Chapter 46 (2/2)
He had grown sick and tired of watching the scenery pa.s.s by. Well, there was nothing to see anyway, since it was just the same desolate wasteland everywhere he looked.
‘I'm bored….'
If he knew someone on this trip, then he might have started a conversation at least; he ended up thinking about his friends and the Yi siblings multiple times as the wagon continued on.
Seol Ji-Hu watched the brown scenery pa.s.s by while resting his chin on his hands, before s.h.i.+fting his gaze to the other pa.s.sengers.
There were three other people riding on the wagon, besides himself and the driver, Maktan. They were travelers just like him, and judging from their attire, they were Earthlings, too.
The bald African dude sitting next to Seol Ji-Hu while yawning out constantly, boasted a huge physique and was kitted out in st.u.r.dy-looking armours. Also, his huge battle axe and its sharp edges caught his interest.
For some reason, this guy was eyeing the pa.s.senger on the opposite side with narrowed eyes.
Seol Ji-Hu followed after that man's eyes and took a look first at a young-ish man with a kind face and well-combed blonde hair sitting on the other side. He seemed to be a Priest, judging from the white priest get-up and the discoloured cape on his back.
And next to him was an attractive woman with a set of wild red hair as well as a longbow on her back. She had her arms across her chest, and her legs crossed as well, her head rhythmically nodding in slumber.
Just as Seol Ji-Hu discovered hints of freckles on her nose, a husky voice of the African man suddenly came from beside him. The axe warrior was studying the woman as his back inclined slightly.
Her sleep must not have been that deep, as she slowly raised her head to glare with a crumpled expression.
”What, me?”
Her unhappy tone of voice implied how irritated she was by the man's attempt to wake her up, just as sleep was about to embrace her.
”That's right. You. Your bow is pretty good, isn't it?”
The woman maintained her cold expression, but the corners of her eyes arched up slightly.
”Well, I was in Scheherazade because of this guy, after all.”
”Because of a bow?”
”There were this and that to take care of, too.”
”I can see that it's a longbow designed for war…. You, by any chance, are you a level 4?”
The woman shook her head.
”Nope. Level 3. I'm a Tracer.”
”Ohh, a tracker, huh. Different than how you look.”
She coyly narrowed her eyes at the black man's amazed exclamation.
”Did you wake me up because you wanted to ask me that?”
”Well, I was curious, that's all.”
”Don't make me laugh. If you're done asking me questions, then I'd like to go back to my beauty sleep.”
Hearing her th.o.r.n.y reply, the black man grinned slyly.
”Why are you reacting like this when you know what's up already? How much?”
What is he talking about now? Since he was getting bored anyway, Seol Ji-Hu was focusing on this conversation, only to tilt his head slightly.
”….Eh-whew.”
The woman spat out a lengthy groan as if she saw this coming a mile away. She breathed in heavily for a bit, before pointing at her mouth.
”Five coins. Nickels.”
”Aren't you a confident one. What about going all the way?”
She swept her gaze all over the axe-wielding warrior before snorting out.
”It's pretty hard to find a muscle brain with substance to back it up.”
”You will only find out if it's the right length or not after taking a look, right?”
The axe warrior slapped his sizeable thigh a couple of times, but the woman shook her hand around.
”Don't want to. Don't have a hobby of doing it on a moving wagon.”
”I'll add one more nickel coin. How about it?”
”I still don't want to. If you don't like it, forget about it, then. I wouldn't have agreed if it weren't for my tight budget after I bought this bow.”
The large warrior licked his lips then quickly pulled out the coins from his inner pocket before tossing them at her. The woman lightly caught them all and yawned out loudly. After getting up from her spot, she scratched the back of her head while signaling to Seol Ji-Hu with her chin.
”Excuse me, let's switch.”
Seol Ji-Hu dazedly swapped the seat with her. She then placed her side on the big warrior's thigh.
”How about touching?”
”You can't go low. And the moment you put your hand on my head, I'm going to kill you.”
”Holy cow. Aren't you a fierce one?”
The warrior chuckled jovially before inserting his large hand under the woman's top.
Fondle, fondle.
The youth dazedly watched on, before realising that the woman had lowered her head on the warrior's crotch, and ended up hiccupping out of sheer shock. He belatedly turned his eyes away.
‘W, what the h.e.l.l are they doing now?!' (Seol Ji-Hu)
His heart began pounding hard. Was this the so-called culture shock? The inside of his brain became blank like a sheet of white paper after seeing something he couldn't have imagined in his wildest dreams.
The Priest was watching all this unfold with a disinterested expression. But, when he saw the young man next to him blush heavily while visibly panicking, a soft grin replaced that bored expression.
”First time?”
”First time seeing something like this?”
”…Oh, yes. It is.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
The Priest glanced at Seol Ji-Hu's two spears and spoke in a surprised tone of voice.
”But, you look to be at least a level 2…. Have you been staying in Scheherazade all this time?”
Seol Ji-Hu managed to recover his wits just enough to nod his head.
”Huh. So, you were a gentleman, eh? So, it'll be your first time traveling to Haramark, then?”
”That's correct.” (Seol Ji-Hu)
Was Seol making a mistake when he thought that the Priest's teasing voice sounded a bit like he was mocking the youth?
”If it's your first time, please let them have some fun. Unlike Scheherazade, in Haramark, the idea of romance still burns strong, you see.”
Seol nearly blurted out ”Romance, my foot” but he somehow held back the urge.
