The wandering poet
dripping.
As soon as I woke up, I looked for my sword.
I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead, feeling relieved by the cool sensation.
“It’s a good morning for prayer.”
As I opened the door, I barely managed to hold back my punch at the abbot’s uselessly noble face.
Ignoring the babbling, I head towards the backyard, pushing my body beyond its limits and collapsing.
“The sun always shines, wherever it may be.”
Receiving treatment from noisy medical staff.
“here.”
Drinking beer that makes my upper body float.
I went to work.
‘Crazy… What a wonderful abbot. He managed to sneak into our daily lives so cleverly.’
I changed my boots, furious at what I had discovered at headquarters.
“Captain, are you here?”
Brick, who usually smiled brightly, greeted me with a dark face.
“Why is your expression like that?”
“that is···.”
Brick hesitated and trailed off.
I didn’t bother to ask, but I changed into the other boot. Soon, I felt an unpleasant dampness and kicked the wall with my boot to shake off the dirt. There was already a lot of dirt at the bottom of the wall.
“That… Chief. Is there more to that?”
“that?”
“Yes. That’s it. That.”
“What is that?”
“That… powder.”
“Ah, goblin pepper powder.”
“···yes?”
“Aren’t you talking about goblin pepper powder?”
“That’s right, but the name is···.”
Brick, whose eyes were as round as my face, trailed off.
“But I sold them all.”
“Ahh… is that so?”
It was quite funny to see Brick sighing, who was not very good at hiding his feelings.
“But there is oak pepper powder.”
“Oh… Are you talking about orcs?!”
Brick, who looked as if he had lost the world, raised his voice and asked again.
“Yeah. I think it’s more like an orc than a goblin. The size is different too.”
“···Can I buy some? No, I’ll buy them all!”
‘This kid is desperate. Did it work?’
I was going to tease him a little, but I swallowed it hard because his expression was so serious. It was something I couldn’t tease him about as a man.
“Okay. I’ll give it to you if you bring me the grass.”
“Ahh! As expected, it’s the captain! Thank you so much, captain!”
I was so startled when the guy suddenly tried to hug me that I threw my fist.
The guy who got punched in the face fell to the ground with an “Aw!” sound.
“That’s a joke···.”
“It really hurts, Commander.”
The guy with round, tearful eyes got up grumbling.
“Why are you doing what is right?”
“···That’s true.”
Brick nodded as if he understood what I said.
If he had been a mercenary, Brick would have been speechless even if he had just been stabbed in the stomach.
“But why the red pepper powder?”
“That···is a little embarrassing···.”
Brick spoke slowly and hesitantly.
The day I ate that chili powder and met Charlotte, she had a particularly good reaction. My shoulders felt tense for no reason and my voice seemed to have gotten deeper, but the problem was that when I met Charlotte again the next day…
He said it wasn’t the same then.
‘It really works.’
I listened to Brick’s story with a small sigh of admiration.
I thought it was just for confidence, but I was surprised that it was more effective than I thought.
“So if I could get a little more···.”
“Okay, I’ll tell Poole.”
“···Thank you very much, Captain.”
Brick, who was expressing his gratitude again, had the face of a wounded man. There was something in it that a man like him could not ignore.
He patted Brick on the shoulder and stood up. Brick’s drooping shoulders rose a little.
I went in to report to the captain.
A captain in plain clothes and without armor greeted us.
“Captain Aaron! Captain Aaron, whom I trust…”
The captain patted my shoulder with his greasy, shiny hand and went on and on about how much he trusted me and how much he expected of me.
Just when he was about to decide to slap a pig with one more word, the captain stopped talking.
One thing that caught my eye was amazing.
“Oh, and Aaron. I heard that the inner Nova is looking for you. You should go there first.”
‘Orange?’
I seriously considered the captain’s words to see if there was a wall I had broken down. Since there was nothing particularly bothering me, I nodded.
