Ruby Scarlet Won't Stand For It
Had there ever been a morning this peaceful in her entire life?
No nightmares. No auditory hallucinations. Only a deep, sweet sleep, as if she had been steeped in sugar itself.
Elara felt the sunlight pouring over her closed eyelids and made no effort to hide the smile spreading across her lips.
Out of habit — out of instinct — she groped for the space beside her.
Searching for that warm, solid embrace that had pulled her free of her nightmares the night before.
"Mmm… Doctor."
But what her fingertips found was not him.
Rustle.
Instead of a person's warmth, only the chill of sheets gone cold scraped across her palm.
"…?"
Elara's eyes snapped open.
She bolted upright like a spring, and the empty space beside her slammed into her vision.
A crumpled pillow. Tangled blankets.
Nothing but the cruel traces proving he had once been there.
"…Doctor?"
There was no answer.
Only a suffocating silence floated through the room.
Just as anxiety seized her ankles and began to climb, a single sheet of paper on the nightstand caught her eye.
Elara lunged for the desk like a beast. Her trembling fingers snatched up the note.
Neat, familiar handwriting.
…Without a doubt, it was her doctor's.
Elara swallowed dryly and read the letter as if it were a death sentence.
My dear Elara von Heim,
By the time you read this letter, you will find yourself alone in an empty room.
You are destined to become a great hero who will save the world.
A mere physician such as myself must not become a stumbling block upon your brilliant path.
I depart to seek out other patients who have need of me.
On the day your renown echoes to the farthest ends of the continent, I hope I may look up to you with pride.
(P.S.) Please do not search for me. Walk your own path. Until that day, I shall wait.
The world went dark before Elara's eyes.
Vanishing without a word.
Even if becoming a hero meant hunting monsters, she had planned to come home every time and spend sweet, ordinary hours with her doctor…
…There had been no room for a goodbye like this in her blueprint of the future.
"Doctor… that's so cruel…"
The tears gathering at the corners of her eyes lasted only a moment.
Her gaze locked onto a single sentence in the letter as if nailed there.
I depart to seek out other patients who have need of me.
"…Other… patients?"
In that instant, a circuit in Elara's mind sparked and shorted out.
Twisted thinking. An ugly delusion.
Her eyes cooled in a heartbeat, settling into something frigid.
Other patients.
That inevitably meant it could be a new woman.
Her doctor holding some other bitch's hand, meeting her eyes, counseling her in that gentle voice of his?
Elara's lips pressed into a hard, flat line.
The sense of loss transformed in an instant into boiling jealousy.
"…Absolutely not."
She muttered it low.
The doctor's kindness — that warmth — belonged to her alone.
She would rather have dirt shoveled into her eyes than watch him smile for someone else.
Elara leapt from the bed. Barefoot, she hit the floor and bolted outside.
Bang!
She wrenched the door open, and the cold morning air slapped her across the face.
The dew on the grass she crushed under bare feet was piercingly cold, but nowhere near enough to quench her seething rage.
But what entered her sight was neither his receding back nor the tracks of a carriage.
By the door, the wooden bench where she and the doctor had sat side by side drinking tea.
Atop it, warm bread and soup still steaming.
And beside them, standing like a statue — the Old Butler.
"…Butler."
Elara's voice scraped up from the bottom of hell, low and rough.
On any other day the Old Butler would have offered a proper morning greeting; today his mouth stayed firmly shut.
Even without being an expert, her psychological state was plain as day.
The butler did not so much as open his mouth.
"…What is all this?"
"Your meal, my lady."
The Old Butler's dry reply.
"I can see that… Where did the doctor go?"
"He left before dawn. The gentleman asked that I look after your well-being, my lady."
"…"
Elara's fists clenched until her knuckles went white.
Her nails dug into her palms.
Had the doctor truly left? Leaving her behind?
She sorted the situation quickly.
The doctor had fled, and this old butler had stood by and watched. An accomplice.
"Ha."
A hollow laugh burst from her lips.
Her blue eyes lost their light, sinking dark as a deep abyss.
"Look after my well-being? …Coward."
She strode roughly to the bench and snatched up the bowl of soup the Old Butler had prepared.
Slurp. Gulp.
The sound of hot soup sliding down her throat cut through the silent morning air.
She had no time to taste anything.
She emptied the bowl combatively — no, as if fighting to stay alive.
Like a predator filling its belly before the hunt.
Wiping her mouth roughly with the back of her hand, Elara slung her pack over her shoulder.
