Return to the Immortal’s Tale Episode 383
With everyone (5)
I started by going around the town and gathering information.
‘First of all, half of the residents of this village are members of the Mugeuk cult.’
And among them, my colleagues included Jeon Myeong-hun, Kim Yeon, Buk Hyang-hwa, Yeon Wi, and Yeon Jin.
It seemed like I would have to go to another town to find other colleagues.
‘First of all, the name of the place I fell is Bongrae (蓬萊).’
The size of Bongrae was roughly the same as that of India on Earth, and when it was said that all 400 million members of the Mugeuk religion who had expanded their influence and entered Bongrae Island had become citizens of Bongrae Country, the number of citizens of Bongrae Country was estimated to be in the hundreds of millions.
‘Of course, this is just a guess.’
It was said that not all of them were people, but that they were reincarnated as beasts, monsters, or even real ghosts.
First of all, this Bongrae Kingdom was divided into a central capital and seven states excluding the capital.
Each state was divided into ten provinces, each province was followed by a dozen counties and counties, and below the counties were units called villages.
And this village was the unit of the town I was in.
‘The name of this village is Taeulchon (太乙村).’
Yeonwi’s husband, Taewon, was the village chief and local leader, and was nicknamed ‘Nolbu Yeonggam’. Yeonwi’s younger brother, Jeon Myeonghun, was a relative of Nolbu’s family, so he seemed to be called ‘Heungbu’ in a similar way.
It seemed to be the influence of the fairy tales that Jeon Myeong-hun, Kim Yeon, and I had in our memories.
‘Except for the fact that Heungbu and Nolbu were on good terms.’
Jeon Myeong-hun loved Geum So-hae and Geum Seul and had 12 children between them. Heon-won, the great lord of Nolbu, was a good husband who listened to Yeon-wi’s words, so he also took very good care of Jeon Myeong-hun, Yeon-wi’s younger brother.
From the beginning, Jeon Myeong-hun and Geum So-hae were living frugally together, so they didn’t ask for much from each other.
Buk Hyang-hwa and Kim Yeon were half-sisters who were married when Kim Yeon’s father took in a stepmother who had a daughter. Kim Yeon’s father passed away early, and her stepmother only loved Buk Hyang-hwa, but Buk Hyang-hwa was on good terms with Kim Yeon.
It seemed like a twisted version of the story of Kongjwi and Patjwi.
‘So, am I also the main character in a fairy tale? But what kind of fairy tale is this where the main character is a charcoal seller?’
I thought about it carefully, but I couldn’t think of a fairy tale with a charcoal seller as the main character.
‘Should I wear a Kim Yeon on my back and go around cutting off the heads of monsters?’
After looking around the village with some pointless thoughts, I went up to the back mountain and climbed up to the area near the charcoal kiln, where charcoal merchant Seo Eun-hyeon worked.
Taking a quick look at the charcoal kiln, it seemed that the charcoal merchant, Seo Eun-hyeon, had not taken care of it very well; the kiln was worn down and on the verge of collapse, and the condition was not good.
‘You’ve always been the one producing bad quality charcoal, right?’
In addition, charcoal merchant Seo Eun-hyeon would sell poor quality charcoal and earn a small amount of money. As soon as he earned it, he would go to the neighboring village of Soeulchon to drink and dance and gamble with the neighboring villager, Sodongi.
Because of that, I didn’t have any money saved up.
‘…was he just a slob?’
I sighed and picked up the rusty axe next to the charcoal kiln.
‘I tried to sell the charcoal kiln to earn money and move to another village… but no one would buy a charcoal kiln like this.’
I shook my head.
“You sound like an idiot…”
He’s poor because he does things like selling charcoal, which doesn’t sell well.
‘The best way to make money in this day and age is to sell soap. Selling charcoal? That’s stupid!’
I opened the charcoal kiln.
There was a huge pile of ash.
‘If I could get some oil and turn all that ash into soap…’
My hands are already itching as I think of old times.
I wanted to make soap right away.
“Huh, this isn’t it.”
After resisting the temptation of the soap seller, I began to search under the charcoal kiln, recalling the memory of the charcoal seller, Seo Eun-hyeon.
“found…”
I found a poker under the charcoal kiln.
The pointed end looked like it would be good to use as a weapon.
I took an axe and a poker and went into the forest.
‘According to the investigation log of Yuk Rin, the way to gather comrades in this formation is not to foolishly go around the seven provinces of the country looking for them, but to have them come to you.’
