Paying It All Off
"Baek Siyun, are you a complete idiot?"
I'd just shoved every copper I'd received at the settlement counter straight toward the outstanding tab.
My fingertips froze. I turned my head slowly.
Mari's expression was not the look you give a party member. This wasn't someone who'd been fighting for her life with me in the forest moments ago — this was the look reserved for something that had just, with great care and dedication, done something profoundly stupid right in front of her.
Beside her, Kaya pressed her temple and let out a quiet sigh. Luce, too, rested a hand on her ledger and glanced up at me for a moment.
"What? I have to pay off the tab."
"Who said you shouldn't? What kind of lunatic dumps every last coin he just earned into his debt?"
"Ah...?"
"You planning to starve from now on?"
I looked down at my empty palm. My heart felt light. It really did feel light — and yet my pockets had been thoroughly, spectacularly cleaned out.
The relief of cutting down the debt and the reality of being broke again hit me at the same time, leaving me with a strange mix of feelings.
"Ah... yeah, I might actually be an idiot."
I said it honestly, and Mari laughed in pure disbelief.
"Wow~ amazing. Where do they even dig up morons like this?"
"I mean... paying off debt fast is a good thing, right?"
"It is. It is good — I'm just saying it because you clearly don't know what moderation is."
"Heh... I'll leave a little next time."
"Not next time. What are you doing about lunch right now?"
Mari's fact-check left me with nothing to say.
That was when Kaya cut in, short and clean.
"...I'll cover lunch today."
"Whoa, for real?"
"In exchange, from now on, think before you throw money at the tab."
"Yes, ma'am!"
I answered with perfect deference.
Hell yeah!
I forced down the grin that was trying to climb up the corners of my mouth on its own.
Of course Mari didn't miss it.
"You just thought something weird."
"No I didn't?"
"Liar. Kaya, look at his face."
"Mari, aren't you being a little too suspicious of people?"
"Your face is just too transparent."
"This is so unfair..."
"If it's unfair, try living smarter."
Even as she snapped at me, Mari sparked a tiny flame at her fingertips.
"Whoa, whoa, hang on! If you hit someone with that, they'll actually die!"
"Then dodge."
"Both of you, stop."
Kaya looked between me and Mari with a dead-serious face, and only then did the noisy atmosphere settle.
On the way to the Sunset Hearth, I greeted people around me as naturally as breathing.
The guard leaning by the guild door. The clerk sorting ledgers near the reception desk. The merchant unloading crates at the roadside.
"Hello!"
"Appreciate the hard work!"
Honestly, it wasn't much. But the things that aren't much tend to matter more than you'd think. If I wanted to get comfortable here, I had to be the one who stepped forward first.
A clean first impression. A bright greeting. A smiling face. A gentle voice.
People take in a lot more than they realize in a short moment, and they judge fast. Is this guy approachable? Unfriendly? Easy to talk to? Decent company?
So you step up first, smile, say hello, meet their eyes for a beat, don't get needlessly prickly, and keep the basics even when you're tired.
The core of service work, in the end, is becoming a sweet guy.
I was pretty good at that.
Haha! Call me the ultimate player.
Mari eyed me with open suspicion.
"Why are you smiling?"
"Huh? It's nothing."
"Kaya, this guy's weird."
"He was always weird."
"You two are so mean..."
Inside the Sunset Hearth, the lunch crowd packed the place the way lunch crowds always did.
Today the air was a tangle of hot oil, simmering chicken, and something herby, and it hit my appetite dead-on.
Kaya ordered for me as well, and a little later a huge bowl arrived.
Chicken stewed soft in a milky broth floated with root-like greens.
...Is this samgyetang?
There was no rice, but warm bread came piled on the side. The message was clear: dunk it in the broth and eat.
One spoonful and my insides unclenched completely.
It was rich without being greasy, and the chicken tore apart with almost no effort. A soft fragrance rose with every bite, and the broth sat heavy and satisfying. When I tore off bread, soaked it, and put it away, the flavor bloomed. It wasn't quite Korean samgyetang — but for now, this was more than enough.
"This is really good."
"Isn't that just because you're starving?"
"That's part of it, but it really is good."
Mari glanced at me while tearing into a chicken leg.
"A guy who was about to starve to death five minutes ago."
"Life opens a path if you keep walking."
"Kaya opened that path for you."
"True, huh? Guess I'm blessed with good people. Thank you, Kaya."
"Mm. Next time, try not doing something so stupid."
I nodded, then finally brought up the thing I'd been wondering about.
"I've got a question."
"What now."
"What happens if I wipe out every last goblin without leaving a single one? How do I keep making a living?"
