PRSR | Chapter 4.5

I thought it would be safer to stay inside the cart during something like this, but maybe that wasn’t the case. I figured there had to be a reason why the others were running, so I quickly followed them.

“This way!”

I was about to run after the others when the man sitting across from me grabbed my wrist and pulled me in the opposite direction.

“Huh…?”

Dragged along, I turned to look over my shoulder and saw several pale figures through the shoulder of the man. Though they were hard to see in the darkness, those weren’t monsters. They were people.

Bandits? Or maybe…

‘Oh, right. The quest!’

Suddenly, Jane’s special quest came to mind, and I stopped in my tracks. Since I had been half-dragged, I lost my balance, stumbling and falling to the ground. The pain in my knee worsened as it was impacted again, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that.

The bag containing the evidence Jane had given me for the quest was in my luggage.

I had been holding the bag the whole time, but in my fall, I must have dropped it. My hand was empty now. I should’ve made sure to hold onto it tightly…

‘Without it, I can’t proceed with the quest.’

If this had happened before I received the special quest, I would have given up on Jane’s errand and prioritized my safety. But now that I had the quest, things were different. I could still proceed with the main quest even if I failed the special one, but if this incident blocked the progress of the quest, that would be a huge problem.

‘What should I do?’

Jjikjjiki wasn’t here, and I had left the bag behind. I had nothing left.

Except one thing. The horn I had tied to my pants to use in case of an emergency.

‘Yes!’

The horn was still there, hanging as I had intended for emergencies. I immediately brought it to my mouth.

But just before I could blow it, the man who had been watching me the whole time grabbed my wrist.

“It’s better not to blow it.”

A chilling smile spread across his face.

A sense of foreboding crept up. Without thinking twice, I swung the fist holding the horn and struck the man.

Thud!

“Ugh!”

The man must have been caught off guard, as he staggered after taking a solid hit to his jaw. Without wasting a second, I ran, dodging him.

“You’re weak, but… you know how to attack.”

I froze, a chill crawling down my spine at the voice that came from behind me. The man knew who I was. Was he with the ones who attacked the cart? If so, did they follow me from Belford and board the cart to stop me from completing Jane’s special quest?

Probably… to interfere with Jane’s plan.

‘You said it was safe!’

You didn’t mention anything about slave traders attacking!

“Stop!”

As if I would stop just because he told me to!

I ran as fast as I could, but suddenly, a massive presence blocked my path. A shadow loomed over me, looking down.

“Ah…”

“Told you to stop,” the man said, approaching me with a mocking tone. There were enemies in front and behind, trapping me. My hands shook in fear as I realized I had no escape. I wanted to blow the horn, but the giant shadow was too close to even raise my arm.

‘Jjikjjiki…’

The shadow reached out for me.

“Mission complete. I’ll clean up.”

It tapped my shoulder and then walked off toward the spot where the attack had happened.

“…Huh?”

What was going on? What was happening here?

“Why are you running away? You startled me.”

I was standing there dumbfounded when the man, who I had knocked off balance earlier, walked over and spoke in a surprisingly gentle tone.

“Weren’t you going to attack me?”

“Why would I? We’re on the same side.”

“…Since when?”

“Didn’t Jane explain it to you?”

“W-wait, are you one of Jane’s colleagues?”

“Colleague? The person you just saw pass by was my colleague. I’m just an assistant.”

Jane had indeed mentioned her colleagues. She said they would meet me at the cart’s destination. But she never said that “the destination” would be the place where the cart had been attacked!

“Then why did you threaten me not to blow the horn?”

“I didn’t threaten you. I just advised that it might be better not to blow it. The horn is a one-time use, and it would be a waste to use it now.”

Why was he speaking so confusingly? My heart almost dropped!

“You really look like you have no idea what’s going on. Didn’t you read the letter?”

“…Letter?”

I didn’t remember receiving any letter, but I had a vague idea where it might be. I quickly passed the man and headed toward the battered cart where the attack had occurred.

Outside the cart, Jane’s colleagues and assistants were subduing the attackers. It looked like the other passengers from the cart were all part of Jane’s team.

I rummaged through the scattered luggage inside the cart and found Jane’s bag. As expected, the letter from Jane was inside.

‘So that’s why she told me to look at the contents of the bag.’

She had said to feel free to look, but it was practically a signal to open it. If it had been any other time, I would’ve checked the bag the moment I parted from Jane. But with Jjikjjiki not by my side, I felt empty-headed and couldn’t think clearly.

“Phew.”

I took a deep breath and opened the letter.

“Hello, Soul. The claim that I gathered all the evidence you wanted is actually a lie.”

I was filled with anger from the very start.

“But the plan to persuade the head of the Brown Merchant Caravan is real. If we don’t have the evidence, we can make it. You’ll act as bait to gather the evidence. Don’t worry too much; it’s safe.”

