Barbarian Quest

Urich looked at the sick warriors from a distance. They would not be able to join the expedition.

“There are about five hundred of them,” Georg said after calculating the number of sick warriors.

“If they’re lucky, they’ll be able to return safely.”

The disease was severe. Some warriors managed to recover after three days, but there were also many who languished and died. In any case, the alliance couldn't continue dragging the sick with them.

No warriors opposed Urich's decision. In tribal society, the weak were left behind. That was the natural way of things. In dire situations, the elderly and disabled voluntarily left the tribe.

Katagi, who had finished the march preparations, reported to Urich. After his report, Katagi added a few words.

“Urich, we need to keep an eye on Six-Fingered. He’s spreading dissent against you, the Great Chief.”

“Should I just kill him?” Urich said as he chuckled.

“That would cause an uproar. Whatever the case is, he is still the priest of the alliance.”

‘It would be hard to replace Six-Fingered with another shaman like Samikan had planned to.’

Samikan knew the key figures of the alliance intimately and understood their conflicts and connections. He skillfully used people to run the alliance according to his will.

Leading the alliance was not something that could be done with ordinary skills. It was akin to being a king in the civilized world. There were many who would turn their backs on the Great Chief if things went wrong.

Urich's reign as the Great Chief was purely thanks to his reputation as a warrior. The warriors who admired him were his support base.

‘I’m different from Samikan. Samikan kept his Great Chief status even after losing in battle, but I’ll lose mine if I lose just once.’

Urich lightly shook his head as he looked over the alliance's camp.

“Great Chief! Someone has come to see you.”

Urich glanced back. A man wearing a hood stood surrounded by warriors.

“Show your face,” Katagi spoke on behalf of Urich. The man pushed back his hood.

“I’ve come to see Urich, the leader of the plunderers.”

The man spoke without a hint of fear. His almost overly calm voice had an oddly persuasive tone.

“You’re a southerner.”

Urich smirked as he looked at the man's face. The man was a southerner with mottled tattoos on his cheeks. His skin was a slightly tanned brown. Tattoos were a common cultural element among many peoples, but they were especially enjoyed by southerners.

“I’m pretty good at remembering faces, but it seems we’re meeting for the first time.”

Urich waited for the man's response.

“My name is Joya. Though we’re meeting for the first time, I’ve heard of your name and deeds many times. You are a very important person to us.”

The man who introduced himself as Joya had a gentle appearance. He was young yet exuded a mature atmosphere. He had a charisma that drew people to him.

‘He must be a priest or a shaman.’

Urich knew such types well. They had a mysterious aura that seduced people. They were people who spread their religion.

“So, Joya. What business do you have with me? If you ask a meaningless question even once, I’ll rip out your tongue.”

Joya flinched for the first time. He hesitated for a moment, then took out a small cloth pouch from his inner pocket.

“I am a disciple of Trikee. I came because I heard rumors that your army is suffering from a plague.”

“Trikee? That guy is still alive?”

“He is in the south now, but he spread disciples like me across the civilized world before leaving. Our influence has grown beyond what you might imagine.”

The conversation between Urich and Joya didn’t make any sense to the others in the room.

“Haha, so he survived stubbornly. I thought he was dead since I hadn’t heard any rumors.”

“There will be rumors soon. Very soon.”

Joya spoke ambiguously. He opened the cloth pouch and took out several small pills.

“And those are?” Urich asked.

“Dissolve these in water and give them to the sick warriors. They should work well against the fever.”

Joya's words caused a stir among Urich’s close aides.

“Be careful, Great Chief. It could be poison.”

“Judging by how he mentioned Trikee, it shouldn’t be poison. That guy is an enemy of the empire.”

Urich had Katagi receive the pouch of pills.

“Go and give the medicine to the warriors as he said. Hey, how long will it take for them to recover?”

“One to two days,” Joya replied.

“So they should be able to move within a day.”

Urich accepted the pill from Joya. The news made Six-Fingered and even Gottval furrow their brows.

"Great Chief! Is it true that you took medicine from an unknown person and gave it to the warriors!"

Six-Fingered came to Urich, fuming. Urich, who was talking with Joya, looked at Six-Fingered and laughed.

"Don't worry. If it really is poison, we can just cut this guy’s head off and offer it as a sacrifice."

"How could you joke around at a time like this?!" Six-Fingered was baffled.

"Shut your frivolous mouth, Six-Fingered. If I cure the disease that you couldn't, how do you think the warriors will react? They'll laugh at you for being an incompetent priest."

Six-Fingered glared and stormed out.

"U-ughhhhhh."

Six-Fingered ground his teeth and groaned. This whole event was an opportunity for the priest to shine, but he couldn't achieve anything significant.

Everything around Urich was chaotic. It was hard to see even a step ahead. Various people, including those of civilization, stood next to him. Those who lived with different thoughts and cultures babbled all kinds of things around Urich.

"W-who the hell is that man now!"

Six-Fingered threw down his staff as soon as he entered his tent.

The advance of the alliance was delayed by a day due to Joya's arrival. Warriors who drank the water mixed with the pill coughed until they fell asleep.

"Urich, that man is a cultist."

Gottval rarely hated anyone, but he pointed at Joya and called him a cultist.

A cult described an oppressed religion. If heresy was considered merely different, a cult was seen as harmful by nature. Serpentism was considered a cult because it infiltrated society and caused all sorts of harm. The empire had long been trying to eradicate the Serpentines who had snuck into civilized society.

"Relax, Gottval. If you want to use big words, we can call them a different faction of that evil Serpentism."

"But Serpentism is still Serpentism. Nothing changes the fact that they are a cult that kidnaps and eats children."

Child abduction and cannibalism. These were the reasons Serpentism was particularly hated.

