The Most Beautiful in This Universe (3)
The Most Beautiful in This Universe (3)
Inside the Guild. In the lounge prepared only for high-rank adventurers, after confirming that all four of us had gathered, I lightly greeted them.
"I'm Kim Dojin. The party leader... and my assigned role is frontline. My specialty is swordsmanship. That's it."
Next, I looked at Eunha. Feeling my gaze, Eunha slowly opened her mouth.
"I'm Shim Eunha... My specialty is martial arts, and I'm also frontline..."
"...Raize. Mage."
"Hmm, is it my turn?"
The elf, who possessed the most overwhelming presence among them, slowly rose and bowed her head.
"I am Orion, from the Great Forest. My specialties are tracking, scouting, trap disarming and installation, and so on. I'm quite good at most things a scout does."
Smirking, her smile held the freshness of nature. As if proving the old wives' tale that elves are a race that protects nature is true, the fabric area of the clothes she was wearing was ridiculously eco-friendly...
I looked at the color of her hair flowing down her nape. A color you wouldn't think could come from nature. A brown close to silver. What did they call that again? Kotori beige?
I recalled the internet being abuzz with that name a while ago. After finishing our self-introductions, we exchanged talk related to combat.
By 'we', I mean just me and Orion. Only the two of us had a conversation.
"Your ears are long."
"Yes. As long as they are, my hearing is good too. Would you like to see?"
Orion said that and fluttered her ears. I watched her ears move on their own and asked.
"If your hearing is good, to what extent?"
"Let's see... In a room like this, roughly 200 meters. Even inside the Dungeon, I can hear up to 15 meters away."
"...That's amazing."
The Dungeon was a space where darkness lived and breathed. While sound was a stronger medium than light, like light, it couldn't spread far.
To hear sounds from tens of meters away inside such a Dungeon was no joke; it might mean being able to hear ants crawling.
"Your highest floor record?"
"When I was with another team before, I even climbed up to the 23rd floor. How we suffered with Lizardmen as enemies that not even a single arrow could stick in..."
"...Alright, then shall we try syncing up on the 20th floor today?"
At my words, Orion nodded with a smile. While I was talking with her, as if there was some mutual understanding, Eunha and Raize also nodded their heads right away.
Dungeon 20th floor. As they climbed up to this floor, Orion carefully observed the man named Dojin. And for good reason, as the composition of this party was truly bizarre.
'Three women and one man... Is it a harem party?'
There were such cases sometimes. Cases where a man would only pick party members who weren't even helpful for Dungeon breakthroughs just to show off his martial prowess.
If it was that kind of case, to quickly turn around and run away. Her gaze didn't leave Dojin.
Twitch
Then, the elf's sensitive hearing caught the sound of footsteps from beyond the darkness. Even though the monsters also intentionally reduced their footsteps to not even make a sound as much as an ant crawling, they still couldn't evade the elf's hearing.
"3 o'clock direction. 13 meters. 2 of them. Should I shoot?"
"Shoot."
"Yes."
Orion smiled brightly and followed Dojin's command. She didn't mind his speech becoming terse. From the start, shortening speech in the Dungeon where every minute and second was urgent was basic common sense.
Fweep!
The two arrows shot by the elf flew simultaneously and sniped the monsters beyond the darkness. However, she didn't harbor the delusion that this would defeat the monsters.
There was no way the darkness, which blocked even light and sound waves, couldn't block physical arrows. The arrows she shot with full force would have lost most of their propulsion mid-flight.
Meaning, this was closer to provocation. Sure enough, the monsters hit by the arrows were rushing toward the party in anger.
Two Lizardmen holding sharp tridents. It seemed the arrows had hit, as the scales around the philtrum area were broken and bleeding.
However, it wasn't a fatal injury enough to affect combat.
'Now, how...'
When Orion thought that and looked at Dojin, Dojin quickly dashed forward and swung his sword. It was a more brutish action than expected.
However, the result that action brought about was as simple as it was brutish. The two Lizardmen slashed by the sword were simultaneously bisected.
