Mokdong Settlement (2)
I must have walked into the wrong room.
There was simply no other way to explain the situation I was in right now.
"I don't have anything to talk about with you."
Alarm bells screamed in my head that if I didn't get out immediately, something extremely troublesome was about to happen. I spun around to make a quick exit—only for her to close the distance at a speed I never even saw coming and clamp down hard on my right shoulder.
"Even if you don't, I do. Go sit over there."
I had no choice but to go sit on the bed she pointed to.
Looking up at her—she stood only about a head shorter than me—I said,
"We've never even met before, except for when you picked that fight earlier, right? So why are you doing this to me? Is it because you saw me with that guy? What, are the two of you dating or something? Did that make you jealous?"
I swatted the hand still resting on my shoulder and snapped at her. She tilted her head with a little tilt and opened her mouth.
"Me and Hyeonseok? As if. I don't even have any romantic feelings for him."
Her answer landed like a solid smack to the back of my head.
Wait—so you're not dating and you don't even like him, so why the hell are you acting like this?
I stared at her in pure disbelief.
"What's with that look?"
"Hah. Never mind. So what exactly did you want to say to me?"
"I was going to apologize."
"Apologize? Out of nowhere?"
"Yeah. Because Hyeonseok told me to."
I still didn't understand why she had to make it so confusing instead of just saying sorry, but since it seemed I had simply misunderstood, I twirled a strand of hair around my finger.
"Then just say it without confusing people—"
She cut me off, suddenly leaning her face right in and cupping both of my cheeks with her hands.
"But I didn't do anything wrong. Vixen, you're the one who was in the wrong."
"What...?! Hey! You said you were apologizing!"
She kneaded my cheeks as she went on.
"I saw it clearly with these two eyes. The vixen who walked right up to Hyeonseok, nuzzled her face against him, and acted all spoiled—that was you!"
The moment her words hit me, my spinning thoughts slammed on the brakes and came to a dead stop. When they started moving again, I shoved away the girl who was pinching and prodding my cheeks hard enough to make little squishing sounds and headed straight for the door.
What the hell is she talking about?! She's not just crazy—she's completely insane!
The atmosphere made it painfully clear that staying any longer would only drag me into even weirder nonsense, so I yanked the door open and stepped out—only for something else to appear right in front of my face. I slammed my head straight into it.
There was a solid thud as we collided, yet strangely it didn't hurt. In fact, the stabbing pain that had been throbbing in my lower abdomen until just a moment ago seemed to ease, if only a little.
After we returned to the settlement, we had been discussing how to deal with the outlaws we had subdued when the outlaws themselves woke up and turned the whole conversation into pure chaos.
While the outlaws hurled every curse they knew and the settlement residents rose to the bait, swearing they would kill them for real, I stood in the middle sweating as I tried to hold everyone back. Yeonseo simply watched the whole mess with indifferent eyes, as if none of it concerned her.
At least one of the people leading them, Uncle Seo Chun-seok, was shouting for everyone to calm down, saying that once Captain Ho Dunsik returned they would discuss it properly with the leader, Elder Kang Hancheol—when, far off in the distance, a powerfully built muscular man and a girl even smaller than Yeonseo came walking toward us.
Judging by the way Uncle Chun-seok just took off running, that man must be the one they call Ho Dunsik.
I thought I could finally breathe a sigh of relief and turned to Yeonseo to suggest we slip away—only to find she had already marched straight up to the distant girl and started picking a fight.
Caught completely off guard, I smacked my own forehead and sprinted over, dragged Yeonseo back, apologized to the girl, and then hurried us both back to the lodging reserved for outsiders.
On the way I asked her why she had gone up to the child in the first place, but Yeonseo only muttered, "Hyeonseok doesn't need to know," and walked into her room.
"Apologize the next time you see her! Got it? Ugh, she does this every single time..."
After that there wasn't much else to do, so I went outside for a walk, helped anyone who needed a hand, and played with the kids running around. Before I knew it I had completely forgotten we still needed to talk about tomorrow's schedule, so I headed for Yeonseo's room.
But just before I opened the door I heard Yeonseo arguing with someone.
That voice sounds familiar somehow...
I waited until the voices quieted, then reached out to knock—only for a girl with reddish-orange hair to come bursting out with a thud and bury her face straight into my stomach.
"Ah—sorry, are you okay?"
Instead of answering, the girl only let out a soft hmm~ and kept nuzzling her face against my belly over and over. I stood there frozen with both hands in the air, completely at a loss.
What is this? What just happened?
I started counting prime numbers to keep any thoughts from forming. Then a strange ticklish sensation made me look down—only to discover that while she was still rubbing her face against me, she had also begun poking my stomach with her index finger, poke, poke.
"Um... hey? Could you maybe let go now? That big sister over there is glaring at us with a really serious face..."
"Th-this... fox slut...!"
The moment Yeonseo's voice reached her, the girl pulled her face away, blinked her amber eyes up at me, then went wide-eyed as her whole face turned bright red.
"Ah... ah...!"
She looked so startled and lost that I simply rested a hand on her head and gave it a gentle pat, smiling a little.
"Haha! It's fine. These things happen, right?"
