188th
New Crusader
188 ? New Crusader #2
Bang bang bang-.
I woke up to the sound of someone knocking loudly on the door.
I was sleeping soundly, as if I had passed out, and I never thought I would wake up like this.
Looking at the sunlight streaming in through the window, it seemed like it was around noon or lunchtime.
I guess I slept for about five or six hours. But I’m still sleepy.
“Hassan! Luna! Is there no one here…? The door, the door is locked…!!”
Bang bang bang-.
I kept hearing a knock on the door, so I thought it was probably Paranoy. He must have been sleeping in the cabin with me. When did he go out?
It’s not that surprising that he leaves on his own and then suddenly comes back like this without warning.
It’s like a wild cat… It doesn’t have any cat-like aspects at all, so you can think of it as something like a squirrel or a chipmunk.
“Luna, Paranoy is here.”
“…Hassan, will you come down? I’ll lie down a little longer. I’m sleepy…”
Luna probably didn’t sleep much originally. She must have had a lot going on late last night, so she couldn’t hold back her sleepiness.
It’s strange that Luna is throwing a tantrum in her sleep, it doesn’t happen often.
Are you really that tired?
Now that I think about it, Luna was physically weaker than me.
So I had no choice but to get up and open the door on the first floor. Then, as usual, I saw Paranoy in his bright-colored robe.
“Hassan, the sun has risen to its zenith, and you are still sleeping…?”
“okay.”
“Well, since it’s come to this, could you give me something to eat? Actually, I haven’t eaten anything since yesterday, so I’m hungry…!”
I could never understand why he would make such a logical leap to asking for food there. This guy would often come to the cabin and beg for food.
Could we see it as a relationship where you get something in return for your labor?
So I went to the cabin to see if there was anything to eat.
I gave him a few pieces of dried meat and some leftover potatoes. Paranoy ate them all up in an instant, as if he had starved for several days.
“Huh, I think I can live now… .”
“So, what’s going on today? I told you to just sit there and do nothing for a while.”
“Isn’t today the second day of the festival? Shouldn’t we not stay still at a time like this?”
Swish, swish.
Paranoy looked around and realized that there was no one near the yard, so he continued speaking in a quiet voice.
“As you saw yesterday, many dead people gather at the festival in Sodomora… . We use them to take down those evil Temple Knights… ! There’s still one more evil guy in this city… !”
“Sval, what did I say again? I clearly told you to be quiet.”
I raised my fist and struck Paranoy’s tiny head.
thud-.
“Huh-!”
Then, a rather loud voice was heard, and at the same time, it was the nymph of the ditch water clutching her head.
I’m already so nervous and tired from what happened yesterday, and I can’t stand it that you woke me up to talk about such useless things.
“Oh, it hurts… . It hit a vital spot… .”
“I’ll take a deep breath, so if you have nothing better to do, go and clean up the yard. Be careful of traps. If you get what you pay for, Paranoia.”
Swish.
I looked over Paranoy’s shoulder at the state of the yard.
Yesterday, some uninvited strangers caused quite a ruckus in the yard, and the traps and fields set up in the yard were a total mess.
I was putting it off to get up and do it, but now that Paranoy has come, I think I should make him do it.
“You’re telling me to tidy up the yard? Are you saying that you’re going to entrust me with Hassan-nim and Luna-nim’s territory, that important place…?”
But Paranoy was shaking and not knowing what to do, as if cleaning up the yard was some kind of huge task.
“I, Paranoy, the chief disciple and right-hand man, am I really allowed to clean up the yard? Is this a task you have given me?”
I don’t know what he’s talking about, but he seems motivated to clean up the yard, so I decided to give him a plausible answer.
“Yeah, that’s about it. I’ll sleep for another hour or so, so come and wake me up when you’re done. Make sure no strange merchants come in.”
“The mission you’ve entrusted to me! I’ll make sure to do it well…!”
“okay.”
I wonder if Paranoy can really do a good job of cleaning the yard.
I took another good look at the yard with my sleepy eyes.
I think it would be nice to set up a parasol in front of the cabin and a long chair so that we can take a leisurely nap.
I’ll find out later.
… .
… .
So after some time passed.
“Hassan, Hassan…!”
I heard someone whispering and waking me up.
When I opened my eyes, I saw Paranoy’s crimson eyes right in front of my nose. I was so shocked that I almost screamed.
