Chapter 8: Warm Night (2)

Chapter 8: Warm Night (2)

“Thank
you for the favor, but no thanks.”

“⋯Huh?”

Diana
looked puzzled, as if she hadn’t expected I would say no.

“Really?
It’s a hot soup I just made.”

It
seems so. The soup in the concave wooden bowl was steaming hot in the
cold night air.

I’m
sure the first bite will melt away my fatigue, and the thick
consistency and large chunks of meat will delight my taste buds.

Rrrrrrrr-

Once
again, my stomach screamed at me and I wished it would shut up.

But
my stomach had something to say. What have I eaten so far, a soup
full of sleeping potion? A few bread crumbs?

Look
at my body. How do I have the energy to move that big, muscular thing
with so little food?

Hunger
begets fatigue, and fatigue begets poor judgment so I made the
foolish decision to sleep with the beggars and I used up quite a bit
of energy there.

The
fatigue from my time in the Labyrinth hasn’t helped. I probably won’t
even have the strength to stand up tomorrow morning.

One
foolish choice has come back to haunt me in a giant snowball.

I
couldn’t afford to make another stupid decision.

Let’s
say I take that soup.

Unless
I eat it with my head in the bowl like a dog I have to take off my
helmet and Diana sees my bare face.

I
think of the enslaved girl and the maiden who went to heaven.

Didn’t
that bitch’s eyes roll back when she saw my bare face and she
attacked me with sleeping potion?

Of
course, it is possible that Diana will see my face and be
unimpressed.

She
could be handing me this soup out of pure, 100% goodwill.

Maybe
I’m being paranoid and dismissive of other people’s favors.

‘But
what the hell.’

I
already have blood on my hands from a similar case so I didn’t want
to make the same choice over and over again.

“I’ll
just thank you for the warm soup.”

“Hmph,
is that so?”

“Yes.”

Diana
looked at my stomach for a moment, wondering if she’d heard a purr,
and then turned her head quickly, her voice taking on an awkward
smoky tone.

“⋯Ahhh.
So the hot soup I just made will inevitably become food
waste⋯How
do you propose to dispose of it⋯?
Do you think stray cats will eat it if I leave it outside?”

Diana
squatted for a moment, carefully setting the soup bowl and utensils
down on the alleyway floor.

“⋯What
are you doing now?”

“There
are often stray cats around here. I like to give them a bowl of hot
soup when they have nowhere else to go.”

‘Stray
cats don’t use utensils.’

Deanna
said nonchalantly and turned on her heel.

“Perhaps
by tomorrow, the cat will empty the bowl and leave~”

I
watched Diana’s back as she walked away.

This
is an unfamiliar pattern but I can guess what she’s planning.

That
soup is like a mousetrap. A hungry mouse takes a sip of the soup and
that’s it.

The
rat caught in the trap is immediately sent to slavery for 40 gold
coins!

You
think I’m crazy to eat that? No way.

Tsk,
tsk, tsk.

‘⋯⋯’

But
the reason for the trap is that there’s always a mouse that gets
caught in it.

The
mouse knows the trap is dangerous.

But
when the mouse sees the cheese in the trap, he can’t resist his
hunger, so he swallows his saliva and reaches for the cheese.

“A
very devious plan⋯”

I
moved away from the soup. It would have been bad enough if I didn’t
have any food at all, but having it in front of me was even worse.

I
settled back down at the end of the cul-de-sac and tried to fall
asleep.

But
sleep was elusive. My mind had been fully awakened by a brief
incident.

And
the smell of the soup was overpowering.

The
savory, rustic, and slightly sweet aroma mercilessly assaulted my
nostrils even when I was as far away as possible.

I
looked up and saw a bunch of vegetables and meat scraps. I wonder
what it tastes like. It must be delicious.

-Hmph.

As
soon as I recognized hunger, my stomach started to flutter like
crazy. know. I know I’m hungry too.

“Yum.”

