Cardboard Houses Do Not Tear

40 – An Ordinary Hearing in the Lobby

As soon as I entered the lobby, I was overcome with unknown anxiety.

“Are you here?”

Because the kilt that was leaning against the counter welcomed me.

It’s strange. That guy is not that kind of guy.

As expected, he began to show his true colors.

“I heard that you went on a mission alone with the prianian squad leader?”

I asked, frightened by the story with that strange modifier.

“What? Who said that?”

“Vieri said. What did he say…”

Kilt told me everything.

After hearing that story, I felt the mistake I had made.

It was a mistake I had made not to stop Vieri, who was foul-mouthed, calling me ‘a lucky guy who went on a mission for several days alone with the Prianian squad leader’.

This damn bastard. I should have kept my mouth shut as soon as I came.

In the lobby full of silence, people gathered in front of the counter.

In this space where only small breathing is allowed to the audience, only two voices could be heard.

“So nothing happened?”

“Then what would have happened?”

And one of them was me.

“Isn’t that what I’m asking you to find out. Aye?”

Kilt continued his speech, and his words spread across the quiet first floor.

Sadly, there were many people in the mercenary corps today.

– Hung-seong-gung-seong.

And even now, there are more of them.

What are you talking about?

Shh. Be quiet and listen, it could be an interesting story.

I was dumbfounded listening to the mercenary’s noise.

‘What an interesting story.’

I’m boring.

Thought so, I looked at Kilt, the only speaker who was leaning against the counter.

As if he had spent money to visit the temple, the bandage on his hand was almost unwrapped than expected, and he continued with his usual sly tone.

“As Vieri said, I heard that you and the leader of Priianian’s squad went somewhere together just the two of you.”

I questioned his tone.

No, is it correct to include the word ‘get along’ when going to knife?

“What makes you good? Do you think that word is suitable for going to work?”

If someone sees you, they’ll think you’re going on a date.

“Vieri said the prianian squad leader was clinging to your side.”

Of course it’s because it’s a guard. What crazy thoughts are you thinking?

Vieri. Like this f*cking bastard.

“I went to the squad leader’s guard, so it’s natural. If it were you, wouldn’t you stick by Richard’s side when he asks you to stand guard?”

“Ah. Of course I have to do what I have to do.”

Then he answered, shaking his hand weakly.

“By the way.”

“But what? Again, a relationship between a man and a woman, an affair.

“Calm down, I’m just asking.”

Having said that, he stretched out his hand and pointed to the stairs.

“By the way, why didn’t the prianian squad leader come down after the mission with you?”

“No, then is there a law that requires you to stand in the lobby like an on-call right after you come and go? I’ve been emptying oat sacks here for five years, and I’ve never heard of such a rule.”

I was dumbfounded and asked him the other way around.

Kilt didn’t lose to me.

“No, it doesn’t come down all day, so isn’t it natural to suspect that something strange is going on?”

– Jjallang.

“Excuse me, do you have a sharpener-“

“Since when did the counter watchman take charge of everything from kicking out shopkeepers to chasing the squad leader?”

I opened the front door and opened my mouth, pointing at the janitor entering.

“Do your thing.”

“Ah. Calm down. I’m just asking out of curiosity.”

He started using the age-old tradition of ‘don’t be so angry’.

“Why do you get angry with this-“

“Hey, why not a whetstone?”

I continued, still pushing the front door with my body, not removing my finger from the person holding the sharpening stone.

“Then let that man go first and talk.”

Kung.

After the front door quietly closed, I opened my mouth again.

“And how do I know that. Am I a squad member or the squad leader’s exclusive servant? Are you really crazy?”

Kilt deftly responded.

“Uh huh. Are you crazy about your brother? I’m just curious.”

“What kind of brother is he? Don’t you know that if you can’t afford to live here, you won’t be treated like a big brother?”

“Am I not worthy of my age?”

“Oh my God, since when did being immersed in the things you don’t have to do while not doing what you have to do is setting the age value.”

And actually, I’m the older brother.

“Anyway, this is what we think?”

At some point, Kilt, who became a spokesperson for the people in the lobby, opened his mouth.

I made up my mind to listen.

“Now, try reciting it to your brother.”

“What kind of brother are you?”

“Didn’t you know that the person who saved me more than my older brother while eating knives?

“Oh, no wonder. Anyway, the people here came to a conclusion after seeing that you two returned to the mercenary company with awkward faces and were invisible?”

My expression must have been just that, but it was easy to infer that the prianian squad leader’s expression looked bad.

Maybe it’s because of that.

But, unaware of that fact, he opened his mouth quite coolly.

“Because most of the opinions were that you had an accident.”

f*ck?

I was dumbfounded and asked back.

“No, what accident did I get into?”

The bastard answered with a pretty mean smile.

“Knowingly.”

“Crazy.”

I hated it.

I definitely had an accident, but at least the accident they think is different from mine.

What do these motherf*ckers think I did when I went slicing?

Jerbug.

“Nothing like that you know.”

“What is that?”

“Knowingly.”

I decided to slowly avoid the seat.

But.

Dubuck.

