Chapter 120: Where is the King?
A small country located in the southern part of the continent, a city belonging to the Kingdom of Altarix, Delgrad.
The students who got off the carriage one by one and arrived at their destination followed the guide and lined up to move their steps.
This city, which stands alone in the desert that is no different from a wasteland, was also called the city of mirage by poets who expressed it quite romantically.
The streets where various races were mixed, the smoke of unknown origin that makes your nose sting and the hot heat of the desert.
Sheddie was running around freely, avoiding the legs of those passing by on the street, even though she didn’t need to avoid them.
She was very uncomfortable when she went to a narrow space like a carriage.
After all, a spirit is a spirit. I wonder if Sheddie is getting to know the world of humans for the first time.
Even if she had a master as a spirit, her master would have been a demon.
On the other side of the street, where the carriage was rattling, the remains…no, the wreckage of otherworldly species was passing by.
Aizel’s eyes turned there and her footsteps stopped abruptly.
I also stopped with her and tilted my head.
Soon after, Ismir, who was following us from behind, reacted to Aizel’s gaze.
“Otherworldly species are expensive if they are big. Light and hard metal from another world is popular. And besides that, it’s also a main research material for magic engineering… If it’s a new shape, it’s more valuable. Even if not, if you just tell the magic engineers how strangely they moved and they’ll be hooked. Well, they’re pretty amazing in many ways.”
Ismir made a circle with her index and thumb, meaning money, and smiled faintly.
She must have made a lot of money from otherworldly species. Even though she was called Ismir of Greed, she settled down enough.
The value of otherworldly species was considerable as she said.
A city where machines and fantasy coexist was also the sentence that best described Delgrad.
That didn’t mean they had the same level of technology as modern times, but they somehow blended in with each other as a world with magic.
‘Maybe I will see some inventions that have better technology than modern times in some ways.’
In the game, there were items that were called ‘another world series’.
You could get them by buying them or as rewards for quests.
There were quite a few items that were efficient and unique as I remembered, but I didn’t need them now. It wasn’t high-performance like the so-called ‘final item’ in RPG games.
Ismir’s kind explanation continued, but Aizel didn’t seem to care much about how to deal with otherworldly species.
She just glared at it for a moment but soon she took her eyes off it and looked at me.
Aizel still couldn’t figure it out but I tried not to read her thoughts on purpose or judge her on purpose.
Whatever the hidden truth was, it didn’t seem to help me save her.
On the other hand, Sierra was comparing Ismir with the Ismir in her memory since she met her.
[She still likes money…]
I knew Ismir had a connection with Sierra, but I didn’t know what happened between them in detail.
In the game, Ismir mentioned Purple Moon as an old friend.
‘I’ll have to ask her when I have time.’
It’s hard to predict what kind of emotion she’ll feel when she meet her again after death, so it’s better to ask carefully.
I didn’t bother to find her acquaintance on purpose because I thought it wouldn’t do her any good to meet them anyway.
‘I don’t know what to say if I go first.’
As I walked along thinking about such trivial things, I arrived at my real destination before I knew it.
The students who had been in front of me exclaimed one by one and soon we entered the Windless family’s estate.
Lucia smiled brightly as her cheeks turned red with embarrassment at the students’ admiration.
At the entrance of the estate, there was a statue of a blue color that symbolized the Windless family.
He was said to be the first head of the family, but I don’t know who he is because he’s an old man.
Soon after entering the mansion, dozens of students met Cecily Windless, who helped a lot with this field trip.
Next to Cecily was her husband Isaac Windless, a magician who was also called one of the best in magic engineering, showing a gentle smile.
Their marriage was also a catalyst for Delgrad to lead magic engineering.
Then the students were guided by their servants and went to a large hall for dinner while the instructors and Ismir followed Cecily and Isaac to another space in the mansion.
While having dinner, I talked with the members who would hunt otherworldly species together this time. The members were the ones who rode in the carriage together: Aizel, Yuri, Amon and Lucia.
