Chapter 8. The Idiot

by Foreigner · 2026-08-21

It took a day and a half to reach the cliff.

All the while, Gihun kept telling himself,

Aron: Just look.

Aron: ......

Aron: If you look and decide it's not for you, just come back.

Aron: ......

Aron: There's no need to go in the first place. If it's not right, you can turn back midway.

Gihun said that six times.

He didn't stop once during those six times.

On the first night, Gihun looked at the southern sky.

It was red.

Two hours had passed since sunset, but the southern horizon was red.

It was fire.

Something was burning in front of the castle.

Gihun watched it for a long time.

Then he wrote down his schedule on the ground with a twig.

'Day 1. Get acquainted.'

'Day 2. Ride.'

'Day 3. Go.'

Gihun read those three lines and was satisfied.

This schedule would be erased by the next evening.

The cliff was massive.

The entire northern face of the mountain was cut away. Below was fog, and what lay beneath the fog was unseen.

Gihun stood at the edge and looked down.

'.......'

Then he took three steps back.

He looked again.

He took one more step back.

The nest was halfway down the cliff.

It was a hollowed-out section of the cliff. Branches and bones were piled up.

There were many bones.

Gihun thought some of them were quite long.

'.......'

'They must be animal bones.'

Gihun concluded.

After concluding, he looked at the bones one more time.

There were three chicks.

They were the size of dogs. Large dogs.

All three had long necks and kept biting each other. One was pushed to the edge of the nest while biting, then crawled back up.

Gihun watched them and thought,

'Cute.'

Then a shadow fell.

Gihun looked up.

What Gihun did next was fold his body and squeeze into a rock crevice.

He didn't think about it.

His body acted first.

The mother descended.

Its wingspan was about ten meters. As it passed in front of the cliff, the wind blew upwards from below. The dirt where Gihun was lying scattered.

Its beak was sharp like a spear, and the inside was red.

A deer was clutched in its talons.

To be precise, what used to be a deer was clutched in its talons.

The mother landed in the nest.

The cliff rumbled slightly the moment it landed.

The three chicks rushed towards it.

The mother raised its neck and cried out.

The sound was high-pitched. So high-pitched that it hurt his ears.

Gihun didn't come out of the rock crevice.

He didn't come out for an hour.

During that hour, Aron's memories offered something.

'Wyverns have excellent eyesight.'

'.......'

'Especially for moving objects.'

Gihun didn't even breathe.

An hour later, Gihun emerged.

The first thing he checked was his pants.

'.......'

They weren't wet.

Gihun was genuinely relieved.

Then he looked at the schedule.

'Day 1: Get acquainted.'

Gihun erased it with his foot.

He wrote a new schedule.

'Day 1: Don't die.'

Gihun saw the mother leave that afternoon.

It was after the sun had risen above the cliff.

She returned half a day later.

Gihun counted those two times.

He only managed to count two.

There was no time to see a third.

At night, he looked south again.

It was red again.

A little brighter than yesterday.

Gihun decided not to think about what that meant.

On the morning of the second day, Gihun descended the cliff.

There was a path down. It wasn't a good path. There was a continuous ledge barely wide enough for one foot, and it broke twice in the middle.

Gihun stood for ten minutes in front of the first break.

Aron: I can do it.

Aron: ......

Aron: I've jumped this far before. I jumped further when avoiding wolves.

Aron: ......

Aron: But there was ground below then.

Gihun regretted saying that.

He jumped.

He crossed.

After crossing, Gihun hugged the rock with both arms and stayed there for a moment.

The second time wasn't scary.

That was a lie.

When he reached the edge of the nest, the three chicks looked at him simultaneously.

Gihun raised his hand.

Aron: Hello.

All three cried at once.

Gihun was bitten in five places that day.

He climbed up and looked at his forearm.

There was a semicircular tooth mark. It was bleeding.

'.......'

Gihun thought as he tied it with cloth.

'Meat.'

It took half a day to find meat.

There was still an orc corpse near where he had caught the ogre.

