HH Chapter 38

And from the last box, finally, a letter emerged. The letter, written in the Captain’s handwriting, was concise, not even filling half the page. However, I felt the abundant affection contained within those short sentences.

「Everyone bought things to send you as if they had made a promise. Since you probably can’t use it all by yourself, share some with those around you.
Don’t catch a cold.」

“…….”

I scratched my nose awkwardly and carefully placed the Captain’s letter back in its envelope.

“He said to share!”

“Wow, can we really accept these?”

“Are you giving them to us?”

I distributed the enormous quantity of socks and gloves to everyone, one by one. It was a bit unexpected first thing in the morning, but they accepted my gifts with rather pleased expressions.

I gifted one of the two scarves to Haylan.

“Take… this… off.”

I can’t breathe. 

The face buried in the white fabric complained, but no one came to Haylan’s rescue. Instead, judging by the looks on their faces as they covered their mouths with amused smiles, they were clearly thinking the same thing I was.

‘Cute…’

‘…Cutie.’

‘How adorable.’

His brown hair, static and puffed up, swayed like a dandelion. Because the scarf was wrapped so tightly around him that the bottom was invisible, he waddled as he walked. 

Someone let out a chuckle at the sight, unable to contain their amusement. The culprit conspicuously looked away, pretending to be preoccupied, to avoid Haylan’s glare as he turned towards the sound.

After distributing everything except my share, I was able to carry the remaining items to my room by myself. While organizing the clothes neatly in the bag under my bed, my gaze briefly fell on a box sticking out beside the bag before I continued what I was doing.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve seen Lena.’

Does he only appear when there’s a main quest? Perhaps because there were no immediate tasks, Lena was nowhere to be seen.

‘I bought him a present, too.’

I clicked my tongue and pushed the box deeper under the bed. The gift remained unclaimed.

After finishing organizing my clothes in thirty minutes, I went downstairs and witnessed an unexpected sight.

‘Ah, how cute.’

Everyone was wearing the gifts I had given them. Some even pretended to roll up their pants to show off their new socks. My mood brightened, and I grinned widely.

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

The night before a storm is always especially still. Like a stone thrown into peaceful waters, the tranquility was shattered in an instant.

“Didn’t you hear something outside?”

“A sound?”

Thud, Crash!

As if on cue, a man burst through the door, breathless, and collapsed as if his legs had given way.

“Outside, outside the wall! The wall collapsed…”

Roar!

Before the pale-faced man could finish his sentence, a sound that was somewhere between a beast’s roar and thunder reverberated through the air.

‘Don’t tell me…’

The roar was so familiar that I knew what it was even before seeing it to confirm.

A Trazenta. 

It was the first monster I had encountered in this world. Resembling a lion with large tusks, it was classified as an A-rank monster due to its high aggressiveness and corresponding danger.

‘Come to think of it, there was an event like this in the original…’

In the original game, there was a bad ending where the player attempted a midnight escape and was killed by a monster. It was briefly mentioned in script on a black screen, so I hadn’t realized how dangerous the monster truly was back then.

How did this guy escape, anyway? Was he incredibly fast?

Looking at the trembling man, I was relieved he was alive and hadn’t been torn apart when he said something unexpected.

“The head butler is still in the backyard! What are we going to do?”

“What? You ran away all by yourself?!”

Yur grabbed the man by the collar and lifted him. He was shaken a few times in Yur’s grip before being thrown aside.

“Wait, the young master went out with him too.”

“Come to think of it!”

Haylan? 

Upon hearing those words, I ran out the open door without a second thought.

“W-Wait, guest!”

“What are you doing going alone?!”

I could hear footsteps hurrying after me, as if trying to stop me, but I didn’t look back. No one in this mansion knew more about that monster than I did.

‘Hide 120 Solra, a pair of tusks 20 Solra, tusk extract poison 10 Solra, one drop of Trazenta bile 50 Sol.’

“…….”

Anyway, if knowing these things counts as knowing a lot, then I knew a lot. 

Let’s go. 

With the thought that things would work out somehow, I ran until I was breathless.

[Sudden Mission Occurred!]

[An A-rank monster, Trazenta, has appeared. It seems to have strayed from its pack during its travels… Defeat the exhausted monster before the damage escalates!]

