3 - Marquis Maron Episode 3
Episode 3
One year later.
What good is it to be annoyed?
What good is it to be angry?
"You understand? If you dwell on the past and get angry, you'll ruin tomorrow's work. This is all wisdom left by the ancient sages."
"Doesn't everyone know that without looking to ancient sages?"
"Shut up. Don't talk back to your benefactor."
"I'm sorry."
Doraji bowed her head deeply. This ambiguously obedient Tree Sprite Dryad had been living with me ever since she came to Maron Keep.
While staring at the top of Doraji's head, who was busily moving around at waist level, I asked listlessly,
"When are you going to grow up?"
"I'm still young. When I'm fully grown, you know how big of a tree I'll be? A trunk much thicker than that big tree over there, with countless leaves..."
While farming strawberries with Doraji's voice, who insisted she was young even though she was over a hundred years old, as background music, I began to wonder if I had entered a novel or come to the countryside to farm.
In the meantime, Maron Keep had changed a lot.
The sun was warm, and the air was clear. Several kinds of vegetables and fruits were planted in the lush green garden.
Cabbage white butterflies fluttered around each furrow, and the sweet smell of strawberries made my nose twitch.
Maybe I'm a little happy?
"Grabbing you back then was a stroke of genius."
"Do you know how much it hurt back then? I thought my soul was being torn apart! I survived in this cursed land for a hundred years without dying, but I thought I was going to die with Hayley's hand pulling my hair out?"
"What else could I do? I was about to die too."
To think that was the Dryad's hair. What she said in the water must have been a curse.
"Still, you survived because I grabbed on and clung on with all my might back then. Isn't that a favor worth thanking me a hundred times for?"
"If you put it that way, aren't I Hayley's benefactor too? Because I was Purified and had the strength to crawl out of the water, Hayley was able to grab my hair and get out..."
"You stepped on a strawberry."
"Shit!"
Doraji cursed. After teaching her a few Korean curses, she used them more skillfully than I did.
The girl, not knowing what to do after seeing the strawberry she had stepped on and crushed, carefully held it in both hands and sobbed.
In the meantime, I secretly picked the ripest strawberry and put it in my mouth.
It was sweet and delicious. Much more so than buying expensive strawberries at a department store.
Fairies are the best. Dryads are the best of them all. A farming fairy, no less. Much more amazing than a talking sword or an elf friend.
"Hey."
"Yes?"
"Shall we just live here happily together forever?"
Doraji frowned like a princess who had been proposed to by a monster. I made a crying face to show that I was hurt, but I was cleanly ignored.
"Bad bastard."
Saying that, she picked another strawberry, put it in her mouth, and chewed. This time, she hid her face with a straw hat to avoid getting caught.
Black hair flowed down from under the hat.
The real Hayley originally had beautiful crimson hair like a blooming rose, but after I came into this body and started Purifying the Contamination of Maron Keep, it turned jet black like this.
Hair that grew black from eating Magical Energy. I wonder if I'll become a Demon King someday.
In fact, what I'm doing is more like devouring than Purification.
I didn't become a saintess who Purifies Contamination with the grand-sounding power of God, but rather, I'm gobbling up the Magical Energy that has accumulated in this land for 100 years and accumulating it in my body.
So I couldn't digest a large amount at once. Still, after working hard every day, I was able to restore Maron Keep, the backyard, and part of the stone wall.
"Was this how Hayley survived too?"
"Don't say crazy things."
"It's true. A demon appears here around this time every year, you know? Magical Energy accumulates and accumulates, the gate to the Demon World opens, and terrible demons appear one by one, and then... the protagonists appear with a bang!"
"The Magical Energy is being Purified, though."
"I'm eating it."
"If you put it that way, the Demon King has already appeared."
Doraji poked my solar plexus with her small hand. Then, with a look of utter exasperation, she even took away the strawberry I had hidden in my hand.
"Stop eating so much! Why do I have to explain every time that there's not enough to eat because the Purified land is small!"
"I'm hungry."
"Eat Magical Energy!"
"You bad fairy bastard."
I didn't stop grumbling as I got up and walked. I had to go to the Contamination boundary to eat Magical Energy.
After passing the strawberry field and the potato and spinach fields, an old stone wall appeared. I trudged along that road and stood in a place where I could see the Dark Lake in the distance.
Maron Keep was a beautiful old castle.
It probably would have been even more beautiful before it was Contaminated. White walls, a blue roof, and a jewel-like lake. Rainbow colors would have poured from the colorful windows, and different flowers would have bloomed in the vast garden every season.
But what was described in the book was just a cursed castle consumed by Magical Energy.
Crimson vines grew like leeches on the collapsed castle walls, everything that grew from the ground became poisonous weeds that killed each other, and the lake water was dyed black and reflected nothing.
Maron Keep, which would have looked exactly as it was described in the novel, was now completely different from what it was a year ago.
I alternately looked at the inside of the castle walls that I had Purified and the world outside the walls that had not yet been Purified.
The difference was too great.
"Tsk."
How can I be lazy like this? Koreans have to get everything done quickly.
It looks like it will take another 10 years to Purify that Dark Lake, so should I start somewhere else? I need to see things getting better little by little to feel a sense of accomplishment.
Sense of accomplishment. What a sweet word. I could even restore nature from Contamination with just my abilities without much effort.
If I keep doing this, the lake will be Purified someday, right?
I'm the type who finishes mobile farming games with persistence and determination. If this were a game, I would have watched ads every hour and collected free coins like a squirrel.
I must have a talent for repetitive labor.
With that in mind, I turned around and came to a fork in the road. It was the road leading from the backyard of Maron Keep to the mountain.
"Purification!"
Standing at the Contamination boundary and reaching out my hand, Magical Energy gathered. This black Magical Energy was always in a hurry to gather as soon as I appeared at the boundary.
It was like a plug had been opened at the bottom of a swimming pool full of water.
Magical Energy swirled around me.
"Come to think of it, I've never seen wild strawberries here? Did I not find them? No. I wish another fairy would come out. One who's good at housework and shy. Doraji is good at farming, so this time, one who's good at cooking and cleaning..."
I was just saying anything because I was bored when I suddenly felt a presence in front of me.
Rustle.
Goosebumps ran down my spine.
I was the only person around here. In this vast Maron territory, there were only Contaminated plants, monsters, and walking corpses.
But a man was standing between the dead trees.
Faded hair was tangled messily, covering his face, and his skin was as pale as marble. His clothes were more intact than I thought, but his gait was precarious.
"Eek!"
He was coming towards me.
"Eek!"
I was so surprised that I could only scream. I didn't even think about running back to the castle.
All I did while the man was approaching was stand there and shout at the top of my lungs.
"Eek! Get away! Why is a zombie here!"
"Who are you?"
"Huh?"
The man reached out his hand. I was startled and took a step back. His finger fell off right in front of my eyes.
"Where is Hayley Maron?"
He said.
"I've come to kill that woman."
Then he collapsed.
"......"
What is this?
After standing there blankly for a moment, I counted my fingers and estimated the date. I didn't know the exact date because I didn't have a calendar, but it seemed that it had finally been a year since I came here.
Because that man appeared.
What was coming had come!
That's right. Today was the day Hayley died in the original story.
