Chapter 123: Old Hand (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 123: Old Hand (2)
"Missha and I are simply comrades."
"I-Is that so? Ah, of course..."
Of course, what?
I took a sip of my drink, ignoring Dwalkie's look, which seemed to imply he had expected that answer. Then he banged his head on the table.
Smack!
Well, I had been wondering how this kid who couldn't take alcohol was chugging all those drinks.
Goddamn it.
Anyway, with this, our midday drinking party ended completely after less than a few hours. It was still broad daylight when I left the bar, leaving the blacked-out Dwalkie to his best friend, Hikurod.
I guess I should just go to the library.
I canceled my plans to go home and rest, and changed my destination. There was a lot I still didn't know about this world.
It's almost the same, yet subtly different.
Just look at the Troll we ran into this time. Even when we poked its eye and blinded it, it sensed Dwalkie's mana and charged at him. There hadn't been anything like that in the game. But you never knew, there could be something like that written in the books of this world. I couldn't be satisfied with in-game knowledge—it was necessary to continue studying.
Auril Gavis. I have to keep learning more about that name, anyway.
Somehow, I seemed to read a lot more books here than I did when I was back in civilization.
"You are back." When I arrived at the library, Ragna greeted me with a sleepy look. Perhaps it was because it had been several months since we'd finally introduced ourselves to each other, but we were on much friendlier terms than before, to the point that she even struck up conversations with me first now. "I get that you were resting two days ago, but why didn't you come yesterday?"
"I had other things to do."
"I know you're busy with your work as an adventurer, but you shouldn't neglect your studies."
This girl had a very strange side to her, too, for her to tell a barbarian not to neglect his studies. "All right. Then I'll leave it to you."
"...Bierdo Parsytiev."
After briefly saying hello, I received the Special Book Recognition spell as usual and entered the building. This time, I mainly looked at content related to monsters. Originally, that was a field that I hadn't looked into because I had knowledge from the game, but things had changed.
"I'm hungry, so I'm going to go. Goodbye."
"Um..." Ragna began.
"Hm?"
"I also haven't... never mind. Don't mind me."
It was late when I left the library. But... what was this?
"Hello, Mr. Yandel."
When I returned to my lodgings feeling like I'd had a productive day, someone was waiting in front of my door—a woman who was dressed in black from head to toe like she was headed to a funeral. The way she held herself exuded a sense of elegance. So, her name must have been...
"Are you... Urbans?"
"...Julian. Julian Urbans."
"Right."
"...Mr. Peta mentioned it, but I didn't expect you to actually forget me," she muttered, curling her brown hair around her index finger. It may simply have been a habit, but it could have been that she was subconsciously showing her nerves.
Her expression doesn't give anything away, but could it be that she's nervous?
With that thought in mind, I asked, "So, who is Peta?"
At my question, her eyes went wide in disbelief. "...You don't know the name of the branch manager, either?"
"Ah." So that was the name of that mustachioed man. But how was I supposed to know? He'd never told me his name before. I couldn't say I wasn't a little embarrassed, but I refused to show it as I got straight to the point. "So, what are you doing here? And alone too."
"Since you wouldn't meet with me, I had no choice but to come to you."
"I'm very sure I turned down the offer."
"Can't you consider that I'm desperate?"
Desperate, huh? If the daughter of the district chief was saying that, it was clear something was going on, probably hard for her to discuss with others. Otherwise, there was no reason for her to be willingly visiting her hostage-taker. But I was a barbarian who didn't care about any of that.
"Go home. I refuse to get involved in something troublesome." I stamped out my curiosity and entered the room.
Just as I was about to close the door, the young Lady Urbans quickly shoved her parasol in the doorway.
Tap!
But that of course wasn't going to work.
Bang!
The door firmly shut, destroying the parasol in the process with just a bit of force.
"Huh?" Not expecting this turn of events, Urbans urgently knocked. "W-Wait! Let's talk for a moment. It won't take long—"
"Stop it and leave."
