<strong>Chapter 13: Chapter 13</strong>
Act 7
The night went by, and the morning sky came. The vige chief came looking for Su-hyeun, calling for him in front of the tent.
“Are you in?”
There was no answer. After he called out a few more times without hearing any response, the vige chief opened the doors and stepped in.
“Until when are you going to... Oh?” It was empty inside.
He looked around the tent and came out. There was a vague sense of uneasiness. “Where did he go?”
He definitely said he was looking for a ce to rest. The vige chief came out of the tent and looked around in the vige.
“Vige chief, where are you heading to?” One of the vigers approached him. The vige chief answered him, still looking around.
“I’m looking for the outsider who arrived yesterday. Did you see him?”
“No, I didn’t. What is it about?”
“He disappeared suddenly. I’m worried that he might be up to something in the vige.” The chief’s worry was not just his own. Looting by outsiders happened quite often in the vige. Many came as guests like Su-hyeun but looted the vige through the night.
“It couldn’t be...”
“Shh! Lower your voice. Didn’t I say that we can’t help it?”
“But even so...”
“Just sleep and stay quiet. Got it?”
“...Yes.”
The vige chief looked disapprovingly at the man who lowered his head. Right, he thought. We can’t help it.
The vige chief looked at the small bottle he held in his hand. It was a powerful medicine that could make one sleep for over 10 days. Indeed, the vige chief was hungry for the food that Su-hyeun had.
And the one asleep is... The vige chief looked around the vige quickly. At that moment, a woman approached the chief.
“Vige chief, vige chief!” The woman who was running helter-skelter stopped before him. She took a while to catch her breath.
“What is it?”
“At the vige’s shopping district...” The vige chief’s eyes grew wide as he listened. He couldn’t wait any longer and made his way towards the shopping district.
It was a central district that merchants used as a marketce before the world copsed. The vigers crowded around the area.
“What is this?!” The vige chief’s roar drew everyone’s attention.
Fear and uneasiness could be seen on their faces. The vige chief pushed through the huge crowd and found Su-hyeun amongst them. Su-hyeun raised his hand, greeting the vige chief. “Did you just arrive?”
“I asked what this is!”
“By that, possibly...”
Poke—
Su-hyeun poked at the gigantic snake’s head that was ced beside him. “Did you mean this?”
The vige chief did not answer. The vige chief’s mind gotplicated, wondering what it was all about.
Su-hyeun spoke again with a grin. “Why are you so angry? I took care of the monster hidden in the basement.”
“What, what? That was uncalled for...!”
“It wasn’t unnecessary?
“Yes! That monster was protecting our vige!”
Indeed. The smile left Su-hyeun’s face. “Why did you think that it was protecting you?”
“It wasn’t a thought, but the truth!”
“And for that...” Su-hyeun looked at the vigers and asked.
“Do you make human sacrifices one by one?” The vige chief’s eyes widened at his question. He was so surprised that he took a few steps back, before gritting his teeth and asked.
“How... did you know?” It was the vige’s secret. More urately, it was something that Su-hyeun must not know of. From the chief’s point of view, it was iprehensible that he severed the beast’s head.
“I know a bit about this monster.” The head of the gigantic snake was about a meter wide in diameter. Su-hyeun knew its name.
“It’s called the Predatory Snake. Except during meals, it’szy and spends most of its time sleeping.” As soon as the monster’s name was spoken, everyone’s, including the vige chief’s, face visibly stiffened. In fact, they did not know the monster’s name.
“It doesn’t care about anything else besides satisfying its belly. It searches for a hunting ground and, until it leaves, marks its own territory so that weaker monsters can’t evene near.”
“Stop, stop it!” The vige chief panicked as Su-hyeun spoke as if he knew everything.
His ufortable body walked towards Su-hyeun; however, Su-hyeun continued on. “Eventually, you will have to keep feeding it food. That way, it won’t run away. But you know what’s funny?”
“I said stop it!”
“This beast does not see the person who feeds it as its prey.” There it was: the truth that he did not wish to be known. His words stirred a considerablemotion.
“Is that the truth?”
“He said so?”
“So, then... the chief made us...”
“Wait, the monster did not even try to eat the chief, right? What actually happened?”
Here was what happened: One day, the vige chief brought the Predatory Snake and said, “Listen to me. If we let it stay here, it’ll keep us safe.”
But there was a condition to it.
“This beast will only be full if it eats a human every three days. If we are to live, we have to make a human sacrifice every three days. Let’s draw lots. And... I’ll be the first offering.”
The vige chief imed himself to be the first offering, but the Predatory Snake did not eat him. They had no choice but to offer someone else.
