The Stalker
I felt great looking at the research bunker, now fully expanded with solar panels. My steps were as light as a feather as I walked along the forest path, leaving the perfectly functioning factory behind me. Eve, walking beside me, seemed to have a faint smile on her face, perhaps due to the stable power supply and the abundance of resources.
After walking for a while along the forest path where warm morning sunlight filtered through the lush leaves, the familiar, massive wooden fence came into view. The woman who had been nodding off while keeping watch at the village entrance spotted us first and her eyes widened in surprise.
"Huh? Oh! Benefactor? The Benefactor is here!"
The woman's urgent and joyful shout instantly shattered the silence of the village. The heavy wooden gate, which had been firmly closed, creaked open in a hurry, and the villagers, dressed in loose, rough clothes, began to rush out one by one.
"Sir! You really came back!" "My goodness, you look even better than you did a few days ago! You're absolutely glowing!"
Although it had only been a few days, their welcome was far more fervent and intense than when we had first visited the village. They looked like believers welcoming a savior they had been waiting for for a long time. Pushing through the cheering crowd, the elderly Village Chief approached me with hurried steps and bowed deeply.
"Oh my, sir! To think you would grace this humble village with your precious presence again. If we had known, we would have gone out to the edge of the forest to meet you. I am truly sorry!" "No, Village Chief, have you been well? You look much healthier." "Thanks to you, sir, the village children are full of life, and this old woman hasn't felt any pain lately. By the way, have you eaten? I'll gather whatever mushrooms are left in the village and boil them for you right away!"
I politely declined the old woman's excessive hospitality and looked around. Behind the crowd of people standing on their tiptoes to peek at me, a familiar boy's face appeared. It was Emil. The boy was holding the brown rabbit I had given him last time, and it was nestled quietly in his arms.
It was a stark contrast to his appearance just a few days ago, when he had been curled up in a dark, moldy room, trembling in fear. His skin shone transparently under the warm sunlight, and his clear eyes were full of life. As soon as the boy made eye contact with me, he smiled brightly and ran toward me.
"Brother Jaero!"
Emil ran up and grabbed the hem of my clothes, expressing his joy.
"Emil, have you adapted to the outside? The rabbit in your arms seems to have gained some weight, too." "Yes! I wanted to give it better grass while taking care of it, so I brought fresh grass from outside and petted it often, so now it follows me really well. And the older sisters in the village and the Village Chief grandmother are also very kind to me. I think it was a really good decision to come outside after listening to you, brother."
I felt satisfied at the boy's innocent, clear smile. As Emil opened the door himself and mingled with the people, I could clearly feel that the atmosphere of this entire remote village, which had always been heavy and gloomy, had become much brighter and more positive.
"That's a relief. I'm happy to see you all doing well. Oh! Actually, I didn't just come here to say hello today; I brought a small gift."
At my words, the gaze of the Village Chief and the villagers turned toward my hands. I asked the old woman and headed to the village's food storage. I went in with the villagers and stood in the middle of the warehouse, opening my inventory. I began to carefully pour out golden, fist-sized, perfectly washed potatoes onto the floor.
Thud, thud, thud-thud.
A feast of large, plump potatoes poured endlessly from the air. In an instant, 100 heavy potatoes spilled out, forming a fairly large, small hill in the middle of the village warehouse.
"......!"
At that moment, a heavy and shocking silence descended upon the village square, so deep that not even the sound of breathing could be heard.
'Ah, right. I pulled items out of thin air without thinking again.'
I glanced at Eve with a look that said I had made a mistake, and she quietly nodded. In fact, I had already shown the Village Chief, so I had no choice but to give up on explaining and pretend to be nonchalant.
The Village Chief stood frozen like a statue with her jaw dropped, and Emil blinked his eyes roundly while holding the rabbit. The women surrounding us rubbed their eyes repeatedly, doubting what they were seeing, and some even collapsed as if their legs had given out.
"S... Sir. W-what on earth is this?"
The old woman asked in a trembling voice, her hands shaking.
"They are potatoes. I harvested them where I live, and since there was plenty, I brought some. If you all steam them together, you'll be able to fill your stomachs for a few days."
At my calm answer, the old woman eventually sat down on the floor and carefully picked up a potato with both hands.
It was a perfect, smooth potato, with not a single small or rotten part from failing to grow in contaminated soil. In this barren world, such a massive amount of clean, perfect food was another tremendous grace, just like the iron bars she had received before.
"Oh my... Goodness."
Thick tears fell from the old woman's sunken eyes and flowed onto the potato. She carefully wiped the potato with her dirty, old sleeve, then held it dearly and began to sob, prostrating herself at my feet.
