episode_0556

Neutral person.

They are people who did not stand in either group during the war.

It is often said that if you stay still, you are halfway there.

But the results were very disastrous.

Because neutral people are no longer respected by anyone from either group.

Horus created a neutral Earth to accommodate them.

In a way, this is the last country for such people.

“······.”

Also, it was natural for those people not to welcome me.

‘If I think about it, Charlotte was always with me when I came here.’

It seems that it was because the neutral Earth was dangerous.

Thanks to this, it was inevitable that the eyes of neutral people would turn to me.

At the bar, neutral people from all over Pangea gathered.

Serbotaurus, Veritaur, Goblin, Ogre, Troll…

I sat at the counter and looked at the troll bartender.

“Please give me a glass of milk.”

“Milk?” “Why milk?”

Seth and the bartender expressed their doubts at the same time.

Anyway, I don’t like alcohol.

“Aren’t there things that are sold as cocktail ingredients?”

“···Why are you looking for milk when you come to a bar?”

“Milk is the best when you have an upset stomach.”

The bartender shrugs and pours the milk.

I took the milk and drank it down. It wasn’t fresh and tasted a bit like cheese.

Of course, it’s a place where you can’t hope for freshness.

“···Did something happen?”

“Master, have you ever thought about what lies beyond the sea?”

“Over the sea?”

He nodded.

The bartender glanced at the sea, where fishing was still underway.

“Well? Won’t there be an end to the world?”

“What would it be like if there was a new land out there?”

People’s eyes are on me.

“What does that mean?”

“I traveled all over Pangea. There’s no place I haven’t been to.”

“Are you an old man?”

“Yes. Since I had a lot of money and a new life, my dream was to see the whole world.”

I took another sip of milk.

“So?”

” caught it all in his two eyes. No matter how much I looked at the map, there was no place I hadn’t been to.”

In Pangea, the spread of external news is slower than in other countries.

Thanks to this, people are always interested in external news.

To the point where they even provide free food to people like me.

However, no one would naively say that it is so after hearing this.

“You must have had a great trip.”

Thanks to that, I received a harsh answer.

Convincing them starts now.

“Yes. I saw everything from the quiet forest in the southernmost part to the thorn tree in the northernmost part. Do you know what? Birds swimming in the sea live on that land where there is nothing but ice.”

“What? A bird swimming in the sea?”

“Yes. It’s so cute.”

I explained the penguin artificially.

Make the most of the realism. Some people were fascinated by my story.

Even if it is fiction, it only talks about things that are easy to imagine.

“So, where else but there?”

“I visited Ymir’s tomb and Root Village in the south, and I also visited Mirror Lake, which once you enter, you can never come out again.”

“I’ve never heard of Mirror Lake.”

“This is where the twin goddesses reside. But they say that once you go in, you can never come out again. That is my final destination.”

The bartender snorted, probably thinking I was bluffing.

I smiled at him too.

“Well, just call it crazy and listen.”

Now it was time to start lying.

“Anyway, I couldn’t believe it. How big is Pangea and I just walked around it? That doesn’t make sense! I headed straight to the highest mountain.”

“Isn’t that where Mercurius resides?”

“Yes. There, the Minotaurs provided guidance. they told me This mountain is not a place for humans to climb!”

I said solemnly like a Minotaur.

Then he smiled and shrugged. As if drunk.

“Fuck you. I climbed the mountain.”

“Pfft!”

Before I knew it, not a single noise could be heard in the bar.

Even Seth was listening to my story.

“There were only two places I could not conquer.”

” Mirror Lake, where you can’t get out once you enter. The highest mountain where you can find what you want when you climb to the top.”

Neutral people do not know the world.

So, conversely, it was easy for people to believe what I said.

I took a break and got lucky.

“···I went there to check for the last time to see if I really had never been there before.”

One of the drinkers turned his chair around and sat down, looking at me.

“I’ve been there too. I almost froze to death from the beginning.”

It was a challenging tone.

As if he wanted to understand the true meaning of my story.

It seems he has already told his story a few times.

Other drinkers also brightened their eyes keenly.

But there was something they didn’t know.

“Yes. But it wasn’t cold. To me, that mountain with nothing but ice was warm like spring.”

“Hehe! Sounds crazy.”

“I thought that too when I saw the guides acting harshly. ···By the way.”

I really went up.

“···I saw a frozen body.”

A strange sight appeared in people’s eyes.

Apparently, that drinker also climbed to a pretty high place.

“The higher we went, the more corpses there were.”

“I don’t know if he died on the way up or on the way down. I was afraid, but I still went forward.”

“After passing through the split ice floor and clouds, I encountered a cliff with no end in sight.”

The mischievous smiles on people’s faces subsided.

“They say that place is called a circular cliff.”

“There were a lot of dead corpses underneath.”

“He died after climbing that cliff.”

The drunk who was trying to test me had a stern look on his face.

I gave him a thumbs up with a smile.

“You are truly amazing.”

“Going that far without being chosen means that we have reached the limit of living things.”

“That’s right!”

Of course it was a lie.

I heard that Parker, the guide who guided us to the circular cliff, also climbed it.

Then I heard that Mercurius would never have a partner for the rest of his life.

‘Is that a curse or what?’

Thanks to the unintentional addition of windbreakers, the drinkers now listened to me without question.

“But I wasn’t cold and I had no trouble breathing. Climbing the cliff was also easy.”

“When I got to the top, I saw Mercurius living in a log cabin.”

“He served me a cup of flower tea.”

Is it okay to lie about Mercurius’ name?

I was worried for a moment, but I thought it was okay.

