episode_0113

While I was dreaming, my mind became clear when I saw someone.

“What are you two doing here?”

It was a dark night.

I looked at where the voice came from.

Jules is looking down at me from outside the wooden bars.

“I was sleeping. Couldn’t you have woken me up and left? When I woke up, my neck and back hurt so much…”

When I looked up at him as if reprimanding him, Jules shrugged and started to open the animal cage.

“I was going to do that, but Shir told me not to wake him up. Come out quickly. If you sleep in a place like this, you will be bitten by bugs.”

The sound of a latch being released was heard, and soon the door was wide open.

The door opened, but I looked up at Jule without going out. Juul looks at me as if asking why I’m not coming out and urges me with his eyes.

“Jul. Am I a slave?”

“On the outside, you are a slave.”

“You mean Jule doesn’t think of me as a slave?”

“That’s right.”

The expression became ambiguous.

Then he immediately smiled bitterly. Are you mistaking me for being upset because I’m trapped here? Well, there were no bugs in the hay because it was pretty clean.

In fact, it was better than sleeping on the streets.

“Then, can you send it to me when I leave?”

The smile disappears from Jules’ mouth and he tilts his head.

I guess you don’t understand why I’m suddenly acting crazy. Even when I wake up, this thought cannot leave my mind.

The reason Mira was able to so easily decide to shoot a crossbow at me, the reason I had to undergo an unfair trial, and the disrespect I received from Root Village all happened because I was a slave and a human being.

For the sole reason that we could communicate, I treated Ain as the same person. I really thought it would be possible, that it would be possible. Because Jules was a good person. Because I met Shir and Heilang, priests and innocent children.

For an immediate rest day, I let them sleep together in the animal cage.

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“Soon, I too am an adult.”

I didn’t feel any disgust towards the corpse of the man who died as a plaything, but such questions lingered in my head. Thinking about that made me feel confused.

Until now, I have lived several times without survival, but thanks to God’s care, I have been able to survive several times with less than a dime chance of survival. Yes. I was extremely lucky.

“By next year, humans will be adults.”

But when you realize that you were lucky, somehow God doesn’t always help you next time. So, when you reach the end, you realize that everything was just a probability.

Just like the time when I was under the illusion that my mother would be healthy until the end and that we would at least have an understandable, happy farewell.

I was just a lucky person.

Death is not the end. But I don’t want to die like that slave.

“Are you planning to leave?”

I planned to look at Jules’ reaction and use it as an indicator of how I should act in the future.

“Not right away. Probably, I will leave someday.”

This is an issue I tried to nail down in advance, but I couldn’t mention it for fear of Jules’ reaction. It is also a difficult statement to make after weighing personal safety and duty. It was a serious problem for me, but I don’t think it was that serious for Jules.

The reason I was able to think that way was because Jules was shaking and pulling my arm.

“Please leave a message when you leave. I’ll even give you something to eat.”

Really?

“Yes. I will tell you when I go.”

As I had secretly hoped, Jules himself did not seem to have any possessive desire to own me as a slave. I felt at ease.

“Shir, stop waking up.”

“Mmm…!”

Shir rubs his eyes and stands up.

Jules roughly closed the cage door and locked the latch, then let go of my hand and started walking.

“I didn’t bring you here to treat you as a slave. I couldn’t bring it in, so I had no choice but to disguise it. Since you followed me because you wanted to, you can go whenever you want.”

······Good question. Really, good thing you asked.

“Thank goodness. If I bring this up, Jules will get angry. I thought they might try to kill me.”

Jules snorts.

The eyes of several hosots are turning in this direction. Jules and I will be a sight to behold for the people of this town.

“You saved my sister and her daughter. Shir is my sister’s daughter, but she is also the only blood relative I have left. So, I plan to not let anyone treat you like a slave in front of me.”

Blood relatives? My sister and my brother’s daughter?

“Younger brother and younger sister? Hosott is an incestuous marriage…”

Jules grabbed my hair with his palm and messed it up.

Did I misunderstand something? Ah, the filter in my head is broken. I feel like this because I see strange things on the internet every day. Jules looks down at me with a sallow look on his face.

“There are many ears listening, so don’t say strange things. Shir calls me aunt, not aunt, right? Shir’s father, who married Xu Xia, is my biological brother.”

Before we knew it, Shir came closer and started walking right next to us.

“Let’s talk about this later.”

I nodded. Because Shir is listening.

···That’s why Juul and Heilang shared the story about the crossbow. Ogre would have been an enemy to both of them.

“Did you two live here before your trip?”

“No. This is where my village friend, Woozurei, has branched out, and my hometown is further east.”

According to what was explained in advance, even if you walk further east from here, you will not reach the wild man’s village.

When a root snake finds an object to punish and shoots out roots, the surrounding area shakes as if an earthquake has occurred due to the roots shooting out from the ground.

That’s why it seems that villages are concentrated in the south, north, or west to avoid the root snake.

“···If we go further, isn’t there only the root snake’s abode?”

Jules nods.

“Okay. That root snake’s dwelling place is the hometown of my brother and I.”

You lived in the dragon’s abode? Is that possible?

Of course, I heard from the beginning that Juul was raised by a root snake, but I only heard that he was raised by a root snake, and I never heard that there was a village.

‘A dragon lives with a human?’

