Chapter 111

Chapter 111. A Short Break

The matter of appointing an Administrator for the Abandoned District had been settled.

The only thing left was to briefly explain to Grandpa Alo what the Duke had tried to do this time.

The hardest part would be figuring out the best way to make sure the angry Duke couldn't harm Aien's family now that his plan had gone wrong.

Well, we'd figure something out.

Aien had sulked a little because of what I'd suddenly done, but after Mallang and Levi hugged her tightly and cried their eyes out, saying how worried they'd been, she seemed to feel better.

No matter what, she's a good kid.

That's why even with someone like me beside her, she only goes,

"Still... he's a decent person... sometimes..."

and leaves it at that.

"...I'll let it go just this once."

"I'm grateful."

"...And... um... thank you. For what you did about my mother...."

"We're family. Family helps each other."

I'd gotten tired in all sorts of ways.

When the Village Chief, completely absorbed in gathering information, suddenly started dumping such an enormous amount of information on me that it felt like he was trying to drown me in a sea of knowledge, both Modak and I had frozen in confusion.

Thanks to that, I ended up abandoning the work halfway through.

I don't think I made it too obvious, but...

Yeah.

From now on, I'm leaving this kind of thing to the Village Chief.

I can't do it.

Beep, beep, beep. Ding-dong~

Early in the morning.

So early that the sun hadn't even fully risen and it was hard to imagine anyone coming to visit, a familiar top-class beauty casually opened my door, walked inside, and naturally looked around the place.

"You need to clean."

"...Hello? Are you perhaps my landlord?"

"Yeah."

"Huh? Huh?!"

These days, whenever she got bored, Lucy—or rather, Pie—would simply open the door and walk into my house.

It's my house.

And she just walks in without contacting me first.

It's not like I absolutely hate it or anything...

But still.

Don't we have way too little sense of personal distance?

"Why do you come visit me in reality too when you already see me all day inside the game?"

"So I can see you all day."

"Urgh."

She'd always had this tendency since our tester days!

She suddenly charges straight in and catches me off guard!

My fragile heart still needs time to prepare!

N-Not that I think you'd actually wait for me to prepare!

If the real-world me had been as impatient and reckless as I was in the game, I'd probably throw lines at Pie just as casually as she did...

Wait.

I can't even do that in the game anymore, can I?

"What are you planning to do today?"

"Good question. For some reason, Junior Trainer told me to rest today, but I've gotten used to being active now, so I can't just sit still."

More accurately, being alone with you in this tiny room is so suffocating that I can't take it.

People don't change that easily.

I'd never liked going outside in the first place.

Just because I'd spent a few months living like a healthy, respectable person didn't mean suddenly going out had become a habit.

I'd realized that even more clearly recently.

No matter how much I told myself I'd gotten used to reality, or that reality felt better now, once I understood that both reality and the game were equally crappy to me, I could finally face my situation properly.

Inside the blankets is the best...

The blankets are the safest place in the world.

I lay on the bed and stared blankly at Pie.

Then I pulled the blanket over myself and hid underneath it.

Now that I actually thought about going out, it suddenly felt like too much trouble.

There wasn't anything I particularly needed to do anyway.

Why go outside?

"What are you doing?"

"Huh? Hmm... Is it really cold today? I need to buy winter clothes. I don't really have any clothes."

"It's not that cold. It's not winter yet."

"Ahh... Then I need autumn clothes. I don't have any. I really have no clothes."

"...Want me to come with you?"

Rustle.

Pie sat down on the bed.

W-Whoa!

Hey!

Aren't you being a little too aggressive?!

"W-Why?! What are you doing?! Get off!"

"Why are you acting like this now? We've already slept under the same roof for several nights."

"That was inside the game!"

"For me, that was reality. If anything, this place feels more like a game."

Pie's hand was on my shoulder!!!

W-Well, technically it was on my shoulder through the blanket!

Still!

Scary!

Someone save me!

Mom!

The pathetic situation that Dorfin and Levi would probably grin happily at if they saw it continued.

I-I want to escape!

With the power of Flow, I was confident I could jump from this apartment and land without a single injury!

Actually, I'd secretly tested that once in the middle of the night...!

"Are you hot?"

