“The Guardians will be busy once we start moving.”
Hesgal caressed his beard as he mumbled and everyone nodded. The biggest issue was bringing back the wild animals back into the mountains. The problem was not dragging them in, but to block them from leaving the mountain. The Guardians were needed to block that from happening.
“We must have the Guardians block every possible passage.”
“It’s vast… will that be possible?” Elder Erda commented doubtfully, but Hesgal shook his head.
“They are majestic beasts. They must be able to do it. It will not take long for those animals to adapt back to mountain life.”
The elders continued to discuss the preparations. It was not like when they left the mountain in a hurry. Joonbum could not drop in as they were wise people. He just needed to agree on what they suggested.
“We will leave when spring comes.”
“Yes. I will help as much as I can.” Joonbum nodded and left the meeting room. It was already afternoon, but the town seemed to be very calm.
‘But this is how the Ainos village should be.’
There were faint voices of kids playing and some livestock reacting to the pestering kids. The livestock are handled solely by kids for the Ainos and humans alike.
‘It would mean child abuse on Earth,’ Joonbum thought as he watched kids dragging the rams.
“How do you feel?” Howen approached, asking about Joonbum’s condition from last night’s heavy drinking.
“It’s okay.”
“You shouldn’t compete with the Magnos on drinking.”
“Yes.”
“Follow me.”
Joonbum nodded and followed Howen to his house.
“Uncle Joonbum! Welcome in!”
“Arowen, you’ve grown!”
Arowen smiled at Joonbum. Then Agelie, Bejit, and Hessrah welcomed Joonbum also.
“Come, come.”
“Have a seat!”
Some of the kids also ran out to meet Joonbum. It was their children.
“How have you all been?”
“We’re doing good.”
“Oh, you’re here.”
Mayze also came out and greeted Joonbum. He watched Mayze with such an intense gaze that she blushed and backed away.
“Let’s go in, you’ll catch a cold. Mother has prepared food for you.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. She practiced so hard to make your favorite dishes. We had to eat a lot of those failed dishes, you know.”
“Oh, I see. Haha.”
Joonbum laughed at Mayze’s explanation. As he entered and waited inside the house, a huge bowl sat on the table. It was chicken broth soup with big meat inside.
‘Wow, that’s a lot.’
The bowl was so large that it almost covered half the table.
“Isn’t it too big?”
“Oh, yeah… haha.”
The soup had a whole Kuku and there was a huge, human arm sized wild ginseng cooked with it inside.
“That’s a fifteen-hundred-year-old ginseng. My wife found it luckily,” Howen explained. Joonbum seemed to be delighted. The table was also covered with other various Ainos foods, one dish including scorpion-like bugs. The bugs were only from the mountain range.
“I brought some when I went inside to investigate.”
“Father! Mister Nerik complained so much that you spent half a day searching for these!”
Howen blushed as his daughters pointed it out. Joonbum smiled as he imagined Howen searching for these bugs in order to prepare a good meal for his daughter and his daughter’s lover.
“Let’s eat then.”
“Wow!”
Joonbum took a spoon to try the broth. It was so delicious. He began gorging the food down quickly. Various foods were served continuously and they were consumed as quickly as they were served. After a while, Joonbum and Howen moved to the living room and began drinking wine. Howen took out a cigar and puffed thick white smoke.
“We must hunt down the powerful monsters that reside within the mountain first.”
Joonbum nodded.
“Yes. So, hunting them down is the problem?”
“Of course. They must be cleared out before we can begin cleaning the road.”
“Will the rifles be enough?”
Howen nodded. “Of course. Humans are extremely weak inside the mountains… What we’re really worried about is that once we leave here…”
Howen stopped speaking but Joonbum knew what he was talking about. He was worried that the Ainos would face discrimination once again after their departure. Even now, other countries were not fond of other races like the Ainos and Magnos and the discrimination against them was very prevalent. Howen was worried that Khalodian will turn back to it old days in regards to its treatment of non-human beings.
“It’s not like everyone is leaving, and I won’t let that happen. The Ainos and Magnos are equal with the humans at least in Khalodian. But…”
Joonbum stopped for a moment and continued, “Ainos and Magnos must mix in with the humans if they are to survive.”
“Hmm… the elders are not so fond of such an idea yet. Just like the humans, we are proud of our heritage.”
Howen seemed to be troubled.
“But you accepted me.”
“You’re different and special. We do not see accepting such a person to be a problem. But it’s the others that are a problem.”
This world was also bound to inequality between people.