Appearance

“More neatly.”

“I understand.”

Rana gave an order to clean the surroundings even more neatly. Ten maids moved in perfect order, following that command.

This was Aurora’s room. The owner of this place was probably busy roaming the city with a man by her side, and they were taking advantage of that opportunity to clean the room.

It was a cleaning in preparation for anything unexpected.

Of course, it was Rana who urged her to go out. Unable to bear her master’s frustration any longer, she advised Aurora to continue the conversation as an ordinary person, not as Aurora.

Aurora at first had an intrigued expression, then seemed to ponder a little, and finally left the mansion with a slightly uneasy look on her face.

It was questionable if she could do well like that, but Rana also had no experience with men whatsoever, so she wasn’t exactly in a position to give advice on male-female relationships.

‘It would be good if it works out, but even if it doesn’t, there’s nothing to be done.’

Rana had also half-given up. Normally, her master-nim was so strong and firm, but strangely, whenever she got involved with that man, she couldn’t be honest and just beat around the bush.

It would surely be like that this time too. Rana told her to hide her identity until the end, but there was almost no possibility of that. She would either reveal it herself in the middle or get caught, it would be one of the two.

‘He doesn’t seem to be the type to chase after women, so…’

After having several conversations at the mansion and hearing various explanations from her master-nim, Rana was proud to claim that she understood Delta’s tendencies quite well.

That man shouldn’t be waited for to approach first. If you wait for him to approach, you’ll end up waiting your whole life.

Moreover, since he already had a woman he’d slept with by his side, it absolutely shouldn’t be like that.

It was also Rana who strongly asserted, pushing Aurora’s back, that she must seize the opportunity now that the spot next to him was empty.

From ancient times, the number of women one commanded symbolized a man’s capability. It was a good thing for both Delta and Rana’s master.

The only thing to worry about was whether the man could handle multiple women, but Rana didn’t worry much about that point.

Anyway, Delta was a man who had more than enough capability for that.

‘It might be an impertinent action, but…’

If push comes to shove, Rana herself can bear all the responsibility. In fact, she even instigated Aurora to move, so it wasn’t like she was taking the blame for a crime that doesn’t exist.

And well, if it really doesn’t work out, there’s also the option of an affair as a second-best plan.

While casually entertaining an idea that would make her master jump in fright and ask if she was sane, Rana barked an order with an expressionless face.

“Examine more thoroughly!”

Like master, like maid.

“It was fun after a long time. Right?”

“…Maybe?”

I was sitting at a table in the center of the city with Aurora.

I didn’t really know what was fun about endlessly looking at clothes, but since she said it was fun, that must be it. And she didn’t seem to be lying either.

The facilities of the clothing store Aurora took me to were as good as some modern department store. There’s no way a modern department store would exist in the medieval era, so it was probably the influence of a mod.

“What, why is your reaction like that? Was I the only one who liked it?”

“Now, it seems you don’t even intend to hide your identity, Lord-nim?”

Aurora had now completely revealed her face. From the middle, saying it was hindering her from putting on clothes, she subtly took off her hat, and later, after completely throwing off her mask, she kept that appearance.

“It’s okay. Anyway, the people here don’t really know my face. How often do they get to see their lord directly? I’m holed up in the mansion and hardly ever come out. Even if they have something to say, my subordinates will handle it first. You, Delta, are a special case.”

“Then wasn’t the disguise meaningless from the beginning?”

“They have eyes, you know. If they see someone wearing a fancy dress, even if they don’t know who it is, they’ll think, ‘Oh, it must be someone important,’ right?”

‘Fancy dress?’

To me, it looked like a new city ‘missy look’.

After pondering for a moment, I barely understood, thinking of the clothes Aurora wore in the game. If it was that uniform, it was certainly fancy enough to be called so.

“If it’s you, Delta-“

At that moment, Aurora closed her mouth.

There was something unusual about her expression. The hand she had placed on her thigh was trembling violently, and her golden pupils, filled with fear, anxiously scanned the surroundings.

“Why are you doing that? Your complexion isn’t good. Are you alright, Lord-nim?”

“W-what. Something. Something’s strange…”

“Strange, you say? In what way?”

“Th-that…”

“Lord-nim?”

I heard the sound of her teeth chattering. She was trembling that much. I urgently got up from my seat and approached Aurora’s side.

As I sat next to her, Aurora reflexively grabbed my hand. I also held her hand back. The strength with which she gripped my hand was immense. Her fingers even turned white.

‘Why is she suddenly like this?’

I carefully embraced Aurora’s shoulder as she was about to collapse sideways. Whether it was an instinctive action or not, she squirmed and burrowed into my arms. It was definitely not a normal situation.

We need to go back to the mansion. I don’t know what happened, but it would be much better than just being left here.

