Chapter 10: Back to normal

As soon as he returned from the Griffin Palace, Yooseong went to the bar of the Information Guild Puma.

“Hoo. This is the shortest time I’ve spent on a return visit…”

“You knew that, right?”

“Customer. What are you talking about? I don’t know..?”

Clink.

Before he could finish his words, Baron put down the plate he was washing as he looked at the gun barrel thrust out.

Then, he opened his bright yellow cat eyes and looked at Yooseong once.

“I’ll take you inside.”

He turned around and went inside the bar.

Yooseong wondering what he believed and acted so confidently.

He shook his head once as he watched Baron’s back, lowered his gun and followed him inside the bar.

“How much did you know?”

Yooseong asked again as soon as he arrived at the guest reception room.

The content of the question was about the three former members of the warrior party.

After meeting his friend Seyeon and talking to her and checking on Sylvia Sylvester’s condition, Yooseong suddenly realized one thing.

The fact that the Information Guild Puma passed on the information of the three former members of the warrior party meant that Yooseong clearly understood the relationship between himself and his former party members.

“I knew that the three former members of the warrior party did not consider Yooseong, who was a supporter of the warrior party, in a normal relationship.”

And that was correct.

When Yooseong looked at him in bewilderment at how someone who was not from the Griffin Castle or a member of the warrior party, but Puma Suin, or to be exact, Information Guild Puma, knew the facts that even he did not know…

“When you run an Information Guild, a lot of information is bound to gather. For example, the moans of someone being called out by the nuns patrolling in front of the saint’s room, or the screams heard by the knights standing guard in front of the knight commander’s room..”

“The decisive factor is that the red-cloaked archmage from the mercenary world buys any information about Yooeong.”

As soon as Baron finished explaining.

“So, let’s say you knew that those three were obsessed with me.

Why did you pass it on to me as recommended information?”

When Yooseong asked, Branch Manager Baron fiddled with the strap of his monocle’s glasses, smiled his characteristic mask-like smile, and opened his mouth.

“When valuable information appears, anyone can seize it, whether it’s an information dealer on the market or a small to medium-sized information guild. In order to become the best information guild among them, it’s not enough to simply gather information. You have to set the table yourself and monopolize the high-quality information produced in an advantageous position.”

“In other words, I gave them the recommended information because I thought that if I got involved with those three, I would get some valuable information… And you were trying to take money from them in the process?”

“I did give it to you for free since Karen Redleaf bought the information from our guild.”

Yoosung laughed in vain at Baron’s answer and glared at the puma face again.

“I was wondering why there’s a puma head decoration in the reception room, you know… I’d like to add one next to it?”

Clink.

“Ouch! That’s a good idea!”

…He threatened while thrusting the muzzle of his rifle, but Baron responded with a sly attitude.

“If my head can wash away the rudeness I committed against you, I’ll give it to you as much as you want. Haha!”

That’s why you Information Guild brats.

“It would be easy for YooSung to vent his anger on Baron right here and now. And even if they punish him, the Information Guild will not turn YooSung into an enemy and will just ignore it. Instead, they will handle the issue of handing over information about three former members of the warrior party and trying to play around with it on the board as if the grudge was resolved, and they will stop selling information here and hide. Even if you get angry about that and track down and kill the Puma Guild members, it will be of no use. The Information Guild is like a colony of cockroaches, beggars on the street, farmers plowing the fields, and merchants selling goods can all be Information Guild members. Even if you kill Baron, a new replacement will come, and even if you kill that replacement, Puma Guild will still be hiding somewhere.”

“I want five pieces of information. Give them to me for free, regardless of value.”

YooSung chose practicality over unnecessary suffering with a brief vent of anger.

“I recommended information about three former party members, so take three.”

Even in the midst of all this, Metallica branch manager Baron was trying to hit him.

“I was also a member of the warrior party, so 4 cases including that.”

“Good. So, YooSung left the bar after receiving 4 free Puma Guild passes that would be of great use in the future and a bundle of “Shingwangseok ingredient analysis reports’ compiled by the Puma Guild.

“We’re running out of ingredients, huh?”

