67 – Episode 67
# 67
The territory of Viscount Damon was just as I had expected.
“My lord!”
“Oh my! Has my lord arrived?”
In the clearing where trees had been cleared, there were dozens of huts lined up.
And with the sight of stacks of wooden books prepared to defend against intruders…
It was blatantly a bandit’s hideout.
Although there were cultivated fields and livestock such as chickens and geese, it didn’t change the atmosphere much when it was still a bandit’s den.
“hahahahaha! Your lord has gone out to make money~”
“Hurrah for the lord!”
Taking a quick look around, farming was a secondary source of income, and the main source of income was the tolls collected from banditry.
Since the territory in the mountains couldn’t sustain itself through farming alone, it was only natural.
“The atmosphere is nice.”
“Well, it’s still a bandit’s den.”
When Ian complained, Belenka smiled mischievously.
“It’s not much different from ordinary bandits, is it? They’re not evil enough to kill pedestrians indiscriminately.”
“Even if they extort money from people?”
“If you think of it as a toll for using the road, it’s not that bad. They are the residents of this place, and they will also clean up the monsters in the vicinity. Once the road becomes safer, traders will flock here, and the profits will improve.”
“It’s a cycle, huh.”
If it were just “local bandits,” it would seem baseless, but this era was originally a baseless era.
Even if it started as a bandit’s lair, it could eventually become a plausible city.
The name Damon might become famous as well.
As soon as Ian and his group arrived at Damon’s mountain hotel, they were immediately given lively rooms.
The method was truly medieval.
“Come on, everyone, enter a house that suits your taste!”
“…?”
It was hard to believe there would be an inn in this cramped, desolate land…
It was simply a matter of entering any visible house, spending a night, and waking up.
“Thank you, my lord!”
“hehehehe. Let’s go quickly!”
In Ian’s eyes, the room allocation method was absurd.
It could be called a guesthouse, but…
The (forced) guesthouse aspect was the problem.
However, Ian was the only one who found this strange.
The medieval people, as if it were completely natural, opened the doors of someone else’s house for the first time and walked in with muddy feet…!
Did you all come from the GTA universe by any chance?
It was beyond rude, reaching a level of shamelessness.
But the people of the territory did not oppose the lord’s decision.
As if it were obvious, they bowed their heads and prepared to welcome the suddenly arrived guests.
“Wizard Ian! You will stay at our house!”
Lord Damon had naturally started to accompany Ian, shoulder to shoulder, at some point.
One could say it was a behavior that felt like a vibe after having sniffed it.
Before sniffing, shoulder-to-shoulder companionship might be an instinct engraved in human DNA.
“What? Me?”
Ian, suspicious that Lord Damon might be doing something like summoning a magician, hesitated for a moment.
It would be bothersome if he accepted it lightly and then got disappointed.
However, Lord Damon, true to his title as a clueless noble, immediately put on a gloomy expression.
“No, I was just suggesting… If you don’t like the shabby hut… But it’s the best house here…”
Ian hurriedly tried to persuade the lord.
“I was asking if it’s okay for me to accept the invitation. Galadin is also there.”
“Who is Galadin?”
“Um… Well. A smart person?”
“He looks dumb.”
Lord Damon’s insight was chilling.
Just as knowledge and wisdom are different, knowing a lot doesn’t necessarily make one wise.
Lord Damon thought Galadin seemed a little off, and to some extent, he was right.
Just because someone graduated from Seoul National University or Korea University doesn’t mean they’re good enough to be entrusted with important tasks, right?
Galadin had the scent of someone who would cause a big accident.
“If the lord invites me, then I’m fine with it.”
“hahahahaha! Then sleep at our house!”
Just by listening to the story, it seemed like the guy next door would let me stay for a night.
“Try getting close with our wizard too!”
I think her name was Kira.
Ian briefly met Kira’s gaze.
Kira’s impression was that of a sassy and easily annoyed, typical hysterical wizard.
It was as if she didn’t even recognize Ian as a human, displaying an indifferent attitude.
If Ian didn’t know much about wizards as authors, he might have been hurt, but…
Having experienced several wizards already, Ian didn’t really care about Kira’s indifference.
Wizards are weirdos by nature.
Eredis was normal according to Ian’s standards, but in reality, he was a bit of an odd person compared to medieval people. It was because he wielded powerful magic while being indifferent to worldly affairs.
