What Happened in the Tent Camp 2
Han Se-ah and her viewers alike seemed to think infiltration was a trivial matter — no doubt thanks to all the fantasy novels and comics they'd consumed. They were huddled together whispering about sneaking into the red-light district that had sprung up in a corner of the tent camp, all for the sake of a quest.
I felt bad for Han Se-ah, who was earnestly hatching a plan and hunting for a roomy hooded robe — but that was pure nonsense that would never work.
Outside the Tower, in a city's red-light district, it might have been feasible. Places like that were crowded with people coming and going, including noble young masters who snuck in with their identities carefully hidden. But this was the 35th floor of the Tower, and the prostitutes here flaunted their bodies out in the open.
"Think the general store here sells hooded cloaks? I mean, looking around, people seem to use cloaks more like homeless blankets than fashion accessories."
Lost in chatter with her viewers, Han Se-ah hadn't noticed that not a single adventurer here had their face hidden behind a hooded robe.
Inside the Tower, adventurers put their hands on their weapons and went on guard the moment they met. Even if it didn't happen as often as it used to, turning on and ambushing fellow adventurers was still something adventurers did. In a place where just passing each other on the road was enough to make you suspect the other of being a murderous bandit, walking around with your face covered by a cloak so uncomfortable it could kill you?
At that point, you wouldn't just get a wary look — you'd probably get an arrow shot at you and no one would call it anything but self-defense. In a neighborhood where everyone walked around bare-faced, where even the adventurers who'd been out banditing went bare-faced, covering your face alone would mark you as a threat.
"This spot's close to the market and empty, so let's use it."
"Alright. We'll use the tent already pitched here… oh, and there's a spot for a fire too."
While Han Se-ah was cooking up her unrealistic scheme and chatting with her viewers, the rest of the party found an empty spot in the tent camp — far enough from the others, but not too far from the market street.
Other adventurers were scattered in various ways: some pressed right up against the edge of the clearing near the temple, others boldly claiming the center. The clearing was fairly large, and with everyone spread out in every direction, we wouldn't have another adventurer party right next to us.
"Is everyone hungry? If we're planning to sleep early and set out early, I was thinking of boiling some soup and serving it with bread from the market for dinner, even if it's a bit early."
"I'm fine eating early. Swinging my sword so much worked up an appetite."
"Roland… alright, then let's just eat now."
When I gave a slight nod to the suggestion of an early dinner, Irene trotted over to Han Se-ah's side. She pulled a pot and ingredients from her inventory, lit the prepared firewood with magic, and filled the pot with water.
Watching that, I almost laughed — I was starting to understand why the viewers teased Han Se-ah as a professional pack mule. I'd advised her not to obsess over attack magic, but I hadn't expected her to follow so obediently.
"Hmm? Roland, why are you smiling?"
"Nothing. Just feels strange being this comfortable inside the Tower."
As I watched Irene prepare the meal and Han Se-ah helping with magic, Grace quietly sidled up and linked her arm through mine. I'd thought I was holding back my smile, but either the corner of my mouth had twitched or Grace's observational skills were just that good.
I felt a twinge of regret that the armor kept me from feeling the touch of her arm, just as a translucent camera drone drifted slowly toward me.
Katie had started sharpening her sword with a whetstone and cloth bought at the market in front of the tent, and Han Se-ah and Irene were busy with dinner prep — so naturally, Grace and I were left alone. Forget the voyeurism; they were clearly treating the Roland-and-Grace pairing as broadcast content, sticking a camera on us whenever they got the chance.
Does this count as We Got Married content too?
NPC We Got Married — that would be a rare kind of stream, alright.
"You said you'd climbed as far as the 37th floor, right? Before you got corrupted by the undead — what was the 35th floor like?"
Looking at Han Se-ah's stream board, fan clubs had formed calling Grace "Noona," Irene "Mamang," and Katie "Jammin," and some guys even made usernames like Grace♡XXX the way people did for female streamers. Did that mean Han Se-ah's stream needed an NTR tag?
While I was having those ridiculous thoughts, Grace — unaware of the camera — lightly rested her head on my shoulder. Her question made me briefly recall a terrible past.
The muggy air of a swamp thick with green plants instead of ash-gray ones, and meager meals caused by vast water pools that hindered the wagons. People say the past gets romanticized, but no matter how I looked at it, those conditions had been wretched.
"Well, for one thing, it was just as hard to walk as it is now. Whether it's poison pools or water pools, anything that messes with combat is the same. And a fair number of adventurers died to moss crocodiles. While you were fighting lizardmen, they'd swim up silently and bite your legs."
"You said they got tougher when they became undead but slower, right? Crocodiles… are crocodiles fast animals?"
"Usually they're quiet and slow, but when they attack, they're fast. Like a coiled snake that only strikes lightning-quick when it bites someone."
"Like snakes? Are all the scaly ones similar? I think I heard the blind snakes on the 30th floor — the ones wiped out by the golems — were also fast when they lunged."