It wasn't in good condition.

Gihun cut it up and put it in a sack. As he put it in, he smelled it, and after smelling it, he leaned his hand on a tree and stood there for a moment.

'.......'

Gihun thought very briefly about his life.

He returned and went down again.

He threw it into the nest.

Two small ones rushed forward first.

The biggest one didn't come.

Gihun threw another one.

The big one stretched its neck.

Gihun threw the third one.

The big one came.

Gihun watched it eat.

It was the biggest and slowest of the three.

'You're the one.'

At night, he looked south again.

It was red.

Gihun erased the schedule.

He wrote a new one.

'Day 2. Ride.'

On the third day, Gihun attempted eight times.

The first was the back.

Gihun placed his hand on the big one's back.

The big one stayed still.

Gihun swung his leg over.

The big one stayed still.

Gihun sat down.

Gihun couldn't remember the next three seconds.

When he came to, he was stuck on the opposite side of the nest, with a pile of bones digging into his back.

The big one was looking at him.

Wyverns have no expression.

But Gihun was sure it was a look of disbelief.

The second was the neck. He was bitten.

The third was jumping from the side. He rolled sideways.

The fourth was while it was eating. It dropped its food and pushed him away.

Gihun was a little disappointed that it dropped its food.

From the fifth to the eighth time, the results were the same, only the details differed.

After the eighth attempt, Gihun sat in the nest.

The big one was also sitting.

They sat side by side.

Aron: Hey.

Gihun said.

Aron: How much food have I given you?

The big one looked forward.

Aron: I cut that from down there and brought it all the way here. You smell it, right? It's still on my hands.

Aron: ......

Aron: But is it really that hard to give me one ride?

The big one scratched its neck.

Gihun asked Aron's memory.

'How to ride a wyvern.'

'None.'

'How to tame one.'

'None.'

'Anything.'

'Wyvern stomach acid melts bones.'

'.......'

'Within two hours of ingestion.'

Aron: That's enough.

That night, Gihun didn't look south.

He tried not to look, but he eventually did.

It was red.

Gihun sat in front of the schedule.

'Day 2. Ride.'

He erased it.

And wrote nothing.

After a long while, he wrote one line.

'4 days left.'

On the dawn of the fourth day, Gihun had a very bad idea.

'Why not sleep together?'

The logic was this:

Animals consider those they sleep with as part of their pack. Dogs are like that too. Gihun knew this not from Aron's memory, but from his own experience. The neighbor's dog was like that.

So, he just needed to sleep in the nest.

Gihun found one problem with that plan.

The mother would come.

Gihun stared at that problem for a long time.

'.......'

'No time.'

Gihun considered that a solution to the problem.

That night, Gihun lay in a corner of the nest, using a bone as a pillow.

The big one was beside him.

He closed his eyes.

He opened them three seconds later.

'.......'

'Am I crazy?'

Gihun accurately assessed his situation then.

He was currently lying in a wyvern's nest halfway up a cliff.

Bones were piled around him.

Some of them were quite long.

But he didn't get up.

Because if he got up, 4 days left would become 3 days.

Gihun slept there that night.

More accurately, he didn't sleep.

He kept his eyes closed.

He opened them about seven times.

At dawn, the big one shifted its body and stretched its neck towards Gihun.

Gihun froze.

The big one rested its neck next to Gihun's head.

And went back to sleep.

Gihun stayed in that position until sunrise.

After the sun rose, Gihun very carefully extracted himself.

He climbed the cliff.

He sat down at the top.

And he smiled.

Aron: Done.

He himself didn't know what was "done."

On the fifth day, Gihun made a rope.

He gathered kudzu vines and stripped tree bark, then twisted them.

'A rope needs three strands.'

Sergeant Oh had said that.

'Two strands will unravel.'

Gihun twisted three strands.

Sergeant Oh had done it in thirty minutes.

While twisting, Gihun searched Aron's memories once.

'.......'

There was nothing.

'Didn't you even learn how to make a rope?'

The first one broke.

The second one also broke.

