The Day of Leaving the Village (1) – Ruman’s Punishment
At first, I thought a slug had stuck to my cheek. You know that disgusting, squishy, wriggling sensation? I tried to slap it off with my palm, but I couldn’t even do that because I felt a force tightly hugging my head. What the hell?!
The pressure of that squishy thing on my cheek intensified!!
The atmosphere was strange too.
Some people were staring with horrified eyes, while others were covering their mouths trying to hold back laughter.
Slowly, the fog in my head began to clear.
So basically… that bakery bastard’s son had… planted a kiss on me!
This son of a biiiitch!!
“Y-y-you…!”
I was so dumbfounded that I couldn’t get the words out.
“Should I kill him?”
Ruman smiled menacingly as he grabbed the bakery son’s clothes, but that bastard didn’t care even as his upper garment tore, and stuck his head out to plant a kiss on me!! Even with his clothes hanging loose, the bakery son smiled shyly with a reddened face.
“You fucking bastaaaard—!”
I rubbed my cheek frantically, and what that bastard with his face turned bright red said was even more ridiculous!!
“Ren! Actually, I liked you!”
“You crazy bastard! I don’t even know your name! Get lost, you son of a bitch!!”
Smack!!
I used all my strength to slap the bakery son’s cheek and staggered.
For a moment, it seemed like I saw Temarr hyung’s blue aura graze past the bakery son’s nape.
Wait, hyung?! I’ll slap him myself, so don’t cause an accident!
“Aagh!”
It was Ruman who caught me again as I was about to fall. Even with smiling eyes, Ruman’s face was terrifyingly murderous! Why are you making that expression with such a sweet face! No, more than that, why do I keep showing this person embarrassing sides of me?!
I quickly moved away from Ruman and looked at the man standing there stiffly.
He smiled shamelessly with the palm print still on his face! He giggled, touching his slapped cheek, looking so pleased. When he smiled, I could see his rotten tooth deep inside his molars! Ugh! To think he kissed me with a rotten tooth, this son of a… I think I’m going to throw up!
“Ren, come back! If you marry me, I’ll give you an ecstatic night… urk….”
“Hehehe. My son is a bit lacking. Sorry about that, Temarr.”
“Fuck. I’m the one who got assaulted, so why are you apologizing to hyung, what the hell. Ahjussi, just because your son is lacking, does that mean he can go around kissing anyone?! If he’d done that to that sturdy orc-armed woman, he’d have been buried alive!!!”
The orc-armed woman made triangle eyes. The bakery ahjussi coughed and acted dignified.
“Hehe. Temarr. Be careful on your way!! You brat, let’s go, go!!”
“Reeen! Reeen!”
He was dragged away like that.
Looking perfectly normal on the outside but a total idiot!!
I took a deep breath and shouted again.
“I don’t even know your naaame, you son of a biiiitch! Just wait till I come baaack!!”
I’d hesitated about following along, but now I thought it was really great that I did!
The bakery son, being dragged away with his mouth covered, flailed his limbs with the most wronged expression in the world, seeming to want to say his name, but with his mouth blocked by the bakery ahjussi, he couldn’t say a word.
Serves him right! Merooong!
I stuck out my tongue and made a face, but then made eye contact with hyung, so I quickly ducked into the carriage. Hyung didn’t stop me from cursing for once. He seemed a bit conflicted though! He didn’t take my side, but it was practically the same as taking my side!
I almost tripped on the carriage step, but I got in nonchalantly and hugged the bundle harabeom had given me.
“Ah! Give me my luggage.”
Then I held out both hands to Ruman through the still-open door.
“Th-thanks for holding it? Ahem.”
I awkwardly thanked him like I was asking a question.
Ugh! I should’ve had occasions to say thanks normally….
Making excuses in my head, I waved at the apothecary harabeom.
Harabeom nodded and waved back.
Ruman, who’d taken on the role of coachman, closed the carriage door, and hyung mounted a separately tethered horse again.
How cool.
Through the carriage window, I could only see up to hyung’s impressive upper body.
“Temarr! You must come back!”
“Take care of yourself!!”
“Ren~~! You must listen to hyung!!”
“Be a good younger brother~~!”
“Shuuut uuup~~! Harabeom~~ Harabeom!! You must stay alive!! If you die, I won’t let you get away with it!!”
I opened the window and stuck my head out, shouting.
The villagers’ red and blue faces and the apothecary harabeom’s smile were faintly visible through my blurred vision.
As I giggled to myself, Temarr hyung made a stern face.
“Ren. Put your head back in.”
“Okay.”
