Chapter 234

234th Episode: The Abyss of the Deep Valley, Erebore #4

There are three women here. Swear, I just want to roughly grab and enjoy them.

A voice rang out in the air.

It was undoubtedly my voice—no excuses or room for denial. However, the words did not come from my mouth. This caused me great confusion, making me break out in a sweat. The sudden attention directed at me felt utterly suffocating.

“This is a misunderstanding, a false accusation. I would never think such thoughts!”

They say that wraiths belonging to the Dark read people’s inner darkness and skillfully exploit it, breaking their spirits. Those bastards were definitely living up to their reputation.

Three women. Six br*asts. Wow!

“sh*t! Who are you?! You son of a b*tch! Stop messing with my voice!”

As I cursed into the air, someone grabbed my shoulder. It was Antiope, who had been guarding my rear.

“You’re being eroded by the Abyss. You don’t need to react so violently.”

“I didn’t even think that.”

“The way you’re denying it so strongly makes it seem like you’re telling the truth, which makes me suspicious.”

The gaze of the women around me was piercing.

Recently, I had been somewhat moved by Luna’s warm gaze, but for someone like me, a Samaritan, this was the usual reaction from women.

The cold stare of women was enough to make a man shrink. My back was drenched in sweat.

Only Hippolyte managed to defuse the situation.

“Wraiths don’t make things up entirely. They just exaggerate and twist the truth. That’s why they cause such confusion.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. From now on, strange stories will come from all four of our voices. There might be some truth, but mostly lies—just ignore them.”

As Hippolyte was about to continue speaking,

I wish someone would have beaten me harshly at the shrine of Mars.

This time, Hippolyte’s voice echoed through the air.

Gulping.

It was followed by the sound of her swallowing, audible to the world. Sure enough, the swallows of a Gold Tier adventurer.

However, Hippolyte, the seasoned adventurer, quickly regained her calm composure.

“As I said before, this is just a dark deception. I will grant everyone courage with a benediction.”

With that calm determination, she proceeded to recite a spell as a priestess, seeming incredibly dependable.

“May valor and courage be my shield, supporting me with mighty strength—”

“To subdue me like a wild horse and bind me with ropes in this darkness would be most welcome.”

“And may my path through valleys of d*ath be fearless because my skills are always as sharp as a pointed spear—”

“I wish I could be pierced by a thick, hot spear. Just to be tied up with ropes and left alone in this darkness without thinking about anything.”

The prayer being fervently recited by Hippolyte stopped abruptly.

Since she was facing forward, I couldn’t see her expression or attitude, but judging by her trembling shoulders, it was clear that she was greatly disturbed.

“Sis… the prayer stopped. Sis, sis—?”

Antiope, standing behind, kept calling out to Hippolyte. But no answer came from Hippolyte.

At this, Antiope let out a loud scream.

“Samaritan, Sis is falling apart! Quickly, shove that ‘nut’ or whatever it is into her mouth!”

“sh*t—”

I hastily grabbed Hippolyte’s shoulder and turned her toward me. At that moment, I was shocked to the point of screaming.

Hippolyte’s distinct brown eyes were completely overtaken, black as midnight, and glimmered eerily.

“What the hell is this?!”

And so, unable to contain myself, I screamed. A woman with completely black eyes—it felt like a scene from a horror movie.

Even worse, when our eyes met, Hippolyte curled the corners of her mouth into a grin and laughed—a voice she would never normally use.

“Hmmmm…”

An indescribable laugh, like the howl of a mad beast.

Not only that, she threw the torch she was holding onto the ground and began to dash in an unknown direction.

“Swish—”

“Guuuuuu—”

Because our waists were tied together with ropes, not only myself but even Elpride and Antiope were dragged along by the brute strength of Hippolyte’s waist and legs.

“Ugh—?!”

Elpride couldn’t handle the situation as she writhed around, rolling on the ground like a bull pulling an owner who had tied it up.

