bean worm
“What are you doing here! Ah, it’s spicy-.”
‘Raw garlic… no, even when roasted, its spicy taste doesn’t go away, so of course it’s spicy since I chewed it like an apple.’
I shook my head as I looked at Nova, who seemed to be trying hard to control her expression, but had tears in her eyes.
“Sir, what’s going on?”
At that moment, Adela suddenly stepped forward in front of me.
Even though it was a bit dirty and smelly, I hid behind Adela since it was a knight.
“Lady Adela. Do you know who the person you brought in as a seed is···”
“I know. But that would be outside the scope of a secretary.”
“···Yes, that is true, but.”
Nova narrowed her eyes, glanced briefly, then opened her mouth.
“You may not know since you haven’t brought in any seeds yet, but there is a separate subsidy for seed wages. I’m asking in advance so that Lady Adela doesn’t have to worry later.”
“Oh, I see. Was there something like that?”
“Yes. After all, the cost of seeds is not small.”
“That… that’s right.”
Adela nodded, visibly surprised.
At Adela’s reaction, Nova narrowed her eyes and glared at me.
“If you tell me why you have procured the seeds and how to handle the costs involved, I will take care of it so that you, Adela, do not have to worry.”
Nova spoke at length without blinking an eye.
‘Is there separate support for seeds?’
Originally, he was a knight who received a lot of money, but there was no way he could be provided with welfare in this uncivilized Middle Ages.
I nodded to Adela, who was looking at me with trembling eyes, and Adela spoke confidently.
“The reason I got the seeds was obviously to run errands. It’s hard to take off and put on armor by yourself. So···.”
“Huh?! Oh, there was a loud noise next to me.”
Nova asked again, her eyes wide open.
Adela spoke about the reason for the seed. It was mostly what ordinary seeds did.
The knight’s thick iron armor was heavy and had complex joints, making it difficult for him to put on and take off by himself.
He hired the knights for cheap under the pretense of teaching them to become knights.
“I see. But isn’t it a bit strange to ask a man for something like that?”
“No, what are you talking about? There is no gender in the relationship between a squire and a knight. A knight is someone who passes on the martial arts he has accumulated to future generations, and a squire is simply someone who receives them.”
‘···Are you defending hard?’
Adela surprisingly defended me vehemently.
‘Well, it’s because honor is at stake.’
I nodded and admired Nova’s shit-chewing face.
Nova asked various questions, but even though he was a scribe, he could not question the knight because he was a commoner.
Eventually, Nova backed away in frustration and threw the garlic. It wasn’t so much that he threw it as that he was just handing it over.
“Are you okay…me?”
Adela, who was catching the slow-flying garlic with great skill, looked at me and asked.
At that moment, the surroundings became noisy.
Ben and his opponent were facing each other in the stadium.
The two of them had a brief conversation as if they were spherical, and then drew their swords.
Ben’s opponent wasn’t bad either.
‘Left foot before stabbing.’
I anticipated what would happen next as I reflected on Ben’s habits.
At first, it seemed to flow as I expected, but…
Ta-ak.
After a short exchange of blows, the match ended when Ben’s opponent dropped his sword after a subsequent stab.
‘It wasn’t the left foot.’
Ben thrust out his right foot and stabbed.
I didn’t get the same speed as before because I had to force myself to change my habits, but the obvious strategy was blocked.
‘Hmm… This is going to be a hassle.’
If I were to face that attack right now, it would only sting a little, so I could just take it with my stomach, but Adela had a low tolerance for pain.
It was Adela who was crying and grabbing my trouser leg, saying that she had just hit me twice with a hammer.
I ran a quick simulation in my head, but no suitable strategy came to mind.
Adela was a step below Ben. If the gap could be made up by beating her up for a few days, who would work hard on a regular basis?
I prepared a proper cheat sheet for him, but the answers suddenly changed.
‘Tsk, how can I fill this?’
I clicked my tongue and glanced at Adela, who was standing proudly.
Adela’s appearance in silver armor was quite impressive, even to me who knew her true form.
Because of that, the people around her were gossiping a lot, but Adela’s reaction was strange.
‘···Do you like this person?’
