Chapter 37 – Port City (13)
After completing the interrogation and gathering the necessary information, Roden disposed of the watchers’ corpses neatly in the forest, washed his body briefly, and quietly entered the room where the lights were turned off.
There are three figures reflected in the room where the moonlight shines softly. Because of the accident she suffered today, Merim was sleeping next to her younger sister Maril. Loxia lying quietly in a slightly distant position caught my eye.
There was a blanket in the corner where Roden usually sleeps. Situationally, it seems that Merim and Roxia prepared in advance.
I forgot to ask before sending her to her room, but thanks for this.
It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, so it’s a perfect day for dirty work. Roden immediately laid down on the futon and closed her eyes gently to go to sleep early for the next day’s cleaning.
When she couldn’t fall asleep easily because the screams she heard during the interrogation and the blood she saw were still vividly lingering in her head,
Roxia, rustling in her darkness, was seen creeping up to her master’s side.
“Are you still awake?”
“Yeah… I haven’t been able to sleep much.”
It wasn’t even a crowd. From the point of view of the members of the organization, she fought for the purpose of capture, but from her point of view, it was the first time in her life that she fought a life-and-death battle.
She didn’t show it, but she was quite afraid that her daily life and happiness would be trampled on.
“…Actually, I’ve been waiting for the master to come back. If it’s okay with you… Can I sleep next to you tonight?”
Roxia’s eyes, reminiscent of her crimson moon, stared intently into her master’s eyes.
Roden said she was quite worried that her blood would remain on her body, but she said that she refused coldly because she met the eyes of a girl who was actively asking for her, which is rare. I couldn’t bear it.
She eventually made room for Loxia by pulling her body out to a little more corner seat.
“If you don’t mind a small seat, come here.”
“Thank you, Master.”
Loxia smiled and slipped into the seat her master had made for her, like a kitten who found her nice box. She could smell the scent of lavender, a color similar to her hair.
Roden made Roxia settle down within her reach, and even though she habitually tried to stroke her girl’s hair, she took it back, remembering what she had done with these hands a moment ago.
“How are you injured?”
“Thanks to the medicine my master gave me, I’m all better. Look.”
Slip.
At the same time as she answered, the girl gently lowered her nightgown and showed the owner her completely healed shoulders. It was an action to show that her wounds had healed, but the pose was somehow bewitching.
Roxia, who had been gently patting her shoulder, looked into her master’s eyes once more.
“Her wounds are all healed… Maybe because she was stabbed by a block of ice, but I can’t erase the feeling that her shoulders are still cold, so I want to share your warmth. Excuse me for a moment…”
In that state, the girl, carefully holding her master’s hand, brought her hand to her delicate shoulder, impaled on her ice. It is a very bold and active action force.
“Ah… It’s so warm because the owner’s hand touches it.”
The warmth of her warm hand went directly to her shoulder, and Roxia’s expression became much more comfortable. Roden, who was watching her, opened her mouth heavily.
“…Isn’t it scary?”
“I was very scared because I remembered the time when I was captured by the mercenaries on the way to escape a little while ago. I had the same eyes as those people.”
“No, it’s me, not them. You cut so many people in front of you with a casual face. With this hand that’s touching your shoulder right now.”
If you think about it, the last time I got people’s blood on my hands was about 5 years ago when I wiped out the pirates I encountered on my travels…
Roden, who had lived in a society ruled by law until he came over here, felt that as time passed, his own image, which had no feeling even when he took a human life, was gradually getting away from people.
That’s why he gave up on returning to the original world, and at the moment he decided to quit the adventure, he decided to live a leisurely life as an alchemist, far from bloody fights, while avoiding unnecessary killing and saving his specialty.
Meanwhile, Roxia, who had been fiddling with the warmth of the hand on her shoulder, shook her head with her flushed face.
“There’s no way I’m afraid of the owner’s hand who treated me kindly than anyone else. What’s more, today the master protected me and Marill.”
It’s a bit embarrassing to treat me as such a nice person…
Hearing her girl’s words, Roden was slightly embarrassed, but he felt as if the cold block of ice in her heart had melted away.
“…Thank you.”
The girl smiled at her master, who, lacking the dexterity of her words, expressed her feelings only with her thank you, and hugged Roden like a big doll. Both of them are wearing only thin clothes, so the warmth of each other is conveyed intact.
“Master.”
“Huh?”
“Can I sleep while holding you like this?”
“Yeah, let’s sleep like this.”
The girl, who was finally able to fall asleep in the arms of her master, whom she had longed for so much, licked her lips for a long time before plucking up her courage again.
“Master.”
“Huh?”
“…I love you.”
“…Yes, I love you too.”
However, Roden now interpreted her confession, which her girl mustered up her courage, as the ‘I love you’ that her child gives to her parents, and she feels the same way as he does, and she loves Loxia. I replied that I love you.
She was an existence that had to be protected, and it was not too much of a stretch for Roden to interpret it that way, as it came from Roxia’s mouth, who still thought she was just a little girl.
The girl who was quick-witted in this way immediately understood how her master responded, and her face darkened, but right now she could fall asleep in her master’s arms and heard the words he loved directly from his mouth. I decided to be content with just that.
The two men and women shared each other’s warmth and began to fall asleep side by side with a comfortable mind.
* * *
Next day.
Shoot aaaaa…
Drops of water droplets fell one or two out of nowhere from the normally clear sky of the port city, and shortly thereafter, thick raindrops began to pour as if a hole had been punched in the sky.
