Episode 3 – There is no paradise where you escaped and reached (1)
“That, that’s… sin, I’m sorry, but the carriage won’t be able to go any more.”
The old man gave no answer.
He just stared blankly at the coachman.
It was true that he had almost reached his destination, but there was still a little distance left.
The calm old man’s eyes looking at the coachman.
Are you asking why?
Or was he reprimanding the coachman for his attitude just now?
Either way, the coachman had to answer for that.
“That, as you can see here…”
The coachman twitched and trembled, pointing at one place with his finger.
The gaze that followed that finger.
Hee hee hee!
In it, the horses that pulled the wagon were repeating a rough tour.
As if trembling in fear.
For some reason, the horses were refusing to move further.
The old man’s gaze, which had been looking at the horses, turned again to the coachman.
And the moment he was about to say something to the coachman.
“It’s okay, Hans.”
In an instant, another voice was heard.
A young man who was randomly scattered around the wagon.
It was none other than Xian.
The eyes of an old man called Hans turned to Xian.
“But, Bocchan. There is still a long way to go to Leuven. If you get off here…”
“It’s better to go slowly. What is so urgent?”
“·······”
Hans had nothing to say to Xian’s answer that followed.
That’s because there was really nothing urgent.
No, I shouldn’t have been in a hurry.
The destination we are heading to now, Leuven.
There was nothing good about getting there quickly.
“······ All right.”
Hans nodded slowly.
So the carriage stopped.
“Aww…!”
Xian stretched out and came out of the carriage.
The scenery is so dark that it can’t get dark.
Only a small torch prepared in advance by the coachman was illuminating the field of view.
Xian rummaged in his arms, relying on the light from the torch.
Eventually, he took out a large pocket and handed it to Hans, who followed.
“Hans. Give this to the coachman.”
Hans inadvertently accepted the pouch Xian handed him.
A sense of heavy weight felt along with jingling and grinding sounds.
Hans sneaked a look at the contents of the pocket.
Then he tilted his head and said to Xian.
“young master. The promised fare was 50 gold. But in the pocket you gave me 100 gold…”
“know.”
Xian gave a stern answer.
And that word means one thing.
Hans opened his mouth again.
“50 gold is already a lot of money. There is no need to add more.”
That would be the price standard of the empire.
A family of four could afford to live moderately luxuriously for a month, and the amount was around 30 gold.
No matter how dangerous it is,
50 gold was already an overflowing amount just by driving a wagon.
I didn’t know that it was Xian.
“are you okay. Just give it.”
Xian did not break his will.
Well, there was no particular reason.
To name just a few…
There was some money supported by the marquis family for the management of the estate.
Of course, the horse was the money for the management of the territory, but in reality it was no money…
well, anyway.
When everyone shook their heads saying they would not go to the Ruben estate, he was the only coachman who stepped forward.
More than anything.
“They say they’re sending their daughter off to marriage this time.”
Maybe that’s why I applied because I needed a lot of money…
Still, risking his life did not change.
Besides, if you think you came here without a carriage…
To be grateful was to be grateful.
“So just give it to me.”
“·······”
Seeing Xian’s resolute attitude, Hans closed his mouth.
Xian, who was called the madman of the marquis family.
Hans never admitted that.
see even now
Where the hell do you think this is the appearance of a mangnani?
“······ All right.”
Hans slowly approached the coachman.
“Bocchan took special care of me. To put it to good use.”
“…!”
The coachman opened his eyes at the feeling of weight in his hands.
And the amount I quietly checked.
“This, so many…!”
The coachman turned his head to Xian.
Did he feel guilty about having looked at Xian in a pathetic way just a moment ago?
The coachman’s eyes trembled slightly.
Before long, the coachman’s back broke and he was bent over.
“Thank you, Confucius! thank you!! thank you!!!”
“Congratulations on your daughter’s marriage.”
Xian simply responded with a small gesture.
Then he slowly looked away.
In front of the reflected field of view, the scenery of the forest swallowed up in the pitch-black night is reflected.
It looks as if the mouth of the abyss is wide open.
It never occurred to me that people could live there.
I don’t know if it’s a ferocious demon.
‘It’s true that there is a manor in a place like this…’
It was a thought I kept hearing while coming, but seeing it in person was even more spectacle.
.
Xian hesitated for a moment, then trudged and took a step.
That’s when I was about to enter the forest.
“I···.”
In an instant, the coachman’s voice was heard.
I thought you left
The coachman was standing there for some reason.
Seeing that, Hans asked.
“Do you have something to say?”
“Ah… that… rather than anything to say…”
The coachman did not open his mouth easily as if he was worried.
Seeing the coachman’s appearance, Hans asked again as if pressing on.
“No way, the money the young master gave me isn’t enough—.”
