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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
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Chapter 07
I realized for the first time today that something could be both cold and burning hot.
Whoosh…
Flames flickered inside the transparent mana stone, resembling ice crystals.
Snowflower Stone.
This beautiful mana stone, which looked like it could be used as an ornament, appeared before me as soon as I exited the Trial Chamber.
I liked how it looked, but what I liked even more was the fact that it could supplement my lacking mana.
==
「Snowflower Stone」
Mana Capacity: 2500 / 2500
==
“This is amazing.”
Its mana capacity was five times my own, which was incredibly satisfying.
‘I won’t have to worry about exhaustion anymore.’
As long as I managed it properly, I wouldn’t collapse from using Napoleon’s rifle.
But more importantly…
“I’m starving.”
Wandering around all day had completely drained me.
I pulled out a gas burner, boiled some water in a pot, and poured in the ramen seasoning.
“Ah, this is it.”
The rich aroma filled my nose as the broth dissolved.
Then it was time to add the ramen noodles to the boiling water and wait for them to cook.
Ding-ling—
The chime of the shop’s bell rang as the door swung open.
‘Ah, I forgot to lock it.’
I had planned to close early today and test the Snowflower Stone, so I turned to the incoming guest to apologize.
“Sorry, but we’re closed for today…”
But then.
“My apologies. I lost my way in the downpour.”
Shaaah…
Outside the open door, rain was pouring down in torrents.
“May I take shelter here for a while?”
I was at a loss for words as I looked at the middle-aged man standing there.
Rumble—!
A bolt of lightning flashed, illuminating his face and I immediately recognized him.
A towering build, a reddish beard, sharp and intense eyes.
There was no way any Korean wouldn’t know this man.
After all, his statue stood in Gwanghwamun, and his face adorned the hundred-won coin.
The legendary commander who built an undefeated legacy.
The hero who saved a fallen kingdom from destruction.
“… Admiral Yi Sunsin…?”
“You know me?”
—You have encountered Yi Sunsin from a failed timeline.
The second guest of my shop.
He was none other than Admiral Yi Sunsin, the Hero of the Seas.
***
“I’ve seen you from a distance before.”
“That's so.”
In reality, my only encounters with him were through history books, statues, and the hundred-won coin.
But in a metaphorical sense, I supposed I had seen him from a distance.
‘He looks so gaunt.’
The man before me was quite different from the modern depictions of Yi Sunsin, which often portrayed him as gentle and dignified.
His face was lean, his cheekbones prominent. His lips were thick, and his eyes large and piercing, like those of a bull.
And yet, just one look was enough to know Ah, this is Yi Sunsin.
“Admiral.”
“You need not use that title. How can one address a dismissed man as an admiral?”
“You were dismissed?”
“For the crime of reporting falsehoods, His Majesty has stripped me of my rank and ordered me to serve as a common soldier. I am merely following that command.”
As he spoke, I noticed his plain white robes, the mark of an officer serving without rank.
‘No wonder he looks so worn.’
According to history, Yi Sunsin had repeatedly been ordered by King Seonjo to purge the Japanese forces occupying Busan.
But to Yi Sunsin, such a battle was doomed to failure.
When he refused to follow what he deemed a suicidal command, the king, furious, used a fabricated charge of false reporting as an excuse to demote him.
Stripped of his position, Yi Sunsin was ordered to march as a common soldier, a punishment known as Baegui Jonggun.
At the age of fifty-two, he was commanded to walk from Seoul to Hapcheon a staggering distance of 670 kilometers.
And so, it was during this forced march that Yi Sunsin had knocked on the door of my shop, seeking shelter from the storm.
Which meant…
‘This is right before the Battle of Myeongnyang.’
The legendary naval battle where Yi Sunsin, with only thirteen ships, defeated a Japanese fleet of 133 a battle that altered the course of Joseon’s history.
A battle that saved a nation on the brink of collapse and cemented Yi Sunsin’s legacy as the Saintly Hero.
—Assist Yi Sunsin in leading the Battle of Myeongnyang to victory.
