What Are You?

“Who’s the outsider.”

That single line, dropped right outside the Healing Sanctuary door, made the sounds still lingering inside settle just a little more.

I muttered under my breath, just to myself.

He saw me right out front. Why’s he acting like that.

Still, I opened my mouth.

“…It’s me.”

Even after I answered, the air stayed heavy.

The man at the door didn’t speak right away. Instead he looked me over slowly.

Face.

Shoulders.

Bloodstained dagger.

Hands.

Torn sleeve.

Face again.

It wasn’t the way you looked at a person. It was more like checking the condition of some object of unknown origin.

“Name.”

Short. Hard.

“Baek Siyun.”

His eyes shifted, just a fraction. Whether my name was unfamiliar or the pronunciation caught him, I couldn’t tell.

“Where did you come from.”

“That’s…”

I shut my mouth for a second.

Shit… what am I supposed to say.

“Speak.”

He didn’t even wait for an answer. It wasn’t quite a rush and it wasn’t quite pressure, but that one word made the inside of my throat feel dry for no good reason.

“…I don’t remember.”

Right beside me, Mari let out a breath that was almost a snort.

“See? He’s already at it.”

“Mari.”

Kaya said her name low.

The man at the door didn’t even glance at Mari. His eyes stayed locked on me.

“You don’t remember?”

“I remember basic common sense and how to speak, but… the rest doesn’t come back very well.”

A short silence.

From deeper inside came the creak of a stretcher, and an older priest was peeling more of the armor away from Roy’s side. Over the smell of blood, the scent of medicinal herbs lay thick.

“Your memory’s empty.”

“Yes.”

“And why should I believe that?”

“No reason.”

The words were out before I could stop them.

I was a little surprised myself. But I couldn’t take them back. A clumsy cover story would only look more suspicious, and being too honest would just get me written off as a lunatic.

“I’d be suspicious too. But right now I honestly don’t have anything more convincing to invent.”

Mari’s brow folded even harder.

“Wow. Shameless.”

“I’m telling the truth.”

“That’s exactly what makes it the most suspicious.”

Kaya drew a breath and cut in.

“Suspicious is right.”

Mari jumped on it immediately.

“Then we’re done.”

“But he didn’t run during the fight.”

Kaya’s voice was still dry. The voice of someone half-dead from exhaustion who was still turning things over in her head.

“At least he doesn’t look like a villain right this second. And it’s a fact that he held onto Roy and got him ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠all the way here.”

“That’s even weirder.”

Mari glared at me as she spoke.

“From head to toe, he’s not from around here. His hands, too.”

I looked down at my hands without thinking.

Blood had dried on them. Dark red stains spread across the backs of my hands, between my knuckles, along the edges of my palms.

Mari wasn’t wrong.

They weren’t the callused hands of hard labor, or the hands of someone who’d held a sword for years, or the soft hands of someone raised carefully either.

Just vaguely, unremarkably fine hands.

Which only made them look more suspicious.

And with these hands, I’d just killed living things.

My mood got a little worse.

Kaya cut it short.

“If we killed people over how they look, what would the guild even be for.”

“So you’re saying he’s not suspicious?”

“No… I’m saying we wait and see.”

That was when it happened.

From the stretcher came a rough, scraping sound of breath.

Roy.

The older priest had his hands gathered over the wound. Faint golden holy power flowed from his fingertips, and the split flesh was slowly drawing closed.

It wasn’t sealing completely. Just enough to stop the bleeding, with crushed herbs packed on top and a bandage pressed down to hold it.

The priest murmured low.

“No internal damage, at least. Fortunate.”

Roy looked this way through half-lidded eyes. More accurately, he was trying hard to look.

“…Hey.”

His voice was cracked.

Kaya turned her head toward Roy, and Mari shut her mouth for a moment too.

Roy forced a breath in.

“That kid…”

The words broke off under their own weight.

“He… saved us.”

The Healing Sanctuary went quiet for a very short beat.

Roy, still barely able to open his eyes, almost crawled out one more sentence.