“Oh no! I don’t mean that…”
The coachman was startled and shouted.
A coachman who randomly waved his hands.
“So what?”
“Actually, I got lost once on the way…”
The coachman waited a little longer and then slowly opened his mouth.
“I met a monster once.”
“what?”
Hans exclaimed slightly in surprise at the coachman’s sudden words.
And Xian’s reaction wasn’t too different from Hans’s.
“A monster? You didn’t feel any presence at all?”
“Perhaps he was. I haven’t been attacked for some reason.”
“… you haven’t been attacking?”
Xian tilted his head.
“Isn’t it possible that you didn’t find us?”
“I thought so too at first…but it wasn’t. It was because our eyes met.”
The coachman trembled as if he had remembered what had happened at that time.
“But you haven’t been attacked?”
“Yes, it is.”
The coachman nodded resolutely.
“At first I was very scared… but when I looked closely, I just kept walking around a certain cave. It was as if they were afraid to approach it.”
“Were you afraid to approach?”
no, does that make sense?
Xian couldn’t believe his words.
That would also be true, monsters were beasts with only instinct left.
Especially, even if it’s the same monster,
The monsters living in the dark forest were even worse.
The demonic energy that hung over the dark forest cut fear and fear out of them.
A beast covered in pitch-black hatred and madness, a beast created with blind murderous intent.
It was a demon that resided in the dark forest.
Did such a monster show the emotion of fear?
“I couldn’t believe it either. That’s why I didn’t tell you…”
“Hmm…”
Xian asked after a moment of thought.
“Where was that cave?”
“It’s a bit far from here, but if you go all the way to the west, there’s a single big tree…”
The coachman explained the location of the cave in as much detail as possible.
After such a long explanation.
“Boo, please help me…”
It was only then that the coachman started getting ready to leave.
From the looks of it, he probably didn’t want to talk much.
It must have been questionable whether Xian and Hans would believe it in the first place.
However, was it that he was very grateful to receive 100 gold from Xian?
Or did he really feel guilty?
Anyway, it seemed like a story that I brought up because I wanted to respond to something.
A story that doesn’t mean much in one word.
“thank you. I’ll refer you to it.”
That’s why Xian also didn’t particularly like it.
#
Xian went into the Dark Forest realm with Hans.
How much time had passed like that?
“I think it’s about this…”
Xi’an was able to reach the place where Ruben’s estate was located.
Xian looked around.
Where people can live…
No, did he build a territory where there were no monsters?
“How can there be no monsters? This is the Dark Forest, right?”
Xian had never encountered a monster before.
“Aren’t you glad?”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
Xian shrugged once and said.
“It’s not too much. Aren’t bandits showing up anywhere?”
“… what kind of mad thief would appear in the dark forest?”
Hans looked at Xian with a puzzled expression.
“That is what the word means. I’m about to die of boredom before being killed by a monster.”
“·······”
Hans shook his head.
Right then.
My vision began to open to the scenery ahead.
A landscape like the boundary line at the end of a forest.
“It looks like we’ve arrived in Leuven.”
“I guess so.”
“I’ll go check it out first.”
Hans started to run ahead at a brisk pace.
Ruben arrived.
“·······”
“·······”
Sian and Hans were at a loss for words.
I didn’t know what to say exactly.
The scenery of the Ruben estate that can be seen in front of him.
This was hardly a landscape worthy of being called a manor.
Bare tree branches swaying in the wind.
Remnants of buildings far away, barely visible.
It was like a silent graveyard surrounded by fog.
Is this Yeongji?
Or is it ruins?
I couldn’t find any vitality at all.
There was no sign of human habitation,
On the contrary, only ‘traces’ of people’s life were visible.
I feel the faint smell of blood in the wind.
some time soon.
It seemed that something had happened here.
“therefore···.”
You mean this is the Ruben estate?
Should I rule as a lord from now on?
“uh···.”
Xian stayed there blankly for a while.
“Are there people living there?”
“I will check it once more.”
Hans jumped into the manor.
I wondered if it was right to call this Youngji, but anyway.
Xian also followed Hans into the manor.
It is a landscape that is not lacking even if it is called wreck beyond half wave.
Xian looked around, then approached the building that was at least in good condition.
It looked like a private house, to be precise, it was a private house.
Xian slowly opened the door to the building.
Before all the doors could be opened with a squeaking sound.
Keruk?
Xian was the first to hear something that sounded like a scream.
At the same time, a red glow could be seen through the crack in the open door.
And when the door is fully open.
Xian tilted his head and was able to recognize something looking this way.
A flash of red light.
Something that looks like a person in the hand.
Dripping, dripping blood.
There was an illusion as if time had stopped.
Silence, like eons of time, descends.
and momentarily
Keyeee
A terrible living that explodes.
“no wonder.”
I wanted to be so quiet when I came.