Before I could fully grasp the situation, a quest notification appeared before me.
‘Ha… what the hell is this…’
This was an even worse quest than the Napoleon incident. My heart throbbed just thinking about it.
And as if responding to my distress, the system message continued.
—Reward: Legendary Relic
‘…Is this for real?’
***
Yi Sunsin was not alone in his march.
“My name is Ahn Wi.”
Standing beside him was Ahn Wi, Yi Sunsin’s right-hand man and one of the key figures in the victory at Myeongnyang.
‘Did Ahn Wi accompany him during Baegui Jonggun?’
I wasn’t sure.
Since this was a failed timeline, history might have played out differently.
“The rain won’t let up.”
Even though it was late into the night, thunder, lightning, and torrential rain still raged outside.
“If it is not too much trouble, may we stay here for the night?”
“Yes, of course.”
“My thanks. I shall compensate you accordingly.”
Yi Sunsin and Ahn Wi took their seats at a table inside the shop, resting for the night.
‘Good thing I set that up.’
For the record, that table and chair?
They were from Napoleon’s era.
Originally, my shop had no seating arrangements. But after Napoleon’s visit, I had placed them there for convenience.
Which meant that table was also an relic.
The very table where the great Napoleon once leaned back, sipping cola and chatting away.
==
「Napoleon’s Table」
—A table where the hero of the French Revolution, Napoleon, once shared a cola with his close friend, Choi Seojun. Sitting at it gives a feeling of restored energy.
Fatigue Recovery: 10%
==
‘So even relics can be this simple.’
A plain old table could become a relic just because a great hero sat at it.
Of course, since the table was an otherworldly object materialized through my mana, it would disappear just like Napoleon’s Rifle if I ever ran out of energy.
That had made me hesitant to leave it out before, but now? I didn’t have to worry.
Because the Snowflower Stone was replenishing my mana.
“This table… strangely makes me feel less fatigued.”
“I feel the same way.”
Yi Sunsin and Ahn Wi, seated at the table, exchanged curious glances.
It made sense they would have felt their exhaustion melt away.
Relaxing a bit, the two began to chat.
Pretending not to care, I quietly listened in.
“We must find Bae Seol.”
“Do not worry, he could not have gone far.”
‘Bae Seol…?’
I recalled the infamous officer.
While Yi Sunsin had been stripped of command, another admiral, Won Gyun, was given control of the fleet.
A reckless fool, Won Gyun had managed to lose all 300 warships that Yi Sunsin had painstakingly gathered.
Bae Seol, one of Won Gyun’s subordinates, was the officer who deserted with twelve of those ships.
And those very twelve ships would later become Yi Sunsin’s final fleet at the Battle of Myeongnyang.
Bae Seol didn’t flee to preserve the ships; he ran out of fear.
‘But why is Yi Sunsin looking for him?’
As I puzzled over it the ramen on the gas burner bubbled furiously, reaching its peak.
I cracked an egg against the rim of the pot, letting it slide into the broth.
The savory aroma spread through the shop.
Yi Sunsin and Ahn Wi fell silent.
They weren’t talking anymore.
Instead, they were staring.
Gulp.
I could hear them swallowing.
Neither one of them spoke.
They simply gazed at the ramen, eyes locked onto it.
Feeling awkward, I was the first to break the silence.
“Would you like some?”
“Are you certain?”
Ahn Wi’s immediate response made me chuckle.
“Yes. I have plenty, so eat as much as you’d like.”
Even great admirals were just men when faced with hunger.
***
“This is truly an amazing dish.”
“Huff, huff… Spicy… but I can’t stop eating.”
Like starving men, Yi Sunsin and Ahn Wi devoured the ramen without hesitation.
I had to cook six entire packs just to keep up with them.
‘So it’s true that people in the past ate a lot.’
I’d always heard that ‘gobongbap’ which means stacking mountains of rice was a thing, and looking at them now, I could see that history had been accurate.
“This dish… what exactly is it?”
“It’s called ramen.”
“Ramen? I have never tasted noodles this delicious in my life.”