He still had a dignified expression, but the corners of his mouth were strangely turned up, and I was starting to get a feel for what kind of guy he was.
At that time, Adela carefully gathered her hair that had been disheveled during the battle earlier with her hands. The sight was quite impressive.
‘···Isn’t that the hand that touched the garlic?’
As I muttered, Adela’s eyebrows furrowed slightly.
The garlic here was so toxic that even when I roasted it, its spiciness didn’t go away, and when I touched my face with the hand that had touched it, the result was obvious.
Adela, who had been shaking her head, shed tears from her eyes. Adela, who seemed to be confused for a moment and then wandered around, spoke in a firm voice.
“Sigh… I wish TOEIC Kyung-do was here.”
There were sighs of admiration and regret mixed with sorrow from those around him as he seemed to be paying tribute to his fallen comrade.
I tried hard to ignore the corners of Adela’s lips rising between her covered face.
“Hey, seed.”
At that moment, Nova, with her strangely crooked eyes, poked my waist.
“Who are you?”
“I was thinking of discussing it with him because the amount the seed receives is not yet exact, so if that’s the case.”
“Oh, it was an orange. For a moment, it was so beautiful that I didn’t recognize it.”
“what.”
Nova raised his right finger, his eyes narrowed and the corners of his mouth raised, giving him a strange expression.
“2 gold? Not bad.”
“···What do you mean 2 gold seeds! 20 silver!”
I’ve been handling gold coins a lot lately, so I think I’ve lost my sense of money. It was just small change, but I had no reason to refuse it if he insisted on offering it to me.
“But do you really provide financial support for the seeds?”
“Oh, if Sir Adela’s wages go up a little, you can just take a little bit from that.”
Nova whispered, glancing at Adela.
‘He gave away everything from the prize money to his salary… He was a good knight.’
I nodded my head as I looked at Adela, the truest knight of all.
***
Grun frowned as he looked at the men in front of him.
A girl standing in the middle of guys who are clearly in the same industry.
The proud appearance seemed to represent them.
‘···A girl like this?’
“You came from Karzan?”
The pressure from the gathered men was considerable, so Grun answered the child’s questions obediently.
“Yes. I will follow the words of Karzan’s short story and say, ‘Tak···’”
“fizzle.”
“···yes.”
At the child’s words, Grun closed his mouth without saying a word.
‘A girl with purple hair… I’m sure I’ve seen her somewhere.’
It kept bothering me that I seemed to remember something but couldn’t.
“So you came from Karzan to help?”
“The Imperial Army will be arriving at Cassidy soon. We have come to help defend it.”
Grun answered, examining the child’s face from all angles.
It was ambiguous, even though I thought I remembered it.
“I see. Please rest for a while.”
At the child’s gesture, a man approached Grun.
Grun didn’t take his eyes off the child as he was guided up to the second floor.
People gathered around the child.
The child said something to them and the people around him listened.
Grun stared at it until the end and then went up to the second floor.
“Was there a pub this big in Cassidy?”
As they went up to the second floor, the relaxed subordinate asked.
“Looking at the furniture, it looks like it was built recently.”
Grun looked around and answered.
The furniture was huddled together in a corner.
The furniture in the corner was so shabby that it looked like it would break if touched. It seemed like it had been collected separately before being thrown away.
“I used to ignore the Cassadic in the outskirts, but there are quite a few of them.”
He nodded again to his subordinate’s question.
Sure, it was just an ordinary remote castle when I visited last time. But today, the atmosphere was different.
It was so lively that I doubted if it was the same place I had visited last time.
Just then, the men brought me beer and my thoughts were interrupted. Their faces looked strangely familiar, and upon closer inspection, I saw that they were part of the cute rabbit group.
Those guys who suddenly disappeared one day.
“···Zenta? You traitorous bastards!!”
The men woke up in a fit of convulsions.
These were the guys who disappeared when there was so much fighting between organizations that it was hard to even spare a single hand.
“Wait a minute, you can’t do that here.”
They were so docile that they were of no help, but they answered calmly even though their subordinates were getting angry.
“You can’t-! Do you know how much danger we were in because of you suddenly disappearing?! You traitorous bastards!”
