episode_0007

When I left the village with my grandmother, I followed her, moving my short legs vigorously since I was not yet fully grown. The physical ability itself was not much different from that of the elderly, and the grandmother’s walking speed was not fast, so it was not difficult.

However, after walking for a while, the village seemed like a dot in the field of vision, and the grandmother stopped walking.

“Andrew. Let’s ride a horse from here.”

After spending a few days in the village and building up some friendships, my grandmother no longer called me “kid” but called me by my first name.

Anyway, I tilted my head when I heard the grandmother call me like that and say that she was riding a horse. This is because there was no place to ride horses around here. Rather, you had to return to the village to ride a horse or carriage. That also meant waiting until the owner moved to another area before riding with him.

“You mean? How do I get on here?”

As I became curious about how to ride a horse, a memory from my past life suddenly came to mind. It was a scene from a movie I saw in a past life, and it suddenly came to mind.

I wondered if wizards and warlocks had their own network, and if they raised a wand or something, they would talk to me.

But my grandmother’s answer was completely different from what I expected.

“Warlocks can store the skeletons they create separately.”

“Really? How do you do it?”

“It means compressing the skeleton to the size of a finger. It’s a possible method because it’s a skeleton already stained with death, so it’s a bit disappointing that it can’t be used on other things, but it’s still quite useful. I will teach you later, so look forward to it.”

The grandmother took out a small pouch from her pocket and placed a piece of bone the size of a finger in her palm. It looked like gray bone fragments had been compressed here and there, and in a way, it looked like a jewel made of bone.

“Try to take a good look.”

The grandmother gently grasped the piece of bone in her palm, and a black energy glowed as if she were confirming my talent. However, the energy seemed to bloom for a moment and then seep into the bone piece he was holding in his hand.

And, the grandmother, who had been cheering up for a while, lightly tossed the bone piece as if she had had enough. It looked like he was throwing it lightly, as if he was giving feed to birds, but the result was not light.

“Wow!”

A piece of bone the size of a finger was thrown into the air and grew in size in the air, as if it were inflating. It grew in an instant and took shape in an instant, and when it hit the ground, it took the shape of a horse. Although it was a horse made of bones without any skin or muscles.

A bright blue flame was burning in the hole in the skull where the eyeballs must have been. It was as if the horse’s soul was burning. Just seeing the flames that made me wonder if this was what naturalization was like was quite eerie.

However, the eerie feeling disappeared in an instant. No, it’s not that it disappeared, it’s that I got used to the naturalization and didn’t feel much of it.

“… … It seems kind of cute, doesn’t it?”

The burning flame felt somewhat round. Then it started shaking slightly, and it felt like it was smiling.

“Andrew, let’s type.”

“Uh… … . Here?”

The horse’s spine was full of bones that stuck out like fish spines. It felt like my butt would crack if I sat there.

Seeing my hesitation, the old woman smiled softly and got on the skeleton horse first. Unlike other grandmothers who walked a bit slowly, she climbed onto the skeleton horse as if floating.

“Skeletons are made of bones. But since the bones are all separated from each other, wouldn’t you need something to hold them together?”

When I looked closely at the skeleton horse again after hearing what the grandmother said, I saw something that was almost transparent. It looked like the air was shaking, and it was as if the muscles and skin had turned transparent. Even if you look at the area where the grandmother was sitting, her clothes are transparent and are not touching the bones.

“It won’t hurt even if I sit down.”

Since I was confident that my butt wouldn’t crack any deeper, I took the hand my grandmother held out and got on the horse.

I don’t know what it was like in my past life, but in this life, it was my first time riding a horse. At first, I thought what if it was uncomfortable, but the ride quality was better than I expected. Even when the horse started walking slowly, it may be because it is a skeletal horse, but there was no shock when it moved.

“Grandma. But, wouldn’t it have been more convenient to ride from the village if there was something like this?”

“But won’t the villagers be surprised? Even if you are a certified warlock, there are bound to be people who are afraid. Just by looking at the outside, you can’t tell if he is a certified warlock or not, so it’s better to pay a little more attention. Right now, Andrew, didn’t you try to run away when you first met me?”

“Ahahaha… … .”

I slightly averted my gaze as I saw the grandmother lightly glancing at me.

“Still, it’s okay since I received a child with such a talented warlock as my disciple. The hard work was worth it.”

“Are you having a hard time?”

“Andrew, there are many people like you who try to run away by claiming to be warlocks. So shouldn’t you be riding a skeletal horse to at least talk to him? So I had quite a hard time walking around.”

Well, the old woman just seemed like a suspicious person, so I missed the timing to run away and started talking to her. If she had shown up riding a skeleton horse, it was clear that she would have jumped out without even looking back.

