Chapter 009
Alex smiled and waited so Leo would have plenty of time to look around.
Even in the “future,” soldiers and knights had come to the village after his death.
‘Though back then, they returned empty-handed without ever finding the wolf.’
They would return empty-handed this time as well, since the wolf had died to Lee Baek’s magic.
Still, perhaps thanks to the presence of the knights and soldiers, there were no more wolf attacks after that, so he wouldn’t have to worry about the village.
‘I was just unlucky.’
Going up to the mountain on that particular day, of all days.
Alex smiled bitterly.
Once the knights and soldiers passed, Alex drove the cart back onto the road.
“Uncle! The knights are so cool! Their armor looks super sturdy and shiny! And their capes are awesome too!”
Leo, sitting beside Alex, chattered excitedly. Seeing a real knight in person—someone he had only seen in picture books—seemed to have thrilled him.
Alex smiled and listened to Leo’s story.
Then, Leo spotted unfamiliar people walking down the road. Leo’s sky-blue eyes widened into big circles.
“There are people over there, Uncle!”
“They’re people from other villages. The Lord’s Castle is just a bit further ahead.”
“Is everyone going to the Lord’s Castle?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“To sell things they have or to buy things at the market. Or maybe to look for work.”
“Are they going to buy snacks, too?”
As Leo’s eyes sparkled brightly, Alex smiled and nodded.
“I’m sure some people are buying snacks.”
“Whoa!”
Being only six years old, Leo had never been to the Lord’s Castle before, so he looked around with an excited face.
[This seems like the right path, doesn’t it?]
[The knights and soldiers came from over there, and the people are heading that way too.]
True.
Alex agreed with Lee Baek’s words. Yet, something kept bothering him.
Unable to figure out what it was, Alex thought for a moment before letting out an exclamation. “Ah.”
‘In the future, I took a different path.’
Ten years later.
In the “future” where demons invaded the continent, refugee camps popped up everywhere due to the influx of displaced people, causing roads to disappear and new ones to be created.
‘Plus, there used to be a dungeon right in front of the South Gate of the Lord’s Castle.’
He didn’t know exactly when it appeared.
Because a dungeon appeared at the South Gate, Viscount Caldis had been forced to close it and build a new gate to the southwest.
No wonder this current road felt unfamiliar.
‘We went that way back then.’
Alex turned his head to the left and looked toward the road that wasn’t built yet—the road he had walked with the “16-year-old Leo” in the “future.”
His gaze was nostalgic, yet bitter.
Just then.
6-year-old Leo asked in an excited voice.
“Uncle, there are people carrying swords over there! They must be mercenaries!”
Alex quickly put on a smile and answered.
“That’s right. That’s a merchant caravan, and those mercenaries are protecting it so no one steals from them on the way.”
It was an erased future now.
Right now, it was time to make the present Leo happy.
“I see!”
[Are there no mages? I want to see some otherworldly magic!]
Listening to the voices of Leo and Lee Baek—both completely thrilled—Alex drove the cart forward.
People, carriages, and carts gradually accumulated along the main and side roads leading to the Lord’s Castle.
And finally.
The South Gate of Viscount Caldis’s Castle came into view.
“Whoaaaa!”
[Oooooh!! An otherworldly lord’s castle!!]
Sturdy-looking stone walls and a large wooden gate blocked the front, and atop two watchtowers, flags embroidered with the Lord’s emblem fluttered in the wind.
“Wow! It’s so high!”
The closer they got to the stone walls surrounding the castle, the further Leo tilted his head back until his neck looked like it might snap.
Alex couldn’t help but laugh at the sight.
He looked forward to seeing how shocked Leo would be when he saw the royal capital or the massive cities they would visit in the future.
“Uncle, can we go up there?”
[Ooh! Let’s go up!]
At Leo and Lee Baek asking with sparkling eyes, Alex replied with a bitter smile.
“Unfortunately, that’s an important place where only soldiers can go, so we can’t.”
“Oh, okay…”
“Instead, when we go to a bigger city, I’ll take you somewhere even higher, Leo.”
“Really?!”
Leo, who had been looking disappointed, brightened up at Alex’s words.
“Really.”
“Yay! Uncle, you’re the best!”
Patting the head of the overjoyed Leo, Alex explained about the castle.
“This is Caldis Territory. It’s ruled by… Viscount Caldis.”
As a ghost, Alex used to call them “that bastard Duke” or “that bastard Earl” without honorifics, but now that he was back in the past, he couldn’t do that.
‘Because insult to nobility is a crime here.’
On top of that…
“Viscount!”
