28th
The Nemean Cat
028 ?
“Hiyong, Iyong!”
It was while I was listening to Luna’s strange crying sound for a while.
“I wondered who was calling me, and it was my brother!”
I felt a presence behind me, so I turned my head and saw a cone-shaped hat. I was in silence for a second, wondering if it was a witch who had heard gossip following me. But then I got angry when I saw a large nose underneath it.
“Fuck, turn on your blinkers and come out, you little shit.”
“What’s the blinker? Anyway, I heard a welcoming voice calling for me, so I was hoping. It seems like the god of encounters, Mercury, is looking down on us!”
Exactly, exactly-.
The musician Malko made a noise by hitting the strange denture-like object in his hand.
“Ah, this is the Castagnola I’m holding in place of the lyre that was broken by the goblins last time. When you hit it like this, a sound comes out of the fine grooves inside-.”
“I didn’t ask, kid. More importantly, who called you? What’s going on here?”
“Didn’t you look for Whitey? My nickname when I was little was Whitey-.”
When Malko was explaining something, Luna, who had been quietly listening, was the first to intervene and cut him off.
“Whitey is a cat.”
“Cat? I thought my brother and sister were coming to see my underground performance.”
“Hey, you’re performing in the basement?”
“It’s not a nose job, it’s a malcolm. I perform every week on the street and in the basement. Didn’t I tell you that when we were drinking?”
“Was it so?”
Luna stared intently at my face, narrowing her eyes slightly. It seemed as if she was asking me if I remembered anything, but now that my memories of that day were completely hazy, nothing came to mind.
“I see you don’t remember. Are you perhaps trying to go down the subway to find a cat? It’s a fateful meeting that we met like this even though you didn’t come to see me!”
I haven’t seen him in a while, but this guy with a bad nose seems to like to attach fate to anything he does. Of course, most street musicians are like this.
Being a musician or a bard is something that only people with rich sensibilities can do, whether it’s fate or tragedy, or adding anecdotes here and there.
To put it nicely, they are people who choose art over filling their hungry stomachs.
To put it badly, you could say that they are poor souls who lack a sense of reality.
“Kozeng-ah, you said you were going to perform in this underpass. Then you must know the way around here well, right?”
“Yes, sister. Do you need any guidance? It looks like you have a request to find a cat.”
The witty musician Malko was a guy with better insight than you might think. For a guy who lives in a tough world with just one instrument, it would be more surprising if he had no insight.
This guy is completely useless when it comes to combat, but the fact that the number of people in the party has increased somehow gives a sense of stability.
In this world where combat and military strategy are not developed, numbers are the greatest power.
But if this guy gets involved, we’ll have to split the money with him too.
Since I’ve already spent 1 silver as a down payment for the request, the back of my head starts to tingle with pragmatic thoughts. What should I do with this?
“Nosy, you won’t get your share. Are you okay?”
“Ha, sister, do you see this guy as someone who is only moved by money?”
“huh.”
“Indeed, Ideophee’s daughter has a great eye for people! Money is the best. In accordance with the rules set by Mercury, I will only charge 10% of the commission fee as a guide.”
10%? If we could increase the workforce by one person for 10%, wouldn’t that be a huge gain?
“Malko, you half-depraved artist bastard. Alright, 10%. Let’s go.”
“Artist? Brother, is that what you call this guy an artist? I’ve heard him called a clown and all sorts of things, but this is the first time I’ve heard such heart-fluttering sounds! Alright, let’s go together!”
So we slowly pushed ourselves into the underground hole.
As I descended the ladder, the first thing I saw was a dark, damp floor and rat pups as big as my fist with glowing red eyes.
Hwaruk-.
Even though I lit the torch, the rats didn’t even show any sign of trying to run away and just stared at me, which sent goosebumps down my spine.
Tick-tick-tick.
Having taken world history in liberal arts classes, I was well aware that the rats of the Middle Ages were a bunch of bastards that spread all sorts of diseases, so I couldn’t help but feel wary.
