57 – I Will Carry – 2

They had woken up at the break of dawn, marched while chewing on something similar to an energy bar made of hardened nuts and grains, and had even run with all their might to shake off their pursuers, so how hungry must everyone have been?

Heading out to explore the ruins without even eating properly like this was something that could never be tolerated by Gi-jun, a man of upright living.

“These are things I made last night and kept in my inventory. Come and eat.”

After asking Ur to keep watch of the surroundings, Gi-jun spread a large mat on the ground, pulled out five lunch boxes, a thermos, and five mugs from his inventory, poured hot tomato stew into them, and quickly prepared a meal for everyone.

“Um… did you make all of this yourself, Jun?”

At the sight of Gi-jun, clad in black armor from head to toe, sitting upright on the mat and calling them over, Hervunt, who had been looking around with a serious expression until just moments ago, asked with a dumbfounded look.

Gi-jun nodded calmly and lied quite skillfully now.

“A Flame Human is skilled in all things involving flames.”

“You’re good at joking. …Really?”

From the beef pilaf neatly packed in the lunch boxes, to the salad with all kinds of fruits and vegetables tossed well with dressing and sprinkled with cheese, and even the hot tomato stew with appetizing sausages.

Looking at the dishes that seemed to shine brightly, whether it was just their imagination, not only Hervunt but the others also just blinked.

“Ur will keep watch instead. Everyone, come and eat.”

—Kihit!

“Right, Ur. Your share is here too.”

Gi-jun tickled Ur’s chin and opened the lunch box for him, and Ur jumped up and down in joy, acting cute toward him.

There was no way Lucy would not react to that sight.

—…Give me some too, Contractor.

‘Yeah, I’ll feed you, so come over here.’

Since Lucy was hiding her presence and could not bring herself to come out, she had to receive food from Gi-jun whenever he ate, so no matter how sulky she was, she had no choice but to cling to him.

It was the moment of great success for Gi-jun’s strategy to restore their relationship, even if by force, by narrowing the physical distance.

There was no way Gi-jun would notice that this was actually Lucy’s true intention.

“Did you say it’s a Red Flame Beast? It’s so nice of it to even keep watch for us! I can really relax and eat, right?”

“Of course.”

“Thank you for the food—!”

While the other party members were just watching blankly, Armillca, who was the most lighthearted, was naturally the first to sit on the mat, scoop up a large spoonful of pilaf, and put it in her mouth.

And she froze just like that.

“T-T-This…”

After being frozen for a few seconds, she soon snapped out of it, chewed the rice, swallowed it, and shouted with a surprised face.

“It’s really delicious! If I weren’t on a diet, I would have eaten it all…”

“What diet for a combat class fighting on the front lines… I’ll try some too. Oh?”

Hervunt, who sat down while scolding Armillca, also tried the fried rice and wore a dumbfounded expression.

“Jun, if I may ask what rank your cooking skill is…?”

“It is Unique.”

“No wonder it tasted like nothing I’ve ever had in my life. Thank you for the food; our mouths are getting pampered out of nowhere while we’re here to explore ruins.”

Laura, who was hesitantly reaching for a lunch box next to him, heard Hervunt’s words and asked him while blinking repeatedly.

“Are there ranks for cooking skills too…?”

“In large cities, there are high-end restaurants that can only be opened by proving an Uncommon rank in cooking skills, my lady.”

“Oh my goodness… Wow.”

Laura, who carefully began her meal, soon let out the same exclamations as the others, and from that moment on, she focused solely on eating her food in silence.

Hoping that her tension would ease even a little with a delicious meal, Gi-jun shared the food amicably with Lucy.

“…It’s delicious.”

Meanwhile, the staff warrior In emptied his lunch box in an instant as if to prove his bulk, and finally let out an exclamation of admiration while eating the tomato stew.

“I feel energized. Did you put some herbs in it?”

“I put a lot of garlic in the fried rice. In the stew, I added chopped onions along with herbs that help with stamina.”

“Oh, this is lucky.”

Hervunt, who was listening nearby, brightened up and chimed in.

“It just so happens that we expect werewolves to appear in these ruins. They are particularly sensitive to smells. They will surely struggle against garlic and onions.”

“Is that so? We are lucky indeed.”

In truth, Gi-jun, like a true Korean, tended to dump a massive amount of garlic and onions into most of his dishes, so it was not really a matter of luck.

“I will take charge of the meals during expeditions in the future as well.”

“Really? I wonder if we should renegotiate the distribution of rewards…”

The party members all cleared their dishes clean, except for Armillca, who reluctantly left nearly half of her lunch box and stew, saying she had to watch her diet.

But Armillca, who actually left the food, took out a handmade chocolate and bit into it, saying she had to rinse her mouth as soon as she finished eating, and shrugging her shoulders, she retorted when she felt the gazes of the party members staring at her.

