Episode 4
Episode 4
First, here is the plan for Ivy's happiness.
First.
Protect the village.
Ivy missed the village until the very end. So I'll strengthen the village's defenses so it doesn't collapse during the magical beast invasion.
For this part, I've been relying as much as possible on Delit Ajusshi to raise the combat power of the village youths.
At the same time, I also changed the village fence to a sturdy log fence to keep out beasts and magical beasts.
Second.
I need to build a bond with Ivy.
In the game, there's the premise of being "childhood friends who were the only two survivors in the village."
I need to become close enough with Ivy that such a premise isn't necessary.
Third.
I become strong enough to protect Ivy.
In Black Nightmare, the player is Ivy's emotional anchor. So I need to be by the side of Ivy, who will become the Hero.
It's been quite some time since I started training for this.
Even my parents, who were initially very worried, don't mind much anymore.
When I say I'm going to see Delit Ajusshi:
"Our daughter's going for exercise? Be careful on your way."
"Mia, what are you going to learn today? Are you going to learn that dough-spinning thing like before?"
"Tell Delit-ssi to have a drink with me in the evening. Got it?"
It feels like I'm going to taekwondo practice in my previous life.
Since I haven't been seriously injured during training and have actually become healthier, everyone views it positively.
They say a wife who can bear many children healthily is a good wife.
Hmm, I think that might be difficult for me.
It's true I've gotten used to living as a woman, but I still don't like men.
I'm worried because marriage talk is starting to come up.
Actually, as I've grown older, my looks have become famous in the village.
'Marriage talks are starting to circulate among the mothers. Is this just how it is in medieval times?'
This village has a Quasi Daughter-in-law System where they take in 16-year-old girls to raise them as daughters-in-law.
They take them early for customized bride training.
Simply put, it's a process where they bring a girl early to teach her cooking methods or the family's kimjang method.
For this reason, it's common to start under-the-table negotiations around age 15 to bring in pretty and obedient girls from within the village.
Is it because I'm pretty? I'm only 12 now, but the talks have already started.
"I heard they even give meat lately."
When I muttered to myself, Ivy, who was fiddling with the laundry beside me, looked at me.
"Meat? Who gave you meat?"
"I heard Hunter Ajusshi gave our family chicken because he wants to marry me."
"Really? So are you going to marry Hunter-ssi's son?"
"That family is a bit too beast-like. Besides, you never know when they might die."
To be honest, it's just an excuse.
"If I'm going to marry anyway, wouldn't someone rich, noble, and handsome be better? With my looks, I think they'd take me just for that."
"It sounds weird coming from your mouth..."
"But it's true, right? You know it too. You and I could make it in the city, right?"
"Mia, stop talking nonsense and let's just do the laundry."
"Okay."
I sprinkle ash into the water again and knead the clothes in the running water.
Only at times like this do I feel resentful of this strangely realistic world.
I heard nobles even use detergent.
I was doing laundry with those thoughts when Ivy called me.
"Mia. It looks like people from the Church came again today."
Following Mia's words, I looked toward the village entrance and saw people dressed in priest robes.
After waiting briefly at the village entrance, the village chief came running out.
"They've been coming a lot lately."
Medieval-style, this place also has one massive religion.
Amer Church.
Roughly speaking, it's a church that preaches love and mainly focuses on poverty relief.
In the game, the pope appears as a huge shadowy figure, but it ends without major conflict.
While I was watching for a moment, the priest's gaze turned toward us.
"Ivy. We should greet them."
Among priests, high-ranking priests have power comparable to nobles. So if you see a priest, you should greet them first to avoid problems.
After bowing my head briefly, I glanced to check.
"They're gone."
"Then let's quickly gather our laundry and go."
I put the finished laundry in the basket.
On the way back carrying the cleaned clothes, Ivy muttered first.
"Lately, I keep seeing priests strangely often."
"That's true. It feels like we see them about once every three days."
"And magical beasts are appearing frequently too..."
"That's also true. Just two days ago, a pack of wolves on the verge of evolving into magical beasts came to the village, right?"
Magical beasts in Black Nightmare are largely divided into two types.
One is the commonly thought-of goblins, orcs, and such.
The other is beings infected with magi.
In this case, usually beasts get infected, and rarely humans get infected too.
For humans, simple exposure doesn't cause infection; only when pushed to mental extremes does the magi interfere with the mind and turn them into maiin.
'...Could it be related to the Church?'
Actually, this part remained a mystery to users in the original work too.
The protagonist's village is located very far from the front lines and is a place with almost no magi exposure.
