Loser, look up (3)
Loser, look up (3)
"Vien!! Vien!!"
In the dormitory room where beds were clustered dadakdadak, someone was curled up alone in the innermost bed.
It was Vien.
Vien's friend Casey, knowing she would be there, came running while calling her name.
Vien didn't want to hear whatever Casey had to say, so she blocked her ears with the blanket.
"...!...!"
Only now did it get a little quieter, and her voice could no longer be heard.
But Casey didn't stop.
She ran to where Vien was, turned on the magic lamp to brightly illuminate the dark room, and shook Vien.
Vien pressed the blanket hard against her ears and began to hold out.
When Casey saw that Vien had no intention of listening no matter what she said, she ended up even snatching the blanket away.
The blanket was ripped away from Vien.
"Ugh..! Give it here, Casey!!"
Vien reached out her hand to grab the blanket, but Casey had already thrown it far away.
Despite Vien's whining, Casey maintained a bright expression.
"Vien!! You seriously, you're going to love this when you hear it!"
Vien felt a bit annoyed at such a face of hers.
Because right now, it didn't seem like her mood would get better no matter what she heard.
Even seeing Vien's expression full of dissatisfaction, Casey just laughed.
"Can't believe it? Want to bet? Your mood is definitely going to get good!"
"... What is it.."
Vien just wanted Casey to go away. She wanted to be alone.
But Casey, keeping her smiling expression, leaned her body and whispered to Vien.
"That guy, you know...! Stachys! He came looking for you...!"
Vien felt her heart drop with a kkung.
"... Wh.. What?"
At the unbelievable information, Vien's expression instantly brightened.
Her mind cleared up as if she had just woken up from sleep.
Seeing Vien's expression brighten, Casey laughed even louder in tandem.
"It's true..! He came to the medical center, you know? And he wasn't even injured! He even looked around here and there like he was searching for you!"
Vien chewed over the words Casey had spoken.
It was hard to believe at all, but there was no reason for Casey to deliberately lie about this.
".. M.. Me? Why...?"
This time, Vien tightly grabbed Casey's arm and began asking this and that.
"D.. Do you know the reason?"
Vien racked her brain.
'Why did he come? Why on earth did he come..?'
No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't come up with an answer.
Casey also shook her head.
"I don't know either. Naturally, I couldn't go talk to him."
"Ah, is he still there? Stachys."
"Huh..?"
"I'm asking if he's still waiting for me, Stachys!"
At these words, Casey's expression finally turned strange.
Slightly turning her head, she scratched her cheek with her finger.
"Th... That is, Vien, the day Stachys came was yesterday."
"... What?"
Looking out the window, even on this day, the daytime was already passing by completely.
It was time for evening soon.
'Even considering just today, it's late, but he came yesterday?'
Vien's expression also turned strange following Casey's, but soon her strength drained limply and she became expressionless.
"... Then why are you telling me that now..?"
Casey let out an eohyu sigh and poked Vien's forehead kokkok.
"Vien! I know you liked the news, but look at me!"
She spread both arms.
Only now did it catch Vien's eyes.
Casey was wearing clothes stained with blood and dirt.
"I've been taking care of patients since yesterday too, and now that I finally had time, I came right away! Of course I wanted to tell you too, but I was busy!"
"...."
It was sad, but for Vien, it was understandable. She also felt unnecessarily apologetic.
Because she knew very well how busy that place was.
"... Sorry-"
Even before receiving the apology, Casey grabbed one of Vien's arms and hauled her up.
"Uh... Casey?"
"Now, even though it's late, that guy probably had a reason for coming too. You can just go and ask what it was."
"Right now... I can just go?"
"Yeah! Go find him right now! If he's not there, wait for him!"
Casey kept pushing Vien, who had frozen up from continuous unexpected information.
And the direction she was pushing matched exactly what Vien wanted to do.
She had thought it was already late, but upon closer inspection, it wasn't necessarily so.
Life returned to Vien, who quickly corrected her thoughts.
"Y.. Yeah! I have to go find him..!"
She moved her body, which had gone numb from curling up, and headed for the door.
But once again, Casey grabbed Vien, who was about to run off.
"Casey..?"
"Vien. If you're going, you need to dress up and go. What is this mess with your hair?"
Saying that, she ruffled Vien's hair.
'Ah, my hair.'
Looking at it now, because she had been lying in bed continuously, it was grubby and messy.
Vien felt unnecessarily embarrassed, but once again, she was grateful to Casey this time around.
I opened the note I received a few days ago.
-Stachys, let's go night fishing with hyung. The day after tomorrow.
On the back of the note, the meeting time and appointment location were written.
