PRSR | Chapter 9.1

The next day, when I woke up from sleep, Rio was nowhere to be seen. I guess I’ve gotten used to waking up in Rio’s embrace, because I felt a bit empty without him.

‘Did he get upset because I didn’t give him an apple yesterday?’

As I lay in bed savoring the complicated feelings, I rolled off the bed and set my feet on the floor with a thump. The sensation under my feet was a bit off for it to be the inn’s floor—it felt softer and warmer instead of cool and hard.

“Eek!”

Startled by stepping on something unfamiliar, I quickly jumped up and found myself eye-to-eye with Rio, who was kneeling in front of the bed.

“Good morning.”

Rio was gently cradling my feet in his hands.

“What… what are you doing?”

“I learned that you should keep the hands of the one you love away from water and their feet off the ground.”

“That sounds like you learned wrong. I don’t know where or how you learned that, but if you paid for that lesson, get a refund.”

I swiftly twisted my body and placed my feet firmly on the floor.

“Ah…”

Rio visibly looked disappointed but quickly perked up and, as always, leaned in for a kiss.

“How about a morning kiss?”

Morning kisses were a daily routine, so I was used to them. It seemed better than having my feet coddled, and it was just a peck on the forehead or cheek, so it wasn’t a big deal. Instead of replying, I offered my cheek, and Rio pressed a firm kiss onto it like stamping a seal.

“What are we doing today?”

“Let’s keep hunting until the monster wave starts.”

“Butchering practice?”

“No butchering today, just leveling up.”

Originally, we planned to save up emergency funds through butchering, but since Rio earned a hefty amount of gold on our date, we didn’t need to worry about money anymore.

It was time to focus on quests.

“Considering how many participants the next quest has, it’s definitely going to be tough. Even the strongest make mistakes, so we need to prepare as much as possible to avoid errors in the real deal.”

“So, it’s a field date today?”

“Yeah. A thrilling date with monsters.”

After a quick breakfast and packing a lunchbox, we headed out to the field.

Despite the early hour, many Awakened were already hunting monsters. They probably had the same idea—to level up as much as possible before the quest started.

‘I hope everyone else does well too.’

A high number of participants meant the quest was something we couldn’t handle alone. No matter how strong Rio might be—even stronger than a hundred other Awakened—without others’ help, it would be tough to proceed with the quest.

If the quest involved simultaneously stopping a city invasion by monsters from all sides, and if the west broke through while Rio was clearing the east, the quest would fail instantly. In such a scenario, not just Rio but everyone here would face a game over.

Of course, the Tutorial Field Manager wouldn’t create a quest that led to the annihilation of all Awakened if they thought it through… But do they even think?

‘Better safe than sorry.’

Jjik… Even though Rio is strong, we shouldn’t let our guard down.

I wandered around the field, sizing up the other Awakened.

‘…What’s that?’

Something felt off.

“Why are you like this?”

“I keep feeling like I’m being watched. I thought it was my imagination at first… but weren’t those people looking at me just now?”

“It’s not your imagination. They were all looking at you.”

“All of them?”

As I glanced around, several Awakened averted their eyes to match my movements.

“Why would the Awakened care about me?”

“They must have fallen for Soul.”

“That’s unlikely.”

“Does it bother you a lot? Actually, it bothers me too that they are watching Soul. Should I make it so they can never see anything again?”

“Don’t.”

Instead of blinding the onlookers, Rio covered my face with his hand. Maybe he thought it would stop others from seeing me, but it only made it harder for me to see ahead.

“This makes us more noticeable.”

“What are you talking about? Soul is most noticeable when your face is showing. You’re beautiful.”

“Stop the nonsense and come here.”

Being in pajamas, I often felt people’s gazes, but never this blatantly. Intentionally moving to a less populated part of the field actually increased the attention.

“Jjikjjiki.”

“Rio.”

“Yeah, it’s Rio. Can you hear what those people are saying?”

“I can’t hear well from here. Should I go listen?”

“No, let’s not make it obvious that we’re paying attention.”

“Maybe I can transform into a mouse and listen secretly.”

Surprisingly, Rio, who usually refused to turn into an animal for attracting me, volunteered.

“If there’s someone harboring bad intentions towards Soul, I’ll take care of them.”

It seemed he had a personal stake in this. I didn’t stop him.

“Please do. I’d rather not make a big deal, but the atmosphere doesn’t seem right.”

Rio nodded and quickly transformed into an animal, running off.

“I’ll be back jjik!”

The whispers grew louder behind me. A towering man turning into a mouse-sized creature must have been quite a shock.

‘I should have told him to transform somewhere less conspicuous.’

I looked casually into the air, waiting for Jjikjjiki to return.

Luckily, the wait wasn’t long. Before I knew it, Jjikjjiki had climbed up to my shoulder and poked my cheek with his tiny finger.

“I’m back jjik.”

“Good job, Jjikjjiki.”

“Rio jjik.”

“Right now, it’s Jjikjjiki. There are too many eyes here, let’s go over there.”

For a change, I put Jjikjjiki in my pajama pocket and ran deeper into the field where fewer Awakened roamed because of the stronger monsters.

