Translated by Wook
Edited by Wook
There are four types of dead in Hell.
And the ugliest and most disgusting of them are probably The Ones Who Swallowed the First Cry.
Unlike the other dead, they took the form of a decent human being, but only bones and skin remained. Therefore, they were like a dry corpse.
Also, their sense of sight and smell deteriorated, so they were so dull that they did not even know if there was a person next to them.
However, their hearing was terribly sensitive and their appetite was ravenous. When they heard even the slightest sound, they ran to them and ate them.
I thought their habits were very odd.
So, when faced with The King Who Swallowed The First Cry, I asked what I had always wondered about before breaking his heart.
— Your Majesty, why are your people blind?
— We are a people of regret, so we cannot see the world right away.
The King answered kindly, so I asked again.
— Then why do they swallow the sound like water?
— It is the punishment that has been inflicted on us, and we are repeating the things we regret the most.
— What do you regret the most?
— I am ashamed to reveal it myself.
— Does your name have anything to do with it? So what you regret is swallowing the first cry?
When I asked one after another, the King burst into tears. He answered, weeping sadly.
— Princess, you already know everything. Just like you know why your great-great-grandfather is the ‘King of Burning and Scorching’.
The King Who Swallowed the First Cry, was silent at the end.
He has the ugliest dead, but he himself is the wisest of kings.
I respected him, but had no hesitation in tearing him apart.
I gladly slaughtered him, and a tiny heart slipped out of his shredded body.
I tried to pick it up. However, the King quickly put his heart in his finger and ran away.
Again, the defeated king hid in the deepest part of his castle, and I never saw him again.
.
.
.
Lynn slowly drove the horse, pondering Emperor Nihil’s biography.
‘It wasn’t even funny…’
Stories that are too vague to be history and too shallow to be a myth.
He thought that it was all a hoax to cover up the atrocities of the Empire, but ever since he came down to the Tomb himself, he’s been thinking about it all day, wondering if there’s any small clue.
Lynn laughed at his situation and looked at the sky. And soon regretted it. Because the red sky only encouraged fatigue.
Lynn and his Eastern Knights were already in the middle of the Tomb.
The East came down to the Tomb after the South, the vanguard, and was currently diligently chasing Rena’s traces.
“Your Grace, over there…”
Deca lowered his voice and pointed to one side of the valley.
There were neatly shredded dead people all over the place. Unlike on the land, where the dead who died dissipated like smoke, the dead who died underground slowly melted into the ground.
“The Southern Representative is extraordinary.”
Looking at the corpses of the dead, Deca said fearfully. Lynn sympathized with him in silence.
After Rena crossed the rift as the vanguard, Lynn and his Eastern Knights followed immediately. However, when they crossed the rift, the first thing they saw was not Rena Ruber’s back, but the bodies of countless dead.
Seeing this, Lynn and the knights had goosebumps all over their bodies.
It wasn’t because it was terrible. They, too, were knights who had their shares of dead. What made them astonished was what this scene meant.
The dead disappear when they die. Their bodies scatter in a mist, leaving no trace of blood, obviously. They wondered if it would be different in the Tomb. Apparently, the form was indeed different, but in the end, the body still disappeared immediately.
So all these corpses meant one thing.
Rena Ruber left this place after cutting the dead. She alone is fast enough to cut down these large numbers in seconds.
‘I knew she was abnormal, but…’
To think that it would be like this…
Lynn thought as he looked at the corpse of the dead that gradually melted away.
How is she able to kill the dead so quickly? It seemed easy, but in practice, it was very difficult.
‘She’s not even of the Imperial blood who has inherited power. So how…’
Lynn thought seriously, but then he suddenly burst into laughter as he remembered the words that Rena had told him two days ago.
— Don’t fight the dead. The more you fight, the more you lose.
After telling him not to fight, she himself is in the process of committing a massacre.
A truly unpredictable person.
Lynn followed Rena’s trail and thought more about it. In addition to telling him not to fight, Rena also gave more baseless advice.
— Pick only ten knights and bring them inside.
— Think of staying in the Tomb for about ten days.
— Don’t approach the castle.
All of them were baseless words, so Lynn still thought about them one day before the expedition.
He personally liked Rena. But he wouldn’t allow himself to go out of his way and take in Rena’s enigmatic remarks just like that. He was not just an individual, he was the Eastern Duke.
When Lynn was pondering speechlessly, all of a sudden, the knight at the front gave a signal.
‘What is it?’
As the tension increased, Lynn got off his horse. He then lowered his footsteps and walked over to the lead knight.
As he climbed the slope, he saw a long gorge and a towering castle in between. And below it, there were many dead, like a herd of buffalo on the land.
Walking on two legs, with a skinny body with bare bones, and a gesture of roaming in vain. They were The Ones Who Swallowed the First Cry.
And he could see someone moving as swiftly as a cat between them.
‘Rena.’
It was Rena. Rena was boldly passing by Those Who Swallowed the First Cry.
And the stupid dead didn’t realize Rena’s existence yet, so they just stood there idly.
‘Is she going to go straight into the castle?’
It is a castle that has no gates and no roads, as if it had only been shaped from mud. How the hell is she going to get in there?
— I am the only one who can conquer that castle.
Yes, Rena said this too. It seems that she knew some kind of method.