Today was the day of the appointment with hyung.
Excited about today's plan, I woke up in a good mood from the morning.
I treated Marshal to lunch—not alcohol—and heard various stories from him regarding commissions.
After that, upon mentioning challenging B-rank, I met the commission office administrator and retired gatherers to hear various stories and grasp the situation.
Here, they constantly strive to provide minimum help so that parties moving on to new ranks like this don't die.
Strategy guides, precautions, miscellaneous skills, and so on.
And as a result of synthesizing everything, I decided on a target to challenge, capture, or gather.
Thus, time passed quickly and it was almost late evening.
Now I returned home to change clothes.
Since I had to go night fishing, I tried to change into slightly warmer attire.
"Hmm-hmm-hmm~"
I opened the wardrobe, found the clothes I had in mind, and took them out.
Whoosh.
The smell of the wardrobe wafted out.
"Ugh... The smell of dust."
I waved my hand right in front of my nose to drive away the dust and picked up a piece of clothing.
Since it was clothes I hadn't worn in quite a while, the wardrobe smell was a bit severe.
-Kkiik.
After closing the wardrobe door and changing clothes, while checking my own appearance, a box caught my eye.
"Ah."
It was the box containing the clothes Lily noona gave me.
They were really pretty clothes, but I still hadn't had the chance to try them on.
-'Just in case the clothes are still inside the box, please take them out and leave them out. They might get wrinkled, you know?'
It felt like Lily noona's voice could be heard.
I slowly approached and opened the box lid.
Even before, when I came home, I had opened the box once, but looking at it again, they really were pretty clothes.
Having received such an expensive thing as a gift, I felt a bit of a burden on my heart.
Let's take them out.
I carefully took out the clothes one by one from the small box, folded them neatly again so they wouldn't get wrinkled as much as possible, and placed them next to the dining table chair.
I had the illusion that only the clothes were shining alone in my shabby room.
Then suddenly I became worried.
'Where should I put these?'
I thought I had cleaned thoroughly, but the wardrobe still smelled a bit bad.
The smell of dust and old wood lingered.
If I put them in the wardrobe, I didn't want to because I was afraid the smell would soak into these expensive clothes.
But if I put them somewhere else, there wasn't a proper place either.
I smacked my lips and decided to just leave them as they were on that dining table chair for now.
Hyung might be waiting right now, so I should go out.
The clothes aren't running away anywhere. And as noona requested, I took them out of the box so they wouldn't get wrinkled.
I just wanted to quickly meet hyung, eat something, and go fishing.
Because it was an appointment I had waited for all day long.
Rus was strolling outside while feeling the chilly night breeze.
Bright path. The smell of food sold by merchants. People looking happy.
Unlike the street, Rus was thinking that she alone seemed to be floating away disconnected.
Her mood and the street's mood were so different.
It was chilly for no reason. The reason... she could predict it herself.
She was wandering around the streets without thoughts.
Her eyes were examining the people walking along the street.
'Pink hair.'
And seeing a specific hair color, she walked toward that person.
Carefully, yet so as not to be caught, she even checked the color of their pupils.
Blue.
It wasn't Elzain.
Rus nodded her head slightly and went on her way again.
Once again, the wind blew.
At times like this, there was something she kept thinking about.
When doing kingdom guard work with Stachys, facing this kind of wind, she frequently went on patrols with him.
Here and there, in every nook and cranny, there was no path she hadn't walked with him.
In every place in sight, it felt like she could see her own figure walking with Stachys.
'We've known each other for that long.'
"... Haha.."
The sun hadn't even set yet, but she felt like the weather was getting colder.
'Shall I eat something and go in?'
The moment she was thinking that, her eyes caught someone.
It was the back of a head that could never be mistaken.
"Huh?"
Before she knew it, she was running.
The closer she got, the more her doubt turned into certainty.
Her heart also beat kkung-kkung, faintly with anticipation.
"Excuse me, pardon me. Coming through."
Asking for understanding from the people, she ran toward him.
And stretching out her hand, she grabbed his shoulder.
"Chis-yah!!"
Stachys, whose shoulder was grabbed, turned around to look at Rus.
Stachys was surprised after confirming it was her.
"Huh? Rus?"
As expected. It was Stachys.
Rus was thrilled to have coincidentally met him.
Then, with an 'Ah' thought, she looked around his surroundings.
No woman was visible.
To be precise, a pink-haired, pink-eyed woman was not visible.
"Rus, what brings you here?"
Stachys asked.
Stachys also hadn't thought he would meet Rus here.
'Huh? What do I do if it's like this?'
He said he was busy meeting his girlfriend, but naturally, Elzain wasn't by his side.
