117th
Sodomora, the city of pleasure and the goddess’s holy warrior
117 ? Sodomora, the city of pleasure and the Goddess’s Templar #1
So this happened a few days after I safely returned from exploring the labyrinth.
After a few days of rest, the fatigue from the request began to wear off, and my body started to feel itchy from just staying at home.
“Hassan, I’m going to go gather some herbs! I have to open the workshop next week, so I want to stock up on some supplies before then!”
Luna said she was going to the forest near the city to gather herbs to prepare for opening a potion shop.
I was feeling bored at the time and wanted to get some sun for the first time in a while, so I asked Luna briefly, “Do you want to go together?”
“No, I’m going with Paranoia! Hassan, you shouldn’t be disturbing me while I’m studying,” he said, shaking his head.
After returning from her expedition, Luna often met the nymph Paranoy, going out to gather herbs or getting her hair done together.
Maybe it was because they were similar in age and both were small girls? Anyway, it was a great thing that Luna had a friend of the same sex.
Even if you are a regular partner or lover, you can’t be together all the time.
Also, as a man, there may be times when I cannot solve Luna’s worries or problems as a woman.
“Luna, I’ve come to pick you up. Oh, and I hope Hassan is doing well too… .”
The crimson-haired nymph Paranoy was already standing at the entrance to the cabin, waiting for Luna. Luna also hurried out of the cabin, carrying pouches here and there to hold herbs.
“Hassan, I’ll borrow the Galmuri dagger! Then keep an eye on the house!”
“Okay, come back before dinner.”
“okay!”
Crackle.
So I was left alone in this two-story cabin.
Woof woof.
And just a pair of wolf spiders.
Luna said she was leaving me behind so as not to disturb my studies, but honestly, I’m starting to get tired of reading encyclopedias.
My notebook is filled with nothing but useless scribbles and miscellaneous diaries.
Sval, what are you doing all day?
It was obvious that Luna would come in late.
Since there are no cell phones or computers in this world, there isn’t much for a healthy man like me to do while stuck at home.
So now that morning has come, I’ve been racking my brain to come up with a plan for the day ahead. But nothing really comes to mind.
So I took out the small hand mirror that Luna had kept carefully in a drawer.
This mirror, a treasure so precious that Luna rarely shows it to me, is a state-of-the-art piece of technology that can reflect the morning sunlight streaming in through the open window and emit strange rays onto the wooden floor.
Slowly.
Just then I happened to spot a tiny ant crawling on the wooden floor, so I gathered the sunlight and reflected it to attack the ant.
Jiiing.
A small cloud of soot appeared and the ant began to run away quickly. I was able to reflect the light well and chase the ant, which seemed to continue for some time.
Swish.
Soon the sunlight was obscured by clouds, and the light reflecting off the mirror began to fade. Sipha, I thought you could do just a little more!
“God of Light, please try a little harder!”
Jiiing.
Did my voice reach the sky? The sunlight that had been hidden by the clouds seemed to be surging forward again, sending out yang energy and eventually burning the ant to a black char!
Shit, it’s my victory, you fucking ants! You fucking ants, there are so many of them because it’s a wooden house. You should’ve called Sesco, Sval.
Anyway, just as Luna was trying to put her precious mirror away in the drawer without breaking it, I turned my attention to the cosmetics and strange powders inside Luna’s drawer.
The colorful powders and liquids contained in small glass bottles were quite interesting objects to me.
Luna doesn’t usually wear makeup, so I’m curious to see how much whiter her skin will become when she uses these.
Clink clack clack.
I uncorked one of the red bottles and sniffed it. It was the smell of cosmetics, so I was wondering what it would smell like, but it was surprisingly cheap, so I furrowed my brows.
“Fuck, this is chili powder.”
Why is this stuck among the cosmetics?
I closed the drawer again and looked around, feeling the unexpected pain of olfactory sensation. Luna is not good at organizing things, so she probably just shoved things in haphazardly.
Since I had nothing else to do, I decided to clean up the house by dusting off the accumulated dust and putting things back in their proper places. About ten minutes or so passed like that.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so bored.”
What on earth do men in this world without computers or cell phones do for fun?
Of course, I was starting to get used to the idea of being a resident of another world, so it was not like I didn’t know that.
