Episode 17
[- Abrea: “But look at this! We’ve never seen a mineral with light shimmering like this on the continent we lived on. The fact that something like this has suddenly been discovered means……!”]
[- Helkina: “Light shimmering? To my eyes, it’s just an ordinary mineral. Did that great god of yours send word that there’s something in this stone? What exactly looks so important about this black lump of rock!”]
[- Helkina: “Ha, what a waste of energy. We’ll handle the investigation, so please don’t cause any trouble and just stay still. Do you understand?”]
Helkina shuddered and turned to walk away. Then she snapped at the investigation team members gathered around in little clusters watching, telling them not to slack off and to investigate faster than the Jeoba people.
As Kkulppang watched, Abrea suddenly spoke to him.
[- Abrea: “Hey, does this just look like a black lump of rock to you? I mean, to my eyes, there’s clearly purple smoke kind of wavering around it?”]
Abrea showed him the mineral in her hand and traced the shape of rising smoke with her other hand. Then the choices appeared.
▷ As Helkina said, it only looks like an ordinary mineral.
▷ As Abrea said, a light like purple smoke shimmers from the mineral.
No matter how you looked at it, the mineral was glowing. Unless they’d made even stuff like this glow randomly, Abrea was right. I chose the latter option.
[- It looks like a mineral giving off a pale violet light.]
After hearing the answer, Abrea smiled brightly in relief.
[- Abrea: “Right? I wasn’t seeing things, was I?”]
[- Abrea: “I don’t know if that bastard lied just to embarrass me, but now that I know I’m right, I’ll let it slide for now. Seriously, what an annoying guy…….”]
[- Abrea: “I think it’d be best to hand this over to our investigation team and ask them to examine it. Just in case, could you hold on to it for me?”]
Kkulppang obediently accepted the mineral Abrea held out and turned it this way and that. The mineral, shaped like a chipped stone tool, was emitting a faint, mysterious pale violet light from around its center.
Would she really look at something like this and ignore it, lying just because she didn’t like Abrea? That didn’t fit the Helkina I remembered. She was curious, and like all military physicians, a research maniac. Above all, she was also the type to clearly separate public and private matters. In other words, Helkina truly couldn’t see the mineral’s light.
The light wasn’t visible to Helkina, a military physician, but it was visible to Abrea and me, divine knights. Did that mean it contained the power of a god?
I was thinking that, as Helkina had said, a god might have marked this stone for us to investigate, when Jaesugang approached me—or rather, the character Kkulppang.
He stroked his chin with his fingers and moved his lips slightly, as if he had something he wanted to say. But because they were of different races, he couldn’t attempt a conversation and had no choice but to endure Kkulppang’s wary gaze.
[The other party is selecting an action. Time remaining: 15 seconds.]
Choices had appeared for Jaesugang again. I simply waited quietly for Jaesugang to choose.
When the remaining time reached 6 seconds, the text disappeared and the story continued. Jaesugang carefully reached out toward my character. Perhaps because the other party showed no signs of attacking, Kkulppang merely watched warily to see what he would do.
And then his wrist was grabbed. It was similar to what Adam had done. The situation was a little different, though. Do those guys just grab your wrist first whenever they have something to say?
Then he started gauging my character’s reaction. I couldn’t tell why he was being so cautious. Kkulppang must have felt the same—or maybe he simply found contact with a Jeoba unpleasant—because he frowned and met Jaesugang’s gaze.
Jaesugang raised his hand and pointed at the mineral Kkulppang was holding. When Kkulppang followed his finger with his eyes, Jaesugang let go of his wrist and started wildly rotating both hands. It looked just like the gesture a kindergartener would make while saying, “Twinkle, twinkle~” during a little performance.
[Please select an action. Time remaining: 10 seconds.]
▷ Since he seems to be talking about the mineral glowing, try nodding.
▷ Since you don’t know what he’s doing in front of you, tilt your head.