The herbalist Mani was also a strange human. It was not normal to make soup by pounding garlic, thinking that it would make others suffer.
It was fortunate that Ian was of Korean descent. This was a level of assault where they would serve mint chocolate soup with rice as a treat for guests.
And there was the university professor Inrian.
A punk caught while grave-robbing.
Ha. Ian shook his head. Looking at it like this, the lineup of these wizard bastards was legendary.
As expected… The most normal wizard is me, Ian Eredis Raven!
Indeed, the only normal wizard. Q.E.D. (Proof complete).
Ian nodded with satisfaction, smiling.
While glancing at Ian, who was happily dividing into pieces by himself, Kira grumbled.
They say all wizards are weirdos.
This guy doesn’t seem to be in his right mind, huh???
#
Ian, who was wandering around the house, not knowing if it was Min Baek or a guesthouse, went outside for a moment to explore the surroundings.
There, he ran into Belenka, who was lurking nearby.
“I heard the news, Ian. You said you’ll be staying at the Count’s house?”
“That’s right.”
“Hmm. I see.”
“…”
What’s with the hesitation again?
Ian glanced at Belenka.
Based on his past experiences, whenever someone dragged out their words like that, they usually had something else they wanted to say.
“I took a quick look around the houses. Maybe because it’s a small estate, it’s not a very pleasant place to stay.”
Ian nodded his head.
Combining a mountainous area, a small village, and a medieval lifestyle resulted in an incredibly poor living environment, even by medieval standards.
First of all, because it was in the mountains, they couldn’t let their livestock roam freely due to carnivorous animals, including monsters.
It wasn’t a town with a large population to justify setting up a separate guard force.
And most importantly, it got cold at night, causing firewood consumption to increase.
The people of the mountain estate came up with a brilliant idea to make up for it…
[Won’t all the problems be solved if we bring the livestock inside the house?]
It was a stroke of genius.
But at the same time, it was a devilish idea.
While it was effective in protecting the livestock from predators and sharing body heat to alleviate heating concerns…
We had to sleep under the same roof as the animals!
The smell! Enduring the noise!
Even the medieval people, who were not aliens, disliked eating and sleeping under the same roof as the livestock. Of course, they wanted to separate living spaces.
But here, there was no room for such luxury… Even among rural areas, it was the real countryside. The bottom of the countryside.
Most of the houses here were structured for eating and sleeping with the animals.
Only three houses were “normal” rural houses with separate barns.
And one of those three houses was the residence of Viscount Damon.
Ian noticed what Belenca was up to.
She wanted him to change his accommodations.
“Why. Is the accommodation not good enough?”
“It’s not that I’m complaining, but it’s bothering me.”
Ahem. Belenca coughed dryly.
“Ian, based on the friendship we’ve had so far, can’t you show some leniency and exchange accommodations with me…”
“No. I have no intention of changing. Go back.”
“Tsk.”
Belenca, who was immediately rejected, spoke confidently.
“In that case, based on the contract, I will demand the rightful rights of a knight from my employer.”
She spoke, not of friendship, but of a contract.
“Change the accommodations for me.”
Ian shrugged his shoulders.
This was a reasonable demand. Belenka fought for Ian and, in return, was granted various rights. It was a typical knight’s contract.
As a skilled knight, she rarely had to exercise these rights. Everyone took care of things on their own.
But the situation was a bit ambiguous now.
The good accommodations were divided among the priests, Galadin, and Ian…
Before being a knight, Belenka, as a woman, had intervened and made things a bit complicated.
However, Belenka didn’t want to sleep in an ordinary house.
“Surprising.”
“What now?”
“If it’s Belenka, I imagine her comfortably sleeping in wool, buried in it like a sheep…”
“What do you even think of me?”
Belenka looked at Ian with a bewildered expression.
Sometimes, whenever Ian said something like that, it hurt her delicate heart like a high school girl.
What knightly high school girl would want to sleep in a stable that smelled of animal dung?
Well, she wouldn’t say that to a high school girl who cuts people with a two-handed sword.
“Go ahead and sleep buried in wool. Do you know how much it smells like sheep?”
“Oh. I saw it when I was young. There was a person who raised sheep in the domain.”
“…”
That’s right. That bastard. He’s the son of a farmer…!
Ian was so absent-minded and scatterbrained that sometimes Belenka forgot he was a farmer’s son.