My
mouth watered again and again. I force my eyes shut and plug my nose.
I tried to ignore my hunger as best I could, but it wasn’t easy.

“Ah!”

In
a flash, I reached into my backpack and pulled out the antidote the
armored knight had handed me.

I
drank it almost like water, so there were only a few drops left.

‘If
I drink about ⋯
a tablespoon, shouldn’t this be enough to detoxify me?’

I
immediately shook my head, but the more I thought about it, the more
plausible the idea became.

It
was an impulsive idea, but not impossible. I know firsthand how
effective antidotes can be.

I’ve
been detoxified and woken up in a matter of minutes after drinking a
bowl of soup with sleeping potion that was so sour I could smell it.

“No,
calm down,” I thought. There’s nothing to lose by waiting.

I
held my breath and let the time pass.

I
stayed awake the rest of the night, unable to fall asleep.

The
blackened sky began to glow blue but I continued to stare at the soup
until dawn broke.

When
I realized that my opponent must have fallen asleep from exhaustion
at this point, I moved toward it.

After
spending the night in the darkness of the Labyrinth City, the soup
had gone from bubbling and steaming to eerily cold.

I
tapped the surface with the spoon beside me, and the soup thickened
and curdled.

-Sniff.

I
smelled it, but it didn’t have the sour scent of sleeping poison.
Instead, I smelled a savory buttery aroma.

I
stealthily removed my helmet, wary of all sides.

Carefully,
I dipped the tip of my tongue into the soup.

My
tongue twitched as it touched the cold soup.

Without
bothering to taste it, I took a bite and quickly brought the mouth of
the bottle to my lips.

If
sleep attacked, I’d drink the antidote immediately.

I
waited for a while with the antidote to my lips, not knowing when
drowsiness would strike.

The
drowsiness didn’t come until about ten minutes later. I didn’t
experience any unusual symptoms, such as tingling.

Only
after I was satisfied that everything was fine did I scoop up the
soup onto my plate and take another sip.

Even
though it was cold, the basic flavor base was unexpected.

It
wasn’t the watery, bland, sour soup I remembered.

This
soup was rustic, chunky, and full of thoughtfulness.

The
soup, chilled by the night air, was softer on the tongue than the
soup I ate by a warm campfire.

The
more I ate, the more my vision blurred.

For
a moment, I thought it was poison, but my head knew it was not.

I
swallowed hard through the tears that welled up in my eyes and drank
the soup. It wasn’t until I finished the entire bowl that I realized
what I was looking at.

This
was where the beggars had stayed yesterday, their belongings strewn
about in their hasty escape.

Aside
from all the junk, the most prominent item was a bowl.

There
was a bowl of exactly the same shape as the one I was holding right
now, perfectly placed for the number of beggars.

–
Stray cats often come to this neighborhood. It’s a small hobby of
mine to give them a bowl of hot soup when they have nowhere else to
go.

“Ah.”

I
suddenly realized what Diana had meant.

A
bowl of hot soup for stray cats.

I
stood still, lost in thought, then slowly put my helmet back on and
began to clean up the mess the beggars had made.

I
swept up the scraps of cloth and gathered the messy bowls together.
In total, seven bowls were stacked like a tower.

“Cozy
winter night…Cozy winter night…”

I
walked out of the alleyway and looked at the sign on the wooden
building next door.

[Cozy
Winter Night Inn]

The
characters were unfamiliar, but I read them naturally.

I
cautiously opened the door and entered the inn.

“Welcome,
huh?”

I
made eye contact with Diana, who was wiping down the table with a
towel as the inn was just getting ready to open.

“Thank
you for the soup.”

I
bowed my head and thanked her for her warmth and kindness, and she
smiled.

“You
don’t need to be so grateful. We don’t have much, so we help each
other out.”

Despite
her words, I could not fully accept this favor.

Favors
always come back as debts, and if I got used to this kind of favor, I
would surely fall apart at some point.

