Chapter 139
Chapter 139
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 139
Chapter Title: The Price of Meat
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Snap—
Rip—
After tearing the paper wrapper, he peeled back the foil.
A rectangular bar of chocolate was half-revealed.
"Want a bite?"
Do-jae dangled a piece of chocolate temptingly before the child.
However, the reaction wasn't particularly positive.
"What is that! No! I don't want it!"
The child scowled, not letting down his guard.
Do-jae realized his mistake. To someone who knew the taste, nothing was as sweet and smooth as chocolate, but to this child, it was just a hard, flat, black stick.
It didn't have a strong or stimulating smell, either, so there was nothing to pique his interest.
Realizing his error, Do-jae retrieved another food item from his subspace.
Or rather, it was more of an ingredient.
"How about this?"
A large slab of meat in a clear plastic bag.
He had packed it in advance, considering various situations.
"Meat?"
The child showed interest.
Any intelligent, humanoid creature couldn't help but be interested in this meat.
Because this slab was a whole cut of pork belly, one of the most beloved cuts by Koreans.
It was top-grade pork, with a perfect ratio of fat to lean meat.
"Just wait a moment. I'll cook it up deliciously for you."
Scrape—
Do-jae dragged over a flat stone from the many scattered nearby.
Seeing this, the child became even more wary, but he only held his stance, glancing at the ingredients in Do-jae's hand.
*Fwoosh—*
*Sshhh—*
Do-jae used wind magic to dust off the stone slab, then water magic to wipe it clean.
*Fwoom—!*
Then, he used fire magic to begin heating the stone.
Do-jae preferred using magic for practical, everyday purposes rather than for combat.
Thanks to this, the skill levels of his offensive spells, aside from the basic ones, rose slowly. But Do-jae's true calling was that of a Golemancer.
It was more effective for him to hunt and level up using his golems.
*Thump—.*
*Sizzle—.*
As Do-jae placed the pork belly on the stone slab, it immediately began to cook.
The sound of sizzling pork belly was enough to make one's mouth water.
When Do-jae glanced up, he could see the child's Adam's apple bobbing.
"It's almost ready. Just a little longer."
Do-jae had received a dagger from Ha Tae-seong in exchange for Sraka's Fang.
While it might be inadequate against monsters, it had no problem slicing meat.
He sprinkled Himalayan pink salt over the thickly sliced pork belly, and once it was grilled to a golden brown, he picked up a piece with chopsticks and offered it to the child.
"Here, try it. Here you go…"
*Snatch—!*
The child grabbed the thick piece of pork belly with his bare hands and popped it into his mouth.
Do-jae had used chopsticks thinking it would be hot, but the child chewed nonchalantly, savoring the taste of the meat.
Then again, he was unharmed by the Thunder Tiger's lightning, so this level of heat was probably nothing to a Titan.
"Eat as much as you want."
At Do-jae's words, the child's hands moved toward the stone slab.
He grabbed two, then three thick slices of meat at a time and stuffed them into his mouth.
It took him a mere three minutes to devour the entire two-kilogram slab of meat.
As the child was about to lick the remaining pork grease from the stone slab, Do-jae barely managed to stop him, pulling out a new slab of meat and waving it.
"Finished already?"
"Yeah! Is there more?"
The child nodded with an innocent expression.
But Do-jae put the remaining meat back into his subspace.
"Why! Cook more!"
"Why should I?"
"Huh? Well… because…"
The child was at a loss for words.
Even he must have had enough of a conscience to find it difficult to ask for more for free.
Hadn't he already brazenly snatched the stew and rice?
"And are you going to eat it all yourself? What about your family?"
"Dad? I think Dad would like it too…"
"Right? You're a good kid. In that case, will you take me to where you live?"
"Take you there?"
The child, who had been nodding eagerly, paused.
He wore a thoughtful expression before speaking.
"But… Dad will probably hate humans… No, everyone will hate them."
"Then how about this?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Do-jae infused mana into a ring.
It was the ring he had received as a gift from Sari, which he'd taken out along with the earring.
The ring, now saturated with mana, glowed faintly and began to alter Do-jae's appearance.
His already fair skin turned even paler, almost to the point of being chalky, and his eyes, nose, and mouth grew larger and more defined.
Finally, when his ears grew to a point, Do-jae had become a completely different person.
"Whoa? Your ears got long!"
"This is the appearance of an elf, like you mentioned. Your dad will know about elves, right?"
"Um… probably?"
When the child had asked if Do-jae was an elf earlier, his reaction hadn't been hostile.
That meant he held no ill will toward elves.
Or perhaps he had no feelings about the race at all.
"Then I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention that I'm a human."
"Okay! I promise!"
Fortunately, the child agreed easily.
Perhaps that was why.
For some reason, it felt like he would break that promise just as easily.
- *Promises are important to Titans. It is trust and faith that allows them, a minority, to maintain their strong bonds. They treat the rule of a promise as strictly as their own lives. That's why they don't make them lightly. Is it because he's a child?*
Altein's words were somewhat reassuring.
Even as a child, he probably wouldn't take the rules of his entire race lightly.
