༺ Sodomora, City of Pleasure, and the Goddess’ Holy Warrior (1) ༻
Several days had already passed since we safely finished the labyrinth exploration.
After a few days of rest, the fatigue we had accumulated from the mission had finally subsided. Now, just staying at ho made restless.
“Hassan, I’m going to get so dicinal herbs! Since the workshop will be open next week, I want to stock up beforehand!”
Luna inford that she would be gathering dicinal herbs from the nearby forest in preparation of opening the workshop.
Coincidentally, I was also feeling bored and wanted to get so sunshine after resting all this while. So, I asked Luna briefly, “Should we go together?”
“No, I’ll go with Paranoy! Hassan, I shouldn’t disturb your studies,” she said in response while shaking her head.
Since we returned from the labyrinth exploration, Luna and Paranoy— the nymph proselyte, often had rendezvous’s to gather dicinal herbs or do hair care together.
Perhaps it was because they were both young girls and of similar ages? Anyway, it was great that Luna now had a friend from the sa gender.
Even if we were a fixed party or a couple, we couldn’t be together at every mont of our lives.
Also, as a man, there would often co tis when I couldn’t solve Luna’s problems or concerns as a woman.
“Ms. Luna, I have co to assist you in your task. Oh, hello, Mr. Hassan…”
Paranoy, the scarlet-hued and short-haired nymph, was already waiting for Luna at the entrance of the cabin. This prompted Luna to leave the cabin in a hurry while carrying many bags to load the dicinal herbs after gathering them later.
“Hassan, I’ll be borrowing your dagger! Please, take care of the house till I return!”
“Sure, co ho before dinner.”
“Okay!”
Squeak—
And that was how… I was left alone in this two-floor cabin.
Kong— Kong—
Along with a pair of wolf spiders to keep company.
Luna had told that she left because she didn’t want to disturb my studies, but I felt that even reading the encyclopedia had already started to get boring for .
There were just scribbles and random diary entries in my notebook at this point.
Damn it! What should I do today?
Luna would certainly be late in returning to the cabin.
There wasn’t much for a grown man like to do inside the house as there were no modern gadgets like cell phones or computers in this world.
Thus, I had difficulty in coming up with a plan for the day, moreover, it was barely morning. No matter how much I thought about it, nothing ca to mind.
So, I took out a small hand mirror that Luna had carefully stashed in the drawer.
Luna didn’t even want to show this mirror. It was her precious treasure— an item of the latest technology of this world that reflected morning sunlight, through an open window, and emitted mysterious rays of light onto the wooden floor.
Wiggle— Wiggle—
All of a sudden I noticed a tiny ant crawling on the wooden floor, so I gathered and then reflected the gathered sunlight to attack it.
Ziiiing—
The ant fled quickly as a small scorch mark ford on the wooden floor. I tried to reflect the rays skillfully while chasing after the ant.
Swoosh—
Soon, clouds covered the skies, preventing the sunlight from reflecting on the mirror, and the light disappeared. Shit, I was so close!
“Dear God of Light, please try harder to emit your light!”
Ziiiing—
Did my voice reach the sky? The sunlight that had been previously hidden by the clouds launched a burst of energy and burned the ant to death!
Holy shit, I won, you useless ant! Fucking ants! There were actually so many of them. Perhaps because it was a wooden house? Damn it! I should have called the pest control company— Cesco or whatever.
I was about to place Luna’s precious mirror back into the drawer, but then I was drawn to the peculiar powders and costics she had inside it.
The colorful powders and liquids in the tiny glass bottles were quite the interesting sight.
I wondered how much fairer she would beco if she regularly used these since Luna didn’t usually wear makeup.
Clatter— Click—
My attention was drawn to the red bottle, so I opened its lid. I expected it to sll sothing like costics, but after I sniffed it, my brows furrowed at the unexpectedly sharp sll.
“Hot damn! This is chili powder.”
Why was this stuck among the costics?
Due to the pain and nausea caused by the unexpected sll, I quickly closed the drawer again and decided to look around the cabin instead. Luna wasn’t very good at organizing and tidying things, so she probably just put it inside the drawer randomly one day.
As I had nothing else to do, I started to clean the house by dusting off the excessive dust and putting things back in their proper places. About ten to twenty minutes passed with dusting off the cabin like that.
“Ugh damn! I’m feeling so bored”
What did n from this world do to pass ti without computers or mobile phones?
Of course, it wasn’t like I was unaware of what they did— I was also starting to get used to being a resident of this world.
* * *
Sodomora, the new place I chose to settle in, was one of the largest cities in this world.
I wasn’t sure how much exactly, but the population was probably in the tens of thousands.