"Sir! How can we ever repay this great grace! Not only did you give us precious metal, but you also mercifully bestowed such perfect food upon us. You are truly a messenger of God who has come to save this abandoned land!"
At the old woman's sorrowful weeping, the village women also burst into tears, their suppressed emotions finally spilling over. To them, who had been chewing on tough grass roots mixed with dirt every day while clutching their hungry stomachs, the 100 heavy potatoes piled up before them were a gift more valuable than anything else. And that overwhelming emotion soon began to turn into worship and courtship toward me.
"Sir! Please take this lowly body! I can survive on my own even if you don't feed me. Just let me be a gatekeeper at the place where you stay, or even do the most menial tasks!" "I'm amazing at laundry and cleaning! I can take care of all the chores! And at night, I can warm up your cold bed! Please take me with you!" "Me! Just once, please, just once, grant me your merciful favor! If you leave your great and noble bloodline with me, I will devote the rest of my life to raising your child well!"
The women, who had begun to show signs of madness, started rushing toward me with eyes filled with a mix of tears and burning desire. This wasn't just a happening caused by providing food.
In a desperate world where men had completely dried up, it was abnormal for them to maintain their sanity when a man with an unrealistic appearance and overwhelming abilities, who could only appear in legends, had even shown mercy.
Just as I was about to step back in embarrassment at the dozens of rough, desperate hands reaching out, a cool, silver figure blocked my path like an iron wall.
"That is enough."
It was Eve.
The soft, affectionate voice she usually reserved for me was nowhere to be found, and a cold, intimidating tone like the winter wind made the air freeze.
"Do you intend to repay the kindness Sir Jaero has shown out of goodwill with such uncontrolled, rude behavior? I am in charge of Sir Jaero's personal protection and all his needs. We have absolutely no need for unnecessary personnel, so everyone, please step back at least 5 meters from Sir Jaero."
As Eve's blue eyes shone with a cold murderous intent, the women, who had been rushing like beasts intoxicated by heat, stopped in their tracks in surprise. It seemed the villagers felt an instinctive sense of oppression and fear at the unapproachable spirit and eerie coldness she exuded.
Eve shielded me perfectly, shooting cold, sharp glares at the women who dared to approach me. Her straight-backed silhouette looked like a loyal, possessive puppy chasing away thieves who dared to covet its precious treasure.
'Haha... This is embarrassing, but it feels strange.'
I hid behind Eve's sturdy back, wiping away cold sweat, but a proud smile leaked out. I, who used to only stare at a monitor in a corner of my room and receive no attention from anyone, was now receiving courtship from countless women in the middle of a ruined world and being protected by an ideal woman who was devoted only to me.
It was a man's instinct that I couldn't help but have the corners of my mouth rise and my shoulders shrug at this unfamiliar attention I was experiencing for the first time in my life.
"Now, now, everyone calm down. Village Chief, please share these potatoes well among the villagers without fighting, and if you run out, I'll bring more later. However, we have a lot of work left in the forest, so I think we should get going today."
Suspecting that if I stayed in the village any longer, Eve, burning with jealousy, might actually pull out her nail gun from her waist, I hurriedly said goodbye to the Village Chief.
"Oh my, are you leaving already! I am sorry that I have nothing to treat you with to repay this great grace..."
I hadn't intended to stay that long in the first place, but it seemed difficult to stay in this heated atmosphere for long. I expressed my regret once again and said my farewells.
"Brother Jaero! You must come back! I'll raise lots of rabbits!" "Yeah, next time I'll make sure to check if the rabbits have increased."
Leaving behind the old woman prostrating on the floor, Emil stomping his feet in regret, and the villagers staring at me with lost souls, Eve and I hurriedly left the wooden fence and entered the familiar forest path.
"Good work, Eve. If it weren't for you, my clothes might have been torn to shreds by their heat. You're reliable."
At my joke-filled praise, Eve slowed her pace slightly and replied with a slightly pouty expression.
"It is because Sir Jaero is somewhat excessively merciful and your beauty is dazzling enough to bewitch those around you. From next time, I will have to plan the shortest route to return to the research bunker without a single second of delay after leaving the gift."
I couldn't help but laugh out loud at her cute pouting. It was a bit of a shame to return so quickly after coming to the village for the first time in a while, but I wasn't worried since I could just come back to play. If I had food left over next time, I could just bring a bunch and leave.
***
A strange figure emerged from the wilderness near the village, gasping for breath.
