Chapter 5: Alternative, what’s going on?

The sunlight was bright when he came out, but it was already dark outside.

Step by step… Step by step…

Yooseong walked down the dark alley to return to the workshop.

“.”

Yooseong’s expression, walking slowly, was dark with a mixture of emotions.

The reason for this was because of three pieces of information he had heard from Baron, the head of the Puma Guild branch.

First, Karen Redleaf went missing a year ago.

Also, I heard that a high-circle flame magician wearing a red robe began to operate in the mercenary world around that time.

The guild assumes that she is the same person as Karen Redleaf.

Second, Sylvia Sylvester, the former vanguard of the warrior party and the commander of the knights of the Griffin Kingdom, is said to be locked in her room, addicted to alcohol and drugs.

Sylvester, who is famous for being honest and never committing any subversive acts, is very strange considering the rumors about her eldest daughter.

Lastly, the former” saint Lea Forte has become a public enemy on the continent.

A year ago, at a ceremony held by the Goddess Church, she suddenly summoned a demon and killed all the priests around her.

Just like Karen Redleaf, she is currently missing.

Honestly, I don’t care what my party members do.

Even if they go wild and threaten to destroy the continent, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of my return home, YooSung doesn’t care at all.

Why did you suddenly appear in front of me.

But recently, Karen Redleaf’s appearance asking for forgiveness keeps coming to mind, and YooSung unconsciously becomes concerned about his former warrior party members whom he had forgotten.

“Everyone.. suddenly changed a year ago…?”

YooSung stopped and muttered, then shook his head and walked forward.

And when he reached the iron gate in the alley… YooSung! __?

” Karen Redleaf, crouching next to the door, called out to him. ”

Ah His figure passed by, but soon he returned to an empty wall.

It was an illusion.

The scratch marks on the iron door caught YooSung’s attention.

Swish. YooSung, who placed his hand on the iron door, immediately used his magic to erase the traces of the iron door.

However, even though he had erased all the traces, the thought of Karen Redleaf that he had once thought of would not go away.

It’s not something I should be concerned about at all.

She didn’t look well..!

The two thoughts coexisted, and scenes from the past few days quickly came to mind.

Karen, who was wearing dusty clothes and looking up at him with dark circles in her eyes.

Karen, who had fallen helplessly after being hit in the face. Karen, who had hung on the door and screamed.

Karen Redleaf had not been seen for several days since that incident.

“Han YooSung… Let’s just think about going home.”

YooSung muttered with a not-so-happy face, shaking his head and pulling the doorknob.

Squeak… The quiet interior of the workshop came into view as the door opened.

Although it wasn’t a very large space, the workshop was the place where YooSung felt the most comfortable.

He hung the outer garment he was wearing on the chair and opened the drawer to take out a piece of parchment.

Swish.. Yooseong started checking the blueprint of ‘Dimensional Transfer Gate 0-1’ with an ink-soaked quill. thud..! ”

When the quill he was holding broke, he got up with a stiff face. ‘No matter how much I think about it, I heard it for nothing.

That information.

The information he heard from Baron was, in Yooseong’s opinion, information that was of no use to him at all.

A few years ago, he had bought information related to the three people who had a bad relationship in the past, thinking that they might be scheming.

But this time, the information he heard was simply about the destruction of the three people.

If he had felt the same way as before, he would have laughed at them, saying that it was good.

However, because of the miserable appearance Karen had shown him recently, Yooseong could not simply laugh at them.

Since Karen had come to visit, in a comer of his heart, he had been thinking, “What if all those three people had done to me was someone’s scheme?”

That thought is making the three evil ones nervous. Now is not the time to think about them… The blueprints are complete, so I should just be thinking about building the gate… Damn it!

” Baron…. I can’t figure out why Puma Guild would ‘recommend that information to me.”

“Yeah… I’d rather find out for sure.”

Concluding that he couldn’t continue his work in this frustrating state, Yooseong decided to properly check on the three of them.

Knock.

Yooseong opened each drawer while walking hurriedly.

“There it is.”

Among the cubic metal cubes that filled the last drawer, he found a cube with a platinum jewel embedded in it, picked it up, and closed the drawer.

The cubic cube in Seong’s hand.

This was also a device created through transmutation, and it was an item that compressed objects to be stored and made them not feel heavy.

“You’re probably asleep right now, but… there’s only one person who knows about the three of you.”

Yooseong muttered to himself while looking at the cube and pressed the platinum part in the center of the cube with his finger.

Knock!

As soon as he did, a crack formed in the cube and it unfolded.

