[12th Round] Freedom and Bondage
To be honest, One of the Five Great Disasters being able to hurt me with such a trivial skill surprised me.
My abdominal wound was also even worse than the one I sustained in the first round.
However…
Before the teachings of the greatest Master Mollan, this was simply nothing.
The never-fading vortex-shaped blue scar quickly disappeared.
But that wasn’t the case for everyone else.
Even the First Hero I talked to a few days ago couldn’t get rid of it.
That showed how powerful the ‘deadly techniques’ of the Five Great Disasters were.
▶ Difficulty: That scar is also called the badge of bad luck. To counter it, the party must have an angel. Otherwise, it could kill heroes and make them lose companions. But if they go through the process of regression, then the scar will naturally disappear.
‘Won’t the angels die, Trainee Teacher?’
That attack broke through my Z-rank Divinity. I didn’t think angels could handle that.
▶ Explanation: The angels’ vitality is much higher than you think, cadet Kang Han Soo. They have an innate light attribute, preventing them from dying until their heart is destroyed.
‘That’s strange. As far as I remember, they’re easy to kill!’
▶ Confusion: Indeed. At the Festival, the angels you met quickly died. Hmm… Perhaps it’s because those who were subjected to your fair trial were fallen angels.
‘You’re going to move me to tears, Ms. Beautiful!’
Light attribute, huh?
They would never die until their heart was destroyed.
That was an extremely useful feature for any race, but I wouldn’t disappear until my name was forgotten, so I had nothing to envy.
The city where the blizzard fell was full of the slain harpies, their corpses mortally wounded by the wings of the righteous hero.
But the scene didn’t last for long. After a while, the corpses disappeared into the ground, absorbed by nature.
“Your sin lies in the fact that you didn’t recognize me as a worthy man.”
My popularity had dropped since the first round.
How was this possible?
“Drug Hero, you seem to be misunderstanding something.” The First Spirit spoke up, still sitting on my head.
“What?”
“The harpies didn’t see you as a human.”
“Huh?”
What was that nonsense?
“Mermaids don’t care about the race of the male they’re about to make love to, be it human, demon, or elf, for as long as they’re handsome. Harpies, however, aren’t like that. They’re only interested in humans.”
“I know that. Are you saying that I’m no longer categorized as human despite being born one?”
“Even if you’re born human, that doesn’t mean you’ll remain as one. You are slowly becoming a spirit. It’s simple. Think about it this way. If a human becomes a legend, what will they turn into?”
“A deity?”
“Close. A heroic soul, one step below godhood.”
I had no idea what that meant, but I realized that I was turning into something non-human.
“Well, you’ll understand sooner or later.”
Now I was interested in the heart in my hand.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
It was still beating.
It was different from the ‘Heart of the Snow Queen Elsh’ that I knew. This one looked like a sapphire.
And…
“What’s… this?”
At that moment, my mind was sent somewhere else.
***
In front of me was a dragon as white as snow.
If I had to define its race, it would either be a White Dragon or a Snow Dragon. They were similar in color, but there was a way to tell them apart.
“Ice.”
Well, it had to be an Ice Dragon.
“Let her go now, Snow King Eshinoff!”
The main character before me, ‘First Hero’, shouted. He always appeared as soon as I touched a Chaos Artifact.
Who were we talking about?
“Ice?”
“If something happens to her, I’m not going to turn a blind eye to it!”
The First Hero wasn’t alone. Behind him were his companions and a harem for support.
They seemed to want to kill the dragon, whom he named ‘The Snow King Eshinoff’, and save some girl.
But who was the female?
That was when I noticed the human under the dragon’s paws. No, she didn’t belong to our kind. After all, our hands weren’t covered with snow-white feathers.
She was definitely a harpy.
“Sir Hero, be careful.”
“Provoking the Snow King is dangerous.”
“If something goes wrong, she might get killed…” The beautiful girls who stood behind the First Hero began giving advice.
As they said, it was best not to anger that dragon. Otherwise, the harpy they were planning to save would simply be torn to shreds.
“Ahem!”
My senior wasn’t a fool. He didn’t make any sudden movements despite the dragon doing what he wanted.
Eshinoff opened his mouth and released a breath.
“Iceee!”
The snow-covered forest was instantly engulfed in ice.
The First Hero and his companions were fine, but his support group, who had low combat skills, was put on the brink of death.
Their appearance alone made it evident that they wouldn’t be able to withstand another blast.
But my senior still didn’t attack. Instead, he took a defensive position to protect his support group…
Tsk! This was hard to watch! Just attack!
It was so pathetic that if I could intervene, I would’ve fought in his place.
At that moment, the captured harpy made a request.
“Sir Hero, do not worry about me and just slay him.”
She was different from the harpies I knew.
The members of her race had always had sharp, hawk-like glares, but her gaze was cute and innocent, almost like a chicken’s.