Then, what shall we do? Just watch the South intercept all the dukes like this?
Lynn glanced at Rena, who was going ahead without hesitation, and ordered his knights with hand signals.
‘Bow and arrows.”
At the duke’s command, the knights handed a bow and arrows attached with brass bells.
Lynn picked up his bow and hung two arrows with brass bells.
Lynn personally liked Rena. But Lignan Aetherner was not just an individual. He was the youngest, most ambitious and unruly Eastern Duke of all time.
Having hardened his heart, Lignan Aetherner drew the bow towards his leading rival.
At the same time, Rena was surrounded by many dead. It would be difficult for Rena to deal with such a number alone.
Lynn watched the scene carefully, then looked at Rena and released the arrow.
***
‘The path is narrow.’
Rena, who was in the middle of the Tomb, stopped her movement and looked at the dead in front.
Those Who Swallowed the First Cry, who had not yet realized Rena’s existence, were standing in front of her.
‘Can I just pass by quietly?’
Until now, she had slain a lot of dead, but now she had to restrain herself.
A little further ahead, it is the castle of the King Who Swallowed the First Cry. Fighting with the endless crowd of dead would be just making a fuss prematurely.
Therefore, she wanted to pass as quietly as possible, but she still had a long way to go as the dead’s bodies overlapped with each other.
With her feet tied, Rena bit her lower lip and pondered.
‘I wish I could make some noise.’
But she doesn’t have the right tools, because all the objects that made noise were removed in advance to move quietly. There are a few daggers, but even if she throws them with all her might, she won’t be able to make a sound on this muddy ground.
As Rena was about to look around to find another way.
An arrow flew from somewhere.
Two arrows were shot down vertically from the sky and crashed into the ground, and at the same time, there was a clattering sound of iron.
Guaaaaakh!
The dead, who heard the sound, rushed with their teeth exposed.
The dead’s sharp claws broke the arrow in an instant, and the bell flew around, making a louder noise. The mad dead struggled violently, trying to eat the sound.
‘What’s happening?’
Rena looked at the scene with a bewildered look.
The arrow was stuck in the ground about 40 steps from Rena’s feet.
Thanks to this, the dead rushed to the place where the arrow was embedded, and Rena’s previously blocked path was cleared.
Rena grinned as she looked for where these arrows flew from.
Lynn with a bow was seen in the distance.
‘Mr. Lynn is here too.’
Rena realized that Lynn had helped her and greeted him lightly.
***
‘Your Grace?’
As Lynn opened the way for Sir Rena, Deca asked the reason with his eyes.
But Lynn merely took a long breath and didn’t explain anything.
In fact, he wasn’t even sure of the reason himself.
‘I wonder if this is all I’m good at…’
Lynn, as the Eastern Duke, had to be careful in every decision he made.
Therefore, he could not accept Rena’s enigmatic words without filtering them first.
At the same time, he couldn’t just ignore it.
Rena’s extraordinariness was something he should definitely keep an eye on, not only as an individual named Lynn, but also as the owner of the East.
Therefore, he accepted Rena’s advice after thinking about it. But, with some safety measures added, not just as it is.
‘From now on, camp in the highlands and monitor the vicinity.’
‘If I do not return after ten days, you will retreat to the palace.’
‘Only 70% of the knights will eat food as usual, while the rest will endure with salt.’
Lynn decided to leave 90 out of 100 knights here with Deca just in case.
When he ordered it with hand signals, Deca nodded without any objection, even though he was bewildered in his heart. Then he asked Lynn where he was going.
Lynn replied briefly.
‘To get the loot.’
Again, this was what Rena taught him last night.
***
‘They don’t seem to be coming to the castle.’
Rena smiled as she watched the Eastern Knights disperse.
She was disappointed in her heart when Lynn brought a bunch of knights, but it seems like he decided to listen to Rena anyway.
‘He’s nice and he listens well. Or does he feel it’s a good idea after all?’
Rena praised Lynn’s decision happily. She also liked the fact that he did not follow her advice unconditionally and added his own arrangement.
Rena looked proudly as she watched the Eastern Knights move, then she herself moved before the dead blocked her way again.
The castle standing in front had no doors, as Lynn had observed. But Rena knew how to get into the castle.
When Rena was just about to enter the castle.
Suddenly, she felt that her feet were shaking, and then there was a loud rumbling of the ground.
‘What?’
Rena looked behind her, thinking that the dead were coming.
But it wasn’t the dead. Soaring above the valley was the flag of the North, as vividly red as the sky.
Upon finding the Northern Knights, Rena bit her lip.
Unsurprisingly, Those Who Swallowed the First Cry swarmed and poured out from the castle at the noise made by the army.
Guaaaaaakh! As the dead ran after the sound, a slash flew in from the other side.
Rena, who was almost swept away by Rubid’s attack, quickly rolled over and escaped.
It seemed that the radical gentlemen of the North were planning to attack noisily like this.
Rena quickly scanned the valley to see how far they had spread their formation.
However, Rena’s gaze, which was moving quickly, stopped at one point.
‘Father.’
Among the many knights, Rena discovered Marquis Ruber.
At that moment, the Marquis was standing towards Rena.
Somehow she felt like their eyes met.
No, it definitely met.
Immediately afterward, the Marquis’ hands cut through the air, and it was clear what it meant when the knights shoot their arrows.
