Chapter 55
“Is this the place?”
“Yes, yes. Oh, it’s so nice to have a young man here!”
Baek Yi-heon rolled up his sleeves and started fixing various issues around the house.
Although Choi Kkang-kang would be better at this job, he was shamelessly sleeping after eating two bowls of rice.
Sehun was sleeping soundly next to him.
Seriously…
While Sehun is a growing child, what’s this adult who’s past his growth spurt doing?
Anyone would think this was his own countryside home.
As I looked at his brazen behavior with disbelief, the Messenger’s voice echoed in my head.
[(Messenger) Indra mutters embarrassedly that the original Gandharva was quite audacious.]
I could understand why the word “gangster” originated from Gandharva at that moment.
I kicked the snoring man lightly with my foot as he slept deeply with his nose crumpled up.
“Hey, Choi Kkang-kang-ssi. Wake up.”
“Mmm… What is it…?”
“Let’s go fetch some water. We should fill the tank when we can.”
“Ah, go by yourself…”
He mumbled complainingly and turned to his side.
I smiled sweetly and took out a water magic stone from my hip pouch.
Fortunately, he jumped up before I could pour a bucket of cold water on him.
“You’re really hot-tempered… Can’t we just fill the tank with that water magic stone?”
“We need to save the magic stones as much as possible. Sehun would wake up. Be quiet and follow me.”
He grumbled quietly but got up silently and followed me, being considerate not to wake Sehun.
As we left the house, Baek Yi-heon, who was on an old ladder, quickly asked.
“Where are you going?”
“Just going to fetch some water nearby.”
“It’s dangerous…”
“It’s not. What dangerous monsters would be in such a remote mountain village?”
“Yeah, it’s fine!”
The old man holding the ladder quickly added,
“There’s a waterfall nearby, it’s safe to go there. We often went there to fetch water.”
“I’ll go with you.”
Yu, who had been sitting cross-legged, said in a calm tone as she stood up.
“…Then, come back early.”
Only then did Baek Yi-heon nod, still looking a bit uneasy.
“Don’t go too far.”
‘I don’t think he was originally this kind of character…’
Somehow, he seems to be nagging more these days.
I tilted my head, picked up the water container, and slowly headed towards the mountain.
💎
We walked up the wooden path covered with fallen leaves and wooden stairs for a while.
“Huff, huff… How much further do we have to go?”
As Choi Kkang-kang, who didn’t seem particularly fit, started breathing heavily.
“Ah, I think this is it.”
Along with the gentle sound of water, a valley appeared.
A valley with a 30-meter waterfall flowing down a gentler slope than expected.
It was the Guryong Waterfall in Jirisan.
“Huff huff. Here? Wouldn’t it be better to fill it with spring water?”
“Well, it’s for the living water tank, do we really need to do that?”
I calmly replied while picking up the water container I brought.
‘This much should be enough, right?’
Then, while watching Choi Kkang-kang’s reaction, I pretended to accidentally drop a fire magic stone into the upstream of the valley.
“Oh. No!”
I exclaimed in an incredibly dry voice.
“That was a fairly rare B-grade magic stone! This is a big problem!”
[(Messenger) Indra sighs at your awkward acting.]
I could feel Yu staring at me intently.
I tried to ignore her gaze as shamelessly as possible and awkwardly shouted again.
“Oh. Oh. At this rate, the magic stone will be washed away…!”
“Seriously. Did you leave your brain at home? Stay here, your feet will get wet.”
Choi Kkang-kang, grumbling as always, jumped into the valley.
Yu, who would usually have jumped in first, was still staring at me with her characteristically inscrutable calm face.
Feeling cold sweat running down my back, I pretended to whistle nonchalantly.
“…Huh?”
Choi Kkang-kang, who was picking up the magic stone that had flowed downstream, made a puzzled sound.
“…This is a bit strange?”
“Huh? What. Do. You. Mean?”
“Well, it’s hard to explain in words…”
Choi Kkang-kang mumbled softly as he fiddled with the magic stone.
Its size and shape were the same as before, but something had changed.
For example, the form of its energy.
‘As expected of an awakened craftsman, he noticed right away.’
The reason I brought him to Guryong Waterfall with my awkward acting.
It was because purifying magic stones requires the power of pure nature.
Particularly, it needs a force opposite to the stone’s attribute.
For example, fire is purified by water, water by fire, wood by iron.
The magic stone I currently have the most of is the fire stone.
And on the way to Ganghwado, the easiest place to refine magic stones was this waterfall.
“…Really? What’s different about it?”
When I asked casually, Choi Kkang-kang, still in the valley, muttered while feeling the stone:
“…Unlike before, it’s lost its specific attribute. I mean the fire power you used today.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah. Now I just feel the familiar energy itself.”
“Hoo. Then using that… couldn’t we try crafting items? Using it like a battery.”
I subtly encouraged him, dropping hints.
“For example… It would be really useful if we could disrupt bio-energy to prevent monsters from detecting humans!”
He fell silent for a moment, lost in thought.
Unlike usual, his serious face suggested various complex designs were running through his mind.
“…..”
I called out while surreptitiously hiding my hip pouch from Yu, who had been staring at me.
“I happen to have lots of useful magic stones!”
Right now, my hip pouch is full of only red stones, unlike usual.
I had deliberately selected appropriate ones before leaving the camper van.
Continuing to ignore Yu’s strange gaze, I shouted as if I knew nothing:
“Then, from now on, I’ll drop them from upstream! You pick them up! Got it?”
💎
After coming down from the mountain, we were back in front of the elderly couple’s shack.
I kept smiling brightly, holding the full water container.
We refined lots of fire stones at Guryong Waterfall.
It was enough for Choi Kkang-kang to craft items to his heart’s content and still have some left over.
‘With that, we can make barrier stones, and also…’
“Are you really not staying the night?”
Just then, we heard the old man’s voice as we were saying goodbye.
His face couldn’t hide his disappointment and loneliness.
“Well…”
Choi Kkang-kang, softened by their appearance, glanced at me.
But I said firmly.
“No. We should return before sunset. We’re also worried about the camper van we left behind.”
“Ah, what a pity. It was so nice to see people after so long…”
Then Choi Kkang-kang grumbled to me in a low voice so the elderly couple couldn’t hear:
“What’s wrong with staying one night? It’s not like we’re in a hurry.”
I shook my head with a calm expression and whispered.
“Sleeping somewhere unfamiliar, not knowing what might happen to us.”
“They seem kind… Haven’t you watched too many movies?”
“Why do you think people watch those movies? Because they make sense.”
“Wow… I’m not one to trust humans easily either, but you’re worse. Isn’t this human distrust?”
That comment made me pause for a moment.
‘Human distrust? …It’s true.’
It was a fact I already knew, but why does it feel so strange hearing it from someone else?
I slowly opened my mouth:
“…Yeah. Who was it that hid their healing ability in Dowonhyang because they couldn’t trust humans?”
“……”
Choi Kkang-kang seemed at a loss for words at my retort.
The feeling might be strange, but I still need to win this argument…
💎
Thank you for reading! ♡
