Chapter 60
Chapter 60 - Fantasy Cliché(1)
"Official Hero Park Jeong-Yong and Apprentice Hero Seolbaek. All clear. You may proceed."
Shortly after, we were able to enter Marktress and headed straight to the immigration checkpoint.
The magical circle surrounding me and Seolbaek slowly dimmed. The waiting guard and his deputy saluted.
I glanced at them and nodded slightly.
"Thank you for your work. Well then."
"Not at all. Loyalty!"
Heroes basically get free pass through immigration.
It's because we're supposedly called to save the world. Especially as an official hero, you don't even get body searches or transit fees.
There are other minor perks like new check card signup benefits, but they're not important.
Right. I'm not interested in such minor details.
"Um, but respected Hero."
"Yes?"
"Could we verify the identity of the white-haired woman behind you?"
"..."
"Well, since she's with you, respected Hero, she can't be dangerous... but there are formalities and procedures."
Damn it.
My plan to sneak Lucy through by hiding her behind us failed just like that.
This guard has surprisingly strong work ethic, despite not looking like it.
While I was caught off guard, Lucy in her robe behind me started poking my back.
"Hey Hero. What are you going to do now? Aren't we in big trouble?"
"Yes we are in trouble so shut up and let me think. You're disturbing me."
"How is your mouth so foul even when I'm trying to help?"
"Look who's talking."
"Hmph. Do as you please. If things go wrong, I'll stab you from behind so we can regress right away."
"Don't say creepy things."
While we were whispering and bickering, the guards were slowly approaching.
Woong. The deputy guard slowly chanted a magic spell. The magic circle slowly slid across the floor towards Lucy.
'I guess there's no choice...'
I was trying to avoid doing something this unseemly, but.
In this situation, I have no choice but to use my trump card.
"Wait."
"Hm? What is it?"
"Actually, we're not in a situation where we can afford to be searched right now. I'd like to pass through quickly."
The atmosphere instantly became tense.
The guards started fidgeting with their weapons with hardened expressions.
"What do you... mean to refuse inspection?"
"Please look at this first."
I blocked the approaching guards and immediately handed over a letter.
The guards looked puzzled at first when they saw the old letter. But after opening it, their eyes nearly popped out in surprise before they lowered their heads.
"We, we apologize! We didn't realize...!"
"Ahem. It's fine as long as you understand. So we can pass now, right?"
"O-of course! Loyalty!"
And so we were able to pass through inspection safely.
We've had similar inspections in villages and cities we've passed through.
However, checks often became lenient once they confirmed the official hero title. Even in strict cases like this, they would immediately back down when I pulled out my trump card.
"Hero."
After walking for a while, Lucy suddenly tugged at my sleeve and called me.
I turned my head slightly to look at her.
Red eyes like wild berries buried in snow. They were looking straight at me.
"What."
"What exactly did you show them that made those guys freeze up? Did you write insults about their parents?"
"Well..."
I waved the old letter I had preciously kept.
It was written in Paraiso's common language: 'From Margrave of Halcenberg, to my dear Red Wolf.'
I smiled cunningly and showed her the cold reality that works even in another world.
"I showed them the power of blood ties, regional ties, and school ties."
* * *
By the way, our journey was extremely pleasant, and one thing that greatly contributed to that was Seolbaek's cooking skills.
"Leave it to me. Could I ask you to gather ingredients from around, Jeong-Yong-nim?"
True to her words when she said she 'can cook a bit', she was really good at cooking.
Thanks to that, we could eat luxurious meals while camping. Sometimes it was even better than eating in villages, making us look forward to camping.
"Oh no, it's not that great..."
I remember her blushing happily when I praised her endlessly.
Though she was being modest verbally, that evening's dinner seemed particularly elaborate. From that day on, praising Seolbaek's cooking with various flowery words to get the best output(?) became part of our routine.
After all, while people might not care about other things, life becomes worth living when you appreciate good food.
How many days had passed like that?
Not long after entering Marktress.
We were able to arrive at a small city called Kern near the border.
"Wow. It feels like a proper city after so long."
"Indeed."
"Hmph. What a mouse-dropping sized town."
As the Demon King said, Kern was smaller than Halcenberg territory in terms of size.
But Marktress itself is more than 4 times smaller than other countries. It only takes about a week on foot to reach the capital from this border city of Kern.
So to be precise, it's not small for a Marktress city.
And one more thing.
This was also a place where the Margrave's words about "significant cultural differences between countries" became immediately apparent.
"Wow. The building style here is similar to my hometown! I miss it!"
Seolbaek kept looking around and said in a delighted tone.
It was exactly as they said. Marktress had buildings and clothing styles that mixed fantasy and oriental elements. It was worlds apart from Halcenberg, which was a completely traditional fantasy.
