137
Visiting
‘···Already a pagan?’
I quickened my pace, stroking the handle of my sword.
There had been news of pagans, but it was not certain that they would come.
Why would a pagan come to Cassidy, the most remote place in the East, for food?
‘An explosion at the gate.’
It was not understandable why the pagans had a grudge against Cassadic, and then suddenly exploded at the gates.
‘They say he survived thanks to the abbot. He was lucky.’
I heard that he was hit right in front of the explosion, but the abbot happened to be nearby, so he received treatment in time and is not in critical condition.
In the Middle Ages, even a slight sprain was considered a wound that would fester or rot, so saying that something was not in critical condition meant that it was really okay.
While having such random thoughts, I found myself at a crossroads.
One way was to the synagogue where the pagans were taken, and the other way was to Horman’s house where the injured grass was.
“Director, why are you stopping?!”
Berman suddenly shouted and asked.
Then I scratched the ball for a moment and headed to Hormann’s house.
‘If I’m caught by the Inquisitor, I don’t have to do anything···.’
The name itself was Inquisitor. It was clear that he was more of an expert in dealing with heretics than I was.
As I arrived at Hormann’s house and opened the door, the smell of herbs filled the air.
“You idiot!! You can’t go back like this! At the very least, you should tell me where you hid the money···.”
I went inside where I could hear the weasel’s voice full of cries.
There was blood all over the place, but surprisingly, there was healthy grass and a weasel hanging on it.
The grass, which was usually pale, was now completely white.
‘You must have lost a lot of blood.’
The divine power healed wounds and scars, but the blood that had been shed did not regenerate. It was clear that the treatment had been received while the patient had lost a considerable amount of blood.
“Oh, the leader is here.”
The grass that found me nodded its head as usual, but the ring finger and little finger of the grass’ left hand that was on the weasel’s back were not visible.
Grass smiled, waving her left hand with three fingers remaining in my sight.
“I should have done as the leader said, but there were so many of them. It was difficult to take them inside.”
The grass smiled and said with a wry smile.
Instead of surviving the explosion, you could see that it was eaten very cheaply with just two fingers.
“Idiot.”
Poole was a strange guy. He was more knowledgeable about math than anyone else, but he also boasted of his loyalty in strange ways. It felt like a warm iced Americano.
‘Did you calculate that it would work since there was a waste and a farhan?’
As it turned out, Poole’s prediction was correct.
I heard that out of the eight heretics, seven exploded, except for one dud, and that he lost two fingers, so there was no other damage except that his arm was cut off.
“No, big brother! Big brother Full must be crazy! Why are you risking your life for a mere 20 silver! You’re not even big brother… If you’re going to throw yourself in so foolishly, then tell me where you hid the money. Last time I looked, you weren’t hiding it at home….”
“I won’t tell you. Wake up.”
The weasel’s face, which was shedding tears, was pushed away with a squeamish look.
‘It’s a good thing it’s left-handed. I should have no problem shooting a crossbow.’
I muttered to myself as I looked at the rustling grass and the weasel.
“Is this okay? Full?”
Berman asked with a serious expression, unlike when he had come running.
“Oh, it’s about a finger.”
“Yeah. That’s good.”
Berman nodded and looked at me.
“Captain, I’ll go and check the area.”
“Okay, I won’t come back again, but don’t throw yourself at me like that idiot and just do as instructed.”
Berman nodded and lightly tapped Poole on the shoulder before stepping out.
The grass and the weasel still fought over the property.
Eventually, the grass, unable to resist the weasel’s persistence, gave in to the temptation, and the weasel ran out in a panic.
The grass giggled and then held its stomach and coughed dryly. I handed the grass a bowl of warm stew that was sitting next to it.
It was a healthy stew with lots of herbs, and although he wrinkled his face, he accepted it and drank it all.
And as I was sharing the wine from my flask, the soaking wet weasel came back.
“Isn’t that right!! Brother Pool!!”
The weasel spat with spittle flying from his mouth, but the grass just giggled.
I looked at him for a moment, then took out a few silver coins from my bosom, gave them to Poole, and went outside.
‘He is a pagan.’
Even though I was being hit head-on by the cold rain, I strangely felt feverish. I scratched my cheek nervously and headed towards the synagogue.
