Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Ria, My Wife......?, The Price of a Highest-Grade Ice-Attribute Magic Stone
Please......!
But of course, no such luck.
“Unfortunately, none of the Highest-Grade Magic Stones I have are of the cold attribute. They’re all non-attribute Magic Stones.”
“Ah......”
What a shame.
At that moment, Ria, who had overheard my conversation with the Sword Saint, walked over.
“Seon-u, do you need a Highest-Grade Magic Stone of the cold attribute?”
“I do. If I want to try cultivating Glace Mushrooms without wasting Ice Crystals.”
“Then I’ll go to the northern part of the Rift and bring one back. I don’t know how long it’ll take, though.”
“No. If you’re gone, who’s going to protect Rin and the house?”
I could somehow handle up to High-Grade Monsters.
But there was no way I could stop a Highest-Grade Monster.
And if a Transcendent-Grade Monster showed up......?
With my strength alone, I would never be able to protect both Rin and the house.
Then Ria pointed with her index finger at the people sprawled out on the ground.
“There they are. Strong underlings who can guard the house.”
“......”
That was true. We had somehow ended up with S-Rank guards for the house.
Even so, I didn’t want to make Ria suffer by sending her to the freezing northern Rift for an unknown length of time.
“I’ll accept the thought, but that’s enough. Rin would be lonely if you were away for too long.”
“......That’s true, but.”
Not just Rin. I didn’t want to go through the feeling of Ria leaving for a faraway place again either.
At that moment, the Sword Saint spoke.
“I may not have a Highest-Grade Magic Stone of the cold attribute on me right now, but my guild does possess one. In fact, we have one of the fire attribute as well.”
The Sword Saint belonged to a guild called the Bamboo Fragrance Guild, and despite having the Sword Saint in it, the guild ranked rather low.
That was because it only accepted martial Hunter who walked the righteous path, regardless of strength.
I had even heard that their guild headquarters stood halfway up a mountain.
The Sword Saint continued,
“I would like to give you the cold-attribute Magic Stone as repayment, but...... being stuck here, I have no way of delivering it.”
“I appreciate the thought alone.”
Wait......!
I felt there was a way.
A way to catch both rabbits at once.
A way to obtain the cold-attribute Magic Stone while also letting people know the Sword Saint was alive.
“Sir, I have a good idea.”
“What is it?”
After I explained my idea to the Sword Saint, he let out a delighted laugh.
“Oh! That sounds excellent.”
“Then I’ll count the price of the cold-attribute Magic Stone as payment for the meals.”
“I would be grateful if you did. Count half the price of the cold-attribute Magic Stone as repayment to my benefactor, and only the remaining half as the food bill.”
If a non-attribute Highest-Grade Magic Stone was worth at least one hundred million won,
then one of the cold attribute had to be worth at least four hundred million.
If we valued it at five hundred million, then he was effectively contributing two hundred and fifty million as repayment.
“Are you really sure you’re fine with that?”
“Of course. If not for you, Seon-u, we might have held out until we starved to death. And you’ll be delivering word that we survived. It is only right that I repay you that much.”
That was true.
As expected, he was a man of great integrity and reputation.
It wasn’t because of the money that I thought well of him.
Definitely not.
“At any rate, I’ll count the meal charge as paid in advance. I’ll prepare your food now. Sir, do you like restorative soup?”
“Do I ever!”
“Then I’ll make mushroom restorative soup for you to restore your strength. A dish that increases Agility by one, no less.”
“Oh! I’m looking forward to it.”
At that, Adel, who had finally gotten back up and come closer, pointed at himself.
“What about me......?”
“I’ll make yours too, if you pay. Nothing in this world is free.”
“How stingy. Fine, I’ll pay. Out of my share of the Magic Stones our party collected.”
Well, if he was paying, that changed things.
“Customer, that will be two High-Grade Magic Stones.”
I raised the price a little compared to the second round of business.
This would probably be my standard going forward.
Of course, dishes with two stats attached would cost double.
“What’s with that price?!”
“If it’s too expensive, are you not going to eat? This is your chance to raise your Agility a little more.”
Adel’s self-proclaimed specialty as an assassin was speed.
Which meant Agility was everything to him.
“It’s not like I said I wouldn’t eat......! I’ll pay!”
As expected.
Santos nodded too, pointing at himself as if he wanted to place an order as well.
“Three servings of restorative soup. Payment in advance.”
And just like that, I pocketed four High-Grade Magic Stones.
A full sixty million won’s worth.
The Sword Saint’s Magic Stone would be deducted from the value of the cold-attribute stone, so I hadn’t actually received his payment yet.
Then I headed to the yard and began preparing the meal.
Soon, I placed three pressure cookers containing Glace Mushroom Horn Rabbit Restorative Soup over the fire.
At that moment, Ria walked over to the platform and said,
“Santos, Erik. Grab baskets and follow me. We’re going to pick fruit.”
