NOVEL NEXT Chapter 80
<80 - Something on My Mind>
The troll made the coachman an accomplice, and the coachman decided to become an accomplice too.
The answer was correct, but the story wasn’t over yet.
“Then, tell me the rest of the story.”
The Destroyer recalled.
The horrific wisdom of a monster that understood the human heart.
And the twisted and cruel resolve of a human that became one with the monster.
Once again, as he watched the carriage heading towards the shortcut, the Destroyer asked.
“Isn’t that the path the troll came out on back then?”
“It can’t be helped. The main road to the north has been blocked by landslides for the past ten years. Despite repairing and repairing it repeatedly, the lord has given up due to the continuous landslides.”
Because nature is angry.
Because the lord is incompetent.
The coachman rambled about various things, but the Destroyer knew it was just excuses.
“Do you perhaps know about the Rule of Scarcity?”
The coachman explained.
“Imagine a lumberjack camp with a hundred lumberjacks selling axes. If there are ten thousand axes, the lumberjacks think, ‘With so many axes available, do I really need to pay full price for one? Can’t I buy it cheaper?’”
“But what if there are only ten axes for the hundred lumberjacks? The one who gets an axe can absolutely chop more trees than others and sell them for a high price! They’ll even pay a premium to buy it.”
“Passing through this shortcut means that to me.”
The modified carriage, which had a cargo space longer than the passenger area, was loaded with goods.
An ordinary coachman wouldn’t have been able to earn enough to expand the carriage just with transport fees over the past decade.
He had enjoyed some good fun from trade between villages.
“And even with that troll around?”
“That’s why I only used it when someone went ahead of me.”
“Didn’t you feel any guilt?”
“This is simply an exchange. The troll conveniently crushes people, and I can increase the scarcity of items. It’s a convenient trading route that only I can use in this world.”
“Then why did you get back on this carriage again?”
The coachman asked.
“You know this shortcut is fast, and you know that the return path would take at least a few more months. So isn’t it that you had no choice but to compromise?”
We are accomplices.
Don’t blame me.
After the coachman’s indirect warning, there was no further conversation.
They reached the crossroads where the troll appeared.
Before they reached the place where people used to be tied up.
One person on the cliff path.
Five people on the main road.
The troll was preparing the same trial as before.
Upon witnessing the scene, the Destroyer made a resolution.
To behead the monster.
Without any hesitation in the hands of the veteran warrior Destroyer, who was not part of some rookie party.
The monster’s head fell without resistance, and the Destroyer, holding the reins, stopped the carriage.
The decapitated coachman’s body rolled beneath the carriage.
“Do you understand? The reason the veteran warrior Destroyer killed the coachman.”
“Because the coachman’s character, using human lives, is no different from a monster?”
“Is that all?”
The extra carriage wheel.
The path that even the lord had given up on.
The fact that only a coachman would use such a road.
There was enough information.
No more questions were necessary.
“The Rule of Scarcity was just an excuse.”
“Why is that?”
“The risk-reward ratio is too favorable.”
It wasn’t a difficult question.
“The coachman sent people to be sacrificed instead of himself, but do you think six unlucky sacrifices could be caught by the troll every time?”
“What if the troll accidentally eats one? What if a mercenary sneaks away? What if a few fall off the cliff during the fight?”
“There’s no guarantee that he wouldn’t be among the six sacrifices. There’s no guarantee that there would be six sacrifices at all. Yet the coachman was confident.”
This path makes money.
It’s usable.
And he had actually used it to accumulate wealth.
“The coachman may have been really lucky, but, hmm… Even if he visited once a year, that’s still ten times. Can all that be called luck?”
The Destroyer was a retired former hero.
Someone who must have seen countless human figures.
Being cautious and suspicious is a natural quality needed to survive and adventure for a long time.
Distrust towards humans.
A belief in distrust.
That was enough to satisfy the Destroyer.
“Of course, it isn’t luck.”
“The coachman’s hidden identity is that of a monster tamer allied with the troll. The smartest troll in the world is orchestrated by the tamer, who regularly provides food once a year.”
“This was a trick to instill the perception that this place is dangerous and should not be recklessly hunted.”
The troll’s dilemma.
The leading troll was not a monster troll but a human troll betraying its kin.
