Chapter 226. Seven Rooms (8)
“Mr. Ru Amuh.” While returning to the room where Airi was, a thought suddenly popped into Chi-Woo’s head, and he asked. “Why did you do that?”
“Sorry, sir?”
“When you threw your sword away. What were you thinking when you gave up your weapon…?”
“Ah…” Ru Amuh slightly smiled. “The monster who imitated Sir Dalgil was more cunning than I thought, so I judged that I needed to immediately gain your trust and reacted.”
“But I could also be a fake.”
“Even so, that was my only option.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s no way I can harm you with my own hands,” Ru Amuh said matter-of-factly. Even though Chi-Woo might not be Chi-Woo, the smallest possibility that he was the real deal prevented Ru Amuh from raising his sword at Chi-Woo.
Chi-Woo stared at Ru Amuh intently. Ru Amuh’s response was short, but every word was imbued with his trust and faith in Chi-Woo. It appeared that the trust level his user information showed was accurate, and it would’ve been absurd for two people in basically a parent-and-child relationship to cross blades. For some reason, Chi-Woo felt embarrassed and scratched his head.
“Don’t do that next time,” Chi-Woo said, and Ru Amuh smiled without saying anything. As they conversed, they eventually reached their destination. Chi-Woo hurriedly opened the iron door and entered. Fortunately, Airi was fine, and she was lying exactly where he’d left her.
“Ms. Airi. It was as you said. It was a trap…Ms. Airi?”
Airi didn’t answer. She simply heaved on the floor with her eyes closed. Perhaps she had gotten exhausted from waiting and fallen asleep.
“She was awake for a bit…”
“May I take a look?” Ru Amuh asked and approached her. He carefully inspected her; it seemed he was checking her identity as he had done with Dalgil. Chi-Woo tried to use Spirit Eye just in case, but again, it didn’t work, similar to how his synesthesia turned useless inside the fourth room. It was unlikely that his ability would suddenly be gone, and it probably was related to Mamiya’s test.
In the end, Ru Amuh nodded. The exterior injuries on Airi’s body were as he had remembered. Thus, the four returned to the center. Based on what Ru Amuh and Ru Hiana had said, it seemed they had also come to this area after walking through a long corridor, and if other paths were structured the same way, there must be rooms at the end of the other corridors, and their other companions could be there.
Thus, the four decided to search the remaining paths one-by-one in a clockwise direction besides the two they had come from. Although the search would’ve been much faster if they split up and searched individually, they decided to stick together; they didn’t know what could pop up, and if a monster pretending to be them appeared once more, it would be a huge headache to confirm each other’s identities again.
They soon reached another metal door after passing through the first path, but there was no one inside the room. The path after that was a bit different from the previous one; instead of a metal door at the end of the corridor, there was a familiar ivory-colored door.
“This must be…” Chi-Woo blinked hard at the door free of symbols.
“It seems to be leading to the next compartment,” Ru Amuh completed Chi-Woo’s sentence. They’d like to pass through this door immediately if they could, but finding the rest of their companions took priority. Thus, they decided to memorize this path and turned around. They passed through the third path and reached another iron door. They didn’t know if what awaited them inside would be friend or foe, so instead of knocking, they approached the door as quietly as possible. Ru Amuh took the lead and glanced at the two behind him before swinging the door wide open.
Sling! As soon as he opened the door, a dagger sharply flew at him. But as expected of Ru Amuh, he flicked it away with ease and restrained his opponent.
“Kuh!”
Seeing the figure in Ru Amuh’s clutch, Chi-Woo’s eyes turned wide.
“Ms. Hawa?” Chi-Woo was about to ask why she had attacked them, but he shut his mouth when he saw the red marks on Hawa’s rib area. It was soaked with a mysterious fluid, and when Chi-Woo glanced around, he noticed that his surroundings were slightly wet with a red substance.
“You must have met the monsters disguised as us,” Ru Amuh said, “And got rid of them.” When defeating the monster pretending to be Dalgil, a fluid slightly thicker than water had flown out.
Hawa calmed slightly hearing Ru Amuh’s words, but she still seemed wary. She must be wondering whether she should trust him after the ambush. It was the same for Chi-Woo. Although there was evidence that she had defeated a monster, there was no way to be sure without witnessing the scene in person.
