Wandering Mercenary in an Open World
chapter-74

The clear hostility in the fairy’s voice poured cold water on the hot atmosphere of the inn.

The man frowned. He looked visibly annoyed.

“Hella? I’m Stefan. Who are you to pick a fight with me?”

There was no trace of arrogance in Stefan’s voice. He only showed bewilderment and hostility at the unexpected situation.

He had a natural expression and behavior that no one would find strange, but at that moment, Ruon felt a strange sense of incongruity sweeping over his back. His superhuman senses told him.

That the man in front of him was not normal.

That’s why he didn’t stop Tarwen from grabbing a fork and stabbing it into Stefan’s eye.

“Aaah-!”

A chilling scream swept through the inn. The first to move among the villagers who were frozen by the sudden situation was Stefan’s mother, Melba.

“You crazy woman! What are you doing!”

She pushed Tarwen away with all her strength, then hugged Stefan, who was writhing in pain with his right eye bleeding.

“Oh, my God! Stefan! What the hell is going on?”

She rolled her feet and then glared at Tarwen with bloodshot eyes.

“Are you all just going to watch? That mad woman made my son’s eye like this!”

The first to respond to her scream was the man who was blowing a whistle. He was sitting next to Tarwen and jumped up from his seat, then swung a bottle upside down at the fairy’s head.

But Ruon, who had approached in the meantime, blocked it with the back of his hand. Glass shards shattered in the air with a clang.

The startled man thrust the sharp end of the broken bottle forward and growled.

“What the hell? You wanna try me?”

Ruon brushed off the glass shards that had splattered on his arm and retorted.

“I’ll let it slide this time since it was a misunderstanding. But there won’t be a second time.”

The calm warning only made the man more furious and he backed away hesitantly.

Then, a scream of agony pierced the air. Ruon turned his head and saw Stefan, who had staggered to his feet, pulling out a sword from his waist.

“You damn fairy bitch! What did I ever do to you to deserve this!”

With his only remaining eye, Tarwen licked his lips and glared at the man who looked like he wanted to kill him.

“It doesn’t hurt, does it?”

Stephan growled fiercely, making a face as if he was talking nonsense.

“What are you babbling about after poking a person’s eye with a fork…”

Suddenly, his body stopped. Melba, who was startled by his appearance, asked in a wet voice.

“Stephan? Are you in a lot of pain? You shouldn’t be like this, you need treatment right away…”

“I’m not in pain.”

“What?”

“It doesn’t hurt.”

Instead of pulling out the fork that was stuck in his right eye, Stefan pushed it deeper into his socket. His pupil and vitreous humor shattered in an instant, and blood oozed out. People screamed and backed away in horror.

The perpetrator of the gruesome self-harm blinked his blurry eyes and muttered to himself, regardless of the people’s reactions.

“…Why doesn’t it hurt? What’s wrong with my body?”

“That’s because you’re dead, Stefan.”

“Why am I dead? When? How? Where?”

Tarwen clenched her eyes shut and said as she opened them.

“Enough already. How long are you going to play with the poor soul?”

As soon as her words ended, Stefan’s body trembled like a pine tree. He was not the only one. The other young men who had returned safely from the battlefield also began to shiver as if they had been struck by lightning.

Soon, Stefan, or rather Hella, spoke with calm eyes that shone like a lie.

“It’s been a while. Nice to see you. Tarwen.”

“Don’t act friendly. It disgusts me.”

At her sharp reply, Hella burst into a mad laughter. The low-pitched voice that cackled was very annoying to hear.

She soon stopped laughing and said.

“I wondered what gave you the confidence to come here on your own feet, after running away like a rat all this time. Did you find a reliable backup?”

Ruon threw a dagger from his arms at Hella’s gaze that touched him.

The dagger that spun in the air and flew pierced the forehead of the bastard.

Melba, who witnessed the scene, screamed.

Ruon reached out his right hand toward the corpse that collapsed on the floor like a broken doll. He caught the dagger that came back and wiped the blood and flesh on his thigh.

“You’re still hiding behind a corpse, as always.”

At his words, the mouth of the corpse on the floor drew a long line.

“A traitor who won’t satisfy me even if I tear you apart and a sacrifice that I wanted to get my hands on are in the same place. What kind of bizarre harmony is this? Hey, warrior. Can you explain it to me?”

Ruon twirled the dagger in his hand and retorted.

“Can’t you see? I’m going to kill the witch who never showed up.”

At his calm declaration, the mouth of the corpse closed for a moment and then burst into laughter again.

“Awesome. Truly awesome. I sincerely hope that your bravery will melt into us on the day we become one.”

The corpse that had uttered those disgusting words slowly got up. Then, the rest of the young men lined up behind him.

“I was just thinking that there was a soul I wanted to try among the ones I recently tamed, and this is perfect timing. Warrior, have you ever fought with the barbarians of the north?”

Ruon did not answer his question and turned his head to look at Tarwen.

“Is Hella among them?”

“No, she’s not. That woman stuffs various souls into her flesh, and she’s a voyeur who watches them from afar. Those are all Hella’s puppets. Like Stefan, who didn’t even know he was dead even after he died… They’re just playthings.”

Ruon said as he looked at her burning gaze.