Safe? Sure, it was “safe”—except my heart almost fell out of my chest, and I nearly died.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t explain this in person. With the rat around, I couldn’t exactly ask you to be the bait. Beastmen, especially, tend to be overly possessive of their companions.”

Companion? You mean a human companion, right?

“If you don’t want to be the bait, you can just grab anyone on the cart before we leave Belford. I won’t force you to act as bait.”

The letter went on, explaining the entire plan.

Slave traders had kidnapped three beastmen besides me and were keeping them locked up. After taking me, they planned to move us all at once. Jane had planned to rescue the kidnapped beastmen and manipulate the scene to make it look like I was the one who freed them. All she had to do was leave behind footprints similar to the ones Jjikjjiki made on the leather, which wasn’t hard at all.

If it was just a matter of a kidnapped beastman escaping, the merchant at the Belford branch of the Brown Merchant Caravan would have stayed idle. He would have focused on covering his tracks. But if the person who rescued them was me, it would raise suspicions.

I would have appeared suddenly, trying to get close to the merchant, and then rescued the beastmen. Clearly, that would look suspicious.

The merchant, deceived by Jane’s scheme, would have thought I was gathering information about the kidnapping and had approached the Belford branch to do so. He probably believed that I had evidence that could destroy everything he had built and chased me down with all his strength, attacking the cart.

Until the merchant visited the warehouse that morning, there had been no hint of this. All of this had happened in a short amount of time. The merchant must have come to this place, leaving all sorts of evidence behind.

Now, all that was left was to deliver the evidence to the head of the Brown Merchant Caravan, just like originally planned.

To think Jane made all of this happen in just one day, right after we met… Her judgment was truly impressive.

“It’s done.”

“Ugh, you scared me!”

I jumped in shock at the voice that appeared out of nowhere, stepping back. When I turned around, a large, stoic man stood there. He had been hiding in the shadows and looked like a giant silhouette, one of Jane’s colleagues.

A beastman? The moment I saw him, the question slipped out of my mouth.

“Are you a bear?”

“Yes.”

He really did look like a bear from head to toe, so much so that I could tell instantly.

“This way.”

Without explaining anything, the bear beastman led the way. I followed him, and a horse was waiting for me.

“Get on.”

“Uh, is this horse… a horse beastman?”

“No.”

Oh, not a beastman. That’s a relief.

I tried to mount the horse, but it was higher and slipperier than I thought. I stumbled a few times before finally managing to look awkwardly at the bear beastman.

“Haha. This isn’t going well.”

The bear beastman watched me for a moment, then turned toward the cart.

“I’ll repair the cart.”

In the end, the bear beastman and his allies stopped dealing with the slave traders and focused on repairing the damaged cart. After finishing the repairs, the bear beastman sat in the driver’s seat, replacing the original coachman.

“Get on.”

“Where are we going?”

“To Trine.”

“Wait, my part’s done. Do I really have to go to Trine?”

“Yes.”

There were no further explanations. In an awkward silence, the bear beastman stubbornly drove the cart. I didn’t ask any more questions.

‘Well, it’s good. I was heading to Trine anyway.’

Jjikjjiki’s special quest wasn’t to act as bait and create evidence. It was to deliver the evidence to the head of the Brown Merchant Caravan in Trine. I didn’t need to meet the head of the caravan directly, but until the bear beastman delivered the evidence, the quest wouldn’t be completed.

So, I had to go to Trine myself and make sure the quest was finished.

Maybe Jjikjjiki was waiting there for me.

‘I miss Jjikjjiki.’

I closed my eyes, thinking about Jjikjjiki running toward me shouting, “I missed you, Soul!”

***

Hiiiiing!

“We have arrived.”

“Wow!”

Arriving at Traine, I looked around, just like a country rat visiting Seoul for the first time. I had thought Belford was a big village, but compared to Traine, the center of a fief, it was nothing.

In the distance, I could see a tall castle rising up.

“That must be the Lord’s castle.”

I had heard that the Brown Merchant Caravan’s Traine branch was the closest to the Lord’s castle. Of course, I probably wouldn’t visit it myself, but it wouldn’t hurt to know about it.

“This way.”

The bear beastman didn’t give me a chance to look around and walked briskly into the village. Jane had told me that after I delivered the evidence, if I waited in Traine, Jjikjjiki would be brought to me. By now, Jjikjjiki’s humanization lesson might have already finished.

If that’s the case, Jjikjjiki might be where the bear beastman is taking me. With a slight sense of anticipation, I followed behind him.

The place we arrived at was the most luxurious inn I’d seen since coming to the Tutorial Field.

“Wow, Jjikjjiki! Look at this!”

Oh, right. Jjikjjiki isn’t here. Even though I knew it, I kept forgetting, probably because I was so used to having Jjikjjiki by my side.

I sighed briefly. But the bear beastman didn’t seem to care at all, looking down at me with an indifferent expression.

“Rest well.”