#017
“Oh, Raon runs well? Are you a former athlete?”
It was Muchi shouting loudly while riding without a helmet. He stuck so close we almost collided, startling me into dodging and twisting my ankle.
“Ugh.”
I almost fell but barely managed to steady myself and ran while enduring the pain of my twisted ankle. But even that effort was in vain as a jeep came barreling down a side road on the opposite side, kicking up dust and roughly blocking my path.
Unable to stop in time due to my forward momentum, I slammed my chest hard into the jeep’s side and tumbled to the ground.
“Huff…”
The crushing pain in my lungs and even the ankle pain seemed to fade into the distance. For a moment, the pain in my head was so overwhelming it felt like my breath stopped. I thought my ribs might be broken.
“Tsk tsk, you should watch where you’re running. Your body’s already weak, so if you just crash into anything like that, it’s no good.”
Muchi clicked his tongue while his lackeys snickered. But whatever they were saying, however much they mocked me, it didn’t matter to me right now. My vision turned yellow and sweat poured down like rain. I couldn’t breathe properly, so whether I was inhaling dust or not, I curled up with my forehead against the dirt ground, clutching my chest.
“You’re not even a kid, so how can you play around with business documents like this, Raon? Is a contract a joke?”
Muchi crouched down in front of me and shoved the contract I’d abandoned earlier right in my face. In the signature field of the contract, what I’d written instead of my name was clearly visible.
‘Fuck off.’
“Can’t be helped. Since Raon doesn’t seem to be in any condition to sign again right now, I’ll help you out.”
Muchi grabbed my hand and pressed the blade of a jackknife against my thumb.
‘No.’
I squeezed every bit of strength I had left to clench my fist and resist. Muchi laughed as if he found it absurd.
“Our Raon has more guts than he looks. This leaves me no choice then.”
Muchi grabbed my hand and arm together with both hands.
“……?”
“I didn’t want to go this far, but you’re just not cooperating at all.”
Then he twisted my arm just like that. With a cracking sound, my arm twisted like laundry being wrung out.
“Ahhh!”
Terrible pain crashed over my brain. A sharp, piercing ringing echoed and the shock made my vision go black for a moment.
“Ugh, gah…”
I gasped for breath. Physiological tears flowed out. I could feel drool running from the corner of my mouth too. No, I might have vomited. Whatever happened, the indescribable pain made me shake uncontrollably.
“Shh, shh, just bear with it a little, it’s nothing big. This happened because you wouldn’t listen.”
I heard Muchi’s soothing voice. He seemed to be pulling my hand again to press my thumb to the document, but because of the pain from my broken wrist, I didn’t care about fraudulent contracts or anything else anymore. I had to do something about this terrible pain. Dizziness set in and my consciousness kept fading in and out. Should I just lose consciousness?
“Now, Raon has also become part of our team… Shit, what the hell!”
Muchi was drawling something when he suddenly cursed and shouted. In my dizzy vision, I could feel something bursting into flames. For a moment, my mind cleared. Muchi was throwing away the burning contract in surprise.
“Ugh.”
At the same time, my body and mangled arm were also thrown down, hitting the ground hard. I groaned again from the impact. But this time, wondering if help had come from somewhere, I desperately held onto my fading consciousness and forced my eyes wide open.
“You bastard, what the hell?”
Because Muchi was standing in my way, blocking my view, I couldn’t tell who had appeared. Another bandit group? Were they after my Melbrain by attacking Muchi’s gang from behind?
If so, they might take the Melbrain and just kill me or abandon me here. The only hope would be to escape while the two gangs were facing off… but the problem was that my body was in such a state that it wasn’t possible. Far from running away, even getting up from the ground was difficult. Cold sweat flowed like rain and my consciousness kept trying to fade away.
“Hey, you fucking bastard! You’ve got some nerve, you made a big mistake today. Do you even know who I am before you butt in… huh… huh?”
Muchi, who had been cursing vigorously, hesitated and suddenly started stammering.
“Wh-why are you here?”
It was the first intimidated voice I’d heard from him since meeting him. Moreover, ‘bastard’ had become ‘you.’ Who on earth was it?
“The way things are going around here lately is a complete mess.”
A cynical voice dropped coldly. A voice I’d heard before. The erased memories of last night vaguely came back to life.
“Break someone’s wrist to make them sign a contract and there’s no contract in the world you couldn’t force?”
“I-it’s none of your business, right? We’re strangers now anyway, str-strangers.”
“…That’s right, we’re strangers. Strangers, but.”
The sound of dirt particles crunching under dress shoes got closer. The acrid scent of cigarettes came with it.