In this world where there are no proper medical drugs, it’s not hard to imagine what would happen if you were bitten by a rat.
“Rat, rat. How cute.”
But Luna bent her knees and held out her palms towards the rats as if nothing had happened. Then, a few rats climbed onto Luna’s palms and rubbed their faces against them.
“Hey, shit! Put that thing down!”
“Why? They’re cute. They say that rats are Lord Knox’s messengers.”
“Fuck, whatever! Put it down! It’s dirty!”
“hmm-.”
Luna frowned as if she couldn’t understand my nervous screams, but reluctantly released the rats back onto the floor of the cesspool.
Click.
In this world where things like germs and viruses are considered nonsense, my actions may seem like nothing more than an outrageous act, but I still cannot tolerate those little rats.
When I think back to the times when I was a slave and suffered being bitten by those bastards, I still get so angry that my teeth grind.
“Hmm, Samaritans are afraid of rats. How unexpected.”
“Sister, everyone has something they are afraid of. Even the great hero Achilles died after being bitten on the heel by a rat.”
“That’s true. There are a lot more rats than that. Even in the Ideophee swamp, there weren’t this many rats.”
Luna raised the corners of her lips as if she was very excited to see the squeaking rats everywhere. Malko, the musician, hit his instrument hard.
“There is an interesting story about the rats in the cesspool of Sodomora. Long ago, a musician played a flute and drove away a swarm of rats with the sound of his flute.”
“Anyway, let’s go.”
“Then let’s tell this story next time.”
I was worried that the useless chit-chat would drag on, so I decided to move on. My raincoat was already starting to get wet from the water drops falling from all directions.
As expected of a sewer where all sorts of filth flows, it had a foul smell and was full of rats. I thought that even a healthy person might get sick if they stayed in a place like this.
“There are a lot of mice, so it wouldn’t be strange if a cat or two were to sneak in. So I’m asking, do you know what that white cat looks like?”
Malco’s question made me recall the appearance I had heard from the witch.
“They say that all of its fur is white. You can tell just by looking at it.”
“A cat with white fur. It is definitely a rare species in Sodomora. Just trust me. You will find it in no time.”
*
So Malko and I continued to walk through the damp and gloomy underground passage. But we couldn’t see a single hair on the white truck, so our work was not progressing at all.
In the first place, I knew that it would not be easy to find a cat in a large city. Maybe it would continue from today to tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow to the day after that.
But I said I would give you additional commission if the work took a long time.
I just moved my legs silently, believing in the extra money.
If I fail or give up on the commission I’ve been given, it goes against my will to raise my adventurer rank to Silver Tier.
“Hyoong.”
“Sister, you have a great talent for making cat sounds, yes.”
“Of course. The first thing you learn to become an Ideopae voodoo master is to imitate animals. You have to communicate with all things. You communicate with your souls through each other’s cries.”
Luna and Malco chatting, seemingly aware of my serious situation.
This reminds me of the group projects in liberal arts classes at university. Even then, only one group leader was in a hurry, and the rest were like this.
“Anyway, let’s keep trying.”
“Iyooong-.”
What the fuck.
I was walking for a while, listening to such a strange cat noise.
Karuruk-.
“What the hell? Did you guys hear that?”
From a corner inside, where the sewer was blocked and the rotten garbage and dead rats were floating, I stopped walking when I heard a strange sound similar to Luna’s.
“Did you hear that too? What should I say? I heard a tickling sound in my armpit.”
“I didn’t hear it.”
Luna shakes her head.
Malkodo, standing next to me, looks at me with a pitiful expression as if he is questioning my sanity and asks, “Brother, are you hallucinating? Are you cursed by the stone statue you touched back then?”
… .
Strange, I’m sure I’ve heard it before.
“Hassan, did you misunderstand what I said?”
“No, it felt different. It was a raw sound.”
Knock knock!
“Really? What, something made a noise over there!”
Luna, who had been doubting me, was startled again by the sound she heard clearly and screamed.
“Wow, it looks like a real cat understood what I was saying! I think my voodoo skills have really improved!”
