Chapter 334 - What the Hell is this Food Waste?

Wind blew past them at great speed. The city came into view just a few hours after Echidna took flight.

‘That place must be Velen.’

Oh Kang-Woo looked down at the city with great interest. Although it was nothing compared to civilization on Earth, Aernor’s civilization was nothing to scoff at either.

‘It’s not as bad as the Middle Ages, at the very least.’

The streets were clean, and lamps were installed to illuminate the streets during the night. It felt more like a rural European town instead of a fantasy world.

“Take us down near the city, Echidna,” Kang-Woo said.

[Hm! Okay!]

Echidna began her descent while flapping her wings. Although the sudden appearance of a dragon in the city’s vicinity would usually cause panic, nothing happened thanks to the Authority of Concealment.

“Bleeeeeeghh!” Cha Yeon-Joo threw up on the ground as soon as they landed, and glared at Echidna in resentment.

[Hmph.] Echidna returned to her human form while snorting.

“Do you all have your interpretation devices?” asked Kang-Woo.

“Yes.”

Kang-Woo placed a sticker that looked like a nausea skin patch behind his ear. This was also one of the magic items that Kang-Woo had squeezed out of Khadgar.

“Let’s go,” Kang-Woo said.

The party walked toward the city entrance.

“ID, please,” a guard at the entrance said.

“Here you go,” Kang-Woo replied while holding out a tree branch at the security guard.

Of course, there was no way that he had prepared ID in advance.

“Oh, you’re a mercenary. Please keep in mind that you will be disposed of in accordance with Velen's laws if you cause a commotion,” the guard mentioned firmly.

Kang-Woo took back the tree branch and canceled the Authority of Blindness.

“Understood,” he answered and then headed into the city.

Although Uriel was not with them, there were still ten of them, and each of them drew much attention due to their extraordinary looks.

“Wow... Th-They’re goddesses.”

“L-L-L-Look at that man...! How can a man be so handsome?!”

“Cerberus! Cerberus has appeared!”

Kang-Woo ignored the fuss around them and took a look around Velen.

‘What’s with this place?’

The scenery felt somewhat familiar. Kang-Woo recalled a city that felt similar to this place.

‘Valencia.’

He could feel the same thing from this place as that corrupt city in South America.

“Hyung-nim, this place...” Kim Si-Hun, having felt the same thing, whispered to Kang-Woo.

Kang-Woo took a thorough look around the city’s streets while narrowing his eyes.

‘It’s certainly weird.’

It was not that there wasn’t anyone on the streets, since even now, the citizens were making a huge fuss while looking their way. However, if one took a good look at the people, they were dressed extravagantly and were wearing expensive-looking accessories.

‘As for the rest...’

Kang-Woo could not describe them as anything more than miserable. A negative and unsettling energy was enveloping the city, and he could even faintly smell rotting flesh from the alleyways.

‘I guess it’s because there’s a class system.’

Kang-Woo did not know whether Velen had always been like this, or if this was how all of Aernor was like.

“Let’s move.”

He interrupted his long thought. The gap between the rich and poor, as well as how much the commoners were suffering, was none of his business. They had only one goal for having come to this city.

‘To find out the location of the high elves as well as general knowledge regarding Aermor.’

They just needed to focus on that goal.

“Shouldn’t we get some money first, Kang-Woo?” Han Seol-Ah asked.

“I guess you’re right.” Kang-Woo nodded.

Whether they got food, accommodations or items, they needed money to do so.

‘I have no idea about Aernor’s currency, but...’

Kang-Woo recalled the large amount of pure gold that he had brought; he had already confirmed that gold was also very expensive in Aernor.

“In that case, let’s exchange the gold we brought into Aernor currency.”

Thankfully, Velen was full of institutions similar to banks that allowed for the exchange of gold into currency. The unit of currency was

Arnan

, and the rate of currency seemed to be about the same as the Korean won; one won was roughly 1 Arnan.

‘Makes things easy.’

