유혹 (2)
The mood hitting Ahin the moment he stepped out of the cheap inn felt terrible. Anyone who saw him would know it immediately.
Whether the sleepless night or the chore of washing his underclothes that morning was the real culprit, or some deeper reason he preferred not to name, it didn’t matter. The scowl on his face alone was enough to make anyone instinctively look away. For once, no one dared approach the usually silent Ahin, so he left the inn without a single interruption.
The inn he’d been squatting in sat on the city outskirts, far from the bustling adventurer guild in the center.
Walking all the way there would take forever, but a breath of fresh air might calm his foul mood. That was his plan.
Thud!
Before he even realized what he’d kicked, his foot connected with something lumpy in the middle of the road.
While he’d been daydreaming, he hadn’t been paying attention to the ground. Only then did he notice what his toe had struck and spring back two steps in shock, staring at the thing he’d just kicked.
“What…?”
It was a human.
A long robe covered head to ankle, soaked in mud and leaves, yet the body beneath showed no reaction. Not even a twitch. It was clearly a person. The moment the realization sank in, Ahin felt a chill crawl up his spine.
Carpe was a fairly safe city, but the outskirts were another story. Patrols grew rarer the farther you walked from the central government buildings and guild halls. Most people clustered in the heart of town, so the guards naturally focused their attention there too. A dead body lying in the middle of a back alley at the city’s ragged edge would raise zero suspicion.
“I… is he dead?”
Ahin spun around, panicked, only to realize no one was nearby. He swallowed hard, then grabbed a dried stick from the ground and approached the motionless figure.
No blood, no bruises. Still, caution was mandatory. The world had plenty of bizarre murder methods, some that left no trace at all.
Ahin crossed himself—the sign of the Holy Cross—and lifted the stick to prod the body.
Tap!
A pale hand shot out and snatched the stick right from his grip.
“Waaaaah!!”
Ahin yelped, dropped the stick, and landed hard on his backside. The hand that had taken it was unnervingly small and white.
It looked softer than Ahin’s own, almost… feminine.
“Belly…”
“Belly?”
The voice that came from the face still pressed to the dirt was weak, trembling, barely more than a whisper.
“I’m… so hungry…”
Ahin’s expression froze solid the instant he heard it.
“No money on me…”
He was broke.
●
“Uweeeek…”
“Jina, you’re not as strong with alcohol as you pretend,” Er said, shaking her head while watching the junior disciple clutch a tree and dry-heave.
There was so much she wanted to say, but the words stuck. Jina was already dying of embarrassment, murmuring in a tiny voice, “Ugh… Ahin… where are you… save me…”
“You can’t use your skills just to cure hangovers,” Er scolded gently.
“Shut up, you monster… uwek…”
Then Jina grabbed the tree again and started heaving. Something about the scene felt strangely familiar.
“Er…!”
The voice she’d been waiting for.
Normally her party members gathered at the guild every day. So when she heard that familiar tone, Er turned with a bright smile—only to freeze.
“Ah… hello?”
Ahin stood there, one arm looped casually around a stranger, looking perfectly at home.
Er blinked, still processing, then managed a polite, “Ahin, if you need money just say so! I’ll never abandon you to kidnap—”
“Not that kind of thing!!”
His outburst made the person at his side stir. Ahin panicked and hurried on.
“We can talk later… sorry, but could you at least buy me dinner first—?”
“Uwek… Ahin, I’m so hungry… what the—?!”
Jina, who had been about to beg for a heal, saw the person clinging to Ahin’s side and screamed.
“Ahin! If you need money you should’ve just said it! Kidnapping is—?!”
“Are you mocking me?!”
The instant he snapped, the stranger’s voice came again from Ahin’s hip.
“Belly… I’m so hungry…”
Er and Jina’s eyes narrowed sharply.
“Ahin… that person is a woman?”
“W-well, yeah…”
“Put her down right now. I’ll carry her to the clinic or anywhere else you like.”
“I-I can’t!”
“Why not?”
Ahin swallowed hard, staring at Er’s terrifyingly sharp emerald eyes.
