Surviving in the 121st Century - Chapter 13



Only Noblemtl

Episode 13

*

“Did you have a bad night’s sleep? You don’t look so happy.”

Mr. Parum, who was sitting across from me while having breakfast, said so. Jincheol said, “Is it porridge or stew?”

He spoke while stirring a hodgepodge of unknown ingredients.

“I woke up a little early because of a nightmare. Can you read my expression?”

“As I said yesterday, you are not that unfamiliar to me. It is not difficult to read your expressions.

“Anyway, is today’s class okay?”

“I’m not tired. I think I’ll be okay.”

He also nodded at Jincheol’s answer.

“Okay. Then I’ll go first and get ready. After I finish eating, I’ll go to the infirmary I went to yesterday.

“Please come and find me.”

Mr. Parum, who had eaten a whole other-worldly sushi this morning, said this while sitting down.

He got up. Jincheol nodded roughly and ate the slightly bland porridge.

Ah, I already miss the town of Atukai. This place looks like a modern cargo ship, but the food is military.

It’s a total shithole.

I was just stuffing it in with the thought of just eating it roughly and putting it away, when suddenly I felt a gaze

Lost.

“hmm?”

I looked up and saw the Esais huddled together in the corner glancing this way.

It looked like this. What is it? Why are you looking at me?

When Jincheol saw them, they turned their gazes slightly. Jincheol did not do so. Their

It was because the appearance was strange. I had already learned it from Toby and met him at the restaurant yesterday.

I knew of their existence, but I couldn’t take my eyes off them when they were right in front of me.

They had pale purple or dark gray skin. Along with the Allied Forces

Jincheol was used to fighting with other races, but that skin color was too unfamiliar.

They also had long ears and eerie vertical pupils. They looked like elves.

I was so touched, but those eyes were so different.

Looking at it this way, it was different from humans than I thought. But it wasn’t to the point where I couldn’t see it as an all-rounder.

No, but I’ve been seeing that Olog a lot at restaurants these days, so I’m starting to get used to it.

To Jincheol, who was about to give up, they seemed like people he could become close with.

Jincheol looked at them like that and ate the stew for a while. Jincheol put the remaining porridge in his mouth.

He hit it and got up from his seat.

I wanted to talk to them, but I couldn’t speak Esai right away.

In his case, it seemed like he could communicate to some extent, but it would be better if he could speak fluently.

It was nice to talk. Why do foreigners who speak Korean well get favored for no reason?

Isn’t that something too?

Jincheol put the dishes away and left the restaurant. He felt the gazes of the Esais from behind him.

I was stuck but I didn’t care. What if you guys messed up?

I left the restaurant and went up to the deck to digest the food. I saw the bright morning sky and the river.

A cool breeze greeted him. The ship made a faint thump-thump noise like a heartbeat.

And the only sound was the sound of cutting through the water. Modern boats also have motors.

It was quite a mysterious thing, considering the loud noise it made.

“There really is some kind of magic···”

If there is magic, the probability of being in another world increases, right? Jincheol thought so.

He stood leaning against the railing of the boat. The cool, almost chilly river breeze blew against his face.

It brushed past. The nightmare from last night and the regret of our separation seemed to be swept away by the wind.

At that moment, the Ologs and Doberman campons from inside the ship came up to the deck in droves.

He found Jincheol and only glanced at him. Jincheol also leaned against the railing.

I just leaned against the wall and watched them do it. They whispered among themselves.

Then I started to organize the cargo piled up on the deck to one corner.

It seemed like they were making room before loading new cargo.

Jincheol, who had been watching them for a moment, turned around. Mr. Parum was probably waiting.

Arriving at the infirmary, I knocked on the door and saw Dr. Parum. In front of him was a desk and

There was a chair and a large board standing there. Jincheol saw that it was the seeker.

The distant board looked like a blackboard.

“Are you here?”

“Oh, yes. I see you’ve been waiting.”

“Not really. Okay, then let’s begin.”

Mr. Parm had Jincheol sit at the desk he had prepared. Then he drew on the black board with white chalk.

At that moment, I started writing something. It was a real blackboard.

