A Small Twist – 4

It was when I had literally crushed the Golden Knight in a sparring match, and he, dejected, was stuck in a corner of the training ground, while Rije and Claudia openly teased him, sitting in the shade and resting for a moment.

“Oh, hey, Erica? Why are you back already- Who’s that next to you? And why are their eyes covered?”

Erica, who had left for city patrol with Iris, returned. And she had some dirty-looking girl next to her.

Not only was there still a lot of time left until they were supposed to return from patrol, but Iris, who went with her, was nowhere to be seen, and she had suddenly brought a girl we’d never seen before. So, we looked at Erica with bewildered eyes.

The girl was wrapped in cloth that was practically rags instead of clothes. The calves revealed beneath were covered in dirt, and even her face was wrapped in cloth, barely revealing a part of her lower jaw.

‘Wow, even like that, she’s pretty.’

But like a woman from a world plastered with mods, even though her entire body was covered in dirt and wrapped tightly in rags, barely revealing her lower jaw, her nose, mouth, and jawline alone clearly showed she was beautiful.

In fact, the men in this world had their common sense altered, so even if a woman had such a stunning appearance and wore extremely revealing clothes, they didn’t even care.

“I didn’t cover it. This child was considerate of us.”

Erica was holding the girl’s hand and carefully leading her step by step. The girl also quietly took steps as Erica led her.

“And there was a good reason for bringing her to the knight order. First, she hasn’t eaten anything for several days, so I’m going to feed her some bread and soup.”

“There was a reason? Hasn’t eaten anything for days? What on earth does that mean?”

“I’ll explain later. For now, I’ll take this child to the dining hall. Or Iris will return soon, so you can ask Iris.”

The two of them soon disappeared into the castle. Rije, I, and Claudia, wondering what on earth had happened outside, exchanged bewildered glances.

Of course, just looking at each other didn’t provide an answer.

“Has anyone ever brought someone like that to the knight order before?”

“No. Never. Now, it doesn’t matter since we’ve received confirmation that the magic cast on the castle is safe, but before, we wondered if eating this for a long time would kill us. How could we feed something we were unsure about to others?”

“We were too busy taking care of ourselves, so we had no time to look after others. Now, the rookie, you killed that pig, so we can breathe a little easier, but before that, it was really tough.”

Claudia clicked her tongue, as if annoyed just thinking about it. Indeed, that guy’s personality had become far more rotten than in the game, so I could roughly guess how much they suffered under him.

“Thinking about you killing that pig suddenly makes our rookie seem admirable again. How about it, rookie? Should I hug you again? Erica pulled us apart quickly back then, so we didn’t get to do it much, did we? Hmm?”

Rije spread her arms with her characteristic smile. Between her arms, her ample chest, encased in a thin, sleeveless top, jiggled enticingly. I subtly averted my gaze. Seeing my reaction, Rije giggled.

“Oh, you’re shy. If you want a hug, you can tell me anytime, anywhere. Oh, and just in case you forgot, my promise to grant you one wish, whatever it may be, is still valid, you know? That literally means anything is possible. You can tell me anything.”

“Erica nagged you so much to maintain your dignity, and you still haven’t given up on your lingering attachments?”

“So, you don’t like it?”

“…….”

I shut my mouth, and Rije, with her usual smile, poked my cheek with her finger. Claudia looked at us with a somehow contented expression.

It was true, so I couldn’t flat-out refuse. Do I dislike it? No way. Unless they were homosexual, what man in this world would dislike such physical contact?

Moreover, Rije, realizing that I wasn’t flat-out refusing and that I was clearly reacting to her body, was approaching me more and more boldly.

I figured something would happen sooner or later, one way or another. Whether I initiated it, or Rije did.

‘……The story has already started to get twisted, so maybe it doesn’t matter.’

Ever since the captain of the Golden Twilight Knights came, claiming he would monitor me, such thoughts kept coming to mind, and my already wavering self-control wavered even more greatly.

The biggest reason I had been forcibly pushing away Rije’s physical contact until now was that I didn’t want to twist the story, if at all possible, but now that one thing had already gone wrong, the thought kept occurring to me that it might be a meaningless action.

I’m not an idiot either. I had long since noticed that Rije had feelings for me that went beyond just a fellow knight. Come to think of it, it had been like that ever since our first sparring match.

