Chapter 125. You in the World of Sunset (3)
The next morning, I woke up in the temporary bed I installed next to my bed. Because Ludia wanted to be with me even while sleeping, I had no choice but to install this temporary bed. Plus, because I only needed to sleep two to three hours, I gave Ludia my bed and slept in the temporary bed.
In any case, because I wanted to sleep for a while longer, I closed my eyes again, but soon reopened my eyes from the slight tingle I felt in my hand. At the same time, I realized what had woke me up. I was holding hands with Ludia, who had stretched her hand out of the bed.
“Ludia, you’re up?”
“… Un.”
“Okay, you can change first. I’ll turn around and… Hm?”
Ludia peeked her head out of the blanket. When her eyes met mine, her face suddenly reddened as she went back into the blanket. Even so, she didn’t let go of my hand. What was happening?
“What’s wrong, Ludia?”
“Noth…. Nothing…!”
“Tell me. I’m worried. Come on.”
“It’s nothing… I only just realized that I was the worst piece of human trash…!”
What the hell happened last night!?
“That’s not ‘nothing’!”
“L-Leave. I can’t think straight if I’m with you right now.”
“Okay, I’ll leave… but you have to let go of me.”
I took my hand out forcefully from Ludia’s grasp. This girl, when did she get so strong?
But after grasping empty air, Ludia’s hand once again took hold of mine. Instead of letting go, she even pulled strongly, and I almost fell into the blanket with her. I held on since I was stronger than a priestess, but I pulled the blanket down and looked at Ludia’s reddened face.
“Hey!”
“Sorry, stay with me. I’m sorry. Please stay.”
“… Okay.”
In the end, I had to stay within an arm’s reach of Ludia. With my head turned the other direction, Ludia changed. I thought I’d die from embarrassment.
Ludia was wearing a white dress. Although the ribbon decoration or the dress’ material changed from time to time, she always wore white dresses when she was in my house. Drawing my attention with her white and smooth legs showing under her dress, she casually said something completely shocking.
“I think I just awakened.”
“What!?”
Was awakening something that only happened to people from Earth!? People from other worlds could do it too!? While I was staring at her blankly in shock, Ludia stared at me with a pleased smile.
“How ugly.”
“It’s none of your business.”
“Huhu, you’re really ugly… Come closer.”
“How ugly I am doesn’t matter. What matters is your abili…”
“O Earth.”
I stayed still, but the floor wriggled and I was moved in front of her. I was shocked once again. What ‘Earth’? This was the 2nd floor! Shocking things were happening ever since I woke up.
Ludia reached out and caressed my face. With her hand feeling my defenseless face, I felt quite strange. I tried my best to not bite her fingers and opened my mouth.
“Ludia, is that your awakened ability?”
“Un. I can control the earth and utilize its power. It’s an ability based on animism. Perhaps it’s better to say it’s based on belief of nature.”
She wasn’t lying. Even though I wasn’t on guard, I didn’t notice her moving me at all. Perhaps, her awakened ability was stronger than her healing ability as a priestess.
“Un. If I had this power when I was in Luka continent… No, there’s no use in thinking that.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think you’d awaken an ability in Earth either. By the way, are you going to continue touching me?”
“In my dream… I met many people I didn’t know.”
“When are you going to stop tou… Dream?”
“Un.”
Ludia easily ignored my question and said in a slightly sleepy voice. Dream? Ah, the premonition dream. The dream that acted as the trigger to awakening abilities and showing one’s future possibilities… Of course, with what happened in Luka continent, I confirmed that it wasn’t absolute, but it was true that something similar would happen. I became curious as to what dream she had.
“Was I in that dream too?”
“Un, you were. That’s why it’s hard to control myself.”
“What does me being in your dream and you controlling yourself have to… Wait, you said control?”
“Un. Can you… bend down a bit more?”
“Ludia, your breathing is a bit rough. Are you sick?”
Feeling a sense of unease, I put my hand up to take Ludia’s hand off. At that moment, the door opened. Mother, who was standing there, spoke with a bright smile.
“Son, it’s great to be so healthy early in the morning, but can you wait until the night for reproductive acts?”
“What!? What reproductive act!?”
“New daughter, I’ll actively create the right mood at night, so do your best then. Alright, come down and eat breakfast.”
“… Yes, mother.”
“New daughter!? Why is Mom calling Ludia ‘new daughter’? Ludia, do you even know what that means? Hm?”
I, Kang Shin, a man among men, almost became a married man at the age of 21.
“Then, see you later.”
“Crown Prince-nim, see you later!”
“Yeah, Ludia. Miss Shuna too, see you both later… I said, see you later.”
