episode_0006

Father held out a dusty scroll before Ray’s eyes. He lifted the scroll, which was tied in a fancy knot with a black cord.

『Culture for a quiet and upright new groom』

Ray could barely guess the meaning of the words, which were mixed with old words that he had only seen once in his fourteen-year life.

“The things you will see in the future are beautiful and natural. Dad also received it from his grandfather.”

His father spoke with a trembling voice. Ray completely understood how cautious his parents were in this situation, and found himself cheering for his father in his heart. And he was running the simulation over and over again until his head was spinning, wondering how natural his reaction should be, and how he should act out this sublime experience of tearing open the cocoon of innocence and spreading his crumpled wings.

It is actually not desirable to be too shy. You should also be wary of showing too much interest. Since it is a situation of a completely different dimension from what you experienced in your past life, it is similar to an unknown area that you do not know, such as someone who does not know what an elephant is and has to imitate an elephant.

The scroll unfolded, and Ray let out a sigh of relief, thinking that the childcare part would be covered first, but the shockingly hiccups-inducing content followed immediately. Why was the man’s body drawn so small compared to the woman’s illustrations? Of course, it was somewhat true, but I thought it was exaggerated. Or, since it was a book of general knowledge, it could have been an expression of the appearances of each gender that were considered the most desirable in the world. As Ray had usually guessed, there were model illustrations of women taking the lead, drawn in colorless form along with anatomical diagrams on several pages.

You don’t have to be afraid.

I nod to the line written under the picture. The rules are different, but if it were a boy other than Ray who had prior knowledge, the description of the posture of a beast mounting its prey might have felt a bit scary. It is a world where there is even an adult joke that a new groom who faces the bride on the day without prior training runs away saying that the bride is trying to eat him.

The beautiful groom allows the ‘little one’ to be taken out only to the most trustworthy spouse to whom he can promise a lifetime.

I could also see a footnote that seemed to imply the concept of chastity. It was also the fundamental reason why his father showed this scroll to Ray, who was not yet married. It was about knowing the value of what you have, and how you would face difficult situations if you lost your value. If you looked at the two boys with Chunhwa in between from the perspective of a previous life, it could be seen as a mischievous older brother and a cheeky younger brother, but this educational book that thoroughly followed the laws of this world was surprisingly full of useful and considerate advice.

After seeing this world’s fragmentary but piercing answer to how culture changes as the physical characteristics of the two sexes change, Ray was still dazed by the feeling of going through a second puberty for quite some time after his father tied the scroll tightly again and put it deep inside the house.

Well, in the case of Latia herself, who played a key role in Ray’s parents’ decision around the same time to no longer procrastinate and reveal the secrets of this world to their son, she had to face her instinctive desires more naturally and learn things like how to distinguish between what not to do and how to control and govern impulsive thoughts, and the nobility of the act of taking responsibility, rather than illustrations full of consideration and affection.

Latia, who had grown to almost the same height as Jehun in her previous life, had less time to go out and play with the village children in the mountains and fields like before, and was often dragged out to help the village elders carry heavy objects. In preparation for the coming summer, Latia worked on repairing the dam built upstream of the river from broad daylight, then sat down, crossed her long legs, and wiped the sweat from her body as she caught her breath.

When she turned her head toward the sound from over there, she could easily find Ray among the village men who had brought laundry downstream. Lately, Latia had been thinking that Ray was really small.

The sight of someone busily moving his short arms to help with the work.

His smiling expression and gestures.

Even the sight of someone tripping on a slippery rock and falling on their butt… .

As she stared blankly at him with her neck stretched out, the thought of him sitting on a ray and looking down at his face from above entered her mind, and just as she unconsciously bit her lower lip, she heard the voice of a village woman calling out to her from upstream, and Latia jumped up and ran towards her.

That summer, the sun was scorching hot during the day, but at night, a cool breeze blew and the sound of insects chirping echoed. One day, as we waited for the cart that always came around this time of year, Latia ran in front of Ray’s house and said, “I’m going to go to Ray’s house.”

“It’s a cart. A merchant is coming into town now!”

Perhaps Latia was simply glad that she had an excuse to call Ray, and Ray, who was hoping that among the items the merchant brought, there might be items obtained from the Algaet of Fraua, was also delighted by the news. Ray got dressed and headed out. Latia grabbed Ray’s small hand and led him.

“Heh… I’m going to fall. Whoa… Latia, why are we running?!”

