Old People Don’t Hold Hands - Chapter 158



Only Krnovel

Episode 158, The Manifester (2)

Let’s look at the robed man while standing still.

The man looked around, wondering if he had just moved in.

As soon as he saw me, he quickly bowed down to show his respect.

“… …Tea, meet the master of cold blood!”

The voice was too spirited to be a simple greeting.

As if I were already the bastard’s master.

… … That is to say, it was a voice that sounded like it had become the master of cold blood.

But, you know.

“… … I haven’t become your master yet, and yet you can call me that already?”

“Um, that’s… … .”

I asked, puzzled by the overly enthusiastic attitude of the man.

The guy hesitated to answer, still bending down.

“Ah, maybe you’ll find out when you go… … .”

……hmm?

As I looked down at him quietly, he seemed to find it difficult to speak any further.

He just avoided eye contact anxiously.

Hmm, seeing you avoiding it like this.

It seems like something internal has come up… … .

“… … Since you came to pick me up, does that mean you have the power to move?”

“Yes? Yes… … , that’s right. If you carve a mark, you can move there.”

okay.

This is the power I saw in the previous labyrinth.

“So, you’re moving from here to somewhere else?”

“… … That’s right! I’ll take you to our hideout!”

“A hermitage?”

“… … Ah, we have a place where we hide in the Holy Land.”

Oh oh.

Are you going to take me straight to the hideout?

And the most important hideout in the Holy Land?

If you’re going to do this, it seems like you trust me to some extent.

… … Well, I had promised something before.

Okay, then.

“Let’s go and see.”

When I told him that I would just follow him, he seemed to not believe me easily and was taken aback for a moment.

“… … Ah, ah! Then, I’ll go!”

He hurriedly reached out to me, flustered.

I rather looked at him with narrowed eyes, as if I found his exaggerated reaction suspicious.

I hummed quietly.

“… … Did you think I wouldn’t just follow you?”

When I openly questioned him, he grabbed my hand and started talking nonsense.

“Oh, no. I just heard from the leader that the master is a very suspicious person… … .”

… … Aha, okay.

You didn’t know I would trust you so easily?

If you look closely, there must be some smart guys out there, but why did they send such an immature guy instead of such a smart guy?

It seems like they deliberately sent a guy who was bad at lying, knowing that I would be suspicious.

… … If you look closely, your head is actually quite useful.

***

For now, let’s have the remaining conversation at the hideout.

I held the hand of the inexperienced manifester and surrendered myself to the power of movement.

The power of movement felt very different from the ‘transition’ that Diana had been using.

Is it because Diana mostly moved short distances at relatively urgent times?

If it felt like our body positions had been switched in the blink of an eye.

The power of movement is probably because you have to move a considerable distance to the place where the mark is engraved.

It took a while to cast.

After being trapped in a dark zone with space and time distorted for about 2 minutes.

The feeling of arriving at the desired place as the distorted space-time returns.

If I were to compare it, it was more similar to the feeling of falling into a hole than teleportation.

… … First of all, it felt like I was in a dark zone.

After moving around for a while, we arrived at this place.

“… … Oh?”

It was a space with a fairly dark atmosphere.

A space with an atmosphere that could literally be called a place where rebels are hiding.

It was as if some of the underground waterways within the holy place had been remodeled, and a huge waterway was rising in the center of the hideout.

There was a torrential flow of water there.

Because it was an underground waterway, there was little light, and in some places… … .

There were glass test tubes lined up, seemingly containing blood produced using the central water channel.

It’s almost like it’s reminiscent of an illegal laboratory.

Overall, it is a rough building made of dark stone with a lot of moisture.

Red test tubes placed everywhere.

… … and the bright red blood that started in the test tube and traveled through the glass tube.

Even in EndWorld, the rebels’ hideout, which I had never been to before, was more serious than I thought.

… … It was even bigger than I thought.

It probably takes up about 1/3 of the Holy Land.

After looking around the inside of the hideout for a while, the naive guy coughed a few times as if he was proud.

“Haha! Wow, isn’t that amazing? Isn’t the scale enormous?”

“… … It’s so big, how has it not been detected until now?”

At my question, the naive guys stretched their upper bodies as if they had been waiting.

“Ah, ah! How can you hide such a huge place? Th, th-there is something like… …!”

At that moment, I wondered if I could just listen to the secret of the hideout.

“… … You have come, my bloody master.”

A familiar voice came from behind.

The leader I saw in the Red Thorn Swamp… … .

No, I mean Nokin.

Still, I wonder if things have been going well since returning to the hideout.

Nokin was much fatter than when I saw him in the labyrinth.

… … Aside from that, his complexion wasn’t that good.

As soon as Nokin met my eyes, he bowed and showed his respect.

“… … Meet the master of cold blood.”

