194 – Who Is the Enemy – 1

Gi-jun and his party hid their presence, secretly entered Uralta, and headed to the city hall where Unika was waiting.

She dismissed everyone around her, prepared a secret location, and welcomed the party there.

The reason they hid their movements was simple.

Although they had contacted a few acquaintances beforehand, including Unika, to keep them from worrying, the Lumen party was officially considered missing.

All sorts of rumors—that they had died after encountering and fighting the hunters who flocked from all directions, that they had fallen into the magma flowing underground, or that they had fled after a battle to escape the hunters’ eyes—were spreading beyond Uralta and throughout the entirety of Gratia.

There were many hunters targeting the Lumen party—more precisely, Gi-jun—besides the ones they had faced in the dungeon that day, but since Gi-jun had not shown himself for over a month, they apparently gave up and dispersed.

“Nyayat! I was so, so worried, nya!”

“Nabinya!”

As they stepped into the room, a bipedal cat sitting on Unika’s lap stood up abruptly and welcomed them before Unika even could.

Gi-jun held her in his arms as she ran straight toward him, scratching under her chin as he asked,

“Was there any trouble during that time, Nabinya?”

“I rode Fortis all the time and went around, so my Riding skill has increased, nya!”

“I wanted to see that.”

For nearly two months, Nabinya had gone around pretending to search for the Lumen party alongside the Letans living in Uralta.

Thanks to that, she could disguise the situation as if the Lumen party’s whereabouts had truly become mysterious, and above all, she could quickly drive out the suspicious groups that had gathered from all over Uralta.

While Gi-jun was tickling her as a way of praising her, Unika, who had been quietly watching the scene, asked him with a look of deep regret.

“Are you really leaving right away, then?”

“Yes. Rather than causing unnecessary commotion, it would be better to just take what we need to receive and move on. That is, if Glittertoss has finished all his work.”

To Unika, who looked up at him with pitiful eyes as she asked, Gi-jun replied immediately despite feeling a bit sorry.

He knew very well that she harbored feelings for him, so it weighed on his mind that he had to leave Uralta immediately without spending proper time with her.

However, even so, staying in Uralta any longer was a waste of time.

After all, they had already rested enough inside the barrier.

Although he had somehow managed to solve another hidden quest and grow in the process, he couldn’t just lounge around in Uralta again.

“I would rather go with you…”

Unika, who was about to say more, soon shook her head and let out a soft sigh.

The next moment, she lifted her head and faced Gi-jun with an expression full of the sharpness and intellect befitting a ruler of Uralta.

Sorting out her feelings so quickly was surely proof that she had grown in many ways.

“I understand. Lord Jun is someone who will save the continent, so I cannot hold you back. …I will contact Glittertoss, so could you please wait for a moment? Perhaps while warming your body in the hot springs.”

“Thank you for the consideration.”

After finishing his conversation with Unika, Gi-jun stepped out and looked back at his party members.

Tilla, who was smiling from ear to ear; Lora, who seemed to be glaring slightly at Unika sitting beyond the door; Eun-shin, who wore an expression of deathly awkwardness; and the culprit behind that expression—Renka, who was clinging tightly to him and rubbing her cheek against his.

“Renka, I know you like Shin-i, but show some restraint when there are many people around.”

“Could it be that even you, Deity, intend to separate me from Shin-kun…?”

“Cut the nonsense. You aren’t planning to stay attached to him even when he goes to the bathroom, are you? And call me Jun, not Deity.”

Gi-jun snorted and replied to Renka, who stared back with fierce eyes and stood her ground.

“Of course, not just the bathroom, but even the bath—Ouch!”

She tried to say something more, but at that exact moment, the hilt of the Estoc popped out of the inventory and struck her forehead.

“—Be quiet! Next time, I will pierce you with the blade!”

“Y-Yes. I’m sorry.”

It seemed she held a weak position against the Evil Spirit, who wielded a similar system of power.

Thanks to the Evil Spirit, Eun-shin, who escaped the humiliating situation of having Renka accompany him even to the bathroom, swept his chest and breathed a sigh of relief.

“—The Evil Spirit did something to my liking for the first time.”

“—It was simply because I could not stand by and watch someone behave insolently toward the one I serve.”