Translated by Wook
Edited by Wook
There are four types of dead in Hell.
And the ugliest and most disgusting of them are probably The Ones Who Swallowed the First Cry.
Unlike the other dead, they took the form of a decent human being, but only bones and skin remained. Therefore, they were like a dry corpse.
Also, their sense of sight and smell deteriorated, so they were so dull that they did not even know if there was a person next to them.
However, their hearing was terribly sensitive and their appetite was ravenous. When they heard even the slightest sound, they ran to them and ate them.
I thought their habits were very odd.
So, when faced with The King Who Swallowed The First Cry, I asked what I had always wondered about before breaking his heart.
— Your Majesty, why are your people blind?
— We are a people of regret, so we cannot see the world right away.
The King answered kindly, so I asked again.
— Then why do they swallow the sound like water?
— It is the punishment that has been inflicted on us, and we are repeating the things we regret the most.
— What do you regret the most?
— I am ashamed to reveal it myself.
— Does your name have anything to do with it? So what you regret is swallowing the first cry?
When I asked one after another, the King burst into tears. He answered, weeping sadly.
— Princess, you already know everything. Just like you know why your great-great-grandfather is the ‘King of Burning and Scorching’.
The King Who Swallowed the First Cry, was silent at the end.
He has the ugliest dead, but he himself is the wisest of kings.
I respected him, but had no hesitation in tearing him apart.
I gladly slaughtered him, and a tiny heart slipped out of his shredded body.
I tried to pick it up. However, the King quickly put his heart in his finger and ran away.
Again, the defeated king hid in the deepest part of his castle, and I never saw him again.
.
.
.
Lynn slowly drove the horse, pondering Emperor Nihil’s biography.
‘It wasn’t even funny…’
Stories that are too vague to be history and too shallow to be a myth.
He thought that it was all a hoax to cover up the atrocities of the Empire, but ever since he came down to the Tomb himself, he’s been thinking about it all day, wondering if there’s any small clue.
Lynn laughed at his situation and looked at the sky. And soon regretted it. Because the red sky only encouraged fatigue.
Lynn and his Eastern Knights were already in the middle of the Tomb.
The East came down to the Tomb after the South, the vanguard, and was currently diligently chasing Rena’s traces.
“Your Grace, over there…”
Deca lowered his voice and pointed to one side of the valley.
There were neatly shredded dead people all over the place. Unlike on the land, where the dead who died dissipated like smoke, the dead who died underground slowly melted into the ground.
“The Southern Representative is extraordinary.”
Looking at the corpses of the dead, Deca said fearfully. Lynn sympathized with him in silence.
After Rena crossed the rift as the vanguard, Lynn and his Eastern Knights followed immediately. However, when they crossed the rift, the first thing they saw was not Rena Ruber’s back, but the bodies of countless dead.
Seeing this, Lynn and the knights had goosebumps all over their bodies.
It wasn’t because it was terrible. They, too, were knights who had their shares of dead. What made them astonished was what this scene meant.
The dead disappear when they die. Their bodies scatter in a mist, leaving no trace of blood, obviously. They wondered if it would be different in the Tomb. Apparently, the form was indeed different, but in the end, the body still disappeared immediately.
So all these corpses meant one thing.
Rena Ruber left this place after cutting the dead. She alone is fast enough to cut down these large numbers in seconds.
‘I knew she was abnormal, but…’
To think that it would be like this…
Lynn thought as he looked at the corpse of the dead that gradually melted away.
How is she able to kill the dead so quickly? It seemed easy, but in practice, it was very difficult.
‘She’s not even of the Imperial blood who has inherited power. So how…’
Lynn thought seriously, but then he suddenly burst into laughter as he remembered the words that Rena had told him two days ago.
— Don’t fight the dead. The more you fight, the more you lose.
After telling him not to fight, she himself is in the process of committing a massacre.
A truly unpredictable person.
Lynn followed Rena’s trail and thought more about it. In addition to telling him not to fight, Rena also gave more baseless advice.
— Pick only ten knights and bring them inside.
— Think of staying in the Tomb for about ten days.
— Don’t approach the castle.
All of them were baseless words, so Lynn still thought about them one day before the expedition.
He personally liked Rena. But he wouldn’t allow himself to go out of his way and take in Rena’s enigmatic remarks just like that. He was not just an individual, he was the Eastern Duke.
When Lynn was pondering speechlessly, all of a sudden, the knight at the front gave a signal.
‘What is it?’
As the tension increased, Lynn got off his horse. He then lowered his footsteps and walked over to the lead knight.
As he climbed the slope, he saw a long gorge and a towering castle in between. And below it, there were many dead, like a herd of buffalo on the land.
Walking on two legs, with a skinny body with bare bones, and a gesture of roaming in vain. They were The Ones Who Swallowed the First Cry.
And he could see someone moving as swiftly as a cat between them.
‘Rena.’
It was Rena. Rena was boldly passing by Those Who Swallowed the First Cry.
And the stupid dead didn’t realize Rena’s existence yet, so they just stood there idly.
‘Is she going to go straight into the castle?’
It is a castle that has no gates and no roads, as if it had only been shaped from mud. How the hell is she going to get in there?
— I am the only one who can conquer that castle.
Yes, Rena said this too. It seems that she knew some kind of method.
