“A-Ah, hello, brother.”
“…….”
Who the hell was this bastard? The man who had appeared before me was a Priest—a cleric. Why was a healer wandering around a hunting ground alone?
“Excuse me.”
“Stop. Speak from there.”
“Ah, yes.”
I kept the machete pointed at the Priest and stopped him from approaching. The man’s face stiffened slightly, and he raised both hands, apparently trying to show that he had no intention of harming me.
“I am a missionary from the Church. Could you please help me?”
The man spoke as he pulled out the necklace hanging around his neck. So what? Was showing me a necklace supposed to create trust that hadn’t existed before? Maybe it worked among his people, but not with me.
The necklace was shaped like a cross encircled by a ring.
Every priest-class character in the game wore an item bearing that symbol.
“What kind of help do you need?”
Priest-class characters were generally aligned with Good(善), so I lowered the machete.
“Will you help me?”
The Priest approached, speaking as though a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
“The group I belonged to was attacked by bandits, and we were scattered.”
Had these people been attacked by the soldiers too?
“Could you accompany me until we reach the territory?”
I looked the man up and down. His black priestly robes, decorated with white trim, were covered in dirt and dust. Looking closer, I saw scratches all over his face and hands as well.
And yet his backpack looked fairly heavy.
If this were still a game, would a quest window have appeared?
“Do you know the way to the territory?”
“…Yes.”
The man pulled a folded sheet of paper from inside his robes. The scale was terrible, and the terrain looked as though it had only been sketched roughly, but it was a map.
“This is the river here, so if we head south, we should reach the territory.”
He even took out a compass, checked south, then pointed in the direction the stream was flowing. Despite having met me only moments ago, he showed no sign of wariness.
Was he simply good-natured?
Or had he suffered so much that he was just glad to see another person?
-That would be you, Kang Seung-woo.
“Understood. Let’s travel together until we reach the territory.”
“Thank you. My name is Billy.”
The man held out his hand for a handshake.
Come to think of it, what was this body’s name? While playing the game, I had only ever called him the Jar Warrior, and that was how the game screen displayed him as well.
‘I think I saw his name somewhere in the game.’
Once you became close to NPCs, they started talking among themselves. Even without becoming close, you could exchange all kinds of stories with them while camping in hunting grounds or dungeons. Those conversations sometimes revealed details about the game’s story or Easter eggs.
‘They sometimes called each other by their real names during those conversations.’
I took the hand of the Priest who had introduced himself as Billy. As I searched my memory, I thought I remembered. It had probably been back when I was desperately raising everyone’s affinity in an attempt to stop NPCs from deserting.
All that accomplished was an ending where romantic disputes broke out and the party imploded.
“Kain. My name is Kain.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Kain.”
“Yes.”
Now temporary companions, we walked along the stream. As we moved, I always kept pace with him.
More precisely, I adjusted my speed so Billy could never stand behind me.
‘I’ll never trust him.’
In this game’s world, signing a contract with a demon was better than trusting a human. At least demons might deceive you, but they didn’t lie.
I didn’t like the look of his face, either.
Throb.
I walked while rubbing the back of my head where the goblin had struck me.
“By the way, Mr. Billy, do you not need to search for the rest of your group?”
When I spoke, Billy answered with a dark expression.
“……When we fled, we promised to meet again in the territory.”
“Ah, I see.”
“We were acolytes dispatched to the new church being built in Parque, so…….”
One question was all it took for Billy to begin telling me his entire story at length, but I wasn’t really listening. Having my head plunged into the stream had snapped me awake for a moment, but I grew more exhausted as time passed.
The sun was beginning to set.
“Shall we prepare to camp here?”
“Yes, let’s.”
Billy’s backpack held more tools than I had expected. Camping supplies and equipment suitable for spending the night outdoors kept emerging from it. He also seemed to have plenty of experience, judging by how skillfully he prepared the campsite.
I had gone to scout the area and gather wood for kindling. When I returned—
“Welcome back.”
Billy was driving several thin iron rods into the ground, securing them, and spreading canvas over them to make a primitive triangular tent. He had already gathered stones and prepared a spot for the campfire.
SCRITCH. FWOOSH.
He lit the fire with a flint, and the area quickly became bright and warm. Then he hung a pot over it and began boiling water.
Had I been alone, I would’ve had no choice but to stay awake all night again or take my chances with a shallow sleep.
What a relief.
“Do you happen to have any ingredients?”
I had been staring blankly as Billy prepared ingredients and added them to the boiling water. After dissolving yellow powder into the pot, he looked at me and asked.
All I had was hardtack.
“Should I go catch a rabbit?”
“…N-No, that is all right.”
In truth, even if he had told me to catch one, I probably couldn’t have. I had handled most of the monsters we encountered on the way here. Goblins disappeared when killed, and although foxes and wild dogs left corpses behind, I had never butchered an animal, so I had simply left them.
‘There aren’t any fish, either.’
The water in the stream was clear, yet there wasn’t even a single minnow in it. Billy silently stirred the soup with a ladle. His movements were rough enough to suggest that emotion had entered them.
But what was I supposed to do about that?
Should I offer him some hardtack?
“Please, eat.”
Billy filled a bowl with yellow, porridge-like soup in which several unidentifiable vegetables floated. In this case, should I call it soup or a stew? It contained neither butter nor cheese, so the smell wasn’t particularly appetizing.
Billy served himself a portion of the stew as well. Until then, I hadn’t eaten and had been waiting for him. Noticing my gaze, Billy gripped his pendant and muttered a prayer to himself.
I kept watching him.
“Then please enjoy your meal.”
“You too, Mr. Billy.”
Slurp.
Billy took the first spoonful. Even after he ate three or four spoonfuls, I merely stirred my soup. From the corner of my eye, it seemed this stew was safe to eat.
