Player Who Became A Constellation [EN]: Chapter 44

The Player Who Became a Constellation – 44

44

“…Warehouse?”

Usually, places with a lot of medicinal herbs have a separate warehouse to store them.

Salad looked at Loki with a curious expression. He was holding his forehead as if deep in thought.

‘…He looks busy.’

What should I do? Should I open it?

Salad’s 고민 [Korean: worry, concern] didn’t last long.

A fragrant herbal scent wafted from the basement.

‘He said I could look around, right?’

Driven by curiosity, she struggled to open the door. Unexpectedly, it opened easily, revealing a dark space.

Salad felt a sense of unease at the sight.

Even with the dark elf’s vision, she couldn’t see well inside. But a strangely familiar herbal scent stimulated her nose.

The fragrant and sweet smell evoked memories of the royal palace where she had been.

‘…The herbal medicine room where I studied had a similar smell.’

“What are you doing?”

At Loki’s voice, Salad covered the entrance with her finger, gesturing for him to be quiet.

“Huh? There’s a basement. I think it’s a place to store herbs.”

Loki blinked.

Come to think of it, Alex did say there was an herb storage warehouse.

“Can’t I look around?”

Loki looked at Salad and 고민 [Korean: worry, concern].

‘Was she bored just standing around?’

He already got permission from Alex.

Then it should be fine.

“Don’t go too far. Be careful.”

Salad nodded.

As Loki turned his head back to reading, Salad carefully opened the entrance to the basement and went inside.

Salad leaned against the side wall and followed the scent of herbs.

It was a nostalgic scent, but the dim vision and heavy atmosphere made her feel strongly afraid.

She couldn’t see anything. It was scary without any light.

‘Does it feel better to close my eyes?’

She carefully went down the long, long stairs.

After relying on her hearing and smell for a while, she heard a small sound of water.

Her vision improved just enough to distinguish objects nearby.

A dug well and a pump to draw water were visible. The basement, which seemed to be carved out of bedrock, was visible on the wall, and Salad admired the precious herbs hanging on the wall.

‘Amazing! These are really precious and hard to find…! How did a human gather this much? Ah, I used to study late into the night in a room with so many herbs like this in the kingdom….’

As she smelled the herbs, the depression she had felt a little while ago seemed to fade away little by little.

For her, the sweet and bitter smell of herbs was something that soothed her heart.

At that moment, a faint, rotten smell mixed in.

“…What? Is there a spoiled herb?”

She sniffed.

It’s hard to tell what the smell is because it’s mixed with the smell of herbs. But it smelled like something she had smelled somewhere before.

‘Where is it coming from?’

She tracked the smell and reached a large iron door.

‘I smell herbs too. But….’

She also smelled the decaying odor of dying life.

“What the hell? How could he waste these precious herbs like this!”

She felt angry for some reason that her memories had been tainted.

And she immediately started to take action.

She reached out to the closed door.

When she turned the round handle, the closed door opened little by little.

Instantly, she covered her nose.

She felt her stomach twist from the terribly spreading stench. But what shocked her more than the smell were ‘those’ inside the iron door.

She trembled and stepped back.

Her face turned pale, and her eyes welled up with tears.

She hurried up the basement stairs.

***

“……?”

Loki, who was reading a book, turned his head at the feeling of his sleeve being pulled.

It’s Salad.

She tried to maintain a blank expression, but her eyes looked like she was about to cry, and her hand holding his sleeve was filled with strength.

“What’s wrong?”

“Basement.”

“……?”

“In that place.”

Salad’s voice trembled.

“There are children….”

Loki turned his head.

A small entrance to the basement was visible.

***

-Father! Father! Play with us!

The children’s clear voices were heard.

The voices, spoken cheerfully and energetically, echoed in his ears. Alex felt happy along with the voices.

-Aaaargh…?! Is it bell peppers again? Can’t you please make us something else?

The children’s dissatisfied voices.

The voices complaining as if they didn’t like it, were angry, or annoyed, made Alex feel sad.

And….

-Father…save…me…!

A desperate voice.

The children pleaded, despaired, and cried out to be saved. They reached out, shedding tears of blood.

Looking at those children, Alex couldn’t do anything. He just looked at them, unable to touch them, and left them alone.

‘Ah….’

Alex wept as he looked at the children. He wanted to help them. He wanted to reach out. He wanted to take the hands reaching out for salvation.

-Fath…er!

That voice shattered Alex’s peace.

The children were gradually being eaten by the monster.

Watching this, Alex grabbed his hair. His hair stuck out roughly between his fingers, and his eyes were dull and dark.

-…….

Now there was not even a voice.

The children’s lively voices, complaining voices, and crying, pleading voices had all disappeared.

All that was left by his side was emptiness.

That emptiness was so great.

He wanted to fill that space.

He wanted to bring it back to the way it used to be.

He wanted to share love while receiving the joy and complaints of the children.

So…!

He forced the experiment to bring back those who had been eaten by the monster.

But the children were no longer children. They had become new creatures.

They had become disgusting, rotten corpses that spread death, not the pure children they once were.

***

“…….”

Alex opened his eyes and stared blankly ahead.

When he rubbed his dry eyes with the back of his hand, he felt a sense of discomfort, and his eyeballs ached.

Alex no longer had the strength to sob at the state of his body, where even his tears had dried up. Rather, he couldn’t help but laugh, and his shoulders shook.

‘It’s at its limit now. There’s no way I can make a medicine to cure this disease by myself.’

