Emperor of solo play

Chapter 140 - Across the Terube Castle Wall (1)

Across the Terube Castle Wall (1)

1.

The NPC hadn’t reach the status of being a young man.  Its youthful appearance was stuck between that of a boy and a young man.

“Are you serious?”

It spoke in a grave manner, which clashed with the delicate voice it possessed.

“Will you really do as you say?”

Even the deep wrinkles that was forming at the top of its face gave off a child-like impression.  It diluted the message it was giving.

“Are you really planning on traveling beyond the Terube castle wall?”

It was the captain in charge of the Terube castle wall.  It had been loyal subject to Prince Dean.  However, it was also a hidden hero of this world, who had fought against the Corrupted monsters.  Bagel rejoiced at the offer given by the man in front of it.  It was beyond rejoicing.  There seemed to be a different reason aside from happiness that made Bagel suddenly stand up from its seat.

“Ooh-oohk!”

When it stood up, a moan immediately escaped Bagel's mouth. It was always prepared for battle.  Bagel was in its office, yet it was in its armor.  This was why one couldn't see the wound beneath the armor.  It still possessed the evidence of betrayal perpetrated by Prince Dean and the White-eyed swordsman Argardo.  It still had the sword wound.

Bagel was lucky to be alive.  The wound was so severe that it was shocking that Bagel was still carrying out his duties, while equipped in its armor.  This was why Bagel didn't complain about its slow recovery.

“I'm fine.  I'm all right.”

When he heard the moan, the guest got up from his seat to approach Bagel.  Bagel waved him away.

“I'm just thankful that I am alive.  I don't want to burden a hero like you, because of this."

The guest put on an awkward smile, and he sat back down. Bagel moved to the corner of its office where its books were organized.  It immediately pulled out a book.

"This is something I acquired a long time ago." 

From its outward appearance, the book was thick.  However, the book wasn't filled with many pages.  The reason being the thickness of each page.  The book was filled with woodblocks.  Bagel took out the book, and it carefully looked over the engravings on the pages. 

“This was before I became the captain in charge of the Terube wall.  This was even before I followed him when he became the Guardian of the Northern lands.”

The woodblocks were filled with engravings of a map.  Bagel took the book, and he sat atop of his desk. In the process, his heavy armor moved, and it seemed the wound had been disturbed again.  Bagel's expression crumpled, but it didn't moan this time.

When Bagel's pained face resolved itself, it took out the woodblocks contained in the book.  It started piecing them together as if they were pieces of a puzzle.

As Hyrkan had surmised, the woodblocks were a map.

“This is the map of the Northern land.  This was before this era where the endless battle hadn't started yet.”

His explanation was grandiose, but the content of the map was quite poor.  Most of the map was drawn in an abstract manner.  There was a long road, and there were monsters that were letting out flame next to the road.  The mountain was drawn like a big lump of cotton. The trees inside the forest was drawn like doodles, and there were no markers naming everything.  Moreover, the map was incomplete.  The top part of the map was missing.  It was as if the map's head had been cut away.