Shit, a real cat reacting to such a weird imitation. My head was spinning, wondering if there was something wrong with the world or with me.
But it was a very welcome thing that a hint was beginning to appear in a matter that had been difficult to find a clue to. So, I started walking towards the place where the sound had come from.
“Brother, in there… I think it would be best not to go in there.”
Malko, who had been talking and singing along to the music all by himself, grabbed my shoulder with a serious expression on his face that I had never seen before and tried to stop me.
“Why? What do you mean?”
“Hey, is there a monster there?”
“No, isn’t it just dirty? The inside is so smelly that even homeless people wouldn’t go in there.”
Oh, what am I saying again? You little brat, you’re barely saying that, but you’re acting all cocky.
But if you think about it, it’s quite true. Is Malko more hygienic and smarter than I thought? I’ll try to raise the hygiene level of Malko in my heart.
Luna sniffing next to him.
“I don’t think I smell anything special.”
The smell was so strong that it made her nose twitch, but Luna shrugged her shoulders as if she didn’t feel anything. I wonder if her sense of smell, as well as taste, had gone, poor thing.
“My sister’s sense of smell is truly amazing.”
“I’ve been training since I was little! I don’t care about any smells. Oh, there’s something better than that.”
Luna suddenly seemed to put her hand inside her jacket and took out a small seashell.
“It’s mentha oil. If you put it under your nose, you won’t be able to smell anything.”
Then, he puts some of the white, thick liquid inside the clam shell on his finger and applies it generously between Malko’s nose and lips.
Ssaaaah-.
A sensation that I couldn’t tell whether it was very cool or hot and spicy seemed to be piercing my brain through my nostrils.
I have to say that I remember back when I was eating school lunches, we had to put toothpaste under our noses as a punishment game. It felt exactly the same.
It’s a little annoying, but it’s better than smelling the foul sewer smell.
“Geez, geez, I’m going to die! It smells like mentha!”
“Hey kid, stop joking around. Anyway, let’s go inside. You never know what’s going to come out, so everyone be careful-.”
After giving a brief warning as the party leader, I also made up my mind to draw my sword at any time.
Crackle, crackle.
I saw something like a black wave coming from inside, and my hair stood on end. It was a swarm of rats. A swarm of rats that looked like a wave of rats moving around alive.
“Oh, shit! What the heck!”
“The rats here love the smell of menthe! That’s because the dregs of the menthe-flavored beer sold above ground flow into here!”
“Hey, shit, you should have told me that earlier!”
In an instant, the rats surrounded me, Luna, and Malco.
Not only that, but they jump up from all directions as if we were repeatedly pressing the space bar, climb on top of us, and start sinking their claws and teeth into us.
“What the hell! You fucking rats!”
I held a torch and a sword in each hand and waved them in all directions to threaten the rats. It was Hassan’s turn to show off his might.
“This is a goblin beheading, you punk!”
Sgung-.
“Hasegi!”
Squeak squeak!
But these little devilish creatures turned my body upside down and gnawed at my clothes with their tiny teeth as if they were not afraid of even human prey.
What the heck, the 10 copper raincoat I just bought is going to be eaten by rats in one meal?
“I, I’ll handle it! Squeak squeak squeak! Squeak squeak!”
“Hey, what are you doing!”
“Rat noise! I, I’ll try to convince the rats with the voodoo of soul communication! Ow, ow! Hey, hey, we’re friends! Squeak, squeak!”
“Stop being so noisy and just swing something quickly!”
But the black waves were truly a merciless band of robbers. If this continued, not only would I lose my clothes, I would also get injured and the medical bills would cost more than 2 silver.
That was when the words, “This won’t work, let’s run away!” were ringing in the back of my throat.
. .
At the sound of a soft melody coming from somewhere, the mice’s movements all stopped as if a stop button had been pressed.
[Work Review] Thank you, Extra Nureongi, Vurgil, for the sponsorship coupons. I would also like to thank the many people who gave me manuscript fee coupons.
