Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 690

Makairo’s Stone Chamber.

A hidden space that appears when you keep going up the seemingly infinite staircase, and the place where we obtained the mystery box and got new armor.

We were definitely bewildered when we came here last time.

Because the mid-boss, ‘Makairo,’ was already dead and in a coffin as a skeleton…

“……”

“……”

Visiting the stone chamber again, we couldn’t help but be bewildered in a different way.

“Where the heck did this guy disappear to? There’s no way a corpse could have just walked away.”

When we opened the coffin, the corpse was gone.

“Hey, Aures. You were the last one to investigate alone, right?”

“Y-yes, but…?”

“Was it there then? Inside the coffin?”

When Baekho asked with sharp eyes, Aures avoided his gaze and trailed off.

“Well…”

“Well what? Tell me clearly. Was it there then?”

“…I don’t know.”

“You don’t know? What does that mean?”

“When I came, I didn’t open the sarcophagus to check…”

“Hey, are you kidding me? You came all the way to the stone chamber and didn’t even open the coffin before going back…? You didn’t just slack off and go back without even entering the stone chamber, did you?”

At Baekho’s questioning words, Aures vehemently waved his hands in denial.

“There’s no way! I definitely went there properly! My legs hurt, so I did go up a little slowly… !”

“Don’t be too harsh. It was a mistake.”

Perhaps because Jaina, who was next to him, spoke in his defense, Aures’ voice became louder than before.

“I-in the first place! It’s not like I don’t know that you gave me the most annoying task! Even so, I went diligently without complaint, and it’s so upsetting to hear you say this… !”

It wasn’t quite a case of blaming the victim, but those listening couldn’t help but feel frustrated.

It was the simplest investigation, even if it took a long time, and this guy couldn’t even do that properly.

“Ha! Upset? Hey, you want me to really make you upset?”

“That’s enough. We were the ones who sent Aures alone. We should have anticipated that he wouldn’t be able to handle such a simple task alone, but we didn’t, so it’s our fault.”

At Ruin’s words, Aures seemed to ponder for a moment whether it was a criticism or a defense, then nodded.

“…R-Ruin, you’re right!”

He seemed to have decided to take those words as a defense.

But seeing this, I feel drained.

Is it as Ruin said, that we were wrong to assign him such a task?

Actually, Baekho seemed to have similar thoughts as me, as he just sighed deeply and didn’t say any more reproaches.

“Ha… Okay, that’s not important.”

“How on earth did the corpse disappear…?”

The conversation, which had strayed off-topic, returned to the main point, and everyone offered their opinions.

“There may be room for interpretation, but I think there’s a possibility that someone else is hiding in these ruins.”

“There’s no guarantee it’s just one person either.”

“Yes. Also, if that’s the case, they are likely to have a high level of stealth. Even though we searched thoroughly, we couldn’t find even a single strand of hair.”

“…Oh! Now that I think about it, they might be bald!”

Baekho nodded at GM’s speculation that someone might be hiding in the ruins.

“Yeah, there could definitely be someone hiding here.”

“Yes, we should not rule out that possibility—”

“Well, there might be someone among us who has something up their sleeve.”

He’s really consistent.

Is it a habit to suspect his own comrades first?

‘At this point, it’s almost a disease…’

Of course, knowing Baekho’s painful past to some extent, it’s not an action I can’t understand at all.

But…

“Stop suspecting your comrades. That’s something you should save for the very, very last resort.”

“…What did I say? I just said it could be possible. We have to keep the possibilities open, right?”

I spoke as if I was trying to reason with him, but Baekho was being difficult like a spoiled child.

I sighed inwardly and changed the subject.

Because I think it’s time to hear it now.

“Okay, just tell me properly. Don’t even think about changing the subject this time.”

“When did I ever do that?”

When did you ever? You’ve been doing it all along.

“Why did you come out of the city walls?”

Why did Baekho lead his comrades out of the city walls?

I’ve asked about this several times, but I haven’t gotten a proper answer even once.

“…What does that have to do with the current situation?”

“Of course it does. No matter how I look at it, the things we’ve experienced so far don’t seem like they were aimed at me or Havelion.”

The fact that someone destroyed the magic circle to return to the city and committed suicide.

The fact that a mysterious man guided us to that dimensional stone while we were trying to gather materials to restore the magic circle.

And even being trapped in this golden ruin now.

“Whoever the mastermind is behind this, I think they’re targeting you guys.”

“……”

“So, tell me now. If I know what your purpose was, I can at least try to guess what the other party’s purpose is.”

At my firm words, Baekho glanced at me, then opened his mouth as if he couldn’t help it.

“It’s not like we came out to do anything grand. We just wanted to investigate the ‘Gray World’ that the Baron mentioned a little more.”

“Investigate? Tell me exactly.”

“We wanted to find out if the Gray World was really expanding.”

“Isn’t that something you can tell just by watching?”

“No. It’s not really like that. It seems to be approaching slowly, but then when you go back another day, it’s far away again. Like the tide.”

“So, what was the conclusion?”

