My name is Sirgi.
The only child of the first snow in a world without winter.
That's why I was alone.
The eternal snow of utter solitude.
A blade forged within it.
Waiting for the spring that would one day return. Hoping for the first flower that would bloom someday. That's how I endured, how I stayed silent, and how I eventually opened my eyes.
And now….
…..Hee-haw!
"......"
Oh my.
Good heavens.
O God of the Abandoned Land.
Did that sound just now really, truly come out of my own mouth?
Sirgi, the Cold Monarch of the Abandoned Land, deeply felt a wave of sorrow surge within her. And with a sigh, she once again realized the truth.
"....Hee-haw."
Ah.
It really is my sound.
The slack lips exhaling a noisy, spit-flecked sigh. The nostrils twitching incessantly on their own. The now all-too-familiar four-legged gait, and the soft, springy, fluffy sensation of fur I felt with every step I took.
All of it.
"........"
Yes, that's right.
It was right after I took the Elixir of Transformation.
Upon seeing my changed form, the Demon King had blurted out immediately.
Wow, it's my first time seeing a pink alpaca.
"....."
Alpaca, my ass.
I just want to die.
A shame so immense it was almost stupefying.
An astonishingly rapid surge of humiliation.
But there was nowhere to complain. No—forget complaining, all I got from the side was endless snickering.
"Kwak, kkwaak! Kkwak, kkwaak!"
"...Use words, Asurat."
"Ggwaak, kkwaak!"
"You can talk now, right?"
"Not yet, gwaaak! I'm still not used to speaking with this beak, you know?"
"Pretty fluent for someone making excuses, huh?"
"You're one to talk."
Asurat, waddling annoyingly beside me this whole time, shook his drooping lower beak with a smug tone.
"Still, Sirgi, you seem to be adapting to your new form way faster than I am."
".....Shut up."
"Oh? Feeling cranky?"
"I told you to shut up."
"Hmmmm? Kkwaak! Weren't you the one always preaching about how the results of transformation reflect your usual conduct, and how we should all accept what we're given?"
"....."
Sirgi had no rebuttal.
Was it that amusing? Asurat flapped his huge wings and laughed, kwaak-kwaak.
"Krr, krr! Kwakkkk!"
"...How about we drop the disguise right now and fight to the death?"
"Whoa? What's wrong, kkwaak! The fortress gate is just ahead, you know?"
"Shut it. You've got wings but can't even fly."
"Huh? I'm still practicing?"
"Practicing? Don't tell me you meant that thing earlier?"
"Yeah. I can fly about three meters now."
"That's not flying, that's jumping."
"...Tsk. Both of you, zip it."
Just as the argument between the alpaca and pelican—no, Sirgi and Asurat—was heating up, Kim Jangcheol poured cold water on them. Then he turned to the whole group and said,
"We're about to arrive at the fortress. Stay sharp, everyone."
"...."
Come to think of it, the gate of Magrat Fortress was now just a few dozen meters ahead.
Kim Jangcheol addressed everyone with a word of caution.
"From here on, one mistake and it's over. Everyone, act natural. Got it?"
"......"
"Tch, just none of you say anything. I'll handle the guards."
Kim Jangcheol couldn't help but give a wry smile.
Everyone but him—even Zephyros—was visibly tense.
'Guess it's because it's their first time interacting with humans like this.'
That seemed to be the case.
They were always invading or pillaging—this was probably their first time trying to pass through a checkpoint legally. No wonder it felt unfamiliar.
"But my lord, can't we just go around the fortress instead of passing through?"
"No, we can't."
Zephyros whispered his question.
Kim Jangcheol shook his head immediately.
"I already told you. This checkpoint is the only way into the human world."
"But... I still don't quite understand."
"Which part?"
"You said we can't cross the sea on either side of the gate, or fly over it. Things like that."
"Well, it's the truth, so what can you do?"
Kim Jangcheol chuckled faintly.
It really was true.
Magrat Fortress.
It was a wall sealing off the narrowest point of the isthmus that connected the Abandoned Land to the human world.
And the seas on both sides of that wall?
Beneath the waves lay ferocious whirlpools so extreme that no ship could ever pass through them.
The skies weren't any different.
Above the seemingly calm fortress flew super-powered jet streams so violent that even an adult dragon's wings would be torn to shreds in a moment's lapse.
Who said this?
The game company.
The developers.
They had officially nailed it down in the game settings: for such-and-such reasons, passage is absolutely impossible, or that escaping the Abandoned Land without passing through Magrat Fortress is entirely impossible.
"So anyway, we can't get through by any other means."
"Ferocious whirlpools and violent storms... It's almost like someone deliberately wanted to sever the Abandoned Land from the human world with malicious intent."
"Yeah, that's probably exactly it."
The problem was, that someone was the game company who made this world.
Anyway, that's why.
There are no tricks.
No side paths.
Glitches?
Didn't work.
He'd tried every trick in the book to cross that barrier while playing the game, but every attempt had failed.
The reason was simple.
The gate was the end of the game's implemented map. Meaning, the world beyond it was unfamiliar even to him.
"....."
Will it be okay?
Eh, probably.
No need to go deep into the kingdom anyway.
Just quickly sell the chuno at some small town or village market beyond the fortress, buy some seeds, and come right back—there'd be no need to ever cross into the human world again.
Kim Jangcheol quickly smothered the creeping unease that was bubbling up inside him. Then he turned to the group and reminded them,
"Anyway, this is the only way. If this doesn't work, we're screwed. Understood?"
