Chapter 10 – 10 – Sister Monica
So, what was your name? At a party based on a monster attack-
“Officially welcome to the Special Monster Destruction Removal Party!”
… It’s officially been four days since I joined the Special Monster Extermination and Removal Team party, but so far, I still know a few of my colleagues. I went on a mission even before I was introduced in the first place.
People I know: 1. Tena, a warrior I never met at the party. 2. As soon as she joined me, she squeezed Eshen Taiga like toothpaste.
Other than that, there are only these two in front of me right now. A female knight and an elf whose names I had never heard of.
When Eshen greeted me on the first day with the most cynical look on his face, I had a strange feeling that something was wrong. That premonition was true to some extent.
It’s true that things went wrong because of Eshen. The two guides who were originally scheduled to be brought to the party were this woman and the elf.
But the feeling I get now is even weirder. The two party members whose names were not yet revealed were striking a pose with their arms crossed. With his other arm, he was unfurling a banner.
“Welcome to joining?”
I took my eyes off the text on the banner and looked at the two party members suspiciously.
“What are you doing?”
“Let me introduce myself. The person next to me is Lenny. I am Nenyah.”
“Is this person next to me you? I’m Lenny-“
“I am Eshen.”
“You’re out, bitch!”
The dainty tall elf raised blood on her neck and threw what she was holding in her hand.
One end of a small banner that said Welcome fell at my feet. It seemed like the effort to provide a warm welcome was so easily overlooked.
While hugging my shoulder tightly and shaking, Eshen pointed at the ‘twins’.
“That little elf is you. That little knight is Lenny. Everyone calls them the insignificant twins. They are not real sisters because they are of different races, and they just do the same things and have the same short legs.”
“Do you want me to cut your height off and make you triplets? Come on, you crazy bitch!”
“Try it, you old man with dementia. This time, I’ll rip off both your ears and stuff them in your butt.”
“Oh, stop! Stop!”
The female knight stopped the elf who was furious with her staff drawn.
It’s natural to have a grudge. Eshen said he locked the ‘twins’ in the kitchen freezer. To meet me before anyone else and find out what I have up to.
···For all that, we became friends and came back.
We became so close that it was too much.
“Everyone, please calm down. Eshen, comrades-“
“Your brother, who is 100 years younger than you, is also trying to stop you, grandma. He knows that if you stick with him, you’ll be crushed.”
“You try to fool around with your fists and get hit by a meteorite and end up with a nice hole in your head? Should I ask Thena to become a duel recruiter?”
“Why don’t you take this with you on your way to ask to be an inductee?”
Eshen took out a handful of documents from his travel backpack. It was a mess, like a wad of toilet paper, stuck in my backpack.
It was a monster annihilation certificate given by the Guild Association Chesheni Branch. I sighed and took it away, tidied it up and gave it back to Eshen.
“What if we manage our performance like this? I gave it to you because you said you should have it.”
“Anyway, there are 10 A-level subjugation missions in a row. That should be enough to qualify for promotion, right?”
Knight Leni came over with wide eyes and looked at the paper.
“It’s true, Nenya! How did you do it, Eshen?”
“When you left, you looked like you were going to collapse from exhaustion, and instead of reorganizing, you ended up completing the mission? How did you find the mountain trolls so quickly by yourself? I thought they were so annoyingly smart that they would run away if they smelled you? “
Eshen pinched my cheek and laughed.
“I didn’t do this alone.”
Apparently, the party members were quite worried, and it seems that Eshen was the one who took action on his own.
Although the duo of Leni and Nenya seemed to be grumbling, they eventually congratulated Eshen on his success.
Of course, what played a big role in laying a stepping stone to reconciliation was the local specialty chocolate purchased from Cesheny. The ‘twins’ who received the big guys from Eshen were happy.
“That’s touching. Isn’t this the first time Eshen has taken care of something like this?”
“Have you thought about bringing a gift? You haven’t brought one for anyone else.”
Eshen flinched and looked at me. I kept my mouth shut and thought I had made a good decision to buy it.
The two, who had completely calmed down, took me around the party’s campsite and guided me through every detail.
To be honest, I was afraid that they would be sensitive like Eshen and try to find out my identity, but Nenya and Leni seemed more interested in helping me adjust.
A caring voice chirping like two birds. It is a warm interest that I have never experienced from my colleagues when I was under Adamantone. This is healing in a small way.
“Are you experiencing any inconvenience, new party member?”
