◈ 399. [Side Story] Pouring gold coins into a dry well
《… … .》
In fact, Mason had long been freed from Salome’s fascination.
When I fell from the bridge to the bottom village here, I was freed from the fascination. As his death approached him, his instincts threw off the fetters that had bound his consciousness.
However, Mason was faithfully following Ash’s orders, hiding the fact that the fascination had ended.
“Hey, bear! Use your strength!”
“They are getting bigger! Move it cheaply!”
《… … .》
The order that Ash gave to Mason at the bottom of this place is to do as the two robbers of the Disaster Lost Troupe, the Sword Demon and the Spear, tell them to do.
So, the Sword Demon and the Spear Demon were having fun playing with Mason.
From cleaning the village, repairing a collapsed house, and doing all sorts of hard work, he was called in.
Mason carried out all of these tasks without showing off, even though these tasks were cumbersome and cumbersome.
And is it because Mason was regarded as a fairly reliable and reticent worker?
The Sword Ghost and the Window Ghost led Mason to quietly dig out a secret safe buried in the yard of their house.
Then Mason put the safe and headed to the corner of the town.
Every time I moved the safe, there was a rustling sound of metal coins inside.
Mason noticed without difficulty that the safe was full of gold coins.
Where are you moving these gold coins?
Puzzled, Mason soon found the answer.
A small well was dug in the corner of the village at the bottom. A pile of rusty gold coins was sunk in the well, where the black water was shallow.
“pour.”
“Inside, quickly!”
《… … .》
As instructed, Mason opened the safe and poured out its contents.
Charleureuk!
with a plop… … !
The gold coins, full of the grime of the years, bubbled and sank into the well.
After confirming that the safe was empty and the newly poured gold coins reached the bottom of the well, the Sword Demon and the Spear turned back without hesitation.
《… … why?”
But Mason didn’t understand.
“Why did you throw away the gold coins you worked hard to collect?”
It was the first time Mason had spoken in this town.
The Sword Ghost and the Window Ghost looked back in surprise, but soon answered with a smile.
“Before the Lake Kingdom came to this point, everyone in the village worked hard to save money. Rumor has it that you can buy ‘citizenship’ by collecting gold coins.”
“however?”
“But, that was just a rumor. There was no such system. There was no way for us non-citizens to become citizens of the Lake Kingdom in the first place.”
“Shortly after my husband and I found out about this, the Lake Kingdom sank and was destroyed. We have been cursed to become bodies that neither die nor live.”
The Sword Ghost and the Window Ghost looked at each other and giggled.
“After that, we worked hard and managed to bring the villagers together again from this pit of hell, but we… … What are you doing here?”
They knew it.
Even if they die and wake up, they will not be able to become citizens of the Lake Kingdom. Also, the Lake Kingdom can never return to its former beauty.
“In a life like this where you can neither die nor live, the memory is still the tongue.”
“When we still had the driving force to dream and live, the goal we had then.”
Collect money and enter utopia.
Even if you know that it is an unattainable goal five hundred years ago or now. Even if you know it’s a foolish and futile dream.
“Without this vain hope, how on earth could I live in this hell?”
Although the body may live forever.
Without a purpose to live, the mind… … the soul dies
So people here collected gold coins to survive.
Searching the bottom of this hell, on and on like inertia.
And to maintain that inertia – when gold coins accumulate, throw them down here.
The coffers are empty, and people have new goals, to fill those coffers again… … Get through the day again.
《… … ha ha ha.”
Mason, who finally learned a little bit about how this village works, laughed. The Sword Demon and the Window Ghost glanced at Mason.
“Are we funny?”
“It must be a bit difficult for a living friend from the outside world to understand.”
“no.”
Mason shook his head.
《Here in hell or the outside world, I thought it wasn’t that different.》
With the empty safe on his shoulder, Mason walked between the two old men.
《I learned the sword to support my family. My parents and relatives were old and sick, and I was the only one in the house who could do a good job.”
“… … .”
《At first, it was enough to eat without starving. But when I stopped starving, other problems popped up. It was cold in the winter wearing only a mat, and it was difficult to sleep without a proper house because of the fear of thieves.”
I needed clothes. I needed a house.
So Mason was easily seduced. Instead of allegiance to the MacGregor family who taught him the sword, he immediately started hanging out with others who lined his pockets.
《I couldn’t live as a human being just by not going hungry. So I found an owner who gave a lot of money and moved my body.”
And- I met Fernandez.
When he came to his senses, Mason was already completely Fernandez’s dog.
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but.
“One day, the person who became my master said that. People say that people will perish anyway. Everyone will die, but I will try to save only the people within the ecliptic.”
Fernandez had his own firm cause.
He tried to save as many people as he could before the end of the world.
The Imperial Empire wanted to save even the people who lived in New Terra.
The problem was that Mason’s family wasn’t wealthy enough to live in the ecliptic. They lived in a suburb far away from the ecliptic.
《I urgently disposed of the family’s house in the suburbs, but the money was not enough to live in the imperial capital.》
Mason chuckled bitterly.
“No matter how hard I spent my whole life trying, my family and I still couldn’t become human.”
“… … .”
“So I went to my master and knelt down and begged him. If you let my family live in the ecliptic, if you make us ‘people’, I’ll do anything for you.”
Mason looked down at his hands that had turned into beasts.
“Then, it happened like this.”
I wanted to live like a human being.