"Hnnngh... W-Why are you doing this to meee...?"

"You're adorably innocent."

Ugh!

Damn it!

She's playing with me!

Damn it!

I hate this!

I don't want situations like this anymore!

Whoosh!

I violently threw off the blanket, rolled off the bed, and rushed into the bathroom.

There was nothing inside except a bar of soap and one damp towel.

From now on, I would barricade myself here in protest against Pie, who had recently taken great pleasure in tormenting me.

"I'm going to wash!"

"Did I tell you not to?"

"I'm saying I'm going to wash before we go out, so wait outside!"

"Since when did you care about stuff like that?"

"I cared every single time! You're the one who never cared!"

"Really?"

Just what kind of time had I spent during my tester days?

Had we lived in some roughly built house without even proper walls, casually seeing everything there was to see?

Did we?!

...

I-I think we did!

Back then, I'd just thought, Oh, wow, this really is an adults-only game, and hadn't paid much attention to it!

Idiot!

You idiot!!!

"They say young meat is good for your health."

"WHAT?!!!"

"I'm joking."

"N-No wonder you're a woman in your forties!"

"No wonder you're a guy in his twenties who's never dated anyone."

Bang!

I'd thrown out what I thought was a pretty aggressive counterattack.

But her soft reply shocked me so much that I flung open the bathroom door I'd firmly shut and cautiously asked Pie,

"You've... dated someone before?"

"Do you seriously think I haven't?"

"?!"

I'm shocked!

N-No, I mean...

Well...

Yeah, I guess that makes sense...

But still...

"Do you have any idea how many people have told me they liked me?"

"?!"

What is this feeling of betrayal...?

Well, of course.

Who would leave someone as beautiful and capable as Pie alone?

She'd traveled all over the place and probably met countless people.

If anything, shouldn't I be glad that she hadn't spent all that time waiting for someone like me and had actually fallen in love with other people?

Then my guilt would be a little lighter.

Right?

It means she hadn't spent twenty whole years thinking only about me.

It means she'd had her own share of enjoyable times!

Hmm!

I certainly hadn't, though!

Even after the official launch, I'd spent ages agonizing over what these feelings meant...

Eh.

Whatever.

"I see."

"Why do you look so disappointed? What, did you spend all that time thinking only about me?"

"I did...."

There wasn't exactly much else in my head.

And since she'd been such an unusual case, it wasn't like I could easily forget her.

In a way, she was the first person I'd deliberately looked at, remembered, and cared about.

My first love, maybe.

Tch.

Yeah.

She was my first love.

You know how people say first love stays with you for a long time?

Even when you think you've forgotten, all the powerful first experiences you shared with that person remain tucked away somewhere in your memories.

Ah.

So my first love still hasn't ended.

Pie seemed to have moved on, though.

Well, maybe she came looking for me because she'd gotten sentimental over old memories.

Tch.

Can't be helped.

But she doesn't have anyone right now, does she?

Right!

That's enough!

The past doesn't matter!

It's not like she has a kid or anything!

If anything, I'm the one who has kids!

Inside the game.

Hmm!

Words and thoughts really are important!

If you tell yourself to cheer up, you actually start feeling better!

Good!

I'll wash up quickly and come out, and then we can make some new memories!

No point obsessing over the past!

So I quickly washed and came out.

Pie wasn't in the room.

It was a studio apartment, so there wasn't anywhere she could hide.

Did she really go outside?

What's with this sudden mood swing?

"Ugh, it's cold. Why did you wait outside if it was cold?"

"You told me to get out. What, do you have early-onset dementia?"

She looked sulky and couldn't quite look at me directly, only sneaking glances in my direction.

What's with this cute behavior?

Wasn't she supposed to be a forty-something lady?

"No, if you'd told me it was cold, I wouldn't have made you go outside...."

"I'm not cold."

"Okaaay."

If she said she wasn't cold, then fine.

I wasn't the type to pick at little things just to start an argument.

It's better when things are peaceful.

Though when I think about what a gutter my life had been, it's strange that I was able to live with such a relaxed mindset at all.

Maybe, just like the Chairman intended, there really was something deeply wrong with me...

When I thought about it, there had been someone who'd taken care of me constantly back when I lived in that semi-basement room, yet I wasn't even in contact with them anymore.