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
“Sorry.”
“I will definitely save you! Just wait a little!”
“I will, Sir Hero…”
Even her manner of speaking with my senior was unusual. While hers was soft and gentle like a princess, half of the phrases of her warmongering kind were about murder.
How did that happen?
“Iceeee…”
The dragon, like me, could no longer contain itself. He moved, opening his jaws wide. However, instead of letting his breath out again, he grabbed his hostage.
At that moment, the First Hero was too focused on defending against a possible attack to protect his support group, causing him to fail to react on time.
It was only for a moment, but I was able to see the harpy’s body.
Like her character, her body was also different from others.
She was white from head to toe and had human-like legs that were so flawless that she could’ve boasted about them being perfect.
But for her kind, such legs weren’t at all suitable.
After all, their sharp talons were their main weapons. Those were what they used to grab and carry their victims and hold onto tree branches like birds.
Hence, from her race’s point of view, such short toes and nails were flaws.
But from a human’s perspective, there was nothing wrong with them.
“Iceee!”
“N-no!”
The dragon swallowed the harpy straight into his stomach.
Falling to his knees, the First Hero screamed, and the dragon, flapping his wings and tail, laughed. His companions behind him could only look at him with pity in their eyes.
And the support group…
“Ah…”
“She was a kind harpy…”
“How cruel…”
Everyone lowered their heads as if they couldn’t look at the terrible scene.
However, unlike my predecessor, I could see their expressions.
Some of them were calm, but some looked joyful.
None of them were sad.
“Snow King Eshinoff! I will definitely kill you!”
“Iceee~”
Even hearing the Hero’s threats, the dragon let out a laugh befitting his evil nature. I wanted to write it down and show it to Green Cake.
But his calmness didn’t last long.
“Iceee?!”
The dragon, having swallowed the mutant harpy, began to roll on the ground, clutching his stomach.
I would have attacked already, but the senior was too busy protecting the support group to prevent them from being blown away by the dragon’s thrashing.
‘Hmm. That’s what you get for consuming genetically modified organisms.’
The dragon’s body began to change rapidly.
KRRRRHH!
In a weird turn of events, the white dragon became a white bird. They said that the ancestors of birds were dragons, so that wasn’t surprising.
“Iceeeee?!” looking at his body, the bird, which used to be a dragon, cried mournfully.
I knew someone who looked just like him.
After all, I just fought her.
“You are… the Snow King Eshinoff?” The First Hero asked. That was a stupid question.
The bird’s face changed to that of a beautiful girl.
“I will think about it after I kill you, Hero.”
I knew who it was.
Snow Queen Elsh.
In the past, the great evil dragon turned into a harpy by eating a GMO product!
What a tragic story.
That was a good lesson for me. From now on, I will stick to organic food.
“Excuse me, but I didn’t show you my past for this…”
The GMO product intervened in the conclusion of the Righteous Hero, ruining everything!
***
That was a very commonplace story.
She became an outcast in her race because she was born with ‘useless human legs’. Since she didn’t have sharp claws or talons, she couldn’t hunt alone either.
Instead, she was picked up by a wizard due to her talent for magic and lived near a human village. She always wore long sleeves to hide her wings and her harpy identity.
Rumors about her beauty instantly spread, and she was given the nickname “Snow Woman” since her entire body was white and all the magic she had in her arsenal was associated with ice.
The Snow Woman happily lived in this village until she met the Hero, who brought troubles and misfortunes with him.
The wizard used the feathers from her wings as a catalyst for magic, but he taught her magic and fed her, so it couldn’t be said that he was cruel to her.
The problem was with the First Hero.
“Senior… I really respect you.”
To him, it didn’t matter if the being in front of him was a monster or not. All he cared about was if the female had a beautiful face and figure.
He argued that all races were equal, and he lived by his words. He actually practiced it.
Fantasy romance with a monster!
For me, that was already too high a barrier.
After arriving in the village, the Hero fell for the beautiful appearance of the Snow Woman and began to look after her. His support group, out of jealousy, revealed the whole truth about this woman.
When it was revealed that she was a monster, the Snow Woman tried to escape but caught the eye of an evil dragon looking for something to do.
And then it became a GMO product.
“If we close our eyes to some distorted facts, then in general, that’s how it unfolded. When the Snow King Eshinoff swallowed me, I merged with this evil dragon…”
‘Wait! I don’t need details, so let’s get to the point. Tell me what you want quickly, and let’s get it over with. I’ve already wasted too much time watching and listening to your story.’
“Freedom and Bondage.”
‘… Dumbass. That’s the furthest your answer can go from being clear and straightforward.’
“Seriously? I want to escape from my fate of always being hunted by heroes. In return, if you grant me freedom, I will bind myself to you.”
This harpy not only had a rare appearance. She also had specific tastes.
