The Squinty-Eyed Man and the Blunt Woman
The squinty-eyed man and the blunt woman.
"What on earth... What do you think you are doing right now?"
"Huh? Oh, th-then, what should I do...?"
"Ah...!"
Staring at the man in utter disbelief, Drin belatedly realized that she was still in a combat stance, unleashing her full, oppressive aura all because of her earlier, mistaken intuition. She hastily sheathed her sword and suppressed her aura.
Somehow, the situation had devolved into her threatening him, him acting threatened, and then her getting annoyed at him for acting threatened.
"Ahem...!" A dry cough escaped her lips from sheer embarrassment.
"I am terribly sorry. You see—"
Drin hesitated, finding it difficult to explain the situation honestly. I possess a rather unique intuition, and it flagged you as an incredibly dangerous entity. How could she possibly say that to his face? If someone threatened you with a sword out of nowhere and then gave such an excuse, it would sound utterly absurd—worse, they would think they were being mocked.
"While pursuing a dangerous individual, I sensed a presence in my blind spot and mistook you for them. I offer you my sincerest apologies."
In the end, she glossed over the truth with a mix of facts and falsehoods.
To think I would resort to lying... Even though it was a harmless and necessary lie, Drin, who possessed a highly fastidious nature, was deeply shaken by her own dishonesty.
"Ah. Ah! Is that so? Whew! Boy, you scared the daylights out of me. Honestly, I thought I had run into a mugger or something."
"A mugger..." He had truly thought she was a mugger.
Do I look like a mugger...? A mugger, of all things. Drin had always been a role model, an object of admiration for others. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine she would hear such a comparison in her lifetime.
So great was the shock that Drin stood there with her mouth agape, her face blanking out in a highly uncharacteristic, dazed expression. It took her quite some time to regain her composure and barely squeeze out her next words.
"A-A mugger... To think you mistook me for a mugger... That is... truly surprising..."
"Yes, I was absolutely terrified! I was wondering where such a scary mugger had popped out from!"
"..."
*Twitch.* Drin grit her teeth and forced a benevolent smile.
"Once again, I apologize for frightening you."
"Whoa, whoa—why are you coming closer?!"
"Ah, I simply wished to help you up—since you fell because of me—"
"I-I am perfectly fine! I can get up on my own, so please, do not come any closer!"
*Twitch. Grind.* Drin forced an extremely benevolent smile. This man's frivolous, flighty attitude was truly exasperating.
Patience... It was an undeniable fact that she had threatened him, so his wariness was entirely justified. Drin did her absolute best to understand the man's perspective.
"By the way—you mentioned earlier that you were pursuing a dangerous individual. What kind of... dangerous individual is it?"
"Ah!" The man's question reminded Drin of her original objective, and she explained the situation to him. She described the assassin's appearance and asked if he knew anything about him.
"Unfortunately, you are the first person I have encountered here."
"I see..." She had lost the target. Of all times, this man had to appear and cloud her intuition—
No, that is not right. It was not his fault. It was her own lack of ability. To try and shift the blame onto someone else... I should be ashamed of myself. Drin scolded herself and honestly accepted her own mistake.
"I am sorry I could not be of any help. At any rate, if you do not have any other business with me, may I take my leave?" the man asked cautiously.
Drin was about to say yes. No, wait. But she immediately changed her mind.
The man was still wary of her. In his mind, her image remained that of 'some mugger-like assailant.' Letting him leave like this was something Drin's wounded pride absolutely could not tolerate. She had to make up for her mistake and correct his perception of her.
Having made up her mind, Drin tried to think of a way to... earn some points with him? Then, a sudden question occurred to her.
"If you do not mind, may I ask you a question?"
"Huh? Oh, yes, I suppose..."
"..." Drin had always been admired by everyone. The man's openly reluctant attitude toward speaking with her dealt another heavy blow to her ego, but she managed to push through.
"It is... nothing major—I was just wondering how you ended up in such a secluded place—"
"Ah, well. It is a bit embarrassing to admit, but... I, uh, got lost..."
Drin nodded. Getting lost and wandering this deep into the alleys. It seemed just like him.
"What is with that reaction? It might just be my imagination, but somehow, my feelings are hurt."
"Pardon? Oh! No! I did not mean anything by it—uh... Ah! By the way, in that case, would you mind if I guided you out?"
"Oh, are you familiar with the geography of Arien?"
"Ah, not exactly. I also just arrived in Arien today."
"Excuse me? Then how are you going to guide me... What an odd—I mean, interesting person you are."
Drin forced a bright smile and spoke through grit teeth. "S-Still... I am not so incompetent as to get lost. I have already mapped out the general layout of the area."
"Not incompetent enough to get lost? Was that aimed at me...?"
"What?! Oh! No! That is not what I meant—"
"Tsk, whatever. It is true that I am just a pathetic guy who gets lost."
