Chapter 115

115th Episode

Deep Night, Small Moon, and a Stranger

“My Lord Baron is waiting for you.”

Baron. A baron.

I had heard that there were nobles who took an interest in the rapid development of the nymph Echo. It seems the baron is one of them.

Unlike the 21st-century South Korea in which I once enjoyed the fruits of capitalism and liberal democracy, this world has a system of social ranks embedded in its society.

Each person is born into a class, and the life that person leads is determined by that class from birth.

Starting with the lowest slave class, to the majority of the population, the freemen, and the few noble and royal bloodlines—they represent this hierarchy.

Nobility.

Having had little exposure to nobility beyond popular party classes in games, I found the concept of nobles strange and unfamiliar.

Even in this world where legal class distinctions exist, I had never once met a noble.

“-san.”

Had I truly never met one? Of course, I might have occasionally crossed paths with one, but as they had never been directly relevant to my life, I knew little about nobility.

Much like a mudfish that thrives in muddy waters would never cross paths with the clean-water dwelling perch, I had not once encountered someone like Elizabeth.

Based on what I knew vaguely, it seemed that nobles wielded authority and influence akin to Earth’s congressmen or city council members. They were similarly hard to meet.

Even in Korea, where I was just an ordinary civilian, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that I’d likely never come face-to-face with a congressman outside the news.

“Hassan, what are you so deep in thought about?”

Lost in thought, I woke from my musings when Luna called my name. The after-party was gradually drawing to an end as time passed and alcohol continued to flow.

Luna had already consumed a few beers, and her face was slightly flushed. Meanwhile, Paranoi next to her…

“Goddess of the Hearth… prayer… response…”

She was slumped face-first on the table, mumbling in her sleep, completely drunk. It was a sign that it was about time we got up to leave – we’d almost finished the roasted meat we ordered as appetizers.

I drained the remaining alcohol in my glass before answering nonchalantly.

“I wasn’t thinking of anything in particular.”

“Liar…! I know by now that when you think deeply, wrinkles appear between your eyebrows!”

“That so?”

I had no idea I had this habit. It was the first characteristic of mine that I learned after living for nearly fifty years. When had I developed this habit?

To confirm if it were true, I swiped my palm across my forehead and asked.

“How do you know that?”

“Because I scrutinize Hassan’s face every day. Want me to guess what you’re thinking right now?”

She stared at me intently—her flushed cheeks reddening further. Despite her apparent intoxication, her gaze was unwavering, making me feel rather embarrassed and wanting to avert my eyes.

People in this world don’t seem to have any qualms about looking someone directly in the eyes.

Her clear gaze felt like it could pierce through and uncover all of my inner thoughts, making me a little uneasy.

“Hassan, don’t look away. In order to read someone’s thoughts with magic, you need to maintain eye contact for a few seconds.”

“What kind of sorcery is that? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“Of course not! I just invented it!”

“Luna, are you drunk?”

“Not at all! I’m perfectly fine!”

Luna let out an exasperated scoff. For a moment, the lively inn, full of merry drunkards, fell silent.

A few seconds later, the noisy tavern patrons started up again, their raucous voices ringing in my ears.

“Well, we should probably leave soon. Before I get too drunk to walk, I think we’d better head back.”

“Since this is an inn, you could just stay the night if it’s too hard to walk. But more importantly, I’ve figured out what Hassan was thinking about!”

At Luna’s confident proclamation, I found myself eagerly curious as to what this pink-haired girl would say next.

“What exactly was I thinking?”

“What you were thinking is… Hassan was considering ordering one more delicious chicken skewer and some stewed peas for Luna!”

“That’s completely wrong.”

“No! You were thinking that! Are my spells wrong now? I am Luna, the voodoo priestess of Ideope! The chances of my spells failing are—”

“Luna, are you hungry?”

“Uh, um… Hassan read my mind?”

Had we not ordered enough appetizers for the three of us? With two servings of chicken, it did seem a bit sparse. Luna’s appetite had grown significantly lately—so much so that it felt like she was in her growth phase. It was evident that she hadn’t fully filled her belly with the food we had.

Thus, I ordered an additional chicken skewer dish and a stew of peas that Luna seemed to desire. If she wanted it, she’d said so—my intuition was sharp enough to pick that up.

