24 Hearts

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Chapter 3-1. ‘Black Tree’ Tribe

They followed the hunter and eventually arrived at a large wooden house, just a short distance away from the town’s buildings. The wood’s material seen from the outside looked quite high quality, unlike the houses they passed by.

“Here it is.”

The hunter, Arek, responded with a strong voice and stopped walking. It looked like he didn’t want to bring them here, but following the chief’s orders proved to be inevitable. Jeanne took the lead, walked up the stairs, and opened the door, checking for anything suspicious. The door revealed the inside, and Jeanne exclaimed in surprise. Judah followed her as she stared blankly into the house. The interior, seen over her shoulder, was surprisingly neat.

‘…Everything is in Baekje’s style?’

He thought this immediately at first glance. Starting from the entrance where the shoes were taken off, all the furniture that filled the house were items that you would see if you went to the Hanok Village. The folding screen was necessary, and even ceramics were placed on top of a jade cabinet. As they stepped inside, a subtle scent hovering around their nose welcomed them like a pleasant perfume. He thought that it was better than the room of Chief Isabel.

“The room… It’s very luxurious.”

“It’s a building built by the empire’s ambassadors for accommodation here. They said they would build their own house. Every time they came, they brought things they left it here.”

By the ambassador of the empire, Arek referred to someone from the Baekje empire.

“Does the empire send people often?”

“They often come to hire our tribe’s mercenaries, but since they came and went a while ago, they won’t be around while the spirit is here.

“The chief gave us a nice house. Don’t worry too much. We will take good care of it. They won’t even know it when the empire’s envoys come again.”

“…Please get comfortable.”

What were they to do if the ambassador of the empire acted in disgrace against this? Hesitating to know the answer, Arek offered them to rest and just went out.

Regardless of whether Arek went out or not, Jeanne and Arhil took a break right away to finally enjoy that they can rest as humans do. Jeanne seemed a little reluctant to know that this house was made and lived in by the Baekje people, but that didn’t mean that she wanted to rest elsewhere. They looked inside the house, opened the closet, took out a neatly arranged blanket and mat, and laid it straight on the floor. They set up the bed quite skillfully before she went to the bathroom. It seemed that the Baekje people who came to this place built the house perfectly.

The bathroom and toilet, the kitchen and the living room, and other spaces were well separated, and the window was positioned by grasping the location of the wind and sunlight.

Suddenly, Arhil and Jeanne took off their clothes, went into the bathroom, and piled their robes on the floor like trash. Reflexively, Judah remembered living in his house in Serenia Castle, so he almost cleaned it but stopped himself before he could pick up their robes and looked around the house instead, thinking that it would be necessary.

It was built for a short stay, so he couldn’t find anything special. To take a brief look outside, Judah left the house, leaving a word to them in the bathroom that he would take a short walk around.

He wanted to take a look around the tribe, but when he remembered that they would bow down when they see him, he decided to retreat to the wooden fence. It wasn’t comparable to a wall, but it was high enough that no one could leap over it.

‘Shall I try?’

It was all just harmless fun. Judah checked around, making sure no one was spying. It may be because the people of the tribe were good. Judah, running lightly on top of his toes, ran at top speed, stepped on the wooden fence, and quickly climbed up. It wasn’t that difficult for him to cross the fence, perhaps thanks to his B-rank agility.

The difference between the fence and the inside was the jungle. The forest was so dense to try and guess what could linger in it, and yet he stepped into it alone. He turned on the -Map- and looked around.

“There’s no big difference from where we came from.”

He didn’t know where this was, but there was a flowing river and nothing else. He took a quick look around, and on the way back, he saw village children swimming and playing in the river.

He started questioning what pushed him to cross the fence.

There seemed to be a separate entrance, and it would have been the perfect situation to be misunderstood if someone saw him. It was natural for them to be vigilant if he went anywhere without permission. Judah, watching the children play in the water and swim, sat under a suitable tree, and observed without thinking of looking elsewhere.

“This place looks good.”

It was near the river, the breeze flying by with a cold wind. Again, civilization didn’t start near the river for nothing. He suddenly felt like a father as he watched the children swim. He dozed off for a while and couldn’t tell how much time had passed.

Suddenly he heard a rattling sound, and the children screamed, trying to return to the village. When he turned his head reflexively, he saw two Orcs charging at them with a roar from the upstream side where the river came from.

Their bare hands held nothing, but their built was enough as a weapon. The children who escaped from the water seemed to think that they would not be in danger because they were near the tribe, having no weapons or adult around them on stand-by.

A regrettable situation to be called a coincidence. Judah, without a long thought, pulled out his dagger from his leather belt. The first dagger was quite dull due to cutting down the bushes and branches earlier, but that was just it. It may be blunt for cutting, but it could work well for stabbing and throwing.

He threw the dagger he held with his left hand and snapped it with his wrist. The blade flew fiercely as if ignoring the wind’s resistance, and hit an orc exactly in between its forehead as it jumped over the river. He wondered what other parts of their bodies were full muscles when even his dull blade thrown with power could strike it.

As soon as it fell onto the water, the Orc slowly wriggled and didn’t get up again. Its red blood oozed through the water.

“Ah?”

The children were shocked, and the Orcs who were running halted at the unexpected attack. Judah moved toward the children and immediately took out his second dagger. His sharp dagger cut through the air.

Grrrr!

The orc shrieked and avoided. Looking at the dagger passing through his shoulders, the orc exclaimed and then ran to Judah. Judah laughed at his nimble running, contrary to its bulky appearance. But he didn’t stop at two daggers.

“There is still one left.”

Of course, except for Altemia. He threw one more dagger to deal with the remaining Orcs easily. The children merely looked at him blankly with their eyes wide open but soon stumbled toward Judah.

“Spirit, thank you very much!”

“Thank you!”

Their gratitude was cute, but the actions they did were not. He ordered them to stop bowing, to which they obliged before they ran back into the village. Seeing their figure disappear, Judah retrieved his daggers, which had pierced the orcs right at their brows.

If this were the game, he would’ve gotten a critical hit for hitting a vital spot like that! It might look like a little damage now, but the reality was these were Orcs with a lot of physical strength, and he managed to kill them easily. While he was thinking about whether or not to shake off the blood from his dagger, from afar, he could see more orcs coming down than he thought. Did he see wrong, or did he just want to see what he wanted to? Or was there really a group of orc emerging from the river?

‘Is there a crowd?’

He quickly rolled his eyes and checked the number of orcs on his -Map-. They seem to be roughly around thirty, but before counting the number completely, he saw something shot toward the sky. It was an arrow that fell toward Judah. As he stepped back from the ground, he saw the flagpole of an arrow dropping on the ground.

‘It’s a bow… ‘

They knew how to smelt iron, so of course, they could make weapons like bows. Unlike the two preceding Orcs, each of them had weapons. Judah thought for a moment, watching from where they had drawn the arrow, then unfolded his shadow and activated his buff skills.

Without hesitation, he ran recklessly toward the orc pack. He threw two daggers from his hand and immediately picked up the spear in his -Bag- that he had gained from the Flying Fighter he fought before.

Using Altemia’s abilities, he can easily kill this orc group. He was excited to face the crowd with his improved stats. Rather than rushing to the center, he ran first to the orc at the far right.

The orcs saw him and stared at him in disbelief, thinking he would run away. The Orcs swung their clubs with confused faces. However, they were too hasty, and Judah countered with a more potent attack before they could even approach him. The orc’s eyes widened. Judah laughed, digging into the arms of the orc.

“Peekaboo.”