episode_0121

Shir was holding my hand tightly and using me as a shield, watching Jules and Julias. I don’t know why he’s been using me as a shield for a long time.

“Why respect someone who doesn’t respect you?”

“It’s also funny to say that I don’t respect others just because they don’t.”

It might have been understandable if Jules had turned his back and turned his long hair into a topknot and was wearing a hat.

“Don’t be mistaken! There’s a difference between someone who doesn’t respect you and someone who stabs you in the back. What if those two were added together? That’s not a friend, it’s a scammer!”

The answer is as direct and poignant as his personality.

Despite getting the point across, Jules showed no reaction.

Julia, too, must have soon become frustrated, and turned her head, sighing as she emptied her lungs through her nose.

“Even if it’s not Uzurey, most of the Hosotts are my subordinates.”

I understand that some hosots used Juul’s blood relatives or position for politics, but I don’t know why Juul, who knows this, is playing into the hands of wild people.

Why? Why is there a reason to sacrifice for them?

Because you don’t want to break the expectations of the wild people who depend on you?

Because you feel sorry for the wild people?

It’s not that I don’t understand. But that doesn’t mean you can cut your nose with your eyes open, right? I’m reluctant to ask. Because this is Juul’s situation.

“Given the nature of Hosot, your friend’s village is now over. Everything will be divided up. Do you know why? Because for 150 years, you have been taught that you are unconditionally right about your blood relatives. Your friend is selfish and hateful──────.”

“Okay. Even if I had left it alone, it would have self-destructed. Now the facts have been confirmed as confirmed facts. At the same time, many hosots will lose their community.”

The tone is indirectly blaming Julias.

Thanks to this, Julias’ face became even more frowning.

“No! Have you eaten any fruit of the prophets?! Can you see the future?”

As if Julia had read my mind, she said what I wanted to say on my behalf.

“What the strong give to the weak is good will and sympathy, and what they give to people in similar positions is understanding and compassion. For the weak to give to the strong is weakness and servitude. You just weren’t in a strong or similar relationship. You were a weakling!”

“Julias, they are weak and Uzurey was my friend. Don’t distinguish between the strong and the weak only in a material sense.”

“Ah~ Ah! I will not! You stuffy bitch!”

A rare expression of anger appeared on Julias’ face.

Julias is right. I knew Jules’ personality, but if I wanted to protect my friend, I had to be strong and beat him up.

Did you do this on purpose because you don’t like Wuzuray?

“Dennis~ Please say something to that stupid bitch!”

When Julia approaches Dennis, the cockatrice gets scared and runs behind Dennis. Even the cockatrice looks scary to Julia. The moment Dennis left the village, he already had a bow and arrow in his hands, and his eyes were turning to look in all directions.

“Aren’t everyone’s values and lifestyles different? I think it is right to respect.”

“Who doesn’t know that? I do that because I get tired if I live with those values.”

When Julias looked at Dennis with sallow eyes, Dennis pretended to look around and avoided Julias’ gaze.

Julias is right about this.

“If your friend goes down the wrong path, don’t you have to fix his personality, even if it means sticking your fist in his solar plexus?”

The corners of Julia’s mouth started to turn up as he glanced at my sudden words. Jules also looks at me.

“I want to do that too, but… When he was around your age, Wuzurei once got hit by a fist I extended as a joke and fainted. After that, I can’t put my hand on it because I feel like I’ll die if I put my fist in it.”

·······.

“If he was a guy who could hit me, I would have hit him a long time ago.”

Jules shrugs as if showing off his strength.

Probably not, but…

“Aren’t you thinking that because you’re weaker than me, you’re weak or something like that?”

“Mecha?”

The tense mood of the group is relieved.

Jules looked at me with wide-open eyes, as if he was a bit disappointed.

“Hmm! I see! If your friend goes down the wrong path, even if it means beating him up, you should change his character, right? When I get back, I don’t think it would be a bad idea to hit Mira’s solar plexus until she apologizes.”

Shir carries me on his back, pressing down on me with his weight.

It was clinging to me every day, and now the clinging has gotten worse.

Should I say that I have a good balance? It seems like I am raising Shir on my back.

“Shir. Now, if you hit the solar plexus, wouldn’t Mira die instantly?”

“Why?”

“You’re completely muscle-bound… hehe!”

This bitch…!

Shir’s thumb was pressing hard into my solar plexus, as if he was slowly trying to do the Heimlich maneuver.

I couldn’t push my hand away, so I tried to fold my fingers, but I couldn’t fold them.

