BOPE 69

Chapter 69 …

Fwoooosh!

The flames that had briefly faltered roared back with persistence, and as time passed, people grew more and more exhausted.

Thud! Thud!

All around, more and more people collapsed in tears, sitting helplessly on the ground. Their faces, filled with despair, were bathed in the red glow of the fire.

Then it happened.

From hastily arrived carriages and wagons, people poured out in a rush.

“Make way!”

The newcomers, carrying red chunks of iron, ran fearlessly toward the raging flames. Among them was none other than the Lord of Grace.

“My lady, it’s too dangerous!”

Red Bear, who had spotted Chloe belatedly, shouted at the top of his lungs. But the lord never once turned back.

Chloe’s retreating figure looked as fragile and reckless as a moth flying into the flames. Stricken with a nameless sense of dread, Red Bear chased after her with all his strength.

“My lady!”

Behind Chloe, the servants of Grace Castle and the villagers of Condal rushed forward en masse. Red Bear, startled, grabbed Scrooge, who had mixed into the group, but Scrooge shook him off, claiming he was too busy.

It seemed as though everyone had lost their minds over the fire.

“Form a line! Just like I taught you—pull the pin!”

At the lord’s command, the people pulled gleaming needles from the red metal canisters.

“Spray!”

Pshhhhhhh!

Whoooosh!

At Chloe’s shout, thick white clouds of smoke blasted furiously toward the black flames.

Time passed. The fire, which hadn’t budged even under heaps of sand, began to shrink little by little. At last, it vanished, leaving only sooty black smoke lingering like shadows.

“Waaaaaah!”

“The fire’s out!”

“Hooray! Long live our lady!”

A deafening roar of cheers swept across the fields. Relieved that the fire was gone, people clung to each other and wept.

“Thank goodness.”

Still clutching the fire hose tightly, Donghui’s legs gave out, and she collapsed on the spot. Her once pale face was smeared with soot, but her expression was brighter than ever.

Just moments earlier, inside the convenience store—

As soon as Donghui heard from Red Bear that a fire had broken out, the first thing that came to her mind was dialing 119. But of course, there were no fire stations here. Fire hoses were out of the question.

“Fire extinguishers!”

She and Red Bear thought of them at almost the same time. Donghui dashed upstairs, summoning her status window as she ran.

“Assistant! I need an assistant!”

—A skilled assistant! Do you need one? Right here, a prepared assistant awaits you. Based on the degree of labor and complexity, the fee for Tae-chang’s service is as follows…

The status window began repeating its ARS-like script, but Donghui cut it off frantically.

“Shut up, I’ll pay whatever it takes, just hurry!”

Breathless, with her lungs burning, she didn’t stop running until she reached her room. Then she bolted out the front door and straight into the store.

“Fire extinguishers! Fill the inventory with nothing but those!”

The store only had two extinguishers in stock. That was better than having just one, but in this desperate situation, every second counted, and stocking two at a time was the best choice.

Dragged unwillingly into the status window once again, Tae-chang fell silent when he saw Donghui’s tearful, panicked expression. He simply did as she asked.

The inventory filled up much faster with two people working. Soon, all 800 slots were stuffed full of fire extinguishers. Donghui rushed out and explained to the servants how to use them. Those who learned passed the instructions on to others, even while hurrying toward the defensive grass fields.

Some didn’t fully understand what the red metal canisters were for, only nodding blankly. Others assumed they were magical tools for extinguishing fire.

When they first saw the roaring blaze, running at it without water seemed suicidal. But with their lord charging at the front, no one could simply stand by.

“What on earth is this?”

After the fire was finally out, Delma, who had sunk down next to Donghui, examined the extinguisher in awe. The fact that something could put out fire faster than water was unbelievable. And that white smoke, shooting out of a red hunk of iron—utterly baffling.

“A fire extinguisher.”

Donghui lay sprawled on the grass.

On any other day, Delma would have scolded her endlessly for lying on the ground like that. But now, even she had no strength left to nag. Having never been athletic, Delma had struggled even with the short sprint from the carriage up the hill.

