Episode 161
One.
The cave was full of air. It was cool. The goblins only sniffed and said nothing as the cold vapor clung to their flesh.
All of the goblins, roughly a thousand in number, were silent.
-A great warrior died in a sword fight today.
Someone among them spoke softly.
-The warrior’s name is Gyari. Ker. She is the daughter of Orogan and Gorhe, warrior chiefs of the White Mane tribe, and she is a descendant of Gorgyr, the Great Warrior, who inherited the tattoo from the White Lion.
The person leaking the voice was not revealed. was buried in the crowd. Leaning against the shadows of his compatriots and the shadow of the cave, a goblin was speaking. It wasn’t a speech because he wasn’t speaking from a podium.
-He was a grumpy guy. Cheruk.
-He had been beating up others since he was young, and eventually beat himself to death.
Because it was not a single speech, the goblins spoke freely. In a dark cave. Goblins here and there interrupted each other. The fragments of words were gathered together and assembled into fragments of someone’s life.
-Gyari didn’t remember hitting her.
-Even if he died, he wouldn’t forget that he got hit. Kerrr.
-He was a child who lived with poison in his nose. I remember. When Gorhe was young, he tried to give Gyary a tattoo. However, he shook his head and said that he would draw it on his own, so he copied other people’s tattoos and drew them.
-Kher. Gyary was always the one shaking his head.
A life was gathered together as a labor. A thousand short stories. A thousand leaves were making up the story of a goblin called ‘Gyari’.
I realized.
‘… … ‘It’s a funeral.’
A goblin died in today’s Colosseum match. The name of the designated tribe was Gyari. People who knew Gyary, and people who had a conversation with Gyary at least once, have now gathered here in the basement.
-For Gyari, nodding at a person is the same as stabbing at the world.
-I was a child who thought of it as the same thing. Cheruk.
-So you must have become a gladiator.
The bonfire flickered.
A shadow was carved on the cave wall. In the shadows, the goblins were indistinguishable. It was a colony. The bulging shadows opened their mouths and whispered.
-There were 36 of his compatriots killed by Gyari’s sword.
-Cruel child.
-When the Sanwa tribe was branded as Geomno, Gyari laughed. I thought it was a great tattoo.
-enfant terrible.
– Although he was a child who found happiness in cutting with a sword, the only battlefield allowed for Gyary was the gladiatorial arena. The only opponents allowed for Gyari were his own people. Goruk. Gyari’s misfortune was that he had no choice but to kill his own people with happy sword cuts.
– Grumble.
-That’s a difficult word.
-Unhappy child.
The bonfire flickered.
-Is Gyari our compatriot?
The shadows answered.
-Gor.
-Gyari is a tattoo artist. He is a person who draws pictures. He is a person who loves mud and misses rainwater.
-Gyari is us.
said an old voice.
-Gyari will return to Guru.
Guru.
It was a familiar word to me.
As I watched the goblins’ funeral with bated breath, I heard a voice from the tower.
[You have witnessed the teachings of the Guru of the designated tribe.]
The letters continued before my eyes.
+
[Guru Doctrine]
Category: Religion. White Lion Faith.
Origin: [Kindness (C)]
Description: ‘Guru’ is the homeland of all Scheduled Tribes. Guru was the first village founded by the Jeongseo tribe after the fall of the Golden Age. Guru is a country of designated tribes. Guru is a place where warm streams flow and soft mud bathes.
Guru.
It is the land where the White Lion last stayed.
Jeongjok do not separate this world and the afterlife. It merely distinguishes between ‘gurus’ and ‘non-gurus’. What the Zhigi people expect from life is rainwater, mud, plenty of fish, and a comfortable place to sleep, all of which can be found in this world. For the designated tribe, belief in the afterlife is unnecessary.
The home of all compatriots.
They want to return to their Guru.
※However, as time passes, memories of the Guru become blurred.
※If left as is, ‘Guru’ will transform into an infinitely abstract place! In that case, the concept of guru will change to ‘a space that exists not in this world but somewhere else.’