A white baseball-like sphere fell onto Yooseong’s palm.

“It’s been a while, so I don’t know if it’ll work properly.”

As soon as the muttering Yoo-seong placed the sphere on his chest.

Clang-! Clang-!

The metal sphere split and disintegrated, and the fragments began to cover Yooseong’s chest area.

The armor that covered Yooseong’s upper body, just like the metal chest part of a half-plate armor.

Clang.

Light came in from the core embedded in the center.

[Body Personality Compatibility Measurement: Safety]

[Optimal condition applied according to current physical condition.]

[Please hold your breath for a moment…]

All kinds of holographic messages passed by Yooseong’s prosthetic eye.

[Synchronization complete.]

“Whew..”

Yooseong let out the breath he had been holding only after seeing the last message.

Clang Yooseong was wearing armor made of platinum metal below his neck and chest. It was just equipment that covered his chest, but it gave off a completely different feeling from the ordinary leather clothes he was wearing just a moment ago.

The ability of YooSung to combine weapons and equipment seen in movies.

Since the ability is limited, he cannot implement things like laser guns or makeshift nuclear bombs that destroy the Earth.

However, by repeatedly using the ability and supplying enough magic power, he can create equipment of roughly similar level. The equipment he is wearing now is also a reproduction of parts of a body-type metal suit from a certain hero movie.

The name of this equipment is ‘Stealth Armor.

When worn, he can use the ability of transparency and hiding like a chameleon and a complete particle mode that can ignore all attacks 2-3 times.

Thud… thud….

YooSung approached the closet in a comer of the room while wearing the Stealth Armor.

It was an excessively large closet for Yoo Sung, who usually wears only one or two sets of clothes.

Squeak…

Of course, there were no clothes inside.

Not even hangers, the closet was completely empty.

If someone had seen it, they would have wondered why he had left furniture that was just taking up space that he didn’t use.

But YooSung had another purpose for this empty closet.

Knock.

If you lift the wooden board on the floor of the closet, there is a hole underneath.

A ladder is placed there, allowing you to go down to the space below.

Yes.

This is not a closet, but an entrance to a secret underground space.

Ssuk. Squeak-Knock.

Yooseong puts his legs on the ladder under the hole first, closes the cover on the floor of the closet, and starts going down the ladder.

Chuck Soon, the ladder ends and Yooseong lands on the floor.

In a dark space without a single ray of light…

“Night mode.”

Jing- With Yooseong’s single word, a flashlight-like light shines from the prosthetic eye implanted in one eye, illuminating the dark space.

A long tunnel passageway.

Slurp. Slurp.

Yooseong starts walking quickly along the tunnel-like passageway without hesitation.

And soon, an empty space is revealed at the end of the passageway.

A place that looks like a cave with stalactites growing.

In a small room, six blue-emitting tombstones are erected.

These tombstones are actually ‘magic stones!

Magic stones are minerals that contain mana and serve as a power source for magic engineering devices or as an auxiliary resource that supplements the magic power that magicians lack when using magic.

Since the value of artifacts is considerable, magic stones are also expensive.

Even a magic stone the size of a little finger costs a lot of gold to obtain.

But what about the magic stones the size of the tombstones here?

Since they can only be obtained from dragons’ lairs, the price is the price.

There was only one reason why such expensive magic stones were gathered here.

“Hmm…a griffon…”

YooSeong, who was mumbling while looking in front of the tombstones, stopped in front of a green magic circle with a ‘griffon’ eagle head drawn on it.

Jiing A circular magic circle connected to the mana stream extending from the magic stone stone embedded in it.

The runes engraved on the magic circle are related to ‘space transfer.

According to the designed runes, the purpose of this magic circle is to cast a teleportation spell to a designated location.

The reason YooSeong installed the magic circles in these underground places was to easily move to his hideouts and important locations throughout the continent.

“Well, since he’s the king of a country. I don’t need to buy him a gift.”

Yoosung, who was standing on the magic circle, reached out and touched the stone monument.

Whew..!!

The view in front of his eyes folded into multiple angles and soon a completely different place unfolded.

“Hmm..”

With a slight shiver, Yoosung reflexively put strength into his legs and stood up straight.

“J”

The narrow space where he could barely stand was filled with cloth-like things, making it hard to breathe.

‘I told you not to put clothes in here.”

Yoosung grumbled to himself and spat out the cloth in his mouth, roughly pushing aside the expensive clothes with jewels and starting to search for the metal device inside.

It wasn’t easy because the light in the eye was off, but Yoosung found the groove by feeling, put his finger inside it, and pressed the cold metal button inside.