"No, really! Aren't you curious? About why I'm going this far?"
"I'm not curious."
"Eeek!"
Did my stubborn attitude work? When her parasol broke, the young lady gave the door an angry kick before disappearing with a click of her heels. Only then did I breathe a sigh of relief.
Looks like that's over—
Click, clack.
Just then, the sound of the retreating heels grew louder again as she came back. Could it be that she still hadn't given up?
Knock, knock, knock.
As soon as I heard the knock, I made a snoring sound.
Honnnk!
With nothing she could reply to, I determined that this would make her give up.
"Ha... how did I ever..." I heard her lamenting through the door, but apparently, she decided to switch up her strategy. "I know you're not sleeping, so just listen," Urbans whispered from the other side. "Brown Rotmiller. Beware of him. I don't know the details, but I met with my father today and—ah! Don't open the door so suddenly!"
This was worth a listen.
***
A man and woman in a room in the middle of the night. The air between us was full of awkward tension. That was a given. I'd even opened the door for her, but it turned out there was nothing to hear.
"Is that it?"
"Yes..."
Rotmiller had apparently been called to the district chief's office and then came out within five minutes. That was all the information that Miss Urbans was able to give me. If I had known this was going to happen, I wouldn't have opened the door.
Her expression doesn't give anything away, but could it be that she's nervous?
With that thought in mind, I asked, "So, who is Peta?"
At my question, her eyes went wide in disbelief. "...You don't know the name of the branch manager, either?"
"Ah." So that was the name of that mustachioed man. But how was I supposed to know? He'd never told me his name before. I couldn't say I wasn't a little embarrassed, but I refused to show it as I got straight to the point. "So, what are you doing here? And alone too."
"Since you wouldn't meet with me, I had no choice but to come to you."
"I'm very sure I turned down the offer."
"Can't you consider that I'm desperate?"
Desperate, huh? If the daughter of the district chief was saying that, it was clear something was going on, probably hard for her to discuss with others. Otherwise, there was no reason for her to be willingly visiting her hostage-taker. But I was a barbarian who didn't care about any of that.
"Go home. I refuse to get involved in something troublesome." I stamped out my curiosity and entered the room.
Just as I was about to close the door, the young Lady Urbans quickly shoved her parasol in the doorway.
Tap!
But that of course wasn't going to work.
Bang!
The door firmly shut, destroying the parasol in the process with just a bit of force.
"Huh?" Not expecting this turn of events, Urbans urgently knocked. "W-Wait! Let's talk for a moment. It won't take long—"
"Stop it and leave."
"No, really! Aren't you curious? About why I'm going this far?"
"I'm not curious."
"Eeek!"
Did my stubborn attitude work? When her parasol broke, the young lady gave the door an angry kick before disappearing with a click of her heels. Only then did I breathe a sigh of relief.
Looks like that's over—
Click, clack.
Just then, the sound of the retreating heels grew louder again as she came back. Could it be that she still hadn't given up?
Knock, knock, knock.
As soon as I heard the knock, I made a snoring sound.
Honnnk!
With nothing she could reply to, I determined that this would make her give up.
"Ha... how did I ever..." I heard her lamenting through the door, but apparently, she decided to switch up her strategy. "I know you're not sleeping, so just listen," Urbans whispered from the other side. "Brown Rotmiller. Beware of him. I don't know the details, but I met with my father today and—ah! Don't open the door so suddenly!"
This was worth a listen.
***
A man and woman in a room in the middle of the night. The air between us was full of awkward tension. That was a given. I'd even opened the door for her, but it turned out there was nothing to hear.
"Is that it?"
"Yes..."
Rotmiller had apparently been called to the district chief's office and then came out within five minutes. That was all the information that Miss Urbans was able to give me. If I had known this was going to happen, I wouldn't have opened the door.
