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“That’s a bit odd.”

Golb tilted his massive head, replying after hearing the information I and Aliya had received through the Freemasons of the Stonecutters’ Guild.

“Usually, when people are expelled from a village, it’s one family, or at most two. I’ve never heard of twenty people being expelled at once.”

“Is there a possibility of a sudden population increase?”

“I can’t say there’s absolutely no chance, but unlike humans, we giants are rare as a whole race, so I think the possibility is low.”

So it’s the same as Elves, huh.

Aliya pondered for a moment before asking another question.

“Then, is there a possibility that the expelled Wandering Giants have been continuously accumulating?”

Golb scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed.

“Well… we honestly eat quite a lot, you know?”

“…That’s true.”

Aliya’s face, who was also in charge of the country’s finances, darkened for a moment.

The giant brothers, considered divine beings in the Emigration Church, were more than just human resources capable of moving massive stones without any problems. Their immense stature also made them valuable assets as figureheads for the religion.

The problem with the giant brothers, who were such important figures that the country managed them, was their food consumption.

I’ve never seen an elephant in person, but these giants’ food intake must be more than that of an elephant.

Each one ate at least 200 to 500 pounds a day, using the current weight unit in Pohhellernia.

The annual maintenance cost for two giants was equivalent to the maintenance cost for 300 healthy soldiers.

It had nothing to do with me, but I understood Aliya’s position as the one in charge of the kingdom’s finances, so I chuckled softly.

“We met our master, and now humans provide us with food, but generally, Wandering Giants have a hard time surviving the winter after being expelled. Because of their size, efficient hunting is difficult, and storing food is also difficult, so giants expelled from the village generally starve to death from hunger and cold in the winter, when even slight hunting becomes difficult. Moreover, twenty people… coexistence would be difficult.”

Golb stated definitively.

“Considering that, didn’t you two survive for 14 years with your mother?”

“It’s embarrassing to say it myself, but my case was special.”

Golb, noticing Aliya’s expression, carefully explained.

“When human villages started appearing everywhere, you could get enough food to survive the winter just by destroying one village if you were frugal. From the time when the villages became too big to touch, we ambushed and hunted on passable roads. Ordinary giants wouldn’t even think of setting such traps. Besides, now that Pohhellernia has been created, the borders of the northern villages are much stricter, so luck like mine would be difficult.”

Aliya didn’t directly mention that the giants ate humans, but she understood through the context.

However, Aliya was a succubus from the Eastern Continent, where humans were just wild animals.

She nodded to Golb as if to say she understood.

“In the end, I’ll have to go see for myself.”

“That’s troublesome. If the opponents are giants like the divine beings, sending ordinary soldiers wouldn’t solve the problem.”

“Besides, winter is coming soon, and those who lack training would be greatly restricted in moving in the severe cold.”

“We also have the expedition next spring. We can’t overdo it right before the expedition.”

I glanced at Aliya and opened my mouth.

“I’ll take care of this.”

“…Araya-nim?”

“If the opponent is a giant, wouldn’t it be better to go with a sure choice rather than dispatching mediocre manpower?”

“That’s true, but…”

“Anyway, Prigos has returned from the expedition and will be here until next spring, so couldn’t you take care of the barrier during that time?”

“I see.”

Seeing Aliya nodding at my words, I continued the explanation with a benevolent expression.

“As I said back then, I won’t interfere in fights between humans, but identifying and dealing with these anomalies is different. Don’t worry, I’ll handle it well since I’m going myself.”

“Then, I’ll leave it in your capable hands.”

“Yes, leave it to me.”

“But you must return by next spring.”

I felt a pang at Aliya’s gaze, which seemed to say, ‘Don’t enjoy yourself too much and not come back,’ but I pretended not to notice and nodded.

“Of course.”

◈ ◈ ◈

“So, I was going to have a leisurely trip alone for the first time in a while.”

