#054

“You tried to kill me first. And gender doesn’t matter.”

Seeing his unwavering resolve, Ulli quickly added.

“That’s true. But I’m not an assassin.”

Cullen narrowed his eyes slightly. Ulli was quite brazen, unlike her fierce attack.

“Still, you tried to kill me, and that hasn’t changed.”

Ulli sighed and shrugged. She dropped her now useless bow to the ground with a thud and raised both hands. The hostility in her eyes remained, but Ulli spoke glibly.

“Isn’t it a bit much to be fighting in such a chaotic situation? How about we work together amicably?”

“I doubt a mercenary who is so easily subdued by me would be of any help.”

“You’re really good at making people feel bad.”

“Die now, or tell me why you tried to kill me.”

Cullen didn’t want to play word games. While keeping Ulli subdued, he briefly surveyed his surroundings. Apart from those who had died due to bad luck from falling, the rest seemed to have been taken by the Demonic Beast earlier. Only pitiful horses remained, fallen.

While Cullen looked elsewhere for a moment, Ulli attempted to escape. Impossible. As he turned his head, he pushed his longsword forward as if to stab, and Ulli cried out.

“Do you have eyes on the side of your head?!”

“I hate wasting time, so hurry.”

“Fine. I hate royals and nobles to death. That’s all.”

Cullen stopped surveying his surroundings and looked down at Ulli. Shorter than the average height of Empire women, her head reached only about Cullen’s neck. Ulli’s glib tone changed.

“My mother died because of nobles. She suffered in ways you pampered humans could never imagine before she passed. A beautiful widow is hard to survive alone.”

A quiet rage flickered in Ulli’s eyes. Cullen observed her silently. Things that happen to powerless commoners… Cullen had seen plenty of that. The anger itself seemed genuine. Cullen moved on to the next question.

“How did you know my eye color?”

Ulli answered without hesitation.

“My mother worked as a maid in the Imperial Palace, so I saw Princesses and Princes from afar back then. I know you’re not supposed to talk about it, but since she’s gone, I can’t kill her, can I? Right?”

At the word ‘Princess,’ Cullen paused. Ulli looked very young, but she was clearly an adult. If her mother worked in the palace, perhaps she was referring to that Princess as her mother.

“How old are you?”

“Why are you asking my age? To spare me?”

Cullen answered with a cold look. Ulli made a tsk sound and said,

“Twenty-eight.”

Whether she was telling the truth or not, she was around the same age. In that case, she could have been a maid who served her mother, or perhaps a kitchen maid. For now, Cullen decided to keep this person, who might be an assassin or someone else, alive. It was his fault for being careless earlier.

“Is your reason for hating nobles the same as your reason for hating royals?”

Ulli grew wary at his calm tone, which had changed since they first met.

“Why are you suddenly acting nice?”

“Just answer.”

“…Yes. Royals are even worse. They don’t even think of helping when things like that are happening below. You call yourselves the masters of this land? Is the great bloodline that rules dragons truly saving the suffering people like in the founding myths? My mother even worked in the Imperial Palace. Yet the royals don’t even care what happens to the insignificant commoners who support their palace.”

After that, Ulli’s indignant whispers continued without Cullen needing to ask.

“You’re all the same. All of you.”

Cullen remained silent. As the silence stretched, Ulli spoke with resignation. Meeting his eyes directly, she said boldly.

“Kill me. As you said, this is a world where the strong win. I lost, so I deserve to die.”

“Why didn’t you use the weapon on your back?”

Cullen asked what he had been wondering about for a while. She wouldn’t carry such a large greatsword just for show. If her bow was broken, she should have used the greatsword, but Ulli hadn’t.

At the mention of the greatsword, Ulli looked slightly flustered. She bit her lip and said,

“I hate royals like you, but… if I use this, innocent people could get hurt. I don’t do that. Damn it, why do you keep asking? Just kill me.”

Ulli, snapping, closed her eyes tightly. Cullen slowly lowered his sword. There were many puzzling things about this woman. Since there was information to be gleaned, it would be better to keep her with him.

“Let’s go. We need to find a way out.”

“…Why aren’t you killing me?”

