TNAAS Ch 21

Episode 21

“An alliance?”

“Yes. I’ll give you everything you want, Mr. Yeonwoo. Of course, you’ll have to do what I want in return.”

It wasn’t a bad offer. If he were to join as a guild member, a hierarchy would inevitably form, but as allies, they could meet as equals, without Yeonwoo feeling subdued. It was the kind of relationship he preferred.

However—

“Then how about you uncross your legs first? Doesn’t seem like the posture of someone proposing an alliance.”

He didn’t like the way the man sat with his legs crossed, so he deliberately spoke with a bite. Granted, Yeonwoo himself had been sitting with his legs crossed just a moment ago, but that was for his own justified reasons. Someone in the wrong had no business acting all high and mighty. That made no sense.

When Yeonwoo folded his arms and glared at him until he uncrossed his legs, Rai burst into hearty laughter, raising both hands in surrender before finally straightening his posture.

“Ah, my apologies. Since you were frowning from the moment you came in, I was just trying to lighten the mood with a little joke.”

Rai covered his face with one hand, trying to suppress his laughter, but it was pointless. His shoulders were already shaking.

Though slightly annoyed, Yeonwoo decided it wasn’t the time to keep snapping at him. Bringing up last night right now was out of the question; his heart wasn’t strong enough for that. With a deep sigh, Yeonwoo suddenly stood and held out his hand toward Rai.

Rai, his laughter having mostly subsided, tilted his head with a hand still covering his mouth. Yeonwoo straightened his shoulders and said boldly,

“You said alliance, right? Fine, let’s do it. But I’m using the black card however I want.”

Only then did Rai seem to catch on to Yeonwoo’s intent. He lowered the hand covering his mouth, stood up and took Yeonwoo’s outstretched hand with a more serious expression. 

“Don’t worry about the limit. Use it as much as you like. It’s my personal card that I’m giving to you, Mr. Yeonwoo.”

“You’d better not go back on your word later.”

After releasing Yeonwoo’s hand, Rai picked up the black card and the documents on the table. Then, with one hand, he pulled something out from his subspace and handed it all over to Yeonwoo.

It looked somewhat like a piggy bank you’d see in the real world, or maybe a pencil sharpener. On the front was a hole shaped like a pig’s nose, and on the back was something that looked like either a tail or a handle. Yeonwoo looked at Rai in confusion. What was he supposed to do with this?

Rai gave him a cheerful smile.

“With that, you’ll start collecting my fragments from now on. The method’s very simple.”

“Oh, I see. Wait a second, what did you just say?”

Yeonwoo, who had been nodding absentmindedly, grabbed Rai by the collar with his free hand. Even as Yeonwoo seized him by his collar, Rai didn’t lose his smile. Yeonwoo, bewildered, pressed on.

“So what you’re saying is that I’m supposed to collect the pieces of your power all by myself with this thing?”

“Quick on the uptake, I see.”

Rai spoke nonsense with a perfectly calm face. Even if things had gotten a bit suggestive last night, seeing him act the complete opposite way now left Yeonwoo at a loss for words.

“Then what will you be doing in the meantime?”

“Of course I’ll be out looking for them too. It’s just that it will take some time to absorb the fragments I’ve already collected.”

“Then why not absorb them all at once after you gather them?”

Rai carefully released Yeonwoo’s grip on his collar and raised his hand, forming a shape using black mist. The writhing, shifting mist took the form of a bowl.

“Let’s say this is my body. I’ll show you what happens if I absorb everything at once.”

He curled his other hand into a fist and tilted it as though pouring water into the mist-bowl he had formed. From the small opening in his fist, black liquid flowed without pause. It did not just trickle; it poured out like a waterfall, merciless and relentless.

As Yeonwoo quietly watched, the bowl quickly filled to the brim, and the excess spilled over, running down Rai’s palm and soaking the floor.

“I only used a bowl as a simple example, so it overflowed. If that had been my actual body, it would have exploded.”

Even after that demonstration, Yeonwoo couldn’t wrap his head around it. It was understandable, though.

“That was originally your power. You’re just taking back what’s yours, so why can’t you hold it all at once?”

“It’s a simple principle. Like a body wasting away after months of starvation, the vessel of my body that stores power has shrunk from not holding power for so long. I have to intake it slowly and expand it bit by bit.”

Only then did Yeonwoo accept it to some extent. So Rai was saying he would sit here and slowly absorb power to rebuild his body. Ridiculous.

