A Hand in the Dark
Something about the atmosphere told me they weren’t about to ask for the bounty back. I stared up at the helmet that hid its wearer’s face, then shifted my gaze to the hand extended toward me. An awkward standoff lingered in the reception room until a receptionist’s voice called out from behind the silent, armored mercenary.
“Ah! He happened to overhear your situation and said he really wants to help.”
“Huh? Oh… really?”
Startled by the unprompted kindness, I blinked and instinctively turned toward the receptionist. The armored mercenary still stood there with an outstretched hand, saying nothing. Forget the offer of help—I couldn’t even figure out what the gesture itself meant.
The receptionist approached slowly while speaking, still hidden behind the mercenary’s broad back.
“We can vouch for his identity. By the way, that gesture means… ah, he wants you to take his hand.”
After glancing at the situation between us, the receptionist finally explained the meaning of the offered hand. Why the hand? With a dazed expression, I placed my palm against the cold gauntlet. The mercenary gently closed their fingers around mine and began walking, clearly intending to lead me out of the reception room. My body naturally followed the pull.
Right after, the receptionist added a few more words from inside.
“He’s quite the quiet type, so it’ll be hard to talk while you’re outside~”
Hard to talk while outside? I turned my head toward the reception room, confused, but the door shut before I could ask anything.
The guild staff had personally vouched for him, so there was probably no need to worry… but in a world where people killing people wasn’t rare, it was only natural to feel wary of a stranger’s unexplained kindness. Still, maybe because the short-lived thirst for revenge from the past three days had already faded, all I felt was an indescribable emptiness and hollowness as I simply followed along, holding the mercenary’s hand.
We were walking through the royal capital’s streets when—
“Mom, what’s that?”
“Shh, come here.”
When a child clearly pointed at me and asked, the mother quickly grabbed the child’s arm and hurried away. Only then did I notice the gazes stabbing down at my neck. Dark red stains were splattered across my body and clothes. The blood droplets that had once gleamed almost pink under the light had already darkened to black… and the specks on my skin had dried all the way down to my ankles, looking as if they were my own blood.
With the hand not held by the mercenary, I lifted the hem of my clothes slightly. The dried traces on the fabric moved like a single wide board whenever the surroundings stirred. It didn’t feel like cloth swaying—it felt like a red panel stuck to my body.
“Excuse me, did something happen to the child over there?”
Because I was covered in blood from head to toe, I even got stopped by a guard patrolling the streets. But the mercenary seemed to be quite well-known in the capital; the senior guard beside the one who had stopped me scolded his subordinate.
“You idiot! My apologies, you may continue on your way.”
The armored mercenary simply nodded in silence, treating the exchange as nothing important. After walking steadily, we arrived in the middle of a residential area filled with houses. We stopped in front of a rather spacious-looking house—large enough that living alone in it would feel burdensome.
No signs of life could be felt from inside. As if that were only natural, the mercenary finally released my hand, pulled out a key from somewhere, and unlocked the door. After entering first, they left the door open and stood holding the inner doorknob, quietly watching me as if urging me to come in.
A strange sense of intimidation emanated from the large figure. After hesitating for a while, I carefully stepped inside without a word.
“…”
The first impression of the house, greeted by quiet stillness, was… cleaner than I expected. That was the only thought that came to mind. I still had no idea why the mercenary had brought me here or what kind of help they wanted to offer, so everything felt surreal.
While I stood awkwardly in the middle of the house, glancing around—
“Make yourself comfortable. The bathroom’s over there, so wash off the blood. As for clothes… I’ll go buy some, so just wait.”
I jumped at the sudden sound of a woman’s voice. The voice had clearly come from the direction of the entrance. At the sound of the door clicking shut, I stared at it in a daze. So… it had been a woman all along.
‘She… was a woman?’
After staring at the entrance with wide, startled eyes for a moment, I slowly began to move. Only then did I understand, at least a little, why she had been so quiet. Whether she liked it or not, being a woman brought plenty of problems on its own.
With that thought, I entered the bathroom of someone else’s house. Though the house itself was built with the wood and stone typical of a medieval fantasy game, the bathroom fixtures carried a distinctly modern feel. After washing away the bloodstains that had dried and stuck to my skin, I soaked the stiff, dark-red-stained clothes in a wooden basin filled with hot water. The once-clear water quickly turned crimson, as if paint had been poured into it.
