A Basement-Dwelling Loser, the Inquisitor – Chapter 278

“Hoo…”

After hanging up the call with Rene, Jaehoon let out a sigh and glanced at his desk. On the desk were three photos displayed.

The one on the far left was a family photo taken last year with his wife and younger daughter. The one in the middle was a group photo of all the pro gamers currently in the Sirius Team. And the one on the far right was a photo of his eldest daughter, wearing a furry hat, smiling brightly and hugging her younger sibling.

Jaehoon’s eldest daughter, who passed away at the young age of 10 due to a brain tumor. If she had grown up healthy, she would have been the same age as Rene… Minseo.

Of course, Jaehoon knew. He knew that Minseo wasn’t Rene, and Rene wasn’t Minseo. They were completely different people—in appearance, personality, everything.

But even knowing that, Jaehoon couldn’t help but meddle. Whenever he saw Rene, who always stayed in her room, he couldn’t help but think of Minseo, who often said she wanted to go out and play freely.

“Tsk.”

Realizing he might have gone too far this time, Jaehoon thought he should apologize when he contacted her again.

[Inquisitor: I’ll participate.]

Rene’s DM arrived.

“Pfft…”

A laugh escaped him, mixed with various emotions.

‘Rene is an amazing person. She doesn’t need to be afraid of others. That’s what I wanted to tell her.’

What Jaehoon had said to Rene earlier was sincere. Despite having gone through so much pain because of people in the past, Rene still got back up and continued to interact with others. Jaehoon truly thought she was incredible.

[Jaehoon: Understood. Thank you.]

After sending that reply to Rene, Jaehoon took out his phone and called his wife.

[Hello? What’s up, honey?]

“Nothing. I’ll be home early today, so let’s all go out for some meat. Tell Yeonseo.”

[You could just call her yourself, but you always do this. Anyway, got it. I’ll get things ready~.]

★

Just once.

I had participated in a party in that world just once. It was a party held by some empire, with a bunch of really high-ranking people attending.

I really didn’t want to go and told the Pope several times, and the Pope tried his best to respect my wishes. But the head of the Inquisition, Mr. Valdemar, bowed his head and begged me to go, saying there was a high chance of a heretic attack, so I had no choice but to go.

…Honestly, I was planning to refuse until the very end.

‘Well, Rene. If you really don’t want to go, it’s fine. But if something big happens this time… Will you be able to just let it go, knowing you weren’t there?’

But because of Ia’s words, I ended up going to the party, and if I hadn’t been there, things would have gone really bad.

Did Ia know something when she said that? I don’t know. But one thing’s for sure—I did attend a party once.

…Thinking about it, there were some good points back then.

Since the fact that Inquisitors were attending the party couldn’t be revealed, we all disguised ourselves. In my case, I cut my hair short, dyed it black, and changed my eye color to blue. Actually, Ia kept insisting I shouldn’t disguise myself, but the Pope firmly pushed for it, so I managed to do it.

…But thinking about it, it’s not like people’s gazes toward me changed much. The knights who accompanied me as escorts stared at me even more intensely than usual, and I remember people at the party kept looking at me too.

Suddenly, I feel really annoyed…

Anyway, that’s what a party is in my memory. A place packed with people, so noisy it’s overwhelming, with shiny decorations, ridiculously expensive food, and soft music playing. And the people attending have to wear fancy suits or dresses.

That’s the party I know.

Everything else is fine, but the dress… the clothes were the problem.

The dress I wore to that party? I don’t have anything like that at home. The clothes I have at home are all cheap stuff I bought online, which Bora once described as “all the same clothes.” The only remotely fancy outfit I have is my priest robes, but wearing that to a party is just ridiculous.

In short, I need to buy clothes.

But how do I buy clothes… specifically, clothes suitable for a party? I’ve never even seen or tried on such clothes, let alone bought them…

…Can’t I just close my eyes and go with the clothes I have at home?

No, that won’t work. When I attended a party in that world, I tried to go in my usual adventurer-like outfit, but Ia absolutely refused, saying it wouldn’t do.

‘If you don’t wear clothes that suit the occasion, some people will judge you for it.’

