What kind of bitch is she? (2)
What kind of bitch is she? (2)
"... What is it you have to say?"
Rus, with dead eyes, sat at the table and asked Lily and Vien on the opposite side.
Rus's room was neat, but the only flaw was that the equipment she wore when going to the Navil Dungeon a few days ago was rolling around on the floor without even being maintained.
It was only natural for Rus, who had burst into the tears she had been holding back the moment she returned to her room and closed the door.
It wasn't that Lily didn't understand her feelings.
Because she too had cried for a long time.
But now was not the time to just be crying.
She felt she definitely needed to talk with the other members who had signed the treaty.
"Rus.... Do you believe Stachys's words?"
"..."
"..Ugh... sob.."
Lily asked.
Rus did not answer.
Only Vien's crying disturbed the silence.
Honestly, in her head she believed those words, but in her heart she couldn't believe them.
It felt like answering would mean admitting it, so her lips simply wouldn't part.
Breaking her calm demeanor, Lily grabbed her own head.
"I... I can't believe it. There's no way he could have gotten one."
It was hard to tell if she was talking to herself or speaking to Rus and Vien.
She continued speaking with a dazed look in her eyes.
"The way they met doesn't make sense either."
When Rus and Vien didn't answer for different reasons, Lily spoke with a slightly louder voice.
"Does it make sense, re, reasonably speaking, that after parting ways with us, they kept running into each other by coincidence? Huh? Rus..?"
Vien, who had just kept crying, squeaked and shouted.
"They said it's fate!!"
Bang!!
Rus slammed the desk with her fist.
As the sound subsided, Rus spoke in a suppressed voice.
"... Don't talk nonsense, Vien."
'There's no way. There's no way.'
Rus thought with her insides rotting away.
'Chis should be my fate...'
Rus shook her head and focused on the situation.
It was Rus's wish, but she spat it out as if it were the truth.
"... Lily-ssi's words also make some sense. Does it make sense that they met by coincidence?"
"Th, that's what I'm saying!"
When Rus agreed with Lily's words, Lily brightened up.
"Stachys must have lied, or—"
"Stachys doesn't lie!!"
Vien intervened once again and shouted.
"Have you ever seen Stachys lie? Hey! Have you?! He doesn't do it except for well-meaning things! But why would he lie like this!! Why on earth would he tell such a crappy lie?!"
Lifting her head and shedding tears, she snapped back.
Conversely, Lily's expression, which had found hope, stiffened.
"You've also known Stachys for a long time. You know that much too!! If not, don't tell me you still don't even know that—"
"-There's no way I don't know!!!"
Dropping honorifics, Lily jumped up from her seat.
Her silk-like hair became disheveled.
Startled, Vien lowered her head again and started crying.
Lily's eyes burned red.
"What do you want me to do.... If it's not a lie, it means he really got a girlfriend!! It means Stachys has been stolen from us!"
Gritting her teeth, she spoke as if spitting out curses.
"Stachys, who always sang songs of pure love, got a partner...! And that partner wasn't me..! The distance we've built up until now will keep growing further and further apart..!!"
Vien started crying even louder.
Rus also felt suffocated and felt her chest tightening up once again.
"No... There's no way they kept meeting by coincidence... Right. If that's not a lie... That bitch... That bitch who seduced Stachys must have stalked him."
Lily muttered.
'Stalking?'
Vien reacted.
'Right... If it's that, it makes sense.'
Raising her ruined face, she spoke to them.
Her nose was stuffy, so her voice kept getting muffled.
"Y-Yeah! That's right. That's it. She must have approached Stachys with some kind of intention. And Stachys fell for it without even knowing... That's right! This is it! We have to tell him quickly!"
As a rational reason she hadn't thought of until now emerged, Vien's voice grew louder.
"But how are we going to tell him, Vien?"
Rus, who was as weak as anything when alone, was trying to maintain her pride in front of Vien and Lily.
Because failing to maintain her pride felt like losing to the two of them.
"To Chis... She's a newly made lover. Watch out for her because she's a gold digger? You're being stalked? How are you going to prove it..?! Stachys believes it was destiny!!"
But it wasn't easy. The more she spoke, the more intense her emotions became.
Lily bit her lip and said.
"This is all because of you guys... If you hadn't brought that stupid treaty, there wouldn't have been a case where we couldn't do anything and pitifully had him stolen from us...! There wouldn't have been a case of having what's mine stolen away!!!"
In the end, Rus, who had been holding it in, also stood up from her seat.
"Why is that because of us?! You signed it too, saying you liked it. I still remember the fear blooming in your eyes when the two of us said we liked Stachys. But now, you blame us?"
The two of them started a bloody glare-off.
Without even blinking at a distance where their breaths touched.
"Did we force you to agree to the treaty? When everyone's actions were restricted by the treaty, you were the one who kept finding loopholes and utilizing them... How can you say such a shameless thing? Vien! You say something too!"
