Chapter 717: The Captives (2)

“Wh, who are you taking this time!”

“Please...... just leave us alone.......”

At those words.

I had no choice but to tilt my head a little.

Because.

“......Do we look that rotten?”

“Well. Your impression is a little fierce, Senior.”

“.......”

Among the zombies, there were probably beings that had taken humans as hosts.

But to begin with, those hosts were corpses too.

Naturally, it was common sense that their outward appearance would be closer to that of dying humans.

As for the two of us...... well, I did not know whether we looked perfectly fine.

But at the very least, it was certain we did not look like dead people.

It was a little strange that they thought we were zombies after seeing us, but.

“Calm down and look at us properly.”

“......?”

For now, what mattered was talking with them.

I calmly sat down in front of them and soothed them.

“Are you really...... human?”

Only after quite a while of effort.

The people seemed to believe that we were human.

I also looked at them and thought.

'The hostages who came to us back then were the same, but...... their condition is better than I expected.'

I had thought they would look more like corpses.

But while the hostages looked a little haggard, their lives did not seem to be in danger.

It was hard to believe they were people who had been under the control of those zombies.

They looked at me with eyes full of wariness and said,

“Who are you? Who are you, to be together with that one.......”

“We are...... well, we came from South Korea.”

“South Korea.......”

Then.

Their eyes widened in surprise.

“You came from South Joseon?”

I turned my head slightly and looked at the goblin behind me.

It was merely watching us near the door, as if telling me to do as I pleased.

It seemed talking with them was not a problem, so.......

“The truth is.......”

I explained the rough current situation to the people.

That those things had something they wanted from us.

And that they had put these people up as the price for that demand.

“Th, that’s.......”

“So that was why they were holding us here.......”

The people wore complicated expressions.

It was a situation where their lives were hanging on humans from another country.

They would have many thoughts in all kinds of ways.

“......You said you already saw several hostages?”

At that moment.

Among the hostages with anxious expressions, someone stepped forward and spoke.

“Was there, by any chance, a young boy there? About this tall.......”

“......Ah.”

A middle-aged woman.

When I heard the appearance she described, one child happened to come to mind.

“I remember that child. Please don’t worry. Right now, he is being treated on our side...... so there should be no problem with his health.”

“Ahh...... thank goodness....... Truly, thank.......”

“Now I would like to ask some questions as well.”

The rough explanation was over.

Now it was my turn to ask questions.

“I would like to hear in detail what happened in this country.”

“......Ahem.”

At my words.

The people looked at one another with complicated expressions.

“......One day, monsters suddenly appeared all over the world.”

The story that followed was mostly similar to what we had expected.

Monsters appeared, and the places where soldiers were stationed were annihilated first.

But because this was a country where the proportion of soldiers was extremely high, that alone led to most of the nation being occupied.

Humanity had no choice but to be defeated in an instant.

“At least in the early stages, we could hold out little by little...... but as time passed, the number of monsters increased far too much.”

“.......”

“In the middle of it, there was talk of an easy method to awaken by using zombies...... but outside was already a world of monsters, and the situation had already become one where even hunting only weak zombies while avoiding those monsters was impossible.”

It seemed the information that I and the Legion had sent had reached some people.

But by that point, they already had no room to hunt even zombies.

Because of that.

“We thought we could not hold out any longer and started hiding.”

Only an extremely small number of survivors.

In other words, only those who could be called fairly skilled among them succeeded in surviving, then hid in places like secret caves deep in the forest.

They even blocked the cave entrances.

Small animals inside.

Food they had barely managed to bring while fleeing the city.

And rye bread purchased with points gathered in the earliest days.

A life where they barely, barely held on through those things and the vitality of awakened.

Naturally, a large-scale group could not hold out that way.

Most of the surviving awakened had apparently hidden alone, or at most in groups of two or three.

But then.

“Starting around a month ago, those things began finding us where we were hiding.”

A month ago.......

That matched the time Private Sa Euijun said these people had been taken hostage.

'Did they really start searching for humans to negotiate with us?'

But if so.

It meant they could have captured them well before that, yet had deliberately not done so then.

Something about that did not sit right with me, but...... it did not seem these people would know much about that part, so I decided to move on for now.

“That is how we were captured and dragged here. Right now, we are at least living together like this, but most of the people here only met for the first time after coming here.”

“I see.”

“After that, they gave us the bare minimum of food and forced us to stay here.”

“Forced.”

I looked at their bodies as I said,

“For that, it does not seem you are tied up or anything.”

“That is true. In fact, opening the door and going out is possible too.”

“Pardon?”

“A few people actually tried going out.”

I could not help being a little surprised by those words.

It was even possible to leave here?

“But...... as soon as you go outside, you feel those things’ gazes from the buildings all around.”

“Ah.......”

“It was obvious what would happen if we refused them and went outside...... so in the end, we had no choice but to return inside this building.”

Most of the people here were awakened.

To begin with, it was only natural, since it was an environment where they could not have survived without the vitality of awakened.

Because of that, it seemed they could feel things like the gazes of monsters in their own way.

“And so, we were trapped without even knowing why and spent our time like that. Then...... a few days ago.”

Their gazes turned toward that goblin.

“That one came and dragged away some of us.”

“......I see.”

