By Zephyria 
47
Why.
Just, why.
What for.
While he was floundering in confusion, the Crimson Rain Brigade stood at regular intervals, maintaining a defensive posture. The weapons they held gleamed menacingly. They didn’t even blink, looking left, then right, searching for something. It was as if they were waiting.
It was an incomprehensible sight.
To Ho-eun, it was just the scene of a man being senselessly murdered. Tae-muk and the soldiers of the Crimson Rain Brigade seemed to be collectively possessed by something.
Yes. That made more sense. Otherwise, this, this situation couldn’t have arisen.
“Haa… Sir.”
Ho-eun called out to Gil-sang in a suppressed voice. Even after calling out, he didn’t know why he had. Whether he wanted to ask something, or argue. It was the moment Gil-sang turned back to look at Ho-eun in response to the call.
Thump!
The door of the thatched house right next to the dead man flew open. And from there.
Kaaaaaaaak!
A Devouring Ghoul appeared. It wasn’t particularly large, but its Helmet Bone was so big that the nearby walls crumbled as it came out of the door. It was strange. Its body was small but its head was large, and even stranger, the monster had bothered to open a ‘door’ to come out.
The Devouring Ghoul that came out of the house thumped onto the floor. At the same time, crimson blood poured out of the thatched house like a waterfall. The inside of the house visible beyond the door was all covered in blood. Blood was splattered not only on the floor but also on the walls and ceiling. Clothes soaked in blood were piled up here and there like small hills.
“…”
Ho-eun’s eyes shrank at the sight. Could it be that the reason the villagers were nowhere to be seen was…
Kaaak, kak, kaaak, kak!
The Devouring Ghoul screamed at the sky. Its unusually large Helmet Bone was covered in scars. Scratches and marks that looked like they had been carved into it resembled the wrinkles of an old man who had lived a long life. In the middle of that Helmet Bone was an antenna in the shape of a trident. It looked bigger and tougher than any Devouring Ghoul’s antenna he had ever seen.
Every time the Devouring Ghoul screamed, the antenna trembled, zzzzzz, zzzzzz. And.
Thump, thud, thump, thump!
Devouring Ghouls popped out from all over the thatched house. There were about a dozen of them. The number wasn’t large. They were all covered in blood. Sometimes Jeogori or pants were tangled on their shoulders or legs, and those clothes were also soaked in blood.
And, a small straw shoe soaked in blood rolled over. The straw shoe, the size of Ho-eun’s palm, was clearly a child’s.
“Ah…”
Ho-eun sighed softly and closed his eyes. His heart was constricted. He felt guilty, realizing that the villagers had really been eaten by those things. Even though he hadn’t done anything wrong.
No, was there really nothing he had done wrong? If he hadn’t been sick, so the schedule hadn’t been delayed, so the Crimson Rain Brigade had arrived earlier, couldn’t they have avoided death?
Of course, I would have been standing here uselessly as I am now, but still, still…
While Ho-eun was sinking into all sorts of dark emotions, Tae-muk kept ordering the soldiers.
“Don’t approach, wait.”
At those words, the soldiers took a step back, shifting their weight back. And they lowered their stance a little more, ready to attack at any moment.
Kak, kaaak, kak!
Kaaaaaaaak!
But for some reason, the Devouring Ghouls didn’t rush at the Crimson Rain Brigade either. They only bared their blood-red teeth, stomping their feet wildly here and there in the thatched house. They didn’t move.
The standoff continued. It was a strange standoff.
Then, a slightly smaller Devouring Ghoul put its hand on the ground, lowered its body, and came forward as if crawling. It wasn’t heading towards the Crimson Rain Brigade. It was going towards the dead nobleman.
It grabbed the nobleman’s calf and began to drag him away. Even in a tense situation, it couldn’t resist its appetite. Every time the Devouring Ghoul dragged the man, the arrow dragged along the ground and the man’s head shook strangely.
Kaaak, kak, krrr, kak!
The Devouring Ghoul with the large trident antenna shouted loudly. It was impossible to know what it meant. He didn’t know what it was shouting at either.
Then. Tae-muk snatched a spear from the hand of a nearby soldier. Then he threw it with all his might at the Devouring Ghoul dragging the corpse.
Whoosh.
The spear flying through the air made a rougher sound than an arrow. It felt like it was tearing the air, not cutting through it.
The antenna Devouring Ghoul saw it and screamed, but it couldn’t do anything about the flying spear. Soon, the spear pierced the small Devouring Ghoul’s head with a thwack. And it came out the other side and plunged into the ground. Dark red, sticky blood trickled down the spear.
