There Is No Place For Fakes [EN]: Chapter 145

“Spit it out! I said spit it out!”

Philomel frantically struck the Rock Giant’s leg with her Bbyong Hammer.

Bbyong, bbyong, bbyong, bbyong, bbyong, bbyong, bbyong.

After a series of *bbyong* sounds, the hard rock exterior began to crumble.

“Keeeeeek!”

The giant collapsed with a ‘thud!’

The monster tried to grab Philomel, who quickly dodged, with its hand.

Pajijijijijik!

However, the giant’s hand was scorched by intense sparks. The automatic protection magic on Philomel had been activated.

“Can’t you spit it out right now!”

Philomel, climbing over the fallen giant, raised her Bbyong Hammer high.

Bbyong!

“Kieeeeeek!”

Following an unusually loud Bbyong Hammer sound, the giant howled. And finally, it spat out Nasar.

“Nasar!”

Philomel examined the man covered in the giant’s fluids from head to toe.

“Philomel-nim…”

Fortunately, he didn’t seem to have any visible injuries.

“Just a moment!”

It was too early to be filled with joy. They hadn’t finished off the Rock Giant.

Nasar stopped Philomel as she was about to head towards the giant’s head.

“It already breathed its last.”

As he said, the giant’s eyes were dim, the flame of life extinguished.

Huh? Of course, it seemed to have taken considerable damage from the Bbyong Hammer attack, but was it a fatal wound?

Well, whatever. There was something else important.

As soon as she got off the giant’s body, Philomel questioned him.

“What on earth happened?”

Just now, Nasar’s movements were clearly strange. The Nasar that Philomel knew wouldn’t have been so helplessly defeated by a giant.

“Are you sick somewhere?”

That was the only way she could think of it. Nasar wasn’t feeling well but hadn’t shown it.

However, he scratched his cheek awkwardly.

“My body is fine.”

“Then why on earth…?”

Nasar asked for Philomel’s understanding and approached the giant’s head. After a while, he returned with a red flower in his hand.

“It’s because of this.”

Nasar held out the giant’s tentacle [a long, flexible appendage, like an arm] to Philomel.

What about this?

“To defeat the Rock Giant, the most orthodox way is to aim for the tentacle, as Philomel-nim said.”

“So?”

“But that would damage the tentacle. Instead, even if you go inside the body, you can inflict fatal damage to the giant. Besides, thanks to Philomel-nim helping from the outside, we were able to defeat it even earlier.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. You can just damage the tentacle.”

“That’s, well…”

Nasar hesitated for a moment, then opened his mouth with difficulty.

“…You said it was pretty, so I wanted to give it to you intact.”

It took Philomel quite a while to understand those words. After a moment, she exploded.

“Are you kidding me! You got eaten by a giant for that reason?”

“Phi, Philomel-nim…”

“I don’t need this kind of flower!”

“Ca, calm down!”

“I was so worried about what happened to Nasar…”

Tears that Philomel had been holding back flowed from her eyes.

The moment Nasar was eaten by the Rock Giant, her vision went dark.

‘I was scared of what would happen if I couldn’t see Nasar again.’

In a corner of her mind, she thought that couldn’t be true, but she didn’t have time to continue thinking properly.

Thud, the Bbyong Hammer fell from her hand. The hand that had been gripping it tightly trembled.

“…”

Nasar’s face turned pale.

“I was wrong! I’m the one who deserves to die!”

Philomel stroked the cheek of the man who had his head bowed.

“Please cherish yourself. I would be so sad if something happened to you.”

To the point where I can’t bear it.

She realized clearly today. Philomel liked this man who was eaten by a giant for the mere reason of giving her a flower, so much.

Nasar pleaded.

“I will engrave it in my heart. So please stop the tears…”

“Got it? Cherish yourself. Definitely.”

“Yes, I will keep that in mind.”

Philomel hugged the man who was soaked all over after being inside the giant’s body.

“Wa, wait, I’m dirty right now…”

“Just stay still.”

In the end, her clothes also became dirty with the giant’s fluids.

Both of them were in the same state.

* * *

That same day, in the evening.

The two of them rode the Wyvern for a long time again and landed on the ground.