I told Brick to go on patrol first, then headed to the inner castle.
Unlike the outer side, which was always the same, the inner side was busy. Since the demon had invaded the inner side, it seemed that the damage was greater than the outer side.
Two men with a strangely heavy air were standing guard at the inner gate.
Among them was the illegitimate child, Jace Square, whose expression was heavy, unlike his usual arrogant self.
“···commons.”
Jace looked at me and bit his lip slightly.
“Illegitimate child squared.”
“···.”
Jace hesitated for a moment, then looked away without responding.
I wondered if he remembered that I had hit him, but I didn’t really care if he remembered, so I just let it go.
‘I’m familiar with this place now.’
I moved with heavy steps towards where Nova was.
Knock. Knock-knock.
This time I knocked at a different rhythm.
“Come in.”
I opened the door, trying to remember the rhythm of the knocking just now, as I heard a strangely gentle voice different from usual.
Nova was sitting as usual.
However, unlike usual, when the desk was clean, there were nut shells all over the desk.
“Ahem···.”
Nova, who had discovered me, straightened her posture and straightened her shoulders. Nova, who had assumed a pose for a ID photo, stared at me with a strange look in her eyes.
The look in his eyes was similar to a refrigerator making ice and looking at me.
“An orange with corrected posture?”
“···.”
I thought that was the correct answer, but Nova narrowed his eyes and glared at me after hearing what I said.
‘Was that an orange that did chest exercises?’
I chose one of the two, but I was disappointed because the other option seemed to be the correct answer.
“The reason I called Aaron··· is because Ben Sir wanted to discuss passing on the reward he received to Aaron···.”
Nova’s attitude was different than usual. The normally straight-forward Nova kept slurring his words as if something was broken.
“A demon-possessed orange?”
“What the heck…. Ahem. Then let’s talk about compensation….”
I saw him briefly, but soon his eyes relaxed and he spoke quietly, which gave me goosebumps.
I felt as if I was possessed by a real demon, and I found myself mumbling a prayer without realizing it.
“Wherever the sun is, it will shine on you···.”
Then suddenly, I felt dirty because I knew the prayer. When I frowned, Nova frowned too, and a subtle silence followed.
Nova was the first to speak.
“Phew- I’ll give you a reward.”
Nova returned with that usual irritated expression… no, rather, with a face that seemed even angrier.
As expected, orange suits being annoying much better.
“What compensation?”
“You used potions on Sir Ben, and five bottles at that.”
“···Five bottles?”
There’s no way I’d use five bottles of that precious potion on a little kid if I wasn’t crazy.
“No? That foreign guard named Dylan said that.”
Nova tilted her head in response to my question and asked.
‘This clever little weasel.’
He understood the situation right away and I nodded quickly.
“There were six bottles. I guess I couldn’t see them properly because it was night.”
“···Anyway, Sir Ben heard the story and said he would give you all the rewards he received from the lord for dealing with the demon.”
Nova answered, glaring at me with eyes filled with suspicion.
‘Is it okay if Ben takes care of it?’
It was a good choice for me. Going on about catching the devil would have only made me sick.
At that moment, Nova’s eyes met Orange’s expression, which was strange. It was a strange expression, a mixture of burdensome eyes and strange emotions.
After a moment of silence, Nova snorted softly.
“The best reward would be gold, right?”
“A smart, beautiful and thoughtful orange.”
“Pfft-.”
Orange, who had been smiling slightly at my answer, quickly changed his expression after being startled by himself. However, the corners of his mouth were still up.
I shivered slightly without realizing it because I felt goosebumps for no reason. I wonder what I ate wrong, but today the orange’s reaction was particularly strange.
“Check it out.”
Nova said, handing over a bag that looked huge even to the naked eye.
I took his pocket and checked inside.
There were ten gold coins in it.
“The Cassidy situation isn’t that good either, so that’s the max.”
Nova took a walnut from the desk and put it in her mouth, then chewed it.