”You know how it is. There's no television, there's no computers, whatever. So, what is there for us to do here? Sure, you might think we've got all those explorations and expeditions, but it's not like we can go on those all the time, now can we? In the end, we eat, drink, and f*ck~. We end up being more faithful towards our basic instincts. Those are the only things we have as pastime, after all.”
Seol Ji-Hu couldn't really sympathise with that notion, but he continued to nod his head. Well, he had to do something here, since the sucking noise coming from the other side was really getting on his nerves at the moment.
See, the thing was, Seol Ji-Hu thought it was infinitely preferable to focus on chatting to a friendly Priest with a happy grin on his face, rather than looking at the pair of crazed and uninhibited man and woman going at it in a…. public s.p.a.ce.
The young Priest continued to talk excitedly, before going, Oops, and offered his hand.
”Name's Alex. I'm a level 3 Investigative Priest. From Area 4. You?”
Seol Ji-Hu hesitated slightly, before shaking the offered hand.
”Name's… Seol. I'm a level 1 Warrior, from Area 1.”
”Eh? Level 1?” (Alex)
Alex's jaw dropped to the floor, before laughing out loudly. He placed his hand on his forehead.
”Oh my lord, now I get it. You weren't a gentleman, but a newbie!” (Alex)
Alex then lightly poked the youth in the ribs with his elbow as a lewd grin formed on his face.
”Well, when you get to Haramark, you will definitely get a shock of your life.” (Alex)
Seol Ji-Hu could only smile awkwardly after seeing Alex's giggling eyes.
The trip became a lot less boring once Seol began chatting to Alex. As for the Priest, he got way too excited by the fact that the youth continued to listen to his stories, so he began telling Seol all sorts of things.
In the meantime, the wagon left the area of desolate wasteland and entered a new region.
They arrived at Zahrah after sunset, just as Maktan said they would.
After hearing that this was a village, Seol imagined that Zahrah would be a collection of small rural homesteads with equally small number of residents, but he got quite surprised by the size of the place.
Alex explained that there were well over 1000 residents living here, and that one could even find government offices, inns, and markets in the village. He also said that one could find most of the daily necessities in the markets as well. But he also emphasized that this village had been receiving support from Scheherazade, and other villages were not like this one at all.
Feeling fatigued from riding on the wagon for the whole day, Seol Ji-Hu went straight to the rented room in the inn after dinner.
As this would be his first proper night spent in the Lost Paradise, this occasion should've held a lot of sentimental value, but it turned out to be rather disastrous, instead.
The building itself was rather flimsy, and thanks to that, Seol got to hear the axe warrior and the Tracer lady going at it the whole night long. Blocking his ears didn't prevent him from hearing the panting groans of the man nor the moans of the woman.
In the end, he couldn't get to rest properly, and while carrying a totally fatigued face, he climbed aboard the wagon as it got ready to depart in the early dawn.
Seol Ji-Hu couldn't help but feel a bit angry at the man and woman giggling and talking to each other, but as soon as the trip got underway and the wagon left Zahrah, such thoughts slowly evaporated from his mind.
The further they traveled, the scenery changed more and more. The reddish soil of the wasteland was gradually covered up by gra.s.s and plants, and soon, even trees made their appearances. It didn't take long after that for trees tall enough to block out the sky to appear, too.
The road became rougher as well. But seeing the changing scenery while drinking in the smell of nature had its own appreciable charm. After he breathed in the cool, clean air, the sleep that he didn't get to enjoy earlier on slowly crept up on Seol.
If there was another thing that had changed, then that would be the att.i.tudes of the axe warrior and the Tracer woman had changed as they got closer to Haramark.
The axe warrior didn't try to initiate lewd conversations any longer, while the Tracer woman sat quietly as her eyes became sharper and focused.
”Get some sleep. It'll be fine. We should be okay for the next half a day or so.” (Alex)
Seol Ji-Hu's eyes closed softly after getting the permission from Alex. It was only yesterday when he thought the Archer lady sleeping on the wagon was something pretty amazing, but now, he was confident that he'd fall asleep just like she had done.
‘I wish we could arrive at Haramark as soon as possible….'
And so…. how much time pa.s.sed by?
”….What happened?”
”Keep your voices down.”
”Wake him up…”
”Wait, that….”
Seol was still half-asleep when he thought he heard voices. Then, he felt someone shake him by his shoulder.
When he woke up from his nap, the first thing he saw was a dark forest. And, although it was just his intuition, it seemed that the wagon was moving at a far quicker speed for some reason.
”Wake up, Seol!” (Alex)
”Mister Alex?” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”You up? Uh?”
”Where…?” (Seol Ji-Hu)
Just before Seol could finish his question, Alex placed his finger against his lips and signaled that he should keep his voice down. Seol Ji-Hu closed his mouth shut and surveyed his surroundings.
‘A forest?'
That wasn't the only alarming thing, though.
The large warrior was fidgeting around with his axe, as an uneasy expression remain etched on his face.
More importantly, the Archer lady had her ear pressed tightly to the floor of the wagon at the moment.
She was concentrating hard; anxiety was easy to see in her facial expression.
< 46.=”” first=”” experience=”” (1)=””> Fin.
(TL: The currency as the author wrote here gave me a bit of trouble translating. The word used for nickel could also be translated as “100 copper” or “white copper”. Usually, there would be the accompanying Hanja letters to clarify it, but the author didn't provide them. It's the same story for white silver and platinum. I had a chat with the editor, and we decided to just go with what you see on this chapter.)