Si-eun's Lie
“This… you’re really giving it to me?”
Ju Si-eun stared blankly at the earring I held out to her.
“It’s an item from the Goblin Lord. It raises your INT stat and mana, so it’s perfect for you. Hold on—I’ll wipe the blood off first.”
I used a wet wipe to clean the bloodstains from the earring, then handed it to her. I could feel Jeong Ji-yun and Seo Ji-su watching with envious eyes from the side. Huh? Even Juniel was giving me that same envious look?
I spoke to the rest of my thralls in a soothing tone.
“I’ll give each of you suitable items when they appear. I’m only giving these earrings to Si-eun because the options are the most compatible with her.”
Ji-yun and Ji-su nodded with smiles. Juniel, on the other hand, wore a sullen expression as if she had never looked envious at all.
Si-eun, who had received the earring, gazed up at me with moved eyes before slipping it onto her ear. Yeah, it really was different. This wasn’t an item a mere Goblin Lord should have been wearing. It looked absolutely perfect on Si-eun.
“Open your status window and you’ll see that both your INT and mana have gone up. Oh, and since all of you probably leveled up, go ahead and check. Distribute your skill points appropriately to your skills.”
“Yes. Wow, Oppa! My level went up so much!”
Si-eun opened her status window and exclaimed in surprise. Ji-yun and Ji-su followed suit, each distributing their skill points.
I turned to Juniel. “What about you? Aren’t you going to check?”
She answered with a lukewarm expression. “It’s not time for my level to rise yet. There’s still a pretty big gap between my level and Master’s.”
Hmm. That made sense. Juniel was in the forties. The amount of experience she needed was on a completely different scale from mine or the others’.
In a slightly gloomy voice, Juniel continued, “If I hadn’t come out and had been recovering my strength inside, my level would be higher by now, and all my stats would be in the late 200s…”
Tsk. Then why did you crawl out so early and get yourself killed by me?
I spoke to her in a deliberately regretful tone. “It must be disappointing that becoming my thrall stopped your stat growth. All right. Starting today, I’ll devote myself to Juniel. The event is over anyway. I’ll pour everything I have into restoring your stats to the late 200s. Shall we begin tonight?”
Juniel’s eyes widened and she stammered incoherently. “N-no, that’s not what I meant! I was just saying that if I had stayed hidden in my lair, my stats would have recovered to that point. There’s no need for Master to feel sorry—”
“Yeah, yeah, I understand. I fully get Juniel’s passionate desire to become stronger. Let’s work hard to grow strong again starting today. I’ll do my part too. Got it?”
“N-nooo..!!”
Juniel glared at me with gritted teeth and a flustered look. I left her like that and turned my gaze out the window. The battlefield where we had fought was clearly visible. All the guild members who had been inside the school were now outside, hauling goblin corpses.
We’d probably have to burn them all. With everyone working together, even the school entrance that had been a complete mess looked mostly cleaned up.
The place we were currently in was a classroom inside the elementary school that served as the guild’s base. Two tents had been pitched, and a few child-sized desks and chairs were scattered around. It seemed to have been used as lodging for the guild members. As the sun set and the classroom grew dark, we lit the two available lanterns.
While chatting with the group and eating food we had taken out from the Cradle of Rest, I sensed a small presence nearby.
Hmm?
A small figure was peeking just half a face around the classroom door, staring in our direction.
A… child?
It wasn’t just me—everyone else seemed to have noticed the child’s presence too. They all turned toward the door with surprised expressions.
“Oh my, a child… This is the first time I’ve seen one since the world changed.”
“Right. I’ve never once seen a child in Daejang-ajeossi’s survivor group either…”
That was true. The only groups we had visited were Daejang-ajeossi’s survivors and this guild, but this was the first child we had encountered since the monster outbreak began.
She was a cute little girl with long black hair and sparkling eyes. She looked about five or six years old. Half her face peeked out from behind the door as she stared intently at the bread I was eating.
Hmm… that gaze felt heavy.
I held out the bread I was eating and asked, “…Want some?”
Her eyes widened at my offer, but she quickly shook her head. She clearly wanted it, but seemed too scared to come closer.
At that moment, Lee Su-a appeared behind the child.
“Ji-a? It’s almost bedtime. What are you doing here?”
“Auntie!”
The little girl rushed into Su-a’s arms. Patting her back gently, Su-a said, “Auntie needs to talk with these people, so Ji-a should go to sleep now. If you sleep well, you can play a lot tomorrow, right?”
“But I want to play with Auntie…”
“I’ll play with you tomorrow. It’s dark now, so let’s play tomorrow, okay? Go on—go find Aunt Jeong-suk. She’s probably looking for you.”
