348
Golden Ring (錦還), Solar Eclipse (10)
“uh······.”
I was stunned and didn’t know what to do.
The sound of children chattering from below was far away.
The new ‘Jingu of Trees’ seemed to tremble for a moment.
As if to soothe the old tree, the sinister erosion did not stop.
The wind that scratched my cheek felt so cold.
The bow that Sir John reached was moth and a terrifyingly colorful poisonous mushroom bloomed.
The wood grain was now dying as black as charcoal. Hwaah, Chii Ik…
“Sir John.”
“it’s okay.”
The man standing on the precarious stem answered. It was the same reaction as usual.
A relaxed smile, drooping eyebrows, and a soft voice were all I knew.
But strangely, it didn’t look good at all. He was obviously different from usual.
Scarred fingers stubbornly held the bow.
In the midst of the confusion, I tried to calm myself down. This was my mistake.
It was my fault for believing that he would succeed. There is nothing ‘obvious’ in the world.
Sir John was a person before he was a Cardinal, and he did not take that into account, although he could have problems with his condition at any time.
I should have prepared a plan B. Even if it was a war, I should have been more careful because it was a war.
‘It is said that the soul is just fragrant.’
‘Sir Haines smells good, so he’ll be fine.’
We didn’t know anything and said that. I blinked my eyes slowly.
The expression of a painful summer day seemed to pass over the face of the paladin who pretended to be calm.
At the same time, the conversation he had with Emperor Frederick echoed in his head like a warning.
The dinner hall at Romero’s palace, the night I succeeded in making a ‘deal’ with her.
‘You can’t trust Sir Haines.’
‘okay. Because he tried to assassinate once, and he was a high-class mercenary who did not know where he came from.’
Why am I thinking of that word now?
‘I was a mercenary before awakening as a paladin.’
‘From a very young age. Being a mercenary was the job that paid the most money, and it was something I could do well.’
‘I have a son to take care of.’
His voice sounded hazy like a misty mountain.
When I did not yet believe in Sir John, I once called him to the back yard of the temple and dine with him.
Then the paladin said so. He has been working as a mercenary since childhood.
I had a sick child, so I had no choice but to pay for the medicine.
‘It would be difficult for me to easily trust someone like me.’
······no. He didn’t want to imagine a story he had not heard directly.
I held my surprise in my arms and covered my lips.
After waving at the children on the ground with a smile, checking the leaflet floating in front of him, he quickly turned around.
The man had not yet taken his hand off the shrine.
I lowered the sound as much as possible and called out the one hidden in the dark forest.
“Sir John, I am sorry. I didn’t mean to overdo it.”
“It’s not a crowd.”
“I’ll think of another way.”
“I can do it.”
“no. If it is an act that is a burden to the shrine, it will be the same for Sir John. No one, including me, wants such an outcome. No one should be hurt. Besides, Herit is watching.”
“Marquis.”
“Simmul is so kind, I don’t think you need to worry about it. They will wait for us. I will prepare carefully and do it myself. How about this? If I pull the bowstring to shoot, and Sir John attaches a bundle of flyers to the arrowhead—”
“Are you the marquise yourself?”
A question like a knife pierced my ear. I looked at him startled.
Mint-colored eyes were shining like the scales of reptiles.
Then, as if by magic, no voice came out.
The courageous spread her tiny wings to the fullest and embraced me.
“no.”
“·················ogue.”
It was only a few seconds later that I realized that the wren was afraid of that day.
“Leave this to me and come down. Sick things will never break, and neither will I.”
‘I will do what you want.’ The man’s voice was soft. I spoke calmly.
“I will decline. You don’t have to suffer like this. You may be cursed by the gods. I don’t know why, but the shrine doesn’t seem to fit Lord John.”
“You don’t know why.”
Mouth just shut. For a moment, I felt as if my jaw was shaking.
His eyes slowly drew arcs. It didn’t feel familiar at all.
“Then I wouldn’t be able to stay here even more.”
“Sir John, wait a minute!”
My body started to float. I desperately stretched out the growth and hung on the tree.
hard! Jingu, who read my mind, held my arm with a thin vine.
But the resistance did not end there.
My shoulders trembled and trembled in an instant, and I couldn’t stand it any longer.
In the first place, Sir John’s ‘fight’ with my physical strength was a nonsensical story.
