Chapter 148 – 148 – Mystery
“Damn it, I’m thirsty… Are you planning to dry me out like this?”
“Oh, yes. Here’s green tea. If you don’t like tea, can I get you some bottled water?”
“Damn it, I’m hungry! How long do you plan on starving?”
“You’ve only been here two hours, right? Um, would you like me to buy you some snacks in town?”
“Damn it, throw it all away. Just loosen the chains that bind me!”
“You’re not tied up…”
“···What is this? I don’t feel like I’m being unfairly imprisoned at all!”
“···Well, what should I do for that!”
A Tigris boy, who looks to be around seventeen at most, answers in a panic from behind the bars. With eyes that look like they are looking at Mr. Jinsang, who is harassing service industry workers.
It’s true that I’m acting like Jinsang, but I can’t bear to be lumped into the category of ‘Mr. Jinsang’. Not only is twenty-four not an old man, but my anger is righteous and justified. Of course, everyone in the world thinks like me, but that’s how I feel anyway.
This body is suitable as a porter. The lifting force is 10 times that of an ordinary person. This ability is not only useful when transporting objects. I can also lift my body while hanging somewhere with my fingertips, lighter than others.
Taking full advantage of that, I imitated a monkey. He hung on to the bars that imprisoned me and started causing a ruckus.
“Eshen! Where is that poop cat? Call me Eshen right now!”
“···I understand that he is calling me harshly since he is Gokju’s colleague, but he is not in a position where I can come and go if I come or go. I will tell him the message first.”
“If you want to call me, call me right now! You locked someone in a place like this and then they disappeared to somewhere!”
It seems a bit flashy to call it a ‘place like this.’ Although one side is blocked by a steel bar, it is as spacious as a hotel room and even has a silk bed and carpet.
Even saying it is a luxurious prison cell is not enough. It feels like a room that is thrown away to be quarantined when a valuable guest who cannot be taken to the detention center causes a disturbance.
In the past, when people from the Taiga family got really drunk and started acting out, or disobedient children like Eshen were banned from going out, they must have been locked up in a place like this.
It seems like they’re trying to accommodate my convenience as much as possible while holding Eshen back so I can’t go anywhere.
That kind heart somehow makes me even more angry. If I had been caught by a villain, I would have resented him as much as I wanted.
The pretty decorations swayed and fell due to my commotion. The Tigris boy who was assigned to watch over me looked as if he was sick of the ugly appearance of the porter who had been reduced to a foreign prisoner.
“Wow, I really don’t want to get old. I should never get old like that…”
“I don’t know if you’ll believe it, but he’s not that kind of guy. Take care of your dignity, you idiot! What kind of lively bullshit are you talking about in front of a much younger errand boy!”
The startled boy retreated to the wall and bowed his back. Eshen appeared majestically and walked confidently in front of the cage, flapping his coat of arms.
And I immediately caught the green tea bag that I threw at Eshen and handed it to the boy. I ducked slightly to avoid the two pairs of shoes I threw at them.
However, he did not avoid the water glasses that were thrown back and forth. When the heavy pottery bounced off Eshen’s sharp nose, both I and the Tigris messenger were startled.
“Why do you do that when you avoid everything?”
“It seems like you want to fit in. Are you feeling a little better now?”
Eshen, whose nose was slightly red, caught the spinning cup in the air and retrieved it. And then he pursed his mouth in a pout. With a terrible sound, the powdered pottery fell and scattered at Eshen’s feet.
My heart is broken by the overwhelming display of force, but I am sick of the attitude that seems to be trying to solve the problem by scaring me.
I tried to glare confidently at Eshen. Eshen, who was keeping his expression full of weight, chuckled at my helpless expression of anger.
“It’s okay if it’s cool. Just stay there for a few days. I told you to take it out if it doesn’t show any signs of running away, so listen carefully.”
“Take it out now.”
“What if I take you out? Where do you plan on going? To Tena?”
“Of course. If Thena is determined to destroy the ancient demon god in any way, I can never let her go to the dead alone.”
