By Zephyria =======
“Prince, please calm down. You’re too excited.”
“Wolf! Please believe me! I have a good gut feeling! The night before I died, I was plagued by nightmares and my heart kept racing with anxiety. It’s the same now! I feel like something terrible is about to happen!”
Red Eagle shouted almost frantically. Overwhelmed by his intensity, Wolf took a step back. Stop it, man. You’re scaring me too…
Red Eagle pointed a finger at the skeleton monster.
“Look, Wolf. He looks like he’d throw an innocent person into lava. If you don’t follow his orders, he’ll give you an even harsher punishment. A more horrific penalty!”
P-please stop…
〔The Jester’s fifth rotation has ended.〕
Another notification sound. Wolf and Red Eagle screamed and clung to each other in terror. Just then, Silver returned.
“What is this, you idiots? You scared?”
Silver looked at them with eyes full of contempt. The Prince and the Attendant, their cheeks flushing red, hurriedly pulled apart. Wolf cleared his throat and spoke awkwardly.
“How was it, Silver? Are they doing as the god commanded?”
“Would they? They’re all large families of seven or nine. To form groups of six, they’d have to kick out a family member, and they can’t do that—”
〔The Jester’s fifth rotation has ended.〕
Before Silver could finish his sentence, the voice rang out.
〔The Jester begins the sixth rotation.〕
“…That thing.”
Silver muttered lowly, glaring at the Jester. The Jester was dancing incomparably faster than when he first appeared. Wolf’s mouth went bone-dry. At this rate, the rotation would end soon.
It was then.
“Uncle!”
Red Eagle shouted brightly.
“Come quickly! Hurry! Come on!”
“Haha!”
A familiar laugh burst forth.
“Wait for me! Uncle is coming, you brats!”
Wolf whipped around. Black Weasel was running toward them. Behind him, a man and a woman were running side by side.
The man looked familiar to Wolf. He was the warrior who had picked a fight with Black Weasel and Silver at the inn’s tavern. The woman was one-eyed, wearing an eyepatch and carrying a crutch under her arm. Judging by her unimaginably ragged clothes, she looked like one of the riffraff who caused disturbances for visitors at the docks.
〔The Jester’s sixth rotation has ended.〕
“Crossing the finish line—! How’s that, brats!”
Black Weasel slapped the backs of the three boys in succession. Red Eagle raised both arms and cheered, circling around Black Weasel.
〔Thank you to those who followed the guidance well despite the tight time limit. Now, I will give you a break. Please greet each other and introduce yourselves while the Jester rotates nine times. To accommodate your rest, I will not increase the rotation speed.〕
The Jester began to rotate again, twisting his limbs. Black Weasel pointed at the three boys and chattered to the warrior and the Eyepatch Woman in the Stohl language. He seemed to be introducing the group.
「My friends, please bear with me for a moment for the sake of my foolish sons who do not know the Stohl language.」
Black Weasel turned back and pointed to the warrior.
“This magnificent man is ‘Rushing’ Rock Hyrax, the Warrior Chief of the ‘Descendants of Clear Water’ tribe. I barely made it because I had to drag this friend along. See? Just looking at him makes you feel secure, doesn’t it?”
After the Warrior Chief came the one-eyed woman.
“This one says she doesn’t know her own name. I brought her along because she seemed exceptionally clever.”
“Isn’t that weird? Normally, if someone doesn’t know their own name, wouldn’t you think they’re extremely stupid?”
Silver scanned the woman with a suspicious expression. The woman lifted her eyepatch to reveal her healthy eye and spat a glob of phlegm onto the ground.
“Do I really not know my name? She probably just made something up because she didn’t want to tell me. All the other riffraff were just complaining about why there was no alcohol or hallucination herbs in hell, but this one was different. She was stomping her feet and shouting that something terrible would happen if they didn’t quickly form groups of six. She’s got a good gut feeling.”
“Fine, I guess her gut is good. Even if her head is bad.”
“I’m telling you, her head is good too! Trust my eye for people, Silver!”
