Chapter 106 :

Chapter 106 - Cabin Father and Son (1)

Seen up close, the cabin looked a little old, but perhaps because it had been carefully maintained, it still kept a neat exterior for something built in the forest.

The boat tied up by the riverside was the same.

“Now, now, please come in.”

The impatient man, who did not match the peaceful and quiet atmosphere, guided us into the cabin.

The almost burdensomely intense welcome continued inside the house as well.

“Welcome!”

As soon as we stepped inside, someone who had been waiting within greeted us with an excited face.

It was a child who was very thin for his height, with long arms and legs.

Even without anyone saying it, his face looked exactly like the man’s, so we could guess the relationship between the two.

The kid, who looked about fifteen years old, looked at Ratel, Jing, and Lia with eyes half-filled with excitement and half-filled with nervousness.

Finally, when his gaze turned toward me, doubt appeared on his face.

“Brother, you’re also a winner of the Lucha tournament….right?”

The kid ended the sentence as a question, as if it was hard to believe.

It seemed I looked the weakest among us.

He had good eyes.

Though he was a little lacking in tact.

“Why, do I not look talented at fighting?”

When I asked, only then did the kid realize that his mouth had gotten him into trouble and shook his head.

“N, no. It’s just that your atmosphere is a little different from the winners who visited until now… I didn’t mean anything bad.”

The kid hurriedly made an excuse.

I quietly looked down at the flustered kid and opened my mouth.

“That’s right. Actually, I can’t fight. These three here are all people I hired.”

At my answer, the kid looked at me with surprised eyes.

“Do you know what that means?”

“N, no. I don’t really know.”

When the kid shook his head, I lowered my voice.

“It means the one you must obey the most is me.”

The kid, who had a naive side, swallowed hard at my serious nonsense and nodded his head.

“You’re teaching a child something very good.”

Ratel deliberately pushed me aside and entered the cabin while muttering.

At the rather arrogant attitude for a hired man, the kid hesitated for a moment, unable to understand the situation.

Jing and Lia, who entered after him, smiled at the kid’s blank look and put their luggage down on the floor.

“If you want to hire me, it will be difficult unless you have quite a lot of money.”

“I still have loyalty, so I’ll work for you cheaply.”

Only after Jing and Lia each said a word did the cabin boy seem to realize that he had been deceived.

The tension disappeared from the child’s face, and a sense of betrayal at having been tricked welled up.

“What is this? From where to where was it a lie?”

The heated kid pouted and questioned me.

“It’s true that I can’t fight.”

“Huh? Then how did you win the Lucha tournament?”

The curious kid had already forgotten that I had tricked him and asked another question.

“Ahem, stop being rude and move aside so the guests can come in.”

At his father’s scolding from behind, he pouted and stepped aside.

The inside of the single-story house, which looked no different from an ordinary family home, had a large table awkwardly placed there, clearly prepared to receive guests.

“Now, please come this way!”

The kid, who had been secretly watching the mood, led us upstairs this time.

“You must have had a hard time coming all the way here. Bedding has been prepared upstairs, so everyone, please rest comfortably.”

The kid showed a burdensome level of kindness and tried to take our luggage, but the only one who handed him a bag was the temple guide.

The kid, who had stretched his hand toward Ratel as well, flinched at his fierce gaze and awkwardly withdrew his hand.

“….You have a very different atmosphere from the people who came last year.”

The child scratched the back of his head awkwardly and muttered.

“I told you not to bother the guests for no reason and to come out of there!”

The man who had welcomed us in front of the house scolded the talkative kid.

“Ah, I said I can do it. The old man only has a loud voice…”

The child muttered in dissatisfaction and climbed the stairs.

The middle-aged man, who had been standing the whole time, also tried to climb the stairs after us.

When he had climbed about three steps, I noticed that he was subtly limping on one leg.

“I’m enough on my own, so just wait downstairs.”

Perhaps worried, the kid quietly said that, but it had no real effect.

“Who are you calling an old man?!”

The child’s father instead flew into a rage.

He was a man with quite a difficult personality, but his son seemed to have taken after that side of his father completely.

“If you’ve reached that age, you are an old man. Why are you pretending you’re not?”

The kid muttered as if intending for him to hear, scratching at the man’s nerves.

“You little brat, what did you just say?”

“See, you can’t even hear well.”

The one who ended the conversation between the two, which was making people uncomfortable in the exact opposite of their intention to serve the guests well, was none other than the guide.

“I’m tired to death, so what are you doing right now?!”

When he threw a fit once, the father and son shut their mouths at the same time and began guiding us to the rooms.

Lia, who was climbing the stairs, watched the mood for a moment, then quietly approached the kid carrying the luggage.

“Um, did people from Lucha Village come here last year too? You definitely said that earlier, right?”

When the first positive response came back, the slightly dispirited kid brightened and nodded his head.

