The Fairy's Promise
After spending a pleasurable time with Jeong Ji-yun, my sub-class received a stat upgrade. It claimed I'd had a special experience, which boosted my sub-class stats. Thanks to that, my Technique stat jumped straight from B to A. Ah… it really had been one hell of a good special experience.
Technique: B → A
Special experience bonus applied.
Seo Ji-su, Ju Si-eun, and Juniel returned only when the night was nearly over. The three of them had apparently gotten so excited hunting monsters with their new items that time slipped away from them. Still, their late return gave me the chance to quietly hold Ji-yun in my arms and rest until they arrived.
Ji-yun’s face looked utterly satisfied. She seemed genuinely happy that she had been able to offer her first time to me.
Once the three women came back, I decided to get some sleep in preparation for tomorrow’s journey. Watching my four women who never needed rest sometimes made me feel a pang of regret for my own body that required sleep to shake off fatigue. But what could I do? I was a living human, and they were corpses.
Still, I no longer had to feel that regret. Because now I could do something productive even while I slept.
I moved to the shop. When I opened my eyes, rough wooden walls filled my vision. Huh? The space felt a little wider than yesterday… and there was even a table that hadn’t been there before. Had the place been upgraded?
And there was Jun, the cute girl(?) who still greeted me with the same warmth.
“Kang… Oppa! You’re here!”
I rose from the wooden floor, looked at Jun, and returned her greeting. “Nice to see you, Jun. We’re meeting again after only half a day. Am I coming here too often?”
“I like it when you visit often. After all, I don’t have much else to do here besides waiting for you, oppa.”
Huh? What was that about?
“Waiting for me? So you stay here the entire time even when I’m not around?”
“Of course. How could I leave my post when I don’t know when you’ll come to the shop? I couldn’t leave even if I wanted to anyway.”
I frowned. “Can’t you step out for a bit or something? At the very least, you should be able to go to the bathroom…”
Jun made an awkward face at my words. “Um… well… Is it okay if I explain this? There wasn’t any rule saying I couldn’t…”
After muttering to herself for a moment, Jun began her explanation.
“Oppa. This place doesn’t exist in reality. You already know that, right?”
“Um… I suppose so?”
“Then here’s the issue. I told you that right now it’s your mind that’s coming here. Your real body is asleep. So what state am I in? Is this current appearance my spiritual body, or my real body?”
“Uh…”
This was a question I had never considered. Probably… the same as me? Since Jun existed in the same space I did.
“Wouldn’t it be the same as me? Only I’m something like a spiritual body, and you’re in your original body… but that doesn’t seem right.”
“Correct. This is a space where only spiritual bodies can reside. So I am nothing more than a spiritual body as well. My real body is asleep somewhere else.”
“Ah… I see.”
Jun smiled sweetly and continued. “We are employees of the shop. That means we must always be prepared to greet customers whenever they arrive, right? That’s why we have to remain here at all times. Our real bodies cannot wake up.”
“So your real body has to stay asleep the entire time? For the whole duration of this game?”
Jun nodded at my question.
“Is that even possible? It’s not just an hour or two…”
“Of course it’s impossible on its own. That’s why our real bodies enter hibernation facilities and remain in stasis until the game ends. My real body is currently sleeping in the hibernation chamber in the basement of the Soora Corporation headquarters building. So you don’t have to worry about my health.”
“Uh…”
The story was so different from what I had imagined that my head struggled to keep up. So the real body stayed asleep the whole time while the mind remained on standby here, waiting endlessly for a customer who might never come. Suddenly, Jun looked pitiable.
Noticing my gaze, Jun smiled awkwardly. “It’s fine. You don’t have to look at me like that. It was part of the contract conditions.”
“Those contract conditions seem pretty harsh, don’t they? What happens if your assigned user dies?”
“Nothing changes. I just have no choice but to keep waiting in the shop space until the game ends…”
Wow. That was seriously messed up. Forcing a clerk to stay on standby for a customer who might never show up. And if that customer died early… she would have to wait alone for the entire long duration of the game. What kind of garbage working conditions were these? Why not just make it an automated system? Wouldn’t that be easier? Those rat-brained bastards really acted as trashy as they looked. Doing such awful things to these pretty, cute fairies.
“What can I do? I’m thoroughly in the ‘B’ position of the contract. Still, it’s fortunate that I can at least have this kind of work. Members of our fairy race often starve to death because they can’t find jobs.”
“Still… it means you have to stay here alone the whole time I’m not visiting.”
“If that’s how you see it, then please come every single day without fail. Come and keep me company… Besides, you accumulate points equal to the time you spend here anyway.”
“Of course I plan to do that. I can come every time I sleep. Ah, if I do something like training while I’m here, would it have any effect?”
Jun tilted her head. “Training…? Hmm. What kind of training did you have in mind?”
“I haven’t decided yet… Anything, really. For example, if I were a swordsman and trained with a sword here, I’m asking whether the benefits would carry over to reality.”
“Well… I’m not sure. It’s not something I’ve ever considered… It’s unusual for a user to stay here for long periods in the first place. This is my first time doing this job too…”
“Hmm, so you don’t know. Guess I’ll just have to try it myself.”
Watching me nod, Jun spoke in an admiring voice. “You’re truly amazing, oppa. Thinking of training even with the time you spend here… Does this mean you train without resting even while sleeping?”
“Hey, it’s not quite that intense…”
“I’ve made up my mind!”
Jun’s eyes sparkled with determination. I asked, “Made up your mind about what?”
Jun thrust out her chest and declared, “I’ll help with your training, oppa!”
“You’ll help me? Why…?”
“If you become stronger through training, your chances of surviving until the end of the game increase. That means I won’t have to spend such long stretches of time alone either, right? So of course I should help you.”
