Chapter: 258
“……How, how could this happen?”
It was said that everyone residing in the management room were the people of Ninehart.
This meant that all the dead were at least distant relatives of Dwight.
Moreover, the corpse he was holding seemed to be his father.
“……Dwight.”
“Dwight-kun…”
What must it feel like to witness the gruesome sight of his father and relatives being brutally murdered?
At this moment, no words could possibly comfort him.
Neither Sylvia nor I were unaffected by the shock of the situation, but it was certain that our shock could not compare to what Dwight was feeling.
Honestly, if it were me, it wouldn’t be surprising if I lost my mind, so I could only watch in sorrow as I sat beside Sylvia, gazing at the distraught Dwight.
Then, I saw Dwight, who had been crying, wipe his eyes with his sleeve and suddenly stand up.
“…I can’t keep being sad. This is an emergency.”
Dwight muttered softly.
Worrying if he was overexerting himself, I was about to ask if he was okay, but I swallowed the question upon meeting his gaze.
It was impossible for him to be okay. It was only natural for him to be anything but.
However, it seemed Dwight chose to push his grief aside for the moment.
“…First, we need to find out who did this and why.”
As a member of Ninehart, as a hero who must protect the city.
He deemed it a priority to understand the circumstances of the incident.
In his eyes, which were once filled with sorrow, a cold rage flickered, taking the place of his grief.
I could only admire the fact that he could gather himself and act in such a situation.
As Sylvia and I nodded in affirmation of his resolve, Dwight pointed to the corpses at his feet and spoke.
“…As you can see, the corpses are in a state of severe decay. This means it didn’t happen just a day or two ago.”
“I can be sure that these individuals weren’t killed at least today…”
Sylvia muttered as she examined the condition of the bodies.
Her expression slightly grimaced as it seemed the sight of the decayed corpses was unsettling to her.
In fact, even if Dwight hadn’t mentioned it, everyone would have realized that the bodies were old from the moment we arrived.
The smell that greeted us upon entering the management room was the stench of rotting flesh.
Regardless, it became clear from the fact that they weren’t killed today that one thing was certain.
The reason there was no response to the problem with the barrier was that the ones who could respond had already perished.
With a heavy sigh, Dwight furrowed his brows.
“…More importantly, I have no idea who and how they broke in to commit such an act. The management room is structured in such a way that unless we came in this way, there’s absolutely no way to breach it.”
“…Could it be that the culprit is the Witch of Lust? Just like how she manipulated Dolos, she might have controlled someone inside here.”
Sylvia spoke up in response to Dwight’s murmuring.
If there were no records of entry and no way to come and go, it logically suggested that the perpetrator was among those who were already inside.
That thought had crossed my mind first as well.
After all, I had that witch’s ability to manipulate others stuck strongly in my head.
However, Dwight shook his head as if dismissing the idea.
“…It’s not impossible, but the likelihood seems low. You saw the holes in their bodies. They all have similar, uniform shapes.”
Again, I looked down at the corpses as he mentioned.
Despite the state of decay, there were common visible wounds.
Each of the bodies had a single hole in them.
The dark red stains on the floor could be seen flowing from those holes, so that should be the cause of their death.
As I pondered this, Dwight added his thoughts.
“Besides those, there are no immediately noticeable marks. If someone had been controlled, at least one person would have left traces of resistance since others were harmed. If not, it would mean they were attacked unilaterally by a single enemy. The problem is how that enemy managed to infiltrate here.”
“…If there was only one way in and there’s no record, doesn’t that mean they infiltrated via teleportation?”
I asked Dwight, who seemed unsure about how the invasion occurred.
It was truly a scene akin to a locked-room murder; there were no traces of entry or exit, yet people lay dead.
But this was a world where one could use teleportation without leaving a trace.
In response to my question, Dwight shook his head, clearly unconvinced.
“Don’t you know? It’s impossible to teleport inside the barrier. The barrier includes functions to prevent teleportation. So unless the barrier was malfunctioning today, teleportation is infeasible—”
He was explaining why teleportation was not possible when suddenly, he stiffened and muttered.
“Impossible, but perhaps not… If the barrier was inactive, then the magic circle preventing teleportation would also lose its function…”
“Then they could have invaded back then…? When the barrier briefly went down because of the demonic beasts…”
If they had invaded when the barrier had malfunctioned due to the demonic beasts, it would align roughly with the state of decay of the corpses.
It was a sufficiently plausible story, but Dwight still shook his head, dismissing it.
“…Even so, the chance is low. Teleportation isn’t as simple a means of movement as you might think. Do you know what happens if you miscalculate the coordinates while teleporting?”