This group was composed of people who had similar levels so the difficulty of otherworldly species students had to deal with also varied depending on the group.
Then you might wonder. Why is Lucia in the group even if Amon is?
It was probably because the instructors knew the characteristics of the desert and put her in. Wind magic, which is handled by the Windless family, is not a joke in the desert where sand is everywhere.
Wind has more power in the desert where sand is everywhere. If you tell the residents of Delgrad who leave the house, ‘It’s windy today?’, they will all turn pale and wrap their clothes tightly before going outside.
The power sandstorms were really fierce. In fact, in the game, wind magic became twice as powerful in the desert terrain.
Amon’s earth magic will also be much stronger so I could say that the level was right.
‘Just where Lucia shoots magic is the key…’
But I wasn’t worried too much unlike before.
Now Lucia has grown enough to cover up any ‘amazing things’ she does.
‘And Ismir will probably be our temporary instructor.’
On this journey, the students leave the instructor’s arms and hunt otherworldly species with the warriors of the desert who are temporary instructors and receive their teachings while fighting.
Ismir is in charge of the best group among them and that group was our group.
Maybe that’s why in the game there was a condition that you had to be in the top five in combat power in your class to have Ismir as a temporary instructor
It was a pretty easy condition for players, so most players met Ismir.
Ismir was a popular character. Despite her not-so-young age, she had a youthful appearance that didn’t look old. More than anything, there were quite a few people who liked her muscles passionately.
And she was still single. There were some minority opinions that it was a pity that she was single, but I don’t know.
“…And among otherworldly species, humanoids speak…! I’ve never heard it myself, but it’s amazing, right? Hehe.”
Lucia, who had been explaining the otherworldly species for several minutes without eating, said.
“They speak?” Yuri stopped cutting her steak and asked.
“Yes, but not like goblins who use the continental common language… It’s hard to understand what they say and Ismir said it seemed like another world’s language.”
In the game, the dialogue of humanoid another species was expressed as incomprehensible as alien language.
By the way, the continental common language I use is not English or Korean. Nevertheless, when I fell into this world, whether something like common sense change happened to me or not, I could use it fluently without any difficulty.
I had no trouble reading the letters, as if I was reading my native language.
‘The other world…’
I remember that there were different opinions among the users about what kind of world the other world was.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t access the ancient ruins that seemed to be very related to the other world… It was a very frustrating situation.
There was no relevance to the main story line of the game, so it didn’t matter to the game progress, but I was curious.
When the conversation about the language of the other world came up on the table, the instructors and warriors who would be temporary instructors entered the hall where the students were eating.
Soon Edward snapped his fingers and made a loud noise to draw everyone’s attention.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m sorry to interrupt your meal, but could you please focus for a moment?”
As everyone’s eyes turned to Edward, he politely pointed to the warriors next to him with his palm and opened his mouth.
“These are the warriors of the desert who will be temporary instructors at Innocence Academy and teach you how to hunt otherworldly creatures. Let’s welcome them with a big round of applause.”
Following Edward’s lead, applause and cheers echoed in the hall.
The warriors were wearing various weapons and outfits. Cecily had a meticulous personality, so she must have selected the warriors according to the students’ groups.
Among them, I saw Ismir smiling at Lucia.
As soon as Edward told them to go to the table where their assigned group was, they moved their steps to each table.
Ismir naturally approached our group’s table and sat in the last empty seat.
“Ismir, you’re our temporary instructor…!”
Lucia exclaimed with a bright voice and sparkling eyes.
Did she forget Ismir’s mischief in the carriage already?
…Well, maybe not.
Lucia probably knew Ismir’s strength well, so she must have felt relieved.
“Yeah, it turned out that way. They say coincidence is fate… Anyway, I’ll be counting on you for a few days.”
Ismir smiled with her left eye as her right eye was covered with an eye patch and slapped my shoulder.
It was a very light movement, but Ismir’s hand was quite heavy.
Soon the servants brought food for the warriors, and Ismir joined the meal.