Every time I took a step back, the feeling of presence behind my back got farther away.

Seeing that it moved exactly as much as I moved, I didn’t think it would be easy to let go.

‘The drinking party still has a cooldown, and no one can see the number of cases.’

But I wonder if this experience has happened once or twice.

“No, why do people have so little trust in me?”

I was confident enough to escape, so I opened my mouth.

“You can’t trust me-“

And I shut up.

Surprisingly, it was because I was shocked to see the heads of my friends standing in front of me nod almost at the same time.

After watching the flash mob, I spit out only one word of my impression.

“…They said there was no one to trust.”

Then someone answered.

“I can’t quite believe it.”

“I’d rather believe that Vieri saved a lot of money. Aye.”

“Ah.”

I immediately countered.

“I’m not talking about catching a dragon, that was a bit harsh.”

At least that was a bit harsh.

“Hmm. That was a little harsh.”

Hearing my answer and the silence of someone who heard it, Vieri shouted in the crowd.

“Hey, hey. I’m the one who can’t trust you!”

“When did I say I couldn’t believe you? That’s just how it is. Why are people so sharp?”

Jerbug.

Jerbug.

Even in the gap like this, they started to narrow it down.

“Stop talking like this.”

“Why are people bouncing around like this?”

What they did was simple.

As I said before, while I succeeded in escorting the prianian squad leader in the caravan while being possessed by arrogance of arrogance.

They have thick pockets due to other missions or other reasons.

And, of course, the next thing people who have less financial hunger look for is to satisfy their mental hunger.

“Tell us what you did. Aye.”

That’s why, the starving ones asked pretty persistently.

“What does it mean to like comrades, are we strangers?”

I was dumbfounded by that part, so I asked back.

“No, then are we a family?”

“Then we are family, aren’t we?”

You sound like family.

Even though we’re not like dogs, we’re not like family.

Then, while limping, someone came out of the crowd and whispered.

“Don’t do that, just tell me, assei.”

Skaarl approached with a slight limp on his sprained leg while out at work, and showed off his insides full of reek.

You tell me to talk to you, but how many ears do you hear around you?

No one will listen to that and answer.

“Skaarl, when did you see me lie? Is it because nothing really happened?”

“Ah.”

Then someone spat out a word and said.

“Even if you don’t lie, people are good at tricking people. Cancer.”

Starting with those words, countless mites began pouring out.

“I don’t know anything else, but I need to filter your words a bit. Aye.”

“You never know. Was there really no such thing as ‘nothing’? Who knows what else could have happened.”

“Sure, then.”

As the obscenity started to grow stronger, I started to cross the line.

If it was poor Vieri who was here, he would have been stripped of his soul in an instant, just like the courtesy ‘black lingerie’, but I was different from that friend.

“Ah, did I ever say something wrong?”

So, I was willing to take a direct confrontation with fake news.

My method was really simple.

“And you lied to me, this is so different and so different. I have never cheated.”

To the false rumors, answer only the truth.

Because light always overcomes darkness.

“If you said that, how would I look to people who don’t know anything?”

“Cheaters?”

“You’re well aware of it. If I become a fraudster due to misinformation, wouldn’t it be quite embarrassing?

“I don’t know what to do in moderation.”

Again, someone else opened his mouth.

I politely asked back.

“Let me ask you in reverse. Is there anything I haven’t done properly?”

A sudden question about something I didn’t normally think of made the speaker shut up.

That’s why Skaarl answered instead.

“Yes. Assei didn’t say anything wrong.”

He was subconsciously helping me, and I was willing to take Skaarl’s outstretched hand.

“Exactly, Skal. I didn’t say anything wrong.”

I just used a slightly different interpretation.

Of course, I’m human too, so my memory isn’t perfect, so I might have said something wrong someday.

At the very least, if the other person isn’t as good as me, I won’t be as good as I am.

It’s not a childish sense of choice, just as no one knows Scal better than Scal, could there be someone who knows me better than I do? It comes from the desire to

“So please don’t slander me too much. I beg you. Who in the world would go to work and seduce people?”

“Well, someone will go on an escort mission and seduce a superior.”

“Sure.”

People started to stir at my honest words.

As expected, honesty is always rewarded.

Just like that, when public opinion started to fluctuate little by little, I came to the lobby to enjoy a comfortable rest.

“That guy is starting to make fun of people again.”

Someone opened his mouth.

“Everyone, wake up, was it once or twice that Assei said, ‘You didn’t lie’?”

The last time I felt the power of truth, the main character, Victor.

It was an opportunity.

“I’m sorry about what happened a few weeks ago. But isn’t it Victor’s fault for missing the subject?”

“What?”

As I prepared to pull myself behind my back, I brought up things from the past.

“So, shouldn’t there have been misunderstandings between them if they had revealed who made the noise at the watermill?”

“This b*tch-“

Hung!

“Eak.”

I deftly dodged his grip, but Victor couldn’t avoid the stone he threw himself into the still water.

That’s why, once again, negative harm started flying in from all directions.

It is a sad, sad rite of passage that the protagonist of the rumored infidelity goes through.