*
〈 Chapter 140 〉 Leim Kingdom (3)
*
“Do you like it?”
I asked while watching Elsie continue to fiddle with the sculpture.
She smiled brightly and replied.
“Of course! It’s practically my first gift!”
Suddenly, I was glad that the first gift she received wasn’t just a single coin.
I was right to buy it for ten coins each.
“I’m glad you like it.”
As I said that, I checked the bundle.
Potatoes, corn, and various other vegetables.
This should be enough to last for a few days.
“Elsie, I’ll leave this to you.”
I handed the bundle to Elsie.
“Huh?”
“It’s time to get started.”
I had signed the contract to enter Leim Kingdom, but I definitely wasn’t planning to just sit tight.
Elsie understood what I meant and accepted the bundle.
“Have you already figured it out?”
I nodded.
“The guy from the tavern.”
“That jerk?”
Yeah, that jerk.
The one who said the king was probably dead.
“Not that I like him or anything.”
Anyway, it seemed I had to rescue him for the sake of the plan.
“Are you all set?”
Here, “set” meant the plan we had set in advance.
Elsie would go back to the dormitory first, and I’d have something I needed to do, so I would be a bit late.
She would sneak out through the window and change back into me to go back into the dormitory unnoticed.
“Yes, of course.”
“Well then…”
I asked just to confirm, but I trusted Elsie.
She trusted me too.
So there was no need to waste more time here.
“I’ll be back.”
I might miss my chance if I delayed any longer.
As I began to move my feet, I recalled what I learned from Libero in Sakh.
First… how to land gracefully.
*
‘The road is brighter today.’
On the way from the tavern to home.
Having drunk quite a bit, the man’s steps were a bit unsteady.
Since it was the Leim Kingdom where the sun shone all day, he felt conscious of the looks around him, but he needed to hurry regardless.
‘Night will be here soon.’
You might ask, what night in a kingdom where the sun shines all day?
According to the laws of the Leim Kingdom, it had a mere 6 hours of darkness per day.
Unlike Sakh, where people could do whatever they wanted at any time, the Leim Kingdom regulated citizens’ movements during that ‘night’ time.
‘Thanks to that, the security is better compared to Sakh.’
Of course, that was before the isolationist policies were implemented.
He hadn’t heard anything about the recent situation in Sakh.
That subject was a hot topic; if he spoke carelessly, he could get dragged off by the knights.
‘Fools.’
In fact, several acquaintances of his had been dragged off by the knights.
It seemed they got taken after discussing topics that went against national security.
‘I should be careful with my words.’
But right now, he had no time to worry about those people.
It was getting dark, and if he didn’t hurry, he could end up like them.
People who had been on the street were already disappearing one by one.
‘About 20 minutes left?’
He checked the clock tower in the distance.
Twenty minutes wasn’t a shortage of time.
If he walked diligently, he should be able to get home.
The street was as bright as daylight.
But there wasn’t a single person on the street as he briskly walked.
Suddenly, he spotted a group of people.
‘They are…’
Soldiers from the knights.
Dressed in green, they probably belonged to the Verdant Knights.
But their gaze was somewhere off.
‘No way?’
He hadn’t done anything wrong.
It wasn’t even night yet, and he hadn’t malignantly spoken against the royal family.
Yet the soldiers were staring right at him.
Then he saw one soldier slowly open his mouth.
“Grab him!”
The soldier’s finger pointed directly at him.
‘What the hell?’
In broad daylight.
Soldiers were closing in on him.
But he couldn’t do anything.
Thud.
His legs gave out, and he sank to the ground.
He tried to ask for help, but words wouldn’t come out right.
“Help… someone help…”
He didn’t know what he had done wrong.
But it was clear he would soon meet the same fate as the acquaintances who had been taken away.
At least until someone showed up in front of him.
Thwap.
Something flew down from somewhere and landed, drawing a sword from its waist.
The blade glinted brightly under the shining barrier.
Then a sharp sound echoed as swords clashed.
“Gah!”
It looked like the figure had immense strength, as the attacking soldier was knocked back and fell.
The other soldiers yelled upon seeing this.
“Who, who are you!”
They seemed flustered by the sudden appearance.
But the figure standing before him didn’t even respond to them.
Draped in a tattered black cloak with a hood pulled low, they simply stood there.
“Tch, just one opponent! Don’t be scared!”
The soldiers charged in all at once.
But he was completely unperturbed.
Instead, he calmly started to deflect the soldiers’ attacks.
“What kind of monster is this!”
He wielded the sword with remarkable skill.
Yet he did not take a single soldier’s life.
He merely disabled them one by one with his overwhelming swordsmanship.
“I’ll hold them off, so bring more reinforcements!”