“Now that you mention it, I recall that the monster was unable to respond to questions properly,” Chi-Woo said and remembered what Ru Amuh had said about confirming a secret that only those involved would know. He cleared his throat. “Ms. Hawa, do you remember our time in the cave under the Evalaya Volcano?”
“?”
“What did you say the most often after losing our bets?”
“…”
“Ms. Hawa?”
“…Hawawa.”
“That’s not enough. Wasn’t there more?”
“…Hawa is a school-girl-chan.” Hawa seemed to be repressing tremendous rage. Chi-Woo was satisfied with her response.
“She really is Ms. Hawa.”
Ru Amuh immediately let go and backed away. Hawa got up while glaring viciously at Chi-Woo. Her face seemed to be saying, ‘And he really is that bastard. There’s no doubt about it. Shit.’
“Ms. Hawa. Your injury…”
“It’s fine. Just a shallow cut.”
“Was there only one?”
“Yes.”
“Who was it?”
Hawa looked at Ru Hiana with her characteristically expressionless face.
“Huh? What! I’m really me!”
Ru Hiana waved her hands looking greatly flustered, and Hawa sighed.
“…I know. But besides that, can we be sure of all five of us being the real deal?”
There was no answer. This was what they believed for now, but no one could swear it for sure. And with Hawa joining them, the party grew from four to five. They returned to the center and were about to go to the fourth path when Ru Amuh suddenly stopped. There was a clunking noise, and the group backed away and waited quietly as it approached. Some time later, a figure revealed himself.
It was Dalgil. “You guys are alive…huh? What are you doing?” Dalgil was stunned to see Ru Amuh pull out his sword when he was happy to see them.
“I ask for your understanding for the precautions we are taking,” Ru Amuh said and calmly explained the situation. Dalgil nodded.
“Hm, a monster in the shape of me… I do have an inkling of what that is.”
“Are you talking about what happened inside the fourth room?”
“Yes. When I was trying to approach Bogle, I felt some fluid dig into my body, and I suddenly felt hot,” Dalgil said and continued, “With no other option, I rolled on the ground and tried to crush it with my weight. Sensing what was happening, it quickly escaped, and I heard a scream coming from another place.” It was then Dalgil commanded everyone to run, and hearing Hawa’s shout, he moved to a wall and escaped through the hole there. Then he eventually reached a room, where he collected his thoughts and recovered his strength before going outside. Chi-Woo thought his story matched theirs, but they still needed to confirm his identity.
“Could you hand us your weapon? We will also be grateful if you could take off your armor for us.”
Dalgil hesitated, but in the end, he made a bitter smile and said, “…You can kill me yourself, so there’s no point in resisting anyways.” Dalgil proceeded to obediently put down his club and slowly took off his armor. Ru Hiana squinted. Dalgil’s injuries were more severe than they had thought. Besides his right arm, Dalgil’s entire body was wounded, and the injuries on his left arm and his sides were especially severe. After finally taking off his gloves, Dalgil shrugged.
“Okay, what else should I do to prove myself?”
While meticulously studying Dalgil’s body, Ru Amuh spoke, “Do you remember the conditions of this expedition?”
“If you’re talking about the conditions grandpa Mangil offered, of course I remember. I also have the reliquia safely in my hands. If you want it, I can give it to you right now.”
Not only did he show his trust in them first, Dalgil’s wounds seemed to be in all the right places. Furthermore, he had memories that a monster wouldn’t know, and was able to maintain the flow of conversation without any problems. Ru Amuh looked behind him, and besides Airi and Hawa, everyone looked at Dalgil with acceptance.
“You may put your armor back on, sir. I will also hand your weapon back to you.”
“Thank you for trusting me.”
“We are the ones who should be thanking you. Please forgive our rudeness.”
“No, I understand. There’s no helping it in this situation. But…” Dalgil stared at each of the five of them intently. Though he hadn’t met a monster himself, he knew how serious the problem was. What if a monster was hiding among this group right now? Dalgil couldn’t help but worry.