I thought back to the layout of the synagogue and tried to guess where he might be. The Inquisitors might refuse to meet him.
Then I ran into the abbot in front of the synagogue.
The abbot usually had his hair neatly slicked back, but now it was a mess, perhaps because it was wet from the rain.
He looked exactly like the president of a mid-sized company that was doing well but then suddenly went bankrupt.
The abbot was standing in front of the church, getting rained on, just looking up at the sky.
I followed suit and raised my gaze, and saw a sky covered with dark clouds, with not even the tip of the sun visible.
The monks enjoyed getting rain, calling it a blessing from God, but the abbot’s expression when he received the blessing was not good.
“What happened to the pagans?”
I looked at him for a moment and then asked.
The abbot, who had flinched at that, slowly turned his head and looked at me.
Those eyes, which had always been hard-hearted, were strangely cloudy.
The abbot hesitated for a moment and then opened his mouth.
“Death···yes.”
The voice was so small that it was not even audible amidst the sound of the rain. I could tell what it meant by feeling.
‘···He couldn’t stand that bird and died. The inquisitor’s skills weren’t that great.’
At that, I clicked my tongue and turned away.
If he was already dead, there was nothing left to do.
‘I guess I should buy a gift for visiting someone in the hospital.’
I was concerned that I had left empty-handed earlier.
“···!!”
At that moment, the abbot shouted something from behind.
I turned my head and saw the abbot with both hands stretched out to the sky.
It was as if he was angry or whining to the heavens.
The scene was just like a famous scene from a movie I had seen before, but it wasn’t that cool.
‘That guy has lost his taste.’
I knew that day would come someday, because he was a human being who did not fit in with the Middle Ages.
‘If you’re crazy, won’t you do something you deserve?’
A sudden thought occurred to me, and I clenched my fist and observed the abbot.
When I was originally crazy, my fists were the medicine.
However, contrary to my expectations, the abbot, who had been shouting at the sky for a long time, picked up his clothes, looked at the ground, and disappeared somewhere.
‘Ugh.’
I whetted my appetite and headed in the opposite direction from where the abbot had disappeared to buy a gift for his visit.
***
“···What is this.”
The guys who were drinking around the pool frowned at me.
My face also crumpled from the smell of sweat, alcohol, and blood coming from those guys.
“What is that, Commander?”
Kel asked in a trembling voice.
“A gift for visiting someone in the hospital. Here, take the grass.”
I handed the bundle of garlic fish bread to Poole and chuckled.
“Oh, thank you, Captain.”
The grass reaction wasn’t as tasty as he thought, but the guys next to him filled him in.
“Oh my god! The devil’s garlic and hell’s fishbread combined!!”
“Ningiri! That store still hasn’t gone out of business?! Why on earth hasn’t it gone out of business….”
Kel jumped up in shock and the weasel wriggled around in joy.
“No… It’s my mom’s food….”
The brick in the corner muttered uneasily, but no one paid any attention.
“Oh, everyone was going out at the same time, so that’s good.”
The pool laughed heartily and took out the fish bread from the bundle.
Everyone reacted strongly, gagging at the spicy smell mixed with the bloody smell.
“Fish bread sucks, but this is delicious.”
I clicked my tongue at the reaction of those who didn’t know the taste and picked up one of them.
The chewy texture and the strong spiciness of garlic that follows. It was just fish bread with garlic in it, but strangely enough, it was delicious.
Ugh-. As I was eating deliciously, Kel and the weasel grabbed each other’s bodies and kept vomiting.
Berman, who saw me eating, took the garlic fish bread to his mouth with a serious expression as if following an order.
Berman took a big bite and looked at me with a strange expression. When I nodded, Berman took another bite.
I took a sip of beer from the keg that was standing on one side. It was quite empty, so I must have drunk quite a bit.
“hmm···?”
Berman’s strange sigh made the others stop screaming and focus.
Berman brought the garlic fish bread to his mouth again with an expression of disbelief.
“Ohhh!”
He let out a strange exclamation.
After Berman, who was so impressed, finished one of the garlic fish breads, Kel and the weasel hurriedly took the remaining garlic fish breads.
“If I ever die- my secret vault-.”
The weasel, muttering something, trembled like one drinking poison as he brought the garlic fish bread to his mouth.