Didn’t Hippolyte lose strength in the darkness?

“d*mn, d*mn! Samaritan, since you tied yourself to her with rope, you’ll have to do something about this!”

“sh*t, what can I do here?!”

“If we get dragged deeper into the darkness, we’re all going to d*e!”

“d*mn it—!”

But there was nothing I could do. The only idea that came to mind was using the dagger at my waist to cut the rope binding Hippolyte.

Of course, if I did that, Hippolyte would disappear into the darkness like a Ferrari accelerating full speed.

So, I didn’t reach for the dagger at my waist.

Hippolyte was one of the few high-ranking individuals who treated me well and without pretense. I didn’t want to lose her here.

“sh*t, d*mn it—!”

But if I didn’t act, we might all get dragged into some unknown darkness. So, without any other choice, I pulled the dagger from my waist.

And with all my might, I swung it—.

Crack.

I plunged it deep into the ground.

Swish—.

Gagaag—.

The dagger shrieked deeply as it was driven in.

It wasn’t enough, I thought, so I grabbed the ground with all my strength using my titanium gauntlets. The sparks flying as we slid across the ground made terrifying hissing sounds.

“Hold on, everyone!”

“d*mn it—got it!”

Understanding what I was about to do, Antiope pulled out her own short sword from her belt and plunged it into the ground.

Elpride, having stood up, drove her wand into the ground with all her strength.

Gaahhhh—.

Though Hippolyte’s strength was abnormally strong, it wasn’t enough to overpower all three of us, and eventually, she came to a stop.

Gaahhhh—.

The rope tied around her waist almost snapped with a scream.

“sh*t, Lady Hippolyte, forgive me—!”

Without missing a beat, I pulled myself up from where I’d plunged the dagger into the ground, lifted my palm high, and swung.

Whoosh—.

Pak!

My gauntleted palm struck Hippolyte’s cheek full force.

“Guhhhhhhh—!”

*

Hippolyte, who had lost consciousness after being struck in the cheek, came to a few minutes later.

Or perhaps it was tens of minutes. This pitch-black space distorted one’s sense of direction and time. Anyway, by the time the torch was almost burned out and useless, Hippolyte stirred and opened her eyes.

Her eyes, which had been like an ocean of black ink, now glimmered with their familiar brown hue.

“What the—why am I lying down?”

“Sis, you fell to the Abyss. You almost killed us all!”

“d*mn… I don’t remember anything. Did I really do that?”

“Yeah!”

“Hmm, so that’s how a fool saved you.”

“Samaritan slapped you, and that seemed to do the trick.”

“My cheek—”

At that point, Hippolyte touched her blazing red cheek.

Though it looked incredibly painful, I decided not to apologize first because I was thankful she had regained her senses.

“So, where are we now?”

“I don’t know.”

“Troublesome. We should take a moment to reorganize.”

And so, with mutual agreement, we kindled a bonfire on the ground.

Hooor—.

Once the fire kindled, we felt a bit relieved. Even ancient cave-dwelling humans must have warmed themselves and calmed their hearts with bonfires like this.

With the fire burning, we assessed our equipment and supplies.

Because of the sudden circumstances, a lot of items had been lost or discarded. Our supply was now less than half of what it had been.

The only fully intact items we had were the large bag I carried, filled with the dried goods and potions Luna had packed for me.

“How many lightning nuts are left?”

“A few got dropped, so there are less than five left. The food will last us only about a day if shared among the four of us. Most of the holy water bottles are broken, and we only have a couple of cloths for torches.”

“d*mn it, look at this mess. I still have a long way to go.”

Hippolyte slammed the ground. Antiope replied,

“Don’t blame yourself. This is a space imbued with ancient godly powers, after all. If you could withstand this without breaking, you’d have already transcended and achieved mythic status.”

Seeing the sisters console each other, a slightly warm feeling, like the fire, rose in my restless heart. Truly, family.

