Chapter 18 – What Is She Doing? (2)

 

“… What do you mean?”

 

A dead-eyed Luss sat down at the table and asked Lily and Vienna who sat opposite her.

 

Although Luss’ room was tidy, but the pieces of equipment she had worn when she went to the dungeon a few days ago were lying on the floor, untouched.

 

It was natural for Luss to let out the tears she had been holding back the moment she returned to her room and closed the door.

 

It wasn’t that Lily didn’t understand her feelings either. Because she also cried for a long time. But now was not the time to just cry. She felt compelled to speak with the other members who had signed the treaty.

 

“Luss… Do you believe Starchis?”

 

“…”

 

“..Uuu…Sob..”

 

Lily asked, but Luss didn’t answer.

 

Only Vienna’s cries broke the silence.

 

To be honest, Luss believed it in her head, but couldn’t believe it in her heart. And if she answered, she thought she would admit it, so her mouth didn’t open at all.

 

Lily broke her composure and grabbed her head.

 

“I… I can’t believe it. It couldn’t have happened.”

 

It was hard to tell if Lily was talking to herself or them.

She continued to speak with blank eyes.

 

“The way they met doesn’t even make sense.”

 

When Luss and Vienna did not respond for different reasons, Lily spoke in a slightly louder voice.

 

“Does it make sense that every time he went back leaving us, they kept meeting by chance? Yeah? Luss…?”

 

Vienna, who had been crying all the time, shouted.

 

“So what!! It can be fate!!”

 

- Bang!!

 

Luss banged her fist on the desk.

 

As the voice subsided, Luss spoke in a choking voice.

 

“…Don’t talk nonsense, Vienna.”

 

‘It can’t be... No, it can’t be.’

 

Luss thought to herself but didn't speak.

 

‘Chis should be my destiny…’

 

Luss shook her head and focused on the current situation.

 

It was Luss’ wish, but she spat it out as if it were the truth.

 

“… There is some truth to what Lily said. Does it make sense that they kept meeting by chance?”

 

“Yes! Yes!”

 

When Luss agreed with her, Lily was delighted.

 

"Starchis must have lied, or-"

 

“Starchis doesn’t lie!!” Vienna interrupted once again. “Have you ever seen Starchis lie? Hey! We know him! He only does things out of good intentions! So why would he lie like this!! Don't spout nonsense in false hope!!”

 

She raised her head and burst into tears.

 

Conversely, Lily’s expression hardened as she searched for hope.

 

But Vienna continued:

 

"You’ve been watching Starchis for a long time, too. You know that much too!! If not, I still don’t know-"

 

“-There’s no way they met because of fate!!!”

 

Lily jumped up from her seat, talking half-heartedly. Her silky red hair became scattered.

 

Vienna was startled by her. Shaking her head, she again began to cry.

 

Lily’s eyes turned red.

 

“Because if… If it’s not a lie, he really got a girlfriend!! No!! Starchis can't be stolen!”

 

She gritted her teeth.

 

“Starchis, who used to praise pure love and monogamy, got a partner…! And it's not me…! The distance we’ve built up so far will continue to grow farther away… !!”

 

At Lily's words, Vienna started to cry louder.

 

Luss also felt herself choking and her chest constricting again.

 

“No… There’s no way they've met by chance… Yeah. If that’s not a lie… That bi*ch… That b*tch who seduced Starchis must be stalking him.”

 

Lily mumbled, ‘Stalking?’ and Vienna responded, ‘Yeah… That would make sense.’

 

Raising her messed up face, Vienna told them with a stuffed nose, but her voice kept getting louder:

 

“Yeah, yes! Right. That’s it. She must have approached Starchis with a motive. Starchis didn’t even know that and thought it was fate… That’s right! This is it! We have to tell him quickly!”

 

Vienna’s voice grew louder and louder as she came up with rational reasons she had never thought of before.

 

“But how would we tell him, Vienna?”

 

Luss, who was weak when she was alone, spoke rationally, trying to save her face in front of Vienna and Lily.

 

If she couldn’t save her face and even if Starchis broke up with his girlfriend, she’d definitely lose him to the two of them.

 

“Chis… that bi*ch is deceiving you, so be careful? And we know it because you are being stalked...? But how can we prove it..! Starchis believes it was fate!!”

 

But it wasn't easy; the more she spoke, the more her emotions intensified.

 

Lily said biting her lips and looking at Luss.

 

“This is all because of you… If you hadn’t come with that stupid pact, I wouldn’t have lost him…! There's no way my Starchis would have been taken away!!!”

 

In the end, Luss, who was holding back, also got up from her seat.

 

“That’s because of 'us'! You signed it saying you like the Treaty too. I still remember the horror in your eyes when we both said we liked Starchis. But, you are blaming me now?”

 

The two started a bloody staring contest.

 

They didn’t even blink at the distance where their breaths touched.

 

“And Lily, did I force you to agree to the treaty? When all actions were restricted by the treaty, you were the one who kept looking for gaps and taking advantage of them… But now you're saying such shameless things? Vienna! Say something too!”