“You guys eat expensive stuff…”
She said that after taking a bite of steak, as if she only needed nutrition to move her body.
Lucia asked her a question that followed from the conversation they had before.
“By the way, I have a question for you, instructor Ismir …!”
She forgot to say ‘temporary instructor’, but she told us to just call her teacher anyway. Ismir’s title changed quickly after Edward’s explanation.
“What is it?”
“I was talking about the language of the other world that you told me before. Do you still remember? You definitely pronounced it for me back then, but I can’t remember…”
Ismir put down her steak knife and answered Lucia’s polite question with an indifferent expression.
“Oh, that? Yeah. The humanoid otherworldly creatures keep mumbling while fighting. I don’t know what they’re saying, but they’re really annoying.”
“Do they communicate with each other?”
Yuri asked after listening to Ismir’s voice.
“Hmm, they still mumble even when there are no other otherworldly creatures around… So I don’t think that’s it.”
“…Then is there any possibility that it is the language of demons?”
Amon popped up with a question after a pause but Ismir raised her fork in the air at Amon’s question.
“No, it’s not. I participated in the war too, and I’ve heard the language of demons myself. So I can say for sure. But… There is one thing I can pronounce. There is one thing they always say right before they die. Well, maybe it’s their last words or something. How about it? Do you want me to tell you?”
Ismir tilted her head and looked at us.
‘She’ll tell us the language of the other world?’
It was a sound full of noise in the game, how would she pronounce it?
Everyone at the table nodded their heads in agreement.
We decided to listen quietly. Sierra seemed curious too, as she also listened quietly.
Soon Ismir opened her mouth and pronounced ‘the language of the other world’ quite fluently.
“…Something like this? I’ve heard it so many times that it stuck in my ears.”
“Wow…”
Everyone at the table was amazed by Ismir’s fluent pronunciation. They wouldn’t know if it was fluent or not since they hadn’t heard it before, but they clapped anyway.
I also clapped lightly while hiding my nervousness. But my face was stiff and I couldn’t smile.
‘The language of the other world…’
It was a very familiar language to me. If I didn’t hear it wrong, what Ismir just said was definitely ‘English’.
I think I know where the other world is now. The useless discussions that the users had in the community were settled by Ismir’s single word.
There were various theories. Among them, the most likely theory now is ‘the other world is the future Earth’ theory.
If I translate what Ismir said in English…
‘…Where is the king.’
She said it was their last words before they died, so it wouldn’t be asking where the king of Altarix Kingdom, where Delgrad belongs, is.
Did they have a king too, even though they looked like killing machines?
I had never seen such a thing before, a robot-like thing that kills people.
The modern era Earth I lived in didn’t have the technology to make such an ‘artificial intelligence killing machine’.
…At least as far as I knew as an ordinary person.
‘Is it related to me… ?’
…Probably not but I can’t be sure. I’m from Earth, and I can understand English.
I don’t know how the dimensions got twisted, but maybe there are other Earthlings from the future besides me.
‘The king…’
The uneasy feeling that suddenly sprang up in my heart didn’t seem to go away easily.
***
“Amon, are you asleep already?”
I asked Amon, who was lying on the bed, snoring softly.
Using all my senses, I checked his condition and judging by his steady breathing, he wouldn’t wake up for a while.
Amon and I are the only men in our group, so we’re alone.
Ismir, Lucia, Yuri, and Aizel are staying in another room nearby.
I stayed in bed and slipped into the shadows. It wasn’t long before I stepped out of the shadows and onto the roof of the inn.
The night view of Delgrad came into view.
“Aizel is still in her room…
Perhaps it was because she was sharing a room with Ismir, but Aizel hadn’t moved much for a regressor.
Even though it was the first day, it would be a shame to spend the night as it was.
As for this new world… Given the distance from Delgrad to the ancient ruins, it seemed like a good idea to put it off for a while.
If I go out into the desert to hunt down the otherworlders, I’ll naturally be close to the ruins.
Tonight’s task is a simple cleanup of the area.
Just enough to get it out of the way before I step on some trash.