Chapter 238 - Even in a Life Like This (1)

The Mountain Lord heaved a deep sigh at the gazes gathering on him as soon as dawn broke. Just because he had spent the past few days exerting himself to do a little charity, they now automatically watched his mouth at every mealtime, like baby birds.

That was the problem. At least baby birds had the excuse of being newly hatched and knowing nothing of the world. These were fully grown humans.

He made some allowances given the circumstances, but it still felt unrewarding. All the more so when he considered the effort each of these acts required, and what they had done when he first arrived.

["How did I end up like this..."]

["I didn't tell you to do it, you know?"]

["Yes, yes... That's right. You never told me to, Ancestor..."]

Beside him was a being who, though not directly responsible for saddling him with work, had certainly exerted a subtle influence.

The Mountain Lord glanced at the little turtle and sighed deeply again. Memories of his arrival here flickered through his mind.

.

.

.

["I'm hungry."]

He had traveled as far as the border between the eastern and northern lands to undo what the tiger had done. But a voice that suddenly reached him had interrupted his journey, leaving him no choice but to turn back.

That was also why he was now in the middle of the east.

["Now, keep that up and I'll leave for good."]

["... You're cruel."]

The Mountain Lord kept moving toward the voice echoing inside his head. As he drew closer to the crowd of humans, their voices repeatedly reached his inner ears.

"Everyone on guard at the time testified that they experienced an unnatural drowsiness! And you still insist you had nothing to do with the demon's escape?!"

["But why have you only come now? I'm not blaming you, mind. I'm just genuinely curious..."]

His anatomy made it quite easy to ignore spoken sounds, however.

"Well, I don't remember."

If anything was difficult, it was making out human voices accurately.

"Perhaps I meant to put the Demon Knight to sleep, but targeted them by mistake."

At any rate, he had long made a habit of using that trait to hear only what he wanted to hear.

"Great Sage!"

The Mountain Lord glided along.

["I was asleep."]

["Ah, were you now."]

["For a very long time. Long enough to forget even the cycle."]

["... Pardon?"]

Only a few more movements would bring him to the speaker. But the shocking statement brought the Mountain Lord to a brief halt.

"Do you hear what you're saying?!" shouted the human directly below him.

["Ah, let me correct that. Rather than forgetting, I was forced into a state in which I couldn't attend to the cycle."]

Meanwhile, the being who had summoned him kept talking. Considering that this was the Mountain Lord's ancestor, his foundation, the very source of his being, it was rather preposterous.

"What an odd question. I conveyed my thoughts through vocal signs. What else would you call that but speaking?"

It really was.

["My other half kept me asleep. When the time of the cycle came and I tried to wake, and every time I tried to open my eyes afterward, over and over..."]

He had wondered why this being had disappeared after giving birth to his ancestor. So that was the reason.

At the confession of the being humans called Yukkwi, the Mountain Lord opened and closed his mouth several times.

"Great Sage, this is no time to play word games..."

He had nothing to say.

["Eventually, I didn't even have the strength to open my eyes. So all I did was sleep."]

["Then you don't know why you woke up this time...?"]

["Not so. I was aware of my surroundings even as I slept."]

["Ah, I see."]

["Yes... I watched my other half drain away the life I had accumulated, all to enjoy immortality. All of it. Every bit."]

Yes, he truly had nothing to say.

["Well, ha. What am I supposed to say to that?"]

Like the human directly beneath him, the Mountain Lord smacked his forehead with his tail, then slowly started moving again.

"How insulting. Dismissing my words as mere word games. If you're going to keep this up, I'd be better off ending this conversation and getting on with my work."

The half-destroyed city and the crowds of humans passed through the spaces between his coils.

["Wait, now. I didn't mishear you? Really, truly, immortality...?"]

["You didn't mishear. I do mean immortality. My other half loathed the thought of having to pass life on to our offspring."]

["Good heavens..."]

Every sentence Yukkwi continued to relay struck like a bolt from the blue. Immortality defied the world's natural order. In other words, it was another name for corruption.

"You're the one who'll regret this someday if you keep behaving this way, Great Sage."

A human voice, furious and spiteful, scattered into the air.

"What, planning to try me for heresy? Do as you please. At least I won't be the one regretting it."

A knowing sigh followed.

["But defying the natural order brings corruption... and that was what happened to my other half. A predictable end."]

