Episode 39. multilevel (1)
As Yuri guessed, the Black Swordsmen spread out throughout the forest of beginnings and handed out pockets to all reserve riders.
A small number of people immediately realized the meaning as soon as they received the item, like glass, and a few of the majority struggled to figure out the meaning of the item.
But most of the prospective jockeys had no idea.
No, it was right that I couldn’t afford to think of anything else.
A day has passed since the pockets were distributed like that… … .
outskirts of the forest.
A boy was making his way through the snow-covered forest.
“No more… no more… Hold on.”
Hair tangled with sweat, oil and water.
Sunken cheeks and dark shadows under the eyes.
A flabby face and rough parted lips.
In addition to the clothes with holes in them, I wonder what happened to them for a little over 10 days.
Really, there was no such thing as a beggar.
Compared to when Yuri first came to the black line, it was worse, but never less.
Of course, the boy’s behavior was not like this from the beginning.
The boy also devoted his life like any other child from a rich family before the exams began.
However, as a result of endlessly wandering around the forest, it turned into this terrible look in just 11 days.
“ship… hungry… green onion… … .”
The boy, whose pupils were half-dilated, walked with difficulty, with his swaying body.
The place he headed was none other than the empty lot where the first test started.
“bell… species… … .”
The distraught boy’s body moved like a zombie for the sole purpose of ‘ringing the bell’.
However, various thoughts flooded the boy’s head.
hungry.
want to fall asleep
I want to lie down in a warm place.
I want to go home, etc.
But more than anything else, what filled his mind was a defense mechanism to justify giving up.
‘I’ve done enough.’
‘I didn’t bring all that expensive money to take a test that doesn’t even sound like this, right? There must be something wrong with this!’
‘Isn’t someone already ringing the bell anyway?’
‘okay! I’ll last as long as I can.’
‘I must have done well at this level in the test of the cradle, right?’
The boy walked down the street constantly rationalizing himself.
At the edge of the forest, the boy stops for a moment at the place where the bell is if you go a little further.
The eyes that regained some vitality shook violently.
‘really… Is this the end?’
That was the last ray of reason left for the boy.
However, the rational conflict was too short-lived.
The boy, who had already reached the end of self-justification, just wanted to quickly get out of this disgusting forest.
“… okay. let’s go! I’ve done enough!”
The boy muttered quietly and took a step.
Just like that, I was just about to get out of the forest.
“Ah, that’s not it.”
A sudden voice forced the boy to stop.
“… … ?!”
The boy’s eyes, which had been blurry, became alert and regained their light.
Although he is said to be weak-willed, he is still a brilliant man who came into his own cradle.
The boy quickly drew his sword and aimed in the direction the voice came from.
The boy’s eyes widened slightly when he saw where the knife was pointing.
“… you?”
There was one person there.
A boy with long black hair that half covered his face.
The protagonist with a bad voice crouched next to a thick tree trunk.
He was none other than glass.
“You, what are you?!”
Yuri was quite a celebrity in the black line, but the boy didn’t recognize him because he had changed his appearance over the past ten days.
On the other hand, Yuri did not pay attention to the wary eyes that were pouring down on her.
He flicked his index finger left and right with a very relaxed face.
“Tsk tsk, that shouldn’t be the case, my friend.”
“… … ?”
“Looking at it, you came in as a donation recommendation, right?”
“however?”
“The money that goes into donation recommendation is not child’s play, and I paid that much money, so should I just give up at this amount?”
When Yuri brought up the fact that he had been trying to ignore, the boy’s pupils shook greatly.
he exclaimed furiously.
“I don’t care if I give up or not!”
The boy poured out his anger and irritation, but Yuri remained calm.
“relation? Of course there is. When I see difficult and pitiful people, I have a very benevolent personality.”
“… … ?”
“What do you mean! This very body will help you! … That’s the sound!”
“me… help? you?”
The boy’s eyes were full of disbelief.
Not surprisingly, the atmosphere of the guy who appeared out of nowhere was very cheesy.
Even though he doesn’t say he has a good eye for people, that guy seemed far from volunteering just by pretending.
Who would believe a guy like that when he said he would help?
Yuri put on an expression of understanding at the suspicious boy’s gaze.
“Hey, you’re sure you’ve received early education, probably because you’re a child from a wealthy family, right? Yes, that’s it! A suspicious person will give you something delicious, so if you ask me to follow you, you should be suspicious first, ahm! By the way! But don’t worry. I am not a suspicious person.”
“… You look very suspicious now?”
“Now then, before we start talking in earnest, let’s see… … .”
You bastard, did you just chew on my words?
Is that so?
The boy’s eyes changed drastically.
In the meantime, Yuri, who sounded like an old man, put his hand behind the tree trunk.
After that, isn’t it like looking for something?
“Ooh, don’t move!”
The boy became more wary of Yuri’s sudden action and was ready to attack at any moment.
However, the object that soon appeared from behind the tree trunk made the boy’s vigilance colorless.
“uh? that?!”
Glass picked up from the back of a tree trunk.
It was a well-baked tosaba the size of an index finger.
“Aww.”
Yuri carefully peeled off the skin of the tosaba that hadn’t cooled down.
Cheek-.
The bright yellow flesh was revealed as hot steam rose up.
“ah… … .”
To the boy, who had eaten only cold eyes and chewed and swallowed conifer leaves for ten days, the warm tossaba was tantamount to the devil’s temptation.
He couldn’t take his eyes off Tosaba, who was peeling off his skin.
It is very natural to have your mouth full of saliva.
“gulp-.”
