The morning air was cold.
The very first sensation upon opening my eyes was stiffness.
My arms were stiff, my legs were stiff, my shoulders were stiff.
"A mild case of body aches?"
Thinking back on yesterday, it was only natural. I'd run through the forest, torn open the flank of an Iron-tusked Boar, gone back to my studio apartment to eat chicken and buldak, then come back and stopped by the bathhouse—there was no way my body would be fine.
Still, it wasn't bad enough that I couldn't get up.
I sat up in bed and lightly stretched. The light seeping through the window cracks was still faint.
It was still early.
The uniquely chilly predawn air touched my skin.
I left the room.
The hallway was quiet. The air brushing the interior of the Sanctuary was cold and clear. When I splashed cold water on my face at the wash area, the sleepiness vanished instantly.
When I went to the training grounds behind the guild, Garen was already there.
As always, he stood in silence.
A large frame, closely cropped hair, and a taciturn face.
With a man like a Gigachad standing still in the training grounds where the morning fog had yet to lift, the pressure was palpable all on its own.
I stood at a distance and lightly bowed my head.
"Good morning."
Garen nodded curtly.
"You're not late."
"It's still hard to get here before you, Hyung-nim~"
"Who's your hyung-nim?"
"Huh, you're not?"
Garen suppressed a sigh.
"Listen."
"Yes sir."
I swallowed a laugh and picked up a wooden sword. The joking ended here.
The moment I held the sword before him, any mood for jokes quickly vanished.
Garen closed the distance in an instant. The tip of the wooden sword stabbed in short and fast.
If this were before, I would have tried to follow it with my eyes and ended up getting beaten like a dog, but now it was different.
My body reacted first, twisting my wrist to raise the wooden sword and deflect it to the side, then immediately stepping back.
Thwack!
The sound of wood striking echoed briefly.
Garen's eyes moved ever so slightly.
The second attack was heavier.
I gritted my teeth, received it, and redirected it just as it came. My arm went numb, but my stance didn't break.
Reflexively, I stepped in further and thrust the tip of the wooden sword.
Swish!
It didn't connect fully, but it reached right in front of Garen's side.
At that moment, Garen stopped.
The air in the training grounds settled for a moment.
I caught my breath and re-gripped the wooden sword. Garen looked at my wooden sword once, then at my face.
"That last one wasn't bad."
"Oh, really?"
"Again."
My heart fluttered needlessly at those words. I wasn't sure what exactly was good about it, but since Garen had acknowledged it, I had clearly done quite well.
The sparring continued after that.
In the end, I did get hit a few times. My forearm stung, and I'd taken a solid hit to the thigh. Even so, I didn't take it lying down like before.
Even when I got hit, I felt like I knew why, and when I blocked, the sensation of having truly seen the movement and blocked it remained.
A while later, I regulated my breathing heavily while Garen, maintaining a calm state, withdrew to the edge of the training grounds.
I rested the tip of the wooden sword on the ground and loosened my shoulders.
I thought this might be the end, but Garen leaned his back against a pillar at the edge, crossed his arms, and quietly watched me. He showed no signs of leaving yet.
"...Just when did this guy get here?"
He had probably already been here since before sunrise. Earlier than me. Every single day.
That thought lingered in my head for a moment.
"Mister Garen."
Garen swallowed a mouthful of water and looked at me.
"What?"
"I have something I'm curious about."
"Speak."
I hesitated for a moment before asking.
"Are you just the vice guild master of Breshen Outpost?"
Garen's gaze paused very briefly.
"No."
"Then?"
"I belong to the Astraheim Guild Alliance. I'm a vice guild master who travels the entire Kingdom Guild."
My mouth fell open.
"...You're a really high-ranking person, aren't you?"
"There's no high or low."
"No, you were an amazing person?"
Garen didn't answer. I rested my chin on the wooden sword handle and continued.
"But isn't it strange? The villagers treat you really familiarly."
"Who's your hyung-nim?"
"It's still temporary for now."
Garen let out another sigh. I pretended not to notice and continued.
"If you're the vice guild master of the entire guild, you must be very busy, but everyone seems to know you comfortably?"
Garen looked up at the sky for a moment, then spoke as if it were no big deal.
"Breshen isn't my first time here."
"So?"
"I haven't just dropped by a few times. I've checked the outskirts, looked at the guild ledgers, and handled problems personally when they arose."
His words were nonchalant, but the time contained within them could be faintly felt.
"Last winter, a pack of Iron-tusks came down into the village. In spring, I cleared the outskirts before goblin breeding season. In summer, I checked the roads the merchant caravans take. The smaller the place, the more often you have to watch it."
"Because if you come after things blow up, it's too late?"
"Exactly."
I closed my mouth for a moment.
Winter, spring, summer.