It was Kaira, the wandering merchant of the Underground City. Her attire today was completely different from usual. The heavy, junk-filled cart she always dragged around while struggling was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, her back was tightly strapped with a sturdy backpack stuffed only with a few lumps of black bread that were as hard as rocks, pieces of tough dried jerky, and light camping gear with minimal volume, all thoroughly prepared for a long-term operation. She was even firmly equipped with a self-defense dagger at her waist to prepare for threats in the wild.
'I won't miss it this time. I will definitely find that handsome goose that lays golden eggs with my own eyes!'
Kaira couldn't forget the shock she felt when she saw the near 100% pure 'iron bar' she had witnessed in the village a few days ago and the pretty boy 'Emil' whom the Village Chief had been hiding so tightly. After returning to the city and throwing her cart into a corner without hesitation, she immediately spent the money she had on hand to set up light tracking equipment and returned to this remote village as fast as she could.
The reason she was going to the village now wasn't to sell a few pieces of junk. After thinking and thinking again when returning to the city, she decided that it would be best to make contact with the village's benefactor, who was suspected to be the source of the high-purity iron.
Selling information about the pretty boy in the village might be good in the short term, but it would be like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. And above all, it was easy to predict that the ending for the village and the boy wouldn't be very good.
Even if she met the village's benefactor and the negotiations fell through, Kaira thought it wouldn't be too late to think about it again then.
Unlike last time, she didn't pull a cart and only packed the necessary items in her backpack. Now, she would set up camp near the village and sit there for days, no, weeks if necessary, to capture the traces of the man called the 'benefactor' and somehow conclude an exclusive deal. That was the only lifeline that would turn Kaira's life around.
The landscape that Kaira saw as she entered the village entrance with such desperate determination was very strange.
The poor village, which had always been listless and scratching the floor, was now bustling as if a grand festival was being held, with all the villagers excited.
'Huh? Something's strange? It feels like the excited atmosphere from last time? No, it's even worse than that?'
Several huge pots were placed in the middle of the square, and water was boiling in them, with a sweet and savory smell vibrating throughout the village.
"Sniff, sniff... This smell? It smells really savory?"
Kaira, drawn by the temptation of the savory smell, approached the square as if possessed and doubted her eyes. The potatoes held in the women's hands and piled up on the floor were of a quality rarely seen even in the Underground City. Even the city's nobles couldn't easily obtain vegetables of such high quality.
'These are all potatoes? High-quality potatoes in such a poor village?'
Kaira lost her reason and grabbed the shoulder of Hannah, one of the village guards who was cooling the hot potatoes, in a hurry.
"Hannah! Where on earth did all these potatoes come from?! Did the villagers collectively rob a merchant caravan?"
Startled by the sudden action, Hannah looked at Kaira, then shook the potato in her hand proudly and replied with a smile.
"Oh, Kaira. Are you here to do business today, too? You came faster than I thought this time? I thought you'd come in about 5 or 6 days."
Then, she picked up a hot, steaming potato and showed it to Kaira.
"As you can see, we're very busy preparing for a feast right now. And this potato was given to us as a gift by our benefactor... sir, who came here in person just a moment ago. A whopping 100 of them!" "What?! 100?! No, wait! More than that, you're saying that man was just here?!"
Kaira's heart pounded as if it would burst. She grabbed Hannah's shoulders and shook them roughly, shouting.
"When?! When on earth did he come and go! Where did he go!" "Uwaaaah, Kaira, why are you doing this all of a sudden!"
Kaira was frantically grabbing Hannah's shoulders and shaking them back and forth.
"Uwaaa! He didn't leave long ago. He just went out that forest path over there..."
Before Hannah's words could even finish, Kaira let go of Hannah roughly and began to sprint toward the village exit. The heavy backpack on her back swayed wildly up and down, but her steps were as swift as a hungry beast that had spotted its target.
'He didn't leave long ago. The traces are still there! If I chase him now, I can definitely catch the man's tail!'
Kaira, who left the village and entered the dense western forest path, bowed her waist and stared intently at the ground. Between the overgrown weeds and dirt, the clear footprints of two people, deeply indented like military boots with unique soles, were clearly pointing in one direction. It was definitely the trace left by that man.
'Wait for me, my money source! I will become your excellent exclusive merchant, no, if necessary, I will become your loyal dog that licks your feet! Hehehe.'
Kaira inhaled the forest air deep into her lungs and wore a crazed smile on her lips. In the eyes of the merchant chasing gold, huge piles of money and power were already shimmering. She tightened the straps of her backpack and threw her body toward the lush, dark forest, following the footprints.