* * *
Sodomo, the city where I have newly settled, is one of the largest cities in this world.
I’m not sure, but the population is probably in the tens of thousands.
By Korean standards, it could be said that the population is comparable to that of a small provincial city.
In this world where infrastructure is underdeveloped and life expectancy is not that long, cities with populations of tens of thousands can be counted on one hand.
anyway.
The western district of Sodomora, where Luna and I live, is a fairly large area within the city and is eating away at the city.
“Hey, you little shit! You just looked at my face! So pay me!”
“Where is that kind of stubbornness!”
The reason was that most of the city’s population – the vagrants and beggars, the hustlers and swindlers, the thieves, the charlatans, the fake lepers, the clumsy pickpockets – were concentrated in this western district.
Sodomora is relatively safe because there are two adventurer’s guilds, but this western street is a lawless area because the guilds don’t have much influence.
I wonder if this is exactly what the streets of Harlem, an unsafe area in the United States, are like.
Because on every street, there are countless men armed with daggers and clubs spitting on the ground or getting into fights.
Even if it weren’t a drunkard lying on the street like that, it wouldn’t be surprising if it were a corpse. Damn, is it a real corpse? That seems a bit unlucky.
Anyway, even I, who have settled down on this western street, find myself tightening my butt whenever I pass through these dark alleys.
Because I don’t know when or where a bastard will pop out and stick a knife in my stomach.
But surprisingly, there were no outlaws rushing at me.
“Shiva, it’s a Samaritan.”
“Hey, hide your face! You’re clearly looking for a kid to skin…!”
Lately, rumors of my various activities have spread throughout the slums, and the residents of the west have been busy hiding their faces at the mere sight of me.
“Sval, it’s shitty that those Thieves Guild brats are running wild. Now we have to watch out for the barbarians from the other continent. Even the gods are truly indifferent.”
“Shh, be quiet!”
“Listen to me, you little shits!!”
“Eek!”
Clang, clank.
When I shouted loudly, the residents of the slum ran away through the alleys like little rats.
This is hilarious, damn it.
Is there anything more fun in the world than making fun of scared people?
I know it’s not the right thing to do, but these days, I have no work and am bored, so walking around the streets of the slums like this has become one of my few sources of entertainment.
It also helped me memorize the city’s geography and read its atmosphere.
Let’s take a walk like this until lunchtime, then go to a random inn and have some food. I was thinking that.
“Brother, you are truly a magnificent sight. You have become stronger than when we ventured through the culverts together!”
Someone was making a face at me from behind. In this cruel world, there is only one person who can call me a brother.
“Hey, it’s a fucking Malko!”
“Why do you start swearing as soon as you meet me?”
“You motherfucker! You’re the reason I got caught up in some fucking, weird rumors! What the f*ck, peeling off your face, you fucking spread it!”
I growled at the man with the ridiculous cone-shaped hat and his red hair that flowed like seaweed, as always.
The evil Malko.
I feel like your nose has gotten bigger since the last time we met, but I guess that’s just my imagination.
“Brother, I have no idea what you are talking about. Anyway, I was wondering if we could meet each other while walking around the streets. I’ve been so busy that I haven’t seen your face! Nice to meet you!”
“Get out, kid!”
Even though I growled at him, Malko didn’t listen and continued to talk to himself.
“This meeting was a fateful encounter. Shouldn’t we be thankful to Mercury? Instead of doing this, let’s go somewhere and have a drink. I’ll buy you something.”
“I like meat as a side dish.”
“Kuhaha, as expected of a savage from the wilderness, you don’t even look at grass. I’ll introduce you to a new friend this time, and I think you’ll get along well with him.”
You’re introducing me to a new friend? I wondered if this guy had anyone he could call a friend. He was surprisingly a broad-minded guy.
But I had no reason to turn down a free drink, so I walked to a shady underground bar nearby to relieve my boredom.
“It’s an illegal bar, but that means there’s less water in the barley wine. Oh, my friend was here before me. That guy over there is the person I was going to introduce you to.”
And what I met there was a bald head that reflected the candlelight that flickered darkly even in broad daylight.
“Damn, isn’t that Callidus? I thought you went to Calcata.”
“You have the wrong person, Callidus. I am….”