“Oh my god?! This is that fucking tasteless fish bread?!”
The weasel shuddered and muttered something that was somewhere between praise and insult.
Brick’s expression as he watched him from the side was mysterious.
Then I patted Brick on the shoulder.
But Kel remained suspicious until the end and did not eat it.
At that time, Ha-na’s three friends brought three more kegs of beer, saying that they were Ha-na’s gifts for Pool’s recovery.
He even brought me a wooden bucket full of ice, and the other guys’ expressions became strange because the ice looked like me.
Of course, when drinking alcohol, no one cared about the shape of the ice.
“But, Captain, what happened?”
Berman, who had become a strawberry, asked, perhaps feeling a little tipsy.
“that?”
I answered while looking at the grass and the weasel giggling in front of me while playing rock-paper-scissors.
“It’s a dog hole.”
“Oh, I forgot that. Hey, weasel.”
I called out to the weasel, clicking my tongue. The weasel, who had lost rock-paper-scissors to the grass that had no two fingers, looked back at me.
“What if we build a secret warehouse inside the castle walls?”
I said, shaking the thick pouch I had brought-.
“···Ningiri?”
The weasel muttered with a face like a beaver whose house had collapsed.
***
The lord’s measures against heresy were radical.
Locking the gates and not allowing any outsiders in.
It was a clean and bold solution.
However, it was impossible to not accept all the carriage drivers.
The lord then opened something like a market in front of the castle gate for the carriage drivers.
There, two heresy inquisitors took turns standing guard, and transactions were made by purchasing necessary items directly from the lord’s castle and then selling them to the residents.
‘You’re smarter than I thought.’
If he were to remain for too long, Cassidy’s reputation would suffer, but the lord seemed to have decided that heresy came first.
The decision was largely due to the contribution of the grass that burst out in heresy at the gates.
No matter where the castle was, the significance of the castle gate being attacked was not light.
Of course, the unstable situation in the East must have played a part in this as well.
With the issue of Count Behar’s succession and the fact that the religious order could not tolerate heresy, it was clear that they would soon dispatch troops to the east. Or they had already dispatched them.
Anyway, in the midst of the chaotic situation, Yeongju chose to just walk and lock himself in.
It wasn’t a bad decision.
‘But why is this guy here···.’
I stared straight ahead, clicking my tongue at the warmth that filled the bar.
“Hiccup! Oh! Perfect! Yummy! Hiccup!”
On the other side, Park Daegari was eating meat bread with his eyes wide open.
“You shouldn’t talk while eating.”
Kanna, sitting next to him and placing her hand on Park Daegari’s back, pointed out.
Park nodded and closed his mouth. Then he held the meat bun in his hand and pondered.
I brushed the bread crumbs from my beard and lifted the mug of beer to my lips.
‘Are we really friends?’
I’ve seen the two of them having fun digging holes, but I didn’t know they’d be running around like that inside the castle.
Maybe it was because of the ‘It’s chilly’ I muttered in the morning that I brought Park Daegari.
Kanna alone couldn’t heat up the entire bar by starting a fire.
I didn’t think Kanna would treat Park Dae-gari like that even in front of the lord…
“Hiccup! Hiccup!”
Park Dae-gari, whose eyes met mine, shook the table while repeatedly hiccupping.
“They say if you hiccup ten thousand times you’ll die. This is a big problem.”
I threw a light joke at him that even a child wouldn’t understand.
Then, Park Daegari’s face suddenly darkened.
“Ten thousand times?! Hiccup! No! Hiccup! Aaah!”
I found it so funny that I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of him repeatedly covering his mouth and getting frustrated.
“Tsk tsk.”
Kanna clicked her tongue and ate only the meat from the meat bun.
“You shouldn’t be a picky eater.”
When I pointed it out, Kanna put the meat in the bread, closed her eyes tightly, and ate it.
“Hiccup! Aaaah! I’m dying!”
“Ugh!”
Looking at those two in front of me, my laughter turned into a sigh.
“Oh, are you okay?”
Hannah, who had brought the meat, put her arm on my shoulder blade and asked Park Daegari.
“Hiccup! Aaah! I’m dead as fast as one hiccup! Hiccup! Twice!”
Park Dae-gari said with a sad face.
“I’m joking.”
