Chapter 51
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: The Popular Catherdic Castle
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“My head feels… breezy, Jojang.”
I couldn’t help but clear my throat at Berman’s murmur.
However, I had already brushed the handful of Berman’s hair from my hands, so there was no evidence.
“It’s because the weather’s been cool lately.”
“Isn’t it almost summer? What does that even…”
Lightly ignoring Berman’s retort, I headed for the captain’s office.
The captain was sprawled out, no longer even bothering with a shirt, his unsightly figure on full display. He looked like a pig dunked in hot water.
“Ah… Jojang Aron. The man I trust…”
The captain greeted me in a weak voice, merely twitching his hand.
‘It’s not *that* hot.’
The captain was exceptionally prone to exaggeration.
“Well, the number of visitors has increased… good work…”
The captain waved his hand dismissively.
It was an order to leave.
I bowed my head and left with Berman.
“The captain looks like he’s about to die, Jojang. How about you take his position while you have the chance?”
“Captain, my ass. It’s nothing but a hassle.”
The heat was bearable enough, but I had to admit it did feel a little warm.
‘I need to upgrade the mini-fridge before it gets any hotter.’
The amount of ice it was making now was a huge improvement over last year, but the kid still had limitless potential for growth.
Besides, he was a certified genius, so he was bound to evolve beyond an air conditioner into a true marvel of civilization.
‘It’s been a while since I asked Jackson, so I should go check on him.’
These medieval folks never got anything done unless you pestered them. You had to go grab them by the scruff of the neck and give them a good shake before they’d startle and scramble to work.
‘I should probably grab that intel woman by the scruff of the neck, too.’
She was the type who looked like she’d get distracted the moment she had any free time. It would be best to go and give her a good shake later.
Chatting with Berman about this and that, we headed for the castle gate.
When we arrived, the night shift guy on top of the gate had a strange expression.
“What is it?”
“Well… Jojang Aron. The people waiting outside…”
Startled by my voice, Kkutan from Team 2 pointed outside.
I turned my head to see an unexpected sight unfolding before the castle gate.
Nearly fifty people were squatting in front of the gate. Seeing them all pulling carts loaded with various belongings, they didn’t seem to be simple travelers.
And they weren’t wagoners, either; wagoners timed their movements for when the gates opened, they didn’t show up early and wait like this.
“What’s all this?”
“I asked them briefly earlier. They said things got crazy over in Karzan and Volt, so they all flocked over here.”
“All that happened in Volt was one knight dying, wasn’t it? What kind of crazy… Berman, why are you blinking?”
Berman looked at me and blinked rapidly, as if he were malnourished.
“Jojang, you can’t say things like that out loud.”
Berman whispered in a small voice in response to my question.
“Say what? That some knight got his ass kicked and died?”
“Aaaargh! Aaaaaargh!”
“You guys are being ridiculous.”
Berman made a bizarre noise to drown out my words. The Kkureuk fellow next to him helped by letting out a sound like a pterodactyl.
With the two of them carrying on like that, I lost the will to speak.
So I changed the subject.
“Anyway, what about Karzan?”
“It’s a complete lawless zone over there now, apparently. With the biggest organization faltering, the other two have crossed into their territory, and now there are sword fights every day.”
Kkureuk answered, scratching his head.
‘It’s gotten so bad that it’s causing people to emigrate…?’
I swallowed a groan and stroked my beard.
Emigration was almost unheard of around here.
Most people’s professions and lives were decided at birth, so they never left the castle they were born in unless they committed a crime or were about to starve to death from high taxes.
For this many people to move…
‘Didn’t I clean up pretty well? The new guy I picked was sharp, too.’
Various thoughts crossed my mind, but it was all in the past.
That was a problem for the guards over there to handle. I shook my head, dismissing the thoughts.
“Anyway, the Lord must be over the moon. With so much manpower flocking in.”
“Yes, I imagine his Lordship must be very pleased.”
Berman deliberately added ‘-ship’ to correct me.
What a cautious fellow, even when there were no nobles around.
“Time will fly today. Open the gate.”
“Yes, Jojang. Kkureuk, could you give me a hand?”
“Gladly.”
Kkureuk and Berman went down below, chatting amiably.