“Her condition is… bad. If I use my holy power on her she’ll collapse right away?”
“What?! Ahin, you’re using your skill?!”
“She was dying on the street… I couldn’t just leave her.”
“Then heal her yourself!”
“…Huh?”
Jina’s shocked tone made Ahin tilt his head.
“Hahaha… it’s over. Everyone’s safe… I’m out—uwuuuk!!”
Jina finally snapped, clamped a hand over her mouth, and bolted. Ahin watched her disappear, stunned, when Er spoke.
“You were going to buy food, right? Let’s head inside. The guild tavern should still be open.”
“O-oh, yeah…”
Ahin found Er’s tone strangely ominous.
●
Sluuurp. Gulp. Slurp. Gulp.
The sounds matched the way she devoured the food: tearing bread straight from the plate and stuffing it in, stabbing bacon with her fork and chomping it down.
She wore a robe, yet no one could see her face. She ate in total silence. Er, seated beside Ahin, couldn’t help a quiet laugh.
“So you found this girl collapsed in the alley?”
“I thought she was dead at first…”
“Then the first thing she said was that she was hungry?”
“Yeah!”
“She looks like you kidnapped and starved her.”
“…”
Ahin glared at Er’s amused, almost wounded expression. She covered her mouth and kept talking.
“Hehe, just kidding. Suddenly dragging a girl around and saying you need to eat…”
“You’re just scared,” Ahin muttered.
“Nope, it’s you.”
“Is that an insult?”
“Of course not.”
Er waved her hand dismissively. “Then you watch over this one. I have to run an errand at guild headquarters.”
“Why?”
“Remember the magic stone I was looking for?”
Er lifted a pouch filled with a black gemstone.
“Wait…”
The hooded girl, still holding food to her face, spoke in a slow, soft, almost blank voice.
“That’s… a magic stone…?”
Er froze, then answered, “I feel it.”
“You feel it? You think that’s proof?”
Er snatched the pouch away as the girl kept reaching. Unable to escape the persistent hand, she finally raised the pouch high over her own head.
The girl rose with the pouch, but even standing on tiptoes her short frame couldn’t reach it.
“Why won’t you give it to me…?”
“Because I can’t trust you! You were lying in the street, and your face is covered—I have no idea who you are.”
Er and Ahin exchanged glances as the girl kept reaching.
“Then… can I?”
Before anyone could stop her, the girl grabbed the edge of her hood and pulled it back without hesitation.
The sky-blue hair that spilled out was pale, almost silvery. Her eyes, the same soft blue, were distant, like clouds drifting across the sky.
She looked like a young, innocent girl whose age hadn’t even reached adulthood yet.
The moment the hood was removed, her face—still dazed and hidden until then—appeared. It was so gentle and harmless that Ahin felt as if the whole world had suddenly brightened.
“W-wait… no way…”
Er’s voice rose in shock at the sudden reveal.
But what truly stunned her wasn’t the face.
She stared at the slender neck now exposed, and the familiar silver adventurer plate hanging from it.
Even though it clashed horribly with the girl’s youthful appearance, the plate looked perfectly natural on her. Anyone would assume she was its rightful owner.
Yet that wasn’t the root of Er’s alarm.
An apprentice adventurer was common enough; Er knew that. What actually made her eyes widen was something else entirely.
“Silver…”
The color of the plate around the girl’s neck matched the one Er had just acquired—too perfectly.
“S-silver rank…?!”
“Silver rank?!”
Ahin’s astonished voice echoed through the tavern. Jina, still slumped face-down on the table, shot upright in shock.
The moment they followed Er’s gaze, the silver plate on the girl’s neck was unmistakable.
Ahin’s jaw dropped at the unbelievable sight. The girl smiled softly.
“My name is Haru. I’m a mage.”
A mage.
A mysterious follower of the impossible, someone who worked miracles right before your eyes.
“I was looking for this black magic stone.”
She was a silver-rank adventurer of the Carpe guild.
The first meeting with Haru the mage.