As soon as I got ho, I imdiately opened the warehouse where the shinrok was stored.
It had been hours since I'd put it in. My heart was racing, not knowing what was happening inside.
‘Surely it hasn't died in the anti?’
The shinrok is originally a natural occurrence.
Of course, they can live for a long ti as long as the environnt is suitable, but the warehouse was filled with elixirs and treasures that were given to by my father.
The aura of each ingredient was mixed, and no one knew what effect it would have on him.
With a worried heart, I slowly opened the door…….
"Huh?"
An eerily quiet warehouse greeted .
No, how could it be so quiet?
I walked into the warehouse and looked around.
"Holy shit……!"
I realized that so of the elixirs I had planned to make into tea were missing.
Even though they were low-level elixirs that only gave fatigue relief, a little aura recovery, or temporary side effects, it was still pretty upsetting for soone whose favorite food in the world was elixirs.
"Is this……."
It had to be the shinrok.
His favorite foods were plants that had accumulated mana over ti.
"Where the hell did this damn deer cub go?"
The problem was, the shinrok had disappeared into the warehouse.
Just as I was wondering where the hell it went.
-Bam.
"Huh?"
I hit sothing with my foot.
I know the location of everything in the warehouse. There shouldn't be anything down here……
I slowly lower my head to check what's down there.
"Hehe, I'm so full…can't eat anymore…"
"Huh?"
……was lying face down in the warehouse, fast asleep.
* * *
"So, you're that shinrok?"
"Yep. Uh, by the way."
The little kid opens his mouth cautiously, looking around my room.
He had been sleeping soundly in the storage room, but after following out of the storage room, he remained this nervous.
"But who are you then? I distinctly rember… being kidnapped by a very strange-looking human."
…… Apparently, the appearance of the Magical Rogue was quite a shock to the kid.
It seed like a good idea to make a good impression on him.
"I'm Eugene. I'm the one who saved you from your kidnappers."
"Thank you, Eugene……I'm Dulchan."
Dulchan.
"Okay, Dulchan. I have a few questions for you, first of all……how did you end up captured by humans?"
I've been wondering that ever since I saw the sign at the zoo that said "Shinrok is coming to visit".
Wasn't a shinrok originally a deer?
Deer are masters of escape. If it's a divine beast, it's not easy to catch, let alone a normal person.
But for such a shinrok deer to be captured by people and brought to the zoo? Isn't it strange?
At that question, Dulchan's expression darkened.
"……I couldn't run because I was too sick to run."
"Sick? You look fine to .”
"No! I was really sick, I an my chest hurt whenever I tried to run and……it was hard to breathe and stuff like that, but it all got better when I went next to that weird guy."
Ah.
Could it be referring to when I scattered a lot of divine power as Magical Rogue?
That must have been what healed the wound.
A wound healed by holy power, not healing, so it was no ordinary wound.
"I'm sure there's a lot to talk about, but do you think you can tell what happened?"
"To you……?"
"Sure."
Considering its long history, it slled like a quest.
"I'm willing to help if there's anything I can do. After all, even soone like , who's been called a saint by the church, is offering."
──That also slled like a quest with a huge reward.
* * *
To summarize his words, it was like this.
He was living with his family in a place called the DMZ, the North Korean border.
The problem was that the spirit dungeons near the DMZ exploded.
"Originally, there were a lot of spirits where I lived," he says, "but they were getting weirder and weirder.”
In the process, the spirits began to affect his family as well, and they were attacked while trying to relocate.
After the attack, they tried to run away, but were spotted by soldiers patrolling the DMZ.
That's how he ended up at the zoo.
I can't believe he ca from the DMZ.
This is getting interesting.
"So, the DMZ is now infested with spirits?"
"Yeah. There are so good spirits, of course, but the number of vicious ones is growing."
"Any incidents you can think of?"
"Not at all……."
This ti, I was going to go to the Spirit Dungeon with Kwak Chun-sik, but I had gotten so good information beforehand.
This should solve a lot of problems at once, right?
"Don't worry. Big brother will help you."
"Really?!"
"Yep. For now……that's right."
I went straight out into the hallway and stopped one of the maids nearby.
"I'm sorry to bother you at this hour, but is Alessia awake?"
"What? Oh, she's on call today, so she's probably awake."
That's good.
"Can you fetch her for ?"
Alessia arrives in my room a few minutes later.
When Alessia saw the ss in my room, she looked around angrily.
"Master. Is this child……?"
"He's here on business, and he'll be staying at my place for a few days. Do you think you could give him a guest room?"
