The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 226

"Hah~"

Taak-!

"Ouch! Why did you hit me all of a sudden!"

The guard, who was yawning languidly to the point of tears, screamed at the sudden pain he felt in his head.

The guard rubbed his head with his hand, trying to suppress the pain, and glared at the man who had hit him with angry eyes.

Taak-!

"Ouch!"

"This bastard dares to glare at his senior with angry eyes?"

And because of that, he was hit one more time for no reason.

"And why did you hit me? If you were me, and your junior was yawning instead of keeping watch during work hours, wouldn't your hand fly out?"

At the senior guard's words, the junior guard pouted and grumbled.

"Sigh, I was just yawning because I was so bored. Honestly, that's okay, right? What kind of incident would happen in a remote territory with a three-digit classification?"

"Oh, look at this guy."

Taak-!

At the junior guard's words, the senior guard chuckled and hit his head again.

"Ah, why did you hit me again this time!"

The senior guard said with a pathetic look.

"Hey, you punk. If what you say is true, why would our lord hire you with an expensive salary in a remote territory with no incidents? Should I tell the lord right now and get you fired?"

At the word 'fired', the junior looked at his senior with a cheap smile, as if he had never grumbled.

"Hehe, you know I respect you, senior, right?"

"I don't feel any respect for me in your words."

"…Would you like a drink after this?"

"Not enough."

"…I'll buy."

"Hmm, now I feel a little sincerity."

The senior guard finally let out a slight laugh, and seeing that, the junior lowered his head again and muttered.

His junior's voice was not out of earshot, but since he was getting a free drink, he decided to let it slide.

"Anyway, don't be lazy with your watch and keep going. You never know when or where a monster or a mysterious stranger might appear."

"Huh?"

At the junior's strange answer, the senior's face crumpled like a piece of paper.

"This bastard, I was being nice to him, and now he's even teasing his senior with a strange answer?"

"Ah, no, that's not it, look! Look over there!"

The junior, who saw his senior's distorted expression, shouted urgently and pointed to one side with his finger.

The senior's face, who looked in the direction his junior's finger was pointing, changed strangely.

"What's with that blatantly strange guy?"

"I don't know, but he doesn't seem like a normal guy, right?"

The two placed their hands on the swords they were holding and took a guarded stance.

Outwardly, he seemed to have no weapon, but you never know.

"What should we do, senior?"

"What do you mean, what should we do? Are you going to swing your sword just because he looks suspicious? Of course, we have to talk first."

"No, but still, wouldn't it be better to catch him and take him to the guard post first?"

"Hmm, that's true…"

While the two were whispering and discussing their opinions, looking at the red-haired man approaching them, Lee Shin, who had been branded as a suspicious person at a glance, was also quietly talking with Irehgue.

'What are those guys?'

-I don't know. Judging by the fact that they're wearing armor and have swords at their waists, they seem to be gatekeepers guarding the village.

At Irehgue's words, Lee Shin muttered with a puzzled expression.

'But why are the gatekeepers so weak?'

It wasn't that Lee Shin was speaking from his own standards.

In Lee Shin's eyes, their level seemed to be barely at LV. 2, and that level was far from being able to snort and say they were strong even on Earth.

'Hmm, I honestly didn't expect this situation.'

To exaggerate a little, the concentration of magic power in this world was so dense that magic power would accumulate just by breathing.

So, of course, Lee Shin thought that the humans here would be that much stronger.

But when he actually met them, far from being strong, their skills were slightly below the Earth's average.

Since they were guards, it meant they had received some level of training, so it was impossible to run the happy circuit that they were just idiots.

'Disappointing.'

He had no intention of running wild and destroying the village as soon as he met them, but he had been planning on enjoying himself a little, but they were too weak, so his interest completely disappeared.

'And the territory also looks shabby.'

While Lee Shin was growing more and more disappointed and wondering what to do, the junior let out a cry of realization, as if he had realized something.

"Ah! Isn't that person that? You know, a resident of the world that was absorbed last time!"

"Hmm?"

At the junior's words, the senior guard glanced at Lee Shin and said.

"His clothes are a little strange, but the last cataclysm was already ten years and a few years ago. So where did he suddenly pop out from?"

"Why, you said there are cases like that sometimes. Cases where they were cooped up in the backwoods for reasons like training and then popped out into the world without knowing anything!"

The junior said, satisfied with his own thoughts, as if he were about to jump up and down.

At his junior's appearance, the senior said with a reluctant expression.

"I've certainly heard that there are cases like that sometimes…"

"I'd like to hear more about that right now."

While the guard was pondering, someone interrupted their conversation.

At that, the two turned their heads with surprised faces, and Lee Shin looked at them with eyes that said, 'what are you looking at?'

"Hey, you bastard! You're speaking the imperial common language so nonchalantly! You're not someone who came out of the mountains after training!"

"No, I naturally thought so! And you agreed too, senior!"

"Shut up! You were spouting nonsense so plausibly that I got confused for a moment too!"