Yooseong turned and headed toward the shopping district of the capital city Metallica.

“Cheap! Cheap! We’re selling fresh vegetables and fruits that came in today at a bargain price!”

A vegetable store run by a friendly-looking wolf-man.

[Fresh vegetables and fruits for sale at regular prices]

He found the vegetable store of the glasses girl standing silently without saying a word.

“It’s completely free! It’s free! This service is only available today! The owner of the vegetable store is crazy!”

“_”

Unlike the wolf-man who was enthusiastically promoting her products and soliciting customers, the glasses girl was sitting quietly on a chair.

Although she had put up a sign saying “Fresh vegetables picked today” in front of the vegetables as if she was advertising them, all the eyes of the passersby were focused on the wolf-man’s vegetable store.

“Hmm.”

After watching the situation for a while, Yooseong walked toward the glasses girl’s store.

“Welcome, customer.”

The glasses girl, who was sitting on her chair, jumped up and walked toward Yooseong.

On the side of her head was a blue metal piece like a round headset.

Yes.

The girl with glasses is a mechanical doll, Automatic, that can only be found in Iron Road.

“Two of these and two of these.”

“Yes”

Automatic girl immediately puts vegetables in the basket that YooSung took out.

Immediately afterwards, she holds out her small palm toward Yoo Sung.

“10 donghwa.”

It is slightly more expensive than the regular price of vegetables.

However, YooSung puts the donghwa in the girl’s hand without the slightest hesitation.

And when the girl tries to grab the basket of vegetables, “There are more people in the store next door, so why do you always buy from our store?”

The girl asks with a puzzled expression.

There is no robot in the world that feels puzzled while performing an action.

“Because I trust you.”

YooSung developed a hatred and distrust for “humans’ themselves after experiencing the events of the warrior party.

However, YooSung trusted Automatic.

He had acquired information about Automatic from the electronic library left behind by the ancient magic nation in the basement of Iron Road’s royal castle.

The original Automatic was a highly advanced metal doll created for the ancient magicians to handle the annoying chores and manage the vast amount of information that people could not remember.

It is said that when the Magic Nation was about to self- destruct due to its superior technology, the last survivor of the Magic Nation gave the Automatic one order -Live like a human.

Following that order, the Automatics have continued to perform the ‘roles’ of humans for thousands of years, forming a nation like humans, and living as members by choosing their own occupations.

‘It was recorded that the negative things that humans have, such as distrust, jealousy, and envy, are limited to Automatics…”

“It’s just that the vegetables at this store are fresher than those at the store next door. That’s all”

In fact, when examining the wolf beast’s vegetables that were harvested today, it was 3-7 days since they were harvested, and the vegetables at the Automatic Girl’s store were harvested exactly today.

“Come again! You look lonely, oppa!”

Hearing the Automatic Girl’s greeting that you would hear in a red-light district, YooSung headed to the alley where the workshop was. Jeokbuk. Jeokbuk..

Yooseong entering the alley.

Since it was the most remote alley in the capital city of Metallica, the number of people passing by decreased rapidly as he got closer to the workshop, and the noise also became quiet.

Jeokbuk.

Yooseong stopped walking when he could see the iron gate of the workshop in the distance.

Is there someone there?

No.

That building.

The workshop opposite Yooseong’s residence was originally a bare brick wall.

However, recently, one side of the wall began to crumble, and now it was completed as a building in the form of a small alley shop.

Of course, the neighbors.

As if they were waiting for him, a store was built right in front of him, so he couldn’t help but be interested.

So he tried to ask the owner of the store or the workers building the store.

It’s not like some idiot is building it, and every time he looked, there was no one in the store.

He had never seen the workers building the store or the owner of the store even once.

He wondered if it was just a store waiting to set up shop.

Every time I look at it, the speed at which the store is being built seems abnormally fast, so it seems certain that some kind of construction is underway.

No matter how much I think about it, it’s strange…

A store that was built suspiciously quickly in an alley with almost no people.

Yooseong stopped for a moment and slowly looked around the store.