Then, what shall we do? Just watch the South intercept all the dukes like this?
Lynn glanced at Rena, who was going ahead without hesitation, and ordered his knights with hand signals.
‘Bow and arrows.”
At the duke’s command, the knights handed a bow and arrows attached with brass bells.
Lynn picked up his bow and hung two arrows with brass bells.
Lynn personally liked Rena. But Lignan Aetherner was not just an individual. He was the youngest, most ambitious and unruly Eastern Duke of all time.
Having hardened his heart, Lignan Aetherner drew the bow towards his leading rival.
At the same time, Rena was surrounded by many dead. It would be difficult for Rena to deal with such a number alone.
Lynn watched the scene carefully, then looked at Rena and released the arrow.
***
‘The path is narrow.’
Rena, who was in the middle of the Tomb, stopped her movement and looked at the dead in front.
Those Who Swallowed the First Cry, who had not yet realized Rena’s existence, were standing in front of her.
‘Can I just pass by quietly?’
Until now, she had slain a lot of dead, but now she had to restrain herself.
A little further ahead, it is the castle of the King Who Swallowed the First Cry. Fighting with the endless crowd of dead would be just making a fuss prematurely.
Therefore, she wanted to pass as quietly as possible, but she still had a long way to go as the dead’s bodies overlapped with each other.
With her feet tied, Rena bit her lower lip and pondered.
‘I wish I could make some noise.’
But she doesn’t have the right tools, because all the objects that made noise were removed in advance to move quietly. There are a few daggers, but even if she throws them with all her might, she won’t be able to make a sound on this muddy ground.
As Rena was about to look around to find another way.
An arrow flew from somewhere.
Two arrows were shot down vertically from the sky and crashed into the ground, and at the same time, there was a clattering sound of iron.
Guaaaaakh!
The dead, who heard the sound, rushed with their teeth exposed.
The dead’s sharp claws broke the arrow in an instant, and the bell flew around, making a louder noise. The mad dead struggled violently, trying to eat the sound.
‘What’s happening?’
Rena looked at the scene with a bewildered look.
The arrow was stuck in the ground about 40 steps from Rena’s feet.
Thanks to this, the dead rushed to the place where the arrow was embedded, and Rena’s previously blocked path was cleared.
Rena grinned as she looked for where these arrows flew from.
Lynn with a bow was seen in the distance.
‘Mr. Lynn is here too.’
Rena realized that Lynn had helped her and greeted him lightly.
***
‘Your Grace?’
As Lynn opened the way for Sir Rena, Deca asked the reason with his eyes.
But Lynn merely took a long breath and didn’t explain anything.
In fact, he wasn’t even sure of the reason himself.
‘I wonder if this is all I’m good at…’
Lynn, as the Eastern Duke, had to be careful in every decision he made.
Therefore, he could not accept Rena’s enigmatic words without filtering them first.
At the same time, he couldn’t just ignore it.
Rena’s extraordinariness was something he should definitely keep an eye on, not only as an individual named Lynn, but also as the owner of the East.
Therefore, he accepted Rena’s advice after thinking about it. But, with some safety measures added, not just as it is.
‘From now on, camp in the highlands and monitor the vicinity.’
‘If I do not return after ten days, you will retreat to the palace.’
‘Only 70% of the knights will eat food as usual, while the rest will endure with salt.’
Lynn decided to leave 90 out of 100 knights here with Deca just in case.
When he ordered it with hand signals, Deca nodded without any objection, even though he was bewildered in his heart. Then he asked Lynn where he was going.
Lynn replied briefly.
‘To get the loot.’
Again, this was what Rena taught him last night.
***
‘They don’t seem to be coming to the castle.’
Rena smiled as she watched the Eastern Knights disperse.
She was disappointed in her heart when Lynn brought a bunch of knights, but it seems like he decided to listen to Rena anyway.
‘He’s nice and he listens well. Or does he feel it’s a good idea after all?’
Rena praised Lynn’s decision happily. She also liked the fact that he did not follow her advice unconditionally and added his own arrangement.
Rena looked proudly as she watched the Eastern Knights move, then she herself moved before the dead blocked her way again.
The castle standing in front had no doors, as Lynn had observed. But Rena knew how to get into the castle.
When Rena was just about to enter the castle.
Suddenly, she felt that her feet were shaking, and then there was a loud rumbling of the ground.
‘What?’
Rena looked behind her, thinking that the dead were coming.
But it wasn’t the dead. Soaring above the valley was the flag of the North, as vividly red as the sky.
Upon finding the Northern Knights, Rena bit her lip.
Unsurprisingly, Those Who Swallowed the First Cry swarmed and poured out from the castle at the noise made by the army.
Guaaaaaakh! As the dead ran after the sound, a slash flew in from the other side.
Rena, who was almost swept away by Rubid’s attack, quickly rolled over and escaped.
It seemed that the radical gentlemen of the North were planning to attack noisily like this.
Rena quickly scanned the valley to see how far they had spread their formation.
However, Rena’s gaze, which was moving quickly, stopped at one point.
‘Father.’
Among the many knights, Rena discovered Marquis Ruber.
At that moment, the Marquis was standing towards Rena.
Somehow she felt like their eyes met.
No, it definitely met.
Immediately afterward, the Marquis’ hands cut through the air, and it was clear what it meant when the knights shoot their arrows.