“No,
I’ll pay for the soup, how much is it?”

“⋯At
our inn, breakfast is three silver coins.”

I
took the silver coins out of my backpack and placed them on a nearby
table, along with the bowls the beggars had left behind.

Diana
clicked her heels and pushed past me to the table.

“One.
Two. Three. Yep. Right.”

“⋯Well,
I’ll leave you to it, thank you for the soup.”

“No.
Wait a minute. I have some change.”

“What?”

How
can she have change when I’ve counted three silver coins correctly?

When
I looked at her in disbelief, Diana pointed to the bowls next to the
tales and laughed.

“Since
you did what I originally had to do, I can’t help but pay the price
for it. Here, take these three change coins.”

She
slid the three coins from the table into my hand.

“I
can’t accept favors like this.”

“It’s
not a favor, it’s fair pay for a job well done. Here, take it. My
hands are getting sore.”

“⋯⋯”

I
looked at her arms, slender and healthy, white and beautiful.

I
didn’t know what to do, so I simply bowed my head slightly once more
in gratitude and scooped the coins into my arms.

“I
don’t know what your situation is, but if you don’t have a place to
stay, you’re welcome to stay at my inn.”

“⋯Why
are you taking such good care of me?”

The
words came out of my mouth.

I
couldn’t understand it with common sense.

I
thought of all the people I’d seen in this world and except for the
armored knight, everyone tried to take advantage of me.

I
was almost raped for eating soup, I was almost raped for sleeping
next to someone innocently, and it was a world where people got what
they deserved.

In
such a world, this kindness was honestly hard to accept.

I
still don’t fully trust her.

In
the back of my mind, I still suspected that behind that warm smile
was a cunning snake.

Suddenly,
I locked eyes with Diana. The helmet covered my entire face, so I
could never make eye contact with her, but somehow I felt I did.

“Hmmm.
I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you anything right now,
would you?”

“Yes.”

Diana
answered as if she had seen right into my mind.

Yeah.
That’s right. I don’t fully believe her in my paranoid state.

Diana
crosses her arms and looks thoughtful for a moment.

“⋯
For no particular reason. If I tell you, will you believe me?”

Just
because, in this fucked up world, she had the kindness to share hot
soup with beggars on the street, or a guy who threatened her with an
axe and even invited him to rest when he came to pay…

“⋯That’s
cool.”

I
thought that was something that people like me could never do, so I
said it was cool.

“⋯That’s
right, is that so, thank you⋯”

I
said cautiously to Diana, who blushed slightly as if she was
embarrassed of what she had said.

“I
only have four silver coins on me at the moment, do you think you
could post this as collateral?”

All
the inns I’d stopped at in the past didn’t accept collateral.

Honestly,
if I were the innkeeper, I wouldn’t have let a suspicious man walking
around in a bloodied helmet into my inn.

“Well,
then. I don’t usually do this, but somehow I trust you, so you can
pay me back slowly.”

She
nodded more readily than I expected, perhaps because I’d been so
eager to pay for my soup.

“And
you don’t need to put up collateral. The silver coins are yours.
There’s a big difference between having no money and having a penny.”

It
was true. There’s a big difference between having a little startup
capital and having none.

-Clink.

Diana
pulled a key from a pocket at her waist.

“Second
floor, room 201. You’ll be staying here from now on.”

“⋯Thank
you. Ms. Diana.”

Diana
smiled brightly.

I
followed her directions and reached the room.

I
inserted the key and opened the door, revealing a room that was not
very spacious, but fragrant and neatly organized.

-Shuffle!

But
before I even have a chance to look around, I feel a chill run down
my spine.

Why
do I feel like I’m at home?

As
soon as I enter the room, the tension that spreads throughout my body
is instantly relieved.

I
was tired.

“Ugh.”

I
let out an odd groan that quickly turned into a whimper.

It
was the first restful sleep I’d had since falling into this world.

[Sync
100% complete.]

[■■■
■
watches over you.]