“What is it, Sval?”
I’m looking down at a sleeping person’s face right in front of my nose. I’m so shocked that I can’t even sleep.
People in this world are too thoughtless about personal place and personal distance. It seems that the nymph of the ditch was the same.
“Sval, I’m really surprised. What is it? What’s going on?”
“I’ve finished cleaning the yard… What do I do next?”
“You’re done with it already?”
“It’s a piece of cake for me, Paranoy, the supreme believer… Then what should I do now…?”
Paranoy seemed very motivated to work.
“Then clean the first floor of the cabin and the workshop.”
“I thought you might say that, so I already did it…! I even organized all the ingredients by type in a jar…!”
“… Really? Did you feed the dog?”
“I thought Hassan would say that, so I caught some rats and fed them to him…! Since I caught two of them, I think I’ll be fine without feeding them for a week…!”
No, you read my thoughts in advance and then did everything. It’s so much better than I thought, I feel like I’m waking up.
So I started to imagine where Paranoy’s labor force could be put to effective use, but nothing really came to mind.
“Now, take a rest.”
“Then, Mr. Hassan, can I pull out just one strand of your hair?”
“Why that?”
“This is what you need to make a monkey bone wand… With the hellish magic that Hassan possesses, I’m sure you can make something useful…!”
I could picture the monkey hand bone that Paranoy had bought from the underground after being scammed. After all, it was just something he got for free. It seemed like he was planning to use it to make a wand.
But I don’t know if putting my hair in there will have any magical effect or not.
“I worked hard. How can I not receive a reward? I’ll just pull out one strand…!”
However, because Paranoy’s wish seemed so desperate, I had no choice but to just let it be.
“Then just pull out one strand.”
“Thank you… . Oh, you’re giving me such an embarrassing opportunity again… . The hair of Hassan-sama, who defeated the Knights Templar… . This embarrassing opportunity is given only to me, your right arm…”
As I closed my eyes, I felt a small hand rustling my hair. It was ticklish, more than I thought, and I think I woke up.
“You don’t have a single white hair, that’s really amazing… You really, really have jet black hair. I wonder which hair would be best….”
I wonder if this is how monkeys who hold each other’s teeth feel. I had to feel as if I were one of the monkeys.
Bboo-.
At that moment, a tingling sensation ran through my head.
“Ah-. It hurts. Is that why you pulled it out?”
“… I made a mistake and couldn’t pull it out… .”
“Sval, why are you making such a mistake? My right arm is in a position where I shouldn’t make a mistake.”
“This time, I won’t make a mistake…! Then, here, on Jeongsu-ri, I’ll take this….”
Slurp.
Soon, I felt as if a hair on my head was being grabbed. Soon after, I felt a tingling sensation again.
“ah-.”
“Again, I made a mistake again…! It didn’t work out as well as I expected…! It was absolutely, absolutely not my fault…!”
“Arai.” Tsk tsk.
I sat up, grabbed a lock of my hair, pulled hard, and held it out to Paranoy.
“Okay, here.”
“Ugh.”
Paranoy, who had accepted it, trembled as if he were about to see something truly precious. Then he took out a handkerchief from his bosom and wrapped it well to preserve his hair.
“Hassan, I am truly grateful… . For giving me, me, such a sacred object… . I will continue to offer my loyalty… .”
How can I possibly be this happy with my hair?
As expected, Paranoy’s condition was not very good.
Every time I saw him, his condition got worse and worse, and I started to get scared. I wondered if he would really go crazy later.
When I was seriously thinking about Paranoy’s mental health, Paranoy, who had a handkerchief neatly packed in his bosom, said something.
“But Hassan, that guy you left lying on the first floor… He seems to have come to his senses, but is it okay to just leave him alone…?”
“Have you come to your senses?”
“Yes… Would you like to go and take a look…?”
Swish.
I raised my body and looked at Luna, who was sleeping soundly.
Luna, who was soaked in fatigue because she had so much going on yesterday, didn’t wake up even when Paranoy was talking loudly next to her.
And it was Antiope who tired Luna out.
Antiope was roughly tied up on the first floor of the hut.
She is beneath me.
* * *
As I went down to the first floor of the cabin wearing only clothes, a club, and gauntlets, I immediately saw a person shivering in the corner.
Sitting on the floor with his head down, his arms wrapped around his head and his body shaking, I immediately got the feeling that it wouldn’t be good for his back, waist, and neck health.
