Chapter 21
As soon as I entered the right tributary, I raised my voice and shouted.
The opposite side was silent. There was no sound of goblins either. I continued to walk and shout.
“Miss Leira! Where are you? Please come out if you can hear me!”
She had to be in the right tributary, no doubt about it. I grinned and kept calling her.
It was obvious. This sewer radiates out from a central crossroads. The left and rear tributaries are extremely short, while the right and front ones are quite long.
Just think of it as a cross formed by two intersecting swords; that makes it easier.
“Miss Leira! Unveil yourself! Reveal your true identity!”
Even a dumb Hunting Rat might not know, but goblins absolutely don’t live in the left tributary.
It’s so short there’s barely any space to hide, and the bodies of dead goblins are stacked up there. In my past life, I never encountered a single living goblin in that left tributary.
Therefore, Leira, who hunts goblins, must be in the right tributary.
“Miss Leira! Where are you?”
I desperately called her out, even throwing in some outdated parody.
Perhaps moved by the irritation, I finally heard a response from the opposite side.
“…Because of you, all the goblins have run away. Who are you? And how do you know my name?”
Creeeeak. Creak.
Familiar cartwheel sounds came closer and a maid with slate hair and green eyes, Leira, appeared.
When our eyes met, I instinctively froze for a moment, but with a deep breath, I forced a smile.
The commercial smile felt unnatural and caused what seemed like a twitch in my face.
“Pleased to meet you, Miss Leira. I am Park Jeong-yong, employed by Lord Halsenberg.”
Saying that, I extended my hand for a handshake first. She stared at my hand.
That’s right. I’ve beaten her to the chase.
The biggest variable resulting from Leira finding me first: suspicion towards me.
To erase it, I had personally come to find her.
‘Alright, the real game starts now.’
With a spirited snort and swallowing dry saliva, I prepared.
My brain resumed its tight work.
*
“You’re saying you’ve been employed… by my lord?”
Approaching cautiously but constantly shaking her head, Leira gave me a continuous scrutinizing look. There was no question of suspicion in her eyes directed at me.
“…”
Leira twiddled with the broom attached to the cart beside her. Recognizing what it was, I instinctively tensed.
Alright, that’s enough.
Keep your hands to yourself man. Seriously.
“Yes. The lord sent me down here, but I don’t understand what’s going on.”
While drenched in cold sweat, I did my best not to betray my worry. Leira harrumphed.
What does that mean? It’s clear she isn’t being particularly friendly.
“You were sent down here without any explanation?”
“Yes. I was told to find a maid named Leira. She will explain it to me.”
“…Well, it is me, but…”
Leira stalled on her words, and suddenly her gaze sharpened.
A hint of satisfaction appeared at the corner of her mouth.
“I see. Did you inform our butler?”
She’s here.
Testing me again with the same line. Damn homicidal maid.
Sorry, but this time I won’t fall for it. I quickly put on an exaggeratedly startled look, and pretended to be puzzled.
“Th-the butler? Was someone like that around?”
“…”
“As far as I heard from Lord Halsenberg, there’s only one maid, you… Excuse me, where can I find the butler? I’ll go see him right away with permission!”
As I mimed preparing to gather my belongings in a hurried panic, the suspicion in Leira’s eyes began to fade slightly.
She shook her head soon after.
“… No, there’s no such person. I was just testing you.”
“Aaah. I see! That’s a relief. I thought I might have done something wrong.”
“I’m sorry for doubting you.”
“No, it’s nothing! I would have done the same!”
I smoothly laughed and let it pass.
Judging from my experience living as someone easily taken advantage of, when you laugh heartily and go along with it in this situation, the other person calms down quickly. Later, that calm mixes with guilt and can often evolve into goodwill towards you.
Of course, it can just as often lead to being exploited yourself, so I don’t recommend it.
Just follow the law.
“… Hmm. Thank you for understanding.”
At any rate, following my ploy, Leira innocently trusted me.