Ho-eun somehow felt that the way that Devouring Ghoul died was similar to the way the man died with an arrow in his head.
Kaaak! Kik, kaaaaaak!
The antenna Devouring Ghoul glared at Tae-muk with bloodshot eyes this time. It seemed to be angry. As if asking why he killed its friend or family. There were no words or expressions, but Ho-eun definitely felt that way.
Could it be that those things also have bonds?
Just like humans?
But suddenly, the Devouring Ghoul that was shouting stopped talking. Then the ground rumbled and the Devouring Ghouls crawled out endlessly from the thatched house door, from inside the roof, from under the floor, from the pond, from behind the crock platform.
“Ah…”
Ho-eun let out a sigh mixed with despair. The number of Devouring Ghouls that appeared was easily over a hundred.
A Devouring Ghoul slapped a Crimson Rain Brigade soldier who was running towards it with the back of its hand. With tremendous force, the soldier flew away. But the soldier didn’t fall, and slowed down by scraping the ground with his hands. Then he tried to run towards the Devouring Ghoul again. But.
Kak!
Another Devouring Ghoul jumped onto the soldier’s shoulder from behind. Unable to withstand the weight, the soldier fell, and another Devouring Ghoul bit the soldier’s thigh. Another Devouring Ghoul bit the soldier’s opposite calf.
“Kuaaaaaak!”
The Crimson Rain Brigade, which was significantly smaller in number than the Devouring Ghouls, had to face, or rather, cope with three or four Devouring Ghouls per person. They all had one Devouring Ghoul hanging on their arms or legs, and they swung their weapons in a frenzy.
Crash! The crock platform was broken. The thatched house was also crumbling. Thwack- thud- dull sounds soared, screams that couldn’t be distinguished as animal or human were mixed, and blood splattered everywhere.
The Devouring Ghouls’ arms, fingers, and ankles rolled on the floor. Of course, there were human ones too. But the Devouring Ghouls grabbed them and put them in their mouths, so they disappeared in an instant.
“…”
Ho-eun’s mouth hung open powerlessly. It seemed that fighting the Devouring Ghouls in the valley and the bamboo forest hadn’t been easy either. But now it couldn’t be compared. He even thought that what he had seen so far wasn’t a battlefield.
I too, I have to do something. I have to help.
It was when Ho-eun was trying to get off his horse awkwardly.
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
A Devouring Ghoul ran towards Ho-eun, or rather, towards Gil-sang. The fact that the Devouring Ghoul had reached this far, Ho-eun, who was hiding at the very back of the Crimson Rain Brigade group, meant that the line had been breached.
“Uaaaaaa!”
Gil-sang, who had been protecting only Ho-eun all along, swung his sword powerfully with a shout.
But.
Kareuk…….
The Devouring Ghoul twisted its head to avoid Gil-sang’s sword. Because its body was so large, the sword was embedded in its shoulder, but its weak points, the neck and face, were intact.
Ho-eun felt his blood run cold at the sight.
It avoids?
The attack?
The Devouring Ghoul?
The Devouring Ghouls he had encountered so far were only those who were crazy about their appetite and rushed in, whether their necks were cut or their mouths were cut, but this was the first one to avoid an attack. Even Gil-sang’s sword.
But Gil-sang didn’t panic and swung his sword in succession. The Devouring Ghoul’s blood splattered from the sharp sword, chaak, chok, chaak. But it was blood from its shoulder, arm, and chest. None of them were fatal wounds.
Kaaaaak, kak, krrr…….
The Devouring Ghoul didn’t seem to be in pain even though it was bleeding. It glared at Gil-sang’s flesh with bloodshot eyes. Then it grabbed Gil-sang’s sword and opened its mouth towards Gil-sang’s head. It was when saliva dripped long between the serrated teeth.
Bang!
The sound of a Gun shook the sky.
“…”
Ho-eun’s hand holding the Pistol trembled. His wrist tingled from the force of the bullet being fired. Even though he had been carrying it around all along, this was the first time he had fired it. So Ho-eun had some expectations.
For example, the expectation that he could kill the Devouring Ghoul with this Gun. So the expectation that he could save someone.
Indeed, the bullet was embedded in the Devouring Ghoul’s hard Helmet Bone, just as Ho-eun had aimed.
But.
“Ah…”
It only got embedded. The flattened bullet was visible to the naked eye. It looked like it was embedded in a shield. In other words, it didn’t cause any damage.
At that moment, Ho-eun was truly terrified. It wasn’t the fear of death. It was the fear of defeat.
He was afraid that Gil-sang would die. He was afraid that he would be eaten. He was terribly afraid that he would die protecting someone as useless as him, not someone else.