“You could do that while you go looking, too.”

“That’s why I gave you the black card. So you can use it freely.”

Yeonwoo seriously considered whether he could punch that smiling face just once. He had become the type who could spit on a smiling face, and just as he was about to say something more, black mist poured from Rai’s hand, wrapping around Yeonwoo’s body and binding him so he couldn’t move.

“Wh-what is this? Let me go right now!”

“Now that you’ve heard the explanation, you should get going. I’ll be expecting good results.”

“No! What if Helleo kidnaps me again!!!”

“It’s fine. Your mana was drained back then, but now it’s overflowing, so you can definitely knock him out. Besides, I destroyed Helleo’s power that day, so that bastard won’t be able to move easily for a while.” 

He couldn’t just leave like this. He wasn’t mentally prepared yet, and until yesterday, he had planned to go on vacation at the beach after finishing the subjugation raid. But now, without even getting a break, he was being sent on another task.

“Hey, you evil boss!!!”

“Then I wish you good luck, Mr. Yeonwoo.”

* * *

This can’t be happening. Even if it wasn’t exactly a romance, nor even the teasing prelude to one, the atmosphere between them had been pretty good up until yesterday. That meant Rai couldn’t have no feelings for Yeonwoo at all.

How could he! How could he leave someone he liked all alone in such a remote place!

Yeonwoo screamed in despair, alone on a wide meadow. When he had been thrown here a short while ago and had screamed at the top of his lungs, the echo that bounced back made him a little embarrassed, so now he was shouting inwardly instead.

He even found a note stuck to the back of the black card that he hadn’t noticed in the examination room. It read:

「 Like the game level-ups you mentioned, if you collect them one by one, you’ll gradually get stronger. Hang in there.

P.S. Don’t even think about walking back like you did when you went to Vieta. When returning to Firenze, be sure to use teleport. There’s one in every village. Surely you didn’t not know that, right? 」

Yeah, romance probably wasn’t for him this lifetime. Blaming himself for ever trying anything with a man like that, he decided that since he was already here, he might as well make the most of it. Humming the lyrics of a song whose words were about someone who had even thought of marriage, he looked around with determination.  

The empty meadow of endless green grass seemed to be the village called Raung. Raung was, true to its name, a village with a strong Eastern atmosphere; the green plain stretching before a row of tiled-roof houses left a strong impression.

Because it was smaller than Firenze Village, there weren’t many worthwhile quests, so people rarely came here. Judging from the endless stretch of grass, it looked like he’d been dropped quite far from the village.

“If he was going to teleport me, shouldn’t he have dropped me off at the village entrance? What am I supposed to do out here?”

Clicking his tongue, Yeonwoo carefully unfolded the crumpled papers he had balled up in anger. Then, with a soft pop near his chest, the spirits appeared and transformed into human form on their own, their eyes brimming with tears.

“Wh-what is it? Why are you guys crying now?”

[Maasteeer! That person is so scary!]

[That’s right! His eyes are pitch-black, and even the inside is dark!]

[I think it’s better not to get close to that person!]

They seemed to be talking about Rai, who had been with him until a moment ago. Now that he thought about it, the spirits had been unusually quiet lately, likely because they’d been around Rai the whole time. Well, no wonder they said he was scary.

“It’ll be fine. I’ll win. And even if that person looks like that, he likes shiny things. If nothing else, give him something shiny and he won’t eat you.”

[What’s something shiny?]

[They probably have lots of jewels, even soul stones. What could we give them?]

[Master doesn’t have money to buy stuff!]

Thanks to Uwi’s bone-shaking bluntness after a long time, Yeonwoo, who had just thrown out words without thinking, suddenly found himself seriously considering them.

Something Rai didn’t have. Rarer than soul stones, but shiny. Something of immeasurable value.

As he thought it over, an idea popped into Yeonwoo’s head. He clapped his hands and cheerfully pointed a finger.

“Here it is.”

The three spirits followed the direction Yeonwoo’s finger was pointing, realized it was aimed at them, and immediately froze in horror. As if denying reality, they shook their heads and whimpered, but when Yeonwoo’s finger remained pointed at them, they desperately clung to his finger.

[Uuuaaaah. Nooo!]

[Master, don’t abandon us!!]

[From now on, we’ll listen well and won’t bother you anymore. Uwaaaah.]

The spirits’ wailing filled the meadow for a long while.