When I heard the door creak open beyond the closed bathroom door, I realized she had returned. The approaching footsteps stopped in front of the door, followed by the sound of a paper bag being set down, before fading away again.
A sense of relief washed over me—the knowledge that someone was protecting me. After thoroughly rinsing even the clumps of blood stuck to my hair, I wrung out the water from the clothes in the basin. Splashing sounds echoed as blood-tinged water ran across the floor. Once I had hung the clothes up at a suitable height in the bathroom, I quickly grabbed the paper bag left just outside the door gap.
The top was a bit loose since it was slightly larger than my original clothes. Anyway, after getting fully dressed, I stepped out of the bathroom to find a woman sitting on a chair in light clothing soaked with sweat. The heavy plate armor was neatly placed on the floor, and the gray-haired woman was dripping with perspiration. Considering everything that had happened, I could be certain she was the person who had been inside the armor.
Her expression was cold and unreadable. Despite her blunt-looking face, I bowed my head first to express my gratitude.
“Um, thank you…”
“Yeah, sure. Just make yourself at home for now.”
She spoke flatly, her eyebrows slightly drooping. As she told me to relax, she tapped the empty space on the long sofa with her palm. Sitting on the smooth leather sofa and watching her carefully amid the strange silence, I heard her dry voice continue from beside me.
“You don’t have anywhere else to go, do you?”
It was a presumptuous remark. Come to think of it, the receptionist had said she’d heard about my story somehow. But whatever version had reached her ears, it seemed I was being treated like an orphan. Startled by the idea of my perfectly alive parents being considered nonexistent, I fumbled with my hands, trying to correct her—
“Huh? No, that’s not—”
“Stay here for the time being. I’ll help you out in various ways.”
Her added words swallowed the explanation that had been about to leave my mouth. The impulsive journey that felt like an escape could end right now if I wanted. But… was it really okay to go back like this? If I returned, I would just spend my days again under Mom and Dad’s shadow. On top of that, I had gotten into an accident on the carriage ride here, and miraculously, only I had survived. In that situation, would they ever let me leave the village again?
The answer was no. If it were me, I wouldn’t send my son outside again after he came back from an accident. Whether I turned twenty or not, it was obvious I’d be stuck in the village for life. Even if Mom respected my wishes, there wouldn’t be a next time. That meant I’d have to live trembling every day, entrusting the world’s future to the protagonist.
So instead of running back like a fugitive… wouldn’t it be better to return only after achieving something concrete? Once that thought reached me, I snatched up the offer like a fish biting bait right in front of its eyes.
“Yes, thank you.”
The mercenary I ended up living with was named Reina. As it turned out, she was a fairly well-known A-class mercenary who had stayed in the capital for a long time. Her unusual appearance, quiet personality, and long residence here had made her quite recognizable. Though she looked blunt at first glance with her usual outfit and face, she was surprisingly capable of normal conversation.
One day, when I asked about her bulky armor and her appearance outside—
“It’s better to clearly separate public and private matters. It helps avoid unnecessary trouble, too.”
…That was the answer I got. In any case, she was someone with a very distinct personality. Moreover, the practical combat training I received from an active A-class mercenary was invaluable. Especially after my first kill, driven by revenge—
‘As expected, around that time… I felt strangely stronger.’
Even though it was several years before the original timeline, Brenda had been destined to become a field boss. That encounter had given me a massive amount of experience points, which my body had absorbed without me realizing. I couldn’t see it with my eyes, but I was certain of it.
“Squeee—!”
‘What, already?’
Even my first fight against a young boar, which I had thought would be a hurdle, ended without much difficulty. For reference, my weapon wasn’t anything special—just a regular one bought from a shop. My body had already far surpassed that of an ordinary thirteen-year-old. As for the hidden early-game weapon…
While staying in the capital, I visited a certain building several times, but there was no reaction. It seemed the dagger Brenda had thrown was treated as a proper weapon after all. The moment I grabbed it, the acquisition opportunity had vanished.
‘Anyway…’
Setting aside my disappointment about the item, I sat on the sofa and took a deep breath. I had put off telling Reina that I had a home to return to, and telling my parents in Pardin about the uncle’s situation and my current circumstances. Figuring out when to bring any of it up was proving to be a difficult day.