CHAPTER 18 – THE ORIGIN OF THE JIN

Translator: Homia

[This chap was made possible thanks to J! Thank you for your support!!! 3 chaps more to go!]

At the gymnasium*, knights and squires were training their bodies and honing their skills.

Tl/N: Kinda a gym, or a training field but indoors.

Arsene ran slowly on the newly issued Jin, which was originally owned by Entir.

He hopped left and right, then lightly jumped and landed, causing a slight pain to his broken leg.

“Ugh.”

“What? You’ve not fully recovered, yet you’re already training? You’re working so hard.”

Arsene turned his head when he heard a voice next to him.

Genovia was looking at Arsene, smiling.

“I only hurt my leg, but other places are almost fine. Dame Genovia, are you all better now?”

“I just lost a lot of blood. If you eat a lot and sleep well, you get better quickly.”

Genovia, who answered pleasantly, lifted the spear she was holding, turned it around a few times, and started dancing.

The eerie sound of wind heard every time the spear was thrust made it seem able to cut and break anything in its path.

Genovia, who had been swinging her spear for about 30 seconds, finished a beautiful dance by stretching her spear forward.

It was so quiet, not even a single breath could be heard.

“It’s a good thing you’re here. Do you want to see something? Like witnessing a duel.”

“A duel”?

“It’s not grand enough to be called a duel, though.”

At that moment, the door to the gymnasium opened and two more knights entered.

It was Weeble and Carmine, the young knights he met previously at the restaurant.

“Oh! Kid! It’s been a while since I’ve seen you! It’s said you had a hard time on the expedition this time!”

Weeble patted Arsene on the shoulder, expressing his welcome with his loud voice.

This huge knight was so tall that he didn’t lose in height to Arsene on the Jin.

“Yeah. What about Sir Weeble?”

“Something always happens to me! I happened to break the Jin while catching a beast…”

“Weeble.”

Carmine, who was standing next to him, tapped Weeble’s arm to stop him.

He only said his name once, but as if he understood, Weeble coughed and took a step back.

“Let’s talk about other things later. Let’s start another duel, whose number I can’t even remember already, between Carmine and Genovia. Witnesses are me, the knight Weeble, and also… are you going to be a witness, too?”

Weeble, who was talking in an exaggerated tone like a host, turned his head and asked Arsene.

“First of all, I think I need to know what’s going on.”

“Genovia and Carmine sometimes fight like this. With the condition of granting a wish to the winner. In fact, it’s just a betting spar.”

Genovia put down her spear and took a training metal shaft, and Carmine also held a sword and shield for practice.

A normal person’s bones would break if hit by something like that, but it was safe enough for a knight in armor to withstand.

Rather, what if the weapon breaks?

“Who won more?”

“I don’t know. I forgot to count, and no one wrote it down either. I think Genovia won more often?”

With Weeble’s silly answer, the duel between the two-, no, the spar, began.

Genovia, whose’ weapon had a longer reach, stretched out her shaft and struck Carmine’s shield.

Carmin groaned at the strong power and stepped back, but he didn’t give in and advanced a few more steps, with his shield in front.

The squires who were training around looked at his figure as if possessed.

Arsene, who was watching with admiration from the side, could hear Weeble’s small murmur.

“Anyway, they have to start dating soon, because seeing the two of them playing like that makes my stomach ache.”

“Aren’t they dating?”

Arsene was surprised because he remembered what Genovia said last time.

She even said that she would propose him to marry when she returned this time, so Arsene thought they were dating, but he never imagined it could have been a one-sided crush.

Could it be that she was drinking kimchi soup first by herself?

Tl-n: The Korean idiom “don’t drink the kimchi soup first.” This saying means that one should wait for something they are anticipating to happen until it really happens.

Suddenly, Genovia looked pitiful.

“They like each other but don’t show it. Everyone except for these two knows already. Why didn’t both of them get married at that age in the first place?”

They were childhood friends who had a crush on each other, and even in popular novels, that was too childish to be used.

After learning the truth, it seemed that the knights, who were agile and full of power, were only rubbing against each other.

In the first place, wouldn’t Genovia’s hearing be able to pick up everything Weeble said just now?