Mari's hand paused mid-dip, bread hovering over the broth.
"Listen to you, talking about making a living. Well... the area would go quiet for a while."
"For a while?"
"Even if you kill every goblin around here, the ones that were hiding crawl back out, and more drift in from other places."
Kaya picked up the thread.
"Still, thinning them out matters. The village outskirts get a little safer, and fewer people get hurt by beasts."
"So no starving to death for a while, then. And it's good for the community too."
"Mm. That's why these requests never dry up."
Mari added,
"If you were strong enough to wipe them out completely, you'd usually be hunting bigger game than goblins anyway."
"That tracks."
Magical beasts would probably never disappear entirely. And someone would always have to keep killing them for everyone else's sake.
Adventurer was a cool word for it — but stripped bare, we were basically armed janitors.
The afternoon request was far rougher than the morning's.
It was a simple patrol-and-clear around the forest outside Broesen Pioneer Village, but goblins popped out more often than expected.
I was getting used to goblins by now. Two or three of them weren't much of a threat.
Mari would fire off a short burst of magic, I'd finish them, and Kaya's support from the rear plugged any gaps. Once a sword went in clean, they went down easier than you'd think.
And then it happened.
A wild boar appeared right in front of us.
Muscle shifted under a hide of jagged black bristles, and the tusks jutting from either side of its mouth were bigger and sharper than anything a goblin could dream of. It was also far larger than any boar I knew from Earth.
Whoa. That's huge.
Calling it just a wild boar didn't cover the look in its eyes. That thing was pouring killing intent from every inch of its body — the intent to charge a human and smash them flat.
"Iron-Tusk! Get clear!"
The moment Kaya's voice hit me, the beast kicked off the ground. I threw myself sideways on pure reflex.
A massive body tore through the spot where I'd been standing. Dirt sprayed. Tree roots shuddered.
If I'd taken that head-on...
Goosebumps crawled over my whole body.
I dropped low and spun around. That thick dorsal hide would be a nightmare to cut from the front. Instead I slipped toward the flank, behind the foreleg, into the gaps where the hide looked a little thinner.
It had just rammed its head into a tree, and for a beat its rear was open.
Now.
"Hup!"
The second the blade bit into its side, the feedback through my hand was nothing like goblin flesh. Tougher. Heavier. Not even close.
I didn't stop. I twisted the sword where it sat buried deep and ripped it sideways and up in one hard turn.
Dark red blood burst out.
"Kueeeek!"
The Iron-Tusk boar shrieked like mad and thrashed its body. One hit from that and I was done. I scrambled back, heart in my throat.
"Move!"
Mari's voice came with a spear of condensed flame. The fire punched straight into the wound I'd opened.
Boom!
With a bursting crack, the torn flesh inside blackened and burned, and the beast staggered a few steps before collapsing onto its side.
Thud.
The stink of scorched meat and blood rose together.
I caught my breath for a second and looked down at the fallen thing.
Pork ham... hell yeah.
The mana stone I split from its chest was nothing like a goblin's. If goblin stones were dull gray-green pebbles, this one was bigger, closer to a murky black-brown. The grain was rough, and when I set it on my palm it had a real, heavy presence.
"What the hell was that insane boar?"
"Iron-Tusk boar."
"So that's why this pays better than a plain goblin request."
"Getting it now?"
"Yeah. For real."
My wrist still stung and my breathing was rough, but the corner of my mouth ticked up a little anyway.
Boar bastard — down!
Magical beasts kept coming after that.
Three goblins to start, then two more bursting from the brush, and I didn't let the one that tried to run get away either.
I thought that was it — then two Iron-Tusks charged us. At the end, four more goblins.
I kept a rough count in my head while I swung.
Just what we'd taken today already far outstripped the morning. My legs were heavy and my wrists ached, but my center held. Mari's magic timing and Kaya's support were getting more and more natural too.
"Let's head back."
"Yes, ma'am."
"You're getting halfway useful."
"Oh~ Mari. So you do know how to compliment people?"
"I take it back."
"Ah."
"Too late to apologize."
Kaya snorted a quiet laugh beside us.
"Don't push any harder. Siyun, your hands are shaking."
"Ah, that's just because Mari's words hurt me so much my hands are trembling."
"Don't talk nonsense."
"Yes, ma'am."
Even on the way back, I kept greeting the villagers.
The guild clerk watching the warehouse. The old man sweeping near the guild. The staff sorting goods.
At first the looks had been pure outsider-passing-through. Now they felt like they'd shifted a little — at least into the range of a familiar face.
Village affinity farming is essential.
Even in this world, I still had to live among people.