172nd
Expanding the garden
172 – Expanding the Garden #2
A few days after receiving the gold from the Baron.
As I was walking down the street with Luna, I noticed that many people were wearing masks, robes, and ridiculous makeup on their heads.
“Luna, why are all these people doing that?”
“They’re having a festival soon.”
“What is a mask festival?”
“I don’t know either. But it seems like a festival where people wear masks and do weird things!”
A festival where people wear masks and do strange things? Luna’s explanation was difficult to understand because there were many confusing parts.
So, does this mean that there will be a big event in the city soon and that’s why people are wearing weird makeup?
I had enjoyed several city-scale festivals when I lived in Calcutta, the city before the labyrinth, so I quickly got used to it.
Carnival, harvest festival, thanksgiving festival, what-what festival, gettoda festival, etc.
They really do festivals for all sorts of reasons. It feels more like they are making up reasons to want to have a festival than it does to have a reason to have a festival.
I think that because there is a lack of entertainment, they hold grand events and festivals every season and every year, making a lot of noise and drinking.
Is this a mask festival?
Could you think of it as something like a city-wide masquerade ball? Like a Halloween cosplay day?
As a person who was a bit shy, I actually didn’t have much of a connection to festivals, whether on Earth or here. But this year, with the soft Luna by my side, I was looking forward to enjoying the festival.
festivities.
alcohol.
Hot night.
This is, you know, almost like a formula.
“Luna, it’s heavy… .”
Just then, Paranoy, who was walking behind us, grumbled. We were looking around the market and buying various things. It was because Paranoy was carrying all the stuff.
Making this little girl carry all the luggage. I don’t know if Luna and I will be looked down on as if we were bullies of Paranoy.
This was clearly the result of a game of rock-paper-scissors, so there was no way to change it.
“Come quickly, Paranoy. We have to build a fence before the sun sets!”
“Huhhh… . Huhhh… .”
But even in the world of ruthless competition, it seemed like a bit of a burden for a small paranoia to carry.
“Can I listen to you?”
“I, I dare not ask Hassan to carry your luggage…! I will make sure to carry it to the hut…!”
These days, Paranoy is like a faithful bread shuttle.
I guess that’s because I have no doubt that I’m the son of Pluto. I’m in the position of a leader. It’s a very complicated feeling since this kind of thing doesn’t happen often.
Eventually, Paranoy, exhausted from the heat, dropped his luggage, so Luna and I ended up splitting the luggage equally and heading to the cabin.
“The yard, gardening. The voodoo of gardening-.”
Even though she had to carry a lot of luggage, Luna’s steps were very light. Her pink hair, which was divided into two parts, swayed beautifully.
The reason is probably because Luna had finally created a garden in front of the cabin that she had been longing for. In fact, rather than calling it a garden, it would be more appropriate to say that it was a yard that was barely ten levels high.
Luna was so happy the whole time, as if those little pieces of land were huge gold mines, she didn’t know what to do.
Wow! Wow!
Luna soon poured out various things including wood onto a wide area.
“First, let’s build a fence!”
So we built a fence around the yard using wood, nails, paint, and sap.
It’s not that difficult of a task, as it involves simply driving flat wooden pieces deep into the ground and lining them up in a straight line.
Anyway, a small yard was created.
After selling the two gold bars I received from the Baron, I earned about 30 gold. I invested 20 of them to expand Luna’s cabin.
Luna kept asking me, “Hassan, is it okay if I spend money?” as if she felt bad about me spending a lot of money. On the contrary, I had no qualms about spending a lot of money.
There was something uneasy about having the gold bars I received from the Baron, so I wanted to use them up quickly.
Also, since this cabin itself was Luna’s, I was always concerned about living there.
I bought the land around here with my own money, so now it felt like our cabin, not Luna’s, and I was quite satisfied.
So I spent the whole day digging the yard and plowing the field, and I didn’t even realize how much time had passed.
Pass, pass-.
Luna continued to plow the field with a small hoe. 20 gold was quite a lot of money, so she could buy a fairly large garden and there was a lot to do.
“Garden. Heh, garden. I should plant potatoes. Round potatoes. Cannonball potatoes.”
Luna’s words were more like a spell than a song, with no consistent pitch or rhythm.
Luna doesn’t seem to be very good at singing.
“Hassan, look! There are ants! There are ants in my yard!”
“Yeah, if you dig the ground, you’ll definitely find ants.”
“Ugh… ants… ants… ! Get out of our land!”
Luna soon picked up a hoe and started digging the ground here and there to dig up the ant nest.
Luna’s appearance is the ants’ nightmare, the ruler of this small garden and the embodiment of destruction itself.
