Who's That?
Elena fixed a lukewarm gaze on the woman who had suddenly begun speaking in such heavy, dramatic tones.
'Who the hell is this chick? What's with all the fuss?'
In all her time playing as a healer, this was the first time someone had made such a massive deal out of receiving a single heal. Even NPCs who weren't players didn't usually go this overboard.
'Thank you. I'm grateful you saved me. Normally that's about as far as it goes before they hand over a reward and call it a day.'
This reaction was completely out of left field. Wondering if the AI had gotten a total overhaul while she was gone, Elena stared at the woman with open curiosity and spoke.
"You can repay the favor slowly later. For now, I'd like to start by asking your name."
"This humble one is called Lee Cheongryeo. I am but a mere swordswoman who has, undeservedly, earned the title of Sword Princess."
'What kind of self-introduction is that?'
Elena felt a strange disconnect from the martial arts-style introduction that felt completely out of place in a fantasy setting, but she continued anyway.
"Ah, so your name is Lee Cheongryeo. I'm Elena. In that case, Miss Cheongryeo, may I ask what exactly is going on here?"
"While fleeing from wicked foes, I fell victim to their cowardly hidden attack and ended up showing such an unsightly display."
"..."
Elena closed her mouth, her expression turning odd. The answer was strange enough, but more importantly, something that should have appeared wasn't showing up.
'What the...? The quest window isn't appearing.'
No matter how she looked at it, this woman called Lee Cheongryeo seemed like an important NPC. Elena had expected that talking to her would trigger a quest related to the current situation, yet there was no response at all.
'Maybe the quest activation trigger hasn't been met yet...'
While she was pondering this, Cheongryeo spoke in an urgent voice.
"Benefactor, I am truly sorry, but you must leave this place at once."
"?"
"The pursuers chasing me may arrive at any moment. Therefore..."
Cheongryeo, whose body had fully recovered, had intended to take her benefactor Elena and flee together. But she was one step too late.
"Found them!"
"Don't move!"
Before the two could even act, the pursuers had arrived. The ones wearing clothes as red as blood were members of the Red Blood Hall. They were the combat unit dispatched by the Wicked Dao Alliance to capture Cheongryeo, and they swiftly blocked her path.
"Heh heh, Sword Princess. Since you're going to die soon anyway, just stay put and—"
The arrogant Red Blood Hall members suddenly fell silent.
"W-why are you perfectly fine?! And who's that foreigner next to you?!"
"This person is my benefactor who cured me from your despicable poison!"
Cheongryeo quickly stepped forward as if to protect Elena.
"Benefactor, please do not worry. Against the likes of these, I can handle them somehow!"
'What is this, a combat event?'
Faced with the sudden situation, Elena tensed up and scanned her surroundings.
'Their outfits are pretty plain for high-level types. I can't tell if they're monsters or NPCs, but they look like grunts. Not regular grunts, though—more like elite grunts from some organization.'
She assessed their strength based on the Red Blood Hall members' appearance.
'Around level 50, maybe?'
Elena didn't have any skills specialized in precisely sensing power levels. She could only make rough estimates of both enemies and allies.
'Then this Lee Cheongryeo woman must be around level 60? From the way she talks, she definitely seems stronger than each of those guys individually. So if it's one level 60 against twenty level 50s...'
She thought hard about it, but since she couldn't even confirm if her level guesses were accurate, it was all meaningless speculation.
'...If I buff Cheongryeo and let her fight instead, can we win?'
Fight directly herself? She didn't even want to imagine it!
'My actual combat ability is only around level 40!'
Elena's level itself was 100. However, she had invested every single point into healer and priest abilities. Her monk or cleric combat capabilities were only slightly above average. Without high-level combat skills, even buffing herself would be pathetically inefficient.
'Why would a healer ever need to fight in the first place?!'
It was a position where players would line up to party with her because she'd have others fighting in her place wherever she went. But right now, with no other players around, Cheongryeo was her only hope.
Just as she was about to cast a buff on the woman to use her as a meat shield—
'What are they doing?'
Elena noticed the enemies hesitating.
The Red Blood Hall members stood facing off against Cheongryeo and Elena. A strange tension flowed between them.
'What the hell is this?'
'This is completely insane!'
Everyone was breaking out in cold sweat internally. They simply couldn't believe what they were seeing.
'The Sword Princess should have been dead by now!'
'We definitely poisoned her with Seven Steps Acid!'
The Red Blood Hall knew exactly what poison Cheongryeo had been afflicted with. Since they were the ones who had used it, they knew its horrifying power all too well.
Seven Steps Acid. A lethal poison that would melt the victim's internal organs as if they had been doused in acid before they could even take seven steps. Ordinary people died after the first step. Even decent martial artists couldn't withstand the full seven steps as the name implied. Even first-class masters, called high-level experts, could only delay the time of death slightly.
In fact, even Cheongryeo—who stood at the first-class realm—had been on the verge of certain death. The poison had been obtained with great difficulty specifically to kill a first-class expert like her.
So why was someone who should have died long ago standing there perfectly fine?!