Kang-Woo had thought that there would be some miscommunication when the unit of currency changed, but they fortunately did not need to worry.

“In that case, let’s exchange the gold for about one billion Arnans.”

A hundred million Arnans per person would be more than enough to travel around Aernor. Kang-Woo exchanged a small portion of the pure gold that he had brought into currency.

“Let me know if you need more,” he said as he distributed 100 million Arnans to each person.

Although carrying around a hundred million was certainly nerve-wracking, fortunately, there was a card in Aernor that allowed one to store money issued by banks.

‘I never expected there to be debit cards in another world,’

Kang-Woo thought as he looked down in surprise at the magic tool in card form. Aernor was completely different from the concept of another world that he had in mind.

“But why is the currency called Arnan? Are there no other nations in Aernor besides the Arnan Empire or whatever it was?” Cha Yeon-Joo asked.

“There are, but the Arnan Empire is so powerful and magically advanced that other nations also just use the Arnan as the currency,” Vernaak answered.

“Whoa.” Yeon-Joo fiddled around with the card in fascination.

“Shall we find accommodations first?” Vernaak suggested.

“Sounds good.”

They would not be able to gain all the information they needed in just one day; Kang-Woo nodded and looked around the area for accommodations. There was an extravagant-looking inn next to a castle that seemed to belong to the lord of the territory.

‘No.’

Kang-Woo, who was about to head there, narrowed his eyes and shook his head.

‘Since my objective is to gather information, anywhere else is better than there.’

The places he had in mind were those that had a bar on the first floor and lodgings on the second floor and up. The quality of the accommodations would obviously fall behind compared to the extravagant inn, but it would most definitely be a better place to gather various kinds of information.

Kang-Woo got off of the main street and found an inn with a bar on the first floor and lodgings from the second floor and up, just what he had wanted.

“Haaa, this is driving me insane.”

“How is Princess Iris doing these days?”

“How else? Shit! If only it weren’t for that bitch...”

“Watch your mouth, dammit! Even if there aren’t any nobles here, you need to be careful!”

“Oh, right. My bad.”

Just like Kang-Woo had hoped, he heard interesting information before even opening the door of the inn.

‘I guess there are some issues in the Arnan Empire.’

If there were not any, there was no way that people would be badmouthing the imperial family despite this being a backwater bar.

‘I’ll take my time collecting more info.’

It was important to know how Aernor was running since they were here now. Kang-Woo went upstairs and unpacked first.

“It’s a bit worn down, but it’s a lot cleaner than I expected,” said Seol-Ah, who had ended up using the same room as Kang-Woo.

“And the fact that they even have a debit card... I knew that Aernor’s civilization was fairly developed, but it’s a lot more developed than I thought.”

“Hoho. I’m glad we don’t have to spend a lot of time adjusting.”

Kang-Woo sat on the bed and said, “Yeah. We don’t know how long we’ll have to stay here, after all.”

𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Seol-Ah sat next to him and leaned on him while embracing his arm. The sensation of something large yet soft shot up his arm.

‘Cerberus has appeared!’

Kang-Woo recalled what someone had shouted on the street earlier.

Seol-Ah giggled and said, “I wouldn’t mind living here forever, as long as I’m with you.”

“Your mother would cry.”

“Ngh.”

“Hahaha. Well, even so, I’d say Earth is better.”

Seol-Ah nodded and asked seductively, “Are we going to bed for the day then, Kang-Woo?”

Kang-Woo shook his head in disappointment. “It’s a bit early for that.”

“Urghh.”

Seol-Ah pouted cutely. Kang-Woo smirked and got up.

“Let’s go.”

“Okay, Kang-Woo.”

Kang-Woo roughly unpacked, gathered his other party members and announced, “Go around the city in groups and gather information about this continent. Anything is fine, whether it be information about Arnan’s political landscape, or even better, information about high elves.”

He then made the groups himself since it was obvious what would happen if they were left to make their own groups.

