Not a Bad Person
A few days had passed.
The guild’s daily routine was running along quite smoothly. The first commission payment had finally landed in the account that had been scraping bottom, giving it just enough breathing room. It was only a low-grade gate, so the sum was modest, but after months of drought the balance had more or less recovered. Nayeon was already mentally spending the money, practically chugging an entire bowl of kimchi stew in her head.
“With this, should I buy our Byeori a pretty new dress? Or how about beef, huh? Beef!”
“…Senior. That money is for the overdue rent.”
“Aw, just one pound—”
“Rent.”
At that firm two-word reply, Nayeon deflated like a punctured balloon. After living with them for a few days, I was certain: she was the guild’s last line of defense when it came to finances.
In those few days I had already figured out their patterns. Nayeon’s energy peaked in the morning. Jihyun needed at least two cups of coffee before she could function like a human being. When Nayeon caused trouble, Jihyun cleaned it up; when Jihyun looked exhausted, Nayeon lightened the mood with her usual nonsense. For a guild on the verge of collapse, the two of them meshed surprisingly well. Maybe that was why the place was still limping along instead of folding completely.
And somewhere in the middle of it all, a spot had opened up for me too. The best sofa, the thickest blanket. At this point I wasn’t freeloading anymore—I was practically royalty.
“Heh.”
So this was the luxurious life of a precious ego sword…! Comfort I never even dreamed of back when I was just scrap metal!
During the day I wandered around the place. When I got hungry I peeled a boiled egg. The rest of the time I lounged on the sofa or sat in front of the computer. Jihyun’s candy drawer had long since lost half its contents to my stomach (I always hid the wrappers, because getting caught meant trouble).
And whenever Nayeon had a spare moment she would plop me onto her lap and try to pet my head like I was a cat. At first I recoiled, but lately I just sat there. It wasn’t like my butt was going to wear out, and after a few tries it actually felt pretty comfortable. Besides, without a sword body there was no point resisting anyway.
…Maybe this was what living as a person felt like?
Ah, but it wasn’t like there were zero worries.
“…This is still floating around.”
Jihyun muttered while glaring at the monitor. It was the photo from a few days ago—the one of some elementary-school kid slicing up a B-rank monster.
“Jihyun, can’t we just ask them to take it down?”
“Who would we even ask? We don’t know who took it.”
“What about the Association or the site admins? You know, invasion of privacy or something…”
“You already know the answer. Gate sites are public records. They can hide personal info like class or name, but once you’re registered and active, anything tied to gate clears is fair game.”
Jihyun took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes.
“…Unless it’s a major guild or an S-rank hunter putting on the pressure.”
Back in the day, the fact that no one could see inside a gate had led to countless crimes. The public-record system was created for hunter safety, but…
“Haah, this is such a headache.”
In the end, this was the ugly side effect that had appeared.
Leaving Nayeon muttering about asking some acquaintance for help, I quietly crawled over to the computer to do some gallery browsing. It might have been paranoia, but I felt like if I went outside someone would point and shout, “Hey, that’s the kid from the photo!” At least staying home and doing this made me feel like I was still participating in society.
I was deep in a chat with SweetTour when a voice came from right behind me.
“What are you doing right now?”
It was Jihyun.
“Hik!”
My body jumped on its own.
“What do you mean what? Just surfing the—”
“Surfing what. Who exactly are you chatting with?”
Jihyun leaned in to look at the screen. Her expression changed instantly.
An unfamiliar username. An unfamiliar person. The moment she saw the chat window, I could tell exactly what had flashed through Jihyun’s mind.
“Are you seriously chatting with some random stranger on the internet right now?”
“…Yes.”
“It’s only been a few days since you got a body! How did you even learn this?!”
“I mean, I’m past the age where I need to be careful about—”
I was a full-grown adult on the inside!
…was what I tried to say, but the words stuck in my throat.
“…Anyway! I’m past that age!”
“Past what age! You’re basically just learning to walk! Why are kids these days so precocious?!”
Hearing Jihyun’s voice, Nayeon came running over too.
“What? What’s going on?”
“Senior, this kid’s chatting with some random stranger online.”
“What?!”
Nayeon plastered herself against the screen.
“SweetTour? Who is this person! What if they’re a bad person?!”
“…He’s not a bad person.”
“What if it’s some scammer trying to sell our Byeori something shady! There are people like that everywhere these days!”
Before I could stop them, the two of them started scrolling upward, digging through the entire conversation history.
“Ah, no! Privacy! My private life!”
They were dead serious, examining someone else’s chat like it was an official meeting agenda. The topic: me. My voting rights: none.