He needed help. To do that, he needed the help of the ‘Holy Order’.

Nowhere else on the continent has researched this plague for as long as they have, and nowhere else has created a cure.

‘If it’s them… they’ll know.’

Alex got up from the bed.

He moved his body, which was thin but built with trained muscles, and put on the robe hanging on the hanger.

He sat at the table, prepared a feathered pen and paper, dipped it in ink, and began to write.

‘The Emperor must not see this letter. Only the Pope can save me.’

After writing the letter, he put it in an envelope, dripped candle wax on it, and pressed his seal with his name on it.

‘Tomorrow morning, I should ask Yuan to mail the letter.’

He turned off the candle and was about to head back to the bed when he stopped.

Come to think of it, he remembered that he hadn’t locked the entrance to his underground training room a while ago.

‘Could it be… no, it can’t be. It’s okay. Even if the entrance is discovered, they won’t be able to go deep without a lantern….’

But he couldn’t help but feel uneasy. It might be a good idea to check it out.

Since he was bored, it would be fun to chat with them and offer them bell pepper dishes.

“Hoo… what are those travelers doing now?”

Alex walked to the laboratory in the cemetery with a lantern. He opened the door, smiled, and said.

“How are you? Is there anything that interests yo…?”

But Alex could only freeze at the sight of no one there and the entrance covered by the carpet being revealed.

‘Good heavens…?!’

Could it be that those travelers went inside…?!

“Damn it!”

A curse that was hard to come out of a clergyman who served God flowed out.

He hesitated to bring the beak mask from the monastery.

If they were heading there even while he was 고민 [Korean: worry, concern] now…?

‘…No!’

He was no longer in a position to 고민 [Korean: worry, concern].

Even at this moment of 망설이고 [Korean: hesitating], they will go deeper and deeper underground and head to ‘that place’.

“There’s holy water. And it’s not transmitted through the air.”

Alex took a deep breath and quickly walked down to the basement.

His steps were too fast and powerful to be called an old man’s walk.

He relied on the view reflected in the lantern, calmed his trembling heart, and wiped away the sweat.

The rotten smell in the middle of the strong herbal scent stimulated Alex’s nose.

The door to ‘that place’ was already open.

‘If I make a mistake, there will be victims!’

Alex went down all the basement stairs and walked forward. He didn’t even think about disinfecting with the well or erasing the rotten smell with herbs.

He rushed to the underground ‘prison’. And he could see.

“…What are you doing now?!”

The traveler girl was hiding behind the man in the crow mask, grabbing his pants and trembling. But unlike her, the man in the crow mask was holding a sword that he didn’t know where he had taken it from.

The traveler was pointing his sword at the ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ in the basement prison who were hostile to him.

At that moment, Alex lost his mind.

“I asked what you are doing!”

Alex’s voice echoed in the underground cave, and that’s when Loki reacted.

He turned his head and looked at Alex, frowning.

“…You’ve done something terrible. Raising such monsters here.”

“I didn’t raise them! I’m trying to cure them!”

“Cure?”

Loki looked inside the prison.

It was a place surrounded by 암벽 [Korean: rock wall].

Wights [Undead creatures] in the form of boys and girls, with chains wrapped around their necks, arms, and legs, were trying to attack the prey in a place where no light came in.

The eyes were already gone. The empty space was filled only with worm pests like maggots, and the skin was already dyed black and dried up.

The arms and legs are bent and broken by the taut chains. When the skin is torn, worm pests flowed out with rotten blood.

It was a shape that could not be seen as a human figure.

‘They’re completely insane monsters.’

“Close the door! The children will get hurt!”

“…Children? Do you see these as children?”

“Get out of the way!”

Alex approached quickly and grabbed the iron door. It was Loki who grabbed Alex’s hand.

“I don’t care what you do here. But aren’t you thinking about the owner of the body ruined by that disgusting parasitic plant?”

“That’s why I’m trying to cure them!”

“Do you think… that it can be cured?”

Loki’s voice was incredulous.

The children in the prison were already ‘dead’.

It was more of a ‘worm pest lump’ than a child’s life.

In this state, it was useless even if Loki used purification potions and recovery potions.

“Let go of this hand.”

“Who are those children?”

“I told you to let go.”

Alex’s eyes glared sharply at Loki.

Loki frowned at the murderous eyes. His head throbbed.

Even though he had improved a lot, he was a demigod in this world.

He unknowingly spewed out murderous intent at the fact that a human was showing murderous intent towards him.

“……?!”

Alex stopped in surprise and trembled.

Not only Alex but also Salad was surprised and stepped back from him.

Loki took a deep breath and released Alex’s hand. He pressed his temples and tried to suppress his temper as much as possible.

‘…Was this the reason for his obsession?’

If he were an ordinary old man from the monastery, he would not have researched the worm pest so obsessively, and he would not have experimented by displaying the terrifying plague in a glass screen.

There was a very high possibility that the children in front of him were the cause of this obsession.

‘Family… is that what it is?’

Family. But already infected.

He would have tried his best to bring it back as much as possible.

Of course, the result would have been disastrous.

“Do you really… think you can cure them?”

When he asked calmly in a polite tone, Alex opened his mouth, which had been closed.

He nodded several times.

“…Of course! I can do it! I can do it! I can cure them! It’s possible! It’s possible! It’s poss…!”

He said, repeating it several times. It was like a mantra to force himself to believe it, even though he knew it wouldn’t work.

Loki cut off Alex’s words.

“It’s impossible.”