Before Grun could stop him, one of his subordinates, who was particularly impatient, grabbed him by the collar.
Soon the other guys got up and started to get tangled up.
“Get your hands off my junior.”
A cold voice was heard.
It was that girl.
However, it was a completely different, murderous expression than before.
As the child twisted his fingers, sharp shards of ice formed around him in an instant and aimed at them.
The ice took the form of a man holding out a sword.
I was curious as to why it looked like that, but apart from that, the appearance of each piece of ice was unusual.
‘···A purple-haired little wizard?’
Grun’s brow furrowed in embarrassment.
At that moment, the child lightly stretched out his hands left and right.
The ice spread out and filled the area around them.
Although the size of the ice was clearly as small as a human finger, the sharpness of each of them could not be underestimated.
A presence that doesn’t seem like a child.
Wizards were a shunned species.
Grun let out a sigh and raised his hand. As if his subordinates, who had been feverish until just now, were waiting for him, he quickly lowered his weapon and raised both hands.
Boom-boom-.
Heavy footsteps were heard.
As soon as the footsteps were heard, the ice around them disappeared in an instant.
The child who had been wearing a fierce expression until just a moment ago changed his expression in an instant.
The child, whose face had become innocent, hurriedly picked up the beer mug on the table and turned around.
thud.
The one who came up was a man.
Grun could tell who it was just by looking at its size.
There was no way someone with that size and intimidation could exist in such a remote place.
However, there are countless scars engraved on that face.
‘That’s what his face was like.’
Grun swallowed hard and quickly lowered his gaze. The rumor that Takgu was a werewolf who had fought a life-and-death battle with a vampire gained weight.
Dadadak-.
A child with a completely different face than before approached the man and handed him a mug of beer.
The expression was so natural that Grun couldn’t tell if it was his real face when he aimed his magic or that face.
“Dante sent you?”
“···yes.”
The man asked, sitting down on the chair without a care in the world.
Grun politely took out the letter and handed it over with both hands.
The man who received him roughly tore the envelope open and read its contents carefully.
‘Can a werewolf read?’
Startled, Grun raised his head, then hurriedly lowered it again at the sight of the child next to the man.
“Fifteen gold coins… There were only 14 in the carriage?”
Grun tilted his head at the man’s question.
Grun was more thorough in managing the carriage, knowing who it was going to. It was Grun who checked all the items in the carriage before departure.
There were exactly 15 gold coins.
‘The guy who got into the carriage…’
There was no one else besides the guy who had slapped me in the face at the gate earlier.
Grun muttered for a moment and then explained. If the gold had disappeared, then that would have been the only time.
“Weasel pups… Yeah. Volunteer masons?”
“···yes?”
“no?”
The man’s tone seemed to ask, but he wasn’t really asking.
If Grun had been stupid enough not to notice him, he wouldn’t have survived to this age.
“That’s right… Volunteer.”
“Okay, I guess I can take Kanna with me.”
‘···Kanna. Kanna?’
A name buried in Grun’s memory flashed back to him.
‘Isn’t that the kid who belonged to the gang that killed the nobles? I heard he was executed…’
Before my thoughts could continue, I was surrounded by men wearing strange helmets and moved to the castle walls.
When I came to my senses, I was already carrying stones.
Card grab-.
Grun gaped in amazement at the child’s magic.
The child’s small gestures were rapidly carving away at the huge stone.
The cross-section was so shiny that it was hard to believe it was stone, and the images carved into it were so vivid that they looked like they would pop out at any moment.
‘Then it wasn’t a dwarf who carved that stone wall…’
I couldn’t admit it.
That little kid has skills that even I, who has dedicated my life to being a stonemason, can’t even look up to.
“That… that kid built this wall? No? Just that one stone right now….”
“Hey, Grun, shut up and move the stone.”
Grun shut his mouth at the harsh insults that came in response.
He hurriedly looked for his subordinates, but they were already far away, sweating profusely.
After observing for a moment, Grun coughed and picked up the stone.
***
‘Hoooo-.’
Adela took a deep breath and tried to suppress her rising excitement.
He defeated the Saint who ‘stabbed three times’.
