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Memorize - Episode 44
044 Preparations for Taking Flight
"We're both struggling in the shadows. Though we're enemies... anyway, it's nice to meet you."
"Hmm. I've heard a lot of rumors. Han So-young, the commander of the battlefield. And you're the Sword Master under her command? Jin Su-hyun, was it?"
"Ah. Sorry. Not Jin Su-hyun, but Kim Su-hyun."
"Perhaps. If I had met her first, I might have immediately joined under her command. She's that charming of a user."
"The quality of your joke is poor. Where I am now isn't bad either. And I don't have a habit of betraying."
Fortunately, the warp gate was still maintaining its fee reduction policy. Originally, we would have had to pay 2 gold per person for a total of 8 gold, but thanks to the 50% discount, we were able to use it by paying only half, 4 gold.
The kids were constantly showing signs of amazement as they entered the portal with its gently rippling waves. They should be getting used to it by now, having experienced it a few times during the Trial of Passage. Turning their heads around like that was no different from advertising "I'm a beginner user!"
I had a burning desire to caution them that such small actions could make them targets for vagrants. However, I didn't want to be branded as a nagging mother from the start, so I firmly closed my mouth that I had half-opened.
As I fully immersed my body into the portal, a cool sensation enveloped my entire body, as if I had entered the sea naked. I quietly closed my eyes. After savoring the clear energy that filled my entire body, I opened my eyes again to find that the scenery had already changed, with the view of a shabby city entering my pupils.
We had arrived in the small city of Mule.
Mule could hardly be said to be prosperous, even in jest. The kids' reactions, in particular, were quite a sight. After living in the major city of Barbara with its neat roads and clean buildings, bright and grand atmosphere, they seemed at a loss for words seeing such a rundown city.
It could be said that it was a far-off dream for a pioneering city to catch up to Barbara. Unless the small lord in charge of the city's representative clan had extraordinary skills, that is. I moved my steps, treading on the bumpy, ochre-colored clumps of earth, leading the kids.
Mule's streets were generally quiet. The occasional users seen were mostly people wearing shabby equipment. Even considering that everyone had left the city as it was the time transitioning from morning to afternoon, we couldn't expect to see users at every step like in a major city. (Of course, I hadn't expected that in the first place.)
Yoo-jung looked around with an unfamiliar face and then asked me in a curious voice:
"Oppa. What do we do now? Are we going to leave the city right away?"
What nonsense. We should at least secure a place to return to before leaving. I shook my head.
"No. First, we need to find an inn to use as our base camp for the time being."
"Base camp? Inn?"
"If we're not registered as an official clan, it's hard to get even a house, let alone a clan house. Think of it as living in an inn for the time being."
I was planning to visit the inn first anyway to have breakfast + lunch. I don't know what the kids think, but I think it's not bad for having just taken our first steps into the Hollow Plane. Users who couldn't join a clan or dropped out of the User Academy midway would find it hard to even make a living day by day.
While a pub might come to mind as the place most sensitive to the flow of information in a city, I had a different reason for choosing an inn. During my first run in the Hollow Plane, I had briefly been active in Mule, and there was an inn where I had stayed without much thought at the time.
Back then, I just stayed at that inn without thinking and passed by, but afterwards, I had a chance to confirm one coincidental fact related to the inn.
After walking along the main road for a while, tracing my memories, I stopped in front of a shabby-looking inn. The kids following me also stopped. A faded sign bore the strange name
Bang! Crash!
"Aaaah! Help meee!"
Just as a loud noise was heard from inside the inn, a male user with a dark beard burst out, flinging the inn door open. With a face tight with fear, he came running out almost falling and actually rolled in front of us.
But immediately, with a skill close to acrobatics, he sprang up and then fled without looking back. Having roughly guessed the situation, I could smile slightly, but the kids just stared blankly in the direction he had run off.
"Don't just stand there stupidly, come in."
Soon, a thin voice, somewhat husky but distinctly feminine, flowed out from inside the inn. As I led the dazed kids into the inn, we saw the chaotic interior. The scattered dishes and tablecloths were nothing compared to the broken chairs and overturned tables. Ahn Hyun let out a groan seeing this.
