1st Place In The Ranking Is A Villager

1st place in the ranking is the villager

- Volume 6 Episode 2

2. Poison Path (1)

A man and a woman were standing in front of the headquarters of the Baeksang Group, also called Twin Towers, located in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul.

“Jaegun, are you nervous?”

“I would be lying if I said no.”

The last time Baek Jae-gun talked to his father and saw him face to face is now 10 years ago.

He is going to face each other for the first time in 10 years, but he couldn't help but be nervous.

However, there is only tension in Baek Jae-gun, but no anxiety.

"I'm also suddenly nervous because I think I'm seeing my father-in-law for the first time. Is there anything strange about me?"

Ye-sook Lee said as she checked the look of her clothes she was wearing.

She now wore a thin yellow jacket over a black blouse and a tight suit skirt, with black glossy low-heeled stiletto heels at her feet.

"Is the yellow color too hot? Shall we change clothes now?"

"How long does it take from here to Ye-sook's house, but she's saying that. It's not weird and it doesn't pop, so don't worry too much."

Baek Jae-gun smiled brightly and then coughed.

"Hmm, then let's go now."

"Yes."

The two stood side by side and walked into the lobby of two buildings.

"Long time no see. Master."

As he entered the building lobby, Changmin Choi, the general secretary whom Baek Jae-gun had contacted in advance, approached him with a warm smile and greeted him.

He has been working as Baek Yoon-taek's secretary since the founding of Baek Sung Group, and he is like an uncle to Baek Jae-han and Baek Jae-gun.

At Choi Chang-min's words, Baek Jae-geon scratched his cheek.

"It's kind of strange to me that Secretary Choi calls me Bok-nim."

"The master drew a line saying Choi B. Seo.

"Haha. Okay, Uncle."

"Yeah, that's it."

Choi Chang-min smiled at this and slapped Baek Jae-gun on the back.

"Hey, how long has it been since I've seen this? It's been 10 years?"

"Yeah... well, that's it."

"Thank you for coming back. The president will be delighted."

After hugging Baek Jae-geon once, Choi Chang-min greeted Lee Ye-sook as well, and then got on the elevator with the two of them to guide them to the president's room.

"Both of you, don't be too nervous. Oh, it's because I didn't tell the president on purpose. Shouldn't it be sudden?

After the elevator arrived at the top floor where the chairman's room was, Choi Chang-min, who had finished guiding him to the front of the chairman's room, showed his thumb up and went back to his seat to do his job.

Inside the old-fashioned wooden door in front of them now, there was a person who had come to meet them.

"Sup, whoo."

smart.Baek Jae-geon, who finally took a deep breath to relax, made eye contact with Lee Ye-sook and lightly knocked on the door.

Then he cautiously opened the door to the president's room.

"What's going on, Changmin?"

Baek Yoon-taek, who was wearing glasses and was looking at the documents on the desk, said without looking away from the documents.

Choi Chang-min was the only person who could just knock in his room, so he naturally thought that the person who came in now was Choi Chang-min.

"It's not my uncle, it's me, Dad."

Baek Yoon-taek's hand, who had been flipping through the documents, stopped at the voice he had not heard in a long time.

Slowly raising his head and looking at the door in front of him, his eyes were trembling with a mixture of embarrassment and joy.

“Jae, Jae-gun…”

"It's been a while, Dad. And..."

"Hello, Father. My name is Ye-sook Lee. She is the person who will become Mr. Jae-gun's wife."

"...I'm sorry I came so late."

Baek Jae-gun smiled brightly with a slightly sad look.

Then, a small stream of water flowed down from Baek Yun-taek's eyes as he looked at him.

"No, I, I'm more sorry... And thank you, for coming back to this wretched father..."

On that day, the two rich men confided to each other all the stories they had accumulated until now.

And Lee Ye-sook was also officially recognized by Baek Yun-taek as her daughter-in-law.

* * *

As I approached the village entrance following Kuroe, I saw a restless woman at the village entrance.

She found Hoya's party and ran towards them.

"Kuroe! She's nonsense and where the hell did she go! Do you know how worried her mother was?"

"Oh, that's... in the mountains to find herbs..."

"She said now how many times did I tell her that she shouldn't go into the mountains! Mama has to fall over with your worries, do you mind?!"

Her mother's words, pressing her Kuroe without even breathing her breath, were full of her concern for her.

"I'm sorry... I won't do that again."

"Really, never do that again!"

After finishing her story, Kuroe's mother hugged her tightly.

And only then did she know that Hoya and Doban, who were behind Kuroe, caught her eye, and she spoke to the two of them.

"Are you two over there...?"

“Mother, these brothers saved me from being surrounded by hwagorani.”

"Ah! Thank you so much for saving my daughter."

"I didn't do anything big. So please raise her head."

As Hoya was embarrassed by her mother, Kuroe's mother bending her back, Kuroe calmed her own mother, and she and Hoya and Doban moved to their home.

"Once again, thank you very much."

Upon arriving at her house, Kuroe's mother greeted her again.

She said, "How should I repay this favor ......"

"It's okay if you don't have to. I didn't ask for anything in return."

And it didn't seem like Kuroe's mother could do anything for them.

On the way to Kuroe's house, the houses he passed by were all uninhabited, even if they were abandoned houses.

Even in Kuroe's house, only the bare minimum of necessary items was available.

Kuroe's mother was so skinny that her bones were on the verge of losing weight, and the other residents who peeked behind her house and through the wooden grates on the way to her house were not so different from her. didn't

Maybe she's hiding her skinny body under her oversized clothes in Kurodo.