The game company had very, very kindly even prepared an option that practically told me the correct answer, in case I didn’t catch on or got confused. But it wasn’t exactly a good choice.
When they point out the correct answer this blatantly, isn’t it human nature to want to press the wrong one for no reason?
[(I don’t know what he’s doing in front of me.)]
When Kkulppang tilted his head, Jaesugang seemed a little flustered and hesitated. Before long, the text saying the other party was selecting an action popped up again.
Once he finished choosing, the text disappeared, and Jaesugang grabbed my character’s wrist again before starting to drag him toward the wall. Perhaps because he knew Jaesugang had no intention of attacking, Kkulppang was being dragged along obediently.
With an expression that seemed to openly mock him, as if saying, “How much harm could a paper-thin military physician whose only exercise is, at most, breathing and practicing self-defense techniques possibly do to me?”
After a few steps, they arrived at a wall where a candlestick was mounted. Jaesugang pointed at the mineral with his finger like before, then this time showed him the candlestick with its white flame flickering. I’d more or less figured it out earlier, but he was clearly asking whether the mineral was glowing like that.
[Please select an action. Time remaining: 10 seconds.]
▷ Since he seems to be saying the mineral is glowing like the flame of that candlestick, try nodding.
▷ Tilt your head once more, indicating that you don’t know what he wants to say.
I told you not to give me choices like this.
[(I don’t know what he wants to say.)]
Kkulppang tilted his head again, but Jaesugang didn’t seem flustered like before. He simply stared quietly at Kkulppang.
[The other party is selecting an action. Time remaining: 10 seconds.]
Curious what kind of body language he’d use this time, I waited for his choice. And the moment the text disappeared, Jaesugang struck the mineral in Kkulppang’s hand hard, knocking it to the floor.
Startled, I looked at him. His face was expressionless, but I could feel anger rising in his eyes.
[Please select an action. Time remaining: 10 seconds.]
▷ It seems like you messed around too much. Since you’re sorry, pick up the mineral and imitate the other party’s actions to smooth things over.
▷ You don’t know why he suddenly took his anger out on you. Since you’re angry too, kick the mineral lying on the floor.
Sorry, my ass. I never raised you to be like that, Kkulppang.
[(I don’t know why he suddenly took his anger out on me. Since I’m angry too, I kick the mineral.)]
The mineral Abrea had asked Kkulppang to hold on to because it seemed important was kicked by Kkulppang and went flying toward Adam, who had been standing quietly and watching Jaesugang. Seeing that, Jaesugang stared blankly at Kkulppang as if he couldn’t believe it.
As Kkulppang and Jaesugang glared at each other with an atmosphere like they might lunge at one another at any moment, Abrea suddenly popped out from somewhere.
[- Abrea: “Hey! How can you tell me not to fight and then start fighting yourself!”]
Abrea covered Kkulppang’s eyes with her palm, gave Jaesugang a somewhat apologetic look, then snapped angrily at Kkulppang.
[- Abrea: “And did I or did I not say I was leaving that mineral with you because it needed to be investigated? What were you going to do if you kicked it and broke it?”]
Normally, she was the one causing trouble and getting scolded, but when the player acted up just once like this, she showed no mercy, as if venting all the resentment from the times she’d been scolded. It was exactly like the pot calling the kettle black.
Kkulppang seemed wronged too, and just as he was about to remove Abrea’s hand and protest, a voice I’d never heard before came through my headset, and a new script appeared at the same time.
[- ?: “It didn’t look like fighting to me. More like they were just getting along and playing rough. Am I wrong?”]
The voice was somewhat sarcastic, but there was no malice in the tone. The three of them all turned their heads at once to confirm the speaker who had joined the conversation. Then an unexpected character appeared on screen.
[- Adam: “Our military physician is rather interested in your divine knight, you see. He got all excited by himself and tried talking to him, but since your side only kept playing around, I suppose he got a little angry. Isn’t it cute?”]
The NPC who had spoken was none other than Adam.