The kids seemed to be disappointed as Joonbum walked away from them.
“Sabu! Let’s play!”
“Yeah! Come on!”
Kids pleaded and shouted for a moment. The Ainos kids were protected, but specific jobs were assigned to them as soon as they started walking.
“Hey, you kids have your jobs to do. I’ll play with you in the afternoon.”
“Okay!”
The kids exclaimed brightly and then ran away. Joonbum smiled and turned his eyes to the truck.
‘There’s a lot.’
The truck and its trailers hauled a lot of the items that were brought over.
“It’s a lot. We need more dishes than we thought.”
Sunsook, who spoke as she approached, was holding a bowl of yellowish liquid that had ice floating around in it. Joonbum instantly knew what it was because of the smell.
“I didn’t expect that to be honey.”
“I didn’t either.”
What she brought was a special kind of honey that had been stored for over twenty years underground to make it taste better. It seemed more like melted caramel at the first sight, but a spoonful of it mixed with water was a something else.
“It’s good for your health. Drink up.”
“What about you?”
“I already had mine. Go ahead.”
Sunsook then started unloading the truck with some other women while Joonbum drank the honey.
“Looks like it didn’t cost as much as before?”
“Yeah. The owner gave me a discount since I’ve become a regular customer.”
“I see. Go ahead and buy everything you might need. We need to use it for a long time.”
“Okay. I ordered bean paste and pepper paste. Those are hard to make, and we can just store it also.”
“Sure.”
“Oh, this seems to be yours.”
Sunsook found a box with Joonbum’s name on it and handed it over to him. Joonbum checked the box and grinned as he realized what it was.
“This is our family tree record.”
“Family tree?”
Sunsook was confused. She knew Joonbum always hated his father’s family name and he always said that he’d change the name as soon as he got a chance, but he never did. Sunsook watched him in silence.
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m just trying to use it here.”
“Here? With that?”
She was relieved that Joonbum had no other plans on Earth with it, but it did not quench her curiosity. Joonbum opened the box to reveal a well-decorated wooden box. It seemed the box itself was made by a skilled wood craftsman.
“What is that box? It looks really old.”
“It’s not old. The really old ones are expensive, but these don’t cost as much and there’s practically no difference between them. It’s just an old wooden box.”
Joonbum opened the box to find a golden silk cloth covering the interior. There were five sheepskin parchment scrolls neatly stacked within it.
“The inner box is covered in real silk,” Joonbum explained, but Sunsook was eyeing the parchment. It also looked very old even though Joonbum had probably only prepared these recently.
“So these records represent our family tree?”
Sunsook still seemed very confused. Joonbum grinned.
“Yes it does.”
“And then?”
“You are now a countess and I’m the son of a countess.”
“Huh? I am now a countess? Haha.”
She was amused and started laughing. The women who had been unloading gathered around.
“What is going on here?”
“What happened?”
“Sunsook, you seemed to be amused.”
Sunsook, who could not stop laughing, looked at them and answered, “Look, I am now a countess starting today! Haha.”
She kept laughing as the women looked between her and the parchment, puzzled.
“Joonbum. Was she a countess?”
“Is that true?”
“So you mean, like a noble among the humans?”
“I heard that humans have kings, nobles, peasants, and slaves. It seemed very complicated.”
Everyone’s eyes turned to Joonbum as they watched him with curious eyes full.
“Oh. I heard we need some sort of status if we visit human land. I heard status will matter a lot and it would be better to represent myself as a noble.”
“Oh.”
“Yes, humans really think it’s important.”
“I heard that too.”
There were murmurs of people agreeing to what Joonbum said.
“That’s why I prepared it.”
He needed a noble status if he wanted to fulfill his plan of traveling across this world. There were many kingdoms and empires in the other world, and it would’ve been a bad idea to just roam around without upper-class status.
‘People will want the stuff I have, and they will try to take it from me if I’m just some peasant.”
It was obvious that all kinds of people, from thieves to nobles, would use their power to take away what Joonbum had brought to this world.
‘They will hunt me down like a rabbit.’
The status of nobility was a must.
“But why countess? I would welcome the idea of being a princess.”
“Mom! Please!”
“Why? Am I too old? Haha.”
“No… It’s just I don’t think we can pretend to be royals.”
“Okay, sure.”
Joonbum had thought about pretending to be a royal family, but that would attract too much attention. Even a duke or marquis seemed to be too high in the rankings. He didn’t want to draw more attention than he would bring as it is. Count seemed to be good enough.
What Joonbum was concentrating the most on as he prepared his immigration to this world was safety. It was the reason why he was trying to purchase the Marauder. The Humvee provided him a good sense of security at first, but when he heard about the twenty-foot tall monster called the Gartz, he changed his mind. He needed a machine with much more firepower and defensive ability.
‘I should be safe against pretty much any monster once I bring the Marauder here.”
He grinned at the thought about the monster vehicle that would soon be in his possession. Sunsook’s mother, who had been reading through the parchment, looked surprised.
“Th-the name, what is this?”
Joonbum nodded as he grinned teasingly.
Count of Christos, Baron of Seoul, Baron of Kyungki, Baron of…
5th. Monte de Christos…
…
17th. Don Quixote de Christos
Count of Christos, Baron of Seoul, Baron of Kyungki, Baron of…
[Don Quixote de Christos led over twenty battles in the victory of the Padra Plain War and is a Knight…]
Born in the 1300th year of the kingdom. Died in the 1355th year of the Kingdom.
Sunsook, Countess of Christos.
First born: Siegfried Christos.
Second born: Joonbum Christos.
…
“I see a lot of the names seem very familiar?”
“Haha. It was done on purpose so we can memorize it easily. We just need to memorize the order.”
That was the purpose for choosing names that were very familiar to Sunsook and Joonbum. They needed to know the names of their fake ancestors, and by choosing names from famous lore or stories, they only needed to memorize the order.
“Thanks to you, I am now a countess.”
She seemed to be glad as she smiled.
“Oh, and before I forget.”
“Yes?”
“You’ll need to buy a lot of clothes.”
“Clothes?”
“Yes. You’re a countess now. You need to wear beautiful dresses.”
“D-dresses?”
“Of course. We’ll have to make friends with aristocrats. You can buy any other accessories you might need too.”
Sunsook considered it to be more like a simple guise, but it was much more than that. She was unprepared for Joonbum’s ideas as she was never the type to buy any kind of luxury item. She did enjoy a short day of luxury as it was only a short-term trial, but acting like a real noble was different.
‘She’ll enjoy it soon.’
Joonbum figured Sunsook would soon enjoy all the luxury. They had more than enough money to spend with such luxury. There was no need to hesitate.
“We’ll need to wear stuff with the best possible quality. We can’t be cheap on this. You are a countess now, remember?”
“Bu-but don’t you think we still have to be careful about spending? Just in case?”
Joonbum shook his head as Sunsook seemed hesitant.
“No. We’ll have no use for money once the Gate closes. Oh, and you can process the jewels I took out to make jewelry.”
“Oh, that?”
Joonbum nodded. Some were already in the hands of jewelcrafters to make them into jewelry.
“We have to act like real counts if we want to avoid much trouble as possible. It’s a dangerous place. We cannot be cheap. Buy a lot in case we have to give out gifts.”
Joonbum explained everything and Sunsook nodded with a deep sigh.
“Whew. Okay, I will.”
