episode_0085

Five days passed as the children and I hunted fish that had flowed into the village. Now the rainy season is over, and the sky is as bright as ever.

“Now! Completed.”

“···What’s so big?”

Deberg laughed heartily at my admiration.

“Hahaha! This is just right for wolves.”

···I asked him to make a crossbow, and he made a ballista.

Since wood is the main material, it was not lightweight, but there were quite a lot of accessories, probably because that was not the intention from the beginning.

“Hurry up and get it!”

Take the crossbow—is it heavy?!

“···Isn’t this too big-─━?!”

“It was made based on adult hosot. You said that was your goal, right?”

You even thought about the future.

“If you press the thing that sticks out here, the crossbow will open in a snap. It can hold up to five rounds inside, and requires a dedicated bolt. This is it.”

“······.”

The bolt was as thick as a human thumb.

The weight is equivalent to six pounds per hour. But a bolt shorter than six arrows weighs ten arrows? It is said that the power of the six-shot arrow fired with the Jeongnyanggung is so strong that it can tear off limbs.

Thanks to this, Yukryangsi was used for ‘destruction’ rather than killing. It was used on enemy ships when fighting Japanese on board ships, and there are records of Yukryangsi actually breaking through walls and locking themselves in houses.

Moreover, it is a crossbow with strong penetrating power.

It was clear that if something like this hit a human, their body would be torn apart.

“If you hit even a bear, it would die.”

Deberg shakes his head.

“No. The seawater in the south has to be at this level to be able to hunt. Have you ever heard of a mole wart?”

“Yes. The white wolf over there cut him off with a single knife, cut off his limbs and dragged his beard away.”

“That’s right, Mulsama─── What?”

Deverg’s face became dumbfounded.

Then, he immediately shook his head and burst into laughter.

“Khahahaha…! Amazing, amazing! Anyway, you can put up to five in here!”

“···Including those bitten by protests?”

“No. In total, there are six. There are only 50 spare bolts. If you just shoot it, it will burn out quickly.”

The children who don’t know the Dverg language are staring at the huge crossbow behind them with blank expressions—no, ecstatic expressions.

It’s so huge that even to me, the Jungno that the three children used to practice looks like a toy. Because I was worried that he would say he didn’t need it anymore, I returned the crossbow to Deverg the moment practice was over.

“The scale can be opened and closed. You can load it using the handle below. When it is loaded, the bullets that were put in there are caught in the fire. As with all crossbows, the tension is so strong that if left as is, the bow will bend. Don’t leave it loaded after you’ve finished shooting. Be sure to loosen the strings.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“Thank you! This is all investment.”

The corners of the three’s mouths, who have become unable to live without the crossbow, begin to rise every time the crossbow approaches.

“Oh my, it’s heavy! Now, take it!”

The three children each picked up their own crossbow and began fiddling with it here and there. I taught him how to reload, how to open the scope, and how to load the bolt, just as Deberg had explained.

The kids’ excited faces are just cute.

The loading seems to be tight for kids. I couldn’t reload while holding on, so I reloaded while crouching. The children must have finally gotten the feeling that they were actually using crossbows, and all of them had their crossbows loaded and their hands on the trigger.

Now we really have to be careful about accidents.

“Good! It’s the wild goose───.”

“Wait.”

The children’s eyes turn to me.

“What you are holding is not a toy. No matter how good you are, if you hit it wrong, you can die instantly.”

The smiling faces of the three children poured with cold water begin to harden awkwardly.

“No matter what happens, never aim at people. Regardless of whether you loaded it or not. Reload only when you need to shoot. Just to get a feel for what’s loaded now, let’s all fire one shot at the target.”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

Shir looks at me and nods.

This is a child who can read my mind. You will be able to take my warning more seriously than anyone else. Together with the three of us, we brought a scarred target from the highest house.

The plan was to show it off in a crowded square.

There’s a weapon you’ll like. As expected, people’s eyes gather.

“Shoot them one by one.”

“Me first!”

Shir fired his crossbow straight at the target.

Bah! Kwazijic! Kyaang!!!

“······.”

Shir, who winced at the recoil, kept his mouth open and looked at his crossbow and the target alternately. The target was smashed. The bolt that went straight through the target remains embedded in the cave wall. How does an arrow get stuck in a stone?!

“Wow, it’s amazing━━━! What is this?!”

Shir screamed in joy and hugged the crossbow.

Yuso and Mira also opened their eyes wide, and after each shooting one shot at the broken target, they raised the corners of their mouths like Shir and began to rejoice.