There were no suitable houses nearby, so they decided to camp.

For dinner, Nasar made stew with the ingredients they had.

“It’s made with humble skills and humble ingredients, but…”

He said shyly, but Philomel emptied the bowl of stew clean.

The fact that Nasar made the food was also very good, but…

‘It was so delicious, maybe because I was hungry.’

Perhaps it was because she had a light breakfast and moved her body a lot to catch the Rock Giant.

After the meal, they found a nearby spring and washed themselves.

It was nice to be able to wash away the giant’s fluids that she had only roughly wiped off with a towel at noon.

‘…Except that it was a bit embarrassing.’

Bathing is one of the times when humans are most vulnerable. They take their weapons away from their bodies, so it would be troublesome if they were attacked by the enemy.

So Philomel and Nasar decided that when one person was bathing, the other would keep watch.

“…Nasar, are you there?”

“Yes, I’m here. Is there something wrong?”

“It’s not that, it’s just… it’s a bit scary because it’s dark around here.”

“I, I see. Shall I tell you an interesting story?”

It was a truly awkward conversation. Nasar’s attempt to ease the awkwardness made the atmosphere even more awkward.

Philomel finished her bath, washing haphazardly, with her mind focused on the back of the tree where Nasar was.

Still, she thought she would feel a little more comfortable if she switched roles with him.

‘But it wasn’t at all.’

The sound of water as Nasar washed his body was so loud that she was mortified.

She absolutely did not have strange fantasies while listening to that sound. Absolutely.

And the long-awaited bedtime.

Philomel lay down inside the tent, nestled in her bedding, and tried to fall asleep.

“Krrr. Krrr.”

The tent seemed to vibrate with Wyvern’s loud snoring.

Kkyukkyu, who had been flying all day with only a short break at lunchtime, fell asleep the instant his head touched the ground.

‘I should have just kept Kkyukkyu with me when I took a bath.’

Why hadn’t she thought of that simple idea before?

“…….”

Philomel tossed and turned, but sleep remained elusive.

She sat up and looked around the tent. It was smaller than she had initially thought.

“Wow, I actually managed to say something so bold…….”

Her face flushed as she recalled asking Nasar to let her sleep in the tent earlier. It was already awkward enough having him stand guard while she bathed; there was no way she could sleep peacefully right next to him.

“Sigh.”

A sigh escaped her lips, heavy with worry. Jumping out of the Magic Tower had felt brave in the moment, but now that night had fallen, anxieties began to surface.

Lguinn didn’t seem to be pursuing her yet, and there hadn’t been any attacks by the Evil God.

‘Will things continue to go this well?’

It was highly unlikely.

In fact, she had tried to contact Count Polan during lunchtime to warn him about a possible assassination attempt on the Emperor. But for some reason, the Count hadn’t responded.

The problem was that Philomel had no communication stones connected to anyone close to the Emperor except for him—not even the Emperor himself.

‘There was no need for that since I could just visit or send someone if I had something to say.’

Besides Count Polan, there was no one else suitable to broach such a sensitive topic as assassination.

‘Pay more attention than usual to the food the Emperor eats, and always have a guard accompany him…….’

Even phrasing it like that sounded suspicious. If Lguinn was truly behind it, Philomel’s words might make her a suspect.

“Ah, it’s complicated. So complicated.”

Philomel, who had been fretting with her head in her hands, opened the tent flap to clear her head.

Nasar, who was sitting by the bonfire, smiled when he saw her.

“Can’t you sleep?”

Looking at his face, her worries seemed to melt away.

Things will definitely work out. Philomel felt sure, even though she had no real reason to believe it.

“You have to wake me up in the middle of the night. I’ll keep watch too.”

“I’m capable of handling it on my own.”

“No. Nasar needs to get some sleep too.”

“I’ve stayed up all night studying and training many times…….”

“Uh-huh. Who was it that helped Nasar defeat the Rock Giant today?”

“Of course, it was Philomel.”

“I can do it too.”

Thanks to the Wyvern standing guard nearby, most monsters wouldn’t dare approach anyway. Besides, she also had automatic protection magic.

