NPC - 9

Chapter 9

I ended up experiencing a bone-chilling shiver in that freezing atmosphere. The eyes glaring down at me were icy and arrogant, yet the words leaving his mouth were strictly formal. The sheer dissonance of it made my head spin.

I hastily opened my mouth. 

"I-Isn't it obvious? It's strange for a noble to speak so formally to a commoner like me..."

"Did I ever say I was a noble?"

"……!" 

I swallowed hard once again.

'W-Wait, he didn't?'

He certainly hadn't said it himself. Actually, the only things he had ever said to me were, "Who are you?", "I don't need it," and "I am indebted to you." He hadn't uttered a single word related to nobility.

Then what excuse should I use?

"W-Well, seeing as you had those knights accompanying you, I just assumed you were a noble."

"Tsk." 

He clicked his tongue, as if completely caught off guard, and turned his head away. If I had been the only one to figure out Derek's noble status, he might have just chalked it up to me being unusually perceptive, or having past-life memories.

Unfortunately for him, not only my parents but the entire village already knew.

'Honestly, it’d be weirder if people didn't notice.'

As I blankly stared up at Derek's profile, he suddenly whipped his head around, our eyes locking. His eyes gleamed like cold sapphires. Just looking into them made me feel like I was going to freeze solid.

They weren't the eyes of Medusa turning people to stone, but eyes that could freeze a person in place. Did having such a beautifully sculptured face come with some sort of penalty?

Glaring down at me, he slowly parted his lips.

"It is a habit."

"...Pardon?"

When I tilted my head in confusion, he offered a curt addition.

"Speaking formally."

"……."

'Liar!'

I knew better than anyone that it was a blatant lie. When he was delirious, he had spat out threatening, informal words, and his dialogue in the game was far from polite. No matter how you looked at it, it was absolutely not a habit.

"Ah~ I see." 

Still, digging deeper into this would only spell trouble for me. How long had it been since I promised myself to stop getting involved, yet here I was, prying again? I had already done everything I could by saving that beautiful face and his arms.

Any further interference would be risking my own life. 

"Well then, have a good night."

I briefly wondered if it was okay to speak to him so casually knowing he was a noble, but he didn't seem to care anyway. More importantly, I didn't actually know the proper etiquette.

'Should I use extreme honorifics?' 

What would I do if I met another noble? But I decided to stop overthinking that, too. It wasn't like anyone expected a commoner like me to possess the refined manners of the nobility anyway.

I pulled my arrow out of the ground. That rabbit had escaped, but it wasn't the only one in the area. I had loudly declared I would bring back meat, so I needed to catch at least one.

Just as I was about to resume my hunt..

"Wait."

"?!" 

Derek seized my arm. The grip was intense, conveying a raw sense of urgency.

"...It is dangerous around here."

"Pardon?" 

For something he claimed was a habit, his formal speech was incredibly awkward. Plus, why the sudden hesitation?

I raised my free hand and gently waved it in front of him. I had roamed this area more times than I could count, both in the game and in reality.

"I know there are monsters around here." 

I also knew that high-level monsters never spawned in this zone.

To encounter something like that, you had to travel at least a sector further out, and going beyond that... well, that got genuinely dangerous. But right here? The only monsters around were ones I could easily take down with my bow.

"That is not..."

Thud!

BOOM!

"...Huh?"

That was when it happened. Heavy footsteps echoed around us, and I felt the ground vibrate beneath my feet. Even before it came into view, its overwhelming presence and oppressive aura prickled against my skin.

'W-Wait, a monster like this... shouldn't spawn in this area, right?' 

Even if I went further out, there was no way a monster radiating this much power should appear.

"This way."

"Gah?!" 

Derek yanked my arm with tremendous force. I ended up slamming my knees into the dirt, but I was safely concealed right behind him.

'W-What's going on?' 

With my view completely blocked by him, I tentatively peeked my head out. Derek began to stand, so I cautiously followed suit.

Thud! 

Despite approaching from a distance, the monster's form was terrifyingly clear.

Its silhouette resembled a horse. However, getting on its back would require far more than a simple jump. It possessed massive, majestic wings spread wide on either side and towering goat-like horns. An intense, overbearing aura seemed to erupt from its entire body. Just looking at it made my knees want to buckle on their own.

"……." 

I forced strength into my trembling legs, barely keeping myself upright.

Seeing a monster that used to leave me in awe through a computer monitor now standing right in front of me... an indescribable surge of emotion washed over me.

'But... that's a monster.' 

Right. That wasn't some divine being to be worshipped and admired; it was a monster. Furthermore, it was one of the few Field Bosses in this world. 

The only catch was that this particular beast harbored a unique poison. A poison that could only be cured by a remedy obtained through a very specific event...

"Ah!"

"Shh. Quiet." 

Derek frowned and hurriedly clamped his hand over my mouth. Holding my arm with one hand and muffling my mouth with the other... if anyone saw us right now, they'd think I was being kidnapped.

"It hasn't noticed us yet, so head back immediately."

His words, however, completely contradicted the current situation.

I stared up at Derek's face. The venom that had spread so viciously across his face and arms last time, though fully healed now, came directly from that monster.

