The Knight's Name
After passing through the gates of Ryukel, we walked side by side toward the forest marked on the quest slip.
The receptionist had said it wasn't far, but walking it on my own two little legs turned out to be a different story entirely. The neatly paved road that ran up to the city walls gave way without warning to a dirt trail strewn with gravel, and the closer we got to the forest, the more thick tree roots crept up out of the ground, tripping my toes again and again. I'd felt it the first time I opened my eyes in this world, too — in games, your character just runs everywhere on their own, but actually walking the distance with your own body is a lot more tiring than you'd think.
Clank, clank.
A few paces ahead, Taska was walking at a steady pace, the full plate armor covering her from head to toe letting out a low metallic note with every step. Watching her stride along without a hint of strain under all that weight made me think that maybe there really was something different about a person whose vocation was Knight.
The problem was that, despite how long we'd been walking since leaving the gate, we hadn't exchanged so much as a single real conversation.
I adjusted the strap of the basket on my back and stole a glance at Taska ahead of me.
Things had been hectic at the guild. We'd met barely an hour before being registered as a temporary party, and we'd picked up a quest almost immediately after, so it was true there'd been no time to properly talk.
But if this was someone I'd be fighting beside, didn't we at least deserve a basic chat?
"Um, Taska?"
I worked up the courage to call out, but no answer came back.
Taska kept walking, eyes fixed straight ahead, as if she hadn't heard me at all. I hesitated a moment, then lengthened my stride to catch up beside her. Matching the pace of someone in full armor on my short little legs was surprisingly hard work, but if I gave up here, things would stay awkward the entire way back to the guild.
"Have you always lived in Ryukel, Taska?"
Again, no answer.
Still, it didn't feel like she was completely ignoring me — the visor of her helm had turned just slightly my way.
'So she did hear me.'
Confirming that somehow only made it more awkward.
I let my gaze drift forward again and hunted for another topic.
"I actually came to Ryukel just today. To be honest, I never even planned on becoming an adventurer — things just sort of happened, and next thing I knew I was registering at the guild……"
Walking in silence beside me, Taska still didn't answer.
"And now here I am hunting goblins on my very first day. Haha……"
Only my own laughter scattered, hollow, across the forest path.
Talking to myself almost seemed less embarrassing at this point.
I quietly slowed my pace and dropped back behind Taska again, pressing my lips shut in a silent vow not to try talking anymore. She hadn't seemed to dislike me — she'd patted my head back at the guild, after all — so maybe she was simply the kind of person who barely spoke at all.
'Well, people like that exist, I guess.'
There'd been one or two of them at the office, too — people who spent the whole lunch break on their phones and only gave a nod when work came up.
There was no need to force a conversation on anyone.
I was walking along thinking that when, all of a sudden, Taska stopped dead in her tracks.
I'd been trudging along behind her lost in my own thoughts, and nearly walked face-first into that armor, stumbling forward as I scrambled to a halt. Just as I was craning my head around to see what was wrong, an arm encased in thick plate cut across in front of me.
"……?"
The atmosphere was different from before.
Taska stood utterly motionless, staring at the brush ahead, and following her lead, I shifted my gaze as well. At first all I could see were trees and undergrowth, but when I narrowed my eyes and looked closer, I realized something was moving among the trees a little way off.
Sallow green skin, long protruding ears — a small monster shaped vaguely like a human, with a face grotesquely twisted out of proportion, was prowling back and forth through the brush. A dirty scrap of cloth was wrapped haphazardly around its waist, and it clutched a rusted dagger in its hand. Looking a bit harder, I spotted two more creatures of the same kind nearby.
The number matched the quest slip exactly.
Three goblins.
I'd seen this monster countless times in games, but watching one actually move in front of my eyes felt different from anything in my memory. In games they were nothing but weak mobs you mowed down in packs before even leaving the starter zone — but if that rusted blade stabbed me now, I would absolutely bleed, and with bad luck, I could simply die.
Remembering that painfully obvious fact made me a little ashamed of how excitedly I'd grabbed the quest slip back at the guild.
Shiiing—
Right beside me, I heard a sword sliding free of its scabbard.
Taska was drawing her longsword from her hip.
Sunlight filtering through the leaves glinted once off the smooth blade, and without a word, Taska lowered her stance slightly and began tracking the goblins' movements.
Feeling I should do something too, I hastily gripped the fishing rod I'd been carrying on my back.
Then I looked down at the thing in my hands.
"……"
Taska had a sword.
The goblins had daggers and clubs.
And I had a fishing rod.
'So what exactly am I supposed to do with this?'
No matter how I turned it over, I couldn't think of a way to fight a goblin with it. I could maybe try flicking the hook out to snag their clothes and pull them off balance, but even I found it hard to believe I'd pull off a trick like that in my very first real fight.
