Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 697
Chapter 697: Evil Party (2)
I couldn’t even call it coincidental. In the past, I’d been surprised when more than half of a group was evil spirits.
This wasn’t just half. All of them were evil spirits.
“Um… Then was Mr. Bryat also…?” Jaina hesitantly asked Auril Gavis. It seemed she had the same thought as me.
“Bryat is a pure-blooded resident who was born and raised here.”
Hmm, six out of the seven people, then. It still felt odd to me since no matter the group, evil spirits were an extreme minority. The reason Ghost Busters was so special to the evil spirits was because it was the only place in which that demographic statistic didn’t apply.
“What the hell do you mean, pure-blooded resident?” Baekho grumbled, seeming to take issue with the specific wording of the answer. However, Auril Gavis didn’t even bother with a response.
“Hoh, I never expected Aures’s home to be the same as mine. Why didn’t you tell us this beforehand?”
“Aha… Haha… It’s not as if I wanted to lie to you all… But this is my first time hearing that too.”
“Well, it isn’t exactly an icebreaker… I have a lot I’ll need to discuss with you going forward. I am quite curious about that world.”
“Ahaha… You can ask me anything. To be honest, my memories are a bit hazy as well, but I’ll tell you everything I can.”
For some reason, I got the feeling that Aures and Fallen Gramps would spend our break time together.
But now’s not the time to imagine that…
And so, I swallowed my surprise that Aures was an evil spirit and internalized that fact in my mind.
“Uh… sir?” GM asked Auril Gavis cautiously. “Could we ask you where we are right now…?”
“Are you asking if you are inside the city walls or not? Or perhaps, even somewhere completely different?”
“Yes… I-I mean, since the baron and I ended up getting swept up in all this after we happened to venture outside the city walls at a similar time…”
“Well… I supposed it would look like that from your perspective.”
“…Pardon?” GM tilted his head at that mysterious response. However, Auril Gavis didn’t elaborate and answered his previous question instead.
“This is someplace outside the city walls. A place that is very meaningful to me.”
“Ah… Is that so…?”
“So do understand, I cannot tell you exactly where we are.”
“Pardon? Then—”
“Not to worry. I am not saying I will keep you trapped here forever.”
“Ahaha… Is that so? Then that’s a relief. I never planned on taking such a long adventure in the first place…”
GM really had no spine. He was laughing and applauding the culprit who had thrown us into this situation in the first place.
Well, things had progressed in a slightly more favorable direction since we had someone to blame.
“Not keep us trapped?” Baekho asked, who had spent the last few minutes looking pissed off but still intent. “Then are you just going to let us go?”
Auril Gavis slowly nodded. “Of course. That is if you promise me one thing.”
Baekho hesitated. “Go on.”
“It wasn’t in my plans to talk to you so directly, but since it has come to this, I will tell you freely.”
“Okay? So just get on with—”
“Do not try to find answers in other places.”
Baekho flinched for a second before awkwardly laughing. “The hell does that mean? Shouldn’t you be a little clearer if you want us to keep your promise?”
“Then I’ll be a little more direct with it. Baekho, I understand well enough why the palace is your goal.”
“Then…?”
“But do not even think about stepping foot in there. The answer you are looking for isn’t even there to begin with.”
Auril Gavis didn’t mention any penalties Baekho would have to suffer if he went against that promise.
I mean, he had already said it repeatedly by now. If Baekho didn’t follow his words, he would eliminate him. And since Baekho knew this as well…
“…Then where the hell is the answer?”
Baekho only asked one more question, and Auril Gavis responded with a gentle smile.
“You are adventurers.”
He then tapped Baekho on the shoulder.
“Find it in the labyrinth.”
Then with a gentle voice, he said, “All the answers you are looking for are there.”
As if his words were born solely out of bad intentions. At that moment, Auril Gavis reminded me of Karui for a second.
Now that I thought about it, this old was similar to Karui, if only for the fact that he was always toying with people.
