As Long as She's Pretty
With the money he'd earned from the requests he'd blindly completed since arriving in the city and from the dungeon auction, Evan had paid down his debt — and now he beamed at the half that remained.
I thought it'd take two years, but already half of it's gone…
Thanks to that, Evan's habits had shifted. Instead of grinding through every request that came his way, he started hunting for jobs that could land him a big score in one go. After all, he'd learned firsthand that even finishing every single guild request still couldn't match the speed of one proper windfall.
And so Evan became a freeloader who wandered into the forest each week looking for expensive monsters or dungeons, and spent the rest of his time loafing around the guild.
Ahh… I want a girlfriend…
Deep down, he kept turning over the reason he'd come to the city in the first place.
Today, as usual, he was sitting in the guild with nothing to do, sipping a sweet fruit drink, when the murmur of adventurers around him drifted to his ears.
"What's with those beastmen?"
"Who knows. Maybe they came to take up adventuring as a group?"
"For that, their clothes looked pretty high-class… probably nobles among the beastmen…"
Beastmen had come to the city. And not just one or two — a whole group of them.
Non-humans gathering in an adventurer city wasn't particularly strange, but if the adventurers were this worked up about it, it meant something out of the ordinary was going on.
Conveniently bored, Evan rose from his seat and stepped out of the guild. Finding the beastmen the adventurers had been talking about wasn't hard. Wherever they went, crowds of people had gathered to gawk.
"Why are they all flocking like that?"
"Isn't the lord going to stop those beasts?"
"The smell…"
Pushing through the throng of people spitting their disgust at the beastmen, Evan poked his head out between them — and let out a soft whoa at the sight of beastmen dressed in attire he'd never seen before.
Foxes, wolves, and other canine beastmen were filing along in a line, heading somewhere. But they weren't walking with their heads held high. They were scanning the crowds at random, as if searching for someone.
And then Evan saw the fox at the very front — a beauty with four tails — and his mouth fell open.
She's gorgeous…
If there was such a thing as the peak of mature feminine beauty, this had to be it. He was still marveling at a type of woman he'd never once encountered when he realized her face looked familiar.
Gray hair with a lingering silver sheen, a seductive expression overlaid with just enough of a warrior's steel — put those together, and the face of a certain beastman he knew emerged.
She looks a lot like Rainia.
If Rainia had an older sister, he imagined she'd look exactly like this. Evan watched the beastmen's procession for a while, then quietly returned to the guild.
"…So you've come to the city to find someone?"
"Yes — someone from our clan who fled the family was spotted in this city. We've come to take her back."
"I cannot permit any armed conflict."
"We also intend to avoid force as much as possible. Of course — if Your Lordship, master of this city, would lend us your aid, it would be all the easier."
"…Very well. I'll lend you the guard. But you will handle this quietly. Without a single disturbance."
"—We thank you for your generosity."
Kiara smiled and swept out of the lord's office. The moment she turned her back on the room, that smile vanished and her face twisted into a scowl.
Having to smile at mere humans…
The fact that she had to laugh and seek permission from beings as lowly as humans sat poorly with her. But there was no helping it. This was the kingdom — the Blue King's domain. The land of a monster who alone could cover an entire nation.
A superhuman difficult even for the great-blooded Nine Lives to contend with. To operate in such a being's territory, securing the lord's permission as the king's proxy was essential.
"You've worked hard, Clan Head."
"Have you found her?"
"My apologies. Not yet…"
"No one who even knows her face? This is a city of vulgar adventurers who'd sell their own parents for money — so find her by any means necessary."
Gunter bowed his head at Kiara's command and quickly left. Then, just as she'd instructed, he made for the guild.
That was right. This was a city of adventurers who would do anything for the right price — anything short of murder or crimes against the natural order. There was no need to wear out his feet searching. Gyeongguk-gyeongseong was a family that ranked among the highest even within Nine Lives.
Stepping into the Adventurer Guild, Gunter ignored the stares that kept flicking his way and approached the reception desk.
"—Welcome to the Adventurer Guild. How may I help you?"
"I'd like to find someone."
"A request, then. Understood. Do you have any personal details about the person you're looking for?"
"Don't know the name. Face looks like this. Female. Distinguishing feature: nine tails."
