Player Who Became A Constellation [EN]: Chapter 34

Player as a Constellation – Episode 34

It turned out to be a very simple structure once I found it.

‘Seriously, are these people really having trouble finding this?’

“What’s going on!”

“What’s the matter?!”

Paul and Albert rushed over, startled by the sound of the bookshelf breaking.

Loki shrugged and pointed to the passage.

“I found it. It’s just dark.”

There were no windows, and it was a passage leading underground, so it was pitch black.

Only Loki had clear vision even in the darkness.

“What?! You found it!”

Ajar had already rushed into the room.

He gave Loki an unpleasant smile.

“Well done! Nord! Haha, if I get out of this safely, I’ll make sure you’re well compensated!”

“……”

Ajar was shouting as if he were the owner.

The mercenaries were also happy that the secret passage had been found and quickly packed their bags.

Seeing them, Ajar shouted.

“Hey! Bring the slaves! Quickly!”

The mercenaries frowned at Ajar’s arrogant words but obeyed.

Loki was impressed by the mercenaries’ willingness to follow orders even in this situation, thinking they were more trustworthy than they appeared.

The mercenaries, while pulling the cart loaded with slaves, were puzzled to see the mercenaries collapsed in the corner where the slaves had been.

“…What’s wrong with these guys?”

Loki flinched at the mercenary’s words.

Come to think of it, he was the one who knocked them out.

“Did they get drunk and pass out?! In this situation…!”

“Should we just leave them behind?”

“Hey, stop joking around and wake them up!”

The sensitive mercenaries slapped their faces or kicked them to wake them up, but they didn’t regain consciousness.

It was only natural in a way.

They were knocked out by a blow to their vital points rather than being drunk.

“Hey! Stop dawdling! Carry them on your backs! Or abandon them! Those guys are coming!”

Ajar was angry, worried about his own safety and the slaves.

“I’ll carry them.”

Loki had no choice but to step forward, though it was a hassle.

He intended to take responsibility since he had sown the seeds.

When Loki lifted the unconscious mercenaries, Ajar, misunderstanding the situation, curled up the corners of his mouth as if he was in a good mood.

“Yes, Nord. You carry them! Then I’ll hire you specially! This slave trader Ajar will take care of you!”

“……”

Loki ignored Ajar’s words.

“What about Lapilta?”

When a person who had been losing his presence was mentioned, Paul finally showed a surprised reaction.

“Ah! Lapilta…!”

When Paul looked at Albert, Albert simply shrugged. It was a relaxed action filled with trust rather than worry.

“He was a knight once. He must have been prepared to die.”

…Though it was in a negative way.

“…Ugh! I’m sorry. That I’m alive.”

Everyone looked at the window with surprised eyes.

A heavy body was barely entering the place covered by the curtain.

It was Lapilta.

He was wearing light clothing, probably because he had taken off his armor because it didn’t fit in the narrow warehouse.

He barely got out of the window and collapsed on the floor.

“What? Was he alive? Young is good after all.”

Albert asked in a light, joking tone, but he was quite relieved inside.

Although he was a knight, he was like a disciple he had taught.

Lapilta sighed in relief, sweating.

He had been defending the castle gate until just now.

Now, Wights [undead creatures, often reanimated corpses], who used to be villagers, were rampaging around the fortress, and he didn’t have his main weapon, a shield, and he only had a cracked sword, let alone a proper weapon, so there was no way he could catch the Wights alone.

“Damn it, that terrible plague is swarming right in front of my eyes! I’m scared to death…!”

“Lapilta!”

Lapilta smiled at Paul’s desperate cry. He was moved by Paul’s worried expression, but he waved his hand to hide it.

“Ah, are you that happy? Don’t worry. I won’t die this easily….”

“No, that’s not it, why did you come in there! Wights come to places where they sense life! If they saw Lapilta coming in through the window…!”

“…Huh?”

As Lapilta tilted his head, a hand with long nails began to appear on the window right above him. And gradually, a face with black skin appeared.

The Wight’s hand came up, and its hideous face opened its mouth wide.

The Wight smiled grimly at the delicious prey in the castle and stretched out its face and body, trying to squeeze through the window.

Worm Pests [parasitic worms that infest undead] flowed down between its lips along with thick liquid.

“Euaaak! What?!”

Not only Lapilta but also the mercenaries stepped back in horror, and Loki quickly took out a large crossbow from his chest and aimed it as everyone’s attention was focused elsewhere.

With a ‘thud-!’ sound, the bolt flew with a slight recoil.

At the same time, the Wight’s head exploded.

The Wight’s body, which had lost its strength as blood splattered everywhere, fell forward right in front of Lapilta.

As the squishy black blood and wriggling Worm Pests spread, Lapilta screamed in horror.

“Euaak?! Hoon! Please have mercy! I don’t want to end up like those things!”

“…Then you’d better come this way quickly.”

Another Wight was already sticking its face out of the window.

Loki reloaded the crossbow and tried to shoot again, but this time the barricade at the entrance of the castle was broken.

Looking at their clothes, most of them seemed to be farmers.

But there was also one who stood out.

A Wight wearing the armor of the mercenary captain who had guarded the Ajar slave trade.

His face shape hadn’t changed much, but his pale face and wide-open mouth made him look no longer like an ordinary person.

“C, Captain?”

“The captain was also attacked?!”

The mercenaries stepped back as if in despair.

They were already in a panic because of the Worm Pest, a plague that had stained the continent with nightmares.

In the midst of all this, even the mercenary captain they trusted and followed had become a zombie, so it was bound to be shocking for them.

