Chapter 9

“… Why are you giving me this?”

“Do I need a reason to help you?”

I feel like a thorn is stabbing the insides of my mouth, trying to spout rubbish I don’t even want to say, but I can’t help it.

Because this works better for her type.

I want to be friends with this fairy tonight.

It makes me sound like garbage for some reason, but it’s not a bad deal for her either.

Injuries, lack of sleep, and gorgeous looks.

Just looking at her situation, she has it several times worse than me.

She did that shit just now because she knows that.

To be honest, that tenacious obsession with her own survival surprised me.

“Like I said, treat yourself first. We can talk later.”

“But…”

“I’m going to stand guard.”

As I turn my back dismissively, I soon hear a sound.

The sound of herbs being chewed before applying them over her wounds.

“… It’s all done.”

Already? She’s surprisingly good with her hands.

Turning around, I see a tightly wrapped bandage from between the gaps of her torn clothes. The vigilance in her eyes when she looks at me seems to have lessened a bit, for some reason.

Let’s start with the standard introductions and slowly close the distance between us.

“I am Bjorn, son of Yandel.”

“… Erwen.”

“I don’t know what you’ve misunderstood. But nothing will happen to you.”

“Yes? Ah, yes…”

She makes a brave face, but the fear is still there in her eyes.

I thought that if I did this much, this misunderstanding would soon be solved, but what the hell is wrong now?

In the end, I can only ask bluntly.

“Why are you so afraid of me?”

“… Barbarians and fairies are enemies, aren’t they?”

“Enemies?”

“Sorry, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it like that… I don’t want to fight you.”

She gets so worked up at my question that she starts begging again.

No, I just asked because I was really curious…

Are fairies and barbarians, enemies? That’s a story I’m hearing for the first time. They obviously got along pretty well in the game.

How did this happen?

I just look at her with a piercing stare, and the information I wanted readily flows out.

“… Th-, the war that ended ten years ago? I, I personally don’t have any lingering hatred! I really don’t.”

Ten years ago…

I don’t know what happened, but listening to her talk, it seems more like a belligerent relationship rather than outright hostility.

Well, then, was she afraid because she grew up hearing bad things about my race from a young age?

The situation is pretty bad.

What do I do? Do I have to look for somebody else?

Not to mention, the herbs and bandages I already gave her are on the pricey side…

Alright, let’s try this first.

“It’s the same for me, no lingering hatred.”

“That’s right!”

“Yes. That’s why I’m asking, Erwen. Would you like to be friends with me tonight?”

“… Night friend?”

“I’m tired now. The same must go for you, too. So why don’t we cooperate for today, since there are no lingering feelings between us?”

“Ummm…”

Her eyes suddenly light up.

To be honest, I wonder if she spoke truly just now.

Without rushing, Erwen contemplates for a while with a deep frown, then offers a condition instead.

“Barbarians value a warrior’s honour. Can you swear on it? That you won’t hurt me first?”

“I swear.”

“Mm, of course, I promise you in the name of my clan. I would never harm you first.”

It’s equivalent to a pinky swear In Korean culture[1].

Of course, I can do this all day.

But there is one issue that needs to be addressed first.

“I am Bjorn, son of Yandel. Not ‘uncle’.”

Our Bjorn is only twenty years old, you know.

The contract had been concluded.

Maybe it was even a bit ground-breaking in terms of local culture.

Thanks to that, I found out the fairy maiden’s real name in the process.

Erwen Fornacci di Tersia.

She was twenty years old, same as me.

Hoo, I’m glad I’m not the real Bjorn. I’m sure the real Bjorn would think so too. Even if I…

I won’t say it.

“Then how do we decide how to take turns?”

“I’ll sleep first. That should make you feel safer.”

“It’s not like that, but if you want to, I can’t help it…”

In a word, it was an unvoiced complaint.

“So it’s good with you?”

“Yes.”

Heh, I’m glad. I would’ve fallen into despair if it’d been rock-paper-scissors again.

My eyes had been fluttering closed since some time ago. Please, I just wanted to get some sleep. Why was getting a good night’s sleep so hard?

“Oh, yeah, but! How do I know the time?”

