The Desire to Hide (9)
The day after Catalina left the mansion while intoxicated.
We decided to spend time in our respective rooms.
Among them, I was writing a letter to send to the king.
‘If you allow me to go on a campaign after a month, I will definitely defeat the devil and return.’
I reiterated my claim with an apology for what happened at the banquet.
The king would probably insist on his total opposition to the end, but I couldn’t back down either.
To quickly rescue Yeriel, defeat the Demon King, and face Erina’s lies.
‘Anyway, I need to convince Julia too.’
I’ve threatened you to stay in the mansion right now, so I won’t be able to do anything for the time being.
After the situation calms down and we take a break, we plan to negotiate with Julia to allow her to go on the expedition.
The two of them will not deny that they must subdue the Demon King, so they will allow it.
I finished the letter with vague thoughts and headed to Finn’s cage.
“Gooo!”
As I approached, Finn cleverly flew towards me and sat on my shoulder.
He is flapping his wings and looking straight into my eyes.
“Okay. I understand.”
When I stroked its body as I wanted, it let out a happy cry.
Then Erina, who was quietly watching, blurted out a word.
“How long do you plan on keeping that bird?”
“I have to keep it with me for the rest of my life.”
Erina started crying as if she was going to leave someday.
Not only was he pushing other colleagues away, even Finn, the pigeon, didn’t like it.
Still, isn’t it too much to be jealous even of pigeons?
But considering his behavior so far, it wasn’t that strange.
Moreover, it was the same with the pin.
“Guuu…”
Finn seems to have sensed Erina’s cold gaze and flaps his wings as he moves away from Erina.
Even if it is an animal, it seems that it can sense life.
“Erina. “Stop it.”
“I understand…”
I’ve shown a certain level of maturity, but do I still have a long way to go?
I couldn’t tell when Erina would start acting like a normal person.
After tying the note to Finn’s leg, he let it fly out the window, and it flew away, flapping its wings vigorously.
With this, I finished everything I had to do today.
It’s only been a morning, but the work that needs to be done is done.
In other words, from now on, you will have to spend your days boringly.
‘Let’s spend some time with our colleagues after a long time.’
As the expedition continued, their bonds grew, but there was little time for them to talk alone.
In particular, a lot of time was spent on Erina and Kayla, and neglected Celica and Tyria.
Even though the two don’t show it, they definitely feel sorry.
And there was one thing to check.
‘It’s been a long time since I looked at my colleagues’ status windows.’
In fact, we have grown to the point where our abilities are meaningless, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take a look.
In that sense, I checked my status window first.
Name: Seohyun
Age: 23 years old
Gender: Male
Class: Dragon Knight
Level: 49
HP: 5100/5100
MP: 2600/2600
Strength: 65/100
Stamina: 59/100
Agility: 23/100
Magic attribute: 45/100
Wisdom: 41/100
Luck: 29/100
A figure close to 50.
In fact, it could be said to be almost equal to Erina in the first episode.
Her agility was so miserable that she was pinned to the ground, but her strength and stamina were immediately comparable to Erina’s from the first round.
I’m sure it will be easy to catch the demon lord in the first round.
Considering that luck was the highest value in the initial status window, this is a remarkable growth.
Next in line is Erina, who is next to me.
Before I could even approach her, she came to me and hugged my waist.
“Seohyun. Now, would you like to lie down in bed with me…?”
It looks like he wants to spend all day lying in bed like this.
It wasn’t a bad idea to lie down on the bed as she wanted, but I decided to do my work first.
Name: Erina
Age: 21 years old
Gender: Female
Class: Hero
Level: 61
HP : 6700/6700
MP: 500/500
Strength: 78/100
Stamina: 70/100
Agility: 63/100
Magic attribute: 18/100
Wisdom: 25/100
Luck: 36/100
The level has exceeded 60.
A figure that could not be achieved even after spending dozens of hours in the game.
In particular, his strength and stamina were so high that no one could catch up.
At this level, it was impossible to guess how strong it was.
However, considering that Erina struggled quite a bit against Katrin, she may not be invincible.
In any case, it was safe to say that he was the strongest person in the world.
‘And I don’t even know if these abilities are real.’
In addition, the status window was practically meaningless as there was a possibility that the abilities were being lied to.
Compared to his abilities, his mind was like that of a child.
“Erina. “I want to come and sit here for a moment.”
“Is there something I need to do?”
“No, I just want to ask you something.”
Erina, who was sitting at the table in the room, came closer to me and sat down.
It’s okay to sit facing each other, but is there any reason to come next to me?
When he tried to lean on me like usual, he slowly pushed me away.
“I’ll give you lots of hugs later. First, sit up straight.”
“Yes. I understand.”
There was some regret in his voice, but he listened to me.
In the past, she would have said no and attacked her, but can we say she has matured a little?
It’s definitely a good thing, but I realized that there’s still a long way to go.
“Erina. First of all, thank you very much for following me all this time.”
A thank you note that may be a bit unexpected. Erina responded with a soft smile.
“No. “I just enjoy being with you.”
“Now, if we just subdue the demon lord, peace will come to the world.”
“Yes. The war will end just as you said.”
Erina had no fear or hesitation.
There was no sign of doubt, as if victory was a foregone conclusion.
But for some reason, she was smiling meaningfully.
It may be my imagination, but if I remember that my intuition has never been wrong so far.
Clearly Erina was hiding something from me.
But what would be the use of interrogating Erina now?
Rather, it just ends up stimulating her.
I decided to continue pretending that I was being deceived, just like I had done so far, and wait until the lie was exposed.
“After the war is over, you have to continue living with your comrades.”
“…I don’t like it.”
