Player Who Became A Constellation [EN]: Chapter 31

31.

A mercenary, giving up on picking the lock, pulls out his lock picks. His fellow mercenaries frown and shake him violently.

“What! What’s wrong? Why can’t you hurry up and pick it?”

“…I don’t want to.”

“What? Why all of a sudden? Are you scared?”

“She told me not to.”

“What nonsense are you spouting now…”

In that instant, one of the mercenaries was struck.

The mercenary with glazed eyes had knocked down his comrade.

“……!”

“She told me not to. I’m just following her orders.”

The mercenary, grinning, had completely unfocused eyes. The other mercenaries, horrified, stepped back.

“W-What is it?! This guy! He’s out of his mind!”

“I-Isn’t he cursed?!”

“S-She’s a Dark Elf, after all; she’s a demon!”

The mercenaries stared at Cellat, who, without changing her expression, opened her mouth.

“Everyone… fight.”

In an instant, they looked at each other. And then, they began to punch each other. The punching continued until they lost consciousness.

At her chilling command, the humans faithfully carried out her words as if they were puppets.

Cellat, watching the moving puppets—humans—on the stage, buried her face between her legs again, as if uninterested, and muttered softly.

“Look, Ifrit. Did you and Dad really lose to these humans? To such weaklings?”

-It’s because you haven’t seen the really strong ones. Those guys weren’t human.

Unlike Cellat, Ifrit seemed to find the mercenaries’ fight amusing, sitting cross-legged on the floor, arms crossed, watching with a haughty attitude.

They punched and kicked, splattering blood.

Some spat out something hard and white, as if their teeth were broken, and some had their faces crushed beyond recognition.

Some were already unconscious, and some didn’t stop punching even with their fists completely mangled.

While Ifrit was gleefully watching these people under a powerful hypnosis, they were knocked out with a single punch.

With a startling ‘thud!’ Cellat slightly raised her head.

“…….”

There was a strange man wearing a bizarre crow mask she had never seen before.

Loki knocked out the charging mercenaries with a single blow. Striking their necks with his fist or hitting their abdomens. With merciless attacks, the mercenaries fell like dolls.

“Haa… I was going to handle this quietly… No, I guess this is handling it quietly, isn’t it?”

He gathered the unconscious mercenaries in one place, then took out a bottle of liquor from his pocket and sprinkled it on them. He also threw the empty bottle around them.

“This should disinfect their wounds and make it look like they got drunk and had a brawl. These guys won’t be able to say they messed with slaves either. Even if they spout nonsense about demons, no one will believe a drunkard’s words.”

Loki finished cleaning up to some extent and then looked at Cellat.

“…You’re playing a bit too rough.”

Cellat was sitting in the prison made from a modified cart, and Loki was standing, so their eye levels were different.

Cellat frowned, looking at his red eyes visible under the crow mask.

She felt strangely offended. It was like being looked down upon as a child. By a human, no less.

“What. Human man.”

“Human man?”

Her tone was peculiar.

Cellat, seemingly proud, raised her head. And said, displeased.

“Don’t look down on me, human. Lower your eyes.”

“Why should I?”

Cellat said to Ifrit, as if amused.

“Ifrit. Watch closely. How I will make that human submit…?”

Cellat tilted her head, looking at Ifrit in front of her.

Ifrit was now sweating despite being a flame spirit. He was sitting upright, stiff, with a very tense expression.

And he was lowering his head to avoid eye contact with the crow-masked man as much as possible.

It was as if he was facing a superior from a very high position.

“What’s wrong with you?”

-…….

When Ifrit didn’t say anything, Cellat clicked her tongue.

“Hmph, whatever. Watch closely. I’ll show you how any human submits to me!”

She confidently shouted and reached out her hand towards Loki. And pointed her long finger at the ground.

“Kneel.”

“…….”

Loki looked down at Cellat. And slightly lowered his head.

Cellat saw a subtle reaction on her ice-like face as she got her way.

The corners of her lips lifted, forming a faint smile. However, she couldn’t help but widen her eyes at the intense pain that followed.

Thud!

Loki lowered his head and reached into the prison, striking the top of Cellat’s head.

Cellat covered her head, feeling the intense shock to her crown. Her expressionless face looked at Loki with a surprised look, like a scolded child.

“Wh-What? Why is a human man…?! I, I didn’t say hit me…”

Thud!

“Aaaah?!”

Cellat, startled, screamed and shed tears at the throbbing pain in her crown.

“…A young one shouldn’t have such a foul mouth.”

“…How…? Kn-Kneel!”

Thud!

“Uwaaah!”

“Use polite language to your elders.”

“Wh-Why…? Why aren’t you kneeling…”

Seeing Loki quietly raising his fist, Cellat flinched and unknowingly used honorifics.

“…Please…”

Cellat was beyond flustered; she was dumbfounded.

This was the first time her divine power, [Charm], hadn’t worked.

Ignoring Cellat’s question, Loki lifted the fallen mercenaries. Carrying two men in one hand and two on his shoulders was a feat of strength that an ordinary person could never achieve.

“Sorry about this. These guys troubled you, even though they’re strangers.”

“…….”

“You should sleep too. It seems like we’ll be leaving again tomorrow. You’ll be tired if you don’t sleep.”

Loki left the room, leaving those words behind.

Cellat rubbed her crown and stared at Ifrit with a dazed expression.