Well, whether it’s in AOS games or anywhere, trolls are scary!
“Did you learn anything from this story?”
“Be careful of trolls that give quizzes?”
“It means never to trust humans carelessly in strange places. Especially if they offer you kindness.”
“Okay!”
“What’s with the ‘okay’? The same goes for the Academy. Don’t casually take treats or elixirs from unknown professors.”
Because you never know when you might bump into a troll who enjoys laying his kin down and trampling on them.
After Oknodie returned,
The Destroyer went back to his private room.
Butchered sheepskin. Double-barreled shotgun. Tobacco pipe.
Among the decorative items hanging on the wall like exhibits, what caught his attention was the tobacco pipe.
That day, the coachman had loaded a large quantity of tobacco and tobacco pipes onto the carriage.
“Using drug-infused tobacco to tame monsters. What a ridiculous character.”
No one would have guessed that the epicenter of the undead’s drug, which caused much uproar across the continent, was right there.
The drug allowed one to heal any injuries and wounds, and even revive after having their heart stopped or brain destroyed—literally becoming undead.
Of course, such miracles came with side effects.
The brain gets damaged, and intelligence declines.
The body turns green and grows larger.
In the end, it becomes a gigantic mass of flesh that can neither live nor die as it swells uncontrollably.
The drug accelerates cell division endlessly, recovering injuries but not being able to maintain its current form, becoming ten times larger than a person.
It creates a [Sacrificial Human] that necromancers love to perform sacrifices and summoning rituals.
“Well, if you burn every piece of flesh without leaving anything behind, you’ll die.”
If they had not identified the tobacco’s identity through drug analysis later, and carelessly handed it over to the guards, they could have spread the undead drug around the vicinity.
Thinking back, it gives quite a chill.
Meanwhile, a question arose.
How much did the hero Ni’alatotep know?
Did he know that the troll was trying to make humans accomplices?
Did he know that the coachman was a demonic beast tamer?
Did he know that the tobacco the troll smoked was the undead drug and what its side effects were?
Did he foresee the future of those necromancers who distribute drugged tobacco to poor villagers to create a mass of sacrifices and perform summoning rituals?
Whatever it is, now that he’s alone, it’s all up in the air.
From that perspective, Oknodie is lucky.
If it were a time of war, the lectures at the Academy would certainly become more practical.
Fifteen years ago.
And five years ago.
He must have gone through the same experiences as the rookie warrior and the veteran warrior with his comrades.
“But…. that dream is bothering me.”
After the first lecture ended.
He went to find the alchemy professor to request the production of the medicine necessary for sleep training.
It was a dream aimed at checking his curriculum to supplement Oknodie’s shortcomings for the next lecture.
But he really didn’t expect that he would suddenly grow to 2.3 meters and wield muscles that weren’t even his to literally shred and grind monsters.
Seeing him rampaging around, creating a spectacle with blood magic wasn’t a matter of needing combat experience; it was about not letting his guard down.
“Could it be that he’s seen something somewhere? A huge human like that.”
It weighed on him.
The movements of the muscles were unusual too.
It’s not that he was exhibiting powers that deviated from common sense because of lucid dreams.
It was a movement with a clear understanding of the body’s capabilities and the power the muscles could exert.
As if he had watched and analyzed the movements of the body and muscles closely for a long time.
“Unless it’s oneself, it must be a mentor.”
Before enrolling in the Academy.
The instructor who taught Oknodie.
“It’s me. It’s been a while since I’ve had to use the external communication network.”
Placing his hand on the communication magic circle, the Destroyer spoke.
About the giant’s specs he saw in Oknodie’s dream.
“Oknodie’s mentor was unusually strong. Get a careful assessment of his identity.”
A reply came back from the other side of the communication magic circle.
Wiheomhae Foundation.
That child is from the Foundation; is it okay to dig into his background?
“It doesn’t matter. I’m a retired former hero. There’s no reason to be cautious of the suspicious chairman of the foundation.”
Establish a policy for when friction occurs.
In response to the request from the communicator, the Destroyer replied.
“In a secure situation, avoid combat. If there’s a risk of identity exposure, retreat immediately. Once identity is exposed, deal with it decisively. It’s fine to kill anyone other than Oknodie’s mentor.”