Of course. Knowing the internal affairs of the castle, such as the absence of a butler, makes it hard to imagine this as a lie.
We passed the first rough checkpoint. I clenched my fist in secret.
“Then, please allow me to introduce myself again. I am Leira, a maid serving Count Halsenberg.”
“Nice to meet you. I am Park Jeong-yong, a mercenary.”
“Bark… Jeong-yong? Such an unusual name. Pronouncing it is difficult.”
Leira tilted her head while repeatedly muttering my name. I shrugged in response.
“Just call me whatever’s convenient. A name isn’t really important.”
“In that case, I’ll just call you ‘Junior,’ okay? I’ve always wanted to call someone ‘Senior.'”
“Alright then, Senior.”
“Ahaha.”
At my light-hearted joke, Leira smiled gently.
It wasn’t the kind of smile that hid a sinister undertone. For the first time, she showed a clean, bright smile, simple yet charming like a wildflower by the roadside.
She actually knows how to smile like that? My body shivered at the dissonance between this image and the one I had formed in my mind of her.
“Let’s go then. Since it’s your first day, I’ll give you a general overview of your duties.”
“Ah, yes.”
“And stop with the honorifics. You look older than me, anyway.”
“Should I… Yes, maybe I should.”
“Let’s do it.”
Once Leira confirmed that I was really an employee, she started showing me around the tributaries. In the same way as before, she explained the traits of the monsters living here.
Some were things I heard before, others were quite new to this round. I guess the last time I knew too early about how it was going to end, so I didn’t delve as deeply.
‘Check status.’
[Character Information]
[Name: Leira]
[Nickname: Clumsy Maid, Halsenberg Sewer Manager, Guin’s Lover]
[Level: ???]
[Health: ??? Magic: ??? Physical Condition: ???]
[Strength: ??? Agility: ??? Intelligence: ???]
Once again, I scanned her stats but, aside from her name and nicknames, everything was question marks.
It was probably one of two things.
‘Either my own skills aren’t high enough or my level is lower than hers, making it impossible to check.’
Or maybe both.
In any case, right now, it doesn’t matter that I can’t verify it.
As I sighed inwardly, Leira switched topics unexpectedly. She started asking me questions instead of providing one-sided explanations.
“So, Junior, how did you end up coming to this castle?”
“Eh, yes?”
“You must have heard of Halsenberg’s reputation, right? How do you find it so far?”
“…”
Leira’s eyes lowered slightly.
Her usually stoic face seemed to actually reveal her emotions upon closer inspection. She was sad, and that sadness made me sad, too.
As if I’d heard anything.
Because of you, I’ve never once been able to leave this sewer. Damn you.
Recalling Leira’s words from my previous life with difficulty, a few keywords finally surfaced.
‘…a ruined castle. She called it that.’
Meaning, an abandoned castle.
I’m sure she referred to Halsenberg above the sewers as ‘a ruined castle’ in my last life.
Straining my brain, I crafted a response as unawkward as possible. Vague, yet giving the impression of firsthand experience.
“To be honest, I came here in a rush because I needed money… I didn’t get much detail. Why does the castle look like this? What exactly happened?”
“Ah. I see.”
Leira’s response was accompanied by a soft sigh.
With a faint smile that expressed condolences, she said something like “You must have felt scammed upon your arrival,” quite contrary to her cold and ruthless behavior when she tried to kill me as a hero.
Is this the real face of the murderous maid, or was her other behavior toward me genuine? It could be either or both.
At any rate, Leira began her explanation with an expression of melancholy. It was a fairly long account.
“Lord Halsenberg is the border baron charged with guarding Mittelrand’s northernmost reaches.”
You know what I’m talking about, right? Even today, remnants of the witch’s faction still lurk in the northern cold waiting for their chance to overrun humanity’s lands. Whenever they have tried to swarm and challenge our world, Halsenberg stood firm on the front lines to repel them…
She went into a detailed explanation of the world’s history, which essentially boils down to this:
I’ve seen this place before in the Exam’s Veil map: Mittelrand. Here, we are in Halsenberg territory, the northernmost border region of this land.