“This is already the third time you’ve asked.”
“Hey, if anything makes you uncomfortable, you can tell me right away!”
The people around him don’t seem to even think that there is someone with a plan. Other party members who made eye contact with me while passing by nodded favorably.
Good luck, rookie. Nice to meet you, this is my first time seeing you. Looks like you’re a new party member. While saying that.
I guess it’s because no one recognized that I was a man. Although the headband with ponytails was annoying, its performance as a perception distortion artifact seemed to be impeccable.
One more fortunate thing. Other than dogs and beastmen, there were few party members who didn’t like chocolate. Thanks to this, I was able to leave a good impression.
When I heard for the umpteenth time that a friendly guy had joined the party, I almost cried because I remembered the bad boy from the last party. Long live Checheny chocolate.
However, because Eshen was by my side all this time, everyone had anxious eyes and secretly worried about my future.
What kind of reputation has Eshen built within this party so far?
···The atmosphere must have been a mess and there was a fight. Just like before.
“Why are you looking at me like that, dude?”
“No, just. I wanted to see it…”
“Look over there. The newbie is having a friendly chat with Eshen!”
“Is this a dream? Has Eshen finally grown up? Or did you beat him with your fist?”
The whispers of the party members as if they were shocked made me feel dizzy. It’s worth knowing what it was like…
“This is the kitchen/restaurant. That is the mobile blacksmith shop. That is the shower facility…”
“And this is the library.”
“There’s a library at the party?”
“There are no interesting books, it’s just a place for scholars who come to the party to earn research funds. There are only books about things like Mana Flow and The Hero’s Determination of Fate.”
I thought the party camp was a bit big, but I never thought it would be this big.
It’s a party of 100 people that doesn’t have to be rigid, the infrastructure is great, and everything works well.
Knights, archers, various artisans, and even mystics. There are no aptitudes except ‘porter’.
They probably hired a porter because they needed one, but it wasn’t a party that couldn’t run without using a porter.
There are five special wagons and horses are also raised. There are three automatic golems that I curse every night to break down and break down.
Judging by the fact that there is a huge dragon platform, it seems that royal drakes come and go from some kingdom on a regular basis.
The one that Eshen and I rode when chasing the troll could fit 30 of them on that platform and still have room.
A front-line party receives a lot of sponsorship, but this goes far beyond that.
“Tena is the hero of this party, and she’s also the party leader…?”
Tena, a proud warrior, must have become quite a big deal while I, the porter, looked after Adamantone.
···I feel like the distance is getting further away. I can’t say we were particularly close during this time.
Eshen looks at me with a lonely face, looking at me suspiciously. I quickly cleared my expression.
“Lenny? Is that you? Do you know what the party leader was thinking when he hired me?”
“Well.”
“I don’t know.”
“So, is it okay for you to treat me so kindly? So I…”
“Even though I know you’re not a woman?”
The ponytail artifact I’m wearing right now was originally something that these two should have brought me. There was a high possibility that he knew I was a man in the first place.
But the twins just giggled.
“But how could you doubt it? Thena assured me that you were a trustworthy man.”
“You said that the hero we trust and follow is a good person, so we shouldn’t doubt him. He’s a colleague, isn’t he?”
“Tena has been running the party with such integrity all this time. Would it be a big deal if she invited at least one person she knew everything about?”
“···Cough.”
Eshen, who was filled with doubt, turned her head and looked away from me.
It looks like he became embarrassed because he was the only one who doubted it. Of course, if a male porter came to a party where there were neither men nor porters, it could be suspicious.
But you can’t miss this opportunity.
“Where are you looking? It looks like something is stabbing you?”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
I continued to laugh at Eshen. Just before Eshen took his hand out of his pocket. It didn’t seem like I would be able to relax indefinitely just because I slept for one night.
Nenya, who has sharp ears, must have heard the sound of Eshen being taunted to the brink. Nenya said as if it was strange.
“We’ve become strangely close friends? I thought you’d be very sullen because you got hit by Eshen while you were dragged away.”
“That’s right. Eshen has been carrying around like a pet doll since a while ago.”
Fucked-
“The affability is amazing. You don’t have to worry about not being able to adapt to being a man.”
“Please, please be nice to Eshen. He always tries to go alone, so he has no friends other than us.”
“I don’t need little friends like you? What can I do for you? Are you my mother?”
I felt that the future that I thought would be twisted was back on track. Relief is evident even in Eshen’s grunting voice.