“Why are you looking at me like that? You know dark chocolate doesn’t make you gain weight, right?”

“If you’re happy with that, then it’s fine.”

As Hervunt snorted and replied, giving a signal and beginning to move down the hill, the members, including Gi-jun, put on their helmets or circulated their mana, preparing for battle as they followed behind him.

The ruins they entered was of the sub-space type, which was not a typical ruins where the internal space expanded or changed, but a separate space completely isolated from reality.

Because of that, the internal scale could not be easily grasped before entering, and it was often maintained by laws distinct from reality—and as for the characteristics of these ruins right now:

“That moon, its position is fixed. It probably won’t set.”

Hervunt, boasting keen observation skills befitting a tracker, pointed to the moon hanging in the night sky and said.

“An eternal night. The werewolves will love it.”

“And the vampires too.”

Hervunt, who replied jokingly to Gi-jun’s words, chuckled at Armillca, who gasped and told him not to say such ominous things, and sank into his own shadow.

It was to scout below the hill before the party moved.

“That guy is annoying…”

Seeing Armillca gritting her teeth and muttering, Gi-jun suddenly had a thought.

Could that also be a high-level trick of a Casanova to make her conscious of him?

—Contractor, girls who fall for that usually only pretend to hate it at first so they don’t seem easy. Right now, she really hates him.

‘A woman’s heart is complicated.’

—Contractor, you don’t need to understand that kind of thing, okay?

While they were slowly walking down the hill, sharing a leisurely conversation, Hervunt emerged from the shadow of a nearby tree and reported to Gi-jun.

“Jun, as expected, there are werewolves. There are six of them, and no other enemies have been identified around. What would you like to do?”

“Any room for conversation?”

“Pardon?”

Hervunt asked back as if he had heard something bizarre, and soon explained to him.

“Ah, you must have been confused because I said they were werewolves. They are not lycanthropes of the Light Faction, but vrykolakas of the Dark Faction. They are monsters.”

Gi-jun fell silent at those words and became lost in thought for a moment.

The competition in Leta was largely divided into two types.

Those were the competition where each civilization vied to become the final victor, and the competition where all civilizations were split into the Light Faction and the Dark Faction to clash.

While the former was too vague to feel real, the latter was something that occurred constantly, and the monsters Gi-jun had fought during the last overflow could all be considered to belong to the Dark Faction.

‘Even though they are both werewolves, the lycanthropes of the Light Faction are allies and the vrykolakas of the Dark Faction are enemies…’

If he had not checked the information before entering the ruins, Gi-jun would not have questioned it either, but the fact that the werewolves of these ruins had fled from their original pack, and that those who wanted to become human were mixed among them, weighed on his mind.

“I understand how you feel, Leader. I also tried to converse when I first met the Orcs of the Dark Faction. But they are enemies. That is an unchanging fact.”

Seeing him hesitate, the staff warrior In narrowed his eyes and said quietly.

Half the blood flowing in his body was that of an Orc, and he was probably part of the Light Faction.

Having grown up in the Light Civilization, it was easy to imagine how shocked he must have been when he approached a monster just because they resembled him, only to be rejected.

Gi-jun understood In’s feelings and also accepted Hervunt’s attitude, but.

Even so, he could not ignore the information about the ruins he had obtained in advance.

“…I will approach them first.”

“Jun?”

“Huh? Are you stupid, Leader? We have to launch a surprise attack, a surprise attack!”

Hervunt widened his eyes, while Armillca argued fussily.

Gi-jun replied, paying no heed to their reactions.

“We have only just entered the ruins, so I’m just trying to do everything we can. …If it’s only that many, I’m confident we won’t lose even in a head-on clash.”

“Ha, the Hero of Turis is indeed different. So you’re saying you dislike surprise attacks?”

“If they are certain enemies, I won’t hesitate to launch a surprise attack.”

Gi-jun, who replied to the sarcastic Hervunt in an unwavering voice, instructed the party to wait and began walking down the hill alone.

He knew it might look foolish, but he had no regrets.

Because this was an action that aligned with the standards he had set.

He just felt a bit frustrated that he could not tell his party members the information he had verified.

—It can’t be helped, since that title is too powerful to reveal.

‘If I do this and they all rush at me blindly anyway, it’ll get troublesome, right?’

And it soon became troublesome.

—Grrr…!

—An annoying smell. Kill! Cover it in blood!

When the distance had closed enough to confirm the werewolf pack with the naked eye, they all turned to Gi-jun at once and bared their teeth.

They were larger in size than Gi-jun even in his armor, and dark gray bristles sprouted all over their bodies, making them look as if they were wearing thick armor.

The sight of them covering only their groins by wrapping them in dirty leather made them look even more barbaric.

