The 31st Piece Turns the Tables
chapter-82

Thud…

Thud…

All of the corpses that had posed a threat to the town hall had collapsed simultaneously.

Seol then turned around and looked at Karen with a stern expression.

“...You did good.”

“What?”

“You did good to not forgive him.”

It was clear that Karen was still furious at Gunt.

Seol placed his hand on her shoulders.

“Calm down. Don’t forget that the townspeople are all still shocked right now.”

“Do you remember what Gunt said?”

“He said a lot of things, I don’t remember everything.”

“The part about him losing the right to be evil because he’s weak.”

“...I remember it.”

It was true that Gunt was born into a horrific situation.

Even so, it didn’t justify his heinous actions.

In the end, his final words were nothing more than a villain’s teary-eyed cries.

Still, there was something which Gunt said that was still left in their ears.

- If I’m weak… do I lose even the right to be evil?

- What are you—

- So since I’m weak, I should just be nice and obediently live the life that people make me live?!

Karen grabbed her head like she had a headache.

She was shocked that someone so weak could do something so horrible with their bottomless malevolence.

“Do you think… he was just desperately doing whatever he could do to escape from his own fate?”

“Even if he was, the direction that he took would only bring him to ruin.”

“Yeah.”

After saying that, Seol inspected Gunt’s decreased body.

Rummage…

Thankfully the medicine was stored in a sturdy bottle and looked to be fine.

[You have acquired Sleeping Medicine.]

[Hypocrite’s Keepsake has been generated.]

[If the Remaining Time runs out or if you choose to take your reward, you may choose to finish your Adventure here.]

Normally, Seol would end the Adventure here.

However, he went to Gunt’s house without checking his rewards.

Click.

The door to Gunt’s house opened easily, it seems like he often left his doors unlocked.

And luckily, Seol was able to find what he wanted easily.

“Found it.”

[You have acquired Gunt’s Bag.]

Seol naturally handed over the bag to Karen.

And after, he immediately handed her a throwing dagger.

“Check it.”

“Hold on…”

Rip.

Karen ripped the bag’s strap a little to reveal powder wrapped in cloth.

“I think this is it.”

“Let’s go to the townspeople then.”

The two of them headed to the town hall.

And what they saw Jamad was tussling with the townspeople with the town hall’s door between them.

“Ahhhh… Don’t come any closer, you monster!”

“You’re not wrong, but the fact that you welcomed an elf and are chasing away a troll is a bit disheartening.”

Seol smirked as he went up to Jamad.

Jamad complained to Seol like a child complaining to a teacher about another child.

“They’re treating me like a monster.”

“It’s just because they’re scared.”

“Hmph, this is why I don’t like humans. Always so self-centered… it’s like they believe the whole world revolves around them.”

“Maybe.”

“Well, it’s fine. I’ve done my job, so I’m going to go to sleep. Good luck with the rest of it, elf.”

Karen nodded back in response.

It appeared that she had lost her inclination for humor after what had just happened, she refrained from making any jokes.

Fwirl!

After Jamad disappeared into the Shadow Space, Seol knocked on the town hall’s door.

“It’s alright now, you can come out.”

“Really? Are the monsters gone now?”

“They all fell to the floor and aren’t moving.”

“What about Dr. G– I mean, Gunt?”

“...He’s dead.”

“......”

Creak…

Corpses were scattered all around.

A foul smell filled the air, causing the townspeople to all scrunch their noses. After seeing some of them, one of the townspeople closed his eyes and murmured to himself.

“How could this happen… Why did this happen…”

“...It’s all over now.”

“Are you saying that… all of this is because of that demon Gunt?”

Seol only nodded his head.

He then carefully counted the number of people leaving the town hall, confirming that no one was injured.

“Gunt also was carrying an antidote.”

“An… antidote?”

“An antidote for Fog Disease.”

“...Oh my god. I-Is there enough… for everyone?”

“There should be enough to take care of the townspeople.”

“Uh… then… what happens to the other towns?”

Seol shook his head.

“He said that they were all dead. It seemed like the ‘house call’ was an excuse to turn all of those people into monsters.”

“Oh my god… that bastard Gunt was a horrible person!”

“Still, we should quickly get ready to treat the patients.”

“Understood! Everyone, let’s help them! We should all help out to do it quickly!”

And after that, they became extremely busy.

A few townspeople stepped forth to relocate the corpses to another area. Once they had gathered them all, the corpses were set ablaze.

Among them… was also Gunt.

