episode_0014

“What is this?”

It was a peaceful morning. After sleeping in a soft bed for the first time in a while, I was heading to the city walls as usual when Miss Chris suddenly appeared and handed me something.

A single sheet of paper densely filled with elaborate cursive. It looked like ordinary paper, but the faint scent it carried was the scent of opportunity.

“I heard you wanted to get an adventurer’s license?”

“It’s been a long-held dream…”

“And you were kicked out, weren’t you?”

Miss Chris fluttered the paper like bait, telling me with a noble smile.

“This is a certificate proving I’ll vouch for you. With this, becoming an adventurer will be no trouble at all.”

I’ll take it.

—Whoosh!

“What?”

As I tried to grab the paper, Miss Chris quickly pulled her hand back.

I thought she was just teasing me with that playful smile, but she hid the paper behind her back and made me an offer in a confident voice.

“But there’s a catch~ I have a favor to ask. If you grant me just one favor, I’ll write you a hundred of these paltry certificates.”

Can you handle an adventurer inflation?

I glared at Miss Chris, who was proposing the trade, but she didn’t back down, glaring back at me intensely.

The intense staring contest continued, and it was time for a winner and a loser to be decided.

The loser was me.

How could I win against eyes that sparkled like stars?

“A beautiful lady like me is asking for a favor, and you won’t grant it?”

“Even the sound of vomiting isn’t beautiful…”

—A chill ran down my spine!

Miss Chris’s glare, aimed at me for mentioning the previous incident, was truly murderous.

In an instant, my skin felt like it was peeling off, and my bones were about to turn to mush.

“N-no, it’s not…”

“It’s not, is it?”

“Yes!”

“Well then~ as it happens, we’ve decided to build an orphanage in the outer district this time.”

“Wow, generosity, truly Chris.”

“But we don’t have a reliable man to help with the orphanage, you see?”

“Wow, gender discrimination, truly Chris.”

“…That’s not it at all?!”

To Miss Chris, who sharply asked, ‘What is ‘Chris’ anyway?!’ I replied with a laugh.

Just feel it.

“We’ve found a priest to be in charge of the orphanage, but it feels more secure to have at least one man around, doesn’t it?”

“Ah, so women aren’t reliable?”

“Are you asking for a scolding?”

“…It’s a joke, anyway… So?”

Miss Chris, saying she could finally get to the point, clapped her hands together with a ‘clap!’ and said in a lively voice.

“Yuseong is kind, so I thought you’d play well with the children. You could help the priest with some work and play with the children too! Could you just help out until we have more resources?”

“Do you ever get any spare time?”

While my connection with Miss Chris isn’t that deep, I’ve never seen anyone as busy as her since I came here.

I heard she spends all day roaming the city resolving disputes, and just yesterday, she even calmed down refugees who were terrorizing the blockaded entrance.

In the sprawling city of Shabriang, where stories are scarce, such gossip is very popular.

“A messenger arrived, saying the expedition team will be returning soon.”

“Oh, really?”

There are many expedition teams, but Miss Chris was referring to only one.

Her companions, the Shabriang Expedition Team.

But… something feels off?

My friend Naia, whom I met in Hellstrom, said it would take half a year to reclaim Shabriang.

Yet the Shabriang where I’m currently staying is gradually transforming into a perfectly normal city, with its facilities and appearance being restored one by one.

What’s more, I heard the expedition team that successfully reclaimed it had left to reclaim another city…

The flow of time is strange.

Realizing that, I questioned Miss Chris, who was chirping like a lark.

“How long has it been since Shabriang was reclaimed, by any chance?”

“Hmm, let’s see… Hmm, well, yes, about a year?”

The good thing since I was reincarnated into this dark fantasy world is that it has a reasonable language patch.

It was really convenient that I understood time in familiar units like seconds, minutes, hours, days, and years, instead of some Imperial Calendar or A.D. ‘whatever-whatever’.

“Ah…”

So the flow of time was different.

I had a hunch. After all, when I came out of the forest and entered Shabriang with Miss Chris, I even asked around to see if Naia was there.

Thinking of my friend Naia, I suddenly missed her.

Come to think of it, she did say they were companions.

I had never discussed Naia with Miss Chris.

“Miss, are you close with Naia?”

“…? How do you know Naia?”

“We’re friends~”

“…? Why… are you just telling me now?”

Miss Chris blinked her large eyes, as if she hadn’t considered it, and asked me.

Why am I only telling her now…?

To the bewildered lady, who truly seemed unable to understand, I simply stated my thoughts.

“It just occurred to me, and now I’m curious?”

“Ha, unbelievable.”

Miss Chris shook her head, yet rolled up the hidden certificate and tucked it into her pocket.

“Anyway… you’ll grant my favor, won’t you?”

Miss Chris clasped her hands together and looked up at me with bright, sparkling eyes, her voice sweet and charming.

