Chapter 100
Surprise Quest, [When a Big Mountain Appears, the Existing Mountain Looks Small]!
In this still unfamiliar and awkward gathering, let’s get to know each other through fun games!
Give the three men appropriate missions and encourage them to become friends while competing with each other.
Success Reward: 1 Abnormal Status (Random)
I seriously wanted to ask what d***s one would need to take to come up with such an insane quest.
‘Play drinking games? With these members?’
This is a situation where knives rather than cups might be exchanged, and blood rather than alcohol might be drunk. If I were the kind of person who could gather these murderous men and say, “Let’s be friends,” would I be playing a game? I would have been aiming for the Nobel Peace Prize long ago!
‘And the reward itself is insane.’
Not removing an abnormal status, but giving me one? And randomly at that?
Is this a punishment rather than a reward? No matter how I look at it, there must have been a bug in the process of outputting the explanation text.
‘This is a garbage quest. Let’s ignore it.’
I tried to close the window by pressing X, but suddenly the X button in the upper right disappeared, and an additional explanation appeared below the quest window.
Failure: All bombs activated
This means that Cedric and Kaint’s bombs, which I had just gotten rid of, would reappear.
‘Are you kidding me? When a user doesn’t want to complete a quest, you should offer a more attractive reward, not just increase the penalty!’
Of course, it made sense.
Surprisingly, most failing games impose such penalties to fight with users, eventually leading to no new players, even veterans leaving, and the game shutting down.
‘Hey, this…’
But in this world, a shutdown means a bad ending.
‘I can’t go through that again.’
To calm my raging anger, I downed the alcohol in front of me in one gulp instead of cold water.
“Shin Joo!”
A startled Hexion snatched the cup from my hand, but it was already empty.
“If you drink so hastily, the intoxication will hit you all at once. First, some water…”
“Would Hexion like to drink?”
Perhaps because Hexion’s purple eyes looked wine-colored, my mouth spoke on its own.
“What?”
“I suddenly feel like drinking a lot of alcohol. But as you said, I might get drunk and collapse.”
It suddenly occurred to me that since the Divine Master overcomes all diseases, she might not get hangovers, but I quickly dismissed the thought. It was an unnecessary consideration in this situation anyway.
“Watching you drink might give me vicarious satisfaction.”
“…I understand.”
“Wait, Shin Joo-ah. That’s not right.”
As Hexion brought my cup in front of him with a solemn face and was about to pour alcohol, Marvis blocked him.
“I’m your mate. Why are you asking another man to drink instead of me?”
I remember receiving a confession, but I don’t recall getting married, so I’m not sure when I became his mate. Shouldn’t you say such things after building up affection to three digits?
“If you want vicarious satisfaction, ask me.”
“…?”
Before I could point out the strangeness of Marvis’s logic, he emptied the cup in one gulp and pulled over the entire side table where the bottles were placed.
“Don’t ask anyone but me.”
“Marvis. You’re not planning to drink all that, are you?”
“If that’s what you want, it’s not impossible.”
Marvis opened the bottle cap.
Just smelling it from a distance suggested it wasn’t meant for drinking. If lit, it could probably illuminate the temple night without wall lamps.
“Wait. I received the Divine Master’s order.”
“Hexion?”
“Shin Joo. I cannot allow that vicious demon to waste the temple’s precious alcohol.”
While I was stuttering, not knowing where to begin criticizing Hexion’s words, he opened a cabinet door and brought out a large chest, placing it beside his seat.
I could hear glass bottles clinking and liquid sloshing inside.
Is this alcohol too?
Why is there so much alcohol in the prayer room?
It’s too strong to be ritual wine?
Could it be that the priests have been hiding embezzled alcohol in the prayer room?
“Hexion. Um, that…”
“Shin Joo. If there’s anything you want, you just need to tell me, your foremost guardian knight.”
“Shin Joo-ah, why are you looking elsewhere? If you want to watch someone drink, look at me.”
“Marvis. You too…”
I couldn’t tell them to calm down. Suddenly, as the two men competitively started drinking, the gauge below the quest window filled at an astonishing speed.
[Marvis]’s mission completion: ■■■■■■■□□□ (70%)
[Hexion]’s mission completion: ■■■■■■□□□□ (60%)
I looked at Kaint with trembling eyes. He looked at me with a somewhat displeased expression, then sighed and brought the rim of the cup to his lips.
[Kaint]’s mission completion: ■□□□□□□□□□ (10%)
Does this system really think this helps build friendship?
***
Only ruins remained where the typhoon had swept through. The only consolation was that this was the temple, so I wouldn’t have to clean up this devastation with my own hands.
…Is that really a consolation?
Kaint approached me as I stared blankly at the two collapsed men.
“Divine Master. It’s getting late.”
Unlike the two men who had passed out after drinking competitively, Kaint had stopped after just one cup.