And then he quickly made a sour expression and muttered softly, ‘Ugh.’
Then he chewed it again and made a sour expression, saying, ‘Ugh.’
The sight was like a scene from a childish skit.
“A thoughtful but stupid orange.”
“···what!”
The guy chewed and swallowed the food until it was done, even though he could have just ignored it if it didn’t taste good. Then he took out another walnut and put it in his mouth.
“eww···.”
And then he made a sour face again, and I couldn’t help but laugh at his stupid appearance.
“Why are you laughing? I love nuts so much.”
Contrary to what he said, Nova frowned and made a straight line with his mouth.
It looked like he was holding back something he wanted to say right away.
“Orange with Walnut Topping.”
“···get out.”
I hurriedly left the room at the sight of Nova’s narrowed eyes.
Misread-.
eww···.
As I left the room, I let out a small laugh at the stupid sound I heard behind me.
As I was about to head back towards the outer city, the bastard square stopped me.
“Aaron.”
Jace called my name in an inappropriate way.
“I don’t have money.”
“···what?”
“There’s no Pochi.”
“Aaron.”
Jace, who would normally have muttered, “A lowly commoner…”, bit his lips and called me again. I felt uneasy for no reason.
“why.”
“Rayam is dead.”
Jace’s words made my head go blank for a moment.
However, it didn’t last long.
“I see.”
It was a place where it wouldn’t be strange if someone died at any moment.
Jace, who always stood guard with Rayam, seemed strange today to be with someone else.
“I was so scared that I lost my strength when I faced the devil, but Rayam told me to stay here so he could go and report to me…”
Jace spent a long time muttering about how pathetic he was and what a coward he was. It was like someone confessing to a priest.
“It’s not your fault.”
I patted him on the shoulder and walked away, telling him what he wanted to hear the most.
[When you get back, let’s have a drink together!]
I scratched my chin for no reason and headed towards District 5.
Rayam’s house was in a remote corner of District 5.
I had been there a few times before, so I was able to find it quickly. The door was open, as Rayam never used to lock it.
As I entered the house, the smell of a house where a man lives alone greeted me. There was no particular reason why Rayam avoided asking me to drink.
Rayam wasn’t a very good drinking partner, as he would cry and talk about his dead wife and children whenever he drank.
I looked around the house for a while, and I didn’t like the messy house, so I cleaned it up by touching things here and there.
Then the desk I was working on broke and I got so angry that I folded it in half. Then I folded it again and threw it outside.
After much effort, I gathered all the items that had lost their owners in one place. And among them, I chose the ones that I thought would be good to share with the people in the area.
Rayam had always loved to share, so it seemed like he would like this.
Then he saw a glass bottle placed in a corner.
Even the guards of the inner palace have liquor in glass bottles.
It was clear that a lot of money had been spent.
The cork stuck in the entrance had been handled a lot, and there were some places where it fell off, but there was no sign of it having been pulled out.
[I found some good alcohol.]
It looked like a good drink.
‘This was it.’
I stared at him for a moment and then pulled the plug.
A sour, woody smell permeated the air.
‘If only I had been a little more diligent. If only I had been a little faster···.’
I shook off the thoughts that kept coming to me and brought the bottle to my lips. The woody scent and sour taste burned my throat as it went down hotly.
After drinking it all over several times, my head started spinning slightly. I shook my head slightly and it soon got better.
‘This is a good drink.’
I put down the empty glass bottle and took a moment to choose what to say.
Funny enough, the abbot’s prayer came to mind again, but my face was itchy to say it.
[Your eyes are just like those of a dead person. At times like that, you should find something to do to cheer yourself up. There’s a job that suits you perfectly. Would you like to try it? A foreign security guard···]
It seemed as if I could hear Rayam’s voice, which was unusually broad.
“Thank you. Rest well.”
He muttered softly and got up from his seat.
It wasn’t my intention, but I figured I’d get my revenge, so the money for the drinks would be enough.