"You have to promise, too!"
"Promise what?"
"That you'll give me lots of meat! And that you won't hurt my dad!"
The child clenched his fists, ready to fight at a moment's notice.
Thinking that cherishing one's family was the same for any race, Do-jae replied with a gentle smile.
"I promise."
"Great! Then… hold out your palm."
"My palm?"
Do-jae did as the child said, opening his palm wide.
The child then bit his own finger and smeared a drop of the resulting blood onto Do-jae's palm.
"This is proof of our promise. I saw the adults make promises like this. And they said it hurts a lot if you break it."
Looking at his palm, Do-jae could feel the mana contained within the drop of blood.
It must be a form of contract magic.
For Do-jae, erasing a contract of this level would be a simple matter of overpowering it with force, but he decided to leave it be for the sake of the child's innocence.
"Should I do it too?"
"Yeah!"
Do-jae also bit his finger to draw blood.
He had seen many scenes in movies and dramas where characters bit their fingers to draw blood, just like the Titan child before him.
Wasn't it common for writing pledges in blood or leaving messages?
However, biting his own finger for the first time was quite painful.
Even for Do-jae, who had been torn, broken, and shattered countless times, the self-inflicted pain was surprisingly sharp.
*Drip—*
Do-jae let a drop of his blood fall onto the child's finger.
He didn't know contract magic or anything of the sort, so it was just a plain drop of blood.
But the child seemed satisfied, smiling as he said.
"Alright, I'll take you there now."
Getting to Elatra's temple would be slightly delayed, but it was necessary to stop by the Titan village.
As he investigated the situation unfolding here, it would surely lead back to Havik.
Without someone's intervention, how could a chain of villages be destroyed like this?
Do-jae spoke to the child.
"Let's go, Theus."
"Huh? How do you know my name?"
"I just do."
***
A massive tiger appeared in the distance.
However, the tiger wasn't walking on its four paws; it was being dragged by someone who had slung it over their shoulder.
"Theus is back!"
"Ooh! That kid finally did it! He passed his coming-of-age ceremony!"
Two men cheered, waving their hands.
They stood atop a magnificent wall that must have been nearly twenty meters high.
Yet, it didn't feel all that tall, because they were giants—Titans—standing three to four meters tall themselves.
"Uncle Apiles! Uncle Oidas!"
Lifting the Thunder Tiger high, Theus beamed.
Now that he had successfully completed his coming-of-age ceremony, he was an equal member of the Titan warriors, no matter how young he was.
The way Apiles and Oidas looked at Theus was different from before.
"But who's that little guy next to Theus?"
"Yeah? Who dares try to set foot inside our walls?"
The two of them glared at the figure walking alongside Theus.
He was wearing a robe, so they couldn't see his face, but judging by the fact that he was walking upright on two legs, he didn't seem to be a monster.
"Let's go down and check."
At Apiles's words, the two descended from the wall.
Then, with seemingly no effort, they opened the iron gate that was half the height of the wall.
*Creeeeak—.*
"Uncles! I'm back!"
*Thud—.*
Theus threw down the Thunder Tiger and ran over, chattering away excitedly.
He talked about how he had spent the week in the rainforest, how he'd lost all his food to monsters while chasing the Thunder Tiger, and how he had finally killed it and plucked its whiskers.
Theus's boasting went on and on.
Apiles and Oidas listened attentively to his story.
After all, the son of their comrade and the village's greatest warrior, Harkes, had returned safely.
However, they didn't let down their guard against the robed figure standing off to the side.
"That's enough, kid. Stop your rambling. That's only natural for a Titan warrior!"
"That's right, we all went through that when we were young. It's nothing to brag about."
"But you guys were older than me when you did it, right? I'm probably the youngest warrior of all time!"
"Hahaha! That's true!"
"For Harkes's son, that's to be expected! My boy should be having his ceremony soon, too…"
"You mean Jetoas? He's still got a long way to go! He's weaker than me. Anyway! There's an adventurer I want you to meet…"
Theus turned his head to look behind him and waved his hand, signaling for the figure to come over.
*Drag, drag, drag—*
"Ho! The little guy's strong!"
"Theus, who is that?"
The robed figure was dragging the Thunder Tiger with one hand.
This person, who was barely half their size, was pulling the massive body of the Thunder Tiger with a single hand.
"This is a high elf! His name is Kuhtan."
*Thump—*
Having reached the Titans, Do-jae dropped the Thunder Tiger.
Then he pulled back the deep hood he was wearing.
"Adult Titans are huge…"
Do-jae tilted his head all the way back to look up at Apiles and Oidas.
When they leaned down, their shadows completely enveloped him.
"What business does a high elf have here?"
Apiles asked, his eyes wide.
Theus had only said they disliked humans; he never said they liked elves.
Do-jae immediately got the impression that Titans were an exclusionary race.
"I am an adventurer who wanders the continent. I happened upon Theus in the rainforest and shared my precious food with him. I've come to collect payment for it."
"What? Is that true, Theus?"
"Wait! Didn't you give it to me for free? I told you I was hungry…"
"When? Did I ever say that?"
"You…!"