"So, what do you want?" Now that this had happened, I decided to sate my curiosity. I was even more curious now. Why was this daughter so against her father that she would tell me this?
The young Lady Urbans' expression grew solemn. "My ultimate goal is my father's downfall."
"...Huh?"
"It can't be helped. If things continue on like this, I'll truly end up living like a doll. Anyway, for this, your cooperation is essential—"
"Leave."
"Pardon? No, you seem to have misunderstood something, but if you help me, you will benefit greatly—"
What benefit? There was nothing to be gained by opposing the district chief.
"Kyaaa!"
I could already see how tenacious this woman was from our brief interaction, so I sent her outside. Then I closed the door and locked it. Did my persistence slowly wear her down?
"If... If you change your mind, please come see me. Oh, and be careful. My father would have played a trick on that Rotmiller man."
After those words, Miss Urbans left without any more of a fuss. So, I washed myself off and went to bed.
Rotmiller... I'll have to keep an eye on him for now.
After that, the days continued on as usual. I ate meat that Missha grilled every morning and spent time in the library at lunchtime. When Erwen came by once a week, just as she promised, the three of us shared a meal together. Oh, we also had our usual meeting to plan our next expedition.
"Last time a Troll showed up on the fourth floor, but from what I've heard, it seems we're the only ones with such bad luck. It doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with the floor itself, so I think it's okay to go there as planned. What do you guys think?"
I watched Rotmiller throughout the meeting, but I couldn't find anything unusual about him. If I had to pick something, he was quieter than usual. This muddled my thoughts even further. If there was something to discuss after his meeting with the district chief, I was hoping that he would tell me at our meeting.
Should I just straight-up ask him?
There was also the option of taking the bull by the horns, but I put that on hold for now. There was still time left before the labyrinth opened, so it was better to take a more cautious approach.
Anyway, time passed. Three days later, I received five million stones from Mr. Bear.
"With this, I've paid off all my debts. Give me back the item."
"...Can't you just give me this instead?"
I asked if he could give me the bracelet, but Mr. Bear shook his head resolutely.
Geez, it's not like it's a one-time use, either. This item is most effective when equipped by a character with high regeneration. During the period when you're immune to damage, your blood replenishes. I'll have to coax him into selling it to me at a cheap price when we become a team later on.
With that thought in mind, I opened my eyes and checked my watch. It was just ten seconds until midnight on the fifteenth. I closed my eyes again.
[Your soul has resonated and is being drawn to a specific world.]
It was time to partake in a special event.
***
I was inside Hansu Lee's bedroom, not Bjorn Yandel's inn room. Although it wasn't my first time here, I took a moment to lay on the bed thinking about how cool this was.
As expected, the softness is different.
At that moment, I could clearly feel the gap between our civilizations. It wasn't even a particularly expensive mattress. Well, even in this world, I was sure a high-class inn was probably on another level too.
Press.
When I turned on the computer from the bed with my toe, the monitor lit up right away without needing to boot up. I got up and sat down in front of it. Since this place could only be accessed once a month, and with a time limit, I had to use my time here efficiently.
Click, click.
First, I entered the Exchange. Most of the messages were the same as the last time, but new posts were appearing in real-time. Considering the way this place worked, that made sense.
Let's wait a little longer and check again...
I opened the list of chat rooms. When I first came here, I didn't have enough time to peruse this feature at my leisure, but that wasn't the case this time.
[Wizardry]
[Beastpeople come in]
[Elf of Night]
Looking closely, I could see tha, unlike the [Newbie Room] which had about ten people, many were gathered in different occupational and ethnic communities. It would be easier to get useful information from places like that, things like strategies for leveling up.
But... why aren't there any barbarians?
As I kept scrolling down, I froze. Except for dragonians, who you couldn't select on the character screen anyway, everyone had a dedicated chat room, except for barbarians. Actually, there was one, but there was no one inside.
[Behelahhh! - 0 people are online.]
