Chapter 105 – 105 – Disagreement and Precision Aiming
There are two letters that Tena left me.
One page is the same order that was given to each other party member.
But the other chapter contains a more personal story.
These are instructions. When we arrive at the site, one of our party’s sponsors will send a guide and security forces in advance to help.
It is important to get the cooperation of compatible songs. They are a powerful mercenary group centered around the bloodline of the Tigris, and at the same time, like the special department of the Armatam Empire, they are an organization that has shadowy spies located everywhere on both continents. He’ll know a lot about ‘the guy’ we’ll have to deal with, so he’ll be able to get some useful advice.
I hope you come back without any injuries.
I glanced at the first page of the order. Since I already had it all in my head, I just checked to see if the paper was damaged or the ink was bleeding.
I put the first page back in the envelope. Then I opened the second chapter, which contained a more personal story.
Unlike the previous one, where the cursive handwriting was drawn neatly and without hesitation and continued like a single line, this paper is covered in traces of writing and erasing and handprints. As if I was writing a letter for the first time in my life.
And about the past.
We have a lot to talk about. Even though I knew about it, the reason I didn’t talk about it and ran away again was because I wasn’t good enough.
I still remember the day we decided to ride the wave of the adventure business era. The days when we happily talked about our dream of bringing back our village by collecting the commission money. I still have clear memories of two kids who couldn’t even take off their nosebleeds, crying and laughing while bumping into the world with their bare bodies.
And I didn’t forget that I ran away and left you behind. You, who had walked back a good hundred kilometers carrying me, who was sick, injured, and dying after being attacked by a monster, spent all the money you had saved by cutting back on meals, and entrusted me to a healer before collapsing.
I went to the inn where you collapsed, but you weren’t lying in the inn’s room. The only places that would accept a beggar foreigner without a penny were workhouses and stables, and inns usually did not have workhouses attached.
And I left you like that. I said something I should never have said to you, who gave me my life.
“What are you saying?”
“There is no need for you. Just follow me.”
I sarcastically imitated Thena’s gloomy and serious tone of voice. Lennie was astonished.
“Is that true?”
“You wouldn’t say something like this if you never did it.”
Before I could even hand it over to the healer, I continued to mutter while groaning. Don’t follow me, don’t follow me.
I was worried that he was telling me not to follow the path to the underworld, but it turned out he was sincere.
I smiled as I drank just enough water to wet my lips.
“But if that was all it was, I would have been so heartbroken that I wouldn’t have been able to say anything. Of course, Tena didn’t just leave me there and run away.”
“Then···?”
Tena probably knows better than me what happened that day. I’ve been out of my mind because I’ve been fussing for days.
If you want to receive treatment from a temple healer, you have to make an offering. And the price of life is natural, but there is no such thing as light.
After leaving Thena in what I didn’t know was a shrine to some god, I learned that the worldly healing arms her children were ridiculously expensive for. I didn’t have time to be brave enough to find another temple. Because my childhood friend looked like he was about to pass out.
She thought she would barely have enough left to take a room at an inn and wait for Thena to recover, but when she rummaged through her empty pockets, all she could find were fleas.
She had no choice but to lie down and fall asleep on her manger, and as if her healing powers were worth the price, Thena returned that night completely fine. She then held me and cried for a long time.
Then she left again before the sun rose, and she came back again in the evening and poured detox potion into my mouth. I didn’t even know that my limbs had been stiffened by the poison, and only then did I realize that I almost died as well.
They moved me, who could not move, to a room at an inn, and nursed me for a day and night, even helping me relieve my stool.
It was very absurd and embarrassing, but I felt relieved. The hardships are over.
Although this mission will fail and you will not receive the payment, you will have learned a lot so you can prepare more thoroughly next time. It would be a good idea to first receive safe requests. I heard that there is also a mission to quarantine goblins by joining various parties.
The moment when I was able to sing the tena, barely hoarse, while picturing such a hopeful outlook.
Tena told me not to follow her and she left.
“···Ah.”
“After I barely recovered, I found out that the potion was quite expensive. I still don’t know where and how he got it. Maybe he begged from a passing alchemist. He completed a request at lightning speed without my help and bought it with the money. Maybe. “I don’t know if I stole it, but I’m sure.”
I spread the letter again and shrugged.
“I saved Tena. She saved me. I still think we’re closer than just friends from home. That’s why I still resent Tena. We depended on each other that much, so how could she leave so suddenly and not find me? “I was wondering if it wasn’t happening.”
In the end, I couldn’t properly make eye contact and apologize. Even though I promised myself again and again while thinking about the day I would meet you again and ask for forgiveness.
The reason I still don’t have the courage to face you and tell you about that incident is probably because it was a truly cowardly act.
In the end, I will tell you through a letter what I cannot say because I am far away.
I’m sorry for leaving you. I felt like I, who was not refined, would hurt you again.
“··· Now she seems a bit like the Thena I know. Because of those events, maybe she became the thorough Thena she is now-“
“I’m so sad···.”
Someone’s sobs that don’t suit a deep voice. As we all looked on, speechless, one of the men, Tigris, who had been glancing at my letter, sniffed his nose. And then he wiped away his tears with his sand-covered forearm.
Naturally, the guy rolled on the floor, screaming in pain as his eyeball was chafed. He deserved to lament that he was an idiot, but the sister just sighed compassionately and brought the healing light into her hands again.