Translated by Wook
Edited by Wook
There are four types of dead in Hell.
And the ugliest and most disgusting of them are probably The Ones Who Swallowed the First Cry.
Unlike the other dead, they took the form of a decent human being, but only bones and skin remained. Therefore, they were like a dry corpse.
Also, their sense of sight and smell deteriorated, so they were so dull that they did not even know if there was a person next to them.
However, their hearing was terribly sensitive and their appetite was ravenous. When they heard even the slightest sound, they ran to them and ate them.
I thought their habits were very odd.
So, when faced with The King Who Swallowed The First Cry, I asked what I had always wondered about before breaking his heart.
— Your Majesty, why are your people blind?
— We are a people of regret, so we cannot see the world right away.
The King answered kindly, so I asked again.
— Then why do they swallow the sound like water?
— It is the punishment that has been inflicted on us, and we are repeating the things we regret the most.
— What do you regret the most?
— I am ashamed to reveal it myself.
— Does your name have anything to do with it? So what you regret is swallowing the first cry?
When I asked one after another, the King burst into tears. He answered, weeping sadly.
— Princess, you already know everything. Just like you know why your great-great-grandfather is the ‘King of Burning and Scorching’.
The King Who Swallowed the First Cry, was silent at the end.
He has the ugliest dead, but he himself is the wisest of kings.
I respected him, but had no hesitation in tearing him apart.
I gladly slaughtered him, and a tiny heart slipped out of his shredded body.
I tried to pick it up. However, the King quickly put his heart in his finger and ran away.
Again, the defeated king hid in the deepest part of his castle, and I never saw him again.
.
.
.
Lynn slowly drove the horse, pondering Emperor Nihil’s biography.
‘It wasn’t even funny…’
Stories that are too vague to be history and too shallow to be a myth.
He thought that it was all a hoax to cover up the atrocities of the Empire, but ever since he came down to the Tomb himself, he’s been thinking about it all day, wondering if there’s any small clue.
Lynn laughed at his situation and looked at the sky. And soon regretted it. Because the red sky only encouraged fatigue.
Lynn and his Eastern Knights were already in the middle of the Tomb.
The East came down to the Tomb after the South, the vanguard, and was currently diligently chasing Rena’s traces.
“Your Grace, over there…”
Deca lowered his voice and pointed to one side of the valley.
There were neatly shredded dead people all over the place. Unlike on the land, where the dead who died dissipated like smoke, the dead who died underground slowly melted into the ground.
“The Southern Representative is extraordinary.”
Looking at the corpses of the dead, Deca said fearfully. Lynn sympathized with him in silence.
After Rena crossed the rift as the vanguard, Lynn and his Eastern Knights followed immediately. However, when they crossed the rift, the first thing they saw was not Rena Ruber’s back, but the bodies of countless dead.
Seeing this, Lynn and the knights had goosebumps all over their bodies.
It wasn’t because it was terrible. They, too, were knights who had their shares of dead. What made them astonished was what this scene meant.
The dead disappear when they die. Their bodies scatter in a mist, leaving no trace of blood, obviously. They wondered if it would be different in the Tomb. Apparently, the form was indeed different, but in the end, the body still disappeared immediately.
So all these corpses meant one thing.
Rena Ruber left this place after cutting the dead. She alone is fast enough to cut down these large numbers in seconds.
‘I knew she was abnormal, but…’
To think that it would be like this…
Lynn thought as he looked at the corpse of the dead that gradually melted away.
How is she able to kill the dead so quickly? It seemed easy, but in practice, it was very difficult.
‘She’s not even of the Imperial blood who has inherited power. So how…’
Lynn thought seriously, but then he suddenly burst into laughter as he remembered the words that Rena had told him two days ago.
— Don’t fight the dead. The more you fight, the more you lose.
After telling him not to fight, she himself is in the process of committing a massacre.
A truly unpredictable person.
Lynn followed Rena’s trail and thought more about it. In addition to telling him not to fight, Rena also gave more baseless advice.
— Pick only ten knights and bring them inside.
— Think of staying in the Tomb for about ten days.
— Don’t approach the castle.
All of them were baseless words, so Lynn still thought about them one day before the expedition.
He personally liked Rena. But he wouldn’t allow himself to go out of his way and take in Rena’s enigmatic remarks just like that. He was not just an individual, he was the Eastern Duke.
When Lynn was pondering speechlessly, all of a sudden, the knight at the front gave a signal.
‘What is it?’
As the tension increased, Lynn got off his horse. He then lowered his footsteps and walked over to the lead knight.
As he climbed the slope, he saw a long gorge and a towering castle in between. And below it, there were many dead, like a herd of buffalo on the land.
Walking on two legs, with a skinny body with bare bones, and a gesture of roaming in vain. They were The Ones Who Swallowed the First Cry.
And he could see someone moving as swiftly as a cat between them.
‘Rena.’
It was Rena. Rena was boldly passing by Those Who Swallowed the First Cry.
And the stupid dead didn’t realize Rena’s existence yet, so they just stood there idly.
‘Is she going to go straight into the castle?’
It is a castle that has no gates and no roads, as if it had only been shaped from mud. How the hell is she going to get in there?
— I am the only one who can conquer that castle.
Yes, Rena said this too. It seems that she knew some kind of method.