“But…”
In Marianne’s Garden, which had become a guild house, I saw Ludia and Shuna off. Ludia found it hard to separate from me, as she would come clinging after taking a few steps away from me and being startled. After she repeated it a few times, I couldn’t just let it continue. I took Ludia off and gave her to Shuna.
“Miss Shuna, take care of her.”
“Y-Yes! Crown Prince-nim, by the way… Are you dating Ludia…?”
“No, we’re just friends… Ow!”
“Die!”
Surprisingly, Ludia succeeded in getting away from me! Unfortunately, I didn’t know exactly why she succeeded.
Shuna put on a bitter smile while watching us, but clenched her fists and spoke happily.
“So I still have a chance…”
“Shuna, let’s go… forever.”
“Kyak! L-Ludia! No, sorry, I’m sorry!”
Watching them talking loudly, I saw them off to the dungeon. It looked like Ludia was beating Shuna, but trusting that it was simply an expression of affection, I also headed to the dungeon.
Time passed slowly when you were bored. After sending Ludia off to the dungeon, all I had to do was to hunt Wendigo three times and train my techniques. Although I knew how important it was, with how boring and unthrilling it was, I felt like I was forcing myself to do so.
If there was one positive side, it was that I was confident that I had caught up to the Spear Technique and Peruta Circut that I had forcefully leveled up. I considered using skill points to level them up again, but since I couldn’t be sure that I could always get more skill points, I decided to save them for when the two skills were higher leveled.
[Climbing the dungeon alone is getting boring.]
“Oh? That’s unexpected. I didn’t think that you’d like being in a party so much.”
Running across Wendigo’s arm, I replied to the message I received.
[I want to quickly party with Shin. Plus, you don’t come to school nowadays.]
“Sorry, but I prioritize solo play.”
The reason I didn’t go to school nowadays was because it was hard to separate from Ludia.
[I know it’s because you’re embarrassed.]
“No, it isn’t…”
Replying sincerely, I stabbed Wendigo’s eye and released a lightning attack. I leapt up, avoiding the screaming Wendigo’s hand.
“What floor are you on now?”
[40th floor. The reaper killed me twice.]
“Well, I didn’t think you’d pass that easily.”
[Ugh, the first time, it suddenly appeared behind my back and killed me. The second time, I was doing my best to memorize its movement patterns, but it suddenly shot a scythe from its stomach and killed me. When Master finds out I died, I’ll get scolded…]
“Didn’t I tell you how the strategy for defeating the reaper?”
[I’m not a monster like Shin!]
It seems the 40th Floor Master couldn’t be defeated easily with just her natural talent and magic. It made sense as the Grim Reaper was one of the strongest bosses. Once she defeated him, she should have no problem until the 50th floor. Plus, she could get even stronger from the 50th floor.
… Of course, that was given that Ye-Eun could somehow deal with the freezing energy. While pondering about it, I dodged Wendigo’s whitened hands and landed on his head.
“Some of my friends are about to reach the 40th floor. Why don’t you try hunting the reaper with them?”
[Friends? Sure! Shin’s friends must all be nice, right?]
“Mm, well, yeah.”
It was good timing. Even though Ludia got stronger with her newly awakened ability, adding a powerful damage dealer like Ye-Eun to her party would be like adding flowers to embroidery.
[Hehe, I want to meet them soon. D-Don’t worry! I just mean I’m looking forward to seeing them as comrades. I don’t mean I’m looking forward to meeting other men!]
“One of them is the older sister of your old party leader. She’s called Palludia. If possible, try not to bring up her younger sister.”
[… A girl?]
“Well, yeah, that’s what sister means.”
I delivered a Heroic Strike to Wendigo’s forehead. Ignoring the Wendigo trying to shake me off, I used White Lightning Consecutive Strike.
[A friend… but a girl? A girlfriend?]
“She’s just a friend. Like you and me.”
[I hate you, Shin.]
“In any case, treat her well, okay? She lost her younger sister not too long ago…”
[Yeah, okay.]
After talking with Ye-Eun, I finished up my fight with Wendigo. Lost her younger sister, huh… Coming from the one who killed her, I felt nauseous. Even though Shina tried to kill me first, even though she betrayed her world to join the Demon Lord, she was once my friend and was Ludia’s younger sister. It didn’t change the fact that I killed her.
[Choose your reward.]
[1. Wendigo’s Fur Boots
2. Frozen Crystal]
“Damn it, I need to let it go too… *crunch*.”
[You consumed Frozen Crystal to its limit, greatly increasing your resistance and affinity to freezing energy! Your magic increases by 6! Consuming more of this item will likely have no effect.]
“… Eh?”
I suddenly realized that a month had passed since I started grinding the Wendigo!
Author’s note:
PS – ‘I’m a person of this world now’ is the hint from 2 chapters ago.
