#323. why do you ask me that?
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Maasai.
They were originally a mercenary race with a long history.
A man who proves his bravery by hunting a lion in a coming-of-age ceremony goes out and becomes a mercenary.
And when they earned enough money, it was their common life to buy a cow, return, live a nomadic life, and enjoy life after retirement.
In the past, that was enough.
The Maasai, gifted with superior physical strength and courage, are born warriors.
That’s why they were hired everywhere at high prices, and few dared to touch the Maasai.
But that’s an old story.
Things have been pretty bad for the Maasai lately.
After the Iron Age opened.
Player mercenaries that can be hired cheaply appeared, and the Maasai became a common mercenary race.
The result is now this.
The tribe, which originally numbered more than 200,000, was scattered, and now only less than a thousand people live in hiding in small villages.
“…so.”
Such a Maasai village.
A blonde-tanned boy was sitting in a low house made of tree branches coated with cow dung.
Limon asked in a sullen voice, resting his chin on one hand.
“They were the ones who came to take over your village?”
“Yes.”
The chieftain of the Maasai tribe carefully watched Limon.
Umbaru nodded.
Then he gritted his teeth and continued.
“The Lucuma tribe used to be a weak tribe. However, after becoming stronger by monopolizing the Dark Cave in their own tribe’s land, they are merging with other tribes.”
“A dark cave?”
“If you go in and prove yourself a warrior, it is a cave where you can contract with the stars and gain power.”
“Ah, that’s how they call dungeons in this town.”
‘Those are lucky guys.’
Limon clicked his tongue inwardly.
In this age of iron, there is no such thing as a gold mine called a dungeon.
No, in some sense it is worth more than that.
Not only can you get enormous wealth just by selling dungeon by-products, but you can also level up talented people and mass-produce players.
Therefore, in the early days of the Iron Age, there were many disputes over ownership of dungeons.
If there had been no World Peace Plan.
That’s why the Seven Dragons hadn’t established a player association and banned the private monopoly of dungeons by international law.
Even if World War III had already started, there was nothing strange about it.
However, international law is not always followed.
In Africa, it was not uncommon for a single tribe to monopolize a dungeon.
In fact, most of the wars in Africa were to the point of fighting over ownership of dungeons.
“Have you recently discovered that dungeon?”
“no. It has already been 10 years since it was discovered.”
“Then why did I come out to merge you now?”
Limon put on a puzzled expression.
I don’t know if it was before.
Today’s Maasai are a weak tribe with a total population of only a few hundred, and it seems difficult to make a living.
There is nothing to be gained by pretending, so it’s obvious that I left it alone.
I couldn’t figure out why they were sending soldiers to try to merge the tribes.
“…that I don’t know.”
“Hmm?”
I only looked at Limon’s eyes.
Umbaru can’t answer easily.
Limon narrowed his eyes when he noticed that the gaze was on his own Egyptian costume.
Although Egyptians in Africa are special in many ways, even taking that into account, Umbaru’s gaze had a strange feeling.
But Limon didn’t bother asking why.
I just shook my hand.
“Now go.”
“…?”
“I’ve heard everything you’ve been told, so get out. If you were the chief, you would have a lot of work to do.”
“Ah got it. Then get some rest.”
The person who actually grabbed the busy chief and asked this and that didn’t have anything to say.
However, Umbaru left the house because the euphoria was rampant.
It was when Limon burst into laughter at the sight of him reminiscent of a herbivore escaping a cage.
“Aren’t you too scared?”
“I didn’t expect it to be so long just because it contained a little bit of life.”
“…If you felt the murderous feeling you put in when you warned me earlier, you seem to be feeling pretty good.”
“Originally, they are a mercenary race, so it’s worth having at least one or two people with good feelings.”
A blue-haired woman who came in as if taking turns with Umbaru.
Hearing Rose’s words, Limon shrugged and asked casually.
“So what do you think, sister?”
“…?”
Blink your eyes once.
Rose slowly looked left and right.
And only after confirming that there was no one around, he asked with the biggest shy expression in his life.
“Did you just ask me?”
“I’m hiding my identity, so I can’t call you Count.”
It’s dangerous just to show off your blue hair, but if your identity as a count is known, it’s only a matter of time before you get caught.
Seeing Limon speak with a refreshing smile, Rose felt dizzy.
It’s shocking that he, who always exudes a kondatti, has the appearance of a boy like this.
A bright smile was added to it, so the destructive power was not so great.
It was as if he felt her bewilderment.
Limon asked playfully.
“If you don’t like the word sister, should I just call you sister?”
“……No, it’s fine.”
“Oh yeah?”
For some reason, Limon put on a puzzled expression at the subtle long blank space before he answered, but Rose pretended not to know and turned his eyes away.
I couldn’t bear to find out how much conflict I had to go through to refuse the offer.
I even tilted my head for a moment.
Limon asked again as if he was in a hurry.
“Hmm, anyway, I’d like to hear the answer to my question.”
“If it’s a question…”
“Thinking about this situation.”
Rose, who finally came to her senses, said with a serious face.