Now that I’ve dealt with the lord and done a lot of other things, I can somewhat understand it, but why she was like that when I first saw her is still a mystery.

“Let’s stop teasing the rookie here. So, are we going to wait until Iris comes?”

“Of course not.”

Claudia and Rije exchanged glances. Before I could even say anything after seeing that, each of them grabbed one of my arms and dragged me into the castle.

I only realized where I was being dragged after we arrived at the dining hall.

Would it hurt to tell me beforehand?

Three days had passed since Erica brought the unknown girl to the castle.

The girl explained everything about herself. From the fact that her name was ‘Inerma’ to how she lost her eyesight.

‘I don’t think there was… an NPC like that.’

Even racking my brain, nothing specific came to mind.

No matter how much the appearance changes with mods, the essence doesn’t. Just as Rije’s personality changed 180 degrees from the original, but she still uses ice and dual daggers as her main weapons.

That meant she wasn’t a particularly important NPC, or she was a person who didn’t appear in the game at all.

“You worked hard in the sparring match! Here’s a towel for your sweat!”

In the end, revealing Inerma’s identity was vaguely glossed over. Instead, at her strong request, she took on the castle’s odd jobs. Her reason was that she wanted to repay the favor she had received.

In truth, there wasn’t much to the odd jobs. Thanks to the restoration magic cast on the castle, there was no need to clean it at all, and it was just a matter of lightly organizing the storage room where items were kept.

At most, all Inerma did was bring water or towels right after we finished sparring. It was quite amazing to see her move around so smoothly on her own, even though she clearly couldn’t see.

According to her, she memorized the entire internal structure of the castle with Iris’s help on the first day. She wasn’t an ordinary mind.

And there was one more piece of good news.

“It is His Majesty’s command. I shall return now.”

That Golden Knight bastard who had been persistently following me returned after only five days, claiming he had received the Emperor’s command. The exact reason was unknown, but anyway, there was nothing bad about him leaving early.

Thanks to that, I was able to use the ability confirmation orb after a long time.

[Stats]

[Level] 16

[Health] 1

[Mana] 1

[Faith] 1

[Endurance] 1

[Proficiency] 1

[Strength] 1

[Magic Power] 7

[Divine Power] 10

[Durability] 1

I chose to dump all my accumulated stat points into Magic Power. This was because Magic Power, along with Divine Power, was a very important stat for utilizing buffs.

If you invest in Magic Power, the damage of attack spells increases, as well as the effectiveness of all buffs. Divine Power increases the duration of buffs, while Magic Power increases their effectiveness.

This, like Divine Power, had very good early-game investment efficiency, showing an increase of approximately 1.2 times when raised to 10.

If the attack buff from the Bloodstained Sword was at its maximum, it was 49.5%, meaning it would increase to almost 60%. Even a 10% difference was by no means negligible.

‘I do need to reveal that my stats have increased. I just can’t find the right timing.’

Thinking that, I took my hand off the ability confirmation orb. The blue light faded, and darkness settled around me.

I had all my excuses ready beforehand. I couldn’t hide this forever, could I? It was just being postponed day after day because I hadn’t found the right opportunity.

I looked around and carefully walked outside. I had deliberately chosen a late hour at night, but if someone asked what I was doing here, I’d have to give an answer that was close to an excuse.

“Rookie Knight-nim?”

‘You startled me.’

Hearing someone call me from behind, I was startled and turned around.

It was Inerma.

The fact that Inerma, who was blind, recognized me was now familiar. Because instead of sight, her other senses were highly developed, she said she could roughly identify who someone was just by their footsteps.

Iris had been interested in that ability.

“You haven’t slept until this hour?”

“That’s what I should be saying. What are *you* doing here, not sleeping until this hour?”

“I couldn’t sleep either.”

“Can’t sleep? Why?”

“‘Can I really be this comfortable?’ That’s what I’m thinking. Because my body is comfortable, other thoughts keep coming to mind, I guess. The work I do here isn’t much at all, but I get three meals a day without fail, and I can stretch out my arms and legs and sleep at night…….”

Since it wasn’t a concern I could console her about, silence hung between us for a while. What could I do about her feeling uncomfortable because she was bothered?

In the end, unable to bear the atmosphere, I forced out a goodnight greeting and was about to head to my room, when Inerma carefully called out to me.

“Um… Rookie Knight-nim.”

“……?”

“If it’s alright with you… would you like to take a walk together tonight?”