Blood stained the Ancient City.
Destroyed tents, shattered wine jars, and corpses with eyes wide open… these were the primary themes under the quiet moonlight.
“Cough, cough, cough…” Biller, clutching a long blade, was in a wretched state.
Aside from the wound on his shoulder, his body was covered in several more slashes.
Though these wounds looked frightening, as the Guard Captain, Biller knew they were actually superficial.
However, for some reason, even though they were clearly just surface-level injuries, he felt as if he were at his limit.
“Faster… just a bit faster!”
In contrast, the caravan members and their leader, Kaman, appeared to be in much better condition.
At least they had no deep wounds; the blood on them had been splattered by the other guards who had died protecting them.
“Huff… huff… I… I want to run faster too…” The surviving members of the caravan were all gasping for breath.
While physical endurance was important for merchants, they had just barely survived a slaughter and were now forced to flee at such a high intensity.
They simply couldn’t take much more.
Furthermore, they were not fleeing toward the Gobi outside the Ancient City.
The few exits closest to them had been blocked by those lunatics, so they were forced to do the opposite and scatter toward the center of the city.
In the end, only six survivors remained. They followed the stairs of the City Lord’s Mansion ruins down into a cellar that seemed to be used for storing wine.
Just as everyone was trying to catch their breath, they heard a tapping sound coming from the southeast corner of the cellar…
Thud, thud, thud…
It sounded as if someone were tapping upward from beneath the floor tiles.
Biller went forward to investigate and found a movable tile beneath a spot where empty wine barrels were stacked!
The group was overjoyed! They didn’t even care what had made the tapping sound anymore.
Shifting the barrels to the side, they filed one by one into the sub-level beneath the cellar floor.
the space inside wasn’t small, and there was a passage that slanted downward.
No one knew where this passage led, and since everyone had fled in a hurry, no one had brought any light sources.
For a moment, no one wanted to enter.
However…
Tap, tap, tap…
The sound of footsteps echoing less than 20 centimeters above their heads made everyone hold their breath.
“The Great Priest said to ensure every one of them is killed. They are maggots who desecrated the sacrifice to the True God.”
“How many are left?”
“Six. If you catch them… no need to hold back. If they can no longer resist, drain their blood with a Ritual Dagger first, then gouge out their eyes. Let us hope the True God will forgive our sins this way…”
The words of the two Cultists made the survivors’ skin crawl! No one wanted to be bled to death and have their eyes gouged out.
“Fine. Now, search! Check every single place where someone could hide!”
“Yes!”
Hearing the increasingly chaotic footsteps and the sound of wine barrels being moved above, the group could no longer remain calm.
Under Biller’s direction, and using the noise from above to mask their own movements, they began to head deeper into the dark underground.
The passage was initially quite narrow, but it gradually widened until it was large enough for six people to walk abreast.
“We must be at least 100 meters underground by now, right?” Biller murmured, his face pale as he clutched the wound on his shoulder.
Before anyone could respond, a shimmering light appeared ahead.
It clearly wasn’t firelight; it looked more like the glow from certain minerals or plants.
“The people up ahead!”
The moment the group stopped, a call rang out from where the faint light originated.
The speaker used pure human language, though the voice was somewhat high-pitched.
“I smell the scent of blood. Are you injured?”
Hearing the question from the figure ahead, the merchants first looked at each other, then at Biller’s scarred body.
“That! If possible… could you please lend us a hand?”
“Yes… we need help! We can provide compensation afterward!”
“There are many Cultists above… they’re all lunatics!”
The person on the other side fell silent for a moment before speaking again.
“To be honest, I am not a human. But do not be afraid; I am a friendly Divine Kin. If you can trust me, I can come over and help right now!”
As he spoke, he seemed to point behind him.
“There is an Apothecary in the village who can help treat the wounded.”
The moment they heard the speaker wasn’t human, the merchants hesitated, but only for a brief second.
Because they conducted business in Gilliris and frequently traveled the route along the Kingdom’s outskirts, these merchants didn’t have much of a prejudice against foreign races.
“Alright! Thank you very much for being willing to help!”
After exchanging glances, the group immediately responded. Shortly after, the two parties approached each other.
The group finally saw the figure speaking in the darkness. It was… a humanoid rat, about 1.6 meters tall.
It had gray fur and held a wooden stick shaped like a torch, but it was covered in glowing moss.
‘A Ratman?’
The merchants’ mouths hung open.
Rats held a negative image in the minds of the people of the Kingdom—and perhaps in the minds of most creatures.
They stole grain and spread plagues; they were seen as the embodiment of Demons.
Yet, the creature appearing to save them now took exactly that form.
“Follow me!”
The humanoid rat in front of them completely ignored the fleeting distrust deep in their eyes.
After meeting them, he simply turned around and led the way deeper into the Underground Cave.
……
Gulp, gulp…
“Haa!!” Holly downed her fifth bowl of mushroom soup and set her sights on a freshly grilled, crispy fish.
“This…”
“Eat! Eat, you can eat it all!” Jerry laughed somewhat helplessly. He sprinkled some salt on the grilled fish before handing it to Holly.
Watching this scene, Reliel felt that something was strange. She let the feeling simmer for a bit.
It wasn’t until Holly had finished two more grilled fishes that Reliel finally spoke up, her voice filled with confusion.
“Why are you helping us like this?”
It wasn’t that Divine Kin and humans never got along. However, most such beings were granted power by taboo existences like Supreme Beings.
Even if their personalities hadn’t changed much, they shouldn’t be treating them as sincerely as simple farmers, right?
‘There is no such thing as love or hate without a reason.’ Reliel firmly agreed with that sentiment.
“Why… Heh heh, it is no secret… It is because…”
A light of reminiscence seemed to flash in the elderly Ratman’s eyes.
“Because you are humans…”
“Huh?” Reliel was even more bewildered.
Because they were… humans?
“Is it… gulp (swallow)… because your ancestors were saved by humans or something, and now you have to repay them?”
Holly tossed aside the Bone Armor of her fourth grilled fish.
She finally felt like the stamina she had just exhausted was being replenished.
“Mm… not exactly. It is just that the existence we believe in once told us to treat humans with kindness. If they are in trouble, we must lend a helping hand.”
The smile on the elderly Ratman’s face was quite kind, even reminding Holly of her Grandfather back home.
“You could say it is an ancestral teaching, and you wouldn’t be wrong.”