Chapter 23: In the Dark of the Night

[Interlude – Siwoo’s Perspective]

The girl in front of him stared intently at Siwoo, her red hair cascading down past her shoulders.

The axe resting on her shoulder still dripped blood and bits of flesh, a clear sign that it had been lodged in an animal’s neck just moments ago.

The smell of blood filled the air.

But Siwoo couldn’t tear his gaze away from the girl’s eyes.

Her burning red eyes were beautiful.

“Hmm.”

The girl, who looked to be about seven years old, rested her free hand — the one not holding the axe — on her chin and appeared to be thinking for a moment.

“I haven’t seen your face around here before.”

She was probably right.

Siwoo had just descended into this world after receiving a message from the goddess.

He had heard he would land “in the middle of the forest,” but he hadn’t expected to be immediately chased by a wild boar.

Although the boar wasn’t fully grown, it was still far too large for Siwoo, who had reincarnated into the body of a small child, to handle barehanded.

The girl had felled the charging boar with a single blow of her axe.

Her hairstyle and apparent age were different from the character Siwoo knew, but he recognized her instantly.

“Where are your parents?”

Siwoo shook his head.

“Then what about other adults? You didn’t come here alone, did you?”

“I’m alone.”

“Alone?”

Fortunately, Siwoo could understand the language of this world and speak it too.

The girl tilted her head in puzzlement.

After staring at Siwoo for a moment, she spoke again.

“What’s your name?”

“………Siwoo. Lee Siwoo.”

The girl stared at him in silence for a moment.

Just as the silence was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable, the corners of her lips lifted into a smile.

“Aha,” the girl said.

“So you’re the protagonist, huh?”

She said something a little cryptic.

Well, if you thought about it, she wasn’t wrong.

Taking Siwoo’s hand, the girl — Lila — brought him back to her home and immediately demanded that he be allowed to stay in one of the spare rooms.

Naturally, Lila’s parents looked at her in disbelief.

It was strange to ask to let a child, one they didn’t even know and who looked completely unfamiliar to the area, live with them.

As far as Siwoo could remember, he had lived in the same village as Lila in the original story, but not in the same house.

In the game, the protagonist had to run errands and build up trust with the villagers for a long time before he was finally recognized as a member of the village and allowed to move into a small, vacant house.

Maybe this was a part that hadn’t been shown in the game?

“Lila, this child isn’t a stray cat,” her parents said, as expected.

“Even if you say you’ll take responsibility, you can’t just bring him home like you would a small animal.”

And so, Lila’s parents took Siwoo to the village church.

An elderly nun at the church offered him one of the empty rooms.

Siwoo thought it was a relief that he didn’t end up homeless.

Since, even in the game, he had lived in a different house anyway, he figured he could just stay here and slowly build relationships with the villagers.

But there was one child who was very dissatisfied with the adults’ decision.

“Hey, hey.”

~ Late at Night ~

While he slept, Siwoo felt someone poking at his side.

When he opened his eyes, a pair of red pupils appeared in his sideways field of vision.

Lila was crouched beside his bed, staring intently at his face.

It was a bright, moonlit night, and the light pouring through the window clearly illuminated Lila’s face.

“Lila?”

“Are you planning to stay here forever?”

Whispering softly, Lila seemed to have snuck in unnoticed.

When Siwoo sat up in bed, Lila, still crouching, looked up at him.

“I mean, no matter how you look at it, freeloading at someone else’s house seems a bit much.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll take responsibility and persuade them.”

“So… you’re suggesting we sneak out in the middle of the night?”

“Yeah.”

Siwoo was momentarily at a loss for words at her response.

“Why?”he asked.

“Um… well, you see…”

Lila held out her hand and began folding her fingers one by one as she listed her reasons.

“First of all, this village church is poor. There aren’t many believers, and unlike in the big cities, they don’t demand a portion of your earnings. If you stay here, you’ll probably always be half-starving.”

In the original story, there had been scenes where Lila would often bring food to share with the protagonist.

Lila’s parents ran a fairly successful restaurant in the village.

From the perspective of someone who grew up in such a household, the bread served at the church must have looked like a meager meal.

“And second, this is a church, right? Once you grow up a little, you might unknowingly end up becoming a monk. If that happens, you won’t be able to get married and you’ll have to live alone for the rest of your life.”