“See, you ordered just what I said you were thinking. I read your mind correctly!”

“Alright, good job.”

So, Luna and I shared the extra dishes we’d ordered before stepping out of the inn. Though we had engaged in spirited chatter during our after-party, the effects of the alcohol made it hard to recall exactly what we had discussed.

Yet, despite my tipsy state, the fatigue from exploring the labyrinth, coupled with the alcohol, food, and cheerful chatter from the young girl had been incredibly soothing, much like water seeping into parched earth.

Hmm, this tiredness is finally dissipating.

Of course, we weren’t completely done for the night.

“I—I can’t walk…”

Paranoi had completely succumbed to the two beers, wobbling outside the inn before collapsing onto the ground.

Escort a drunk person? It doesn’t get much more bothersome.

“Luna, can’t you just book one room and let her sleep it off?”

“Nope. Nymphs are targeted frequently; anything could happen. Given that she’s so drunk, it’d be better if she rested at my place tonight.”

“I see. But how do you plan to get someone who can’t even stand upright home?”

“I… I can walk…”

Paranoi tried to protest reflexively, but as soon as she spoke, she lay flat on the muddy ground. There was no way but to carry her.

“Shall I carry her?”

“No way! I’ll carry her!”

At my suggestion, Luna hoisted Paranoi onto her back. Despite being burdened with someone of her own size, Luna was surprisingly steady, despite the precarious look of her stance.

It seemed her growth in strength recently wasn’t exaggerated. While unsteady, Luna did not stumble as she began to move.

“Tch, found a drunk nymph. Heehee. Nymph magic potions. Nymph beauty gel. Nymph…”

Though I had no idea what this “thought-reading magic” was supposed to be, it seemed clear enough to me what thoughts were passing through Luna’s mind.

But I decided it was best to let that slide.

*

I had always thought of this place as nothing more than a cramped, run-down shack, but after surviving perilous adventures and returning to it, the structure felt like home—though this was Luna’s home, not mine.

Once we entered, Luna gently laid Paranoi in a corner on the first floor, covering her with a thin blanket and wiping the sweat from her forehead.

Despite her earlier flushed and incoherent demeanor, the effort of carrying Paranoi must have sobered her up. Luna appeared to have regained much of her senses.

Indeed, I had realized from the start that Luna was a heavy drinker. Though I considered myself to have a solid tolerance compared to many, she outmatched me without question.

Because of that, we ended up swearing some oaths during our first encounter, and as a direct result, we now lived together under the humble roof of this small shack. It was all rather strange to think about.

Had I not been drunk that day, how different might things have turned out?

I might have been aimlessly hopping from inn to inn or maybe Luna would have grown tired of urban life and returned to her hometown by now.

Considering how things could have unfolded, I couldn’t help but marvel at the strange twists of fate.

If I hadn’t headed to the Mars Guild, if I hadn’t gotten slapped by Daphne, and if I hadn’t taken on a cleaning mission for the shrine… how else might life have played out?

Who knows?

“Hmm, I should probably shower tomorrow, Hassan. Let’s go to the baths in the morning when we wake up!”

“Sure, sounds good.”

“It would be nice if we had proper plumbing in the house…”

Luna’s wistful comment reminded me of a few days spent at Hippolyte’s house, where there had been a small shower booth.

Despite her home being modest, Hippolyte’s house had been equipped with a basic shower.

“Is it expensive to set up something like that?”

“It’s not so much expensive, but you need permits and qualifications. Placing a bucket and using water that way is alright, but that’s unsanitary.”

“Hmm, true.”

Though Luna may play in mud pits like a child, she actually prefers cleanliness quite a bit. I could imagine her rejecting the idea of using collected rainwater to bathe.

While I’m not picky about bathing as long as I can clean myself, it seems there are subtle tastes that differ between men and women.

“Anyway, do you think Keng Keng has returned home?”

Having decided to postpone her bath for the night, Luna wandered around the ground floor, opening various jars, perhaps expecting to find the wandering tarantula, Keng Keng, inside one of them.

In my experience, animals that leave home—like stray cats—rarely return, and I thought the same about Keng Keng.

“Hey Hassan, look at this!”

At that moment, Luna called out to me. Glancing into the jar she pointed at revealed a small, rainbow-colored, utterly weird and terrifying spider crouched within, humming an odd sound.