In the center of the hall stood a woman with a composed face. She had a languid smile, looking highly satisfied about something. If there was anything distinctive about her compared to other users, it was the faint ashen tint in her hair.
Soon, the woman glanced at me and then slowly looked around at all of us before speaking.
"New faces. Are you customers?"
A gentle voice that could melt a man's heart flowed from her beautiful lips. Ahn Hyun's face was unconsciously turning red. This guy's starting again. Being already immune to such temptations, I could answer calmly.
"Yes. We're customers."
"Meal? Lodging?"
"Both. We'd like to have a meal first, please."
At my answer, she smiled softly and said:
"I like polite men. Alright. Little ones, this place is a mess, isn't it? So go wait at another table."
I obediently sat down at the place she pointed to. The kids seemed too flustered at first to look around carefully, but after settling down a bit, they were turning their heads this way and that, looking around.
A moment later, the woman approached our table with a face full of smiles. Of course, the tables and chairs were still in their original state. She almost threw down water, cups, and menus, but amazingly, they all spun once and gently settled in the center of the table. Seeing this, the kids' eyes all became round with surprise.
"You can order things not on the menu too... I can make most things. What would you like to eat?"
The kids simultaneously turned their gaze to me. I briefly skimmed the menu before answering. Honestly, I just pretended to skim it, as I already knew what to order if we came here.
"Four servings of Set A, please."
"My, handsome kids with good taste too. Set A will be out soon, so just wait a little."
With a walk that fully showed off her explosive figure, she quickly went into the kitchen. Ahn Sol was looking at me with a sulky face, and Yoo-jung's face was strange too. Only Ahn Hyun was looking at me with envious eyes.
"Oppa. This place seems weird somehow. Why did we come here?"
"Yeah. It's strange. Can't we just go somewhere else?"
As Yoo-jung opened her mouth with a displeased face, Sol quickly chimed in, agreeing. At their words, I tilted my head. I didn't expect them to suggest going somewhere else. Is it that strange? Hearing the two, Hyun spoke urgently:
"Come on! I think it's fine. It's not that strange. Do we really need to go somewhere else?"
The moment Hyun finished speaking, the two female users simultaneously glared at Ahn Hyun. Yoo-jung looked at him with a "I knew you'd be like this" expression, while Sol gazed at her brother with eyes full of disappointment. Flinching at the two women's stares, Ahn Hyun coughed and immediately changed his words.
"I-I'm really hungry. Let's eat first and then talk..."
"You're playing around. Did you fall in love at first sight or something?"
Hyun didn't answer. He just turned his head to look at distant mountains(?). Yoo-jung, taking her gaze off him, immediately turned her arrows towards me. Her voice was quite sharp. Sol too, seemingly thoroughly annoyed since the Barbara plaza, was grumbling uncharacteristically.
"Hmph. I don't like being called 'little one' either. We're not babies."
As Ahn Sol finished speaking, Yoo-jung looked at her quietly with a stricken face. I too had nothing to say, having thought of Sol as a child until now. Yoo-jung scratched her head for a moment and then continued to express her dissatisfaction. Hmm. Why are they acting like this?
"If we're going to an inn, we should go to a proper one. This place is clearly strange. The inside is a mess. And that man ran away with his tail between his legs."
I want to say your personality is even stranger. It's unpredictable. Barely suppressing the urge to say this, I responded with an awkward smile. Seemingly displeased with my reaction too, Yoo-jung was about to start gossiping about me and Hyun in a duo with Sol when suddenly...
Swoosh.
"Eek!"
Yoo-jung let out a strange scream and shuddered. The woman had suddenly appeared behind Yoo-jung, holding a plate in one hand. Ahn Hyun and Ahn Sol also looked like they were about to faint seeing the woman. They couldn't sense the woman's presence even though she was right next to them. The pointless thought that life is indeed about real experience crossed my mind.
The woman opened her mouth with her characteristic languid eyes and gentle voice:
"My... I've never heard such a peculiar scream before."
"You cra-?!"
Yoo-jung, seemingly angered by the woman's nonchalant face, was about to reveal her true nature. At that moment, her eyes widened like saucers and she stopped speaking. The woman had bent down and wrapped one arm around Yoo-jung's shoulders. The woman pulled Yoo-jung into her embrace in that position. Yoo-jung ended up with her face buried in the woman's chest.