 

“I don’t know… Ugh… Come back Starchis…”

 

Vienna was no help. She didn’t know how to bring Starchis back, so she just cried again because she felt like there was no hope anymore.

 

Luss clicked her tongue and spoke again.

 

“If you didn’t like it that much, you shouldn’t have stopped me when I wanted to break the treaty,” She said. "Why are you blaming me now? Ah, I couldn’t destroy it because you were afraid of me then. Now that things became like this, it was a strange treaty?” Luss spat a bloody laugh. “I can say that too, Lily ssi.”

 

Lily shook her head vigorously.

 

“Yeah, you should have! It would have been better than now! There were many opportunities to progress further with Starchis!! Maybe I could have already been his girlfriend!”

 

“Me too!! I had a lot of opportunities too! But you knew you never had a chance to be his girlfriend, right?!”

 

It was the moment when they, who were relying on the Starchis Treaty, became pathetic.

 

They couldn’t confess because they were afraid of rejection. However, they did not want others to confess, so they signed a treaty.

 

Before they knew it, they began to rely too much on the comfortable peace provided by the treaty. But only now they realized how harmful that treaty was:

 

Objectively, they were more beautiful than anyone else around him, and since they had spent a long time with him, they thought that if it wasn’t for them, he wouldn’t meet anyone.

 

And they were indeed there, so why did he meet someone else? Because of the Starchis treaty...

 

“…okay, I get it!”

 

Leaving upset Lily and sobbing Vienna behind, Luss headed for the safe in her room.

 

Not paying attention to Lily and Vienna watching her, she opened her safe and took something out of it: it was a piece of paper coated with magic to make it last longer.

 

“Everyone knows what this is, right?”

 

Luss tossed the paper into the air and pulled out the sword lying on the floor, cutting it in half.

 

-Swish!

 

“The Starchis Treaty is ineffective as of today.”

 

Treaty of Starchis, which was—

 

First - Don’t become Starchis’s lover.

 

Second - Don’t confess to him.

 

Third - Don’t flirt with him.

 

Fourth - Do not secretly covet his lips or private parts.

 

Fifth - Don't let him know you like him or vice versa.

 

—a treaty, that was in effect for a long time, was finally terminated.

 

****

 

Hmmmm~ Hmm~ Umhhmm~

 

I hummed a song.

 

After eating the hearty food prepared by the inn owner, I began to follow the schedule I had made.

 

First, I started cleaning the room right away; I cleaned cheap wooden utensils, washed the scattered clothes, tore the magic scroll to drive out the bugs, and swept and mopped the floor.

 

Opening the window wide and experiencing the fresh wind blowing outside, I felt a sense of accomplishment in completing these tasks.

 

From a pig's farm, my room finally turned into a place a human could live.

 

I wondered if the room was originally this large. It felt a little awkward because I was so used to seeing a dirty room.

 

“But that ends today too, ha ha!”

 

I laughed exaggeratedly and expressed my happy mood.

 

I decided to continue to keep this clean look from now on.

 

After all, it was not like I wouldn’t be able to clean my room because I was busy. Because from now on, my imaginary girlfriend, my guardian angel ‘Elza’ will protect me.

 

As long as I had Elza, I could easily refuse even if a party member asked me to make time.

 

“Sorry, I need to meet my girlfriend... Ah, I need to meet my girlfriend.”

 

I was also rehearsing the lines I would say while refusing when they asked me. I kept practicing while cleaning so that it would become a natural lie.

 

When I moved back and forth and passed by the mirror, I sometimes looked at the mirror and repeated it.

 

It seemed a little more natural now.

 

Well, just because Elza was there, it wasn't like I could refuse all of their requests and not meet them, but I was sure I could do it to a certain extent.

 

I was a little worried too.

 

– ‘What if you have a girlfriend? Does it matter? Come quickly! You slave!’

 

I hoped they wouldn't say that.

 

Of course, they wouldn’t go so far as to call me a slave, but the villainous Vienna I imagined in my head effortlessly said that.

 

I was also worried that since we hadn’t seen each other in days, they might say let’s do everything at once.

 

Then it would be even tougher than before.

 

Of course, it felt better now having some alone time, but that didn’t mean I was looking forward to a tougher future.

 

Well…

 

Ah!

 

If my girlfriend told me to come back earlier, I could part ways with them in the evening.

 

“Oh, my girlfriend wants me to come back earlier... Oh, my girlfriend wants me to come back earlier.”

 

I began to practice the new lines too.

 

****

 

Taking the garbage I had collected, I left the room.

 

When I went down the stairs, the inn owner, who was taking a break, heard my footsteps and turned her head.

 

“Oh, Mister. Were you cleaning your room?”

 

“Yes. Just need to throw this away and it’s over.”

 

“Do you want to have dinner after that? Even if it’s a bit early, I can prepare for you.”

 

“Thank you, but I'll just throw this away and leave.”

 

“Yes? Are you going to see someone?”

 

I nodded.

 

“Yes. Oh, and Madam...”

 

I put down the trash for a while and took out a coin pouch.

