ch81-ch100 · 098-ch98

Chapter 98: Angel and Devil

SIDE: Umemoto Atsushi (the man who became a 【Berserker】)

"Should we do these guys in too? They might know something."

(...【Frenzy】.)

In that instant, I stopped feeling anything.

My head, my gut, my leg—all of them screaming in pain until just now—now there's no feeling at all, let alone pain.

"Hey. This guy's still alive."

(Huh? When did I get back on my feet?)

"Whoa, whoa. What is he, a zombie?"

(My leg's healed? Is that 【Frenzy・Self-Regeneration】 at work? No—maybe I just can't feel it...)

"I'll kill him personally, so keep your hands off."

Hasegawa comes at me.

(I'm unarmed. At least let me grab a weapon...)

"I'll send you to the great beyond with the 【Vile Knight】's strongest skill. Ubwah."

What just happened?

Hasegawa goes flying.

Did I punch him?

"Huh? Hasegawa? Where's Hasegawa? Gobah."

One punch and his neck... Is—is he dead?

AAAAAAAAAH.

(Did I... kill him?)

"This guy's not right. Surround him!"

That's right. Something's wrong.

I shouldn't have done anything at all...

I pick up a sword.

Why...

(It's moving on its own...)

It cleaves through an enemy's body, weapon and all.

(Please, stop.)

Three swings, three men.

"No, ru—"

It mercilessly cuts down the back of a 【Samurai】 who'd turned to flee.

Every one of them is a high-rank job holder.

A 【Samurai】 should even have 【Armor Enhancement・Armor・High】.

And yet it slices through swords, katanas, armor—all like paper.

In no time at all, there are nine corpses...

(What have I done... I killed... I killed people.)

My feet won't stop.

They carry me closer to Hasegawa's corpse...

Why?

The instant I arrive, the corpse moves and slashes at me.

"...Tch."

Hasegawa was alive after all...

It slashed the back of my left hand.

"You knew I was still alive? But you got careless. That last one was 【Poison Slash・Evil】 with every last drop of my 'evil points' spent in it. Die in agony, AGYAH—"

Cut clean in two.

His body splits lengthwise.

(That's the end...? Hm?)

I've surely killed everyone this time, and yet my feet won't stop.

Is this... reacting to someone at a distance I can't see?

【Presence Detection】... Is the skill running?

My body moves on its own and won't stop.

Fortunately, that opponent wasn't human...

My body just kept going, hunting Forest Ogres without pause...

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︙

The skill 【Frenzy】.

A skill said to grant explosive power at the cost of your sense of self—so much so that you'll kill even your own comrades.

I'd been told never, ever to learn it, even as a 【Berserker】...

And yet I used it.

(If I hadn't, I would have died back there... so I...)

It went on like that for maybe thirty minutes?

I rampaged until my MP hit 0.

I buried who knows how many Forest Ogres...

The lucky part: my rampage carried me away from the 'Gate to Floor 28,' deeper than the 'Gate to Floor 30.'

I never had to face a person...

(...Besides those nine.)

Clutching my fiercely aching left hand, I've made it back to the scene—the area around the 'Gate to Floor 30.'

The leg that had been pointing the wrong way has healed, and my HP, which had been in the red zone, has recovered to nearly half.

The wound on my left hand has closed, too.

At this rate, my body should hold out until I'm out of the dungeon.

But...

(They're gone. Disappeared...)

Hasegawa and the others' bodies are gone.

The bloodstains are gone too—the dungeon must have absorbed them.

So is the camera Hasegawa's crew took from me...

Without it, I have no way to prove self-defense.

That's why I came back here.

(...Looked at another way, there's no proof of my crime either, is there.)

A devil whispers.

'Keep quiet about this, and no one will ever know.'

That's right.

If I just leave this place, quickly...

That sharp pang—my left hand, or my heart...?

Self-defense or not, nine people.

By any reasonable standard, it's not something to be forgiven.

Licenses aren't issued to people with criminal records.

Likewise, they're revoked from those who commit crimes.

There'd naturally be a trial.

I might be found innocent, but of course my license would be confiscated until the trial was over.

'By our next attempt...'

What happens to my party?

I know perfectly well I'd be nothing but a burden to them...

What about Jun's high-rank job?

'Keep quiet about this, and no one will ever know.'

The devil's whisper in my ear.

(I need to get out of the dungeon, fast.)

I leave the scene behind.

︙

︙

Clutching my aching left hand, without a single break, I made it down to Floor 1 before sunrise.

The 【Poison Slash・Evil】 I'd taken on the back of my left hand.

It was the first moment my special skill, 【Poison Resistance】, had ever been of use.

From the way Hasegawa talked, without it I'd probably be dead.

But even with a special skill, the poison hasn't been neutralized.

If anything, the poison feels like it's spreading...

The black has crept up my left hand to around my elbow.

Hasegawa said he'd poured every evil deed he'd ever committed into it.

Just how much evil has that man committed...?

'Right now, you could expose every one of those evil deeds.'

Is that an angel whispering to me?

'Even if it means your own sacrifice.'

What am I supposed to do?

Floor 1 is peace itself.

No one has noticed Hasegawa and the others are dead, surely.

At the earliest, they wouldn't be back until tomorrow.

I...

The deadest hours, from late night into early morning...

The HQ has more than ten counters, and not a single adventurer is around yet.

Two counters are open. I head for one of them...

"I'd like to move my weapons to another branch..."

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︙

In the end, I left the HQ and came back to my rented room.

Even though I've left the dungeon, my left hand still throbs.

The poison itself doesn't seem to have advanced.

But it hasn't healed either.

If anything, the pain feels like it's growing.

I collapse into my futon as if falling, and sleep like I'd blacked out.

"..."

I wake to the insistent ringing of the doorbell.

"Mr. Umemoto. Are you in? Mr. Umemoto."

A voice I don't recognize.

Still groggy, I head for the front door.

It's just past noon.

I should have slept five hours, but the fatigue hasn't lifted worth a damn.

I open the door with the chain lock still on.

"Ah, you are home. Police."

Someone who looks like a police officer shows a badge and identifies himself.

Several more behind him.

My mind goes completely blank.

(That's right... I killed...)

"The fact is, yesterday..."

The police begin telling me that Hasegawa and the others are dead.

How do they know?

They apparently know I was at the HQ, too.

"So we'd like you to come down to the station and talk..."

Is this that "voluntary accompaniment" thing?

"All right. Let me get ready—please wait a moment."

I close the door.

I'd slept in the same clothes I wore back from the dungeon...

I can be out the door as soon as my shoes are on.

I slip my feet into my shoes and tap my toes against the floor.

(What do I do?)

My aching left hand trembles.

Whether it's from just waking up or from the poison, my head is foggy.

The next instant, I'm sprinting across the room toward the window.

"He's running!"

They had people posted out back too.

So I was fully a suspect all along...

I jump, clear the back fence, and run for my life.

Impossible jumping power. Impossible speed.

Is this hysterical strength, like at a fire?

(What good is running?)

Only after I start running do I start thinking like that.

Only after I've completely shaken off the police...

A sharp pain flares in my left hand.

(...The dungeon?)

If I run, they'll send people to the Ibaraki Dungeon first thing...

And to the HQ, too.

I can't go to Jun and the others either.

Where am I supposed to go...?