I had tried it once before, but it was Tosaba that I hadn’t paid much attention to since then.
But now, even that pure white seaweed spouting from Tosaba looked delicious.
Gulp-.
Yuri grinned at the boy who was frantically shaking his neck.
He waved his hand at the boy.
“Now, come over here and try this.”
A suspicious person was waving food and enticing us to come here.
A situation where you should never follow the early education you received as a child.
However, the boy’s body moved as if possessed by Yuri’s gesture.
Jerk-jerk-.
One foot, two feet, three feet.
The boy who finally arrived in front of Yuri asked, unable to take his eyes off Tosaba.
“This, this… Are you giving me?”
“Well, then! Eat quickly before it gets cold!”
Seeing the bright yellow tosaba swaying in front of his eyes, the boy could no longer hold his guard.
‘That, yes… When it cools… Don’t let it cool down!’
Instead, the only thing running through his mind was the idea of eating the ripe tosaba before it cooled.
The boy took the Tosaba with trembling hands.
gulp-.
Then, he quickly swallowed the saliva in his mouth and slowly brought the tosaba to his mouth.
Seruk-.
And finally Bare Moon Tosaba.
The warm and soft tosaba spread in my mouth.
At the same time, a storm of taste rode through the boy’s taste buds and hit his cranial nerves.
Kugoong!
The boy had a strong feeling, like thunder.
‘this… What does this taste like?!’
Tosaba was originally not very sweet.
However, the boy’s brain, who had forgotten the stimulating taste of society after starving for over ten days, greatly amplified the sweet taste of Tosaba.
At the same time, the boy was sure.
‘This is heavenly sweetness!’
It was a truly beautiful taste.
Again-.
He was so moved that a tear fell from the boy’s eye.
But that excitement didn’t last long.
“Ahh… … .”
What Yuri gave me was a small tosaba the size of my index finger.
The toasted tosaba that melted in your mouth disappeared so easily down your esophagus.
Only then did the boy wake up from the sense of playing in the heavens and looked at the glass with earnest eyes.
“More, no more?”
“Want to eat more?”
Nodding-.
The boy nodded vigorously.
Yuri laughed at this and this time took out a tosaba toast from one of her pants pockets.
Why it got there didn’t matter to the boy.
He is just delighted with the fact that the size of the tosaba that Yuri pulled out this time is five times larger than the previous one.
“Uh, come on!”
The boy struggled with his arms toward Tosaba.
But there was no tosaba that caught on.
It’s because Yuri escaped the boy’s hands and pulled out the tosaba.
“What are you doing!”
“Uh huh, this friend, doesn’t he have too much conscience?”
“… what?”
“It’s for tasting, and this is for sale.”
“For sale?”
A question crept into the boy’s eyes.
At this, Yuri’s mouth began to tremble.
“No, think about it! on this cold day! Tosaba, whom I have sacrificed my life to save!”
I was dying and living, but I worked hard to collect them.
“That tosaba that has been cooked to this degree of perfection!”
It was Tosaba, which was slightly burnt because I fell asleep while baking.
“Are you going to eat for free? If a person has a conscience, it shouldn’t be like that.”
There was something strange about it, but the boy, blinded by the sweet taste he hadn’t tasted in a long time, couldn’t make a normal decision.
“So, then?”
“Since I’m still the first customer I received after starting the business, I’ll take care of only the labor cost, not the material cost.”
“… I don’t have any money?”
Not only the boy, everyone boarded the black ship and returned the belongings they had brought from society.
Except for a few important trinkets, all the clothes and money were taken from the cradle.
‘wait… accessories?’
The boy’s eyes widened as he thought about it.
“Ser, can’t you?! This can’t work!”
He took a slight step back, wrapping the ring around my hand.
‘No matter how hungry I am, I can’t just exchange my family seal with something like Tosaba!’
Yuri shrugged his shoulders as the boy, who had regained some reason, became wary.
“Ah, of course I covet that too… … .”
Leaving behind her protruding true feelings, Yuri spoke of her original purpose.
“Other than that, did you get anything from the Black Swordsman yesterday?”
“To the Black Swordsman?”
The boy blinked and recalled the events of yesterday.
‘Oh, sure… … .’
When he suffered from hunger, fatigue, and cold, the Black Swordsman had visited.
‘The thing I received then… … .’
Iron gruck-.
The boy pulled a small cloth bag from his trouser pocket.
“this?”
Seeing this, Yuri’s eyes flashed.
‘also!’
Yuri was sure his guess was correct.
‘The fact that even this seemingly insignificant kid has pockets… It means that all the reserve jockeys have returned their pockets.’
Yuri smiled slightly and shook the tosaba.
“Yeah, that. Let’s exchange this Tosaba for that pouch.”
“Where am I going to use this? A strange silver coin.”
Yuri evaded answering the boy’s question and shook Tosaba.
“So do you want to change? Will you stop? The longer you worry, the tosaba cools down.”
“That, that can’t be!”
The boy’s eyes widened.
It wasn’t even a family seal, it could be exchanged for Tosaba as long as it was a strange silver coin.
The boy quickly handed over the pouch and reached for Tosaba.
Yuri didn’t avoid that hand this time either.
Quickly swapping the two items, the boy blew open the skin of the tosaba and carefully bit into a handful.
snap-.
“Ahh… .”
While the boy was distracted by the taste of tosaba that spread throughout his mouth, Yuri opened the pouch.
Iron gruck-.
Inside the pocket was also a silver coin with a hole in it.
The shape and engraved picture of the silver coins were the same, and the number of them was the same as 10.
‘hmm… … ?’
However, not everything was the same.