6.
“Damn old geezers. Always got so many complaints.”
“Ahaha…”
Sejin drove with a sigh.
Lucia was looking around as if everything were fascinating.
“Is it that interesting?”
“Yes. There was nothing like this in the world I lived in, after all. Everything in this world is fascinating to me.”
As he drove, Sejin glanced for a moment at Lucia, who was marveling at everything.
Bringing Lucia out had been fine.
The problem was what came next.
What he was supposed to do now.
There were possible methods, but he couldn’t act rashly when he had no idea how the higher-ups would move.
And all the more so when he considered Sejin’s actual line of work.
“Whew. For now, we should stop by a rest area and think.”
“A rest area?”
“There are places like that. You’ll understand once we get there.”
“Ah, yes…”
7.
What was another world like? To Lucia, it was a wondrous place.
A place filled with things she did not know.
Even when she had been living in that small village with the help of the elderly, she had thought so, but there were so many things that had not existed in Lucia’s original world.
And now, at the rest area, Lucia was being met with even more than that.
“Are there lots of things like this in this world?”
“Well, yes. There are places without them, I’m sure, but there are quite a few here… People who drive long distances need somewhere to rest, too.”
Lucia was delighted as she ate the food at the rest area.
It was food she had never tasted in her original world.
Sejin watched Lucia like that, then began operating his phone.
“If you gave me a job, shouldn’t you be picking up a little faster?”
“Work is always piled up. So, what about the otherworlder?”
“She’s with me for now. You wouldn’t believe how much those old fogeys in that backwater village hated it. If I didn’t take her, they’d bitch that the government was monitoring her; when I tried to take her, they bitched about that too. What the hell do they want me to do?”
“Hmm. It’s true that bringing her from there could be called advantageous. We should avoid wasting manpower in unnecessary places, after all. So, what is she like?”
“Right now, she’s on a food tour at the rest area. She’s a girl wearing an ordinary nun’s habit, and I don’t think the thing you’re worried about is going to happen. Wouldn’t it be cleaner to just give her appropriate support as is?”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“Have you perhaps forgotten what I do for a living?”
“You’re a mercenary. A fairly useful one, at that. How could I forget?”
“Then I’m sure you also know perfectly well that I’m a busy man. I can’t keep doing this forever. And even if she’s an otherworlder, you have to consider that she may have less experience than us. Or are you the type not to think about that?”
“Think what you like. But there are still many opinions about that side of things. They haven’t come together as one. And if you’re a competent mercenary, can’t you fight while protecting one person?”
Sejin let out a laugh, dumbfounded.
The other party was laughing as he listened to Sejin’s voice.
“You find this funny right now?”
“In any case, if anything special happens, contact me again. And bring the otherworlder with you. She needs to go through the registration procedure.”
The call ended.
Sejin stared at his phone, dumbfounded.
“This son of a—”
“Yes?”
“No, no. It’s nothing. Orders just came down from above, so you don’t need to worry about it.”
8.
“I really don’t know what the higher-ups are thinking. They tell me to bring you in, and then they don’t seem to have thought about what comes next at all.”
“What are they trying to do with me?”
“I don’t know, but it probably isn’t that. They don’t have the reason or the justification for it.”
Lucia still did not know this place.
Because of that, people who would try to use Lucia would appear anywhere.
An otherworlder made for good material, after all.
However, the government had an obligation to prevent that, because it had to maintain friendly relations with otherworlders.
“Well, not that I’ve ever seen them properly uphold all of that.”
“What will happen to me?”
“Who knows. No one knows that. Still, if there’s one thing I can say for certain, it’s that while I’m with you, I have a duty to protect you. So I’ll stop anything like that from happening. I didn’t spend my years as a mercenary for nothing.”
“That’s reassuring.”
“The problem may be what comes after this.”
“After this?”
“If they decide to act in a direction other than supporting you, Miss Lucia, like they do with other otherworlders, then it means we’ll have to keep traveling together.”