“I already speak Camponi fluently, so how can I learn the language of another race?

It won’t be difficult. The languages ​​of each race are similar enough to be considered a kind of dialect.

peel.”

“Oh. They are different races, but their language is similar?”

“So there is a theory that at one time all races spoke the same language. Each race

The argument is that they came together to form a kind of utopia.”

“Utapia? Isn’t it Utopia?”

Mr. Parum, who was writing something on the blackboard, stopped and looked back at Jincheol.

“···Some ancient language scholars pronounce it that way. That part is my ancient language.

I can’t say for sure because I don’t know the language well. How can that be, since it was the first time I came out of the forest?

Do you know?

“Well, there is wisdom in the forest.”

Jincheol just laughed it off. Adding one point to the possibility that it wasn’t another world.

“It seems that there is some literature left by the Atukai tribe. If possible, I would like to see it.

I want to. Anyway, first of all, let’s memorize the Camponia and the corresponding words of each race.

Let’s start with that.”

The class progressed quickly. Mr. Parm liked simple and intuitive explanations,

Jincheol was very fast at simple memorization thanks to his head spinning for an inexplicable reason.

Thanks to that, Jincheol was able to introduce himself in Baika and Esai before noon that day.

Wow, I’ve gotten so good at talking about the weather.

“That’s surprising. Are you sure you don’t know the Baika language?”

“I only started learning Camponi recently.”

Mr. Parm shook his head slightly as if in despair.

“I wonder what all the time I spent studying in college was for. Jincheol, you have a great talent for languages.

“This must be it.”

Jincheol, who had never heard such praise before, just laughed. Somehow, it was Camponi Village.

I remembered being praised so excitedly in the water, and I started to imagine what I had done back then.

A different world where you’ll be praised just for knowing how to drink it.

Jincheol quickly cleared his mind and spoke.

“Actually, I had some questions other than learning how to speak.”

“What is it? I will explain it to the best of my knowledge.”

“What is that? Should I call it history? Tell me a story from the old days-”

At that moment, the door to the infirmary opened with a bang. Naturally, the two people’s eyes were drawn to it.

The person who had attracted attention hesitated.

Fortunately, Mr. Parm quickly figured out his condition and opened his mouth.

“You’re hurt. Come here.”

“···That’s right. I was hurt.”

The one who opened the door and came in was Olog. The day before, he went under the ship to hang the Camponi cargo.

The Olog that came down. The iron ball necklace around his neck sparkled.

“You hurt your arm.”

“Toto Saga missed the cargo and got caught there. It hurts…”

Olog went to the desk that was probably used by Mr. Parum, not Jincheol’s desk.

I was attracted. Mr. Parm brought things that were piled up here and there on the desk and put them on Olrog’s arm.

He began to treat the wound. He spread some kind of dark liquid on it.

The log trembled. Oh, is that disinfectant?

After disinfecting, Mr. Parm applied some thick ointment and wrapped it with a clean bandage.

It was. Jincheol felt anew that the level of civilization was uneven. The Atukai tribe

Living in the forest, I am covered in dirt and mud, but here on the Bikka merchant ship, I clean my wounds.

He even applied ointment to it. But then again, the two of them make a deal, so it’s a mess.

It couldn’t have been a world without cruelty.

Jincheol suddenly asked while watching Mr. Parum wrap the bandage.

“Is it worth it?”

“···?”

Olog looked at Jincheol with a puzzled expression. Jincheol leaned back on the back of the chair.

He continued speaking, looking forward to it.

“Is that thing around your neck a real bomb necklace?”

“···You were talking to me?”

“Then who would you say that to? It wouldn’t be to Mr. Parum, right?”

Mr. Parm looked at Jincheol and Olog alternately as if he was interested, then just wrapped the bandage without saying a word.

Agatha. Olog blinked and opened his mouth.

“What is a bomb necklace?”

“If you try to escape this ship or harm the captain, that thing around your neck will be your head.

“Are you going to blow up the retong?”

“···That’s right. How did you know?”

“I can guess just by looking at it. What did you do to get that on your balls?”

Olog tilted his head as if he didn’t understand why Jincheol was asking that.