“…Then I’ll get going first.”

“Huh? Is your training over?”

“Yes. I’m just after rehabilitation.”

“You should’ve watched a bit more.”

Arsene just bowed his head politely and left the gymnasium.

He had enough training, and it was time to go to the tower.

“And Pay said: Will you truly become a poisonous bird…?”

“Okay, your reading is good. Read the next part.”

Arsene borrowed a book from Elise, and was learning writing and reading from her.

Of course, books existed in this world, too.

Although the development of typography and paper technology was insignificant, and it was just a copy on some animal’s skin, Elise said that the number of copies was larger than expected because the magic of copying the contents of a book was not that difficult.

Unlike parchment, which has to be obtained from raising sheep, the fact that animal skin is a common resource that can be obtained by peeling most domesticated animals also contributed to the supply.

There were also poetry and essays, as well as religious books about magic and other expertise, about the indigenous god Leha who this world believed in, more precisely, this Beluan estate.

This world’s writing system was, unfortunately, not one that could be read as it appears.

Like English, where you have to learn to read words derived from French separately.

When Elise explained about his wrong pronunciation or meaning in between, he even felt like a child.

“…It doesn’t work like that. Well, it’s over.”

“Okay, you did a good job. We’ll read the next part next time, so get ready. Mark down what you don’t know!”

“Yes, teacher Ellie.”

When Arsene, who answered playfully, closed the book, Elise quickly took out another sheet of skin.

Because he was hooked on the crossword puzzles presented as a game a few days ago, Elise has come up with a new crossword puzzle every time they meet.

“Okay, then…”

While trying to solve the crossword, there was a knock on the door.

When he opened the door, a young squire saw Arsene and bowed politely, raising his right hand between the collarbones.

Unlike before, when they treated each other as if they didn’t exist, these days, the servants greeted Arsene with respect whenever they encountered him.

Although some luck overlapped, Arsene cut off one of the two demons’ head in this battle anyway.

As a result, the tendency of jealousy or contempt for Arsene, who had been awakened by luck, that had subtly circulated among the squires, almost disappeared.

Despite his young age, he showed an attitude of reverence for a young star who was talented enough to kill a demon.

Arsene tried to not look arrogant as much as possible, greeting the squires and establishing friendship.

They were people who could not be ignored, considering that future knights would appear among them.

In fact, their jealousy or contempt was not unfounded, and there was also respect for them because of their age and experience.

The determination and bravery shown by the squires and soldiers during the battle against the demons were enough to show them respect.

“Hello, Sir Arsene!”

“What’s going on?”

“Ah… One of the Jins was broken this time, so I’m here to ask Sir Luden to repair it.”

Hearing that, Arsene turned around and saw several soldiers holding carts with the Jin on them.

The Jin’s right leg was half crushed.

Looking at that reminded him of Weeble, who boasted that he had broken the Jin that morning.

“I think I know who used the Jin.”

“Mhm.”

Perhaps because he couldn’t gossip about the knight, the squire answered with a light cough.

“Elly, can you call Sir Luden?”

“Yeah, wait a minute.”

The squire looked surprised to see them calling each other nicknames comfortably, but tried not to show it.

Maybe he was showing consideration, or he just didn’t want to get entangled with a wizard.

After a while, Luden appeared from the second floor scratching his back and yawning.

He was a very consistent character in many ways.

“What… No way. This is just my guess, but is it that Weeble again?”

“…That’s right.”

Immediately, Luden’s stormy anger hit the squire.

He was constantly shouting and swearing, saying, “Are you going to destroy the armor, the sword, and then the Jin one by one?”

In a situation where he already felt a strong rejection from Luden, when even a crazed shout was added, the squire repeatedly replied that he was sorry as if he was mentally paralyzed.

Seeing that, Arsene was convinced that the squires would have sent the youngest in anticipation of this.

After a while, Arsene, who felt sorry for the young squire who couldn’t say anything, patted Luden on the back and stopped him.

“What are you doing, Sir Luden? It’s Sir Weeble who broke it, so what’s the use of shouting here? We have no choice but to go and talk in person.”

