Chapter 309
- This too shall pass (2)
Where should I go?
I pondered while eating popcorn.
There is a limit to keep hiding in remote places like this.
It’s because the Demon King with a detector for the fragment of evil within me, like the evil aliens with Dragon Ball detectors, follows me.
If the Demon King follows me, the heroes will naturally follow, and the Empire will take another step forward, consider my location based on where they are moving, and surround the vicinity.
Wow! My life, it was truly a life where I wanted to find a walnut tree.
“What kind of life is that?”
“A life where I want to crack walnuts.”
It looks like a pine cone but much bigger, I want to crack the snow-white walnuts from a walnut pine tree.
My hands get sticky but once I start eating those walnuts, the annoyance quickly disappears.
The unique softness and savoriness of walnuts, and that distinctive flavor.
Ahhh! I want to crack walnuts! I want to crack them!
I really want to crack them all!
“My master has gone crazy….”
“And this is all because of someone.”
My life got ruined by an evil god.
This is all because of the vice captain, no, the evil god.
“B-But I’ve helped save you many times too!”
“And you were the root cause of all those incidents.”
“Hmm… I don’t think that’s right?”
No way in hell.
The Demon King chasing me, the strange things coming after the Demon King, it’s all the evil god’s fault.
It’s the evil god after all! This wicked creature!
The reason why even I, a pacifist, have to run around like this is all because of the evil god!
I’m so frustrated I could die!
“That’s what I should be saying!”
The metal bat next to me had an expression full of discontent, but reality does not change.
Everything is the evil god’s fault!
I could stop a passerby and yell ‘Damn evil god!’ and they would agree, that’s how bad the evil god was.
“Master… It’s all my fault. So think whatever you want!”
The metal bat eventually surrendered to my continuing facts.
As expected, justice prevails!
“So doesn’t that mean the master is confirmed defeated?”
“Ah, I guess so.”
I went and raised my own death flags.
Damn! There’s no kind words for a villain but so many bad words!
The world is so unfair.
“If there were lots of kind words for villains, everyone would want to be a villain instead of a hero.”
“Well, you have a point.”
“If there were less people like you, the world would have been more peaceful.”
I guarantee this as a god! said the metal bat
There were lots of flaws in the metal bat’s defiant words but I did not point them out. No one would believe the nonsense an evil god spouts anyway.
Since it’s an evil god and former villain but a middle-aged man who loves peace and dreams of farming.
“That’s right. Just a regular middle-aged man chased by about half the world.”
“Let’s go with that.”
Well, it’s somewhat true.
But that half is not all of it.
Half of that half, no, a third? Hmm… Yeah. A quarter.
It’s about that much that’s chasing me instead of the evil god.
Damn! Why are there so many chasing after me?!
“First of all…”
Gloomy reality. And I even finished all the popcorn.
I pulled myself together to start looking for a place to escape to.
“First, anywhere within the Empire’s sphere of influence is out.”
Shhk-
I pick up a red pen and cross out places on the continental map.
Of course it’s not a real map.
Originally, maps were things even ordinary nobles had difficulty obtaining.
Terrain is a very important element in war, so the existence of maps is top secret among secrets.
Only territory lords can have maps of their own territory, and maps with detailed information of the kingdom can only be used by royalty and top commanders like Generals.
The value of a map with the entire continent drawn is priceless!
Scribbling all over such a map would be insane.
“A map? Not some kid’s doodle?”
“I said it’s similar to a map or something.”
This map was a tracing version of the map used by the religious order.
Maps of the continent made over long periods of time by temples spread all over the continent.
It doesn’t have accurate terrain but it has the general shape of the continent and boundaries between kingdoms roughly expressed. I put thin paper over that map and traced it.
Well, Shuttlie was watching so I traced it quickly, hence the mess.
“As long as the locations are right, it’s fine.”
I have a more accurate map so I can perfectly formulate an escape plan by looking at that map.
The army has situation boards but they don’t look at those while on the move right?
“Now let’s see…”
Seeing the red lines drawn diligently, I was able to decide where I could escape.
“Should I fly in the sky?”
“Can you fly?”