“You seem to have taken someone else as an offering before bringing it here,” Su-hyeun said after he listened to the vigers with contemptuous eyes.
“You b*stard.”
“Lies! It’s all lies!” The vige chief shouted in a fit.
Disbelief grew in the vigers’ eyes. The vige chief had never been looked upon like this in his whole life. “Thank you, vige chief. It was thanks to you that our vige could survive,” someone said.
“It was thanks to you that we can finally sleep in peace. You are our vige’s hero.”
“Vige chief...”
Amongst them were people who made “inevitable” sacrifices.
“My son, not my son! Vige chief, please!”
“It’s inevitable. Please understand.”
“Vige chief, vige chief!”
“That... bad guy...”
“He fooled us!”
“Wait, don’t get duped by the outsider!”
“No, we’re fooled! I wondered why the monster did not eat the vige chief!”
“Calm down and...”
“He made my husband into that monster’s food! Why would he do that? Why?!”
The vigers were outraged. Su-hyeun’s words were reasonably trustworthy. Without his knowledge of the Predatory Snake’s habits, they would never have found out. Still, however, some people still believed in the vige chief.
“My son, my son...”
“My gosh...”
“Oh my! Max, Max!”
Su-hyeun watched as they mourned loudly. An inevitable sacrifice. Must be endured. There were those who had pent-up resentment at those words.
Rescue the vige. Survive.
Survive from what? The questions had already been answered by the gatekeeper. The vige chief could not do anything more.
“From now on...”
Stomp—
Su-hyeun stomped the ground. The magic that umted on his feet spread into the ground. Themotion ceased in a sh.
“Everyone, please answer.”
Silence.
“You can decide the deposition for your vige chief. You can either wait until he bes prey for the monster, or...”
Su-hyeun’s eyes met the chief’s.
“Hick!”
The frightful vige chief lost all strength and flopped onto the ground.
“Everyone will make the call.”
Suddenly a young man stood out. “Isn’t it too much to ask us to make a decision after you’ve killed the monster? We might be dying right now because of you!”
The young man was trembling. He was a coward. Even if he himself were a coward, everyone would be the same.
The chief was, so to speak, the much-needed evil. Although he shamelessly sacrificed others to save himself, it was evident that his role contributed to the safety of the vige.
“So, are you going to wait until he bes prey to another monster?”
“That...”
“Also, there’s one more thing that you’re not aware of.”
“What else do we not know?”
“The Predatory Snakeys about six to eight eggs once a quarter.”
The vigers were not the only ones surprised at Su-hyeun’s words. The vige chief’s eyes widened once more at this fact.
“If you keep offering human sacrifices every three days, the number would increase each time. Here is the problem.”
Su-hyeun asked, looking around. “How long will it take for everyone here to end up in the snake’s stomach?”
The vigers kept quiet. They had quite a number of people, despite being just a vige, but what if the number of people they sacrificed increased exponentially? It wouldn’t be that way for long.
Silence.
“There’s no need to know for certain. You could roughly guess. If you need verification, I could show you the eggs in the basement.”
“Ahh, ahh...”
Despair. The thought of being able to live a bit longer was actually a shortcut to death. A dark shadow cast on all of their faces, losing even the faintest trace of hope.
“There’s a method.”
“...A way?”
“What is it?”
The vigers pricked up their ears. They thought all hope was lost.... But was there really a method? As they needed a more detailed exnation, Su-hyeun had more to say.
“There’s a way for everyone to live,” Su-hyeun spoke, looking at the vigers surrounding him.
“Will you listen to me?”
The vigers made a decision concerning the vige chief.
Death. There was no other way of repaying his actions for fooling the vigers. He had already offered the vigers to the Predatory Snake as prey. The vige chief, who could not endure floggings and beatings, shouted furiously.
“You lot are being fooled! All of you are being fooled by him!” Some were wavered by his screams. It was true that the vige chief had devoted his whole life to the vige, and Su-hyeun was an outsider who arrived just yesterday.
The anger of the vigers whose family had be prey to the Predatory Snake was not easily shaken by his y.
Su-hyeun brought six robust young vigers down into the basement.
“What is happening here?” One of them soothed his shivering forearm. The Predatory Snake lived in the vige’s basement, which was connected to the chief’s house. Although Su-hyeun killed it, the young men did not wish to enter after knowing the truth.
“Didn’t you say that there’s a way for everyone to live?”
“Is the method right here?”
“Yes.”
The basement was dark and humid. As they followed the stairs, they arrived at a huge cave. The sound of something crawling could be heard.
Screech, screech—
Their eyes were glistening in the dark. The young men who followed Su-hyeun down stepped back in astonishment.
“M-m-monster...”
“Ugggh...”
The monsters were the babies of the Predatory Snake.