Gunter handed over a montage he'd drawn from a crystal ball. The moment the guild employee saw that face and heard about the nine tails, they immediately realized the person being sought was Rainia — one of the guild's own adventurers.
But showing you know right away is the mark of an amateur. The employee calmly sorted through some papers and spoke.
"The average fee for finding someone is one hundred elso. However, in this case — knowing only appearance — it would come to about five hundred elso."
"That's highway robbery. Five hundred elso to find a woman this distinctive? Do you take me for a sucker—"
"Oh, yeah, that's definitely Rainia."
"E-Evan?!"
At that moment, Gunter flinched at the kid who'd appeared at his side. He hadn't sensed a single approach—
But Evan, utterly unbothered by Gunter's shock, held up the montage and asked,
"Mister, why are you looking for this person?"
"…You know who she is?"
"I do. So why are you looking for her?"
"Where is she?"
"Hey, mister. I asked first and I answered you — so you should answer my question too. That's only fair."
This insolent little brat— Gunter cursed inwardly, grinding his teeth as he answered.
"That one is a runaway who fled our family a long time ago. We only recently got word she'd been found, so we came looking…"
"—Lie."
"…On what grounds do you call it a lie."
"How does someone chasing a runaway not know their name? Unless you said the name had been changed."
"I said I didn't know because I figured the name might have been changed."
"That's also a lie."
Evan smiled brightly as he countered.
"You smell like you're lying."
"…This damn brat—"
Telling a beastman they smelled was an extremely insulting thing to say. Whether they held human status or not, it meant you're still just animals — a racist slight. Of course, Evan had no idea of any of that and hadn't meant it as an insult — but that hardly mattered to Gunter.
"How dare you—!"
Gunter struck out at once. He was a member of Ilgidangcheon — an organization within Nine Lives that gathered only the strongest beastmen. He'd been brought along precisely for the possibility of armed conflict, and he was confident he could subdue any adventurer in this city with a single blow… save for the Blue King.
"Die—"
And in the next instant, Gunter realized a sword was stuck through his arm and leg.
The astonishing part was this: despite the blade being driven clean through him, not a single drop of blood had fallen.
"Wha……?"
"If you move, I'll cut you, mister."
"W-what is this—"
"You tried to hit me first. This is self-defense."
With a sword skewering his body, Gunter could only swallow hard in shock. Only then did he understand that the kid he'd picked a fight with was no ordinary person.
What the hell… a human can use a technique like this?
The sword in his body wasn't fake, and he wasn't under some illusion. His sharp beastman instincts told him everything was real. But that only made it harder to believe. How could anyone drive a sword into a body without leaving a single wound? His mind simply couldn't grasp it.
"Staff, please call the guards. A beastman is causing a disturbance."
"What? Y-yes, sir—!"
"—No. There's no need to call the guards."
Evan turned toward the voice and found the Rainia-lookalike from earlier standing there. Leading a throng of guards into the guild, she clicked her tongue at the sight of Gunter skewered on a single sword.
"I sent you to find someone, and you're causing a scene."
"C-Clan Head. This is, well…"
"Are you ignoring His Lordship's orders not to cause a disturbance?"
"N-no…"
"Then you're ignoring me — the one who promised His Lordship there would be no disturbance?"
The woman called Clan Head walked over and stood before Gunter, still pinned on the blade.
And then — she mercilessly yanked the sword free.
Evan had used the magic sword he'd stolen from Cyrus — the one that cut only what it wanted — to insert the blade with perfect technical precision. She'd simply ripped it out with raw force. Naturally, Gunter's limbs were sliced open, and blood fountained into the air.
"Gyaaaaah—!"
"Be quiet."
"Ghk, ghhk—!"
"—Here you are, boy. Sorry for touching your sword without permission."
"No, it's fine."
Meeting the eyes of the woman casually handing the sword back, Evan realized she was no ordinary person. Ruthless. Without a shred of mercy. Something close to a psychopath.
However.
…I'm going crazy.
Since ancient times, even a madwoman was forgiven if she was beautiful enough. Evan found himself having no particular thoughts about what she'd just done — as if he'd been put under a hypnosis that forbade him from hating her.