But standing around doing nothing felt far too conscienceless for a party member.
While I twisted the fishing rod this way and that, racking my brain for some way to use it, Taska had apparently already made her decision.
The armored foot shoved hard against the earth.
"Huh?"
The distance closed so fast it was hard to believe she was wearing heavy plate armor.
The first goblin to spot Taska bursting through the brush shrieked a shrill cry and raised its dagger, but she showed no intention of waiting for the attack to come. Without any wide swing, she slipped rapidly inside the goblin's guard and caught the belatedly descending dagger on the flat of her blade, deflecting it sideways.
KAANG—!
With a shriek of metal, the goblin's arm was flung wide.
Taska didn't miss the opening — she pivoted half a turn, the silver blade tracing a smooth arc along with the motion.
The goblin never even got the chance to scream.
One sweep of the sword passed through, and its body crumpled to the ground. In that instant, the second goblin beside it charged in, club raised high over its head.
Taska turned immediately, without so much as a glance at the goblin she'd felled.
Instead of backing away to dodge the club swinging down at her, she pressed a step deeper in, and before the club could build up any real speed, she hammered the goblin's wrist with her armor-guarded left arm. The moment the creature staggered off balance, the blade she'd been holding low surged upward from below and cut it down.
The time it took for the second goblin to fall was barely a few seconds.
Gripping my fishing rod, I stared blankly at the scene.
'……That person really just registered as a novice yesterday?'
There was no hesitation in the way she swung her sword, and the process of recovering her stance after parrying an attack was nearly invisible. One movement flowed naturally into the next — enough that even I, watching real combat for the first time in my life, could tell that Taska was far more than simply someone whose vocation happened to be Knight.
But this was no time for admiration.
While all eyes were drawn to the two fallen goblins, the last one was circling wide around the brush, creeping up behind Taska.
"……!"
In its hand was a blade a little longer than the others carried.
Taska didn't seem to have noticed.
The goblin crouched low and raised its blade.
"Taska, behind you!"
At my shout, Taska began to turn, but the goblin was already at her back.
In that moment, I didn't consciously think about what I should do. Only one thought filled my head — that my party member was about to be struck down right in front of me — and by the time I came to my senses, I had already hurled the fishing rod aside and was sprinting toward Taska.
"Taska!"
With my small body, I shoved through the brush and threw myself into the space between her and the goblin.
By the time I belatedly realized what I'd done, the goblin's blade was already falling, point-blank before my eyes.
'Ah.'
This was not great.
Reflexively, I raised both arms over my head and squeezed my eyes shut.
Just before the blade could fall, a familiar sensation spread from deep in my chest, like something ringing within it.
PAAT—!
A wash of green flooded my vision.
Countless hexagons interlocked to form a translucent barrier shaped like a colossal turtle's shell, and the goblin's blade crashed down against its surface before it ever touched my body.
KAAANG—!
The impact rebounded straight back into the goblin instead.
Its arm was flung violently backward, and cracks raced across the rusted blade in an instant before it snapped in half and went spinning off over the brush.
Still huddled with my arms over my head, I cautiously peeled one eye open.
"……I lived."
Right in front of my face floated the familiar green barrier.
The Protection of the Black Tortoise.
Once again, I hadn't activated it on purpose. It had appeared the instant danger was detected, and just as it had shattered that halberd back at the guild, it had kept me perfectly safe this time too.
But before I could even feel relief, a voice I'd never heard before came from right behind me.
"……Thank you."
A clear, low voice.
Unmistakably a woman's voice.
"……Huh?"
I turned my head slowly.
Right behind me was Taska, and no one else.
'Huh?'
While I blinked, unable to process what was happening, Taska was already moving.
She adjusted her grip on the sword with both hands and brushed past me, closing the distance before the now-weaponless goblin could stumble back in panic. Her blade flashed once, short and precise, cleaving cleanly through its body — and the last goblin collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
Only the rustling of leaves and my own ragged breathing remained in the forest.
I stared blankly at Taska's back before coming to my senses belatedly and running over.
"Taska!"
Taska turned around.
I looked her armor up and down, checking whether any part of her had taken a hit.
"Are you okay? You're not hurt anywhere, are you? You appeared behind me so suddenly back there, and……"
Mid-sentence, Taska brought her hands up toward her helm.
Clank.
With the sound of the locking mechanism releasing, the helm slowly lifted away.
I stopped talking.
The first thing to spill out from within the helm was hair damp with sweat. A shoulder-length cut swayed gently in the breeze down to the nape of her neck, and the face now fully revealed was nothing like what I had vaguely imagined.
Fair white skin, neat delicate features, and eyes far calmer than anyone's should be right after a fight.
And above all—
"……You're a woman?"
The question just slipped out of me.
Taska blinked once, as if my question were strange, but looked down at me without answering.
