Chapter 45
Chapter 45
7. Things You Shouldn't Know -4
"Noah, are you asleep?"
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
"He's asleep. Falls asleep fast."
I lay down with my back to the campfire. First and foremost, it was to hide my expression from Elijah. I had some confidence in my poker face, but from what I'd seen in the Tutorial, Elijah's observational skills were considerable.
What the hell could it be?
What rational reason could there possibly be for carrying something like that around in a coffin?
Let me go through the possibilities one by one. I don't want to lose a talent like Elijah over some misunderstanding. If possible, I should get a clear picture of the situation first, and make judgments after that.
Thinking about it in the best possible light⋯⋯ if I try to come up with a reason anyone could accept⋯⋯ I mean⋯⋯ right, maybe Elijah is a doctor?
Those are spare arms prepared in advance for surgery. Inside the coffin, there are arms of every race and gender, so if an accident happens and one of my arms gets blown off, she could perform an immediate transplant on the spot.
Right. She must have had some kind of job before becoming a hunter.
Looking at the delicate hand movements she used to handle the wires, it wouldn't be strange if she worked in a related field.
While I was building hypotheses in my head, Elijah's faint muttering reached me with a certain rhythm. It was just barely audible with the hearing enhanced by Azure Wind Wanderer.
"Okay⋯⋯ once I get back, I should organize what needs to be done first. The plant I ran into just now was a species I've never seen before, so I'll need to analyze the specimen I collected at the lab."
Specimens and analysis, huh.
So maybe she's not a doctor but a scientist? I know scientists also need delicate hands. But a scientist who carries around human arms just looks like a lunatic.
Still, if I try hard enough to force an understanding, it's not entirely incomprehensible. She might carry them around to study infections from the spore attacks of those plant bastards, couldn't she?
"The B-12 Sector lab got found out last time, so⋯⋯"
Found out?
"The C-31 Sector lab runs entirely on machines and had lax security. I could occupy that place and run the analysis in secret."
⋯⋯Occupy?
Occupying means, well, if I try to spin it somehow. It's not entirely impossible that Elijah is metaphorically expressing that she would secretly use money to rent or purchase a lab and take control of it without other factions noticing⋯⋯
"I should buy explosives to blow through the front gate first."
So she means physically occupying it.
My hypothesis was dead. The possibility that she was one of those scientists whose brains had gone bad—the kind you often see after the apocalypse—was climbing higher and higher. I'd seen a few of them in Korea too.
But⋯⋯ usually, people with twisted humanity show it on the outside. And I'm especially good at catching that kind of thing. My eyes are sharp.
However, from what I'd observed of Elijah so far, I hadn't seen any of those needle-sharp, unsettling edges poking out. Even though we didn't know each other well, I felt a certain degree of trust toward her.
Maybe the situation was just cleverly tangled and I was misunderstanding something.
"Noah seems to focus on difficult stages. Well, that's how he gets ahead, I suppose. But if even three or four of those 『Roses』 we just fought showed up, he'd probably get injured⋯⋯ Still, you can't refuse danger. If you want to climb higher, you have to throw yourself into the fire."
Look at that, what an admirable mindset⋯⋯
"To keep up with Noah's tempo, I need to collect more arms and legs. The D-22 Sector has less surveillance these days, so I'll pick a day and do some collecting there⋯⋯ hehe."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯?"
Elijah paused her muttering for a moment, then began murmuring again at about 1.5 times the volume from before.
"Right. I should ambush passing pedestrians quite brutally and pack them tightly inside the coffin."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
"Or, no need to go far at all—while Noah is asleep, I'll secretly take his arms and legs and make them mine. Ooooh—"
I sat up at the story that had suddenly accelerated off a cliff. Then, looking at Elijah with a sour expression as she made clichéd ghost sound effects, I said:
"⋯⋯Stop messing around."
"Why? Sleep a little more. I saw your ears twitching, so I thought you were enjoying this kind of lullaby and put in some effort."
It was a completely teasing tone. She'd noticed I was eavesdropping.
⋯⋯Embarrassing. Eavesdropping on someone else isn't something to be proud of. But when you suspect that a companion you have to work with might be a potential risk factor, making an effort to confirm it this way is the right thing to do.
So I won't hide my embarrassment, but I'm certain this was necessary. Though thinking about it while making excuses for eavesdropping does make me look a little ugly.
So I put on a thick skin and said:
"If you want to hear a lullaby too, just ask. I'll answer as much as I overheard."
"You're pretty shameless, aren't you?"
"To trust someone, you have to doubt them first. We still don't know each other, and when you see something⋯⋯ unusual like that, it's only natural to feel uneasy. The more uncertain things are, the more you should doubt—and the more you doubt, the more you should interact. That's how you become a team, isn't it?"
"If it weren't for the situation, that would've been a really cool thing to say. Right?"