Rayam will be happy to meet the family he has been crying for just by drinking alcohol.
‘Fucking medieval.’
I left the house without an owner, muttering the words that had now become a habit.
***
The eldest son of the Fener family and the soldiers who had gone out to clean up the surrounding area returned.
With green blood all over their armor, they looked as if they had won a war.
“Aren’t those a bit heavy?”
The weasel whispered in a very small voice.
“What, we’re in a position where we’re fucking around together.”
“But look at that stiff neck. You only cut off the neck for nothing. If you were going to bring it, you could have cut off the lower body. Why did you pick it up when you can’t even sell it?”
The weasel kept muttering and grumbling, “We caught a lot more than those when we were out that time.”
“I caught it. Did you catch it?”
I asked him in disbelief.
“Didn’t I risk my life back then! Running around and gathering the monsters? Brother! Brother, take it easy….”
The moment when I sneaked out to have fun alone and got caught by some orcs and ran towards them like a lion, it suddenly turned into a mission where I risked my life.
But then, as if he was embarrassed, he scratched the back of his head and looked at me, making me click my tongue. Still, it was true that picking peppers was easier thanks to him, so I nodded.
The weasel gave a mischievous laugh, “Hehe.”
“Sir, the carriage drivers will come in now.”
“I guess so.”
He nodded to Berman’s question.
I don’t know how he knew, but if something happened, he was a businessman who could move right away the next day. He could come in right away, starting tomorrow.
“Captain, I brought this to you.”
At that moment, Snake Eye Grass showed me a wooden barrel about the size of four of the man’s fists.
It was filled with oak pepper powder.
“Hey, take the brick.”
“Yes! Thank you very much, Captain!”
Brick smiled broadly and took out a small leather pouch, filling it with his hands.
Brick, who had been playing twice, thought for a moment and then added a pinch of his finger.
“1 silver 10 copper.”
“···yes?”
“1 silver 20 copper.”
“Oh, here it is. Captain.”
Brick handed me the silver and copper coins without asking twice. Normally, he would have charged more than 3 silver, but he gave me a discount thanks to the guards.
“You share it with the kids later.”
I gave half of it to Paul.
“Yes, I understand.”
The grass nodded, taking care of him.
“It didn’t seem to have much effect on me.”
“Kel said, scratching his forehead.
“I really liked the results. Oh, and the hand technique that Kel taught me too…”
After that, Kel and Brick whispered and talked secretly.
At that time, the eldest son and the rest who had entered stood before the lord.
Yeongju had a solemn expression on his face, but Yeongae’s expression was not good.
The lord muttered something and the eldest son bowed his head slightly. Knight Adela struck the ground with her spear and knelt down, and the lord muttered something again.
‘Noble people really talk a lot.’
I yawned in boredom. Berman and Kel, who were next to me, were startled and blocked my path.
The lord raised his hand and shouted loudly, and the residents watching from the side gave him enthusiastic applause and cheers.
“So, eat and enjoy yourself today!”
The lord shouted with a hearty laugh that seemed out of place. The cheers grew louder.
‘Oh, shit.’
My face crumpled in an instant.
The expressions on the faces of the guys next to me were also similar.
It was clear that the lord’s intention was to vent all the accumulated discontent over the recent forced taking of food from the residents.
‘There haven’t been any festivals lately.’
Since it was a place where the only thing to do was raise children, they held festivals here and there, but recently, due to a series of incidents, they stopped holding festivals.
Anyway, it was clear that tonight was going to be a wild drinking party for ignorant medieval bastards.
It was clear that it was going to be a tough night’s work for us as guards.
“Captain, the kids must have piled up… I think I’m going to get tired.”
Everyone nodded at Kel’s low muttering voice.
***
“Heeeeeeeeeee!!”
I clicked my tongue as I watched the man running around imitating a horse.