I yawned and headed toward the gate.
Accepting immigrants wasn’t particularly difficult, but I had to be sure to weed out any criminals on the run.
Which meant it was time for an in-depth interview.
*Grind—.*
With a heavy sound, the castle gate slowly opened.
Through the widening gap, I could see the eyes of the people, filled with anticipation.
‘To them, I’ll be the first impression of Catherdic Castle.’
With these things, the impression made by the first person you meet was always the most important.
I spread my arms wide and smiled brightly, my heart full of welcome.
I truly did my best to raise the corners of my mouth and open my eyes wide.
Just then, the people at the very end suddenly turned with looks of disgust and walked away.
“Phew… that pulley was stiff. Had some trouble. Huh? There are fewer people than before?”
I decided to think positively. Ten people had left, but there were still forty left.
“Alright, everyone line up over here!”
“Single file! Single file!”
I raised my right hand and shouted, and Berman ran around, lining people up.
Berman had drawn his ‘sword’—the most effective baton for dealing with medieval folks—so they were quite obedient.
I made eye contact with the man at the front of the line.
The man, who was carrying a bundle of belongings wrapped in cloth, swallowed hard.
“Name.”
“Bu… Buris, sir!”
“Buburis? You single?”
“It’s Buris, not Buburis…”
“Right. Family?”
“I’m… alone.”
‘So, Buburis it is.’
I looked the man up and down.
These medieval people suffered so much that it was hard to judge their age by their faces, but he looked to be at least over twenty.
“How old are you?”
“Fourteen, sir!”
“Don’t lie.”
“Sir?”
This one had clearly suffered twice as much as the others.
“My condolences for your face. Pass.”
“…Sir?”
The man, who had asked back with a dazed look, finally scrambled inside after getting a smack on the head.
“Next.”
“Hello!”
“Hello!”
Next up was a family package: a couple and their three children.
Seeing the wagon behind them laden with goods and even a donkey, it seemed they had been relatively well-off.
“Why are you here?”
“We’re from Karzan. There are murders there almost every day now, and we were afraid for our children, so we sold everything for cheap and came here. They say the gangs only fight amongst themselves, but how can you trust them? So we came to Catherdic Castle, which we heard was peaceful.”
‘Peaceful?’
I scratched my cheek at the man’s mention of the word ‘peaceful.’
We’d just recently had an attack by dark mages and a demon infiltrating to kidnap the young lady, but there was no need to tell the new residents things they didn’t need to know.
It was like needlessly pointing out that the ‘water pressure is weak.’
‘Still, it’s better than other castles.’
“Pass!”
The man’s forehead was shiny, a guarantee of his diligence, so I let him pass. His wife nodded, though she looked somewhat uneasy.
“Alright, next!”
“I’m from Volt Castle…”
His thick eyebrows suggested he’d work very diligently after a few beatings. His torso was thick, too, so he looked strong.
“Pass!”
“I was doing well in Karzan, but I recently fell out of favor, so…”
A voluptuous chest and a face so white from powder.
The woman’s entire being screamed that she was a prostitute.
I checked the area around her generously exposed chest.
Her skin was clear, so she didn’t seem to have syphilis.
“Pass!”
The woman smiled brightly and said thanks, offering a discount if I came by later. I briefly pondered the double meaning of her words before waving her on.
I wasn’t crazy enough to go looking for a prostitute.
Next were some rough-looking fellows.
The flesh on their eyelids and the calluses on their hands suggested they were no strangers to hard work, likely with hammers.
“We were stonemasons in Karzan.”
His polite tone didn’t match his rough appearance, but it was clearly a smokescreen.
‘Time for an advanced personality test.’
To see their true nature, I threw a punch.
The one who took it square in the face crumpled to the ground, clutching his nose.
Red blood dripped from between his fingers as he looked up at me with an aggrieved expression.
Still, they only looked bewildered; they didn’t charge at me or curse, or exhibit any other disqualifying behavior.
“What is this…”
“Pass!”
They looked up at me with wide eyes.
“I said, pass.”
I shook my fist at them, and they scrambled inside.
“Next!”
I shouted energetically and waved my hand, but there were surprisingly few people left.
Quite a few were turning around and leaving in the distance.