I told her it was a joke because I thought she would really cry if I left it alone any longer.
“······Ahhh! As expected! Hiccup! Are you going to die from a mere hiccup?! I knew it! Hiccup!”
Then Park Dae-gari smiled brightly and answered, but unlike what he said, tears were slightly gathered in his eyes.
“Umm… I can’t tell you how honored I am that you visited, Youngae. Would you like something else to give me?”
Hannah asked with a commercial smile, her easygoing demeanor that of a successful bar owner.
“Hiccup! Then can I have Aaron?”
At Park Dae-gari’s sudden request, the wooden tray that Ha-na was holding fell forward.
Then I showed off my trick of catching the falling meat one by one while holding the tray.
‘Nobody’s watching.’
I clicked my tongue, picked up a piece of meat, and put it in my mouth.
“···Oh!”
Kanna looked at him and her eyes sparkled in admiration.
Kanna, who had taken the tray, quickly moved it, throwing a lot of ice into the air, but all but one fell to the floor.
Then he glanced at me, turned around, filled a tray with ice, and handed it to me.
I nodded roughly.
***
“······So you want me to teach you swordsmanship?”
I asked, looking at Park Daegari, who had a rather serious expression on his face. Contrary to his serious face, the corners of Park Daegari’s mouth were twitching.
“Yes! Hiccup!”
“Why don’t you ask Adela to teach you…?”
I pointed to the barley behind Park’s head and asked.
“The knights said they would never tell! Hiccup!”
Park Dae-gari answered with his mouth sticking out.
‘Well, if something happens while teaching the lord’s daughter…’
It was clear that the relationship between Young-ae and the knight would be more awkward than tutoring the president’s child.
‘But why me? Oh, Flitton Castle.’
It seems that the fight while consuming the devil candy at the time left a big impression on Park Daegari.
It was a bit of an ugly fight, but we managed to catch the demon.
If it comes to Park Daegari’s physical abilities, it would be more suitable for combat using the body rather than magic···.
‘If you can’t even fight the devil, what are you going to do with learning?’
The problem was Park Dae-gari’s weak nature, who said he couldn’t fight even though he was clearly in the form of a demon, because he knew that he was actually a human.
Self-defense techniques for suppression were meaningless here.
If he was the kind of guy who would surrender after being subdued, he wouldn’t have drawn his sword in the first place.
Most of them were the kind of guys who would pretend to surrender, then turn around and swing a sword at the back of your head.
In the Middle Ages, subjugation was limited to physical restraint, such as cutting off one of the legs to render the victim unable to move.
“This! Hiccup! It costs money!”
Park Dae-gari, who had been watching me, immediately handed me two gold coins.
He nodded at the two gold coins placed on his callus-free, pure white palm.
“Of course I should teach you.”
To survive in this harsh place, nothing was more important than self-defense.
***
‘That’s amazing.’
I was in pure awe as I looked at the sight before me.
Park Dae-gari was amazing. He was truly amazing.
‘···How can you be so untalented?’
Of course, the strength of that body was incomparable to that of others, so it was an incredible weapon in itself···, but its movements were strange.
It was as if I was teaching my body to dance, it creaked endlessly and I kept tripping over my own feet.
It could be true since it’s my first time holding a sword, but···.
‘···No matter what, how could I fall while doing a vertical slash in my seat?’
But his willpower was so great that he quickly got up again and swung his sword. But he fell forward again.
This was beyond lack of talent. It was to the point where talent was eating away at even the physical advantages.
‘You can’t control your strength.’
As I observed Park Daegari’s movements, I realized the problem. Park Daegari was not controlling his body properly.
In the first place, it was a monstrous strength that could not have come from my limbs. It was clear that it was not my own strength.
That’s why such outrageous things happen.
‘Not only that… there are so many unnatural things.’
Although Park Dae-gari was a talkative person, there was something strangely different about his behavior from that of commoners.
I nodded, recalling what Park Daegari had said, ‘It’s your father’s fault, because he told you not to run!’
‘Does it conflict with the education I received as Young-ae? Well, I guess I’ve been educated as Young-ae my whole life.’
Perhaps the education she received as a child and the power she couldn’t control clashed to create an extreme idiot.
‘I may just be untalented… but this is just too much.’
Even if he had no talent, there was no way he couldn’t do a vertical cut.