Maybe I'm not human after all.

...

Semi-basement?

Did I ever live somewhere like that?

Hmm...

Maybe I should check my diary...

Diary?

Did I ever write something that sentimental?

"Lately, memories from my past that I'd forgotten keep coming back to me. It's making me a little confused."

We stopped at a red light.

A cool—or maybe cold—breeze, somewhere between the two, brushed past us and cleared my head.

Without even looking at Pie, I spoke almost unconsciously.

When I glanced sideways, a beauty I'd never seen anything like in my life was watching me with a calm expression.

Looks like she'd understood what I said.

"Is it painful?"

"Painful... I don't know if that's the right word. I'm just confused. Like, 'Wow, did I really live while forgetting something like this?' Little details of memories I've recalled slowly come back too, along with the emotions I felt back then, even the pain. But at the same time, the numbness I gained as time passed comes back with them too."

"...Isn't that a good thing, then?"

Is it?

Maybe?

But constantly having old memories surface in my head didn't exactly seem healthy.

Yeah.

And if I kept becoming more and more numb, maybe I'd eventually become the emotionless person the Chairman wanted.

I didn't know why the Chairman had wanted to turn me into something like that, but there was no reason to help him achieve his goal.

Dorfin and Jin...

What were the real Dorfin and Jin doing right now?

I don't think I'd ever met Jin in reality.

Would she still have that same prickly personality?

"No. I don't think it's that good. Would you like it if every time you said something to me, I just coldly answered, 'Sure,' 'Whatever,' 'So what?' or 'Do whatever you want'?"

"..."

"Huh? Pie? Hey!"

"Hmm... I'm thinking about it."

What kind of person had Pie become during the twenty years we'd spent apart?

Had twenty years been enough to turn her into an entirely different person?

Ah!

No!

Images are appearing in my head!

Images of Pie happily laughing with all her other lovers!

I'm depressed....

I trudged into the department store, tormented by fantasies I couldn't easily erase.

I was about to mindlessly walk into whatever store happened to be in front of me when Pie grabbed me and dragged me somewhere else.

"If you're going to buy anything anyway, I'll choose for you. This is my first time buying clothes in a place like this."

"...Isn't your taste more medieval?"

"Personally, I prefer clean suits. The clothes you had tailored at the Black Market looked good on you."

"Hmm, suits... Aren't suits from places like this expensive?"

"Everything in a department store is expensive, isn't it? You don't have money?"

It's not like I don't...

I'd spent some on a building.

Some on stocks.

And now I was living off the money that remained.

...

Heh.

Hehehe....

If someone heard me say that, they'd probably go crazy with jealousy!

That's the kind of life I'm living now!

Even I get jealous of myself when I say my financial situation out loud!

Though the important part is that, no matter how much money I have, there's nothing I want to spend it on and nowhere I want to spend it!

"Come on!"

"A lot of people are looking at us."

"I've never been to a place like this before...! It really feels like I'm watching a drama...!"

"Welcome...."

Pie walked into the luxury clothing store looking perfectly polished.

Then shabby old me followed behind her.

The employee's expression immediately stiffened.

I understood.

These clothes were hand-me-downs from my old landlord's son back when I lived in the semi-basement.

They were pretty old, and they didn't fit my body well.

Right now, my shirt had shrunk too much after I'd washed it badly, while I'd worn the pants so often that the knees had stretched out.

I was basically a strange gray-colored man.

"What about this?"

"I can't tell just by looking."

"It suits you very well!"

This is chaotic.

Pie kept holding things up beside me.

"What about this?"

"This one?"

And the clerk reacted to literally everything with,

"Wow!"

"Oh my!"

"With your physique, sir!"

"Amazing~!"

Meanwhile, all I could manage was,

"Uh."

"Yeah."

"Oh... okay...."

Is this what shopping is supposed to be like?

What sort of fantasy had I been holding about this?

For someone like me, who didn't even know his own tastes, shopping was practically a horrific form of torture...!

By the time I came back out, both my hands were full of shopping bags.

Unlike when I'd entered, though, I now looked fairly presentable.

Still...

Pie had dragged me all over the department store saying she wanted to find good clothes.

I was completely drained.