“Wow, she really did come back.”

“Right? I told you she would.”

Sigh, to think that a spider gone from home would return to its jar. This is astonishing. A spider of this sort might actually make a great pet, though it’s far too eerie for me to consider raising one.

“But doesn’t it look like there’s more than one? What’s this on its back—are those babies?”

Frowning, I noticed a small lump on the unusually bright spider’s back. If Keng Keng was the size of a palm, the little spider attached to her back was roughly the size of a pinky.

Moreover, this baby spider looked different from an ordinary wolf spider—hairless, smooth, translucent, resembling a blue jelly spider.

I’d heard that scorpions and crustaceans often have soft babies in their youth. Could this mean that Keng Keng’s babies have this appearance when young?

Its many legs were creepy, but without the hair, it was slightly less terrifying.

“Maybe she went outside to give birth.”

“Hassan, that’s not the baby. It’s a male.”

“A male?”

“That’s right! Male wolf spiders ride on the back of female spiders like that. Sometimes, when females build nests, the males go inside and live with them. They also feed on whatever the females bring back.”

“So they just live in the female’s home, eating whatever she brings back? Sounds like a lazy life—like being a house husband…”

As I spoke, I realized how ironic it was—the little male spider on Keng Keng’s back wasn’t so different from me. I, too, had moved in with Luna.

Sheepishly admitting that I had spit on my own face.

However, Luna, who had been gently patting the spider inside the jar with her hand, seemed unfazed by my words.

“She went out to find a mate. She will probably give birth soon. Wolf spiders can be trained from a young age, so they can even help in combat.”

Keng Keng will soon have more offspring.

Well, at least we won’t have to worry about mosquitoes biting us during the summer—but honestly, it wasn’t a sight I particularly wanted to imagine.

Still, out of a sense of camaraderie for living under a woman’s roof, or perhaps due to the gelatinous resemblance of the male spider, I found myself somewhat fond of it. On closer inspection, the many legs actually made it look kind of cute.

After confirming that Keng Keng had indeed returned home, and realizing how late it had gotten, Luna and I agreed to go to sleep soon.

I figured I’d fall asleep the moment my head hit the pillow as I lay down on the deer-skin blanket.

Yet, Luna, who didn’t seem tired at all, was instead busy inspecting a deer skull, showing no signs of settling down.

“If I just use it as a charm, it might work. Hmm, even in Ideope, something like this would be impossible to find. Ah, with a black obsidian dagger and a Dullahan’s skull… tch, if this keeps up, I might become an advanced healer.”

Luna was excitedly examining the deer skull she’d collected as a trophy from her dungeon exploration, seemingly at a loss about what to do with it.

“Is it really that useful?”

“Yes!! If I use this skull as a charm, my sorcery will become even more powerful! Ritual charms improve both the accuracy and power of spells!”

“More effective than I thought.”

Initially, when I’d first met Luna, her magic seemed like nothing more than superstitious practices to drop branches or divine directions. But looking back, her skills have had many subtle effects that were genuinely helpful. If her magic became even stronger and more precise, as she claimed, it would certainly be something to celebrate.

“What do you think? Does it suit me?”

Luna turned toward me, wearing a strange bone helmet on her head.

Seeing her in that outfit, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Somnia, the eerie cultist voodoo priestess, and also of a Pokémon with a skull on its head, which made me chuckle.

“Rituals of Joyful Voodoo!”

Luna began swaying her shoulders and hips from side to side, dancing around, almost resembling an ancient shaman performing a human sacrifice ritual. The atmosphere was peculiar.

But…

When are we actually going to sleep?

I’m sleepy.

“It suits you.”

“….”

Had my brief response offended her? After asking, Luna seemed unmoved by my answer. Maybe I should have added some more flowery compliments? At that moment—

“Huff…”

A small sigh escaped Luna’s lips as she wore the skull helmet, and simultaneously, a cool breeze swept through the place. Had Luna forgotten to close the first-floor window?

At that moment, Luna paused her dance.

“Hassan.”

She called my name, her calm demeanor somehow warding off my drowsiness.

“What is it?”

“How do you see me… think of Luna?”

“Think of you… how?”

Caught off guard by such a direct question, I felt quite flustered.

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