A Stuffed Cheonma in my Head - Chapter 233



Only Noblemtl

Episode 233. The Black Immortal Goes

With the princess’s appearance, our status was immediately elevated to that of a guest of honor.

Of course, the Sherwood guys and I were given a very warm welcome, but when the princess showed up, we were pushed to the back.

In an instant, it felt like they had gone from being warriors who had rushed to protect Tudra from the demonic disaster to simply being part of the princess’s party.

Immediately, those who appeared to be the Duke’s vassals came out to the castle gate in a hurry to welcome the princess.

It was quite extreme treatment.

If it’s obvious, then is it obvious?

From what I’ve heard, this northern Tudra is a very independent place.

I heard that there are many who consider this place to be an independent kingdom because it is isolated from the Kingdom of Maia, and that the relationship with the royal family is not very good, so naturally there are quite a few who call the Duke the King of the North… … .

But still, it seemed like the princess was still a princess.

I don’t know what she thinks inside, but it feels like she’s being treated like a princess.

The news of the proud Sherwood Mercenaries’ entry into Tudra seemed to have been buried.

‘I rather like it.’

There’s no one, including me, who likes noise.

We were taken straight to a reception room in the Duke’s mansion.

“I have sent a message to the Duke, so he will come down soon.”

“Your Majesty, aren’t you busy with the construction work to protect the north wall? You don’t have to come down because of me.”

“It’s okay, it’s not yet time for the monster wave to hit.”

“Aha. I see.”

“You must have had a hard time coming this far. Please rest comfortably for a moment. There is a servant waiting outside, so if you need anything, please feel free to ask.”

“Yes. Thank you for your concern.”

“I tell you this. Rest in peace.”

The Duke’s attendant brought out warm tea and snacks and then left the reception room.

When we were left alone in the room, Sir Monde, who had been standing behind the princess the whole time and showing off his true guardian spirit, sighed, slumped his shoulders as if the wind had gone out of him, and sat down next to the princess.

Princess Lilia patted Sir Monde on the shoulder.

“Thank you for your hard work, Sir Monde.”

“Mr. Monde, slumped in his chair in a somewhat awkward posture, answered in a groaning voice.

“This is harder for me than fighting, Princess. You should tell me to fight instead.”

“Hey, what are you joking about? You’re pretty used to it now.”

“It’s not comfortable to be familiar with something… … .”

I stared blankly at the princess who had returned to her original appearance, and our eyes met.

Lilia smiled faintly and brought the steaming cup to her lips with a graceful movement of her hands.

“Don’t look at it that way. Everyone has times when they have to wear a mask. We just have those times more often than other people.”

“So you accepted acting as a part of your life?”

“Similar.”

“You must be tired.”

“But what can I do? Complaining won’t change anything. That’s our fate. Ah, hot!”

“… … .”

The princess spoke nobly, brought the teacup to her lips, and burned her tongue.

I turned my head to the side, staring blankly at the princess sticking her tongue out.

Linda was so overwhelmed by the cozy atmosphere of the living room that she fell asleep leaning back on the plush chair covered in the skins of unknown beasts.

Schmidt is eating the snacks on the table.

Dauphin was looking around the spacious reception room with a frantic look.

[Is that guy stealing something?]

“… … That could be the case.”

I left him alone because he was the kind of person who wouldn’t even listen to me when I told him not to steal.

Even if you steal it, it’s not like I can detect it.

I decided to kill time on my own until the Duke came.

After feeling the leather of the beast on the chair and guessing its identity, she jumped on the chair to test its elasticity and softness, got down from the chair and scribbled on the carpet on the floor with her fingers, imitated the princess and tasted some refreshments, joined the Dauphin who was wandering around the drawing room and chatted with him, and had a staring contest with the deer wall decoration hanging on the wall…

[Hold still. You’re losing your mind.]

“… … .”

After hearing a word from Cheonma, he sat back down.

The peacock never came.

Before I knew it, the tea on the table had cooled to lukewarm.

“No, why aren’t you coming?”

Cheonma scolded me.

[It’s only been a day, you absent-minded and impatient bastard.]

“Oh, is that so?”

Still, I was so bored I couldn’t stand it.

Because I am a man with a wandering spirit.

As I suddenly got up from my seat, Princess Lilia, who was munching on snacks, looked at me.

“Ashvan. Where are you going?”

“I’m going to the bathroom.”

“yes.”

As I approached the door and opened it, a maid was waiting outside.

She asked politely.

“Do you need anything?”

“Of course.”

“Just ask for anything and I’ll get it for you.”

“No. It’s the kind of thing that can’t be brought.”

“… … ?”

“It’s very important, but I don’t know if it’ll be here.”