If you listen to Juul’s words, doesn’t it sound like a dragon living with a human? I thought dragons were an exclusive race that lived alone, like the Lintcalls of the Black Forest.

Jules also told me that.

“Don’t dragons live alone? It sounds like dragons live together with humans, right?”

Jules nods.

At the same time, he stretched and let out a loud groan.

“That’s right. It’s the dragon’s nursery. The young dragon is protected in the arms of the root snake until it reaches the age of 100, and then it spreads throughout the world. That’s why we need a hand to help the dragon. Thanks to that, when I was young, I met all the ancient dragons in the south who came to deposit their eggs.”

creche?

It’s amazing that there is a daycare center for dragons… but doesn’t that mean they take full care of everything, from hatching to raising children?

“Leaving an egg in your care is literally abandoning your own child. Why is that?”

“In the old days, there were many demi-humans who broke dragon eggs without the dragon knowing. Because if there are too many dragons, civilization cannot develop. The dragon had his own job to do to protect the egg. So, when a dragon lays an egg, it leaves it at the daycare center.”

They say eggs are dangerous, but… I don’t understand.

All intelligent creatures simultaneously have deep maternal love. But you leave it at the daycare and go away?

To protect the territory?

“Why? Don’t dragons have maternal love?”

Jules shakes his head.

“Even simple insects carry eggs on their backs. Since all dragons are descendants of the Twin Goddesses from birth, they are forced to perform their own mission above maternal love. That’s why I couldn’t protect the egg.”

···The story goes that a dragon with children is given the job of managing the forest.

Humans also provide postnatal leave, but servants don’t get that either?

He was a member of the family because he spoke well, but it was as if he was condemned to slavery as soon as he was born.

The idea of working for the twin goddesses as a slave even though your own child is dying… I don’t like these servants the more I go.

“You said Jules was the next priest, right? But some people call Jool the White King. Which is correct?”

Jules rubs his chin and rolls his eyes.

“Hmm…both are correct. To be precise, I am the next priest chosen by the root snake, not my father. At the same time, he is the warchief chosen by Hosot.”

The warchief chosen by Hosot?

Of course, I thought they would have adopted the hereditary system.

“Isn’t the Hosot hereditary?”

“For us Hosots, there is no such bad habit as hereditary customs. When a chieftain dies, a new chieftain is elected by vote of the tribe members. If you do something like hereditary succession, everyone in the village will split up.”

···In this respect, hosots are better than humans.

The sprouts of democracy are already visible. This person is said to be the king chosen by the wild people… How was he chosen?

“If Jules goes back there and becomes a priest, what will he do?”

“It’s just a grand name, there’s nothing special about it. Since it’s a dragon with nothing but a head, it’s natural that it needs a handyman. We have to protect it at the same time.”

···Need to protect the root snake?

“Is there a need to protect the root snake? Jules said that. The root snake has the power to destroy the South.”

“That’s right. However, because the root snake sees the world through the eyes of other dragons, its own eyes have become blind. It is my job to assist the blind dragon’s head.”

Jules opens his mouth wide and yawns.

If you think about it, Jules stayed out for almost two days.

“You must be very tired.”

“I don’t mind running all day, but no matter how much I am, it’s hard to resist drowsiness.”

“Oh, come to think of it, what happened to Ouroboros’ legs?”

Jules, wiping away her tears, shrugs and smiles dejectedly.

“Luckily, Hosott took it first. It will be distributed to all wild people. Of course, Hosott comes first.”

This is the reason for the unreasonable forceful march.

Zul is the spiritual leader and chieftain of Hosot, not the king of other demi-humans. It was natural to take care of Hosott.

“My friend’s mouth was all the way to my ears. Very…”

Woozray. Although I have never seen it, it was a hosot that reminded me of the textbook notoriety passed down among humans.

“Why does Jules’ friend do such a thing to a human slave?”

Jules stops, flinches, and turns his head stiffly towards me. Jules, who was staring at my face without taking a breath, eventually sighed.

“······It wasn’t like that originally. It’s just that I’ve been influenced by the people around me.”

“Colored? So do you eat people?”

“Sihyeon. You are also touched by me. I was also colored by you.”

······Human beings cannot be established as individuals.

I know. However, humanity must exist above laws and regulations. That’s not a human, it’s the basics of being a human being.

“This is a world where if you don’t, you’ll be ostracized.”

Jules looks at me with hollow eyes.

“I have the power and can face that. But Woozu Lei, who has no power, cannot face that. Then you die.”

“······.”

“At that time, if no one around you catches you, an evil monster takes root in your heart. The monster grows as it eats food.”

A defense mechanism created by guilt.

The intention is to make light of one’s own mistakes.

“I hope a monster doesn’t grow in your heart.”

I remembered what Jules once said to me.

‘Sometimes when I make gray pigment, I always mix white and black. The ratio is 10 to 1, meaning there are 10 times more white.’

‘The thing that is made like that is gray, close to black.’

‘Then don’t forget that most of it is white.’

So Juul told me about pigments. Don’t raise monsters. ······I should be angry that I met these people. These are people worth it.

As if I were an owl, my mind was clear even though it was the middle of the night, but since I would have to walk towards the root snake tomorrow again, I had to force myself to sleep.

Jules’ gaze became transfixed and fixed on me.

“···Don’t say that to Shir.”

“Yes? What?”

Shir looks at me. I laughed those eyes off.

“Of course I don’t.”