Pass, pass.
In front of Luna’s hoe, the uncivilized and small ants can do nothing but tremble.
Luna, the goddess of the courtyard, raises both hands high and smiles, revealing her sharp teeth.
“Hehehe, ants are no match for me!”
Luna, who had been digging the anthill with a hoe for a long time, smiled in satisfaction only after all the ants had run away and moved to the house next door.
“I won!”
“Well done.”
Honestly, Luna’s tension has been so high since she bought the land that I was worried. I guess she must be that happy.
“Luna-sama, there are ant nests here too, here too!! How dare you invade Hassan-sama’s territory without permission. This is unforgivable…!! I am truly angry…!!”
Paranoy also seemed to agree with Luna’s opinion, using his own hands to dig up the yard here and there.
A fairly deep and round anthill is revealed, and ants the size of fingernails are scurrying around inside.
Luna said after seeing that.
“Wow, what is this? These are horned ants! My yard was a battlefield of ants! It looks like the ants were waging the Trojan War…!”
“Luna, is this giant soldier ant the Achilles of the ants? This guy looks like a very strong ant… .”
“Achilles needs an opponent. Just wait and see. I’ll have to find a good guy.”
Luna and Paranoy soon began to capture the strong-looking ants one by one and began to fight them.
As I sat in the shade and watched that peaceful scene, I felt like laughing, but at the same time, my heart felt cold.
When I raise my head, I see the sky with the sun and clouds slowly drifting by.
perhaps.
Maybe I’m an ant too.
I wonder if we, who live fiercely on this earth, might look like ants in the eyes of some people.
“You’re telling an interesting story. Someone was talking about the fight between Achilles and Hector. Are you discussing the history of war?”
Just then a familiar voice was heard from beyond the fence.
I turned my head and saw Hippolyta, wearing her usual tough armor, peering at us from beyond the barrier.
“I heard you expanded the yard. It looks like you really bought some land. Looking at it like this, it really looks like a place where people would live. Can I come in?”
“no!”
“Then let’s go in.”
Without even listening to Luna’s words, Hippolyte entered the yard. Then, she looked at the ants Luna and Paranoy were handling and narrowed her eyes.
“I was wondering what you were talking about, and it was about ants. You’re naming ants after heroes. What kind of things are you doing, you little kids?”
“This is Hippolyte the ant.”
Luna picked up an ant from the floor and lifted it up. Hippolyta frowned as if she was angry at him.
“Hippolyte ants are bigger and stronger than that. If we have to compare, this guy is closer to Hippolyte ants.”
Hippolyte also knelt on the floor and picked up an ant in her hand.
Indeed, it was an ant with a name befitting of Hippolyta, with a mouth full of scary pincers. Its head also looked thick and sturdy.
He must be a successful guy who is clearly in the top caste among the soldier ants. You could say he is a gold tier ant.
“And these small, wiry-looking ants are Knoxdotty ants.”
Hippolyte picked up a small, tiny worker ant with her other hand. Hippolyte soon threw the two into a stadium made of sand and started a fight.
But surprisingly, the small worker ants won the fight against the soldier ants.
“… No, what is this?”
“Wow, I beat Hippolyta again!”
Luna was so happy at the sight that she raised her hand and didn’t know what to do.
“This is not a match, so it’s invalid. Hmm. Hmm.”
“No, Lady Hippolyte. You didn’t come here to start a fight between ants, did you? What brings you here in the midst of your busy schedule?”
I spoke to Hippolyte, who was talking nonsense in a panic, to help her. Hippolyte then shook the sand out of her hands.
“Yes, that’s right. Actually, Hassan, there’s something I need you to do. I always forget it when I get caught up in the atmosphere of Noxdotty.”
“Do you have any business with me?”
“From the royal city, two executors of the Knights Templar are said to be dispatched to Sodomora.”
City of Kings. Knights Templar.
My brow furrowed slightly at the unfamiliar keyword.
“What does that have to do with me…?”
“The guy being dispatched this time, the guy in charge of the Knights Templar’s Palseok, is someone with a close connection to the Grand Inspector Schizo. Unfortunately, he also has a deep connection to me.”
“okay.”
When I was about to let it go, thinking it would just be like that, Hippolyta added a word.
“I just wanted to let you know that I might come see you soon.”
You came to see me.
I thought about these guys called the Templar Knights.
Ten fighters gathered from all over the kingdom.
Each of them was said to be comparable to a gold tier adventurer, and they were the front line bastions protecting their faith and kingdom from all kinds of monsters, beasts, and heretics, including the cult of Pluto.
Two of those guys were dispatched to Sodomora.
What if he finds out I’ve been practicing necromancy?
