Chapter 807 – #168_Overseas Travel (3)
#801
1.
Siwoo and his group briefly landed in Ulaanbaatar before taking off again for Khovd Airport.
Their private jet could have flown directly to Khovd Airport, but they needed to pick up the jeeps they had arranged to be shipped as air cargo.
It was the same badass jeep with wheels up to their waists that they had used to cross the desert before being captured by Hexen Nacht.
Mongolia was a vast country, and it would take two full days by car from Khovd to reach Tavan Bogd National Park, so it was a necessary procedure.
After going through immigration at Khovd Airport, they immediately transferred to their teacher’s beloved jeep and headed further west.
The western part of Mongolia, being landlocked and at a high altitude, was very dry and, despite being November, incomparably colder than Korea. The thermometer inside the vehicle showed an outside temperature of -11 degrees Celsius. It was already this cold with the sun still up, so it would only get colder after sunset.
The paved roads soon disappeared, and they were replaced by bumpy unpaved roads that made their butts bounce.
On both sides of the road, endless expanses of yellowing, dying weeds stretched across the plains, with relatively low, rounded mountains in the distance.
It was a majestic, primeval grassland that made one question if this was truly the real world. The wind blowing from the horizon where the grasslands and mountains met the crooked sky felt like the breath of a giant. Perhaps due to the weather, white clouds billowed like breath on the intensely blue sky, almost hurting the eyes.
If one closed their eyes for a moment, it felt like the sound of horses’ hooves shaking the earth would echo in their ears.
As Siwoo stared blankly out the window, losing track of time, Elroa peeled a tangerine and put it in his mouth, asking, “What are you thinking about?”
“I was thinking about a Cyburger.”
“……?”
He actually hadn’t been thinking about anything. It seemed the environment could even affect one’s thoughts.
Even though the weather was a bit hazy, traversing the grandeur of nature made him feel like all his worries were disappearing.
Everyone was quiet, so he glanced in the rearview mirror. Amelia, Sharon, Luelle, Dorothy, and Linne were all leaning against each other in the back seat, fast asleep.
Even if they were spirits, it seemed they couldn’t escape the fatigue of travel. They had been chatting intermittently until halfway, but now they were all dozing off, their heads resting on each other’s shoulders.
2.
Sleep wasn’t a necessity for spirits.
But wasn’t this a rare trip?
To have a good trip, it was important to be with good people, but it was also important to get adequate rest. Rather than rushing to their destination, they decided to stop by a river and camp for the night.
They set up tents on the ground, where the interwoven roots of grass provided a soft cushion, and sat around a campfire with blankets draped over their shoulders.
As they drank the hot coffee that Amelia had brewed, Dorothy, with her usual good sense, took out marshmallows and skewered them on chopsticks to toast over the fire.
“You’ve worked hard driving all day.”
“It’s nothing, I should do what I can.”
“It’s a bit of a shame. If we had come in the summer, we could have seen the wildflowers blooming all over the fields.”
According to their teacher, the flowers bloomed from their feet to the horizon across the vast plains, as if the goddess of flowers had breathed life into them.
“Siwoo, do you want to see flowers?”
Amelia, who had been looking around, suddenly chimed in from the side.
“Are you going to use magic?”
“It’s not that hard.”
“…I appreciate the thought.”
Amelia, who had suffered the most from motion sickness today, should rest comfortably. She had been glancing towards the tent for a while now, so she probably wanted to rest more.
“Hmm, this is another delicacy that can only be tasted on the ground. Dorothy, one more!”
“Yes~ Yes~”
Luelle was eagerly eating the marshmallows that Dorothy was grilling. There was even a slightly burnt marshmallow floating on top of her cocoa.
Siwoo had become quite fond of sweets after his time as a slave, but eating them like that seemed like it would give him heartburn.
“……”
Linne was holding a steel mug of coffee with both hands, gazing endlessly at the sky.
They had just chosen a random river to camp by, but the sky over the grasslands was incredibly beautiful. It was as if someone had finely crushed a silver coin and scattered it over a piece of iridescent mother-of-pearl.
Linne’s black eyes, gazing at the stars, shone like the night sky.
“Are you looking at the constellations?”
“I don’t know much about constellations.”
Linne, who looked like she would remain frozen in that position forever if no one disturbed her, met Siwoo’s gaze as soon as he spoke.
“But it’s beautiful. It’s been hundreds of years since I’ve felt something was beautiful while looking at the night sky.”
The curse of deprivation didn’t just take away pleasure. It meant that even when looking at the night sky in a pastoral setting, she only felt complete apathy.
“If I hadn’t met you, my lord, I wouldn’t have been able to feel this emotion.”
“Um… I didn’t really do anything.”
“Thank you again.”
Siwoo always felt awkward when he received praise or honest expressions of gratitude. Because of that, he almost said, ‘If it weren’t for Linne, I wouldn’t have been able to feel the joy of Teacher’s rice bowl, so it’s a fair exchange, isn’t it?’