The sun set while he was twisting the third one.

Gihun pulled it with his hands.

It stretched.

It didn't break.

However, the surface was smooth. He had twisted it in a hurry, so the fibers hadn't interlocked properly.

'.......'

Gihun stared at it for a long time.

'If I twist it one more day, it'll be proper.'

Gihun looked south.

'.......'

Gihun just used that rope.

This decision almost killed him the next morning.

Morning of the sixth day.

The mother left.

Gihun went down.

He had a plan.

It was very small.

'Just put it around its neck.'

Put it on, let it get used to it today, and try pulling it tomorrow morning.

Gihun thought that sequence was rational.

When Gihun was rational, usually nothing happened.

Gihun threw the rope.

It landed around the big one's neck.

The big one shook its body once.

It didn't come off.

Aron: Oh.

Gihun said.

Gihun had wrapped the end of the rope around his wrist twice.

The reason was simple.

If he missed, it would be another day.

The big one spread its wings.

It had been doing that for the past few days. Spreading and folding, spreading and folding.

But this time, it didn't fold them.

It stretched its neck forward, facing the wind.

Gihun saw it.

'.......'

'Why is it doing that?'

Gihun searched Aron's memories.

'Isogi.'

'What's that?'

'Time to leave the nest.'

The big one jumped.

The first thought Gihun had was this:

'Oh, right.'

His wrist.

He had wrapped it twice.

The world turned upside down.

Gihun screamed.

He screamed very loudly, but the sound didn't reach his ears.

The wind blocked his ears.

There was nothing beneath his feet.

A thousand meters lay beneath his feet.

'I'm sorry.'

Gihun thought.

'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.'

He didn't know who he was sorry to.

'.......'

'No, why am I sorry?'

Then the rope slipped.

It was a rope that hadn't been properly secured.

It slipped from his neck upwards and caught behind his head.

Gihun's body was pulled forward and up.

And Gihun hung upside down.

The wyvern's face was right in front of him.

Gihun's face was also right in front of him.

Both were upside down.

Their eyes met.

No one said anything.

Then, both of them screamed simultaneously.

Gihun, in that state, vomited what he had eaten that morning. The vomit didn't go down because the wind was coming from the front.

At that moment, Gihun made several new sounds that a human could make.

He struggled. His foot kicked something. It was the wyvern's head. The head was pushed to the left. His body spun to the left.

'.......' Gihun stopped. He stopped, hanging upside down.

Gihun pushed again. This time, he pushed to the right. His body spun to the right.

'It's the head.'

Gihun had no time to think about how amazing his discovery was at that moment. Trees were coming.

There was no landing. The concept of landing didn't exist for that wyvern. The wyvern went into the forest, broke a few treetops, then touched the ground, and even after touching down, it went about twenty meters. Gihun fell off in the middle of those twenty meters.

Gihun had his face buried in the dirt. He stayed like that for a long time.

A voice spoke. 'When you fall, tuck your chin and turn sideways.' It was Coach Kim. 'Land on your back and hit with your arms. Don't go face first.' Gihun said, still with his face in the dirt.

Aron: ......Now?

Gihun tried to move his fingers. They moved. His toes moved too. '.......' Gihun sat up.

The wyvern was about ten meters in front. One wing was pinned under its body, its neck was raised, and it was looking at Gihun. Gihun looked at it.

Aron: ......Hey.

Gihun said.

Aron: This is your first time flying, isn't it?

The wyvern tilted its neck sideways.

Aron: It's my first time too.

Gihun lay down on the spot. He saw the sky. There were two suns.

Gihun reviewed what he had just done, in order. He fell from a cliff. His wrist was wrapped. The rope slipped. He hung upside down. He vomited. He kicked its head with his foot. '.......' It wasn't in any part of the plan.

Gihun laughed. He laughed for a long time. He stopped laughing when his ribs started to hurt.

After stopping, he looked at the suns.

It was still morning.

It was the morning of the 6th day.

Gihun sprang to his feet.

He spent thirty seconds naming it.