“Damn, that’s Callidus. Didn’t you go to catch the elves?”
“That’s right, it’s not Callidus, it’s Callidur. Anyway, there are some circumstances…”
Kalidur, a murderous elf with a monk-like shaved head, pointy ears, and a ridiculous beard, was sitting at the table, drinking wine and eating meat!
Malko asked if I had heard the conversation between me and Ppakkaki.
“Brother, do you two know each other?”
“I knew it, and we did ask for something together before-”
“Then it would be convenient to shorten the time for introductions. Wow, you two knew each other. I really think this is a meeting created by Mercury, the god of fate.”
I never thought I would meet Kalidur again, who I thought had left the city to catch Elfriede, in an illegal tavern in this slum.
Because it was a face I had never thought of, I felt dazed, as if I was drunk without even drinking a single drop.
Anyway, Malko, Kalidur, and I sat at a table together and drank and ate meat. Didn’t you say you don’t eat meat, you little punk?
Seeing that he’s already ripped off two legs by himself, I wonder if my memory is faulty.
As I was just sipping my beer, wondering what on earth was going on, Malko, whose face was red, opened his mouth.
“Ugh. This is a taste you can only get in a basement tavern.”
It seems that I got drunk quickly because the alcohol content was higher than I thought, even though I only had a few drinks.
“Brother, you haven’t spoken to our younger brother Kalidur yet. Why don’t we talk freely now?”
“What, Subal? Little brother?”
“Kalidur is twenty-three years old. He’s three or four years younger than us.”
“Please speak comfortably, my foreign brother.”
“T, shit, with this face, you’re twenty-three… .”
“Kuhaha, I was surprised when I first heard about it too. Isn’t this the mystery of the elves? Looking older than your age!”
No, I know elves look younger than they are. This damn Kalidur bastard has never escaped the passage of time. Rather, isn’t it that he’s aged for everyone else?
“Really twenty-three…?”
“I often hear that I look mature.”
Shit, twenty-three. I thought he was at least ten years older than me. Maybe he looks older because he’s balding and has a bushy beard…
I wonder if my skin ages more because I don’t have hair and can’t avoid direct sunlight.
Anyway, I decided to stop thinking about this weird presbyopia.
“More than that, Sval, I find it more surprising that you and Kalidur know each other. How on earth did you find out?”
“That would be a long story, but there is a strange story behind being able to sing five melodies.”
“Then don’t do it.”
“Brother Malko helped me a lot. I was almost swindled and became a beggar….”
“fraud?”
“Kuhahaha, what’s with the bald elf running around in an illegal brothel wearing a dumpling. That’s a common experience for the inexperienced.”
Is this an illegal brothel?
In this world, professional women are priestesses authorized by Venus, the goddess of love. So they earn good money and are treated well.
But the path to becoming a priestess is quite rigorous, and the men who can receive the grace are also said to be carefully selected?
Because of this, there were illegal places here and there that did not receive permission from the Temple of Venus.
I imagined brothels built in the basements of various slums, flesh-colored cesspools filled with the smell of nicotine from the bear traps.
This tight-fisted bastard went to a place like that.
“This kid was just a punk. I thought he was an ascetic monk.”
“There are many forms of abstinence and asceticism. Abstinence from alcohol, abstinence from words, abstinence… In any case, there are many. But I have only abstained from abstinence. That is another form of abstinence.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Hehehe, brother. It’s best not to listen to what your bald brother says. Anyway, since we’re on the subject, would you like to go with me?”
Malko, who was drinking, asked in a low and solemn voice like a snake crawling. Rather, why don’t you go together?
“Damn, are you asking me to go to an illegal brothel with you? No matter how hard I try, I won’t go to a place like that, you punk.”
As a man, I wasn’t completely uninterested, but I thought I’d feel guilty if I went to a place like that and saw Luna. It would be best not to even try something like that.
Then Malko said, rummaging through his bosom.
“No, not somewhere illegal. I just happened to get some tickets to the Temple of Venus. You could say you’re really lucky, brother.”
After saying that, Malko took out several scrolls with heart-shaped seals from his bosom.
“We are going to the temple to worship. This is something that will not offend our conscience. Let’s go and observe the religious life of the Gaia continent.”
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