A World Where No One Gets Hurt (3)
I grinned. Time to head out.
Think lighter, think cigarette. Think cigarette, think Elly. It was a one-dimensional idea, but I was confident it would work. With that in mind, I kicked the door open and stepped out.
Finding Elly and Rydia chatting in a corner on the first floor wasn’t difficult. The problem was the heavy, serious atmosphere they were both radiating, making it hard to butt in. Especially Elly—her ashtray was piled high with cigarette butts, and the air around her was thick with smoke. Sure, magic herb cigarettes weren’t addictive like normal ones and didn’t harm the body, but smoking that much had to mean something was wrong.
And of course it did. The magic herb cigarettes Elly smoked were what she used instead of painkillers whenever phantom pain flared up from her missing right arm.
I hid the worry creeping up on me behind a bright smile and scampered over.
“Elly!”
“…Yona? Didn’t you say you were going to bed?”
“I was planning to, but I forgot something.”
Her complexion looked unusually dark. Even after smoking all that, it apparently wasn’t enough—another fresh cigarette was already between her lips. She was just about to light it, holding a magical lighter, so I snatched it away first.
Pickpocket… ON!
“Hah!”
“W-wait! What was that?! It just vanished in a whoosh!”
“Is that really important right now? Just stay still for a second.”
Elly was making a fuss, probably seeing my pickpocketing skill for the first time. I calmed her down and stood in front of her. Normally she would’ve pretended not to while sneaking glances at me all over, but for some reason she couldn’t meet my eyes now, as if avoiding my gaze.
In that short time…? She seemed to be trying to hide it somehow, but as the genius who could even blaspheme the gods (seriously), Kim Yona had already figured everything out.
With a generous smile, I gently patted her ashen head. It was only possible because she was sitting down. Every time my hand touched her, her wolf ears twitched—it was kind of fun.
“It’s fine, it’s okay. I don’t mind at all. Things like that can happen.”
“Yona… you know everything…?”
“Of course.”
I nodded and leaned in close to her ear.
“You jerked off using my belly as side dish, right? Then Rydia caught you and you’re getting scolded for it.”
“……Huh?”
Elly looked like she was either trying to hide her embarrassment or pretending to be dumbfounded. How cute.
“Aww, come on. I understand everything, okay? It’s true that I’m charming, but I still have a child’s body. The noble Rydia probably couldn’t forgive you for getting turned on by a kid, right?”
“That’s not it! What the hell do you take me for, you cheeky little brat?!”
“Someone who thinks about dirty stuff all day but freezes up and can’t do anything when the chance actually comes—a virgin?”
“Stop with the facts! It hurts, so please stop….”
“Sigh. You just finished up and got caught by your junior, who gave you a serious talking-to. And now the very person you used as side dish is talking to you, so you feel both grossed out and sorry—I get that. But if you keep pretending not to know anything, I’ll get upset, you know?”
“Just listen to me…!”
Elly clutched her chest and protested like she’d been wronged. Beside her, Rydia clapped with a completely expressionless face.
Clap, clap!
“Yona, you’re amazing. You know Senior Elly so well.”
“Ahem. This is just how I am.”
“Even you, Rydia?!”
“Senior Elly should consider herself lucky she wasn’t dragged off by the guards.”
“…I wish you’d all just die.”
Elly hung her head with a deep sigh. The unlit cigarette was still dangling from her lips. Impressive that she hadn’t dropped it.
Chuckling, I grabbed her cheek and turned her face toward me.
“Elly.”
“……”
“Look at me, Elly.”
“…Why.”
She was clearly sulking hard, turning her gaze away with a curt voice. I held up a finger in front of her and murmured softly.
“Weak Flame.”
Weak Flame
Fwoosh.
The flame that bloomed at my fingertip made Elly’s yellow eyes widen.
“Is that… magic?”
“I went into the labyrinth and it looks like I gained a bit of mana. This is about the best I can do right now, though.”
I shrugged, and Rydia narrowed her eyes.
“Having mana doesn’t mean anyone can use magic. Did you already know how?”
“Pretty much. I told you, didn’t I? I was originally aiming to be an adventurer, so I studied ahead on all sorts of things.”
“……”
Rydia didn’t look fully convinced, but she nodded anyway. Sorry, but the gacha ability is a secret, so I can’t explain. Well, given everything I showed in the labyrinth, she’d probably let it slide, right? Even if not, at worst she’d just think I was some kind of genius. That’d be fine.