Clink-Then, with a small metallic sound.

Squeak-The closed front opened, letting in outside air.

Ameteor came out from inside the “wardrobe’ that he had carefully entered while looking around the room where the lights were off for a moment.

The place that seemed to be the outside room was large enough to play futsal.

The marble and gold-decorated walls and the large door decorated with lions on one side gave off the feeling that it was the room of a high-ranking noble or a private room of royalty at first glance.

Usually, in these rooms, it is standard to place unnecessary expensive decorations or furniture here and there.

Since the owner of the room did not seem to be the type to spend extravagantly, there were only a few flower pots, making the large room feel spacious.

In case the two of them are sleeping together…

To avoid an awkward situation.

Shh.

He felt his chest and activated his armor’s stealth function.

thud…

He approached the innermost part of the room, where there was a ‘king-sized bed, without even the slightest trace of his footsteps.

“Dmm…… phew… drrmmr.__”

The closer he got, the clearer the sound of snoring became.

He walked right up to him and looked at the bed.

“Dmmm__”

He saw a blond man lying alone with his feet kicking off the blanket.

‘Thank goodness… It doesn’t seem like we’re sharing a bed. While thinking that, Yooseong frowned as he checked the man’s face.

“Did I come to the wrong room?”

“Dmmmmm… Phew…”

The snoring man’s face was not the one he remembered.

‘It’s been so long since I’ve been here… The room might have changed.”

As he thought that and was about to turn back to the dresser, “Umm… What do you think of the luggage…!

I absolutely cannot allow that… Dmmmm…

Yooseong heard the blond man’s snoring and opened his eyes wide as he made an expression that he thought it couldn’t be true, but he looked back at the man on the bed.

The man scratching his unmatched washboard abs had shiny blond hair.

Blonde hair is a common hair color in this world, but there is only one person with blond hair that shines so softly even in the dark.

The warrior who uses the holy sword of the goddess and whose hair color has turned golden due to the influence of the holy sword’s magic!

I can’t believe it, but, A sword-like object leaning against the railing next to the bed that I didn’t see just now because I glanced at it briefly, and a golden crown hanging from the sword handle catches his eye.

‘Oh my… For a moment, Yooseong erased the man’s thick beard from his mind and compared his face to that of the past.

He brought his trembling hands toward the man’s face with a surprised expression.

Knock-knock and a few more knocks.

“Ugh…”

When the man still didn’t get up…

Knock-!

Yooseong slapped him concisely.

“Ugh! Shit!”

A familiar hometown curse burst out of the man’s mouth and his golden eyes opened.

Blink-! Swish-!

“What the hell are you!?”

The warrior who retired!

He opened his eyes and grabbed the sword next to him in just one second and took an attacking stance on the bed.

He would have looked quite presentable if he hadn’t been wearing the kind of fluffy pajamas that the Emperor wears.

“Hmm?”

The man held the sword…. the holy sword and looked around for a moment before lowering the sword and scratching his head.

“What… I clearly felt a presence?”

The stealth function of the meteor is an absolute hiding that cannot be detected even by magic, and the technique to hide the presence of the meteor itself is also excellent.

If he just held his breath and stood still, no one would know, no matter how much of a warrior he was.

“Ha… Are you stressed out these days?”

The man… When Seyeon was about to lie down on the bed again.

Shh-

“It’s been a while.”

Yooseong said as he released his stealth.

“Huh… what?!”

Chaeaeng-!

The blond man was shocked as if he had seen a ghost, and Seyeon immediately threw the goddess’ holy sword she was holding onto the floor.

“Haha-! It’s Yoo-seong!!”

She immediately jumped from the bed to hug Yooseong, [Particleization Activation] Shh– “Kkuu-!”

However, Yooseong quickly casted particleization, becoming completely transparent, and Seyeon’s body passed through Yooseong’s body and hit the floor.

“Agogo.”

YooSung, who was expressionlessly but curiously looking at SeYeon, who was wearing pajamas and patting her waist, squatted down and “Why are you so sullen?”

YooSung asked former warrior Jin SeYeon. YooSung and SeYeon, who had no choice but to sit on the edge of the bed in the dark because they would have to turn on the lights to avoid having people around them.

“My hometown (Earth) friend came after a long time, so I can’t just ignore him, right!?”

As she spoke in a completely excited manner, SeYeon hurriedly opened the pillow she had been using and took out a bottle of alcohol from inside.

“No… why is alcohol coming out of my pillow?”

“There are reasons for that. Anyway, this is a 132-year-old Imperial Dragon. You can’t buy it with money?”