“Why don’t you just lie and say you’re going to see your younger brother who went to study abroad? That’s why we can’t let you go because that’s how you are.”
Eshen grunted.
“And, co-annihilation? I don’t know what nonsense that is, but it’s kind of funny. Everyone doesn’t know exactly what a demon god is. It’s a situation where we don’t know how strong it is or if it’s even alive in the first place. We’re going to eliminate the hordes of demons crawling out from under that temple. “I’m going. Of course, that alone is dangerous, so there’s a chance I won’t be safe. Isn’t the story about Thena fighting at the risk of death being a bit misleading? That’s what all warrior parties are like.”
“You think I misunderstood your readiness to face uncertain risks? That can’t be possible. I also heard this from Erinac Sophon, that stupid bastard who followed Thena. He definitely said, ‘Gunther Waldenhardt thinks of Thena as his rival.’ .”
“That tall porter with gray hair? What did you say, is it honestly my part-time job? I only know three things. One, our party leader Tena is gathering all the special combatants. Two, you were seriously injured recently. Three, you are. “You’re not a combatant and you’ve just woken up from a hospital bed, so I can’t let you go all the way to Daelan just because your friend from home is being sent on a mission.”
“I know three things. One, several of the special fighters who are the main members of our party recently entered the demon cave, and if it weren’t for my help, they would all have become worms in the demon cave. Two, I’m fine. It’s like I was just born. “My condition is vivid.”
“Oh, please. Don’t be such a bullshit. The seventh day’s ritual isn’t over yet, you idiot! Just stop here and rest!”
“Three, Tena is planning to use her life to stop the Demon God and the Demon King! A friend from my hometown! The hero who helped me carry that burden! Tena abandoned me! So open this right now!”
“You know what the plan is that I don’t even know about…”
Eshen was about to yell back but held back. And then I looked to the side for a moment.
The Tigris boy, who had missed the moment to leave, was glancing at the two of us with the most pitiful expression in the world. Eshen gestured quickly.
“Hey, I’m sorry. You can go. Good job.”
“Thank you!”
The scared guy jumped out the window. As the sound of the fallen creature getting up and running away died down, Eshen took a deep breath.
And then he let out a roar that sounded like the hallway was going to shatter.
“You’re talking about a plan that I don’t even know what it is!”
“I don’t know. Not knowing is the problem! If that guy does something, there must be a reasonable reason. It’s always been that way! But why does he always do something without even explaining the reason? Whether the person next to him is upset or not. “Are you saying you don’t even care?”
“How do I know that? I’m not his mother, so why are you mad at me!”
“Then why are you so angry!”
“It’s because you don’t even listen to what I say. You porter with a bag stuck in your ear! You’re so fed up, what can you say?”
“Are you sick of it? Who knows?”
“I hate you too, you bastard! You care about what you do, and what I worry about you doesn’t!”
As I pressed my face against the bars and screamed, Eshen also pressed his face in the same way. And when I kept quiet, Eshen also shut up.
As I sat down holding my head, Eshen also put his butt down on the ground and sat cross-legged.
“I’m sorry. I’m sure you guys are worried about me and want to leave me behind. Yelling at the people who care for me won’t solve anything.”
“I’m sorry too. I don’t like it and I’m not sick of it, so don’t make a sulky face. I knew you wouldn’t listen in the first place. If you were the kind of person who would back out in a situation like this, you would have kicked me out long ago. You are the only one in the Magol. “He probably just ran away to find a way to survive.”
When I sighed, Eshen sighed in the same way.
“Do you remember Bitserk? Vanir swordsmen, pirate thugs, and even a group of paladins gave you courage by glancing at you. To me, who knows your personality, it was funny, but everyone said, ‘The porter looked scared. “He acted like he wasn’t doing it and I can’t be scared.”
“Was it like that?”
“At first, I thought it was just bullshit. But when I learned the story of Tena leaving you unilaterally, it felt a little different. My dad once told me this. ‘Once a hunting dog is abandoned, its sense of fear fades. ‘Because I’ve already experienced what I fear the most.'”