A magical beast attack occurs in such a place?
Users thought there must be a special reason.
"Ajusshi. Do you know why the priests came? Are they building a church in our village or something?"
On the way back to the village, I asked Delit Ajusshi who was guarding the entrance.
He shrugged his shoulders leisurely while sitting in his chair.
"How would I know? They just exchanged brief greetings in front of me and went in without me hearing properly."
"So you don't know anything? Like possible reasons the Church would visit the countryside?"
Delit Ajusshi let out a big sigh as if annoyed.
"Haa, usually poverty relief is the most common... aside from that, they come to catch heretics."
As soon as he said that, Ivy standing beside me jumped in surprise.
"H-heretics?! But we don't have anything like that in our village."
"Well, that's right. They probably aren't heretics to begin with. If they came for heresy trials, they would have brought the Holy Knights and killed everyone. They wouldn't have been politely greeting people."
Hearing Delit Ajusshi's answer, Ivy let out a deep sigh of relief.
I instead stared intently at the village chief's house.
For some reason, my chest felt uncomfortably tight.
The fact that such a conservative church was sending people here like this was strange in itself.
*
I now move naturally while holding a shield that covers my entire body.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh. The shield rotates quickly gaining momentum, and when I swing it, a dull sound rang out.
Thump! Crack!
Ivy, who blocked the attack, moves another step.
'One step with the left foot. So she's planning to swing from the right?'
I watch her posture leaning to the right and quickly pull my shield back.
The pulled-back shield instantly covered my entire left side. Simultaneously, I put strength in both legs to anchor my body to the ground.
Once again, sword and shield collide.
With a clanging metallic sound, the blade flashes and continues to strike and bounce off the shield.
"That's enough. Stop."
After dozens of exchanges of attacks, Delit Ajusshi got up from his seat.
He approached clapping his hands in satisfaction.
"Now there's definitely a difference. Mia just needs to smoothly transition from defense to attack now. And as for Ivy..."
When I started going for training every day, Ivy began coming along too, saying she was bored.
Even though we received the same training and grew together, the difference is dimensional.
I guess it's because she's destined to become the Hero.
Delit Ajusshi said if I had the worst talent, then Ivy had the best talent.
It's not wrong since Ivy handles all weapons well.
"I already don't know what more to teach. All that's left now is actual combat and aura, things like that."
We started together about a year ago, and she's already at this level.
I should have taken her with me since she was little.
While listening to the praise of Ivy with satisfaction, I placed my shield on the ground and sat down.
"How about it? Don't you think Ivy is talent destined to become the Hero, just like I said?"
"Well, talent-wise she's definitely top-tier. But that doesn't mean everyone with talent becomes the Hero. Even the famous strong warriors today probably heard such stories when they were young?"
At his unchanged response, I pouted and changed the subject.
"Anyway, lately we see magical beasts almost every day."
I looked at the pile of magical beast corpses scattered in front of the village.
This is already the third day in a row.
Lately, the frequency has gradually increased, and the main public opinion is that we should move the village location soon.
'But this is too early compared to my calculations.'
There might be differences since this is Black Nightmare 2, not the Black Nightmare I played.
Both Ivy and Delit Ajusshi's gazes also turned toward the magical beast corpses.
"That's right... Dad has been worried a lot about magical beasts lately."
"I'm worried too. I used to not work and just relax, but lately there's more work to do so I'm tired."
As soon as I heard that, I looked at the ajusshi.
"Ajusshi, you should do some work. You're always just playing around."
"No, my job is village protection, so that's how it is."
"Always just sleeping..."
"No! That's because the village is safe. Isn't safety a good thing?"
"I don't know. I just wish you'd suffer a bit, ajusshi."
Then I turned my head to look at the magical beast corpses when a voice came from behind.
A low, emotionless voice.
So emotionless it gave me goosebumps, I almost swung my shield.
"Is this place... where cute young ladies also train?"
Startled, I turned around to see a priest in black clothes standing there.
I frowned at his strangely unpleasant expression.
He looked like a doll rather than a human.
And not in a good way, but in a bad way.
"We're training because we want to."
At my sharp response, his gaze turned toward me as if malfunctioning.
His empty gaze met mine.
My spine tingled as if shuddering.
"I see. I definitely see something in the little young lady."
"What, what do you see?"
"A bright light, perhaps? You're also a bit like a puppy. Anyway, it was an honor to watch the cute young ladies train. Then..."
The priest said with a slight bow of his head.
"Let's meet again next time."
"..."
It didn't feel like a polite remark.
It felt like we would actually meet again.