Chapter 397: Side Story, Dream Flower (20)

"Wake up. It's hard to do this alone, even for me."

Upon arriving at the back alley the [Book of Truth] guided me to, I reached out to Rachel. However, she could only painfully groan, seemingly finding it hard for her to even breathe. Beneath her pure white skin, poisoned dark green veins popped out.

I gave her the marble of regeneration.

"Hold on to this."

Wooosh-

Beyond the darkness, the slayers threw numerous bullet-like daggers, but I shot them all down with real bullets.

In a world without mana, weapons stronger than guns were rare.

"Ugh... You..."

Rachel soon came to her senses. Using Gallatin as a cane, she staggered towards me and rested her weight against me.

I continued aiming at our opponents.

"... Hmm?"

They were watching us quietly like stone statues on the walls. With their intention remaining unknown, I couldn't easily pull the trigger.

"Pant... pant..."

As for our side, Rachel's breathing had stabilized slightly, but she was still boiling hot.

When a cold wind blew in, our enemies began to move once more. Using the gust to their advantage, they ran towards me at a completely different speed than before.

Activating the bullet countdown, I fired my pistol in one hand and held a dagger in the other.

"... Huh?"

They seemed to be riding the air currents themselves.

Predicting their trajectories, I shot at them but missed. Far too irregularly scattered, they soared into the skies, plummeted to the ground, rushed forward, and appeared behind our backs.

Dealing with these bastards and their freedom over their mobility made me question their actions. Why did they only begin using their speed now? They could've finished Rachel before I could even arrive, considering how fast they were.

Just for fun?

Clank-!

A dagger flew in towards my forehead, but I easily deflected it with a dagger of my own.

However, I couldn't defend against the slayer that rushed in at the same time and speed as the weapon he threw.

"Ugh!"

He landed a punch on my stomach, pushing me away, and left several cuts on my Spirit Stone armor before I could react.

However, they soon abruptly stopped moving and fled to the walls again. Like owls, they remained still while looking down at us.

What principle of action were they even following?

Were they just mocking us, or did they have no choice but to do that?

As I calmly reloaded my gun, a single word popped into my mind.

"... Wind."

They only moved while the wind was blowing.

Now that I thought about it, a mana storm raged on when they launched their first raid against us as well.

What did the air have to do with their strength?

If only I knew this would happen, I would've fleshed out Lancaster's settings a bit more...

Whooooosh-!

The wind blew again, stronger this time.

As I expected, it carried multiple daggers with it.

That was all I had to know.

If their weapon was the air currents themselves, there was an absolute method to destroy them.

I just had to extinguish the wind.

I deliberately allowed two of the daggers they threw to hit me. It caused my Spirit Stone armor and ether to react immediately, minimizing the damage their attack could cause. Nevertheless, I blatantly covered the wound inflicted on my waist with my hand and bowed down.

"Argh!"

Considering Rachel screamed in surprise, my acting had to have been quite good.

Thanks to the magnitude of her reaction, they fell into my trap. All nine of them rushed at me along with the gusts.

At that moment, I deployed my Spirit Stone.

Swooosh-!

Bending the road surface around us, I sealed us in. The air stagnated, and the light disappeared, imprisoning us in complete darkness.

"Shit..."

With their eyes and weapons rendered useless, they trembled anxiously. On the other hand, I couldn't be in any more comfort than this. As an ace marksman that could see invisible entities, this cold darkness was my perfect ally.

Click—

I attached the ether protecting my body to the pistol and transformed it into a shotgun.

This drastically reduced my defense power, but it made my destructive ability unmatched. Each shot could quite literally make bodies explode.

Swish—!

The slayers threw hundreds of daggers from every direction, creating a curtain of blades. However, Rachel swiftly appeared seemingly out of nowhere, deflecting them all.

"A-Are you okay?!"

She sounded quite desperate, almost as if she had seriously mistaken I was injured.

"I'm fine. You can rest easy." I answered.

As far as I knew, her condition still wasn't optimal. Now that her poison's progression and the orb's recovery collided, she should be quite dizzy and distressed.

"No!"

Rachel insisted, but...

Bang—!

As soon as I fired my shotgun, its deafening noise startled her and forced her to cover her ears.

Walking ever so slowly, I pulled the trigger.

With their sense of direction and visions blocked, our opponents' mobility was worthless. Now that I had eliminated the gusts as well, they could no longer move as swiftly as before.

I filled their hearts with shotgun shells.

Boom-! Boom-! Boom-!

The sound of raging billows invading their surroundings and bolts hitting the ground filled the crypt.

Unable to withstand his weapon's firepower, he gave them swift yet painful deaths. Humans couldn't fight tanks head-on, after all.

Crash!

A stray dagger pierced my shoulder, but it didn't matter. I shoved my shotgun into another prey's jaw and made their brain and blood splatter.

"Ugh."

Tasting iron in my mouth and smelling a disgusting, fish-like stench, something surged from within me, but I held it back.

I continuously pulled the trigger, shattering every opponent I came across into fragments. Nevertheless, they didn't give up. On the contrary, they rushed towards me, prepared to lay down their lives.

Dozens of explosions resounded.

"... Whew."

The slayers lost every semblance they had to their humanity, having been shredded by shotgun shells while I swallowed back nausea.