“Ugh.”
I hadn’t been sure, but after tasting a spoonful, I realized the yellow powder must have been cornmeal.
And it tasted fucking awful.
It hadn’t been seasoned at all. It was utterly bland. On top of that, the soup had cooled a little in the meantime.
Billy finished his stew and began serving himself another bowl. Without saying anything, I pulled a small pouch and a glass bottle from my crossbody bag.
‘Good. They didn’t get wet.’
I had thought everything would’ve dissolved after I fell into the water earlier that day, but fortunately, they were unharmed.
“What are those?”
“Ah, salt and sugar.”
“Something so precious?”
I sprinkled an appropriate amount of salt and sugar into the boiling pot. The salt had hardened slightly after absorbing moisture, so I broke apart the end with my fingers. I gently shook the bottle to sprinkle in the sugar.
I poured a little into my bowl and tasted it.
‘That’s a little better.’
With the salt and sugar added, it had at least reached a level fit for human consumption. Perhaps grateful that I had made the soup edible, Billy handed me several pieces of bread.
That more or less concluded our meal.
Though Billy, apparently moved, glanced at my bag several times throughout it.
***
“Let’s decide who will stand watch.”
“Shall we play rock-paper-scissors?”
“Yes, then.”
“Rock, paper, scissors!”
After finishing our meal, we chose who would tend the fire and stand watch to keep wild animals and goblins away.
I won at rock-paper-scissors.
“Then please sleep first.”
“All right.”
Billy took a pocket watch from his bag and sat in front of the campfire.
What didn’t that bag contain?
It was practically Doraemon’s pocket.
Snore. Snore.
I deliberately pretended to sleep, even adding snores. Feigning a turn in my sleep, I rolled over so my back faced the campfire. If I kept my eyes closed like this, I felt as though I would actually fall asleep.
I opened them and watched Billy’s shadow sway with the fire.
‘Something feels off.’
Billy had given me a bad feeling from the moment we met. A priest raised in a church being skilled at camping was suspicious enough. More suspicious still was that he hadn’t said a single unpleasant thing or even given me a pointed look when I hadn’t contributed a single ingredient.
Snore. Snore. Hrrk. Khk.
I even snored for the sake of method acting. If he was scheming something, wouldn’t he make his move around now?
That was when it happened.
The shadow cast by the campfire flickered. I turned and placed my hand on the machete beside me. Then I opened my eyes to narrow slits.
“…You must be very tired.”
Billy lowered the flap over the entrance of the triangular tent so the night wind wouldn’t blow inside.
Snore. Snore.
Even so, I continued pretending to sleep.
Was I simply insane?
Was I suspecting a perfectly kind and decent person?
My eyelids kept falling shut, so I pinched my thigh to fight the drowsiness.
I still couldn’t let my guard down. My life up to this point had taught me that much.
Not one of the people who approached me with a smile had done so without an ulterior motive. Every one of them had smiled as they approached, then struck me in the back of the head or took something from me.
I couldn’t repeat the same mistake.
That would be a matter of intelligence.
In a world overrun by betrayal and corruption, the consequences of a mistake would be very different from those in reality.
“…It is time to change shifts.”
Billy entered the tent and woke me.
“Yes, understood.”
After trading places with me, Billy fell asleep the moment he lay down. Soon, I heard his quiet breathing.
How could he trust someone he had met for the first time today enough to sleep?
‘I’m tired.’
It felt as though my eyes were about to fall out. I rubbed my eyelids, which felt dry and gritty. Earlier that day, Billy had mentioned that it had taken him two months to get here.
If he had spent two months sleeping outdoors, wasn’t it only natural that he had become skilled at camping?
“Ah, shit.”
What if Billy was simply a kind person who couldn’t bring himself to make even a pointed remark, while I was putting on this ridiculous one-man show?
What if I had kicked away my first opportunity for comfortable sleep with my own foot?
SLAP.
I struck myself across the cheek.
Thinking about this wouldn’t solve anything. I opened the pocket watch Billy had handed me.
Time was moving unbearably slowly.
It felt as though an hour had passed, but it had only been ten minutes. I moved my body to wake myself up.
All I could do was stand up and sit down repeatedly and stretch, but it kept me awake for a few minutes.
Before long, the time to change shifts approached.
“Billy. Billy.”
“Yes.”
Billy rubbed his sleepy eyes as he got up, and we traded places. The night sky was still dark. Only after seeing Billy sit by the campfire did I close my eyes.
This time as well, I lay down with one hand resting on the machete. I narrowed my eyes and watched Billy.
“Mr. Kain?”
“Gasp!”
I jolted awake.
The sun had already risen, and morning had come.
What was this?
Had I fallen asleep without realizing it?
And the sun was already up?
“You were sleeping so deeply that I could not wake you.”
“…Then you stood watch for four hours?”
“Yes.”
Fuck.
I’m sorry.
I’m so fucking sorry.
A memory flashed through my mind of cursing at Billy and threatening him with the blade when he tried to wake me while I was half-asleep.
Had it been me, I would’ve kicked him in the ass until he woke up. But our kind Billy had simply stood watch for four straight hours himself.
“I-I’m sorry!”
I bowed my head and apologized to Billy.
This was clearly my fault.
Even before the contractual relationship between temporary companions, I had been in the wrong as a human being.
“It is all right. Let’s have soup for breakfast and then set out again.”
A pot had been placed over the dying campfire. Feeling guilty, I took the initiative and packed up the tent, then accepted the bowl Billy handed me.
“I thought there would not be enough, so I added the rest of the ingredients and boiled it again.”
I thanked Billy as he smiled and handed me a spoon, then scooped up the soup.
***
[The character has eaten poisoned soup.]