#11
An empty room.
Noah moved quickly throughout his room. After going to the training ground every day, everyone assumed that’s where he would head when he left through the main gate after breakfast.
After meals, when he went back to his room to change into comfortable clothes and came down to the first floor, the kitchen staff would give him a small bag containing cookies and milk. Then, at the main gate of the castle, the guard would give him Noah’s personal club.
Within the main castle, no one except Lucas and a few knights in charge of security was allowed to carry weapons.
Are you kidding? I’m the heir to this house, he had insisted.
The small club, which made him feel like he should be running around a small campfire with nothing but animal skins wrapped around his naked body while shouting “ooga chaka, ooga ooga,” was cumbersome, but he had to return it and receive it each time.
Life in Austen was truly boring. There weren’t many visitors, and the usually quiet Schwein Castle had occasional busy days—today was one of them.
It was the day when goods regularly arrived through the merchant guild. It was a chaotic day with items coming in that would be used for months, and also the day when there were the fewest eyes watching Noah.
And today was the day Noah’s first adventure would begin.
Since it was the day with the least attention directed at him, it was easiest to move around without being noticed. His plan was to pretend he was going to the training ground to deceive people, but his actual destination was the hot springs a bit further up from there.
Dressed in comfortable attire for the training ground, Noah stopped by the kitchen as usual to receive his snack bag, which he slung over his shoulder. Then he also received his club at the entrance.
Once outside, Noah’s preparation for his outing was complete when he inserted the handle of his club into the small loop on his belt. With simple snacks and a weapon that fit perfectly in his hand, what was there to fear?
Noah’s face was full of smiles as he walked toward the training ground with confident steps.
He waved brightly and greeted everyone he passed, then grinned when he saw the empty training ground. He had deliberately chosen lunchtime to leave. By now, everyone would be busy washing up, putting away weapons, or starting their meals.
From now on, he had to be careful. Noah walked close to the short garden trees on both sides of the path and looked around. After confirming no one was nearby, he slipped through a small gap between the garden trees and entered the garden.
Then he plodded along beside garden trees that were about his height.
Summer at age five was coming to an end, and winter would soon arrive. Trees that had sprouted during the short spring and summer had changed into colorful hues, and the cool—now almost cold—wind made leaves fall with each gust.
“Beautiful.”
Noah, or rather Jihun before the transmigration, loved autumn the most. He enjoyed seeing the trees full of various colors, not just a single shade, under the high, blue sky.
The cool breeze that pushed away the summer heat and the falling leaves made him feel both happy and sad.
And he loved the late autumn and early winter snow that followed. He liked the first snow that couldn’t properly accumulate and quickly melted away the next day.
Because the first snowfall meant winter had arrived, which meant he could enjoy his favorite winter sports to his heart’s content.
“Gween, gween… wed, wed…”
Humming a children’s song he vaguely remembered, Noah noticed a small hole that looked just big enough for his body to pass through.
Recalling his memories, the hot springs were within the castle grounds. He had heard they were protected deep inside the solid castle walls to prevent anyone from tampering with the spring water.
But what he was looking at now was a small hole in the castle wall. Going through this hole meant leaving the safety of the castle.
The song that had been happily coming from Noah’s mouth abruptly stopped. His small head busily looked around again. No one was there.
Should he safely find the hot springs inside the castle walls?
Or should he go outside the castle?
Noah’s pupils trembled anxiously as he faced this momentous decision.
Angels and demons were busily fighting above his head.
“I can come back anyway.”
Noah’s deliberation wasn’t long, and once he made his decision, he quickly lay down. Then he pushed his head through the small hole.
“This is freedom.”
Doing what you’re told not to do is always the most fun.
Before his transmigration, there was a time when he tried everything to attract the attention of his indifferent parents. Instead of turning in a blank test paper, he chose to deliberately write the answers backward.
Rather than coming home in the early morning, he would play outside and proudly enter the house at 11:58 PM. Then he would shout at his glaring parents:
‘I came home today!’
Instead of giving up on studying and spending his adolescence indulging in alcohol, cigarettes, and debauchery, he maintained a precarious middle ground. The kind of student who was somehow unsatisfactory but not quite bad enough to warrant direct scolding—too ambiguous to give up on.