The people strutting around have colorful hair and big noses, and it feels like martial arts were forcibly mixed into the setting. [TL/N: gat no clue]
'This is quite interesting.'
I also admired and greedily memorized each person's appearance one by one.
'Activate Mimir's Eye.'
Of course, what I was memorizing wasn't just what was visible on the surface.
This was one of the things I never failed to do whenever I visited a village - gathering information about the village.
Information is crucial.
The reason I could break through Leira of the sewers, eliminate Eldritch, and escape Halcenberg was all because I had better intelligence than my opponents, based on information from my previous life.
'I know the importance of information better than anyone.'
Especially since our group knows nothing about the country of Marktress. All we know is that it's a country attached to the western continent.
So first, we need to know exactly about this country.
As I looked intently, detailed information panels about this country began appearing one after another.
It seems I'm getting quite used to this after doing it for so long.
[Detailed Information - Marktress]
[1. A country of knights founded by Crossfade, the last of the giant race. The entire nation reveres martial arts, and they've developed qi techniques (氣空術) that transform magical power into physical strength.]
[2. The core of the nation is the 'Kavalier', consisting of 100 elite knights. Each Kavalier possesses the military might of an entire army. The Kavalier membership changes dynamically based on performance in the nationwide martial arts tournament, 'Mushinje (武神祭)', held every four years. Kavaliers are not only the heart of Marktress' military power but also politicians with electoral rights.]
[3. While Marktress officially has no class system except for Kavaliers, there's a custom of categorizing people according to martial prowess. Those who haven't taken the evaluation test to determine their rank are not treated as people in Marktress.]
[4. Regardless of weapon choice, martial ranks progress from lowest to highest: Fighter, Warrior, Master, Supreme, Martial Saint (武聖), Martial Immortal (武仙), and Martial God (武神).]
'It's a macho country.'
Instead of having elections every four years, it's a country that decides its politics through fighting.
Well, thinking about it, is Hell Joseon any different? Maybe it's better to just let them fight and choose the winner rather than elect someone who'll end up fighting anyway.
'...Let's gather a bit more information.'
That's enough for a general description of the country. Now it's time to gather more specific information.
I stared intently at each passing person, bringing up their status windows.
[Character Information]
[Name: Kalek]
[Title: Wandering Spearman, Warrior]
[LV. 31]
[Name: Trixie Wintergard]
[Title: 127815932nd Hero, Witch of the Borderlands, Supreme]
[LV. 113]
[Name: Owl Cedric]
[Title: Skilled Qi Practitioner, Master]
[LV. 77]
[Name: Jermi Balkin]
[Title: 151668943rd Hero, Apostle of Casas, Master]
[LV. 92]
Among the pedestrians were both heroes and ordinary citizens. Their levels varied greatly.
However, one characteristic was that the civilians' levels were significantly higher than in other regions. It seems they weren't joking when they said the entire country reveres martial arts.
And one more important characteristic was...
'It's true. They all have ranks.'
Ranks were inscribed at the end of their Title entries.
It seems that not only the locals but also heroes who've established themselves here have all taken the evaluation test.
'Well, they did say you're not treated as human if you don't take it....'
We don't know how long we'll stay here yet. After buying travel supplies, I should go take that test right away.
Having set my immediate goal, I nodded and led Seolbaek and the Demon King through the streets of Kern.
"We're selling! We're selling!"
"We have fine silk that just arrived from the capital!"
We headed straight to the market to replenish our depleted travel supplies.
Perhaps it's evidence that we've gotten used to traveling over the past month - it's become a habit to replenish consumables first whenever we enter a town.
And the moment we entered the market, which looked like something out of a martial arts novel...
[The immortal return point has been updated.]
[Time - Continental Calendar 1108, January 12th, 10:10 AM]
[Location - Marktress, Upper Promise Plains Region, Small City Kern Commercial District 1]
"..."
Such a panel suddenly appeared before my eyes.
I stopped dead in my tracks, my mind going blank for a moment.
"Uh... um..."
I decided to try denying reality first.
I rubbed my eyes and opened them again. But the panel was still there. I pinched my cheek. It hurt.
This is reality. Undoubtedly reality.
"Why are you suddenly standing there blankly, hero?"
Lucy, who was following behind, asked as I stood there dazed.
I decided to hold onto my last thread of hope, just in case.
"Hey Lucy, did you reset the return point when we came in here?"
"Does magic power come from digging the ground?"
"..."
That's true too.
Which means the current return point update wasn't the Demon King's will.
And that means...
'...Danger is approaching?'
After glancing at the puzzled faces of the Demon King and Seolbaek,
I quietly observed the bustling market scene with cold eyes.