Thanks to this, my target was literally split and shattered. ······That crossbow has excessive firepower.

If you shoot a wild boar with that, its body will be torn to pieces, and if you shoot a bird, its body will definitely explode.

···Anyway, how are you?

It wasn’t made for hunting anyway. I just hope that everyone in this village will be strong-armed and able to protect Shir even if I’m not there.

“Now wild goose hunting…”

“Sorry.”

There is a place to go first. Mira, who was pulling out a bolt stuck in the wall, looks at me.

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

“I have to go to Ymir’s grave with Seolrang.”

“Ah, I see. Then I’ll wait until then. When can you come back?”

Yuso looks sad.

Is wild goose meat that delicious?

“I don’t know.”

“Go quickly. Because I want to go catch it as quickly as possible. Ah, what a waste! The arrowhead is broken. If I ask Deberg, will he repair it?”

Mira retrieved the three arrows and began returning to the group.

“···Don’t go.”

Shir grabbed his sleeve.

The way he looks down at me with his droopy ears makes me feel like I have committed a sin. He read my mind. Shir’s face looked down at me with the look of someone who had been killed, as if he was pleading.

“Don’t go. You don’t have to go, right? Huh?”

“I have to go.”

Because it wasn’t a big deal in the first place.

“Now we have to get ready to go. See you next time.”

“Have a nice trip.”

“Come back quickly. Got it?”

The two, who don’t know anything, bid me farewell lightly.

When Shir released the hand he was holding with his other hand, the hand that was holding him tightly also soon became weak.

When I returned home after leaving the three behind, Juul was already ready and wearing a curved sword on his belt.

“Did you say hello?”

“I only did it to three people.”

“Let’s leave the bow behind. Because it will only leave a bad impression.”

“Yes.”

Since I had no intention of taking it with me, I left it with Deberg to ask for compensation. Juul said everything would be fine, but Juul is not in charge of the trial.

What will happen?

So we set out on a light journey to Ymir’s tomb.

*

“Ha… It’s hot. How long has it been since it rained?”

“That’s right.”

It’s already been three days since I left the village.

Zul had taken Amor’s blood and tied it to his belt. Even if I escape the death penalty, I am still a slave. The weight of punishment is different from that of other people. You may be subject to imprisonment, flogging, or amputation.

Although I took it for medical treatment, it seems there is a risk that my items may be confiscated when the sentence is carried out. This also applies when you are transported from the outskirts of the village. If it’s not the death penalty, I can survive somehow.

What if you get hurt? All you have to do is recover with the Precious Blood. What if the body is cut off? All you have to do is stick it with the Precious Blood. All you have to endure is pain.

“Still, it’s worth walking, perhaps because I have more stamina than when I first came here.”

I am walking into a limb.

Because of pulling the bowstring once. Even now that I think about it, it feels unfair and I don’t think what I did was wrong. But if I show it, it will only upset Juul.

It will also be applied unfavorably in trial.

“I ran around the village like a wolf cub all night long for a month, so of course it has to be that much.”

I thought he was running quietly, but it seems he wasn’t.

“Was it very noisy?”

“It’s not noisy. Still, the sound of footsteps is different from Hosot, so it’s annoying.”

Can you distinguish footsteps?

Well, I guess Bowsori also received complaints in that context.

“Then I guess I’ll have to run outside the village now.”

“What? it’s crazy? Do you want to hang out alone in the southern night?”

Jules glares at me with a look that seems like he wants to eat me.

“It’s a joke. It would be nice if I could walk quietly like my father.”

I have no intention of quitting physical training, so when I return, I plan to run around the village as quietly as possible.

······Is it because the city made me aware that I was in Yunaira? Looking at Ymir’s grave again, these two people come to mind.

It’s already been over a month since I left home and left the two of you. Are you two still looking for me? Jules looks in my direction.

“I’ve been thinking about your father ever since then.”

“What?”

“I have never heard of a human being without sound or smell. There aren’t many Ajins who can push me like that in the first place.”

Even though it sounds like self-aggrandizement, I can’t complain because I know it’s not. ······When I think about it, it seems amazing. Camouflage and concealment are meaningless in front of this monster.

This means that it is the worst opponent for hunters and rangers.

How on earth was my father able to hide from this man?

“Your father probably used magic tools too.”

“…Yes?”

Magic tools? Then, it’s like my father…

“Like the wall guards…?”

“Okay. Just like those guys.”

Are you saying your father is a Wall Keeper?

no. My father was a simple hunter. I guess I just happened to have learned the same technique in the military.