Seeing the two Lizardmen, cut from the waist as a starting point, turn to dust and disappear right before her eyes, Orion couldn't close her mouth.
"No, what is this..."
"...So it really exists."
But whether she was surprised or not, Dojin gave her a thumbs-up as if she were great. Her detection ability was more splendid than expected.
"Then we don't even need to shoot arrows. Raize. How many seconds does it take you to prepare magic?"
"...For opponents of this level, just a little. About 10 seconds."
"10 seconds, that's perfect."
Dojin calculated the Lizardmen's stride speed, Orion's detection range, etc., and then gave them orders.
"Then Orion, if you discover monsters, tell us right away... Raize, you start chanting magic as soon as they're discovered. And when they get close, shoot right away."
"No, um. Dojin...? I have something I'm curious about..."
"What is it?"
"That... If you can cut down monsters in a single stroke, what's the reason for making us use magic? Is there a need for that?"
Hearing Orion's question, Dojin looked at her with an expression asking if such a stupid question even existed. Then, he gave her the answer to her question.
"Because I can't solve everything alone forever."
"...What does that mean."
"If I alone cut down all the monsters, I'd end up taking all the experience points the party members could get too. Ah, do you understand even if I explain it like this?"
"So, you want your teammates to level up?"
"Correct."
It was incomprehensible. Leveling up was a miracle everyone desired, an act everyone was itching to have.
This man was treating it merely as a means. Like a tool to achieve his own goals...
"...Come to think of it, I haven't heard your goal. What's your reason for forming a party?"
Hearing that, Dojin briefly made eye contact with Raize and Eunha. The three of them seemed to converse with their eyes before nodding and opening their mouths.
"I wish to see the end of this Dungeon."
"The end of the Dungeon...?"
"Yes. A vain and absurd goal, whether it exists or not."
Dojin's dream was a goal that humans shouldn't dream of. A colossal goal that even elves living eternally couldn't easily accomplish.
"An interesting goal."
Simultaneously, it was a goal sufficient to draw her in. Enough to make an elf named Orion become infatuated with a human named Dojin...
She brought both hands together near her chest and covered her own chest. It was a traditional etiquette of elves. A meaning of wishing to share your intent.
"May I join you in that goal as well?"
"Of course."
And naturally, Dojin had no reason to refuse her.
"Here, this is the money earned from today's hunt, divided into four equal parts. Take it."
"This much...? It was a temporary party to try syncing up."
Orion couldn't hide her astonishment at the pouch Dojin handed over. They had hunted a fair number of monsters today.
She would find monsters from tens of meters away, and the monsters she found would die instantly from Raize's magic as soon as they got close.
And even after Raize's mana ran dry, Dojin personally swung his sword and slaughtered monsters.
However, she had never thought that a mere half-day's earnings would amount to Gold Coins. Moreover, wasn't this money the amount after dividing the Gold Coins earned by the party into four?
'At this rate...'
No matter how insensitive to money an elf might be, it was impossible not to have their eyes pop out seeing this many Gold Coins. At this level, it was to the point where wasting dozens of expensive arrows each hunt wouldn't even be considered waste.
"Well, would a party aiming to see the end of the Dungeon struggle over mere money? Please consider this amount natural."
"Ah, right..."
Hearing those words, Orion found herself looking at Dojin again. As the old saying goes, a capable male is one that makes females go into heat.
"Hey, Leader. We earned this much today too... and it's the first day the party was formed. How about a light one?"
She lifted the money pouch as she said that. It meant she would treat. A drinking party with an elf. Dojin wanted to accept, but his body was already half not his own.
"Sorry. I have a prior appointment. Let's do it next time."
"...Ah, yes. That would be the case, right? For a man like the Leader."
"Haha, then let's meet again here next time."
"Yes. See you next time."
Dojin said that and parted ways with Orion. Next, he escorted Raize to the Magic Tower, and walked down the main street with just Eunha.
On the way to the mansion, Eunha was quiet as a mouse. So much so that he occasionally had to turn his head to check if she was following properly.
In front of the mansion. Eunha spoke to Dojin.
"I didn't do anything today."
