Chapter 51

Chapter 51

‘They told me to wait, so I’m waiting….’

Crunch!

The sound of Dojae biting into fruit echoed through the quiet room.

Though Dojae, having leveled up, barely felt hunger from skipping a single night’s meal, the taste of the fresh fruit suddenly whetted his appetite.

Rather than fruit, Dojae opened his pocket dimension to eat something more filling.

Zzzzzz-.

Clang-.

Pop-.

The sub-space closed instantly.

Dojae concentrated once more and opened the sub-space.

Zzzzzzzz-.

Zzzzzz-.

…….

The sub-space closed instantly once more.

The slightest lapse in concentration caused the sub-space to shut down immediately.

‘It’ll take time to get used to using this.’

Dojae barely managed to keep the sub-space open long enough to pull out a triangle rice ball and a bottle of water.

At least recalling the necessary items made grabbing them and pulling them out easy.

Munch munch-.

‘How much time has passed?’

After finishing the triangle rice ball, he felt like he could live again.

Feeling this hungry meant quite a bit of time must have passed.

If only I could tell the time, but inside the pocket dimension, both analog and digital watches had stopped exactly as they were when I put them away.

Just in case, I pulled out my smartphone, but it was exactly as I’d left it when I departed for China—alongside Young-jin’s phone.

If there were a signal, the smartphone time would have appeared.

‘This is definitely another world.’

Swoosh.

Dojae unwrapped the cloth that had been wrapped around his upper body.

Once he loosened the cloth pressing against his thighs too, he felt much more comfortable moving around.

‘What kind of medicine did they use?’

Exposed, Dojae’s upper body bore a long wound stretching from his shoulder, through the golem’s heart, down to near his navel.

But it had already healed enough for a firm scab to form.

Similarly, the holes in his shoulder and thigh were filled with new flesh, stained a vivid crimson.

‘I should put some clothes on first.’

Dojae picked up the neatly folded clothes by his head.

But upon unfolding them, he saw they were in no condition to be worn.

Even if the dirt and blood stains weren’t noticeable on the dark clothes, they were torn so badly that his chest and abdomen were clearly visible.

‘No way I can wear this… I need different clothes.’

Dojae stripped off his top once more and opened his pocket dimension.

A fresh set of clothes emerged.

It was the suppression army uniform he wore daily in Gaeseong.

‘This punitive expedition uniform is surprisingly comfortable, you know.’

Dojae thought he should slowly make his way out.

He had no clue what to do next, but he couldn’t just wait around forever.

For now, he decided to go outside, walk around, and look for a way back to his original world.

Creak, creak.

Just then, footsteps sounded outside the door, and soon someone opened it and appeared.

***

Unlike the other members, she was a small woman with silver hair.

She entered the room with a stony expression.

Then she waved her hand in the air.

As bluish mana blossomed from her gray hands, Dojae’s expression brightened.

“Are you feeling a bit better?”

The silver-haired member spoke with mouth movements entirely different from Korean, yet Dojae could understand her words.

Because the meaning was conveyed directly to his mind at the same time it reached his ears.

Now finally able to converse, Dojae couldn’t hide his joy.

‘Just as I thought! There was a spirit I could actually talk to!’

Dojae looked at the silver-haired Hoi-in once more.

Her hair wasn’t the dull silver of an old woman, but perfect silver strands, full of elasticity and shine, parted into two braids hanging down.

His uniquely animal-like black pupils could appear frightening, but the round shape of his eyes also made him seem quite cute.

“Seeing you’ve changed into clean clothes, it seems your condition has improved greatly.”

“Even with the herbal medicine made from Surta leaves, this level of regeneration is nothing short of miraculous.”

“Wow… It’s a human… But do humans naturally possess regeneration abilities that rival trolls?”

“You’re still young and haven’t seen humans, but before the Great Cataclysm, humans were far weaker beings than us.”

Following the silver-haired elder, four other elders entered, conversing as they walked.

They were the elders who had been watching Dojae a moment ago.

Now, their conversation could be understood.

“Kuhthan. Is this the human you discovered?”

The silver-haired elder asked the last to enter, a dark-featured elder, in a reverent voice.

The member called Kuhthan began to answer her question with due respect.

“Yes, that is correct. We discovered the human collapsed on the Tiuura Plains during our return and brought him here. I then ordered Ukhtati to tend to his wounds.”

“I found him! I, Hamar, found what even you, Kutharn, failed to discover!”

A female-type Hoiin who introduced herself as Hamar stepped forward beside Kuhthan and spoke.

She was a voluptuous-figured Hoi-in with jet-black hair braided into a ponytail, the shortest in height among them, excluding the silver-haired Hoi-in.

However, while she was the shortest among them, compared to Dojae, she was still a finger joint taller, possessing a stature larger than the average human woman.

That’s how tall the average Hoiin was.

“Good work, Hamar.”

The silver-haired elf offered Hamar a gentle smile.

The Hoi-in called Hamar flushed slightly at the silver-haired Hoi-in’s praise.

Then Hamar shook his head from side to side, looking Dojae over from head to toe.

“Humans are smaller than I imagined. They seem lacking in muscle too. How did they end up abandoned alone on the Tiuura Plains?”

Besides Hamar, who showed particular interest, the other Hoi-in were also quite curious about Dojae.