“Both of you, cut it out. It’s just her first love running wild. It will calm down over time, so don’t think too badly of her.”

“—Will it really calm down?”

“—Since she inherited the will of a goddess whose very existence is heavy… I am skeptical.”

“—No wonder you’re also incredibly heavy.”

“—…”

“—…”

The two spirits, who seemed to harmonize for a brief moment, ultimately glared at each other and nurtured their murderous intent.

Gi-jun had long since given up on reconciling the Evil Spirit and Lucy.

He looked around and, after confirming that no one was near, turned his gaze to Tilla.

“Tilla, how is it here?”

“I can create an entrance anywhere. Shall we go now?”

“I just want to check it for a moment.”

“Sure, anytime.”

As Tilla reached her hand forward, a mist carrying a somewhat red energy appeared, gathering and dispersing in the air to form a swaying, person-sized oval.

Yes, just like a teleport gate.

“Nya?!”

As he coaxed the startled Nabinya and gave her a brief explanation, Lucy, who was inspecting the gate, let out an exclamation of admiration once again.

“—It’s amazing no matter how many times I see it. It looks similar to that barrier.”

“Since the Lava Worm possessed that kind of authority to begin with, it must have been able to connect with that barrier… Alright, let’s head straight in.”

After the party members exchanged glances, they stepped into the gate without hesitation.

To their surprise, a scene resembling the shrine maidens’ village inside the barrier, which the party had been sucked into not long ago, spread out before them.

“No, looking closely, it’s different. It’s not that spacious, and the energy flowing inside is weak.”

“We only constructed it hastily by handling shikigami with the items we had on hand. The inside is still completely empty.”

The shrine maiden representative, who was waiting for the party in front of the hastily built shrine maiden village as they mentioned, bowed deeply to Gi-jun and replied.

“Master, thank you for providing us with such a safe place to live.”

“Don’t thank me, thank Tilla. Tilla is the owner of this sub-space.”

Before entering the barrier, the one who contributed the most to killing the Lava Worm was none other than Tilla.

The others only gained experience points as a reward for defeating the Lava Worm—of course, even that was a tremendous amount, to the point where Gi-jun gained several levels—but Tilla obtained a reward far greater than that.

That was the massive sub-space connected to her.

As could be seen from the shrine maidens residing inside, unlike the inventory, it was an environment where even living creatures could enter and move about without any issues.

“Lady Tilla, thank you.”

“Hmm? Everything of mine belongs to Jun, so there’s no need to thank me specifically.”

Tilla merely responded lightly, as usual, to the representative shrine maiden’s greeting, but the content of her words was incredibly heavy.

“—There’s more than one heavy girl here.”

‘I’m always grateful to you… but Lucy, I don’t think you’re one to talk.’

“—But that is my love!”

Once Lucy started talking about the topic of love, she rarely stopped.

Gi-jun cut her off appropriately and turned toward the shrine maiden to speak.

“I won’t tell you to stay cooped up here forever. Once we find a dungeon of an appropriate level, I will give you opportunities to grow your strength on your own… and in safe places, it’s fine for you to come outside and walk around.”

“We are deeply moved by your grace.”

For them to wander around outside, the most urgent thing they needed first was clothing.

They would certainly attract attention since everyone was a young and beautiful woman, but if they wore ordinary clothes, they wouldn’t be much different from humans.

Since they were slaves by nature, it would be difficult for them to act freely on their own, but he planned to use Tilla’s sub-space as a base camp and help them level up in places suited to their level.

“Still, this is a truly ridiculous reward. It’s connected to Tilla just like the inventory, right? Then, if Tilla rides a teleport gate to another location and opens this sub-space there…”

“Everyone can easily move. We’ll save on teleport gate fees from now on.”

Of course, there was a limit to the number of people the sub-space could accommodate, and there was the disadvantage that if Tilla was attacked and lost her life while all allies were inside the sub-space, no one knew what would happen to them. Still, it could be considered an extraordinary reward that surpassed even a Holy Relic.

“The Lava Worm itself was an irregular to begin with…”

“Ever since encountering it, we’ve been fully caught up in events that exceed the limits of common sense…”

The two faced each other with bitter smiles.