As I nodded, my grandmother lightly stroked my head. Then, I moved my hand to the area around the skeleton’s nape. There was something sticking out from the nape of the neck, and it looked like a handle that was easy to hold.

“Now, let’s hold on tight here and be careful not to fall.”

“Here? Why are you holding me here!”

I caught it because I wanted to catch it, but I was curious as to why I was being asked to catch it, but I was able to understand why as the skeleton horse continued to move.

In a movement that could not be seen by a living creature, it began to run at an incredible speed. If I hadn’t been holding on to that handle or something, I might have fallen off the horse. Although I may not have fallen because my grandmother supported me from behind.

Anyway, I continued to move on the skeletal horse that was moving at such incredible speed. I kept moving, stopping in between to stretch and eat.

After riding a skeleton horse for about four days and running without going through any villages, I was able to find a fairly large city a little far away.

There was a wide field outside the castle walls, and the walls were also made strong and made of stone. Compared to the village where I lived, it was a huge difference.

“Grandma, is this the capital?”

The appearance of the city was incomparable to that of our village, and I thought that this might be the capital of the Kingdom of Barnoall, to which I belong.

But my grandmother smiled lightly and shook her head in response to my question.

“This is not the capital Barca, but Miloranda, a city near Barca.”

“Wow… … . This is not the capital.”

Thick and high stone walls, large gates, and deep and wide moats. It was clear that a lot of money had been spent to build the castle, so I was quite surprised to learn that it was not the capital. Our village was made up of wooden fences, and the moat was not that big because it was meant to keep out beasts and monsters.

Anyone could see that he was a hillbilly, but honestly, I couldn’t control it. In fact, I haven’t had the experience of leaving the village since I was born. If I had to say that I went out, all I did was go in and out of the forest near the village.

“Okay, let’s go in first.”

As I was staring at the castle wall with my mouth open like a hillbilly, the old woman slowly moved the skeletal horse. The skeletal horse was moving towards the castle wall where an inspection was in progress.

“Is it okay to go in on a skeleton horse?”

“Don’t worry.”

I was worried about whether I could pass the inspection by riding a skeleton horse, but as my grandmother said, there was no need to worry, so there was no problem.

The guards did not show any signs of surprise, as if they were used to seeing the skeletal horse move. Rather, he came towards me with a carefree look and was talking to the grandmother.

“Jainess, are you back? The kid in front… … . Is this the child you brought here to be your disciple, as you mentioned last time?”

“Yes. This time, I finally found a child with enough potential to become a successor.”

Grandma smiled happily and patted my head.

“It’s a good thing. Then go in.”

The guard looked at me for a moment, then cleared the way. Since it had passed the inspection, the grandmother immediately moved the skeleton horse again.

Still, unlike outside, the old woman who came inside the city was moving slowly, at the speed of a normal horse.

After riding the slowly walking skeleton horse for a while, we entered a neighborhood where rich people lived. It was a street lined with mansions of enormous size.

The gate made of iron bars had all kinds of decorations, and the garden visible inside had a pond and various statues. Not only that, the building was also full of all kinds of decorations. There were dozens of mansions like that in sight. It looked expensive enough to make you think that just one house could buy the entire village.

“Now, this is my residence.”

“Are you here?”

While passing by several mansions that looked incredibly expensive, an old woman stopped in front of one. It didn’t look much different from other mansions, but it looked like it was very expensive.

“Oh… … . It’s a lot different from what I thought.”

“What did you think it would be like?”

“Honestly, I thought it was a dungeon full of monsters like something out of a fairy tale, or somewhere dark and dark.”

“… … I guess I should protest to make fairy tales more realistic.”

The grandmother shook her head, saying that the fairy tale was too far from the truth, and got off the skeleton horse lightly. As I followed the old woman down, the skeleton horse instantly shrunk to the size of a finger.

“Go in and take a look at where real-life warlocks live.”

My grandmother opened the gate and told me to look around as much as I wanted. After observing for a moment, I ran towards the mansion, filled with curiosity about how the rich people of this world live.

I ran across the garden to the front door of the mansion. What if the door was locked? I thought, but as I got closer, it opened on its own.

“Ugh!”

And, when I checked the open door, I couldn’t help but be shocked. This is because a skeleton was holding the open door behind it. In short, the skeleton opened the door.

But that wasn’t the only thing that surprised me. In addition to the skeleton that opened the door, several other skeletons were moving around the mansion.

One skeleton was holding a mop and wiping the railing of the stairs inside the mansion, while another was sweeping the floor with a broom. In fact, a skeleton slightly visible in a corner was squatting down and washing a cloth that looked like a blanket.

“This… … . Warlock?”

After calming down my startled heart, I felt like I understood a little bit what my grandmother said about fairy tales being so different from reality.