Chapter 4
Chapter 4
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Before Flowers Bloom on the Face
-----------------------------------------------------------------
At my suggestion to join us, the woman swept a sharp gaze over me and Fey.
"...Why?"
A guarded tone.
-Flinch.
Fey flinched under her stare, shrinking like some herbivore, but I pressed on without a care.
"No reason, really. You just look like you've got some real experience at a glance. I was hoping for some dungeon-exploring advice~ Haha."
"Who told you that?"
"No one did. Hmm, you just have this aura about you?"
I gave a vague explanation, but honestly, her superior looks were the main reason.
Ragged clothes. Scowling face, half of it covered, but her appearance cut through all those flaws.
They wouldn't waste modeling like that on a random NPC.
"You got it wrong. I'm just a day laborer."
"People like that turn out to be the real masters when you look closer."
In fiction worlds, that's 100% a hidden expert.
With that backstory vibe, if she really was just a laborer, it'd be criminal negligence.
My gamer senses from clearing countless games were screaming it.
-Snort.
Maybe my words landed, because the woman let out a light laugh.
"Fine, mind if I join for a bit? Ah, sit a little farther away. You stink."
"Huh?"
Ah, do I stink?
"Haha, that bad? I just got here today, haven't even booked a room yet..."
At my words, a flicker of embarrassment crossed her face.
"...No, not you..."
Just then,
"Here! Booze! Got your usual swill, so drink up and scram!"
The restaurant's lizardman owner barked irritably as he came in, burying her words.
"Oh yeah, we haven't introduced ourselves. I'm Will."
"...Regen. No need to remember it."
Her face still standoffish, she shook my hand anyway.
A little later,
"Senior, take this from your junior."
"Senior, my ass."
"Anyone who's been here longer is a senior, right? Heh heh."
"...Hmph."
She grumbled but silently held out her cup.
"So, what's got you curious? Seeing that pale skin on your companion, you're no explorer. And that silver tongue screams merchant. Here for relic trading windfalls?"
"Wrong! Aspiring explorer."
"Purpose?"
"Hmm... tourism? I like exploring unknown places."
Her eyebrow twitched faintly at my answer. She stared at me blankly for a moment, then shook her head.
"Then I've got just one piece of advice. Get out of this city now. And never come back."
She refilled her empty cup and continued.
"Explorers only end one of three ways. Death, despair, or despairing death."
That's some grim talk.
"Doesn't seem to sink in. You been to the 'Black Dog Forest'?"
Black Dog?
That first spawn spot?
Fey's face drained of color in real time at the mention.
"His face says yeah. Think you can believe that's the most peaceful spot around here?"
Yes.
Perfectly believable.
It was pretty peaceful.
Makes me want to go camping there later when I have time.
"That's the Nether for you. A demon cave luring humans with treasures and relics, then dragging them to ruin. No sane person goes there."
"Hmm... got it. I'll be careful."
Half a day here, and I've realized these folks love to exaggerate.
Thought it was just Fey, but seems like the whole culture's full of bravado.
Like that military pride back home.
"Ah, if it's not rude, what do you do, senior?"
That was when.
"Hey, you! Can't you piss off?! Smells like rotting sewer in here!"
Two rough-looking men approached our table.
Me?
I thought so, but their glares were locked on Regen.
'Smell? From Regen?'
Doesn't smell like that.
If it did, I'd have noticed ages ago.
I turned toward Regen and sniffed.
And,
'Smells... nice?'
What hit my nose wasn't foul—it was a faint floral scent.
The men openly mocked Regen and picked a fight.
"That rotting fish stench! Coming in spewing that is a public nuisance! Got it?!"
"Looking at your rags, can't even use mana, huh? Some lowlife corpse hauler dragging your sorry ass in here with those filthy hands?!"
Despite the barrage of insults, Regen just toyed with her cup like she dared them to try.
Her nonchalance only fueled their aggression.
"Deaf? I said scram?!"
As they reached for her shoulder,
"Make me."
Regen slowly looked up. Then she unwound the bandage around her head.
And,
"Gah!"
"Th-that face... cursed... fuck!"
The men screamed and staggered back. They scrambled to grab their stuff. The scuffle ended in seconds.
