HKWM | Chapter 33

Anyway, after accepting the last participant, the competition finally began. The people of the north were all tall with thick muscles, making them look very robust, but Kimaris stood out even among them, towering over everyone. Especially with his dark skin, he looked quite intimidating; if not for his refined aura, one might have believed he was the king of mercenaries.

Among the spectators below the stage, there were betting pools on who would win. Most bet on the champion who had been on a winning streak, but due to his impressive appearance, Kimaris was also quite a popular contender. I handed Phoras a hefty money pouch.

“Phoras, put everything on Kimaris.”

“Yes, sir!”

Of course, there’s no way demons would miss out on a bet, especially one with a predetermined outcome. Since we were already doing something unscrupulous, I decided to be a bit more shameless.

“Now, let’s find out who this year’s champion will be!”

With the host’s announcement, the competition started with the sound of a horn. As participants lined up and began to chug their bottles, the man called the champion was drinking from two bottles, one in each hand, practically pouring them down his throat. It was impressive how they could drink so much so quickly; even if it were just water, it would be quite a challenge. When I was human, drinking high-proof whiskey without knowing better felt like fire down my throat, but these guys were drinking this strong liquor like it was water.

Meanwhile, Kimaris started emptying one bottle at a time with a very calm and composed attitude. At first, it seemed like he was lagging behind, but as the participants who had rushed in the beginning started to drop out, he began to stand out. Given that the outcome was already decided, Kimaris seemed utterly bored, but the audience was going wild at the prospect of him potentially defeating the champion who had been on a winning streak for several rounds.

And as expected, the victory went to Kimaris. He returned with the same expression as always, along with the prize. Oh, and of course, the much fatter money pouch was an extra.

“Well done. How was the taste?”

“It was drinkable.”

He even got a bottle of vinum as a gift to share with our group, and as Noah showed curiosity, I opened it for him.

“Want to try it?”

“Can I?”

“Just a taste.”

Having come all this way, shouldn’t we at least try the local specialty? I had no intention of letting him drink enough to get sick.

Noah took the bottle, sniffed it, and then took a small sip before swallowing. He immediately grimaced and covered his mouth.

“How is it?”

“…Why would anyone drink this?”

That’s probably the dilemma for all humans who don’t enjoy alcohol. They pour it down their throats, suffer the next day, swearing off alcohol, only to find themselves with a drink in hand at some point. I shrugged since I had seen this cycle myself.

“Who knows.”

After taking the bottle back from Noah, I handed him the snow globe that was the prize.

“Here, this is the prize Kimaris won for you.”

“Did you participate because of this?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty, isn’t it? It’s a memento of our first trip.”

Noah looked at the snow globe, shook it once, and then held it up to the sky. He smiled as he overlapped the sight of the snow falling in front of him with the miniature in the globe.

“I should learn spatial magic quickly.”

“Why?”

“Because I keep getting more precious things. It would be nice if I could carry them all with me.”

The kid who once casually offered to help kill someone has now become cute enough to talk about learning spatial magic to carry around precious items. It felt good, like proof that my existence wasn’t a misfortune for Noah.

“…Did you buy a spatial magic book?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, if it’s hard to learn, just tell me.”

If our kid wants to learn, I’d bring in a human mage if I had to.

“If I learn spatial magic, I’ll show it to you first.”

I was about to nod offhandedly but paused. Spatial magic is quite tricky since it deals with space, even for seasoned mages, it takes time to master. Even if Noah was quick to learn, considering his lack of talent outside of offensive magic, it might take years.

‘…Will we still be together by then?’

I couldn’t bring myself to answer the question that popped into my mind, so I just smiled lightly.

“Sure, I’ll look forward to it.”

After casting a spell on the snow globe so it wouldn’t break if dropped or kicked, for Noah’s sake, we moved to do some ice fishing.

Ice fishing was similar to ice fishing for smelt in Korea. First, you drill a hole through the thick ice, then place a fishing rod in the hole and wait for a fish to bite. The tools for drilling the ice or the fishing rods were available for a fee, but they looked quite unimpressive.