“We haven’t reached a conclusion yet. We were just about to go back after marking a few places because we wanted to do an accurate experiment.”

They were about to go back…

That made me suddenly think.

Maybe the unidentified someone wasn’t trying to interfere with what Baekho was trying to do outside the city walls.

No, there’s a high probability that their purpose was to prevent Baekho from returning to the city.

[Ah, this is messed up. The old man said it would take at least a year.]

So, that person destroyed the return magic circle and destroyed the evidence.

‘But then, GM and I happened to be outside, so we joined them.’

With GM’s appearance, who could fix the magic circle in a short time, someone’s plan went wrong, so they lured us to the ‘Dimensional Stone’ and trapped us here.

‘……Is that too much of a leap?’

Well, I don’t think it’s too much of a leap, but it’s too weak to say that it’s definitely this.

So, I decided to continue asking questions.

For example.

“That one year you mentioned before.”

Perhaps the most important thing to understand the current situation.

“What exactly is going to happen then?”

“……”

“Tell me. If I know that, I can at least guess who destroyed the magic circle.”

“Haa… This is really giving me a headache.”

Baekho rubbed his forehead with his hand and shook his head slightly. But perhaps he finally decided that continuing to hide it in this situation wouldn’t help.

“I’ll say it once, so listen carefully.”

Baekho’s mouth slowly opened.

“War.”

“…War?”

“Once Noark finishes their preparations, they’ll advance to the capital, Karnon, and kill King Lapdonia.”

Is it just my imagination that it already smells like blood?

***

Noark is planning to kill the king.

And Baekho is likely to be closely involved in this plan.

‘No, he’ll be playing a key role. With one skill, that bastard can blow away half of the royal palace.’

However, the problem is that there are too many people who would try to stop Baekho if this happens.

It’s hard to pinpoint anyone.

‘Still, if I had to guess, it seems most likely that the royal family got the information and made a move…’

Moreover, this kind of shady work is something the royal family is good at.

“But Baron, if they’re really targeting us like you said, then things are going to get even more screwed up, you know?”

“…What do you mean?”

“It’s not like we went around telling everyone that we were going out. We didn’t even tell the lord of Noark that we were leaving.”

“So?”

“That means there really was a traitor among us. Either they were completely on the royal family’s side and made a move, or they just leaked the information that we were leaving.”

Baekho scanned his comrades with his tiger eyes, as if it was a habit, and this time, only Aures flinched and shrugged his shoulders.

‘What’s with this warrior, he has no spirit?’

As I was watching him, Jaina quietly whispered.

“He was beaten to near death before, so he’s like that.”

“By Baekho?”

“Who else would it be?”

Ah.

No wonder the others just ignored it when he glared at them, but he was the only one who reacted like that.

Step, step.

Baekho slowly walked out and stopped in the center of the group.

“Anyway, so now I think we need to do some verification. What do you all think?”

“I don’t mind.”

“Me too! I don’t mind either!”

“It might be better to address this now.”

Everyone agreed to Baekho’s proposal without exception.

It’s a reaction that would be difficult to show if there really was a traitor.

But perhaps he decided that he still needed to check properly?

“Okay, now that we have everyone’s agreement…”

Baekho took out an item from his subspace.

No.7234 Misplaced Trust.

The very thing I’ve used several times so far.

But does he always carry this around, even though he can also detect lies with his ability?

“It seems like this one is better at judging than my ability. We’ll use this, is that okay with everyone?”

Even with Baekho’s strong move of taking out Misplaced Trust, his comrades’ reactions were calm.

Whoo-oong!

When he pressed the power button, the hands on the disc started moving slowly.

And in that state.

“Jaina Flyer, have you ever given information about us going outside to anyone?”

“No, I haven’t.”

Baekho asked each person in turn.

As I expected to some extent, no one was unable to answer the question.

But was he still not satisfied?

“Rex Aures, are you in any way involved in us being trapped here?”

He changed the question from before to ask his comrades, so that there was no room to escape.

But no matter how many times he repeated it, the result was the same.

“No, I have not.”

“Baekho, stop it. This is enough to prove that everyone is innocent.”

“Really? It seems like there wasn’t a traitor among us after all?”

His tone changed to be a little less sensitive, as if his suspicion had eased a little.

But Baekho was an efficiency freak even more than I was.

“B-Baekho? If your suspicion is gone, then let’s stop here—”

“No, there’s still time left, so it’s a bit of a waste.”

“A waste? What do you mean—”

“It’s just as I said. Since we’ve already turned it on… let’s take some time to get to know each other a little better. We’ve been together for quite a while… but we don’t know each other very well, do we?”

Baekho, who was speaking in a subtle voice, smiled and looked at Jaina Flyer.

“So, in that sense, the first question.”

“……”

“Jaina Flyer still wants to kill me, Baekho.”

I couldn’t figure out why this question suddenly popped up.

But…

“Answer yes if it’s true, and no if it’s not.”

His eyes and tone, which had been playful, had completely disappeared.

Jaina also hardened her expression and answered in a cold voice.

“Yes.”