Elijah grinned like she'd caught me red-handed. I'd noticed it here and there—she has a mischievous streak. But Elijah wasn't exactly in a position to say something like that.
I mean, in the first place.
"Elijah, you threw that coffin to me from the start so I'd see it. Eating one sample off a tasting counter isn't exactly a crime."
"⋯⋯I don't really know what a tasting counter is, but you caught on?"
"Obviously. A while ago."
That '『Coffin』.'
It's an object she manages so rigorously that she straps it to her body with three layers of belts during combat so it won't fall off. Does it make any sense to leave something like that at the campsite and step away for a moment, claiming she suddenly remembered an errand?
And this is a hold stage, no less. If she thought she might run into some plant bastards outside, the coffin—part of her armament—should have gone with her. Elijah isn't someone who'd fail to make that judgment.
Also. The fact that the coffin was slightly open was strange too.
Since landing in this stage, I'd never once seen her open the coffin. If she'd used it once, maybe—but an unused coffin suddenly having its lock released had to be intentional no matter how you looked at it.
Elijah was testing me. I don't know why she chose this particular method, but⋯⋯ since she'd laid the board, it was better to address it now.
"Why did you show me?"
"Because I think I'll be using the 『Coffin』 in the near future. As you said, Noah, we don't know anything about each other. So I thought it would be a while before you brought me along to places like this⋯⋯ but you're more open-minded than I expected."
She'd thought she'd only be training a newbie, but I'd started dragging her into high-difficulty stages faster than she expected.
"Also, you told me you'd share that⋯⋯ 『Glass Sword』 secret manual with me, right? Honestly, I thought you'd make me pay for it with Credits. Treasure is something people normally don't want to share."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
That was because Credits were more precious to me.
"So I showed you with a bit of joking mixed in. I thought I should explain in advance. Those arms are spare parts. If they get damaged in combat, I swap them out and wear new ones. I was worried you'd be startled the first time you saw them. Did you expect it?"
"Mm. I expected it."
But if that was the purpose, couldn't she have just said so? I was about to scold her with that one line, but when I looked at Elijah's face, her gaze was directed diagonally downward. She seemed anxious.
Elijah is basically confident, I'd say⋯⋯ maybe even a little shameless. If someone like her was acting this defensive, then—
The story connected to that 『Coffin』 must be more personal and important to Elijah than I thought. That's why she couldn't speak directly, like a hesitant child, and was beating around the bush like this.
What she really wanted to say probably wasn't 'I can replace my arms,' either.
Even if the System brought us together by chance, I'm her mentor. Even if we're cooperating out of mutual necessity⋯⋯ no, precisely because we're cooperating, I don't think things need to become cold and impersonal.
I've received counseling plenty of times, and I've given it too.
What I learned from hanging around that bastard Minsik—who'd get drunk and cry that if only his face had been half-decent he'd have wanted to be an idol—is that some stories just need to be heard.
I said it casually, comfortably.
"If there's something you want to say, say it. Elijah. Listening to lullabies isn't my hobby, but I don't hate it either."
"You really mean it? Then, if you don't want to hear it midway, please tell me."
"Go ahead."
At that, Elijah closed her eyes and tilted her head up toward the sky, thinking blankly. Was she organizing a list of questions in her head?
After that, the sound of campfire sparks crackling and popping echoed for a while, and just as a breeze blew through the folds of the night and scooped out a bucketful of silence—
A somewhat out-of-the-blue opening popped out.
"What would you do if I said I was a serial killer with perverted tastes?"
"⋯⋯What?"
"I'm just posing a hypothetical. If you could answer as if you'd received a questionnaire, that would be meaningful⋯⋯ Again. If what's inside my 『Coffin』 were things obtained by killing someone, what would you do, Noah?"
Elijah's expression as she asked was, quite literally, wide-eyed and innocent. You could even call it naive. It didn't seem like something she'd say after actually killing people, so I felt a little relieved.
Hmm.
If that were the case.
"If you'd been going around killing innocent people, our relationship would have to end here. And if we ever crossed paths over something ugly someday, we'd have to fight."
"Wasn't I necessary to you, Noah? That's why you help me and bring me along, isn't it?"
"You are necessary. But not yet—I'm not desperate enough to force myself to work with someone I dislike. If my world were on the verge of its last breath, I'd think about it."
"Is that so?"
She furrowed her brow slightly, as if she found it a little hard to understand. After thinking for a moment, she let out a second question, and this one was just as strange.
"What would you think if I weren't human, but a chicken?"
"⋯⋯I don't understand the intent of the question."
"I mean it literally. A chicken raised for food in a factory suddenly started thinking and talking one day. And it came up to talk to you, Noah."
Well. I don't know what kind of metaphor this is.
At this point, species doesn't seem that important. Isn't this an era where even a passing cockroach should be recruited if it can communicate and be useful? And even if it weren't such an era⋯⋯
"From my perspective, I don't think much would change."