As the roar grew closer, the mission window naturally hovered in my view.

‘Please, let him be safe!’

I hope I’m not too late. Rounding a corner of the building, I saw a familiar silhouette. The head butler, holding Haylan, was frozen in fear, staring at the monster.

Roar! 

The purple monster, perched atop the collapsed wall, roared, opening its massive jaws.

It was too late to draw a magic circle in this situation. I didn’t have any suitable pre-made scrolls either, so in a hurry, I reached for the first button on my skill window.

The air around the two of them rippled.

[Deploying Protection Barrier.]

Clink! The monster flinched as its claws bounced off the barrier. The head butler, who had his eyes squeezed shut, opened them, belatedly sensing the change in the air.

“……Guest?”

He muttered blankly, looking at me, and Haylan, peeking out from his arms, spotted me and made a bewildered expression before shouting,

“Don’t come closer!”

I’m already here, so should I leave?

[Skill No.1 ‘Protection Barrier Magic’ cannot be used consecutively.]

‘…Huh, there’s a cooldown?’

I hesitated for a moment. It was good for a quick, emergency use, but now my own safety was a concern. Could I defeat that thing on my own without any help? My role was originally support, not a main combatant…

‘Damn it…’

Besides duration, the protection barrier also had durability. How did I know that…? Because every time the monster raked its claws against the barrier, the durability, decreasing by 1 tick, was displayed as a number I could see.

‘I need to distract it.’

Looking around, I picked up a stone from the ground. It was quite heavy. I rotated my shoulders lightly to loosen up, and using all my strength, I hurled the stone at the monster.

Whoosh! The stone, flung with a sharp whistling sound, bounced harmlessly off the thick hide, but it succeeded in diverting the monster’s attention. The Trazenta turned its head towards me.

‘Its weak spot is its forehead.’

I could see a mana stone embedded in the Trazenta’s forehead. The mana stone was the monster’s life force and, simultaneously, its achilles’ heel, allowing for instant death.

I moved my left foot, roughly drawing a binding magic circle on the ground. Backpedaling, I lured the monster, which was turning to charge at me, towards the magic circle.

‘Good. Going smoothly… huh?’

Once its movements were restricted, the rest would be a piece of cake. However, before I could step back much further, I soon ran into a wall behind me. There wasn’t enough space to retreat.

“……!”

As I locked eyes with the monster, I instinctively twisted my body out of fear, and at that moment, something flashed brightly in my arms. The source of the light was a defensive scroll I had brought just in case.

‘This… actually works?’

I never thought I’d confirm the results of my studies with Haylan this way.

The moment the scroll activated, the Trazenta was knocked back and sent tumbling to the ground. It struggled for a moment before quickly getting back on its feet.

Roar! The monster’s viscous saliva sprayed into the air as it roared.

‘Damn it, I should have just taken the hit earlier!’

I hadn’t thought about the scroll. Because I had changed direction, the monster hadn’t stepped on the magic circle. And… the scroll was a single-use item. My skill slot was still on cooldown.

There was nothing else I could do. I closed my eyes calmly, staring straight at the monster as it began to charge.

‘I’ll just close my eyes and take one hit.’

Having given up quickly, I waited patiently for the impending pain.

Thud. The monster’s tusk pierced the skin below my ribs. It didn’t hurt, but there was some blood that splatter. I think a few ribs were broken as well.

It might look a little scary to someone who didn’t know. I heard a scream from nearby.

‘I’m not dead…’

I tasted blood in my mouth. Confirming that I could still breathe, I blinked. I’d rather be instantly killed than be injured like this. 

I felt a little disappointed. 

If it had cleanly pierced my heart, I could have immediately revived and used my invincibility. Since the witnesses were far away, there was no better method.

……!

The monster, its four paws bound to the ground and unable to move, thrashed wildly in place. It twisted its head, and its tusk finally slipped out from where it was lodged. Blood gushed from my side as the blocked hole opened wide. I calmly pressed my hand against the wound and thought,

‘If it had been Ryzen, he would have dodged it instantly without getting hit… right?’

And if the others saw me now, they would scold me endlessly, asking if I still couldn’t dodge something like that. 

Having been with the mercenary group for two years, my dodging skills should have improved, but no matter how hard I tried, only my stamina increased, and my clumsy movements never became agile.