“……”
“Daniel? We’ve arrived.”
“……”
“Daniel?”
“Uh, did you call me?”
“I told you we’re almost there.”
Trying to shake off my daze at Hayun’s words, I looked down from the carriage, but my expression must not have looked good, as Rin and Hayun were looking at me with concern.
“Are you okay?”
Seeing Rin, who usually kept her distance, come closer with worry made me feel a strange emotion.
‘……’
It’s not Rin’s fault.
Rather, Rin is the victim.
I know that, but the words Eris said to me with a bittersweet smile as I was leaving stuck in my heart.
‘It seems you have things you need to do, so it’s best I keep you bound.’
But even so, she whispered softly in my ear at the end.
‘Once everything is over, I’ll ask you again.’
A polite refusal.
Though that’s what she said, she wasn’t a fool to not realize that she had feelings for me, albeit subtly.
But being turned down is being turned down.
It was shockingly sudden, causing me to gaze blankly into space quite often.
“Ugh, snap out of it. If she asked to talk again next time, that means she doesn’t hate you, right?”
Hayun whispered into my ear casually so Rin wouldn’t hear. She was definitely helping me with my relationship with Eris, and she really was good at keeping my mental state intact.
“Thanks.”
Right, this isn’t the time to be shaken like this.
I’m Daniel McLean, the Sherpa who conquered the Forest of the Demon Realm.
In some strange way, it felt like I was becoming the old Daniel from before my regression in the realm of love, which I knew nothing about, but now it was time for a change.
Maybe my expression slightly changed with my determination.
Hayun patted me on the shoulder, saying she liked my attitude.
“So, what are you going to do now? Are you heading back to your hometown, Daniel?”
“I don’t really plan to… but if Rin says she’s going, I’ll go.”
“What about me?”
We’d only had a vague plan to visit Yggdrasil, and once that was over, we seemed to find ourselves with nothing left to do.
There was still plenty of time left in the vacation.
In this ambiguous situation, we decided to re-enter the Frisia Kingdom, but since it was getting dark, we opted for accommodation in the city of ‘Bethel,’ right next to the border.
We hadn’t actually gone into the city while passing by for Yggdrasil, but it was cleaner than I had expected.
Since it was a city close to the border, there were quite a few accommodations available, and among those, we settled into a slightly outdated, yet decent three-story hotel recommended by a soldier.
Of course, we had two rooms.
We divided into girls’ room and boys’ room, and I ended up with a big room all to myself, which I thoroughly enjoyed as I collapsed onto the bed.
“……”
Keeping my eyes closed, I found myself lost in thoughts of Eris, shaking my head as I desperately tried to think of something else.
And so.
Whirr.
In the room, only the sound of a gentle breeze accompanied the silent stillness as night fell into dawn.
“Hmm?”
A breeze?
Suddenly sitting up, I went to check the window.
The window was closed.
Moreover, this was no sound from a breeze sneaking in through the window.
Listening closely, I could hear the sounds of people right next to my room.
The important thing was that my room was at the end of the second floor.
In other words, it sounded like ‘someone’ was in a place that should ordinarily be outside.
Unless there was a hidden room in this hotel, that was news to me.
“What a ridiculous situation!”
Although it was an old place, the innkeeper was a friendly old lady and the price was reasonable, yet something was going on here?
Whatever her intentions were, it was actually a good thing.
Instead of being shaken by unnecessary thoughts, I thought it would be better to move, so I quickly got up and grabbed my sword.
Hmmm.
What should I do?
I looked for a visible passageway, but it seemed I couldn’t open it, either because it was locked or there was some mechanism I wasn’t aware of.
But if I just sat here and waited, who knows what those guys might do? Rin and Hayun could be in danger too.
‘No, they’d probably target them before me.’
Two beautiful female students were sleeping together.
In cases like this, those who sneak attack are rarely decent.
“Cunning plans are only for the weak.”
I kicked the passageway where they were hiding, sending them flying with a bam.
With an accompanying roar, the old hotel’s wall broke apart.
Inside, there was a staircase leading to the first and third floors, and I spotted some guys huddled together, playing poker.
“Huh?”
“What, what is it?”
Rather, I smiled at the more surprised ones as they turned to see me.
“Let me join in!”
I kicked the face of one who was sitting right on the stairs, causing them all to tumble down to the bottom.
“Not as exciting as I thought?”
Since they were playing such a big game, I slipped some hefty cash they had bet while they were distracted and swiftly headed downstairs.
They were rolling pretty hard; it seemed they were already knocked out.
The exit was through the hotel counter, and it was too dark to see clearly.
But I could easily deflect a thin poison needle that sliced through the air.
“Did you deflect that?”
That was the voice of the old lady.
The innkeeper who had kindly smiled at me while handing over the keys.
“Kid, you’re something else! To deflect my magic exactly in this darkness!”
Even while saying that, there was a clear scoff in her voice.
Hmmm.
I couldn’t sense any presence.
No matter how sharp my instincts were, I couldn’t pinpoint where the old lady was.
I tried to find her by sound, but her rasping voice echoed as if coming from all directions, making it impossible.
Clang clang.
“Y-you deflected this as well?”
But there was something odd; this magic skill was unusual.
“Well, hiding is level one, but dealing with magic is under level three—doesn’t it feel a bit strange?”
“Kid has a sharp tongue, huh!”
“Have you grown slow in your old age? Or have you gotten your hands on some ‘other’ kind of power?”
She didn’t answer, but the magic continued to fly by overhead.
Another odd thing was all the magic was coming from every direction except behind me against the wall.
To pull this off, one would need incredible speed or a lot of people.
‘The old lady is alone.’
That much was clear.
Right now, it was just me and that old lady here.
So how was she causing all this?
The sounds of numerous spell projectiles came flying again, but one of them was different in momentum and sound.
“Gotcha.”
I deflected a spell and jumped right up.
As I reached the ceiling, almost touching it, I finally spotted the old lady hanging upside down like a spider in the dark.
Without hesitation, I grabbed her head and slammed it into the floor.
Crack.
With a dull thud and the old lady’s scream, the old hotel’s floor cracked beneath us.
Still, magic projectiles continued to fly, but I simply deflected them and lit up the surroundings.
“Wow, I’ve been living in the woods and didn’t know, but it seems tools have advanced nowadays?”
In the corner of the counter, automatic crossbows were set up, ready to fire spells.
Whether they were enchanted or not, they were easy enough to disable by just flipping a switch on top.
“Didn’t know you’d look so grotesque in the dark?”
I had thought she was just stuck to the ceiling, but it was more than that.
There were four wriggling spider legs attached to the old lady’s back, preventing her from escaping.
“W-what do you know! It’s impossible for you to understand! My friends will come, and you little brat will…!”
Slash.
“Gyaaaaaah!”
As I sliced off one of the spider legs, the old lady let out a scream that made my ears ring.
Even though she was quite old, she certainly had spirit, thanks to the Devil Spider, I guess?
“Hmm, given that pain accompanies the cut, it seems you’ve really become one with that thing.”
“You madman! You think you can cut me just to find that out?”
Slash.
“Gyaaah!”
Now she was foaming at the mouth, her eyes turning white. Even if I tried to pin her down, I couldn’t do it; the pungent smell of blood I’d caught when I came down the stairs was still pungent in my nose.
I could sense how many lives had cruelly closed their eyes within the secrets of this hotel.
“Two hands, and now four legs. You still have a lot left, huh?”
I swung my sword again at the spider old lady before me.
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