“I hunted an Esai near Shiol. Afterwards, I cooked it and ate it, and then I went to the Shiol patrol.

I got caught. I thought they were going to kill me on the spot, but they told me to either die or do the work.

“He said he would do it. That was fortunate.”

“Oh my. Are you glad you became a slave?”

“Thank goodness you’re not dead. If you’re alive, there’s always a chance.”

“···”

Kid, you speak better than I thought. Jincheol let out a hollow laugh.

“Hey, I have a question after learning about your species.”

“What is it?”

“Why do you eat other people? So, roughly speaking, you are also like other species.

“It seems like we’re having a conversation, but don’t you feel guilty about preying on someone you can communicate with?”

Olog raised his uninjured hand and scratched his chin.

“Why aren’t you eating?”

“···Why aren’t you eating?”

“Hunting is for food. So you kill for fun?”

Jincheol, who was about to answer no, suddenly remembered the people he had met in the last war.

I was speechless as I recalled that. Here, the ‘you’ that Olog asks about refers to Jincheol as an individual.

Is it referring to the individual, or is it referring to all of humanity?

“After the hunt, what you have to do for your prey is to feed it enough for the day.

I am grateful for the sound. And I am grateful for the fact that it became my flesh and blood. There

“I don’t see why people and other things should be separated.”

“Whether we can communicate or not, once we hunt, it’s just food for daily use?”

“Hunting is done when you are hungry. If I miss my prey and starve, I will die. I

When you catch a prey, the prey dies and becomes food. That’s all there is between the hunter and the prey.

am.”

Jincheol looked at Olog’s face with a curious expression. Olog was the first person he had met.

His face was still slightly gloomy, just like at that time.

“Then, if you get hungry on this ship right now, you’ll hunt the friends you worked with.

what?”

“···no.”

“why?”

Olog’s expression became even more gloomy.

“···They are my colleagues. I can’t eat my colleagues.”

Is it just that the boundary between ‘you’ and ‘us’ is a little more free? No,

It may be that such values ​​were created because there are many species of intelligent people, not just one.

I didn’t know that it would be more focused on one object than the other. Other races also have this allog

Should I think similarly?

“···I don’t know. I’m not a professor of xenophobia or anything.”

While Jincheol was thinking and shaking his head, Olrog, who had finished wrapping the bandage,

Lee stood up. He bowed his head briefly to Mr. Parm and then turned around and left.

“hey.”

“···What else? I don’t want to bother asking questions.”

That kid seems to be talking nonsense on purpose. What should I do if I thank the prey earlier?

It’s clear from what you did. Jincheol asked with a suspicious look.

“What is your name?”

“···Woodim.”

“See you later, Udim.”

Olog Udim tilted his head as he looked at Jincheol as if he was seeing a very strange guy.

I quickly opened the infirmary door and went out.

After he left, Mr. Parum, who was cleaning up, said as he passed by.

“That’s an unusual question. I’ve never seen anyone ask something like that to Olog.”

“What’s stranger is that no one asked.”

“Is that so? Are all members of Jincheol’s clan that curious?”

Jincheol laughed heartily.

“My kind? Well, they were full of all sorts of bitches.”

“Oh, it seems like a pretty big community. But even when I was studying at university, I had people like you.

“I haven’t seen any minorities.”

“···Is that so? Actually, that’s my problem.”

“What’s the problem?”

Jincheol looked up at the infirmary ceiling with the back of his head hanging off the back of his chair.

The gray ceiling filled my vision.

“···Where are my compatriots?”

Mr. Parm looked at him with his wet eyes blinking. The reflection in his eyes

Jincheol looked tired.

*

Jincheol decided to take a short break and came back up on deck. The cargo was being sorted out in the morning.

The deck was quiet as if it was over. The wind was cool and the sky was clear, just like when I came out in the morning.

It was clear.

“The weather is really nice.”

Leaning against the railing, closing my eyes and basking in the sunlight wasn’t bad either. Morning

When I woke up, I missed the bamboo house in Camponi, but now I can somehow find it.

It was enough. The beautiful scenery seemed to cleanse my mind.

