episode_0020

Inside the rattling carriage, Holt, who was just over seventy years old, fell into a deep sleep, breathing heavily, after spending the early morning busy organizing the landlady’s experimental equipment. Algaet, who was glancing at him, opened her palm and gently placed it in front of her face. Shake it.

“Inspiration, okay?”

Algaet moves the shadow of her hand back and forth over her eyelids. When there is no response, she leans back against the backrest. She puts her face close to the window in the door and looks outside. It seems like it will still take quite some time to get to the Southern Blacksmith Complex.

“… But if you live alone, you might get lonely sometimes, right?”

“Huh? Well… I do get lonely. As a human, haha.”

Algaet, who is absolutely disgusted by boredom, speaks to the coachman again.

“No, no, there’s something else that’s really lonely. When you’re full and your back is warm, you lie down and you feel ticklish and think of someone. You know what I mean?”

“Ahhh… .”

The coachman looked back as he felt a strong sense of mischief. As expected, the face of Algaet, full of mischief, was looking at him with sparkling eyes. The old man sitting behind him was sound asleep… She felt embarrassed as she thought that he was slowly starting the engine since there was no one to say anything to.

“… Of course you should do that.”

“Right? Right?”

Algae is excited to take the bait.

“I couldn’t find it fun. I don’t know if it’s fun to find it by fooling someone who’s waiting for me alone. Isn’t that all there is to life?”

Her expression hardened as if she was dumbfounded by the coachman’s words that followed. It was so decisive that it felt as if she was completely denying her own outlook on life, to the point where she wondered if the woman in front of her was the same gender, or even the same species.

“People, you’re losing half your life. If you think that flesh-to-flesh contact is just dirty, you’re mistaken. ”

“Is that so?”

The coachman tries his best not to sound indifferent and answers indifferently.

“Let me start with the story of when God created us. The reason we can walk on this earth and live generation after generation is because of the attraction between men and women. By being attracted to small, weak men who can do nothing on their own, we can have children and form a family.”

“Are you a priest?”

“No, that’s not it. Of course, there is no disagreement that it is God’s work to create a perfect work of art that is small, pretty, cute, and exciting without any exceptions, like a man. God is great!”

The groom wipes the spit from the algae that splashed on his cheek with the back of his leather glove.

“But it’s such a shame that I can’t serve such a great god! Priests don’t get close to the opposite sex, you know. *Phew* Of course, I’ve heard stories of them teasing young male believers and doing this and that… . That can’t be happening! Morality is important. You have to pursue pleasure within the means permitted by God, but how can you use God’s name to satisfy your own greed?”

The coachman was so dumbfounded that he couldn’t even believe where morality came from. She was also one of those who went to pray faithfully every week, but no matter how hard she tried to recall her memories, she couldn’t find anything in the Bible that encouraged prostitution.

“Then let’s talk about it this way. The man you met and promised to spend your life with, there must be a reason why you were attracted to him, right? If there’s even one reason that’s animalistic and vulgar… if that’s what you think. Anyway, can you guarantee that there’s no such reason?”

“Euuum… . Hmm… .”

Ray’s mother recalls the younger days of Ray’s father, who resembled Ray exactly. He was still young, but he seemed more energetic than he is now. She couldn’t understand herself, who had traveled a long way every day, pretending it was a coincidence, just to see his face. She wasn’t in her right mind back then. Why was she so obsessed? What was it that drew her to him? Those eyes? A smile? Cute gestures? Or… that small, slender body?

“How is it?”

Finally, as I was going back to the feeling of that body I couldn’t take my eyes off of and the memory of that time looking down on him from above, Algaet intervened with a sly face.

“… ! Ahem, hm. Uh… … What… is that… .”

“Ahahahahaha, look at that. Right? Men are born with a lot of desire. When you come to your senses, you find yourself lying down next to them.”

The coachman, feeling somewhat resentful but also a little embarrassed for having fallen for Algae’s trick, keeps coughing and whips the poor horse’s rump once.

“That fragility that cannot be felt in the bodies of beastly women… . The firm touch of the muscles that remain even as traces… How thrilling that contrast is!”

“Gulp… .”

If it weren’t for Algaet, who was drooling and preaching the beauty of the male body, the coachman who was secretly caught up in the atmosphere and letting his imagination run wild, and the smart horses that were heading towards the blacksmith district on their own, following the faint smell of iron powder lingering in the air, I would have ended up in a situation where I would have fallen down a canal.

“… … And I recently had a very unique experience. Every single action was a kind of beauty that was fatal to women? You could say it was dangerous in some ways. I saw a girl who was so deep that it shattered all my common sense. Someday, in my hands… sniff, sniff. This stinky sweat and heat… .”

