Sharing All of It (5)
I first roamed the village, gathering whatever information I could.
Roughly half the villagers here belonged to the Mugeuk Sect.
And among them were my companions—Jeon Myeong-hoon, Kim Yeon, Buk Hyang-hwa, Yeon Wi, and Yeon-jin.
The others must have scattered to different villages.
That being the case, I needed to head elsewhere.
First, the place I had fallen into was called Bongrae.
Its size was roughly on the level of India on Earth.
If the four hundred million members of the Mugeuk Sect who had entered Bongrae-do were all made citizens of the Bongrae Kingdom, then the population of that kingdom was estimated in the hundreds of millions.
Of course, that was nothing more than speculation.
Some of them might not have been reborn as people at all, but as beasts, demons, or genuine ghosts.
Regardless, the Bongrae Kingdom had been divided into a central capital and seven provinces outside it.
Each province was further divided into ten cities, each city into dozens of garrisons and counties, and each county into villages—the very unit where I now stood.
The name of this village was Tae-eul Village.
Yeon Wi’s husband, Heon-won, was the village chief and local lord, known by the nickname “Nolbu-senpai.”
His younger brother, Jeon Myeong-hoon, was related to the Nolbu family and apparently went by the name “Heungbu-senpai.”
That must have come from the fairy tales in my and Kim Yeon’s memories.
Except for the fact that Heungbu and Nolbu were on good terms.
Jeon Myeong-hoon had twelve children with Geum So-hae and lived quite frugally with her, so he never asked for much from Nolbu-senpai.
Buk Hyang-hwa and Kim Yeon had once been step-sisters because Kim Yeon’s father remarried early and brought in a stepmother who only favored Buk Hyang-hwa—some twisted tale of Gompja and Bangja, perhaps.
Then I, too, had become the protagonist of a fairy tale?
But what kind of story had a charcoal seller as the hero?
After thinking it over, I couldn’t recall any such tale.
I should carry Kim Yeon on my back, chop up demons, and return home, I mused.
After circling the village once more, I headed for the rear mountain and climbed near the charcoal kiln where the charcoal seller Seo Eun-hyun had worked.
The kiln looked abandoned; it was rotten and on the verge of collapse.
“He always produced the worst charcoal, didn’t he?”
Even that poor quality sold for barely enough to buy drinks in the neighboring village of So-eul Village.
He had no savings at all.
“…Just a hopeless drunk, then.”
Sighing, I picked up the rusty axe beside the kiln.
“I was going to sell this kiln and get money to move to another village, but who would buy it?”
I shook my head.
“What a foolish man… Making a living by selling charcoal like that is poverty itself.”
“The best way to earn money in this era is to sell soap. Selling charcoal? How stupid!”
I opened the kiln.
It was packed with ash.
“If I could obtain oil and turn all this ash into soap…”
Old memories stirred, and my hands itched.
I wanted to make soap right then.
“Wait, that’s not it.”
I pushed aside the soap-making temptation and began digging beneath the kiln, reviving Seo Eun-hyun’s memories.
“Found it…”
A wooden staff appeared.
It looked perfect for a weapon.
I grabbed the axe and staff and entered the forest.
“According to Yuk Rin’s investigation log, the way to gather companions here is not to roam the seven provinces like an idiot, but to make them come to you.”
“And the best way is to build achievements.”
Doing something worthy of a reputation would slowly raise one’s standing, and the companions I sought would appear before my eyes.
“According to Seo Eun-hyun’s memory, a demon lived in the foothills beyond the rear mountain of Tae-eul Village.”
Every night it would descend and devour livestock, sometimes even people.
The villagers lived in constant fear and only the charcoal seller from our own village went to the rear mountain.
I decided to meet the demon first.
“Demons can be companions too. More importantly, I needed to know how powerful the demons in this world were.”
The only things to watch out for here were probably demons.
Military soldiers and porters were harmless unless thousands of them came at once.
After wandering through the forest for quite some time, I sensed I had entered the demon’s territory.
White fur lay scattered everywhere.
“This is…”
I approached and smelled the fur, instantly identifying the creature.
“Ah… this demon…”
And then—
Kwaang!
A house-sized fox with three familiar tails appeared before me.
[Krrrk… krrrlrrrk…!]
The fox glared at me with red eyes, fangs bared as if ready to tear me apart.
It was Siho.
[Kyaaooo!!!]
I stared at Siho for a moment, then asked indifferently,
“What… since you entered my territory without permission, you’re supposed to hand over one arm, right?”
A strangely nostalgic situation.
“I don’t want to!”
[Kiyaaak!]
After falling into Bongrae, had Siho become a pure beast again? He lost his reason and lunged at me.
I quickly controlled my inner muscles, leaped to a nearby tree, sketched the surrounding terrain in my mind, and plotted an escape route.
Siho blinked around, spotted me, and clamped its jaws around the tree I was on.
Waduk!
Drdrk!
It gnawed and slammed the tree ten times or so. The trunk began to sway.
“From the power of its muscles, it must be strong enough to take on two or three bears.”
I calmly jumped from tree to tree like a monkey and watched Siho.
It rampaged, smashing trees, and grew even angrier as I kept fleeing.
Then its muscles swelled.