※It has been quite a while since the designated tribe lost their guru! There is a possibility that the Guru doctrine may change into a doctrine of the ‘other world’!
+
“…….”
I stared blankly at the explanation window.
There were words written that were difficult for me to understand.
But there were also things that only I could understand.
“It was a name I came up with without much thought. “Guru.”
My heart tingled.
“… … “It means so much to these kids.”
Something.
I felt a feeling I had never felt before.
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It was really strange. I was proud that the goblins had grown up on their own without me. However, I was afraid that a single word I threw without thinking had become a meaning to these children, that it had hardened into a meaning, that they were clinging to it and living there.
A nervous heart.
I was worried about these kids.
“children… … .”
I see
“This is what it feels like to see children.”
Until now, I had never imagined having a child. I never thought about becoming someone’s parent myself. However, whether I intended it or not, I ended up playing a parent-like role to the designated tribe.
-well? I don’t know because I’ve never tried a cub before.
“…….”
My mind was agitated.
-Keruk.
An old goblin walked out. A bonfire was burning in the middle of the cave. As the old goblin stood in front of the bonfire, the Zhiji people who had been throwing pieces of Gari around fell silent.
silence.
The old goblin waited until the silence became more transparent.
“… … uh?”
I put both hands into the burning bonfire.
“Wait. Are you planning to commit suicide by setting yourself on fire? … .”
-no. Look carefully, zombie. Her hands don’t burn.
Bae Hu-ryeong interrupted my worries.
-This guy knows how to use Aurors.
“yes?”
-That guy. I’m an Auror user. Both hands are covered with aura.
Bae Hu-ryeong was right.
It was hard to see because it was obscured by the flames, but there was clearly an aura in the goblin’s wrinkled hands, albeit faintly. It was a red aura. The old goblin buried his hands in the fire.
Grumble!
Flames soared.
The bonfire that was just burning became strangely bent. The old man expressionlessly used his aura to touch the fire. At the end of the old man’s touch, the flame rose like an ascending dragon, swirled like a whirlpool, and unfolded like a flower in full bloom.
-…….
-…….
The goblins looked at the ever-changing flames in silence. The goblins’ eyes were calm, like spectators watching a stage.
Grumbling. Good luck!
The cave was huge, but the vast empty space was pitch black. The fireworks shined in a unique chromatic color and caught everyone’s attention.
‘ah.’
And I understood.
‘That’s a painting.’
Yes.
The old man was drawing with fire.
The flame burned.
Each enemy burned differently.
The two-pronged fire split like a gaping maw and soared high and upward, all the way to the ceiling of the cave.
▲.
It was anger.
The top of the fire hit the ceiling and scattered to pieces. Sparks fell like flower petals. slowly. Slowly. In the dark cave, sparks twinkled, twinkled, and eventually disappeared. It disappeared, leaving darkness in its place.
▼.
It was sadness.
Flames continued to burn in the bonfire.
Little by little. Five ways. With five fingers.
But the fingers of flame could not reach the ceiling. I couldn’t catch the sparks that were pouring down. Between the sparks falling from the sky and the flames rising from the ground, there was an empty space that could not be filled.
▼
▲.
That was Gyari’s death and their funeral.
The goblins cried silently.
Anyone who watched the flames knew the meaning of fire. That was their text. It was a letter. It was a picture. Even the slightest flicker of a flame, even a single spark that faded away helplessly, was a clear gesture to the designated tribe.
The old man lit a fire.
[You witnessed the bloodshed of a designated tribe.]
Letters appeared in the flickering flames.
+
[Blood Flower]
Category: Art.
Origin: [Primitive Fashionista (E)]
Description: Blood painting is an art unique to the designated tribe. After being conquered by the Sanwa tribe and brought to the communal city of Slimepolis, it became difficult for the Zhi tribe to obtain mud. It became difficult to express pictograms.
‘I have to draw it.’
However, the aesthetic consciousness of the Jeonggi tribe did not fade away.
‘I want to do that.’
Instead, it burned.
The Zhi people chose fire as a substitute for clay.