I can’t… stay still! Am I really leaving…! Whew. Let’s calm down. I unwrapped the bundle harabeom gave me. There was something with “Motion Sickness Medicine” written largely on it, so I dumped it in my mouth all at once, but ugh, it was so bitter I almost spit it out. When I made a groaning sound, Ruman looked at me through the window connecting to the coachman’s seat. Why are your ears so good?! When I asked why he was looking, he didn’t answer and just stared at my face intently.
“Don’t close it, leave it open.”
“…Okay.”
I was about to close it and pretend not to notice but stopped myself. With hyung here, I couldn’t be stubborn.
I sat my butt back down on the seat and crossed my arms. It’s better to fall asleep quickly before I throw up from motion sickness!
Harabeom’s medicine was effective. Drowsiness rushed over me immediately, and I fell asleep just like that with the bundle in my arms.
The rattling sound of the carriage wheels sounded like a lullaby until then.
***
“Hey.”
Ruman called out to Temarr.
His golden eyes were flashing.
“Temarr. Do you actually know how your brother has been living?”
It was a sharp-sounding question.
“What do you mean by that?”
“He doesn’t seem to have been doing well. Except for that one old man.”
Recalling the old man who’d handed Ren the bundle, Ruman narrowed his eyebrows. Somehow the atmosphere had been strange.
“What are you talking about?”
But Temarr didn’t seem to think that way at all.
Seeing Temarr looking wary, Ruman instinctively knew he should swallow his words.
If Ruman explained, the situation would become awkward. Ruman was an outsider, and he couldn’t know everything about the two people who’d lived their whole lives in the village.
If Temarr said it was like that, then it must be like that, but Ruman couldn’t understand why he had to carry this subtle unease with him.
He was just annoyed somehow by how fragile Ren’s wheezing breath sounded.
‘This isn’t something for me to step into. I don’t want to either.’
But then why is it bothering me like a hangnail on my fingertip?
“Is your brother on the weak side?”
This question was also not easy for Temarr to answer.
Because he didn’t know well either.
When Temarr looked at the carriage, Ruman closed his mouth.
You don’t know anything about your brother. It’s not my place to reproach you, but my mouth was itching.
Also, one bastard’s face flashed through his mind.
“Hey, Temarr.”
Unlike before, a light and cheerful voice.
“I’ve got some business to take care of.”
“Business?”
“Yeah. I’ll go take care of it urgently, so wait a bit.”
“What business. Don’t cause trouble, Ruman.”
Temarr narrowed his eyebrows and made a familiar face.
He already knew that when Ruman smiled sweetly like that, he’d cause some kind of trouble, big or small.
“Shouldn’t a Hero be righteous?”
“Ruman!”
However, by the time Temarr called out to Ruman, only a cluster of light remained. The cluster of light floated in the air as if teasing him, leisurely moving the reins.
“Haah.”
***
“What. Why are you being so creepy?”
Ruman was strange.
When I woke up in the carriage, he kept looking back at me with a somehow refreshed and satisfied face.
“Are you sick somewhere?? Why are you blinking like that??”
“…Huh.”
Ruman made a deflating sound as he laughed.
“Ren. Can you bear it?”
Hyung knocked on the carriage window.
“Yeah!”
I answered cheerfully as I opened the window.
“…I see.”
Hyung nodded and distanced himself from the carriage again.
The swaying scenery didn’t feel particularly new, but just leaving the village itself made my heart pound.
“Hyung! Are we doing something like camping? Laying out sleeping bags on the ground?”
“…I see.”
“…?”
What do you mean, “I see”?
As I just blinked my eyes, laughter came from the coachman’s seat.
“He didn’t think about it.”
It was a voice full of laughter.
“Didn’t think about what?”
“Should I say it’s not necessary when Heroes travel together?”
“We’re not camping??”
“Something like that, and usually they provide barracks for us.”
“Wow!! So are we doing that too?”
When I approached the small gap in the coachman’s seat and asked, this time hyung answered.
“No.”
“Why??”
“……”
“We should’ve prepared those things.”
“…What, so we don’t have anything?”
What… what kind of trip has no camping?
You’re joking, right?
Don’t tell me it’s for real!!
“Hmm. We’ll have to stop by a village, Temarr.”
“Right.”
“We’ll have to sleep in the carriage tonight.”
“Right.”
“We’re all sleeping in the carriage together?”
“Ren seems to want to sleep together, what do you think, Temarr?”
Ruman asked teasingly.
“Ren. We have to stand watch. And the carriage is too small to sleep together.”
“…Yeah.”
Well… that’s true. It’s impossible for two adult men and a grown boy to sleep together!
I know that too! I was just asking.
I started to pout but stopped.
“What about food?”
“……”
“……”
“Hyung??”
What? Why aren’t you answering?
“Ruman?”
“……”
“What?? Don’t tell me we don’t have anything?”