Thanks to that, the graph wasn’t completely filled, but I was glad I wasn’t the only person left in these ruins.
“Ah, I’ve rung the bell, so the duty priest will come. Admiral, you should also go back…”
“I’ll escort you to your room.”
“What?”
Kaint rose from his seat, approached me, and extended his left arm.
“Your guardian knight has collapsed, so there’s no one to escort you.”
This is inside the temple. There’s no human who would dare harm me, so I could return alone without issue. Kaint is neither my attendant nor my guard, so there was no reason for him to do this.
But I didn’t decline and placed my hand on Kaint’s arm. I instinctively recognized this as an opportunity.
‘If not now, I won’t have a chance to talk alone with him for a while.’
Hexion’s bomb still hadn’t disappeared.
Tomorrow, Hexion, the day after Marvis—I don’t know what obstacles I’ll have to overcome to remove their bombs. Getting closer to Kaint might help somehow.
“Thank you, Admiral.”
When I slightly leaned my head, Kaint’s arm muscles tensed.
“I’m just supporting you because I can’t leave an intoxicated woman alone.”
I’m not particularly drunk. Do I look that way?
I put my hand to my mouth and exhaled, but I couldn’t smell alcohol. Even rubbing my cheeks, they didn’t seem particularly flushed.
If my senses aren’t wrong, then Kaint is just being oversensitive.
“It’s strange. The Admiral is so kind to women, yet why is there a rumor that you don’t get close to women?”
“….”
From his profile description, there was a line about him being uncomfortable around women.
Although Kaint is still young, as a national hero and such a beautiful man, there must have been marriage proposals. If he simply had no interest in the opposite s*x and rejected them all, he wouldn’t be this tense around me.
“I cannot marry. Getting close to a woman in my condition would be irresponsible.”
“What? Why?”
He’s neither a priest nor a holy knight who takes vows of chastity, so what reason could the Admiral have for not being able to marry?
“I have ten siblings.”
“I know. But why…”
“Being unmarried, I couldn’t adopt them officially, so I made them my siblings, but I am their guardian. Until all of them become adults and independent, I intend to devote all my attention to them. So if I were to marry, the woman who would become my wife must be someone who can help me take care of my siblings.”
“….”
So that’s why the quest to become the guardian of his siblings appeared then.
Indeed, the barrier of ten siblings is too high to overcome with looks alone. I understand why other women, despite admiring Kaint, couldn’t approach him.
“What if the Admiral truly loved a woman, but she said she didn’t want to take care of your siblings?”
“I wouldn’t love such a person.”
“How can you be so sure? Human hearts are unpredictable.”
“Even if I were attracted to her, I would suppress my feelings.”
Kaint answered firmly. While I thought it was a typical answer for him, I felt a strange sense of dissonance.
‘Yet in the previous playthrough, Kaint never once asked me to help take care of his siblings.’
In the previous playthrough, despite ignoring the sudden quest, Kaint’s affection didn’t decrease. The pursuit wasn’t canceled either.
Rather, he only wanted me to agree to marriage quickly.
All Kaint had asked of me was that first time, to meet the children. After that, he demanded nothing from me. Instead, he cautioned his siblings not to trouble me.
“Then does that mean you’d be OK with a woman who can help take care of your siblings even if she has other flaws?”
“Yes. No one in the world is without flaws.”
One is right in front of me.
‘Actually, considering that Kaint was stubbornly single-minded and romantically inept, he’s not without flaws either.’
Kaint didn’t love me for my appearance or status.
Then did he open his heart to me just by seeing me play with his siblings? If so, wouldn’t anyone have been fine, not just me?
“So Admiral, can you overlook all the mistakes of someone you love?”
“…It depends on what kind of mistake.”
Kaint’s steps slowed. Though the path from the prayer room to my room wasn’t very long, it felt particularly extended in the darkness of night.
“For example, if you found out that a woman who promised to marry you met another man without telling you, what would you do?”
“Is it adultery?”
“It’s not adultery. But it’s a situation where she secretly met a man you told her not to meet.”
“If she ignored my wishes and went secretly, it’s hard to see it as having no impure intentions. If she can’t prove there was nothing immoral, I would have to cut off the relationship.”
“Is proof necessary? Even for someone you love enough to marry?”
“The other party betrayed trust first. There’s no reason for me to be generous.”
Ah.
At that moment, I realized.
I understood where this strange feeling of something dangling loose in my chest came from.
‘He’s a different person.’
The Kaint I knew and the current Kaint are different people. No matter how identical they look, with the same background and growth process, having grown up equally righteous, they are different people.
I withdrew my hand from Kaint’s arm.
“Divine Master. What’s wrong?”
If this man is not the Kaint who loved me, then I…
“I’m sorry. I can’t do this.”
I don’t want to pursue him.
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