I sighed, reminiscing about what had happened before the departure.

Munch, munch-

“Huh? Master. What’s wrong?”

“…Nothing.”

I looked at Silb, who was chewing on a large bison thigh bone in one bite.

Under the dark night, the light from the campfire was too small for a giant.

Thanks to the light source barely illuminating up to his chin and his hideous face, he looked like a Yaksha.

‘He really has no sense of romance at all.’

The only suitable choices who knew the surrounding geography well and could respond even if they encountered Wandering Giants were the two giant brothers.

I returned my mouth, which was popping out without my knowledge, to its original state and looked up at the star-filled night sky.

I was somewhat expecting a trip where I could listen to the sounds of nocturnal birds and insects quietly echoing under the night, and grill fish or chestnuts caught by fishing at the campfire.

But the reality was that when I saw two giants grilling and devouring a whole bison, its thick neck bones broken and dangling by a giant’s fist, any sense of travel romance was a story from a distant land.

Looking at the devastated remains of the bison, I didn’t feel like eating at all, so I laid out a cloth in the place I had reserved for sleeping and lay down.

Rudolph also sat down next to me, nodding off.

‘That guy. He’s gotten used to being taken care of by the priests at the temple, so he’s having a hard time for the first time in a while.’

Rudolph had been nervous throughout the trip, worried about being stepped on between the giants on either side.

Besides, now that there were no priests or paladins to worry about, I felt that I had to correct his habits on this trip, so I didn’t listen to any complaints or grumbling.

No matter how much of a deer he was, he couldn’t be bigger than a giant’s footsteps.

Perhaps tired from several days of constant forced march, I reached out and stroked the head of the nodding Rudolph.

‘I should let him go a little slower from tomorrow.’

Even in his sleep, he rubbed his nose against my hand, smelling it, and fell asleep with a satisfied expression.

Even in that state, did he smell that the one touching him wasn’t a man?

‘…He might not be fully awake yet.’

I turned my gaze away from Rudolph, who had fallen asleep next to me.

I rolled the stem of a foxtail grass in my mouth with my lips and tongue, looking at the stars spread out in the sky and thinking.

‘Even if I return next spring, I won’t be deployed right away. The ground has to thaw, and the soldiers’ bodies, which have been stiff during the winter, have to warm up. So… the time allowed for this outing is roughly four months.’

If Prigos starts wandering outside, Aliya will be busy again, so I’ll have to manage the Great Barrier of the Great Temple again.

‘It’s a trip I’m taking after being out for the first time in five years. I can’t keep carrying those lumps of flesh around for four months.’

For five years, I had only been doing things like honing my martial arts or training disciples, like a monk or hermit.

My martial arts and Internal energy had increased, but I couldn’t help but feel frustrated because I didn’t want to live a life like a nun in the Great Temple, which was narrower than the wide Elven Road.

All I had seen in this world so far was the western forest where I was born and a part of eastern Pohhellern.

There was still so much I hadn’t seen.

‘But I was lucky.’

Something happened in the north, which I hadn’t been to.

Besides, the north was a place I wanted to visit after meeting the giant brothers and hearing their stories.

Even back then, when I was teaching the giant brothers how to hunt and knew how much they ate, I wondered what kind of place the nature that could feed these giants, not perfectly, but still, was like.

‘I need to quickly resolve the problem of the increased number of Wandering Giants, send them back, and then travel around the giants’ territory in the north.’

If the guys who were expelled from the giants’ village wandered around the giants’ territory, there was a high probability that problems would arise, and giants weren’t suitable for stealth operations anyway.

Then, suddenly, a thought came to mind.

‘…I was too excited. I can’t believe I forgot about this.’

I got up from where I was lying and spoke to the giant brothers, who had finished off a huge bison, leaving only the bones, and were licking their greasy hands.

“But are you two going to be okay?”

The two giants stopped cleaning their hands and tilted their heads at my words.

