215. What Kind of Reward Did You Get?
215. What Kind of Reward Did You Get?
***
The moment Sua stepped inside, Serin took some of the bags she was carrying.
"Oh, thanks."
"No problem."
Serin, who had taken them lightly, felt the bags were heavier than expected and thought Sua really had bought a lot.
As she walked toward the living room like that, Sua's slender frame suddenly caught her eye.
"The bags are heavier than I expected. Wasn't it hard getting here?"
When Serin said that, Sua looked at her and smiled softly.
"It wasn't that hard. I hired someone to carry the bags up to your door, and once you get off the elevator, it's right in front of your place anyway."
Serin smiled faintly at Sua answering so nonchalantly, as if it were nothing.
And without realizing it, Serin found herself puzzled by Sua's words.
'Hired?'
At the mention of hiring someone to carry the bags, she felt a moment of bewilderment.
Serin was about to say something about it, but let it go. It seemed silly to make a point of it.
Instead, I found myself thinking that the people I'd formed connections with were, once again, all exceptional.
A pro gamer who drove one of the few hypercars in the world.
A big-name streamer and NewTuber in her early twenties living alone in a luxury officetel.
The only people she had met in this world who weren't family were those two, and once again, they were all so exceptional it made her wonder how this kept happening.
'Why does everyone naturally give off an upper-class vibe?'
Would an ordinary person, coming over just to have dinner together, even think of hiring someone to carry their bags?
Setting aside Serin's brief musings, Sua reached the living room and began unpacking what she had brought.
Rustle, rustle.
As the sound of Sua unpacking the food she had brought filled the space, Serin went into the kitchen and began taking out plates and wine glasses.
Afterward, Serin set several plates and wine glasses on the living room table.
As the number of dishes being placed on the wide living room table seemed to grow endlessly, she wondered what on earth all of this was.
Korean, Chinese, Japanese. Such a wide variety of foods were flaunting themselves splendidly atop the living room table.
And each and every dish looked like haute cuisine, with packaging that was anything but ordinary. It made her wonder where Sua had bought all this.
"How many servings did you even buy?"
When Serin spoke with a fed-up look, Sua, who had been laying out the food one by one on the table, tilted her head slightly and parted her lips.
"Probably seven servings—no, maybe eight?"
"How are the two of us supposed to finish all this...?"
"Come on. If there's anything left over, we can just throw it out."
When Serin stared at her in disbelief at such casually bourgeois words, Sua burst out laughing at the sight.
"I'm joking. Honestly, I haven't eaten a single meal today, so I can easily eat two servings. And you eat really well too, so you can manage four, right? So even if it's seven or eight servings, I figured if the two of us eat a reasonable amount, it'd be fine."
When Sua asked if she could eat that much, Serin was just dumbfounded.
"Sua, what... exactly do you take me for?"
"What do you mean, take you for? Last time we ate together, you ate so well you could've done a mukbang. So I just bought enough that the two of us would have plenty, or have a little left over."
"I don't actually eat that much."
"Well, better too much than not enough, right?"
Serin laughed at Sua speaking so confidently, as if asking what was wrong with having a lot.
"Sua, do you know the saying 'too much is as bad as too little'?"
"Nope, I don't know anything like that~"
Smiling as if she wouldn't hear another word, Sua reached for a luxurious box-shaped bundle.
Clack. Clack.
Immediately after, a wine with an elegant label suffused with a faint red glow was placed on the table.
The wine looked quite expensive even at a glance.
Serin quietly turned her gaze to Sua.
"Serin, this is a really expensive wine."
Suddenly, as if fishing for credit, Sua spoke in a playful tone.
Serin looked at her.
"So?"
"So, it's basically a bribe for you. An expensive bribe asking you to hang out with me even though you're tired."
Serin smiled softly at Sua speaking with apologetic eyes.
"No, really, you didn't have to go this far."
Perhaps because Sua was conscious of Serin having said she was tired on the call, in a way it looked like Sua had overdone it.
And in contrast to Serin, Sua was also taking in Serin's appearance while thinking many things.
'Was I... only thinking about myself?'
Serin's appearance came clearly into view.
Beneath her disheveled silver hair, blue eyes that looked hazier than usual. She was smiling outwardly, but Sua felt she could see deep fatigue in that appearance, and it made her sorry.
"I was the one who made an unreasonable request, so I thought it was only right to at least do this much. So... even if I'm a little annoying today, you have to accept it as cute clinginess, okay?"