It was also impossible for the gentle and gentle god of the earth to go against the cardinal as free as the wind.
-Wooddeuk········!
“Oh sorry!”
The thin vine eventually tore apart like a piece of tissue paper.
Food duck! Surprised crows flew in all directions.
‘Marquis?’ Eva, who finally sensed an abnormality, called out to me from below.
Things didn’t go as planned, and it was obvious that I would be anxious because I was floating in the sky.
The paladin beckoned towards the air without hesitation. swish-
“Ugh!”
-Wheewoo!
With the feeling of my body falling to the floor, I safely descended to the ground.
It did not fall or shake.
Eva and Herrit looked up and ran back and forth with surprised rabbit eyes.
“Ahh······.”
“uh. It’s okay Daddy, Herit. There are parts that are just mysterious and a little out of sync, but it seems it takes time to tune in.”
“Why did you let the Marquis down? Sir Haines, aren’t you doing dangerous things alone?”
“Don’t worry, Eva. Everyone will be safe.”
He took the trembling peacock’s hand and wiped the corner of the boy’s worried eyes once.
I did my best to make an expression that looked okay.
I am not a cardinal, so I could not give an oracle to Sir John.
I was going to ask Dung Sim, but I was afraid that both of them would get hurt.
In the end, all I could do was talk less and take care of the children.
-Jeez-Jeo-Jeo-Jeong…!
-Woo…
Suddenly, a gust of wind began to blow in the mountains.
The green leaves of the shrine were wriggling, and some of them were quickly dyed red and turned into fallen leaves.
It was midday, but a cold shadow fell on the heart of the forest.
The sensation of rubbing the nape of his neck was unusual.
I quickly took off my cardigan, wrapped my two kids around, and put my courage in my bag.
Paaah! I looked up at the sky at the same time as I opened the Holy Land. My heart was pounding.
-Urreung…
An unsettling dark cloud was rolling in.
It was the picture I wanted, and it was also the picture I didn’t want.
Sir John was now obscured by lush branches and leaves.
Herit sighed and stretched out a finger.
“ah······!”
-Quick profit…
“Oh my gosh. Marquis, the shrine is getting sick!”
Eva’s expression of ‘being sick’ was very accurate.
It was as if the bottle that started at the cardinal’s fingertips was spreading all over the old tree.
bluish mold, unpleasant spores and foul-smelling mushrooms.
Strange moss and terrible swarms of slugs covered the stump like a disaster.
A white light breeze was gathering near the man.
When I saw him, I felt the blood draining from my body. It shouldn’t have been left like this either.
But even if he died soon, he could not move, leaving only the children here.
In a hurry, he brought out his perseverance again.
“Tucks, please. you protect these kids Can you do it?”
– beep beep
“Yeah, three times.”
I still don’t know what it means, but I put the little boy in Eva’s palm and gripped the growth tightly.
After confirming that the duke opened the sanctuary, he walked forward through the gust of wind.
‘You have to be careful!’ The child’s cry suddenly faded in the wind.
It wasn’t such a complicated event in the first place.
What I was thinking of was a simple picture of coming here, beating the shrine, shooting arrows, and sending flyers to the new country to disturb public opinion.
But maybe this is normal.
Because my friends no longer follow the development of ‘Toegye Gong’.
No, Sir John is a character who never appeared in the original.
“Sir Johann Haines!”
-Whew-!
-Kururu…!
At the same time as my shouting, the wind grew stronger.
It was difficult for me to go further, my body trembled, and the ground around the shrine began to weep.
The white hair, which was always visible, showed no trace of how far it had gone.
Even the bundle of flyers of 10,000 copies had disappeared.
I shouted with my throat bursting while lighting the Holy Land.
[Sir John, please! Jingu is in pain!]
-Wheewoo!
[So please don’t bother yourself!]
at that time,
-Jeez-Jesus-!
“Ugh!”
Soo! The ground fell and my body slumped to the bottom.
Brown bangs fluttered quickly in front of my eyes. It wasn’t a golem or an earthquake this time, it wasn’t!
-Kurrleung, Quaddudeuk…!
“Hey, thank you, I’m alive!”
It was because Jingu, who could not overcome the pain, shook its roots and struggled.
The fine roots that sprouted from the basement rolled up me. Billion, it hurts!
“Sally, lively! Break your back!”
“aaah!”
I was horrified by the scream I couldn’t hear. I hurriedly looked around.