"Little one."
While Yoo-jung was at a loss for words, a faint energy rose from the woman's body. That energy instantly dominated the surroundings and then turned into a heavily pressing air. And the moment the air changed, Ahn Hyun, Ahn Sol, and Yoo-jung's faces hardened as if their bodies had frozen.
The woman brought her lips close to Yoo-jung's ear, who was in her embrace, and whispered:
"Are you curious why that man ran away so desperately...?"
Yoo-jung didn't answer. No, it seemed more accurate to say she couldn't answer.
I deliberately didn't take any separate action and just watched the situation. What the woman had just displayed was part of
"That man came in and told me to take his order... Do you know what he said he wanted to eat?"
An entirely uneasy air filled the area around the table. It was almost difficult to breathe. Even if Ahn Hyun or Yoo-jung couldn't, Sol should have been able to resist to some extent. Seeing Sol trembling with a surprised face, I thought she indeed needed real experience.
While I was thinking about this and that, the woman continued speaking to Yoo-jung.
"He said he wanted to eat my breasts."
After finishing her words, the woman chuckled. Watching her, I thought she truly lived up to her reputation. Eventually, taking her gaze off Yoo-jung, she flashed a bewitching smile at me and Hyun. I wanted to leave them be a bit longer, but I couldn't ignore Yoo-jung's gaze any longer as she barely managed to turn her eyes to me, asking for help.
I slowly moved my right hand to pick up the water glass on the table. As I did so, I could see the woman's eyes change with interest. I took a sip, gulped it down, and as I put it back on the table, I infused a bit of magic power into it.
Clack.
The sound of the glass touching the wooden table was unusually loud. And at that moment, my magic power, spreading out in all directions from the cup, instantly neutralized the magic power she had spread around. Originally, it would give a big shock all at once to inflict a magic shock on the opponent, but this wasn't a combat situation.
Soon, like a curtain being drawn, the formless energy that had filled the surroundings disappeared in an instant. As soon as the energy dissipated, Ahn Hyun and Ahn Sol, who had almost buried themselves in their chairs, looked at me and the woman alternately with surprised faces.
Yoo-jung, being the closest, seemed to have been most affected, breathing heavily. Although her face clearly showed signs of anger, she kept her gaze lowered to the table. Yoo-jung must have instinctively felt it just now. That the user level between herself and the woman was on a different dimension.
"Oh...?"
The woman, seemingly not expecting this, let out a small exclamation and straightened her body again. Watching the woman's face change from initial surprise to one full of curiosity, I calmly opened my mouth.
"From what I hear, it seems that man deserved to be chased out."
Hearing my quiet words, the woman looked at me with an amused face. Then she nodded obediently and answered.
"...Right? But he's still a customer. Business hasn't been good lately... So I just asked for one hundred gold for one meal."
I have a thousand gold.
"That man didn't look like he had much money."
"Yeah. As you said, he said he had no money. Instead... he said he'd give me something else good."
"Something good?"
At my question, the woman smiled more deeply and continued.
"Yeah. He said he'd give me lots of syringes."
"Are there... syringes in the Hollow Plane too?"
Ahn Hyun, having somewhat composed himself, interjected into the conversation between me and the woman. The funny thing was that he spoke in a much lower voice than usual. Seeing him trying to exchange even a word with the woman somehow, I felt anew that men are truly sad creatures.
The woman smiled seductively at Ahn Hyun, finding him cute, and answered.
"Of course. Don't all men have at least one syringe filled with nutrients?"
"What...?"
Looking at Ahn Hyun, who was questioning as if he didn't understand, the woman raised her slender finger and pointed at Hyun's pants.
"You have one too. A syringe filled with white nutrients."
"White nutrients? Ah...?!"
"Yeah. He said he'd inject it directly between my thighs."
Ahn Hyun seemed to finally understand what she meant, his face turning red as he lowered his head deeply. Only Sol had a blank face, as if she didn't understand what they were talking about.
"I was about to break that syringe... but unfortunately, he ran away. He was lucky."
The woman licked her lips with a regretful face. Seeing this, Ahn Hyun could be seen quickly closing his thighs while swallowing hard.
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