So the voice I'd heard earlier hadn't been my imagination.
'Wait. Hold on.'
What had I been imagining this whole time?
Full plate armor, a hidden face, not a single word spoken — I'd just naturally assumed she was some big gruff male knight. Come to think of it, the receptionist had never mentioned her gender when introducing her, and she herself hadn't said a word since, so it had all been my own assumption from start to finish.
While I stood there flustered on my own, Taska took a step closer.
"Uh……?"
A gauntleted hand rose.
I already knew from experience where it was headed.
"Wait, again?"
Her palm settled on top of my head.
Once again, my bucket hat dodged it with perfect timing.
Pat, pat.
My hair pressed down beneath the movement of her hand, then slipped free again.
"Eep?"
A strange sound escaped me before I could stop it.
Looking down at me, Taska let the corner of her mouth curve up, ever so faintly.
"You did well."
It was the first time I'd properly heard her voice without the helm in the way.
It was hardly a long speech, but perhaps because it came from someone who hadn't answered a single word I'd said until now, it rang strangely clear in my ears.
"No, I mean, the protection just blocked it on its own……"
I said that, but it didn't feel bad.
Just a little unfair.
'I'm twenty-eight, you know.'
These days, every time I had that thought, I felt my own certainty about it quietly slipping away.
Taska took her hand off my head and turned toward the fallen goblins.
Examining their bodies, she drew a small knife with practiced ease, and a moment later retrieved a clouded magic stone, each about the size of a finger joint, from the corpses. They were drops I could get from monsters in games too, but the stones I saw in real life looked far rougher and more impure than the glittering icons that had once landed in my inventory.
With the three magic stones collected, we started back toward Ryukel.
It was the same forest path we'd taken coming out, but the mood had changed a little.
Most of all, Taska now walked with her helm removed and tucked under her arm, and with her face visible, walking beside her no longer felt like being alone with some faceless suit of mystery armor.
I fell naturally into step beside her.
"Where did you learn to use a sword, Taska?"
This time, her head turned at the question.
After a brief silence, she gave a short answer.
"Since I was little."
"I knew it! It seemed weird that someone who just registered as an adventurer yesterday could fight that well."
Somehow, I felt relieved.
Now that the person who'd ignored everything I said had started responding a few words at a time, my questions multiplied without my meaning them to, and though Taska remained a woman of few words, she would occasionally nod or give me a short reply.
After walking a while longer, I found myself thinking back on the battle and spoke up in a voice tinged with admiration.
"But seriously, that was amazing. You're incredibly strong, Taska."
At that moment, the footsteps of the woman walking ahead stopped.
"……?"
Wondering if I'd made some kind of mistake, I stopped too.
Taska turned around slowly.
And looked at me with a slightly troubled expression.
"I."
"Yes?"
"Am not Taska."
"……Sorry?"
I blinked.
Then who exactly had I been partying with this whole time?
Taska seemed to think for a moment, then pointed a finger at her own chest.
"Asuka."
"……Asuka?"
A nod.
"The receptionist heard it wrong."
"……"
I stared at Asuka, mouth hanging open.
So when she'd registered yesterday and given her name, the receptionist had misheard it — and today, when introducing her to me, had introduced her as Taska just the same.
But still.
"Then why didn't you say anything until now?"
Asuka looked at me for a moment, then glanced away to the side.
"I…… missed the timing to correct it."
The instant I heard those words, the laughter I'd been holding back broke loose.
"Pffft."
Asuka's eyebrows dipped down, ever so slightly.
I hastily covered my mouth, but it was too late.
"S-sorry. I wasn't trying to laugh, it's just…… pfft."
The image of someone who'd stood there so stoically at the guild, missing her one chance to correct a single syllable of her own name and walking around under the wrong name ever since — the thought wouldn't let my laughter die down.
Asuka watched me quietly for a while, then turned back toward Ryukel.
The very faint tinge of red at the tips of her ears was probably just my imagination.
I followed behind her, fighting down my giggles.
"Got it. I won't get it wrong anymore."
I quickened my pace a few steps to stand beside her, and this time I called her name properly.
"Asuka."
Asuka looked down at me.
A moment later, a very small nod.
"Mm."
The walls of Ryukel were beginning to peek through the trees ahead.
My first quest had ended without incident, and I'd collected the magic stones of all three goblins. I'd learned a little about how the power Hyunmoo gave me actually protected me, and I'd picked up a few new facts about my very first party member, too.
I stole a glance at Asuka walking beside me.
'……Can't even correct someone when they get your name wrong.'
When Asuka glanced my way, I hastily turned my eyes forward as if nothing had happened.
Though there was nothing I could do about the corners of my mouth, which kept trying to creep upward.
And so, carrying the magic stones of three goblins, Asuka and I returned to Ryukel to report on our first extermination quest.