The lord held a festival, using the things he had received from the residents as if they were his own, and the ignorant medieval bastards laughed brightly and shouted, “Our Baron is the best!”
Among them, there were even those who created a slogan and shouted, ‘Our Baron is flying in the sky.’
A long festive table was set up in the square, on which bread and wine were served in unlimited quantities.
Medieval bastards were a sucker for free stuff, and they would run out barefoot for free alcohol, so it was hard to control them.
The only good thing was that I was a medieval guard captain.
“Aaah!!”
The guy who had just been imitating horses and beating people up rolled around on the floor under my kick.
“I told you not to run in the square.”
The fact that they could be beaten at any time was the greatest benefit of the foreign guards.
The guy who was imitating horses was soon painted brown as he rolled around in the muddy mud. It was as if he had come to a mud festival.
But the smell was completely different.
“···Aaron! Got it! Got it!”
The guy raised both his hands and nodded vigorously.
I gestured to him, and the guy who noticed me for a moment cautiously got up and walked around while making small imitations of horses, ‘Hee-ing… Hee-ing…’ It seemed like he couldn’t give up imitating horses.
When it came to managing medieval guys, violence was the best.
The other guards weren’t much different.
I would roughly observe the situation and eat some wine and bread. If I saw someone who seemed too excited, I would kick them to calm them down.
In my hand was a fifth cup full of wine.
Still, it was quite entertaining to watch because the medieval guys really played hard.
“Wow! It’s a sacred duel! A sacred duel!”
A circle formed on one side, and two men confronted each other. I don’t know why they started fighting, but the people kept urging them on by shouting, “Sacred duel!”
The sacred duel was given a fancy name because it was feared that the guards would interfere with the fight.
There was no reason to stop them since most of them just ended in fist fights. Everyone bet money to watch the fights.
“Where will you hang it, brother?”
Suddenly, a weasel with a wide-brimmed hat full of fairy tales looked at me and asked.
I saw a weasel running between the two guys fighting earlier and doing something, but I didn’t bother to point it out.
It may not have been intentional, but it was an appropriate ventilator at a time when the atmosphere was getting tense and it was starting to get difficult to control.
“Walk with your fist. 2 silver.”
“Ohhh- As expected, he’s the leader. Then I’ll follow suit and bet too! Three silver on the fist!”
The weasel put two silver coins in his hat and shouted for the people around him to hear.
I put 50 coppers in it and the weasel looked up at me with wide eyes.
“Captain Aaron! You got 2 Silver!”
Of course, the weasel quickly closed his eyes and nodded.
“How dare you insult my wife?!”
“You ignorant bastard! How is my night skills?!”
The two men pushed each other’s shoulders angrily, but they didn’t exchange punches right away.
Their faces were distorted and their noses were twitching strangely, as if they were also confused by the situation.
Waaaaaaaah-!
But the crowd had already formed the arena, and there was no place for them to retreat as gladiators for that night.
The heat gradually rose and the weasel ran around hurriedly, stuffing money into his hat.
The two men exchanged fists roughly and then simultaneously rolled around in the mud, creating a rather impressive scene as the brown mud splattered around.
The two men stood up at the same time, and their expressions were truly something to behold. Their skills were very poor, but their expressions were serious, as if they had met a life-or-death rival.
They exchanged blows again, but the momentum was slightly weakened. The crowd cheered and swore at them. As gladiators tonight, they had to fight until one of them was knocked out.
The loser will be treated as an unmanly man, and the winner will be treated as a cooler guy than the knight tonight.
They too were desperate to know him.
Mud splashed again and they both fell down at the same time.
The surrounding spectators forced them to stand up, and the two hesitated for a moment before tangling together again.
As I was sipping my wine and watching him, I heard the faint sound of a guitar playing next to me.
Follow me-.
“Ah …
A young man with a very hardened face was holding a guitar and showing off his singing skills that were hard to hear.
“Benhar!”
“Ahhh- great… yes?”
