episode_0045

After that, we walked in silence.

This was after burying the remains of a young child. I didn’t feel like chatting, but the reason we weren’t talking now was because of the naga staring at us from the wetlands.

No eyebrows.

There are no lips either.

These two are very important parts of a person’s ability to read the other person’s emotions. Even though it is my first time seeing these features, I feel hostility towards them.

It has the head of a crocodile, sharp vertical pupils, a body similar in size to Jool, and a tail as long as its body. The legs of chordates, like humans, had webbed feet between the toes.

Because the head was so big, it was as if there was no neck. The hands look small, but they are not. His head is big, but his hands are a little longer than Hosott’s.

I couldn’t even open my mouth because I felt like they would attack me right away if I did anything. But Jules didn’t even look in that direction and just walked forward.

As the distance grew, Naga quietly disappeared into the water.

Mosquitoes buzzed and clumped together.

I roughly waved my hand to drive away the mosquitoes, and in the end, I gave bloody punishment to the one who sat down to suck me.

Due to Julias’ sudden departure, I didn’t get the mosquito repellent. It’s the han of Cheonchu. Of course, since I fanned the flames, I am self-sufficient.

“When do you think it will arrive?”

“If you take the shortcut, it will be from tonight to dawn. If I walk along the road, will it be around lunch or dinner tomorrow?”

“······Where does Juul usually go?”

“Take a shortcut.”

Naga’s gaze is too heavy.

I’d rather take the shortcut.

“Let’s take the shortcut.”

“It’s rough, will you be okay?”

Well, how rough is it?

“Surely I can’t go?”

“Really?”

Jules laughed heartily.

“Then shall we go?”

*

“First, you have to climb this tree and climb up the cliff over there.”

“Yes?”

Jules began to climb the tree leaning against the cliff.

I wonder if I was a monkey in my past life. Finally, he climbed the tree branch, jumped down lightly, and landed on the cliff.

“Can you come up?”

The sly voice is very funny.

Of course, it doesn’t mean you can’t do it. It goes up so quickly. Any Korean man can climb a tree, right? Besides, I’m a light kid.

I climbed up and hugged the bending tree trunk tightly.

You can’t jump on trees like Jules. I crawled like a caterpillar as far as I could go. I thought this was enough to go down, but I can’t reach my legs…?

“Please hold me.”

“Ahaha!”

“Hurry up!”

Jules smiles brightly and extends his hand.

There should be a lot of shaking when a heavy weight is suddenly applied, but the Juul does not shake. From the listening perspective, there is a sense of stability. I guess that means I’m that light to Jules.

How on earth did you get that strength?

“If you want a shortcut, I’ll tell you all the side roads in the south.”

“···Are there more ways like this in the future?”

“A lot.”

······Did you ask me to come for no reason?

It was hot and humid and sticky, and I even started to sweat as I climbed the tree. I poured a little water out of the water bottle, applied it evenly to my face and neck, and closed the lid.

Climbing a tree is surprisingly difficult…

The cliff that we climbed up through the trees was literally a rocky mountain.

Thanks to this, there were no tall trees, and all there was was straight grass that reached from my chest to my navel. It is truly fortunate that there are fewer tough mosquitoes born in wetlands.

The road was bumpy.

But I couldn’t see it because it was covered by the grass, so I almost fell several times. Of course, the soft grass served as a buffer, but falling is falling.

After falling once, my eyes were not looking at Jules, but at the floor. In the end, he stopped walking while looking at the floor and buried his face in Juul’s butt.

Jules, who had accepted me with his body, glanced back.

“I have to jump over this road.”

“Yes? ···How do I overcome this?”

The floor was cracked about 5 meters wide.

Size of three adult women. Was there an earthquake some time ago? The bottom was so deep that I couldn’t even see the end.

“I’ll throw it to the other side.”

“Yes?”

“Put down your luggage.”

“No. Wait. for a moment! Wait a minute?!”

Jules was shaking.

I think it’s funny that I’m throwing my hand away. Then, suddenly, he grabbed me.

“No… I don’t! I won’t!! I said I won’t do it—?!!! I will not! Let go-! Don’t do it!! I won’t do it──!!!”

Juul took a stance as if he were throwing a shot put.

away! It’s falling!