"...G-get... out..."
"Hm? What did you say?"
"Get out!!!!"
Of course, right after that a sudden massive impact slammed into my stomach at the same time the door shut in my face, catching me square and sending me sprawling. I blacked out on the spot.
After slamming the door hard, I sank down onto the floor.
I clearly remembered opening the door and colliding with something, but everything after that was a blank. All I knew was that the pain stabbing through my lower abdomen had eased, leaving me strangely comfortable, and I had simply let myself sink into that feeling.
But when I heard the woman's voice still glaring at me from behind and shouting, "She really is a vixen after all... fox slut...!", I snapped back to my senses—only to find myself already being held in the arms of that man from earlier.
Why? How? I was a man... No, I'm a woman now, but even so, why...?
"Hey, vixen! You okay?"
No matter how hard I thought, I couldn't find a single reason why I had done that to him. Instead, only the sensation of it kept replaying, heat flooding my face until it burned. The pain in my lower abdomen that had finally quieted came roaring back even stronger, a sudden headache splitting my skull, and I collapsed right there on the spot.
"Hey! Can you... hear me? Hey...!"
That voice was the last thing I heard before I lost consciousness.
When I opened my eyes, a warm, pure-white space welcomed me.
"I definitely just collapsed out of nowhere..."
I tried to sit up and lift my head—only for a gentle hand to brush against my cheek.
"Have you been well, Charlotte?"
"That voice... Partruna? Why...? Don't tell me I died again?"
Partruna let out a soft little laugh and brushed my bangs to the side.
"You haven't died. If anything, you should think of it as having grown."
"What? What do you mean, grown...?"
"It's faster to experience it yourself than to hear an explanation. Would you try drawing Durandal for me?"
"Huh? All right."
I rose from the goddess Partruna's embrace and drew Durandal. In that instant I understood—the headache I had felt earlier had been the flood of information pouring in as Durandal's true abilities unlocked.
"So... does that mean I can finally use Durandal properly now?"
"Yes, exactly. Your previous body—I'm sorry to say it so bluntly—simply had no talent for this."
"Ugh... Well, you're not wrong. I could feel it myself after the body changed."
"That's probably why you could only use Holy Fire as simple orbs. But things should be different now."
"You mean...?!"
At once I formed Holy Fire and shaped it however I wished—into a shield, a spear, a sword. Compared to before, I could control it faster and with far finer precision.
"Durandal itself is already an extremely hard and sharp sword, but its true form lies in combat that uses divine power. In the end Durandal is a physical blade, so you still have to close the distance yourself. That is why those abilities were attached to it."
Why had I only ever been able to make simple fire orbs with divine power? Because divine power is far harder to fine-tune than mana. Mana is easy to control no matter what you do with it, though the gap between skilled and unskilled users is huge. Divine power shows almost no difference based on the user's skill—but anything other than healing is extremely difficult to shape with precision.
"And there's something else I need to tell you."
"Something to tell me?"
"Fragments of Gaia—the Earth Goddess and mother of all gods—have been discovered throughout the Tower."
"Fragments? Does that mean we have to gather them?"
"Yes. Only then can we return her to the cycle of reincarnation and birth a new god to fill the empty divine seat. Many people are already challenging the Tower, of course, but it will have to be done even faster. Otherwise the fragments may end up strengthening the Tower itself."
"I see. Understood. As the goddess's apostle, I will accept this trial as well."
After receiving her unexpected request, Partruna's form began to fade starting from her legs.
"Oh dear, already time to part. You look so cute I wanted to keep watching a little longer—what a shame."
"Cute...? That's...! More importantly, will we be able to meet again?"
"Of course. You'll just need to fulfill certain conditions!"
"Certain conditions?"
"Mm~ that's a se-cret! Now, time to go back!"
She gave my back a quick push as I turned toward her.
"What? A secret? What do you mean?! What else are you hiding from me?!"
"You'll find out little by little! Ah—and when you return, I recommend changing clothes right away!"
"Huh?! Wait a second!"
Leaving Partruna's meaningful words behind, I opened my eyes.
I blinked, and the first thing I saw was that woman carefully placing a small piece of ice on my forehead while I lay there.
It's cold... but it actually feels nice...
"Vixen, you awake?"
"I think it would've been better if I'd just stayed unconscious. How long was I out?"
"About ten minutes? More importantly, get up already."
An unpleasant, painful sensation was rising from below, and I really didn't want to move.
"Don't wanna... Can't I just stay lying here?"
"I don't care either way, but your clothes might."
"What is that supposed to mean?!"
I hurriedly pushed myself up with both hands—only to collapse back down.
"Ugh... my stomach hurts so much..."
The pain in my lower abdomen kept me from rising.
It had eased earlier... so why is it this bad again?
"I'll help you. Come on, up."
"Thanks."
With her help I finally managed to sit up, and as I looked at her I thought,
When she acts like this, she actually seems pretty decent...
I myself probably looked like a rather cute girl right now, but she was the opposite—cool and a little aloof. The kind of cool, kind older sister who would take good care of a little sibling...
"You're up? Then strip."
Never mind. She's just a complete lunatic after all.