 

Pulling out some of the coins from there, I held them out to her.

 

“This is the accommodation fee for this month.”

 

She counted the coins I handed over.

 

After counting once or twice, she tilted her head.

 

“Mister… I think you mistakenly gave me more?”

 

I gave a little more generously because my heart was full.

 

And she was so considerate of me, so I also wanted to take care of her a little bit.

 

“It's not a mistake. Just take it.”

 

“What, all of this…? Thank you, Mister.”

 

She laughed and put the coins into the sleeve of her dress.

 

“Shall I go then?”

 

“Yeah, bye!”

 

After leaving the inn and throwing out the trash, I went to see my brother.

 

****

 

'It's an enviable accommodation no matter how I look at it.'

 

I thought while looking at my brother's accommodation with a signboard carrying the name of my brother’s party, ‘Ade’ written on it.

 

If I compared just the size of the building, it was about the same size as my inn.

 

However, while the inn I lived in was used as a restaurant and lodging for dozens of people, this place was prepared exclusively for a total of 7 people; six 'Ade' party members and the last being their manager. It was because the whole building was owned by my brother.

 

“Excuse me.”

 

After knocking on the door a couple of times, I went inside and came face to face with the manager of the Ade Party, ‘Saira’.

 

“Starchis! Wow. I didn’t know I’d see you this soon... How long...? Was it only one week?”

 

The last time I met my brother, I had met her too.

 

I said with a smile.

 

“Yes, we met this week. Now that I have some free time. Maybe we will see each other more often in the future.”

 

“Oh, yes? That’s great.”

 

I looked around the empty space; there was no one around.

 

“But where has everyone gone? What about Hyung?”

 

“Ah, they went out on an emergency mission. A B-class party is missing. It’s a rescue mission.”

 

There were times when I felt a great distance from my brother.

 

Of course, there was a 9-year age difference, so there were many differences, but when I listened to what my older brother does, the differences hit me much more realistically.

 

And since I had been a C-class hunter for quite some time, the differences became even more apparent.

 

First of all, the difference between class C and class B was enormous. So, I was still cautious about taking on B-class missions.

 

Tiwit Scorpion, a C-class monster, was a joke compared to B-class monsters.

 

Perhaps the first time we'd challenge a B-class mission, we should be prepared to lose our life.

 

Because the second biggest reason for disbanding a C-class party was annihilation while challenging a B-class mission.

 

But what about my brother who went to rescue a B-class party that specializes in solving such difficult B-class missions?

 

The goal of reaching the same level as my brother seemed far-reaching.

 

“… Okay? Then, is Hyung absent today?”

 

Originally, I thought we would be able to meet since hyung was also on a day off.

 

“Nope. Just wait a little bit and everyone will come. It’s just a B-class mission, they’ll rescue the party right away.”

 

“But it’s a missing mission. Do they know the location of the B-class party to rescue them?”

 

Saira looked at me and smiled like I was cute.

 

“Starchis, don’t ignore your brother and his colleagues. It’s still an A-class party.”

 

I didn’t ignore them. They were just so much better than I imagined.

 

Just then, unordered footsteps were heard outside the door.

 

Saira said as she walked to the door.

 

“Didn't I tell you they'll be coming soon?”

 

The door burst open and 6 Ade party members entered.

 

The one in the front was my brother.

 

“Saira~ We’re here, uh! Starchis!”

 

Hyung waved his hand at me.

 

The other party members also greeted me individually.

 

“Hello everyone. Hello, Hyung!”

 

I also smiled and greeted them.

 

My brother approached me, handing his two tonfas to Saira.

 

“What are you doing here? Weren't you busy with your party members? And look at this! Does your face look better than the last time I saw you?”

 

He patted me on the shoulder and asked.

 

Of course, my face got better.

 

Thanks to hyung, I got a lot of sleep, and I didn’t go around all day and overwork my body.

 

I smiled and replied to him.

 

“It’s thanks to you, Hyung. I did what my brother told me the other day.”

 

“Yes? What I told you?”

 

"No, you told me to say I have a girlfriend back then-"

 

“-Ah!!! That?!”

 

Hyung was startled for second.

 

Then I got to see the biggest laugh I had ever seen.

 

“Keukeuk…Ahhaha!!!”

 

A loud sound shook the house.

 

The other Ade party members also looked at him in surprise.

 

“What is it, Stion? Since when did you begin to laugh that much?”

 

But my brother wasn't in a position to answer; he was holding me by the shoulder and his whole body was trembling because of laughter.

 

“Ahahaha, ah, Starchis, ahahaha, whoa. Haha! You, did you really do it?”

 

I looked at him curiously.

 

Did I do something stupid?

 

“Hyung, what is it? Why are you laughing like this when you told me to do it yourself?”

 

Now he was even wiping away the flowing tears.

 

"No, no, haha… You did a good job, you should have done that anyway, it's just-"

 

While trying to stop his laughter, Hyung said with a big smile.

 

“Haha. I'm laughing... Ahaha, because... some people are going to suffer.”

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