Despite the hostility they openly displayed, Gi-jun tried speaking to them calmly first.

“Do you have any intention of speaking?”

—Converse? Sure. After I rip out your heart!

Starting with the werewolf who appeared to be the leader of the pack, five werewolves, leaning forward as if somewhere between bipedalism and quadrupedalism, rushed at Gi-jun all at once.

It seemed like someone among the party watching from the hill screamed, but it was of course a pointless worry.

The moment the leader stretched out both arms tipped with long claws toward Gi-jun, a fang fashioned from pure white flame surged between them and bit into the scruff of his neck.

—Keureuk…

There was no need to land a follow-up blow.

Perhaps the holy fire created by combining the spiritual power of Lucy and Ur was incredibly lethal; the bastard ended up burning to ashes on the spot.

Fortunately, perhaps because the Slaughter skill took effect, one of the guy’s fangs remained on the spot.

Gi-jun clicked his tongue as he picked it up and put it in his inventory.

“If you have no intention of speaking, it can’t be helped.”

—Boss!

—So easily…

—Run away!

Unlike typical monsters, as expected of those who had established a civilization, they quickly realized the difference in level between themselves and Gi-jun and tried to flee.

However, by the time they turned around, walls of blazing fire were already blocking all directions.

“Hup!”

—M-Magic… Keuhuk!

A shield that flew like a flash of light struck the neck of one of them and knocked him down.

Gi-jun caught the shield that flew back through the air and charged at the remaining ones, burning and tearing them all to death with two giant fangs.

If they had been brave monsters instead, they would have rushed him simultaneously without thinking, but because the half-wittedly rational bastards each tried to flee to save their own skin, they ended up being wiped out in vain.

—You have hunted five Rare-grade monsters, ‘Werewolf Chargers’, and obtained an appropriate amount of experience.

—You have hunted five Rare-grade monsters, ‘Werewolf Chargers’, and obtained an appropriate amount of experience.

Gi-jun thought that the experience points coming in were not bad, perhaps because the enemies’ grade was high, but he smiled bitterly at himself for thinking about experience points immediately after they were confirmed as enemies.

It was immediately after that he realized there was still a werewolf left.

“P-Please spare me…!”

“Come to think of it, did he say there were six… Ah.”

Hervunt had said there were six werewolves, but the ones Gi-jun had actually dealt with were five, including the leader.

He seemed to have judged them all to be of one pack, but looking at him now, there was clearly one fellow left whose build, body hair, and even the clothes he wore were different from the other five.

“I-I can talk. So please spare me, I’m a human…!”

He could not know what the system’s judgment would be.

But in Gi-jun’s eyes, the werewolf in front of him, who was much smaller than the other werewolves and spoke with a thin, boyish voice, did not look like a monster at all.

Moreover, seeing that his clothes were severely torn and scratches were all over his body as if he had been bullied, he seemed to have been harassed by the werewolves who were alive until just moments ago.

—Yeah, it doesn’t seem like he’s lying for now.

‘We don’t know that yet. If he’s close to a human, he would be all the more skilled at lying.’

It was not as if Gi-jun had entered these ruins to help the werewolves.

He just hated hunting indiscriminately without knowing anything, only to have a foul aftertaste later upon realizing the circumstances.

“Jun!”

“Mr. Jun!”

As Gi-jun stood staring down the werewolf, the party members, starting with Hervunt, rushed over one after another and took their positions behind him.

Some gripped their weapons as if on guard against the werewolf, and Armillca even aimed her sword as if she was about to step forward and cut the beast down herself.

“P-Please spare me! Please spare me! I can talk well, really!”

At the sight of the werewolf, pale with fear, prostrating himself before Gi-jun, Hervunt let out a strange sigh and stared intently at Gi-jun.

In looked down at the werewolf in silence, tightening his grip on his staff so he could react at any moment if the creature made an unexpected move, while Laura clasped her hands together and offered a prayer.

“Ah, this is going to get troublesome. I don’t care, do whatever you want. Aaanng, Lau—ra!”

Meanwhile, realizing that the chance to kill the werewolf was gone, Armillca smacked her lips and sheathed her sword.

She then completely changed her expression, as if having lost interest in the werewolf in front of her, and clung to Laura, acting flirtatiously.

“It is fortunate that you want to talk.”

“Hick!”

Finally, Gi-jun bent his knees and met his gaze.

It was only natural that the werewolf, meeting the gaze of Gi-jun’s burning eyes revealed through the gap in his helmet, became even more terrified.

“I am Jun. Tell me everything you know, including your name.”

“Do they call interrogations ‘conversations’ these days? I didn’t know.”

“Do you want to have a conversation with me too, Hervunt?”

Hervunt shut his mouth.

Naturally, the werewolf opened his mouth without delay and began to pour out all the information he knew…