Children of the Holy Emperor - Chapter 426



Only Noblemtl

426. Transaction (4)

“…father…….”

At the soft muttering, Owen turned to the boy sitting next to him.

Mores had been dozing off while hugging the lamp, but he furrowed his eyebrows slightly as if he was dreaming.

‘Is your sleep uncomfortable?’

As Owen pushed aside the bundles rolling around on the steps, the boy spoke again.

“… If you avoid… recognition… so perfectly… … .”

…should I wake you up?

As he was thinking about it, Masain opened his mouth as if he had guessed his thoughts.

“It’s okay. You’re just talking in your sleep.”

“Are you sleeping? Are you having a nightmare or something?”

“That can’t be true. You always do that. It’s just that I’ve never seen you nap while talking in your sleep. You don’t usually nap in the first place.”

This isn’t something that happens once or twice.

Owen, feeling a little relieved, took off his old cloak and draped it over his shoulders, and Mores muttered again, sighing.

“So, just a little bit… you bastard… … .”

* * *

As Edith and Bartoza walked along the valley, the sun had set and dusk had fallen.

Ahem ahem, ahem ahem~

Edith, who is invigorated by the divine power, occasionally hums a tune.

But in Bartoza’s case, things were a little different. She was looking at Edith with longing eyes and was sweating profusely.

‘Hey… Woman, we’re in big trouble! Ichi hasn’t been breathing since a while ago!’

Since I don’t know the Imperial language, there is no way to communicate.

Bartoza clanked his teeth together and carefully felt the monster he was carrying. It was already scary because it was so lifeless, but now it had no pulse or breathing at all!

‘… As expected, this interest is an evil spirit from the other world!’

However, the only reason Bartoza did not stop walking was because of the monster’s last words of advice.

-I have an audience, so I’ll be back shortly. Don’t stop and keep walking along the waterway. When the sun sets, you’ll meet the person who came out to greet you.

Should I run away now? Bartoza thought seriously.

‘But isn’t it a monster that comes back to life even if its neck is broken? It will chase me to the ends of the earth… … .’

Fortunately, Bartoza’s agony did not last long, for before the sun had completely set, they found a newly covered wagon with a small fire burning in front of it.

“Ah! Father Bart was right when he said there would be a party nearby!”

Edith smiled and walked towards the campfire.

The one guarding the fire was a young man who looked somewhat tired. He was wearing shabby clothes that only farmers would wear, but judging by his sharp eyes and the long scar on his mouth, he did not look like someone who would farm peacefully.

As soon as he discovered Edith and her party – or, more precisely, the bloody priest carried by Bartoza – he jumped up from his seat in shock.

“… Pheasant?!”

Then, in the blink of an eye, he approached Bartoza and, before he knew it, he had snatched the priest’s body from him.

“What the heck is all this blood… … !”

“Hey, Father Bart said it was okay. He said he got blood on us while trying to treat us… .”

As Edith spoke cautiously, the man looked at her with a bewildered expression.

“…yes?”

For a moment, Bartoza felt a strange sense of kinship with the man. Although he could not understand the Imperial language, he felt as if he understood what was being said between them.

“…Please come this way first.”

The man glanced at the priests and made sure there were no major problems, and only then did he take them to the wagon with a serious expression on his face.

“As you may have heard from the priest, from now on I will guide you to the nearby village.”

An attitude as if one knew all about their circumstances.

Normally, it would have been considered strange. They were meeting for the first time, and the priest who was supposed to be the link was in a deep sleep and silent.

Fortunately, however, one of them had no particular thoughts, and one of them was completely incommunicado.

“Please load the items you brought onto this carriage.”

“Oh? Yes. Then, if you don’t mind me asking, I’ll leave this here for a moment.”

Kuung!

As Edith roughly put down the warhammer, the man once again gave her a strange look.

“But… Didn’t Father Bart say something? We already have a shortage of hands, so why did you bring that useless baggage?”

“This isn’t useless. It’s an important item.”

“Aren’t you an Imperial? But no matter how I look at it, that weapon looks like it belongs to Barsha.”