More importantly, I needed to hurry. Even now, my mana—barely more than a grain of rice—was being consumed rapidly.
“Focus on this flame, Elly.”
“……?”
I waved my finger left and right in front of the tilting Elly. The flame followed suit, swaying along.
“You are gradually falling for the boy in front of you…”
“Yona, are you trying to hypnotize me right now?”
“You like him so much you want to pounce on him tonight…”
“I’m not pouncing!”
“And then you’ll end up marrying him out of a sense of responsibility…”
“Wouldn’t you usually turn yourself in at that point?”
“But the guilt won’t go away, so you can’t refuse anything the boy says, and you’ll transfer all your assets into his name…”
“That was your goal all along?!”
I watched Elly tremble in shock for a moment before suddenly thrusting my finger forward.
“Yah!”
“W-whoa?”
The cigarette she’d been holding caught fire in an instant. Elly jerked her head back in surprise. A hazy puff of smoke rose over her dazed face.
My mana was running out, so before it caused any depletion effects, I flicked my wrist and canceled the spell.
“How is it? I wanted to show you first, so I kept it a secret even from Rydia. Did you like it?”
“……”
Elly froze solid, like she’d been hit with a pause button. Only her yellow pupils darted back and forth between me and the cigarette.
I stroked her cheek and flashed a grin.
“I don’t know what you’re worried about, Elly, but I’m on your side.”
“Yona…”
“It’s not like I only received one or two things from you, right? Like asking Rydia to tutor me. Be honest. You got anxious after I was kidnapped this time, didn’t you?”
Elly had always been kind to me, but she wasn’t the type to pay a huge sum to commission Rydia. She often urged me to stop doing dangerous work like adventuring and just help her with her own business and live normally.
But for that same Elly to suddenly decide to turn me into a proper adventurer? After thinking it over, there was only one reason.
She’d assumed that if she left me alone, I’d realize how hard being an adventurer was and come back to her. But instead, I’d gotten kidnapped and nearly sold off. So rather than stopping me, she wanted to properly support me so I could build the strength to protect myself.
“You really are an idiot, Elly. It wasn’t your fault I got kidnapped.”
“I… that is…”
Elly stammered, unable to finish her sentence. I pulled her into a tight hug and patted her back.
“Don’t blame yourself. And just watch quietly. I will never betray your trust.”
“……!”
Elly flinched violently, as if struck by lightning. I’d said it with a bit of swagger, but I meant every word. Labyrinth City was vast, and there were many people. In this complicated world, how many could you trust completely?
Did she think I hadn’t tried to find my own characters? No matter how hard I searched, Elly was the only one I could find. And I was glad it was her, of all people.
Because I’d only roughly sketched out her setting, I didn’t know everything about her… but she was definitely one of the few perfectly good characters among my creations.
As her creator, as a human, and as a man standing before the ideal type he’d only seen in novels, I decided to show off just a little.
“I’ll repay everything I received from you twofold someday, so look forward to it. …And until then, please stay by my side.”
“Ah, no. I didn’t do it because I wanted that…”
“And!”
I cut off Elly, who was mumbling awkwardly. Then I whispered in a voice too quiet for Rydia to hear.
“Since I jerk off to you all the time too, let’s just pretend today never happened, okay?”
“……?!”
I patted the now-breathless Elly’s back one more time before trotting over to Rydia. I spread my arms for a light hug, but…
“Troublesome. Senior Elly is getting annoyed.”
She really did look bothered as she glanced at Elly, so I just lightly tapped the armor on her shoulder instead.
“Thank you for today too, Rydia! I’m really going to bed now, so both of you sleep well~”
“Eh, uh… yeah.”
“Got it. Rest tomorrow and we’ll meet again in two days.”
Elly, who could no longer form proper words, and Rydia, waving with an expressionless face. Come to think of it, we’d agreed to take tomorrow for maintenance and reviewing what happened in the labyrinth, then head back in the day after.
“Yup. See you in two days.”
I waved back at Rydia before heading up to the room on the second floor.
Thud!
The moment I closed the door, I opened my tightly clenched fist. In my palm lay the silver-glowing magical lighter. Its luxurious decorations and finish looked especially elegant.
“Selling this should easily fetch over one silver.”
Since Elly has me now, she doesn’t need a lighter anymore, right?
With this, the completion of a world where no one gets hurt.