Chapter 94

A Quiet Morning and a Sudden Encounter

After everyone had left, only Jun-sang and Heness remained in front of the bridge. Jun-sang took out the container house he had stored in his inventory and began to prepare a simple breakfast. Since a battle could break out at any moment, elaborate meals were out of the question, so he took out their stored combat rations.

“What’s this?”

“Combat rations. Meals made for quick consumption during battle.”

“Heeh…” Jun-sang chuckled at Heness, who tilted her head with an expression that showed she still didn’t quite understand, despite the explanation. He then summoned Will-o’-the-Wisp and began to boil water in a mess tin. After a short while, when the water was roughly boiling, he tore open a packet, poured in the water, added the soup base, and sealed the ziploc bag.

“That’s it for preparation. Just wait a bit and then eat.”

“Ohh!” Just tear the packet and pour water? For Heness, who had been eagerly looking for a chance to cook, this was an incredible discovery. Of course, whether simply boiling water and pouring it could be called cooking was debatable, but surely a beginning was important.

“I want to try it too.” She said, her eyes sparkling, but Jun-sang shook his head.

“Next time.”

“Ugh…” Anyway, when the contents were sufficiently rehydrated, Jun-sang opened the ziploc bag, added a final drop of sesame oil, and handed it to Heness with a spoon.

“Just mix it and eat.”

“Okay!” Heness took the spoon and diligently mixed the contents like Jun-sang, then carefully took a spoonful.

“Mmm…” It was a subtle feeling. Perhaps because of the cold, the rice hadn’t rehydrated as well as expected despite the hot water. Had her palate become too refined without her realizing it, thanks to Jun-sang’s meticulous cooking for a while?

“Eat it for now, even if it doesn’t taste great. I’ll buy you something delicious when we get back.” When Jun-sang gently offered these words, Heness quickly shook her head and replied, “No! It’s delicious!” And then she frantically moved her spoon, quickly finishing her portion of the food. At first, the texture wasn’t great, but as she ate, it strangely began to taste good.

Jun-sang gave a wry smile at Heness’s earnestness and took out a chocolate bar from their emergency rations, holding it out to her. “This is dessert.” Heness recognized the chocolate bar as something she had tried as a snack when they went to the city before.

“Thank you.” As they were eating, she suddenly saw Mongmong tilting its head and looking at the chocolate bar. Heness felt a strange sense of empathy for this little squirrel watching them eat so intently.

“Do you want some too?” Heness, without thinking, broke off a small piece of her chocolate bar and offered it to Mongmong. Mongmong, as if wondering what it was, tilted its head, then carefully took the chocolate bar from Heness, held it with its front paws, and nibbled on it slightly.

At that very moment. A flash burst from Mongmong’s eyes.

“Huh?” Heness tilted her head as Mongmong’s paws suddenly trembled, but Mongmong quickly tucked its portion of the chocolate bar into its pouch, then clasped its front paws together and gazed at Heness with shining eyes.

More, please.

Heness somehow felt as if she heard such an auditory hallucination, even though no actual sound was uttered. Unable to withstand the strange pressure, Heness subtly offered the remaining piece of chocolate bar to Mongmong and said, “Do you… want more?”

Then, as if it had never been so cute, Mongmong transformed into a fierce beast, snatched the chocolate bar offered to it, and instantly vanished.

“…” Heness stared blankly at the table where Mongmong had disappeared for a moment, then said to Jun-sang, “Could I… have another one?” Jun-sang chuckled at Heness’s somewhat tearful expression and gave her another chocolate bar. And he thought to himself. Now that Mongmong had discovered the taste of chocolate, he would have to pay more attention to dessert management.

Anyway, after a somewhat busy breakfast, Heness, having finished tidying up, flopped back onto the bed.

“Whoa… That food strangely filled me up.”

“Is that so.” Jun-sang made her a warm cup of green tea and handed it to her. Heness took it and savored the aroma. Holding the teacup with both hands, absorbing its warmth, Heness suddenly spoke.

“Those people… they’ll be safe, right?”

“Probably.” At Jun-sang’s indifferent reply, Heness pouted and said again, “By the way, a prince! I was so surprised just now.”

“Why?”

“Well… what should I say? Usually, when you think of a prince, you imagine someone young and handsome, right? But the person we met this time felt more like a rough neighborhood uncle.”

“Disappointed?”

“Rather than disappointed, I felt a discrepancy between ideal and reality, you could say.”

“Usually, people call that disappointment.”

“Is that so? Hehe…” While Jun-sang’s words were certainly true, Heness felt it wasn’t quite strong enough to be called disappointment. To be precise, it was more accurate to say that ideal princes no longer caught her eye.

Heness, who had instinctively feigned a playful punch at Jun-sang’s annoying back as he stood up to clear the teacups, flopped back onto the bed. If her nanny were to see her now, sprawling on the bed after a meal without even taking off her shoes, let alone her clothes, she would surely face a firestorm of scolding. The thought suddenly crossed Heness’s mind, and she somehow felt that the refugees’ faces overlapped with the faces of the people remaining in her hometown.

“Ugh!” Heness, feeling a bit depressed, stood up with a small shout and began doing the exercises Jun-sang had taught her. Jun-sang, coming out of the kitchen after clearing the teacups, chuckled at the sudden sight of Heness doing calisthenics by herself.

“Why? Not resting more?”