“Everyone, run away!”

At Paul’s cry, the mercenaries hurriedly ran to the noble’s room where the secret passage was located. But that was only for a moment, and a dissatisfied voice echoed from there.

“What! Why is the entrance blocked!”

The entrance was blocked by the cart in which the slaves were trapped.

“Quickly take out the cart!”

“A, are you crazy?! What about the slaves…! What about my slaves! I can only pay you if I sell these guys! Push the cart! Push it quickly!”

The mercenaries tried to take out the blocked cart, but Ajar struggled and tried to stop them, but it was Ajar who was thrown off.

He was not a mercenary, and he had only drunk alcohol without exercising, so there was no way he could overcome the strength of the mercenaries.

Ajar was thrown to the floor.

“They’re just slaves anyway! We have to live even if they die!”

“Euaaak! My money! I’m ruined without these guys!”

“Our lives are more important! Are you telling us to die because of those slaves? It’s better this way. If there are slaves, they will become bait and buy us time. In the meantime, we can run away!”

‘…What is the value of a human being?’

Loki shook his head as he looked at them. Even so, he approached the cart and smashed the lock with a crossbow.

The surprised Ajar stared at Loki and was about to say something, but he had no choice but to freeze at the sight of the gaze visible under the crow mask.

Red eyes like blood were staring at Ajar.

“…Don’t try to give me any orders. If you stay here, everyone, whether slaves or you, will die.”

“…O, okay! I understand!”

At Loki’s threatening words, Ajar nodded and stepped back without realizing it.

The slaves who had been trapped in the cart came out, and the cart, which had become much lighter, barely moved with the strength of the mercenaries, who were desperate to survive, and the passage opened.

“Everyone, run!”

The mercenaries ran towards the passage without looking back.

“Hoon! Let’s go quickly!”

Paul, Albert, and Lapilta also ran inside, and Loki glanced at the last remaining cart and frowned.

It was the cart where the Dark Elf was.

Even though he had removed the lock, the Dark Elf was not coming out.

“…Aren’t you going?”

The Dark Elf, Serut, kept her mouth shut and trembled.

She had been frozen since she witnessed the Wight and was not thinking of moving.

‘What a troublesome fellow.’

Loki sighed and grabbed Serut’s hand.

Only then did she flinch and react.

Serut looked up at Loki with eyes that looked like she was about to cry.

Her crimson eyes trembled, looking back and forth between the Wight and Loki.

‘What’s wrong with this girl?’

“Come out quickly. If you don’t want to be food for those guys.”

“Ah, th-there….”

As she hesitated, two Wights opened their mouths wide and rushed at Loki.

Loki shot the crossbow at the bodies of the rushing Wights, and kicked the other one, controlling his strength with his legs so that his head would not be crushed, and bounced it off.

“Annoying!”

‘I can’t deal with them properly because I’m afraid of getting dirty.’

Loki slung the crossbow on his back, forcibly hugged Serut in his arms, and ran straight into the secret passage.

Loki glanced at Serut, who was in his arms.

The arrogant and conceited attitude she had when they first met was nowhere to be found.

Rather, she was trembling with fear, burying her face in Loki’s arms and trembling like a child who had heard a scary story.

‘What’s the matter?’

Loki’s steps gradually slowed as he passed through the long, dark passage.

The stench that stimulated the tip of his nose at the end of the passage made him unconsciously cover his nose and mouth with his remaining hand.

Along with the foul smell, screams were heard from the end of the passage.

***

“…Wh-why…! Why are those guys here too-?!”

At the same time as the mercenary’s cry of despair, his whole body was minced into minced meat by sharp and thick lumps of iron.

His body collapsed and blood splattered everywhere as if a huge rock had fallen and crushed him.

“……”

The remaining mercenaries stepped back in fear, but the shadows moving in the darkness were faster.

Whether it was instinct or not, they first grabbed those who were trying to escape, stabbed, bit, licked, and ‘devoured’ them.

If the Wights’ clothes from before were farmers, this time it was different.

They were all wearing surcoats [a loose robe worn over armor] over leather armor.

The sight of them holding swords and spears showed that they were trained regular soldiers.

They swung their weapons around haphazardly, and those who were killed by the weapons were bitten and devoured.

Such a primitive appearance made the fear even more overwhelming.

In particular, there was a presence that made them feel even more prominent than them.

A Wight wearing plate armor.

The fact that he was holding a huge morning star [a medieval weapon with a spiked ball attached to a handle] in his over 2m tall body clearly showed that he was a knight.

The Wight Knight lifted the morning star and slammed it down on the mercenary.

With a single blow, the mercenary was crushed without even blocking it. Thanks to this, the shield that the mercenary was holding bounced off and fell right in front of Lapilta.

“It’ll be useful.”

Lapilta immediately picked up the shield.

Lapilta looked at the Wight Knight in front of him and sweated coldly.

“…I underestimated this place because it was a rural area, but it seems like there was a pretty strong knight in this territory.”

The Lapilta party, who had been surrounded, covered Paul’s back and formed a line.

“Hey! Wizard. Send us a nice magic spell.”

“Be quiet because I’m concentrating now! I’ll do it as quickly as possible…!”

“But… does magic work on these guys?”

“Ah! God! Please save me!”

Ajar was trembling and cowering, covering his head next to Lapilta.

Most of the mercenaries, as well as the slaves who had fled in fear, had all fallen prey to the Wights.

Now, only Lapilta, Paul, Albert, and Ajar were left.