It is difficult to make out pictures in a dark cave. But when you use flame, the darkness of the cave suddenly turns into a giant drawing paper. The Zhi people accepted and took advantage of cave life.
‘beautiful.’
The earth race was fascinated by the arts of fire.
‘Gor.’
Cave fire.
The Jeongji people named this blood fire. Sometimes it is called a painting of a cave, so it is called a blood painting, and sometimes it is called a blood painting or blood painting, comparing the flame to blood.
Fire burns and then disappears. Leaves no trace. Therefore, it is good to avoid surveillance by the Sanwa tribe.
It is polite not to make any noise when watching blood flowers. This is also to avoid the scene being discovered by the Sanwa tribe.
Good luck with the quiet fire.
※However, only Auror users can demonstrate blood painting.
※Among the designated tribes, there are very few people who know how to use Aurors! Among them, there is only one ‘priest’ who uses red aura. If a priest dies without leaving a successor, the art of blood painting declines.
+
The old man waved his hand in the flames.
Grrrr… rr… rr…
The fire that once burned fiercely died out little by little. No more sparks breaking from hitting the ceiling. No more flames burning and howling from the firewood. The fire quietly subsided without leaving a trace.
And then it went off.
●.
Night has come.
-…….
As the bonfire went out, the cave was enveloped in complete darkness.
There was no light anywhere.
By extinguishing the light, the old man drew the picture that blood painting could express for the last time. The darkness of the cave was no longer empty. It was a picture drawn by an old man.
-…….
The goblins saw ‘night’ and cried softly in the middle of the night.
-… … Select… … .
No one lit a torch. It was ● now. The goblins accepted ●. Even though no one told them to go back or gave them an order, the goblins turned away on their own.
To sleep.
The goblins walked along the path they came down. ● I couldn’t see anything inside.
However, his own body odor remained.
Sniffing the scent of their compatriots, the goblins returned home in groups. The designated tribe with the best nose took the lead. Other goblins followed, holding his hand or shoulder.
So the goblins left the cave and their own temple.
“…….”
Bae Hu-ryeong and I are at the temple built underground in the underworld.
And only the old goblin priest remained.
-Ker… Kerrr… .
The old man sat on the floor of the cave, probably because his strength had waned. This seemed to be his home. As the goblins left the temple, they left behind a few fish, and the old man sat down and ate them.
“…….”
I silently looked at a tribe that had set up a temple in a cave.
Here, the children of the land held funerals. They buried the deaths of their compatriots.
I have never taught them funerals. I never told you how to swallow death. What I told you was just a tattoo to cover up the bad smell, and a drawing to express the six worlds.
That’s it.
With that alone, the designated tribe built a temple. I found my own fire.
“I may be the parent of these children or something….”
I opened my mouth.
“These children are not mine.”
It was never as big as I thought it would be, and it didn’t grow the way I expected it to. These kids found their way on their own.
I learned how to accept death.
I was proud of that.
-Kerrr… .
I left the old priest behind and went up to the underground city.
‘Now I know what to do with my children.’
Support, not salvation.
Encouragement, not concern.
‘Supporting and encouraging these children. That’s what I’m going to do.’
The place where the huge pillar of the Sanwa tribe was erected.
Colleagues who parted ways yesterday were gathered there. Has everyone come to look around their respective species like me? The Black Dragon Master looked down at the ground in silence, and the Viper crossed his arms with a frown.
“ah. “You’re here, Death King!”
The Heretic Questioner waved his hand.
“Death King is the last one! really. Have you made up your mind?”
“yes.”
I nodded.
“I also can’t surrender to you. “I will not allow the children I look after to lose their letters and forget their hometown.”
“Aha. then?”
“We will help the designated tribe get out of your underground. “Heresy Questioner.”
I said.
“And I will eliminate you from the 32nd floor.”
“Ahaha.”
The Heretic Questioner smiled.
“I thought Death King would do that. Exactly as expected! great. I will bet on the Sanwa tribe, and Death King will bet on the designated tribe. “Let’s wage war on each other’s species!”
That was our declaration of war.
etc,