Judging from the picture of a potion on the wooden sign, it seemed to be a herbal medicine store.

Judging from the large glass windows for display purposes, it seemed to be a general store.

Right now, the store is not open yet, so there are curtains on both sides.

The gap between the curtains is so narrow that you can’t see inside.

“Well I’ll find out when it opens.”

Yooseong took his attention away from this somewhat strange store, opened the iron door, and went into the workshop.

“.”

In the darkness between the curtains, completely unaware that there were golden eyes staring at Yooseong’s back.

Swish…

He carefully read the ingredient analysis table for the ore that Baron had handed him, one by one.

“This one lacks strength… This one has too low mana compatibility… Some are just rocks…”

Yooseong put down the report for a moment and let out a deep sigh.

The blueprint for the Dimensional Transfer Gate is almost 90% complete.

Considering the range of the gate that can be operated stably, it would need to be the size of a soccer stadium on Earth in the previous life.

Even a child would be able to guess that it would require a large area, a huge amount of materials, and manpower.

However, those areas were not a big problem.

The funds could be secured with the items obtained from the Dragon Lair that had been raided in the past, and the site for building the gate on the snowy mountain in front of the Lair was also secured.

Manpower was also not a problem.

The dwarves of Iron Road, who were the most skilled on the continent, and the artisans with connections said they would help.

The real problem is that there is no metal that can withstand the output of the gate.

There is no metal in this world that can make a circular ‘belt’ that can withstand the output of the Dimensional Transfer Gate.

Although I am trying to find out as much as I can through Puma Guild, one of the largest information guilds on the continent.

“Is there really no metal that has the mana adaptability of Mithril and the strength of Adamantium…?”

For a moment, Yooseong thought of transmutation, but soon shook his head and looked at the report again.

Only things that he had seen and imagined at least once could be transmuted using transmutation.

Metals that he had not yet encountered with his five senses were impossible to transmute.

Thump.

Finally, Yooseong, his eyes tired from staying up all night, put the report aside and leaned back in his chair.

There was not a single piece of metal that could be of any help.

Should I smoke one and look at it again…

Sigh.

He transmuted a tobacco pipe using transmutation.

It had been a long time since he quit smoking, but he had started smoking again since the day he threw away Karen Redleaf.

“Did she just go back…?”

Yooseong, who had been thinking of Karen who had not been seen for several days, tried to light the pipe by putting a weak narcotic ingredient into the end of the pipe.

“Ah.”

As he looked at the pipe, the image of Sylvia blowing out narcotic smoke flashed before his eyes, and he put the pipe down on the desk.

“Is it because I stayed up all night? Do you keep having second thoughts? Why.”

In the end, Yooseong rubbed his eyes and walked to the shower room.

He felt like he’d feel dirty in the morning if he didn’t pour cold water on his head right now.

Iron Road calls himself an empire.

Since the ancient magic nation of Atlantis was the only empire on the continent, Iron Road, which succeeded it, should also be an empire, which was the result of the Automatics’ opinions.

It was a country with no influence, but it still felt like an empire.

In reality, it was a country with only engineers who were mechanical nerds, Automatics who performed human roles, and foreigners who came for tourism.

But still, because it was an empire, it had a proper imperial castle.

A huge imperial castle was built on an island that looked like a remote island in the capital of Metallica.

While the outside felt like steampunk, the imperial castle itself was tall and majestic, and had a more proper, authentic style than any other country’s royal castle.

Only the nobles of Iron Road could enter this castle.

However, since all the nobles were automatic and did not age, it was virtually impossible for outsiders to enter the castle unless they had the title of honorary noble.

Jerk… Jerk…

There was a figure walking across the bridge over the moat (a deep pool that surrounds the castle) leading to the Iron Lord’s castle.

Iron Man.

“Hmm? Someone’s coming?”

“There’s no record of anyone coming today.”

The knights in full plate armor who were standing guard at the watchtower, the first entrance to the castle, quickly came down from the watchtower and blocked the passage into the castle upon seeing Inyoung approaching.

“You must verify your identity to pass.”

“Your name, affiliation, what brings you here?”