If my younger sister had been here, how would things have turned out? Swear, even imagining it is dreadful.

While Hippolyte and Antiope were discussing the way forward, Elpride silently repaired her wand.

Clack, clack—.

The lower part of her wand seemed to have broken when she jammed it into the ground earlier and now looked terribly cracked and wobbly.

Clack, clack—.

Though she was trying to repair it, without tools or proper materials, there wasn’t much she could do to fix the broken wand.

“….”

But Elpride’s expression remained composed.

Unlike how she fell into a panic earlier, she seemed calm even amid the strange auditory hallucinations. Come to think of it, her voice hadn’t been mimicked at all. Did the wraiths pick and choose whom to haunt?

“d*mn…”

Finally, apparently giving up on the repair, Elpride let out a small curse. At that moment, I held out my palm toward her.

“Let me see it.”

Elpride had always been bad at repairs. She lacked patience, and her manual dexterity wasn’t particularly good either, so in my days as a slave, I would often spend time fixing the furniture and materials she had broken.

But Elpride only looked at me drowsily without response.

I said,

“You need your wand or else you’ll burn through more magic, right? We need to try to get out of here.”

“….”

Despite my reasoning, Elpride continued to glare at me.

Thinking back, when we first met, I saw this face a lot—outwardly kind but inwardly quite shy.

“I never asked for your help. You insisted on doing it.”

Right as I was lost in thought about the past, Elpride held out her damaged wand to me.

I took some tacky adhesive from the sack Luna had prepared, applied it to my palm, and roughly spread it over the broken part. While the broken surfaces didn’t align perfectly, wrapping it with a bandage made it presentable enough.

“Done. No need for thanks.”

“There’s no need to thank you. Anyone could do this. You just make yourself look good.”

“But you couldn’t even do that, couldn’t you? Idiot.”

“What? Idiot? Are you calling me an idiot? Hassan, you b*stard.”

“Idiot? I said fool, but why are you calling me a b*stard? Isn’t that a bit harsh?”

“b*stard. Barbaric moron. Dummy. Stupid. You think I’ll be grateful because of this?”

“Swear.”

Swear, I must be the only one in the world who does good deeds and gets cursed.

Our conversation ended there.

We just silently focused on our respective tasks, our moods soured.

And I, with a somewhat self-deprecating sense of regret about what I had expected, drew the dagger from my waist.

It was worn down from being dragged across the ground earlier, and if I didn’t sharpen it now, it might become completely useless.

It was an old, well-used dagger that I’d carried since my days as a slave. This dagger had helped me through many dangers, so it was quite precious to me.

That’s why I wasn’t feeling good about the possibility of it breaking soon.

As I took the leather belt from my waist and rested the blade against it, sharpening it with a ‘drerk–drerk’ sound, Elpride, who had been quietly tinkering with her wand, whispered something softly, almost to herself.

“You’re still using that old dagger, huh?”

“What others use or don’t use is their business.”

“I remember you buying it with the pocket money I gave you.”

“Sure, it’s true. So what? Do you want it back?”

“No, I just thought you’d gotten rid of everything related to me.”

“Why waste money on that?”

“Maybe, but you’re poor anyway, aren’t you?”

Elpride ended the conversation there. Poor? Always mocking me to the end. Truly, a mischievous girl.

Still, compared to just earlier, her fidgety hands seemed to have regained some strength.

Or maybe it was just my imagination, but her pointed ears, which turned red and trembled slightly, were visible.

Based on my long-time observations, it seemed like her mood had somewhat improved.

Is there anything good about this situation?

Still, as she had always been, I could never understand what she was thinking.

She must be lost in the darkness, her head gone.

Thinking about it that way made her seem a bit pitiful.

[Author’s Note] Since it’s summer, it felt like it was time for a spooky episode to spice things up…! Escaping the routine…! The extraordinary…!!

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