Auril Gavis didn’t try to urge the speechless Baekho to talk and instead just calmly stood there, waiting for an answer in a comfortable yet somehow also crushing silence.
It didn’t take long for Baekho to raise the white flag.
“Ah, okay. Okay. I got it. What you were saying. To put it simply, don’t touch the palace, right? I won’t. That good?”
Uh, if you were going to surrender, maybe you should’ve let go of that attitude while you were at it.
Does he…want something?
I tucked that question away, as Baekho remarked in his casual tone, “But looks like you’re not omnipotent either? Seeing how you’re running around and trying to clean up after everything… I mean, right? I can tell that you don’t really like the fact that the labyrinth got closed. Honestly, isn’t this all happening because you saved Noark when they were on the verge of being destroyed?”
“So what are you truly trying to say?”
“Well, it’s not like there’s anything behind it… I’m just saying what it is. If it’s gotten to the point where you need to reveal yourselves to us like this, your plans must be going pretty shit too.”
Put simply, Baekho only voiced it to confirm one of his suspicions.
“And judging by your reaction, looks like I’m right?”
“Haha… You are the same as ever. Thank you for your concern, but I don’t need it. Nothing will change just because an ant shows concern for a person.”
Auril Gavis smiled gently as he spoke those cutting words. Seeing how Baekho couldn’t school his expression properly and was only awkwardly laughing with his mouth, this exchange was a complete loss on Baekho’s part even until the end.
“Alright, then let’s end our meeting there for today.”
“Uh… sir? I want to ask you one thing.”
“It is getting late. When we have another opportunity, I will answer those questions.”
“So we can meet again?”
“Of course. You are a model student. I am always watching over you.”
“R-really…?” The disappointment on GM’s face lightened at that.
Auril Gavis wore that same, warm smile while looking at him, but then turned and led us into the cave. Around a minute of walking later, a large open area greeted us.
“Whoa…”
“Just how many are here?”
Everyone let out exclamations when we got there.
It couldn’t be helped. Set up In this large, open space that was big enough to play soccer in, countless dimensional headstones were lined up on the walls. There were at least a few hundred just at a glance.
“For you lot… Hm, this might be good.” Auril Gavis pointed toward the dimensional headstone we would use.
“Um… Could I ask you where it leads?”
“Hmm, I want to leave it up to you to discover for fun, but it’d be too disadvantageous for you if I do that. I will tell you. If you take this, you’ll return to that first location.”
“By that first location… Are you perhaps talking about the place with the broken magic circle?”
“That’s right.”
After learning what our destination was to be, GM visibly relaxed. I supposed this was what they meant by a soft answer turned away wrath.
For some reason, he answers GM’s questions whenever he asks.
I got a feeling that maybe GM was aiming for that.
Well, it seemed pointless from my perspective. No matter how much this old man laughed and acted joyful in front of us, he would spit behind our backs.
Shine!
As the portal opened, Auril Gavis looked at us as if to send us off, and Baekho spat on the ground.
“You damned old bastard.”
He was the first to step through the portal as if he didn’t want to stay even a second longer in this same area.
“I’ll go in next. Baekho may have already begun causing trouble.”
Fallen Gramps went in second, and Aures went in third….
After Jaina and GM also went through, it ended up being just me and Auril Gavis left in the cave.
I don’t have to keep up the act anymore.
Auril Gavis sent me a look, noticing that I’d stopped in front of the portal.
“Why? Do you want me to leave already?” I responded with a bit of grump in my voice.
Auril Gavis just gave me a warm smile. “Haha, not at all. You act as if I have pressured you in some way. I just looked into you because it seemed as if you had something you wanted to say to me… This is unlike you. If you have something to say, tell me.”
Well, even though he said it, he would never tell me what I wanted to know if he didn’t want to tell me.
I took a glance at the surroundings, then I emulated GM a little as I spoke.
“Sir, I just have one question.”
“It seems as if you always ask me something whenever you see me.”
“You just hold that many secrets.”