“Are you comparing people to dogs?”
“Your courage has a pathological aspect. Don’t you notice it a little bit too? A guy who is useful enough to live quietly is fretting as if he will be abandoned again if he can’t prove his usefulness.”
Right. It might not have been the case under Adamantone, but it had been that way ever since I met Thena again. I couldn’t sit still and watch my colleagues being in danger.
“That’s why our party members agreed to the prescription for your confinement. Looking at your expression when we hinted that you were going to be left behind, it seemed like you were thinking of going with us, even if it meant secretly following along. Just like the children we put out on the water’s edge for a while. “It’s like it will disappear if you look away.”
“That’s right. I’m worried not only for Tena, but for you too. That’s why Nidro was going to follow her, even if it meant tying her body under her tail. In the end, she was trapped like this.”
“Under the tail? It gives me goosebumps.”
Eshen laughed lightly. And then he pushed my forehead with his finger.
“You know, Thena will be fine even without you. The Dragon Lord should also come with us. The Dragon’s Nest said they would provide a huge number of dragons for this operation. We also have Monica. She is the best healer who will save you no matter how you get hurt. Porter? “There is no need for porters anymore. There will be that gray-haired guy you mentioned earlier, and A-class porters will flock to help. There are more than 50 frontline hero parties gathered in Daelan.”
“It’s an incredible joint operation. It’s worth saying that we found the Demon God’s temple.”
“But even in that many parties, there won’t be anyone like Thena. To begin with, I’ve never seen a warrior as strong as Thena. People in the world treat bigwigs like the Dragon Lord and my mother as strong people outside the standard. But in my opinion, “Tena seems to be a person who is much closer to the line outside the standard than me or other special combatants. Are you worried that a guy like that will get killed or injured? That’s ridiculous.”
“Is Tena that bad?”
“It’s more than that. The story of you and that guy’s childhood is unbelievable. Even when you were a rookie, you were attacked by a low-level monster, so he abandoned your mission and barely escaped with you on his back? There was no party that would recognize your potential and recruit you, so you had to choose between the two at the temple. “Only one person managed to get treatment? Does this make sense? It was a widely accepted theory within the extermination party that he ate Leviathan meat as soon as he came out of his mother’s womb.”
“I don’t know about Leviathan, who lives in the deep sea, but he often ate the grilled fish I caught from the stream. There was a time when he cried because he was so scared of the fish scales that he couldn’t even touch them.”
As I chuckled, remembering a memory that was far from the accepted theory, Eshen made a lonely expression for a moment.
But even for a moment, Eshen lowered his head and bumped his forehead against me.
“Yes, the Tena you remember will always be a half-baked fledgling. But the Tena we have seen today is an invincible iron man. It may sound a bit harsh for a reassuring statement, but regardless of the presence or absence of a porter or two, the monster is like that. “It won’t affect his safety in any way. It won’t improve anything if you worry about it.”
“···Yes. You know Thena as a strong person much better because you have seen it longer than I have. I understand what you mean.”
“I hope you really understand, so I’ll just leave. I want to reassure you more, but I’m not good at that, and it’s already late. The dragons are waiting at the drake dock.”
Eshen gently squeezed my cheek and kissed my lips leisurely, in an manner that did not resemble someone with a schedule.
I let go of all the swelling in my heart and responded to Eshen. Their diagonally overlapping lips slowly caress each other, reaffirming their affection.
It’s sweet and warm, like the day we first kissed. The sooner a conflict is resolved, the better, and the sooner reconciliation begins, the better.
It seems I wasn’t the only one who needed peace of mind. Eshen looked at me with softened eyes and fell.
“Just stay here until I get back. I’ll be back soon.”
“Yes, but know one thing: I will never stop trying to escape and join you.”
“Do you want to do this until the end? We’ve even placed guards, so how are you going to escape?”
“That’s right. I don’t know what the porter should do to get past the Tigris pile and get out, and I don’t even know how to escape from here when I don’t have the key. It’ll work out somehow.”