The time Garen had built up in Breshen lay quietly within those words. Counting seasons as he passed through this village, remembering when the goblins swelled in number, learning which roads the merchant caravans took.
I had been in this world for four days now.
I knew no winter, no spring, no summer.
It strangely touched a corner of my heart. The feeling that I had never accumulated such seasons anywhere. Because I had only repeated entering, enduring, and exiting dimensions.
Because Garen came here often, moved personally, and left his face before the people, the villagers had grown familiar with him. To the people of Breshen, before he was a vice guild master of the Kingdom Guild, he was simply Garen.
"But."
"What now."
"Why are you doing this much for me?"
This time, Garen didn't answer right away.
The silence felt long subjectively.
I fiddled with the wooden sword handle for no reason.
Objectively speaking, I was indeed a suspicious guy. My appearance was rare in these parts, my amnesia concept, and my origins were unclear.
Garen spoke in a low voice.
"At first, you were suspicious."
"As expected."
"But you didn't look like an evil man."
"Oh..."
"You had the greed to grow stronger, and you weren't without talent. In the first place, if you were a villain, I would have cut you down on the spot."
I couldn't say anything.
Hearing Garen's words, I simply felt glad. It wasn't anything incredibly grand, but strangely, it felt like I'd been struck hard in the center of my chest.
I had been holding on since coming here, but it was the first time someone had looked at me properly and said such things.
I set the wooden sword down beside me and asked with a very serious face.
"Then, can I call you Hyung-nim from now on?"
Garen stared at my face intently.
"Stop talking nonsense."
"Hng..."
"Stop your pointless chatter and pick up your sword."
"Yes, Hyung-nim!"
"......"
Garen clearly had a disgusted expression, but he didn't bother to stop me.
That was enough.
✧ ✧ ✧
As I left the training grounds, the morning sunlight settled on my spine.
It was still early, but people were beginning to move around the guild. A staff member walking with ledgers, a guard suppressing a yawn at the entrance, a villager organizing something near the warehouse.
Breshen Outpost was slowly waking up.
I watched that scene from afar, feeling the coins Luce had given me yesterday clinking in the leather pouch.
'Nice.'
Strangely, that thought seemed to fit perfectly with this morning air.
As I neared the front of the guild, I saw Marie and Kaya.
Kaya was adjusting a small pack, while Marie leaned against the wall, eyes half-closed, her face showing she had just swallowed a yawn.
"You're here."
Marie opened her eyes and looked at me.
"Yes, I'm here to earn money hard today, too."
"You really like money more than I thought."
"You need to earn money to live... it's really important...!"
Kaya snickered.
"Today, let's not go deep inside like yesterday and just patrol the outskirts. There are apparently quite a few traces."
"Yes ma'am."
The morning request was the same as yesterday: patrolling the outer forest of Breshen Outpost.
Not long after entering the forest, they jumped out.
Eight normal goblins.
If it were before, I would have been nervous first, but now it was different. My heart was racing, but cold sweat wasn't the first thing to flow.
"Here they come."
Kaya's voice fell curtly.
Marie didn't use the fire orb she showed every time; instead, she poured out a low-spreading heat at the goblins.
When heat suddenly burst in front of the two goblins at the front, they simultaneously lost their balance.
I plunged in at that moment.
Slash!
I cut one goblin's neck and immediately twisted my body to deflect another goblin's club.
My wrist rang with the sound of wood striking, but it was bearable.
Thrust!
I stabbed straight through the heart and finished it.
Kaya's short voice came from behind.
"Right."
"Yes!"
I reflexively lowered my body.
A stone that grazed over my head struck a tree.
At the same time, when Marie flicked her hand, small flames spread and burned the edge of the bushes.
Two hidden goblins jumped out in shock.
"Oh, smart!"
"Stop your nonsense and finish them."
I swallowed a laugh and went in.
Without hesitation, I swung my sword to cut, then immediately dove back in.
One goblin charged like it was ramming me, and I kicked its leg hard. The moment it staggered and fell, I stomped down on its neck.
I was gradually getting short of breath. But my body felt lighter instead.
It was still scary, but my hands no longer froze. My body moved before my head knew what to do.
The last two came at the same time.
When Marie briefly swept her hand, a small fire orb split in midair and brushed between them.
The heat before their eyes made them flinch for an instant. That brief opening was enough.
One in the heart.
One in the neck.
When the battle ended, I regulated my breathing and flicked the blood from my sword tip.
There had been eight goblins. Yet this time, I had really taken them down without trouble.
But that wasn't the end.
The moment I tried to turn back to the forest path, the distinct screeching of goblins was heard from beyond the bushes.
The sounds spat out by the low-intelligence normal goblins still sounded like mere shrieks. But the words uttered by the shaman-type in the back embedded themselves in my head with clear meaning again.