“Haha… Tell me. What is your question?”
“Where are we?”
I could tell that seemed to catch even Auril Gavis off guard. “Why are you curious about that? You must have many more important questions.”
“I’ve asked you the important things a few times now, but I’ve never gotten a proper answer for them,” I grumbled, indicating I would no longer try to pursue said questions.
Auril Gavis suddenly broke out into laughter. “What? Haha! Hahaha! Hahahahaha!”
Was this guy senile? Just what part of that was funny?
Though I couldn’t understand him at all, the fact that this old man’s mood improved was a positive for me.
“Ahaha… My apologies. That suddenly brought back some old memories.”
“Old memories…?”
“In any case, since a lot of unfortunate events have happened to you recently, I will answer your question.”
“Oh, that’d sure be nice.”
“Do not use sarcasm.”
“Okay…”
Since the old man said he would answer my question, I didn’t try to agitate him further and just waited for him to talk. The question at hand seemed pretty important too.
“This is someplace outside the city walls.”
Somewhere outside the walls.
“A place that is very meaningful to me.”
A place that was meaningful for Auril Gavis. Not to mention, this place’s structure was very reminiscent of the first-floor Crystal Cave.
Just where were we?
“Care for a walk?”
Though the questions were multiplying in number in my mind, I nodded in response. As I walked behind Auril Gavis, he then suddenly said something riddle-like.
“A lie that you wish to believe as truth and a truth that you wish to believe as a lie.”
“What…?”
“If you had to choose between these two, which would you take?”
I wondered why he suddenly asked me that question, but this old man wasn’t one to randomly start spouting off without reason.
I seriously considered the options. Now that I thought about it, I had seen a would-you-rather on the internet that was pretty similar to this.
A shit-flavored cake. Or cake-flavored shit.
Ah, of course, there were clear differences between that dilemma and the question the old man just asked me. But that was why it was even easier for me to choose.
“I’d choose the latter.”
“You’d prefer a truth that you wish were a lie?”
“Because it’s still the truth.”
“Hmm, I see…”
Even though I had answered him relatively seriously, Auril Gavis only gave a vague reaction to my answer and didn’t say much else.
“We’re here.”
The place Auril Gavis stopped at was a stone gate that blocked the cave passage. A tome of magical nonsense seemed to have been plastered on the gate as when he put his hand on it, it opened up automatically.
Then, a completely unexpected space was revealed to me.
It was an area that was built to mimic outer space. A straight staircase led up to some unknown peak.
“Be careful not to fall off and follow me.”
As always, this old man didn’t give any explanation and just began to climb the steps, and after quietly taking a look around, I followed him.
Some time passed.
Step, step.
While ceaselessly climbing up the stairs, I realized something.
He had brought me here to show me something that was on top of the altar at the end of the steps.
“What is that…?”
“You’ll know when you go and see it.”
I wondered what he meant by that, but I did realize what it was as soon as I got up all the way. It was floating upon the altar while covered in a thin cloth.
“Fragments of Records Stone…”
Not just one, but hundreds of these fragments were orbiting in the air.
“Did you gather them all by hand?”
Auril Gavis silently nodded to my question. As he then reached out with his hand, the fragments that were swimming around like a galaxy began to be pulled toward him.
“Would you like to read it?”
I nodded before quietly reading the ancient language written on the fragments.
“(An evil spirit from another world…)” I mumbled to myself. The problem, however, was that I couldn’t decipher it in full. “How do you read this one? I don’t think this is an ancient language. It just looks like scribbles…”
“You don’t need to understand it. For humans, this would be like a name.”
Hmm, then I guess I could skip that one.
It didn’t take long for me to read the rest of the fragments because the entire thing was quite short.
“(An evil spirit from another world—after losing three of his allies, will realize the path he must take…)”
Huh?
No, wait.
“Could this name be me…?”
When I quickly turned to ask him, Auril Gavis only gave me a gentle smile and didn’t answer.
Damn it.