“But Juul caught them all. In search of the smell───.”

“It was their mistake that left a smell. I didn’t catch them all. One of them ran away as soon as he saw me and I couldn’t catch him, and the skills of the leader who ran away were similar to your father’s.”

“···.”

“Your father was like a devil monkey. There was no sound, no smell, no sight. Did you know that the bow sometimes flew from the tree or behind me? He also shot it silently and cleverly, understanding the wind and luring me with his scent.”

······If from above.

“···Humans flew in the sky?”

“Phew!”

Jules laughs and shakes his head.

Eyes drawn in arcs look down at me.

“Are humans sirens? He must have used a pre-installed crossbow or shot it from a tree.”

no. That’s not it.

There is no way to install a crossbow on top of a tree. It is natural for strings to wilt when exposed to heavy rain. Moreover, the rainy season had just passed. Of course you have to have a weapon in the house, but I’ve never seen a crossbow.

If that’s the case, then it means that he was shooting while hovering over a tree or falling down and circling around.

It does not make sense.

” Movement is limited on trees. By changing the shooting location, you mean that it was circling around Jool, right? You said you jumped from a tree. How is it possible to act so inconspicuously and silently?”

“It is possible. You too are human, so it is possible.”

I can do that?

“Hey, how do I do that?”

“Terup is the best at balancing the body, but it is not impossible for humans.”

“Well, it’s not impossible.”

Instead, it will require a lot of effort.

“When I was young, I once met an elf lightly jumping around on a tree. I was really jealous of those monkey-like movements. I wanted to follow along, so I practiced for quite a while, but as I got older, the moment I got hung up on something, everything fell apart.”

Are you going to climb trees and jump around with that body?

“Phew···! Lose some weight.”

“I didn’t gain weight! The tree can’t withstand my strength.”

Jules pouts.

“Anyway, elves call it cloud walking.”

Cloud walk?

You may think that it is simply a tree-climbing technique, but in some ways it may be similar to parkour.

Probably so.

Parkour itself is a modern art and physical activity modeled after the movements of African natives. And the natives took that movement from the movement of animals.

The basis is the movement of animals, so elves living in nature may have similar skills. It must have been a strange move that Juul experienced from his father, as he honed it to the extreme and put it into practice.

While surfing the Internet, I saw a parkour video disguised as a suicide video. The sight of him falling from a height of 10m, rolling over and coming back to retrieve the camera unharmed…

It is a completely extreme sport.

In other words, it is a perfect way to quit your job after learning.

“I think it’s dangerous.”

Slowly, Ymir’s tree began to appear.

It wasn’t so hard that I couldn’t bear it then or now, but the time it took was shortened by a few days. My physical strength has increased.

When I think about it, both then and now, Juul is keeping pace with my steps. It must be quite annoying for a grown adult to walk at the same pace as a child.

“Please carry me slowly.”

“Yes.”

Jules carried me on his back as if he had been waiting and pinned me to a swaddle or something.

The closer I get to Ymir’s grave, the more Yusria’s face comes to mind.

Bastards. Are you going to make fun of me with the law? Law is not everything. There is a duty as a human being. Why is Korea difficult to live in? This is because some people have suddenly abandoned morality and think that the law is justice itself.

If public power does not follow its principles, there is no need for me to respect the law. I pretend to be pitiful and punish him, and the moment he gets all the punishment, I stand up on my own two feet and feed him big taffy.

“Anyway, do you want to learn?”

“It seems dangerous?”

“I have this and I have this, so what does it matter?”

Jules taps the holy blood syringe.

Actually, I wasn’t confident. How much did media outlets around the world warn about people who died after falling from high-rise buildings while doing parkour?

“······Can I learn?”

“Nothing much. Even if you fall from a tree, you just have to be good at falling.”

“What if you fall on a stone?”

“If you don’t roll on the dirt, you will get bruises, but that’s just it.”

Doesn’t a bruise for Jules mean death for me? Is it okay to learn it? Jules’ eyes were strange. He seems to be itching to teach.

“Let me know when you get back to the village. Same with dagger technique.”

“Yes.”

Juul, who was giving me a strange look, grinned and looked ahead.

“Is the trial going to be held as soon as you go?”

“We have to announce the arrival and call an observer, so we can do it tomorrow morning.”

I guess I’m really reluctant.

Moreover, Yusria will be waiting for trial at Ymir’s tomb. That bitch just doesn’t look like it. So the conversation stopped for a while.

How far did we go without saying anything?

When the sun in the sky was setting over the mountains, we finally arrived at Ymir’s grave.