“They say you get fat if you lie down right after eating.”

“Where?”

“On TV.”

“…” Jun-sang chuckled again, a smile gracing his lips. But then, as the signals from the spirits appeared on his minimap, his face hardened. Heness, seeing the change in his expression, cautiously asked, “Is it the enemy?”

“Probably.” Upon hearing Jun-sang’s reply, Heness immediately checked if her bootlaces were untied and if her attire was disheveled.

“Let’s go.” And when Jun-sang said that, she immediately nodded and replied, “Yes!”

Jun-sang and Heness went outside. Jun-sang then put the container house back into his inventory and donned Grunwald’s Cloak.

“Go inside for now.”

“What? But…” Heness, who was about to say that she could fight now too, closed her mouth at Jun-sang’s calm expression. Indeed. She had only just taken down one monster. If it were one or two, perhaps, but she wasn’t ready to jump into a large-scale engagement with Jun-sang.

“I’ll wait.”

“Good.” As Heness spoke in a small voice, Jun-sang stroked her head and then reverse-summoned her. Jun-sang also reverse-summoned the wolves that had been waiting around the container house, then, cloaked in Invisibility, began to move towards the approaching enemies.

Confrontation with Garland

This time, about a hundred enemies appeared. Among them was a red exclamation mark, indicating the target of the hidden quest. Jun-sang silently moved to the side of the road and confirmed the target via the minimap. “So, that’s Pursuit Captain Garland.”

The creature had a hooked nose, long ears, and dark green skin. Its height was roughly a bit shorter than an adult, but its unusually large head created a strange illusion of distorted perspective. It carried five short spears on its back, spread out like a fan, serving as its armament. Most of the monsters standing around it were also armed with bows and short spears, but what was unusual was that there was a cart in the middle of their procession.

“That’s…” The cart was loaded with many small jars that looked like pottery. He couldn’t discern the contents, but judging by the cloth covering the mouths of the jars, they were probably something similar to molotovs. “Are they planning a fire attack?” The goal of this quest was to protect the bridge. Even if all the enemies were destroyed, the quest would fail if the bridge burned down. If he had simply blocked the bridge entrance like the three earlier, he would have faced a huge disaster. Jun-sang decided to burn that cart first.

“Will-o’-the-Wisp.” As he called out softly, two flickering will-o’-the-wisps, like phantoms, appeared around Jun-sang. “Go and burn that cart.” As the command was given, the two will-o’-the-wisps flew straight towards the cart like meteors.

The monsters, who had been cautiously guarding the surroundings, immediately spotted the will-o’-the-wisps and shrieked.

“Kyaak!”

“Kyriyak!”

The monsters quickly raised their bows and began to shoot arrows at the will-o’-the-wisps, but their crude arrows could not harm the spirit-like will-o’-the-wisps. But just then. Garland, the boss, stepped forward. Garland pulled out one of the short spears from his back, took a stance, and grunted with effort. Then, something astonishing happened. A faint black light, like a flame, began to shimmer around the short spear.

“That’s…” The moment Jun-sang frowned, the short spear, scattering black flames around it, flew towards the will-o’-the-wisps. The will-o’-the-wisps, which had been blindly flying towards the cart, were pierced by Garland’s thrown spear and extinguished like candles whose wicks had been cut. And immediately, a message flew into Jun-sang’s vision.

Warning!

Warning!

**: ‘Will-o’-the-Wisp’ has suffered severe damage and has been forcibly reverse-summoned.

Due to forced reverse-summoning, ‘Will-o’-the-Wisp’ cannot be re-summoned for 1 day.

• Be careful as there is a low probability of the card being destroyed if a summoned creature is forcibly reverse-summoned.

Not a direct attack, but throwing a short spear from a distance to instantly reverse-summon a will-o’-the-wisp. Garland seemed satisfied with his excellent skill and began to laugh heartily, clutching his stomach. But in the meantime, the remaining will-o’-the-wisp directly struck the cart.

At first, nothing unusual happened. But then, flames began to rise from the wood of the cart, and immediately the jars inside shattered into pieces, bursting into flames all around.

“Kya?” Garland, who had been laughing, froze when he saw the cart burning. The monsters scrambled, trying to put out the fire on the cart with the rags they were wearing, but it was nothing more than a desperate, belated struggle.

“Kyaaak!” Garland finally exploded in rage, thrashing about and shrieking. Jun-sang evaluated such a Garland.

“Fool.” He then slowly stood up and used Phase Shift to meld into the shadows of the monsters created by the cart’s flames. He was about to take out Langdajal’s Rage from his inventory and unleash Dual Storm, when he suddenly felt a chilling sensation on the back of his neck. Jun-sang quickly thrust two iron balls forward to defend himself.

Then,

Ka-ang! A sound of something violently colliding with the iron balls was heard.

“This is…” He looked up to see Garland, holding a short spear in each hand, glaring at him with a fierce expression. This was the first time his ambush had been foiled like this, so Jun-sang was inwardly a little surprised. Could it be that this guy had the ability to detect cloaked individuals? It wasn’t impossible. Given the existence of drugs like Seeker Potion, it wouldn’t be strange for monsters to possess such senses. Perhaps hitting the will-o’-the-wisp instantly from a distance was also aided by such a sense.

“Not bad.” Jun-sang slowly lowered the iron balls he had extended forward, then activated his suppressed Gaze of Fear.