Ahn Wi let out a heartfelt exclamation of admiration.
Yi Sunsin, though silent, gave a slow nod in agreement.
This was definitive proof the addictive nature of ramen worked even on 15th-century Koreans.
“Tell me, where is this place?”
Yi Sunsin, having emptied his bowl down to the last drop, turned to me with a serious expression.
“This is a general store.”
“General Store, you say… Then, are you the master of this place?”
“Huh?”
“I have heard that a man called Dongbang Sak possesses eternal life and wields mystical arts. They say his dwelling is filled with miraculous objects, much like this place.”
[PR/N: “Dongbang Sak” was a Chinese taoist who was considered one of the eight Chinese immortals.]
“….”
It seemed that, after experiencing a gas burner and ramen, Yi Sunsin had mistaken me for a Taoist immortal.
Honestly, it wasn’t too surprising. If a man from the 15th century saw something like a gas burner, what else could he think?
“You could say it’s something similar.”
I had no way to explain otherwise, so I went along with the misunderstanding.
After all, crossing between worlds if you thought about it wasn’t all that different from sorcery.
“I suspected as much. That table, too, felt strangely rejuvenating.”
“This is a fateful encounter. To think I would stumble upon an immortal’s dwelling while seeking shelter from the rain.”
I let Yi Sunsin and Ahn Wi believe what they wanted.
***
The next morning, as soon as the rain stopped, Yi Sunsin and Ahn Wi left the store.
But they weren’t leaving completely.
“I apologize, but would it be possible for us to stay here for a while? I will, of course, offer compensation.”
“There’s no need for that. You’re welcome to stay. I wouldn’t mind some company.”
“Haha, much obliged.”
I refused Ahn Wi’s offer of silver coins and allowed them to stay in the store as long as they wished.
Outside my shop, the terrain stretched into a mountainous landscape.
Yi Sunsin and Ahn Wi left early in the morning and only returned by sundown.
“This may not be the place after all.”
“Let’s keep looking. He may still be in the vicinity.”
From their conversation, it was clear they were searching for something.
‘Are they looking for Bae Seol?’
The next day, they returned in the evening once more, their expressions dark with disappointment.
I had a feeling about what was going on, so I approached Yi Sunsin as he was resting.
“Forgive me, but may I ask what exactly you are searching for?”
“Have you, by chance, seen a man by the name of Bae Seol?”
As expected.
Yi Sunsin was searching for Bae Seol.
‘Has the timeline been altered?’
Bae Seol Joseon’s last naval commander before Yi Sunsin reclaimed his position.
He was the man who deserted with twelve warships after his superior, Won Gyun, had recklessly squandered the entire fleet.
Historically, after handing over the ships to Yi Sunsin, Bae Seol fled again.
Yi Sunsin’s ‘Nanjung Ilgi’, which was his war diary, recorded Bae Seol as displaying severe anxiety and paranoia.
Historians later speculated that Bae Seol likely suffered from PTSD, which led to his desertion.
Yet, despite his fear, Bae Seol somehow managed to single-handedly traverse enemy-occupied territories and escape all the way back to his hometown in Gyeongsang-do.
Because of this, there was a running joke that Bae Seol might have been some kind of living weapon, capable of cutting through Japanese forces alone.
But in reality, Bae Seol was neither a PTSD-stricken soldier nor a human weapon.
Modern research revealed the truth that Bae Seol wasn’t even human anymore.
Bae Seol had become a monster.
If his transformation had been accelerated, that would explain why Yi Sunsin was hunting him down during Baegui Jonggun.
After all, there were records suggesting that Yi Sunsin had once been a monster-hunting officer.
“If you are searching for Bae Seol, you must look in dark and damp places. Caves, valleys, or beneath large rocks.”
“How do you know this?”
“Because that is where a Geuseundae likes to hide.”
[PR/N: Geuseundae is a monster that embodies the darkness in Korean folk tales.]
Bae Seol’s transformation…
He had become none other than a Geuseundae, the shadow-dwelling specter from Korean folklore.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
Join our Discord for release updates!
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