Tsk, is this why rookies had it so difficult?

I took the watch out of my backpack and gave it to Erwen.

“It’s expensive, so don’t break it.”

“Yes…”

Seeing her receive it reverently like an ancestral relic gave me some peace of mind.

“I’ll be careful with it. Good night.”

I lied down on my backpack, covered myself with a blanket, just like uncle had done.

And…

Zzzzzzzzz!

I let sleep claim my consciousness.

“Uncle!”

… It’s Bjorn, I tell you.

“Uncle, wake up. Time’s up.”

I forced my eyes open and got up. I couldn’t believe it.

Had it been two hours already?

“Come on, give the watch here.”

I looked at the time, and two hours had indeed passed.

Come to think of it, it seemed that I hadn’t even snored properly. Just in case, I tried to do that that for ten minutes…

Wow, was this the synergy between a backpack and a blanket?

It was terrifying enough.

Obviously, if uncle had lent them to me, I wouldn’t have been able to avoid his surprise.

I would have slept very comfortably, forgetting the outside world.

Is this karma?

… Considering the circumstances, let’s lend them to her too.

“Cover yourself with this and sleep. And use this as a pillow if you want.”

“Yes? But…”

She was shy, but her lips curved at the corners.

I decided to pretend that I hadn’t seen anything.

“Well, then I’ll use them properly, thank you…”

Without any further urging on my part, Erwen crawled into the blanket and curled up like a cat. And soon after, there was the sound of regular breathing.

Hey, are you sleeping so well in front of an outsider?

She seemed tired. She might’ve had as hard a day as mine.

“Hoo…”

I rested my back against the wall and opened the watch.

[22: 50]

It felt like five days had passed, but there was still more than an hour left before the second day ended.

I wanted to go back to the city soon. Actually, it was funny to say that I was going back, but… If I managed to go back, I’d definitely sleep for a few days.

‘… Seeing that I can think like this, this body is really worth it.’

I closed the watch and put it back in, immersed deeply in my thoughts. It’d been a while since I last had a peaceful time, but I kept thinking about this and that.

What happened to me in reality?

Had my disappearance been discovered? Surely it would be. Somebody should come. Although the company wouldn’t take a few days’ absence seriously.

“Kkh.”

It wasn’t that this was the first time I was considering this issue.

It just made me more and more sad.

If you keep thinking that there’s nothing good about going back, your will itself would shatter.

It was better just not to think about it, in many ways.

No matter if it was only deceiving myself, I was pretty good at self-hypnosis.

“…”

I deliberately twisted my flow of thought.

Alright, let’s recap what happened over the past two days. After the coming-of-age ceremony, I entered the labyrinth, fought the goblins, fought uncle…

Shall I praise myself for doing well so far?

I clung to life really hard. Since there was no one to praise me for that, why not do it myself?

Snap –

I decided to leave the self-congratulations until I got back to the city, and when I opened the watch, time had run out.

“Erwen, wake up.”

“Just five more minutes…”

What’s so good about just five minutes, hurry and get up.

“Ugh…”

Erwen rubbed her eyes and stood up as she shook off the wretched barbarian’s hand from her shoulder.

Hey, this looks dangerous.

I could see why she hated me.

“Don’t even think about falling asleep just because nothing has happened so far.”

“Yes…”

I was a little nervous, but once again I went back to bed.

Maybe because I’d lent her the blanket and the backpack, a trace of warmth remained in them.

It was ironic.

How long had it been since I’d last felt the warmth of someone other than myself? How unfamiliar.

Maybe more than everything else I’d gone through in the past two days.

Zzzzzzzzzz!

This time, I had quite a bit of energy, so I diligently started snoring. To be honest, it was more to make sure she didn’t sleep and did her job properly.

… I didn’t feel like sleeping.

I opened my eyes and glanced at Erwen, then let go of my worries and closed my eyes once more.

And, how long had it been after that?

Creak.

I felt a sense of urgency and sat up hurriedly.

“Hey!”

For some reason, I was holding Erwen’s white wrist.

It looked like she had been stretching it out towards me…

“What are you doing?”

