Chapter 158

Chapter 158

Episode 158: The Undying Rose // Once the floodgates opened, the conversation flowed easily. “Is it really you?” “Who else would it be? I’m even speaking Korean.” In a quiet alley in the Garph district of the metropolis Tritia, Aiden and Emily began to share stories about their past lives, one by one. “Ha, if you hadn’t trolled so hard during the inter-class war…” “Speaking of which, when are you going to pay back the ten thousand won you borrowed from me?” “You crazy bastard. You remember even that?” It was a kind of confirmation, a revisiting of memories. “…It’s not like I was trying to, but it just came to mind as we were talking. Since you haven’t paid it back for so long, let’s just say it’s about twenty million won with interest.” “How does that balloon to twenty million? You’re still a moron, I see.” “Don’t you know about compound interest?” “Bullshit. You’re the one who doesn’t know. You got that problem wrong.” After a few exchanges, a brief silence fell again. “….” Both Aiden and Emily knew. That the gap between their current and past lives was beyond words. Not only their appearances were different, but even their genders were different. Aiden at least had the consistency of being male, but Emily had not even a small commonality left. “….” Aiden felt it too, but Emily could feel it even more strongly. The current self and the past self had changed too much. The boy who once had the name Lee Seong-cheol had now disappeared, leaving only traces behind. What remained in the place where the boy had disappeared was a woman named Emily Artion. And the most telling sign of that was the red scarf tied around her neck. Realizing this, Emily smiled wryly and touched her scarf. “We’ve changed a lot. Both of us.” “…What happened?” When she broke the taboo first, Aiden asked as if he had been waiting for it. He knew the meaning of that scarf too. Aiden wasn’t a resident of Tritia, but it wasn’t something you could only know if you were a resident of Tritia. He knew very well what a woman wearing a red scarf did in the metropolis Tritia. “…How did it come to this?” To Aiden’s question, Emily answered with a faint smile. Would she have said something different if she had met him a little earlier? So much had changed in just over two years. She didn’t regret that time and meeting Layla, but she couldn’t help but feel a little bittersweet. “…Is it real? You’re not just doing it for temporary cover…” “Yeah, this is the price for power… what am I saying.” Emily tried to say it casually, but suddenly stopped. It seemed she had been infected by Elle without realizing it. Of course, this world allowed that kind of sentiment, but the friend sitting next to her came from a world that didn’t. In the end, Emily had no choice but to confess everything. “…That’s right. I’m a whore.” And to her obvious yet direct confession, Aiden nodded blankly. “….You still have no chill, huh?” “A real man like me doesn’t care about that.” “You’re out of your mind, so you’re definitely Seong-cheol.” When Aiden said as if agreeing, Emily blushed slightly. “D-Don’t call me that. Call me Emily.” “Why?” “….It’s embarrassing.” “Hey, you just said it yourself…. Never mind. I’m an idiot for expecting anything from you.” Even though the appearance was different, the core remained the same. No matter what Emily herself thought, Aiden’s eyes still saw the remnants of Lee Seong-cheol in Emily. The fact that he had been reborn as a woman, and even wore a red scarf, was certainly shocking. But Aiden had one more important thing to consider. “But why do we have to meet at a time like this?” “…What do you mean?” To his cryptic words, Emily asked back as if puzzled. Then Aiden answered with a subtle smile. “I have something I need to do soon.” “….Cleaning up the store?” “No, you crazy. As if. Didn’t you hear my tone? Can’t you tell from the way I’m talking that something important is going on?” “You shouldn’t dismiss trivial things. Cleaning up the store is important too.” “…..” Seeing Emily’s serious expression, Aiden suddenly had an ominous thought. Could it be that his old friend had been tricked by someone bad? Judging by the red scarf around her neck, she must have been tricked by someone very perverted and vicious. Otherwise, there was no way she would be working as a whore in Tritia out of the blue. Should I save her? The moment he unconsciously had that thought, Aiden sighed softly. “Haa…” “….?” Who was saving who? He looked back at himself for having such thoughts and mocked himself. His old friend, as seen in his eyes, now had a different appearance. And that appearance was quite attractive. Vivid red hair and a slender figure. Nevertheless, even the wonderfully raised breasts. No matter how old a friend she was, he couldn’t help but feel something from that attractive appearance. Aiden, who was a boy in his past life and a man in his prime in this life, couldn’t help but feel attracted to Emily. That’s why he thought of ‘saving’ her. But he had something to do. Aiden. He, who inherited the martial arts of the Ghostly Divine Hand, the Thief King, was no ordinary grocery store employee. He was currently a grocery store employee, but that was only a temporary job. His true identity was a thief. ….It felt even lower than a grocery store employee, but considering the value of what he stole, it couldn’t be seen as just low. What he stole was the Ethyllic Herb, known as the most precious medicinal herb in the world. // The knowledge given to the reincarnated is half meaningless. It’s like having a smartphone in a world without electricity, having to use knowledge from a world rich in natural energy in a world with almost no natural energy. But that knowledge wasn’t entirely meaningless. Even in a world with almost no natural energy, it was possible to have far greater power than ordinary people by gathering even the slightest amount of existing power. That was a clear advantage of martial arts. Besides, this world used magic in its own way. The magic of the mages was exactly that. The magic power possessed by monsters acted as poison to martial artists, but it was certainly a kind of fuel. Just as you can’t drink oil to get energy, but you can burn it to get heat, mages use the cores of monsters to cast magic. And one more