This fortress, Halsenberg, was established to fend off the ancient dark races coming down from the north. A harsh and barren land due to the unrelenting cold and constant warfare, it’s a place people avoid.
But, thanks to the virtuous governance of the new border baron and the devotion of the residents, they managed to hold on for a good number of years.
“Lord Halsenberg truly is an excellent master. A fine… man… he once was.”
The master of this fortress, the border baron of Halsenberg, is both militarily and personally remarkable.
He always stood at the frontlines in battle, commanding with his formidable might. His strategies were ingenious, decimating powerful ancient dark races without them even getting a chance to fight back.
Plus, during the years of famine brought on by the cold from the north, he would take in the subjects into the castle, sharing emergency food supplies and providing relief. He was, without doubt, a model ruler.
“But there was a limit. This land is not one where humans can live comfortably.”
They endured for a while, but food shortages only worsened. The attacks by ancient dark races grew stronger. Soldiers and commoners alike perished frequently, plunging the Halsenberg domain into perpetual sorrow. Despite repeated pleas for assistance from the center, they were mostly ignored.
—Stop whining.
—The center’s politics are in turmoil; things are difficult here too.
—You’re just making excuses because it’s too far.
—If you just wait, we’ll send help eventually, so stop pestering us.
Most of the letters arriving daily were filled with similar dismissive responses. If you’ve served in the military and dealt with bureaucracy, you’d know—this is pure bull.
Worse still, the Undead army, commanded by Eldritch, one of the most dreaded ancient dark races, launched an attack.
And then… a curse fell upon this castle.
Eldritch prevented the dead from resting in peace, infusing the land with an undead curse.
Not the kind where you’re reincarnated back to the past like me, just a state where you don’t die. In other words, you transform into an undead under this curse.
Living people had to plunge their swords into the hearts of their comrades from just yesterday. They endured the tragic fate of being torn apart by their beloved neighbors, families, lovers.
“Lord had no choice but to make a decision.”
The border baron realized that the fortress’s fall was only a matter of time. The question was just how long they could endure.
In the end, the baron ordered all soldiers and civilians to evacuate. He decided to remain in this Halsenberg castle alone. Only his wife, who resolved to remain by his side until the end, and a hundred steadfast loyalists stayed with him.
“But looking back, the master’s decision was incredibly wise.”
The remaining loyalists were all experienced veterans and seasoned elites. Few mouths to feed significantly improved the food situation. After battles, hardly anyone died, so there was no unnecessary growth in enemy numbers.
Even though they were destined to fail in this cold land, they clung together, and for a while, hope seemed to spark anew.
“If only it hadn’t been for those despicable trash. This land, this master, Guin, none of them would have come to this.”
It was precisely at that time.
Champions started being summoned to this Halsenberg castle.
Leira said that this was the beginning of all tragedies.
The expression on Leira’s face when she mentioned the word ‘Champions’ was colder than ever. The hands gripping the cart were whitened with strain, filled with power.
My own hands, which were dipped in her kimchi jars repeatedly, shuddered at the sight.
“… The rest is something I shouldn’t tell you.”
Leira stopped talking there. The story was right at its most intriguing part. This girl knows how to play her business. Is she holding out for more payments?
I clicked my tongue. She gave a slight, tired smile.
“Ask the master directly about the rest. If you gain the master’s trust, he… might tell you. Eventually.”
And Leira fell silent, pulling the cart with quiet determination.
Looking at her slumped shoulders and back, I reaffirmed my resolve with a bone-deep conviction.
“Throughout my stay here, I must not utter the word ‘Champion.'”
What did these people do to deserve such torment? Why are these troublesome predecessors making my life so miserable?
Useless resentment circled in my mind.