“I… vouch for him.”

The words weren’t loud, and they weren’t cool. They were a sentence hauled up on the breath of a man who had bled far too much.

The man at the door looked at Roy for a moment. His expression didn’t change, but he stopped, just briefly.

Only then did the younger priest standing nearby open his mouth, low.

“Deputy Guild Leader Garen…”

Garen.

Before the name had even fully settled in my head, the man’s voice dropped again.

“I heard the guarantee.”

He took one step closer.

“But hearing it and believing it are different things.”

Uh… a little close there.

Before I could get another word out, Garen’s hand shot toward me.

The dagger.

A hand going for the goblin dagger still clutched in my grip.

Too fast.

Oh shit—!

But my body moved first.

My wrist rolled inward, my feet twisted half a beat ahead. My fingers clamped down harder so I wouldn’t lose the blade, and my waist and shoulders locked at the same time.

The dagger I’d expected to lose was still sitting in my hand. Garen’s fingertips skimmed past it and missed.

“…“

I was blank.

What. Did I just dodge that?

Garen didn’t pull his hand back right away either. He paused for a very short moment.

This time his eyes didn’t go to my face. They tracked my hands and feet, the line of my shoulders, my center of balance.

A short sound of breath jumped out of Mari’s mouth.

“What was that just now.”

Kaya looked at me too.

My heart started hammering belatedly, like crazy.

Heavenly Demon Physique. I don’t think I can live without you anymore.

Garen withdrew his hand.

“Not a trained movement.”

Low, hard voice.

“And yet the reaction and the judgment are both fast.”

“I don’t really know what I just did either.”

“That also sounds like a cut-off memory talking.”

“That’s actually the case.”

Mari muttered low.

“Seriously, unpleasantly suspicious.”

“Mari.”

“I know. But suspicious is still suspicious.”

Garen didn’t react much to my answers. Instead he asked the priest behind him.

“Demonic energy reaction.”

“None.”

“Curse.”

“Nothing visible. At least no malignant reaction right now.”

“Is he human.”

“Yes. He appears human.”

Appears human.

I had no idea why that was so funny. The fact that I needed confirmation I was even human felt a little absurd.

Garen looked at me again.

His eyes were heavier than before. Not just the eyes of someone looking at a suspicious outsider. The eyes of someone looking at something he needed to verify himself, once.

“No formal registration.”

What even is formal registration.

He went on.

“But I have no intention of just sending you away either.”

Mari crossed her arms, and Kaya wordlessly checked on Roy again.

Garen spoke with absolute firmness.

“Tonight, you stay attached to the Healing Sanctuary.”

“…“

“Do not leave the village.”

“Yes.”

“And tomorrow morning.”

His gaze stopped at the tips of my fingers. He traced slowly from the dagger to the back of my hand, over the torn sleeve.

“Come to the training grounds behind the Loenheim Guild Hall.”

A short silence.

“There, I will see for myself what you are.”

The words sounded half like a notice of interrogation and half like the announcement of a test.

Probably both.

Garen said nothing more and turned. The order not to leave the village had drawn a clean line.

Once he was gone, the sounds that had been holding still inside the Healing Sanctuary slowly began to come back to life.

Someone carried water. Someone brought bandages. Someone checked on Roy again.

Kaya let out a long breath. Her face was pale, and her fingertips were trembling a little.

Mari leaned her back against the wall and muttered.

“Haa… I’m so damn tired.”

“How much mana do you have left?”

Kaya asked.

“Almost none.”

“Same.”

Both of them looked completely spent. I only realized it now, but those two had also pushed themselves right up to the edge.

Kaya looked my way once.

“Tonight, you sleep here.”

“Here?”

“Sending you outside is awkward, and there’s no reason to put you up at an inn. There’s one temporary guest room in the back of the sanctuary.”

Mari cut in.

“If you run, it’s the death penalty.”

“I have no plans to run.”

“Good for you, then.”

Kaya exchanged a few short words with the young priest, then led me to the back of the Healing Sanctuary.