Regen pulled her hood back down like nothing happened. But I'd seen it clearly. Her left face.
The long ear symbolizing an elf, and...
Her left side covered in pink flowers resembling cherry blossoms.
A literal flower beauty.
Contrasting her dark, gloomy vibe, it was strangely beautiful, and I mumbled without thinking.
"...You're really pretty."
"...What?"
Regen's face hardened. Scarier than any expression I'd seen yet.
She slowly turned to stare at me. Suspicion, wariness, and bewilderment flashed across in turn.
"Teasing me?"
Ah, mistake.
'Looks like I just flirted out of nowhere.'
And flowers growing on her face isn't normal.
Separate from my purely aesthetic admiration, it could easily be a complex.
Wrong choice of words.
"Ah, no other intent. Just, purely, you're beautiful..."
"..."
She couldn't respond for a while.
Her lower lip twitched like she wanted to say something, but she clamped her mouth shut.
"My bad. Staying longer's a nuisance. I'll cover the tab, finish your drinks."
She stood, gathered her things.
'She's pissed, huh.'
This damn mouth of mine.
"...Last advice. If you don't wanna end up like me, ditch the dungeon idea."
She glanced back with words unclear if praise or insult.
"Still, that flattery was pretty good. Fooled me into thinking it was sincere for a sec. Be a merchant—you'll make it big."
"Haaa..."
The moment Regen left.
Fey finally breathed fresh air through her nose.
'Had to breathe through my mouth without showing it... thought I'd die...'
And rightly so—the stench from that woman was beyond imagination.
'Plus, that left side...'
Fey had seen it clearly.
Twisted flesh like worm-eaten rot, writhing tentacles within.
One of the body erosions explorers called "curses," born in the Nether.
'First time seeing one in person outside sister's letters... horrifying...'
The deeper you go, the more horrors teeming against humans.
Rotting limbs are cute by comparison—fusing with plants, living as monster parts, tales beyond common sense abound.
'...Could happen to me too.'
As Fey gravely mulled Regen's warning of becoming like her—
"Haa... this is my fault, right?"
"Pardon?"
The weird guy beside her said something weird again.
'How'd he reach that conclusion?'
Anyone could see that woman left out of embarrassment.
Embarrassed for picking a fight while stinking.
"No, I figured a beauty like her hears that all the time and brushes it off. Guess that's why she wraps up tight..."
What now?
"Um... it didn't bother you... at all?"
"Huh? What?"
"Well, visually or smell-wise, she had some... unique features..."
The man nodded at Fey's roundabout words.
"Ah, yeah. But it didn't faze me. Kinda unique and nice, actually. The blind eye must suck, though."
"Huh? Th-that works?"
After that stench and horror, he says that?
Come to think, he'd chatted casually next to her even while mouth-breathing. Iron stomach for sure.
'What kind of life has he lived...'
At this point, I'd buy he saw something totally different.
Like...
-Fey, these photos might look gruesome. But I see it differently.
-View from another angle. Not human, but their perspective—those phenomena might be traits or blessings for explorers, not curses.
-I want to know that "perspective" more. How the Nether sees us humans.
Like the letters her sister wrote.
"...Will, you really want to go to the dungeon's depths? No other reason?"
"Pretty much. Oh, if a goal, maybe write a tourist guidebook. Spots to see, food joints."
"..."
Just like sis.
-Thanks for the Magic Tower invite. But I'm staying. It's fun now. Traveling.
Calling exploration "travel," too.
Suddenly, he struck her as pure and upright, separate from hiding his strength.
Maybe that hiding tied to this honest nature.
Somehow, she believed it.
"...Will?"
"Yeah?"
"Uh... um... sudden, I know,"
Of course, she'd lose out. A Magic Tower top elite like her, big guilds would beg.
But still.
"Wanna... form a party?"
Searching for sis with someone sis-like didn't sound bad.
So Fey offered her hand gladly, but,
"Huh."
"?"
The man suddenly hesitated and pulled back.
"...Uh... sure... but give me a sec..."
Rejected.
"Pardon?"
Her first party invite as a Magic Tower super elite, shot down flat.