CH 24

As Ayra walked, he manifested his quest window once more.

<Quest!>

[Let’s open another stat category.]

*Accumulated Stat Window Use time (10/10 hours)

*Check two stat windows simultaneously (89/100)

Reward: Randomly open one stat category

After checking the values, he found that could finish the quest with a little more legwork. After a little contemplation, Ayra reached out a hand to Pebble, stroked it, and asked in a kind voice, “Can’t you adjust the reward so that it’s a category of my choice rather than something random?”

Pebble flushed slightly, blinking cutely. A short while later, the quest content changed with the ring of a bell.

<Quest!>

[Let’s open another stat category.]

*Accumulated Stat Window Use time (10/10 hours)

*Check two stat windows simultaneously (89/100)

*Check three stat windows simultaneously (0/90)

Reward: Open one stat category designated by the User.

Check three stat windows simultaneously for a total of 90 times?! 90! There was no way Ayra could finish that task today, even if he overworked himself to death.

Ayra squinted his eyes and glared at the artificial spirit that began to simulate cold sweat running down its back. “Honestly, even I think that’s too much. You might say it’s random, but you’re the one who’ll decide what’s revealed anyway. You’re deliberately trying to rebel against me, right?”

When he grabbed the spirit that was as malleable as a glutinous rice cake and stretched it with his fingers, Pebble sent the young lord a series of hearts; it was clearly masochistic.

[Tip! Even the GM spirit has no idea what stat will open T_T The matter is decided by a subconscious algorithm!]

[Tip! If the User demands to access unreasonable quests, they are more likely to be overloaded due to lack of skill.]

[Tip! If the User demands unreasonable quest rewards, they #$*@삒뺚?!?!%#!!!$#뛟땳@]

On that matter, it seemed like Pebble was the one being overloaded. After being flattened like a hotteok 1 in Ayra’s hands, it finally sent a surrender message.

<Quest!>

[Let’s open another stat category.]

*Accumulated Stat Window Use time (10/12 hours)

*Check two stat windows simultaneously (89/100)

*Check three stat windows simultaneously (0/30)

Reward: Open one stat category designated by the User.

“What kind of mage never experiences overload in their life, right?” Deeply satisfied, Ayra doted on Pebble, praising and calling it incredibly obedient and talented. Just as he doted on and bit at the spirit until it welled up dew-like tears, he felt a stinging gaze. Ayra slowly turned his head; his pounding heart leapt up and down in his chest.

The young lord had no idea when the mercenary had appeared, but Janus was watching him from a few steps away. Ayra’s heart clamored noisily, asserting its presence; he let go of Pebble, leaving two bite marks behind.

“Is it tasty?” Janus asked.

“No, not really…” Ayra was just playing with it using mana; in reality, it felt like biting into air.

As Janus approached with an expression of interest, Pebble, deathly frightened, disappeared into the back of its master’s hand.  At that moment, Ayra nervously yelped–the beast-like man snatched his hand in the blink of an eye and bit where the spirit hid. The sensation of his teeth sinking into skin hurt so much; the young lord teared up.

Ayra quickly pulled his hand away and retreated. Observing the back of his hand, one could see a clear, round tooth imprint in between his thumb and index finger.

Janus peeped at the marks he made and rubbed his finger on the imprint. “It’s alright–you’re not bleeding.”

“I’m the one who should be asking that!” 2 Ayra quickly hid his hand.

Janus apologized in a tone that clearly illustrated his lack of repentance; he retrieved the hand and placed a kiss on the back. Ayra opened his mouth wide, confused at the sudden action, but clamped his lips tightly shut once again. ‘He might come to kiss me on the mouth this time,’ the young lord thought.

Half a beat late, Ayra jumped back and retreated. ‘Let’s calm down…’

He collected his senses and tried to recover from his bewilderment while the other man looked him up and down; Janus, in contrast, stood with a chic, relaxed atmosphere. It bothered him that the man had appeared as soon as Ayra left the castle. Rather than a fateful coincidence, it felt more like the man was waiting for him.

“I’m just asking…Did you come because you knew I’d be here?” Ayra asked.

“Yeah. I smelled someone familiar as I passed by.”

Was he a dog? For some reason, Ayra thought that it would not come as much of a shock if he heard that Janus was a hunting dog…

While Janus smiled as if to say he was joking, Ayra suddenly remembered what Sir Bloom had told him. When one trains their body enough, all five senses become sensitive and one may attain something similar to a sixth sense. Ayra wondered if Janus was the same.

Now completely calm, Ayra asked, “But, why did you kiss me all of a sudden?”

“Because you’re my lover?”