"If you put it that way, I’m also rumored to be a monster that eats kids."

"That's just a false rumor. But Serpentism actually committed such acts."

Joya quietly listened to Gottval's assessment.

"Calm down. Joya brought medicine. He is also my guest."

Gottval stood with a discontented face.

‘I didn’t expect Urich to have ties with this cult….’

Even Gottval hadn't anticipated this. Ulgaro of the north and the sky faith of the west were barbaric but not evil.

‘But Serpentism is different. It is nothing but a sinister cult—a religion shunned by the entire world.’

Serpentism was hard for anyone to acknowledge, even Gottval.

"Say hello. Joya, this is Gottval, the Sun priest. Gottval, this is Joya of Serpentism."

Urich chuckled as if he found their meeting amusing.

Joya also nodded at Gottval after staring at him. From his perspective, Solarism was an outdated religion that had to be overthrown.

‘Solarism is the root of this world turning more and more into hell.’

But Joya didn't say his thoughts out loud. Solarism did not bring change to the world. They were merely busy trying to maintain the painful world as it was.

Although no words made their way around, the mutual discomfort in the air was palpable.

"Do you trust the medicine that man brought?"

"Six-Fingered said the same thing to me when I followed your instructions to deal with the disease. He said, 'Do you trust the words of a civilized man?' and got angry at me."

Gottval had no response to that.

Joya, who had been quietly watching the two, spoke up, "I won't stay long, Sun priest Gottval. I’m just going to make sure the medicine does its job."

"Seeing that you know how to use medicine, you must be a shaman of Serpentism."

"Please call me a priest of Serpentism. We are even considering changing the name of the church. The name Serpentism itself carries a strong negative connotation."

Joya spoke calmly, but Gottval was enraged by his comment.

The harm that Serpentism had inflicted on civilized society was immense. Bandits who roamed and harmed the innocents were led by the remnants of Serpentism, and in the city's underground, shamans of Serpentism dealt all sorts of drugs.

Urich watched the two alternately with an intrigued face. He had intentionally summoned Gottval to face Joya.

‘I was curious if Gottval—the man who preaches mercy and love—could do the same in front of Serpentism.’

Gottval did not spew curses or baseless anger, but he could not hide his discomfort and hostility.

"The afterlife in Serpentism—that was about going to the next world when we die, right?"

Urich subtly started the conversation.

“There is no such thing as the next world. The reincarnation and the sun can be proven, but the next world does not exist,” Gottval quickly responded.

Joya became frustrated and retorted coldly, “If the sun god Lou loves the humans on earth, then why do people live in suffering? Sun priest Gottval.”

“We must not judge His will by our standards.”

“When we ask you Solarists about the sufferings in this world, you always repeat those same words. The current world is full of only despair and suffering. If I had to be reborn in this world, I would rather choose eternal demise.”

“There is no such thing as an eternal demise. You merely become a shadow standing on the opposite side of the Sun—a shadow wandering the earth as an evil spirit, just like Ulgaro.”

“You wouldn’t understand. People like you who blindly follow the sun will never move on to the next stage and remain forever trapped in this world.”

Urich leaned back in his chair and watched the argument.

“So is that why you kidnap and eat children?”

“That is a thing of the past. It never had a whole lot to do with us in the first place.”

“Even if it was in the past, it’s still true. As long as that sin exists, you will never gain the understanding of others,” Gottval said this and left the room.

Joya picked up a glass of water and soothed his dry throat.

“Did you enjoy that, Urich?” Joya asked.

“I guess you could say that.”

Urich smiled, chewing on an unknown red fruit. Red juice stained his mouth.

“Our church does not see your appearance as a mere coincidence. The Ark said that this world would end soon, and you are the harbinger, Urich.”

“Harbinger?”

“The beast of the apocalypse, the disaster that will destroy the world. A stage to select those who will move on to the next world.”

“That is quite… grand.”

“Do you think it’s a coincidence that you lead such a large army and sweep through the world? This is the will of the world.”

Joya’s eyes sparkled. His gentle smile was filled with faith.

Urich treated Joya as a guest and prepared a separate sleeping place for him. After a hectic day, Urich lay down to sleep.

“Beast of the apocalypse? Will of the world? Funny.”

Urich snorted.

‘Everything is my choice.’

He was tired of the vague, ambiguous words of the priests and shamans. Those men didn’t believe in human will. They spoke as if humans were nothing in the face of transcendent beings.

Hisssss, hiss, hiss.

That night, Urich heard the sound of a snake while half-asleep. Perhaps because of the story about Serpentism, he remembered the day he almost got bitten by a snake, except in his dream, Gottval didn’t save him, and he was bitten on the neck.

The snake’s pupils gazed into Urich’s. Its forked tongue licked Urich’s ear. The snake tried to pry open Urich’s ear and burrow into his head.

“Shit!”

Urich cursed and sat up. His neck throbbed. When he touched it, there were no signs he was bitten by a snake.

“What a shitty dream. Eh?”

After washing his face with cold water, Urich looked at the floor of his tent. He picked up a transparent, elongated object with his hand.

‘Snake shedding.’

There was a shed skin of a snake in Urich’s tent. Feeling eerie, Urich searched around the tent but found no trace of the snake.

“…Find Joya and bring him to me.”

Urich went outside and ordered the warriors, but Joya had already disappeared. No one knew how he had evaded the warriors’ surveillance, but he was gone like the wind.

Contrary to Urich’s unease, the warriors who had fallen ill recovered overnight. They still had mild colds but were able to move again.

Urich stood there, dazed for a long time.

“You have the face of someone bewitched by a cultist, Urich,” Gottval said as he passed by. He prayed softly for Urich.

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