In the end, half of the nearly fifty people had pissed themselves and fled, and I let the rest in.
“Quite a few of them turned back.”
“They’re the ones who piss themselves.”
Berman nodded at my reply, but his expression was somewhat unconvinced.
***
“Hey, Jenta, you okay?”
At his friend Brown’s question, the stonemason Jenta nodded.
‘What was that about…?’
It was the first time he’d been beaten up out of the blue by a guard at a checkpoint, and Jenta was deeply bewildered.
The guards in his old home of Karzan were rough, but not like this.
‘Did I make a mistake coming to Catherdic?’
But with Karzan having become a lawless zone, he hadn’t had much choice.
Sure, the fighting was between the gangs, but as a stonemason, he was also a member of one of those gangs: the ‘Cute Rabbits.’
Jenta had only joined the Cute Rabbits because he was fooled by its charming name; if he had known what kind of organization it really was, he wouldn’t have gone anywhere near it.
The Cute Rabbits had been a guild, but while they had mostly stuck to aggressive protests to assert the rights of stonemasons, their nature had gradually changed to resemble a criminal organization, and the recent events had made it all blow up.
So Jenta had fled Karzan with Brown, who liked pictures of bears, and Gibbs, who liked ponies, both of whom he’d met in the ‘Cute Rabbits.’
They had considered Volt, but hearing that it was also in chaos, they headed for Catherdic, the place with the fewest rumors. And this was the result.
“Maybe we made a mistake? You saw that guard… to have a vicious criminal like that manning a checkpoint…”
Jenta nodded at Gibbs’s worried words.
The man certainly had the air of a vicious criminal, not a guard. And not just any vicious criminal, but one wanted by the Empire…
“Let’s stick around a bit longer. What happened to Jenta was absurd, but that one person can’t be the whole castle.”
At the unusually optimistic Brown’s words, the other two nodded with uneasy faces.
As strange as it was, it was surely better than Karzan. It was daunting to have to live in a castle where they knew no one, but having his two friends by his side was reassuring.
“First, let’s find a place to stay.”
Jenta, whose nose had stopped bleeding, took the lead.
They were all particularly large, so they folded their shoulders and walked carefully to avoid bumping into passersby.
“But it’s really clean here. There’s almost no smell of filth. In the castle I’m from, I’d step in filth every two steps…”
Brown started telling another story from his past.
Jenta just nodded lightly and kept walking.
“Come on, come on! This isn’t an opportunity that comes around every day! Men… no, anyone with something dangling, gather ‘round! Ladies whose husbands are lacking! Gather ‘round, too!!”
A shout from the side made them turn their heads.
On top of a stall, two men with similarly sleazy faces were shouting at the top of their lungs. They looked like ordinary brothers, but their attire was unique.
“Is that colorful armor the fashion here? Orange and green armor… weren’t those men earlier in red and blue?”
The two men were selling a green powder they called ‘Man’s Resurrection Powder,’ and it was incredibly popular. Gibbs was about to dazedly join the long line, but they barely managed to stop him.
“Let’s go a bit further in. The rent here looks expensive.”
Jenta said after looking around, and the other two nodded.
Then they took a wrong turn and, before they knew it, found themselves in a gloomy back alley.
“What? The layout is a bit strange here.”
Jenta had to gasp when he saw the men in a corner of the alley.
Covered in tattoos, they were clearly members of a criminal organization, huddled together and talking about something.
Jenta exchanged a look with the other two and cautiously backed away.
If they got mugged in a foreign place like this, their future would be bleak. They could starve to death.
Fortunately, the men didn't seem very interested, completely engrossed in their own conversation.
Relieved, they were about to leave the alley when…
“Hey. You guys over there.”
“Yes?”
The thoughtless Gibbs answered blankly, and they were dragged over to stand before the men.
“I smell silver coins.”
“Aron said he’d kill us if we got caught. Let’s just let them go.”
“Aron, my ass. Is Aron here right now? You guys are all a bunch of chickens.”
“Oh? Should I tell Aron, then?”
“You cowardly bastard. And you call yourself a friend…”
With Jenta and his friends standing there, the men started arguing amongst themselves, raising their voices.