“……Lover?”

“Are we not lovers?”

Ayra looked at the stat window; the affection value was still at 2. Ayra recalled the conversation they had on the day of the earthquake. Was this what he meant by ‘accepting his trickery?’ The young lord stayed silent for a moment, rummaging through his memories.

Janus raised both hands,”Well, if you don’t like it, I don’t want to cling onto you.” His attitude seemed to indicate that this man could turn around without hesitation at any moment.

After a moment’s thought, Ayra smiled with all his might. “Ah, no. You’re right. We’re lovers.”

“Mhmm, right?” Janus smiled and raised his hand to pat Ayra’s cheek–as if he found the lord adorable and pretty. His hands were warm even in this cold weather, so Ayra honestly felt a little good.

“Where were you going? Do you still need a guide around the territory?” Janus asked.

“No. I was on my way to see the state of the collapsed walls.” Though Ayra answered the other quite calmly, his mind felt incredibly complicated.

The young lord really wanted to know how powerful Janus truly was, what he had done in the past, and if he was hiding another identity beneath his smiles. However, right now the only information he had on the man was ‘He’s strangely scary,’ ‘He came to this fief 10 years ago to find a lover,’ and ‘Pebble warns me about bad endings associated with this man.’ If Ayra wanted to get to know the man, it would be best to maintain this lover-like relationship.

Though this was a rational decision, Ayra could not help but feel unhappy about the situation—he did not seem to mean much to the other man.

Affection: 2.

It was clear that the other didn’t particularly like him all that much, nor was he invested in him; rather, he was simply crafting a relationship out of some momentary interest. To that man, he was nothing more than some temporary entertainment–someone one could date and dump casually with no hard feelings involved.

Ayra felt fortunate that he hadn’t fallen that hard for Janus yet. Rather than hurt, he simply felt bittersweet. If the other was going to take him so lightly, then the young lord would just have to respond in kind.

“It looked like you were coming from the Lord’s castle.” It seemed that Janus had nothing much to do today; he naturally followed behind Ayra’s strides.

Ayra nodded at Janus’s question and explained, “I work at the castle. I have some connections with the governor there…and some family connections as well.”

……It wasn’t exactly a lie.

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, Janus wasn’t interested enough to press him on what exactly he was doing in the castle. Ayra tamped down his bitter expressions and peeked at the mercenary, “Janus, do you know anything about the new Lord?”

“Don’t know; I’m not interested in things like that.” The mercenary looked reluctant to speak further on this matter, as if he truly had no interest in this subject. No interest and no knowledge–what luck

Ayra’s feet stopped when he came upon the collapsed walls. About half of the wall had collapsed, but the soldiers were hard at work, sweating heavily and setting up wooden posts in the collapsed regions. However, the woodwork was so sloppy that Ayra couldn’t help but sigh. Wood would be a common commodity in most lands, but because of its mountainous ecology, trees were far more rare and precious than rocks in Solar.

“It looks like it’ll fall over with a single gale,” Ayra muttered.

“It looks like it’ll fall over if I just lightly pushed at it.”

In addition to Ayra’s lamentful sigh, Janus commented with a bitter evaluation of his own. ‘If it hadn’t been for that earthquake…’ Ayra clenched his fists

When Ayra asked the chief servant that had lived in Solar since birth, he said that this land frequently saw earthquakes.  Ever since the first strong earthquake that had occurred two years after Ayra’s birth, weak earthquakes constantly rumbled across the land. Since earthquakes strong enough to destroy the walls weren’t so common, Ayra could only hope that no earthquakes of that magnitude would occur again.

‘It’s fine to log down the forest on the hills behind the castle, so I should tell them to reinforce the wooden picket fences further.’

That place was designated as a rest area protected by the spirit of the dead dragon, so the dragon would be angered if the trees were logged recklessly. However, Ayra saw that as useless superstition. When one died, the soul would lose all its memories and would be reborn. If dragons had souls, the process wouldn’t be much different.

The young lord sighed and turned around, almost stumbling as he did so. His clumsiness was due to the rubble from the broken walls that surrounded the ground. Janus, having done so many times, naturally supported Ayra’s waist with his arm. “You’re not looking very well. Would you like me to buy you something delicious?”

“Something delicious?” Ayra followed, curious. They arrived at the steamed meat bun store.

TL: I wanna bite pebble too~

Honestly, how strange~ It’s quite interesting to see the MC and ML *date* each other while neither have particularly strong feelings for the other.

Janus: “We’re lovers right?”

Ayra: *thinking that he’s kinda like a dog* *Also thinking of various bad ends* “…Sure.”