“Then I’ll take care of this place. You should deal with the outside. The inn has been noisy since a while ago.”

He had been activating [Fairy’s Hearing] since earlier and was clearly hearing the desperate screams coming from outside.

Tarwen, who was a fairy herself, seemed to not hear the sound, and blinked her eyes for a moment before nodding her head quickly.

“Okay. Be careful.”

She answered briefly and left the inn right away. Now, the only ones left in the spacious dining room were Ruon and six men who were Hella’s marionettes.

The other villagers had run away without looking back as soon as they saw the corpse with a hole in its head get up.

Then, the corpse with Stefan’s face opened its mouth.

“The family I believed to be alive… The neighbors and friends! The screams of realizing that they are actually monsters are always sweet. The grudges of those who were killed by them become precious resources for me.”

As he said that, the bodies of all the men collapsed like mud.

In the blink of an eye, the disintegrated flesh, blood, and organs began to squirm and gather together, forming a huge human shape and rising up.

The appearance of the monster that finally stood up was utterly abhorrent. More than ten eyeballs were crowded on the upper part of his face, he had no nose, and he had three mouths.

In his hands, he held two large axes made of bones and flesh, and the sight of the hearts embedded in the middle of the axe blades pulsating was truly horrifying.

Ruon, who had been watching the whole transformation process, said.

“I hope you’re satisfied with the experience points I’ve waited for you.”

“Warrior, what do you mean by that?”

“I hope you’re worth fighting.”

At that, the monster laughed with his three mouths. One of them uttered a languid woman’s voice.

“The barbarian warrior’s soul that dwells in this body has a record of cutting down twenty knights of the kingdom with a single sword. How about now, with a body and weapons that are several times stronger than in his lifetime? You’d better not be careless. Warrior.”

At the same time, the monster smashed the floor with a thud and charged at him. Ruon drew his ego sword from his waist and swung it up at the axe that the monster swung down.

Clang-!

A loud noise erupted from the weapons that collided, and they both stepped back. The difference was, the monster staggered for a moment and Ruon was not shaken at all.

To counter the downward attack by swinging it up, you need more than twice the strength of your opponent. The scene a moment ago clearly suggested what it meant.

Ruon’s strength was ahead of the monster.

The monster realized that too and gave up on pushing him with force, and swung his axe nimbly in the gap that opened up. Ruon blocked the axe blade that dug in half a beat faster and tried to narrow the distance for a counterattack, but instead stepped back half a step. Then, with a whoosh, the opposite axe blade swept the air.

At the moment when the opponent’s sight was fixed on the upper part, he aimed at the lower part with exquisite timing. It was an impossible combination without tremendous strength and sharp situation judgment. Of course, Ruon brilliantly thwarted it, but he had to admit that the opponent was a powerful warrior in his lifetime.

A longsword and two axes clashed in midair, spitting out red sparks. There was no courtesy in their exchange of blows.

Neither side backed off, and soon the distance between them was too close to swing their weapons.

The monster, feeling pressured by the opponent’s strength and skill, quickly retreated. But Leon, who had maintained his posture despite the repeated collisions, followed him and slashed his sword.

The blade of Ruin, which soared like a razor, sliced through the monster’s three eyes.

Grrr-!

The monster counterattacked with his axe, ignoring his pain-filled roar. But Leon was faster. He inserted his sword between the axe blade and the handle, blocking the monster’s attack in advance. He then punched the monster’s abdomen with his other fist.

The monster’s hard muscles crumpled under the impact, but he did not back off. He swung his other axe, but Leon leaned his upper body back and dodged it. A huge flame engulfed his body.

The monster slammed his chest with all his might, taking advantage of Leon’s momentary falter from the burning sensation. Leon flew back with a loud bang, smashing a few tables and chairs in the inn before he stopped.

Leon brushed off the flames on his body and spat on the floor, smiling.

“I thought you were fighting pretty well for your looks, but I was wrong. Spitting fire from your mouth.”

Grrr-oo-oo-oo!

The monster roared loudly, as if his pride was hurt. A hard carapace sprouted all over his body. At the same time, the heart embedded in the axe blade throbbed violently, making the whole axe pulsate with thick blood vessels.

Leon did not just watch this change. He slammed his arm on the ground, and his sword became blurry. A red rune appeared on the blade, and he swept the monster’s upper body with it.

The monster desperately raised both axes in his hands, but he was no match for the immense dragon power contained in Ruin. His reinforced axes cracked, and he staggered back three steps. A thick dagger pierced deep into his chest.

Grrr-ah!

Leon slapped his palm on the weight attached to the dagger, which had pierced through the carapace and buried itself deep in the flesh. The monster, who had lost his balance completely from the successive impacts and the pierced chest, fell backwards.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Leon detected the scorching heat from the three mouths on the monster’s jaw. He pounded his fist on them repeatedly. Blood foam bubbled up from the crushed lower jaw.

Leon clenched his fist and looked down coldly at the monster’s more than ten eyes. He shared the monster’s vision and saw the damn witch who was looking at him. He added a word to her.

“Wait for me. I’ll find you soon. Next time, I’ll smash your face.”

Crash!

Leon’s fist smashed the monster’s jaw completely as he finished his words. At that moment, a surge of satisfaction filled his body like a raging wave.

It was a long-awaited level up.