“Baek Siyun, are you an idiot?”
It was right after I’d pushed every copper coin I’d just received at the settlement counter toward paying off my tab.
My fingertips froze. I slowly turned my head.
Mari’s expression wasn’t the look you gave a comrade. It wasn’t the look you gave someone who had just fought with you in the forest, risking their life. It was closer to the look you gave something that had just very carefully accomplished something incredibly stupid right in front of your eyes.
Kaya quietly sighed beside her and pressed her fingers to her temple. Luce, too, looked up at me for a moment, one hand resting on the ledger.
“No, why are you all acting like this? I have to pay back what I owe.”
“Who told you not to pay it back? What kind of lunatic takes every coin he’s earned so far and dumps it all into his tab?”
“Ah...?”
“Are you planning to live while starving now?”
I looked down at my palm. My heart felt light. It definitely felt light, but... my pockets had been emptied out in a very refreshing way.
The liberation of having reduced my debt and the reality that I was penniless again hit me at the same time, making me feel strangely conflicted.
“Ah... I think I really am an idiot.”
When I answered honestly, Mari laughed as if she found it absurd.
“Wow~ Amazing, really. Where did a moron like this even crawl out from?”
“No... paying off debt quickly is a good thing, isn’t it?”
“It is. It’s good, but I’m saying this because you don’t seem to understand the concept of moderation.”
“Heh... I’ll leave a little aside next time.”
“Never mind next time. What are you going to do about lunch right now?”
I had no choice but to shut my mouth in the face of Mari’s factual assault.
That was when Kaya summed it up briefly.
“...I’ll buy lunch today.”
“Wow, really?”
“But next time, think before paying off your tab.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
I answered with extreme politeness.
‘Hell yeah!’
I forcibly held down the corners of my mouth as they tried to rise on their own.
There was no way Mari would miss that.
“You just thought something weird, didn’t you?”
“No?”
“Liar. Kaya, look at his face right now.”
“Miss Mari, aren’t you being too suspicious of people?”
“Your face is just too transparent.”
“So unfair...”
“If you feel wronged, then live smarter.”
Even as Mari snapped at me, she kindled a small flame at her fingertips.
“Whoa... wait, wait! If you hit someone with that, they’ll really die!”
“Then dodge.”
“Both of you, stop.”
When Kaya, with a stern expression, said that while looking back and forth between Mari and me, the chaotic mood finally settled down.
✧ ✧ ✧
On the way to the Sunset Hearth, I very naturally greeted the people around us.
The guard uncle leaning against the guild entrance, the female clerk organizing ledgers near the reception desk, and even the merchant unloading boxes by the roadside.
“Hello!”
“Thank you for your hard work!”
Honestly, this kind of thing wasn’t a big deal. But things that weren’t a big deal were bigger than you’d think. If I wanted to get used to this place, I had no choice but to approach first.
A neat first impression, a bright greeting, a smiling face, a gentle voice.
People see a lot in surprisingly brief moments and judge quickly. Whether this guy is friendly, unfriendly, easy to talk to, or okay to be around.
So you approach first, smile, greet them, look them steadily in the eye, don’t act pointlessly rude, and maintain the basics even when you’re tired.
In the end, the core of the service industry was becoming a sweet guy.
I was pretty good at that.
‘Haha! Call me the ultimate master of keeping people on the hook.’
Mari stared at me with suspicious eyes.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Huh? It’s nothing.”
“Kaya, he’s being weird.”
“He was always weird.”
“You’re both too much...”
As expected for lunchtime, the inside of the Sunset Hearth was packed with people.
Today, the smell of oil heated over flame, the scent of boiling chicken, and an herb-like fragrance all mingled together, properly stimulating my salivary glands.
Kaya placed an order for my share as well, and after a short while, a large bowl came out.
Chicken boiled until tender and things like grass roots floated in a milky broth.
‘...Isn’t this samgyetang?’
There was no rice, but plenty of warm bread came with it instead. The meaning was very clear: dip the bread in the broth and eat it.
The moment I took a spoonful, my insides relaxed.
Rather than oily, it was rich, and the chicken was tender enough to tear apart with almost no force. A subtle fragrance rose from it, and the broth was heavy. When I tore off some bread and dipped it in, the flavor of the broth soaked into it and came alive. It was a little different from Korean-style samgyetang, but right now, this was more than enough.
“This is really good.”
“Isn’t that just because you’re hungry?”
“That’s true too, but it’s genuinely delicious.”
Mari tore into a chicken leg and glanced at me.
“You were a guy who should’ve starved to death just a moment ago.”
“Turns out, when you live long enough, another path opens up.”
“Kaya opened that path for you.”
“Right? I must be blessed with good people. Miss Kaya, thank you.”
“Yeah. Next time, stop doing stupid things.”
As I nodded, I suddenly brought up something I’d been curious about.
“There’s something I’m wondering.”
“What now?”
“What happens if I catch every single goblin without leaving even one? What about my livelihood?”
Mari’s hand, which had been dipping bread into the broth, stopped for a moment.