Looking closely, the last time it was accessed was several months ago, and a red line was drawn over the person's nickname. That meant they had either been kicked from the server or were dead in the real world. Why were barbarians the only ones like this? When I thought about it, there was a compelling reason. Two, actually.
First, barbarians weren't very popular as main characters. I had usually chosen a beastman or an elf before I finally perfected my shield barbarian build. Either that or I chose a human with good potential in the second half. Second, barbarians had to enter the labyrinth with a weapon as soon as the game began. Otherwise, they would starve. There was an extremely difficult coming-of-age ceremony, along with the hardcore provision that in order to progress, you had to enter the labyrinth as soon as you woke up.
There are already a few people who choose barbarians, but even those people would have all died in the beginning.
For some reason, that brought on some secondhand embarrassment. So I looked for a job community instead.
[Noblesse - 21 people are online.]
[Treasure Hunter - 34 people are online.]
[Sword Master - 17 people are online.]
Healer, archer, swordmaster, et cetera—each community had more than ten users online.
[Shielder - 3 people are online.]
Meanwhile, there were only three tanks. Zero in my race community and three in my job... what path had I been walking? The thought made me a bit miserable, so I looked for a national community this time. Fortunately, there was a chat room.
[Long Live Korea's Independence - 1 person is online.]
Only one person, but who was I to be picky? This was an overseas game that didn't even have a Korean translation in the first place. I honestly thought I wouldn't even find someone else here.
A Korean, huh?
I double-clicked the mouse without hesitation.
***
Surprisingly, the moment I opened my eyes, I saw a room that looked like an aristocratic mansion. I had thought it would be a basic skin, like a clearing or a field.
"You're hereee!"
Before I could look around, the player who was online—a man with short hair in his early twenties—greeted me with a loud shout.
[Sergeant Lee]
When I processed the nickname, I froze. "Sergeant Lee... are you...?"
"Bro... you get me. It happened the day I was discharged."
What kind of shitty luck was that!?
"So, what do you want?" Now that this had happened, I decided to sate my curiosity. I was even more curious now. Why was this daughter so against her father that she would tell me this?
The young Lady Urbans' expression grew solemn. "My ultimate goal is my father's downfall."
"...Huh?"
"It can't be helped. If things continue on like this, I'll truly end up living like a doll. Anyway, for this, your cooperation is essential—"
"Leave."
"Pardon? No, you seem to have misunderstood something, but if you help me, you will benefit greatly—"
What benefit? There was nothing to be gained by opposing the district chief.
"Kyaaa!"
I could already see how tenacious this woman was from our brief interaction, so I sent her outside. Then I closed the door and locked it. Did my persistence slowly wear her down?
"If... If you change your mind, please come see me. Oh, and be careful. My father would have played a trick on that Rotmiller man."
After those words, Miss Urbans left without any more of a fuss. So, I washed myself off and went to bed.
Rotmiller... I'll have to keep an eye on him for now.
After that, the days continued on as usual. I ate meat that Missha grilled every morning and spent time in the library at lunchtime. When Erwen came by once a week, just as she promised, the three of us shared a meal together. Oh, we also had our usual meeting to plan our next expedition.
"Last time a Troll showed up on the fourth floor, but from what I've heard, it seems we're the only ones with such bad luck. It doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with the floor itself, so I think it's okay to go there as planned. What do you guys think?"
I watched Rotmiller throughout the meeting, but I couldn't find anything unusual about him. If I had to pick something, he was quieter than usual. This muddled my thoughts even further. If there was something to discuss after his meeting with the district chief, I was hoping that he would tell me at our meeting.
Should I just straight-up ask him?
There was also the option of taking the bull by the horns, but I put that on hold for now. There was still time left before the labyrinth opened, so it was better to take a more cautious approach.
Anyway, time passed. Three days later, I received five million stones from Mr. Bear.
"With this, I've paid off all my debts. Give me back the item."
"...Can't you just give me this instead?"