I shook my head, and Dwight demonstrated by pressing his palms together and pushing.
“If you accidentally end up underground, you’ll be stuck and die. The reason we ensured that the position of the management room was unspecified when you came in is precisely because of that. But to have pinpointed the exact location of the management room in this vast underground space and teleported here? That’s simply not possible…”
He continued to elaborate on why teleportation was impossible.
However, contrary to him, I began to consider how it could possibly have happened.
While deliberating, I scanned the surroundings again and spotted something.
Having noticed it, I instinctively called out to Dwight and Sylvia.
“…Wait, isn’t that part strange?”
“…What do you mean? The corpses?”
“No, I mean the bloodstains beneath the corpses. It’s like… it was blocked by something while it was spreading.”
I pointed to the large bloodstains left beneath the corpses.
The blood flowing from the hole in the chest of the corpse seemed at first glance to be unremarkable.
Yet I sensed something unnatural about it.
The blood that flowed from the corpse had spread significantly beneath the body, while above the head, it had hardly spread at all.
There was no slope on the floor, so why had the blood left such an unnatural mark?
Yes, it was as if it had been obstructed by something.
Blocked? By what?
“……The barrier.”
A ability used by the Beast of Gluttony that traps living beings inside it for a certain period.
Realizing it, I absentmindedly murmured the word that had come to mind.
With that, I quickly blurted out the hypothesis that crystallized in my mind.
“The barrier! It was blocked by the barrier! Remember the witch that attacked when we went on our tour to the Northern Front region? That witch used teleportation freely! Plus, she also commanded the Beast of Gluttony.”
“……Indeed, if a barrier had been set up here, it explains why no one could escape during such a dire situation. If it were my father, he would have thrown himself out to buy time to help someone escape to relay information.”
Dwight nodded as if he had realized something but immediately asked with a frown, as if questioning something still remained.
“However, even now, how did she pinpoint the location of this management room?”
“If that’s the case, I know how.”
To his question, I immediately replied.
Because I was a witch, I could understand this, and the only being who could invade this place was a witch.
“The witch can sense the presence of witches.”
“……The presence of a witch? How can that be used to pinpoint the location of this management room…”
Dwight’s expression froze as he realized.
He immediately comprehended that the remains of the witch were being used as the power source to maintain the barrier.
The witch who invaded here sensed that and pinpointed the location of this management room.
Dwight must have never known that witches possess such abilities, hence the oversight.
Dwight sighed, muttering softly.
“……So that’s how it was. That’s how the security was breached. Then Scarlett, you can also pinpoint the location of this management room.”
Upon hearing his words, I shook my head in disagreement.
“No, it’s impossible for me. The invading witch must have had superior sensing abilities. Since I’m sealed, I don’t feel anything.”
Immediately after I answered, a brief silence enveloped us.
Then, three seconds later, I looked at Dwight with a surprised expression and asked.
“Huh… even so, not feeling anything doesn’t make sense, does it?”
At my response, Dwight’s expression turned tense, and he immediately dashed towards a certain direction.
Sensing what he was checking, both Sylvia and I followed him and heard Dwight murmuring.
“…There’s nothing.”
“…What’s not there?”
In the midst of Dwight’s murmuring, I suppressed my anxiety and asked him.
Dwight then struck a large glass tube with his fist, his expression filled with despair.
“The remains of the witch that were being used as the main power source, as well as the magic stones I had prepared as a backup… all gone. The reason the barrier disappeared today was simply that the backup magic stones ran out.”
“……Then, the barrier is…?”
To his words, Sylvia asked in a dazed manner.
Dwight shook his head, indicating that she was wrong.
“…What appeared to be a normalized barrier was merely because the witch had injected the backup power before escaping. We mistakenly believed we were safe. The moment the demonic beast invaded, we were already completely taken advantage of…”
“Oh…”
Sylvia exhaled deeply, turning silent.
The very foundation of this city was the barrier.
The truth was that since the moment the demonic beast invaded, the city had begun its countdown to destruction, and now that countdown had reached its end.
How could one not sigh in despair upon realizing that the barrier could no longer protect the city?
But unlike the two of them, who were in despair over the city’s inability to be protected by the barrier, I despaired about a different fact.
Staring at the empty, punctured glass tube.
Recalling the entity that had once been sealed within, along with a question I had received long ago.
[Can you save it?]
To that question, I had thought this.
No, it’s impossible.
Even the protagonist, Yoon Si-woo, had been utterly defeated.
Thus, despair washed over me.
Not the disappearance of the barrier.
But the entity that led not only to the city but to the total annihilation of this world in the original story.
The Witch of Gluttony had, in the end, been released from her seal.
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