“…Can you drill ice with this?”

It seemed like the wood would break before the ice…

“Master, the ice seems like it would break with just a kick. Should I do that?”

“Please, hold back.”

Since we didn’t want to advertise that we weren’t ordinary humans, I crouched down and tried tapping the ice with the tool we’d borrowed. It was sturdier than expected; the ice did break with each hit, but at this rate, we’d be here all day without catching anything. So, I applied a bit more force whenever no one was looking, cracking up a lot of the ice.

After much effort, we made a hole, but the tool was completely destroyed. I awkwardly handed the broken tool and the money pouch to Kimaris.

“…Go get it compensated.”

It wasn’t to blame him; with his size, no one would suspect him of breaking the tool. But Kimaris looked at what I handed him as if he were looking at something precious.

“…As you command.”

Fortunately, the fish were biting well even without special bait, so it somewhat made up for the cost of the broken tool. More than that, Noah seemed fascinated by the idea of fish living under such thick ice.

“Jin, is there a sea under here?”

“Yeah.”

“What do we do with the fish we catch?”

“Do you want to take them? We could make a pond in our yard and release them there.”

Even if they were fish that only lived in cold water, it could be managed with magic. But after some thought, Noah shook his head.

“I think it’s better to release them. This is enough for a memento.”

Noah stood up while holding the snow globe, and I released the fish back into the hole. It was lucky that Noah got something he liked so much as a memento.

“Alright, then let’s go eat.”

“Okay.”

Thud-

Envy straightened up from his crouched position at the vibration and the prickling demonic energy nearby. His fingertips, sharp despite lacking nails, were covered in minced flesh and black blood, but he only shook them off carelessly.

Envy slowly turned towards the source of the demonic energy.

“It’s been a while.”

The protagonist of this loud entrance was Greed, with his mouth corners torn in a wide, ragged grin.

“Why are you here?”

“Just dropping by. What are you carving up now?”

With a face devoid of all emotion, Envy looked down at the ground.

“I wanted it because it was pretty.”

“And did you get what you wanted?”

Envy picked up an eyeball rolling on the ground, played with it in his hand for a while, then crushed it with force. The gray iris that had seemed so desirable moments ago now looked utterly unappealing.

“Yeah, but upon looking again, it’s not much.”

Greed chuckled with a shrug. This mad creature would covet anything someone else had, no matter how trivial, only to destroy it once it was in his hands. Once it became his, it lost all value.

That was the biggest difference between him and Envy, who would take whatever he could get his hands on but would never share once it was his. Perhaps that’s why this madman might fit even better into his plans.

“So, what’s up?”

“Just checking if you were doing well. You’ve been out of sight so much, I thought you might have gone on a rampage somewhere.”

Envy, who looked no different from a human but with an androgynous, ageless face, tilted his head. Greed suppressed the rising revulsion. Even though he was face-to-face with Envy, it was like trying to see through fog; this was a characteristic of this era’s Envy, and it was always unpleasant to behold.

“Why do you care about that?”

“That’s a hurtful response. I came to share some interesting news I picked up.”

“Interesting news?”

“About this era’s Wrath.”

“The weirdo who hasn’t left his castle for over a hundred years?”

Greed suppressed a sneer. As if any of the Archdemons were sane. It was ironic that they labeled each other as weirdos or lunatics.

“Yeah, that weirdo has apparently holed up in the human world recently.”

“…The human world?”

“I saw him last time with a very interesting soul in his grasp… Who knows, maybe he’s hiding such a feast to enjoy it all by himself.”

Only then did Envy show interest in Greed’s words. As he gathered his demonic energy to leave, he didn’t ask why Greed was telling him this. He was just, as always, coveting what belonged to others, only to break it eventually.

Greed shrugged as Envy disappeared into thin air without stopping him, likely heading to the human world since no demonic energy could be felt in the demon realm, considering his usual temperament.

“Was that bait too big?”

Watching the messy spot Envy had left behind, Greed turned away without regret.

“Well, not my problem anyway.”