“You looked like you were having a bad nightmare, because you kept sweating…”

Looking at the handkerchief in her hand, it didn’t seem like an excuse.

Well, if it had been a weapon in the first place, I would have hit her with a shield without asking why.

“Sorry, I’m sorry.”

After grasping the situation, I relaxed my hands.

Erwen stroked the place I’d caught with a painful expression.

There were already red marks on her wrist.

I didn’t even apologize. Because they would’ve been empty words anyway.

“How much time has passed?”

“… Ten minutes left till shift change.”

“Right. So let me take the shift now.”

“But…”

“If I sleep again now, I’ll just be more tired.”

At my words, Erwen lay down with an apologetic expression. And tossed and turned a little.

“Uncle.”

“Any problems?”

“No. I have a question.”

“Ask.”

Erwen hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“… Who is your uncle?”

What? Are you making a pun?

“Because you keep muttering, telling him you’re sorry, in your dreams… Oh, my apologies. Am I speaking out of turn? You don’t have to answer. I’ll just sleep.”

Before I could respond, Erwen pulled up the blanket over her head.

It seemed that this young lady was slowly starting to become curious when she realized that I was not that scary.

“Lay off.”

I thought while doing a few simple stretches.

I couldn’t really remember anything, but it looked like I had a real nightmare…

Suddenly, I felt a little curious.

Who the hell was the man I was asking for forgiveness?

Two candidates came to mind.

An unknown uncle who was decapitated at the coming-of-age ceremony, and Uncle Hans, who taught me how to be human.

… But when I thought about it, it was strange for it to be either. I didn’t recall doing anything to them worth apologizing for.

Soon I came to a conclusion.

It must’ve been some meaningless dog dream that I had.

[04:30]

Day 3 had started. And about 10 minutes left before I had to wake up Erwen.

I felt worried as I watched Erwen sleep with a blanket crunched between her legs.

What concerned me was the prospect of a second date[2].

That is, whether or not to propose a team-up.

Of course, there was a downside to having a companion, that you would have to share the loot.

No matter how many goblins appeared on the third day, it was clear that Erwen joining would reduce my eventual income.

It had nothing to do with her strength. Well, since she was a fairy, it would usually be cost-effective, but…

Should I say that I’m already overpowered?

Even without Erwen, I could easily dispatch three or four goblins by my lonesome.

It wasn’t arrogance, I really judged that way after experiencing several battles with this body.

And I had to collect as many mana stones as possible, to prepare for my future living expenses in the city as well as the subsequent taxes.

“Hoo…”

Safety, or more mana stones?

While I was pondering about the most rational choice –

Step.

I could hear adventurers’ footsteps from the passage on the left.

It’d happened several times during the night, so I wasn’t particularly nervous. Most of the time, they’d take a look at us once and just pass by.

But…

Step –

This pair of adventurers, let’s call them Ricky and Buster[3], took one look at us and stopped walking.

And whispered to each other.

“Isn’t that the fairy?”

“Looks right. The shape of the bow matches.”

Of the two men who came to a conclusion while whispering between themselves, Buster asked me as the representative.

“Barbarian, what is your relationship with the fairy?”

“As you can see, we are night friends.”

“Even barbarians and fairies can be night friends, I’ve seen something strange today. So how long do you two have left?”

“I have no answer for you.”

Buster didn’t ask any further.

He just smiled and left with Ricky beside him.

“Right. Let’s go.”

“Huh? Ah, um…”

Soon, their presence disappeared from the surroundings.

But I wasn’t reassured.

What the hell were these bastards doing? It felt as ominous as when the chieftain had shouted in front of me.

I slowly moved to the side and tapped Erwen, who was still sleeping, on the shoulder.

“Ugh…”

Hey, are you still sleeping in this situation?

Wake the hell up.

Because somehow, it feels like we’re fucked.

Editor’s Notes:

[1] Or rather, that is the western equivalent. Not translating the full Korean gesture here because not very relevant.

[2] 애프터 신청 (lit. after sales application), requesting the next date after the first meeting or blind date.

[3] 퉁퉁 (Tong Tong) and 비실 (Bi Sil) are Doreamon characters, fat and thin respectively.