“It’s my decision.”

At those words, Ulli looked confused.

“Are you really taking me with you like this? Then I can’t help you, can I?”

Cullen tied one of Ulli’s wrists to his own with the rope he had. It was unavoidable, as he had to be wary of her escaping or trying any tricks.

They walked through the underground, which was winding and branched out in various directions. It was like a burrow made by insects living underground. Insects larger than most monsters.

“Please shut up. You talk as much as Lasano.”

“Lasano? Who’s that, a noble?”

Unconsciously using Lasano as a comparison, Cullen flinched. He seemed to have become too accustomed to the people around him during the past two months of change.

“Don’t compare me to a noble. It’s unpleasant…”

Ulli, who had been leading the way through the burrow, stopped. She stopped abruptly and turned her head sharply. Her surprised eyes looked unusual. Cullen slowly approached Ulli. Moving along the wall, Cullen soon faced a sight he had never seen before.

On either side of the tunnel-like passage they had been walking through were cells. But they were not ordinary cells. There were many people inside the cells. More precisely, there were women and children.

The people were not looking back, engrossed in what they were doing. Powdery substances swirled around, and the women were grinding dried red flowers. When the ground powder accumulated in small wooden tubs, the children would scoop it with wooden spoons and put it into long containers about the size of an adult’s pinky finger.

“What… what is this?”

Ulli’s voice trembled. Cullen was also speechless for a moment. Perhaps from lack of light, the people’s skin had lost its original color and was pale, and they were emaciated as if they hadn’t eaten properly. The children crawling around the women’s legs were no different.

“I… I know the people here.”

Anger began to slowly fill her voice. She moved her bound hands sharply. Cullen pulled her back.

“You shouldn’t go out now. Seeing them imprisoned, there must be guards.”

Ulli struggled and glared at him fiercely. She whispered in a low voice.

“Lana there has asthma and shouldn’t be in a place like this! It’s not just Lana. Half of the women here, half of them are…”

Ulli’s eyes turned bright red.

“They’re women who worked at the ‘Unextinguishable Light’.”

At those words, Cullen paused. He knew that place too. The place Ulli mentioned was where mercenaries in Dadin went to buy women for a night. Disgusting, but such places existed everywhere.

“I’ll release you if you find a way out. If there are guards, we’ll have to deal with them, and there are the Demonic Beasts. Didn’t you see them?”

“I know that, but…”

Ulli bit her lip and wiped away the tears welling up with her other hand. Taking a deep breath, she nodded.

“You’re right. Let’s assess the situation first. I got excited for a moment. Sorry.”

Surprisingly, she quickly assessed the situation and even apologized. Stepping back, Ulli pressed herself against Cullen. Cullen let her do so. It wasn’t a movement for an ambush. Lifting her foot, Ulli looked directly into Cullen’s eyes and said through gritted teeth.

“And when I find the bastard who did this despicable act, I will kill him.”

Cullen slowly nodded.

“…Understood.”

He said no more. Judging by Ulli’s reaction, what she said about her mother seemed true. The burn scar on her pale, delicate neck caught his eye. It was complicated.

“…Let’s go.”

Ulli surveyed the surroundings and pointed to another path.

“If we go down this path, we’ll attract attention, so let’s check out another place.”

“Agreed.”

They left the cells by that path. Entering a fork, they walked down a long corridor, muffling their presence.

Cullen briefly thought of those left above. Kiyen would be fine. Arne would be with Kiyen and Lasano, so she should be fine.

The problem was whether they could escape from here and how they would reunite. The Demonic Beast he glimpsed seemed to be among the largest Cullen had ever faced. Moreover, Kiyen had felt ‘that power’…

“Shh, there’s someone there.”

Ulli stopped. Cullen narrowed his eyes and scanned ahead. Unlike the cells from before, the inside was a space that could reasonably accommodate people. Another difference was that only men were here. Cullen easily recognized their identity.

“…Gael was here.”

Gael was with his mercenary band. He looked much older than when Cullen had last seen him, but his graying eyebrows and sharp gray eyes remained the same.

“Lord Gael? That means…”

“Shh.”