As he had feared, Yukkwi's next words matched his expectations exactly. Yukkwi's other half, presumably the creature called the Black Serpent, really had fallen to corruption.

"That aside, I am curious. If cooperating with a demon is the criterion for heresy, how many people in this city aren't heretics...?"

The Mountain Lord's eyes drifted awkwardly downward.

["Oh, dear. So that's why the city's in this state..."]

["My other half contributed. It didn't do all of it."]

No wonder the settlement was half destroyed and the humans were huddled together elsewhere.

Clicking his tongue, the Mountain Lord thrust his head into the tent where the speaker must be.

"How could you say something so outrageous...!"

The nearby humans' shouts and screams made his head ring a little, but with long experience, he shut his hearing off entirely. Instead, his eyes passed through the tent and surveyed its interior.

["So this is where... you were..."]

But the Yukkwi he found was a truly pitiful sight. The claim of having been robbed of accumulated life seemed no exaggeration: the creature was tiny.

The mountain-sized body described in legends, the steel-hard shell, the enormous limbs that could churn the sea—all were gone. All that remained was the form of a baby turtle.

How much power had been siphoned away to reduce this being to such a state?

The Mountain Lord held his tongue for a moment. Yes, the sight was that wretched. Even if Yukkwi had suffered for failing to overcome the other half's schemes, there was still a fundamental responsibility for failing to stop them—and yet, he could say nothing.

["You needn't look at me like that. Losing all my power is miserable, but it also spared me from corruption."]

Whether fortunately or unfortunately, Yukkwi spoke before he could say anything rash. The creature was remarkably composed, unlike the earlier whining about hunger.

["Of course, had rescue come a little later, even the strength keeping me alive would have been drained, and I would have died... Well, the Black Serpent did make an effort to keep me alive."]

["Goodness... You've been through a lot."]

["Hardly. More importantly, I'm hungry."]

["Yes, yes."]

Apparently, there really was a limit to how long the creature could endure hunger.

The Mountain Lord hurriedly moved his tail. It passed through the tent, and when it touched the turtle, only its tip became solid. The turtle clung to it.

["Let's be off."]

["Do we have to go far?"]

["Not far. Just somewhere out of sight of the humans."]

His body existed on the boundary between material and immaterial, allowing everything to pass through him, but watching humans walk back and forth through his body was hardly pleasant.

That was why he wanted to leave the area. With a turtle dangling from the tip of his tail, the serpent moved out of the crowd.

["Why are you stopping? You said we had to go somewhere out of sight of the humans."]

["Well, yes..."]

But there was something else just as unsettling as having humans wander in and out of his body.

Before leaving the human-occupied grounds entirely, the Mountain Lord glanced back at their lodgings. Crude tents, chafed and filthy skin, skeletal limbs, dying expressions. It was a sight he would never see in the Great Forest under his care.

Even when the tribes of the Great Forest fought one another to choose a Great Chief, they at least had food, thanks to the abundance of nature nurtured by his care.

Their miserable condition therefore came as quite a shock to him. Remembering what had brought them to this state made him feel even more uncomfortable. He had not done it himself, but his ancestor did bear some blame.

The Mountain Lord narrowed his eyes.

["Come to think of it, as a descendant, I reckon I'd feel better if I did a little something."]

["...?"]

Besides, a certain knight he liked would never abandon humans in such a state. Thinking of him made it difficult to simply do nothing.

Remembering the kindness he had received, the Mountain Lord raised his head.

["Hold on tight. The ground's going to shake."]

Then he drove his raised head into the earth. All sorts of fruit and a little grain sprang up in profusion, ready to share their life with the starving humans.

"What in the...!"

"... Marvelous. Who could have done this...?"

["Why bother...?"]

["Hee-hee."]

The humans were startled by the sudden growth of food, while Yukkwi was puzzled, unable to understand what was happening.

But since he had not made this choice for their sake, the Mountain Lord merely chuckled. If the knight who had given him even that precious heart for the sake of the east saw this, he would surely praise him.

That alone was reason enough to act.

"This is—oh!"

["The humans have seen us."]

["Oops."]

There was one small problem: using his power made his body visible immediately afterward.

And this place was a flat, empty plain in a forest region. If a giant white serpent appeared in full view, no amount of luck could keep him from being spotted.

"A-a monster!"

"Another monster's come to kill us!"