No matter how much I say, I don’t want to admit it.
But Erina had no choice.
Kayla, Tyria. Yeriel.
Everyone didn’t want to leave my side.
At least Serica had the intention of becoming independent with her children.
I haven’t asked Yeriel yet, so I’ll skip it.
Kayla and Tyria continued to want to stay by my side.
But Erina could never accept them.
“Can I ask you a favor? Please be a little kinder to other colleagues.”
“…”
“If you want to continue to stay by my side, you have to change too.”
“…”
Erina kept her mouth shut like a child and did not respond.
The smile that had been smiling just a moment ago also disappeared.
“Why on earth do you care about other people?”
“Because they are all my benefactors.”
“What about me…? Does this mean that I am useless to anyone?”
As the extreme expression came out again, a sigh came out of my heart.
How meaningless it is to consider which of your colleagues you are more thankful for.
But Erina always wanted to be first to me.
Because I knew how she felt, I calmly stroked Erina’s head.
“No. “You are the most precious.”
“Then it wouldn’t be okay if everyone else disappeared…” ” ? ?”
“That’s not it. Kyla, Tyria, and Celica. “It’s all a precious relationship.”
“But that… ” !”
Erina barely held back from raising her voice.
You don’t want to fight with me, I don’t want to break the peace either.
That’s why we kept quiet for a while.
I slowly stood up and patted Erina’s head.
“Erina. “Wait here for a moment.”
“…Where are you going?”
“I’ll come back after talking to other people.”
“Let’s go together. “Can’t we go together?”
“I want to talk alone.”
It seems like the desire to follow me right now is like a chimney.
Fortunately, Erina gave up and nodded slowly.
Instead, he gave a firm request with a cold voice.
“If anything happens, let’s talk from a distance so that not even a single hair can touch.”
“Okay. I understand.”
“If you even approach me, please call me right away. “I’ll run right away.”
Erina hugged me one last time and sat down on the bed again.
Until the moment she closed the door, her eyes were fixed on me.
When I finally closed the door and went out into the hallway, the dull gaze disappeared and my frustrated mind felt a little better.
‘Let’s go to Kayla first.’
I guess he’s training alone by now.
I also make time to train every day, but not as much as Kayla.
Morning, afternoon, evening and night. I have never missed training.
I always trained whenever I had any spare time.
I knocked slowly in front of her room, and immediately the door flew open.
Unlike the appearance of always wearing a robe, he was wearing light clothing.
“Ah…”
As soon as Kayla saw me, she was happy and tried to hug me tightly.
I carefully pushed her out and entered the room.
And whispered in her ear in a very small voice.
“Erina might be listening.”
“…I understand.”
Kayla nods her head with a nervous expression.
I also wanted to hug her, but I had to be as careful as possible.
It was okay when Erina was taking a bath, but now she was in my room.
If he wasn’t careful, he could have been spying on the conversation between me and Kayla.
After hearing what I said, Kayla locked the door tightly.
As I already said, the window in the room was tightly closed with a curtain.
In other words, it was just me and Kayla in the room.
Only then was I able to talk calmly with Kayla.
Just like before, we were asked to sit facing each other at the table.
First, I decided to check Kayla’s status window.
Name: Kayla (Nameless Dragon)
Age: 349 years
Gender: Female
Class: Yongin
Level: 43
HP: 3250/3250
MP: 4600/4600
Strength: 47/100
Stamina: 42/100
Agility: 41/100
Magic attribute: 63/100
Wisdom: 49/100
Luck: 5/100
Kayla has grown a lot just like me.
Except for luck, all abilities exceeded 40, and especially magical power exceeded 60.
Probably my overall abilities are the highest among my colleagues except Erina.
He could be said to be an ideal companion with perfect hexagon stats.
However, the downside is that the luck level is catastrophically low.
“My lord. “Do you have anything to say?”
Kayla looked at me intently and tilted her head.
Did he think it was strange as he just stared at it?
“It’s no big deal. “I just wanted to talk.”
“Is that so? Even if it’s nonsense, anything is okay as long as you’re with your lord.”
Kayla always treats me with a gentle smile and polite attitude.
Every time I see it, affection grows in my heart.
When I faced Erina, I caused a lot of problems, but that was in the past.
Currently, Kayla can be said to be the most ideal colleague for me.
If only Erina had a personality similar to Kayla.
If so, he would really be the person closest to my ideal type.
“Kayla. “I’m planning to reveal your identity to the world soon.”
“Yes. “I’ve already made up my mind.”
“There’s probably a lot going on. Surely not only good things will happen.”
Then she thought for a moment and slowly opened her mouth.
“My lord. “I would like to tell you a story from my past.”
Kayla’s voice, which began with a calm smile, contained many emotions.
“I have committed so many sins.”
“…”
“Not only did I hurt and kill countless people, but I also harassed my colleagues.”
Kayla’s sin that we already knew about.
Even if I regretted and reflected on all my sins, I could not deny the fact.
“That’s why I want to undo my mistakes.”
If the dragons who have survived so far gather around him once again.
He apologized for his mistakes from a long time ago and wanted to become the leader of the dragons once again.
Next, he confessed that he wanted to create a peaceful world through friendly relations between Yongin and the kingdom.
“If that happens, I…”
Kayla paused for a moment and looked into my eyes with a smile.
And her eyes were sparkling with anticipation.
“Wouldn’t you like to become your master’s proudest squire…?”
The moment I heard those words, I instinctively grabbed Kayla’s hand.
And Kayla didn’t shy away from my touch either.
“You are already my proudest colleague.”
Just like that, Kayla and I kissed lightly.
So quiet that not even Erina could hear.