“Do you really want to get hit?”
“Should I try sticking a hair in the lock? Or should I run a business here and try to bribe the guard? If you don’t come back for a few years, you might have succeeded in escaping at least once. You’ll be caught and brought back in less than a minute.”
“Are you serious or are you kidding?”
“Of course I’m joking. Hurry up and get there before I run away. Then I’ll be waiting quietly in this prison. Don’t get hurt, don’t take risks, and above all, don’t do anything weird and make me worry.”
Eshen, who was grumbling that it wasn’t fun, held on and eventually stood up, laughing. I patted Eshen a lot and ruffled his hair before he stood up.
“Love you.”
“Me too, you obsessive porter.”
Unlike his friend who fell through the window a moment ago, Eshen walked toward the door in the distance. And then he stopped walking with his back to me for a moment.
“If Thena is willing to die like Florica told you in the first place, then she will probably do her best to make sure no one can interfere with it. Even if you stick by her side, the result will be the same.”
“I guess so.”
“So, we, who are faster than you, will keep an eye on us to make sure we don’t do anything foolish. If you are dreaming of a glorious end for a hero or something, and if you are thinking of throwing yourself into a useless game of sacrifice that you have never done before, then me, Nidrogar, and Lenny. “In an instant, I’ll grab you by your hair, lift you up, tie you up tightly, and bring you here.”
Eshen looked back with a smile.
“I will definitely save Tena and come back with her, so when we get back, will you ask her if she had a good trip?”
“That’s as much as you want.”
“That’s enough. I’m really leaving.”
Eshen disappeared beyond the door.
Eshen’s footsteps fade away. The sound of our party members laughing and talking can be faintly heard in the wind. The dragon’s wings flap and a gust of wind blows leaves into the window. Soon dozens of giant wings joined the flapping.
Shadows pass by and dragons soar. The red scales brushing close to the window may be Nidroga’s own witty farewell message. If it was a parting greeting rather than a farewell, I would have said it more seriously than I did. When I think about it that way, it also seems like they are considering it to reassure me. ‘It won’t be that dangerous. I’ll be back soon.’
Now that Eshen has moved away and the dragons have moved away, it is time for the sun to move away. As the day of sizzling dissatisfaction recedes, a darkness that leaves your head as cold as it is.
And during that time, I had a lot of time to think. Honestly, what Eshen said is a hundred times correct.
As Erinak Sophon showed in the Great Siege of Linden, if I can do it, there is nothing that other professional porters can’t do. Since her colleagues who respect and care for Tena are by her side, she will not lose anyone as long as her fate does not force her.
But if that’s really the case, what’s holding me back?
Why do you wish I wasn’t there? Is it really because I’m a sick person in need of treatment?
Or are the people who agreed to change Thena with the world with tears in their eyes trying to separate Thena’s only remaining family from the scene of the terrible incident?
‘I think it’s the latter.’
– Why?
‘Eshen is not good at lying. The expression on his face when he promised to come back alive was a work of art. Who would believe you if you spoke as if you were squeezing it out with your tail hanging down? So let me ask you. ‘Do you know something?’
– What does what I said mean? Your resolve has already become firm.
‘If you’re going to make me the leader, you need to tell me that much. Is there a monarch who keeps the situation of the war a secret from his generals? I’ll ask again. The Demon God’s Temple that is said to have been discovered in Greater Elan is probably the ‘World Temple’, a sealing device designed by the dragon Rezandartam. Is that correct?’
– Well.
‘When the Demon God was defeated, the first Hero Edin disappeared from history. This is because Edin trapped himself in the sealing device and became the demon’s watcher. But Edin, who must have taken on the role of guard forever to prevent the bastard from waking up, crawled out at some point and went to look for Evenna, whom he loved. And she killed her porter who was crossing her body. Today, he has become the devil and wanders around the world exuding malice. They even grew to hundreds of people like meiotic paramecium. ‘What on earth happened?’
– I know. What happened?