"Huh?"
"I didn't hunt monsters, and I didn't protect anyone either. I'm useless. Me."
Hearing Eunha's words, Dojin felt a slight annoyance but answered gently.
"What are you talking about, if you weren't there, I couldn't have stepped forward either. Because I knew you were behind me, I could step forward without any worries."
"...Really?"
"Of course, really."
Dojin finished saying that and went straight into the mansion. A short while later, Eunha hesitated, staring at the mansion's main gate, then followed Dojin inside.
Having finished bathing in the bathroom, I returned to my room, lay on the bed to relieve my fatigue, and organized what I needed to do going forward.
'Newspaper issue 2 comes out the day after tomorrow, right... So tomorrow, I'll go to the Dungeon with Seoyun to procure magic stones... The day after, I'll also go visit Ilone once...'
There was a lot to do. Far too much. Even besides the tasks immediately coming to mind, there were mountains of things that needed solving.
That fact felt a little tiring too. On Earth, this wasn't necessary. If you just did as others told you, as you were ordered, the day would pass.
But now? To survive tomorrow and the day after, I had to run today. I also had to decide for myself where to run and how much to run.
I had to worry about falling while running, and worry about running again after falling... but the reality was that I was too busy worrying about running right now to do that.
'It's ironic that I feel more alive now.'
A day on Earth felt unreal. Regardless of whether it was fulfilling or not, I rolled along like someone's tool and a cog in the world's machine.
Now, it was very fulfilling. What moved me was my own will, and what I turned was the world's framework.
'I should sleep...'
These random thoughts keep surfacing, and I can't sleep. Can't be helped, I lightly meditated and prepared to sleep.
Knock knock
"...Who is it?"
─It's me.
"Come in."
Then, a not-too-familiar voice came from outside. Ga-hee opened the door and entered. Ga-hee, who came in while twisting her wavy hair, tried her best not to make eye contact with me.
"What's the matter?"
"...I have a favor to ask of you."
"A favor? What?"
I thought she was going to ask me to buy clothes or jewelry she wanted. However, after hesitating for a long time, the favor she blurted out was not on that level.
"I want to be an idol."
"...An idol? What kind of idol?"
"You guys made a newspaper, right. So if you want to do idols, you can do it too, can't you?"
Ga-hee said that and asked us to find a way for her to become an idol. It was an absurd thing to say, but her two eyes held that level of resolve.
"Why are you telling that to me?"
"...That Deokgu guy said, since you're our captain. To get permission from you."
"Captain, what nonsense."
I understood that Deokgu guy's heart. Knowing that things between her and me aren't good, he's trying to resolve it this way somehow.
As the old saying goes, conflict that arises between two people doesn't resolve easily unless one side bows their head first.
So that Deokgu guy made me her superior, to make it easier for Ga-hee to bow her head.
"Alright, fine. You want to be an idol, you say."
"...Yes."
"Then write a business plan by the end of this week."
"...What?"
"Where you'll perform, who you'll show it to, and thereby how many audiences you can gather."
What is an idol?
A goddess who sings?
Wrong.
An idol is an illusion created by the media.
A specter chasing money.
"What are you doing? Go research quickly."
Hearing that, Ga-hee frowned and left the room.
Eunha, who was heading to her own room, discovered Ga-hee storming out of Dojin's room.
She was walking toward her room, angry as if enraged by something, but in Eunha's eyes, that figure only looked like a woman leaving a room after providing service.
'Already three...'
Eunha carefully looked at Dojin's door. She was perceptive. Very perceptive. Because she had lived a life where if you weren't perceptive, you got hit.
And judging by her perception, Dojin had already laid hands on nearly half of the female party members.
And not satisfied with that, even on locals from this other world...
'The reason he doesn't lay hands on me is because I'm unattractive...'
That was so regrettable. If he had just outright revealed his desires, Eunha would have very simply offered her body and gained stability.
Not knowing when she might be abandoned was, for her, more frightening than anything else.
'What should I do, how...'
Her pupils were gradually dying.
The half-dead fish eyes stared at Dojin's door, then returned to her own room.