IPDT 40

[No. What if Yul wakes up? Seeing him go to sleep right away, he seems tired.]

I stroked Fleabag, who had stealthily come out under the cover of night, with my finger. Fleabag, seeming to enjoy my touch, narrowed his eyes and wagged his tail gently.

“Aaargh!”

Just then, a sound that broke the silence of the night rang out. Fleabag and I simultaneously looked out the window. Not far away, a terrible shape was visible.

“Master, that’s a monster…!”

“Shh.”

I quickly covered Fleabag’s mouth with my finger. Fleabag, revealing his two front teeth, blinked his eyes.

“I told you, Yul will wake up.”

I glanced over at Yul’s bed. Yul was still not moving. Fortunately, it seemed he hadn’t woken up.

I put Fleabag in my clothes pocket and tiptoed across the room. I let out a sigh of relief upon finally reaching Yul’s bed. Then, after quietly gazing for a moment at Yul, who was covered by the blanket, I bent down.

“…Yul, just sleep for a little while.”

I pressed my lips to where Yul’s forehead would be and then stood up. I had cast a sleeping spell, so Yul wouldn’t wake up no matter what commotion happened outside. Having finished my preparations, I strode outside.

“Are you planning to kill the monster yourself, Master?”

“Yes.”

“What about Kwon Yul? Isn’t that human the hero?”

“I know Yul is the hero. I also know that Yul can defeat the monster. But this village doesn’t feel right. The strong smell of flowers is one thing, and it doesn’t seem like it will be good for Yul. But since Yul is the hero, he has to defeat monsters, right?”

I paused my steps for a moment and touched my hair. Fluffy, golden strands caught on my fingers. With this hair color, the humans wouldn’t mistake me for Yul.

“Hmm… If I change it to something like navy blue, they probably won’t be able to tell since it’s night, right?”

Even my great self could not replicate black hair and black eyes. That was because those were colors that could not be created artificially.

I closed my eyes and imagined coloring my hair. I could feel my hair changing to navy blue from the roots. After changing my hair color, I immediately changed my eyes to navy blue as well.

“Fleabag, how is it? Do you think it changed well?”

“Yes, from a distance, it could even look black.”

“Good.”

After getting confirmation from Fleabag, I moved to where the monster was. When I opened my eyes, I saw a monster clutching humans in both hands and eating them.

“Master, that one… is different from the monster we saw beyond the border.”

Fleabag was right. This one was a different type from Igor.

Even when Igor became a monster, he had mutated into something clearly recognizable, like a ‘giant scorpion.’ In contrast, this one looked like a mix of several species. The horns on its head were like a deer’s, and its face was that of an ant. Its body was similar in shape to a monkey’s, but scales grew instead of fur.

Swoooosh, the direction of the wind changed. My navy blue hair fluttered gently. The monster, which had been licking up the blood that soaked the ground with the feelers on its mouth, twisted its body and whipped its head around to look at me. As if it had smelled an appetizing scent.

Kraaack!

The monster, having spotted me, let out a bizarre cry and charged. The monster, which launched itself forward by kicking the ground with its hind legs, was faster than Igor in terms of speed.

“Fleabag, to look like Yul, I’ll have to use a sword, right?”

“To be honest, this Fleabag does not quite understand why the master must go this far….”

“How could you possibly understand the thoughts of me, the great balancer. So, a sword?”

“If you wish to look like Kwon Yul, then yes.”

The monster, drooling, swung its bloodstained foreleg at me. It was just that, but a tremendous gust of wind, incomparable to a natural breeze, blew toward me. Fleabag, who was inside my pocket, gripped the fabric tightly and fluttered like a flag. I quickly ducked to avoid the foreleg.

The monster, having missed me by a hair’s breadth, let out a great roar. Then, it tried to snatch me with the feelers on its mouth. I selected a sword from my subspace, gripped it, and swung. The sharp blade cut through the bundle of feelers without any resistance.

Kieeeek!

The feelers dropped from the monster’s mouth with a thud thud. The monster groaned in pain and writhed. Without hesitation, I slashed the back of the monster’s ankle. Since it was a large monster, making it fall was essential. Watching the monster lose its balance and fall, I raised my sword again.

But something… no, I could see Yul beyond the falling monster. His jet-black hair, which could not be compared to my artificially changed navy hair, scattered in the wind.

Craaash!

At the tremendous sound, my shoulders trembled reflexively. The massive monster’s head was shattered, as if crushed by a hammer. I rubbed my eyes and looked ahead. Even looking again, it was Yul who had destroyed the monster’s head.

How is Yul here? I even cast a spell, so he should be fast asleep. …Don’t tell me I cast the spell wrong again?

As I blinked in bewilderment, Yul, wearing a frighteningly cold expression, approached me.

“Yul?”

Without a word, Yul forcefully grabbed my collar. Then he began to drag me somewhere. I could hear the humans who had flocked over late chattering about something as they looked at the monster’s corpse, but we were already too far away to make it out clearly.

As I was being dragged along by Yul, I belatedly thought that we seemed to have come too far. On top of that, it felt like the scent of flowers was getting stronger. It didn’t seem like a good idea to go any deeper. I quickly grabbed Yul’s hand.

“Yul, Yul, wait a minute.”