Because Mercurius said servants were humans.

“And you said it even though I didn’t ask.”

“There are two places you haven’t been to.”

“One place is Mirror Lake. And one place…”

I drank all the milk.

At the same time, he stretched out his hand and pointed to the horizon beyond the window.

“A new, undiscovered land beyond the sea.”

Drinkers are holding their breath.

A new land beyond the sea? You’ve never heard of it, and you probably don’t care.

In the first place, all they do is hunt fish on the coast.

“There was a land I hadn’t been to yet. So I spent all my money to build a boat.”

“Huh?”

“Could it be that the ship in the shipyard is your ship?”

I nodded and answered.

Some of the drinkers open their eyes wide.

Because there is a ship that was recently built in the neutral Ainji region.

“I gathered the best captains and explained my purpose to them.”

“But why? It’s scary! You don’t believe me. That’s it.”

“···But. Mercurius asked me for a favor.”

I continued to lie leisurely.

“Please pass on Pangea’s ‘grace’ to the subhumans beyond.”

“In return, you will give me wealth.”

“Boo? What wealth?”

Some eyes show interest and greed.

But I just looked up the bartender.

“If you spread grace, wealth will be given. What is this puzzling meaning?”

“In other words, ‘trade’ with them. Then you will become rich.”

“···That was the reason I was able to climb the circular cliff.”

“He chose me to help those who are living difficult lives.”

With a sigh, I handed the glass to the bartender.

“Hey, what crazy person would go out to that distant sea other than me?”

I grinned and glanced at Seth.

Seth was smiling mysteriously, as if he was dumbfounded.

“Would you like to have one more drink?”

I nodded.

“Please give me just a glass of rum to please my palate.”

The bartender pours rum into a glass.

“I pay this.”

“Thank you.”

I gargled with alcohol, which I didn’t like, and then swallowed it.

“Keu…!”

It also didn’t taste good.

I still don’t know what kind of alcohol I like.

“So what are you going to do?”

“I tried to do something on my own, but driving a boat was something I couldn’t even imagine as an inlander.”

“Of course!”

“I thought driving a boat was easy!”

Only then did the drinkers start booing me.

I smiled broadly and accepted their jeers.

“A captain said he had been on a boat for 50 years.”

“This is a ship that has never been seen before. No one will know how to drive this ship.”

“···That’s right. It was very different from the boats I had made so far.”

The one who agreed was Ogre, who was drinking alcohol from a bucket.

It was the unintentional appearance of another wind catcher.

“Yes. He tells me to just take the right people.”

“But is that possible? How many months do we have to sail?!”

“You’re giving me wealth in the first place? I don’t care about that. I just want to go!”

Take a moment to vent your anger at the bartender.

I spoke quietly in a dejected voice.

“···If you take that boat, you will become rich. But, I used to be rich.”

“Rich? It’s nothing special. Money is not happiness. ”

“After I go there, I will leave for Mirror Lake.”

“Like that, I can never come back again.”

I wanted to see the drinkers’ reactions, but I couldn’t.

Because when you lie, you can see through it just by looking at it.

“It’s funny when I think about it now. You give wealth to someone who gave up money.”

“···What on earth were you thinking when you said that?”

A few drinkers gulped.

There was only one reason for their silence.

“Then what are you going to do with that ship?”

─Because I want a stomach.

“I have to go first. After that, well, I’m going to throw it away.”

There is an eternal dream for sailors.

Having your own boat.

why?

‘To become rich!’

“It was a cursed ship to begin with. You’ll make a lot of money. So what do you do? I have to live on a boat!”

I let out a very inlandish complaint as if it were tempting.

The look in the eyes of the drinkers was unusual.

By now, you probably think I’m a bigot inside.

“···That is an insult to the person who built the ship.”

However, a growling voice breaks the pain.

It was an auger that caught the wind.

It seems that the thought of abandoning the ship he built was unpleasant.

It didn’t sound good to me.

“I am sorry. Your ship is truly a masterpiece.”

“I would rather drive it. Because I don’t want to see my child abandoned.”

A pleasant sound was heard.

but.

‘Isn’t it time yet?’

It’s a situation where you need a little more coaxing to get over it or not, and there are several conditions.

This is the way to experience how difficult sailors are.

But what do you mean, ‘I’m going to drive it’?

‘What on earth are you thinking?’

Moreover, Ogre is an independent person.

Because they are so selfish, it is not easy to trust them.

I had no choice but to turn around and look at the ogre.

Massive muscles on a huge body.

A whole huge deep-sea fish was placed on the table where the tonne monster sat.

and.

“Do you remember me?”

Strange words.

Despite his tone of voice, the Ogre was smiling blandly.

At that sight, my disbelief melted away.

Because I suddenly realized who he was.

20 years ago. An ogre that raised oxygen alone.

“···Could you have forgotten?”

I burst out laughing along with him.

We don’t even know each other’s names, but we haven’t forgotten each other’s faces.

‘I said I was going to Horus’ neutral Earth, but…’

I never thought we would meet here.

Seth opened his eyes wide and looked back and forth between the Ogre and me.

“What is it? Do you know the shipbuilding director?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know humans are coming?”

“We just passed by in the past.”

Seth asked a question and looked at Ogre.

“Do you know how to sail?”

“The shipyard was founded by driving ships.”

“What about meals?”

“Just catch a fish and eat it.”

“Can women ride on the boat?”

“Unless it’s a woman.”

“It may take more than half a year.”

“I run the shipyard alone anyway.”

It was the best condition that I had no reason to come or refuse.

“Then, thank you very much.”