At the end of the corridor was a small room.

One bed. One basin. One table.

The window was small, and the faint smell of herbs had soaked into the place.

It wasn’t a prison, but it wasn’t exactly a comfortable room either.

Just a room for temporarily laying someone down.

“I’m not locking the door.”

Kaya said.

“But if you try anything stupid, we’ll know right away. Got it?”

“Yes.”

“Water’s over there. Clean the blood off first.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“…Save the thanks for when Roy wakes up.”

Leaving only that, Kaya turned and left.

Once the door closed, it got suddenly quiet.

I stared at the door for a while.

Then I went to the basin and washed my hands and arms. The water turned red almost immediately. I scrubbed the blood off the backs of my hands and washed between my knuckles. The smell of goblin blood mixed with the smell of water and rose up.

Knock. Knock.

Someone rapped on the door.

When I opened it, a young boy who looked like an apprentice priest held out a wooden tray.

“Your evening meal.”

On the tray sat a rough hunk of baked grain bread and a bowl of soup that looked lukewarm. The faint smells of grass and grain mixed together.

“Ah, thank you.”

I closed the door and set the tray on the table.

Without much expectation, I tore the bread, dipped it in the soup, and ate.

“…Oh?”

It was more edible than I thought?

Not that it was particularly good. The bread was dry and hard, the soup was lukewarm, and the seasoning was bland. But somehow my hands kept going back for more.

When I finished, there was exactly one problem.

The portion’s a little light.

I felt only about half full.

I looked down at the empty bowl and sighed.

“Haa…”

I wanted ramen. And pork neck.

I stared blankly into empty air. Then I opened the Dimensional Archive.

Looking at the record only made me hungrier.

“Maybe I’ll just hop over for a bit.”

I thought of my original world.

The dimensional gate opened without a sound.

The moment I got back to my one-room apartment, I turned on my phone first.

The time on the lock screen read ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠8:38 p.m.

I stared at that number for a while.

I’d killed goblins in another world, held onto Roy and fought through the forest, entered a village, sat in a Healing Sanctuary room, and even eaten bread — and reality was still only evening.

“Whoa…”

A hollow laugh slipped out.

“Doesn’t that mean I could work in the real world without ever getting tired?”

The second the words left my mouth, I lightly slapped my own cheek.

“Fuck, are you an idiot? Even now, work is the first thing you think of?”

I went to the kitchen, put water on for ramen, and pulled pork neck out of the fridge.

The sizzle, the smell of oil popping, the scent ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of ramen seasoning rising — only then did I start to feel ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a little more alive.

“Ahh… this is the real shit.”

I fished up noodles with my chopsticks, then followed them with a piece of pork neck, and for real, I felt my body start to loosen.

“Wow.”

I laughed to myself as I drank the broth.

“Gotta eat a solid dinner~.”

Once my stomach was full, I opened the Archive again.

Astrania-1337.

I opened the dimensional gate and crossed back over, and the room was exactly as I’d left it.

The half-torn scrap of bread.

The empty soup bowl.

The cloth draped over the edge of the cot.

Even the angle of the light pooled under the door crack.

Truly, exactly as the moment I’d left.

Not a single trace of time having moved.

I slowly looked around the room for a while.

“Whoa… it really freezes.”

The low murmur spread small through the room.

The world you leave behind stops.

I sat on the edge of the cot.

My stomach was full, and my body had loosened a little. But my head still hadn’t fully settled.

Tomorrow morning. The training grounds behind the Loenheim Guild Hall.

Garen’s face — pure gigachad energy — rose again in my mind.

Not a trained movement.

Those words, and the speed of the hand that had gone for my dagger.

“Wonder how this is gonna go…”

I muttered quietly, leaned my back against the wall, and closed my eyes.

Outside the door, distant footsteps passed once, and somewhere the faint sound of herbs being ground could be heard.

Even listening to those sounds, my heart felt strangely at ease.

At least this place wasn’t a world that tried to kill you the second you walked in.