Simultaneously, they filled a huge cauldron with water.

They also collected all of the clean cloth they could find to wipe down their bodies.

Dump.

Fsssss…

A thick, dense liquid filled the cauldron, which turned white after a few moments.

Seol took some of it and carefully stored it in a glass vial.

[[Awakening Medicine]

Quality: Rare

Recommended Level: N/A

Weight: 0.2kg

A medicine specifically designed to alleviate particular symptoms.

It was made by Gunt.

There aren’t any severe side effects, even when applied improperly.

Bonus Effect: Counteracts the effects of Sleeping Medicine.]

The effects were direct and straightforward.

Seol nodded to himself after seeing that the effects weren’t a lie.

Seol, after inspecting it once more, poured a specific dose into separate glass vials before sending them to the patients.

Gulp… Gulp…

The townspeople massaged the patients’ necks to help them properly drink the medicine.

After a certain amount of time, the townspeople and Seol had finished all their work. All that was left to do now was watch over them.

And then…

“Urgh… Urghhh…”

“Hrgh…”

The patients started to wake up.

“I-It worked!”

“The medicine really was effective!”

“Thank you… Thank you… sob… sob…”

“We were saved... What a miracle!”

As people started to wake up, Karen and Seol focused on only one person.

She was the same person who helped Seol easily settle into Wet Fog Town and also the person who helped ease Karen’s anxious heart.

“Wake up, Sarah. It’s time to wake up.”

Karen, holding onto Sarah’s cold hands, dropped her head.

Their silence was much heavier than the cries of joy around them.

Twitch.

“...Huh?”

Twitch… Twitch…

“She’s moving her finger! Sarah, wake up!”

Karen held tightly onto her hand, making a fuss.

“Urgh… Urgh… It hurts… Big… Sis…”

“S-Sarah! Did you wake up now?!”

“You’re holding… too tight.”

“Ah, really? Sorry, I’ll let go.”

Sarah’s eyes slowly fluttered open.

[You have cured all survivors of Wet Fog Town.]

[You have earned the achievement 'Overcoming the Disease'.]

[You have earned the title 'Quack'.]

- He ascended

- He’s finally free from this hell 😭

- This ended up being harder than it had to be because of that bastard Gunt!!

Sarah slowly sat herself up and leaned back on the head of the bed.

“Did I… fall asleep?”

“Yeah. You fell asleep, but you’re awake now.”

“...I see. But how was I able to wake up?”

“Well…”

At that moment, everyone became silent and solely focused on Seol’s words.

After all, he was the one who brought an end to the situation, no one else could have done it.

Only he had the right to choose how it would be remembered.

“We found an antidote.”

“Ah! Was Dr. Gunt able to find one? That’s a relief…”

“......”

“But… Where is Dr. Gunt now?”

Seol then saw a few options before him.

[[Sarah of Wet Fog Town asks you about Gunt’s whereabouts. How do you respond?]

1. Gunt was behind all of this.

2. Gunt is a demon! He has dragged you down to hell.

3. We were able to chase away that monster thanks to the united effort of the townspeople.

4. Gunt is dead.

……]

“Dr. Gunt has left the town,” said Seol.

“What? He left?”

“It’s not like Wet Fog Town is the only place in the world where people are sick. He also said that he probably won’t come back.”

“Oh no… he didn’t even say goodbye…”

The townspeople all looked at Seol.

They were hoping that he would call Gunt a demon.

However, even if that was able to relieve the hearts of the townspeople, it would only hurt Sarah.

Karen grabbed Sarah’s hand.

She no longer wanted Sarah to be in pain. Even if it was only for this moment, Karen wanted to hide the dark parts of the world from her and show her only the good parts.

“Sarah, Dr. Gunt said that you had to stay well.”

“...That’s good. Huh? But what’s that fire over there?”

As the townspeople had gathered the corpses in one spot to set them ablaze, the smoke could easily be seen from anywhere in the town.

“We’re just… burning some stuff.”

“Ah, like the things used to treat the patients?”

“Yeah, stuff like that.”

“It looks warm even from here.”

“The nightmares are over now, Sarah,” Karen said while grabbing Sarah’s hand.

* * *

Translator - goguma

Proofreader - Karane

* * *

After finishing business in the town, Seol’s party moved to a different location the following morning.

After that awful experience with the Long Distance Adventure, Seol planned on traveling to Audenin first before traveling from Key Location to Key Location back to Nobira.