You’ll be dragged to prison city right away.
And in a prison city filled with all kinds of vicious criminals, a soft, fake Samaritan like me would only be lunch.
“Why are you sending two of us from the Knights Templar to Sodomora?”
“that-.”
Just as Hippolyte was about to say something, someone else was quicker to speak.
“You know, it’s the same as killing ants in the yard. If you see an ant digging up your garden, wouldn’t it be natural to kill it by squashing it?”
There was someone standing beyond the fence.
Brown skin resembling Hippolyta, and pure white cloth clothes that barely cover the important parts.
A dark blue hair with a neat bang, a thick face, dark eyelashes. Overall, she was a beauty worthy of being depicted in an Egyptian mural.
But it didn’t feel obscene at all.
This was because countless letters and pictures were densely placed on her body, like ants. She even blew smoke out of the pipe she was holding in her mouth.
A tattooed woman with brown tan and smoking cigarettes.
She had all the symbols of a really strong woman, so I was so scared that I wanted to close my eyes. The concentration of a strong woman was too much.
“Antiope… I didn’t know you’d already arrived in Sodomora.”
“Sister, aren’t you being too cold to your younger sibling when you haven’t seen them in a long time?”
Is Antiope the name of that tattooed woman?
The tattooed woman pushed open the gate made in the fence and entered the garden. It was quite stuffy with so many people standing in the narrow garden.
The tattooed woman said.
“Cultists are like ants; if you don’t quickly crush them to death or burn them, they will multiply uncontrollably.”
And then he stomps on the ants with his feet and kills them. As a result, the Hippolyte ants and Luna ants are flattened to death in an instant.
“After torturing that Ankush guy, I got the impression that there is a leader of the cult in this city. I can see his face until I catch him, Sister.”
“O, O captain… .”
Paranoia suddenly starts shivering.
The brows of the tattooed woman Antiope furrowed as she held her pipe in his hand.
“Oh, there are nymphs. But you, why are you trembling like this? Are you a cultist? The only ones who are afraid of me are cultists.”
“Oh, no… I’m not a social person… .”
“Then why are you so scared? Am I going to eat you or something?”
“Well, I wasn’t scared… .”
Paranoy tried to sound strong, but it was obvious to anyone who saw that he was sweating profusely from fear.
“It’s different from the nymphs I know. It’s cute. It reminds me of the raccoon I raised.”
The tattooed woman soon lifted Paranoy’s body and hugged him tightly. It was a very pleasant sight, as if she was a woman who liked to hold a doll.
“The Templar Knights, the Templar Knights are attacking…!”
Looking at the glowing paranoia, I felt a sense of life.
If you are a member of the Temple Knights, you are the elite of the elite.
If a guy like that were to question my clumsy social paranoia, he’d end up saying, “Hassan, that bastard said he was Pluto’s son…!” and then I’d be dragged off to the prison city.
When Paranoy and I were so nervous.
Luna said.
“There are a lot of drawings on your body. Is it like witchcraft?”
Soon, Luna fearlessly runs her fingers over the tattooed woman’s body.
“The pictures seem to tell a story? They look like Ideopa murals!”
But the tattooed woman’s reaction was surprisingly ordinary.
“Yes, you’re very knowledgeable. I wrote down the monsters I’ve defeated and the tasks I’ve completed on my body like this. I engraved my karma on it. This one here is from when I defeated the two-headed demon of Pontus.”
Antiope points to her left forearm with her finger. Sure enough, that left arm was painted with the image of a woman slaying a two-headed snake.
Soon her hand moved towards her belly button.
“And here is when I killed the Titan descendant, Ogre Gagara.”
“What an interesting picture!”
“What’s more interesting is that it’s on my chest. I can’t show it to you because I have a man.”
Antiope’s blue eyes turned to me. At that moment, tension ran down the back of my head like lightning.
This is Hippolyte’s sister.
Is he a member of the Knights Templar, of which there are only ten in the kingdom? His attire, attitude, and composure are all those of the old.
“so.”
Antiope, the executioner of the Knights Templar, said.
“So you’re the guy who took down the schizophrenic grandmaster? I left a place deep inside my belly button for him.”
Antiope moved her hand and gently lifted the cloth covering her lower abdomen.
Swish.
Then, below her navel, near her lower abdomen, there was indeed an empty space where no picture had been drawn.
“Or, would you rather be filled in here? Samaritan Warrior.”
[Work Review]
Originally, what I had in mind was a novel with one sex scene every 10 or 20 episodes… I wanted to write it with the feeling of, “Let’s corrupt women with massages…”
It’s really difficult to say whether the probability of a rice cake is real….