“Then it’s a promise? You have to play with me tomorrow, okay?”
The little girl held out her tiny pinky finger. Su-a hooked it with her own to seal the promise. The girl left the classroom with a sullen face.
After sending the child away, Su-a entered the room and bowed politely to our group once again. This guild master really liked bowing.
Looking rather exhausted, Su-a spoke to me. “Sorry for the long wait. I was delayed cleaning up outside.”
“Not at all. We didn’t wait that long.”
“I see. Are you… having a meal? We were planning to serve you dinner…”
Su-a glanced at the bread and drinks in my hand.
Serving dinner? No thanks. I wasn’t fond of eating mixed in with a large crowd, and my thralls didn’t eat normal food anyway. I shook my head.
“It’s fine. We have more than enough food supplies. There’s no need to worry.”
“Still… I wanted to properly treat our benefactors…”
“I’ll gratefully accept the sentiment. Ah, please have a seat.”
Following my gesture, Su-a sat down on the chair across from us.
“That child just now…”
“Ah, you mean Ji-a. She’s my niece. My older sister’s daughter…”
Hmm. So a blood relative. No wonder they looked alike.
“And your sister…?”
Su-a’s face darkened at my question. “Both my sister and brother-in-law…”
I clicked my tongue inwardly and scolded myself for asking something unnecessary. Noticing my flustered expression, Su-a gave a faint smile.
“It’s all right. At least Ji-a survived and is still by my side.”
She was a strong woman.
To lighten the mood, I introduced my companions. “This is Ju Si-eun, Jeong Ji-yun, Seo Ji-su, and… Juniel. The horns on her head are from a skill, so it’s easier to just think of her as a foreigner. That one is Seong Dong-seok… As you can see, he suffered a heavy blow to the head and is a bit… out of it right now.”
“Ah… I see.”
Su-a looked at Dong-seok with pity before turning to Si-eun. “You said Ju Si-eun, right? By any chance…”
Well, there was no point hiding her identity at this distance. At my command, Si-eun removed her sunglasses and hat.
“Yes, I’m Ju Si-eun. Nice to meet you.”
“Whoa…”
Su-a covered her mouth with both hands, eyes wide with shock. “I-I’m so surprised. I was a huge fan. I never thought I’d get to see you in person like this…”
Hmm, well. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen that reaction. That was the power of Ju Si-eun for you.
Si-eun put on her professional smile and greeted her. “To meet a fan in a place like this, I’m really happy too. Please take care of me.”
But Su-a’s face suddenly darkened. “Hae-yeon unnie was also a fan of Si-eun unnie… She collected all your albums and bragged to me about it…”
A single tear rolled down Su-a’s cheek. Seeing Si-eun’s flustered face, she quickly wiped it away and continued.
“Ah, I’m sorry, Si-eun unnie. In today’s battle, Hae-yeon unnie…”
Hmm. So one of the four people killed by the Goblin Lord’s magic was this Hae-yeon unnie. Being a guild master really wasn’t an easy job—having to entertain guests right after losing a guild member.
Si-eun patted Su-a’s shoulder with a sympathetic expression. Su-a let out a deep sigh, then spoke to Si-eun in a deliberately bright tone.
“I’m okay. Thank you, Si-eun unnie. Oh, now that I mention it, we have a celebrity in our guild too. You might know him!”
Si-eun tilted her head. “A celebrity? It could be someone I know. Who is it?”
“He’s an actor named Jeong Min-woo. Do you know him? He was in that drama—‘Love is Like a Water Splash,’ I think? I don’t watch dramas much, so…”
The reaction came faster from Ji-yun and Ji-su than from Si-eun.
“Jeong Min-woo? Is Jeong Min-woo really here?”
“Wow, seriously? That’s amazing…”
Who was Jeong Min-woo again? The name sounded familiar.
As I tilted my head, Ji-su looked at me and explained.
“Master… I mean, Oppa. You don’t remember Jeong Min-woo? Back before the monster outbreak, there was filming near the PC bang…”
Oppa! I saw celebrities? Jeong Min-woo, Park Sang-yeon, Ju Si-eun, Choi Yeon-a— all of them! It was insane!
You saw Ju Si-eun?? How did you manage that?
There’s a park right across the street, remember? They were filming there. The place was packed with filming trucks.
Really? Damn, I should go check it out too. I’m heading out first?!
That conversation suddenly came back to me. Among the celebrities who had come to film the drama with Si-eun, there had been an actor named Jeong Min-woo. So he was one of her co-stars?
