Chapter 116: Use Me as a Human Shield
Right after Elsa finished speaking,
Colton’s face went blank for a moment.
It was because of her shocking answer, that every one of his three companions except him wasn’t human.
"Th-that can’t be true! These people are...!"
Flustered, he denied it fiercely.
And the three the girl had pointed out also burst into scoffing laughter, as if the whole thing were ridiculous.
"Ha, we’re not human?"
"See that! It’s a monster itself, so it’s deliberately framing us as the monsters."
"How can you take some little brat’s word for...!"
And in that instant,
Splat!
with a violent sound,
the young man’s head went flying.
An ice spear Walfred had created with [Frozen Weapon] had punched clean through his skull in a single stroke.
The headless young man staggered in place for a moment, then toppled over with a thud.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
"Wh, whaa...?"
"Aaaaahh!"
Screams and shouts followed.
Colton, the one who had been singled out as the only human, trembled all over, shaken by the brutal sight.
"You! What in God’s name did you just...!"
"...So Elsa was telling the truth."
Walfred murmured calmly.
The young man’s corpse on the floor had begun to melt down hideously, like candle wax.
What emerged next was the carcass of a grotesque, jellyfish-like monster. That was most likely the true form of the creatures that imitated people.
"G-gahh!"
Meanwhile, the moment the young man turned into a monster, Colton recoiled in horror and collapsed on the spot.
The remaining man and woman went pale and screamed.
"Wait! We’re really not one of them!"
"That’s right! This is a mis...!"
Splat!
The man’s head went flying next.
Moments later, he too transformed into a jellyfish-like monster, just like the young man before him.
"A mistake, my ass."
Walfred wore a cold sneer.
At that, the woman, now alone, shook violently, then abandoned her boots, which had fused with the frozen floor, and bolted barefoot.
Her escape didn’t last long, though.
From the moment she started pulling off her boots, an ice spear had already been trained on her back.
Whoosh!
The instant the ice spear was thrown,
it cut through the air and ran the woman’s upper body clean through.
Splaaat!
The powerful shockwave made her upper body burst apart like an explosion. What remained below the waist soon crumpled to the ground, and the same phenomenon followed.
A corpse turned monster.
Having dispatched three monsters in an instant, Walfred let out a small groan.
"...Ah."
Maybe I should have kept one alive.
Judging by how they could hold a conversation, they seemed to have some level of intelligence. It would have been nice to torture one a bit and squeeze out some information.
A pang of regret washed over him, but he quickly shook it off. Anything he was curious about, he could just ask the survivor standing there with a dazed look on his face, Colton.
’Anyway, what on earth are these things?’
Monsters that eat people and imitate them.
He had never seen this type of monster on the Hunter Community. He hadn’t even seen it in the posts of SSS-rankProfessor, whose writing he always used as a reference.
As he sank into thought for a moment,
"Ha, haha..."
Colton suddenly let out a hollow laugh.
He kept laughing and then sobbing, as if he had come slightly unhinged. Then, his face regaining its senses, he turned to Walfred and cried out urgently.
"P-please, help me!"
"...What?"
"Please! Please, just hear me out this once. I’m begging you!"
Colton cried out as if pleading for his life.
It was a pitiful sight if there ever was one, but Walfred’s expression stayed cold. In this godforsaken world, people with sob stories outnumbered grains of sand.
Unless there was something in it for him, he had no intention whatsoever of helping the man. So, shaking his head, he was just about to turn away without mercy when,
"My daughter is in the shelter!"
Colton screamed as if coughing up blood.
At the word daughter, Walfred’s body twitched for an instant. In the meantime, Colton grabbed the hem of Walfred’s pants and sobbed.
"She’s still young, and we couldn’t tell who was human and who was a monster, so I came outside to go to another shelter and ask for help, and then this... Hngh!"
The words poured out in a disjointed jumble.
Piecing his story together, it came down to this:
’The shelter Colton belongs to is already a chaotic mix of humans and monsters.’
A truly hopeless situation.
So at first he had tried to run away with his daughter, but she was too young for that.
Instead, he left his daughter in the care of a trusted companion for the time being, then headed outside with the three teammates whose identities seemed the most certain.
To request help from another shelter.
’But...’
As it turned out, every team member except him had been a monster. Colton had despaired at that, but then, seeing Walfred and Elsa, he found hope again.
Elsa, who could tell humans and monsters apart.
And Walfred, who wiped out monsters in a single stroke with overwhelming power. He believed that these two could surely resolve the situation he was in.
"I’m begging you, please! If something happens to my daughter too, I won’t have the will to go on living."
"..."
"I’ll do anything you ask. Use me as a human shield, anything, just say the word! So please, please, just my daughter..."
Colton wept quietly.
Just as Walfred was letting out a sigh at the sight,
"Daddy."
Elsa suddenly spoke up.
And with something unexpected to say.
"Let’s go with that man."
"What?"
Walfred was caught off guard.
To think that Elsa, who normally had zero interest in other people, would be the one to suggest helping.
Puzzled, he turned toward where Elsa was. And then he nearly jumped out of his skin.
"W-wait! Elsa!?"
"Hm? What?"
"What are you doing over there?"
He couldn’t help it.
At that very moment, Elsa was busily rummaging through the corpses of the monsters that had been imitating people.
Unlike Walfred, who was appalled at the sight, Elsa beamed as if it were nothing at all.
"Something smells yummy over here!"
"Smells yummy...? Ah!"
At those words, Walfred’s eyes went wide.
He knew exactly what Elsa meant by a ’yummy smell.’
"Don’t tell me..."
Snow of pure mana?
And a little while later,
Walfred’s guess hit the mark exactly.
From among the monsters’ corpses, Elsa dug out a handful of snow shimmering with blue light.
"Hehe, look at this! I was right, wasn’t I?"
With an innocent smile,
Elsa popped the snow into her mouth. Watching the scene, Walfred’s expression hardened.
Judging from his experience so far,
every place where snow of pure mana existed had one thing in common.
’...The territory of a frost-attribute Boss Monster.’
The Nest of the Frost Dragon. And the Permafrost.
He had never found snow of pure mana anywhere other than those two areas.
’Which means...’
Somewhere here in Savannah, a frost-attribute Boss Monster existed too.
And for Walfred and Elsa, that meant an opportunity for explosive growth. Elsa seemed to be thinking along the same lines, because she broke into a bright smile.
"If we follow that man, I think I’ll get to eat all the yummy snow I want!"
Ah, so that’s why she said we should go along.
Walfred burst out laughing.
Then, looking at the blue-tinged snow Elsa was eating, a gleam flashed in his eyes.
’It’s a little disgusting, but if we can just track down those monsters’ nesting grounds...’
He would be able to secure snow of pure mana.
Walfred’s eyes shone at this second chance at breakneck growth, coming right on the heels of leaving Philadelphia.
And one more thing.
’I want to learn about those monsters too.’
Monsters that imitated people, the likes of which he had never seen anywhere. What if those creatures were roaming other regions besides this one?
Sooner or later, they would become a serious threat.