By Erik, she meant Adel Eriksson.
Maybe I should start calling him Erik too. It rolled off the tongue more easily.
“We’re waiting for food......”
Adel—no, Erik—pouted.
“It’s only just been put on the fire, so it still has a long way to go. And a subordinate must obey their superior’s orders absolutely.”
“......All right.”
“And from now on, call me Captain. If you behave, I’ll spar with you from time to time.”
“Understood, Captain!”
Erik, who was clearly obsessed with sparring, immediately perked up and followed Ria.
Ria really did know how to use both the carrot and the stick.
Santos followed behind him as well.
‘Ria really is capable.’
She was diligent, wise,
and now she was even putting high-grade labor to work as her subordinates.
The Sword Saint seemed to feel the same way.
“Haha! Seon-u, your lady wife seems to be a truly remarkable woman.”
My wife......?
Had I heard that right?
“M-my wife......?”
“Ah, my apologies. Was I mistaken in thinking you were that sort of pair?”
“Well......”
It was hard to define exactly what sort of relationship we had.
It was vague. Very vague.
One thing was certain, though.
“We are not officially lovers. Not yet.”
“Ah...... I see. Then I made an assumption. My apologies.”
“No, I suppose it was only natural to think so. We do live under the same roof, even if it is inside a Rift.”
“That is part of it, but it also seemed as though the way the two of you looked at each other was rather affectionate. Like lovers.”
“Haha...... Was it really?”
“Judging by your reaction, I suppose I wasn’t entirely wrong.”
“I honestly don’t know myself. It’s a difficult matter.”
“Yes, relationships between men and women are complicated things.”
Come to think of it, from what I had looked into, the Sword Saint was unmarried too.
Apparently his lover had died young from illness, and he had remained single all his life out of loyalty to her.
He had spent that entire life doing nothing but honing his sword.
‘That’s easy to say, but it can’t have been easy to live. He really is an admirable man.’
A man among men.
At that moment, Rin came pattering over toward the platform.
So she had finally come out of the room.
I lifted Rin and set her on my lap.
“Oh......”
The Sword Saint looked very surprised as he saw her up close.
“So from nearby, she’s quite an adorable little girl.”
“Right? Rin is a little too cute.”
I gently stroked Rin’s head.
Rin wriggled as if trying to grab my hand.
“At the very top of her forehead, she has a small horn like a unicorn. Is it made of branches?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“A forest fairy so closely resembling a person...... truly fascinating.”
“She doesn’t just resemble one. Rin can actually speak Korean. Come on, Rin. Say something.”
Rin tilted her head at me.
“Rin, speak. Just say something once.”
“Seon-u......? Seon-u, like.”
“Very good!”
I clapped for her.
Watching Rin, the Sword Saint broke into a broad smile.
“Haha! This is remarkable indeed. She speaks Korean. Little miss, I’m Grandpa. Grandpa.”
The Sword Saint kept pointing at himself and repeating Grandpa, Grandpa, over and over.
And eventually, he got Rin to open her mouth.
“Ganpa......?”
“That’s right! Very good, little miss. Hahaha!”
The Sword Saint looked immensely pleased.
Rin didn’t seem afraid of him at all.
Maybe she could instinctively tell he was a good person.
“Rin, would you like to stay here and play with Grandpa Swo—no, Grandpa? I’m going to make some side dishes.”
“Ganpa.”
When I set Rin down beside him, she reached out and grabbed the collar of his shirt.
That made the Sword Saint even happier.
Then, when I looked toward the Applecherry orchard, it was chaos over there for an entirely different reason.
Erik was making a huge fuss because system messages kept appearing as he picked ripe Applecherries, and then he casually tried to taste one without permission, only to get thoroughly scolded by Ria.
‘Serves him right. Do you have any idea how much a single Applecherry is worth?’
And so our home grew lively with its new guests.
Before long, the restorative soup was finished cooking.
The two who had been picking fruit came back and sat down on the platform.
At that, Rin hid herself behind the Sword Saint.
Seeing that, Erik looked flustered.
“Uh...... little one. I’m sorry about yesterday. I think I was just far too on edge.”
Even after he apologized, Rin couldn’t fully understand what he was saying, and only hid herself deeper from him.
I said to the fidgeting Erik,
“Take it slow. If you try to approach her too quickly, it might only make things worse.”
“Got it......”
“Let’s eat first.”
On the individual trays placed on the platform, I set down bowls of restorative soup, along with kimchi and other side dishes, a soy sauce and vinegar-based dipping sauce for the meat, an oil sauce, and salt.
The three of them touched the bowl holding the Horn Rabbit restorative soup, then looked startled.
“Oh...... So it really is a dish that raises Agility.”
“So it was true. In that case, the Magic Stones don’t feel wasted.”
“......Good.”
The three of them each began tasting the meat with chopsticks, a fork, or gloved hands.
“I can’t believe meat could be this springy......! It tastes good enough to wash away all the misery of that hunger.”