“Still, I don’t like seeing someone who was mine rolling around in some other bastard’s hands.”
At those words, a dull thudding sound rang out. I didn’t even hear a scream, but Muchi’s large bulk that had been blocking my view was cleared away. As if that was a signal, shouts and screams, the sound of something thudding dully began reverberating all around. I thought it might be a brawl, but it seemed to be quite a one-sided battle as the noise quickly died down.
And as if the commotion just now was from another world, the new shadow that appeared in the clear view where Muchi had disappeared was quietly alone. Behind the shadow, brilliant colors of deep purple, orange, and pink were mixing in the sky as the sun set. His face wasn’t clearly visible due to the backlighting, but what I could say for certain was that he was dressed inappropriately for the time, place, and occasion.
‘I’ve seen this scene somewhere before… A dream? Was that a prophetic dream?’
It was a place full of dust and scrub brush, and everyone else was in work clothes or combat gear, but this person alone was in an impeccable suit. Even in the village, people dressed this formally were rare. A three-piece suit complete with vest, with even his tie neatly tied – wasn’t this a look you’d only see in luxury suit photo shoots?
White dust settled lightly on the black shoes that walked over step by step. Still looking at the still-shiny shoe tips, I gasped for breath with one cheek pressed against the dirt ground. A half-smoked cigarette dropped in front of me with a thud. The acrid scent stung my nose. I coughed.
“Why are you always in this state every time I see you? Do you do it on purpose?”
A low voice settled over my head.
‘Every time I see you.’ So what I saw in the forest wasn’t a dream…
“Honey. You left acting like you’d live well on your own, so why are you like this here?”
The man who crouched down by my head like before delivered strange lines in a noticeably softer voice.
***
Carlisle Lightinger was quite a unique character in the game. He didn’t have enough importance to really be called a main NPC to begin with. He first appeared only in fall, and even after that, he didn’t continuously reside in the village but lived outside and only came to stay briefly when there were special events.
While you could have short conversations if you talked to him, unlike the main NPCs, he would only spout predetermined lines without context and quickly disappear. Since he wasn’t a target for building favorability, he naturally wasn’t a romance simulation target either.
However, the large illustration that appeared during the brief moments when he appeared and had conversations caused a tremendous response. It was already a game famous for its high-quality scenery and NPC illustrations, but Carlisle boasted top-tier beauty even among them.
I too had admired his illustration, saying the illustrator had poured their soul into it. It was incomprehensible that they’d create such a character only to use him as a mere extra. The game community boards that went wild were flooded with protests asking why Carlisle wasn’t a romance target and pleas to please make him a main NPC. There were even countless verification posts of people sending emails to the development company.
Whether the users’ explosive requests were accepted, in the next major update Carlisle was promoted to an NPC who could not only have general favorability built but even romance. The community boards became festive again over this and were noisy for a while.
Since he became such a hot popular character, naturally most players immediately jumped into pursuing Carlisle. The Carlisle pursuit plays that started so enthusiastically, however, gradually changed to an ambiguous atmosphere as time went on.
– Is this right? Why is his reaction like this? Carlisle, what did I do wrong to you?ㅠㅠ
– Even when I offered him the Star of the Sacred Tree, he looked me over with a reluctant expression and said ‘Don’t overdo it’ in a sweet tone but didn’t accept it. Isn’t that expression like ‘do something about your pathetic state’? Like don’t overdo it when you’re such a nobody? Isn’t that too much? Wow, I’m hurt by an NPC (photo.jpg)
The ‘Star of the Sacred Tree’ was actually a type of mineral, but it was confirmed as a gift that all NPCs in the game preferred.
– I thought maybe he had perverted tastes so I tried giving him trash, and he really looked at me like I was trash. Naturally he didn’t accept the gift and just turned around and disappeared without a word ㅠㅠ So hurt ㅠㅠ (photo.jpg)
The uploaded content and Carlisle’s captured expressions weren’t overtly rude, but most reactions were strangely cynical or crooked.
– Crazy. How exactly are you supposed to pursue Carlisle?
– Does he even have gifts he likes? I brought him all the rare gems and medicinal herbs that everyone supposedly likes, but he looked at them all like they were trash?
– Has anyone even entered the romance simulation stage?
– Forget 100% general favorability, I wonder if anyone has even raised it above 50%. At least no one around me has.
– Carlisle, you bad bastard, you lit a fire in my heart and have no intention of putting it out ㅠㅠ
Even after the update, Carlisle remained hot. The difference from before was that there were mainly posts expressing irritation, lament, anger, and frustration.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