Jincheol opened his eyes that had been closed for a moment to bask in the sun. He saw someone passing by in front of him.

It was because the scabbard and armor of the military band clashed and made a clinking sound. Esai

Four people were passing by.

“In a world where even gorillas can shoot pistols, why are there swords and armor?”

No, come to think of it, that pistol bullet didn’t even penetrate his chest. Maybe it was Ise.

The gunpowder is a mess, so maybe armor can stop it.

But just as he discovered Esai, the Esai who were walking also discovered him. Jincheol

As I was staring blankly at him, they started whispering something among themselves.

All. What is it?

After a while, they came towards Jincheol with brisk strides. Jincheol leaned against the railing and looked at them.

I was just looking at it.

One of the Esai who approached opened his mouth.

“You, savage. What is your name? Do you speak Esai?”

A savage? Jincheol was shocked because he had never imagined he would hear such a thing.

I couldn’t stop myself from laughing.

“How dare you laugh in front of the warriors of Antera?”

The expressions of the Esais hardened. Their originally stiff faces now became bleak. Jincheol

It was absurd. All of the Esai were a head shorter than Jincheol and had thinner bodies.

Maybe it’s because it’s so thin, but it reminds me of a neighborhood punk.

He said that with a smile on his face as he thought about it.

“Why am I a savage?”

“···You’re speaking Esai. You said you learned it from the medical officer, but did you already know how to do it?”

“What does it matter to you whether I can speak or not?”

“Where did you hear that kind of speech… No, that’s enough. What’s your name? Is it Esai Phi in your bloodline?

Is it true that the river flows? Are there any more of my kind?”

It was an overbearing attitude, and the question completely ignored Jincheol’s previous words. Even Bae

Captain Romuto, the captain of the ship, was also moderately polite to Jincheol, but this skinny swordsman

They were looking down on him.

Because of that, Jincheol felt bad. To make matters worse, Pinto left.

“I don’t want to tell you.”

“what?”

The man who had spoken made a blank expression. But soon a cold chill appeared on his face.

It flowed. One of the men standing behind him grabbed the sword he had on his waist.

Oh my. You’re going to pull out a knife just because I said something?

But the sword was not pulled out. It was because the representative blocked the hand.

Instead, the bastard raised his fist and stepped forward.

“Uncivilized barbarians have that kind of thing. They have to see blood to prove their position and ability.

“I mean, realizing it.”

Yeah. I can understand what you’re saying about learning for half a day. What the fuck.

The problem is the sound.

The guy who came up to me with his fist clenched stood arrogantly at arm’s length.

I lifted my chin.

“It would be a warrior’s virtue to teach such a savage the dignity of the Antera family!”

Before he could finish his words, his fist aimed for Jincheol’s jaw. It was a quick and concise surprise attack.

It was.

The fist struck Jincheol’s jaw, and his head was thrown to the side.

“···”

Esai first struck the chin of this uncivilized barbarian, then continued his attacks.

He was thinking of continuing. He understood the cautious actions of Musa Jang and Ishanka.

As is often the case when enslaving wandering Ologs, they were unable to do so in the face of strong force.

In the outskirts of civilization, the barbarians would just lower their eyes and kneel. Curious

If there was one, all I had to do was knock him down and ask him.

But the movement did not continue, and Jincheol’s eyes, tilted to the side, caught his attention.

It was because I was watching. It was like a grown adult watching children do bad things.

Those eyes that seem to be watching, as if they are thinking about how to scold her.

Esai met those eyes and felt a chill down his spine from the unknown eeriness.

Couldn’t do it.

Jincheol said.

“Are you sure you struck first?”

Immediately afterwards, with a squeak, Esai’s body rose slightly and then fell backwards.

The iron palm struck his cheek. Thanks to the control of the force, his head was hit.

It wasn’t broken.

The deck floor and armor collided, making a loud noise. The fallen man lost consciousness.

It just sagged like that.

Jincheol, who created that scene, shook his hands and looked at the other three with blank eyes.

Said to the guy.

“The savage fist is a bit spicy, isn’t it? You guys, try it too.”