While the two were fighting, Lee Shin interrupted again.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but I learned this language from a woman in the mountains on my way here."

In fact, since he had learned it by tracing Irin's memories, it wasn't wrong.

"So I'm interested in what you two were talking about just now. I just came down from the mountain, and I was confused because the world had changed so much from what I knew."

At Lee Shin's words, the two looked at each other for a moment.

A look of injustice appeared in the junior's eyes, as if to say, 'see?'

Seeing that, the senior let out a small sigh and said.

"Hah, you handle this. I'll watch over you as your senior."

"Se, senior!"

"Tsk, hurry up!"

The junior, who was looking at his senior's clenched fist, sighed.

"Now, follow me."

Lee Shin thought for a moment about whether he should follow this guy or not, then decided to just go with him.

Because judging by the level of the guards, it seemed that even if something happened, he could easily solve it by just using force.

'I've also put [Yagong] in the inventory of my gloves, so I can take it out at any time.'

And so, Lee Shin smiled slightly and entered the village.

Shiver-

Why was it?

The junior, who was on his way to the guard post, suddenly felt a shiver as if a lion was walking behind him and trembled.

◎ ◎ ◎

"We've kept you waiting."

"I know, right."

At Lee Shin's appearance, who answered as if it were nothing even though he had been dragged to the guard post, the junior looked at him with a puzzled expression, then quietly lowered his gaze.

His senses, which had been developed while rolling around as a new recruit in the guard, were telling him.

That unless it was a really big deal, he shouldn't touch the man in front of him.

'Still, if I do it half-heartedly, my senior will probably kill me, so I have to do it properly.'

The junior, who had made up his mind, sat down and said.

"First, thank you for waiting. We've confirmed that you're not a wanted criminal, so a temporary pass has been issued. Before that, I have a question…"

The junior scratched his head with the pen he had been writing on the paper with and asked.

"Are you from the absorbed world?"

"First, I don't know exactly what you mean by the absorbed world."

Hearing him talk, he seemed to know roughly, but since he would be suspicious if he just let it go, he decided to just listen.

"Hmm, we don't know the reason either. The temple gave a prophecy that a cataclysm would come after about a dozen years, and we're just preparing for it."

"Preparation?"

"Yes, the cataclysm is literally a phenomenon where the world is turned upside down. Suddenly, numerous natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, and storms occur."

The junior said, waving his hands here and there as if to express the disaster.

"And after the natural disasters have passed, the magic power suddenly becomes abundant, and in the completely changed terrain, strange-shaped buildings appear, and various people and monsters that we've never seen before pop out."

-I see.

At the junior's words, Irehgue nodded his head.

-It seems these guys think of the absorption and cataclysm as a kind of natural phenomenon.

'Well, since there's no need to reveal the truth, it's a natural choice if you think about it.'

Lee Shin, who had answered that, looked at the junior and asked.

"By any chance, is this territory also mixed with the traces of that cataclysm?"

"Oh, how did you know?"

"Because the territory looks unnecessarily large. I just thought that maybe other buildings suddenly appeared and they were absorbed into the village."

"…You're very direct."

"I'm the type who hates to beat around the bush."

"You're also strangely quick to accept things."

"I saw enough of the changed world on my way here."

Lee Shin lied nonchalantly without a change in his expression.

"I'm not so narrow-minded as to carry around the common sense I knew in the changed world."

"Hah, well, I understand. What's your name?"

"…My name is Crow."

"Crow? The way you name yourself is a little different from the last absorbed people."

"It's a new name I made to adapt more comfortably to the new world."

Since he had made it with reference to Raven's name, Lee Shin thought it wouldn't be such a strange name.

"Hmm, well, fine."

The junior, who had said that, wrote the word 'Crow' on the paper on which he had drawn Lee Shin's simple appearance and face, and then held out the paper that had been on the table.

"Now, this is a document that proves your identity, so please carry it with you at all times within the territory."

"You're giving it to me much more easily than I thought."

Lee Shin, who had said that, implying that the work was being done too sloppily, nodded his head at the junior's following words.

"Hey, it's fine as long as we've confirmed that you're not a criminal. In the first place, if we were going to be that strict, we would have controlled the acceptance of mercenaries into the territory from the beginning."

The junior said that and handed Lee Shin a book as well.

"This is a guidebook for wanderers, that is, people who have been moved by absorption. Ah, you can read, right?"

"Yes, I can."

"That's a relief."

The junior said that and closed the notebook he had been writing in.

"Then, Crow-nim, you can return that book after you've finished reading it, and I hope you don't cause any major disturbances in our territory."

"Ah, please tell me one more thing."

"What is it?"

The junior, who was about to slack off a little since the work was done quickly, looked at Lee Shin with eyes that said, 'why are you holding me back?' and asked.

At those words, Lee Shin chuckled and said.

"I heard there are mercenaries in the village, by any chance, is there a mercenary guild or something?"

(End of Chapter)