‘Bad habits are ingrained.’
The fastest way to break ingrained habits was to get beaten up, but it seemed difficult for Youngae to adopt that method.
‘Because you just have to make them aware of their own strength.’
The solution was simple: just repeat the unconscious enough to cover it up, and then overlay a new unconscious on top of it.
As it happened, there was something suitable in the backyard. A large stone that had been used as a safe before being opened by Park Dae-gari and thrown away.
“Come this way.”
“Hiccup! Yes!”
Park Daegari ran up to me and stood next to the stone. I had felt it all along, but the kid answered one question really well.
I told him in what posture he should lift the stone.
“Yes! Hiccup! I’ll try!”
Park Daegari answered coolly, sitting down as I told him to, and holding the stone wide open.
“Hiccup! Ready! Hiccup!”
“Okay, when I say ‘one,’ you pick it up, and when I say ‘two,’ you put it down.”
“one.”
“······Uraryaryayat!!”
Park Daegari straightened his back and let out a loud shout. Then the stone slowly rose with a clattering sound.
‘You’re weaker than me.’
I nodded my head habitually, checking the strength of Park’s muscles.
Although his posture was quite ugly, he somehow managed to lift the stone. His arms and legs were trembling.
He had a lot of power, but he didn’t know how to use it and acted ignorantly, so it seemed like it was a problem.
“two.”
“Hiyat!”
Kuuuung-.
Water splashed around the stone that Park Dae-gari had placed down.
“Hiccup! Whoa! I have this heavy thing···.”
Park’s head was jumping for joy.
“one.”
At the firm voice, Park Dae-gari opened his eyes wide and looked at me.
“one.”
“···Oneaaa!”
Again, Park Dae-gari shouted loudly and lifted the stone.
“It’s… heavy… heavy!”
“······two.”
Kuuuung-. Even though he only did two, Park Daegari’s face became strange.
Park Dae-gari looked at me with his limbs trembling. His gaze was so longing that I wavered for a moment, but shook my head and gathered my wits.
“one.”
“I don’t even need to learn it···.”
“one.”
“Eurya ryarya!”
The spirit was weaker than before. But, regardless, the stone rose up in a flash.
Knock knock.
At that moment, someone nudged me from the side and I turned my head to see Kanna holding an ice cube bigger than my body.
‘You emptied the inside to reduce the weight.’
Kanna’s eyes sparkled as she held up a thin piece of ice that seemed to weigh little compared to its size.
I patted that round head.
At that, Kanna twitched the corners of her lips.
“Twist, twist, twist!! Twist!”
Park Daegari shouted urgently.
Bori quickly placed a stone and ran towards the fallen head of the gourd.
‘I heard it only three times and they’re making such a fuss…’
As I was clicking my tongue, my eyes met with Kuobarou’s, who was standing next to me.
Kuobarou looked at me and nodded slowly with a knowing smile.
The warmth I felt from those eyes made me feel dirty for no reason.
***
The Abbot of Brighton stared blankly at the book in his hands.
It was a small book, but it was heavy. He didn’t know why he had brought it.
He might have been startled by the sound of footsteps and picked it up, or maybe the woman’s only pupil that looked at him resembled his son, or maybe he was curious as to why his own body was exploding.
‘A pagan book with reversed patterns.’
It was a book that the pagans dared to call the Bible.
Brighton paused as he placed the book on top of the half-melted candle.
Brighton was so well versed in the Bible that he could recite it in its entirety without even opening it.
Because I was so attached to the Bible, I had some questions about it.
But there was no place to ask such questions. The Bible was literally the standard, the book of truth, and to question it was heresy.
Brighton stared at the book that was gradually smoldering over the candle. Sweat dripped from his forehead despite the cold.
As I watched Heresy, memories that I had buried came flooding back. Why did that faithful son suddenly become a vampire one day?
Doubt was like a mold. No matter how small it may be, once it blooms, it spreads uncontrollably and soon fills everything.
The book looked like a mold slowly spreading in the sooty areas,
The mold that had been in my heart since the day I killed my son with my own hands began to show its tiny presence.
‘···No matter how dark it is.’
After thinking for a while, Brighton slowly opened the book that had been stained by the sound of a rooster crowing.
The first page depicted a sun torn to pieces.