“Huh? Is that a shooting star?”
Just then, Sharon, who had suddenly stood up, pointed to the night sky.
“Wait a moment.”
Elroa, who had suddenly realized something, used a simple spell to extinguish the campfire, leaving not even a spark.
“Uwaaa! What are you doing! You’ve so cruelly destroyed my marshmallow hearth…!”
“Luelle, look at the sky.”
There was a reason.
Western Mongolia in November was the best place to observe the Leonid meteor shower.
They couldn’t see the wildflowers, unfortunately, but the fickle Leonid meteor shower was decorating the sky beautifully tonight.
The trails of stars streaking across the endless sky were like fireworks, constantly flowing.
“It’s beautiful….”
Everyone looked up, gazing at the beautiful scenery.
“Make a wish, make a wish!”
Sharon, who was very excited, jumped up and down, closed her eyes tightly, and clasped her hands in prayer.
Could it be that even a witch who had touched the mysteries of the world believed in superstitions? The others also closed their eyes for a moment.
Siwoo looked around at his companions, each making their own wishes, and then closed his eyes.
Not everyone was here, but each and every one of them was a precious connection. Even if a long time passed and the world looked different from now.
A peaceful life that he wanted to protect, even at the cost of his own life.
It felt like he was always thinking the same thing, but he wished that this peace would last for a long, long time without being broken this time.
3.
As soon as they got out of the tent, they filled the jeep with the gas they had brought and got in.
After driving for 12 hours without encountering another vehicle or person, they began to see five tall mountain peaks covered in snow.
The name ‘Tavan Bogd’ of Tavan Bogd National Park meant five peaks, so they had reached the vicinity of their destination.
“We’ll have to walk from here.”
Elroa, who had been looking at the map from the passenger seat, said.
The distance from their current location to the workshop was 200km as the crow flies.
If the people in this jeep were ordinary, it would be quite a long journey.
However, even Sharon, who was the lowest in terms of simple rank, was a great witch. Even considering the fuel efficiency of magic consumption, they could reach it by running in two hours.
As they continued to run west, the dry grass disappeared, and in its place, barren, skeletal permafrost and gravel roads appeared. By this point, even though they were outcasts, they couldn’t help but wonder, ‘Can anyone really live in a place like this?’
The group, feeling the refreshing wind brushing past their ears, suddenly stopped.
“It seems to be over there.”
On the permafrost where no trees or grass could be found, a dense larch forest suddenly appeared.
Looking at the GPS coordinates and the circumstances, it was certain that the ‘Soul Witch’s’ workshop was inside.
“Won’t she run away? I’m a little worried.”
They had mobilized as much manpower as possible because of the previous incident where they had been kidnapped from the current world to Hexen Nacht.
But looking at the members, it was like they were about to wage a war. Moreover, there was their teacher, who was a symbol of fear for outcasts and enemies, and Linne, who was feared by all witches.
In the worst-case scenario, the Soul Witch might be frightened and go into hiding. But if they left some of them behind, the effort they had put into ensuring safety would be wasted.
“How about we leave the letter of introduction open? If she’s watching, she’ll recognize it.”
“That’s a good idea.”
As their teacher suggested, they put away their weapons and minimized their use of magic to avoid unnecessary caution. They entered the forest with Yebin’s letter of introduction displayed prominently.
The cold that had been so harsh just moments ago became surprisingly mild as soon as they stepped into the forest. It was a dense primeval forest, so it was dark and complicated like a maze, with no paths.
“We’ve come with an introduction from Yebin Smirna! We have no intention of fighting! We want to receive treatment! We will pay!”
Siwoo, who had lit a few decorative lights, held up the letter of introduction and shouted like a tofu seller as he moved forward.
How long had they walked like that?
There was no response. The quiet bushes, huddled together, swallowed all sounds without an echo.
“Are you there!!!”
-Rustle
Just as his throat was starting to hurt, the group, who had been on guard, immediately focused their attention on the sound they heard.
“Hmm?”
But what was there was not a wild animal or a witch.
“Honey?”
It was a pig. But not just any pig.
It had wings like a Pegasus and a horn in the middle of its forehead like a unicorn. It was a pig with the cuteness of a mascot on a pork product package. Of course, it was not a naturally occurring creature.
“A homunculus…?”
All the homunculi they had met so far had been monsters, but this one was kind of cute. Its eyes were gentle, and it seemed like it could be kept as a pet.
“Oink?”
The pig tilted its head again and then smiled with a friendly expression, like a pig’s head placed on an ancestral rite table. A pig smiling was hard to believe, even if it was a homunculus.
“Oink!!!”
As if asking to be hugged, the pig jumped up, and a pure white light enveloped its body. Elroa was the only one who belatedly realized its identity, as she had memorized the database of major ‘named’ homunculi.
“Everyone, be careful…!”
Before she could say anything, the white light emitted from the pig enveloped the group like a flashbang.
