three words sent my pulse racing.

And not in a good way. In the worst way possible.

“That’s right,” the guild master said with a nod. “Is something wrong?”

No way…

Right?

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