Leo was here, too.
If he spoke thoughtlessly, Leo might copy him.
He clearly needed to be careful with his language from now on.
[Oh, a Viscount.]
Well, Lee Baek could only be heard by his own ears, so that didn’t matter as much.
“The south side where our village is located focuses on farming, but the north of the territory has a dungeon, so mercenaries frequent the area.”
“A dungeon! I know that! That’s where monsters come out, right, Uncle?”
[A dungeon?! Did you say dungeon?!]
[There are dungeons here too?!]
“Yeah, that’s right. That’s why there are a lot of mercenaries. To defeat the monsters.”
“My mom and dad are mercenaries too!”
At Leo, who sounded proud, Alex chuckled softly.
[Wow, so there are dungeons in another world too. Are they similar to the dungeons in our world?]
[Let’s go check it out later, Alex! It’d be perfect for practicing magic and making money!]
Deciding to answer Lee Baek’s words later, Alex lined up behind the people entering the castle.
Leo seemed thrilled by all the new people, fidgeting his bottom excitedly as he looked here and there.
“Next!”
In front of the South Gate, soldiers holding spears were managing the people entering and leaving.
“Uncle, what are the soldiers doing?”
“They’re checking if there are any bad people.”
“Oh, I see!”
[The soldiers seem pretty well-managed too.]
After waiting for a bit, it was Alex and Leo’s turn.
“Next!”
Having never seen a soldier up close before, Leo looked up at the guard with shining eyes. The iron helmet, the armor, and even the spear in his hand looked so cool to him.
“Ahem!”
The rugged-looking soldier was slightly taken aback by the young child staring intently at him without crying, but he soon cleared his throat and inspected the cart.
Seeing the cart and the child, he seemed to assume Alex was a traveling merchant.
“No cargo?”
“Yes. We came from Velo Village in the south to become mercenaries.”
“Mercenaries?”
The soldier’s brow furrowed slightly.
There were occasionally people who rushed out of their villages to become mercenaries as soon as they reached adulthood (and sometimes even before).
However, almost no one tried to become a mercenary while bringing along such a small child.
The soldier, who had a daughter about Leo’s age, looked back and forth between Leo and Alex with a somewhat worried expression. They seemed like a family with a story.
“Do you know where the Mercenary Guild is?”
Although it wasn’t his business, the worried soldier asked anyway.
“Yes, I know where it is.”
“What about an inn to stay at?”
“That… not yet.”
Although Alex had experience coming to the Lord’s Castle following adults to pay taxes or visit the market, he had always returned to the village immediately without staying at an inn. So he didn’t know of any places.
‘There is one place, though.’
The inn where “Hero Leo” had stayed in the “future.”
However, he couldn’t remember exactly where it was. Because it was the first day of their journey back then, both Leo and Alex had been flustered and confused.
“If you go to the East Street, there’s an inn called ‘House of the Lake,'” the soldier said.
“It’s clean, so it’s a good place to stay with a child. If you tell them Cain sent you, you might be able to stay a bit cheaper.”
Alex blinked in surprise at the kindness of the soldier, Cain, before quickly offering a smile.
“Thank you.”
“For the child’s sake, it’s best not to take on requests that are too dangerous.”
“Yes, I’ll keep that in mind.”
Leo rolled his eyes as he watched Alex and the soldier, Cain. For some reason, he felt a friendly atmosphere from the unfamiliar soldier, much like the uncles from his village.
Not fully understanding what was happening but sensing the soldier had helped them, Leo beamed and shouted loudly:
“Thank you!”
At that adorable greeting, Cain, the surrounding soldiers, Alex, and Lee Baek all burst out laughing.
Having been recommended an inn, Alex bowed in thanks and fell into thought for a moment. Would the place suggested by soldier Cain really be alright?
‘If it’s bad, we can just leave.’
Alex drove the cart toward the East Street.
“Whoaaaa!”
Perhaps because the sun hadn’t set yet, the town inside the castle was bustling. Horses and carriages—rare sights in their village—were roaming everywhere, and there were crowds of people.
“One, two! Wow! Uncle, look over there! A two-story house!”
Furthermore, unlike the single-story houses in their village, two-story houses were built here and there.
“Hold on, Leo. We need to head to the inn first.”
“Okay! Got it!”
At Alex’s words, Leo sat obediently on the driver’s seat, yet his head kept darting back and forth rapidly. He didn’t even realize his small mouth was hanging open.
Laughing quietly at him, Alex also looked around while driving the cart. He felt a mixture of familiarity and strangeness.
[Ooh! Fantasy! Medieval!!]