By Korean standards, it had a population about the size of a small local city.
However, if we were going by the standard of this world, cities with tens of thousands of people were a truly rare sight. It was because the infrastructures had not developed to that point yet, moreover, the average lifespan of people was not particularly long.
Anyways.
The place where Luna and I lived was in the western region of Sodomora. The western part of the city was quite large and it was constantly expanding in size, consuming a considerable portion of the city.
“Hey, you motherfucker! You just stared at my face! So, pay up!”
“T-That does not make sense!”
The reason was that all the bad guys, who made up most of the city’s population, such as tramps, leeches, muggers, crook robbers, quacks, sycophants, fake lepers, and clumsy pickpockets, were concentrated in this very region.
There were two adventurer guilds inside Sodomora, so the security was relatively high. However, the western region was a lawless area and the influence of the guilds had little impact here.
I wondered if the streets of Harlem in the United States of Arica, where security was abysmal, would resemble this place or not.
The streets of this region were full of n ard with daggers and clubs, spitting on the ground and engaging in chronic fights.
I wouldn’t be surprised if those lying on the street weren’t actually drunkards but rather fresh corpses. Holy shit! Was it really a corpse? Then, it would be an unfortunate ending for the guy.
Anyway, my butt automatically tightened with tension when I passed through these dark alleyways.
One could never know when so bastard would jump out from sowhere and stab one’s stomach.
However, surprisingly, there were no criminals attacking even in this lawless place.
“Dammit! It’s the Samaritan.”
“H-Hide your face! It’s clear that he’s looking for soone to skin alive!”
Perhaps my recent reputation had spread through the slums as well. Residents of the western region more often than not swiftly hid their faces whenever they saw passing by.
“Shit!, Those bastards from the thieves guild have made our lives hard already. Now we also must be wary of this barbarian from the outer continent. The gods and goddesses have indeed forsaken us all.”
“Shh, be quiet!”
“I can hear you all, you fucking bastards!!”
“Eeeekk!”
Thud— Clank—
As I shouted out loud in anger, the residents of the slums fled through the alleyways like rats scurrying through holes.
It was so funny, god damn it!
There was nothing more fun in this world than teasing frightened people.
I did realize that it wasn’t right, but I was bored and had nothing to do, so wandering the streets of the slums beca one of my forms of entertainnt.
Moreover, it helped morize the city’s geography and understand its vibe.
When I was thinking about strolling around until lunchti and then go to so inn for lunch—
“Brother, you are looking quite impressive. You’ve beco even stronger since the ti we explored the underground waterways together!”
A familiar voice greeted from behind. There was only one person in this ruthless world who would call brother.
“Hey, Marco, you filthy bastard!”
“Why are you cursing as soon as we et?”
“You asinine bastard! I got caught up in so fucking weird rumors because of you! What the hell did you an by skinning soone’s face, huh? It must be you who is spreading this rumor, right?”
I growled at the man, always wearing a funny-looking cone hat above his ssy red hair that looked more like seaweed than anything else.
Marco the bard.
Perhaps it was just my imagination, but it seed like his nose had gotten bigger since the last ti we saw each other.
“Brother, I really don’t understand what you’re saying. Anyway, I had a feeling that we might run into each other while I was wandering the streets. But I was never able to get the chance to see your face since you are so busy! It’s nice to see you here!”
“Get lost, you bastard!”
Despite my grunts and curses, Marco seed to have not heard anything I said and continued babbling on his own.
“It must be fate that we have t like this. We should be grateful to Lord rcury. How about we go sowhere and have a drink instead? It’s my treat.”
“I prefer at as a bar snack.”
“Hehehe, as expected from the barbarian of the wilderness, you don’t even care about tvegetables. I was thinking of introducing you to a new friend this ti— soone who matches your skills in killing.”
Introducing a new friend? I wondered if there was soone that would consider Marco as their friend. Unexpectedly, he had quite the connections.
However, I decided to relieve my boredom by heading to a nearby shady underground bar since there was no reason to refuse free drinks.
“It’s an illegal bar, but the barleywine there has less water in it. Ah, there, my acquaintance is already here. That’s the guy I was going to introduce you.”
And there, I saw a bald man whose head reflected the flickering candlelight even in this broad daylight.
“Fuck, aren’t you Khalidus? I thought you went to Kalkata already.”
“You’ve mistaken as soone else nad Khalidus. This monk’s na is…”
“Damn it, you’re indeed Khalidus! Weren’t you supposed to go catch an elf?”
“Uh, I’m not Khalidus, but Khalidur. Well, there are so circumstances…”
Khalidur, the bonafide killing machine of an elf with a funny bushy beard, pointed ears, and a shaved head resembling a monk, was sitting at the table enjoying his at and drink!