“…Who is that human? Why doesn’t my divine power work on him?”

A low, emotionless voice. But within it was a sense of bewilderment.

Ifrit trembled and couldn’t say anything. Instead, he tightly closed his mouth and shook his head. And disappeared as if fleeing with reverse summoning.

“……?”

Cellat blankly stared at the spot where Loki had disappeared, as the proud spirit ran away like a frightened puppy.

***

“Are you sure you witnessed the villagers?”

The mercenary captain in charge of the village patrol came down to the village for investigation but found no one.

He also thought that there would be people left in the village because Paul saw the farmer waving his hand, but now there was not even a shadow of a person.

The rain continued to fall, and the wind was strong.

He forced his tired body to move down with heavy equipment, but it was in vain.

“…Let’s just stop by this house for the last time.”

At the mercenary captain’s words, the two mercenaries nodded and stood in front of the house.

The walls were made of wood, and the ceiling was surrounded by thin straw.

It seemed like it would burn well if raiders attacked and set it on fire.

But even such a house was very common in this rural village.

“Sorry for the late night! Is anyone there?”

The mercenary standing in front of the poorly maintained, rotten door knocked on the door. But there was no response.

“…There’s no sign of anyone?”

The two mercenaries looked at each other and knocked on the door harder.

The thumping sound echoed enough to penetrate the rain, but there was still no response.

“…I’m sure. This village seems to be abandoned.”

“What’s the reason? It doesn’t look that good for a rural area, but the houses are normal, and the farming seems to be done properly… Was there a monster attack…?”

The mercenary captain also did not understand the words of the two mercenaries.

Seeing that the farming was done properly and managed, it meant that there were people here until at least a few days ago. But now there was no one.

“It wouldn’t be a monster attack. It’s not even a raid. There are no traces of an attack at all. If there had been an attack, there would have been traces of burning in the village, or even corpses scattered around. But seeing that there are no traces of blood….”

Did they just abandon it? This perfectly fine village…? But why?

While the mercenary captain was pondering with his chin in his hand, the mercenary said.

“I can’t help it. I think it’s better to go back for now. It seems like there’s nothing more to find even if we investigate further.”

“Well… there’s no response no matter how much we knock on the house.”

One of the mercenaries knocked on the door again to check. And… this time there was a response.

However, instead of opening the door, the rotten door frame broke as it was, and ‘something’ violently grabbed the mercenary’s head.

It’s a hand. Red skin and muscular writhing. Along with the stench of rot that wafted even through the pouring rain, red earthworms were wriggling through the gaping skin.

The fingers were long, and the nails were sharp, as if they were not human. The large hand gripped the mercenary’s face and gradually applied pressure.

“…Oop?!”

The mercenary, sensing danger, quickly moved his sword towards the hand.

He slammed the sword down on the hand. However, it only made a small wound on the skin and could not be embedded or cut off.

His breath was cut off. His mouth and nose were completely sealed, so he couldn’t breathe properly. But more dangerous than that, the pressure on his face was so great that it was about to be crushed.

“Uueueup!”

The mercenary desperately swung his sword, but the hand showed no sign of being cut off. So, he changed his target and stabbed the sword into the door, and in response, something broke the door completely and walked out.

It’s human. But it’s not human.

Rotten skin and a grotesquely melted and distorted face.

In the place where his eyes should have been, there was just a hollowed-out space with something like earthworms wriggling. He was wearing ordinary clothes worn by ordinary rural farmers on his body.

“……?!”

The mercenary, confirming the sight, widened his eyes in horror, and the mercenary’s skull was crushed.

The mercenary’s body, with only his neck remaining, collapsed, and the ‘monster’ in the form of a human picked it up and threw it into the house.

In an instant, the house became noisy.

The sound of flesh tearing, bones breaking, and something sucking and chewing could be heard.

Inside the house, there were things like ‘it’ swarming.

The monster in the farmer’s clothes began to suck and eat the blood on his hands with his long tongue.

He even lay down on the spot and licked the floor with his tongue, as if even the blood that was being washed away by the rain was precious.

“…….”

The mercenary captain and the other mercenary, unable to react to it, stared blankly at the existence that they could not logically think of. And around the time they recognized it… the mercenary shouted.

“Zombie?!”

Zombies were the lowest-level monsters among the undead. But at the cry of such a subordinate, the mercenary captain’s face hardened, and he stepped back in fear.

He swept his mouth with his hand as if he couldn’t believe it and shook his head from side to side. Fear dominated his reason and clouded his judgment.

His body trembled violently as if it would cramp.

He was experienced.

He had never trembled in fear like this, even in front of the ogre, the king of the forest among monsters, let alone in war.

But, in front of the existence in front of him now, he could only think of abandoning everything and running away.

His instinct screamed for him to run away, but his body… would not move. Rather, only his mouth gaped and said the identity of the ‘monster’ in front of him that he knew.

“No, no…. If it’s a zombie, then…,”

It’s better.

Because if it’s a zombie, it’s over if you kill it or kill the sorcerer who summoned the zombie.

The mercenary captain recalled. He had witnessed it.

The existence that brings about numerous ‘deaths’. The disaster that plunged the continent into fear.

The ‘it’ in front of him is….

“Worm Fest… a dead man made of plague.”

Right behind the mercenary captain who muttered that, another monster was standing.