Choi Ji-won Is Rude (3)
Choi Ji-won Is Rude (3)
Instead of my adorable cat wives—the cats—Choi Ji-won appeared before me.
"Uh... um..."
Her prized sword was peacefully asleep in its scabbard, but I knew all too well that it could be drawn at any moment.
I had considered the possibility that Choi Ji-won might come looking for me.
With so many people returning to the clearing, even an idiot would notice something was off and start wondering who was behind it.
But I hadn't expected her to act this fast.
"..."
Think it through.
If I played dumb and asked, "What brings you here...?" the odds were high that this Choi Ji-won woman would just decide, "He's hiding something. Better knock him out," and crack the back of my skull.
Let's first consider how she even found me.
Choi Ji-won must have gotten my description and location from the survivors who came to the clearing and then tracked me down. There's no other way she could have found me this fast.
If that's the case, she already knows I sent them. I need to figure out why she hasn't swung that long blade at me yet.
"...Hello?"
In other words, there's no need for me to start the conversation.
Instead of babbling useless nonsense, my chances of not regressing were higher if I just answered whatever Choi Ji-won asked.
"Reason."
"Pardon?"
"Why did you send people to the clearing?"
Choi Ji-won didn't disappoint, jumping straight to the point without any hesitation.
If I tried to act evasive here, I'd end up in a fistfight and headbutting contest with her.
"Weren't you protecting the clearing?"
I had to be just as shameless.
"What?"
Choi Ji-won's face twisted. But I couldn't flinch. This was exactly when I had to be bold.
"When I first woke up in the clearing, I could tell you were the strongest person there."
"..."
She couldn't argue with that.
She must have sensed in her own way that I knew how to fight.
When I was cutting grass at the clearing, the back of my head prickled like crazy. And it's painfully obvious who was staring.
"If someone that strong was spending all day at the clearing just training in swordsmanship... wasn't it to protect the people there? I merely guided the weak to a safer place."
"..."
"I might be stronger than most, but I don't have the power to protect everyone. So I simply sent them to the clearing where you were... is there a problem?"
Choi Ji-won couldn't answer easily.
She probably imagined I had some dark ulterior motive, but when you peel back the layers, I'm just a good Samaritan.
She must've been feeling pretty flustered. She'd probably planned to just cut me down and be done with it, but now she can't.
"...The food."
"Huh?"
"How did you know I planned to distribute food?"
"..."
Shit.
I left the clearing about a full day after I woke up there.
Meaning, I left on the morning of Day 2.
The first time Choi Ji-won handed out food was at lunch on Day 2. It was information I wasn't supposed to know.
Don't panic. Just answer naturally.
"...You resolved to protect people, so I assumed you'd provide food as well."
"Hmm."
Choi Ji-won thought it over.
The conversation was going fine for now. It hadn't abruptly ended with a sword slice, and Choi Ji-won was still leading the topic.
All I had to do was put the "good person" mask back on, the one I'd worn before to learn swordsmanship from her.
The testimonies of the people I saved would breathe life into that mask.
It wasn't just one or two people I'd rescued. Honestly, if you only looked at this cycle, I truly was a good person.
"Fine. I understand your intentions."
After mulling it over, Choi Ji-won gave a small nod.
The sway of her ponytail with the movement caught my eye.
"But take responsibility."
"...What?"
Take responsibility? Me?
No, I mean... Choi Ji-won is pretty and has a great figure, but her personality is a mess, and...
"There are too many people at the clearing now. Getting food by myself is too much. I need your help."
Ah-ha.
She wasn't telling me to take responsibility for Choi Ji-won's life, but for the people I'd brought to the clearing.
"You must have stockpiled food. Lead the way."
She looked at me with her arms crossed.
"...Right. Let's go."
The food I'd gotten from killing mutant goblins was way too much to eat in a day or two, so I'd gathered it all up and buried it under a big tree.
This woman must have figured it out, either through a trait or just deduction.
It felt like all the food I'd painstakingly gathered was about to be stolen in a single morning, but that was fine.
"By the way, what's your name? Ah, I'm Kim Jun-ho."
"...Choi Ji-won."
Either way, I'd essentially been recruited as Choi Ji-won's assistant.
I'll get close to Choi Ji-won in this cycle.
And then, I'll strip her of every piece of information, right down to her panties.
Just you wait, Choi Ji-won.
I can't wait for the day you slip up.
"...You have a grass allergy?"
"Yeah. My skin swells up if it touches it."
"...Then let's take the path you made."
I casually dropped the formal speech, but Choi Ji-won didn't react.