"Stop them from the front."
"Two together."
"Three humans."
"I'll watch the rear."
'I'm fucked.'
I reflexively re-gripped my sword and spoke in a low voice.
"Hold on. The goblins have us surrounded right now."
Marie's and Kaya's gazes simultaneously snapped to me.
"What?"
"I'll explain later. There's one shaman-type in the back."
The bastards jumped out before my words even ended.
Two warrior-types in front, three normal goblins on the sides, and one shaman-type belched an unpleasant wail from the rear bushes one beat later.
Their numbers were fewer than before, but they were far trickier.
"We have to cut off the shaman first."
Marie shouted immediately.
The two warrior-types pushed forward simultaneously.
I received the left one's attack first. Instead of clashing head-on, I twisted my body to deflect it, but I couldn't avoid the right one's club.
Thud!
A dull impact slammed into my side.
"Urk...!"
"Siyun!"
Kaya's voice sharply rang out.
I had no intention of falling here.
When the heat Marie had laid down low spread in all directions, the figure of the hidden shaman-type in the back flickered and was revealed.
I gritted my teeth and plunged straight in.
I struck away one of the left warrior-type's arms and cut the neck of a normal goblin clinging from the side.
Squelch!
I didn't stop. I closed the distance before the shaman-type could spew its curse.
Thrust!
The steel sword was driven deep into the shaman goblin's neck.
When the shaman goblin squawked and fell backward, the flow broke at once.
The two warrior-types who had been stubbornly holding out wavered in that instant.
Without even a moment to catch my breath, I turned and cut the nearby warrior goblin's neck, and Marie launched a fire orb to take down two normal goblins.
The last remaining warrior-type—I turned in the direction Kaya pointed and pierced straight through its heart.
It was a short series of engagements.
But I was less shaken than expected.
I regulated my rough breathing and flicked off the blood clinging thickly to the sword tip.
My side throbbed.
"Hoo..."
Kaya immediately came over and tugged at the hem of my clothes.
"Stay still."
"Ah, I’m fine..."
"No, you’re not. You’re bleeding."
A faint golden light spread from Kaya’s fingertips as she snapped the words out.
As a warm sensation swept over my side, the throbbing pain from earlier slowly began to subside.
"You’ve been charging in way too recklessly lately."
"But just now, I didn’t have a choice."
"That’s true, but... doing well and not getting hurt are two different things."
I laughed quietly.
"Are you worried about me?"
"...Shut up."
That was what she said, but her touch was more careful and gentle than I’d expected.
Beside us, Mari nudged the corpse of a warrior goblin with the tip of her foot.
"By the way, what was that just now?"
"What was what?"
"How did you know we were surrounded by goblins before we did?"
I hesitated for a moment.
If I said the Dimensional Archive had translated it, the explanation would get too long. The Dimensional Archive itself, and why I could understand goblin speech. I wasn’t confident I could explain it neatly. No—I couldn’t say it.
"It just... felt a little strange."
"Felt...?"
"I guess I got lucky. Like, I had a chill or something? Haha."
Mari looked at me once more with suspicion, but she didn’t press any further.
I brushed it off with a vague laugh and adjusted my grip on my sword again.
Even after wiping out two groups of goblins, my body still felt like it could hold up.
Mari seemed to notice that, because she glanced at me and said,
"Like Kaya said, you’re pretty useful."
"You’re giving me a lot of compliments today."
"So what? Want me to take it back?"
"No? Thank you."
Kaya laughed softly.
"It helped that no one’s rhythm got thrown off."
"True."
I wiped the sweat beneath my chin with the back of my hand.
I was definitely better than yesterday.
Just before the sun reached its zenith, we headed back toward the guild.
An older man who had been moving loads near the fields naturally straightened his back as soon as he saw Garen.
"Oh! Sir Garen, how many days will you be staying this time?"
"Not long."
"Still, just having you here puts my mind at ease."
The exchange was so natural that I found myself glancing at Garen again.
He didn’t seem accustomed to it because he was some important person. He looked like someone who had come and gone from this village countless times, leaving behind his face and lending a hand. Garen’s words from earlier passed through my mind again.
‘The smaller the place, the more often you need to see it.’
Until a few days ago, this had just been an unfamiliar pioneer village. But not anymore.
The face of the old man in front of the guild had become familiar, the smell of the Sunset Hearth had become familiar, and the sight of Garen standing silently in the training yard every morning had become familiar.
I hadn’t completely put down roots yet, but at the very least, a place for me to keep moving here was gradually taking shape.
In the distance, Garen looked back toward us once.
I immediately raised my hand high.
"Big brother!"
Garen turned his head as if he hadn’t heard me.
But he didn’t bother denying it.
That was enough.