“Anyway. I formally demand of my employer, Ian, to provide me with a soft bed and clean nightwear. That’s all.”
“Well, I’ll talk to the Marquis about it. If it doesn’t work out…”
“Then I’ll sleep in your room.”
“?!”
“Well, why not?”
Belenka said with a chubby expression (slightly annoyed).
“If you don’t like it, say it now.”
“No, it’s not that I don’t like it…”
Ian looked perplexed.
Is this really okay? That’s what Ian wondered.
#
It was the lord’s duty to solve the knight’s lodging problem.
Although it was temporary, Ian, who had sworn loyalty to Belenka, had to solve her accommodation problem.
“Should we just sleep together?”
The least troublesome way was, of course, to put Belenka in Ian’s bedroom.
The Marquis had given Ian a nice room, and the two of them had enough space to sleep comfortably.
The only problem was…
In the country of Eastern etiquette, where men and women slept separately, it was something, well, something strange for Ian, who came from a country where men and women slept together at the age of seven.
In fact, even by medieval standards, it was something, well, something strange.
No one would openly say it, but behind their backs, there would be whispers about something between Ian and Valenka.
The rumors didn’t tarnish Ian or Valenka’s reputations…
But Luci’s face came to mind for no reason, making me feel uneasy.
You never know how rumors will spread, and when they reach Luci’s ears, they might grow into something like, “Oh my, there’s a child between them~.”
It was just easier to get a separate room.
So Ian went to find the room of the magician, Kira.
It was to ask if Valenka could stay there for a while.
As a trusted magician of the Viscount, she had the largest room in his house.
“Kira, are you there?”
From Noble mtl dot com
A moment of wisdom came.
No, I mean the Viscount. I’m staying at the Viscount’s house, can’t I ask to share a room?!
Although Viscount Damon was particularly poor, even considering that, a medieval noble’s house was relatively shabby by modern standards.
Tallian Hall was a very splendid mansion.
“Wait a moment!”
I heard a thumping sound from inside.
Ian nodded.
Ah, they’re cleaning the room because a guest has arrived.
Ian, who had a younger sister, knew this fact very well.
It was extremely rare to find a woman who kept things tidy. He had only learned the skill of not getting caught even if he lived messily…!
So Ian patiently waited for Kira to finish cleaning the room with a generous heart.
A moment later.
“Hmm. Ahem, ahem.”
Kira crossed her arms and greeted Ian.
“What’s this all of a sudden? A magician? I thought we wouldn’t see each other while I stayed in the territory.”
“…?”
“Why are you standing there like a wooden statue? Did you call me here because you have something to say? Or should I leave?”
Seeing Kira, who was using informal speech from the first meeting, Ian forgot all the prepared words.
It was a shock.
No, even Luci used formal speech when they first met!
But this person isn’t some high-ranking magician, and they look similar in age. Are they allowed to use informal speech so freely?
Unbeknownst to himself, Ian had become accustomed to the life of a medieval fantasy magician, where his mage cosplay and daily life matched.
His everyday life was like a method acting.
And the part of being a magician that Ian put the most effort into was his “eccentricity.”
Without realizing it, Ian had passively absorbed the “eccentricity of a magician” that the medieval people cheered for so much.
In front of Ian, a magician who seemed to be a real tough guy appeared.
Magician Ian couldn’t hold back.
Ian erased the polite remarks he had prepared in advance and-
Now, he began to act as a magician, which he had become accustomed to.
“But, Kira. It’s not me, is it?”
“… Huh?”
“Isn’t this the first time we’re talking to each other like this? When did we become so familiar as to use banmal so casually-“
Oh, I see. We were already friends! I didn’t even realize I had such an impudent friend! Is it because you’re a magician after all! hahahahaha!”
“Uh, um…”
“Why are you being so formal all of a sudden? We’re friends, aren’t we? Hey, I’m just putting up with your impudence because I’m your friend. If not, I would’ve smacked you with a sword a long time ago~ or something like that!”
“…”
“But, Kira. Can I ask you for a favor? Since we’re friends, you can do it for me, right?”
As Ian poured out his mysterious words, a shiver ran down Kira’s spine.
Look into those crazed eyes…
That guy, he wasn’t in his right mind!
“What a peculiar magician!”
Are all magicians like that?
I’ve never met a real magician, so I don’t really know!