“Seol-Ah, Yeon-Joo and Echidna are group 1. Si-Hun and Layla are group 2. Lilith and Vernaak are group 3. Balrog and Halcyon are group 4.”

“What about you, Kang-Woo?”

“I’ll gather information from this bar.”

He was intrigued by the conversation about Princess Iris that he had happened to overhear at the bar entrance.

Lilith nodded and turned her head to Vernaak. “Let us come back as soon as possible after gathering useful information.”

“Yes, madam,” Vernaak replied while courteously bowing.

He really looked the part since he was also wearing a butler outfit and a monocle.

‘Although he’s a skeleton.’

A pink apron-wearing skeleton, that was.

***

The party members aside from Kang-Woo dispersed to gather information. Kang-Woo, who was left all alone, walked down to the bar on the first floor. Curses and complaints boisterously filled the air. Despite this being a bar, Kang-Woo could easily tell how miserable the citizens’ lives were usually, just from the lack of laughs.

‘I might as well eavesdrop as I get some drinks in me.’

He couldn’t eavesdrop while drinking water when he was in a bar; he needed to order alcohol to avoid suspicion.

‘They apparently have beer in Aernor as well.’

Kang-Woo got thirsty after thinking about a cold glass of beer. He realized that he had not taken a break for the past few months because he had been so busy preparing for the Aernor mission.

‘I feel sorry for the others.’

He made excuses in his mind that it couldn’t be helped since drinking in leisure was part of his act to gather information, and headed to the counter.

Kang-Woo sat down and ordered, “A beer and any food that you have.”

A lukewarm beer and a few slices of ham arrived soon after.

‘Fucking hell.’

Kang-Woo grimaced as soon as he put the slice of ham in his mouth.

‘Why is it so damn salty?’

It was as if it had been soaked in salt. He was able to chill the beer using an Authority, but he couldn’t do anything about how salty this ham was.

‘I’ve lost my appetite.’

Kang-Woo spit out the ham and frowned.

The boy who had been serving beer flinched. He quickly bowed and said, “Ah... Umm, I-I’m so sorry! My sister isn’t the best cook... If it wasn’t to your liking, I’ll get you something else.”

“No, it’s fine.” Kang-Woo waved his hand and took something out from his jacket. “Just pour this in a pot and heat it up for me.”

He had taken out a vacuum seal bag containing Seol-Ah’s kimchi stew. It was one of his favorite items since it was easily portable and could be heated up just as easily.

“Ah, food from outside is...”

Kang-Woo placed two 50,000 Arnan bills into the boy’s pocket.

“I will get it heated up for you in a flash!” the boy answered energetically and ran into the kitchen with the vacuum seal bag.

Kang-Woo sipped the beer that he had chilled with the Authority of Freezing and looked around.

‘Right then, let’s listen in on what everyone’s saying.’

He perked up his ears to overhear everyone’s conversations.

“Urgh. Have you heard? Taxes are rising again next year.”

“Shit, Viscount Velen is insane! With the empire going to the shitter...”

“Haaa. How do they expect us to survive when we’re already barely holding on?”

Complaints could be heard from everywhere. Kang-Woo honed his sense of hearing while waiting for the kimchi stew. As he was organizing the incoming auditory information in his brain...

Slam—!!

“Attention!! Put your hands over your heads and kneel!!”

“Where are the ten people that had just checked into this inn?!”

Knights wearing armor destroyed the door and poured into the bar.

“V-Viscount Velen. What b-brings you here...?” the boy serving beer asked cautiously.

The man being addressed as Viscount Velen frowned aggressively and kicked the boy.

“Arghh!”

“How dare a mere commoner talk to me?”

Viscount Velen trampled on the head of the boy in displeasure.

“Hm?”

The man’s expression froze. Red liquid from the pot that the boy had been holding had splattered on his shoes.

“What the hell is this food waste?” Viscount Velen said while scraping his shoes on the floor in disgust.

“Did you just say... Food waste?”

A man with sharp eyes stood up while dragging his chair back.