"Ah, um..." Normally, when Drin spoke with others, they would listen to her with sparkling eyes. Conversing with this man was an entirely foreign experience for her. Thus, she assumed the constant friction in their conversation was due to her own social awkwardness and repeated rudeness, plunging her into self-doubt. She had no idea that behind his squinted eyes, the man was thoroughly enjoying her reactions.
"Well, anyway. Thank you for the offer. But I must politely decline. You do not have to go to such lengths."
"There is no need to decline!"
"No, it is not that I am being polite..."
"Not because you are being polite?"
"Because I am scared..."
"Scared? Of what? Ah, in any case, do not worry about that. No matter who appears, I shall protect you!" Finally, the conversation had shifted to a topic she excelled in, and Drin spoke with a triumphant look on her face.
"No, what I meant by 'scared' was... well... you..."
"..."
"..."
"I swear upon my honor! I have absolutely no intention of harming you. If you truly cannot trust me, here—you may hold onto my sword."
"Even if I hold onto that, I feel like I would still lose..."
*Twitch.*
"P-Please, do not be like that. This is a dangerous place to wander alone—"
"I highly doubt I could find anyone more dangerous than you in these alleys..."
*Twitch!* Drin prayed. She prayed with all her heart that she would not lose her sanity because of this man, who seemed to have a master's degree in driving people mad with his frivolous attitude.
Drin Libringer. She was a main-tier character who began interacting with the player in earnest during the early-to-mid game, with their relationship lasting all the way to the ending. In other words, having only dipped my toes into the very beginning of the game, I didn't know much about her. Still, I had picked up a few things here and there.
When I first faced Drin, the first thing that came to mind was her official lore I had read on some random wiki.
"Her blunt and cold personality makes people feel a wall between them. This is why, although many respect and admire her, very few are close to her."
Is that so? Sure, she did give off that impression at first. Blunt. Cold. But now? I wasn't so sure. Ah, but there was one thing I knew for certain. This girl was incredibly fun to tease.
Feeling it with the instincts of a squinty-eyed character—which had now undeniably become a part of me—teasing her was an absolute blast. To the point where I simply couldn't help myself.
"Are you really going to follow me from that far back...?" This was why I was thoroughly teasing Drin, using my feigned terror as a perfect excuse.
Honestly! I didn't want to be like this either. Pretending to be scared just to make her worry, and then using that to bait a reaction out of her... that was way too insidious. But! I had no choice. Why? Because that was exactly how a squinty-eyed character was supposed to act.
When I created this character, I had piled on all sorts of traits to make him as squinty-eyed as possible. Those traits had coalesced into a single instinct. The Squinty-Eyed Instinct. And right now, that instinct was loudly commanding me: Tease Drin! Savor the delicious reactions of your prey! It was an incredibly tempting proposition, one that was structurally impossible to resist.
"Is there a problem?"
"There is no reason for you to walk so far behind me."
"There is also no reason for me to walk so close to you, is there?"
"Ugh—"
In fact, teasing Drin right now was so entertaining it was practically thrilling. Well, I did get rid of that assassin for her, so surely I'm allowed this much. Since I had a perfect justification, I decided to enjoy the situation to my heart's content.
I watched her back, which looked incredibly stiff and unnatural as she tried to guide me while constantly worrying about my presence. At the same time, I glanced at the window that had popped up in the corner of my vision.
Stop the Assassin
📍 Objective: Stop the assassin targeting Drin Libringer.
🎁 Reward: 3P (Shop unlocks at 10P)
This quest had triggered when the weirdo I ran into in the back alley looked at me and said, 'I'll kill you, and then I'll kill that bitch too.'
So the dangerous individual Drin was chasing was this guy.
It was the reward for catching the dangerous individual in Drin's stead.
A point reward, and a shop unlock at that.
The mere sound of it was enough to make any transmigrator's heart flutter, and a smile naturally spread across my face.
To think I was utterly lost on what to do when I first transmigrated.
The main quest had begun, and I had arrived in Arien. Along the way, a new quest had popped up, and I had cleared it to claim my reward. It felt like I was steadily taking one solid step forward at a time.
I might actually be better at this than I thought.
The anxiety I had felt right after transmigrating had faded away before I knew it, replaced by a growing sense of confidence.
"I believe we have almost arrived."
Now, as long as I passed the Academy entrance exam, everything would be perfect. I organized my thoughts and focused on my conversation with Drin.
"Come to think of it, where exactly are we heading?"
Drin had offered to guide me out of the alleys, but she hadn't specified where she was taking me.
"The way I came in."
The moment we stepped out of the back alley, the sunlight poured down on Drin and me like a curtain being pulled back. A massive crowd of people bustled about. It looked to be the market streets of District 4.
"Oh!"
The moment we stepped onto the street from the alley, someone who had been looking around spotted us and immediately began walking our way.