After a while, as the night deepened, Philomel yawned.

“Haaahm.”

“Go inside and sleep now.”

Talking with Nasar seemed to ease her tension and alleviate her worries.

Philomel headed back to the tent.

“You have to wake me up.”

“I understand. Good night.”

Nasar saw her off with the sweetest expression imaginable, one that suggested he had no intention of actually waking her.

Philomel felt a slight unease, but she went to bed. The pull of sleep was too strong to resist.

How long had it been?

“Huh!”

Philomel suddenly woke up.

It was still dark outside, but her body felt surprisingly refreshed, indicating she had slept soundly.

“Nasar, what time is it…….”

Philomel grabbed her Bbyong Hammer [A magical hammer that makes “bbyong” sounds] and emerged from the tent, taking a deep breath.

The area immediately around the tent looked the same as it had yesterday before she went to sleep, but the area further away was drastically different.

“Ah, you’re awake? You could have slept a little longer.”

Nasar turned to look at her. He was stabbing a knife into something wriggling on the ground.

Remnants of countless monsters littered the area. The ground beyond a certain distance from the tent was stained black.

Judging by the faint light, dawn was approaching.

* * *

The monsters that had attacked at dawn seemed to be subordinates of the Evil God.

‘They looked similar to the insect-shaped monster Lguinn showed me before.’

The fact that their whole body was black and their bodies turned to ash when they were defeated was a clear sign.

Ires had discovered their location. She was growing impatient. She needed to reach the Great Temple quickly. At least that place, protected by divine power, would be difficult for the Evil God’s subordinates to approach.

Philomel and Nasar hastily ate the stew left over from last night’s dinner and climbed onto Kkyukkyu’s back.

“Kkyu!”

The Wyvern soared powerfully into the sky.

He had hunted and eaten monsters nearby to fill his belly, then slept soundly and woke up feeling very refreshed—much more so than Philomel had expected.

“Huh?”

She widened her eyes, noticing something strange on the back of Kkyukkyu’s neck.

It was a faint magic circle pattern, difficult to discern whether it was white or silver.

‘Was there something like this originally?’

She had been looking at the back of his neck for a long time yesterday, but she hadn’t noticed it. She asked Nasar, but he said he didn’t remember seeing it either. According to him, Kkyukkyu had disappeared for a while last night, but he hadn’t paid much attention because he came back soon after.

‘Maybe, just maybe…….’

Philomel entertained a hypothesis but quickly dismissed it.

Hasty judgment was unwise. It might have been there from the beginning, and they simply hadn’t seen it. Still, for some reason, the corners of her lips tilted upward.

“You’re not as honest as my son.”

Only Nasar tilted his head, confused by her incomprehensible words. There were enemies in the sky as well.

“Grrrr.”

A monster in the shape of a large eagle swooped down on them.

“I’ll take care of it.”

In the blink of an eye, the black eagle was shattered into pieces by the aura emanating from Nasar’s sword and plummeted to the ground.

Philomel admired his skill while thinking:

‘……I wouldn’t be able to do that with my Bbyong Hammer, would I?’

Bbyong, bbyong—it’s just noisy and not very practical.

Fortunately, there were only a few flying monsters tainted by the Evil God, so enemies appeared only occasionally.

They were either cleaved in two by Nasar’s aura or charred black by the fire spewed out by the Wyvern.

“It’s near here.”

As they approached their destination, they landed on the ground.

After leaving Kkyukkyu nearby, they walked to the house where Nasar’s friend lived.

Philomel wore the Veil of Ignorance [A magical item that conceals one’s presence], and Nasar concealed his presence as much as possible. They couldn’t risk attracting any of the Evil God’s subordinates who might be nearby.

But their worries were overshadowed by the fact that the destination was well hidden, protected by several layers of magical camouflage.

“Who is this! Isn’t it Young Master?”

A magician wearing a robe spotted the two people in front of the house and shouted.

The magician, who appeared to have been gathering herbs, was holding a basket filled with grass and ran toward them.

“Young Master, it’s been a while!”

Philomel was somewhat surprised to see the magician’s face.

‘What, his friend is…… a woman?’

There was no mention of her being a woman.