Black Weasel thumped his own chest.
“I made the Warrior Chief my comrade because he seemed to have a usable brain. You can’t reach that position with brute force alone! You there, Prince and Attendant, did you hear? Wake up! To survive here, the head is more important than anything. The noggin!”
“Um, Uncle. We’re already dead, though?”
Red Eagle asked back with a bewildered face. At those words, Black Weasel’s eyes widened as if he had spotted an arrow flying straight at him, and he clamped one hand over his mouth.
“Whoops, mistake! That was, uh, what is it, uh… a habitual expression? Something like that. What I meant was that to achieve something here, your backside—no, your head is important. Haha, goodness, the Atania language is so delicate that I often confuse words…”
Wolf frowned. No matter how he looked at it, Black Weasel was rambling. It was strange; there was no way that brazen man would be flustered just by making a few mistakes in a foreign language. Perhaps he was acting this way because his true intentions were exposed.
Maybe…
Just as he was happily thinking that this nightmare was simply the effect of drugs—
“That Ice Armor Warrior bastard said he once happened to meet someone who left this place alive.”
Silver said irritably, gesturing with his chin toward Black Weasel. Wolf doubted his own ears.
“He’s stubbornly insisting that since it was a blacksmith who was smart and quick-witted, we can also come back to life if we use our noggins well. That’s why that Ice Armor bastard keeps singing about noggins and heads. Sigh… my own head is going to go crazy because of him.”
Silver pressed his hand to his forehead and closed his eyes tightly. His expression was as pained as someone who had been told by a doctor that they must swallow bitter powdered medicine every day for the rest of their lives. Wolf felt the strength leave his body. He had suspected that the assassin and his assistant ‘had something,’ but he never imagined that ‘something’ would be this… What is this… Was this place really hell…
Black Weasel jumped up in shock.
“Silver! I told you let’s keep that a secret!”
In front of the devastated Prince and Attendant, the assassin and his assistant argued, pointing fingers at each other.
“What secret? It’s all your delusion! Accept reality! We’re dead, you brat!”
“I’m telling you it’s not a delusion! I really saw that blacksmith! She was a woman with salt-and-pepper brown hair and a very large backside!”
“Maybe she was just a woman fisherman with a large backside?”
Wolf rubbed his face dry with both hands. Listening to their bickering made him feel like he was going crazy too. Then, the voice spoke.
〔The break time has ended.〕
Immediately following were sounds. Thump! Smack!
It sounded as if large, heavy iron balls were smashing into the bare ground. Countless times, everywhere, in a very short span.
Silence.
Wolf couldn’t even blink. About ten paces away, the innkeeper’s family, who had been clinging to each other just moments ago, were gone. Other families were gone too. The madmen who had been laughing or staggering were gone. The people who had been chatting as if they didn’t care what happened were gone. Only blood splattered in all directions.
Wolf’s mind went blank. He couldn’t think of anything. Only the red streaks of blood, blocking his view like bars, entered his sight.
“Aaaah!”
Red Eagle collapsed and screamed. Wolf flinched and jerked his head back.
“Wolf! W-Wolf… those, those people, suddenly c-crushed… like ants stepped on…”
Red Eagle, who had been wailing while clutching the hem of Wolf’s robe, went limp. He was covered in blood from head to toe, as if he had dipped his entire body into a tank filled with red paint. Wolf slowly raised his hand and rubbed his cheek. Bright red blood came off on the back of his hand. The blood that erupted from the crushed bodies of the people had reached all the way here.
Unlike him, Silver quickly lifted the hem of his robe to block the blood. A murderous chill settled on his face.
“Stop shaking.”
Silver tossed a word to Wolf and added,
“This place is hell anyway.”
〔Do not be agitated.〕
The voice spoke.
〔They were discarded because they did not follow my guidance. No disadvantage will be brought upon others.〕
At those words, Wolf felt a surge of nausea. Defining slaughter as ‘discarding.’ Among the victims, there were several infants and toddlers.
Even if it’s a god, is this okay? This is too much!
41 – Hell Execution Order