This was why close combat was the worst. I chose to be a sharpshooter to avoid this kind of situation in the first place...

I dismantled the earthen wall and surveyed our surroundings.

Rachel stared at me amid the aftermath of this slaughter, which made our vicinity look like hell itself. I couldn't quite decipher what emotion filled her eyes.

"... Are you okay?" I asked, walking over to her.

She didn't answer. Instead, she slowly raised her hand and wrapped it around my gas mask, her face coming inches away from mine. I realized at this moment I could never get used to her wavering eyes and messy figure.

It was as if I had just experienced deja vu.

"Blood..."

With a faint sigh, she wiped the blood from my gas mask. Smiling, I shook my head.

"It's not mine."

She stared at me intently. With our faces this close, even my gas mask was useless. I was certain she could see my eyes as clear as I could see hers.

... Why did I have to wear a gas mask that made me look so uncool?

Such a shame. Many other face coverings were way better than this one.

Rachel hastily reached out and wrapped her arms around the back of my neck, blocking a dagger that flew in towards my nape with her flesh.

I looked behind me urgently, finding an arm moving despite already being separated from its body.

I shot a pistol and broke my arm.

Wee-oww...

Right after, I heard sirens in the distance. The sounds of gunshots had to have leaked out, causing people nearby to call the cops on us.

I looked up at the sky, then at Rachel, finding her still staring at me. Losing her strength, she soon peacefully lost consciousness.

* * *

Rachel slowly opened her eyes, finding fluorescent lights on the ceiling.

Blinking a couple of times while looking at it, her mind wandered.

She felt like she was dreaming. Her whole body jiggled.

"You're awake."

A mellifluous voice caressed her consciousness. Following where it came from, she found a man sitting on a chair nearby.

It had been so long since they last met, but she still felt as familiar with Kim Hajin as if they just hung out yesterday.

As expected, it wasn't a dream.

Rachel got up silently, rubbing her face and tidying up her clothes. Abrupt dizziness coursed through her body, causing her to stagger.

"Are you okay?"

She couldn't get used to that gentle voice.

"... Yes," Rachel replied awkwardly.

"Then, look at this."

"..."

She had so many questions for him, but Rachel did as he instructed instead.

He opened up several files and showed them to her.

[The occurrence of a bitten corpse...]

[Simultaneous murder case.]

[Zombie drugs?]

It was the breaking news she had seen at BK Heaven. It seemed he had already discovered the incident's origin.

"The clear condition seems to have something to do with these."

"..."

Analyzing the files, she nodded and soon glanced at him, seemingly having a lot to say. She was still a bit clunky, though.

Right now, she thought making each other's positions clear was more important than the clear condition. If he really was Xtra, then the reason he helped her and the truth about James Finley might just be...

"As for how Lancaster got here, I'm guessing they've already infiltrated the depths of the Hall or have gained enough public points to be able to intervene with it."

Rachel, unable to ask any question of her own, only licked her lips as Kim Hajin spoke about nothing but official matters. It was as if he didn't want to talk to her or didn't find the need for her to know the answers to her curiosities.

"We should gather the members first before intervening in this case," He concluded, acting as if he was the leader. She tried to speak up as the British Royal Guild's Vice-captain, but no words came out.

Her vocal cords refused to move. Attempting to use them put her in so much pain she couldn't even endure it.

Growl-

A sound similar to thunder shook the room.

Startled, she hastily covered her stomach with a couch cushion. That didn't really stop the sounds her grumbling stomach made, though.

Growl-

It growled once again, this time much louder than before.

She trembled, having experienced this much shame for the first time in her life.

"T-This is... I... Ummm..."

"..."

Kim Hajin looked at her without saying anything. She couldn't meet his gaze, which seemingly thought of her as a child. Biting her lower lip and closing her eyes, she attempted to somehow hold on with her mental strength.

"Are you hungry?"

"..."

Rachel's eyelids opened.

"I tried as hard as I can, but I can't hold it in anymore..." She said, her voice quite teary and filled with anguish.

What she was experiencing was a very natural physiological phenomenon.

A body strengthened by mana pulled most of the energy it needed from mana. Even if its owner didn't take in nutrients, they'd still be sucking in mana through the air they breathed.

However, in this world, such sustenances were unavailable. That made eating the only method available to supplement the energy their physiques required, ultimately dooming them to become gluttons.

Rachel would never be able to adapt. Her basal metabolic rate most likely increased tremendously, perhaps even to the level of an elephant, if compared to an animal. That wouldn't even be an exaggeration.

"Oh, it's okay. I understand."

Kim Hajin thought he had to feed Rachel first before tending to the matters at hand anyway.

"Seriously... What's wrong with me... Why...."

He really thought she would cry if she didn't eat something. After all, they just fought a fierce battle last night. Then she slept for nearly twelve hours straight.

"Wait a second."

Kim Hajin got up and headed to the kitchen, hoping to serve her with food Evandel liked, only four or five times as much.

Pretending to open the refrigerator and take out ingredients, he first rolled the Random Dice, filling the fridge with the finest ingredients.

Growl, growl...

As he cooked, the cries of Rachel's stomach continued to echo.

With her dignity of being part of the royal family collapsing completely, she fell into disarray. Kim Hajin just put on some music, pretending not to hear anything.

Turning the volume up to max seemed to cover the noise to some extent, at the very least.