‘Damn it, God Mamiya. Must you go this far?’ Dalgil thought. Since entering the Narsha Haram, Dalgil resented Mamiya for the first time ever. He much preferred fighting bloody battles with monsters over this, since no matter how strong the monster was, his companions and he could work together to overcome it. But the way the situation was set up…the team couldn’t help but suspect one another. Nevertheless, Dalgil didn’t let his worries show, and he asked simply,” By the way, where’s Bogle?”
“We haven’t found him yet.”
“I didn’t see him in the room I came out of, so I guess we have to go through two more paths. Let’s move right away.” After Dalgil put his gloves back on and clutched his weapon, the group started moving again. Unfortunately, they didn’t find Bogle at the end of the fifth path. There was only one more path now. Though everyone hoped that Bogle would be there, reality disappointed them, and they saw a completely empty room after opening the iron door. Since they had heard Bogle’s screams in the fourth room, he could have remained alone there, or perhaps they had crossed paths without knowing; there were many possibilities of Bogle’s whereabouts.
“Wait a moment.”
As the team exchanged their opinions, Hawa raised her hand and quietened everyone. In the silence, she focused solely on her hearing, and she heard a very faint groaning—not from inside the room, but outside. Hawa immediately ran to the door facing the fourth room and pulled. amid the darkness, an oak staff was rolling on the floor, and one figure lay collapsed.
“Bogle!” Dalgil ran toward Bogle and took him into his arms. His condition wasn’t good. It seemed he had been ambushed from the dark, and his back was coated in red. Dalgil quickly took healing potions out of Bogle’s bag and poured it over Bogle. While his bleeding had stopped, and his injuries had healed a bit, he didn’t wake up. He only groaned slightly like he was going to die soon. It seemed Bogle had run with all he had, but lost strength in front of the door and collapsed.
No one spoke even after they healed all his immediate injuries. They needed to check his identity like they did to Dalgil, but they couldn’t ask Bogle any questions in his current condition.
“What are you going to do?” Ru Amuh asked, breaking the silence.
“…Can the people at the back take care of Bogle?” Dalgil asked. Though they couldn’t be sure of it, Dalgil was acknowledging Bogle as their companion for now and expressing his intention to take him with them. Hearing this, Ru Amuh and Chi-Woo exchanged looks.
“Then, I will—”
Ru Hiana raised her hand and volunteered, but Ru Amuh quickly cut her off.
“No, I will be in charge of this.”
“I can entrust him to you without worries,” Dalgil said weakly. His words carried multiple meanings.
Like that, the expedition team reorganized again. They weren’t in a good state by any means. Not only were they heavily injured, but suspicions had taken root inside them. They couldn’t confirm whether Airi and Bogle were really themselves, and if the two turned out to be fakes, they would have to go back; there might even be a need for them to go through the darkness and trace their steps back to the fourth room. There was no telling what might happen then. Even if they reached the room, they couldn’t go further since the door had disappeared. Thus, there was only one choice left: to continue going forward.
“Let’s go.” With Dalgil’s command, the expedition team began to march forward. Before leaving, Ru Amuh offered to take point, but Dalgil firmly refused. He claimed that he must be in the lead since this was his test and refused to back down. And thus, the expedition team went back to the path they had taken special note of and reached the ivory door without any symbols. Had things been different, they might have happily cheered that a treasure could be waiting for them behind the door, but nobody was celebrating now. They knew all of the rules in Narsha Haram seemed to have been completely broken since the fourth room.
“Everyone be on your guard.” Dalgil inhaled deeply while raising his club. “Three, two…” When he shouted ‘one’, he kicked the door wide open. Then the members of the expedition lowered their weapons one by one. There was nothing inside the ivory room—neither monsters nor treasures.
“Well, first of all, I see a door.” As Dalgil said, they saw a door leading to the next compartment on the other side of the room. But since something could be inside, the team cautiously entered.
“Nobody touch anything, and be careful of every step you take. Besides the guide, everyone stay in position.” Under Dalgil’s command, the team stayed put and looked around. After surveying her surroundings for some time, Hawa’s eyes landed on one spot.
“There’s something…” Hawa pointed at the door with her index finger, “Written there.”
“There are writings?”
“Yes, but it’s in a language I can’t read.”
Hearing what Hawa said, Dalgil cautiously took several steps toward the door.
“These are letters…my tribe used in the old times…?” Dalgil said in surprise. Then he read the symbols on the door and spoke up.