"Lord Eucharlouch!"
Berseria shouts, running alongside me.
"Do you have a destination?"
"Yeah. It shouldn't be too far away."
I nod.
The smell of blood is getting stronger. And I could sense the presence of a battle. I could feel it getting closer. And then. Finally, I confirm the presence of the Keystone Beast.
It is a black quadrupedal beast. Its appearance, shrouded in an ominous aura, set it apart from ordinary monsters. It suddenly let out a roar. The air trembled. "What a voice...!"
Berseria instinctively covers her ears.
It was quite fortunate that it only affected her to that extent. Several of those who heard it nearby were intimidated by the force of the sound and were unable to move. It seemed to have the effect of rendering those below a certain level unable to act. On the battlefield, a split second can mean death.
For them, this was the moment, that their lives would be snatched away in the blink of an eye. Blood spurted out like a fountain from a headless torso. It literally rained blood.
The monster devoured the flesh and blood of the corpse, which had turned into a silent lump of flesh. The Keystone Beast was assessing its next prey, making the disgusting sound of crunching bones. Everyone here except for me was probably thinking the same thing. I hope it's not me that it's looking at. There were just under thirty people who appeared to be adventurers here.
No matter how you look at it, that's too many people to have just wandered in by chance. Curious about this, I asked a man who was relatively far away from the monster about it. I got an unexpected reply.
"What's up with you? You're here without even knowing that? You don't look like a soldier, so I thought you were one of my kind...but if that's the case, what you're wearing is a bit too nice." The man, who looked like a strong, tough adventurer, narrowed his eyes as he examined me. I handed the man some money and asked him about the situation. Then I learned the following facts.
The Vallegarda Empire had issued an unusual quest. It offered an exceptional reward if you could defeat that monster. But that was nothing more than a ploy, intended only to buy the Empire's army time to escape. Since the quest was impossible to achieve, of course they had no intention of paying the reward from the start. I couldn't help but sense a dark malice in the part that said "if you could defeat it."
Chapter length 1099 characters.
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