Thank you for everything. Even when we’re apart, I always feel like I’m looking at you. Like a mysterious mirage that appears even on the other side of the world.
I don’t think I’ll run out of paper to say everything I want to say, so I’ll stop here.
When you come back, I hope you have the courage to face me and apologize.
“End.”
Even though I haven’t had a single meal in my stomach other than the slice of potato I ate for breakfast, I feel full and happy as if I had enjoyed a dinner.
I put the letter back, suppressing the smile that spread across my face. After answering her question, Lennie twitched the corners of her eyes.
“···This is something…”
“Something?”
“It really feels like a love letter.”
“Is that so? You think so, too?”
Finally, Eshen knocked Garam down with a headbutt and walked towards me, wiping his bloody nose. Her sister’s mutterings to please stop increasing the number of patients flowed through one ear.
The Tigris’ expressions did not change at all, perhaps because they were used to such bloody sisterly fights. However, Eshen’s obsession with Thena’s letter was viewed with somewhat suspicious eyes.
Eshen, who was trying to snatch my letter, flinched and stopped under the gaze of his compatriots. But she didn’t forget to glance at me with her eyes wide open.
After actively resisting and protecting the letter, I pouted.
“Even after hearing such a tearful story, you still think you’ll confiscate the letter from me? I guess I’ll just have to play it as a prank.”
Of course, what I wanted to say was, ‘You should be jealous of those who will be jealous,’ but we shouldn’t let those seemingly thoughtless friends find out about our love story.
It’s too much to just do this right now. Judging by the way he’s grinning with his golden eyes sparkling, it seems he’s mentally upgrading Eshen’s ranking on the list of potential lovers.
Are you working as my attendant, or are you covering my love story?
After observing the surroundings for a moment, Eshen called me aside as soon as the sandstorm died down, making the excuse that he was doing some business.
“Be clear. What is your relationship?”
“…I don’t know why you’re suddenly so sensitive between Thena and I, who don’t show any signs of jealousy to other people, but don’t have any strong feelings-“
“Oh, just say it.”
“A friend. A very precious friend. A colleague with many memories. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“Are you sure? It’s just my opinion, but I wonder if it’s even appropriate to say that a man and a woman are friends?”
I was about to say that he thought that because he was Tigris. If I did that, I really felt like I would get a fist stuck in my side.
“Unlike you and your sisters, there was nothing to get excited about with Tena. Of course, there will often be cases somewhere where party members who save each other’s lives become closer and develop affection. So the higher the party, the more there are parties composed of a single gender. However, Tena…”
I frowned sincerely. Just imagine…
“We’ve been neighbors since they were babies, and I’ve seen them cry and their noses foam up. To be honest, it sounds as offensive as asking if you’re dating my sister.”
I exaggerated it a bit because Eshen seems to be annoyed by Tena, but honestly, it’s not wrong.
Just imagining kissing Eshen makes me happy. Even though a lot of time has passed since the days of partying and walking around, just the thought of Tena’s face getting closer makes her feel uncomfortable.
Seeing me trembling, Eshen looked shocked instead of relieved.
“···Oh···.”
“What? Why?”
“It’s a bit pitiful.”
“What?”
“······Me. I pity myself for being suddenly jealous. It’s okay if you don’t feel anything. Let’s go when the wind isn’t blowing.”
Her threatening question was meaningless, and Eshen stretched out her legs refreshed and went ahead. She muttered that if she said something like that in front of Tena, she would be really worth seeing.
I asked a question to the back of his head.
“So, Eshen, since I was just thinking of you, let me ask you something. Did you not tell me anything?”
“What?”
“For example, about your family. Looking at the conversations going back and forth about organizations and requests, it seems like the people called Tigris are a bit scarier than I thought.”
“Aha… Isn’t that a bit like that?”
“What should I say about your parents? They seem to be representatives of the area. If there is anything else I need to know about them, please tell me.”
“Well, it’s nothing special. Just think of him as the village headman. Like the man Lorenzo Salamanca I saw in Linden.”
Eshen yawned long. And she added, tilting her head.
“Well, you do have a bit of a quirky side. For example…”
———–
“You’re crossing the desert? If you reach the top in the middle, it won’t take a week.”
When the masked assassins nodded their heads, the man with a long pipe in his mouth sighed as the ground collapsed.
The man looked up with gloomy eyes at the huge curtain hanging in front of him. On the picture of Daeho, who symbolizes the ruler of Hwanhwagok, there is a red brushstroke scrawled by his wife in elegant handwriting.
‘Tyga’. It is a name he must protect. However, I never dreamed that the daughter I raised like Geumji Ok-yeop would become a challenger to that name.
Behind the man, who was taking a deep drag on his cigarette as if he was thinking deeply, a lifer asked softly.
“What should I do?”
“What do you want me to say? Do you think I have a choice?”
Of course not. The shooters are just waiting for specific instructions to be given.
In the end, the man let out a sigh.
“Attach a quiet knife. The form is missing. The only blood you can see is that of the target, but it doesn’t matter whether there are witnesses or not.”
“My name.”
“Since you are a Western guy, I will pay you in Armatam gold. 2 million.”
“My name.”
“The target is ‘Lan Bantai.’ It doesn’t matter if it’s a man or a woman. My wife won’t be able to bear even the slightest possibility.”
“My name.”
The man turned around and lit his cigarette again.
Hundreds of assassins squirming in the shadows of Daejeon, bowing their heads at once and shouting in eerie voices.
“Invincible religion, Manmaangbok.”
