Player Who Became A Constellation [EN]: Chapter 28

The area near the Celt Mountains was a lawless and dangerous place, so anyone traveling there in small groups was likely skilled.

Especially since the people in front of him looked like knights, armed with expensive gear, it was impossible not to be tense.

With wars becoming more frequent, there were many deserters and those who stole from the dead.

As they readied their weapons, Lapilta, who was blocking the road, stretched his stiff shoulders and frowned.

“Why are those guys acting like that?”

“Looks like they think we’re bandits.”

“C-Can’t we resolve this peacefully?”

Loki smiled wryly as he looked at the merchant group.

He knew from their previous conversation that they were being mistaken for bandits because of him.

‘Why do Northerners have such a bad reputation? Everyone’s on guard as soon as they see one. This is troublesome… Should I take off the crow mask so they don’t mistake me for a Northerner?’

If it weren’t for the crow mask, not many people would think he was a Northerner.

He wasn’t actually a Northerner, and he didn’t have their characteristic green hair and light green eyes.

“I think it’s because of me. They must think I’m going to attack because I’m a Northerner.”

“Huh! Even so, there’s a knight next to you! Don’t we look like knights?”

“Elder Albert, watch your words. How long has it been since you gave up your knighthood?”

“What should we do?”

As Paul asked worriedly, Lapilta paused to think.

He soon clapped his hands. Then, he raised his hand in a gesture of peace and approached.

The mercenaries exchanged glances, murmuring at the gesture that meant they had no intention of resisting. Lapilta then took out a leather pouch from his pocket and handed it to them.

“We’re not trying to harm you. We just want you to help us.”

“Help us?”

Azar, the most wary of the group, asked with a puzzled look. Lapilta tossed the pouch to them.

Azar gestured, and one of the mercenaries picked it up, checked the contents, and widened his eyes.

He looked quite embarrassed.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

Azar asked, intrigued by his behavior, and the mercenary immediately showed him the inside of the pouch.

Silver coins.

It was a pouch full of silver coins.

Azar was startled and quickly got off the carriage, snatching the pouch from the mercenary’s hand. He glanced at Lapilta.

His eyes were wary, as if wondering if he would take it back.

“What’s your business?”

“We’d like you to help us. That’s the reward. What do you say?”

“Help you? How specifically do you want us to help you?”

“Water, food, and an escort to the territory.”

Azar looked into the pouch again and smiled.

“Okay. But I won’t grant any other requests.”

“Agreed.”

As soon as those words were spoken, Azar’s shoulders relaxed, and he couldn’t take his eyes off the pouch.

His terrifying smile as he looked at the money made him look like a money-crazed person.

Loki scratched his cheek at the sight.

Indeed, it was said that even priests of the Holy Order could be swayed with money, and it seemed that money had considerable influence in this world as well, where people lived.

Loki looked at Azar, who was sitting back in the carriage. More precisely, he looked at the cart behind him.

Inside the cart, which was barely being pulled by two donkeys, he could hear faint breathing.

‘Is there… someone inside?’

Judging from the sound of their breathing, their condition wasn’t good.

Some were breathing heavily and suffering, as if they would die at any moment if they weren’t treated.

He couldn’t see clearly because of the tent, but most of them were presumed to be women.

Since they looked like merchants, the merchandise was human.

Then it was an obvious story.

The human sitting in the carriage was a slave trader.

Loki also knew very well how slaves were treated here, as he remembered seeing many slaves who had been plundered and kidnapped by the Northerners in the frozen lands.

They were nothing more than livestock or tools. Beings subordinate to their masters.

That was a ‘slave.’

‘It’s none of my business.’

“Alright, let’s go! If we’re late, the merchandise will spoil!”

Unlike those groaning in the cart, the voice of the slave trader Azar was full of energy.

***

—Creak…!

The donkey pulling the cart shook its head, foaming at the mouth, as if it was exhausted.

When the donkey sat down, the angry Azar kicked its back.

“You bastard! What’s wrong?! Go on! There’s not much left! We only have a few hours to go!”

However, the two donkeys kept shaking their heads and making painful noises, refusing to move.

Seeing that they looked like they would die if he overworked them any more, Azar stopped kicking and sweated coldly.

“Damn it! Don’t die! If you die, I won’t be able to sell you later! If I had known this would happen, I would have bought more expensive horses…!”

“What should we do?”

At the mercenary’s words, Azar glanced at the donkeys and rubbed his temples.

“We’ll take a break! Ugh, it would be a real loss if the merchandise died in the meantime!”

Loki couldn’t help but shake his head at the way he thoroughly regarded humans as merchandise.

“Why are you doing that?”

When Albert asked from the side, Loki pointed to the cart.

“There are people dying in there.”

“Hmm, are you talking about the slaves?”

Albert seemed to have noticed as well, but there was no noticeable agitation. Rather, he spoke as if he was used to it.

“What can we do? It’s not like we can help them, can we?”

Judging from the way he spoke casually, it was a common occurrence.

“I’m reminded of what you said when we first met. Didn’t you say that knights help those in need?”

“Aren’t slaves not people?”

Loki was momentarily speechless at Albert’s smiling words.

People on this continent had the idea that ‘slaves = tools’ ingrained in them. They had lived that way since they were young, so it was common sense for them.

“Is it common to buy and sell slaves?”

“It’s a very rare story for commoners, but it’s a very common story for nobles.”

“…….”

“You should rest now too. Everyone else seems to be resting!”

Albert said that and headed to where Lapilta and Paul were sitting and resting.

Loki glanced at the cart.

Azar took something out of his travel bag, looking dissatisfied.