Inyoung took off the brown hood she was wearing at the knights’ questioning at the same time.

“What’s the matter.”

White prosthetic eyes with gears rising from her gray hair.

“To use the royal underground library.”

Inyoung’s true identity was YooSeong

“YooSeong YooSeong warrior!”

“Haha!”

The knight shouted in surprise, and another knight, ‘Automatic, burst into laughter.

All of the internal personnel of the Iron Road Imperial Castle were made of Automatics.

However, their heads did not have metal parts like headsets.

In the case of the knights, they were called ‘Knight’ model Automatics, so the armor itself was their skin and body.

“Is there anything else you want to check?”

At Yooseong’s voice, which was different from his usual businesslike manner, asking with a friendly face, “No! How can I confirm your identity, Hero?”

“Please wait a moment. I will tell the princess that Hero Yooseong has arrived right now.”

While one knight was talking to Yooseong, the other knight put a finger on his temple and began communicating somewhere.

“Oh, over there..!”

Yooseong hurriedly stretched out his hand to stop the knight who was communicating.

“The princess said to bring him right now!”

“She said the preparations are also perfectly done.”

Yooseong let out an awkward laugh at the words of the two Knight Automatics. I just came to the underground library to look for some information.

That’s right.

If it was the underground library of the ancient magic nation, Yooseong, he had visited in the hopes that it might have information or samples about the metal he was looking for.

“Come on! Come on in, Hero!”

“I will risk my life to escort you to the central hall of the royal palace!”

However, the Automatic Knights with maxed out affection were overdoing it as if taking Yooseong to the palace was their life’s mission.

“Haha. Then please.”

Although he was not the type to like commotion, the Automatics’ emotions were not flattery or sarcasm, but pure joy.

Yooseong decided to respond to that one-sided goodwill.

Squeak-

And so he passed through the large iron gate opened by the Automatic Knights and entered the palace.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The sound of footsteps that had been few at first.

Chuck-chuck-chuck-chuck-

Later, it changed to a commotion like the advance of a legion.

“Hero!”

“Meteor Hero!”

When he sent the previous message, it seemed like he had sent a general message to all the automatics in the palace.

They greeted each knight they encountered fiercely and started following YooSung with the words “Hero.”

“This isn’t like I’m going to start a rebellion.”

YooSung felt a tremendous burden as he felt the presence of the knights who were no less than the knights following him.

In the end, contrary to his intention to go quietly, he arrived at the palace’s central hall with a huge commotion.

[Hero Han YooSung, who saved all the automatics of our Iron Road, is entering!]

As soon as the palace hall opened, a loud voice was heard, along with the trumpets and instruments of the music band, and a long red carpet was laid out under a chandelier with gorgeous jewels.

On both sides of the pillars and pillars, bishop-class automatics and nobles of Iron Road were standing in a certain posture, carrying their bags behind their backs in silver uniforms.

“_”

As soon as he entered, whether it was because of the hospitality that made it not strange to use the word “extreme” twice in a row or because of the light of the chandelier, Yooseong squinted and barely managed to look toward the giant throne.

A girl was sitting there.

The distance between the carpet and the throne was quite far, so he couldn’t see clearly.

Jiing.

The zoom function of the artificial eye automatically worked and the girl’s figure began to get closer. with difficulty on the throne chair that was much larger than her.

(communication device), and below the crown, long, wavy hair in a deep pink color that would never appear normally continued to flow.

The mysterious eyes with star patterns engraved on a blinking sky blue background and the words “fairy” or “angel” naturally came to mind, and her unrealistic appearance that was both cute and beautiful.

The clothes she was wearing were similar to the long coats of scholars, but with a combination of light pink and white colors overall.

The short dress she was wearing inside gave off a refreshing vibe rather than the dullness typical of a long coat, creating an outfit that felt completely different.

Whoosh.

The girl who discovered the meteor slowly got up from her seat.

Wings-!! Swish-!

She formed wings made of crystals from her back and spread them out.

“Yoga nii-!!”

Swish! …and rushed towards the meteor like a rocket.

The girl was sitting with her arms raised on her head was a crystal crown.