Once we were alone, Jjikjjiki transformed back into Rio and shared the information he gathered.

“There’s a very strong Awakened around here.”

“Ah. So they were looking at me after all. I’m glad it’s nothing serious.”

“It’s not about you.”

“It isn’t?”

“Yep. They said the Awakened is wearing pajamas. That’s not me.”

“…What?”

An Awakened wandering around in pajamas.

Could it be… me?

“…”

I’m mortified. I want to cry.

“Soul, your face is red. Are you okay?”

“Didn’t they say anything else?”

“They said that Awakened has a guardian summoning skill.”

Did they mistake me and Rio for a ‘non-Awakened and Awakened’ pair, thinking of me as an Awakened in pajamas and Rio as a guardian summoned by my skill? Rio does look like a meticulously crafted game character, but I didn’t expect to be mistaken for someone who could summon guardians.

“When I approached, they were talking about reversing the guardian summon.”

They probably mistook Rio’s transformation into Jjikjjiki as a guardian being unsummoned. From a distance, seeing 193 cm Rio shrink down to a mouse-size in an instant could be misunderstood.

‘It seems no one knows I’m a non-Awakened yet.’

Well. A non-Awakened wouldn’t likely be in the Tutorial Field, and even if they were, they probably wouldn’t be wearing pajamas. I don’t even know why I’m like this myself.

It’s better than being outed as a non-Awakened, but to be labeled as ‘the one in pajamas’ is too embarrassing to lift my head.

“There must be another person wearing pajamas. Maybe that Awakened accidentally stored a protective spell in their pajamas?”

“It’s me.”

“What is?”

“The strong Awakened in pajamas, that’s me.”

“But Soul isn’t strong or an Awakened.”

“Rumors always get distorted a bit.”

“So, am I Soul’s ‘handsome gray-haired guardian’?”

Why is one ‘in pajamas’ and the other ‘handsome’?

“Soul’s guardian. I like that.”

Rio seemed to prefer the title ‘guardian’ over ‘handsome,’ his face breaking into a big smile.

That’s fine. If one of us is happy, that’s enough.

“What’s a guardian?”

“You like it even though you don’t know what it is?”

“It means ‘someone who protects’, right? Then I am someone who protects Soul.”

Rio seemed pleased with the meaning, his smile deepening.

“What do I need to do to keep being Soul’s guardian?”

“Just keep doing what you’re doing. You’re already protecting me.”

Rio’s face lit up with the most joy I’d seen recently, and he spread his arms wide. He must think I’ll jump into them, but no chance.

I slapped his open hands with mine.

Smack!

“Let’s go hunting.”

“Sounds good.”

Just then, a group of monsters approached. Three of them were even bigger than Rio, but to him, it was a one-turn kill.

Shoosh!

Rio, at a speed invisible to my non-Awakened eyes, swung his sword and felled the monsters.

“I’ll protect you. I am Soul’s guardian, after all!”

He would have been cooler if he hadn’t said that.

* * *

As Rio’s level surpassed 150, the speed of leveling up noticeably slowed down. It wasn’t because his talent dropped from 80 to 8 all of a sudden. It seemed more likely that the leveling cap for the field monsters in the port city was set around 150.

“Rio, let’s head back now.”

“I can go a bit longer.”

“There aren’t many monsters left nearby. We’d barely get a level up even if we wiped out all the monsters around here. Let’s leave some for others to train.”

“I need to become stronger to protect Soul…”

“How about we go for a dinner date at that restaurant we visited last time?”

Rio sheathed his sword without hesitation.

“Let’s go.”

“Wait, let’s butcher this one first.”

This butchering wasn’t for money. It was for information. I planned to gather as much data as possible about the monsters inhabiting the Tutorial Field—names, characteristics, weaknesses, habitat conditions, and similar monster types. Knowing this would not only help with the upcoming monster wave but also with future quests. If the same types of monsters were mobilized during an invasion from a Higher Dimension, this information could be useful even after returning to Earth.

I finished the butchering, which Rio helped expedite, and planned to show the hides to various Merchant Caravans under the guise of selling them to extract information.

“Before, we were too busy solving the immediate problems, but now that we have some leeway, we’re planning for the future.”

“The future? A rosy future with me?”

“The future after we return to Earth.”

“Right. I’ll be with Soul even after we return to Earth.”

We would hunt various monsters from sunrise in the field and, just before sunset, return to the city to gather information from the butchered monster by-products. As we did this, the day of the quest approached.

“Soul, wake up.”

“Mmm.”

The guy who usually needed shaking to wake up had recently started getting up before me and preparing little surprises.

As always, Rio greeted me with a big smile, holding a plate.

“Look, I cut up an apple.”

“It’s in a hexagon shape.”

“It’s a bunny.”

“Yeah, it’s a bunny.”

I bit into the hexagon-shaped bunny and got up from my seat.

“We still don’t know what time the quest starts, right?”

“It says the location is the field, but no time is listed.”

“Then it might be best to head to the field early. Is that okay?”

“Yeah.”

I changed out of the Tutorial Field pajamas and into the ones from Earth.

“Sigh.”

I really didn’t want to wear pajamas.