Only then did Yul stop and let go of my collar. His fiercely crumpled face instantly came close to mine. My heart pounded violently. Thump, thump, thump. It wasn’t my heartbeat. This was Yul’s.

“What are you.”

“I’m the dragon’s familiar…”

“Are all the dragon’s familiars as stupid as you?”

[Th-that…!”]

The one who was incensed by those words was not me, but Fleabag. I whispered an apology to Fleabag and then cut off our mental connection. It was clear that he would be fuming right now, cursing Yul with the most extensive vocabulary he could muster.

“What kind of familiar has a head that forgets it was almost eaten by a monster bastard.”

“I wasn’t almost eaten. And I told you, I don’t die. I said that before.”

“Is that so?”

Yul’s sword flew at me in the blink of an eye. A jet-black sword reeking of blood. I didn’t avoid it as it came toward my neck. If I could prove that I don’t die, I could take being hit by a sword a few times.

Slice.

There was the sound of something being cut. Yul’s sword had changed its trajectory and cut my hair. The navy strands fell, fluttering, and gradually faded back to gold. Yul, who saw the hair that had fallen to the ground, looked at me with his jet-black eyes.

“You beings are all so selfish. You can do whatever you want without thinking about the consequences because you have nothing to lose.”

“What is that sup…”

“You should have just killed me back then.”

The moment Yul finished speaking, I felt my heart drop with a thud. My mouth opened and closed. I wanted to say something, but my throat was blocked, and only my fingertips trembled. I clenched my fists tightly.

Yul cannot speak to me about ‘death.’ If he knew what I had done about his death, he shouldn’t.

“…You shouldn’t say that.”

“Why?”

“Because I did it for you.”

“Right, for me, the hero.”

Yul wore no expression at all. I had nothing to fear but Yul’s death. I was afraid, of everything.

“That self-righteousness is horrifying.”

Yul, who said this as if chewing the words, turned and walked away. I couldn’t stop him.

I sat on the roof of the tallest building in the village and looked up at the sky. It was full of gray clouds, looking just as if it would rain.

“It shouldn’t rain.”

Because then Yul would be sad again. I forced the corners of my mouth up into a smile. The color of the sky didn’t change. As expected, because I wasn’t truly happy, the dark clouds didn’t clear. I let out a deep sigh and rested my cheek on my hugged knees.

As I was staring blankly at the edge of the roof, I heard a pitter, patter, the sound of small footsteps. When I turned my head toward the sound, I saw a mouse’s small forepaws gripping the edge of the roof.

“Master!”

“Fleabag!”

Fleabag, who had climbed up the drainpipe, scurried over to me. I picked Fleabag up and shot to my feet.

“Yul? Is he back at the lodging?”

“No.”

At the answer, which felt almost firm, my shoulders slumped and I collapsed into a sitting position.

“He hasn’t been back since last night… Nothing’s happened to him, right?”

“What could possibly happen to that human? It would be another story if he caused something. Is he not the human who took half of the master’s heart?”

Fleabag snorted as if the idea was ridiculous. Normally, I would have sternly scolded this insolent tone, but right now, I didn’t even have the energy for that.

“That self-righteousness is horrifying.”

Yul, who had left after saying that, did not return to the lodging that day. As if he didn’t want to run into me. That was why I didn’t go to the lodging either, waiting all night on the roof for Yul to return… A long sigh escaped me.

“Master, do not be sad. Those are merely the words of a human. What could a human who lives for a fleeting moment know of the master’s great will!”

“No. Yul is right.”

I shook my head.

“Yul never asked to be saved, but I saved him on my own accord. I was so sad, my heart ached, so I saved him for my own sake.”

“That is not true, Master! If Kwon Yul, the hero, dies, the world might be destroyed, so the master bestowed your mercy!”

Fleabag argued passionately, his small front paws clenched tightly. I looked at my small familiar and gave a faint smile.

“Fleabag, I’ve lived for a very, very long time. So, to be honest, before I met Yul, I thought it might be okay if the world was destroyed. So, saving Yul wasn’t because I was worried the world would be destroyed. It was just because I like Yul so much, because I hated the idea of a human named Kwon Yul disappearing from this world. That’s not for a greater cause, it’s true that it was something I did on a whim. Though I didn’t know until Yul told me…”

“Even if that were so, should the desire for a cherished human not to die be something to be condemned? This Fleabag does not think so!”

Stroking Fleabag, who was trying his best to defend me, with my finger, I looked down at the village. The village visible below my feet was vibrant, even under the dark clouds.

“The hero will become the guardian deity who protects our village.”

“Of course! The hero will stay with us forever.”

“Oh, by the way, should we take the monster’s corpse that the hero defeated to the flower field?”

While eavesdropping on the words of the humans praising Yul, I heard an out-of-place word.

“…Flower field?”

It was no coincidence that the flower scent filling the village flashed through my mind. I shot up from my spot. I was thinking of jumping down from the roof, grabbing a human, and asking. Asking what kind of flowers were planted in that ‘flower field.’

“Look, the hero is coming!”

“Yul?”

My head whipped around. In the distance, I could see Yul walking, his black hair fluttering. I habitually started to approach Yul, but then I stopped dead in my tracks.