I looked at the metal bat hoping a little bit, but it raised the finger that was picking up the popcorn crumbs and made an X sign.
“You’re a god though?”
“Have you ever seen a god flying around?”
I haven’t. No, in the first place, the story of gods descending to the ground only happened twice in legends.
One was this villain and the other was the goddess of benevolence and devotion who came down to stop her.
Although they say they both came down to the ground, since most of their divinity was stripped and they were in a sealed state, it’s good to think that there are no gods actively moving on the ground.
“You haven’t seen it? Then believe it. Gods don’t fly around.”
“Isn’t everything possible if you’re a god?”
“Not everything, but most things are possible. But just because it’s possible doesn’t mean they fly around.”
“Why?”
“When moving, you can just move the space itself, so why would you fly around?”
“Ah….”
That makes sense.
“Then space….”
“The poor goddess who barely managed to keep her divinity cannot do that~!”
Tap! Tap!
A sigh came out automatically at the sight of the metal bat eating even the crumbs, now emptying the bowl that contained the popcorn.
“In other words, useless.”
“It’s disrespectful to the goddess, but it’s the truth so I’ll let it pass.”
In a sense, I was even more useless than a nuisance goddess.
“I’m going crazy.”
I check the red marked areas on the makeshift map again.
“There’s nowhere left?”
“That’s right.”
The current strongest country on the continent.
The Karan Empire, so powerful that the countries defeated in the great war could not dream of revenge, had not only a huge territory but also an even greater influence.
“If there is a place that is not on good terms with the Empire, it would be the Merdeah Kingdom, but….”
On the outside they surrendered, but the Merdeah Kingdom still gritted their teeth at the mention of the Karan Empire.
Even if it is an empire, it probably wouldn’t be able to easily gain cooperation like other kingdoms.
“If we go there, isn’t the place ruined because of master? If we get caught, isn’t it this?”
Swish-
As the metal bat drew a finger across her neck, I nodded my head.
“That’s right. And since it’s the Merdeah Kingdom, the princess probably doesn’t like it very much either.”
At the slightest pretext, she could probably find an excuse to get rid of us.
Although the Merdeah Kingdom used to be a military power comparable to the Empire, it still had some strength even in its current ruined state.
After all, it was a country with several Swordmasters.
“If there are several, can’t we not stop them?”
“We can’t stop them.”
The difference of one Swordmaster in war is tremendous.
If a well-trained army is prepared to fight, they can block them sufficiently, but a Swordmaster is an individual.
If they go around alone with a sword, creating variables here and there, even an army would find it difficult to deal with.
And the Merdeah Kingdom has as many as 3 Swordmasters.
Most of the Swordmasters died in the great war, and even after that, as astronomical amounts of money were torn from them every year in the name of compensation, the reason why the Merdeah Kingdom was still highly evaluated was precisely because of the power of these 3 Swordmasters.
Enough power to threaten the surrounding countries!
The problem was that the princess was walking around with a corp of knights who were themselves Swordmasters.
“As expected, the human world is impossible.”
Already over 70 percent of the continent had become places I couldn’t escape to.
“Then….”
What remained were the inhabited areas of barbarians and heteromorphic races famous on the continent.
I raise my pen and decisively cross out the habitation areas of the elves without hesitation.
“Hmm….”
As I blankly look at the map after crossing out the elf inhabited areas, the metal bat beside me watching spurts out a word.
“Master, isn’t that a waste of ink? Why don’t you just mark the places you can escape to?”
“….”
The areas marked on the map were reduced to 20 percent.
It would be easier to move to the demon continent at this point!
It made me think about giving up on the plan to use the hero to keep the Demon King in check.
“But still, there are a lot left.”
The continent is wide.
There are many places that claim to be kingdoms even with territories the size of the outskirts of the empire, but still, there are over 100 kingdoms that exist on this vast continent.
Even if 80 percent are areas I can’t escape to, thinking that 20 percent of this huge continent are places I can escape to means it’s an extremely wide area!
“Yes, just think that the cup is half full instead of half empty!”
“Well, you can think that way, but if you look closely, isn’t master in that kind of situation?”