The twins, who chatted for a while and introduced me to the party’s facilities and other party members, finally brought me to the party’s treatment barracks.
“You and Tena were friends from back home, right?”
It’s a hometown that no longer exists. The tongue is bitter.
“I did.”
“Then when you see the last person we’re going to introduce to you, you might like it quite a bit.”
With mischievous smiles, the duo gently pushed my back into the tent.
Alcohol swabs and the smell of the hospital sting my nose. Hospital beds are arranged in rows of 30 each.
What perplexed me was that all the beds had curtains hanging from them. I can’t open it one by one to check. Who on earth are you asking me to meet?
Eshen, whom the duo had taken off my back, could be heard faintly sounding irritated outside.
“Is there someone you can introduce without me? What kind of bullshit are you talking about?”
“There might be someone like that. Why? Is that porter your boyfriend?”
···I don’t know who it is, but I have to quickly say hello and leave.
The fantasy of a women’s party that seemed neat from outside the camp was a little shattered inside the hospital room.
Everyone seems to think that the inside of the curtain is a private space. A few patients left socks hanging on the bed frame or wore only their underwear and scratched their stomachs.
I tried not to pry into my personal life. It’s really like a pervert dressing up as a woman and breaking into women’s rooms.
However, there were some cases that could not be ignored. When I passed by a person drying his shoes with bare feet tired from the trip, I almost fainted from the aggro that came to my nose.
As I gasped and dodged, the female barbarian warrior got annoyed.
“What are you looking at, you bitch?”
“Who is saying bad things in my ward?”
An overly sincere and kind voice. Like I just fell from heaven. I paused at the familiar feeling.
The female warrior, who looked like she was going to grab her ax at any moment, quickly made up her messy bed and got under the covers. As I was trying to apologize dejectedly, she motioned for me to get out of the way quickly.
···I think I was like that when I was younger than I am now.
The keyword ‘treatment center’ finally entered my tired head. No way.
“No way. It can’t be.”
The person who walked in carefully so as not to scratch the hem of her long skirt on the ground stopped immediately as soon as she saw my face.
“···Burnt?”
It is said that those who are born with the aptitude for being a warrior recognize that they are of the same type the moment their eyes meet. It is a privilege given to the protagonists who save the world.
I don’t know if it’s real. Because I have never been a warrior.
The bluff one, the amazing ‘Adamanton’, told such stories until she was sick of it, but to Thena, who grew up in the same hometown as her, she had never heard the same thing before.
In fact, people who have something in common usually recognize each other easily. It is said that sailors become close just by smelling the salty scent of the sea on each other’s bodies. Even scholars, when they see the calluses on someone else’s hand, are delighted and ask if you are also familiar with writing instruments.
And for those who have lost something. For example, in the case of people who lost their hometown to a monster attack.
The bitterness of having nowhere to return to is hard to erase from that face.
Even though their appearance has changed slightly over time, it is difficult to recognize each other.
“Sister Monica?”
Everything is familiar. Hair as black as chestnut, neatly tied up. Eyes as clear and lonely as silver buds.
Those familiar eyes were filled with tears. Like when I was young, I almost said I did something wrong without knowing why.
But the sister laughed.
“It’s not my birthday or even Christmas, but I feel like I got a present. How are you here?”
My heart was full when I met someone from my hometown, someone who was close to me like family.
Sister Monica. A person who took care of children like me whose parents could not take care of them.
“Sister, how are you here?”
“That’s thanks to Thena. This is not the time. It’s going to take a long time to tell you how we’ve been. Please follow me!”
The moment Sister fussily holds my hand and drags me to the lounge, an ominous feeling suddenly seeps into the gap of joy.
‘How are you here?’ Means that I didn’t hear from Tena that I was recruited to this party.
“Sister? Do I look like a man or a woman?”
The moment the break room door closes, I whisper softly on purpose. The moment Sister Monica turned around as if to ask if it was some kind of joke, her innocent face became filled with fear.
“How did this happen?”
···I felt like I had realized the cause of my sense of crisis.
Tena had a unique side, and whenever she did something, she would skip explaining it to people. I would follow along and fill in any explanations she left out.
It was still like that now. I was sweating as I had to take on something that was difficult to explain.
“Oh, my God. Did I become a woman? What kind of curse did I have? Don’t worry, Tan! I’ll break it somehow!”
“That’s not it, Sister…”