“I’ve talked to him myself before, but it didn’t work! He said okay and sorry, but it’s like this again!”

“But what can we do here now? The child is listening, so let’s get the goods first and send him away.”

Under Arsene’s restraint, Luden’s anger barely stopped, and the squire ordered the soldiers to bring the Jin into the workshop on the second floor.

Finally, the squire, who finished handing everything over, saluted with gratitude in his eyes and disappeared.

“Sigh, I was going to take a look at your sword today, but I’ll be busy with this for a while. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. It’s not easy to train using a weapon until my legs get better anyway. Can I see you repairing it too?”

“Of course. It’s not a big secret, anyway. Elise, don’t play tricks and go down to the basement. It’s already training time.”

After seeing off Elise, who was going down to practice with pouting cheeks, Arsene went up to the second floor to watch the Jin being repaired.

Arsene has been quite interested in the Jin, one of the few legacies left by ancient magic civilizations, but had never seen it being built or repaired, because he didn’t get a chance.

Just in time, he got permission from Luden, and he was happy to get new knowledge.

Unlike the first floor, where all kinds of junk occupied the floor, the second floor was quite neat.

It looked desolate because there was no furniture, except for a bed in one corner and a drawer and bookcase right next to it.

Luden, who took a book from the bookshelf, put saliva on his finger and flipped through it.

“Let’s see… how to repair a Jin, the leg part… I found it.”

When Arsene peeked over his shoulder, the book Luden was looking at was a kind of blueprint.

At first glance, it was reminiscent of an extremely complex plastic model blueprint.

Luden glanced in the book and at the Jin several times, and then started taking measures.

After taking measures for a long time, he finally put his hand on the broken leg to see if his estimations were correct.

“It would be more convenient to tear it apart and make it again.”

A red light flowed from Luden’s hands, and after a while, the Jin’s leg was cut off slowly.

It was quite surprising to Arsene, who knew that the Jin was made strong enough to withstand countless attacks of most beasts.

“Is it something like attack magic?”

“In a world where everyone stands still and waits for about 5 seconds in front of the enemy, it could be called attack magic.”

Luden, who responded sarcastically, took a basket-like thing and began to disassemble each part.

More than a dozen different parts were dropped from just one leg.

“From now on, it won’t be much fun. It’s a process of re-melting and solidifying all of this one by one and assembling it according to the blueprint.”

Having said that, Luden looked at those parts and sighed as if his future was bleak.

“I’m glad the area around the heart isn’t broken. It’s really hard over there. If it’s broken, it can take weeks to months, not days.”

Seeing Luden flipping through the book, Arsene asked a question that came to his mind.

It was also the first question he thought of when he saw the Jins in the past.

“How come all the Jins I’ve seen so far look the same, aren’t there any variations? Like increasing its size or something else.”

Besides that, there were a few other things he wanted to ask.

For example, what if it isn’t a Jin that connects directly to the knight’s mind and moves directly, but an armor attached to the body?

It would be very useful if you could have arms with swords on your back. In other words, the number of arms that could move freely would increase.

At Arsene’s question, Luden exclaimed and snorted in response.

“You’re saying this because you don’t know. The wizards make the Jins without understanding them properly. They just follow the blueprint derived from ancient wizards. I am confident that I have one of the best skills and knowledge among wizards, but even I have little understanding of a Jin’s driving principle. What can we do in such a situation?”

“Can’t we just keep the proportions and increase the size?”

“When you make food, if you double the amount you need to make, do you unconditionally add double the seasoning?”

In his previous life and even now, cooking ramen noodles or eating porridge with honey was all he had to do, so Arsene, even though desperate for an answer, kept silent.

I don’t know why you can’t double the seasoning when the amount of food is doubled, but somehow I had a feeling that if I asked about it, I would be treated like a fool.

“Anyway, that’s it. By the way, not all Jins are in the form of lizards like ours. There are quite a few types of blueprints. The Jin in the Northern Eir Territory is in the form of a hoofed animal.”

After saying those words, Luden gripped one of the parts.

After a while, the part began to glow red as if it had been heated.

It was the same phenomenon he had seen when repairing the sword before.