Lee Baek, viewing through Alex’s field of vision, also seemed excited by the new scenery of this world.
“Leo, do you know what an inn is?”
At Alex’s question, Leo quickly nodded his head.
“I know! It comes out in storybooks. It’s where the Hero sleeps! And eats food with his friends!”
[And where someone picks a fight and starts a brawl!]
That used to happen occasionally in the ‘future,’ too.
Even when destruction was right around the corner, bad guys didn’t care and committed evil deeds anyway.
‘No, they probably did it even more because destruction was right around the corner.’
Because it was a world where order and rules were no longer properly enforced.
That was why good people shone even brighter back then.
‘…Though most of them ended up dying in the end.’
Smiling bitterly to himself, Alex continued.
“We’re going to sleep at an inn today, too.”
“Whoa! Then will there be a Hero there too, Uncle?”
There is.
The future Hero. Right here.
Looking at Leo with a smile, Alex spoke.
“Wouldn’t the Hero be sleeping at another inn?”
Leo looked disappointed at those words, but he recovered quickly and excitedly resumed exploring the town with his eyes.
“House of the Lake. There it is.”
Just as soldier Cain had said, the inn, ‘House of the Lake,’ looked clean from the outside, and there were quite a few customers.
An employee around 15 years old who was sweeping outside spotted Alex and the cart approaching the inn, quickly running over.
“Welcome! This is the House of the Lake! We have a backyard where your cart can go and a stable where your horse can rest comfortably!”
“We came recommended by Soldier Cain.”
“Ah! Soldier Cain!”
The employee Matthew’s face brightened even further.
“Follow me this way!”
Following Matthew, Alex left the horse and cart in the backyard of the inn, took Leo by the hand, and walked inside.
The inn was clean, just as Cain had said, and although there were mercenaries inside, it wasn’t overly noisy.
“Food’s out!”
Alex wondered if it was thanks to the fierce-looking owner. But somehow, he felt like he had seen the man somewhere before.
“Boss! They said they were recommended by Soldier Cain!”
“That guy?”
“There’s a kid with them too!”
At that, the innkeeper Halon, who had been frowning, quickly relaxed his expression and pulled something wrapped out of his pocket. It was a sweet-tasting snack.
Seeing it, Leo looked up at Alex. When Alex smiled and nodded, Leo beamed brightly as he accepted the snack.
“Thank you!”
Matthew was shocked.
“To think there’s a child who doesn’t cry upon seeing the boss! Aside from his granddaughter, this is a first.”
“Why, you little!”
As Halon lightly swatted Matthew’s back, the customers burst into laughter, seemingly accustomed to the sight.
[Seems like a nice place.]
Alex smiled and agreed with Lee Baek’s assessment.
“One room should be enough, right? How long will you be staying?”
“I think about five days will do.”
Buying necessary travel supplies, registering at the Mercenary Guild, and visiting the northern dungeon would probably take around that long.
“Then just pay this much.”
It was cheaper than in the “future,” and even cheaper than the rates his sister and brother-in-law used to talk about; Alex could tell that soldier Cain had recommended a really good inn.
That thought grew even stronger once Alex saw the room.
“It’s the second floor! Uncle!”
Leo’s footsteps were light as he went up the stairs. It was his first time staying in a two-story building.
“It’s not super spacious, but there’s a window, and the bed covers are freshly washed, so it’ll be nice and cozy!”
[So this is what an inn’s interior looks like.]
Indeed, just as the employee had said, the room was clean and nice. Leo looked around curiously.
“Uncle! It’s so nice here!”
“It sure is.”
Alex also thoroughly checked the room, even tapping various parts of the wall.
[What, looking for a hidden room or something?]
He was actually checking for something similar.
‘No traps.’
Because there were often bastards who ambushed the “Hero’s Party,” his body had reacted subconsciously.
“Whoa!”
Six-year-old Leo looked outside through the wide-open window. Being on the second floor gave a fairly good view of the town.
Since the sun hadn’t set yet, there were still many people walking about.
“We have some time before dinner. Want to go take a look around, Leo?”
“Yeah! I want to!”
[Sounds great!]
When Alex walked down with the fully excited Leo, Halon asked kindly.
“Where are you heading?”
Of course, his fierce face was still a bit intimidating.
“We were thinking of visiting the market and a blacksmith shop.”
“Is that so? For blacksmiths, Roiman’s up north is the best one.”
“Thank you for letting us know.”
When Alex bowed in thanks, Leo raised his voice loudly as well.
“Thank you!”
At that cute sight, laughter erupted from all around once again.