Then, what shall we do? Just watch the South intercept all the dukes like this?
Lynn glanced at Rena, who was going ahead without hesitation, and ordered his knights with hand signals.
‘Bow and arrows.”
At the duke’s command, the knights handed a bow and arrows attached with brass bells.
Lynn picked up his bow and hung two arrows with brass bells.
Lynn personally liked Rena. But Lignan Aetherner was not just an individual. He was the youngest, most ambitious and unruly Eastern Duke of all time.
Having hardened his heart, Lignan Aetherner drew the bow towards his leading rival.
At the same time, Rena was surrounded by many dead. It would be difficult for Rena to deal with such a number alone.
Lynn watched the scene carefully, then looked at Rena and released the arrow.
***
‘The path is narrow.’
Rena, who was in the middle of the Tomb, stopped her movement and looked at the dead in front.
Those Who Swallowed the First Cry, who had not yet realized Rena’s existence, were standing in front of her.
‘Can I just pass by quietly?’
Until now, she had slain a lot of dead, but now she had to restrain herself.
A little further ahead, it is the castle of the King Who Swallowed the First Cry. Fighting with the endless crowd of dead would be just making a fuss prematurely.
Therefore, she wanted to pass as quietly as possible, but she still had a long way to go as the dead’s bodies overlapped with each other.
With her feet tied, Rena bit her lower lip and pondered.
‘I wish I could make some noise.’
But she doesn’t have the right tools, because all the objects that made noise were removed in advance to move quietly. There are a few daggers, but even if she throws them with all her might, she won’t be able to make a sound on this muddy ground.
As Rena was about to look around to find another way.
An arrow flew from somewhere.
Two arrows were shot down vertically from the sky and crashed into the ground, and at the same time, there was a clattering sound of iron.
Guaaaaakh!
The dead, who heard the sound, rushed with their teeth exposed.
The dead’s sharp claws broke the arrow in an instant, and the bell flew around, making a louder noise. The mad dead struggled violently, trying to eat the sound.
‘What’s happening?’
Rena looked at the scene with a bewildered look.
The arrow was stuck in the ground about 40 steps from Rena’s feet.
Thanks to this, the dead rushed to the place where the arrow was embedded, and Rena’s previously blocked path was cleared.
Rena grinned as she looked for where these arrows flew from.
Lynn with a bow was seen in the distance.
‘Mr. Lynn is here too.’
Rena realized that Lynn had helped her and greeted him lightly.
***
‘Your Grace?’
As Lynn opened the way for Sir Rena, Deca asked the reason with his eyes.
But Lynn merely took a long breath and didn’t explain anything.
In fact, he wasn’t even sure of the reason himself.
‘I wonder if this is all I’m good at…’
Lynn, as the Eastern Duke, had to be careful in every decision he made.
Therefore, he could not accept Rena’s enigmatic words without filtering them first.
At the same time, he couldn’t just ignore it.
Rena’s extraordinariness was something he should definitely keep an eye on, not only as an individual named Lynn, but also as the owner of the East.
Therefore, he accepted Rena’s advice after thinking about it. But, with some safety measures added, not just as it is.
‘From now on, camp in the highlands and monitor the vicinity.’
‘If I do not return after ten days, you will retreat to the palace.’
‘Only 70% of the knights will eat food as usual, while the rest will endure with salt.’
Lynn decided to leave 90 out of 100 knights here with Deca just in case.
When he ordered it with hand signals, Deca nodded without any objection, even though he was bewildered in his heart. Then he asked Lynn where he was going.
Lynn replied briefly.
‘To get the loot.’
Again, this was what Rena taught him last night.
***
‘They don’t seem to be coming to the castle.’
Rena smiled as she watched the Eastern Knights disperse.
She was disappointed in her heart when Lynn brought a bunch of knights, but it seems like he decided to listen to Rena anyway.
‘He’s nice and he listens well. Or does he feel it’s a good idea after all?’
Rena praised Lynn’s decision happily. She also liked the fact that he did not follow her advice unconditionally and added his own arrangement.
Rena looked proudly as she watched the Eastern Knights move, then she herself moved before the dead blocked her way again.
The castle standing in front had no doors, as Lynn had observed. But Rena knew how to get into the castle.
When Rena was just about to enter the castle.
Suddenly, she felt that her feet were shaking, and then there was a loud rumbling of the ground.
‘What?’
Rena looked behind her, thinking that the dead were coming.
But it wasn’t the dead. Soaring above the valley was the flag of the North, as vividly red as the sky.
Upon finding the Northern Knights, Rena bit her lip.
Unsurprisingly, Those Who Swallowed the First Cry swarmed and poured out from the castle at the noise made by the army.
Guaaaaaakh! As the dead ran after the sound, a slash flew in from the other side.
Rena, who was almost swept away by Rubid’s attack, quickly rolled over and escaped.
It seemed that the radical gentlemen of the North were planning to attack noisily like this.
Rena quickly scanned the valley to see how far they had spread their formation.
However, Rena’s gaze, which was moving quickly, stopped at one point.
‘Father.’
Among the many knights, Rena discovered Marquis Ruber.
At that moment, the Marquis was standing towards Rena.
Somehow she felt like their eyes met.
No, it definitely met.
Immediately afterward, the Marquis’ hands cut through the air, and it was clear what it meant when the knights shoot their arrows.