“Listen to you, talking about your livelihood. Well... the area nearby would quiet down for a bit.”
“For a bit?”
“Even if you kill all the goblins in this area, the ones that were hiding crawl back out, and some drift in from elsewhere too.”
Kaya continued.
“Still, reducing their numbers has meaning. The area around the village becomes a little safer, and fewer people suffer damage from demonic beasts.”
“Then I don’t have to worry about starving for the time being. And it’s good for society too.”
“Yeah. That’s why requests like this never stop coming in.”
Mari added,
“If you were strong enough to end it completely in the first place, you’d usually be hunting something bigger than goblins.”
“That’s true too.”
Demonic beasts probably would never disappear completely. And someone had to keep killing demonic beasts for the sake of people.
The word adventurer sounded cool, but when you laid it bare, it was basically like being an armed cleaner.
✧ ✧ ✧
The afternoon request was far more intense than the morning one.
It was supposed to be a simple patrol and subjugation request around the forest on the outskirts of Bressen Pioneer Village, but goblins appeared more often than expected.
By now, I had gotten used to goblins to some extent. Two or three of them weren’t that threatening anymore.
When Mari fired off a short spell, I finished them off as they were, and Kaya’s support filled in any openings from behind. Once my sword landed properly, they fell more easily than I expected.
That was when it happened.
A wild boar appeared in front of us.
Muscles writhed beneath its black, jagged hide, and the tusks jutting out on either side of its mouth were far larger and sharper than anything a goblin had. Its body was much larger than the wild boars I knew too.
‘Wow, it’s damn huge.’
Calling it just a wild boar didn’t feel right; its eyes alone were different. That bastard was radiating killing intent with its whole body, as if it meant to ram into a human and smash them apart.
“It’s an Iron Tusk! Dodge!”
The instant Kaya’s voice rang out, it kicked off the ground. I reflexively threw myself to the side.
Its enormous body swept through the spot where I had been standing just moments before. Dirt scattered, and tree roots heaved.
‘If I’d taken that head-on...’
Goosebumps rose all over my body.
I immediately turned around while lowering my stance. Its thick hide was too much to slash from the front. Instead, I went for its flank, the area behind its foreleg, the gaps where the hide looked a little thinner.
It had just rammed its head into a tree, so its rear was open for a moment.
‘Now.’
“Hup!”
The instant my sword sank into its flank, even the sensation transmitted into my hand was different. It was tough and heavy, incomparable to the feeling of tearing through goblin flesh.
I didn’t stop and twisted the sword as it was. I drove the blade in deep, then slashed as if wrenching it sideways and upward.
Dark red blood sprayed out.
“Kueeeek!”
The Iron Tusk boar shrieked madly and thrashed its body. If it rammed into me like that, I was done for. I freaked out and immediately retreated.
“Move!”
With Mari’s shout, a flame compressed into a long spear-like shape flew forward. The fire gouged directly into the wound I had opened.
Bang!
With an explosive sound, the inside of the torn flesh burned away, and after staggering a few steps, the creature collapsed onto its side.
Thud.
The smell of burning and blood rose at once.
I caught my breath for a moment and looked down at the fallen beast.
‘Pig bro... tough as hell.’
The magic stone I carved out from inside its chest was definitely different from a goblin’s. If a goblin’s magic stone was like a cloudy gray-green pebble, this one was larger and closer to a murky dark brown. Its grain was rough too, and when I placed it on my palm, I felt its weighty presence.
“What is this insane boar?”
“An Iron Tusk boar.”
“So this request was more expensive than a simple goblin request because guys like this show up too.”
“You get it now?”
“Yes. For real.”
My wrist was tingling and I was out of breath, but for some reason, the corners of my mouth rose slightly.
‘Boar bastard, down!’
Demonic beasts continued to appear after that.
Starting with three goblins, two more goblins that had been hiding behind the bushes immediately jumped out, and we didn’t let even the one trying to run away escape.
I thought that was the end, but then two Iron Tusks charged toward us. Finally, four more goblins appeared.
I roughly counted them in my head as I swung my sword.
Just the ones we had caught so far were far more than in the morning. My legs were heavy and my wrist ached, but my center didn’t waver. I was also growing more and more used to the timing of Mari’s magic and Kaya’s support.
“Let’s head back now.”
“Yes.”
“You’re somewhat useful now.”
“Oh~ Miss Mari. You know how to give compliments too?”
“I take back what I just said.”
“Ah.”
“It’s too late even if you apologize.”
Kaya laughed softly beside us.
“Let’s not push any further. Siyun, I can see your hands shaking.”
“Ah, that’s just because Miss Mari’s words hurt me so much that my hands are trembling.”
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
“Yes.”
On the way back, I continued steadily greeting the villagers.
The guild manager guarding the warehouse, the old man sweeping near the guild, and the female clerk organizing goods.
The gazes that had first treated me as just some unfamiliar outsider passing by now seemed to have shifted slightly toward at least recognizing my face.
‘Raising the village favorability rating is essential.’
After all, even in this world, I had to live among people.