After arguing for a good while, they sighed as if giving up.
“You’re lost. Go this way, and you’ll get back to the main street. Places like this are dangerous, so be careful.”
A man with an ambiguous expression that was somewhere between a smile and a grimace pointed in one direction, gritting his teeth.
“Ah, thank you! Thank you!”
Contrary to their appearance, the men were quite kind.
They even personally escorted them out of the alley.
“Maybe we judged them too much by their appearance.”
Jenta nodded at Brown’s words.
After wandering for a long time, they found an inn tucked away in a corner.
“The Smiling Rabbit!”
Brown’s eyes sparkled, a stark contrast to his rough features. Gibbs and Jenta also swallowed hard.
“But… when you think about the Cute Rabbits…”
Jenta showed his unease, but the other two were already won over by the picture of the cute rabbit.
The inside was cleaner than expected.
There were only a few people.
“This is nice.”
Gibbs, who had a habit of speaking quietly so as not to disturb others, muttered softly.
Jenta glanced around before heading to the most secluded table.
In the tavern sat a few gloomy, old-looking men, seated apart from each other, who were watching Jenta’s group out of the corners of their eyes.
The strange emotion in their gazes was unsettling. Their inappropriately sparkling eyes were creating a sense of pressure.
Jenta sat down in the corner.
“Wow, they have lace cloths on the tables here.”
“Look at that. There are cute pictures on the wall…”
Jenta and the others looked around the inn’s interior, constantly exclaiming in admiration.
And then—
A woman came out from the back.
“Oh my, we have customers!”
A woman, beautiful enough to be a rare sight even in the city, greeted them with a cheerful smile.
At the unexpected beauty, Jenta 괜히 목에 힘이 들어갔고 the other two also straightened their postures.
Their bodies frozen stiff, they placed their orders awkwardly.
Even so, the woman took their order kindly and went back inside.
It was from that moment.
The gazes of the men began to shine with an even more burdensome light.
Jenta cleared his throat, feeling the expectant stares from those around him. The other two were in a similar state.
Brown had his head bowed low, while Gibbs was staring at the ceiling.
The one to break the ensuing awkward silence was—
“Ta-da.”
An incredibly cute little boy.
The boy, who had suddenly appeared beside them, abruptly spread his hands wide. On his small palm was a piece of ice that seemed to be a sculpture of someone, and it looked vaguely familiar.
“Woooow!”
They loved cute things, so they couldn’t help but gasp in admiration, more at the child’s cute appearance than the ice sculpture.
The three of them applauded continuously, and the child, in turn, showed them the ice flying up, the ice’s arms moving, and the ice’s head separating from its body and flying into the air.
After the inexplicable show ended, the child held out his small palm towards them. This time, it was empty.
As if mesmerized, Jenta and the others took out coins and placed them in the boy’s hand. Only then did the boy give a satisfied smile, bow his head, and go back inside.
‘Did we just get extorted by a little kid?’
As he blinked, dumbfounded, the Perpetual Stew they had ordered arrived.
“You can’t beat Perpetual Stew. Let’s add some of the stuff we brought later. You know, that jerky.”
Jenta licked his lips, looking at the mouth-watering, dark red liquid in front of him.
Perpetual Stew, in which lodgers added their own memories and which had developed a unique depth of flavor over the years, had a deep and thrilling taste no matter where you ordered it.
Although, sometimes it was a bit too thrilling.
He was quietly eating the stew, careful not to slurp, when the glares from those around him grew increasingly sharp.
‘What, are they giving us the side-eye because we’re outsiders?’
Jenta’s hands trembled with anxiety, and the piece of bread he was using to scoop the stew fell to the ground.
The bread was so hard that it made a *thud!* sound, and Jenta, startled, quickly picked it up.
But the gazes of those around him had changed subtly.
He finally realized the meaning behind their stares. What their eyes held was expectation.
This time, Brown looked at the ceiling, and Gibbs bowed his head.
Jenta, this time, dropped the bread on the floor as if throwing it. With another *thud!*, the intensity of the surrounding gazes grew stronger.
One man with a particularly large belly even made his cup tremble.
Jenta couldn't ignore the heavy expectation and threw the bread on the floor a few more times.