"But it's a chicken. It's different."
"There's no reason you can't be friends with a chicken, is there? I'd just feel sorry for it. How miserable it must be to live as a chicken. So maybe I'd pay a little more attention to it⋯⋯ I think that's how I'd feel."
"Interesting. Hehe⋯⋯"
Elijah brought her fingers to her lips and laughed softly. She looked quite pleased.
And then.
Elijah, seeming a little excited, let out her final question at a slightly faster tempo. It didn't seem intentional. Her voice had risen without her realizing it.
"Hey, Noah. Would you be that kind to someone born in the lowest place?"
"I don't think I've been particularly kind⋯⋯?"
"You didn't say a chicken had no right to be cheeky. So, Noah, your answer?"
Lowest place—so this is about a class system.
Apparently, Elijah's world has some kind of rigid class hierarchy. It reminded me of the unpleasant Hunter Monarchy after a long while. That arrogant behavior of deciding among themselves who was high and who was low.
Living in this world, evaluation and comparison are unavoidable. Even more so in a harsh era. The capable save countless lives, so even if things aren't equal, the rewards should differ.
But a difference in position and a difference in attitude are separate things.
What reason is there to look down on someone for being at the bottom? If an EX-grade Monster shows up, everyone dies all the same anyway. And if some passing high-ranking hunter roasts me with lightning, I'll be the one standing at that bottom.
So.
"Where you were born matters less than how you appear in my eyes."
"Wow. Then in your eyes, Noah, how do I appear?"
I was about to say she looked like a high-performance attacker-vanguard and prospective C-rank hunter, but then I suddenly remembered how Elijah had boldly asked to be friends during the Tutorial. So I answered simply.
"A friend candidate."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯Mm."
No further conversation passed between us after that.
Except that night, Elijah took the entire watch. She insisted stubbornly that she'd take it straight through, and since it seemed like her way of showing gratitude, I accepted.
That conversation is still a bit puzzling to me, but it seems she was quite pleased with it.
In the end, the difference between the mechanical arms and human arms inside that coffin, and how any of it actually worked, was never revealed. But at least I learned that Elijah has a surprisingly naive side.
Doesn't opening up to others get harder as you get older?
Also, maybe she's softer-hearted than I thought. Since she didn't show any signs of it, I'd figured she wouldn't need mental health management like Sohye, but maybe I should start giving her some counseling now and then⋯⋯
Counseling, my ass.
"Noah, I'm going ahead!"
"Hey, hey!! I said don't charge in alone—!!"
I'm the one who needs counseling. After that moonlit conversation, Elijah went wild, as if everything she'd done up until now had been an act.
Specifically, whenever combat broke out, she hurled herself into the middle of the enemy formation without hesitation.
I'm, I'm the tank. The tank, I said!
Where in the world is there a DPS who abandons the tank behind them and charges in alone? But looking at how the battles actually played out, it worked. Because—
Riiip—! Crunch.
Elijah's left arm was practically torn off by a 『Rose』 vine. Mechanical parts scattered in all directions. But at that moment, a gap clanked open in the 『Coffin』 on her back.
Fwoosh—!
Another mechanical arm shot out. Then wires weaving through the air wrapped around in an instant, joining the new mechanical arm to the spot where the old one had been torn away.
Reattachment time: under 0.5 seconds. And her movement didn't stop during that time, either. Elijah was swinging wires in all directions, moving like a small storm.
Like that—restoring limbs even when they were blown off, unafraid of getting hurt because of it, accepting a certain amount of damage while reliably targeting the enemy's vitals.
⋯⋯A berserker.
Elijah winked at me in the middle of all that and said:
"You could call it a manual healing factor. I'll hold them, so you just focus on attacking, Noah!"
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
That was the first time I'd heard those words since I started holding a shield. I think I was getting a little cognitive dissonance. I'm the tank⋯⋯
Setting aside my complicated feelings, Elijah fighting with the 『Coffin』 was strong. Strong enough to be compared to me.
The time it took her to take the head off a 『Rose』 was 1 minute and 38 seconds.
⋯⋯For reference, I could put up a similar time if I fought while taking hits too.
Anyway.
Elijah with her power unleashed was more than enough to stand beside me. At that level, there was nothing for me to teach her—she could handle difficult Stage excursions on equal footing with me, and then some.
She just causes trouble in a slightly different direction than Sergios.
⋯⋯Speaking of Sergios, wait a moment.
"⋯⋯Huh?"
So Elijah going all out has combat power similar to mine. That means we can fight well enough to exchange blows. Then this⋯⋯ once I fill the minimum requirement of three skills for martial ascension—
Couldn't I break through the 『Battle-Demon Ascension (鬪鬼昇格)』 rite with Elijah before that bastard Sergios does?