“Is it even allowed to intervene that deeply with a user…?”
“No problem. My job description only says to support my assigned customer with complete sincerity. Even though I look like this, I’ve lived through all sorts of hardships. I know how to handle most weapons to some degree, and while I’m not an expert, I can use magic adequately. Whatever training you choose, I should be able to assist. Just tell me—what kind of training do you plan to do?”
Hmm. So Jun had those kinds of skills? I had thought she was just a cute girl (technically an older sister, but still).
I scratched my head. “No… I don’t have any concrete plans for what to train yet. I was just thinking out loud.”
“Come on, but you have a class, right? You can just practice things that suit your class. What is your class, oppa?”
My class? Necromancer. But what was there to practice as a necromancer? It wasn’t like I could raise and lay down corpses here.
“Um… My main class isn’t really one that requires this kind of training…”
“Hmm, is that so? Then you must have a sub-class. I’ve heard that raising a sub-class well can sometimes let it surpass your main class. I’m offering to help, you know?”
My sub-class… Ahem. It was a little embarrassing to tell Jun about it.
When I simply stared at her, Jun urged me to speak.
“Well, of course there are things I could train for my sub-class, but…”
“See? I’m really going to help you with complete sincerity. Don’t worry and just tell me.”
Seeing Jun stand with her hands on her hips, puffing out her nearly flat chest and speaking so energetically, I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Sorry, but it’s difficult for you to help me with that one. I’ll just appreciate the thought.”
Jun seemed a little upset at my refusal and puffed out her cheeks. How cute.
“I’m telling you I can really help! I’m a fairy with all sorts of experiences…”
“It’s not that I don’t believe you… It’s just awkward for you to help with this, Jun.”
“What is your sub-class that makes you hesitate so much? I need to know exactly so I can judge whether I can help or not.”
“That is…”
It really wasn’t easy to say. Revealing my sub-class to someone I was only meeting for the second time… wasn’t easy. It wasn’t like Jun was one of my thralls like the other women.
“Um… I’ll tell you gradually. It’s still a bit…”
Jun pouted, looking disappointed. “I could really help you well though…”
“I’ll definitely tell you next time. After you hear what my sub-class is, we can talk then about whether you can help me with it.”
“You don’t trust me? I really…”
“No, it’s not that I don’t trust you, Jun. It’s just that my sub-class is a little… unusual…”
“Aish, I told you not to worry! With everything I’ve experienced and the turbulent life I’ve lived, don’t underestimate this Jun!!”
“I’m not underestimating you. Why would I underestimate you, Jun? Alright. I’ll look forward to your help when the time comes.”
At my words, Jun smiled brightly. “Then let’s make a promise!”
“A promise…? What kind…?”
“The promise that I’ll help you when you train, oppa!”
“You want to make a whole promise about even that… Ah, I get it. Fine, fine. Okay. I promise.”
Seeing Jun puff her cheeks again, I quickly agreed. Making a promise should calm her down at least a little. I extended my pinky finger toward her, but Jun spread her palm out instead.
“?”
When I looked at her questioningly, she said, “Please press your palm against mine.”
What was this? Some kind of fairy-style promise? I did as she asked and pressed my palm to hers. The moment our hands touched, Jun murmured softly.
I, Jun, promise to devote my body and soul to helping shop customer Kang Min-gu with his sub-class training.
A flash of light burst between our joined palms and then vanished. Startled, I jerked my hand back. Jun smiled and said, “It’s the Fairy’s Promise.”
“Fairy’s Promise…?”
“Yes. It’s more like a kind of contract than a simple promise. Think of it as an act that demonstrates your absolute will to keep it.”
…Why was this girl throwing around words like “contract” for something so trivial? She gave off the aura of someone who would get completely scammed and lose everything the moment she stepped outside. I looked at her seriously. “What happens if you break this promise?”
Maybe my expression was too grave, because Jun waved her hands as if to reassure me. “Aigoo, it’s not like there’s some huge penalty or anything.”
“Right? Whew, I was worried it was something ser—”
“It just means you won’t be able to see, hear, or speak for a year.”
“…..”
What the hell did she mean it wasn’t a huge penalty? Losing the ability to see, hear, or speak for an entire year was insane. To attach such an enormous penalty to a contract over something like this—
“We fairies consider the act of making promises extremely sacred. Keeping important promises is only natural, but we don’t take even small promises lightly either. That’s why we use the ‘Fairy’s Promise’—a heavy contract—for smaller promises, while we carry out important ones based on mutual trust without any contract at all.”
What kind of backwards logic was that? It should be the opposite. You handle light promises casually and use contracts for serious ones. Why did they do it this way? Well… it was probably that gullible nature of theirs that let the rat-headed bastards exploit them so easily. Still, seeing Jun speak with a face full of fairy pride made it hard to say anything.
“Then… how long do you have to keep this ‘Fairy’s Promise’?”
“You just need to fulfill it within one year from the day the promise is made. The deadline is generous, right? You’ll be starting your training soon anyway, oppa.”
“Hmm…”
Whatever. It would work out somehow. But if I really had to keep this promise… that meant doing my sub-class training together with Jun… which meant… Ahem.
When I stared at her, Jun tilted her head. “Why, oppa? Is there something on my face?”
“No, just… you’re cute.”
Jun broke into a huge smile. The sight was so adorable that I reached out and stroked her hair. She looked at me again with an awkward expression. “Um… you really are my oppa, right?”
“What does it matter if I am or not? Is age that important?”
“Uh, it feels a little different from what you said yesterday…”
I kept stroking Jun’s hair as her words trailed off. Sigh, she really was too cute.