Her eyes were so bright they rendered a torch unnecessary; if I only had Miss Chris with me, I wouldn’t stumble even if I went out at night.

But as I watched her, I noticed her lips twitching into a smirk, as if she knew I wouldn’t refuse.

Somehow, that made me angry.

It would be really cool to refuse right now.

…But if I did, my head would clearly be crushed.

Besides, now that I knew of the certificate’s existence, I didn’t want to give up.

With just that, I can become an adventurer.

I wouldn’t be kicked out for being a beggar, nor would I be mocked by a rich kid for being just some old man who draws graffiti!

“Alright, I’ll help until Naia returns.”

“What, you two have a thing going on?”

Miss Chris looked at me with a displeased expression, then suddenly grabbed my wrist and started dragging me somewhere.

Hey, I have PTSD from being dragged around!

But I had no chance of overcoming Miss Chris with brute force.

After being dragged along, with Geumgeumi bouncing about, we arrived at a mansion that was on a completely different level from the brick houses scattered throughout Shabriang.

Its appearance and size suggested dozens of rooms, and in its vast garden – wow, insane, it even had a pond?

I looked at the bourgeois hideout, which I felt I should eliminate, and felt indignant.

“Who lives here?!”

“It’s my home.”

“It looks very warm and spacious and… a very good house that seems to promote job creation.”

“To my ears, it sounds like you’re saying it’s uselessly spacious and will just require a lot of servants.”

No, how did she know?!

“You’ll need a place to stay until the orphanage is completed, won’t you? Now that you’re my guest… you can stay at my house for a while.”

“Hmph…”

I looked at Miss Chris with narrowed eyes.

Does she have some other motive?

I shouldn’t be ‘kept’ by such a beautiful lady; I’m allergic to that.

“Why are you looking at me like that?!”

I quietly raised my hand to cover my chest and bowed my head.

“What is that reaction? It’s disgusting.”

“That’s harsh.”

And just like that, my life as a guest of the Orevalen household began.

The Orevalen household’s day began swiftly.

Servants, appearing out of nowhere, would draw the curtains and wake me. I would then give Geumgeumi some bread crumbs and, guided by them, have breakfast with Miss Chris.

Since I was already a guest, I decided to help Miss Chris with her work.

The lady, who readily accepted, warned me that her days were busy and I would find it tough.

After breakfast, I would play with Geumgeumi in my room and wait for Miss Chris.

Later, at lunchtime, I would dine alone with Miss Chris, and then be led by her hand on a walk disguised as an inspection.

Returning to the mansion alone, I would scribble in my notebook until evening arrived.

After finishing dinner with the lady, who had returned from her arduous work, I would take another night walk with her, surveying the darkened city before returning to the mansion.

A routine that repeated like a hamster on a wheel. Indeed, as she had boasted, Miss Chris’s days were busy.

…It feels like we’re spending a suspiciously large amount of time together.

“Don’t you think so?”

“Are you saying you have no freedom?”

“No, it’s not that I don’t…”

How should I put it… isn’t this like being a kept man?

Ugh, my allergies…!

“If I leave you to your own devices, you’ll obviously go around doing strange things again, won’t you?”

Miss Chris, sipping her tea, snorted dismissively and glared at me.

What did I do?

Is visiting a friend such a crime?

“I just wanted to see Geumgeumi’s friend.”

“I won’t say anything about that ‘child’ you’re raising… but what you claim is a ‘friend’ is a magical beast, you know?”

To borrow Miss Chris’s words, a monster defiled by an outer god.

Although there’s a higher concept called ‘familiars,’ outside the city, the aforementioned magical beasts are teeming.

“Don’t do anything like that again.”

I felt wronged.

They said they were lifting the refugee blockade and selecting new citizens to enter, so I just went along to watch.

Suddenly, some old men burst in and released magical beasts, causing a commotion.

Miss Chris began to flatten the old men into pancakes with a hammer as big as herself.

Her skill at flattening them into pancakes was so wondrous, she could have made a fortune selling them.

“I’m telling you, it greeted me first?”

“I’m telling you, they raise both arms before pouncing on humans?”

A huge spider, presumably Geumgeumi’s friend, was tumbling with people when it spotted me and spread its arms wide.

Just as I was about to approach its innocent eyes— Miss Chris dropped down like lightning and squashed it with a ‘crunch!’

“You have a tendency to take malice too lightly.”

“Oh come on~ If you suspect everything, life gets exhausting. By that logic, you wouldn’t even be able to drink this tea.”

I said, sipping the tea Miss Chris had personally brewed for me.

I miss Ms. Erica, too. I wonder what she’s doing?

—Clink, Clink-ding…

………

Looking down at the metallic sound of something bouncing on the floor, I saw the teaspoon the lady was holding was vibrating wildly.

When I raised my head, Miss Chris was staring at me, her already enlarged eyes trembling uncontrollably.

Her eyes, looking at me like a child abandoned by its parents, seemed sadder than anyone else in the world.