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Chapter: 53

As soon as the effects of the acupuncture wore off, I went back to my room and collapsed into sleep. It\'s a well-known fact that sleep is the best medicine. It was just simple exhaustion, so I would be fine with a good rest. In fact, I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I was so damn tired, I couldn\'t help it.

When I woke up after a deep sleep, it was already pitch black outside.

Judging by the fact that no one came to check on me even when I rustled around on the bed, it seemed like everyone had gone to sleep.

Since I had fallen asleep right after the duel in the afternoon, I was still in my dusty clothes with messy hair.

Suddenly, my stomach rumbled.

"...Do these guys not even tell you when it\'s time to eat?"

I was hungry. It was natural to have missed dinner since I had been sleeping since the duel.

Were they deliberately making me miss meals as part of their revenge?

"Is that really what\'s happening? Petty bastards. Just beat me up instead. How can you starve someone? Are you even human?"

As a former beggar, and the worst kind of beggar at that, I could endure anything but being starved.

I grumbled while sitting on the bed.

"At least someone should take care of feeding me... Huh?"

While grumbling, I noticed a wooden lunch box that someone had brought.

It felt heavy when I lifted it. I opened the lunch box, and inside were rice balls and rice cakes.

"This, this, just by looking at it, I\'m sure our Eunuch Han prepared this."

The food wasn\'t cold, so it seemed like it hadn\'t been there for too long.

It was a shame there was no hot soup, but even this much was a blessing at this late hour. Unlike the palace, it would be difficult to ask for food in the middle of the night here...

I sat on the bed and stuffed myself with the rice balls and rice cakes.

But after devouring everything, I wondered if I had eaten too much for the night.

"Hmm..."

Even though the timing wasn\'t ideal, I decided to go for a walk to digest the food and also explore more of Wolhan Fortress.

It suddenly occurred to me that I seemed to quite enjoy night strolls.

I put on a light coat and went outside. Unlike during the day, the eerily quiet scenery of Wolhan Fortress felt unfamiliar.

Wolhan Fortress didn\'t have particularly impressive landscaping, so there wasn\'t much to see. I looked up at the sky.

"It\'s a good night for stars."

There was no moon in the sky, but the stars were clearly visible.

"Where did the moon go?"

Even though the moon wasn\'t visible, it wasn\'t bad because the stars were bright. Stars were important for navigation, so it was unfortunate for a traveler when they couldn\'t see them. Perhaps it was better for travelers to have bright stars than a moon.

"As long as one thing is bright, it\'s enough."

I started walking with my hands clasped behind my back. I hummed a meaningless tune too. It\'s the best kind of song to sing at times like this.

"Hey, who are you?"

How long had I been walking? I was humming a few of the few songs I knew, one after another, when a voice came from behind me without any warning. Who would be wandering around the fortress at this hour? It was an unnatural situation.

I turned around to see a young child.

"...What are you?"

The question slipped out of my mouth without me realizing it. Was it a goblin or a ghost? No matter how I thought about it, it didn\'t seem likely that a child would be wandering around Wolhan Fortress alone in the middle of the night where magical beasts could appear, so I was more convinced it was a ghost. Ghosts actually existed.

Like Taejo, Taejo, and Taejo...

"A ghost?"

The ghost kid\'s face scrunched up when I pointed my finger at him.

"Who are you calling a ghost?"

His voice was also cute, unmistakably that of a child. Maybe around ten years old? Was he not a ghost? The more I looked, the more he seemed to have delicate features.

I asked kindly, "Are you human?"

Then the kid snapped back, irritated.

"Of course I\'m human, am I a monster?"

"Wow."

Such a feisty little one.

The kid launched an additional attack.

"Are your eyeballs just decorations? You\'re using them as decorations even though they seem real;.”

"What, what?"

His words caught me off guard. Besides, I\'m handsome, so that statement didn\'t make any sense.

"Hey. A handsome guy like me isn\'t common, you know. Isn\'t it a bit too much to say I look like I have decorative eyeballs?"

"Handsome guys aren\'t that rare. Have all the handsome guys in the world died? That\'s sad."

"Who\'s dead? I\'m right here, look. These fine jade eyes."

I was just stating facts, but the kid\'s expression soured. But seriously, I had never seen a face more handsome than mine yet. Maybe if I brought my grandfather from when he was young, we could be rivals. Anyway, wow. Such a reaction was absurd.

The kid had a scar about two finger-widths long on his face. How resentful he must be at such a young age. I didn\'t point it out aloud, but I assumed he was putting down other people\'s faces because he had an inferiority complex due to the scar.

I\'m such a considerate guy, protecting the feelings of a young boy. Wow. How cool.

Still, I couldn\'t just leave the kid like this. I decided to offer a helping hand.

"Where do you live, and who are you? I\'ll be generous and take you there, so tell me which way to go."

The kid frowned.

"I don\'t want that kind of generosity."

When an adult speaks, you should listen, but this kid, was he rotten from the start? My words didn\'t seem to have any effect on him.