He gave a much calmer greeting than the immature one.

But Nokin also treated me with the same courtesy as if I were already the master of cold blood.

“Nokin, I have a lot to ask you.”

“… … Perhaps it is because we call you, Deklen, the Master of Cold Blood.”

“Yeah. Isn’t that story not over yet?”

“that…….”

Nokin opened his mouth as if to say something to answer my question.

“… … .”

Soon, he averted his gaze as if he was conscious of his surroundings.

As Nokin looked, there were several apparitions who had already come out of the building.

They were also watching us.

The people who came out like that also met my eyes as soon as they met mine.

“… … .”

They all began to bow to me by bending one knee at a time.

Some of them have both arms outstretched.

“Ah, ah, Lord of Blood… … !”

… … He muttered like this, as if he had been brainwashed.

Looking at it this way, I feel like I’ve become a cult leader.

… …Why is everyone doing this?

No, even if it’s just Nokin or that immature guy.

Are the other guys living in this hideout also acting like this?

As some people began to praise, those inside the building also began to come out one by one.

Those who came out like that, as soon as they saw me, all bowed as if they were possessed.

I turned around at the unbelievable sight and looked at Nokin again.

Nokin also made an awkward expression as if he had a lot to explain.

“… … I’ll go in first and then explain.”

All he said was this.

“Then please follow me.”

After saying that, I followed Nokin, who started to move forward silently.

I was able to get to the upper floor of the hideout.

In the area where ordinary people live and buildings are built, there is a waterway that extends in a straight line.

As I walked there, I was able to reach the upper floor where the waterway extended downwards.

As we go up that road, unlike the rough buildings scattered around the waterway on the lower level.

There was an elaborately crafted building.

The size of the building itself was much larger than what I had seen before.

Judging from the people coming out, the building I saw earlier seemed like a place where ordinary people lived.

… … Does this kind of class difference clearly exist even within the rebel army?

As I looked up at the building with that thought in mind, I noticed that there was one peculiarity about the building.

Blood was flowing here and there, entangled with the buildings and through pipes.

… … A huge glass tube containing all of these at once is hanging at the top of this building.

“This is… … ?”

I asked, looking at the glass tube dripping blood and making noise.

Nokin also looked up at it.

“Come to think of it, you must have wondered how such a wide space could have gone undetected.”

“That’s right.”

“It’s all thanks to these fiddles.”

“… … Blood? Is this also a power?”

Let’s ask again as if we don’t understand what Nokin is saying.

Nokin turned his gaze from the glass case back to me.

All he said was this.

“You will know if you come in and see for yourself.”

“… … ?”

Just when I was starting to get frustrated with Nokin’s way of talking, which never explained things properly.

I had no choice but to follow Nokin, who took the lead, into the building again.

The building’s interior was just as beautifully crafted as its exterior.

And on the ceiling… … .

There was a bumpy glass tube that looked like it was shaped like a heart.

The inside was just as it looked from the outside.

There was a huge amount of blood pooled in the hideout, enough to spread throughout the area.

And in that blood… … .

“Isn’t that a person?”

A person was locked inside it.

It was hard to see because the inside of the glass case was so red.

Judging from the glimpse of their entrails, the human in the glass case seemed to be not even wearing proper clothes.

“… … That person is one of the first people to ingest the piece.”

“If it’s a piece… … ?”

“… … Yes. I’m talking about the blood crystals that I’ve ingested.”

Hmm… … .

If you look at what they say about being one of the ‘first people’ to ingest the piece.

It seems like there were other people who consumed it first, besides the woman in the glass case.

“Are the first ones to ingest it the ones who gave you the piece?”

“… … Probably not. They are so tall… … .”

Even Nokin, who had secured a decent position while living in a secluded place in the Holy Land.

You’ve never seen those who took it for the first time?

“… … Then why is this woman here?”

“It is said that her power is the ability to hide by shedding blood. The saint sacrificed herself to provide a place for us to stay… … .”

……aha.

Whether she’s a saint or something, that’s why her blood is spread throughout the hideout.

They are also using that blood to keep the entire hideout hidden for now.

A safe space built with someone’s blood…

Thinking about it that way, it was quite gruesome.

So the question regarding the hideout has been resolved.

The next thing to solve is… … .

“But I have never been involved with those high-ranking people, so I will have to explain how I became the master of the Pale Blood, which is so great.”

… … The question was why I was suddenly appointed to such an important position among those guys.

This is also the case in this group where the high-ranking people are completely excluded.

When I asked this, Nokin was silent for a long time.

After he stood in front of me, he immediately knelt down.

“… … ?”

Let’s look at Nokin, who is suddenly acting cowardly, with a puzzled look.

Nokin just laid his head on the floor and said this.

“Master of Pale Blood… …, no, Lord Declen. Please help us. We desperately need your help.”