[12th Round] Freedom and Bondage
To be honest, One of the Five Great Disasters being able to hurt me with such a trivial skill surprised me.
My abdominal wound was also even worse than the one I sustained in the first round.
However…
Before the teachings of the greatest Master Mollan, this was simply nothing.
The never-fading vortex-shaped blue scar quickly disappeared.
But that wasn’t the case for everyone else.
Even the First Hero I talked to a few days ago couldn’t get rid of it.
That showed how powerful the ‘deadly techniques’ of the Five Great Disasters were.
▶ Difficulty: That scar is also called the badge of bad luck. To counter it, the party must have an angel. Otherwise, it could kill heroes and make them lose companions. But if they go through the process of regression, then the scar will naturally disappear.
‘Won’t the angels die, Trainee Teacher?’
That attack broke through my Z-rank Divinity. I didn’t think angels could handle that.
▶ Explanation: The angels’ vitality is much higher than you think, cadet Kang Han Soo. They have an innate light attribute, preventing them from dying until their heart is destroyed.
‘That’s strange. As far as I remember, they’re easy to kill!’
▶ Confusion: Indeed. At the Festival, the angels you met quickly died. Hmm… Perhaps it’s because those who were subjected to your fair trial were fallen angels.
‘You’re going to move me to tears, Ms. Beautiful!’
Light attribute, huh?
They would never die until their heart was destroyed.
That was an extremely useful feature for any race, but I wouldn’t disappear until my name was forgotten, so I had nothing to envy.
The city where the blizzard fell was full of the slain harpies, their corpses mortally wounded by the wings of the righteous hero.
But the scene didn’t last for long. After a while, the corpses disappeared into the ground, absorbed by nature.
“Your sin lies in the fact that you didn’t recognize me as a worthy man.”
My popularity had dropped since the first round.
How was this possible?
“Drug Hero, you seem to be misunderstanding something.” The First Spirit spoke up, still sitting on my head.
“What?”
“The harpies didn’t see you as a human.”
“Huh?”
What was that nonsense?
“Mermaids don’t care about the race of the male they’re about to make love to, be it human, demon, or elf, for as long as they’re handsome. Harpies, however, aren’t like that. They’re only interested in humans.”
“I know that. Are you saying that I’m no longer categorized as human despite being born one?”
“Even if you’re born human, that doesn’t mean you’ll remain as one. You are slowly becoming a spirit. It’s simple. Think about it this way. If a human becomes a legend, what will they turn into?”
“A deity?”
“Close. A heroic soul, one step below godhood.”
I had no idea what that meant, but I realized that I was turning into something non-human.
“Well, you’ll understand sooner or later.”
Now I was interested in the heart in my hand.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
It was still beating.
It was different from the ‘Heart of the Snow Queen Elsh’ that I knew. This one looked like a sapphire.
And…
“What’s… this?”
At that moment, my mind was sent somewhere else.
***
In front of me was a dragon as white as snow.
If I had to define its race, it would either be a White Dragon or a Snow Dragon. They were similar in color, but there was a way to tell them apart.
“Ice.”
Well, it had to be an Ice Dragon.
“Let her go now, Snow King Eshinoff!”
The main character before me, ‘First Hero’, shouted. He always appeared as soon as I touched a Chaos Artifact.
Who were we talking about?
“Ice?”
“If something happens to her, I’m not going to turn a blind eye to it!”
The First Hero wasn’t alone. Behind him were his companions and a harem for support.
They seemed to want to kill the dragon, whom he named ‘The Snow King Eshinoff’, and save some girl.
But who was the female?
That was when I noticed the human under the dragon’s paws. No, she didn’t belong to our kind. After all, our hands weren’t covered with snow-white feathers.
She was definitely a harpy.
“Sir Hero, be careful.”
“Provoking the Snow King is dangerous.”
“If something goes wrong, she might get killed…” The beautiful girls who stood behind the First Hero began giving advice.
As they said, it was best not to anger that dragon. Otherwise, the harpy they were planning to save would simply be torn to shreds.
“Ahem!”
My senior wasn’t a fool. He didn’t make any sudden movements despite the dragon doing what he wanted.
Eshinoff opened his mouth and released a breath.
“Iceee!”
The snow-covered forest was instantly engulfed in ice.
The First Hero and his companions were fine, but his support group, who had low combat skills, was put on the brink of death.
Their appearance alone made it evident that they wouldn’t be able to withstand another blast.
But my senior still didn’t attack. Instead, he took a defensive position to protect his support group…
Tsk! This was hard to watch! Just attack!
It was so pathetic that if I could intervene, I would’ve fought in his place.
At that moment, the captured harpy made a request.
“Sir Hero, do not worry about me and just slay him.”
She was different from the harpies I knew.
The members of her race had always had sharp, hawk-like glares, but her gaze was cute and innocent, almost like a chicken’s.
