Yujun Rose and Asked, Unmoved
Yujun pushed himself up and asked, his face perfectly blank.
"Why?"
"Why did you take the Golden Goblin without permission..."
"Weren't you all killing yourselves trying to catch this thing? I caught it for you. Instead of thanking me, you're angry?"
He had not said a single word that was wrong.
The Fourth Archangel stared, dumbstruck, and for a moment could not find her voice. Then her face hardened, and she spoke again.
"That was our quarry."
"I was part of your group too, wasn't I?"
"...What? I have never seen you."
"That's because you never checked them one by one. My companions are among the players coming up behind us."
"Hmph."
When Yujun's party actually arrived, she had nothing left to challenge him with.
The celestials who saw the Golden Goblin dangling from his hand laughed in hollow disbelief.
"Shin Yujun caught it."
"When did he show up? Was he here the whole time?"
"Well, he's holding the Golden Goblin by the head, isn't he?"
"I saw Shin Yujun pass by earlier, too."
"You did?"
"Huh? But my contribution isn't going up."
"He hasn't killed it yet. It's only knocked out."
"So? I can kill it, right?"
Yujun said it to the Fourth Archangel.
She shook her head. A refusal.
"Why?"
"If you take the kill, all the contribution will pile onto you."
"Then who should kill it?"
"I should. I am the one leading this great host."
"Not everyone's in the same party, are they? Then splitting the contribution becomes a problem, doesn't it? The other players only chased the Golden Goblin. Is that even going to build any contribution?"
The Fourth Archangel clamped her mouth shut. Only after a long silence did she speak.
"To speak plainly, the finishing blow is not what matters."
"The finish doesn't matter? Then what does?"
"That we must do battle with the Golden Goblin."
"For the contribution?"
"Yes."
Yujun studied her with doubtful eyes. From a single prior experience, he knew that killing a Golden Goblin produced no change at all. He could not be certain it would be the same this time, of course. This one had been faster and sharper than the creature he had caught before. They looked alike, but that difference might be exactly what separated the real from the fake. If this goblin was a fake as well, however, he had no choice but to suspect the Fourth Archangel.
She was letting the Golden Goblin get away on purpose. I'm sure of it.
Up close, he could roughly gauge her skill. She was not slow enough to be shaken off by a Golden Goblin.
"Then give it a try."
Yujun slapped the Golden Goblin hard across the cheek. At the tremendous force of the blow, its eyes flew open.
"Wh-what is this?"
"What do you think? Get up. You've got work to do."
"Work?"
Yujun hauled the creature to its feet and turned its body toward the Fourth Archangel.
"Fight."
While she stood there dumbfounded, the Golden Goblin simply fled. Quick on the uptake, that one.
"Doesn't look like it wants to fight."
"..."
"Will the contribution go up if you force a fight?"
"W-wait, aren't we about to lose it?"
"Lady Fourth Archangel!"
Even the celestials urged her on.
The Fourth Archangel let out a deep sigh, beat her wings, and shot away at tremendous speed.
She's even faster than before.
So she had been hiding her strength after all. More precisely, she simply had not wanted to catch the Golden Goblin. With that, Yujun's suspicion proved to have been anything but baseless. If one had to name the person most closely tied to the Golden Goblin, for the moment it was the Fourth Archangel.
Just then Do Jiyun, Dokgo Minsu, and the rest of the party came up.
"What happened? Why did you let it go?"
"I wanted to see how the Fourth Archangel would react."
"And because of that contribution business, you ended up losing it."
"I didn't lose it."
"What?"
"The gold-colored goblin isn't the Golden Goblin. I'm certain."
"Then... the Fourth Archangel?"
"We'll have to confirm that now."
"How did you know?"
"It just seemed suspicious. Once I saw the Fourth Archangel up close, it was obvious."
"A feeling, then... something of that sort?"
"That's right."
"In truth, I too had been thinking her suspicious..."
"This guy's hilarious. A minute ago you were going on and on about how the Fourth Archangel would never be that kind of celestial."
Unable to hold back at Dokgo Minsu's shamelessness, Kim Yohan jumped in.
"When did I ever say such a thing?"
"Plenty of witnesses, Mister. Don't try to deny it. The more you do, the worse you look."
"Ahem... My memory fails me."
"Seriously, the moment someone seems even a little pretty, your eyes just roll right over. You've got to fix that, Mister."
"Pray, try to understand. For more than forty years I have lived alone, never once having courted."
"Seriously?"
When Yujun asked, startled, Dokgo Minsu flushed and nodded.
"Shameful as it is, yes."
"So all this time you've only been training with the sword?"
"Not so..."
"Dating is a hassle, I'll give you that. It's also something you can only do if you put in the effort."
"I did put in the effort."
"..."
"I tried those blind dates several times as well, yet not once did I succeed."
"The two of you just weren't a match, I guess. Personality has to fit, and the conversation has to flow. That's what matters... I understand."
"I was rejected. One-sidedly."
"..."
"Every last one of them found fault with my appearance."
"To your face?"
"I heard it from the one who arranged the meeting."
"The matchmaker's got problems too, repeating it word for word like that..."
"The matchmaker is not at fault. I begged them to tell me the reason."
"Ah."
"It was maddening. I could not grasp the reason at all. And yet, when they said the fault lay in my appearance, I could offer neither rebuttal nor a single word."