Of course, this Warhammer is not Prince Mores’s burden. But-

“Your Majesty, I don’t think you’ll mind if I lose one or two of your belongings due to unavoidable circumstances. But this weapon is not mine, it belongs to Prince Owen.”

So Prince Mores would want this to be prioritized over other items, Edith was genuinely thinking.

“… … .”

Of course, this will not be the attitude of a typical user.

The man thought for a moment. He didn’t know if this woman was deep or thoughtless.

“By the way, who are you?”

“…Please call me number 21.”

The man who introduced himself with a strange name in response to a late question carefully placed the body of Priest Bart on a bunk prepared on one side of the wagon.

“Are you sleeping, priest? Why don’t you wake up?”

“It won’t be easy for you to come here again. Perhaps you will have to finish the government meeting tomorrow morning before you can come back.”

“yes?”

With a maid who couldn’t understand, and Varshain who didn’t know the Imperial language at all, No. 21 felt a headache coming on.

“First, you guys go wash in the stream.”

No matter how much the North has become a lawless zone, you can’t keep walking around covered in blood.

No. 21 handed them some rough clothes to change into. They were shabby clothes that ordinary people would wear.

“When you’re done, dry yourself by the bonfire. After I take care of the priest, I’ll give you something to eat.”

After some time had passed, the three of them sat huddled together in front of the campfire.

A small pot of stew was hanging over the fire, bubbling away, and as the delicious smell of food wafted in, Bartoza, who had been gripped by fear, visibly regained his composure.

“Oh, that’s right! Let’s quickly grill this and eat it before it spoils.”

Edith, who was eating, seemed to remember something late and handed over a suspicious package. No. 21, who saw that the package was soaked in blood, looked at her in surprise.

“…What is this?”

“It’s horse meat.”

word?

Number 21, who had been dazed for a moment, was finally able to realize the correlation between the carriage crash and the horse meat.

“Aren’t horses the property of the royal family? Are you allowed to slaughter them as you please…?”

“They are precious horses, so we should at least take some meat with us. They were dropped in a remote place, so who knows when we’ll find food again? If we left them there, wild animals would have eaten them anyway.”

That’s true, though.

After studying Edith’s blank face for a moment, Number 21 came to a conclusion. It seems like this woman is a bit thoughtless.

As No. 21 nodded hesitantly, Edith rolled up her sleeves and placed the meat on the fire. Soon, the delicious smell of meat cooking began to waft around the campfire.

‘There is nothing suspicious anywhere.’

Edith, who is cooking, is strangely active, but that is all. Isn’t she someone whose identity has already been confirmed by His Majesty?

No. 21 put the meat she offered into his mouth without any suspicion. And then-

Ouch.

Almost as soon as my taste buds detected the taste, I spat the meat out onto the floor.

“Oh, why are you doing that?”

“…Why do you write like this? What on earth did you do to the meat while slaughtering it?”

“You’re saying it’s bitter?”

At those words, Edith carefully takes a bite of the meat and frowns.

“Hmm, that’s disappointing. Maybe it’s because he’s a purebred steed? Maybe the meat is tough because he has a lot of muscle.”

“No, this isn’t just tough, it’s strange, like it’s stained with gall bladder juice… … .”

“The gallbladder didn’t burst! It must be a variety that doesn’t taste very good.”

“Just in case, I’m here to help you. I can’t believe you’re poisoned… .”

“No, poison! Why are you saying that to me!”

Although they had a brief quarrel, it was just a minor incident for the two of them. However, Varshain, who had spat out the terribly bitter meat, had to once again feel extremely anxious, not knowing what was going on.

‘Evil imperialists! So you’re just going to quietly poison me under the pretense of giving me food!’

It was obvious that he would stay up all night like this.

That anyone would be satisfied with that petty harassment.

* * *

Gulp.

Seongjin opened his eyes feeling extremely hungry.

“hungry…….”

If you think about it, I haven’t eaten anything all day.

Then, as if he had been waiting, Marsha handed him a small piece of jerky. It was the emergency rations he had received from Dasha.