"I don't know... Ugh, sob.. Come back, Stachys..."
Vien wasn't any help.
Since she didn't know how to bring up the conversation, she felt like all hope was cut off and started crying again.
Rus clicked her tongue and continued speaking.
"If you hated it that much, you should have said you wanted to scrap the treaty. Why are you blaming us now? Ah, you couldn't scrap it back then because you were scared. Now that it's over, it was a strange treaty?"
She lets out a scoffing chuckle.
"I can say crap like that too, Lily-ssi."
Lily shook her head vigorously.
"Anyway... If it weren't for that treaty, it would be better than now! There would have been many more opportunities to advance our relationship with Stachys!! I might have been able to become his girlfriend!"
"Me too!! I had plenty of opportunities too! Do you think I had no chance of becoming his girlfriend?!"
It was a moment when they felt pathetic for relying on the Stachys Treaty.
They couldn't confess out of fear of getting rejected.
But they also hated others confessing, so they concluded the treaty.
Before they knew it, they had relied far too much on the comfortable peace the treaty provided.
Looking back now, they realized what an arrogant treaty the Stachys Treaty truly was.
Objectively, they were prettier than anyone around them, and they had spent a long time with him, so they thought he would never meet anyone else unless it was them.
Reasonably speaking, they thought why would he meet anyone else when they were around.
And that expectation missed the mark widely.
"... Right, but I got it."
Rus needed a target to pour her anger onto.
As Lily was angry and Vien was sniffling and crying, Rus headed toward the safe in the room.
Leaving her spot, she didn't care even as Lily and Vien watched her, opened the safe, and took out something.
A single sheet of paper coated with magic so it would last a long time.
Everyone could tell what it was.
"You all know what this is, right?"
Rus threw the paper into the air, drew a sword that was sprawled on the floor, and cut it in half.
-Chwak
"The Stachys Treaty is hereby scrapped as of today."
The Stachys Treaty.
First. Do not become Stachys's lover.
Second, do not confess to him.
Third, do not seduce him.
Fourth, do not secretly covet his lips or genitalia.
Fifth, do not let him find out your feelings of liking him.
The treaty that had stood firm for a long time was scrapped overnight.
Hmmm hmmm hmm~
I hummed a tune.
After eating the hearty meal prepared by the innkeeper aunt,
the first scheduled task was coming to an end.
Namely, cleaning.
Throwing away the dirty trash,
wiping the cheap wooden tableware,
washing the scattered clothes,
tearing magic scrolls to chase away bugs,
and sweeping and mopping the floor.
I opened the window wide.
A fresh outside breeze blew in.
Stachys felt a sense of achievement with every step forward.
The room was getting cleaner and cleaner.
From a pigsty to a human room.
I wondered if the room had always been this spacious, and felt a bit awkward.
Because a dirty room was so familiar to me.
"But even that ends today, kuwahaha!"
I exaggerated my laugh to express my happy mood.
From now on, I will keep it clean like this continuously.
Because I won't ever not clean it anymore due to being busy.
From now on, my imaginary girlfriend, my guardian angel,
'Elzain' will protect it.
As long as I have Elzain, I can easily refuse even if my party members demand that I make time for them.
"Ah, I need to go meet my girlfriend. Ahem, ah, I need to go meet my girlfriend."
I was also practicing the lines to spit out when refusing when they called me out.
I practiced continuously while cleaning so it would become a natural lie.
Moving back and forth and passing in front of the mirror, I sometimes spoke while looking at the mirror.
It seems a bit more natural now.
Well, even with Elzain, I could refuse all their demands and say I can't meet them, but I'll be able to do it to some extent.
I was also slightly worried.
-'So what if you got a girlfriend? I don't care anyway! Just hurry up and get over here! You slave!'
That I might hear words like that.
Of course I wouldn't go as far as hearing the word slave, but the even more vicious Vien roaming around in my head would easily say such words.
Maybe because we haven't seen each other for a few days, she might tell me to do everything all at once.
I'm worried she might run me around with a compressed schedule.
Of course, having days off now is better than before, but that doesn't mean a harsher future appeals to me.
Um...
Ah!
If I say my girlfriend told me to go home early, I might be able to part ways in the evening.
"Ah, my girlfriend told me to go home early. Ah, my girlfriend told me to go home early."
I steadily practiced the new lines too.
I came out of the room carrying the gathered trash.
Going down the stairs, the innkeeper aunt was taking a somewhat leisurely rest.
She turned her head upon hearing my footsteps.
"Oh, young man. Are you cleaning your room?"
"Yes. Once I throw this away, it's finally done."
"Well, what about dinner after that? Even if it's a bit early, I can prepare it."
"No, it's fine. I'm just throwing this away and heading out."
"Is that so? Are you going to meet someone?"
I nodded.