After holding my gaze for a moment, he turned his body to face forward.

My arm and mouth were now free, but I had absolutely no desire to run away. Instead, I clung even closer to his back and whispered as quietly as possible.

"That monster... isn't that the one you fought last time?"

Instantly, I felt Derek's body flinch and stiffen. It seemed he was flustered that I had hit the nail on the head. It was probably a sore subject for him, but this was something I absolutely needed to confirm. 

I waited for his response.

"I failed to sever its windpipe completely last time, so I am here to finish the job."

"Ah, you were gravely injured back then, so you didn't have the time to..."

"……."

In a flash, his sharp glare pierced through me like a blade. I had imagined his death glare a few times before, but experiencing it in reality was on a whole different level. I wasn't actually stabbed, yet my breath caught in my throat as if my heart had stopped beating.

Gasping like a fish out of water, I finally managed to catch my breath and hastily backpedaled. 

"...I mean, taking responsibility and coming back to finish the job, truly the mark of a refined gentleman!"

"……."

Ah, I guess that kind of flattery only worked in my past life. Watching Derek's face contort into a subtle grimace, I hurriedly changed the subject. 

"By the way, why are you alone?"

Now that I thought about it, he was flying solo. It was genuinely surprising that his overprotective entourage of knights was nowhere to be seen. Those guys... they seemed like the type to follow him to the ends of the earth, no matter what it took.

"I am more than capable of handling this level of threat on my own."

It seemed he had given his knights the slip once again. He had charged in alone last time and paid a massive price for it, yet here he was, alone once more. Was Derek's pride really just that monumental?

I figured it would be best to stroke his ego a bit before continuing. 

"Ah~ I see, I see. Of course you are."

"……."

Even though I was agreeing with him, Derek's expression crumpled into an even fiercer scowl. Should I have just kept my mouth shut? 

"But..." 

I paused. I honestly had no idea what the right move was here.

It felt like the twisted plotline was trying to course-correct, forcefully repeating the same event. However, unlike last time, if his knights failed to discover him in time, Derek might actually die here.

If Derek lost his life here, there was no telling how the rest of the story would unfold.

'...Is, is this my fault?' 

Was it because I hadn't let the story play out the way it was supposed to? Should I have just turned a blind eye back then? Or was this the world's way of proving that what was meant to happen, will happen?

I swallowed all my rambling thoughts and blurted out the core issue.

"How about we just run away together?"

"Did I not just tell you? I am here to finish the job."

His tone had grown even colder, and it was terrifying. But I refused to give up and desperately grabbed his sleeve. Why was he so hell-bent on throwing away the life I had just saved? If you’re going to throw it away, you might as well just give it to me.

"Or, maybe... how about leaving that thing to someone else?"

"For example?" 

Terrifying. His low, rumbling voice felt like it was drilling straight into the earth. I was starting to wonder just how utterly cold a human voice could get.

"L-Like a passing mercenary with dark blond hair and green eyes?"

"That is oddly specific."

"Ah." 

I had accidentally described the protagonist way too accurately.

Derek let out a soft smirk. However, it wasn't enough to lighten the mood, nor did it mean he was going to back down. 

"There's no need for that. I can just finish it off right now."

"Ah!" 

Derek roughly yanked his sleeve from my grasp and strode forward. He never once looked back. I wasn't sure if he was ignoring me because he had already warned me to leave, or if he was genuinely angry.

"Ugh..." 

I couldn't just walk away now. There is absolutely no way Derek can defeat that monster on his own. The storyline of this world had already decreed it. Yet, the thought of actually stepping up to help him fight the beast made me hesitate.

And for good reason. That monster...

"Is my sub-quest!"

That monster. That absolute unit, the strongest Field Boss in this entire region, was the exact target of the sub-quest I was supposed to hand out to the protagonist. In exchange for defeating it, my reward was a rare recovery item that couldn't be bought in any shop.

If things had followed the original storyline, Derek would have failed to kill it, gotten severely poisoned, and then I would have miraculously discovered the monster's presence right here. 

'No wonder... everything felt so off today.' 

Belatedly realizing we were out of meat, the eerie silence of the nocturnal animals... this beast was undoubtedly the cause.

It was Derek's mortal enemy, but to me, it was a crucial sub-quest that I absolutely had to pass on to the protagonist. 

"...S-Shouldn't I hold him back for now?" 

RUMBLE!

But it was already too late. The exact moment I lunged forward to grab Derek, the Boss Monster locked its sights on him. 

"……!"

Watching the scene unfold from behind was honestly quite breathtaking. They say ridiculously handsome people look good doing literally anything, and it was true. There was Derek, charging at the Boss Monster with his sword drawn, and the massive, Bicorn-like beast rearing up to meet his strike.

'If only cameras existed in this world.' 

The scene was so magnificent and fantastical, looking like a masterpiece painting that I desperately wanted to capture on film. A faint mist rolled in between them, blending seamlessly into the cinematic landscape. 

It would have been absolutely perfect if a massive Boss HP bar appeared at the top of my vision with some epic orchestral music fading in.