‘One of Edin’s fragments confessed to me that he had fallen in love with a demon. Perhaps the demon god, who recognized Edin’s love for Evenna, persistently cajoled him into giving up his role as a jailer and becoming corrupted. Or, regardless of the temptation, due to the fundamental difference between gods and humans, a hero alone may not be able to permanently seal the demon god. What do you think?
– So far so good. Keep trying.
‘Then it’s purely my guess.’
– Exactly.
‘Tena succeeds Edin as the demon god’s jailer-‘
His blood is rushing. I quietly took a deep breath.
‘Since when? Since when has Thena been having such terrible thoughts? Even before she sent me to a compatible song? Or, since she joined me in the extermination party? How much do the extermination party members know about Thena’s intentions?’
– Is that important to you?
‘Of course it’s important, damn it! Why did TENA send me to her compatible song in the first place? Why did Edin invade the compatible song and wait for us? Just as Edin’s vice was Evenna, is it possible that Thena’s vice is me? Is that why Thena wants to evacuate me to a far, safe place, and is there more to Edin’s desire to kill me than a personal grudge against the porter? What about fucking Mithra? What on earth is Edin’s successor, Mithra, hoping for? ‘
– Is that important to you?
‘···Even though you’ve seen everything from beyond, why haven’t you told me yet?’
– If I tell you the reason honestly, what you hope for will not happen. A knight aiming for checkmate cannot explain his plan to his pieces. If a knight aims for the king’s back and shakes her hips, won’t the opponent be suspicious of the trick?
‘So now is the time to aim for checkmate?’
– But I won’t play chess like my younger brother. I am chaos, so it is up to you to decide the path. I will ask again too. Does what I say matter to you? What would you do if I scolded you for all your speculations and advised you to save your precious life instead of worrying about those mighty warriors? So are you going to obediently follow?
No. No way.
– I thought so. So what are you doing? Are you going to stay like an obedient child, just sucking your fingers, or are you going to be my general and spread variables and chaos into my controlled destiny?
“You say so.”
The prayer is over. The goddess’s voice can no longer be heard.
Of course, there is no need to hear any more. As the Goddess of Chaos said, her words are of no importance to me.
I am a porter. And I have a friend’s burden to bear.
“Are you going to just stay still and listen, Lilith?”
“I asked when you would call me. What should I do for you, master?”
Lilith’s voice echoes in my skull.
It seems that Eshen took my words seriously when I said I would not stop trying to escape. After Eshen left, guards began guarding the prison instead of foolish messengers.
The Tigris guard, startled by the pounding noise, bursts through the door. But it was already too late. The guard is surprised once by the fact that my cell is empty, and again by the fact that the prison bars are bent and bent like wire.
While the thoughtful guard quickly looked around to see how I could have escaped, I, who had been hiding in the shadow of the ceiling, landed lightly on the floor.
Then he silently attacked the guard and strangled him. The Tigris guard reflexively struggled and tried to hit me with his elbow, but my body skillfully crushed his carotid artery, causing him to faint in an instant.
In the end, the guard collapsed within seconds. Even though it was a one-sided fight, the difference in strength was enormous, so his forearm throbbed as if it was going to explode and his bone hurt like it was cracked. But no expression appears on my face.
It’s the carotid artery inside the neck. This was my first time knowing that the button to put people to sleep was in a place like that. It’s so amazing.
The reason why people say it’s amazing because I did it is because, strictly speaking, I didn’t do it.
Of course, Tan Bantai cannot defeat Tigris even if he dies and wakes up. The person who just moved my body was another guy.
Just as she did with Nidroga, Lilith, who possessed my body, spoke through my mouth.
“Letting you out? Easy. Get out without killing anyone? That’s difficult. Your body isn’t as strong as that dragon.”
It’s difficult, so I’m asking an expert. Even the one who was closest to the Demon Lord doesn’t have confidence in dealing with Tigris?
“Oh, you want to provoke? It’s effective. Watch carefully from behind. I’ll put on an easy, quick and cool escape show so that embarrassed cats will hide behind the cat tower.”
