Barbecue
Barbecue.
Only the flames of the lamps installed on the walls of the silent hallway shimmered and illuminated the hallway. The woman wearing a robe moved slowly and broke the silence Jindeuk was sitting in.
Passing through a long hallway, the woman stopped for a moment in front of a tightly closed black door. She glanced at her face for a moment in the small hand mirror she took out from her bosom.
The rugged burn marks that engulfed more than half of his face, and his bright red eyes. The woman quietly touched her burn marks and checked the condition of her face.
It is possible to control many dolls, but it was difficult to control dolls that greatly deviated from the original body and face shapes for a long time.
A sense of heterogeneity, as if the soul and body are separated, and a sense of loss as if something is collapsing.
There was no reason to refuse the danger that instinct warned.
‘Because it’s so easy to look like a different person by combining hair color, eye color, scars, and makeup.’
“Heung-heung~”
After getting ready to play her current role, Pearly hummed softly, put the mirror in her arms, and slowly pushed the door in front of her eyes.
When the door opened with the sound of a shallow scraping on the floor, the sight of the room greeted her with a fresh smell.
Bright green light filled the room. Bunches of green stems extending from cocoons of huge stems covered the room like vines.
Took.
Pearly frowned as she pushed aside the bundle of stems that hung down in front of her eyes. She opened her mouth, acting with dissatisfied eyes.
“The supplies you ordered are delivered to the promised location.”
rick rick rick.
The teeth made of steel meshed with each other and let out a low metallic sound. Countless cogs that make up the head turned round and round.
Sitting in front of a cocoon made of stems, Horlu, the dark-colored golden man, mechanically inspected the papers on the desk and answered.
[You just have to pay as usual.]
A muddy mechanical sound. The Gold Man focused on his work without giving Pearly a penny of attention. Pearly took a chair and sat down in front of him with Horlu’s usual appearance. She spoke in a very calm voice.
“How is the making of the bowl going?”
Kirik.
Horlu raised his head at the word bowl. Horlu’s head, which was full of cogs, didn’t have any devices that could be called eyes, but Pearly intuitively knew that his gaze was fixed on her.
[Why are you curious about that?]
Pearly replied lightly, twisting her hair with one finger.
“Contrary to what I said at the beginning, the transaction period is getting quite long. Since you are a customer, you know that if the transaction period is longer than planned, we will have to take a bigger risk, right?”
It was a question I wouldn’t have asked in the first place. However, since the production period for the ‘bowl’ was taking a little longer than Pearly expected, she felt the need to gather a little more information.
Horlu gave a brief reply after a moment of silence.
[It’s a problem you don’t need to know.]
“Don’t do that.”
A light snort was mixed. The burn marks that covered half of her face distorted as Pearly grinned. Horlu clicked the cogs and pondered for a moment.
The merchant in front of them had been procuring supplies on time, as if proving their competence despite their unreasonable orders.
In particular, considering that even ‘dragon’s blood’, which he did not order with the thought that he would really get it, was delivered on time, he was a talented person who could be useful not only in this campaign, but also in other operations.
After weighing several factors in his mind, Horlu spoke briefly.
[The reason why the production of the bowl is taking longer than expected is because Lord Havas took some of the materials that were originally planned to be used for the bowl due to the appearance of an unexpected variable.] It was a simple answer, but it was enough for Pearly
.
The reason why the production of bowls continued to increase was because Havas, who had blind faith after being defeated by Marnak’s teacher, Pridya, used some of the materials for the bowls and locked himself in the huge stem cocoon.
Pearly frowned slightly and glared at the cocoon behind Horlu.
I knew it was doing something by hiding in the stem, but I had no idea that it was doing something by stealing some of the ingredients for the bowl.
‘After getting old, only useless stubbornness is lined up. It bothers me. really.’
[Still, all preparations have come to an end. I probably won’t be ordering additional deliveries from you.]
“Really?”
Horlu clicked the cogs and presented her with the proposal he had been trying to get from the beginning.
[We want to continue business with you even after this transaction is over.]
“I am always welcome if you are a customer who pays on time.”
After roughly getting all the necessary information, Pearly answered in a dry voice and rose from her chair.
[So I’ll tell you specifically.]
“What?”
[Leave the capital of the Northern Empire at least until the ‘Great Conference’ is held. After organizing everything that can be sorted out.]
Pearly asked a question full of playfulness.
“What if I don’t leave by then?”
[I don’t know.]
Kirik.
The gears that had meshed without rest slowed down. Horlu declared in a low voice.
[From now on, everything here will flow according to the will of ‘God’ who descended into this world.]
***
Sizzle.
The juicy aroma of the thick meat cooked on the grill delighted the nose.
‘Desperacio of Despair’, a member of the six prophets, skillfully picked up the meat with tongs, cut it into bite-size pieces with scissors, and put it back on the grill.
“Hmmmmhmm~”
He picked up the bowl with one hand, picked out the well-done meat, placed it neatly on top of the bowl, and poked the woman with her elbow in the side of the black rabbit woman who was standing next to him and munching the meat piece by piece.
“Lily, these are all cooked, so leave them on the table.”
“Nope.”
Lily glared at me and my party with wary eyes, then shook her head resolutely.