“Antiope.”
I spoke to a woman who was so shocked that her hair turned white in half a day.
Then Antiope, who had been cowering in the corner, trembling with fear, flinched as if she were even more startled.
“Ugh, please save me, please save me…! Please don’t offer me up as a sacrifice, as a sacrifice. As a sacrifice-.”
You can tell just by looking at it.
The condition was not very good.
It was so scary to watch him repeat the same thing over and over again like a poorly educated parrot.
So I asked Paranoy slyly.
“Hey, have you been like that since you woke up?”
“That’s not it. I scared you by saying I would offer you up as a sacrifice, and that’s what happened.”
“Oh, damn it, it’s your fault. Why on earth did you do that again?”
“Hehe, the dog of the Temple Knights. The debauched slave of Jupiter. Now you must have realized the fear of Hassan and his right-hand man, the chief believer, Paranoy…!”
“This kid… .”
I don’t know why I keep wanting to hit my head when I see paranoia.
But I decided to just endure it, thinking that if I kept hitting him with honey chestnuts, his already weird head might get worse.
Anyway, what’s important now is not Paranoy, but Antiope, who is trembling with anxiety.
“Ahem, ahem.”
I cleared my throat by coughing slightly and then spoke to Antiope again.
“Antiope, can you hear me?”
“Ugh, uh-uh, I was wrong. I was wrong-.”
But Antiope was in such a panic right now that it seemed like she wasn’t in a position to talk to him at all.
“Hey, you piece of shit, Paranoy. What kind of scare did you give to someone to ruin them like this?”
“hmm-.”
Paranoy frowned at my words. Then he scolded Antiope in a growling voice as if he was very angry.
“Jupiter’s dog! Can’t you hear what Hassan is saying now? Hassan is truly a ruthless and fearsome person, unlike the likes of me…!!”
“Ugh, ugh… .”
Did Paranoy’s threats work?
Antiope, who had been trembling with her head held up until just now, seemed to slowly raise her head.
Swish.
Through the gray hair, blue eyes stained with fear and tears meet mine. But that only lasts for a moment.
The guy who made eye contact with me started to scratch the floor like he was even more scared.
Guarddeuk, guarddeuk.
Even though the tattoos have been erased and the level has been lowered, the basic form is still there, so the wooden planks are scratched by the fingernails like soft chocolate and get scratched.
I thought that if we continued like this, a hole might be made in the floor, so I grabbed Antiope’s wrist and pressed hard on the wrinkled part of the shinmun point.
Kwuk.
“Aww!”
Then, Antiope, feeling great pain, started to struggle and squirm in an attempt to escape from my hands.
Her appearance was exactly like that of Bismuri, a wolf girl who lived in the wild but was captured by humans and forcibly socialized.
At that moment, the word Diring came to mind.
『Antiope Grimkeeper’s Status: Great Terror』 cured.
『Task value + 10』
『Current task value: +185』
Then, the status effect that was on Antiope is lifted and the task score is given. I will fill up 200 soon.
With a task score of 200, you can do so much that your heart starts pounding.
“Huh… .”
At that moment, a sigh burst from Antiope’s mouth, as if it were boiling from the very bottom of her feet.
How can you be so blatant about taking a deep breath? Are you feeling a little better now? You must be able to communicate more or less since you’ve dispelled the great fear.
“How are you, are you feeling a little better?”
In order to calm her down, I tried to speak to her as kindly as possible. Even when I thought about it myself, my voice sounded quite timid and unlucky, so I really wanted to close my eyes tightly.
Still, perhaps because it contained such blatant kindness, Antiope seemed to have found peace.
“Ugh, uh… yeah… .”
Anyway, it seemed like he understood what I was saying, so I decided to clarify what I had been worried about the night before.
“Antiope, you haven’t forgotten the promise we made yesterday, have you? That you wouldn’t tell anyone about us. You swore an oath on the Styx, and you must keep it. Isn’t that right?”
“Uh, yeah… .”
Only then did he answer in a very uncertain voice, as if he was crawling in. However, it seemed that Paranoy did not like that appearance very much.
“You bastard-!! How dare you, how dare you not use honorifics with Hassan-nim! This man, this man is different from mere mortals like us…!!”
At those words, Antiope was so shocked that she shook her shoulders.
“Mortal, no?”
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