Lucia looked at him as if asking what problem there was with that.
Sejin sighed.
Because there were many problems.
“Fundamentally, I’m a mercenary. And I’m not someone who stays only in this country. If work comes up somewhere in the world, I move. And if you accompany someone like me…”
“Then I’ll be moving with you too?”
“Yes. And most of the places I go are not places ordinary people head to. They’re places where fights and blood break out. Battlefields.”
Sejin was a mercenary who had to go to battlefields.
To be with Sejin meant that Lucia, too, would end up heading to battlefields.
That was not exactly a pleasant prospect.
“That’s why I’m hoping things go well on their side, but judging from what they’re saying now, it sounds like they have no intention of that. Tch. No options.”
“…What are battlefields like here?”
“Horrible. I suppose battlefields in every world are like that. They’re places where you hear people screaming. Places where someone else’s pain can become your pain. Places you cannot escape even if you want to. That is what a battlefield is.”
“I hope things work out in a good way.”
9.
Guided by someone, Sejin and Lucia went inside.
Deep within, to a place ordinary people could not enter.
There was a person there.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Choe Seongjae.”
“Ah, I’m Lucia.”
“My, you’re fluent in our language. Is it magic?”
“Yes, for the moment…”
At Choe Seongjae’s question, Lucia answered nervously.
Choe Seongjae looked at Lucia.
A nun’s habit, a girl, no visible threatening elements.
Choe Seongjae stroked his chin as he thought.
About whether Lucia was truly a dangerous person or not.
“You should fix that habit of openly judging someone right in front of them. It doesn’t look good.”
Sejin pointed out Choe Seongjae’s behavior.
Choe Seongjae shook his head and looked at the two of them.
“My apologies. It’s an occupational disease, I suppose.”
“Ah, no, it’s all right.”
“Miss Lucia. It is unfortunate that you came here through an unforeseen accident. We will not harm you. We will have to live helping one another. It is fortunate that you tried to communicate using magic. There are people who do not act that way.”
“Well, I heard there were many of those. Quite a few cases had to be suppressed by force.”
“However, magic does not solve everything. So if there is time later, we’ll assign someone to you and have you learn properly. There would have been no one in the village you transferred to who could teach you that.”
“Whew. So? Have you reached a conclusion?”
Sejin shook his head as he looked at Choe Seongjae.
These were not words that helped Lucia right now.
They only came across as threatening.
It was best to cut such behavior off quickly.
At Sejin’s words, Choe Seongjae seemed to ponder.
It meant a proper answer had not come out yet.
“What on earth are you people doing?”
“Our work is more numerous than you might think. There is the matter of our opinions not being unified, but I’d like you to understand that there are also many issues we must resolve, which is why we cannot do so.”
“I’m sure.”
Lucia looked at Choe Seongjae.
Her body was still trembling.
Lucia did not know exactly what kind of person Choe Seongjae was.
She could only tell that he was someone high-ranking.
That was what had come through in the conversation just now.
“What will happen to me?”
“Nothing in particular will happen to you. For now, the person beside you will help you. I heard he doesn’t have any work coming in yet anyway.”
“Well, I do think it’ll take more time for work to come in… To be honest, things would go better for everyone if there were no work.”
“That’s true. It’s better if there is no war. Though as a mercenary, your workload may drop considerably.”
“I’d rather just be unemployed. Better than work going berserk. Of course, you people may not know about that. Anyway, since no answer has come out for now, the conclusion is that I have to keep protecting her.”
“That’s about right. Then I’ll be counting on you.”
Sejin looked at Choe Seongjae with a displeased expression.
Then he relaxed his face and looked at Lucia.
“Well, that’s how it turned out. I don’t know what answer they’ll come up with, but for now I’ll be staying by your side… Is that all right?”
“Ah, yes! It’s all right.”
Seeing Lucia nod her head vigorously, Sejin gave a short laugh.
“Yes. Then let’s move for now. I need to unpack as well.”