Chapter 155: The Shadow of Insu Village (4)

From the horrifying pit in the riverbed, hundreds and thousands of fish all stared at me at the same time.

[After wandering around Insu Village, you reached a place where something dreadful awaited you. There should have been a river here, but there is no water. Your magical talents quickly allow you to realize what has happened to this place. Some surreal effect must have made the water disappear. But that fact no longer matters. The countless corpses before you ignite your fear.]

Stop it; don't look at me! You monsters! Don't look at me! Don't come closer! I don't know! I'm different from you! I didn't kill you!

[System: Attempting to resist the fear with your mental strength stat. Mental strength check...failed]

It itched under my skin. It felt like my skin would tear and scales would sprout. My vision wavered. It itched. My skin itched. I scratched my skin with my nails. Ah, it itched. The fishy smell. Strange things were all over my body.

Aaaahhh—

I screamed, but only bubbles came out of my mouth. I couldn't see. I felt dizzy. My feet moved. Where was I going? Where should I go now? I bubbled. My legs gave out.

The world spun around. Wet mud seeped through my mask. Had I fallen? I was crawling in the mud.

It itched. My arm itched. My skin peeled away, revealing the scales hidden beneath. Ah. My vision spun. The strange-looking village chief and the villagers came to mind.

The words they spoke poured out of my mouth.

"Ph'nglui Mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh Wgah'nagl Fhtagn."

[System: Due to the effect of 'Mental Illness - Ichthyophobia', 'Status Aiment - Amnesia' occurs.]

I woke up in a strange place.

I was curled up in an odd position. My neck and back hurt.

"Where... am I?"

I felt the texture of stone behind me.

A strange building stood before my eyes.

This doesn't look like the village chief's house.

Was it the yard of another house?

My memory was hazy.

Did I lose my memory again?

My hemp clothes were torn. The tears weren't the problem. The clothes were soaked with mud and blood and they were in a terrible state.

Moreover, there was immense pain and numerous wounds on both my arms. What were these injuries?

Ugh, one of my nails was missing?

I didn't know whether to feel relieved or not, but this time, I vaguely remembered what I saw right before losing my memory.

"Ugh... it doesn't seem to be a particularly helpful memory, though."

It looked like I had been wandering the village and scratching myself with my own hands.

"If this madness continues, I might really die next time."

What a great job I was doing. What kind of incredible wealth and glory was I hoping to achieve by sticking my head under the river?

But it was such a sudden turn of events, wasn't it?

Damn. I made a mess by foolishly barking up the wrong tree.

[! Time Limit: (2) days until the village festival begins. !]

A message window popped up as if to urge me on.

It hadn't been a full day yet.

Because of the fog, it was hard to gauge the passage of time, but it didn't seem like a long time had passed since I lost consciousness.

Flap—

"Huh?"

A strange, bright red creature flew onto my shoulder.

It had a round body like a bead, a large snout running across it, and a pair of wings.

"Red."

Red was the one I ordered to follow the villagers.

"Why did you come back?"

"Kiieee..."

Red responded with a soft whimper.

"What did I do? No, don't answer like that. Share your memory with me."

Honestly, since it was hastily made, its intelligence wasn't very high. Red who was sitting on my shoulder moved closer to my ear and opened its mouth.

Slurp—

Three tendrils emerged from Red's mouth.

They burrowed into my ear.

"Ugh. This doesn't feel good."

As Red's consciousness connected with me, a metallic taste filled my mouth.

I felt my muscles twitch as if they were electrified, a strange euphoria, and my vision was spinning.

I saw what Red had witnessed.

Villagers climbing the mountain while making eerie whimpering sounds.

Monstrous figures that looked like they were wearing human skins.

A completely different species from the people who had been piling mud around here.

"So, where did they go?"

They entered a wooden house deep in the mountains.

It was not an ordinary building. It was large with many rooms. Furthermore, there were bizarre decorations and otherworldly patterns placed around the house. The structure was designed with a shamanistic effect in mind.

This must have been the temple.

"You followed them well without losing sight of them. Then?"

Inside the temple, there was a prison.

In the prison, there was a pile of straw and humans chained together. There were seven people imprisoned.

Two guards with alien appearances were watching over the prison.

"Was there anything else? My artifacts?"

In the center of the building, there was another large door.

A huge and terrifying pattern was drawn over the entire door. Beyond the door, the faint sound of waves could be heard.

According to the orders Red received beforehand, it tried to approach the door but...

"But? What is this? Why did you stop?"

The master called. I had to return.

"Ah, you returned because I called you. You did everything you could while I was scratching myself during the madness. The time? Ah, only an hour has passed?"

Luckily, not much time had passed since the incident.

One more thing. Red had captured important information on the way back.

"You looked down at the village scenery on your way back to me? Well done. This area... Ugh, it's really deep in the mountains, isn't it?"

It was already confirmed information, but I thought it might be a hallucination or a delusion.

However, it wasn't. This was not the sea.

"In the mountains..."

Judging by the overall structure, it was a village located in a typical site with a mountain behind and water in front.

Besides the dried-up river around here, there seemed to be a river farther away, but there was no sea.

Given the keywords like Dragon King, deep sea, and ship, I thought it was a sea-themed quest but strangely enough, it was inland.

"So, where exactly is this place?"

Was it still Paju?