"What\'s that?"

The kid pointed at my waist and asked. The only noticeable thing at my waist was the sword, the keepsake from the deposed queen.

"What, this?"

The kid nodded.

"Yeah."

"It\'s a sword, what else would it be? You live in Wolhan Fortress, right? Then you must have seen swords often."

The kid nodded again.

Looking at him like this, he was definitely just a kid.

"You\'ve seen swords a lot, right?"

"Yeah."

It seemed he liked weapons. Was he the son of a blacksmith?

"Anyway, I\'ll take you home. Which way should we go?"

"Give that to me."

The kid ignored my offer and only showed interest in the sword. It seemed like we wouldn\'t be able to move an inch all night at this rate, so I had no choice but to draw the sword.

"Don\'t touch it, you\'ll get hurt."

"I won\'t get hurt."

The kid watched the sword with his hands clasped behind his back. He acted like a little old man.

"Its name is Silver Wheel."

The kid read the inscription on the blade and said.

"It\'s Silver Wheel."

I nodded.

"You can read, huh? You\'re a smart kid. Study hard."

It might be useless advice for a kid who seemed to be the son of a blacksmith.

I put the sword back in its sheath. The kid looked disappointed.

"What, you want to see it more?"

"Yeah. I want to see it more."

I was about to say no, but the kid was faster.

"Give it to me with the sheath."

"Why?"

For some reason, I had a bad feeling about this. But the person in front of me was just a child. He was much shorter and younger than me, and his thin build suggested he wouldn\'t have much strength.

After hesitating for a moment, I decided to let him see it since I couldn\'t sleep anyway and had nothing else to do.

"Here, take it."

I untied the sword and handed it to the kid, who received it with excitement.

"You\'re the son of a blacksmith, right? Doesn\'t your father make things like this?"

He ignored my question. I was about to get annoyed, but then I remembered that the kid in front of me was just a tiny child and decided to be patient. In fact, I had no other choice but to be patient. What could I do with a kid who was barely the size of my fist?

"Look over there."

The kid suddenly pointed in one direction. I turned my head in the direction he pointed, but there was nothing there.

To be precise, there was only the shadow of a tree, cast by the starlight against the darkened wall.

There was nothing to see.

"What are you talking about?"

The moment I turned my head back after asking that question, the kid who was talking to me was gone.

Along with my sword, the relic of the late Queen.

Without leaving a single footprint.

* * *

"...That\'s what happened."

I recalled last night\'s events and explained the situation seriously. The person I was talking to was Yoo Geung.

"Isn\'t it a ghost?" Yoo Geung asked naively.

A ghost. A ghost. It wasn\'t that I didn\'t believe in ghosts. I\'d seen one. But was that a ghost? It didn\'t feel eerie or anything like that.

"I don\'t think it\'s a ghost."

Yoo Geung pondered for a while.

"Perhaps... uh... I\'m sorry to say this."

"If you\'re sorry, are you not going to say it?"

"I\'m sorry to say this, but I\'ll say it anyway."

"What?"

"Perhaps, were you dreaming while you were sleeping?"

A dream? Was it?

I thought about it a bit more.

It wasn\'t a dream.

"No, no. It wasn\'t a dream. It was real."

If it wasn\'t a dream, it was reality.

In reality, a child stole a sword that was as long as him while I briefly turned my head and ran away?

Without me noticing, suppressing their presence?

It was unbelievable.

"Ah, this is strange."

Racking my brain didn\'t change anything, but I kept thinking.

There was nothing else to do while waiting for the Wolhan Fortress Lord.

A little later, the Wolhan Fortress Lord arrived.

"You look unwell. Do you have any worries?"

The Fortress Lord\'s words greeted me upon his arrival. And indeed, I was worried. Losing the late Queen\'s relic again was a grave matter.

I told him about last night. I wondered if the Fortress Lord might know about the rumors of ghosts in Wolhan Fortress.

"I went for a walk last night..."

The Fortress Lord\'s expression became strange as he sat and listened to me quietly.

"Was it a child whose appearance made it difficult to tell if they were male or female?"

It was. I nodded.

"That\'s right."

Then the Wolhan Fortress Lord pointed to his waist.

"His height was... probably about this much."

"That\'s right."

I nodded again.

The Fortress Lord\'s expression turned a bit grim.

"Was there a scar about two finger widths long on his face?"

"Oh, yes."

It was an accurate description. I nodded quickly.

"You seem to know this child too."

So, it wasn\'t just my imagination. He really did vanish in the blink of an eye yesterday. Or was it some fleeting hallucination?

The Wolhan Fortress Lord groaned and said, "You said you... lost your sword."

"That\'s right."

The Wolhan Fortress Lord sighed.

"I will find it for you right away."

"As expected, Fortress Lord, you knew that child. Is he a child you cherish?"

I was delighted.

"No."

The Wolhan Fortress Lord added with a hesitant look.

"Actually... he’s not even a child."