While it might require extra time, if they took carriages from location to location, they could reduce the time it would take greatly.

Karen, remembering the events from yesterday, thanked Seol.

“Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For saying it like that.”

“For saying that Gunt left?”

“Yeah.”

“I mean, he did ‘go’ somewhere.”

- He went to hell

- Honestly, Gunt was terrifying.

- It wasn’t that scary LMFAO Just go sleep with mommy, like me~

- He wasn’t particularly strong, but I wouldn’t want to face him again.

- He was a villain who was really, really evil.

- Even the conversations they had scared me…

- Snowman really has a strong mental…

Karen smirked, then tapped his shoulder.

“I’ll give you a point.”

“A point?”

“Yeah, and if you get enough, I’ll really treat you as my master.”

“That’s interesting… How many points do I need to gather?”

“100.”

“And how many do I have now?”

“1.”

- NAH FUCK THAT!!!

- And for that reason, I’m out.

- How is she only going to give him one point LOL

- Nah, this is the meta. You just later make something worth like 100,000 points or something.

- 100,000 points for Gryffindor!

- Seriously, LMFAO

Jamad broke the silence while carrying the rewards Seol received from this Adventure.

“Just give up, Snowman. Don’t even respond to that elf.”

- What is this… Don’t tell me… It’s… Something that I was about to say???

- S…T…A…Y…

- Jamad is the GOAT

- Fuck this visual novel shit!!!

“Can the troll over there shut up?”

“Tch… so when are we going to open this?”

“Aw, is it heavy? How fragile… Do you want me to carry it for you?”

“...I regret ever speaking.”

The reason that they didn’t open the rewards chest there was because of Karen. She thought that it wasn’t appropriate to open a chest in Wet Fog Town when something so horrible happened there. As a group, they decided to open it after leaving.

“I was just joking. Now, let’s…”

“Karen, take this.”

“Huh? A letter?”

“Sarah asked me to give this to you after we left the town because she was too embarrassed.”

Slide…

Seol handed Karen the letter.

The two of them started reading it together.

- Hey, Bis Sis? I'm still uncertain if Snowman would listen to my request.

Karen’s expression changed multiple times.

It was because Sarah was the first person Karen became close to after becoming a shadow. And this was Sarah’s letter to her.

- Thanks to the two of you, the townspeople are all happy now. Really, thank you so much.

She smiled…

- To be honest, I’m writing this letter to you because I wanted to tell you something... Are you shocked by this?

And she was shocked…

- From the moment I saw you, I respected you. You were the person who was closest to my dream! You were shockingly beautiful and shockingly strong. Ever since I was young, I was weak. So… I always wanted to be strong.

“Sarah, you’re plenty strong already,” said Karen.

- If I was stronger… wouldn’t more people rely on me? I’ve already sensed how annoyed people get because of how weak and slow I am.

“......”

- I wonder what it’s like to be strong? Would I be able to bring hope to people who are in trouble all over the world? Though I’d never know what that would feel like… I want to.

Seol could see Karen gripping the letter harder.

- Big Sis, you’re a strong person. I was thinking that if it’s you… maybe you might have an answer to my questions? If that day comes… I want you to come visit me and let me know, even if it’s just a short visit.

Karen stared intensely at each and every word on Sarah’s letter.

“Do you think that one day… a world could come… where no one would be in pain?”

“......”

“Haah… Seriously…”

After reading the last sentence in Sarah's letter, they both thought of someone.

They were both thinking of Gunt.

- Heroes are lazy. They didn’t save me. They… They…

Seol then asked Karen a question.

“What are you thinking about?”

She folded the letter before responding to Seol.

“Basically… I’m thinking that I need to work harder? Troll! To congratulate how I’ve become a hard worker… I think we should open the chest immediately! Put it down!”

“...I can’t make heads or tails of you at all. You were just saying that it wasn’t appropriate to open the chest there and had a dead look on your face…”

“Shush! Don’t talk back! We should be using this new equipment as nutrients to become even stronger! Now, open!”

- Yo, dude… are you crying?

- (Looks under the bed sheets) Yo, guys! He’s crying LMFAOOOO He’s fucking crying!!!

- I-I’m not crying! (Crying)

- She’s complaining to Jamad for no reason LOL

- Jamad is such a good person… troll.

- Yeah… Since he’s a troll… we should call him a good troll.

- Yup, he’s a good troll.

Karen kicked open the chest that Jamad put down.

Click…

Glow…

[You open Hypocrite’s Keepsake.]