005 – Fuck Off!
“Now! Since our newbie’s here, we’ve got to throw another welcome party!”
Mr. Hammer led me somewhere.
Whoooosh—.
It was a room with a huge bonfire blazing in the center.
The people who had arrived first were standing around with their arms crossed, striking poses.
This looks like some character select screen.
First, there was a man with a longsword at his waist.
He seemed about my age.
His long blond hair was slicked back with oil.
At a glance, he was a young master from a rich family.
Why?
Because in this world, where even food was scarce, managing your hair was wasteful and luxurious.
People with well-kept hair were usually rich, with deep pockets.
It was know-how I’d picked up over the course of several pickpocketing priors.
‘Can’t hurt to get on his good side.’
There was a reason the rich were rich.
If I built up some goodwill in advance, who knew what crumbs might fall my way?
Mr. Hammer approached the young master and introduced me.
“Felix, this is Yor. Yor, this is Felix. From now on, you two will be sharing a room, so make sure you greet each other properly.”
“I’m Felix.”
Thud—.
Young Master Felix held out his hand to me.
From his appearance, I’d thought he was someone who’d grown up without a single hardship, but the calluses embedded in the palm he offered were no joke.
Had he been working in a quarry with his bare hands or something?
“I’m Yor. I look forward to working with you. Hehehe.”
I deliberately smiled brightly.
They say you can’t spit in a smiling face.
Nothing builds favor faster than a smile.
But Felix snorted—hmph—and pulled his hand away.
Was he pretty prickly?
Fine. It’s not like I wanted to hold hands with a man for long anyway.
My eyes then turned toward the woman wearing a conical hat.
“You’re Hermit, right? Mr. Hammer told me that if there’s anything I don’t know about aether, I should ask you this and that.”
This was my first time working with a woman, both in my previous life and this one combined.
So I got nervous for no reason, but Hermit took a slight step back.
“Don’t ask too much. There’s a lot I don’t know either. That’s why I’m here.”
Why was everyone responding so brusquely?
But the slums where I used to operate were a place where people naturally traded insults like son of a bitch and bastard upon first meeting.
Compared to that, these people could be called quite cultured.
“I’m Hammer! Formerly of the Hammer Unit. That’s why my nickname is Hammer, too. In the party, I handle the vanguard and map reading. This kind of role is called a ‘warrior.’”
My role was thief, and Mr. Hammer’s role was warrior.
It really was like the class list from the game Knight Diver.
By that formula, Hermit must be a mage.
With her staff and conical hat, she looked exactly like one.
Then what was Felix?
He had a long sword at his waist.
“Is Felix a warrior too?”
“No, that guy’s a knight. He’s from a real knightly family.”
The word “knight” brought back an old memory of mine.
There was a time when pickpockets and back-alley thugs gathered together and planned to attack a carriage carrying some rich young lady.
Including me, nearly ten people gathered for that big project.
But when we actually attacked the carriage, a man wearing armor like iron jumped out and cut down all my workmates.
There had been ten hot-blooded, vicious scoundrels there.
That man had been a knight.
Professional executioners trained since childhood to kill people.
That was why people like me had always been afraid of knights.
If you met one, you were dead.
There was no way except to run.
“Felix, you were an amazing person!”
But?
Thinking that such a slaughter machine was on my side made me feel more reassured than anything.
“As the warrior, I draw their attention and hold the monsters in place, then Felix, the knight, finishes them off, while Hermit provides support.”
Oooh—.
Maybe because Mr. Hammer was ex-military, his explanation was concise and good.
I could picture the three-person party’s hunting method in my head.
As I was eagerly imagining how I’d fit into that, Hermit beckoned to me.
“Then come here and take a good look at this bonfire. It’s a flame blessed by His Imperial Majesty. If we want to use the power of aether, we need this flame.”
His Imperial Majesty came up again.
To think he could even bless fire. He really was an incredible person.
“Place your hand over the flame.”
Swoosh—.
Following Hermit’s words, I placed my hand over the huge bonfire.
Then letters appeared before my eyes, didn’t they?
「Would you like to increase your level?」
「1 → 2」
「Aether Cost – 10,000」
“Oh! It says I can raise my level?”
“By using this bonfire, we can make the power of aether dwell in our bodies. If you raise your level, you can use better tools. Your basic physical abilities increase too.”
Wow, how fascinating.
Though it was a bit of a shame that raising levels consumed aether.
This was a little different from the game Knight Diver.
There, when you killed monsters, you gained experience and leveled up that way.
But?
Whatever the case, the fact that I could raise my own level was exciting enough to fry my brain.
Now I had even more reason to desperately gather aether.
「Would you like to increase your level?」
「1 → 2」
「Aether Cost – 10,000」
「Would you like to increase your level?」
「2 → 3」
「Aether Cost – 20,000」
「Would you like to increase your level?」
「3 → 4」
「Aether Cost – 40,000」
Like that, I spent 70,000 aether and raised myself to level 4.
I felt as if my body had become a little lighter.
“This really is amazing.”
Mr. Hammer placed a hand on my shoulder with a thud.
“Don’t forget that the existence of this bonfire is also all thanks to His Imperial Majesty’s grace. Now then, newbie. What’s your favorite food? Put your hand into this bonfire and think of it.”
“My favorite food?”
Most of the food in this world was meant less to satisfy the mouth than simply to be put into the stomach and fill it.
So I didn’t particularly have a favorite food.
I rarely even had memories of eating until my stomach burst.
“My favorite food, huh.”