For that humble purpose, he gave up being human.
They betrayed the family that taught them the sword, instigated the death of their benefactor, and thrust the sword at the benefactor’s son… … At the end of being hit with the serum, he fell into the face of a beast.
I’ve been running all my life to become a person.
When I suddenly came to my senses, it had become something far away from a human being.
Mason laughed bitterly.
《Maybe living is like pouring gold coins into a dry well… … .》
Discard gold coins to collect gold coins.
Giving up people to live as people.
In the end, both gold coins and people lose their original value, and only a series of processes become the goal like a treadmill… … .
While brooding over the irony, when Mason arrived at the house of the Sword Demon and the Spear, he looked up-
“I heard good things… … .”
Ash was standing right in front of him.
Surprised, Mason’s shoulders stiffened. Ash dug his finger into his ear and glared at Mason.
“By the way, when did you break free from the fascination?”
Mason laughed dejectedly.
… … just got caught
***
Mason and I were squatting in front of the sewers together.
Even though the fascination was broken, Mason didn’t seem to have any intention of harming me, and I wasn’t motivated to deal with him either.
We sat side by side and quietly killed time together.
Mason, who was silent for a long time, searched his hairy body, and then suddenly pulled out a pocket watch. I was freaked out.
“Wow, what?! Where did you get it from!”
No, nothing came up when I searched before! Where did you get it from!
《With a body like this, there are many places to hide things thanks to the twisted bone structure and fur.》
Then he handed me the pocket watch. I groaned and pulled my body back.
“Didn’t you just put it in a dirty place?”
“It is something precious to me. It was kept in a relatively clean place.”
Relatively clean… … ?
I accepted the pocket watch without raising my suspicions. Mason gestured as if to open it, and I flipped open the metal cover of the pocket watch.
Click.
A pocket watch that normally indicates the time, and… … I saw a portrait of a woman on the cover.
Looking at the portrait, Mason’s eyes were full of affection.
“this person is?”
I asked cautiously. Could she be Mason’s wife?
The answer that came back was a bit unexpected.
“She is my girlfriend.”
“Eh.”
Even if Mason catches a little, he looks fifty, so I didn’t think it was a lover, not a spouse.
Blaming my own stereotypes, I laughed awkwardly.
“Are you dating someone for a long time? I carry portraits like this with great care.”
“no. Have you been on five dates so far? It’s been a while since we met.”
“… … .”
Big! I cleared my throat and asked cautiously.
“Still, it seems like a very precious relationship. How did you meet?”
《I had to go to a party with a married couple during my mission, but I was in trouble because I had never held a woman’s hand in my life. I found a service that allows you to play a fake lover for a fee.”
“… … .”
《Even after that mission, we met often with good feelings》
“… … pay?”
“They wouldn’t meet me if I didn’t.”
“What are you doing, you old man!”
This isn’t a romantic relationship, it’s… … It’s something more gloomy!
However, Mason nodded with a serious expression.
“The two of us are sincere in our feelings. Before I came down after receiving this mission, it was nothing!”
“A little?”
“cow… … You even held my hand!”
“It’s a real sukmaek because it doesn’t look like that, you man!”
It’s okay if the person concerned is happy, but it’s so out of my imagination that I wake up scared! I’m a sucker too, but this man is so much better!
《… … I’ve been supporting my family all my life.”
Mason murmured, looking across the drain with empty eyes.
“I didn’t have a personal life. Even until I left this mission, I had to spend every last penny to move my family and friends into the ecliptic.”
“… … .”
“So this time I said I don’t have to meet you because I don’t have money, but the woman came out to see me off on the day I left…” … She gave me the portrait. When she’s in trouble, she thinks of herself.”
Mason paused for a moment, then continued slowly.
“majesty. I will die soon.”
“… … .”
《Due to the overlapping of unreasonable beastization, he was seriously injured while coming here and was forced to recover. You won’t last long and you’ll die. I will probably never see the light of day again.”
“so?”
《If you see that woman in the ecliptic… … Give her that portrait of her back to her.”
Mason laughed awkwardly with his beastly face.
“Isn’t it too beautiful to rot like a guy like me?”
“… … Why are you asking me to do that?”
What a good relationship we have. Do you think I’ll accept such a troublesome request?
Then Mason shrugged.
“What would you do? Under this hell, the only person I can ask for right now is Your Highness.”
“… … .”
“I’m just struggling to catch a straw.”
Silently, I took the pocket watch in my arms.
“Do you have anything to say to Fernandez?”
“doesn’t exist.”
Mason shook his head.
“I have completed my mission. His Highness Fernandez said that all you have to do is deliver the words to the Demon King. If I don’t return, you’ll understand that the Demon King refused.”
“… … .”
《His Highness Fernandez absolutely believed that I would succeed in my mission, and I succeeded. Nothing more is needed.”
Silence passed.
I glanced at the profile of the hairy official who couldn’t tell what was going on, and was about to say something more.
Took.
Suddenly something cold fell on my cheek. I raised my head and looked up. Mason looked up as well.
Tuk, dududuk, dududuk-
Raindrops started pouring from the sky.
“This… … .”
I put my palm forward.
The color of the water pooling in his hand was black.
“… … black rain.”
I jumped up.
In the meantime, I could see the water pooling on the floor and slowly flowing towards the sewer. I clenched my fists tightly.
The time of the flood at last.
The time has come to return to earth.