It was a piece of bread. It was about the size of two fists put together, and it was so badly spoiled that it was covered in mold.

Azar slightly lifted the tent covering the cart and threw it inside.

Instantly, the cart rattled and became noisy.

It was as noisy as beasts fighting to eat more when they knew food had come in.

“Hey! Don’t fight! You’ll damage the merchandise!”

Azar poked the inside of the cart with a stick. Then the noisy cart gradually became quiet.

Azar smiled contentedly and headed to the other cart behind it.

This time, he took out bread from his travel bag.

But it was in much better condition than before.

Azar slightly lifted the tent of the other cart.

At that moment, Loki’s eyes lit up.

Not human?

There was a demi-human inside, similar to humans but different.

‘A dark elf?’

A girl with noticeable tan skin, crimson eyes, and long, pointed ears was imprisoned with shackles and chains on her arms, legs, and neck.

It was Loki’s first time seeing a dark elf.

He had heard about demi-humans a few times.

He had been interested when he first saw the dwarf Ruran and had looked into other demi-humans… but he never dreamed that he would see another demi-human as soon as he came to the continent.

Moreover, it was an elf, known as a forest fairy!

‘I heard that demi-humans are treated completely like slaves, unlike humans…?’

It was known that they could not be converted because they were not human [Demi-humans were considered outside the religious and social norms that offered some protection to humans].

Therefore, it was said that they were not legally punished for killing them or taking them as slaves.

Because of the indiscriminate hunting by humans, most of them lived in hiding and became a mysterious race.

That was why the dwarf Ruran was in the empty, frozen land.

“Hoon, let’s stop standing and take a break.”

At Lapilta’s words, Loki glanced at him and nodded. He looked back at the cart, but the tent of the cart was already closed.

He was interested, but that was it. What Loki had to do from now on was ‘gather information.’

Loki headed to where Lapilta and his group were.

“Here, Hoon.”

Lapilta handed over the water and food he had received from Azar.

The water had a slightly cloudy color, and the bread was as hard as a stone.

Loki didn’t need to eat them, so he refused with a hand and sat down.

“Excuse me, I have some questions since this is my first time traveling on the continent.”

“Huh?”

Lapilta and his group looked at each other and then focused their attention on Loki.

“Is there a place where I can get information?”

“Information?”

Everyone looked at each other with puzzled expressions.

“Even if it’s information… if it’s knowledge needed on the continent, it’s better to experience it directly than to hear about it.”

At Lapilta’s words, Loki looked at Paul.

He was a mage, so he should have some knowledge and know where to find reliable information.

“Well… what kind of information are you looking for exactly? Is it about history? Magic? Or….”

“It’s about rumors.”

“Rumors?”

“Yes, the rumor that there is an ‘Angel of Death’ in this Ronia Kingdom.”

“Angel of Death…? What’s that?”

Paul tilted his head, and Albert shook his head as if he didn’t know. However, unexpectedly, Lapilta spoke up.

“Ah! I heard about it at a bar before. Are you talking about the angel who spreads the plague?”

Instantly, Loki’s hand tightened.

“Can you tell me more about it?”

“Huh? You seem interested in that?”

“That kind of thing… ?”

It was a little annoying to Loki, but judging from the nuance, it sounded like Lapilta was saying it in a different sense.

It wasn’t like he was referring to someone, but rather like he was referring to something.

“Yeah. According to rumors, it’s a formless plague, that’s the Angel of Death.”

“Formless?”

Is it just a disease?

Until now, the Northerners had been chasing the traces of the ‘Angel of Death’ according to the order to ‘track down the Angel of Death.’ And the rumor had spread to the Ronia Kingdom.

In fact, there was a plague spreading in the Ronia Kingdom.

The exact name was ‘Worm Fest.’

It was said that something like earthworms parasitized the body, leading to death and eventually ‘resurrection.’

As an undead.

‘If it’s just a plague as Lapilta said?’

Then it’s just a false rumor….

“But someone said that the Angel of Death has the form of a very beautiful woman.”

“…A woman?”

“Others say it’s like a grim reaper. I don’t know well, but the Angel of Death is said to bring death and, conversely, drive it away. That’s why it’s nicknamed ‘Angel.’ None of them are accurate.”

“…How can I get accurate information?”

“Well? I heard that story at a bar. If you want accurate information, you should go to the underworld…”

“The underworld?”

At Loki’s question, Albert crossed his arms and shook his head.

“Even if you can trust those guys’ information, they’re dangerous guys.”

“What kind of guys are they?”

“They’re an assassin group.”

“…….”

“Their information network reaches all over the continent, but they’re small in scale, so finding them is like picking a star from the sky. Well, we were going to find the underworld too… but in the end, we gave up.”

“I see.”

He got information, but it was insufficient.

But one reliable piece of information was that the assassin group called ‘the underworld’ had more information than he could imagine.

“By any chance, after contacting those guys in the underworld, do I have to pay something as an information fee?”

“Well….”

This time, Paul smiled awkwardly and said.

“It’s money.”

Loki looked at Lapilta and his group.

Come to think of it, they said they were looking for the ‘underworld’ too. He wondered why they had given up looking for the underworld.

“You said earlier that you were looking for the underworld, why are you looking for that organization?”

“Well, we….”

Lapilta and Paul were reluctant to speak. They looked at Albert, and Albert shook his head with a meaningful gesture.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you the details. However, we’re just looking for a rumored ‘potion.'”

“A potion?”

“Yes, a panacea [a remedy believed to cure all diseases] created by a great sage that can cure anything. We’re looking for that.”