I'd used formal speech with her until now partly because we started as strangers each cycle, and partly because I saw her as the benefactor who taught me swordsmanship.
But now it was time to move forward, not as benefactor and student but as equals. Dropping formal speech would be the start of that.
Choi Ji-won and I walked toward the clearing, loaded down with food on our backs.
At times like this, I could really feel the improvement in my physical abilities from leveling up. Looking at myself, I even had some lean muscle on my arms.
"..."
Of course, it was nothing compared to Choi Ji-won next to me.
Her arms showed visible lean muscle, and her palms were riddled with calluses... but even so, she was insanely strong.
Pure, combat-hardened muscle. In a place like the Tower, you really couldn't judge people by their appearance. Who knew what kind of broken trait they might have?
"...We've arrived."
Choi Ji-won murmured quietly.
As she said, the inside of the clearing gradually came into view, and...
"...Whoa."
I understood in an instant why Choi Ji-won had come looking for me.
Back when I spent all day in the clearing, there had been about ten members.
Now, there were roughly thirty people inside.
The difference was impossible not to feel.
On top of that, all these people were baby birds who had fled from a harsh reality.
With three times the mouths to feed, three times the waste to deal with, and three times the space needed to sleep... oh shit.
"First, let's hand out the food."
"Shall we?"
Choi Ji-won and I bustled around the clearing, distributing food here and there.
It looked like a lot when we carried it, but once we actually divided it up, it only amounted to about two meals' worth per person.
After we finished, Choi Ji-won picked up her sword again as if she wasn't tired at all.
I slumped down heavily beside her.
Whoom! Whoom!
Looking closely, Choi Ji-won was swinging her sword along the exact same path, with the exact same posture, over and over.
Her speed was also incredibly slow compared to normal.
She's deliberately repeating the same blade trajectory at a slow pace. I should try copying that later if I ever do sword training.
"Um... Miss Ji-won?"
"Call me Choi Ji-won."
At least she gave me an answer this time.
It seemed the equation was: Good Person buff + helped with work = she'll still answer coldly, but she'll answer.
"Alright, Choi Ji-won. Why are you keeping this clearing fed and alive?"
Thinking from the perspective of the Tower's creator, people living in a clearing like this were clearly an anomaly.
Food was hard to come by here, since the goblins living in the bushes all dropped nothing but trash.
It might be safe, sure, but getting in and out was extremely difficult because of the thick underbrush.
It was the starting point.
Normally, even people too scared to move would eventually leave the clearing, driven by hunger and thirst.
But because Choi Ji-won had been procuring food, it had turned into a complete safe zone.
"Someone like you... finding golden orbs shouldn't have been hard."
Even I'd managed to kill a single mutant and get an orb.
Much less Choi Ji-won, who would've been able to wipe out every mutant in sight.
I was curious why she stayed with the weak like this instead of simply moving on to the next stage.
"..."
Choi Ji-won kept swinging her sword without answering.
Just as I assumed I was being ignored as usual and was about to get some sleep,
"It's what I was taught," Choi Ji-won said, still swinging her sword.
"That it's the duty of the strong. Even if you can't save everyone in a crisis, you should at least save the weak right in front of you."
"..."
"...I'm just doing what I learned."
Choi Ji-won's eyes looked somewhat sorrowful as she said that.
"...I see."
She seemed to have a story behind her.
The way she'd beat someone down for the slightest hint of suspicion probably had a story behind it, too.
A small bit of sympathy for her started to soften my heart.
But then I thought, 'Wait, how many times has this woman made me regress?' and came back to my senses.
There's no one in the world without a story. Hell, even I've got my own.
So what kind of judgment should the cold, rational regressor Kim Jun-ho make here?
Let's think about it again.
Those eyes were the eyes of someone reminiscing about the past.
A family member, perhaps. A fellow disciple she trained with. Or her master.
I didn't know who, but one thing was certain.
The person who said those words to her was dead, or she'd lost the ability to see them for some reason.
And the traces of that person are still lodged deep within Choi Ji-won's heart.
Judging by the fact they told her such a warm story, they must have been a really kind person.
"Hm."
Come to think of it, Choi Ji-won was considerably less harsh with me whenever I put on the "good person" mask.
She taught me swordsmanship, told me why she guarded the clearing...
"...Bingo."
Choi Ji-won. You've been projecting someone else's image onto me, the guy pretending to be good.
It felt like puzzle pieces clicking into place in my head.
What I needed to gain in this cycle became crystal clear.
The day I learn the details about that unknown "someone" of Choi Ji-won's...
is the day I get a leash on her.