Brown and Gibbs joined in to help him, throwing their own bread on the floor, and soon, the hall was filled with a heated excitement.
Even the waitress was peeking out from the back with an expectant look in her eyes, so they couldn’t stop.
And the bizarre bread-throwing continued for quite some time.
***
Razvet carefully read the paper, which was densely covered in text.
There was only one person who was a marquis or higher and possessed a large mercenary company.
‘Former king’ Edan.
The last king of the Bizantro Kingdom, which had resisted the Empire for over fifty years from the impregnable castle known as the Iron Shield, but had suddenly fallen to the Empire for some unknown reason.
A man who, after his kingdom was destroyed by the Empire, received the title of marquis and came under its rule.
He was also the master of a large mercenary company, as he had repurposed the remaining soldiers of the Bizantro Kingdom into one.
He matched the client’s description exactly.
‘What in the world is the connection with that Edan…?’
Unlike with Aron, there was a lot of information on Edan, so she looked through it slowly, but she couldn’t find the link.
However, the rumors related to the former king Edan were all brutal and full of malice, which made Razvet hesitate.
Of course, that hesitation was not born of fear.
‘There wasn’t just one circle. The other one was small, but it was clearly marked.’
If this was the person that ‘former king’ Edan was looking for, he was clearly no ordinary man.
If she could connect that thread to other places as well…
‘Blinded by ambition,’ Razvet continued to rack her brain, trying to find a way to make what she held in her hand even bigger.
Just then.
“You seem to have a lot on your mind.”
A voice from right in front of her made her hair stand on end.
She forced her stiff neck to move and raised her gaze.
The man who filled her thoughts was sitting across from her, staring at her.
“Because I wanted to see you.”
Razvet forced the corners of her mouth up and threw out an awkward joke.
Her eyes met the man’s, and feeling as if he were seeing right through her, Razvet bit her lower lip and looked away.
“Is that so? Then I’ll come tomorrow, too.”
The man spoke lightly, as if saying goodbye, and stood up from his seat.
His large frame completely blocked the wall behind him, and the moonlight that hit his body scattered around him.
As a result, his face was cast in shadow.
“This is a gift. It’s a specialty of our Catherdic Castle.”
The man pointed to the table, where two hideous-looking pieces of bread lay.
When Razvet looked up again, the man was already gone.
—*Then I’ll come tomorrow, too.*
The rough, grating voice filled her head.
There wasn’t much time. Razvet forced down her uneasy feeling and lowered her gaze back to the paper.
‘But why does he keep coming through the wall… No, wait a minute… that’s not the wall from yesterday, is it?’
Razvet whipped her head around.
The hole from yesterday was behind her.
Only then did she realize that the hole in front of her was a new one.
‘…If he comes three more times, this place will collapse.’
Razvet felt the man’s words as an even clearer warning.
She hastily revised her plan.
‘First, I’ll contact Edan’s side and gauge his reaction.’
Razvet once again habitually bit her lip.
***
‘Another fulfilling day!’
Gillian, who had energetically risen from his bed, stretched his body with a huff and a puff.
He then went to the table to fill his hungry stomach.
Seeing the two pieces of bread on the table, Gillian’s lips curled into a smirk.
‘Razvet definitely likes me.’
How many children should they have? Gillian sat at the table, deep in thought.
And, as always, he picked up a piece of bread in each hand and took alternating bites.
‘Bread is definitely best when you eat two at once… huh?’
The terrible taste instantly shocked his groggy mind awake.
With trembling eyes, Gillian carefully tore apart the bread in his hands.
Hidden between the large pieces of bread was a hideous fish head.
‘What kind of crazy person puts pickled fish in bread…?’
Gillian looked at the bread in his hands and thought seriously.
‘But I have to eat two pieces of bread in the morning… If I eat this, I might die…’
Just then.
“Gillian, who eats two pieces of bread in the morning?”
Razvet’s whispering voice came from behind him.
“It’s morning, so I have to eat two pieces of bread, right?”
Huh?
Feeling a cold sensation on the back of his neck, Gillian nodded desperately.
As he brought the bread to his mouth, Gillian made a vow to himself.
No matter how pretty she was, he would reject the heart of the clearly insane Razvet.