Chapter 14

“I don’t like it.”

Thud.

“Is it that bad?”

Nod nod.

The girl with pink hair nodded her head sulkily.

The man looked down at the girl, scratching his cheek awkwardly.

“I think it’s a pretty name. It’s cute, and your voice is pretty, so it suits the name perfectly, doesn’t it?”

“…Still, I don’t like it.”

“Hm… then how about this? For now, we’ll call you something else, and later, when you feel okay about it, we can call you by your original name.”

“…Okay.”

“What should it be… Oh, I know!”

The man grinned, revealing his teeth.

“Kana. From now on, your name will be Kana!”

“…That’s simple.”

“Ugh.”

“Still, thank you.”

Saying that, the girl showed a rare smile.

***

A foolish woman.

In other words, a dazed woman.

She dared to enter the mountain, rumored to be home to a murderer, without fear, yet she gets scared just because she couldn’t kill a mere Cockatrice.

And then she goes and brings me food for over a week out of gratitude for saving her life.

Even though she doesn’t know how to properly hold a sword, she keeps coming back to the mountain.

Just seeing her makes me think those thoughts. Sёarch* The ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Does she even consider that she might run into monsters again?

She’s the most foolish person I’ve ever met.

…

Come to think of it, there was Garid.

Correction.

She’s the second most foolish person I’ve met.

The biggest fool I know is Garid.

Anyway, what kind of person climbs a mountain where they almost died just to thank someone for saving them?

Whether she’s an Apostle or not, it doesn’t make sense.

If she’s not an Apostle, it’s idiotic to throw away the life she barely saved, and if she is an Apostle, why go to such trouble when her life was guaranteed anyway?

Of course, maybe she’s not acting out of pure goodwill and has some ulterior motive.

But I didn’t doubt her.

More precisely, there was no need to doubt her.

Thanks to all the hardships I’ve been through, I’ve become highly sensitive to any malice directed at me, and there wasn’t a hint of that in Joanie’s actions.

Even if she had some malice, I could handle her.

Not even the senile snake of the Empire could easily harm me, so how could such a foolish and weak woman pose a threat?

If she somehow managed to deceive my senses, then she’d be stronger than me, and it wouldn’t matter if I was cautious or not.

If she’s stronger than me, whether I see through her act or not, I’m dead anyway.

But if that were the case, she wouldn’t need to pretend to be weak in the first place.

Hmm, let’s change the topic for a moment.

Subjectively speaking, my patience is not great.

‘No, not great is an understatement. I lack patience, that’s more accurate.’

Saying my patience is not great could sound like it’s not bad either, but saying I lack patience leaves no room for misinterpretation.

If someone handed me a marshmallow and said, “If you don’t eat this until tomorrow, I’ll give you two more,” I’d eat it before they even finished talking—that’s the kind of person I am.

Maybe it stems from my early experiences right after reincarnation… but does the cause even matter?

I don’t regret my lack of patience, so who cares?

People say a hero can’t stand injustice, and a villain can’t suppress their desires.

But I wasn’t noble enough to be a hero, nor wicked enough to be a villain—I was just a middling person.

And lacking patience means I’m somewhat impulsive.

After that last thread holding me snapped, as a middling person, I drifted like a leaf falling from a tree, promising myself I’d never get involved with anyone again.

‘Wait!’

Why did I save her then, just because of that damn Granic?

I was reminded yet again that I’m impulsive and lack patience.

I saved Joanie, let her pester me every day without driving her off, taught her how to handle a sword and Granic, and even told her my name.

Not a single thing was done without impulse.

Sigh.

Even now, I could still taste the lingering spiciness clinging to my tongue.

Why does such food exist? More importantly, can this even be called food?

What Joanie brought today was supposedly fried rice, but I’d describe it more as an embodiment of human malice.

Could you even survive after eating this?

That’s what it felt like, as if asking if I’d live through the sharp sting that hit my brain.

Puhuh…

It was so ridiculous that even I had to laugh a little.

The spicy taste, filled with artificial flavors and sensations I’d never experienced in Silia, triggered a faint nostalgia deep in my memory.

“Joanie, Apostle, Edel…”

Tap. Tap.

As I lightly tapped the scabbard at my waist with my fingers, I fell into thought.

The blacksmith had said Edel had brought people over from the continent beyond the Eastern Sea and blessed them.

Apostles who suddenly appeared one day and were infused with divine power through blessings.

A taste I’d never experienced before. A flavor so intense, yet somehow evoking a sense of nostalgia from forgotten memories.

Tap, tap.

“What are you scheming?”

Edel.

I looked up at the sky, just as I had once before, asking.

The sky was still clear, and the god remained silent, as always.