“It’s okay! I’ll throw it well!”

“Don’t do it. Jules. Really don’t do it. don’t do it! Don’t do this, what the fuck─?!!!”

Fly! Fly!!

A feeling as if the safety device on the roller coaster had been released. The seconds stretched out like melted cheese. Finally, the moment the cheese breaks.

Sigh!

I hit the floor head first.

“Huhuhuh──?!!”

It felt like my bones were being split.

How long had he been holding his skull? Before I knew it, Jules had come over and was holding out his hand to me. Smile? Is this funny? When I tried to get up, I fell again from the impact of hitting my head.

“Hahaha!!!”

“······Is it over now?”

“No.”

I want to hit Juul’s splitting solar plexus.

First, I got up and shook off my mud-covered clothes. But Jules points to the cliff.

“This time, you can climb on that.”

······I was being rude for no reason.

*

I was really glad that I exercised consistently.

Perhaps because I had the body of a child, my body was light, so I had an advantage when climbing cliffs. In fact, I was able to climb faster than Juul.

This is because five or six stones that Juul touched crumbled.

After that, I crawled across the single-tree bridge while gritting my teeth at Jules, who was laughing at me.

Next, we entered the cave.

In particular, I once fell into a cave because of the wetness and slipperiness unique to limestone caves, and when the torch went out, I really thought I was going to die.

“Is it okay to just get past this point?”

“Just pass one more before.”

It’s finally over!

Let’s take Jules’ hand and leave the cave, and reach the long-awaited lake.

“I can’t swim.”

“Really? I’ll tell you right now.”

He spoke indifferently and led me by holding my hand.

no.

“It’s not as good as water. I absolutely hate it.”

“I’ve never heard of an Ain who can’t swim.

Even sirens do butterfly strokes with their wings.”

The wings seem to float on the water!

“No. Humans can’t do that.”

“Then I will make you the first human who can swim.”

Jules laughed quietly.

This person will throw me into the water no matter what! What have I done in my entire life without learning how to swim…?! Regret came flooding back.

“Even if you don’t swim, wouldn’t there be a low water level around here?”

“The water is clean, but it’s actually quite deep. If you can’t swim, you’ll never be able to cross. Or──.”

Jules pointed with his chin at a cliff that stood almost at a right angle.

“Climb up there.”

Fuck.

···I am a beer bottle. I can’t swim, let alone float. Juul, who was taking off his armor, glanced at me and smiled.

“Have you ever fallen into the water?”

“···Yes.”

I almost drowned three times as a child.

From then on, my body froze in the water and I couldn’t even open my eyes and do anything.

“I’ll teach you how to swim later.”

It’s not that I don’t have hands or feet, but I have to carry him across the lake.

I really need to learn how to swim later.

“···Thank you.”

After attaching both the pack and the net to my chest, I leaned my back against Jules’ chest as he entered the water. It was backstroke. This was my first time doing something like this, so I was really anxious. Jules began to swim across the water without hesitation.

This person is good at everything he does with his body.

My weight is a whopping 50kg.

If I add Juul’s armor and luggage that I’m carrying, it would be 80 kg, but Juul doesn’t get tired.

The water was really transparent.

The fish could be seen swimming without filtering, and because of the depth, only shadows cast in the distance gave an estimate of the depth of the lake.

Deep in the water, a dragon species, Knucker, was staring up at us with his head stretched out.

If you fall, you will never be able to come back up.

I’m definitely going to die. clearly. The width that had to be crossed was approximately 300m, but the widest part of the lake was about km wide.

Considering that this place is a mountain, it is an incredibly large lake.

Wouldn’t the heaven and earth of Mt. Baekdu be this big? Just looking at the clear and open lake was a place that refreshed my heart.

If only I weren’t on the water right now.

Looking around, I realized I was already halfway there. I felt a little relieved to have gotten this far without any problems.

“Wow, it has a nice atmosphere. Later, when I earn a lot of money, I will have to cross the river like this.”

“This sounds crazy.”

Jules laughed heartily and sprinkled water on my face.

I don’t know much about swimming, but I know that it is a very difficult method of swimming, but there is no disruption in breathing. Thanks to this, water did not enter the bag or net on top of it.

I was soon able to get to land.

Jules wrung out his sleeves and pants.

