Chapter 65
* * *
Cadel stepped through the charred door and entered. The house was pitch black and filled with a stench that rivaled the one outside.
He levitated a small fireball into the air and used it as a lantern to search the house.
“It's full of dust. It seems that it has been out of touch for a while.”
Lumen was right, the house was neglected. Uncleaned dishes were strewn across the dining room table, and the furniture was dusty and faded. The fire hadn't been lit in a while, and there was a chill in the air, even with the fireball floating in the air.
‘No body seen yet. Did they evacuate beforehand?’
If so, that was really fortunate, however, for some reason, the ominous feeling did not go away easily.
Cadel and his group were exploring the first floor, but they were having little success. Before they knew it, Lydon descended from the second floor and found them, laughing merrily.
“Cadel! Look what I found!”
His gaze turned reflexively toward Lydon. Cadel's face became contemplative when he found something dangling from under his hand.
“A, a corpse?”
What Lydon brought down was not an object, but a person. A small child, no more than eight years old, swayed helplessly with every inconsiderate movement Lydon made.
As Cadel stood frozen, Van, who had run first, checked the child's condition. He looked back at Cadel and said.
“The child is still alive. Although he seems to be short of breath.”
“He, he’s alive? Let me see!”
He really was. He was breathing, albeit faintly.
Cadel, in a hurry, picked up the child from Lydon and found a place to lay him down. Quickly unfolding the robe in the thick dust, he carefully laid the child on it.
‘He’s in very bad condition.’
It was a terrible sight due to the skin and bones. The child’s cheeks were hollow and his lips white. His bare wrists were a patchwork of leather over bone. His eyes were tightly closed, and his breathing was faint and intermittent as if he could pass away at any moment.
‘What should I do? I don't think there are any healers in this village. What…… What should I do?’
Every second seemed urgent. Van came up beside Cadel, who panicked and kept checking on the child.
“I think he’s been starving for a long time. It looks like he hasn't even drunk water, so let's give him some water, Commander.”
Unlike Cadel, who was at a loss, Van seemed quite used to this situation.
He propped up the child's head and held the mouth of the water bottle from his bag over his lips. A trickle of water dampened the child’s dry, sticky lips. Carefully, Van pressed his cheeks together to part his lips and trickled water through the gap.
Cadel watched Van nervously. In the meantime, Lumen, who was rummaging through his bag from behind, tapped him on the shoulder.
“If possible, try feeding him this as well.”
“This is…….”
“It's an energy pill. It's not a potion but something you can chew.”
The energy pill was a valuable pill that greatly boosted the energy of the consumer. It would certainly be a great help if they could feed it.
Cadel nodded grimly and clutched the round pill tightly. Despite his premonition that this child might hold the key to the quest, Cadel hoped that the child would wake up safely.
After about an hour of intense care, the child's consciousness returned.
* * *
It was inevitable that the cold wind would blow in because the door was broken, but Cadel tried to raise the temperature somehow by creating fireballs everywhere. And in front of him, the child who had regained consciousness was looking up at the ceiling with a blank expression.
“You've eaten the energy pill, so you won't collapse again. I know you're not going to be able to fill your stomach right away because there isn’t any usable food, but hang in there.”
“…….”
“If there's something uncomfortable, let me know.”
The child opened his eyes, but he didn't speak. Maybe he didn't have the energy to speak, maybe he didn't want to say anything. Cadel couldn't tell.
‘What to ask to make it less traumatizing for the child.’
Cadel had a million questions he wanted to ask, but he couldn't help but be considerate of the child who was barely awake.
‘I should ask him how long he's been locked up. His parents…… They must be dead. If they were alive, he wouldn't be like this.’
The moment Cadel, who had thus concluded, opened his mouth. The child, who had remained silent all along, murmured in a cracked voice.
“Mom and Dad…… are upstairs.”
* * *
Cadel stared at the black marks on the tattered sheets. The human-shaped black marks emitted an incredibly nauseating stench he'd never smelled before in his life.
‘This is his parents…….’
The location was accurate. A bed on the second floor, as the child said. There was only one room and one bed on the second floor, so there was no mistake.
Two ‘human marks’ were carved side by side on the bed. The different lengths and widths depicted the difference in physique between a typical male and female.
His chest rose and fell with his heavy breathing. Swallowing dryly, Cadel asked.
“What do you think this is? Lydon.”
Lydon stuck his head out the window in the room. In response to the question, he shrugged.
“Human corpses.”
“Corpses…….”
“Um, corpse marks?”
“That would be more accurate.”
Corpse marks. There were no corpses on the bed while there were marks made by impurities from old corpses.
The house was sealed off from the outside world, and a child alone could not have moved adult's corpses without leaving a trace. So where did the corpses go? It wasn't a difficult question for Cadel, who had already identified the killer.
‘The corpses are corroded. They have gone to the bone.’
No matter how powerful the demon was, the bodies would not have melted away overnight. It must have been a long time before that.
The child must have been curled up for days by the side of his decaying parents. Cadel’s face crumpled at the thought.
‘That's just too much.’
It was a horribly cruel experience to go through at such a young age. If this had been a normal game, Cadel might have been able to pass it off as a ‘that's too bad’ experience.
But Cadel saw it all. The sight of the skin-to-bone child lying unconscious on the ground, and the sight of the child who finally came to his senses looking frantically for his parents.
Biting his lip, he turned away.
“Let's go down. There's nothing else to look at.”
As he and Lydon descended the stairs, Van, who had been watching the child, looked up. The child stared blankly into space, then scrambled to his feet when he spotted Cadel.
“How, how are my parents?”
“…….”
Perhaps his parents were alive before the child lost consciousness. Whatever they looked like, they were still breathing, so there was hope.
Cadel, who pursed his lips for a moment, smiled as softly as he could and stroked the child's head.
“Don't worry and rest.”
The child was about to ask more, but then his eyes dropped. He hadn't seen his parents dead, but he had some idea of their final fate. He just hadn't accepted it yet.
His heart was heavy. Cadel, who was trying hard to manage his expression, looked around.
“Van. Where's Lumen?”
“He went out to look around the village. Should I call him?”
“No. Never mind.”
They couldn't stay in this house forever. With only a few people left to look after the child, they had to start exploring the village.
As Cadel prepared to leave, he heard the child's trembling voice.
“Next door…… Dino, my friend lives there. For a long time, I can't…….see him…….”
They hadn't seen a single villager wandering around outside. So most of them were either dead, like the child's parents, or had collapsed from long isolation. If they were lucky, they were unconscious.
Cadel looked back at the child and nodded.
“I'll look for him.”
With that short answer, a system window popped up.
「Main quest ‘Plague Spreader’ accepted!」
「Clear the quest to proceed with the story. You will be rewarded.」
「On failure, all ‘Baskin villagers’ will die.」
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