At the time, I thought I didn’t care about other people’s opinions… but now I’m attending the party as a streamer. A streamer is a job where you need to be sensitive to others’ gazes.

So if I just wear whatever I have at home… yeah, it’ll definitely be a disaster.

What should I do… Oh, right. Jaehoon mentioned that Tuni is also attending this party.

I’ll just ask Tuni.

[Inquisitor: Tuni, are you there?]


Going?]

[Tuni: Ah, Rene, what’s up?]

[Inquisitor: I’m going to be attending that streamer party that’s happening soon.]

[Inquisitor: I heard Tuni is also attending…]

[Tuni: Ah, yes, that’s right.]

[Inquisitor: But I don’t have any special clothes to wear to the party. What should I do?]

[Tuni: Ah, I was also worried because I don’t have any special outfit.]

[Tuni: I heard Ede is good at that kind of thing.]

[Tuni: So, I’m planning to go shopping with Ede this weekend. Rene, do you want to come too?]

“Ugh…”

Meeting in real life to go shopping? That felt incredibly awkward.

Well, if we go to a store, there’s going to be a ton of people, right?

…But since I’m going to the party anyway, I concluded that I need to get used to crowded places.

[Inquisitor: Yes, I’ll go with you.]

★

Come to think of it, this is the first time I’m meeting Ede since the New World offline event.

We’ve been keeping in touch, and Ede has suggested hanging out a few times, but we’ve both been too busy.

Ede, for example, isn’t a pro gamer, but being the #1 in New World’s global PVP ranking keeps them pretty busy.

As for me… well. I’ve been busy with streaming.

It’s not like I avoided meeting up because I didn’t want to go out.

Thinking about it, the first time I met Ede was also with Tuni. Maybe this is some kind of fate.

“Rene, what are you thinking about?”

“Ah… just that the first time I met Ede was also with Tuni…”

“That’s true. It was at the New World offline event, right?”

“Yeah…”

The place we ended up going to in Tuni’s car was a department store.

Apparently, Ede’s friend works there, and we’re planning to buy clothes there.

“Tuni, what kind of dress are you planning to buy…?”

“Me? I’m just thinking of keeping it simple… Rene, do you have anything in mind?”

Keeping it simple, huh.

Is that really okay?

Of course, there are a lot of differences between the parties attended by royals, nobles, and aristocrats in that world and the streamer party I’m planning to attend.

But still, isn’t it bad to just dress simply…?

I thought that, but this wasn’t the time for me to worry about others.

Since the person who said that was none other than Tuni, I didn’t say anything and let it go.

After about 40 minutes in the car, we arrived at the department store parking lot, our meeting spot.

Thanks to deliberately scheduling it on a weekday morning, there weren’t as many people as I thought.

What a relief…

“Tuni, Rene, long time no see.”

As we walked toward the elevator in the parking lot, Ede, who was waiting for us, waved and greeted us with a smile.

“This is the first time we’ve met in real life since that New World event, right?”

“That’s right. It’s already been months since that day when Rene called me an ahjumma.”

“Ah…”

At Ede’s words, I froze for a moment.

Were they still holding onto that?

I already got scolded by Tuni a lot back then.

She said you shouldn’t talk about a woman’s age like that.

Or maybe they didn’t really think much of it when we were just texting, but now that we’re face-to-face, they’re mad…

“S-s-sorry…”

“Ah, it’s a joke! A joke! I was just kidding, but if you react like that, I feel bad!”

“But that was really rude of me…”

“Eh. I already told you last time, I was the one who provoked Rene first. Don’t worry about it at all!”

Ede said that, but the discomfort rising inside me didn’t go away.

And seeing me like that, Ede gave a bitter smile.

“Ugh… if you’re that sorry… then just do one favor for me today.”

They brought it up like that.

“Try on all the clothes I brought today.”

…Wasn’t today’s plan already about finding clothes for the party? Can that even be called a favor?

For a moment, I thought that, but I concluded that if it would make Ede completely let go of their anger, it was fine.

“Alright… I’ll do my best today…”

“Yep!”

And seeing Ede respond so happily, I felt like my discomfort was easing too.

★

“Rene! This time, try this on!”

That favor I agreed to earlier… I shouldn’t have accepted it.