“Sedeth Kingdom.”

The holy land of the Edel faith and the place where Edel descended. A land where the divine power of Edel lingers more strongly than anywhere else on the Ardina Continent.

Would going there reveal the truth?

Even if that were the case, I wasn’t in any rush to leave the mountain now.

I still couldn’t let go of Garid, and the senile serpent was surely watching with sharp eyes.

Perhaps, when more time passes and Grasis Kingdom fades into a distant memory, it’ll be fine.

Whatever Edel might be doing right now, what does it matter to me at this very moment?

I have ways to gather information, so there’s no need to get anxious.

I do have a reliable courier who brings me food every day… or rather, an informant.

Even though she’s a clueless, foolish girl, an Apostle is still an Apostle, so she should know something.

Considering the fact that unwelcome guests had shown up, indicating that my presence had spread, it seems Apostles have a network of information among them.

One thing that worries me is that I impulsively revealed my name because of nostalgia from my past life…

“I told her not to tell anyone.”

A promise that’s shakier than a pinky swear, and could easily be broken at any time.

But, since it’s her—someone who brought me food every day out of gratitude for saving her—maybe it’ll be fine?

From the way she keeps asking me questions, it seems she wants to get closer to me. Maybe she’s delighted, thinking she’s gotten closer just because I told her my name.

Sigh…

I moved to the mountain for a quiet life, but it’s been far from peaceful.

Why does something keep happening?

Maybe a quiet life just isn’t in the cards for me…

****

“Kana.”

Gravekeeper.

Kana and Gravekeeper. Gravekeeper and Kana.

How could two words create such different atmospheres?

Rolling the hard-won name carefully in her mouth, Joanie thought.

Just a moment ago, she had only been worried that the goodwill she had painstakingly built wouldn’t crumble, but now that she had reaped an unexpected reward, instead of joy, she felt bewildered.

The spicy fried rice she had prepared in a fit of determination, even ready to die, had been the right answer?

…Why?

It was sheer luck, like catching a rat while walking backward.

She didn’t understand why, but wasn’t it a good thing?

After savoring the brief joy with her viewers, the worry started to creep in.

“He told me to keep it a secret…”

At the time, Joanie hadn’t been able to process what Gravekeeper—no, Kana—had said, due to the shock of discovering that the ‘key point’ of winning favor had been ‘Phoenix Fried Rice’ and the sudden rise in goodwill.

Plus, it wasn’t a word she was familiar with.

As she descended the mountain and recalled Kana’s words, she looked it up and realized it was a secret—he had asked her not to tell anyone.

From Joanie’s considerable life experience, she knew well how quickly a secret ceased to be a secret.

‘This is a secret… but don’t tell anyone.’

If A tells B that, then B will go to C and say,

‘Hey, A told me this, but I’m only telling you. So, A said…’

And C will run to D,

‘So, A…’

And it spreads, like that.

Having been betrayed by trusted confidants before, Joanie had learned not to share secrets—whether hers or others’.

She intended to do the same this time, but her profession posed a problem.

—Is Gravekeeper actually Korean?!

—Oh no, it’s Kana-chan, not Gravekeeper!

—Kana! Kana! Kana!

‘…It might be too late?’

If she had known ahead of time, she could’ve muted the stream, but it all happened so suddenly that she broadcasted Kana’s name live.

The secret. Everything.

Easily over 100,000 people had seen it in real-time.

When she thought about how many more would see it as clips or in various broadcasts and online communities, the numbers were unfathomable.

Hoping that so many people would keep the secret?

‘Haha. No way.’

Unless they were some alien race connected through neural networks, all sharing the same thoughts, it was impossible.

Just looking at the chat was proof enough, with people chanting Kana’s name in unison.

She just hoped no one with bad intentions would act on it.

“Alright, everyone. Let’s calm down a bit, okay?”

Why get so worked up over a game NPC? At the end of the day, it’s just an AI—albeit a more advanced one than other games.

That’s what Joanie had been hearing non-stop from others during her days of struggling to win over Kana.

But she didn’t think of the residents of Silia as just NPCs.

How could they be “just NPCs” when they thought, acted, and spoke just like people?

Even if they were “just NPCs,” so what?

Is it wrong to get immersed?

After all, RPG stands for “Role-Playing Game,” doesn’t it?

‘Isn’t it kind of like denying the whole RPG genre itself to criticize immersion when the whole point is to think like the characters in the world?’

She believed the term ‘over-immersion’ itself was flawed.

That’s how Joanie saw it.

So, I’ll do my best to honor Kana’s request.

‘Even though it feels like I’m way too late…’

I don’t want to betray Kana, who trusted me enough to share.