The sound of iron clashing, muscular women wearing only the bare minimum of clothing, sweating profusely, working hard, could be seen everywhere. It was the blacksmith district of southern Fraua. Ray’s mother blinked once and stopped talking, and Algaet began to rummage through her silver pouch.

“Inspiration. Wake up now. You’re here.”

Only then did Holt open his eyes slightly, cover his mouth, yawn big, and get out of the carriage.

“Okay, this should be enough to pay for a really killer course.”

Without giving her a chance to respond, Algaet gave her a few more coins, winked once, jumped out of the carriage, and walked away. She absentmindedly played with the silver coins in her hand, wondering if she could turn around and go to the Street of Happiness where she could meet the deadly beautiful man that the strange noblewoman had spoken of. And the faces of her husband and son came to mind.

But was she a worthless woman who would lose her love for her family after just one night? It’s not like she’s starting a new household, it’s a kind of deal. She gives money and relieves her loneliness. That’s all. There won’t be any emotional exchange. She was constantly having such messy thoughts. She kept repeating that she was heading back to the West District not because there was a happy street there, but because it was a place where her son, who had gone to Frauah, would be.

“Ahem.”

“… ?”

As we approach the small gate at the crossroads between the Southern and Western districts, we notice a soldier standing in front of the carriage with a barricade erected to block its path.

“What is it? I’m trying to pass by.”

“That’s probably why it’s standing like this.”

“Huh? Are you saying that you can’t pass?”

Instead of answering, the soldier raised his chin and looked at me haughtily. I don’t know what happened, but she didn’t do anything that would upset those armed guys, except for spitting once and turning the carriage around, saying that once the country was turned upside down, all sorts of unpleasant things had happened.

“Oh, right, I think it came over about 30 minutes ago. If you tell me why, I don’t know.”

Ray’s mother mutters as she takes out a leather pouch containing fruit wine and takes a sip.

***

“This is too bitter to eat on its own… . Oh, hot. This has thorns on the outer skin, so you have to peel it off.”

Ray said to Mila, who was feeling the contents of a box in a dark warehouse while riding a horse.

“Is there anything I can eat right now?”

“Wait a minute… . Ah, don’t move! ”

He desperately tries to stop Mila from pulling Ray closer.

“Why?”

“That… hurts. Think about what it would be like if there was something between your legs.”

“Ah… … !”

Mila, who was embarrassed, tried to find a more gentle position, while secretly focusing her senses on the back of her neck, the part that was touching Ray’s groin. Ray tried to move her hips back, not wanting Mila to find out about the physiological phenomenon that occurred due to the feeling of Ray’s tongue that still seemed to be lingering in her mouth. It wasn’t her will, but she felt guilty as if she had cheated, and to prevent any possible misunderstandings.

“… Ah, you can eat this. Give me your hand. ”

Ray places his small hand on the back of Mila’s hand, who is holding Ray’s thigh, and leads her to a box containing something that has a texture and taste almost similar to the tomatoes from her previous life, although the shape is quite different.

“Ugh… I hate this.”

“Did you always eat only delicious food like royalty? Okay. Don’t be picky and eat.”

Mila, who feels a pang inside, takes a bite of the vegetables Ray handed her. Crunchy, chewy. The two of them are leaning against the dark corner of the warehouse, unintentionally stealing someone else’s store’s goods. Thinking that it would be okay if they put up the price of the vegetables in the place they ate, they decide to fill their hungry stomachs right away.

“But did the stairwell door open earlier?”

“ㄴ… Yes? The door? Why?”

This one also stutters when it stings.

“The wind blew once… … .”

“Ah, that… well? Why is the wind blowing… . Strange. Mumble, mumble.”

Intense skinship with a woman who is not his lover. Something that has never happened in his past life happened right before. He apologized while sweating profusely when he was caught watching porn on his laptop, so how could he handle this situation so well? Ray stuffed vegetables into his mouth and chewed them, hoping that there might be some other flavor mixed in. He couldn’t help but feel sorry, so he leaned toward Mila and grabbed her arm tightly.

“… Were you surprised today?”

“Gulp… . Huh? Oh… What the heck happened?”

A dark space. Just a man and a woman. Mila’s face is red and she bends her legs, though she can’t see it because of Ray who keeps coming towards her.

“Well, even if I explain it all, it’ll be hard to understand, but the country is in chaos right now.”

“Is there going to be a war?”

“I don’t think it would be strange though. There are so many people who are aiming for the throne.”

“Ah… … .”

Ray couldn’t help but feel that it was a bit ominous that he had fallen into the middle of such political turmoil when he had only thought that he had arrived in a peaceful era.