While reminiscing about the times he drove them crazy by showing such neither-here-nor-there behavior, Noah’s mouth fell open at the suddenly changed scenery.
Instead of well-trimmed garden trees, Noah found himself amid massive trees that looked hundreds of years old and a forest that retained its natural appearance, barely touched by human hands. He was speechless.
He stared blankly at squirrels running around quickly, busy preparing for winter.
“Ouch.”
Hit by something falling from above, Noah touched his head with his hand and looked at the ground. Seeing a fairly large acorn, he quickly picked it up.
“Is this yours?”
Looking for the squirrel that had been jumping on the branches, Noah quickly straightened his head at a rustling sound. Were squirrels this big? No, he was just small.
As he cautiously extended his hand, the squirrel snatched only the acorn from Noah’s hand and scurried up the tree. He recalled being told that wild animals, which disliked humans, were rarely seen near the castle, largely due to regular extermination missions.
Could he play a little longer? After the squirrels disappeared, Noah turned around and, seeing the castle wall still visible, ventured deeper into the gently sloping mountain forest.
“Wow…”
A deer. First squirrels, then rabbits hopping off somewhere, and now a deer standing still, grazing on grass. A small laugh escaped Noah’s lips.
This place was a zoo.
The deer raised its head at the rustling sound of Noah’s footsteps and turned as if to leave. But it seemed to have a leg problem, as the deer limped away.
“Deer! Are you hurt?”
Noah searched for the necklace around his neck.
He felt the glimmering mana stone that Lucas had reportedly worked hard to obtain for his only son, his precious treasure. The magic imbued in this stone had allowed him to embark on this adventure that anyone would consider reckless.
Once a day.
The necklace around Noah’s neck had a warp spell that could transport him to any place he had been before.
Though it was said to be once a day, the total number of uses was limited to ten, so Noah had never actually used it. But Lucas and Loren explained this necklace to him and taught him how to use it every day.
If he could approach the deer and touch it with his hand, and then use this magic, he could warp together with the deer. It’s okay to help an injured deer, right? With that thought, Noah followed the deer.
As if aware of him following, the deer initially kept stopping and looking back, but eventually seemed to deem him safe and paid little attention to Noah.
When the deer stopped, Noah stopped too. Since there was still some distance between them, Noah let out a small gasp when he couldn’t see what was ahead. The sound made by the deer as it started walking again was like the sound of walking on shallow water.
Noah stood still and carefully looked around. It felt like he had entered a world from a movie.
With the last of the autumn leaves swirling colorfully in the wind, a light mist hung faintly over the place. It was like discovering a secret spot hidden deep in the forest.
“Wow…”
Watching the deer that had arrived first enter the pond, Noah sat down on a small rock nearby. Is there anything special? This is what a picnic should be like.
Sitting on the flat, low rock, Noah carefully opened his bundle. He laid out a bottle of milk and neatly wrapped cookies, then looked back and forth between the pond and his hands.
He felt like he should wash his hands, but was hesitant to put them in the pond. The deer had gone into the pond and settled down. The white mist continuously rising suggested it wasn’t an ordinary pond.
Moreover, since this area was known for geysers, he couldn’t know what elements might be in the water.
“Whatever.”
Though it would horrify anyone watching, Noah casually wiped his hands on his clothes and drank the milk first. Beer would be perfect instead of milk. A shiver ran down his spine as a chilly breeze passed by.
While other areas were covered by dense branches and leaves that obscured the sky, this place was wide open, naturally drawing Noah’s gaze upward. He took a big bite of cookie while watching fluffy clouds drift across the clear sky, untouched by pollution.
I want fish-shaped pastries instead of cookies. It’s not even that cold, but somehow I’m getting chills—I’m also craving hot fish cake soup and spicy rice cakes. Though he really liked Western food and all the local dishes were delicious, there were moments when he suddenly missed Korean food.
As he ate the cookies with a crisp sound, Noah noticed the deer had approached him and offered it the cookie he was eating.
Perhaps because of his youthful appearance, animals didn’t seem particularly wary of Noah either. The deer sniffed and licked the cookie with its tongue. Then, the deer’s eyes truly widened. It looked at Noah once, then back at the cookie.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
