Chapter 33
Chapter 33
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: Side Story. The Onlooking Girl.
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Ellie had always thought she was a bit different from other people.
She couldn't understand how people always managed to laugh and live happily. She didn't know what made them laugh or what moved them to tears. It wasn't that she lacked emotions. It was just that her thresholds for feeling them were different from everyone else's.
'Go get your mom! Bring your mom here!'
That was why she didn't harbor much anger toward her father, who constantly hurled abuse and beatings at her. If anything, she pitied him.
It was heartbreaking enough that he'd spent his whole life as a bachelor, but then the foreign wife he'd bought with money ran off after bearing one child. There was no way he could stay sane in that situation. He lived with a bottle of booze by his side every day and never ate a proper meal.
For a while, she tried cleaning the house and cooking to comfort him, but eventually, her father began to crumble. And before long, Ellie had no choice but to kill him with her own hands.
'Die! Die! Die, you bitch!'
It was a choice to survive.
Her father showed no signs of returning to his old self and only grew worse. If things continued, she was certain she'd be beaten to death. So she placed a lit coal briquette next to her father, passed out drunk as a skunk, and headed out to the playground. Around evening, she returned, called the fire department, and her father died on the spot from carbon monoxide poisoning.
No one cast suspicious glances her way. The circumstances were too clear-cut.
This unfortunate man had every reason to die. Ellie, on the other hand, received sympathy. Neighbors testified that she'd been assaulted by her father daily, and her emaciated body from malnutrition was enough to win people's pity. Fortunately, her relatives welcomed her kindly. The house and assets from the disposal amounted to a fair sum, and though they stepped up eagerly to claim them, her relatives were decent enough.
"Do what you want. Just know we won't help you once you're grown."
She wasn't scolded or left hungry.
In the end, Ellie reached adulthood and landed a job at a decent mid-sized company. During those years, she diligently studied how the world worked. She mimicked laughter when others laughed and tears when others cried. She couldn't feel it in her heart, but she used her head to read the situation and put on the appropriate "act."
And that "act" saved her life.
"Fuck! I can't die alone! Yeah? Let's all die together!"
"Y-You crazy bastard! Gahk!"
The brawl that started in the building. As madmen swarmed to kill them, one of her companions snapped in terror and turned his weapon on his allies. In an instant, two were dead, leaving her alone. Ellie didn't cry or beg for her life. Instead, she acted ruthlessly.
She created a situation where she had no choice but to use the lunatics to escape, pretended to seduce a man by offering her body, then stabbed a knife into the nape of his neck as he approached. Thanks to that, she earned the Cowardly Survivor title and survived in The Mission's world.
And Ellie began to stand out in The Mission's world.
She wasn't strong, cunning, or greedy. She simply judged every situation "rationally."
'The most important thing is a guild.'
'Better to do something than waste time crying.'
'My combat ability is weak. I should go mage.'
Without hesitation, she joined a guild first thing and bought and learned Fire and Shock magic, slowly progressing through missions. Ellie never rushed.
While others tackled missions on day one, she scouted the city outskirts for geography and gathered info. Thanks to that, she chose the safe Pest Removal mission first and earned money without risk. She also didn't squander the coin she made.
"Sell to me! I'll pay 100 guild more than the gear shop's buyback price!"
On day two, as people started dumping weapons en masse, she began buying them up. Hustling through missions nonstop, she made enough for twenty weapons a day. As time passed, her earnings grew, and so did her purchases. By the end of two weeks, her warehouse overflowed with over a thousand armaments. Early on, no one used warehouses, so she rented one dirt cheap.
Then she started trading.
Longswords sold to shops for 500 guild, but buying at market price cost 3,000 guild. She sold them at a modest discount from shop price.
For 2,999 guild.
It was just 1 guild less, but people bought from her to save that 1 guild.
Her wealth multiplied in a flash. With that guild, she bought and learned magic.
'No need for adventures. Act safely and rationally.'
While rankers chased lucky breaks and first-clear bonuses, she walked the royal road to power. She siphoned off just enough guild for verified, efficient magic and good gear learned from others. Even starting late, she grew faster than anyone.
In the end, she reached ranker-level strength. Around then, she began disguising herself—acting as clumsy and innocent as possible. Thanks to that, others didn't guard against her much.
Ellie's weapons were "reason" and "acting," her greatest strengths.
Living that way, Ellie felt a bizarre emotion for the first time in her life. It was by chance.
"Good work, Ellie! Meet at the mission office for a drink!"
After finishing the Moonlit Cave mission, as others trickled away, she stayed till the end, reading the inscription on the moonstone.
"[You will gain a comrade to revive your clan.] A lucky break? Kinda curious what it means."
Interpreting it as a chance for a powerful summon, Ellie assembled a fitting party—not too crowded, decent skill level. She played the fool to blend in successfully.
Thus began the Moonlit Cave Investigation mission. That's where she met Sung-hoon.
"No. The slope's pretty steep here; we should go safer. Plus, you're a mage—your body's fragile."
At first, she thought he was just a rare polite player.
He showed no lecherous stares typical of men and kept proper boundaries. Compared to Dong-cheol's constant flirting, A-yeon's fake familiarity, and Il-woo's creepy gazes, he was worlds apart. If it came to sacrificing three as hostages, she even considered sparing Sung-hoon.
Thinking that as they progressed the dungeon, an anomaly struck.
She was startled.
It was her first time being poisoned. Hiding her panic, she smiled and chatted with Sung-hoon, accidentally downing another ladle of the tainted soup—but it gave her time to think calmly. One of the three excluding Sung-hoon had poisoned it. Il-woo, who cooked, was the prime suspect.
'Wonder how this'll play out.'
After drinking an antidote potion, Ellie kept pretending ignorance. At the end, she realized Il-woo's goal lay beyond the moonstone too. He planned to fake collapsing from poison, then strike her unguarded back.
It was perfect, really.
A chance to cleanly eliminate the other three besides the somewhat likable Sung-hoon. But things twisted oddly again.
"Nothing special. I just learned Linguistics too."
"A warrior with Linguistics? Must have guild to spare."
"That goes for you too, right? And this isn't the time for chit-chat, is it?"
'What the hell is this?'
Il-woo, laughing his head off, ended up dying pathetically. "The flying beat the running" hit home. What followed was simple. Sung-hoon tried to deceive her; she pretended to fall for it.
In that process, Ellie felt immense interest in Sung-hoon. She'd never met anyone like him. She wanted to know more about this man. To get a little closer.
"Wanna party up with me?"
So she decided.
"Of course!"
To stick with Sung-hoon for a while.
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What the hell is this girl? No idea. Scary...