Having grown up in an eastern slash-and-burn farming village, Grace knew nothing about the crocodiles of the southern jungles. This was a medieval fantasy world with no public zoos and no internet animal encyclopedias — of course she wouldn't know what a crocodile even was.
Since zombie crocodiles were slower than a walking human, she seemed to have trouble believing that real crocodiles were incredibly fast when snatching prey.
The viewers watching us like we were adorable. Hard to believe these were the same people who'd been passionately debating dirty jokes about the red-light district and cybersex in VR games just three minutes ago. Looking at the chat, it was like they had split personalities about sex and non-sex topics.
"There was plenty of other annoying stuff besides crocodiles. Especially this one time when an inexperienced mage who couldn't properly use the Earth Control magic Hanna uses sank our supply wagon…"
Stories of surviving on a handful of jerky a day when the wagons couldn't arrive on time, of going unwashed to conserve the mage's mana — I was sharing some pretty unpleasant experiences with Grace, and the viewers settled down to listen too.
Even if the armor kept me from savoring the squeeze of her arm against mine, I could still smell her sweet scent pressed close and hear the beat of her heart as we talked quietly — and Irene, ladle in hand, stopped mid-approach and smiled softly.
"Dinner's ready. …Oh my? Shall I bring it over so you two can eat together?"
"Nah, meals should be shared."
Apparently the bubbling soup smell had made them hungry — Grace and Katie immediately took seats in front of the pot. Irene smiled kindly at the sight and began distributing bread from the market and bowls of soup to everyone.
The party filled their bellies with warm soup and fragrant, soft bread. Even though we'd said we'd sleep early, it was still before ten, so everyone started on their own tasks.
Katie was swinging her freshly sharpened sword through the air, seeming to organize what she'd learned fighting the bandits. Irene started washing dishes with Han Se-ah's magic assisting. Grace tried to help too but was gently turned away by Irene, so she settled for organizing the arrows and alchemical arrowheads taken from the bandits.
"Ahem! Keep slandering me like that and I might just end the stream for the sake of wholesome content when we tour the tent camp, everyone. So you don't want to see the scantily clad noonas?"
The viewers who'd been teasing Han Se-ah as she scrubbed the pot and dishes with magically created water and stowed them in her inventory were instantly shut down by that one line. Looks like the plan to cover her face with a cloak and tour the red-light district was still on.
Should I speak up and tell her, or offer a different opinion? While I was mulling that over, Grace suddenly shot to her feet, grabbed the arrows and bow she'd been organizing, and sprinted off somewhere.
"What the— all of a sudden?"
"Grace?"
"Just a second — grab your weapons and follow me!"
She was heading for an adventurer party camped about five spots over from our tent. They looked fairly well-off — a mixed-gender party with a magically enchanted tent, enjoying a fresh meal bought from the market.
"…Who are you?"
"Hey there, miss. This is a place watched over by the priests, you know."
Of course a stranger charging at you with weapons while you're eating dinner wasn't going to get a warm welcome. Seeing them set down their bread and immediately put hands on their weapon hilts, I bolted over and took my place at Grace's side.
Grace wouldn't suddenly go crazy and attack innocent people, so as a 4-star archer she must have spotted something suspicious. Thinking that, I put my hand on my mace handle as well and glanced at her.
"…Roland, this guy."
"Me? What the fuck, I don't know people like you."
"Well, an old guy who looks like you wouldn't know a beauty like her, would you?"
The man Grace was staring daggers at appeared to be the party's tank. They all seemed decent enough people with smooth group dynamics — wary of Grace but not hostile, cracking jokes among themselves as they settled into ready stances.
They clearly intended to figure out the situation, but with this being the temple's front yard, they had no desire to start a fight out of nowhere. That attitude became even clearer once Katie, Han Se-ah, and Irene arrived behind us.
They'd come with weapons but weren't pointing them, and with a beauty charging in followed by another beauty and a beautiful nun, the men's hostility melted away as if they'd fallen for a honey trap. A nun's habit really did work wonders anywhere.
"So, miss. Why'd you suddenly charge over here? As an adventurer you'd know… this is pretty rude. If this weren't a safe zone, you'd have no right to complain about getting stabbed, you know?"
"Um… uh, are you human?"
"…I might look rough, but I don't look like a monster."
"Pfft — is she asking if that face is human? Well, compared to that miss's companions, he does look barely human."
"Hey, you son of a bitch. You really gonna roast me at a time like this?"
Shoulder-length unkempt hair longer than most men wore, and a face covered in scars. It was a rough, unhandsome face that had never received a gacha beauty buff — but not so ugly that Grace should have been startled like that.
Both our party and theirs looked at Grace as if demanding an explanation, and she slowly opened her mouth.
"Um… Roland? This guy has the exact same face as the bandit I shot and killed on the 36th floor earlier."