“What situation?”
“It’s not that there’s only half left in the cup in an ordinary village, it’s that there’s half left in the cup in the middle of a desert without a single drop of water.”
“Is that so?”
I listened thinking what nonsense she was spewing, but I ended up being persuaded by the metal bat’s words.
Isn’t that really the case!
If there was half left in the cup in an ordinary place, I could think positively, but if it was in the middle of a desert, I couldn’t think that there was still half left in the cup.
Because it’s hard to get water in the desert.
I had learned techniques to torment my disciples in the desert, but even then, I always carried a full canteen with me.
The desert is a place where even if you know how to find water, you can’t get it without good luck.
“Oh, what should I do?”
With just a word from the metal bat, my mind was shaken.
No matter how much mental training I had from my past and present harsh lives, if there was no place I could escape to at this level, I couldn’t help but be shaken.
“There must be a place I can escape to…!”
As I rolled my eyes around, a single terrain began to appear before me.
“There is one.”
A perfect wilderness where there are no human kingdoms nearby. And yet, with little forest so elves don’t live there.
The ground was so hard that crops couldn’t grow, with rocky mountains everywhere without a single blade of grass.
It looks like a place no one would live, but because of that, there was a species living there.
And that species was none other than!
“It’s been a while, dads!”
The dwarf race of craftsmen!
And among them, the BlackAnvil clan that made the metal bat.
“….”
“….”
“….”
At the metal bat’s words, the three dwarf elders looked at the metal bat with complicated eyes.
“Huh? Your lovely daughter comes to visit but the reaction is lukewarm?”
“Uh…”
“Ha ha…”
“Hmm…”
At the metal bat’s words, one was at a loss for words, another let out an empty laugh, and the last looked up at the ceiling.
“So why did you come?”
And the elder who was avoiding eye contact spoke to me as soon as he saw me, as if wanting to forget about the metal bat.
“Ah, the reason I came this far is…”
It seemed they didn’t listen earlier when I enthusiastically explained my purpose for coming here, shocked at the sight of the metal bat.
It was such a sad story that couldn’t be heard without tears.
Well, what can you do?
People who live in monthly rentals need to cater to the landlord’s temperament.
In my past life, I longed for a home for a long time without one. To think I’d get to taste this longing even in this world with cheap housing prices!
“The reason I came all the way here is…”
I tried to speak of the grand narrative again, but seeing the three dwarf elders stealthily glancing at the metal bat, I felt they wouldn’t understand if I spoke at length again.
So I’ll make it very short and simple.
“An evil envoy called the Demon King is chasing me, so I escaped. The empire and elves would chase me down anywhere else, so this was the only place I could flee to.”
“I see.”
“Hmm… Big trouble.”
“Yes. A Demon King associated with an evil god means big trouble indeed.”
“Yes, big trouble.”
“It’s really big trouble.”
“….”
“….”
“….”
The three dwarf elders who were secretly peeking at the metal bat shut their mouths, avoiding the metal bat’s gaze.
A very brief silence.
It was the calm before the storm.
And… The storm hit.
“…It’s really big trouble?”
“This crazy bastard!”
“Why did a Demon King follow you here!”
Seeing the dwarves curse at me, calling me this bastard and that, starting with the swear words they taught me in the past, I felt a slight sense of satisfaction.
“You’ve all mastered them excellently.”
To have mastered the curses of Hell Joseon, which boasts to have the most developed swears of any country in the world.
I somehow felt proud for some reason.
Is this how the protagonists in novels feel when spreading their culture to other worlds?
Ah… This is mayonnaise. Ah! This is soy sauce!
Ah! These are Hell Joseon-style curses!
“What are you grinning about!”
“This crazy bastard! I thought you’d disturb the world someday, but we’ll disturb you first!”
“Get lost! Hurry up and get lost!”
Regardless of what the dwarf elders said, feeling satisfied,
Thud!
Holding the metal bat, who had transformed back into her original form, in one hand,
I smiled gently.
“As elders with the honor of dwarves, you should be able to provide me with a room, right?”
“….”
“….”
“….”
I started friendly, peaceful negotiations with the dwarves.
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