I Became the Wrong Race

40 – Mourner on the Snow Field (2)

“Infection, hypoclimax, mourner.”

-Three things to watch out for on the battlefield.

*

There is an expression called eating like a glutton. It’s not something you hear often, but I felt like I knew exactly what it meant.

The sight of the barbarian warrior devouring it was exactly what the words said.

He was moving constantly, quickly pushing food into his stomach.

Tear the dried meat into pieces and put it in your mouth, then scoop up a handful of honey-coated snack meat and shake it out.

I pound my chest as if my throat is choking, then empty the water and boiled stew.

In a place where the sounds of rattling, chewing, and swallowing come together, I wondered if eating could be so urgent.

That was the extent of the sight seen. The middle-aged barbarian ate to live.

It was different from what I had heard that if you starve for a long time, you cannot eat properly because your intestines do not respond well. Is it because he is a barbarian warrior who needs to have high health?

I looked at Isla while waiting for him to finish eating.

She didn’t seem to be wasting food that much. It was a fortunate thing for me, who was almost like a pillar.

“… Thank you. “Thanks to you, I survived.”

After the meal, the warrior stood and bowed his head as if he was going to hit the ground.

“It’s left over, so don’t worry about it.”

“Even if you stay, being kind to strangers is a different matter. Even if you know each other, it’s not easy to be kind….”

He was quiet, but I was able to catch what he didn’t say.

We were in the New World. Although order is now being restored in Marsi, it was originally a lawless area.

It made me wonder if America’s pioneering era would have been more orderly than this. I turned my head and looked at the forest with my arms crossed.

It was a forest where he was presumed to have walked.

Isla has been hunting in the forest for the past three days.

“How did that happen?”

When I asked the question, the barbarian looked up at me with a blank expression.

“I think I deserve an explanation.”

“… Ah, I guess so.”

He was visibly hesitant.

Would you be mistaken if it felt like you were worrying about how to make an excuse rather than worrying about whether it was okay to say it?

“Actually, we lived in a small settlement near here, but when Bullet suddenly appeared, we scattered and ran away. So….”

Pretending not to have heard the following explanation, I crossed my arms and turned my gaze towards the forest towards Isla.

Isla’s level was unknown. But she had realized over the past 200 hours that she was a skilled hunter.

She had a wide range of experience in addition to her excellent senses, and she had the stealth and agility to take down any prey.

Isla wandered around the forest for three days and didn’t feel a single sign of that barbarian warrior?

I was not naive enough to easily believe such things.

For me, innocence was something I abandoned early on.

I’ve been like that since I found out that Santa doesn’t exist during my first Christmas.

I suspected him of disguising himself as a barbarian warrior.

A look that a middle-aged barbarian warrior couldn’t possibly notice.

He stiffened his shoulders and moved his pupils to find my invisible eyes.

“It must be true that it was in the forest.”

The reason is simple. Because the only place to hide on this snowy field was the forest.

If it had been anywhere else, I would have definitely found out about it or Isla would have found it first.

No matter how good your hiding ability is, it is not easy to hide in a snowy field that stretches all the way to the horizon.

Then, one question remains. How on earth did this barbarian warrior not notice his presence at all from Isla?

I thought I knew the reason.

“You are a mourner.”

Mourner.

An unknown being whose principles no one knows, even though it has existed since ancient times.

A mysterious being that draws power beyond life simply by the fact that a person mourns another person.

Aside from the fact that their lifespans were cut short, they seemed like perfect warriors, but they had special strengths and weaknesses that went beyond that.

Mourner.

Magical power did not exist in those mysterious beings.

After making eye contact with Isla, who was looking at me, I came out in front of her.

To be able to respond to any unexpected situation.

The middle-aged barbarian sighed as if he had given up.

*

All living things have magical power.

There were only a few exceptions, and the homunculus I chose was one of them.

I don’t know if it’s because they’re artificial humans, or because their souls have been kidnapped or imitated from another world.

For that reason, the homunculus had little presence and was secretive.

Although the three clans also lacked magical power, they were an exception because they were a transcendent race that drew magical energy from the world itself.

After excluding these two categories, there are only a few left, and the mourner belonged to one of them.

Like the Black Knight, it is not that magical power does not exist due to a backlash, but that magical power disappears, although no one knows why.

Perhaps that’s why mourners were considered a very simple, ignorant, and uninteresting job in games.