“What do you mean?”

“Depending on the situation, we may have to kill the Wandering Giants. No, with that many, they’re likely to make a mess of the surroundings before winter comes, so we’ll probably end up killing them.”

“Ah… you mean that. I don’t really care.”

Golb said as if it were nothing.

“In the first place, every year, people in the village kill each other, worrying about whether they’ll be expelled, so I’ve never had any particular sense of camaraderie.”

“…But didn’t you want to go back to the village?”

“Well, it’s hard to make a living outside the village, so it was more of a survival issue than longing. Now, I don’t have any attachment to the village.”

“Me too! I like it here too. I have Master too. The humans are kind. The dates are delicious.”

As a heartwarming atmosphere flowed, Golb stopped Silb, who was trying to run to me, by hitting him on the head.

“…Does your mother, whom you serve, say she’s okay with it?”

Unlike the giant brothers, their mother, Bronya, lived separately, not interacting with humans.

Humans occasionally sent supplies to the cave where she used to live, or the brothers visited and took care of her.

“My mother doesn’t want to go back to the village where she killed my father, so she seems satisfied that she doesn’t have to worry about starving and that we’re healthy now.”

“I see.”

I nodded, looking at the brothers, who had blended into the human world better than I had expected.

“Even so, if you’re reluctant, you don’t have to do anything. In the first place, I came to handle this matter alone.”

“How can a disciple just stand by and watch when Master is taking action himself?”

Golb smiled and said.

“The reason I learned martial arts from Master in the first place was to beat a giant in the village to death and re-enter that position. It’s a welcome thing, not something to be hesitant about.”

“Hmm. That’s a relief then.”

Seeing the giant brothers, who were nothing more than bandits and wild men when I first met them, now understanding their master’s heart, I felt a warmth in my chest.

‘So this is why people raise disciples.’

I looked at the parts of the giants’ bodies illuminated by the firelight and asked,

“It seems that the Giant God Art has reached the Fourth Level. Silb… is still at the Third Level.”

“Can you tell?”

“You speak impudently. I created that martial arts specifically for your bodies in the first place.”

When I sensed the energy flying from the east and recognized it as Ulkanadiel’s, and decided to settle in Pohlen for the sake of the covenant with Frigos, I set out to find the giant brothers.

As promised, the giant brothers did not eat humans, but hunted or sometimes helped humans who had been pushed out by Frigos with transportation or peddling between villages, and lived by receiving compensation.

In fact, when I arrived, rumors were beginning to spread about them being giants who helped people instead of eating them.

So, as promised, I taught the giant brothers martial arts.

The problem was that, unlike humans and Elves, Titans had very simple bodies.

They had a large, solid, and simply functional bone structure, and even the number of bones was small.

Moreover, the blood vessels and meridians were not very complex, but rather simple, and even underdeveloped, making their physical structure very inefficient for feeling and accumulating Internal energy.

Their muscles, however, were strong, tough, and flexible enough to allow bipedal walking with a weight that would normally make it difficult to even stand.

In short, they were a naturally simple, strong, and powerful race that had difficulty accumulating Internal energy.

Therefore, I created martial arts for the giant brothers that were not typical Internal energy cultivation, but rather External energy cultivation.

The Giant God Art, which trains the weak blood points and meridians while leading the giant’s physical strength to a higher level.

And the Giant Strength Fist, which allows them to fully use the power of their trained bodies, as there were no weapons that could withstand the giant’s strength.

And a bit of lightness skill to reduce the commotion every time they moved because of their size and weight.

“Even if you meet other giants, you won’t act disgracefully.”

“If it were me in the past, even if there were five of them, I could crush their skulls in an instant.”

“Why would there be five of him, brother?”

I smiled as I watched Golb, who smiled belligerently at my words and confidently spoke while clenching his trained fist, and Silb, who was talking nonsense at the sight, and spent the last of the day.