And he said that the best way to attract colleagues was to build up ‘achievements’.
If you do something worthy of achievement in this world, your status will gradually rise and the people you are looking for will appear before your eyes.
‘According to the memory of charcoal merchant Seo Eun-hyeon, there was a monster living on the slope of the mountain beyond the back mountain of Taeeul Village.’
People were always anxious because it was said that monsters would come down the mountain every night to eat livestock and, in extreme cases, even people, and the only people who could climb the mountain behind the house were charcoal merchants who were shunned by the villagers like me.
I decided to meet the monster once.
‘Youkai can be my comrades, and more than anything, I need to find out what level the youkai of this world are at.’
It seemed that the only things worth being careful of in this world were monsters.
As for other government troops and constables, to be honest, they weren’t that scary unless more than ten thousand people came.
After walking for some time in the forest, I realized that I had entered the realm of monsters.
There was snow-white fur falling all over the forest.
“This…”
I walked up to the fur, picked it up, sniffed it, and immediately knew what the monster was.
“Ah… this monster…”
and.
Kuung!
A familiar three-tailed fox the size of a house appeared before me.
[Krrrrr… Krrrrr…!]
The fox glared at me with red eyes and bared its teeth as if it was going to eat me at any moment.
It was a posthumous title.
[Kyaoooooo!!!]
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I looked at Siho for a moment and then asked indifferently.
“What… Are you asking me to give up one of my arms because I trespassed on your territory?”
This was really a nostalgic and affectionate situation.
“I don’t like it.”
[Kiyaaaaak!]
After falling into Bongrae-guk, Siho completely turned into a beast again, and lost his mind and attacked me.
I quickly gained complete control of my body’s muscles and climbed up a nearby tree, mapping out the surrounding terrain and plotting a battle route.
Siho looked around for a moment, then found me and bit the tree I had climbed with his large mouth.
Whadduck!
Knock knock!
The tree appeared to be about to fall after the guy attacked it by biting and hitting it about fifteen times.
‘When you look at the muscles and the strength the guy exerts, it’s like the strength of two or three bears combined.’
I calmly and coolly observed the sign as it jumped to another tree like a monkey.
The guy went berserk and kept smashing trees, and as I kept running away, he got even angrier and started crying louder.
And at some point, you could see the guy’s muscles bulging.
‘Hoo…’
At the same time, Siho kicked off the ground and flew towards me, who was standing on the top of the tree, with his mouth open.
And then I chuckled and held the poker upside down.
I was thinking of using it only as a club, since stabbing it with the sharp part could kill it.
“Is that the end?”
The reason I always got my arms ripped off by Siho in the beginning of Deungseonhyang wasn’t because of the guy’s size or appearance.
This f*cking sh*t dog was a master of the magic of determination, so once he started using magic, it was impossible to fight him.
However, now that he had fallen into Bongrae-guk, Siho was no different from the early stages of the Yeonki-gyeong, except that his appearance was similar to that of back then, he could not use magic, had no reason, and only amplified his physical abilities with his magical powers.
And at this level…
‘You can catch it with your eyes closed even without any magical power or internal energy.’
I wanted to test the capabilities of my body, so I simultaneously ran towards Siho, who was running towards me with an axe and a poker, and kicked his jaw.
Immediately afterwards, I quickly moved backwards and stabbed the poker into the muscle between his shoulders, grabbing his fur tightly.
[Keeeeeek!]
Siho screamed and fell from the tree, quickly turning around before hitting the ground, then jumping around frantically to shake me off.
However, I read Siho’s muscles, predicted all of his movements, and cleverly continued to get behind him, and when he showed an opening, I reached out to his head.
Kkugugugu!
Squeeze the muscles of your entire body and focus your breathing for a short moment to concentrate the strength of your muscles in one place.
And then, in a moment.
Kwaaang!
I used my brute force to strike Siho on the back of the head, and I felt Siho’s brain being shaken by the strike containing the secret of the Balkyung.
The guy’s eyes rolled back and he fainted.
“Hoo…”
I left Siho’s body and examined its condition.
When I released control of my brain for a moment and used my body, my whole body felt like it was in a state of chaos.
‘Since I can’t use my energy, I have many limitations in capturing even one of these guys without getting hurt.’
If I had been able to exert even a little effort, I would have been able to capture Siho much more easily.