Red curly hair swayed through the stinging noise, swirling black lights and twilight.
“no! Eva! Herit!”
Two children were hanging from the sky, wrapped around their roots.
-Courreung! Whoops, rumble…!
“Sorry to make you sick! I will never do any harm! Please let the kids go!”
His voice cracked with fear and desperation, and a cold sweat ran down his chin.
He could see the courage that wrapped around Herit fluttering helplessly.
My heart sank when I saw one of the wings grew abnormally large.
He used too much energy when he crossed over here.
I still can’t use my own strength.
“Aww, Marquis!”
“please! Wrong! Those kids don’t know anything! If you want revenge, I’ll take it!”
My vision was blurry and my head hurt. It was cold and it was hot, and it was hot and it was cold.
He bit his lip as he looked at the crescent moon of growth that was shining white. It had a strong bloody taste.
Even at this moment, Sir John did not come down from the bow. I can hear everything, but why,
······ah!
“Are you going to go crazy? Could it be that Sir John runs like that!?”
– Saaah!
As if affirming the jewel of the shrine, it began to emit a bright light. I was astonished and astonished.
Kwagaga River! Thunder thundered at the top of the bow. My breathing was suffocating, and my brain went white.
If so, what was important right now was not the cause of the runaway.
Gomok’s intention to grab the children was far from Haekoji.
Even in the midst of surprise, pain, and confusion, to escape those kids and me—
– Quarre, Whirilyrik!
“no! You can’t throw it!”
“aaah!”
Awesome! Eva in my cardigan was dangling across the sky.
The shock that seemed to pass out gave me a feeling of vomiting. The moment I couldn’t even scream and hardened,
-Paaa
A dazzling brilliance erupted from the direction of Herit.
Her cornea was so dazzling that she buried her face in her collar. The thin cloth was damp in an instant.
The palms stamped on his nails smelled of fishy blood.
Flutter Duck! There was a loud flapping sound nearby.
He seemed to have lost his mind and even had hallucinations. I shook my head slowly and shook my head.
-Flapping, flapping!
And I stopped breathing at the unbelievable sight. Time passed very slowly.
“Herrit?”
The opponent was the first to see him.
“Yes.”
A young man who appeared to be in his late teens answered with a gentle smile.
Even from the first meeting, I could be sure that he was Herit.
The clear jade-colored eyes were the child I knew, and the warm smile was the child I knew.
A haircut that resembled Francois, and a height as tall as his father were also dreams of the boy I knew.
And behind Herit’s back…
– Flap, Flap!
It had ‘two sides’ of wings shining in light purple. It was the ark of the rain.
I exhaled heavily, feeling the endless rush of emotion.
My mouth kept opening and a foolish laugh flowed out.
Yes, number 3.
‘One god has three unique abilities.’
‘Take you as an example. You can blow air, you can open a space, and you can transform.’
– Beep!
The day I spent at my house, I counted the wrong number because I wasn’t in a good mood.
That was the reason why my perseverance was congruent the whole time watching me researching the shrine.
The power of blowing air is a basic attribute that is not included in the three abilities of the ‘ark’.
Also, ‘Biryeom’ is an imaginary bird that produces wind. wind, and wish.
The power to project what the master wants.
A miracle that presents him with a physical reality for a short time.
“…you saved Eva. Thank you so much.”
Perseverance chose Herit as the owner.
“Heh heh.”
His eyelids lit up at the familiar voice, and his nose became salty.
I embraced the peacock in Herit’s arms and smiled broadly.
The child was in good shape without a single scratch.
Although faint, breathing and pulse were normal.
The forehead fell helplessly, and a prayer like a moan came out unconsciously.
Lord, thank you…
-Sreuk
Then, large hands and familiar wings covered the back of my hand.
The Jingu root tied to the waist also tapped Todraktodrak’s buttocks.
As I was wiping my cheeks, I burst out laughing.
Are you frightened and comforted me by throwing the child away?
“Now, let’s go save Daddy, Herit.”
I muttered with a closed neck. The eyes they met resembled Sir John, and they were different.
Jadeok, who used to shine alone in the storm, was no longer alone.
“My uncle will help you.”
Then the laughter that colored the whole world came back.
“yes.”
-Paaah!
As soon as the young man answered, he spread his wings and soared into the sky.
I dug through my frantically fluttering hair and hem.