“Serious.”
“Is that so too?”
“yes. Seeing many malnourished children or patients, it seemed that village-level support was urgent.”
“…Other than that, I was asking about the situation in which I was swept away by the war as soon as I came to Africa.”
“Ah…”
Originally, I wouldn’t have made this mistake.
Rose, who realized that she was still in a state of confusion because the shock of being called sister was so great, blushed,
and after clearing her mind to clear her mind, she tried to return the topic.
“Honestly, this is a difficult situation.”
“yes. Because the plan went completely wrong from the start.”
Limon nodded.
The essence of their original plan was simple.
All I had to do was search for the turkey bird as inconspicuously as possible, get the feathers, and go back.
It was a simple plan with no loopholes.
The problem is that at this time, a war was going on at Mount Kilimanjaro.
And because of being in the middle of it, I was swept up in the war as soon as I set foot in Africa.
There is a degree of bad luck.
In order to avoid as much confusion as possible, it was rather poisonous to go directly to Kilimanjaro by using spatial movement on purpose.
So Rose asked with a serious face.
“Can I ask you a question about the swordsman?”
“Limore.”
“yes?”
“Limore.”
I call Rose my sister.
It seemed that he was trying to reveal his identity by calling himself a swordsman.
After hesitating while watching Limon apply silent pressure with a single smile on his face, Rose struggled to open her mouth.
“Lee… I don’t know.”
“What are you curious about?”
Why is the shame on one’s own?
For a moment, I looked at the blond-tanned handsome boy with resentment as he shamelessly urged me to ask questions.
Rose asked calmly.
“Did you really need to make things this way?”
“Like this… Are you talking about capturing them or bringing them all the way here?”
“It is both.”
“You can’t kill all the kids just because they saw us unwillingly, can we?”
“…I’m not asking to commit murder, I’m asking because I wonder if it would have been better to stay away.”
Rose sighed.
As soon as they moved in space, it was like being attacked by surprise, so an immediate response was necessary.
Right after receiving the shock of the explosion with self-defense, she was also unconscious.
That’s why I followed Limon’s judgment, but I couldn’t help but wonder if it wasn’t a hasty decision.
if you didn’t subdue them.
Instead, if he had just hidden himself.
I didn’t know if I was able to sneak into Africa as originally planned without being noticed like this.
However, Limon shook his head at Rose’s assumption.
“Well, even if it was, it would have been the same in the end.”
“Why?”
“What would you think if two people suddenly appeared in front of not one or two, but more than a hundred soldiers?”
“…We must have been suspected of being high-level players in the space world.”
“Nine times out of ten.”
A long time ago, the Age of Silver…
No, at least it might have been possible to pass through the Age of Heroes without incident.
In those days, if someone suddenly appeared, it was common to regard it as a ghost or hallucination.
Even more so on the battlefield.
But this era was different.
It’s common sense in this era to think of someone as a space-type player when someone appears in front of them, and to regard a real ghost as a skill of a spirit-type player.
“If that report had come through, this guy and that guy would have been looking for us and raiding Kilimanjaro.”
“Only because of one or two high-level players?”
“Not just one, but one.”
No matter how many players there are in this era, high-level players are rare.
An old guild with a lord.
Or, only in the great powers.
In a tolerably small country, the size of the country’s economy and power units vary depending on the number of high-level players.
What if it is from a tribe that has not yet been recognized as a military government, such as the Lucuma tribe?
It was natural to pay attention to the trend of high-level players suddenly appearing on the battlefield.
to capture the enemy.
If not, to recruit.
Because you will need to find it.
“Surely that will hinder the search.”
“It’s a relief if it only interferes with the search. If that happens, it will most likely collide with us.”
“Is there any reason you are so sure?”
“Originally, the weaker the power, the more difficult it is to grasp their subject, and they are not used to being rejected.”
Limon deliberately overpowered the Lucuma soldiers and brought them to the Maasai village.
That’s why he asked Umbaru about the situation of the tribe.
If the opponent was able to compromise properly, he would have been able to return the captured soldiers and silence them or buy time.
But the results were disappointing.
In his experience, it was rare for a ruler in his own neighborhood who was so eager to expand his power to know how to compromise properly.
“…That makes sense.”
Rose shook her head.
I don’t know if it’s just suppression, but I wondered if it was too much to be captured alive.
After listening to Limon’s explanation, I could see that the radical action was a cool and rational decision like Noh Kang-ho.
So asked Rose.
“Then what should I do now?”
“huh? why do you ask me that?”
“yes?”
“That’s up to you to decide.”
Didn’t know that you would come out without knowing me like this.
Looking at Rose, who couldn’t help but bewildered, Limon laughed.
and laughed mischievously.
“Did you forget? I decided to follow my sister’s instructions here.”
“…!”
Before, it was such an unexpected situation and there was no other way, so I just stepped out myself.
I’m going to focus on the search for the turkey bird now.
So, there is one thing Rose could do while watching Limon cheerfully say that he will leave the work behind.
All I could do was dazzle with all my might.