Aurora couldn’t even stand up properly, as if her legs had given out. After staggering and collapsing several times, she barely managed to stand up. Her two legs supporting her body were trembling uncontrollably.

“Lord-nim. Will you be able to walk?”

“I-I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s strange. Very…”

“Yes. It looks like that at first glance. Let’s go back to the mansion for now. I will escort you.”

The moment her body moved even slightly away, she seemed like she would collapse to the ground, so I carefully put my arm around Aurora’s armpit to support her body. Sweat was beading on her forehead.

‘Is there no one?’

Only then did I realize that the surroundings were unusually quiet. I looked around in all directions. Just a moment ago, people were walking around everywhere, but now it was empty.

Not a single person was visible on this vast street. It was an unrealistic sight, enough to send shivers down my spine. Was there such an event in B-Dark 4?

“Lord-nim. Excuse me for a moment-“

“Oh, hello. Is it okay to talk for a moment?”

A voice was heard. I reflexively turned my body, supporting Aurora, and brought my remaining hand to the Wingless Nightmare.

From the other side of the road, a woman with a sinister smile on her face was walking towards us. She was a woman with hair that was half purple and half green, and incredibly large breasts.

Since I couldn’t fight with Aurora, I looked at her side with the thought of running away if push came to shove. Aurora was hugging my waist as if to crush it, trembling severely.

“Lord-nim.”

“……”

“Lord-nim. Pull yourself together.”

“……”

“Aurora.”

I called Aurora’s name and simultaneously pulled her firmly into my arms. If I had my way, I wanted to hide her behind my back. But the moment push came to shove, I would have to carry her and run, so it was a preparatory action.

As soon as she felt the warmth of a person, as if her senses had returned a little, Aurora looked up at me with eyes full of fear.

“D-Delta… My, my body… it’s strange… My legs aren’t moving…”

“I know. Calm down.”

My head became a little clearer. I had seen something similar to this in the game. I wasn’t 100% sure, but about 90%.

B-Dark 4 has a total of 6 status effects: Freeze, Bleed, Mind Control, Confusion, Poison, and Burn, but two more special status effects existed that didn’t belong to those 6.

They were Charm and Fear.

The reason those were treated as different types was because they only worked on NPCs without attack capabilities, not enemies or players. Even in terms of the game system, they were classified into completely different categories.

The status effects that only worked on NPCs who didn’t attack players first, and who ran away instead of counterattacking even when attacked, were exactly Charm and Fear.

‘In fact, it’s close to a one-time setting for story progression.’

There’s no way for players to normally inflict it, the enemies who can use it are few enough to count on one’s fingers, and after finishing the relevant story, they never appear again.

Literally, it was close to a one-time setting for a specific story.

And the reactions NPCs showed when that story was progressing were quite similar to Aurora’s current reaction.

‘……’

If that woman was the cause of the current situation, the possibilities I could think of were at most about three. I racked my brain. Was there an NPC who would come looking for me in this situation, and also inflict fear?

Aurora kept burrowing into my arms. The woman who saw that let out a strange laugh.

“Kihit. Hey, you know. Can’t you just let that woman go? I really won’t do anything. Promise. Let’s talk just the two of us. Just the two of us. It’ll definitely be fun. Yeah. It will.”

‘Informal speech?’

Just a moment ago, wasn’t she using polite speech?

“That won’t do. If I let go of her hand here, she seems like she’ll collapse right away.”

I flatly refused. The woman made a blank expression for a moment, then bowed her head deeply and mumbled something.

“He says he won’t let go, what do I do?”

“Let’s forcibly separate them.”

“No! If you do that, you might be hated, you know!”

“Coming all the way here, are you pretending to be good? Everyone ran away because of you, you know?”

“Because of me, you say? What about you? Are you going to pretend to be good by yourself?”

As the voices grew more intense, I was also able to overhear the content of the conversation to some extent. The woman was having a conversation with herself, even while making different voices.

I don’t think there was an NPC with such a mental illness in B-Dark 4.

The woman, who had been continuing a fierce argument with herself for a while, raised her head again. And with desperate eyes, she looked at me.

“Hey, you know me, right? Don’t you know me?”

Her tone had changed again. From polite speech to informal speech. And then back to polite speech.

“I don’t know at all.”

There were no NPCs or humanoid bosses with dual personalities in B-Dark 4, and since her appearance would have been changed by a mod, it was also impossible to guess by looking at her appearance.

Being careful not to touch Aurora, I subtly drew out the Wingless Nightmare.

“Heu. Oh, you really don’t know, do you? Then how about this explanation?”

The woman in front of me smiled faintly.

This time, informal speech.

“The witch who cast a curse on you.”

The woman tapped her own head lightly with her finger.

“That’s me.”