Even Shir’s fingers could not overcome it.

It’s a body that has been trained to death. I still hit about 3:200!

“Julias…! What on earth did I teach Shir to end up like this?”

Julia smiled brightly and looked at me with mischievous eyes.

“You asked for it, right? Well, we are providing as vivid an education as possible based on our experience dissecting giant creatures in the South. I’m also very good at using it. Thanks to you, every day is enjoyable.”

“Creating the strongest creature on earth…! It hurts!!!”

Kuuuk───!

My solar plexus is broken!! It’s broken!!!

“I taught quite a bit during my break, but I still have a lot to learn. Above all, I enjoy teaching because I enjoy it.”

“It’s fun to be the strongest creature on earth, but why do you do it to me… Yaaaa!!!”

Shir picked me up and wrapped me around his neck like a neck pillow.

*

Ouroboros’ slough was obviously huge, weighing tens to hundreds of tons, but its size was reduced by half in four months.

Fortunately, the salt lake, which used to emit smoke like a hot spring and reminiscent of an active volcano, is now quiet. Most of those gathered around were Horsots, and quite a few Elves, Ramrats, Lamia, and Sirens were looking around.

There, the group had a very striking combination.

Horsot, a female with white hair like a white lion, and a lamia the size of an absurd dinosaur. An elf dragging a cockatrice, a hosot with black hair wrapping a human around in a neck pillow, and me who became the neck pillow.

······.

Everyone is looking at me!

“Put me down.”

“I hate it.”

This is a complete display of Helchang’s power. As Shir gained strength, he began to step forward wherever his power was needed.

If you get caught wrong───.

“That. Are you selling it?”

father.

Shir looks at Hosott, who approaches with a blank expression on his stomach, as if he has heard something strange. It seems that the wild man understood that gaze in a different way.

“I’ll give you three ingots, so why don’t you cut off just one leg?”

Shir’s eyes are shining.

“Why is he eating it?”

“Isn’t it because you carry me around like a hunted deer?”

Hosott’s head tilts.

“This is a child who has suffered evil from the dragon. If you do something foolish, the owner of the evil will come to punish you.”

Jules has already returned.

Hosott recognized Jool at a glance and was startled and moaned.

“Warchief…?”

“And that child is my slave.”

“Sorry!”

“That’s it. The surroundings are like this, what can you do?”

Jules is right.

In proportion to the population density here, there is almost nothing to eat around. Because Ouroboros overturned everything. Because the land has been turned over as if clearing land, new life is blooming here and there as if with wings.

As if to show the tenacity of life, the branches of buried trees stick out their heads.

However, it is low.

With the appearance of Ouroboros, this area has become an open area that is rarely found in the south, and only weeds resembling thorn lettuce can be seen growing tall.

Herbivores also have mouths and minds. Who would come to eat this tasteless food? And there is nowhere to hide.

There are quite a few demi-humans around, trying to exchange ingots with animals they have hunted. The group that brought Yunaira’s coins is the largest group, but it is natural that the value of the coins will drop if they continue that way.

Juul turned around and started walking again, and the group’s steps continued to get closer to Ouroboros’ skin, but no one blocked the group’s path.

“Shir. Now, can we lower it appropriately?”

“It’s okay. Because I am the strongest creature on earth. I’ll take you like this until you reach the village.”

Shir shows his white fangs and grins evilly.

I don’t know why I’m upset.

“······Do whatever you want.”

Well, I’ll put it down someday.

“Shir. Seolrang tells me to wait behind you.”

Dennis, who had gone ahead, came back and blocked our path.

Wait? It wasn’t just us, many people were moving away from Jules and Julia.

Juul, like Julia, began to look around Ouroboros for flaws. As if measuring size.

When Juul, who was discussing with Julia, gestures to the person who melts Ouroboros’ skin, several Horsots begin to gesture to each other from a distance and say something.

Soon, several slaves and Hosott, who had been melting Ouroboros’ skin with torches, began to retreat, taking the crucible that had been used to catch the melted skin.

Julias waited for the people around him to fall to some extent, took a last look around, and placed his hand on the floor.

What are you doing this for?

Patter…! Patter patter…!!!

ah?

The fine, compacted earth began to sink beneath Ouroboros’ skin.

At the same time, Ouroboros’ flaws began to reveal themselves on the ground.

“What is that?!”

“There was more left down there?!”

A murmur spreads around.

When I first saw it, I thought that the group of wild men had used up more than half of Ouroboros’ skin.