"Damn it. Mystery, horror, I like all of those."

But it gets frustrating if it drags on too long.

When will this quest end?

I wish someone would explain it soon.

"Still, the fortunate thing is..."

Unlike me who was wandering aimlessly, Red was doing its best.

"Red, you did a great job. You did a lot."

"Kkiyiiii!"

Red squealed with joy.

"Yeah, but I wasn't just wandering around doing nothing."

There was something I had noticed.

"Let's check what you found later and for now, let's try to catch a guide."

I kissed Red's wing again and gave it a new command.

Flap, flap.

Red took off again.

"You're doing a better job than I expected. Should I extend your lifespan and use you for multiple purposes?"

After flying above the village and circling around a few times, Red soon found the person I had indicated.

Unlike the villagers who were exhaustedly plastering their houses with mud, a dirty old man was sitting and leaning against a nearby wall. Despite the prohibition against drinking during the festival period, he was staggeringly and clearly drunk.

He's in a prominent position; this makes it inconvenient to lure him in.

Red landed on the ground beside the old man.

At the right moment, I cast a spell aimed at Red.

[Minor Illusion]

[Charm]

I created the illusion of a soju bottle over Red's body.

"Uh...? Is that alcohol...?"

The old man picked up Red with a dazed expression on his face.

"Why is there a soju bottle here...?"

Yes, go ahead and drink it all.

"Gulp?!"

Instead of soju, Red's body slid down the old man's throat.

"Urgh. Ugh..."

The old man's eyes turned blood red. He staggered along like a zombie.

After dragging him to a spot out of sight from others, I approached him.

"Sir, may I ask you something?"

Though I look a bit of a mess myself.

I was covered in mud and blood while wearing a mask.

I looked quite strange to anyone, but the old man still gazed at me with those blood-red eyes.

He wore a dazed expression on his face as if he was lost in a hallucination. At this moment, I was set to look like the most ideal and appealing figure in the old man's mind.

"Are you... a nobleman?"

"Yes. Where are we right now?"

"This is... Insu Village."

"Ah. Where is this Insu Village? Is this Paju?"

"Paju ... Eoryong-ri."

"Eoryong-ri?"

Where was that?

Though I had an intelligence stat of 30, my memory had several gaps, but I managed to retrieve some information.

"Huh?"

I couldn't recall much about Eoryong-ri. It seemed I had lost that information along with other details of this quest.

However, I could at least remember roughly where Eoryong-ri was located.

Because I could recall all the other place names in Paju. There was just one gap.

And this gap was...

"Could it be, beyond the Great Wall?"

Northwest of Chopyeong Island.

It was an off-limits area that could only be reached by crossing the Imjin River and the Great Wall.

How did I get here?

"Why am I here?"

The old man hesitated for a moment; he didn't understand my question immediately. His bloodshot eyes briefly spun in confusion.

"I asked the wrong question. What does the overseer do?"

"If I tell, I will die..."

The brainwashing was severe. I sent magical power to the red being inside the old man and spoke again.

I want to talk about the overseer. This isn't you revealing a secret. You're just talking to yourself. You are talking to yourself.

"How strange, I want to talk about the overseer all of a sudden. This isn't me revealing a secret. I'm just talking to myself. I am talking to myself..."

The old man repeated my words and then continued with a dazed expression on his face.

"...There are two kinds of overseers. One are young overseers who will be sacrificed. The real overseer enters to make a wish to the Dragon King. Those fools don't even know it's a lie."

A wish. It didn't seem like something the past Kim Sin-hwa would have wanted.

"Tell me more."

"This time, a shaman wearing a mask introduced by 'Yong-soo' came while claiming to be the overseer. He wore a strange mask with four eyes. That guy brought seven people as live sacrifices, saying they were young overseers."

Who? I brought seven innocent people as sacrifices?

"Seven people..."

Were those the people Red found earlier?

No matter how mad the past Kim Sin-hwa was, it was unlikely I would have captured innocent civilians. I needed to investigate further.

"Who controls this village?"

"The one who controls this village is... The one who controls this village is..."

The old man's face turned deathly pale.

It was a dramatic change. The intoxication and the magic I cast seemed to vanish. The old man covered his face with trembling hands.

"The one who controls this village, the one who controls this village, the one who controls this village, the one who controls this village... Huh, huhuhu... Huhuhuhu..."

The old man's eyes rolled back as he convulsed.

"Ugh, hey, sir, calm down."

No, saying this wouldn't help.

Calm down, breathe, there's nothing wrong, no one is going to hurt you.

"C-calm down, b-breathe... No one, no one is going to hurt me. They can't kill me. My son. My dear... Ah... No one will hurt me."

There seemed to be a deep story behind whatever he said.

I felt sorry for the old man, but I didn't want to know the story. They were probably eaten by those monsters or offered as sacrifices.

Say it again. The name of the one who controls this village.

"T-the one who controls this village... i-is a god... the Dragon King of the Yellow Sea..."

"Dragon King?"

"The f-father of the sea, the great twin of the deep waters..."

A sudden headache surged. My head started to hurt.

The old man finished his words with a look of despair.

"Daegon."

No. No.

It's not Daegon, it's another name, isn't it?

Like the distorted chant the villagers sang, this was a distorted name.

I remembered.

The correct pronunciation is...

"[Lord of Murky Waters]. Dagon"