He was just on his way to meet hyung.
He had firmly brushed off their requests to meet him for just one day.
And now he had been caught dead to rights.
Stachys's brain spun fiercely.
How he should lie to Rus.
The two of them had their hearts pounding kkung-kkung for different reasons.
Stachys felt a prick of conscience seeing Rus's face, which looked somewhat happy and excited.
'Should I have met her for a day when she's this happy?'
Thinking that, he corrected his mind again.
'No. If I did that, I'd have to meet all the other party members. And I have to do B-rank commissions soon.'
Stachys thought he needed to tell a little more of a lie.
"I was just wandering around, but I saw Chis's figure so I ran over! Hehe."
Rus said with a cheesy smile. She herself didn't remember how long it had been since she smiled like this.
"Is that so?"
"But, Chis-yah. You said every day you meet your girlfriend so you don't have time to meet us... Th... Where did your girlfriend go?"
She was filled with anticipation.
Thinking, 'Could it be that he already broke up with his girlfriend and is on his way home, so we can enjoy a little date?'
"Well, you see...."
On the other hand, Stachys broke out in cold sweat.
He racked his brain. What should he say?
After reviewing for a long time whether this was right, whether there were parts that would get him caught, or if anything was awkward, Stachys managed to speak.
"Well... I'm going to meet my girlfriend right now."
Stachys wasn't skilled enough that he even had to worry about this simple lie.
The conclusion he ultimately reached was to talk about all the promises he made with hyung as if he had made them with Elzain.
Rus's expression crumpled completely.
"... What?"
Thinking to herself,
'Then... can't we date?'
Saying that, she glanced up at the sky.
Orange-tinted sky.
"... Right now? It's late."
At Rus's words, even in a tense situation, Stachys was flabbergasted.
'What do I mean it's late? At this hour, when meeting you, it's still early.'
But instead of saying those words out loud, he said something that could help him get through the situation a bit more smoothly.
He kept worrying about what he would do if she said she'd follow him.
"... Because I made a slightly late dinner appointment."
Rus nodded her head slightly, barely visibly.
"... Is that so..?"
Fortunately, Rus didn't seem to have any thoughts of following him.
That was only natural, but when dealing with these three, common sense often didn't apply.
As Stachys and Rus stopped in the middle of the road and conversed, people around them gave them sidelong glances.
-'Hey, seriously. Right in the middle of the road.'
"Rus, step aside for a moment."
He pulled Rus's arm and moved to the side.
"Ah..!"
Rus felt a faint thrill as Stachys touched her body first.
She thought she wished he would always be like this.
"Rus...?"
"Ah.. no."
Embarrassed by the strange sound she had just let out, Rus covered her mouth and cleared her throat, heum-heum.
Once they actually avoided the path to the side, neither of them said anything.
Rus couldn't find what to say, and Stachys kept his mouth shut to avoid lying unless she spoke first.
People walked past the two of them standing still, glancing at them.
After that, as both of them dithered without saying anything, Stachys asked first.
"Umm... Rus. If you don't have anything to say, I'll be going now?"
"W-Wait a second, Chis-yah."
"Huh?"
Rus instinctively grabbed the arm of Stachys, who was about to leave.
At his words that he was leaving, Rus found what she wanted to say.
"Th... That dinner appointment, when does it end?"
"Why?"
Stachys immediately intuited it.
That it meant meeting up after the appointment ended.
"It seems like mine will end late."
He beat around the bush, saying that meeting up would be difficult.
"It's okay even if it ends late! At night... can't we meet for just a little bit..?"
But Rus didn't listen.
For Rus, this was a chance to meet alone together for the first time in two weeks.
Rus wanted their appointment to end as quickly as possible, but she couldn't say that.
Because she knew she wasn't in a position to be unreasonable.
"... I think it'll be difficult."
Stachys said.
Actually, it wasn't difficult, it was impossible.
He had promised to pull an all-nighter with hyung, so there was no way that could work out.
"Even a moment would be fine..."
Even so, when Rus didn't give up, Stachys realized.
She didn't seem like she would give up on this.
In the dungeon too, and here as well, Rus was more stubborn than he thought.
"Huh? Chis-yah. Let's meet for a moment. How about going on a picnic? Ah, I'll prepare snacks until you finish and come back!"
Rus began making plans by herself.
In order to appeal to the parts that Stachys might find even slightly tempting.
But Stachys was having different thoughts.
He thought he needed to explain a bit more concretely if he wanted to make her give up.
"Rus, you see. When I said it would end late, it actually meant I don't think I'll be coming home until tomorrow."
"..........What...?"