307 – Last Moment (3)
Pumpkin. When left alone, it is an extraordinary plant that grows well while competing with weeds.
If you plant a seed in the ground, it will grow anywhere and will grow on its own without much attention. Even if you don’t give it any attention, it grows well on its own and produces good pumpkins.
Of course, pumpkins grown that way are not tasty and small in size, but they are still edible. In this village, where pumpkins have grown well since ancient times, pears rarely fester even during droughts.
“I don’t have the same energy anymore. I’m too old to continue my hunting career. So now I’m thinking of putting down my bow and starting pumpkin farming on empty land. What do you think?”
“Who would buy a pumpkin for money? When the time comes, they open up everywhere. Try farming cucumbers instead. When it’s hot, it’s very good to cut it into rounds and soak it in cold water with vinegar. “It’s even better if you add some ice.”
“Cold cucumber soup, you’re the only one in this town who likes it. “If you put pumpkin out there, it sells, but what on earth does cucumber taste like?”
The biggest pride of this village, which is mild in winter and cool in summer, is that there is a strange cave in the back mountain that emits cold air all year round. The cave, which was covered in ice even in the summer, was not even created by a miracle; it could only be explained as a rare natural harmony.
“If you’re not going to hunt anymore, why are you asking for repairs to the cabin? “If you’re just going to farm, there’s no need to use it, right?”
“But what if the kids are still playing there? When winter comes, people flock to use the hot springs again. “I can’t let it collapse just because I have no use for it.”
Helmut, a former hunter, answered while holding a tool in his hand. Yoham, a carpenter who loves cold cucumber soup, smiled and opened his mouth.
“Kids these days don’t like cucumbers, so it’s a big problem. When I give them cold cucumber soup, they immediately frown. “There are no bad people who like cucumbers.”
“These days? “So, has there ever been a kid who likes it?”
“I heard Kyle likes it.”
“As a priest, I couldn’t throw away the food offered, so I ate it out of a sense of duty. He would have eaten well no matter what I gave him. “Usually kids aren’t like that.”
When we are young, everyone longs for the outside. These two were also born in the Pumpkin Vine Village, but they did not continue to live here. I stretched my feet towards the outside and suffered through hardships.
But even though it was a hardship, it was not a failure.
The reason these two people do not have any objection to young people leaving their villages and heading outside is because the challenge was definitely not in vain.
“Kyle and Yurinel, you’re doing well, right?”
“Those smart kids will do well wherever they go. No need to worry. They say everything will be fine. “We just have to wait until one day they come home.”
But as I got older, I naturally began to miss tranquility.
So now, he returned to the village with his wife and children, naturally joined them, and started living again. Pumpkin Vine Village does not stop you from coming or going. Even people without connections are welcome.
“Hmm?”
However, two men who entered Helmut’s large cabin found a girl sitting on the chimney on the roof as a chair. With a somewhat startled expression, the girl spread the wings behind her back and glared at the two men who suddenly appeared with her black eyes.
“I think it’s a demon I heard while passing by.”
“Then that’s enough. “If we leave it alone, it won’t bother us.”
“Then where should we start with the repair work now? First, take a look at the wall. “Take a good look at whether bugs have built a nest, whether mold has grown, or whether moisture has seeped in and rotted.”
However, the two men from Pumpkin Vine Village put down the tools they had brought without paying any attention to the girl with a clearly foreign appearance. Carpenter Yoham gave instructions and picked up a hammer and nails.
“I’m going to be repairing the damaged warehouse you mentioned last time.”
“Of course. “First, I’ll take a look and see who’s in the house.”
Rather, the girl just blinked with a blank expression…
I have seen people who saw themselves as mere weapons, people who revered them as guardian dragons, and people who thought of them as disasters. However, people treated so normally were by no means common.
“Who…?”
“We are the owners of this cabin.”
“To be exact, I am the owner.”