I took a deep breath, calmed my startled muscles, and stood up.
After that, I thought back to the geography of the area I had seen earlier.
‘Siho tried to shake me off by spinning around in one place.’
In that case, it was highly likely that the center was Siho’s treasure trove.
I looked into the unconscious Siho’s mind and realized that it would take some time for him to wake up, then headed to Siho’s lair.
‘If you’re a monster, it would be nice if you collected some treasures.’
And, I was able to discover an unexpected ‘treasure’.
“Hey, Senior!!! Have you been caught too, Senior!?”
It was Seoran.
“…No, I came to save you.”
I smiled as I unexpectedly met my next aide who had come to his senses.
“…First, let me ask what happened.”
* * *
Knock, knock, knock!
He lit a fire and roasted the corpses that Siho had left in his cave.
Then I came to my senses and returned to the cave. I lay down on the tail of the submissive Siho and asked him.
“So, as soon as you came to your senses, Siho kidnapped you and kept you here for a few days?”
“Yes, that’s right. I guess the obsession with me still remains here.”
Interestingly enough, the Serans were of the ‘human’ race.
“First of all, my setting… seems to be that I was a beggar kid who lost my memory and ended up living on the streets. I have no other memories other than my identity as an ‘orphan with no family.’ I have never met any of my other colleagues until now, except for Siho.”
“Hmm…”
My head started hurting as I listened to him.
‘What exactly is the condition for becoming conscious? Is it just random?’
Seoran did not live long, nor did she have a high level of consciousness or realm.
But when I listened to it, it seemed like he had become conscious before me.
I first thought about things that I thought might be common between Seoran and me.
‘Seoran is a beggar orphan. And I am a poor charcoal seller.’
They both had something in common: they were both hungry.
‘Do you have to be conscious on the border between life and death to come to your senses?’
I looked at Siho and made such a hypothesis.
“Hey, Seoran, if I push this guy to the brink of death, do you think Siho will come to his senses?”
At those words, Seoran shook her head in bewilderment.
“No, please don’t do that.”
“…?”
“No, that’s not it… If not, wouldn’t it be possible for only poor Siho to die?”
Siho, who had been nervous about what I was saying, felt relieved when Seoran seemed to be stopping me, and I nodded for the time being.
“Well, that’s true. Then what should we do…”
“First of all, in my opinion… I think this will take some time. There are still too few cases, and the conditions are unknown. So, rather than gathering comrades, how about focusing on achieving greatness like you initially aimed for?”
“Um… definitely.”
I nodded.
Anyway, no matter how much Seoran and I tried to kill Siho, nothing would change.
So, it seemed like my top priority was to first achieve great things, build my reputation, and have my colleagues come to me.
“Okay. Then let’s start with the detailed plan…”
Gulp-
And then suddenly, a hungry sound came from Seoran’s stomach.
I looked at Seoran for a moment and then handed her the grilled meat.
Seoran ate the meat as if she was hiding it from the crab, but I looked at her for a moment.
Seo Eun-hyeon, the charcoal merchant, has never starved because he has to extort money through his rude behavior to buy noodles, but Seo-ran, a beggar orphan with amnesia, seems to be severely malnourished, perhaps because she is set in this world.
“…First, you should go to my house and feed me something. Then we can make a plan.”
I couldn’t let Seran starve to death, so I decided to feed him and discuss future plans.
After ordering Siho to stay put, we went back down the mountain.
Siho seemed to want to follow Seoran, but after I helped her a little, she became very obedient, so there were no major problems.
I came home and washed the rice that Yeonwi had mixed with sand and gravel.
Surprisingly, the rice that had been in a single basket was reduced to only three or four handfuls after all the sand and gravel was washed away.
I told Seoran about the rice Yeonwi had given me and asked for her understanding for the small amount.
‘…That guy Yeonwi. I should kidnap him and hang him upside down sometime.’
Perhaps it was because of the influence of the charcoal merchant Seo Eun-hyeon that negative thoughts suddenly welled up in my mind.
I somehow managed to cook rice with the insufficient rice, and after Seoran ate the rice with soy sauce and the rice that was full of stones even after I washed it, she gave me her opinion.
“How about becoming a bandit?”
“bandit?”
“Yes. We will raid the village using Siho as the leader. It seems that even the elders of Yeonwi have not yet come to their senses. If we raid the granaries and starve everyone like you and me, won’t they come to their senses?”