The guy whose voice was trembling like a goat, perhaps because his emotions were running high, was startled by my call and came over.
“You still haven’t come to your senses since you got beaten up by that drunk guy last time?”
“Ah! Aaron. But haven’t you improved a bit since then? You’ve practiced a lot! Now you can use three fingers!”
“Don’t be so stubborn. Just learn how to knead bread from your father.”
“I’m studying that hard too! This is just my···.”
Benhar, son of Haeson, looked at me with his voice trailing off.
Even though he had a father named Harrison, who was an excellent baker, he kept trying to go down a different path.
Our first meeting was when I saved a guy who was being beaten by a mercenary after he was bragging about becoming a knight.
Even though he was bruised and battered, the image of him shouting, “Look! This was the first battle of the knight Benhar!” was still vivid.
Then, for some reason, he followed the cleaners and became a monster hunter, but he quickly gave up on his dream, shouting, “The monsters are just too rough!”
Next was the wandering poet.
He was as quick to give up his dreams as he was to make them.
“I do this because my heart tells me to.”
“Shit.”
“···yes?”
I couldn’t help but curse at the sight of the guy suddenly changing his posture and talking with a serious face.
“I told you you can’t sing.”
“No! That’s not it. It’s just that I haven’t witnessed anything that would make my heart ache! The wandering poet who came last time also got beaten while singing before he saw the knights’ duel!”
‘That’s when he blew the wind.’
About half a year ago, there was a guy who sneaked in.
The residents welcomed him because he was good at singing and playing the guitar, but I got an uneasy feeling from him.
I investigated him separately and found out that he was wanted for having an affair with a noble woman.
Since he was associated with the nobility, the bounty was quite lucrative, so he was quickly captured.
The guitar that the guy dropped while being arrested went to that guy.
‘I should have broken the guitar···.’
I clicked my tongue at the uselessly bright-eyed guy.
“Just like you said, if I could witness just one incident that would inspire me! My skills would improve in an instant!”
It was my dream, so there was no need for me to interfere.
After all, he was Harrison’s son, not mine.
‘Yeah… the refrigerator too.’
I just saw my entire body carved out of ice this morning, and it wasn’t the time to be worrying about other people’s children.
And so, the continent’s greatest sculptor was born.
At that moment, Berman approached with an anxious look on his face.
“Chief! There’s a fight in District 6! Between the Scars and those guys!”
‘Those guys back then?’
Oh, those guys with tattoos and taking their shirts off.
He poured the remaining wine in his glass into his mouth.
My body was feeling heavy from standing in one place for too long, so this was good news. Thinking about a proper exercise that would relieve stress made me feel better.
“let’s go.”
“There are quite a lot of children. Should I call for support?”
“Okay. Everyone is having a hard time.”
“The leader is smiling.”
“Oh, because you drank alcohol. Are there a lot of kids?”
“Yes, more than ten.”
“Oh, good.”
“Yes, but the strength control is···.”
“So what? It’s a festival. A festival.”
Berman nodded as if he had no choice and walked ahead.
festivities-.
The corners of my mouth went up at the feeling that the boring night was about to become lively.
***
Benhar, a self-proclaimed wandering poet, opened his eyes wide at the conversation he heard before him.
‘A fight broke out, so why is security guard Aaron happy?’
Benhar was momentarily dumbfounded by the sight of the two walking around, chatting as if they were going to a bar, before hurriedly picking up his guitar and following them.
‘The teacher said that if something happens, even the devil should follow! That’s the basic principle of a wandering poet!’
Although he was afraid that he would be scolded by Aaron again, Benhar remembered his teacher’s advice and followed it.
‘Do you see, sir! I am now following Aaron, a scoundrel worse than the devil! I have become a great wandering poet!’
Benhar gulped as he recalled the teacher who had suddenly disappeared one day.
As a proper wandering poet, I could not ignore the incident.
Benhar followed along at a brisk pace, holding the guitar carefully in his arms.