But Si-eun shook her head and told Su-a, “Jeong Min-woo… I know the name, but I’ve never actually met him.”
“Ah, I see.”
“But you said this actor Jeong Min-woo is here?”
“Yes. He’s not on the combat team… I believe he’s in charge of preparing meals for the guild members. Would you like to meet him?”
“No, there’s no need. Also, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention that I’m here. I don’t like things getting complicated.”
“Ah… understood.”
The conversation between Si-eun and Su-a ended on a somewhat awkward note. He had definitely been an actor who filmed with her, yet she claimed she didn’t know him. Ji-su looked like she wanted to ask about it, but she had the good sense to stay quiet for now. I’d have to ask Si-eun about it later, after we finished talking with Su-a.
Su-a turned to me. “The reason you came to our guild today was to exchange information, correct? Feel free to ask me anything you want to know.”
“Ah, the information exchange. In the event dungeon, you wanted to know how I took the treasure you possessed, right?”
Su-a shook her head. “Of course I was curious about that, and we did agree to exchange information… but how could I demand anything from you, Min-gu-nim, our benefactor? Just ask me whatever you’re curious about. I’ll tell you everything.”
Oh, if she was going to be that generous, I wasn’t going to refuse. She really was a woman who understood etiquette.
I nodded. “In that case… I won’t beat around the bush. I’ll ask directly.”
“Yes, please ask comfortably.”
“What is your job, Su-a?”
“...... Yes?”
Su-a stared at me with wide, startled eyes. It clearly wasn’t the question she had expected.
“You’re asking about my j-job?”
“Yes. I’m very curious about your job. That’s why I came all the way here.”
Su-a looked at me with an expression that said she couldn’t understand why. Then she bit her lip and lowered her head with a troubled face.
Strange. Was the reaction supposed to be this big? Of course revealing one’s job wasn’t easy, but it didn’t seem like something that required this much agonizing.
After lowering her head and thinking for a long time, Su-a finally looked up and asked, “Do you really need to know my job?”
“Yes, that’s what I’ve been saying. That’s the whole reason I came here.”
“Can I… ask why?”
“There is a reason, but… I can’t tell you right now. If your job is what I think it is, I’ll explain everything then.”
“....”
Su-a lowered her head again. Wait. The more she hesitated like this, the more suspicious I became. I had asked thinking it would be a decent 4-star job, but this level of reaction was unexpected.
After another long moment of thought with her head down, Su-a looked up, glanced at each of my companions one by one, and then said to me, “Could we… speak privately, just the two of us?”
Hmm. Was her job something she really didn’t want to reveal? Or… was it exactly the job I was suspecting?
Now even I was extremely curious.
I nodded. “Then let’s change locations. Shall we go now?”
“Ah, no. I still have things to organize… It’s already dark out… Would you mind staying here for the night?”
I glanced at the darkened world outside and answered, “We’ll do that. Then I’ll wait. Contact me through my pebble communicator.”
“Yes… understood. There’s bedding prepared inside the tent, so you should be able to rest comfortably. I’ll contact you later. Please make yourselves at home.”
After speaking, Su-a rose from her chair and left the classroom.
Ji-yun approached me and asked, “Oppa, that person named Su-a… by any chance…”
“Yeah. I’m suspecting the same thing. We’ll know after we talk. But more importantly…”
I turned to look at Si-eun. “Si-eun.”
She met my eyes. “Yes, Oppa.”
“Come here.”
Si-eun stood and walked over. I pulled her onto my lap.
“O-Oppa…”
Si-eun looked at Ji-su and Ji-yun, clearly embarrassed.
I asked her gently, “Why did you lie to Su-a earlier?”
“L-lie?”
“Yes. A lie.”
“W-what do you…”
Her voice was flustered. I spoke to her in a calm, affectionate tone.
“The actor named Jeong Min-woo. You know him, Si-eun. So why did you say you didn’t?”
“Ah…”
Si-eun let out a small sigh. Ji-su looked at her with an apologetic expression.
“S-sorry, unnie. I actually saw the drama filming while I was on my way to my part-time job before. I told Master about it back then…”
Si-eun nodded slightly, as if she finally understood. Her face looked somewhat gloomy. Still sitting on my lap, she let out a soft sigh and began to speak.
“Oppa. Do you remember the day we first met?”
How could I forget? The intense memory of Si-eun screaming at the top of her lungs, drawing every goblin in the area, and then dying right in front of me after being hit by a poison needle—it was impossible to forget.
When I nodded, Si-eun continued with a melancholy expression.
“Actually, back then…”
Si-eun began recalling what had happened before she met me.