thing. There was one way to gather the meager natural energy that existed in this world. That was the Etheric Herb. All living things accumulate a small amount of natural energy as they live. The Etheric Herb, called the elixir, had the property of accumulating more of that natural energy. You can’t make a mountain out of dust, but you can make a small hill. And if you collect those small hills, you can make a mountain. Even in this world, it was called an elixir, but the herb was essential for those who inherited the knowledge of martial artists like Aiden. But that precious Etheric Herb boasted a price that ordinary people couldn’t even dream of. There was almost no way for Aiden, who was born as a mere commoner, to get his hands on the herb. That’s why Aiden chose the path of a thief. That was why Aiden was heading to Lakers. The herbs obtained from the Meshin Great Forest through the Adventurer’s Guild gathered in nearby cities, and from there they were transported to the royal capital of the Kilkard Kingdom. And Lakers was the newly selected herb transportation point this year. Changing the transportation point was the kingdom’s countermeasure to shake off the herb thieves who had been rampant recently, but first-class thieves like Aiden were already aware of that information. That’s why he was planning to go to Lakers and steal some of the herbs being transported. The reason he was working at a grocery store in Tritia was partly to kill time, but also because the owner, Norman, was once a member of the Thieves’ Guild. Retiring as a thief meant surviving without dying. He had no choice but to pretend to be an employee of the grocery store, even to listen to the advice of his senior. Because of such circumstances, Aiden couldn’t easily reach out to Emily. “What’s wrong, why are you suddenly acting taciturn?” “….” Aiden looked at Emily in front of him with a troubled expression. He had something to do. It was too much for him to pull her out of the abyss of depravity. ‘….This is troublesome.’ He wanted to continue his relationship with Emily, who was his friend in his past life and a beautiful woman in his current life, but the situation of having to leave for Lakers soon firmly held his heart in place. But there is always a solution. And such solutions can be found more quickly if two people put their heads together. While Aiden was worrying in his heart, Emily suddenly clapped her hands as if she had remembered something. “Ah, that’s right!” “….?” “I found one more person, so I need to tell the others.” “….The others?” Aiden tilted his head at Emily’s actions, and after hearing her next words, he asked back blankly. “Yeah, I found a few. Seo-hyun, Seung-oh, Aram, and even… Tae-jin.” “….What?” Including her, there were a total of five people. Including Aiden himself, they had already found one-fifth of the thirty-two people. At that amazing news, Aiden couldn’t help but swear. “How did you find them, you bitch?” “Why are you swearing?” “No, I’m just dumbfounded.” To him, finding five other friends from his past life was more surprising than the fact that his once male friend had become a whore. “Does that make sense? Someone could be walking around with it written on their forehead for decades and no one would know?” “That’s because you didn’t try hard enough.” “You crazy bitch. Is that something you can do with effort?” “Of course….” Emily stopped talking in the middle of her sentence. She looked back on how they had met each other, but even from Emily’s point of view, it was clear that there was no element of effort in the process. “….Such trivial things are not important.” “….” Aiden closed his mouth at her brazen words. This girl is definitely Lee Seong-cheol. So talking to her would only give him a headache. “By the way, what are you going to Lakers for?” But whether Aiden thought so or not, Emily recalled the note left in the square and changed the subject in another direction. She didn’t remember Aiden’s name, but she remembered his purpose. Besides, Lakers was Layla’s hometown. No matter how much of an Emily she was, there was no way she wouldn’t remember. To Emily’s question, Aiden vaguely evaded. “…I have something important to do.” Because he couldn’t say straight out that the important thing was stealing. Emily’s red scarf around her neck was also embarrassing, but when it came to things that weren’t aboveboard, he was the same. Besides, he couldn’t openly talk about the important story of stealing herbs. However, Aiden had no choice but to change his mind a little after hearing Emily’s next words. “That’s amazing. That’s Layla’s hometown.” “…What?” “Layla… oh, I mean Seo-hyun.” Seo-hyun. At the familiar name, Aiden nodded. Even though they weren’t close, he knew who he was. ‘Could it be….’ “Is she a woman?” The Seo-hyun he remembered was a man, but the name Layla was a woman’s. Could it be that he was in a similar situation to Emily? When he asked that, Emily nodded and answered. “Yeah. And she’s really pretty.”

“No, never mind that.” Aiden cut her off, thinking to himself. ‘I can’t believe Lakerus was her hometown.’ He hadn’t expected to know someone whose hometown was Lakerus. Well, he might have vaguely considered it, but he never thought it would actually happen. But now that he knew… maybe he could change his plans a little. ‘I should meet her.’ Aiden didn’t know the geography of Lakerus. He only knew that Lakerus had been chosen as the city to host this year’s Etheric Herb transport. His original plan was to head to Lakerus alone and gather information, but if there was someone from the city, that changed things. Information wasn’t easy to come by in this world. He couldn’t ask her to join in the theft, but if he could learn about the geography of Lakerus or the composition of the guard, that alone would be a huge help. And if she was a friend from his past life, he could trust her without reservation. ‘…Good. If I’m lucky, I might get some help.’ If she, no, if she helped him, Aiden was even willing to give her the stolen herb as compensation. “She’s supposed to be coming here soon, would you like to meet her when she arrives?” Therefore, he had no reason to refuse Emily’s offer. Meeting a friend from his past life and achieving his own goals. Meeting Layla was beneficial to him in every way.