Translated by Wook
Edited by Wook
There are four types of dead in Hell.
And the ugliest and most disgusting of them are probably The Ones Who Swallowed the First Cry.
Unlike the other dead, they took the form of a decent human being, but only bones and skin remained. Therefore, they were like a dry corpse.
Also, their sense of sight and smell deteriorated, so they were so dull that they did not even know if there was a person next to them.
However, their hearing was terribly sensitive and their appetite was ravenous. When they heard even the slightest sound, they ran to them and ate them.
I thought their habits were very odd.
So, when faced with The King Who Swallowed The First Cry, I asked what I had always wondered about before breaking his heart.
— Your Majesty, why are your people blind?
— We are a people of regret, so we cannot see the world right away.
The King answered kindly, so I asked again.
— Then why do they swallow the sound like water?
— It is the punishment that has been inflicted on us, and we are repeating the things we regret the most.
— What do you regret the most?
— I am ashamed to reveal it myself.
— Does your name have anything to do with it? So what you regret is swallowing the first cry?
When I asked one after another, the King burst into tears. He answered, weeping sadly.
— Princess, you already know everything. Just like you know why your great-great-grandfather is the ‘King of Burning and Scorching’.
The King Who Swallowed the First Cry, was silent at the end.
He has the ugliest dead, but he himself is the wisest of kings.
I respected him, but had no hesitation in tearing him apart.
I gladly slaughtered him, and a tiny heart slipped out of his shredded body.
I tried to pick it up. However, the King quickly put his heart in his finger and ran away.
Again, the defeated king hid in the deepest part of his castle, and I never saw him again.
.
.
.
Lynn slowly drove the horse, pondering Emperor Nihil’s biography.
‘It wasn’t even funny…’
Stories that are too vague to be history and too shallow to be a myth.
He thought that it was all a hoax to cover up the atrocities of the Empire, but ever since he came down to the Tomb himself, he’s been thinking about it all day, wondering if there’s any small clue.
Lynn laughed at his situation and looked at the sky. And soon regretted it. Because the red sky only encouraged fatigue.
Lynn and his Eastern Knights were already in the middle of the Tomb.
The East came down to the Tomb after the South, the vanguard, and was currently diligently chasing Rena’s traces.
“Your Grace, over there…”
Deca lowered his voice and pointed to one side of the valley.
There were neatly shredded dead people all over the place. Unlike on the land, where the dead who died dissipated like smoke, the dead who died underground slowly melted into the ground.
“The Southern Representative is extraordinary.”
Looking at the corpses of the dead, Deca said fearfully. Lynn sympathized with him in silence.
After Rena crossed the rift as the vanguard, Lynn and his Eastern Knights followed immediately. However, when they crossed the rift, the first thing they saw was not Rena Ruber’s back, but the bodies of countless dead.
Seeing this, Lynn and the knights had goosebumps all over their bodies.
It wasn’t because it was terrible. They, too, were knights who had their shares of dead. What made them astonished was what this scene meant.
The dead disappear when they die. Their bodies scatter in a mist, leaving no trace of blood, obviously. They wondered if it would be different in the Tomb. Apparently, the form was indeed different, but in the end, the body still disappeared immediately.
So all these corpses meant one thing.
Rena Ruber left this place after cutting the dead. She alone is fast enough to cut down these large numbers in seconds.
‘I knew she was abnormal, but…’
To think that it would be like this…
Lynn thought as he looked at the corpse of the dead that gradually melted away.
How is she able to kill the dead so quickly? It seemed easy, but in practice, it was very difficult.
‘She’s not even of the Imperial blood who has inherited power. So how…’
Lynn thought seriously, but then he suddenly burst into laughter as he remembered the words that Rena had told him two days ago.
— Don’t fight the dead. The more you fight, the more you lose.
After telling him not to fight, she himself is in the process of committing a massacre.
A truly unpredictable person.
Lynn followed Rena’s trail and thought more about it. In addition to telling him not to fight, Rena also gave more baseless advice.
— Pick only ten knights and bring them inside.
— Think of staying in the Tomb for about ten days.
— Don’t approach the castle.
All of them were baseless words, so Lynn still thought about them one day before the expedition.
He personally liked Rena. But he wouldn’t allow himself to go out of his way and take in Rena’s enigmatic remarks just like that. He was not just an individual, he was the Eastern Duke.
When Lynn was pondering speechlessly, all of a sudden, the knight at the front gave a signal.
‘What is it?’
As the tension increased, Lynn got off his horse. He then lowered his footsteps and walked over to the lead knight.
As he climbed the slope, he saw a long gorge and a towering castle in between. And below it, there were many dead, like a herd of buffalo on the land.
Walking on two legs, with a skinny body with bare bones, and a gesture of roaming in vain. They were The Ones Who Swallowed the First Cry.
And he could see someone moving as swiftly as a cat between them.
‘Rena.’
It was Rena. Rena was boldly passing by Those Who Swallowed the First Cry.
And the stupid dead didn’t realize Rena’s existence yet, so they just stood there idly.
‘Is she going to go straight into the castle?’
It is a castle that has no gates and no roads, as if it had only been shaped from mud. How the hell is she going to get in there?
— I am the only one who can conquer that castle.
Yes, Rena said this too. It seems that she knew some kind of method.