"...Yes."
"Alright then, lips shut from now on."
"...."
Everyone's mouths—and beaks—shut tight. They walked on like that. At last, they reached the gate.
As if they had been monitoring their approach from quite a distance, a dozen guards were already standing by to meet them.
"......."
No greetings were exchanged.
Kim Jangcheol, slightly tense, gauged the expressions of the guards. The guards were scanning each member of the group with stern faces.
'They're seriously strict.'
Solemn, stern, and serious to the core!
They looked ready to draw swords and spears at the slightest provocation.
But still….
'Let's do this.'
Kim Jangcheol moistened his lips with a loud smacking of the tongue.
And mentally prepared his rehearsed, checkpoint-smooth-talker lines, ready to roll them off his tongue.
But then it happened.
A dry question from a guard came flying first.
"Name and place of origin."
"...Kim Jangcheol, from the Gafel region."
To the stern inquiry, he quickly offered the fake name and origin he had prepared in advance. Then, a senior-looking officer who seemed to be the checkpoint leader stared at him intently.
"That's quite a peculiar name. But why is your face purple?"
"Ah, that's...."
"You're not about to give me some ridiculous excuse about taking the wrong medicinal tonic as a child or falling from a pear tree, are you?"
"........"
Sh*t. That's exactly it.
"I'm growing suspicious. You, and the pointy-nosed one next to you, and the absurdly large pelican, and the pink alpaca. All of you."
"Ah, that's...."
"Besides, there's no record of your group passing through this checkpoint. Not in the ledger, nor by appearance. Can you explain when exactly your party passed through here to enter the Abandoned Land?"
"......"
He was at a loss for words.
Did this checkpoint really track things that meticulously? The management system was far stricter and more thorough than he'd anticipated, tightening around his throat like a noose.
The checkpoint leader's eyes grew even more severe.
"This is highly suspicious. At this point, it's enough to consider you as spies of the demon race trying to infiltrate the fortress."
"......"
Things were heading in a bad direction.
Maybe, just maybe, they should force their way through—even if it was a bit reckless.
No.
If they did that, and word spread about their group, then both selling the chuno and buying seeds would become a nightmare.
Kim Jangcheol started thinking seriously.
But then—
"…..Huh?"
A guard, who had been inspecting the cart with a suspicious look, let out a startled sound. Then, he urgently gestured to the checkpoint leader.
"Captain! Over here!"
"What is it?"
"Here... this, it's something incredible!"
The officer frowned and walked over. Kim Jangcheol felt his heart drop once more.
'Is this... the end?'
They were already under heavy suspicion.
And now they were reacting like that while checking the cart...
'They must've seen the chuno.'
A creeping sense of doom settled in.
Because the stuff honestly looked repulsive as food.
The chuno was downright ugly.
Frozen, stomped, dried, then frozen, stomped, and dried again—topped off with the "flavor" of Baal's hands—no, feet(?), in every sense...
'Aren't they just going to misunderstand even more, thinking we brought weird junk?'
Right as that worry hit—
The checkpoint leader's unexpected outburst upon seeing the chuno pricked Kim Jangcheol's eardrums.
"Whoa? Isn't this... that thing?"
"Looks like it, Captain, doesn't it?"
"This big thing... is it really the Black Potato?"
"What, really? The Black Potato?"
"It is! It's huge!"
The moment the checkpoint leader uttered the words "Black Potato," the atmosphere did a complete 180.
The guards, who had been all tense and stern, now rushed to the cart. With visible excitement, they pointed at the chuno and started chattering.
As if they had just found a long-lost treasure. Or like people who stumbled upon a coupon for two free chickens on the street.
Thanks to that, Kim Jangcheol's mind went ding.
'Huh?'
…..What is this.
'Why are they acting like this all of a sudden?'
He was baffled by the unexpected turn.
The sight of the checkpoint guards making such a fuss over chuno was something he had never accounted for in any scenario he had envisioned.
'Wait, could it be... these guards actually know what chuno is? Or at least they've seen it before?'
That seemed to be the case.
Otherwise, there's no way they'd react like this.
'But how? Why?'
Kim Jangcheol's brain kicked into high gear. The instinct he'd honed from watching professors' moods back in his lab days revved into motion.
And because of that—
He was able to remember it.
The sack of chuno lunch boxes he had lost while fleeing from the Aged Kimchi last time he came here.
'.....Aha.'
That sack I dropped must've been found. It made its way into the fortress and became known to the people here. That's it. That's what happened.
But then...
'...They actually like it?'
The guards excitedly calling the chuno "Black Potatoes."
They looked like kids receiving New Year's money. Or middle-aged men finally getting permission from their wives to buy a PlayStation.
In any case, they were happy.
Genuinely glad.
All just from seeing the chuno.
It was an unexpected reaction.
Thanks to that, he now understood the situation.
And at that very moment—
"Everyone, hold it."
Kim Jangcheol's voice changed. His demeanor shifted. His expression transformed in an instant. Even his gaze and aura underwent a total mode change.
Heavy.
Confident.
With just a hint of arrogance.
He tilted his chin up by precisely 11.5 degrees, and in a slow yet powerful voice, began to deliver an outrageously brazen lie to the guards.
"You dare unveil something that concerns the safety and future of the kingdom without permission—a classified item meant to be presented directly to His Majesty?"
[T/L: I am not getting any support from webnovel platform, so please support me and read ahead chapters on my ko-fi page "RevengerScans" : https://ko-fi.com/revengerscans ]