I'd exercised this much, yet this sort of thing exhausted me mentally so badly that I couldn't endure it.

How could Pie keep wandering around while looking excited the entire time?

Amazing.

"Why are you so exhausted? Did you skip breakfast?"

"I eat breakfast properly every day."

"...Boiled chicken breast?"

"Yeah. It's filling enough, and I like the texture, so it's not bad."

"Chicken breast?"

"Haha. Compared to the days when I'd split one pack of raw instant noodles in half and make it last for two meals, it's pretty good."

"...Come on. Let's go eat something delicious."

Hmm.

Would that really be okay?

Junior Trainer had told me I didn't need to gain weight anymore, so he'd said I shouldn't casually order too much food.

But maybe delivery food and eating at a restaurant were different?

If that was the case, I suddenly wanted a hamburger.

During the weight-gain project that had started back when Trainer was around, I'd eaten them constantly.

But lately I'd been forbidden from eating them, so I'd started missing them a little.

"How about that?"

"Huh?"

Pie pointed toward a restaurant serving Western dishes like pasta.

Haven't you eaten stuff like that until you were sick of it inside the game?

"You're only doing this because you want everyone to know you're from the medieval era, aren't you?"

"Is there a problem? It's my first time eating food like that here."

"Well, if that's the case. It's my first time too, so that works out."

Going inside the restaurant was fine.

The problem was that we didn't speak much during the meal.

There was a reason for that.

"This reminds me of the old days. When I was being held captive, they'd gather all the kids together and pile noodles like this into a huge bowl whenever we got a special meal. There was barely any sauce, so it mostly tasted like flour, but we'd still fight over it."

"Whenever I think of noodles, I remember this one time. I was about to cook my last pack of ramyeon and enjoy it when I stepped on a cockroach on the floor and jumped back in surprise. But that part of the floor happened to be slippery, so I spilled all the ramyeon. It felt like such a waste that I picked it back up and ate it anyway... and then something crunchy started getting chewed in my mouth."

...

We silently stared at one another.

Without saying a word, we came to an agreement not to keep talking.

Our heads were both full of horrible memories.

And since we knew we'd lived through somewhat similar circumstances, whenever either of us opened our mouth, some miserable story naturally came spilling out.

Birds of a feather really do flock together.

"Still... talking to someone while eating is also a first for me."

"Your first? Why?"

"Why? Did you think I would've done it with my ex-boyfriends?"

"Huh?! No! Wait! That's not what I meant at all?!"

"I didn't date any of those guys for long anyway."

"O-Oh. Right."

"So you're the first."

"Huh? Oh... me too. Ever since my parents died."

I'd thought we'd at least be able to exchange some light conversation.

The problem was, there wasn't much light stuff inside either of our heads.

"What should we do next?"

"Huh? Go into the Maze Forest."

"I mean right now, idiot. Do you like movies?"

"I think I worked part-time at a theater once. I ran away after someone started swinging a knife around inside the screening room, though."

"I don't like dark places either. Whenever I made a mistake, they'd lock me in a tiny room without even a window and call it solitary confinement. Let's go watch a movie. I've never seen one before."

"You have a lot of firsts. Sure. Let's go."

We put our heavy bags into a locker, then wandered around here and there.

We looked at various things along the way and talked about whatever came to mind.

Eventually, we reached the movie theater.

Even though I didn't actually watch movies, reviews and clips were constantly appearing in front of me online, so I felt like I'd more or less seen all of them at least once.

Watching one properly would probably be different.

I was a little curious.

At the very least, there probably wouldn't be another stabbing incident this time.

And even if there was, I could stop it now.

"...Yaaawn~"

"Sleepy?"

"...It's boring."

"Yeah."

That was our impression of the movie.

The popcorn tasted good, but that didn't count as part of the movie itself.

If I had to give it a score, it probably wouldn't be very high.

Still, it was decent enough.

It wasn't so terrible that it ruined my mood, so that was good.

More importantly, in this boredom...

In these meaningless little conversations...

I felt a strong sense of peace and everyday normalcy.

Peace and leisure that someone constantly being pushed around by the game and the Chairman desperately needed.

And also...

Pie was sitting beside me.

Watching the same thing as me.

That made my heart race a little.