Sua spoke half with apology, half with playful clinginess.
Through her tired expression, Serin answered with a natural smile.
"It's really fine, so don't worry."
Sua smiled as well, and soon dinner began.
......
Clink.
As the two women ate dinner, only the small sounds of utensils moving between the plates of food rang out.
In the midst of that, Sua slowly broached the subject.
"Serin, I'm so curious about how things ended with Daji after that."
The reason she was facing Serin like this now was, after all, because the stream had cut off.
And now, in a situation where she could hear it directly from the person involved, Sua couldn't hide her excitement.
'Who really won?'
The thought that she was hearing the result tens of thousands of viewers didn't know, directly from Serin like this, left her so thrilled she could barely even taste the food.
"Should I start with the ending?"
When Serin, who had been quietly watching Sua, smiled and answered, Sua hastily shook her head.
"No. I'd like you to explain everything one by one, starting from the moment you closed your eyes. I want to hear what happened after that slowly."
At Sua's reaction, Serin swept back her pure white silver hair as if deliberately collecting her thoughts.
'I never thought I'd be explaining it like this.'
Originally, even if Sua came over, she had planned to just have dinner together, tell her only the result, and gloss over the rest.
But at the exact moment an hour had passed, the memories of the Heavenly Demon Cheon Ryuhwa had surfaced with striking clarity.
How she had faced Daji, what techniques she had used to defeat Daji—all of it had flashed through her mind in an instant, and Serin had faltered, though outwardly she was feigning composure.
Contrary to her expectation that the memories occupying the blank would surely not return once she had let Cheon Ryuhwa dwell within her body, they had now come back exactly as they had in Black Ark.
Black Ark.
The memories of that world were a completely different reality.
Cheon Ryuhwa's memories were as good as confirming her certainty about Black Ark.
Within her musings, Serin slowly parted her lips.
"Right after I closed my eyes, I used one technique."
At Serin's slowly spoken words, Sua focused with all her attention.
From there, Serin continued by explaining the situation while covering only Cheon Ryuhwa's words and actions.
She didn't want to gloss over the situation with lies, since she didn't know when she might use that technique again, and she considered Sua close enough that she wanted to tell her as much as she could.
As she began speaking, Serin thought that she would need to say something close to the truth on tomorrow's stream as well, to some extent.
As Sua listened to Serin's story, she reacted vividly, surprised and exclaiming in admiration moment by moment—so much so that Serin, who was telling the story, occasionally paused and let out a quiet laugh.
After explaining the rather long sequence of events, Serin finally told her the result.
"And that's how I cleared it."
The moment she heard the result, Sua stared blankly at Serin.
"You really... beat Daji?"
When Sua asked again in a tone of disbelief, Serin nodded.
"Yeah. I won."
"...Wow."
Even as she let out a dazed exclamation, she couldn't quite believe it.
Serin's composed demeanor didn't look like that of someone lying.
And Serin wasn't the type to lie about something like this, either.
No, that was certainly true, but...
'She really beat Daji...?'
I had rewatched the cut-off stream several times before Serin contacted me, and I had unconsciously been imagining one thing.
—A scenario where Daji won.
By any objective measure of combat power, Daji had looked overwhelmingly stronger.
Serin's movements and techniques against Daji had been impressive enough to draw admiration, but Daji's new transformation at the end made it hard to imagine Serin winning no matter what she tried.
Actually, more than anything, there was Serin's expression right before the stream ended.
Her eyes had clearly held something close to disbelief.
It meant that even Serin had felt the difference in power.
"Then what about the Cave of Trials reward...? What item did you get?"
Dazed by the completely unexpected result, she asked about the reward. But for some reason, Serin didn't answer right away, instead gazing at her with a subtle look in her eyes.
"...What about the reward?"
When she asked again, as if curious.
"Sua. What kind of reward do you think I got?"
Serin countered with a question as if telling her to guess, wearing a strange smile.
'...?'
Serin had never shown off or hyped herself up, even while riding a rising wave related to streaming and Another World.
Even on the day she obtained the treasure item 'Dwarf's Ring,' she hadn't bragged to me.
So the way Serin looked now seemed all the more out of character.
Because she looked like she wanted to brag to me about something.
'What kind of reward did Serin get to make her act like that?'
Sua carefully parted her lips.
"Did you maybe... get a Mythic-grade Crescent-Moon Weight that isn't even on the market?"
But why was that?
Serin's strange smile only seemed to deepen.