“Since we’ve finished checking, let’s rest a bit until Glittertoss arrives. Hmm… if I get permission from Unika, I think I can somehow let the shrine maidens in too.”

“Are you talking about the hot spring!”

Perhaps because their cultures were similar, the shrine maidens seemed excessively excited at the mention of a hot spring.

“Jun, then together…”

“Just so you know, mixed bathing is forbidden.”

“But Jun, the shrine maidens—”

“It’s forbidden.”

Tilla finally gave up in the face of Gi-jun’s firm will.

As a bonus, Renka, who had secretly tried to enter the same bath as Eun-shin, was caught along the way and forced to be escorted to the women’s bath.

“You’re going to have a tiring time in the future.”

“Can I speak honestly, Hyung?”

In the changing room, Eun-shin, who had barely escaped from Renka, spoke to Gi-jun with an exhausted expression.

Gi-jun paused while undressing Nabinya, scratching her below the ears as he nodded.

“Go ahead.”

“At this rate, I feel like I’m going to cross the line someday…”

“That’s not called an accident. It’s called pre-established harmony.”

“…”

Gi-jun recalled the look in Renka’s eyes as she watched Eun-shin.

It was an expression that made it clear she would surely do something soon.

Recently, memories of receiving similar glances from Tilla and Lora rose clearly in Gi-jun’s mind.

However, the difference between Eun-shin and him was that Tilla and Lora had already met Biche once, putting a brake on them.

“Isn’t it a good opportunity? Honestly, you are too weak against women. If you take things further with Renka this time, wouldn’t your thoughts about Ji-hye change too?”

“Hyung, you’re saying the same thing as Min-i Nuna… But you are putting up an iron wall against other women besides Lady Beatrice. No, rather than an iron wall, it feels more like a rubber wall.”

“No, I’m not? I am putting up an iron wall?”

“Nya, it’s not hard, but since it bounces things back, it does feel like rubber, nya.”

The two men and the cat soaked in the bath, continuing their leisurely conversation.

“And I am different. Biche and I have already confirmed our feelings for each other. There’s no need for me to get used to other women.”

“But it’s not like the two of you are dating.”

“Well… that is…”

They certainly weren’t dating.

Gi-jun, suddenly feeling extremely embarrassed about acting so boastful to Eun-shin, submerged himself in the bath to gloss over it.

Eun-shin, who submerged with him as if refusing to let him escape, scanned Gi-jun’s body, his eyes widening in surprise for a moment, before tightly closing them and sticking his head out of the water first.

“I lost…!”

“What, you punk, what? What did you lose?”

“I said I lost! Did you really have to win at everything to feel satisfied?!”

“It is certainly overwhelming, nya. I will need to report this later, nya.”

An hour later.

Leaving the women to enjoy the hot springs, Gi-jun came out first and met Glittertoss, who had arrived just in time to find him.

“You really were safe! The dwarves who hoped the owner of the divine artifact would just die like that will be disappointed.”

“Write down a list of those bastards later. Even if they die and come back to life, I won’t let them lay a single finger on the hammer.”

“Ahem.”

Standing behind Gi-jun, Unika cleared her throat.

“Glittertoss? Don’t you have something to tell Lord Jun?”

“Ah, right.”

Nodding, Glittertoss said to Gi-jun with a deeply apologetic expression,

“About the shield, it seems you’ll have to wait a bit longer.”

“What? It’s still not finished?”

This was after he had already confirmed that the flow of time inside and outside the barrier was not significantly different.

In response to Gi-jun’s dumbfounded look, Glittertoss replied defensively,

“The VVIP has been holding onto the most important material this whole time. Because of that, the core process got delayed a little. Give me three days… no, five… eh? Ah, fine! Ten days! Just give me ten more days!”

Why did the number of days keep changing?

Realizing something, Gi-jun quickly spun around, but Unika was merely standing in the same spot, unchanged.

However, she failed to hide that she had been moving her fingers freely just moments ago.

“……Glittertoss?”

“Ten days! My future life in Uralta depends on this!”

“You don’t even intend to hide it.”

Gi-jun let out a sigh, but ultimately nodded in agreement.

In this manner, Unika won her vacation with Gi-jun.