Marco interrupted our talk with a question of his own after overhearing my conversation with this baldy.
“Brother, do you know each other?”
“We know each other. We’ve even worked together before—”
“Then, let’s skip the introductions. Ah, I can’t believe you two already know each other. It must be because of the grace of Lord rcury, the god of destiny.”
I thought Khalidur had left the city to capture Elfriede, but I hadn’t expected to see him again in an illegal bar inside this slum.
It was a totally unexpected encounter, so I felt sowhat dizzy, like I was sohow drunk despite not having taken a single sip of alcohol.
Marco, the bald elf, Khalidur, and I ended up sitting at a table to drink and eat at together. This bald bastard— I thought you said you didn’t eat at.
But seeing him already tearing apart two legs by himself, I began to doubt my mory.
I was just sipping my beer, wondering just what the hell was happening when— Marco, with a face already flushed red due to drunkenness, decided to speak up..
“Mmm. A flavor like this can only be found in this underground bar.”
Even though I hadn’t had that many drinks, I still beca drunk quite quickly due to the alcohol concentration.
“Brother, it seems that you speak formally to our little brother, Khalidur. How about you speak more casually now?”
“What the hell? Little brother?”
“Khalidur is twenty-three years old. He’s about three or four years younger than us.”
“You can speak more comfortably, brother from another land.”
“This, damn, how could you be twenty-three with such a face…”
“Hmm, I was surprised when I first heard it, too. I guess this is the mystery of the elves. They look older than their age!”
Wait, I thought elves looked younger than their age though. This damn bastard— Khalidur looked like he wasn’t able to dodge the effect of the years like other elves. In fact, he looked like he had aged on behalf of other elves instead.
“You’re really twenty-three?”
“I’ve heard people say that I look mature.”
Damn, twenty-three. I thought he was at least ten years older than . Perhaps it was because he was bald and had a bushy beard which made him look older…?
Since he was bald and had nothing on his head to shield him from direct sunlight… that was probably the reason his skin aged faster than it should have.
Anyway, I decided to stop pondering about this strange case of early aging any longer.
“On top of that, damn! I’m more surprised that you, Marco, and Khalidur know each other. How on earth did you guys et?”
“That would be a long story. There’s an interesting tale behind it, which could be summarized in at best five songs.”
“Then don’t bother.”
“I received a lot of help from Brother Marco. I almost got scamd and almost beca a beggar…”
“Scamd?”
“Haha, this bald elf caused trouble in an illegal brothel and was chased out from there. It’s a common thing for the inexperienced ones.”
An illegal brothel.
In this world, brothels were referred to as the places that housed priestesses who had received the blessing of Venus, the goddess of love. Therefore, these won earned well and were treated well as well.
But I heard that becoming a priestess was quite an arduous task, and the n who could receive their favor were chosen in quite a ticulous process.
As a result, many illegal places that didn’t have the approval of the temples of Venus was sprawled everywhere and participated in this prostitution business.
I imagined underground brothels that were built in the slums. The place filled with the sll of nicotine coming from smoking pipes and scenery of writhing flesh stacked on top of each other.
And this baldy bastard went to such a place.
“This bastard, you’re a fake monk, aren’t you? I thought you were a celibate monk.”
“There are various forms of abstinence and virtue. Abstinence from alcohol, abstinence from speech, abstinence from… well, there are many that’s all you need to know. However, I happen to practice abstinence from abstinence. It’s another form of abstinence.”
“Fuck, what the hell are you even talking about?”
“Hehe, brother. It’s better to ignore what our bald little brother said. Anyway, since we are on this topic, would you like to go with us, too, brother?”
Marco, who was drinking, asked in a low and solemn voice which was akin to the noises of a slithering snake. On top of that, I just couldn’t believe that this bastard asked to go together with them at that place.
“This motherfucker! Are you asking to go to an illegal brothel with you guys? No matter how reckless I am, I wouldn’t go to a place like that, you fucking brat!”
As a man, it wasn’t that I was not curious about those places at all. But if I were to go to such a place, my guilty conscience would gnaw at my sanity whenever I saw Luna in front of . So, it was better to not even try going to these shoddy and shady places.
Just then, Marco spoke while rummaging through his belongings.
“No, not an illegal place. I just happened to get so tickets to the Venus Temple of Sodomora. You could say that we’re really lucky, brother.”
After saying that, Marco pulled out a few scrolls with heart-shaped seals.
“We’re going to the temple to worship. There’s no need to feel any guilt about it. Let’s go experience the religious life of the Gaia continent.”
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