“Uuuu! Maaaster…! Don’t look! It’s embarrassing!”
I wanted to block them, but I had no grounds. If it were my daughter chatting with some unknown community person, I’d probably stop it too.
All I could do was sit in the corner of the sofa and watch my private life get thoroughly ransacked.
…Even after three years of letting everyone see my shiny, smooth blade, this kind of exposure was a first.
And of course, what they caught was this:
“……”
Both of them froze at the same time.
“Swords need retirement…?”
Jihyun’s voice turned icy.
“Senior, isn’t this that thing? Trying to lure someone into some weird group. A cult.”
“Oh my, you’re right. Talking about swords to hypnotize people!”
…That wasn’t it at all.
This person just had an oddly affectionate thing for swords. It wasn’t a cult; they were just eccentric.
I wanted to explain, but if they asked “How would you know that?” I’d have no answer.
The scroll kept moving mercilessly upward.
“Look, look! Appealing to shared feelings! This is stage two of recruitment!”
“What exactly are they planning to do to our Byeori—”
Recruitment, my foot. I wasn’t Nayeon…
But the next part was even more ridiculous.
“Connection?! What kind of connection?!”
Nayeon jumped up.
“Senior, this is totally that. A romance scam targeting lonely people.”
“Our Byeori is still a baby! This crazy person! I’m contacting my acquaintance right now! Someone like this deserves prison… no, prison food is too good. They should be made to eat dirt instead!”
No…
That wasn’t what they meant at all. They were literally just saying the swords “connected” them.
The two of them were twisting this person’s innocent eccentricity into full-blown criminal activity.
Cult. Hypnosis. Romance scam.
I had to sit there and listen as one pure gallery user was gradually transformed into a dangerous criminal in their minds.
…In the end I couldn’t take it anymore and spoke up.
“…That person isn’t a bad person. I know.”
“What do you know! You’ve never even seen their face!”
“Well, that’s true.”
I had nothing to say to that. I hadn’t seen their face.
But faces didn’t matter. I was certain this person wasn’t bad.
It was just a feeling. Someone who worried about swords couldn’t possibly be a bad person…!
Well, those two wouldn’t understand.
I shut my mouth again.
“…Tch.”
As for this “suspicious stranger,” they had apparently handled swords for a long time. The way they talked about swords didn’t feel like some amateur hobbyist. There was the weight of someone who had actually swung blades with blood on their hands. A similar vibe to the S-ranks who used to wield me…
Whether they cared or not, a new line appeared in the chat window.
Huh, suddenly getting direct. Was a gallery user really approaching like this? Wasn’t the basic rule in hunter galleries to hide yourself completely?
Nayeon shouted beside me, “See! They’re digging for personal info! It’s a scammer for sure!” but the question bothered me more than her voice.
These past few days, this person had been asking things like this more and more. Whether I knew a lot about swords. Whether I was well-informed about gate news. They slipped the questions in casually, but it felt like they were probing me in a strangely deliberate way.
It didn’t seem like they had bad intentions…
“Hmm.”
Well, asking if someone was a hunter in a hunter gallery wasn’t exactly a big deal.
Still, it felt oddly like déjà vu.
Last time I had asked this person if they were a hunter, and now the roles were reversed. Either way, the answer would be the same.
I only typed that much. I had no intention of revealing my identity, and they didn’t press further either.
There was that kind of unspoken line between us. We kept things appropriately distant and didn’t ask.
…But why did that “I see…” leave such a long aftertaste?
I brushed it off as my imagination.
Jihyun, on the other hand, seemed more bothered by something other than the scam possibility.
“That person keeps asking if you’re a hunter. What if they’re trying to figure out your identity?”
“No way. They’re probably just asking out of boredom.”
I said that, but it wasn’t a completely baseless worry. I didn’t know exactly why this person had been probing about swords and hunters lately either.
Anyway, that reply was a mistake. If I had answered confidently with “Everyone in the community is like this!” it might have passed, but my vague reaction forced me to sign a terrible treaty.
That treaty being: from now on, all chatting had to happen with the two of them watching. A humiliating condition.
An unequal treaty! What kind of coercive decision was this!
I wanted to protest, but if I did they might put a password on the computer—my only source of entertainment.
Ah, how frustrating! Was this the fate of a weak nation…?
In the end I swallowed my complaints and obediently turned the chat window toward them.
Just then, a new notification popped up in the corner of the screen.
Something strange?
A promise? Were they trying to make a contract through chat?
I answered lightly.
Without knowing what kind of story it would turn out to be.