For Saint, who usually looked down on Adela while being a brat, the pleasure of that victory was indescribable.
In addition, the praise and attention poured on Adela for defeating the strong.
It was an interest I had forgotten since I left the Imperial Knights.
Adela had to brace herself with strength in her legs to keep herself from collapsing under the intense joy she felt for the first time in her life.
Adela, who had enjoyed him to the end, hurriedly headed to her room.
‘What the hell is that guy···.’
Adela hurriedly went into the bathtub and washed herself, thinking of the bastard.
What is his true identity? He defeated me, who uses aura, with only swordsmanship and no aura.
That bastard’s sword and his size…
I’m sure I’ve seen it somewhere.
Adela nodded, searching through her memories for a moment.
‘Deokgu was that guy.’
It was clearly the same Deokgu who had cut off the arm of that contemptible knight.
Adela now understood what she had lost.
If he could beat someone from the Imperial Knights, then he wasn’t his opponent in the first place.
‘He knew the law of destruction. Me too, and Kurtun too···.’
Adela put her face into the water, remembering those emotionless, deep eyes.
The man had a different kind of strength than Adela had known. Not just a simple, ignorant strength…
Adela’s thoughts continued.
‘Especially the swordsmanship that pressed the aura was the sword of the empire···.’
Several hypotheses about his identity came to mind, but Adela shook her head underwater to shake them off.
It didn’t matter what he was.
For now, tomorrow’s match was important.
It was important that tomorrow receive the same attention as today.
Adela got out of the tub, squatted down, and began to scrub her armor diligently.
Now that I’m used to it, I can do it more easily than before. It feels similar to cleaning a sword.
Adela cleaned the armor a little more thoroughly, then carefully sprayed perfume on the inside.
I put on my armor and sat reverently in the center of the room, and a faint fragrance rose, making me feel quite good.
‘···If we win tomorrow too.’
Adela raised both her hands and placed them next to her ears, continuing her happy imagination.
However, even after a long time, the bastard did not come.
When her hands started to feel a little sore, Adela realized.
‘···Why am I waiting for him?!’
Adela, startled by this, jumped to her feet.
Adela hurriedly headed to the practice range and swung her sword diligently.
I practiced without realizing it, paying attention to the parts he had pointed out, but even though I sweated a lot, it still felt lacking.
Adela tried harder to shake off the frustration, but eventually came back dissatisfied.
Adela, who entered the room, naturally headed to the bathroom, but then made a face and lay down on the bed.
‘Didn’t you promise to give me the win?’
As I closed my eyes, I kept feeling resentful.
When I tried to sleep while trying to keep those thoughts out of my mind, I couldn’t fall asleep at all.
Knock knock-.
I heard a very small sound of footsteps.
But when I woke up right away, my pride was hurt, so I tried to keep my eyes closed.
Bam!
“Where are you pretending to sleep? Are you asleep?”
“Ah-ah!!”
Adela sat up abruptly, clutching her head in excruciating pain.
“Are you losing sleep over your skills?”
Although his eyes were as indifferent as usual, he showed deep fatigue.
“···evil.”
Adela felt relieved when she saw the bastard’s hideous face, as if tomorrow’s victory was assured.
Because I will be able to receive the same thrilling attention I felt today tomorrow.
Adela chuckled without realizing it.
“Ah, it stinks. Wash it.”
“Ahhhhh!! Ouch!”
Adela grabbed her head and hurriedly ran to the bathroom after being hit with a series of punches.
However, since the water he had washed in earlier was still the same, the smell remained even after washing. Adela hurriedly poured perfume all over her body to hide him.
“Ah, the smell of perfume. It gives me a headache.”
“Ahhh-!”
Adela cursed inwardly, forgetting that she had been waiting for him.
***
‘Hmm···.’
I was momentarily silent as I watched Adela climb up onto the pitch.
‘But he’s a reporter, so should he really do that?’
I taught Adela how to defeat the Tyranno Knight last night.
It was a fairly difficult request, but Adela quickly complied.
It seemed that Adela’s victory in the battle with the Shandy Knight had boosted her spirits.
But I wondered if Adela would do what I asked her to do…
‘If it doesn’t work out, Ben will win, so I can buy garlic from him for cheap.’