"Sword Princess, stop bluffing!"
One of the Red Blood Hall members, unable to endure the bizarre situation any longer, shouted out.
"No matter how hard you try to act calm, we know your insides are already completely ruined!"
He believed Cheongryeo was putting on an act. Since that was the more logical assumption, he spoke boldly—but Cheongryeo's eyes grew icy cold.
"In that case, would you like to confirm it with your own body? Whether I am truly bluffing or not."
A powerful energy began to rise from the long blue sword Cheongryeo had drawn. Seeing the energy enveloping the blade like blue mist, the Red Blood Hall members were struck with horror.
"Sword Qi!!"
The hallmark of a first-class swordsman. Sword Qi that could cut through even solid metal.
'S-she's really completely cured?'
'There's no way she could use such a advanced technique with a body that was destroyed!'
There could be no clearer proof that her body had returned to normal.
When all the Red Blood Hall members stared at her in shock, Cheongryeo shouted with confidence.
"Not only did my benefactor heal my body, but she has also perfectly restored my martial arts! You are no longer worthy opponents for me!"
"Ugh...!"
The startled eyes of the Red Blood Hall members now turned toward Elena. She appeared to be nothing more than a young foreign woman. Honestly, it was hard to believe, but Cheongryeo herself kept testifying to it. And...
'There's something about her.'
'An aura that's hard to ignore.'
'She doesn't look like an ordinary person at all.'
Silver hair. Milk-white skin and a pure white dress. She possessed an immaculate, snow-white beauty that seemed the very definition of purity.
'The clothing is foreign, but one can tell at a glance that it's made from fabric that even high nobles would struggle to obtain.'
'Could she be a high-ranking noble from the Western Regions?!'
'People this beautiful are usually hidden masters...'
The dazzling beauty rarely seen in the central plains instead heightened the Red Blood Hall's wariness.
"...Miss, is it true that you were the one who healed the Sword Princess?"
One of the Red Blood Hall members spoke to Elena as their representative. Without even realizing it, his tone had become polite.
"What method exactly did you use?"
"Method?"
"Don't play dumb. Curing someone poisoned with Seven Steps Acid is no ordinary feat. Did you feed her some miraculous elixir or something?"
Elena couldn't understand the continuous stream of questions. She tilted her head, her silver hair swaying, and answered with genuine confusion.
"Was it something that required a particularly special method or medicine?"
That casual counter-question shook the Red Blood Hall to their core.
'Of course it does!'
'Her internal organs were literally melting!'
'If treating that doesn't require special methods, then no one in the world would ever die from poison!'
This perfectly logical confusion agitated the Red Blood Hall members.
'What does this mean?'
'Is this arrogance? Like, she used some incredible method but it's nothing to her?'
'She can't possibly be treating it so lightly for real...'
'Either way, she's an incredibly powerful expert!'
It was impossible to cure someone afflicted with Seven Steps Acid through medical arts alone. It would require considerable inner energy techniques, and a master of inner energy was essentially a master of martial arts.
'This has become troublesome.'
'Of all people, some mysterious expert had to go and help the Sword Princess!'
Just the fully recovered Cheongryeo was already a headache, and now they had to deal with Elena who seemed even stronger. Since this was no longer a situation they could handle with their own power, the Red Blood Hall members racked their brains.
"Miss, do you understand what you've done?"
One of them rebuked Elena in a subtle voice.
"That Sword Princess is a fugitive who dared to kill one of our Wicked Dao Alliance executives and is currently on the run."
"?"
"If you help someone like that, you too will become a target. No matter how skilled you are, you wouldn't want to make an enemy of our Wicked Dao Alliance, would you?"
The Red Blood Hall tried to intimidate Elena while simultaneously persuading her not to get involved in their affairs.
"You despicable bastards!"
Cheongryeo, who had seen through their scheme, was burning with rage when—
"What's the Wicked Dao Alliance?"
An answer no one had expected came back.
Elena looked at both the Red Blood Hall members and Cheongryeo as she spoke.
"I've never heard that name before. Is it someone's name, perhaps?"
"..."
"..."
Both Cheongryeo and the Red Blood Hall were rendered speechless. The Red Blood Hall members, who belonged to the organization in question, were especially shocked.
'What the hell is she saying?!'
'There's no way she doesn't know about the Wicked Dao Alliance?!'
This wasn't mere boasting—it was simply fact. What was the Wicked Dao Alliance? One of the two great dragons that divided the world of Murim and further split the central plains in two! Every person in the central plains knew of it. Therefore, even a foreigner from the Western Regions would inevitably know once they set foot in the central plains.
'If she had just crossed over, maybe. But there's no way she wouldn't know after reaching a forest deep in the heart of the central plains.'
'She must know everything and is just talking nonsense on purpose.'
'But why?'
The Red Blood Hall members, convinced that Elena was deliberately playing dumb, tried to figure out her intentions. As they pondered, cold sweat broke out as they arrived at a chilling conclusion.
'Don't tell me... is this woman saying that she doesn't give a damn about the likes of our Wicked Dao Alliance?!'