Eventually, it seemed the soldiers judged that they could never win.
Only a few of the braver ones stayed to try to hold the mysterious figure, while the rest ran off to call for support.
It was then that the mysterious figure finally spoke.
“What do you mean, hold them off?”
At the same time, his sword glowed once more.
And he overwhelmed the soldiers in front of him with a single sweep.
In an instant, the soldiers were all on the ground, unconscious.
“Phew…”
In the bright street, only the mysterious figure and the man sitting on the ground remained.
Upon confirming this fact, the figure finally turned away.
Now the man could finally see the figure’s face.
‘A mask?’
He was wearing a mask over his face.
Approaching the man with a sword in hand, the masked figure asked suddenly.
“Um, are you not going to ask who I am?”
“Uh… should I ask?”
“Yes.”
For some reason, the reply was firm.
With that, the man couldn’t refuse.
He didn’t really have a reason to.
“Who are you?”
“Call me the Masked Hero.”
With that, the figure turned again and disappeared into the alley.
The man, who had been watching dumbfoundedly, snapped back to reality and hurriedly got to his feet.
He couldn’t just stand around; he had to get home.
By now, he was completely sober.
However, he hurried down the street, still urging his trembling legs toward home.
No matter why such an incident had occurred today, he was determined to be more careful with his words from now on.
And the next day, tales about the Masked Hero began to spread throughout the Leim Kingdom.
*
“Mr. Masked Hero.”
Inside the dormitory.
Sitting on the bed and biting into a potato, Elsie called me as I entered through the window.
I scolded her.
“Elsie, I told you not to talk while eating.”
I didn’t understand why she kept doing that despite having royal etiquette skills.
At that moment, Yusera, who was sitting next to her munching on corn, asked.
“By the way, isn’t the name Masked Hero a bit childish?”
That was indeed hard to defend.
“What are you talking about? He’s a hero from Leim Kingdom’s long-standing fairy tales!”
Elsie was right about that.
The Masked Hero was indeed a hero from a fairy tale of the Leim Kingdom.
Since he was a hero from the stories children listen to, it was natural for it to seem childish.
“A long-standing fairy tale?”
However, Yusera seemed intrigued by that.
“What’s that story about?”
“Well… I don’t really remember well because I heard it when I was too young. I’m sure Mr. Sung Yoo-rang will tell you. He’s the one who devised this plan, after all.”
“Elsie?”
I tried to find a way out, but Yusera was already looking at me with an expression full of curiosity.
I guess I had gotten caught up in Elsie’s push.
‘Guess there’s no way around it.’
Anyway, telling a fairy tale wouldn’t be that hard.
Besides, I wouldn’t be able to leave this room during the night anyway.
“Just listen to this and go to sleep. We have things to do tomorrow.”
It really felt like I was telling a fairy tale to kids.
With that atmosphere in mind, I began to tell the story about the Masked Hero that I had heard from Libero.
And as the story progressed… Elsie’s expression hardened.
“Um, Mr. Sung Yoo-rang?”
Elsie interrupted me during the episode where the Masked Hero was violently battling human trafficking groups.
“Something seems off, you know?”
“What’s off?”
“It’s just that the Masked Hero in the story I know seems a bit different.”
She wore a somewhat pale expression.
I asked her.
“What’s different?”
“The story I heard was more just and filled with dreams, hopes, and peace…”
“Actually, justice and peace are different concepts.”
Especially justice and peace.
“No, I understand that, but this is a story that kids listen to before sleep. Of course, this could be the original version, but it’s definitely different from the story I heard. It’s unnecessarily detailed in some aspects.”
Well, it seemed I had started telling the fairy tale longer than I thought.
As evidence, Yusera, who had requested the story, was already fast asleep.
“Is that so? Anyway, I guess we should sleep now.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
With that remark, I lowered myself to the makeshift bed by the window.
After closing the thick curtains on the window, the room became dark like night.
Just as I was about to fall asleep…
“Um…”
Sorry, but the makeshift bed is for one person.
Just one person.
“Elsie? No matter what, Yusera is sleeping next to me…”
Of course, I didn’t mind, but right now, with Yusera sleeping next to me, that could be dangerous.
Honestly, that would add a thrill to it, but this time, it was also not right.
“It’s fine. Yusera looks quite tired from the long journey.”
“Aren’t you tired?”
“My stamina is different.”
At this point, I might not have a choice.
To be honest, I was also in a state of mind where one round wouldn’t be a problem.
So I turned to squish Elsie and said.
“Then let’s promise.”
“Promise what?”
“Just one round.”
It was at that moment.
“What do you mean, one round?”
Yusera was half-awake, peering down at the makeshift bed.
“This is… um…”
“It’s the long-standing wrestling of Leim Kingdom.”
*