“Look at them and come and take it yourself.”
That’s what she said, but it seemed to me that the rabbit woman named Lily was refusing to part with him, not because she really didn’t want to bring her meat, but to protect Desferacio.
After Dacia suddenly threatened Desperacio once earlier, she must have regarded our party as something of a vigilant target that could turn into an enemy at any time.
‘Say hat!’
With a cry to quickly serve the meat, the mother came over and snatched the bowl from Desferacio’s hand.
Actually, I wanted to avoid the situation where Desperacio and my mother would meet. I didn’t know if a human being like a prophet would be able to recognize something by looking at my mother.
However, knowing how much Dacia would be curious about her father, she couldn’t kick him out.
After thinking about it, I made a decision, and the result was the current situation.
However, it wasn’t that I faced Desperacio without any countermeasures. Here, there was Master Pridja, who was a reliable ally more than anyone else.
I always intended to ask Master to subdue Desperacio whenever he looked at his mother and showed even a little embarrassment, but unexpectedly, the meeting between Mother and Desferacio was very bland.
Desperacio didn’t react much when she saw her mother, and as soon as she confirmed Desperacio’s existence, she rushed behind me and held out the middle fingers of both hands.
In that ordinary and quiet encounter, it was Jamel who reacted most violently.
As soon as Jamel saw Desferacio wearing a mask, he panicked and said, “The prophet has come in!”, and his feet got tangled, so he fell backwards and hit the back of his head.
Of the rest of the party, only Perley was out of the boat for business.
“Yuna.”
The call of the quiet master. I replied turning the meat over.
“yes.”
“Are you still far away?”
“Almost baked. Master.”
Contrary to expectations, Desperacio seemed to be very accustomed to such chores and did a really artistic job of grilling meat. However, Master rejected the well-roasted meat and told me that he wanted to eat meat that I personally cooked for the first time in a long time.
Even though the meat I grilled because I couldn’t even season it properly because my tongue had gone bad, it couldn’t be particularly tasty.
As I was flipping the meat, Master Pridya, who was standing next to me, stretched out his chopsticks and picked up a piece of meat that was clearly undercooked, just like when I was learning swordsmanship while doing master’s cooking. Seeing that scene, I couldn’t help but say the same thing as before.
“It is undercooked. Master. After the meat is cooked, eat it.”
Then, Master’s blue eyes curved in a soft curve.
“Yeon, you are right. This meat is definitely undercooked.”
“Master always picks up one item at a time and eats it with an unripe one.”
“There is such a thing as the taste of sneaking a piece without the baker’s knowledge.”
He replied by placing the well-cooked meat on top of the bowl.
“If possible, why don’t you sneak a bite of something that’s fully cooked?”
I handed the bowl to my master and quietly pointed at Desperacio, who was actively flipping the meat. At my unspoken request to keep an eye on Desferacio, Master patted my head a couple of times and nodded.
When Master returned to the table where Cardisho was eating, holding a bowl of meat, Dacia, who had been quiet for a while, got up from her seat and approached Desferacio.
Dacia glared at Desferacio with golden eyes.
“So, when are you going to tell me what my father is up to?”
“At any time!”
Desperacio lifted the lower part of the mask slightly, picked up the meat he was grilling, pushed it into his mouth, and chewed it. He gulped the meat he was chewing with his throat and turned the tongs around.
“Where can I tell you?”
“Where is your father now?”
“The exact location is a secret, but to tell you roughly, first of all, Miss Gong is on the southern side of the empire. It’s a pretty secluded countryside there. It’s like you’re halfway in a nursing home.”
“Care?”
Dakia reacted sensitively to the word recuperation.
“My father said he was healthy. But why do you need recuperation?”
Desperacio answered in a casual tone as if it was not a big deal.
“To be precise, it is not the Miss Gong who is recuperating. It is correct to say that Mr. Misogong is closer to taking care of someone who is convalescing.”
Dacia’s expression became subtle at his answer.
“Father? Who do you take care of? Who are you?”
A murmur of disbelief. Desperacio shrugged.
“If Misso takes care of someone with her own hands, isn’t it obvious who it is?”
Dacia’s expression softened. Dacia must be thinking the same thing as me right now.
The reason why Miss Duke Carlto Irmel became an apostle at Desperacio’s suggestion and slaughtered the citizens of Beatus he ruled. It must have something to do with the reason.
Did Desperacio really bring back the mistress’s wife and Dacia’s mother?
“…no way?”
Desperacio saw Dacia’s expression and quickly cut off her continued words.
“no. How can I simply resurrect the dead when I’m not even a god? The person Miss Gong is taking care of right now is close to the first button to resurrect your wife.”
“First button…?”
“Because the woman who is recuperating is the woman with the soul of the deceased wife. I still have tears in my eyes when I think of the hard work I went through all over the continent to find him. It was really hard.”
Desferacio, who giggled mischievously, stretched out a finger and drew a circle in front of Dakia’s eyes and smiled.
“All souls flow. It flows endlessly and builds up karma like that. I am very interested in that flow. Because I think there is a very secret and important secret hidden in the flow and karma of the soul. For example…”
The blue-and-blue mask turned to face me.
“Something like their worst secrets that the gods in the lofty heavens have kept secret.”