However, nearly half of the skin was crushed by the weight and fell to the ground. Because it was so huge that it transcended perception, I had no idea that it had been crushed by the fine dirt and had fallen into the ground.

“······Of course you are the Warchief!”

“You keep Dragonia as your limbs!”

Julias was saying something to Jules with a sullen expression.

“Try it once.”

“Yes.”

Julia used magic to mix enough water into the ground to create a mold made of clay, and then baked the ground into a crucible.

In total, thousands of them at once!

Soon Ouroboros’ skin melted, and molten iron began to flow toward the mold.

The angle of the large mold into which it flows is also perfect, making it look like an ice mold in a freezer. He created a simple factory all by himself in an instant.

Thousands of demi-humans widened their eyes and could not close their mouths at the sight. The heated skin of Ouroboros was melting like ice, but it didn’t seem like the heat was blowing around.

Grumble!

A flying insect that flies in from somewhere burns and disappears.

widely! puck!

Some of the minerals in the ground reacted and popped like popcorn.

In particular, the surrounding stones began to split like clams.

The fact that it is not hot despite this is proof that Julias is very good at distributing heat. The ingot cooled down very quickly as well.

Since Julia has the power to control heat, it is thanks to the fact that the heat from the ingot was recycled to melt Ouroboros’ skin.

How I knew it was being recycled was because the heated air was creating a huge haze, creating a mirage.

Once you go in there, it gets cooked in an instant.

“Wow, Master, you are truly amazing.”

Thanks to this, all the skin was melted in less than three hours, and tens of thousands of ingots were created. It is said that Ouroboros’s shell was as large as a high-rise building, but since it was only a shell, the interior was not full.

It melted that quickly, and contrary to my expectations, not much came out. Of course, that doesn’t mean the amount is small.

Still, it feels subtly small.

Even though I saw it all melt right in front of my eyes.

Does this mean that it is only good on the surface?

‘Well, because skin is skin.’

Julia may have claimed ownership in order to shoot Usreyi, but she did not take any responsibility for it. This was the same for Juul.

In fact, other wild men tried to provide ingots to Julia and Juul by giving them leather nets and wooden boxes, but the two rejected all such goodwill.

” King! Thank you!”

“As expected, you are a benevolent person!”

In response to the people’s intense gratitude, Jules awkwardly waved his hand at the wild man, and Julias was laughing mischievously, holding his head as if he was dizzy.

Only the cockatrice tilted its head and pecked at the floor. Finally, Julia broke all the molds and returned them to the earth, and soon a gentle war broke out between various wild beasts to get even one more ingot.

*

“Sihyeon. Can’t I just give one drop of the Precious Blood?”

Julia smiles and approaches me.

Ugh, look at me sweating. This is someone who helped me for several months just for a ring. Of course I have to give it to you.

“You pushed yourself too hard.”

He took out a syringe and poured a drop of holy blood into Julias’ leather canteen. Julia shook the leather canteen once and began to take a refreshing drink.

gulp! gulp!

How many sips did he take like that?

“Ugh~! I think I’m finally going to buy something. Thank you, Sihyeon~.”

Julia smiled, closed the lid of the leather canteen, and hung it on her waist. As if he was going to eat it forever.

…that’s my canteen.

Anyway, I never imagined that Julia would have a good heart to help others.

“Is it okay if I leave Ouroboros’ skin intact?”

“Huh? No?”

no? What isn’t it?

Julia’s laughter soon turns into a mischievous laugh.

A small sigh came out of Jules’ mouth as he walked ahead.

“I made a hole in the formwork. I’m currently bringing back the ingots that were stolen underground.”

······.

“Yes…?”

Into the ground?

“Not a large amount. Because it was too heavy to bring it all. A quarter of the total skin?”

“How?”

“The soil swept away all the trees, so there were no obstacles.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of Julia shrugging.

“Ask me how I felt.”

Julia glanced at my face and immediately began to smile brightly.

He must have already told Jules and Dennis, but Dennis is looking at them with a wry smile.

“What is it? Who wants to be moved on their own?”

Julia gave a provocative look with a humorous expression.

“Julias’ actions are leading towards a low-trust society──.”

“If you don’t get caught, there’s no problem. Do you want to be as hard as Juyul?”

Juul, who is ahead, seems to be listening in this direction.

When I motioned for Julia to come closer, Julia bowed down. I whispered quietly into his ear, making sure Jules would hear.

“···Good job.”

Julia’s eyes widen as if what I said was unexpected.

Soon, Julia smiled very brightly.