I also wrung out my soaked pants. Looking at the wet boots is depressing. Like Jules, I took off my boots before going in, but it was because I just went in and got all wet.

“Two centuries ago, Lamia lived here.”

“200 years ago?”

“I don’t know the exact story because it was told to me by Julias.”

I thought he was like an onion.

“How old is Julia?”

“You said you lived here, so you must be at least 200 years old.”

“Julias still seems to have corrected himself?”

“Dragonia can throw off the limits of its lifespan.”

That damn magic.

It’s a magic word that prevents you from asking questions even if you don’t understand something. I have to use it a lot too.

“They say many lamia died because of the warts here.”

Mantis shrimp. It sounds familiar and delicious, but they reach out their hands as fast as a bullet. Its hunting ability and status as a living creature are also at an unrivaled level.

If you know and prepare like you did yesterday, it may be dangerous, but if you are surprised, the only thing you can do is death. No matter how much of a mantis shrimp it is, I can’t imagine lamia being hunted.

“So, Lamia, whose medicine was on the rise, released all the poison into the lake and left.”

It’s like burning down all that straw to kill bedbugs.

“If that happens, won’t everything you eat die?”

“That’s right. Everyone died. That’s why Lamia came down to the wetlands. Thanks to that, I really hate the Lamia that goes out of that wetland.”

Jules purred again while looking at the lake.

“Because there was not enough food, many Nagas gave up the wetlands and went to the sea. I went from hating Lamia, the swamp’s naga, to a point where I came to hate snakes themselves. Thanks to this, I was reluctant to use Lexia, which resembles a snake, and ended up in the same situation as before.”

Are you just looking at that?

If that’s the case, then why on earth does the Union alliance exist?

“It was Lamia who was at fault in the first place. Shouldn’t we just stop them from entering the wetlands?”

Jules shook his head.

“At that time, it was before the establishment of the Union Alliance. Lamia just pushed forward with all her force. If we start an all-out war with the evil Lamia, it might be as poisonous as this lake. I couldn’t fight properly. After that, Julias awakened into Dragonia and signed an unequal treaty.”

I continue to think in human terms.

It was a century ago, two centuries ago… It doesn’t even feel real. But eventually, the poison is neutralized naturally. Even now, quite large fish are swimming here and there.

“Couldn’t they have been preparing to return here?”

“That’s right. Lamia hates dirty water, so when she brought her compatriots down, she made that condition and sat down in the wetlands. That land will soon become Lexia’s land.”

It’s a completely understandable story, but I don’t understand it as is.

“200 years have passed. No matter how long lamia live, it is obvious that most lamia will be in their twilight or dead state by 200 years. Why did you do that?”

“The recovery period was so long thanks to the synergistic effect of the poison. If this lake had not been purified by that knucklehead, this lake would still be dead.”

Jules pointed to Nucker swimming leisurely in the lake.

Dragons protect and purify nature. They say that is their mission and reason for existence. So when a forest fire breaks out, the dragons go crazy.

“That guy’s mole warts are the problem.”

“That’s right. Those guys are the problem.”

Jules shook the water out of his ears and shook his head roughly.

“Why does Lamia make weapons from the water mantis carapace? It seems like it was difficult to catch it in the first place.”

“That’s right. Not only is there a lack of iron, but it also has a lot of exposure to water, making it difficult to control rust. In addition, most of the iron produced in the south is cheap iron sand. However, if you treat the carapace of a wart with medication, it becomes as hard as steel.”

I’ve heard of it.

Iron sand is cheap iron extracted from sand.

But───.

“There were several boxes of iron ore piled up next to Deberg’s workshop.”

“That’s the iron Deberg brought.”

You brought it? how?

“Where? Those people are slaves.”

“What are you talking about? They work for pay.”

cost?

Was I mistaken all this time?

To begin with, Yunaira’s currency cannot be used in Drekkar. In other words, they are bartering, but there is an item as valuable as Deverg’s labor?

“They are similar to you. A slave, but not a slave.”

“What do you get paid to work for? Is there anything Deberg wants coming out of the South?”

“I don’t want anything to happen. What, an oxygen horn, a strange-looking mushroom, dried flowers, a strange-smelling grass, something like that?”