It had to be cola.
Whenever I spent a sweltering summer, I’d always thought how nice it would be to drink a cold bottle of cola.
「Would you like to consume 1,500 aether?」
Then letters appeared before my eyes.
What would happen if I consumed aether?
From the experience of leveling up, I’d realized that spending aether was quite thrilling.
A late-blooming habit is a dangerous thing.
Once I got a taste, I couldn’t hold back.
“Consume.”
Whoosh—.
Soon, something was grasped in the palm I’d stuck into the flame.
It was a round can.
At that hard yet cold and smooth sensation, memories I’d long forgotten came flooding back.
“What’s that? What a strange object. Is it from the Land of Night?”
Mr. Hammer tilted his head.
Looks like he didn’t know what cola was.
Of course he didn’t.
It was something you could never see in this world!
Rather than explain, I opened the can and gulped down the contents.
The refreshing sensation going down my throat was so electrifying it felt like my brain might fry.
“Kyaah! This is it!”
Once the carbonation and sweet drink entered my head, my thoughts began spinning too.
So aether could let me drink cola even in this barren world.
It was impossible to express how amazing that was with words alone.
One can of Zero Cola for 1,500 aether?
I could drink cola if I caught just 30 Nightlings?
This was a seriously profitable deal.
Just in case, I placed my hand on the bonfire again.
Could it do Bburinkle Chicken too?
After cola, the thing I wanted to eat most was chicken.
「Would you like to consume 21,000 aether?」
Letters appeared before my eyes.
In that moment, I had an intuition.
This would work—.
—And the more astonishing part was as follows.
Cola, which cost around 1,500 won a can, was 1,500 aether.
Chicken, which cost 21,000 won per bird, was 21,000 aether.
Fuck, isn’t aether at a 1:1 ratio with Korean won?
What an unbelievable coincidence!
Of course, I’d have to test this and that to know for sure, but just that possibility alone made it impossible to hide my excitement.
I’d thought this life was a lost cause too.
But to think I’d get an opportunity like this after even having the gallows rope around my neck?
This was all thanks to Mr. Ezakiel.
And thanks to His Imperial Majesty’s grace too!
More importantly, could I drink just one more can of cola?
As I was thinking that, whoosh—.
The bonfire’s intensity weakened.
“Newbie, it seems the item you wished for used quite a bit of the power of grace. The flames have weakened, so we won’t be able to use the bonfire anymore today.”
Hermit told me something surprising.
So it seemed I couldn’t just use that flame however I pleased.
Perhaps reading the disappointment on my face, Mr. Hammer patted me on the back.
“Originally, we should have a priestess who manages the flames stably. Unfortunately, there was an incident in our unit, so our priestess is away.”
“……”
“……”
At Mr. Hammer’s words, Hermit and Felix exchanged glances.
I didn’t know what it was, but I could tell something bad had happened.
# # #
I licked up every last drop of cola without leaving even a single one behind.
I could kill monsters, earn aether, and buy cola and chicken?
Now this was life.
At last, spring had come to my life too.
“This is your room.”
At that moment, Felix, who had been walking ahead, stopped in front of a room.
The inside of the room looked like a prison.
In fact, there weren’t even any windows, and only two beds sat there by themselves.
“O-oh, not bad!”
Even so, to me, who had been living in a real prison crawling with bugs until just recently, it looked like a luxury hotel.
Most of all, I liked that the blankets were fluffy, as if they had been washed.
So just as I was about to enter the room to sit my butt down on one, a problem occurred.
When I tried to lie down on a bed, Felix blocked my path.
“You. Quietly leave the party. I’ll tell the others you ran away.”
Clink—.
And then he tossed me a gold coin.
It was an object I’d never touched in my life.
“With just that, you’ll be able to hide away for months. You were a condemned criminal anyway, weren’t you? If you get lucky and run away, shouldn’t you be grateful just for that?”
Aha—.
I didn’t know why, but it seemed our Young Master Felix didn’t like me being here.
I knew it from the moment he acted prickly toward me earlier.
“Because I’m an ex-convict?”
“That’s right. Do you know why our party doesn’t have a priestess?”
“How would I know?”
“Because a thief bastard like you got greedy, acted out, and stabbed her. She’s receiving treatment. Hermit was badly hurt too. Most parties are all the same. It’s always the thief bastards who are the problem.”
“Aha, so I’m going to cause trouble too?”
“Either take that gold coin and run away now, or die by my hand someday. Even with that head of yours that rolled around in the filthy back alleys, you should know which is better.”
Mr. Hammer had mentioned something about my predecessor.
That he’d been executed by the party members.
Judging by the look of things, it seemed Young Master Felix had killed him.
Roll, roll—.
I looked at the gold coin rolling on the floor.
As expected, if you got friendly with a rich person, crumbs were bound to fall your way.
This guy Felix was truly a merciful human being.
He could have just beaten me to a pulp and chased me out.
Swoosh—.
I lowered my head to pick up the gold coin from the floor.
Then Felix snorted—hmph.
“You’ve made the right choice. Leave this Wall, and keep living quietly by crawling around on the ground like that.”
“Fuck you, dumbass!”
I raised my fist with all my strength and slammed it right into his crotch.
Baaam—!
At my unexpected attack, his knees buckled on the spot, and his face hit the floor.
“Gaaah…. Ooogh, ooooogh…!”
“You think I’d miss my chance to drink cola for a single gold coin?”
Absolutely not!
No matter what happens, I’ll never give that up!