Since I had brought up the grave, it was time to move on to the truly important topic.
But the words I wanted to say only circled in my mouth, and my lips merely kept twitching.
‘This is too hard. Should I just wait until Ruadis comes? Would she stop me midway? Or… would they each grab one of my wrists and drag me kicking and screaming to the temple…?’
As the silence grew long, it was surprisingly Ragner who spoke first.
“Sabira.”
“Pardon?”
“That was his name.”
Sabira—quite an unusual name.
Ragner’s eyes, as he spoke his friend’s name, sank low, steeped in memory. I could tell he hadn’t been just an ordinary friend.
“He must have been a very close friend.”
“He was from this village too. We were the same age and lived close by, so we played together every day.”
A childhood friend, practically inseparable. And they had been together since they were young…!
Ragner calmly shared his memories of Sabira.
Yes, the story behind the grave….
Thanks to that, I had no choice but to listen while adding stack after stack of guilt to my conscience.
‘I should have just declared myself first! At least my crime would have felt lighter than knowing the story first!’
…But that regret was already too late. In the end, I couldn’t help being curious about the grave’s owner, so I listened attentively.
Sabira. According to Ragner, if he had lived, he would have earned the title of hero before Ragner himself—a person both righteous and exceptionally skilled.
The two had entered the training ground together, dreaming of becoming adventurers, and like Teon now, they swung their swords every day, nurturing their dreams.
“We had the same graduation date. We had completed every training course prepared for us, and we rejoiced that we were finally ready to step out into the wider world. There was nothing to fear.”
“…….”
“But that was a delusion. We were eighteen. His time stopped there.”
Sabira lost his life before even crossing the first demon realm outside the village.
An adventurer died the moment he took his first step into adventure.
The first misfortune was encountering a strong monster that had been wandering—unprecedentedly—in the direction they needed to go. The second misfortune was that the monster was of a type they had never faced before.
Two rookies who had just graduated from the training ground lacked far too much experience to skillfully navigate the accident that ill fortune had brought.
‘They had only beaten wooden dummies to death, and even when they were assigned monster subjugation tasks, they would have only faced weak enemies that had broken through the barrier… so their first encounter with a strong monster would have been completely unmanageable.’
“It’s my fault Sabira ended up like that.”
In the moment of crisis, Ragner’s body apparently froze in fear.
It was surprising to learn that the Ragner of today had once been so terrified in front of a monster that he couldn’t move.
“To save me… that one gave his life.”
The righteous death of a promising adventurer.
At the time, Ragner had barely managed to flee to survive, and only after the monster left could he recover his friend’s body and build a grave.
And another surprising fact I learned.
The place in the eastern forest where I had found the grave had once been part of the demon realm.
As time passed and the holy stone’s power grew stronger, the barrier’s range expanded, and the grave’s location became safe.
‘So at first, because the grave was made in the demon realm, a strong monster like a Dullahan could be born?’
Ragner’s expression, having finished his past story, was tinged with faint sorrow.
Though he looked a little somber, the only emotion I could sense was mourning for his friend—so it seemed the long passage of time had dulled much of the grief.
“He must have been a truly good friend. I had no idea it was a grave with such a story.”
“After that, I threw myself into adventuring to fulfill Sabira’s unfulfilled dream in his place. If he had lived, he would have achieved greater feats than me, but for me, this seems to be my limit.”
“…….”
And yet, I’m the one who has to say I want to make that precious friend into an employee of our dungeon.
“I have no strength left to continue. Now I just want to spend the rest of my life in my hometown.”
Seeing Ragner say that, he looked like someone who had fallen into a long ennui and lost even the will to live.
If Brownie were here, it might have pointed at him and shouted “dead fish eyes”….
But as I listened, something suddenly came to mind.
On the day I first met Ruadis at the training ground, she had said something to Ragner, who was supporting my opinion.
“Don’t tell me you’re still dwelling on what happened back then?”
“…Master, of ten adventurers who leave the training ground and begin their first journey, five lose their lives.”
Perhaps ‘what happened back then’ referred to Sabira’s death.
‘So that’s why Ragner also agreed with my opinion that adventurers need more real combat experience. It wasn’t just to take my side.’
Because he truly believed it.
This was a disaster. I couldn’t bring it up anymore!
“If your dungeon can become a proper place of learning, then tragedies like Sabira’s—where beginner adventurers lose their lives—will be greatly reduced.”
“Haha….”
“At first I wasn’t pleased, but now I have high expectations. Please lead it well.”
I was the shameless person trying to take the monster presumed to be the dead Sabira to that dungeon.
Help me, my lucky totem sleeping snugly in the safe! What am I supposed to do now!?
“It’s been a very long time since I’ve spoken to anyone about Sabira. You seem to have a special aura that makes people want to confide in you, Choi.”
“Guh….”
Ragner’s praise became arrows, piercing my conscience mercilessly.
…In the end, I concluded that even if I revealed the Dullahan’s identity, it would be best to give up on recruiting it to the dungeon, for the sake of my future relationship with Ragner.
“Ragner, first I want to express my condolences.”
“Please don’t take Sabira’s story too much to heart. I simply wanted to let you know that a fine adventurer who saved his friend’s life sleeps in that grave.”
“That’s not it…. Haa, it’s that I think I’m going to have to deliver some bad news.”
Yes, after all, it was always my job to deliver unpleasant news to someone.
That holiday leave would be forcibly deducted from annual leave, that company dinners were mandatory but Dutch pay, that weekend hikes disguised as workshops were mandatory….
Delivering what the boss said while getting cursed at by employees—that wasn’t just a one- or two-day thing.
Let me just think of it as doing it one more time.
“Bad news…?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and barely managed to open my mouth.
“Um… your friend seems to have become a monster…. A monster called a Dullahan….”
I finally did it.
* * *
“But I never imagined that it was Sabira.”
“Since it was that one, a high-ranking monster like a Dullahan could appear.”
“Certainly. It would have to be someone at Sabira’s level.”
I was dragged along.
Regardless of my will, to the eastern forest of the village with Ragner and Ruadis.
“Now I finally understand why the monster avoided me whenever I appeared.”
“Even if he became a monster, remnants of his thoughts remain, so he must have instinctively been aware of you.”
I followed behind the two, feeling like I was sitting on a bed of thorns.
“I should have paid more attention to the grave.”
“Don’t say that. The moment he died in the demon realm, demonic energy would have already settled in. Becoming an undead monster cannot be completely prevented unless a high-ranking priest performs purification. This is no one’s fault.”
When I delivered the bad news about his dead friend, Ragner’s reaction was beyond my expectations.
To the point where scouting escape routes in case of the worst felt futile.
He didn’t get angry at me, nor did he make a cold expression.
It wasn’t simply that he was good at managing his expression—I couldn’t find even a trace of resentment toward me in his eyes.
After a long silence, he had only said one thing.
‘I see.’
So calm that he almost seemed like someone who had expected this would happen.
My agonizing alone felt utterly pointless.
After that, Ruadis, who had finished work, joined us, and before I knew it, I had been dragged to the eastern forest of the village.
Two people going to find an old childhood friend turned monster, and a student. And one scout standing between them.
Was it really all right for me to be in a place like this…?