All at once the mood turned solemn. Dokgo Minsu's words were thick with old, clinging sorrow. Even Kim Yohan, the very embodiment of needling, shut his mouth and listened.
"I made the effort. I tried to improve myself. But you may stripe a pumpkin all you like, and it will never become a watermelon. The fundamental problem remained unsolved."
"Hah..."
"But, Mister. Was it maybe because you talked like this?"
At Kim Yohan's words, Dokgo Minsu gave a bitter smile and shook his head.
"Would I have failed to correct something so simple?"
"Then show us."
"Show you what?"
"Drop the persona. Talk the way you did on those blind dates."
"I would be ashamed to do so here. More to the point, ought we not be catching the Golden Goblin?"
"It's fine. I already have a fix on where everyone is."
With Paranet's Space Movement, they could reach the Fourth Archangel whenever they wished.
"I cannot fathom why everyone is so curious about my romantic history..."
"Romantic history? You never dated, so it's less a love life and more just a life story."
At Do Jiyun's words, Dokgo Minsu's eyes shot wide, then settled back to normal.
"...That one hurt a little."
"I'm sorry."
She apologized in earnest for words that had slipped out before she could stop them.
"In any case, my manner of speech was perfectly ordinary. This way of speaking has grown so familiar that I doubt I could manage the old one now..."
"The persona swallowed you whole."
"Something like that."
"Mister. Your looks don't seem lacking at all, though. Honestly, you've got a dignified sort of charm. I don't think appearance was the problem. I'm not saying it to be nice. You really do look like a proper man."
At Yujun's half-comfort, Dokgo Minsu smiled bitterly and removed the wide-brimmed hat he always wore.
What emerged was a dazzling visage...
No. A sheen...
No. A light...
The light of the beginning was there.
Kim Yohan muttered, stunned.
"...It's gone."
"Indeed. Do you see now why grooming myself did no good?"
"Why only the middle..."
"A cruel thing, truly. When my hair began to fall—when the loss reached a point beyond recovery—I wished to make an enemy of the world. More precisely, I wondered whether the world itself bore me ill will. And so, instead, I was able to devote myself all the more to the game, and to swordsmanship."
"...That's so sad."
Tears welled in Harp's eyes, and the little beast sniffled.
"To receive pity from a cute divine beast. I cannot say the feeling is entirely unpleasant."
"What kind of battle have you been fighting, Joseon's Best Sword?"
"Battle? Hardly. One can only resign oneself and live as one was made. You need not pity me overmuch. I am quite happy now."
"Right. There are plenty of other races here. Hair isn't really that important, honestly."
"Huh? Even mere beasts like dogs and wolves—there's research showing the ones with thicker coats are more popu—"
"You idiot."
Do Jiyun shot Kim Yohan a glare. He clapped a hand over his mouth in a hurry, determined to fix his mistake and salvage the situation.
"Hair loss is closely tied to male hormones. Which means you've got a lot of them, and if you've got a lot of male hormones, muscle grows faster too. In a way, you're far above other people. Split traits into recessive and dominant, and you could even say you're the domina—"
"Yohan. Your words are no comfort at all. That will do."
"Yes, sir."
As time passed, Dokgo Minsu's expression only grew darker.
Then Paranet, who had been watching in silence, suddenly laid a hand on his shoulder. Enormous as he was, he smiled with benevolent warmth.
"Comrade."
"...?"
"From this moment, you are my comrade."
Dokgo Minsu took in the glitter of Paranet's head and let out an empty laugh.
"Why do you laugh?"
"I am not the same as you."
"In what way do we differ?"
"You haven't a single strand of hair, have you? It is not hair loss to begin with. When an undead with no skin at all calls me comrade, do you know how desolate that makes me?"
"...My apologies."
"Enough."
The two who had nearly become friends could not, in the end, become friends. Even so, Paranet felt a kinship with Dokgo Minsu. At that degree of feeling, it was fair to call it a pure and aching devotion.
"I should get going."
Yujun said.
"Where to?"
"To catch the Fourth Archangel. She's stopped chasing the Golden Goblin and started running far off."
"...Which means."
"Yes. She never meant to catch the Golden Goblin in the first place. Better to subdue her first. Just in case, the rest of you go after the Golden Goblin."
"Got it."
Yujun shot Paranet a look. Quick on the uptake, Paranet set the Fourth Archangel's escape route as the destination and cast Space Movement.
Space Movement
The air cracked—fwabat.
"Paranet, I think you've actually improved."
"I-Is that true?"
"Yeah. The motion sickness is milder than before. More than that, the speed you cast Space Movement at has gotten ridiculous."
"It is thanks to the fine items Master bestowed upon me."
"Right. All thanks to my items."
"...Ah."
Yujun waited with Paranet for the Fourth Archangel, who would appear at any moment.
And then she did.
She saw Yujun with his sword drawn, startled, and spun away. He closed in at once.
"Where are you going?"
"..."
"What about the Golden Goblin? You came alone?"
"You already know everything, do you not?"
"Hm? Know what?"
"Human. I beg you, pay me no more mind."
"You're the Fourth Archangel. I can hardly just let you walk."
"If you truly believed me an archangel, you would not have acted so from the start. You suspected me from the beginning."
"You know me well."
"Uh... huh?"
The Fourth Archangel was the Golden Goblin?
Yujun had only thought she might be connected to the creature. He had never guessed that she was the Golden Goblin. And yet she had told him so with her own mouth.
What kind of luck is this?