“Holy shit!”
“......The mushrooms are delicious.”
Then all three of them began tearing into the meat like mad.
At the same time, they ate side dishes like kimchi and cubed radish kimchi,
and enjoyed dipping both the meat and the Glace Mushrooms in the sauces.
‘There’s no way this wouldn’t taste good.’
It had fresh Horn Rabbit meat and Glace Mushrooms in it, after all.
Soon I used the rich restorative-soup broth to make porridge.
Once it was done, I served it out into bowls, and they cleaned out every last one of them.
All that remained were the Horn Rabbit bones.
“That was an excellent meal.”
The Sword Saint patted his stomach as he said it.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it. Then after Ria, Rin, and I eat a light meal ourselves, we’ll step out for a while to buy ink, a brush, and Hanji.”
“Today? Already? You’re quite decisive.”
“I tend to be impatient.”
So after the meal, I immediately headed into town and bought the supplies at a large stationery shop.
Before long, the Sword Saint began writing a letter in Chinese characters on a large sheet of Hanji.
Lastly, he even added his signature in Chinese characters.
‘There’s no way anyone could forge that.’
If it were written with an ordinary pen, maybe.
But with a brush? Even with my Dexterity, I wouldn’t dare try to imitate it.
That was the sort of level only someone who had trained with brush calligraphy for years could reach.
I couldn’t fully understand the contents because my grasp of Chinese characters was still somewhat lacking, so I had the Sword Saint explain it to me.
***
The next day,
I headed to Cheonmasan National Park in Namyangju City to deliver that letter.
‘This was also the place where the Sword Saint first made a name for himself.’
Two Rifts had opened on Cheonmasan at the same time, an extraordinary occurrence.
Not only Low-Grade Monsters but Mid-Grade Monsters as well had poured out of them, throwing the entire Cheonmasan area into chaos. Armed soldiers and police had been deployed, but all they achieved was immense loss of life.
At that time, the Sword Saint had only just Awakened.
Yet he entered the mountain alone and cut down not only Low-Grade Monsters but Mid-Grade Monsters as well.
Afterward, he and his companions secured those two Rifts, established a guild halfway up the mountain nearby, and had maintained it there ever since.
‘And the mountain’s name just happens to be Cheonmasan.’
That was why some people, especially those fond of wuxia fiction, jokingly called the Sword Saint the Heavenly Demon.
Once I arrived, I began climbing the mountain along the ridgeline.
‘This really feels like the road to a martial sect in a wuxia novel.’
After crossing ridge after ridge, I finally saw it in the distance—a guild compound built on a ledge beneath a cliff, ringed all around by bamboo.
The Bamboo Fragrance Guild.
There were seven Hanok buildings,
and at the center stood a training ground.
‘It really does look like a martial arts sect.’
When I looked through the binoculars, I could see people training with swords and spears.
That spearwork was fairly good.
I’d developed a decent eye for spearwork myself, thanks to learning from Ria every day.
But the overall mood seemed rather grim.
Not one of them looked well.
It must have been because the Sword Saint had gone missing.
‘Then I suppose it’s time to begin.’
I had brought the letter tied to the butt of a dagger I borrowed from Adel—no, Erik.
According to the Sword Saint, the letter said something like this.
-I, Hwang Myeong-u, am alive together with Adel Eriksson and Rani Santos.
-Regrettably, the remaining members of the raiding party now lie asleep within the Rift.
-I offer my deepest condolences to their bereaved families.
-Our raiding party cleared the third floor of the Rift, and the three surviving members are currently stranded on the fourth floor.
-I ask that this letter be made public through the media so that a relief force may be organized to come find us.
-If you pass through the third floor and head east on the fourth, you will find us.
-Sender: Master Hwang Myeong-u.
And on a separate small note, it said:
-The bearer of this letter carries my token and is the one who delivered it. When he comes, ask him nothing and hand over the cold-attribute Highest-Grade Magic Stone. He is the benefactor who saved my life, so you are forbidden from interrogating him, harming him, following him, or engaging in any act of that sort. Also, after delivering the letter to the media, you are never to speak of the one who brought it. Keep absolute silence. I trust you will not commit the foolish act of staining my honor.
That was the gist of it.
He had emphasized my safety and anonymity very strongly.
I opened Acresia and used the Release Skill, sending the dagger toward the ground beside the training ground.
The dagger flew through the air and stabbed into the dirt with a small puff of dust.
The guild members were startled by the sudden appearance of the dagger.
Through the binoculars, I watched their reaction.
Soon, one of them untied the letter from the ring at the back of the dagger’s handle and began reading it.
The moment he finished reading it, his legs seemed to give way, and he collapsed right where he stood.
Then another person quickly snatched the letter and began reading it too.
A moment later, a great shout rang all the way to where I was.
“Master is alive!”
And with that cry, the entire Bamboo Fragrance Guild erupted into commotion.