Chapter 148
“But why are you hiding your identity to that extent?”
“Those guys are searching for the Black Flame Dragon to take revenge on him. So if they discover my identity, they’ll try to kill me.”
“Then you’re saying you’re cooperating with guys who want to kill you?”
It was something I had gotten used to by now, but Sal asked back in horror.
“You could say that.”
Sal seemed unable to laugh anymore, and he stared blankly at me as if his soul had left him. Seeing the countless questions revealed in his eyes, I narrowed my brows.
“There are circumstances that make it necessary. You said you could do as I tell you. I’ll tell you everything later when I get the chance, so for now, go along with me.”
“So, you’re telling me to act?”
Interest quickly appeared on his face, which had been colored with shock. Sal looked at me as if showing off and lifted his chin.
“That’s something I’m confident in too. I’m hiding my identity from the people of this village right now too.”
As far as I knew, the only thing nearby that could be called a village was the place where the wild dogs lived.
I had heard that the wild dogs were criminals. I was inwardly surprised by the news that Sal, who was supposedly my friend, was living together with criminals.
“Are you living together with the wild dogs nearby?”
“You told me to take good care of the wanderers. Ah well, of course, you don’t remember. They’re all good people. They often hold small banquets too, and the villagers all live happily together.”
I told him to take good care of them? On top of that, no matter how many different sides humans had, could criminals be called good people?
“What is it? Why do you look like that?”
Perhaps I had been looking at Sal with distrust in my eyes without realizing it, because he asked in puzzlement.
“I heard those people were criminals driven out of the continent. If the hero finds out you associated with people like that, he won’t accept you as a companion.”
Sal’s expression held some strange emotion that was neither affirmation nor denial.
“Criminals?”
“Yes, that’s what I heard. That they hide and attack people passing by.”
Had he not known that while living with them? Or perhaps those guys had been hiding it thoroughly.
“Those people aren’t criminals. They’re refugees driven out of the continent. They’re people who don’t belong anywhere, so they wandered around until they came all the way to this place where no one lives and settled here.”
No one had told me anything like that until now.
“Is that true?”
Whether that was true or not wasn’t particularly important, but I was still curious. Sal sprang up from his seat, then grabbed my arm and pulled me.
“If you don’t believe me, follow me.”
I got up without much thought to follow him, then flinched in surprise when I saw how I was dressed.
“Before that, you should give me my clothes.”
“Ah, right. I forgot. Wait a moment.”
Sal hurried out of the room, then brought me my clothes, which had already been washed clean. I put on the clothes, which were still slightly damp, and followed Sal out of the building.
I saw several houses that looked like old cabins standing side by side in a row. Just then, two children passing by spotted Sal and bowed politely.
“Good morning, Village Chief!”
“…Village Chief?”
Judging by the circumstances, the word was clearly referring to Sal, but Sal didn’t suit the words ‘Village Chief’ at all.
In my mind, Village Chief was a title that seemed fitting only for an elderly old man. But Sal looked far too young on the outside.
I knew he was a being who had lived for an unimaginably long time, but for some reason, I couldn’t get used to it.
“That well over there is the one you and I dug, and that chicken coop was made after you left. At first, I was living in this house alone, but then the people called wild dogs began to gather.”
Sal stretched out his hand and pointed around the village, explaining each place one by one.
Women were gathered at the well on one side of the village, doing laundry, and children were running around playing with puppies and chickens.
Although everything was old, the buildings were shabby, and the people looked poor, everyone seemed happy and peaceful.
“Do these people look like criminals to you?”
I couldn’t easily answer Sal’s question.
“Most of them are women and children, and only the old and sick. People who weren’t welcomed anywhere on the continent. Everyone was looking for a place to survive, and they all drifted all the way here, to a place everyone avoids.”
I couldn’t say anything because I felt sorry for branding good people as criminals after only believing the rumors. Sal looked at me as I kept my mouth firmly shut, then lightly shrugged.
“Once I started helping people, they began calling me Village Chief at some point. I built all the houses here too, and I taught them how to cultivate fields and how to tame livestock.”
The familiar air of a warm country village spread out before my eyes was something Sal had built. While waiting for me, at that.
“Village Chief, Village Chief!”
As I was searching for something to say, a girl came running over and shouted.
“Bessie, what has you in such a hurry this early in the morning?”