While the classes most people choose are flashy or focus on useful skills, mourners do not have magic power and cannot use skills, so they have to get through the game with only basic attacks.

Unlike a swordsman using magical power to deliver a powerful slash that exceeds the body’s limits, or a monk using magical power to deliver rapid successive strikes.

All the mourner could do was swing his weapon.

You can use some grappling techniques that don’t consume a small amount of magic power, but that alone doesn’t change the game dramatically.

Mourner was a job recommended for beginners for that reason. Because he was powerful, but he was also simply ignorant.

That simple, ignorant and powerful mourner had another characteristic: it was not affected by detection magic or skills.

All magical detection methods and detection skills detect magical beings.

Since magic does not exist in inanimate objects, it was much more accurate and simpler than inefficient motion detection magic.

Homunculi and mourners were beings outside of such means of detection.

Even the Black Knight could be detected due to magic repulsion, and in theory the three clans could also be detected, but only the two beings mentioned above were no different from ghosts that could not be detected.

So, I was suspicious from the moment it first appeared, but… On the other hand, I was skeptical.

“That’s right. “I am a mourner.”

The body of the middle-aged man who said that was full of scars and wounds.

Torn marks caused by cuts in the flesh. There were far more wounds that had been burned and stitched together than stitched.

Anyone can see the traces that show that he has not lived a healthy life.

He was clearly middle-aged. He wasn’t just like that on the outside.

There were wrinkles on his face, and his beard, while dark with age, had gray hair at first glance.

The rawhide clothes that covered her barely-there body were showing signs of age, perhaps because they had been worn for a long time.

Even though the average mourner cannot survive until that time.

“It’s impossible.”

“Everyone says that.”

The reaction to Isla’s words was also strange. He laughs and does not respond to crossbows or weapons pointed at him from his seat.

I don’t know if it’s because I spent a long time mourning, or if it’s my confidence.

I thought this existence itself was abnormal.

If a being who is usually short-lived has lived until now, one fact can be derived.

This is a survivor.

Someone who has overcome the impossible and is here.

Is it a homunculus?

It was around this time that I was calculating the possibilities.

“So what were you doing in that forest?”

Isla asked. She didn’t stop with just one question.

“If you were in the forest, you couldn’t have missed me. Because I didn’t hide much. So that means he was avoiding me or hiding from me… “What changed so you came to us?”

This is a sharp question. A hunter-like question that I would not have thought of immediately.

Is it because the middle-aged mourner also knew that? He gaped with a puzzled look on his face.

He looked small in the glow of the bonfire.

The mourner who lived for a long time was both a survivor and a terminally ill woman.

“Actually, those who chase me-“

Rustling.

But it seemed like he would not be given time to explain.

I was shocked as I listened to the sound I heard, and I froze as if even the middle-aged person had heard it.

Isla took off her crossbow that she was already aiming at and hid it in the shadows.

Something is coming. Perhaps something the middle-aged man was trying to fool us with ‘Bullet’.

After hesitating for a moment, I stood up.

“Go in.”

He bowed his head and entered the tent, and something slowly approached our fluttering shadows.

It was a leisurely walk. We were conscious of the sense that there was a lot of leisure, so it felt like they wanted to give us that impression.

In other words, it means that we know who is here.

I glanced at Isla and pulled out the long sword from my waist.

“… “Star.”

Grumble!

The blade of a star that burns even in meaningless starter words and illuminates the surroundings.

A person’s shadow appears from a slowly falling trajectory.

The man froze and froze in the sudden flames.

A young man with a simple appearance.

Someone silently wore a hood behind him.

In addition, there are several people hiding in the shadows.

I opened my mouth, recalling the unfinished words of the middle-aged mourner.

“Stop.”

It was a very arrogant voice, but there was no problem.

Rather, the composure disappears from the steps of those approaching.

The only thing that is present is the sound of the burning blade and silence. I stepped forward, leaving Isla behind, who was aiming her crossbow.

It’s usually a risky behavior, but not as bad as it is now.

I remembered.

Grimm Darker’s strongest night fighter has always been a star contractor.

I glared at them while holding the star blade straight.

“Everyone, put down your weapons and show yourself.”

Grumbling!

The long sword I swung with style traced a trail of flames, and I finished speaking.

“Or I will burn it.”

Then, in the silence, only the sound of the weapon falling loudly rang out.