Ray, who was having a hard time because of the difference in stride, couldn’t stand it anymore and said a word.

“Don’t stick your tongue out like that outside.”

Latia also said a word as she looked back at Ray.

“That’s because you’re making me breathless!”

“Huh? Oh… Ugh, sorry… .”

For a moment, Latia regretted saying something she shouldn’t have said.

This time, Ray and Latia lightly passed by a woman wearing a wide-brimmed hat, a tight-fitting shirt and pants, and a brightly-dyed vest, and she was eagerly explaining Fraua’s artistic sensibility to the townspeople while trying to sell things like paints and brushes. They searched through the stalls.

‘Melhaon, Julep, Mybaon, Eldaon…’

Ray starts flipping through the tags diligently to find Fraua’s belongings.

‘There it is, Fraua. Algae, Algae, Algae…!’

Ray picks up a fairly heavy metal lump from where Fraua’s things are gathered. The tag clearly spells out Fraua, Algaet. It was unclear whether it was originally dented here and there or if it was dented during transport, but it was definitely close to a small cylinder shape. Ray examines it here and there and shakes it.

” What is this thing? ”

” I was explaining about artistic sense, and it’s called ‘Fruit that doesn’t rot’. It’s a work that recreates the shape of soft fruit with hard material. If you don’t have any knowledge about this, what’s the point of me explaining it? ”

‘Fruit that doesn’t rot?’

After hearing the explanation, Ray looked at the problematic item with a dubious expression… Something flashed in his mind and he picked up a small dagger that was on the stand. Then he started pressing the metal cylinder with the dagger.

“You, you…what are you doing?”

“I’m going to buy it. Can I buy it?”

The merchant was surprised by Ray’s strange behavior in an instant, but decided to quietly watch what he was going to do, hoping that he had something worth the price. When the dagger was stuck in the small groove, he carefully grabbed the dagger handle and lifted it. With a snapping sound, the metal cylinder opened, and inside, as Ray had expected, were fresh fruits submerged in liquid. Latia took one and ate it from the side.

” It’s really a fruit, it’s so sweet. ”

Ray himself took one out with his finger and ate it, and his doubts about the identity of the person called Algae began to deepen. This was clearly a canned food. Last time it was a light bulb, and now it’s a canned food? Either he was a genius who would lead a great leap forward in the civilization of this world, or there was another possibility.

“Wait a minute. You must have gotten that last winter. It literally contained fruit that didn’t rot? You’re going to have to give something worth it for such a precious item! ”

The merchant was so aggrieved that he spat and jumped around.

“… The fruit is just the same as the ones hanging from the trees in the back mountain. Look closely. The really expensive ones are these cylinders. ”

Ray, who came here and committed fraud for the first time.

“I’ll pay you for the fruit. Can you think of a way to sell it for the highest price? I know it’s not something you can sell in a small town.”

Although he felt uneasy inside, the merchant nodded his head in agreement, imagining greedily that he might end up sitting on a pile of money if he took this to the city and sold it. After that, after exchanging trivial items with the townspeople and negotiating the price for a long time with Latia’s parents who had come to buy a gift in advance for their daughter who was about to have her coming of age ceremony in six months, the merchant packed up his stall and put his cart in the town warehouse. He locked the warehouse door tightly with a padlock he had brought, saying that he would never trust the original lock, and only then did he decide to go into an inn for outsiders and spend the night.

“How do you know there’s fruit inside?”

To Latia, who asks questions on the way back

“Hmm, it just smelled a little sweet.”

And Ray, who was talking nonsense. And while they were walking to their house, Ray kept thinking about the identity of the person called Algae, and Latia kept opening and closing her mouth as if she was about to say something. While Ray was distracted by the canned food, Latia was fiddling with the items she had bought from the merchant behind his back.

” Thank you for always taking me there, bye. ”

Ray waves his little arm this way.

” Oh, over there… ”

“Huh?”

She met Ray’s eyes, red and yellow, shining in the moonlight. She felt like she was being sucked into that small flame to the point where she forgot what she was going to say, but then a small anxiety rose from a corner of her heart and she thought that there would be more suitable days in the future when it would be easier to talk, so Latia smiled.

“No, I’ll go too.”

That would be the case, because Ray lived right next door. He was always within arm’s reach. It had always been that way, and it was that way now, so it was easy to assume it would be that way in the future.

However, the next day, Latia hears that Ray left the village early in the morning, following a merchant who left the village behind, leaving behind a letter.