"Delicious. Really."
"My lady…"
"I'm definitely going to tell the doctor. That my lips taste better than this soup."
"…Pardon?"
The Old Butler asked in flustered confusion, but Elara didn't even pretend to hear him.
Her eyes, unwavering, bored straight through the forest path he had vanished down.
"The doctor made me a promise last night. A Wish Token."
She brushed past the Old Butler's shoulder, murmuring coldly enough for him to hear.
"That once I become a hero, he'll grant me any wish I want."
Elara declared it in a low voice, but one filled with absolute certainty.
"I've already decided on my wish. Once I become a hero… I'm going to chain you to my side, make sure you can't take a single step away, force you to look only at me and touch only me for the rest of your life."
Her hands clenched tighter.
Fighting spirit rose off her like heat haze.
It wasn't murderous intent to harm the man who was running.
It was a sticky, vicious obsession that refused to let him go.
"Treating other people? Don't even dream of it. The doctor's only patient for the rest of his life is going to be me."
A smile stretched across her lips as if it might tear them.
"The Wish Token… now it's the doctor's turn to grant it."
"My lady? Where are you going…?"
When the Old Butler asked carefully, Elara answered in a low voice, eyes fixed ahead.
"…To become a hero. I'm going to carve through some monsters."
She was hotter right now than anyone alive.
She spread her hand toward empty air, and space rippled as her Holy Sword was summoned.
As if projecting Elara's emotions, even the surrounding air turned cold enough to freeze.
"Run all you want while you still can, my dear Doc.tor."
Through silver hair streaming in the wind, a predator's eyes flashed.
"Once I become a hero, I'm coming to catch you. Just wait for me."
"Achoo—————!"
Someone must be talking shit about me. My nose itched so badly I couldn't stand it.
A cold? Or maybe…
"Haha, no way… Elara isn't already chasing after me, right?"
The moment she caught me, I was done for.
No — not just done for. My lower back might not survive the encounter.
But, well, whatever.
Becoming a hero would take her some time of her own.
For now, I shook my head and cast off the spine-chilling imagination.
"It really is… vast."
A short gasp of wonder escaped me at the sight unfolding before my eyes.
Gracia Wonderworld.
A city of elves built atop the roots of the great World Tree, where forest and magic coexisted.
But behind that glittering exterior lurked a discrimination that reeked of rot.
…A horrific hatred directed at a certain fire-attribute filial daughter with crimson hair, to be precise.
"Alright then. Where might my second patient be hiding?"
I adjusted my top hat and set off toward an alley where acrid smoke was rising.
"Come one, come all! Today only — elf honey for three gold!"
"World Tree bay-leaf wraps! These are truly delicious! Step right up!"
"Dip the meat in our specially made Eden honey pot — absolute perfection!"
According to the lore, Gracia Wonderworld was a city of gourmet cuisine.
Elven naturalism fused with human seasoning techniques — a truly fantastical collaboration.
In a food city like this, how exactly was I supposed to find a woman — no, a patient?
"Sniff sniff… Well, they say even Mount Geumgang can wait until after a meal."
Might as well fill my stomach first and think later.
I approached a street stall vibrating with the smell of roasting meat.
Skewers grilled by an actual elf — how was I supposed to resist that?
"One of those, please."
"Yes sir~ Three gold! Human customer!"
I handed the money to the smiling elf vendor.
Remaining points: 15,000 PT minus three gold. My wallet was still comfortably fat.
"Ohh, so this is the famous bay-leaf pork honey skewer."
I took a big bite. Juices burst across my tongue, mingling with the sweet honey glaze.
"Uwooooooh!"
How the hell was I supposed to put this into words?
A wave of emotion that hit all the way to the root of my tongue — a taste that could only be described as fucking delicious.
I chewed on the skewer and surveyed my surroundings.
And right then—
KRAAAAAANG————!!!!
A deafening roar that shook the earth itself flipped the peaceful streetscape upside down in an instant.
"Kyaaaaaaah!!"
"F-Fire!!"
"W-What?! What's going on?! Why is there a fire over there?!"
The peaceful market street became a living hell in one second flat.
People abandoned their skewers and everything else, screaming as they fled.
I blankly lowered the hand still floating in midair and looked toward the source of the chaos.
A pillar of black smoke.
It was rising from the center of the plaza — from the great fountain that was the symbol of this city.
In place of the beautiful spirit-lights, a crimson fire-fiend licked its tongue as if ready to devour everything.