“Of course. Last year, my father and I also received the people from Lucha Village. They were all truly brave and strong people.”

“Then my father must have stopped by here too. It was quite a long time ago, though…”

When Lia spoke as if fascinated, the kid showed a slightly regretful expression.

“If it was a long time ago, I probably wouldn’t have seen him. It’s only been six years since my father and I started receiving people here. Before that, other people guarded the cabin.”

At his answer, the excitement faded a little from Lia’s face.

However, as if it was still newly fascinating that this was a place the winners of Lucha had passed through, Lia looked around.

Perhaps it bothered him a little that he had disappointed her, because the kid quietly opened his mouth again.

“Still, if it’s last year’s winner, I remember clearly. He was definitely the son of the shoe shop…”

“Can’t you shut up already!!!”

But this time too, a furious roar blocked his words.

The child was so startled by the irritable and loud voice that rang through the entire floor that he even hiccuped.

Surprisingly, the one who had cut into Lia and the child’s conversation was not the irritable guide, but the kid’s father.

Compared to this, all his previous shouting could be called jokes, because anger was deeply embedded in his voice.

The guide standing beside him was also glaring at the child with a stiffened face.

“Do you want to lose the chance you barely obtained by continuing to spout useless words?”

At his fierce words, the kid’s face turned white.

“N, no! I’m sorry, I’m truly sorry. Even though I’m always scolded for talking too much, I’m stupid, so…”

At the sight of him flattening himself, the guide’s expression softened a little.

“Be careful. If you make one more mistake…”

“No, I will truly do well!”

When the child spoke desperately again, the man snorted and turned around.

The skinny kid struggled to carry the luggage and followed behind him.

Looking back and forth between Lia, who was wearing an uncomfortable expression at his desperate appearance, and Ratel, who was expressionless, I also moved toward an empty room.

* * *

“There is one private room on the third floor, and three rooms on the second floor.”

The cabin boy said while looking around at the guide and the three of us.

“I will use the private room on the third floor.”

At that gaze, the guide naturally stepped forward and threw his luggage back into the kid’s care.

“Ah, of course. On the second floor, there are two single rooms and one slightly larger room, so only two of you will need to share a room.”

The child, carrying the guide’s luggage, spoke quickly and then hurriedly disappeared after the guide climbing the stairs.

The problem was who among the three remaining people, excluding Lia, would use the single rooms.

“Jing and I can share one room.”

When I quickly claimed the room first, Ratel’s eyebrow immediately rose.

“Why are you deciding that on your own?”

“If you and I use the same room, it is no different from three people using a double room.”

At my answer, Ratel shut his mouth.

He probably knew it too.

Jing, who already worried too much, would not be able to sleep peacefully if he left me and Ratel in the same room.

Ever since Ratel had been stubborn in Lucha Village, Jing had been subtly watching between Ratel and me.

There was a high chance that Jing would spend more time in the room Ratel and I used than in his own room.

“Why is there a premise that you and I will use the same room? I can use the same room as Jing.”

Ratel, who had briefly been swept along by my words, frowned again and said exactly what I had been waiting for.

“If you want to share a room with Jing that much, then it can’t be helped. Do that.”

Having waited for him to say those words, I quickly answered before he could take them back and swiftly entered the remaining single room.

Belatedly, I heard Ratel’s voice behind me saying rough words, but I pretended not to know and closed the door.

Fortunately, Ratel’s voice did not last long.

It seemed Jing had calmed him down and pulled him inside.

Who he ended up sharing a room with probably was not such an important issue.

He just always started by objecting whenever it was something I said.

What a simple guy.

The inside of the room, just like the cabin’s exterior, was kept clean.

I roughly looked around the room, threw my luggage beside the bed, and put my hand into my clothes.

When I grabbed and pulled out the furball that had been hiding inside my clothes as if dead, El awkwardly raised his head.

I looked down at him, then silently gestured toward the window with my eyes.

After putting the furball down on the floor, I soon changed forms and stepped out the window.

The small squirrel also followed behind me.

* * *

Only after putting some distance between us and the cabin did I stop my legs, which had been moving diligently.

Because of the two whose hearing was outside the human range, I had to endure this trouble in order to talk with him.

“Why did you do that earlier?”

Having turned human, I asked El, who was looking at the river with a somehow uneasy face.

“….”

However, as if making it meaningless that we had gone out of our way to avoid Ratel’s eyes, he could not focus on my words and only stared at the river.

As if he were wary of something.

Now that I thought about it, if this guy had also lived a thousand years, then he must know what was hidden inside there.

“Is what is inside there that frightening?”

“Who said I was frightened?!”

The guy, who had strong pride if nothing else, finally reacted sharply to my words.

“So you do know what is inside after all.”

When I said that to him, now that he had finally turned his head toward me, El hesitated for a moment before nodding slightly.

No matter how generously one looked at it, he was clearly tense.