Most likely.

Those were the hostages I had seen.

“One of the ten taken away then was that woman’s son from earlier.”

But.

At the words that followed, I frowned.

“......Ten?”

“Mm. It suddenly came and dragged away that many people, so naturally, we thought they had become food for those corpses.”

They seemed concerned about the fact that people had been dragged away.

But I was not.

Because.

'What we saw was not around ten people.'

I turned my head and looked at the goblin.

Then.

The goblin received my gaze and said,

“Ob, obvious...... thing. Here...... all hostages, not.”

“What does that mean?”

“You, you...... still, condition...... accepted, have not. Cannot...... trust. Hostages, scattered. These, extremely...... small part.”

When I first learned there were hostages here.

I had thought there might be some way to use force and bring them back.

But.

'They aren’t all of them?'

Those zombies.

For things whose brains should have rotted too, they were more thorough than expected.

Then, at that moment.

“You haven’t...... accepted the condition?”

A voice came from behind us.

***

“You haven’t...... accepted the condition?”

In the middle of my conversation with that goblin.

A voice suddenly rang out.

When I heard it, I could not help flinching inwardly.

“Wh, what does that mean?”

“According to what you said earlier, wasn’t the condition that you would do something for them in exchange for our lives?”

The lives of the hostages were certainly precious.

But.

The condition that prince had proposed was to provide a way to greatly extend the lifespans of all zombies.

“The fact that you haven’t accepted that means......!”

The result of that might threaten the lives of thousands, no, tens of thousands of times more humans than these people.

I had at least left room for negotiation.

A guy like Howard had gone so far as to say there was absolutely no reason to accept.

Naturally, it was not something that could be decided easily.

“......For now, everyone, please wait here.”

“Wh, where are you trying to go!”

“I will try to resolve this matter properly, so if you trust us and wait.”

“Wait......!”

The people, sunk in confusion and fear, shouted.

“Se, Senior.”

“......Let’s go.”

Howard looked flustered after seeing that.

But I grabbed that guy’s shoulder and turned around.

They had already fallen into confusion after hearing what that goblin just said.

'There are many more things I want to hear, but.'

It had turned out this way.

It would be hard to continue talking here.

“Pl, please don’t abandon us.”

When I was about to open the door of the building and go out.

A voice came from behind me.

“We have done nothing wrong. We want to live....... We truly want to live.”

“If you only save us, we will never forget that grace....... Please.”

I let out a sigh.

Leaving those voices behind, I came outside.

But.

The sharp senses of an awakened sometimes had bad points instead.

“N, no.”

“Were we not one people in the past!”

“I, I have admired South Joseon since long ago. So please.”

“Do, don’t go. Don’t go....... Leaving us behind.......”

Even after I came outside the building.

Their continuing screams kept reaching me.

“.......”

I glanced to the side.

I saw Howard’s face, dark with gloom.

“Earlier, I told you not to think anything strange, Senior.”

When I had started thinking seriously about the negotiation.

He had told me not to think anything strange.

“......I was the one thinking about it too lightly instead.”

“Well, it isn’t something you need to blame yourself that much for. Thinking like you is normal.”

But now that he had directly seen the hostages.

He was sweating coldly and clenching his fist.

If one calculated human lives as simple numbers, things were easy.

But calculating lives as numbers was, in itself, not actually an easy thing.

That guy, who had lived his entire life, and even after ruin, only as an ordinary chef, probably had not had much real sense of that part yet.

Only after seeing the humans who might die by his own choice.

Had he felt the weight of that choice.

“Ho, hostages. Confirmed. We, lies...... do not tell.”

And.

I let out a hollow laugh toward that goblin and muttered,

“You did say they were hostages who are alive now, but could die, didn’t you?”

“Th, that...... right.”

“We do not lie, huh. How impressive.”

These things.

As expected, they were smart for zombies.

No, to be precise.

'Should I call it cunning?'

I had wondered why they were showing us the hostages so obediently.

But to begin with, the hostages here were not all of them.

And also.

'Guilt.'

If we refused the proposal here, it would be no different from us killing them.......

That kind of guilt.

That was what it had intended.

***

“Decided...... have you?”

“......Don’t rush me too much. First.”

In the end.

I scratched my head and said,

“Is there a place where you can show us your kin? I mean, the original body of the bugs.”

“Our, original...... body. Why?”

“Your request is for us to create a recipe, but you’re not ordinary creatures with mouths, are you? Before accepting the job, I want to confirm whether this is something we can do or not. To do that, I think I need to know more about you.”

“......Reasonable, words.”

It nodded.

Then it headed somewhere again and said,

“Follow...... me.”

And so.

We followed the goblin to another place.

On that route was the building we had visited a short while ago.

The Central Committee headquarters.

'There are many parts that don’t sit right.'

I looked at that building and thought.

The atmosphere was turning out entirely differently from what I had imagined when I first thought I would be working with zombies.

In the middle of that, one by one, certain parts had begun to bother me.

Because of that, I looked at the headquarters with a strange feeling.

'......Huh?'

And, in the middle of doing so.

I noticed one fact.

The one we had conversed with when we first came here.

The being called a prince, who had been located in the place where this nation’s king had once been.

That being’s presence.

'Did it leave its place?'

I could no longer sense it.