I asked if he could give me the bracelet, but Mr. Bear shook his head resolutely.
Geez, it's not like it's a one-time use, either. This item is most effective when equipped by a character with high regeneration. During the period when you're immune to damage, your blood replenishes. I'll have to coax him into selling it to me at a cheap price when we become a team later on.
With that thought in mind, I opened my eyes and checked my watch. It was just ten seconds until midnight on the fifteenth. I closed my eyes again.
[Your soul has resonated and is being drawn to a specific world.]
It was time to partake in a special event.
***
I was inside Hansu Lee's bedroom, not Bjorn Yandel's inn room. Although it wasn't my first time here, I took a moment to lay on the bed thinking about how cool this was.
As expected, the softness is different.
At that moment, I could clearly feel the gap between our civilizations. It wasn't even a particularly expensive mattress. Well, even in this world, I was sure a high-class inn was probably on another level too.
Press.
When I turned on the computer from the bed with my toe, the monitor lit up right away without needing to boot up. I got up and sat down in front of it. Since this place could only be accessed once a month, and with a time limit, I had to use my time here efficiently.
Click, click.
First, I entered the Exchange. Most of the messages were the same as the last time, but new posts were appearing in real-time. Considering the way this place worked, that made sense.
Let's wait a little longer and check again...
I opened the list of chat rooms. When I first came here, I didn't have enough time to peruse this feature at my leisure, but that wasn't the case this time.
[Wizardry]
[Beastpeople come in]
[Elf of Night]
Looking closely, I could see tha, unlike the [Newbie Room] which had about ten people, many were gathered in different occupational and ethnic communities. It would be easier to get useful information from places like that, things like strategies for leveling up.
But... why aren't there any barbarians?
As I kept scrolling down, I froze. Except for dragonians, who you couldn't select on the character screen anyway, everyone had a dedicated chat room, except for barbarians. Actually, there was one, but there was no one inside.
[Behelahhh! - 0 people are online.]
Looking closely, the last time it was accessed was several months ago, and a red line was drawn over the person's nickname. That meant they had either been kicked from the server or were dead in the real world. Why were barbarians the only ones like this? When I thought about it, there was a compelling reason. Two, actually.
First, barbarians weren't very popular as main characters. I had usually chosen a beastman or an elf before I finally perfected my shield barbarian build. Either that or I chose a human with good potential in the second half. Second, barbarians had to enter the labyrinth with a weapon as soon as the game began. Otherwise, they would starve. There was an extremely difficult coming-of-age ceremony, along with the hardcore provision that in order to progress, you had to enter the labyrinth as soon as you woke up.
There are already a few people who choose barbarians, but even those people would have all died in the beginning.
For some reason, that brought on some secondhand embarrassment. So I looked for a job community instead.
[Noblesse - 21 people are online.]
[Treasure Hunter - 34 people are online.]
[Sword Master - 17 people are online.]
Healer, archer, swordmaster, et cetera—each community had more than ten users online.
[Shielder - 3 people are online.]
Meanwhile, there were only three tanks. Zero in my race community and three in my job... what path had I been walking? The thought made me a bit miserable, so I looked for a national community this time. Fortunately, there was a chat room.
[Long Live Korea's Independence - 1 person is online.]
Only one person, but who was I to be picky? This was an overseas game that didn't even have a Korean translation in the first place. I honestly thought I wouldn't even find someone else here.
A Korean, huh?
I double-clicked the mouse without hesitation.
***
Surprisingly, the moment I opened my eyes, I saw a room that looked like an aristocratic mansion. I had thought it would be a basic skin, like a clearing or a field.
"You're hereee!"
Before I could look around, the player who was online—a man with short hair in his early twenties—greeted me with a loud shout.
[Sergeant Lee]
When I processed the nickname, I froze. "Sergeant Lee... are you...?"
"Bro... you get me. It happened the day I was discharged."
What kind of shitty luck was that!?