“Are you awake, Your Majesty? While you were sleeping, the groom changed once more.”

As Seongjin accepts the jerky, he then hands him a small water bottle.

“I tried talking to him, but he didn’t respond at all. He didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping the carriage until we reached our destination.”

“Well, I guess so. That’s the delivery method of the free underground passage.”

Seongjin took a sip of water, cut the beef jerky in half, and threw one of them into the Demon King’s lamp.

Hurrruk!

The red flames quickly devoured the last of the emergency rations. Owen grumbled as he watched the scene for a moment.

“Are you giving that to the fairies again? Kids your age need to eat well to grow up well.”

“Shut up, idiot. By the way, do you have anything to eat?”

“No, how could you have known I would come here and prepared something like that in advance… … ?”

Owen, who had been responding bluntly, suddenly remembers something and his eyes widen.

“Huh…? Wait a minute. If it’s something simple to eat, I feel like I might have a way to do it.”

Then Owen closed his eyes, clutching the scarlet pendant hanging around his neck.

“Mr. Status Chang. It’s a little early, but please!”

Everyone is watching his antics-

Dororong.

Strangely enough, as soon as he finished saying those words, Owen dropped his head and fell into a deep sleep!

“… … ?”

When the guy who had been fine until just a moment ago suddenly seemed to lose consciousness, Masain looked back at Seongjin in a slightly flustered state. After all, he didn’t look like he was in a normal state.

“What on earth is going on? Since your aura activity is fine, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with your body.”

Of course, Sungjin could notice it right away.

This guy, I think he’s going to visit the Pangea Chronicles for a while.

‘But will the bad temper status window send him back so easily?’

Fortunately, the status window didn’t seem to be in the mood to get angry. Owen opened his eyes safely after a while. Then he looked very cheerful and started rummaging through his pockets.

“Okay, let’s eat this first!”

On the hand he held out were several fish cakes that were already familiar to Seongjin.

“…What is that?”

When Martha asked with great caution about the food she was seeing for the first time in her life, Owen answered with a smile.

“Yes. There’s something to eat, brother.”

Seongjindo had also obtained that fish cake before. It was given to him by doing the daily grocery store quest in the Green Zone.

The price is cheap, the difficulty is easy, and the taste is not bad, so even silent villains sometimes do quests with it as a snack.

Of course, it would have been a very suspicious dish to a Masan who didn’t know such background.

“Food? It doesn’t even look like proper food… What the heck?!”

He was surprised to see Seongjin accept the fish cake without saying anything.

“I want to eat. I’m hungry.”

“Well, then! I know it’s presumptuous of me to try it first!”

Masain closed his eyes tightly and swallowed a piece of fish cake. Then, his eyes widened and he looked back at Seongjin.

Look, I told you it’s delicious.

Let’s not forget to put one inside the lamp as well. The Demon King also seems satisfied and eats the fish cake.

[What is this? Is this a new flavor?]

Even while I was briefly satisfying my hunger, the carriage continued to rattle and rock without stopping.

“But Owen, don’t you have any bread?”

“Huh? Bread?”

Owen was momentarily bewildered by Seongjin’s unexpected request, but then his face brightened as if he remembered something.

Yeah, don’t forget the church job next to the grocery store. The bread there was pretty good.

“Wait a minute!”

Owen once again fell into a deep sleep, clutching the milestone. After a considerable amount of time, he opened his eyes with a triumphant look on his face.

“Here, I brought you some bread and some more fish cakes! New… Mores, do you like this?”

Seongjin quickly accepted the food. Only Martha rubbed her eyes and looked back and forth between Owen and the food with a bewildered expression.

“No, your Majesty. Where on earth do all these come from?”

“It’s okay, Sir Marsain. Let’s eat first.”

Yum yum.

“But Owen, is there anything to drink… … .”

“Huh? Oh! By the way, the general store evening quest is…! Just wait a minute!”

While we were eating the food Owen had brought us all night long-

Seongjin and his party arrived at the final destination of the ‘Special Delivery’: Furiano, the second largest refugee camp in Ortona.