Then, what shall we do? Just watch the South intercept all the dukes like this?
Lynn glanced at Rena, who was going ahead without hesitation, and ordered his knights with hand signals.
‘Bow and arrows.”
At the duke’s command, the knights handed a bow and arrows attached with brass bells.
Lynn picked up his bow and hung two arrows with brass bells.
Lynn personally liked Rena. But Lignan Aetherner was not just an individual. He was the youngest, most ambitious and unruly Eastern Duke of all time.
Having hardened his heart, Lignan Aetherner drew the bow towards his leading rival.
At the same time, Rena was surrounded by many dead. It would be difficult for Rena to deal with such a number alone.
Lynn watched the scene carefully, then looked at Rena and released the arrow.
***
‘The path is narrow.’
Rena, who was in the middle of the Tomb, stopped her movement and looked at the dead in front.
Those Who Swallowed the First Cry, who had not yet realized Rena’s existence, were standing in front of her.
‘Can I just pass by quietly?’
Until now, she had slain a lot of dead, but now she had to restrain herself.
A little further ahead, it is the castle of the King Who Swallowed the First Cry. Fighting with the endless crowd of dead would be just making a fuss prematurely.
Therefore, she wanted to pass as quietly as possible, but she still had a long way to go as the dead’s bodies overlapped with each other.
With her feet tied, Rena bit her lower lip and pondered.
‘I wish I could make some noise.’
But she doesn’t have the right tools, because all the objects that made noise were removed in advance to move quietly. There are a few daggers, but even if she throws them with all her might, she won’t be able to make a sound on this muddy ground.
As Rena was about to look around to find another way.
An arrow flew from somewhere.
Two arrows were shot down vertically from the sky and crashed into the ground, and at the same time, there was a clattering sound of iron.
Guaaaaakh!
The dead, who heard the sound, rushed with their teeth exposed.
The dead’s sharp claws broke the arrow in an instant, and the bell flew around, making a louder noise. The mad dead struggled violently, trying to eat the sound.
‘What’s happening?’
Rena looked at the scene with a bewildered look.
The arrow was stuck in the ground about 40 steps from Rena’s feet.
Thanks to this, the dead rushed to the place where the arrow was embedded, and Rena’s previously blocked path was cleared.
Rena grinned as she looked for where these arrows flew from.
Lynn with a bow was seen in the distance.
‘Mr. Lynn is here too.’
Rena realized that Lynn had helped her and greeted him lightly.
***
‘Your Grace?’
As Lynn opened the way for Sir Rena, Deca asked the reason with his eyes.
But Lynn merely took a long breath and didn’t explain anything.
In fact, he wasn’t even sure of the reason himself.
‘I wonder if this is all I’m good at…’
Lynn, as the Eastern Duke, had to be careful in every decision he made.
Therefore, he could not accept Rena’s enigmatic words without filtering them first.
At the same time, he couldn’t just ignore it.
Rena’s extraordinariness was something he should definitely keep an eye on, not only as an individual named Lynn, but also as the owner of the East.
Therefore, he accepted Rena’s advice after thinking about it. But, with some safety measures added, not just as it is.
‘From now on, camp in the highlands and monitor the vicinity.’
‘If I do not return after ten days, you will retreat to the palace.’
‘Only 70% of the knights will eat food as usual, while the rest will endure with salt.’
Lynn decided to leave 90 out of 100 knights here with Deca just in case.
When he ordered it with hand signals, Deca nodded without any objection, even though he was bewildered in his heart. Then he asked Lynn where he was going.
Lynn replied briefly.
‘To get the loot.’
Again, this was what Rena taught him last night.
***
‘They don’t seem to be coming to the castle.’
Rena smiled as she watched the Eastern Knights disperse.
She was disappointed in her heart when Lynn brought a bunch of knights, but it seems like he decided to listen to Rena anyway.
‘He’s nice and he listens well. Or does he feel it’s a good idea after all?’
Rena praised Lynn’s decision happily. She also liked the fact that he did not follow her advice unconditionally and added his own arrangement.
Rena looked proudly as she watched the Eastern Knights move, then she herself moved before the dead blocked her way again.
The castle standing in front had no doors, as Lynn had observed. But Rena knew how to get into the castle.
When Rena was just about to enter the castle.
Suddenly, she felt that her feet were shaking, and then there was a loud rumbling of the ground.
‘What?’
Rena looked behind her, thinking that the dead were coming.
But it wasn’t the dead. Soaring above the valley was the flag of the North, as vividly red as the sky.
Upon finding the Northern Knights, Rena bit her lip.
Unsurprisingly, Those Who Swallowed the First Cry swarmed and poured out from the castle at the noise made by the army.
Guaaaaaakh! As the dead ran after the sound, a slash flew in from the other side.
Rena, who was almost swept away by Rubid’s attack, quickly rolled over and escaped.
It seemed that the radical gentlemen of the North were planning to attack noisily like this.
Rena quickly scanned the valley to see how far they had spread their formation.
However, Rena’s gaze, which was moving quickly, stopped at one point.
‘Father.’
Among the many knights, Rena discovered Marquis Ruber.
At that moment, the Marquis was standing towards Rena.
Somehow she felt like their eyes met.
No, it definitely met.
Immediately afterward, the Marquis’ hands cut through the air, and it was clear what it meant when the knights shoot their arrows.