At this point, Siwoo became convinced that Lila had no knowledge of the game’s original story.

Still, regardless of the story, it seemed Lila had her own firm convictions.

He hadn’t heard everything yet, though.

“And, um………… the third reason……”

Lila stared at her hand, with only two fingers folded down, and hesitated for a moment.

Apparently unable to come up with a third reason, she lifted her head abruptly.

“Ah, anyway.”

She looked Siwoo straight in the eyes and said,

“Living with me will be way better than living here. Honestly, right? You said I’m one of the game’s protagonists too? Wouldn’t it be smarter for two protagonists to stick together to prepare for what’s coming?”

If her first two reasons were just excuses she cobbled together, then this third reason was probably what she really believed.

And Siwoo agreed — it sounded quite reasonable.

“So, how do you plan to sneak me out?”

“I’ve already thought of that,”

Lila said with a grin.

Siwoo felt a sudden unease at her mischievous smile.

As it turned out, Lila’s so-called plan was incredibly simple:

There was no real need for a plan at all.

They could just boldly walk out of the church — there was virtually no chance of being caught.

The church was managed by a single nun, who would definitely be asleep by now.

Lila had even left her house door slightly open when she slipped out, but there was no real worry about thieves breaking in.

All they had to do was tread quietly when passing by her parents’ bedroom, and that was it.

Thus, Siwoo ended up entering Lila’s room.

He thought, This is my first time in a girl’s room… but honestly, it was too dark to see anything clearly.

Not that there was much to see anyway — the room wasn’t particularly decorated.

There were a few books stacked on a desk, a bed that seemed a little big for just one child, and a large window that probably let in a lot of sunlight during the day.

There was even a wooden practice sword lying around, suggesting that she trained with swords.
In fact, if anything, the room was so simple that it didn’t really feel like a typical girl’s room at all.

“But… where am I supposed to sleep?”

“Huh?”

Siwoo had prepared himself to sleep on the floor, but it didn’t look like there were any spare blankets.

The night air was a bit chilly, and even though Siwoo had come to this world intending to defeat the Demon King, sleeping directly on the cold floor without a blanket was still a bit much.

Especially when he had just been sleeping on a decent bed not too long ago.

“What do you mean, where? Of course, you’ll sleep in the bed. Were you really planning to sleep on the floor?”

Lila spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, leaving Siwoo even more confused.

“Wait… you’re not planning to sleep on the floor yourself, are you?”

“Why would I? When there’s a perfectly good bed right here?”

Only after hearing those words did Siwoo finally grasp the situation.

As he sat there dumbfounded, Lila poked him in the side with her elbow.

“What, did you think it was some huge deal to share a bed with a little kid like me? Hey, at my age, it’s totally normal to sleep next to my dad, you know?”

Well, maybe…

No, still, it felt a little wrong.

“And besides,” Lila added, “seeing how you were getting chased around by a little wild boar, you’d even lose to me in a wrestling match right now.”

That’s not the issue here…

Siwoo thought.

“Anyway, just do whatever’s comfortable. If you really want to sleep on the floor, I won’t stop you.”

Even as she said that, Lila climbed into bed and lifted up one side of the blanket, invitingly.

A chilly breeze blew in through the slightly open window.

Shivering, Siwoo had no choice but to crawl into the bed next to her.

That night, he couldn’t sleep a wink.

***

Later…

“Brings back memories,”

Lila said.

“Huh?”

“It’s been a while since it was just the two of us alone like this in the middle of the night.”

Apparently, she had been thinking the same thing.

With a long sigh, Lila stood up and picked up the Holy Sword.

“Alright, I feel a little better now.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah, more or less. But we can’t exactly spend the night out here. If we do, our faces might freeze.”

Siwoo chuckled softly at her words and stood up too.

“Anyway, I’m taking that as a yes, okay? If you ever need to talk about something, you’ll come find me here?”

“Yeah, I got it.”

At Siwoo’s answer, Lila smiled brightly.

The sacred light of the Holy Sword lit up her face.

To Siwoo, it looked exactly the same as the smile she had shown him on that day long ago.

And so—

Even if it was a bit presumptuous,

Siwoo made another vow to himself:

He would protect that smile, no matter what.