The maid responded politely to my nagging.

“Please tell me what you need and I will do my best to help you.”

“What I am looking for is not something ordinary. It may seem dirty at first glance, but it is something necessary for living. It is something that is desperate when you are looking for it, but once you find it, you never look at it again. Do you know what it is?”

The maid looked at me blankly and answered.

“The bathroom?”

Exactly!

I snapped my fingers.

“bingo!”

“… … .”

The maid looked at me like I was crazy.

Then he walked ahead slowly and said.

“… … Please follow me.”

“Okay.”

I followed the maid through the intricate hallways of the duke’s residence and toured the mansion.

The overall atmosphere was old-fashioned.

It was a place where you could feel the traces of time.

I was walking down the hallway following the maid… and suddenly I threw myself through an open window.

There was no particular reason.

Because the outside air just looks cool.

A dizzying sense of fall came over me, and immediately a refreshing northern breeze greeted me.

He shook my hair wildly, asking where I had been and why I was coming back now.

Only then did my head feel a little clearer thanks to the fresh air from the snowy mountains.

“ha ha ha!”

Laughter erupted in unbearable joy.

As I plummeted toward the ground, the cold northern wind enveloped my body.

We had become quite familiar with each other while riding in the carriage, so there was no sense of awkwardness.

I was immediately swept into the northern wind and launched into the air, kicking off the exterior walls of the mansion.

“Gyaruruk!”

A girlish laugh escaped her lips.

Was there a girlish feeling alive inside me too?

I ran around the top of the pointed mansion, dancing with the wind, and headed towards the street beyond the mansion.

He got off like the wind in a deserted alley, then instantly transformed into a calm man and walked out onto the street.

It was an unexpected journey.

“This too is the pull of fate.”

Cheonma clicked his tongue.

[There really is no such thing as a madman. Are you saying that you couldn’t wait that moment and ran away from home?]

“So what? It’s better than being stuck in a stuffy room and just killing time. Didn’t the Master yawn constantly because he was bored?”

[That’s true.]

Cheonma admitted it clearly.

The man who acknowledged everything cleanly like a great man was Cheonma.

I walked along the streets of Tudra, chatting with the manly man Cheonma.

I looked at people and buildings.

Perhaps because the weather was cold, it was impressive to see people, both men and women, wearing long fur coats wrapped around them like robes.

His expression was mostly blunt, like that of Guard Ted.

Could it have something to do with the cold?

The overall atmosphere was not lively, but it was not gloomy either.

Is it because all the people who were going to leave have already left?

The rest were going about their daily lives quite vigorously.

“Hmm. It’s not as cold as I thought. And there’s not much wind either.”

[I think it’s because of the castle wall you see over there.]

You could see it anywhere in the city.

It was one huge barrier.

It looked more like a part of the natural landscape that had grown together with the snow-capped mountains next to it rather than an artifact built by human hands.

The mountain seemed to rise up in the shape of a castle wall.

It is so high that the blue sky to the north is half hidden by the castle walls.

My footsteps naturally led me to the wall rising behind the city streets.

The huge wall that arrived like that.

When I saw it with my own eyes, I couldn’t describe how magnificent it was.

A feeling of being overwhelmed just by facing it.

I felt as if I was witnessing a magnificent miracle of God.

“Wow… It’s still scary even when I look at it again.”

It grew between the rugged mountain ranges and filled the gaps between them, and was too large to have been created by human hands.

How on earth were such huge structures built?

I once asked my older sister, who knows everything, because I was curious.

My older sister said that it was a wall built with ancient magic.

It is said that ancient magic still pulsates faintly within the walls.

Once people have built the modest-sized foundation walls, the ever-blowing snowstorms do the rest.

Over a long period of time, snow piles up on the wall, and as it freezes tightly together, the wall grows.

The only thing people do is occasionally refine the overall shape or finish of the wall.

And so it has come to this point.

This huge wall before our eyes, so thick and strong that it was hard to believe it was built by human power, was called the North Wall by the southerners and the Wall in the north.

I looked up at the frozen white walls until my neck hurt.

“… … When I look right in front of me, I can’t see the end.”

If you fall from a high height, you die instantly.

It means that one misstep can lead to death.

I had never been up there before because climbing the wall was strictly prohibited to anyone other than authorized personnel.

Now that I think about it, I wonder how other people get there.

As I was looking up at the castle walls, a good idea crossed my mind.

‘Let’s go up and take a look.’

Looking closely, the wall was slightly sloping.

It goes without saying that the higher the elevation, the stronger the ground must be.

As it was a castle wall built by piling up snow, it had a structure that became sharper towards the top and wider towards the bottom.

‘I may not be able to climb the foggy cliff, but I think I can climb a cliff like this.’