"This isn't……kidnapping, is it?"
Uh……kidnapping, yes.
But it's a bit of a stretch, isn't it?
"It's more of a rescue than a kidnapping. This kid was captured by the naturalists.”
"I see."
With that, she glanced at the horns on his head.
"That's……."
"It's a shinrok. Apparently it can change into human form, and that's probably why he was kidnapped."
"Ah……All right. Then, would you mind if I report it to the head maid and assign him a new room?”
It's always quicker to ask Alessia for favors like this.
"Yes, please. It's late today, so we'll talk tomorrow. Follow her and she'll show you to a room where you can rest."
"What? Uh……."
"She's a good sister, so you can trust her. If you have any problems, you can co to right away. You can find my room right away, right?"
He should have that much intelligence.
He nodded as if he understood, then followed Alessia's steps as she walked ahead.
Is this……enough for today?
The shinrok's horn was exchanged for a major quest involving the shinrok.
It's almost a relief to see things go so well.
Now that I know the new situation in the DMZ, I'll have to make a new ga plan.
"Okay, I'll start tomorrow."
I lay down on my bed and began to formulate a new plan through my smart lens, and I was able to fall asleep just as the dusk was coming to an end beyond my window.
* * *
The next day, when I arrived at the academy, I went straight to Kwok Chun-sik's office.
Was it because it was so early in the morning? The staff room was quieter than I expected.
"Mmm……."
I saw Ji-hyun, who was sleeping on her desk, face down for so reason.
Dozens of papers lay on her desk.
[morandum]
[Report]
[Accident report]
[Resignation]
……She must be busy in her own way, I thought.
Well, she was out with her kids and this happened to her, so she must be feeling pretty awkward.
But on the flip side, she's also the reason why this happened.
If it hadn't been for our class, there would have been a lot of civilian casualties.
"Huh? Eugene, what are you doing in the staff room this morning?"
At that mont, the old man who was sunbathing by the window with his feet up on the desk recognized and said.
"Ah, old man."
I wondered what ti he had gotten up and how fresh he looked despite the early hour.
"I ca to ask you a favor."
"Huh? A favor?"
The elderly man looks intrigued as he pushes his feet off the desk, realizing that this is a bit out of the ordinary.
"Yes, I wonder what Eugene, our Aura elder, could possibly have asked this old man for? Let's hear it."
"It's nothing special… but could you arrange a al for us?"
"Hmm? A al? What, do you want sothing to eat?"
"It's not like that… it's just that there are so people I can't et alone. I think I should go with you."
The old man laughed at my story.
"Well, that's unexpected. You, feeling uncomfortable around soone. So, who exactly is this person that you're asking for such a favor?"
The old man's words made glance around.
Fortunately, no one else seed interested in the conversation.
I cautiously approached the old man and answered in a low voice.
"Oh, I an your close friend."
"Huh? Who? My close friend…Could it be Sangrok?"
The old man casually calls the current president by his first na.
"What do you want to do with him?"
From the old man's point of view, it's understandable that he's puzzled because all of a sudden his student is saying, "I want to et with the president in secret.”
But this is essential to my plan.
"I need to talk to him about the DMZ. We're going to the DMZ soon."
"Right, but it was Congressman Jang Jin-yong who gave us access to the DMZ, so why do you want to et with Sangrok?"
"Well, since he’s asking, there's no reason not to tell him.
I imdiately told him a little bit about my plan.
"Right now, the DMZ is an ungoverned area, and up there, it's practically anarchy with all the dungeons, monsters, and raiders."
In the CS setting, the world has co to this point, and the North Korean governnt has been effectively destroyed.
In fact, the land that used to be North Korea is now a place called Magyeong.
The damage was so devastating that they didn't know where to start.
In the end, the governnt calculated that repairing it would only cause losses, so it was left alone.
The land that used to be called the DMZ was also neglected, with all kinds of monsters, flora and fauna, and dungeons.
"But why that land? I'm going there with you for training. In the first place, that land is uninhabitable because of the monsters and dungeons."
"Isn't it a waste?"
In essence, the abundance of dungeons ans that there is a great deal of mana there.
It ans that there may be undiscovered elixirs, divine beings, and other beings, such as Dulchan.
In other words, it's a land that hasn't been scratched yet, but is practically a guaranteed winner.
"Are you sure you……want to et Sangrok because……."
"Yes."
That's right.
I'm looking for a land that's not being managed, that's infested with monsters and spirits.
"I'm going to take it."
I was going to make it mine.
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