However, Kutharn stood in the way, preventing them from expressing it openly.

“Kuhthan, can’t we go closer to take a look? Since the magic’s been cast, we should be able to talk now.”

“Hammar, the village chief is here. Don’t act rashly.”

“Hmph.”

Leaving them behind.

The silver-haired elder slowly approached Dojae.

Through the elders’ conversation, Dojae learned this silver-haired elder was the highest-ranking person here.

Just as Dojae opened his mouth to speak with her.

“I’ll take over now. Would you all kindly step aside?”

The silver-haired elder gestured to the other four elders.

With a solemn expression, she ordered the others to leave the room.

“Yes, understood.”

The elders nodded in unison.

Then, without a single question or concern, they exited the room.

Only one, Hamar, cast a regretful glance toward Dojae, but when Kuchan twitched his eyebrow, she too quietly followed them out.

A moment later, once the creaking footsteps had completely faded, the silver-haired member wore an expression entirely opposite to her previous one.

It was a face radiant and bright.

“Whoa! It’s a human, a human!”

The silver-haired woman stamped her feet excitedly as she approached Dojae.

She began spinning around, observing Dojae, sometimes even standing on tiptoes to get a better look.

“It’s been so long since I saw a human! Can I come a little closer?”

The silver-haired fairy strode briskly toward Dojae.

She sniffed him with a sniff, then rubbed her delicate hands over Dojae’s clothes.

“How curious. It’s neither cloth nor leather, yet it’s tough and soft at the same time. But I don’t recall that human wearing clothes like this back then…”

Her bright eyes stared intently as she pushed her face right up to Dojae’s chin.

She looked like an adorable puppy.

Dojae felt slightly uncomfortable with her behavior and took a step back.

Then he slowly asked in Korean.

“You… can understand what I’m saying?”

“Yes, of course!”

The woman smiled brightly and replied.

She took another step closer to follow Dojae and continued speaking.

“It’s because of the magic that we can understand each other like this! But young human men look like this, huh… It’s been about 200 years since I first saw one when I was young, right?”

The silver-haired woman gently poked Dojae’s forearm.

When Dojae showed no particular reaction, she now boldly began massaging his arm.

‘Why are you touching me so much? It’s awkward.’

Pushing away her hands as she fiddled with him, Dojae asked Hoiin.

But she paid no heed, continuing to touch Dojae’s body.

She didn’t seem hostile, but it was more than a little strange.

More than that, Dojae was startled by the unexpected number and countered her.

“Two hundred years?”

“Yes! After that, a great upheaval occurred, and I haven’t seen a human since.”

“Then how old are you?”

“245!”

At first, Dojae thought he must have misheard.

It wasn’t like she was talking about shoe sizes—she was saying 245 years old.

She clearly looked like she was in her late teens, or at most, early twenties.

She certainly didn’t look like a grandmother who was over 200 years old—or rather, since she said she was 200 years old when she was young, she looked like she had lived much longer than that.

Do-jae slowly nodded, recalling that he’d read somewhere about the long lifespans of Hoi-in.

“I… I see…”

Thump-thump-.

Rustle-.

The silver-haired Hoi-in finally stopped touching things and began wandering around the room.

With eyes brimming with curiosity, she examined Dojae’s traces one by one, offering her impressions.

“What are all these? Ugh! Spicy! Hmm… Is this just water? Whoa! Not glass, not wood… They can make bottles this thin?!”

Swoosh-!

“Oh my, oh my, look at the blood… How can it be so red? Humans are truly fascinating. So this beautiful colored liquid flows inside your body too, right?”

He touched the plastic wrap left over from a triangle rice ball, then picked up a plastic water bottle and shook it.

She also touched the unwrapped pressure bandage, marveling at Dojae’s red blood.

“Wait, wait. Stop! I have a question.”

Dojae stopped the silver-haired woman.

She looked at Dojae like a puppy waiting for its owner’s command, waiting for the question to come.

“Hmm. I have questions. I have a mountain of things I want to ask, but first, I need to know why you saved me.”

The silver-haired Hoi-in tilted her head.

Her expression seemed to ask why he was asking that.

“Isn’t that obvious? Saving a human in danger is only natural, right?”

“What?”

Dojae was stunned.

A monster says it’s only natural to save humans.

What kind of logic was this place operating under?

Could this be a world where humans and monsters happily coexist, helping each other?

Do-jae’s questions found answers through the story told by the silver-haired man who followed.

“Nowadays, it’s hard to find humans after the Great Cataclysm, but in the past, we lived in harmony with them! Things might have been different in the distant past, but for the last thousand years, we’ve lived respecting each other’s territories.”

Dojae shut his eyes tightly and shook his head vigorously.

The idea that monsters and humans had coexisted peacefully for a thousand years felt utterly absurd.

“The Great Cataclysm, two thousand years… What the hell is wrong with this world?”

“Oh? Curious about the outside? Shall we go out then?”

The silver-haired woman, who had been sniffing the scent of the bedding on the bed Dojae had been lying on, jumped up and replied.

She grabbed Dojae’s hand and began pulling him out.

“Alright… Let’s go out first…”

Holding hands with Hoi-in, Do-jae felt an incredibly ambiguous mix of emotions as he followed her out of the room.