Gihun searched Aron's memories for dragon names. 'Partien.' 'Robeliad.' 'Cernobis.' Gihun called out those names aloud.

Meanwhile, the wyvern was trying to pull out its pinned wing. While pulling it out, it stepped on its own tail. Startled, it jumped. While jumping, it hit its head on a tree.

Gihun watched it.

Aron: Dummy.

The wyvern looked at him.

Aron: ......

Gihun was quiet for a moment.

Aron: Dummy.

There was no time to retract it.

The training was for a day and a half.

On the afternoon of the 6th day, he flew five times. All five times, they crashed.

Gihun starved Dummy twice between those five times. He didn't starve it, he just didn't have time to feed it. Dummy seemed to have taken it as training.

There were two controls. Pushing the head and covering the eyes. Covering the left eye made it turn right. Covering both eyes made Dummy go crazy and fly anywhere.

Gihun tried that only once.

That one time, both of them fell into a lake. Gihun grabbed Dummy's leg underwater and came up, and both of them lay sprawled on the shore. Dummy vomited water. Gihun also vomited water.

Aron: ......

Gihun looked at Dummy.

Aron: I was wrong.

On the evening of the 6th day, the mother came.

Gihun heard the sound first. It was a high-pitched sound. A painful sound. As soon as Gihun heard it, he ran towards Dummy.

Dummy stretched its neck. It stretched its neck and tried to open its mouth. Gihun grabbed its beak with both hands.

Aron: Be quiet.

Dummy twisted its body.

Aron: Be quiet.

Aron: ......

Aron: I said be quiet.

A shadow passed overhead. It passed once. It turned around and passed again. Gihun was pressed against the tree.

Aron's memory then offered something. 'Wyverns have a developed sense of smell.' '.......' 'Especially for the scent of their young.' Gihun closed his eyes.

The third time, it didn't pass. The sound faded away.

Gihun held its beak for a long time. He released it after his breathing returned to normal. His hands were trembling. Gihun rubbed his hands on his pants.

Dummy looked at him.

Aron: ......

Gihun looked at Dummy.

Aron: Why didn't you call out?

Dummy didn't answer. Wyverns don't usually answer.

That night, Gihun didn't tie Dummy up.

He had no rope to tie it with. He lost it in the lake during the day.

So he just lay down.

He lay down and opened his eyes a few times. He checked if Dummy was there. He checked three times.

In the morning, Dummy was in the same spot.

Gihun saw it and said nothing.

It was the dawn of the 7th day.

Gihun drew a map on the ground. The peak here. The castle there. Nothing in between. Gihun traced the line with his finger. 'One day.' If he went by air, it was one day. Seven days became one day.

Gihun saw that the schedule was still there next to it. '4 days left.'

Gihun erased it with his palm.

After erasing it, he wrote one line.

'Today.'

Gihun wrapped the sack strap around his shoulder twice. There was one shoe inside. The club was tied to his back. Nothing was wrapped around his wrist. Once was enough.

Dummy was sleeping. It slept with its neck on its back. Its feet twitched occasionally while sleeping.

Aron: Dummy.

Dummy didn't wake up.

Aron: Let's do well today.

Gihun got on its back. This time, Dummy didn't throw him off.

Aron: We're just going to look.

Gihun said.

Aron: ......

Aron: Go, look, and if it's not right, just.

Gihun didn't finish the sentence. There was no need to finish it.

Aron: Let's go.

Dummy ran. It ran from the edge of the cliff, dipped down once, then rose. The wind came from the front. Gihun hugged its neck and lowered his body.

The forest passed below. The forest ended, and the ridge passed. The ridge ended, and Mount Dedon went behind them. What took over 70 days passed in an hour.

Gihun looked back once. The mountain was getting farther away. '.......' Gihun looked forward again.

There was a plain ahead. At the end of the plain, there was a castle.

The castle was still there.

The area around the castle was black.

Gihun flew towards that blackness. As he flew, he knew exactly what he was doing. But this time, he didn't make excuses.