Cullen briefly covered Ulli’s mouth. Ulli pushed him away and stiffened as Gael moved. Gael approached a woman kneeling on the floor and drew his sword from its scabbard. His sword, famous for being blue, was known to be sharp enough to cut stone.

The moment a thought of ‘no way’ crossed his mind, Gael drew his sword diagonally. Before the kneeling woman could even scream, a red line was drawn across her throat. Ulli’s eyes widened.

A few seconds later, the woman’s body slowly disintegrated. Her severed head separated from her body and fell to the ground with a thud. Blood began to gush from the separated neck. Gael looked down at his opponent with a blank expression. The mercenaries around him did the same.

Ulli tapped Cullen’s hand. Cullen removed his hand from her mouth. She whispered in a hushed voice.

“Lord Gael wouldn’t do that. He never kills people carelessly. Especially women…”

Cullen knew that too. Moreover, Gael’s presence here meant he was connected to the events in the cells in some way.

Cullen didn’t trust people easily, but he trusted Gael’s character. He had tried his best to regulate mercenaries who carelessly impregnated women at the ‘Unextinguishable Light’ and left, and he had helped many women in Dadin who became widows after losing their mercenary husbands.

But there were limits. He didn’t have an abundance of money, and he had a job to do. It was impossible for Gael, who was neither a noble nor a lord of the territory, to resolve all the injustices.

“Yes, that’s right.”

Someone replied to Ulli’s words. It wasn’t Cullen. They both turned their bodies at the same time. He saw a gaunt, tall, skeletal man with eyes burning green. He stood behind them, with the Demonic Beast they had seen immediately upon falling here.

“So, rats have snuck in. You seem quite skilled, so I shall personally take care of you.”

“What nonsense…!”

The green light cut off Ulli’s words. The man’s hand shot out, and the light that extended from it spread. Cullen squinted. It was a sensation he had felt before. It touched his forehead as if trying to penetrate him, then quickly subsided.

However, Ulli didn’t seem to be. After the light disappeared, Ulli stopped, frozen.

“I suppose I should introduce a new family member to my dolls.”

Countless thoughts raced through his mind in that short time. Cullen, about to behead the man, clenched his fist.

He stopped his movement. Like Ulli, he stared ahead. It would be difficult to handle such a Demonic Beast alone. A brief assessment suggested the Demonic Beast didn’t attack indiscriminately but seemed to obey the man’s words. If he were to harm the man, he didn’t know how the Demonic Beast would react. The space was narrow, and if he carelessly killed the man, causing the prison to collapse, the trapped individuals would likely die. Cullen decided to play along with the man for now.

The man grabbed Ulli’s chin. Holding and turning her delicate jaw, he let out a surprised “Ho.” Cullen’s hand, gripping his sword, tightened.

“I thought you were a man, but were you a pretty girl?”

If he tried anything strange… then he would have to kill him. Cullen gritted his teeth and stood still. However, the man examined Ulli’s face and then let go. He then grabbed Cullen’s chin. It smelled faintly of damp earth.

“What handsome brutes have rolled in. You’ll be good for looks.”

As he spoke, the man squinted, muttering, “Hm?” He met Cullen’s gaze.

“Something’s strange.”

After staring intently at Cullen, he released his chin. Then, he suddenly struck Cullen’s cheek with considerable force. It was strong enough to feel like his mouth would burst. Cullen remained expressionless as he took the blow without resistance. As he calmly turned his head, the Sorcerer made a humming sound.

“Was I mistaken? Well, many have been coming lately, and I’ve used up a lot of my strength. Hey, you two, go inside.”

Following the man’s command, Ulli moved first. She turned her body like a doll and walked inside, towards Gael. Cullen quickly followed behind her. He could feel the man’s gaze fixed on his back.

Finally, he understood Gael’s actions.

The man was a Sorcerer. And one specializing in mind control. Cullen knew little about Magic, but he understood that Sorcerers typically couldn’t exert their power on more than one or two individuals.

Sorcerers like Kiyen, who could wield power extensively and without any group, didn’t exist. Yet, this man had used his power on them, and on Ulli. That was impossible.

However, if he were connected to the power that defiled Exion Territory…

Then the story would change.