I nodded and stared at the stadium.
The game starts-.
Adela and the Tyranno Knight both drew their swords at the same time.
Adela then runs straight ahead.
The Tyranno Knight swung his sword hurriedly.
First number.
Tyranno Knight’s swordsmanship was a link technique.
A form of swordsmanship in which the user swings a greatsword with unique strength while gradually increasing its speed.
If you want to destroy him, you have to win early. Otherwise, you have to run around controlling the distance until his strength runs out.
The latter was impossible in a confined arena.
The easiest way would be to clash swords with him early on, but it wouldn’t be a fight without Aura.
It’s not like Adela had an eye for timing either.
So what I ordered Adela to do was…
“Ah···no···what is that···.”
A nearby knight let out a cry of shock.
‘They really do that.’
Instead of facing the Tyranno Knight with her sword, Adela quickly rolled on the ground.
Roll roll roll-.
In a knightly duel where nobles, even Count Behar, were watching, rolling around on the floor in an ugly manner was not a good option.
The opponent, the Tyranno Knight, also seemed to have not expected this, as his sword slowed down for a moment.
No, no one would have expected a knight like Adela to roll around in the mud during a duel watched by nobles.
Because I, as the teacher, also had a hopeful mind.
‘It rolls well.’
Adela was doing so well that it seemed as if her parents were bean bugs. No, judging by the sour smell, there was a good chance.
Degurrurur-.
Adela rolled past Tyranno’s greatsword with almost textbook perfection.
It was a mistake that Tyranno was momentarily confused.
Adela easily entered the Tyranno Knight’s range.
widely!
Adela, who jumped up in an instant like a bean worm, quickly took a stance and swung her sword.
Already within the realm of the great sword.
That street was Adela’s territory.
The Tyranno Knight, who had come to his senses, quickly tried to raise his sword, but it was not easy because the guy had a short arm that could compensate for the length of the greatsword.
Chae-Ang-!
Several attacks followed.
Adela somehow managed to push her way in and close the distance even further.
The match was decided when Adela punched the Tyranno Knight in the face.
“Wow···Ahhhh!!”
A strangely erupting cheer.
A small round of applause from the anxious nobles.
Adela was standing in the center, raising her sword beautifully, but her whole body was already covered in mud because she had rolled on the floor.
From Adela’s raised hand, thin mud dripped down.
‘I hope I win.’
I applauded the bean bug knight who was willing to roll in the mud for victory.
Adela, who had come down, nodded in front of me with a cool expression, but told me to stand far away because the smell was bad.
A large space was created around Adela, but judging from her expression, Adela was still in the lingering emotions and did not seem to notice him.
Ben’s game continues.
‘When you put your right foot out, the speed is a little slow.’
I guessed the outcome of the match by looking at the back of Adela, who was still standing proudly.
If it’s Adela who rolls around in the mud for victory…
After that game, I went into introspection.
I told Adela that I would go later that evening, but I was really annoyed by her quick nod.
I was busy so I passed it by.
‘···Is that gentleman’s prayer really effective?’
It was the day when we had promised to hold the service that we had promised to do to call a shaman for the opening ceremony.
Since pain is halved when shared, I had to take care of my comrades first, so I moved diligently.
I stopped by Hasson’s and picked up some cake.
“I heard my son is at your bar these days?”
The son of Haeson, the guy who was supposed to be a wandering poet, was singing a commercial song at Hae-na’s bar these days.
“It’s better than playing.”
“That’s true.”
After thinking about it for a moment, Hasson lowered the price of the cake a little.
I took the cake and walked around the places where the scorpion might be hiding. However, I walked around for quite a while while smelling the cake, but it didn’t come out.
‘It looks like it was there until recently, as you can see from the cake bowl.’
I followed the traces of the abandoned buildings left here and there.
Since most of the areas were high places or remote places where people did not go, the traces were well preserved.
Following those traces, we arrived at a surprising synagogue.
‘It’s definitely inside here… If I can’t find the ruins and run into the abbot…’
After looking around for a moment, I fixed my cape and went inside.
I covered the cake and went inside.
Fortunately, Ains did not appear, and although a few people encountered him, no sanctions were imposed.