“Ho…”
At the same time, Siho kicked the ground and shot toward the tree I was on, jaws wide open.
I smirked and gripped the staff upside down.
Since it was sharp enough to kill, I would only use it as a club.
“Is that the end of it?”
The reason I always lost an arm to Siho at the start of Deungsunhyang was not its size or appearance.
That damned dog had been a True Demon of the Decisive Path. Once it used magic, there was no winning.
But now, in Bongrae, Siho looked the same but had no magic, no reason, and was no better than a low-level beast that only amplified physical strength with demon energy.
With that level…
“Even without law energy or internal energy, I can catch it blindfolded.”
I tested my body’s performance and charged Siho while gripping the axe and staff, kicking its jaw.
Immediately I moved behind it, stabbed the staff into the muscle gap of its shoulder, and grabbed its fur.
[Kekeeek!]
Siho screamed and fell from the tree.
Just before hitting the ground it twisted its body and landed, then thrashed around like a beacon, trying to shake me off.
I read its muscles and predicted every move, constantly getting behind it.
When it showed an opening, I reached for its head.
Quaguguk!
I squeezed all its muscles, focused breath for a split second, and concentrated the power in one spot.
In that instant—
Kwaaang!
Using full power, I slammed its back of the head.
The explosive force of the strike made Siho’s brain jolt.
Its eyes rolled back and it fainted.
“Huu…”
I stepped away from Siho and checked its condition.
After briefly releasing control of my brain, my whole body felt terrible.
“Since I can’t use qi, it’s hard to catch even one of these guys without injury.”
If I could use even a speck of qi, I could have captured Siho much more easily.
I caught my breath, calmed my muscles, and stood up.
Then I recalled the terrain I had seen earlier.
“Siho was circling around one point to shake me off.”
That point must have been its den.
I examined Siho’s consciousness and headed for its den, knowing it would take time to wake.
“A demon should have collected some treasure, right?”
And then I discovered an unexpected “treasure.”
“Senior! Senior! You’re here too?!”
It was Seo Ran.
“…No, I came to save you.”
I smiled, meeting the next companion who had regained consciousness.
“…First, tell me what happened.”
* * *
Tak tak tak!
I lit a fire and dumped the corpses Siho had left in its cave.
Then, after regaining consciousness, I lay with Siho’s tail as a pillow and asked,
“So, right after you woke up, Siho kidnapped you and you’ve been here for a few days?”
“Yes, that’s right. It seems the obsession with me still remains.”
Interestingly, Seo Ran was of the human race.
“My setting… was that I lost my memories and woke up on the roadside as a kid. I have no memories other than being an orphan without ties.”
“None of my other companions have met me until now except Siho.”
“Huu…”
Listening to him, I felt a headache.
“What exactly is the condition for regaining consciousness? Random?”
Seo Ran didn’t seem particularly long-lived, large-brained, or high-cultivated.
Yet he had apparently awakened earlier than me.
I considered what common ground Seo Ran and I shared.
“Seo Ran is a poor orphan. And I’m a poor charcoal seller.”
Both of us had gone hungry.
“Could it be that one must be at the border of life and death to regain consciousness?”
I tested the hypothesis and looked at Siho.
“Hey, Seo Ran. If I drive this guy to the brink of death, will Siho regain consciousness?”
The question made Seo Ran panic and shake his head.
“P-please don’t do that.”
“…?”
“No… if you do, Siho might die for nothing.”
Siho, who had been tense, relaxed when Seo Ran tried to stop me.
I nodded.
“Right. Then what now…”
“In my opinion… this will probably take some time. We still lack examples and don’t know the conditions. So instead of gathering companions right now, it might be better to focus on building achievements like you intended first.”
“Hmm… that makes sense.”
I nodded.
No matter what I did to Seo Ran or Siho, nothing would change.
So first, I should build achievements, gain fame, and make companions come to me.
“Good. Then let’s make a detailed plan…”
Gurgle.
Suddenly a hungry growl came from Seo Ran’s stomach.
I glanced at him and handed him the grilled meat.
Seo Ran devoured it like a starving child.
But I kept staring.
The charcoal seller Seo Eun-hyun had always bought national rice with stolen money, so he never went hungry.
But Seo Ran, as an orphan with memory loss, looked malnourished.
“…First, you should go home with us and eat. Then we’ll discuss the plan.”
I couldn’t let the boy starve to death, so I fed him and planned to talk after he ate.
We ordered Siho to stay behind and descended the mountain.
Siho tried to follow, but after I lightly corrected him he became obedient.
No problem.
When I returned home, Yeon Wi had already put sand and pebbles into the rice bucket.
Amazingly, after washing a bucket of rice, only four dou remained.
I told Seo Ran about the rice and apologized for the small amount.
“...That Yeon Wi human. I’ll kidnap him later and hang him upside down.”
A bad thought surged, influenced by the charcoal seller’s influence.
Somehow I managed to make rice with the scarce grain.
Seo Ran ate the rice that still had pebbles, seasoned with soy sauce, and then gave his opinion.
“What if I become a bandit?”
“Bandit?”
“Yes. Lead Siho and loot the village. Nolbu-senpai still isn’t awake, so robbing the granary and making both of us hungry might wake him up, right?”