"It doesn't seem to be... a demon."

"Great Sage, that enormous serpent... What is it?"

"Do you think I know everything in the world? Still, it does bring to mind the primeval beast said to live in the Great Forest."

"... You are correct."

"Ah, was I really?"

And so, quite unexpectedly, the Mountain Lord found himself called a monster.

Since Yukkwi's other half, the Black Serpent, had only just devastated the city, he supposed such a misunderstanding was inevitable... but it was only natural that it hurt his feelings, too.

The fact that some humans recognized him offered a little comfort.

"Could we ask him to exert himself just a little more? It would be good to have a bit more fruit..."

Yet once his identity and harmlessness were established, their coveting of his power was as unpleasant as ever.

["Never thought I'd miss those idiot priestesses..."]

For a moment, the Mountain Lord missed his lackeys.

.

.

.

["Ha... I really do need those idiot priestesses around..."]

His brief recollection over, the Mountain Lord looked at the humans of Bemurhen and once again missed the humans of the Great Forest.

While living there, he had thought them such incessant nags. Looking back now, however, everything they had said had been for his sake. Even their insistence that there was nothing for him to do, so he could simply stay in his nest.

They had not been trying to bore him. They had been trying not to burden him by becoming dependent on him. Unlike the humans here.

["Oh, dear."]

But no matter how early regret came, it was always too late, wasn't it?

Missing the inhabitants of the Great Forest, the Mountain Lord raised his tail. His white scales caught the light and shone like clouds in the sky.

"He's moving!"

A little more force made the tip of his tail rigid as an awl. He drove the straight, pointed tail into the earth.

"They're growing!"

But there was none of the noise or vibration that should have accompanied his tail striking the ground. It simply merged seamlessly with the earth, pouring his power into it.

RUSTLE!

All manner of grains and fruit trees began shooting up from the ground where fresh green grass had grown.

"Stop, stop! Don't just pick whatever you please!"

"Just wait until we've counted... I said don't eat them!"

The trees spread roots and branches, and before long began bearing fruit. The fruit ripened in an instant, too.

Hands shot out in competition, seizing the fruit. They all belonged to residents held under control in the name of protection.

"We'll distribute it, so just hold on for...!"

"Don't hide any! Anyone caught hiding food will be punished!"

The soldiers began restraining the residents. They were trying to stop a few—those healthy enough to win the scramble—from monopolizing the fruit, but the disturbances this had caused already numbered more than ten.

Including this one, he could count off all ten fingers and then fold them back down to reach another ten.

["Oh, dear... The idiots are fighting again. At it again."]

He had not given them food to see this sort of behavior. Humans really were greedy.

Between the supplies brought by the relief forces arriving one after another, the resources the humans obtained by hunting, and the fruit he provided, there was enough for everyone to get through each day without starving, even if they could not eat their fill.

["Why not just stop feeding them?"]

["I'd like to, myself... Good grief."]

How would they react if he stopped now? Given the difference in strength, they would not dare try to harm him, but...

["... I don't much fancy watching those blockheads sing the tiger's praises."]

The Mountain Lord wearily rested his head among his coils. Simply restoring a forest was one thing, but speeding up time to deliver a harvest every single time was a considerable burden even for him.

["And letting the people the knight suffered so much to save just die... That wouldn't sit right with me, either."]

["You're making trouble for yourself."]

["But isn't it lovely? Unlike beasts, who live only by the law of the strong devouring the weak, humans sometimes use their strength for the weak."]

For now, of course, this much fatigue was still worth bearing. He liked humans who knew how to stoop to help the lowly despite possessing great power, and he liked the fruits of their efforts.

["So you're going to stay?"]

["Oh, even I wouldn't go that far. I do like humans a bit, but there's a limit."]

But with that very human absent, and the fruits of his efforts so disappointing, his patience could only begin to run out. Besides, he had already fulfilled his obligation to that knight.

["Then?"]

["From what I hear, the fourth relief force will arrive soon. Once they're here, I'm pulling my tail out."]

Keeping that in mind, the Mountain Lord drew his final line. Any human present who could interpret his spoken language would have been appalled.

Well, since not a single one could, the message never reached them.

Is It a Problem If the Protagonist Is Obsessed with Staying in Character? (Serial)

Written by │ Hae Inseol

Publisher │ Kim Juhyeong

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