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
“Sorry.”
“I will definitely save you! Just wait a little!”
“I will, Sir Hero…”
Even her manner of speaking with my senior was unusual. While hers was soft and gentle like a princess, half of the phrases of her warmongering kind were about murder.
How did that happen?
“Iceeee…”
The dragon, like me, could no longer contain itself. He moved, opening his jaws wide. However, instead of letting his breath out again, he grabbed his hostage.
At that moment, the First Hero was too focused on defending against a possible attack to protect his support group, causing him to fail to react on time.
It was only for a moment, but I was able to see the harpy’s body.
Like her character, her body was also different from others.
She was white from head to toe and had human-like legs that were so flawless that she could’ve boasted about them being perfect.
But for her kind, such legs weren’t at all suitable.
After all, their sharp talons were their main weapons. Those were what they used to grab and carry their victims and hold onto tree branches like birds.
Hence, from her race’s point of view, such short toes and nails were flaws.
But from a human’s perspective, there was nothing wrong with them.
“Iceee!”
“N-no!”
The dragon swallowed the harpy straight into his stomach.
Falling to his knees, the First Hero screamed, and the dragon, flapping his wings and tail, laughed. His companions behind him could only look at him with pity in their eyes.
And the support group…
“Ah…”
“She was a kind harpy…”
“How cruel…”
Everyone lowered their heads as if they couldn’t look at the terrible scene.
However, unlike my predecessor, I could see their expressions.
Some of them were calm, but some looked joyful.
None of them were sad.
“Snow King Eshinoff! I will definitely kill you!”
“Iceee~”
Even hearing the Hero’s threats, the dragon let out a laugh befitting his evil nature. I wanted to write it down and show it to Green Cake.
But his calmness didn’t last long.
“Iceee?!”
The dragon, having swallowed the mutant harpy, began to roll on the ground, clutching his stomach.
I would have attacked already, but the senior was too busy protecting the support group to prevent them from being blown away by the dragon’s thrashing.
‘Hmm. That’s what you get for consuming genetically modified organisms.’
The dragon’s body began to change rapidly.
KRRRRHH!
In a weird turn of events, the white dragon became a white bird. They said that the ancestors of birds were dragons, so that wasn’t surprising.
“Iceeeee?!” looking at his body, the bird, which used to be a dragon, cried mournfully.
I knew someone who looked just like him.
After all, I just fought her.
“You are… the Snow King Eshinoff?” The First Hero asked. That was a stupid question.
The bird’s face changed to that of a beautiful girl.
“I will think about it after I kill you, Hero.”
I knew who it was.
Snow Queen Elsh.
In the past, the great evil dragon turned into a harpy by eating a GMO product!
What a tragic story.
That was a good lesson for me. From now on, I will stick to organic food.
“Excuse me, but I didn’t show you my past for this…”
The GMO product intervened in the conclusion of the Righteous Hero, ruining everything!
***
That was a very commonplace story.
She became an outcast in her race because she was born with ‘useless human legs’. Since she didn’t have sharp claws or talons, she couldn’t hunt alone either.
Instead, she was picked up by a wizard due to her talent for magic and lived near a human village. She always wore long sleeves to hide her wings and her harpy identity.
Rumors about her beauty instantly spread, and she was given the nickname “Snow Woman” since her entire body was white and all the magic she had in her arsenal was associated with ice.
The Snow Woman happily lived in this village until she met the Hero, who brought troubles and misfortunes with him.
The wizard used the feathers from her wings as a catalyst for magic, but he taught her magic and fed her, so it couldn’t be said that he was cruel to her.
The problem was with the First Hero.
“Senior… I really respect you.”
To him, it didn’t matter if the being in front of him was a monster or not. All he cared about was if the female had a beautiful face and figure.
He argued that all races were equal, and he lived by his words. He actually practiced it.
Fantasy romance with a monster!
For me, that was already too high a barrier.
After arriving in the village, the Hero fell for the beautiful appearance of the Snow Woman and began to look after her. His support group, out of jealousy, revealed the whole truth about this woman.
When it was revealed that she was a monster, the Snow Woman tried to escape but caught the eye of an evil dragon looking for something to do.
And then it became a GMO product.
“If we close our eyes to some distorted facts, then in general, that’s how it unfolded. When the Snow King Eshinoff swallowed me, I merged with this evil dragon…”
‘Wait! I don’t need details, so let’s get to the point. Tell me what you want quickly, and let’s get it over with. I’ve already wasted too much time watching and listening to your story.’
“Freedom and Bondage.”
‘… Dumbass. That’s the furthest your answer can go from being clear and straightforward.’
“Seriously? I want to escape from my fate of always being hunted by heroes. In return, if you grant me freedom, I will bind myself to you.”
This harpy not only had a rare appearance. She also had specific tastes.