I had a rough idea of where it would be, so I went inside.
As the smell of cake wafted from the place where the compliment vending machine guys were hiding, the door opened slightly with a ‘thud!’ and familiar eyes peeked out.
His eyes were filled with suspicion, but they were quickly resolved when he saw the cake.
The door was wide open, and the waiter nodded furiously, pointing inside.
I nodded to him and followed the steps inside.
‘What are they doing here?’
In that small space, there was a compliment vending machine and two people, including Parsi, were diligently writing something.
The cake-carrying clerk sat down in the middle of the room, eating the cake with one hand and writing something on a yellow piece of paper.
‘What?’
The crooked writing on the yellow paper was exactly like the punishment I used to get when I was a child.
Looking closely, I saw that there was an open Bible next to them.
“What are you doing?”
“Ah···Aaron··· Honorary Monk!!”
As I asked, the sullen-eyed compliment vending machine suddenly got up and crawled towards me.
The vending machine that had stopped at the sight of the old man returned to its original position and picked up a quill pen.
‘···Is this a workshop?’
The sergeant poked the Parsi inquisitor next to him, and the Parsi opened his mouth.
“I reported the location of Inquisitor Joanna Iden to my superiors… The parish said that Inquisitor Joanna Iden had to return to the parish if she did not submit the Bible manuscript she had been putting off by today….”
The man’s words made Parsi frown and glared at him. Parsi, slightly startled by this, sat down again and moved his hands diligently.
‘It was your fault.’
Although his expression was still expressionless, he tried to swallow his words as he saw a hint of impatience on his face.
“How much is left?”
“I wrote desperately and almost finished it, but since there was so much to do… I’m a little short on work. Sorry!”
Parsi was startled by the look in his eyes and apologized.
‘···I thought you hadn’t been seen lately, but you were busy?’
Although his usual behavior was a bit of a mess, nothing was more effective than that when it came to dealing with demons.
Considering the recent situation in the East, the waste paper was one of the essential items.
‘And without him, who will share my worship?’
After a brief moment of contemplation, I went and sat down in front of the lungs.
He had two Bibles spread out on either side of him, and he held a pen rolling around in each hand.
“What part did you fail at?”
Everyone’s attention was focused on my question.
Desperation in the gaze.
“But to write the Bible, you have to know the letters···.”
“I know. This is something I’m an expert at.”
Ooooh-!!
As expected, Aaron is an honorary monk!!
Cheers and applause erupted everywhere.
I nodded vigorously as I looked at the lungs that were filled with desperation.
The old man, who had been mumbling for a moment, bowed his head very deeply, unlike before.
‘That’s not how you write ‘Kkamji.’
Soon after, the legendary technique of the Kamji world, writing with both hands, was revealed.
“Ohhhhhhh!! Using both hands!”
Uncivilized medieval people were amazed by modern, advanced technology, just like in the common other-worldly cliché.
***
“It seems that Baron Pulpouts has other ideas. He has no idea about the favors he has received from the Fener family… Tsk tsk.”
At Gerel’s report, Fener’s eldest son, Levilian, threw his glass on the floor.
Ding! Gurrrr-.
Ben, watching him from the side, felt that the rolling glass looked just like Sir Adela.
“Gerel, what on earth are you doing that you haven’t even set a wedding date yet?”
“Ahem… No matter how many times I pressed it, it kept saying that the seal was gone….”
“The seal is gone? Is that a valid excuse now?”
“It seems to be true, judging by the backlog of documents to be processed.”
A moment of silence.
Ben clicked his tongue inwardly as he watched Gerel and Levilian snickering while lighting only one candle.
“There is no seal… If that is true, then things will be easier than I thought. Also, if that is false, then you will see the fear of the Fener family going to Pulpuch.”
“Hehehe… Is that so?”
Gerel and Leblian looked at each other and smiled sinisterly.
“Sir Ben, I ask you to make sure you win tomorrow’s game. This is my request as the next head of the family.”
Then Levilian looked at Ben with a solemn smile that did not suit him.
“···I always do my best.”
Ben gave a short answer and fiddled with the handle of his sword, feeling somewhat suffocated.