“I quit drinking.”

“Really? It’s a good thing I didn’t quit. What would have happened if we both quit? Come on. Take a drink, friend.”

Pong YooSung was dumbfounded at SeYeon’s playful attitude as she uncorked the bottle of alcohol and poured it for him, but accepted the glass.

It’s the king’s secretly hidden liquor, so it’s really great’

After rolling the liquor around in his mouth, savoring it, and swallowing it, Yooseong looked at Seyeon again.

“Kiya..”

He emptied his empty glass and exhaled with dazed eyes, looking exactly like a middle-aged man.

‘Hey, how did you end up like this?”

Yooseong couldn’t help but be shocked seeing his friend like that.

Even on Earth, he was popular with the girls at school for his unique appearance, and in this world, he was like the main character in a story, with the title of warrior and a golden hair buff.

He had no idea what had happened to make him look like this bearded old man.

“Your beard.. why did you grow it?”

In the end, even Yooseong, who usually got to the point right away, couldn’t hold it back and asked.

“Oh, this?”

Seyeon reached out and stroked her beard with a bitter expression.

“Don’t talk nonsense. A young raccoon became the king of a country. The nobles looked down on me so much that whenever I spoke to them, they would say, “It’s because I lack experience, Your Majesty-!” Since you kept talking like this, I grew it out to look a little older.”

“No. But that’s true. If you shaved your beard, I think your old face would come out a little… Even putting the beard aside, you’ve aged so much… No, twice as much, right?”

“Ha… I want to hit the king.”

As his friend Seyun said that and slumped her shoulders, Yooseong realized that being a king wasn’t a job where you could just sit around and eat.

“Is there really so much to do as a king?”

Is there anything going on with the documents the nobles submit?

Actually, being a king doesn’t really have anything to do with it.”

“Then what about your marriage? Is there something going on with Princess Elena?”

“When was she the princess?”

When Yooseong mentioned the name ‘princess’ Elena, Seyun frowned and shook her hand roughly.

“She’s not a princess, she’s a queen. A queen.”

“Why? Princess Elena…. If she’s your sister-in-law, I don’t think married life would be so bad.”

Let’s say this while thinking of Princess Elena, who always smiled shyly and kindly and treated him, a sorcerer, without any discrimination.

“Day and night… As soon as night comes, she becomes a lustful prostitute and even when I say I won’t stand up anymore and save you, wife! She squeezes me to the end.”

“That Princess Elena… I can’t imagine….?”

“You saw me take alcohol out of the pillow earlier! I like drinking, but you wouldn’t let me drink because wouldn’t stand there! That’s why I hid it. It’s really…shit…I’m the king, so there’s nothing I can do as I please!”

Looking at Seyeon who was shouting with a gloomy face as if he had lost his country, Yooseong thought that the end of a warrior who defeated the demon king, married the princess, and became the king might not be so happy.

“Let’s drink first! I smell like alcohol, so I’ll get caught anyway, so let’s drink it all up!”

…

” After a few more drinks and the strong smell of alcohol coming from each other, So Yooseong…what brings you here? It’s been years since you’ve been here. It definitely doesn’t seem like your personality to come here just to joke around with me…”

Although he looked drunk, Yoo-seong asked with a clear look in his eyes.

“…”

Yooseong slowly opened his mouth, thinking for a moment about what topic to bring up.

“Karen…Redleaf came to see me.”

“Redleaf’s court magician? To you?”

That question contains both the question of ‘why’ and ‘worry.

As a warrior of the warrior party, Seyeon also knew what kind of situation Yoo-seong had been in right next to her.

Considering the relationship between Karen, who had been attacking Yooseong as if she was going to kill him, and Yooseong, who was her friend, the only conclusion is that Karen Redleaf went to Yooseong to play another trick.

It was also Seyeon herself who had downgraded Yoo-seong from a criminal in the magic academia a year ago.

“He suddenly disappeared a year ago and I couldn’t find him. What did he do to you again? That’s why you came!?”

He said he was sorry.

Even though the conversation hadn’t even been an hour, Seyeon was surprised several times.

“He said he was sorry and asked me to forgive him just once. He said he was sorry and asked me to forgive him even if I beat him until he calmed down. I don’t know if it was an act or not, but that’s what happened.”

“Me, Yooseong”

“Huh?”

As YooSung looked at her, Seyeon slowly opened her mouth, pressing the wrinkles on her forehead with her fingers.

“The other party members… So, can we talk about the three of you, not me?”

The topic she was going to ask next came out of Seyeon’s mouth first.