It felt ticklish.

Embarrassing.

Unfamiliar.

Something Pie had mentioned several times today.

A feeling I was experiencing for the first time.

"What should we do this time? Coffee?"

"Sounds good."

I actually like tea.

Really.

There's something about having something warm and bitter go down your throat that makes your mind feel strangely clear.

I like that feeling.

"...What are you going to do about Aien?"

"From what I saw, she's pretty close to getting a Hero promotion quest. I'll keep raising her."

"I think giving her one of the Sin-related Mental Powers like ours would be good."

"Oooh. You like her?"

"I think having her around would make controlling you easier."

"...So that's what you've been thinking?"

"You won't suddenly announce that you're leaving me again like last time, right?"

"Ahem!"

Wow.

People who felt more comfortable talking about the game than reality.

What kind of mess were the two of us?

Still, it wasn't bad.

There were things we couldn't talk about while we were with the kids inside the game, so it was actually quite enjoyable.

...

Really.

This almost felt like...

A date.

It really did.

"...Should I just kill them...?"

Pie was the first one to finally lose her patience.

Pie could use magic in reality.

As a chilling aura began leaking from her, even the hot coffee in front of us quickly turned cold.

"Let's not. It'll make things complicated."

"If I kill them with a curse, there won't be any traces."

"Hmm. But you're probably the only person around here who can do something like that, so that itself would leave a trace, wouldn't it? Better to twist their Flow and make a cancerous lump grow inside them—"

"You're literally the only person who can do that."

It would've been more fun if we hadn't had those people following us.

Ever since we'd entered the department store, I had continuously felt eyes watching us.

I suspected they were people sent by the Chairman.

But I couldn't exactly march over there and confront them without knowing for sure.

So for now, I'd decided to keep quiet.

More than anything, I wanted to focus on what was happening right now.

If I really wanted to, I could probably twist things around and blind everyone following us.

But if I did that, the peaceful day we were having would fall apart.

"It's been a really long time since I've stayed outside this long."

Back when Junior Trainer's Turn Kim Ingwang Into a Human Being Project had been in full swing, I'd been dragged outside for one thing or another all the time.

As we walked home beneath the sunset, I thought about how every step had once felt unbearably heavy.

Now, if I complained about something like that, people would probably just tell me I was whining.

"How was it?"

"What was?"

"I'm asking how your day was."

If she asked me that while I was walking down the street with both hands full of bags...

There wasn't really much I could say.

It had been surprisingly tiring.

But I also felt strangely satisfied.

And maybe there was a little fear mixed in there too.

A fear of wondering how long this sense of satisfaction would last.

"At least when we eat noodles from now on, maybe we won't think about the old days anymore."

Oh...

Ah.

I hadn't thought of that at all.

Yeah.

That's right.

From now on, when I thought of noodles, instead of remembering half a cockroach I'd stared at with wide eyes...

I'd probably remember Pie's faintly smiling face.

When I went to a movie theater, the first thought that came to mind probably wouldn't be someone swinging a knife around.

I'd remember that I'd once come here with Pie.

And the fact that all those experiences had been firsts for both of us would remain in my memories along with Pie's slightly excited expression.

And if, inside those memories, Pie's face wasn't Lucy Lowell's face but the Pie I knew...

Was that because I was seeing Pie's true essence?

Maybe the intense feeling I'd had the first time I met Pie—Lucy Lowell—had happened because I'd seen Pie inside Lucy.

And if that was true...

...

Hmm.

I don't know.

"You didn't plan this, did you?"

"Do I look like such a thoughtful person? I just suddenly realized it."

Suddenly.

Just suddenly.

A day I'd spent without thinking much about it had apparently been meaningful enough to Pie that a thought like that had suddenly occurred to her.

A clumsy day where everything had been a first for both of us.

Where we'd been awkward, constantly looking around because neither of us knew what to do.

"...Then I guess we only need to erase the part where people started following us halfway through."

"Yeah. Can you erase memories with magic?"

"Why? Want me to erase yours?"

"No. I was just asking."

Hmm.

Mmm.

This isn't bad.

"Let's go on dates like this sometimes from now on."

"Uh..."

Today would probably become an unforgettable first—

No.

It would.

It definitely would.