···Look at this? It smells. The smell of a lot of money!

Wasn’t the reason why Deberg showed me a particularly weak side because he thought that since I was a human being and was well-versed in the world, he might point it out?

This is worth digging into. I’ll have to give it a try when I get back. Maybe we can come to a good compromise and have a closer relationship.

“Then, the black is steel, right?”

Jules nodded.

“That’s right. It’s steel.”

After squeezing out the pants and sleeves, I drained the water inside my shoes and wrung out my socks.

“What is it? It smells like pus?”

Jules approached me and tilted his head.

“I think it’s because I don’t walk on a smooth path.”

When I examined my leg, I found it was in the early stages of cellulitis.

I thought this kind of thing only happened in the military.

“If you walk in wet shoes with festering feet, your legs may rot. In severe cases, you may die. Let’s light a fire for a moment.”

From next time, I will definitely take off my shoes when crossing the water.

Feeling sorry and crying out loud, I quickly started a fire and put down my socks and shoes around the bonfire. Even if you don’t go into the water, in this high humidity place, you sweat and become wet of your own accord.

Even if not now, I had to dry it at some point.

The lake water was clear at first glance, so I quenched my thirst, chewed beef jerky, and urinated. The amount was larger than I expected, as if the water I had just drank came straight down.

The smell of ammonia attracts fish.

For some reason, it felt like the knuckle in the water was staring at me.

“My shoes don’t dry well. I guess I’ll have to sleep here today.”

Jules was looking in front of a bonfire far away.

“Wait a minute.”

Fortunately, the surrounding area was gravel, so there were no bugs crawling around. I removed some pebbles, sat on them, and lightly grilled dry food.

“Try dried fruits.”

I held out a handful of dried fruit to Jules.

Jules sat down and picked up each piece of fruit and ate it.

“It’s tantalizing. Let’s eat meat.”

Ugh.

“Please lend me a knife.”

There are stones all over the place.

I found a large stone, washed it thoroughly in river water, and placed it on the bonfire. Jules likes undercooked meat, so she grilled it whole, and I cut my portion into small pieces and grilled it separately.

Chi-ik!

Delicious sounds and delicious smells.

The correct answer was to crush fresh pepper and spread it evenly over the deer meat.

The smell that only came out when I was eating was so strong that it gave me a headache, but at least the smell was gone.

How did you cook the steak? Did you cook it all on the first side and then turn it over to lightly cook the outside? But you already turned it, right? Where is the committing and thinking?

The steak I made with a stream of consciousness was a mess.

Perhaps because there was no oil, the outside was burnt and it wasn’t perfectly cooked, but I think it was still edible anyway.

“Don’t eat burnt food.”

wow.

Jules is staring at me. With eyes like a firefighter looking at someone who is about to commit suicide.

I am a picky person when it comes to food.

If you made a mistake, it was clear that they would rush in and steal it.

But I also hate not eating. If you don’t eat it, you might have to eat the undercooked meat that Jules is holding.

“I’ll cut it up and eat it.”

I had no choice but to cut off only the moderately burnt side.

“When can we arrive at Puri Village?”

“If we leave early tomorrow── around lunch?”

It was originally scheduled to arrive this evening.

It’s because I’m stuck because of my inflammation.

“I’m sorry for swearing at you earlier.”

“Swearing?”

“This is so crazy, it was like this.”

“What do you mean? Is this Drekkar’s curse?”

Jules tilts his head.

“What do you mean?”

“······It’s like a vulgar exclamation.”

I looked around roughly.

······My words are automatically interpreted and conveyed to others. It has been like that until now. But why Korean?

Now that I think about it, even when I met a baby terup by the stream, I uttered a Korean curse without realizing it.

At that time, Terub did not understand my swearing.

What is the difference between Hangul and this language? Is it possible that there is no meaning to “fuck”? Let’s check it out.

“Jul. Can you understand me?”

Jules tilted his head.

I think I misunderstood the strange look in my eyes.

“Are you swearing at that too?”

“No.”

“Speak in understandable language.”

I knew it was interesting, but there was no place to use it right now.

‘From now on, swearing should only be done in Korean.’ Just the same comfortable thoughts. Before we knew it, the sun had set and the moon had risen in the sky.

Now is the time to close your eyes.