I felt confident.

I am confident that I can get up there.

If I had fallen while climbing, it wouldn’t have ended up just hurting, but I was confident.

Confidence that I can get up there.

While taking a short break at Milgard, and while riding in a carriage.

I have not let go of my deep contemplation on the season of Heukseonbo (黑仙步), which is a combination of the night sky of Yacheonseongwolgong (夜天星月功) and the wind’s lightness and flight.

As a result, through repeated research and repeated training… I eventually succeeded in improving the Black Ship.

It was a good opportunity to test this season’s ability to open a new window for lightness.

I said with a grin.

“What do you think, Master?”

Cheonma answered with the corners of his lips slightly raised.

[Not bad. Training is completed through practice.]

“Okay. The black celestial is leaving.”

The worries were short.

I immediately felt the wind enveloping my whole body, and then ran towards the majestic barrier that was staring down at me.

* * *

Wheeeeeeeeeeee―

Life on the wall is a constant source of boredom.

Of course, if you make one misstep, you will fall far below and die instantly, but humans are creatures of adaptation.

Now, as I walk there every day, eat there, and do other things, at some point it started to feel like home, and because it felt familiar, sometimes I felt at ease and even felt sleepy.

Of course, the worst monster wave is predicted, so the current alert level is higher than ever.

Sleepiness is a primal human instinct and something that is difficult to shake off due to familiarity.

“Oh, I’m so sleepy. It’s almost my shift change, so I’ll just have to hold on.”

Hank, a soldier standing guard on the wall, peeked over the wall to wake up.

Wheeeeew-

A cold updraft of north wind rushed up the wall at once, hitting his cheek, and he came to his senses at the dizzying sight below.

It was a sight I never got used to seeing.

“I told you this is the best way to fall asleep.”

The moment Hank, who had been chasing away sleep, slowly shook his head and pulled it back out.

“Oh, it looks like this up there.”

An unfamiliar voice was heard from behind.

Hank flinched and immediately turned around, still holding the spear.

“Who are you!”

At the tip of the spear was a strange man.

Black hair blowing in the wind.

Eyes as red as blood.

A ferocious smile on the lips.

The man glanced at the sharp tip of the spear pointed at him for a moment, then took something shiny out of his bosom.

“I’m not a suspicious person. Here, my ID card.”

“… … .”

“I told you to check.”

Hank briefly looked back and forth between the ID card he had held out and the man, then carefully checked the ID card while aiming his spear.

Soon his eyes grew wide.

“… … Ashvan Sherwood?”

“That’s me.”

“Are you Ashvan the Half-Sword, the new leader of the resurrected Sherwood Mercenaries?”

The man chuckled.

“That too, me.”

Hank’s face lit up.

“Have you come to help Tudra?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

“Oh… … !”

Hank, who had been looking moved, looked bewildered the next moment.

“But how did you get up here? It’s not a place that just anyone can get up to. Did you take the elevator up from below?”

Ashvan blinked.

“Elevator? What’s that?”

“It’s a magical device that can travel up and down the barrier.”

“aha.”

“… … ? You didn’t come by car?”

“I didn’t ride it.”

“Then how… … ?”

“I came up on foot.”

“… … ?”

Hank, who had been staring blankly at Ashvan for a moment, laughed heartily.

“You have a talent for jokes.”

“It’s true.”

“Oh, by the way, I heard you’re gathering the Sherwood members again. Is that right?”

“yes.”

“There’s a man here in Tudra who used to be in Sherwood. Have you met him?”

“Not yet. Because I just arrived.”

“aha.”

“Do you know where I can meet him?”

Hank then pointed through the window he was holding, towards the north where the blizzard was blowing in.

“I must have gone beyond the barrier to hunt the demons today too.”

“Beyond the barrier… … .”

Ashvan followed him and looked beyond the wall, which was now completely covered in white.

The blizzard was howling and blowing loudly.

“I’ll be back before the sun sets, so we can meet and talk then.”

Ashvan chuckled at that.

“No. I can’t wait until then.”

Ashvan smiled ominously and placed one leg on the railing.

Hank had a bad feeling about this.

‘no way.’

That prediction was right.

Ashvan kicked off the railing and threw himself over the wall without giving anyone a chance to stop him.

“what!”

Hank immediately poked his head over the railing.

But Ashvan was not below.

‘uh?’

Hank raised his head and saw the back of Ashvan running lightly through the air.

With every step he took, the dark fog dispersed.

The sight was like watching ink dripping onto a white sheet of paper.

A black dot started at the tip of his foot and spread across the white world.

“What the heck is that… … .”

Hank stared blankly at the back of the black fairy, dotting the pure white world with her own colors.