"…Ha."
A hollow laugh slipped out.
No need to go looking after all.
She was advertising I'm right here this loudly.
I walked against the surging crowd toward the fire.
Acrid toxic gas pressed in as if to pierce my lungs, but thanks to the ring on my finger — Salamander's Gills — my breathing felt as fresh as a phytoncide forest.
As expected, gear advantage was everything.
— Ahahahahaha!!
And at the heart of those flames, she was there.
A mad, manic laugh. A woman with blood-red hair utterly alien to the surrounding green forest.
She stood amid the roaring fire, clutching her stomach and cackling as she watched the elves flee.
"Why? Hot? Is it hot, you pointy-eared bastards?! Answer me, you sons of bitches!!!"
At a single flick of her hand, flames bent like a whip and slammed into the roadside trees.
A scorched leather jacket. Pants torn haphazardly.
And sweat trailing down over a tank top stretched to bursting.
"…Ruby Scarlet, huh."
WhiteMage's gallery comment that her figure was hot as hell suddenly made perfect sense.
Damn, those are huge…
— Zzzzzzt.
Ah. Not the time for that.
A ringing filled my ears.
And that wasn't all.
Thanks to the effect of Psychological Insight Lv.2, my ability to see a target's emotions as colors activated.
Anger was red.
Fear was purple.
Favor was pink.
So that blood-crimson aura blazing before my eyes right now?
Without a shred of doubt — my second patient, and this city's ticking time bomb. Ruby Scarlet.
"Th-That filthy half-breed! Setting fire to the sacred fountain?!"
"Guards! Why haven't you killed that thing yet?! Shoot her!"
An elf noble in lavish clothes waved his staff and shouted.
At those words, Ruby's laughter cut off cold.
"…Half-breed?"
She slowly turned her head.
Eyes revealed through tangled crimson hair.
One side bloodshot red; the other empty and hollow — heterochromia.
— Zzzzzzzzzzt!!!
A noise far sharper than anything from Elara's time exploded in my ears.
A bone-chilling screech, like steel scraping glass.
Extreme rage. The red aura thickened like deadly poison.
"Yeah… you think I started the fire because I'm a half-breed?"
She staggered toward the elf noble.
With every footstep, heat rose as if the paving stones would melt.
"You bastards were whining at the tavern! Said you were cold, you fucking pieces of shit! You kept bitching about the cold so I made it nice and warm for you. This noona specially set up a boiler, so why the hell are you flipping out? Huh?!"
"D-Don't come near me! You insane witch!"
"I said I'd warm you up, didn't I? Burn you right down to the bone… real cozy-like!"
KRAAAANG!
She swung her hand, and a massive firestorm crashed down on the elf noble.
This wasn't simple magic. It was pure killing intent itself.
Left alone, that elf would become a well-done steak, and Ruby would become an irreversible murderer.
Now.
A counselor's intervention timing.
Without hesitation, I threw myself into the flames.
"Gyaaaaaah!"
The elf screamed and squeezed his eyes shut—
———KAAAAANG!
A dull yet crystalline shattering sound rang through the plaza.
The suffocating heat cooled in an instant.
"…Huh?"
Ruby's eyes went round.
At the end of her gaze stood me, having taken the full force of the flames head-on.
Before me, Elara von Heim's skill — White's Oath — had activated, forming a vast, transparent ice shield.
White's Oath
Absolute Ice Shield Deployed
Hissss—.
Her ferocious flames touched the ice shield and dissolved into white steam, vanishing into nothing.
"What the fuck… who the hell are you?"
Ruby stumbled backward in shock.
It was the face of someone who had never seen her fire blocked so casually — and with ice, no less.
I brushed the ash from my clothes with deliberate leisure and gazed at her through the ice shield.
Now came the main event.
"Didn't they teach you that open flames are prohibited in public places, miss?"
"Ha… what?"
I needed to calm this mad wild horse first.
The best method: redirect her rage onto me.
"I heard playing with fire makes you wet the bed. Or… is it affection deficiency?"
"…You little shit. You're dead."
Ruby's eyes glittered with danger once more.
But I could tell.
Thanks to my defense and provocation just now, her attention had shifted from that obnoxious elf onto me.
"You fucking— what the hell even are you?"
I removed my top hat, placed it over my chest, and bowed with perfect courtesy.
The most polite greeting one could offer amid a burning ruin.
"Allow me to introduce myself. Aris Mardia."