To change the subject of her story, Hoya brought out the story she had heard from Kuroe earlier.

"More than that, she told Kuroe that her mother was ill, is she okay?"

"Ah, it's not like it's such a big disease. She just doesn't eat well, so her stamina is weak."

Kuroe's mother spoke her words, hesitated for a moment, and then continued her words.

“That…, from what I heard earlier, it seems that you saved Kuroe from Hwagorani… did you two kill them yourself?”

"Yes."

"That's right."

Kuroe's mother, who had been pondering for a moment at Hoya's answer, nodded her head as if she had made up her mind, and took Hoya's and her doban's hands one by one with her hands.

"It's a shameful story, but may I ask you a favor?"

When she said that, a quest occurred to Hoya and Doban.

[The quest 'Uninvited Guest of Mt. Hwaya' has occurred.]

[Uninvited Guest of Mt. Hwaya]

Residents of Nakjeong Village, forgotten and abandoned in the country, are living on a self-sufficient level by climbing the mountains to continue their lives, cutting trees in safe areas, or collecting fruits and wild vegetables.

But that's all a thing of the past.

Due to the giant centipede that started appearing at some point, the inhabitants of Nakjeong Village had to be kicked out of the mountains.

Due to the appearance of giant centipedes, the residents of Nakjeong Village became increasingly hungry.

In order to avoid starvation, men from Nakjeong Village work nonstop to a village that takes a full day on foot to earn money to find food.

However, considering the cost, time, and wages that were unreasonably reduced for being a resident of an abandoned village, the situation is insufficient for the villagers to continue their lives.

For the residents of Nakjeong Village, please recover Mt. Hwaya from the giant centipede.

Completion conditions: Hunt the boss monster 'Giant Venom Centipede' (0/1)

Success Reward: EXP, increase in favorability of Nakjeong villagers, and acquire skill 'Poison'

Failure Penalty: Decreased favorability of Nakjeong Village residents

“Actually, our village was making a living by looking for food in the mountain where you saved Kuroe, that is, Mt. Hwaya.”

Kuroe's mother explained the stories in the quest description to Hoya and Doban by unraveling them a little longer.

They were controlling the entrance of the villagers to the mountain due to the sudden threat of a giant centipede.

"If we go on like this, all the people in our village will starve to death. I will surely repay the favor someday. Please help us!"

Hoya and Doban accepted the quest without hesitation.

The content of the quest was also the content, but the quest with the skill in the reward could not be ignored.

But there was one catch.

"Hey, what does it mean to be abandoned by the country?""that is......."

Hesitating at Hoya's question, she carefully opened her mouth.

“You may not know about it because you live in a good village, but the country doesn’t even care about villages like this, where they don’t even pay taxes… It’s like a village that doesn’t exist or a lump of pus. It’s fortunate that the whole village didn’t become serfs It's... This kind of story isn't a very good story, is it?"

Hoya couldn't answer her words.

'Isn't the current emperor, Kwon Il-woo, doing the right thing?'

Hoya said she could make a close guess with certainty that the book she had read would not have been the only truth written in it.

She may not care about all the villages no matter how much she chooses, but in that case, she would not have used the expression that she was abandoned by the country.

"I'm sorry, I asked something."

"It's fine, so don't worry too much."

Hoya and Doban were sent off with her bitter smile and headed to Mount Hwaya to find the giant venomous centipede.

And not long after they left for the mountains, the men who had left the village to earn money returned to the village after a long time.

Among them was Kuroe's father.

"Kuroe! I've heard everything! He said he went into the mountain without fear!"

Kuroe was forced to receive a long and loud rebuke from his father when he returned home.

If the mother had not stopped him in the middle, the scolding would have continued all night.

"Honey, I've already scolded you once, so please do that."

"Huh, yes. I'm glad you're safe, really. By the way, where did the people who saved Kuroe go?"

"That's actually..."

Kuroe's mother informed her father that she had asked them to exterminate the giant centipede.

Kuroe's mother had spoken her words with the feeling of holding on to straw, and she was very grateful to Hoya and Doban who readily accepted her request.

“Is it all right? There must be many monsters in the mountains, didn’t you just force the benefactor into your limbs?”

“I think you’ll be fine, because Kuroe said that even Hwagorani was caught without difficulty.”

"That's right, Dad! Don't say anything nonsense and let's trust and wait!"

"Yeah, you're right. Believe and wait, and when they come back, you should give them a big reward."

My father, who was organizing the luggage he had brought, asked Kuroe.

"By the way, what kind of people were they?"

"They were very kind people. One was a little quiet. And the other had green hair, so at first I thought the Mountain Fairy was here to save me."

In response to Kuroe's reply, her father stopped her unpacking hand.

Then he sighed a little and opened his mouth.

"...Kuroe, wasn't that green-haired person wearing a mask? A mask like a tree bark."

"Yes? How does your father know that?"

At Kuroe's answer, her father thought deeply.

'They are our benefactors. But... Even so, I put my family first. Even if the centipedes of Mt. Hwaya disappear, our lives do not immediately return to their original state.'

After finishing her troubles, her father put down the luggage he had been unpacking, went to Kuroe and her mother, and put his hands on their shoulders one by one.

"Kuroe, you... If we do well, we may be able to feed the entire village. We may no longer be an abandoned village."

I'm sorry for him, but he's just an outsider anyway.

Thank you for reading this story at mtlarchive.com. Your support enables us to keep the site running!