“A fire extinguisher… I see. But where did you get this?”

She had never seen anything like it in Grace Castle. If such a marvelous device had been there all along, it wouldn’t have gone unnoticed. Delma kept turning it over in her hands, still amazed at its smooth shape and vivid color.

“A magic pouch.”

“…Pardon?”

“I have one. A magic pouch that produces anything I want.”

Donghui, unsure how else to explain, half-joked, half-seriously tossed out the answer. She fully expected Delma to scold her for joking at such a time, but to her surprise, Delma stayed silent.

Uneasy, Donghui sat up and glanced at her. Delma was still gazing at the extinguisher with wonder.

“So it was a magical tool. I thought it couldn’t be an ordinary item. But this magic pouch…”

Donghui hadn’t expected her to believe it so easily. Hearing Delma’s earnest tone, she quickly snapped back to her senses. But she couldn’t tell the truth either—and in fact, there was no better way to describe it than “magic pouch.”

“Well… maybe it’s a gift from my dad.”

On that first day she had awakened in this world, she thought it was all a dream and cursed her fate. But as time passed, she began to wonder if this moment might actually be a precious gift. Perhaps her father, feeling pity and sorrow for his struggling daughter, had given her this special present.

“Did the late Marquis leave it behind for you?”

Delma, who had thought she knew everything about Chloe, tilted her head at this unfamiliar story.

“I don’t know. One day, it just appeared. That’s all.”

That was as much as Donghui could say. She worried Delma might probe further, but thankfully, she didn’t. The villagers crowded around them before she could ask more.

“Long live our lady!”

“Our lady saved Morata!”

“May the blessings of the gods be upon her!”

As cheers and thanks rained down, Donghui rose to inspect the defensive grass fields on the hill.

“My lady, it’s dangerous. What if monsters leap out?”

“Sir Red Bear will protect me, won’t you?”

She flashed him a mischievous grin, but Red Bear couldn’t hide his worry.

He urged her several more times to return to the castle, but her stubbornness won out. In the end, he ordered tighter security and followed her to examine the forest’s edge.

“At least the fire didn’t burn everything.”

Donghui breathed a sigh of relief as she saw a third of the defensive grass still standing. Some areas had lost only half, while in others, the flames had consumed it all.

“Still, it’s not enough. I’ll order the Builder to halt all projects and start building walls around the village.”

“Wooden walls won’t stop monsters completely.”

“I know. But at least they’ll buy people time to escape.”

Even with some grass left, she wasn’t sure it could hold back monsters. Fear flickered in her eyes as she gazed over the charred hills.

“Tomorrow, clear away the burned grass and spread fertilizer. The remaining shoots need room to spread.”

“Yes, my lady!”

“And we must find out why this fire started. There’s no way it happened on its own.”

Her voice, tinged with anger, carried across the blackened slopes.

Meanwhile, hidden in the forest, Bartre and his men, who had been watching, couldn’t conceal their shock.

“What the hell was that? Where did that cloud suddenly come from?”

“Sit down.”

Uno, who had sprung to his feet in astonishment, quickly obeyed Bartre’s order and sat back down. But Bartre himself was just as bewildered by what he’d seen.

They had assumed the drought that had lasted for years would leave the village defenseless against fire. It had seemed the easiest way to devastate the place. But their plan had failed spectacularly.

“Was the Lady of Grace a mage?”

There was no other way to explain it.

“No way. She’s infamous everywhere as a fool.”

Bartre, too, had heard the rumors. But the young woman who had charged headlong toward the inferno was no fool. Anyone with eyes could see that the determination in her gaze was not something a simpleton could possess.

Not only had she used some strange magic to put out the flames, but unlike most nobles, she hadn’t stood idly behind her people—she had fought at their side. Her soot-streaked face, lit with a bright smile, lingered stubbornly in his mind.

“Retrieve whatever they were using. We need to know what it is.”

“Yes, boss.”

Uno, just as curious about the red canisters, agreed without hesitation.

“But boss… the first plan failed. What now?”