"Yes. I'm going to meet someone. Oh, and auntie."
I put down the trash for a moment and took out my coin pouch.
I pulled out a few coins from there and handed them to her.
"This is this month's lodging fee."
She counts the coins I handed over.
After counting them a couple more times, she tilted her head.
"Young man... It looks like you gave a bit too much?"
I gave a little more generously.
It was partly because my heart had grown generous and I was in that kind of mood,
and partly because she's an auntie I'll keep seeing in the future, so I wanted to take care of her a little.
"It's because I'm grateful. Just take it."
"Why are you giving me all this... Thank you, young man."
She laughed with a chuckle and slipped the coins into her sleeve.
"Then I'll be going?"
"Yeah~ Have a good time!"
After coming out of the inn and throwing away the trash, I went to meet my hyung.
It was an accommodation that was enviable whenever I saw it. It also served as my point of stimulation.
On the three-story accommodation built of wood and stone, a sign reading 'Ade', the name of my hyung's party, was embedded.
Comparing the size of the building, it was a similar size to my inn accommodation.
However, whereas my accommodation was used as a dining hall and a lodging for dozens of people,
here it was a place prepared exclusively for a total of 7 people, including the Ade Party members and the manager.
This building belonged to hyung.
"Excuse me."
After knocking on the door a couple of times, I went inside.
Inside was Seira noona, the manager of the Ade Party.
"Stachys! I didn't expect to see you so soon? Has it been two weeks?"
I had met her once last time when I met hyung.
I said with a smile.
"Yes, two weeks. I have some breathing room now. Maybe I'll be able to see you often from now on too."
"Oh, really? That's great."
I looked around. There was no one else and it was deserted.
"By the way, where did everyone go? Where is hyung?"
"Ah, an emergency mission came up so he went out. A B-rank party went missing. It's a rescue mission."
Sometimes I feel a huge distance between myself and hyung.
Of course, since there's a 9-year age gap, there are many differences in various ways,
but hearing about the work hyung does makes it feel much more realistic.
Having been in this business for quite a while now, I feel various things.
First of all, the difference between C-rank and B-rank is tremendous.
That's why I'm still cautious about challenging B-rank missions.
A C-rank monster like the Twiit Scorpion is child's play.
Probably when challenging a B-rank mission for the first time, I'll have to prepare to risk my life.
Because the number two cause of dissolution for C-rank parties is getting wiped out while trying B-rank missions.
But what on earth is hyung, who went to rescue a B-rank party that professionally resolves such B-rank missions?
The goal of following after hyung feels astronomically distant.
".... Is that so? Then is hyung not here today?"
I thought I'd be able to meet him since it was his day off originally.
Then what should I do today. It's still early evening.
"No. If you wait just a little bit, he'll come back. If it's B-rank, they'll rescue them quickly."
"You said it's a missing persons mission. Do they know where they are to rescue them?"
Seira laughs at me as if thinking I'm cute.
"Stachys, don't ignore your hyung. He's still an A-rank party, you know."
I didn't ignore him.
It's just that he's way more amazing than my imagination.
At that moment, boisterous footsteps are heard from outside the door.
Seira noona walks toward the door and says.
"See? What did I tell you? He comes back quickly."
The door flies open and the 6 Ade Party members enter.
At the very front was hyung.
"Seira~ We're h— Oh! Stachys!"
Hyung waved his hand with a welcoming face.
The other party members also greeted me one by one.
"Hello everyone. Hyung, I'm here."
I also greeted them with a smile.
Hyung handed his two tonfas to Seira and approached me.
"What brings you here? Aren't you busy these days? Look at this? Your complexion looks even better than when we saw you last time?"
He patted my shoulder and asked about my well-being.
Of course my complexion got better.
Thanks to hyung, I sleep a lot, and I'm not running around all day abusing my body.
I answered hyung with a broad grin.
"Thanks to hyung, what else. I did as hyung told me last time."
"Huh? Which thing?"
"Well, you know, at that time, girlfri—"
"Ah!!! That?!"
Hyung is startled.
Then he laughed louder than I had ever seen him laugh so far.
"Kukuk... Ahahahahahahahahahaha!!!"
A resonant sound shakes the accommodation.
The other Ade Party members also looked at hyung with fascination.
"Oh my, what's this, Steon. You could laugh like that too?"
But hyung was grabbing my shoulder and cracking up.
"Ahahahah, ah, Stachys, ahahaha, whew..hahahaha! Did you re, really do it?"
I looked at him in puzzlement. Did I do something stupid or what?
"Hyung, what is it? Why are you laughing so much? You told me to do it. You told me to do it completely devoid of any humor."
Now he's even wiping away the tears flowing down.
"No, no, haha... You did well, you should have done it, it's just,"
Hyung stopped laughing with a wide smile and said.
"Ha. Because it serves them right. Those girls."