Even though it openly exposes its horns and spreads its wings, it just goes about its business without paying attention. Half-dragon, Yanid was only then able to be a little certain. This is definitely the priest’s hometown.
‘I was surprised when I saw this cabin…’
Power: The hut created as a shelter for the night was originally a replica of Helmut’s hut, where Kyle used to play as a child. Of course, every detail had to be the same.
She was just sitting on the roof and reminiscing about her old days, but when Roca saw this cabin, she cried and quickly went into bed and tried to sleep. Even though this is clearly someone else’s cabin.
‘They don’t seem like dangerous people, but…’
Still, they are strangers. The cautious girl hesitated and stayed on the roof. Hesitantly, he watched the two men closely as they worked without even paying attention.
Helmut, who was walking around his cabin to check, opened the door and was surprised to see a girl inside with her head buried in the bed. She looked at the girl who was as frozen as a stone statue and didn’t move a muscle, then shook her head and left her room.
I don’t know why he’s doing that in his mountain cabin, but the story seems deep. Everyone is like that sometimes. I don’t know why he did that, but I was able to understand.
“Please understand, mister. “That kid seems to be in love with Kyle.”
“Hmm…? You…”
Helmut looked the woman who suddenly appeared up and down and muttered without any sign of surprise.
“Isn’t it Yurinel? She’s back sooner than expected! “I thought that one day I would miss this town and come back, but I didn’t think that would happen until I was at least in my 60s.”
“What are you saying? I never wanted to come back for the rest of my life. And even now, I didn’t come back because I really missed this crappy place.”
“Well, you don’t know that. Everyone leaves home sometimes, but eventually comes back home. “When you leave home, there is no place better than home.”
Yunelle, who responded in silence, changed the topic and opened her mouth.
“Are there some empty houses in town? “Otherwise, it’s at least a place where people can stay.”
“Okay. Why? “Why don’t you bring a friend?”
“I plan to stay for a while and then leave, but a lot of people came. Man, I don’t know how to say this, but Kyle… She’s in trouble. The young guy ended up dying. “So people who were indebted to her during her lifetime came down in droves to say they would bury her in her hometown.”
“So…”
The hunter muttered with an expression that he was not surprised.
“Actually, since I was young, I didn’t think I would live that long. It seemed like the person up there kept calling him. “I knew for sure I would be taken away before I even reached adulthood.”
“Why does it look like you were already expecting it?”
“Are you really not remembering anything? When you were little, you and Kyle. And there was another child, and the three of them gathered together to play. But no one in the whole village knew who that child was. He didn’t even know where it came from. “If I think about it now, maybe that kid…”
The hunter glanced at the sky and smiled helplessly.
“It probably came from there. It definitely wasn’t God. But I’m sure he would have been at the level of an angel. Something like that had already been planned for a long time. “It was even weirder to live that long.”
“I don’t understand the English language…?”
“Then maybe the blue bird didn’t think of you as a friend from beginning to end.”
He just said that and closed his mouth. Even when Yurinel asked another question, he only shrugged his shoulders. Anyone who had seen the way Bluebird treated the boy at that time had guessed everything. Someday, that bird will take the boy away.
“…You don’t resent me, do you? “I was the one who dragged this guy who was living well in this village out and ended up doing this.”
“Then maybe we should have left sooner. In the end, it was decided anyway. He was just born here, but this wasn’t his home from the beginning. Just…”
And eventually that day came. Although it was embarrassing, it wasn’t sad. It may be true of others, but for Kyle, death would not be the end, but merely a perversion.
“No, it’s nothing. Anyway, welcome back. Was the body transported here? “Then, let’s bury him next to Kane and Maria.”
The hunter, who did not even ask why he died, simply made the sign of the cross and answered. But deep down, he had guessed it.
‘There has never been anyone flying in the sky in our village, so maybe there will be one this time.’
Not everyone who came to this village this time would stay for a while and leave like Yurinel did. Maybe this small town will become crowded again after a long time.