Guests who had gone out to enjoy the beach in the morning rushed back to their accommodations, covering their heads with both hands.
Merim, who was watching them through her window, playfully hugged her younger siblings sitting on either side of her and smirked.
Hehe, look at this supporters. Did I say it was going to rain today? Didn’t I?”
Merim was busy pretending to be proud of herself by decorating her younger siblings with fancy decorations, as if she had matched her rainy future with her own premonitions.
“Huh… It’s really raining. It was such a nice weather when I woke up in the morning.”
Actually, she had only been told by Roden the day before.
“Ahaha… Tweezers, Merim unni.”
“Uh-huh-huh!”
Unlike Marill, who was in awe, Roxia, who knew the truth about her, laughed rather clumsily.
Laughing faintly at the sight of her three women, Roden opened the door donning a drab full-length cloak to be used as her raincoat.
“As I mentioned earlier, the baron is taking special care of this area, so even if it’s relatively safe… Just in case, while I’m gone, the three of you don’t separate and wait together.”
“Okay, good job, Mr. Roden.”
“I was poisoned yesterday in an ugly way, but we’ll protect Loxia here. Don’t worry and come back.”
“Please come back safely, Uncle.”
“Okay.”
Roden didn’t specifically explain to her twin sister and Loxia what they were going out to do from now on.
The girls also did not bother to ask Roden why he was going out in a crisis like now, especially when it was raining.
Even if you don’t have to talk directly, the atmosphere that Roden exudes tells you the purpose of this outing instead.
Thinking of that, it was obvious that she would only get in the way if she stayed by her side, so instead of saying that they would follow her, she only told them to go carefully.
“Oh, Merim.”
Just before leaving her quarters, she suddenly called for Merim and Roden took out a mask from her. She is a pure white mask that Merim bought as a souvenir for her at the night market.
“I’ll borrow this.”
“Ah, okay. Please return it later.”
With that, the purpose of the outing became clear. Well, with the skills that Roden oppa showed, it would be a piece of cake to rob a thug’s lair.
Nodding her head at Merim’s answer, Loden, who was wearing a white mask, went outside with her cloak completely pulled over, turning her feet toward the red light district of her port city in the rain.
In order to ruin the long-awaited holiday and make the guy who dares to target the girl he is protecting pay a bloody price.
* * *
As always, Petrog, who listened to the report of the one-eyed organization member while satisfying his hunger with a drugged prostitute on his side, expected good news that he had caught the women, but… , The story told by the one-eyed was completely different.
The news was that her subordinates, her right-hand man, sent out to capture her women, and the main force, including the only wizard in the organization, had been found horribly mutilated in an alley.
Wow Jangchang!!
That wasn’t enough, and after hearing the news that even the contact person who was monitoring Roden’s party had disappeared without even a mouse or a bird knowing, the pig couldn’t calm down and overturned the food on the table.
“Oh ah !!! What kind of organization did you do? !!!”
Petrog momentarily wondered if the target, the 4 people, might have reversed all of his men, but…
At most, two adventurers of the same rank, a young wizard, and an alchemist, Nabbing, concluded that there was no way they would be able to slaughter that amount of power, and weighed the possibility that another organization had ambush.
“Uh, I’m not sure which organization sent it because there were only corpses of our members on the site.”
Even if you think about which organization did it, there are too many things to know about this and that, so I can’t guess where the conversely did it.
Peter, who had been twitching like a child, wondered why a person who lives as diligently as he had to go through such misfortune. He swung her hand roughly at her cheek…
Jab-!
“Kyaaak!!”
… Instead, he slapped the cheek of the prostitute next to him.
Even if you hit a boy’s cheek, it doesn’t feel good, and you can’t hear a pleasant scream.
Anyway, as he put his hand on the woman’s body and cooled her head a bit, he immediately put her thoughts together and ordered her one-eye.
“Fuck! All of these useless bastards…! Find out what kind of idiots did this as soon as possible! Especially mercenaries! There’s a good chance that other organizations hired talented mercenaries and did this, so I’m not sure if there are any organizations that hired mercenaries. Investigate!”
“Yes, old! I see.”
Only after the one eye that had been bending his head went out again did Shakh Bart, who was sitting in the corner, lower his arms that were covering his ears.
Whoa… It’s a cry that I usually don’t want to hear, but it’s exceptionally loud today, so my ears hurt.
Anyway, as the pig said, it would be nice if a skilled mercenary appeared… That’s how you feel about fighting.
After struggling alone for a while, Petrog jumped up from his seat, grabbed the prostitute who was caressing her cheek, and dragged her outside.
The courtesan, well aware of what this meant, suddenly turned pale.
“Now… Wait a minute! Mr. Petrog…! It’s definitely not my turn today…”
“Shut up! I’m in the mood to hit you today!!”
Aww!!
The prostitute, who had been slapped so hard that blood came out of her mouth, lowered her head without even thinking about touching her face.
Petrog, who had let off some stress by slapping the woman on the cheek, said nothing and turned his head to the squinting Shahbat.
“I’m going to be having fun with this bitch from now on, so you’re waiting in front of the room! Especially today, unless it’s really urgent, don’t let anyone come in! Got it?!”
“Yes, yes. Do as you command.”
At this moment, Petrog would have never imagined. The fact that from now on, the time he enjoys with her whore will be the last time in his life…
