Chapter 44: Donations

I apologized first.

"No, *sigh*... sorry. Just forget what I said earlier. I'm a bit on edge right now."

"Oh... it's fine."

Though I snapped at her briefly, I know it's not good to act purely on emotions.

She made the effort to come all this way, so my attitude just now wasn't great.

After collecting myself, I told her to come inside.

Honestly I'm not in any state to receive guests right now, but it felt wrong to just send her away.

As we walked deeper into the cave, I could feel her watching me.

Her gaze was full of concern. She seemed quite curious, repeatedly opening and closing her mouth.

After a moment, unable to contain her curiosity any longer, she carefully asked:

"Um... did something happen yesterday?"

Though she usually avoids questions knowing I dislike them, she must have been especially curious this time.

Fair enough - even I would first ask what happened if I saw someone covered in blood.

I gave a vague answer.

"Period."

"... Huh?"

"Had my period."

"...?"

Is that right?

Well, it happens about once a month and there's blood, so it's kind of similar I guess.

She tilted her head in confusion, but this was the most of an answer I could give.

I couldn't exactly explain about Rage Mode, and besides, I didn't have the energy to properly deal with guests right now.

As I headed deeper into the cave, I pondered internally.

'Now what do I do with her...?'

I let her in but didn't have the strength to interact.

My mind was hazy and my body felt like it weighed tons. Simply put, I was extremely tired.

Not only did I pull an all-nighter due to Rage Mode, but I'd completely drained both my mental and physical energy.

Usually after Rage Mode, the rule is to sleep the entire next day.

That's the only way to return to normal.

'Should I have her stand guard...?'

That's why I briefly considered this.

Actually, because of the blood scent, monsters sometimes enter my cave.

Though the scent doesn't spread well since it's from deep in the cave, monsters' sense of smell was beyond imagination.

Thanks to that, I've had experiences of monsters attacking while I sleep. Though I somehow managed to wake up and survive each time, it still made me uneasy.

Of course, having someone else nearby while sleeping was uncomfortable too...

'Hmm...'

So I fell into brief contemplation.

Would it be better to send her away and sleep with defenses up?

Or have her guard me and sleep more comfortably?

Fortunately the deliberation wasn't long.

I asked her.

"Want to do a job?"

*

Shortly after.

"Wake me up right away if anyone comes. And absolutely don't go inside."

"Yes, yes."

"And just in case - don't try anything weird. I'm a light sleeper."

"Come on. I couldn't beat you anyway, what could I possibly do? Hurry up and wash and get some sleep."

"...Right. You can turn on your stream if you get bored."

Chae-rin accepted the guard duty quest for Yor.

Surprisingly, a quest window popped up again. The content was to guard the area until Yor wakes up. Quest reward was a small fee.

It was such a simple mission there was nothing to hesitate about.

And honestly, she would have accepted even without the quest.

He looked far too exhausted and unstable right now.

She thought with a troubled expression:

'What in the world happened yesterday...?'

She'd come planning to excitedly share Arena news, but who knew she'd find him covered in blood right away. He clearly looked like something had happened overnight.

Though there were no visible wounds, the amount of blood was enough to have drained an entire person. Plus his complexion looked awful and he seemed exhausted.

Honestly when she first saw him she nearly fainted from shock.

The only reason she didn't fall backwards was because her body froze up.

That's how shocking the scene was.

But when she finally worked up the courage to ask, his answer was... period?

"Hmm..."

After pondering a while, she just turned on her stream.

Despite the sudden morning broadcast, viewers flooded in. It showed how much her stream had grown.

[oh]

[yuha]

[ong?]

[why the sudden morning stream?]

Looking at the greeting viewers, she asked seriously:

"Hey guys. Can men get periods...?"

[?]

[talking nonsense first thing lololol]

[ofc not you dumbass]

[please understand~ our streamer's never been with a man so she doesn't know~]

[didn't even get elementary education wwww]

Seeing the chat window hurling insults in real-time, Chae-rin nodded.

"Mm-hmm."

Usually this level of chat would warrant timeouts, but she wasn't bothered at all.

At least she confirmed her common sense wasn't wrong.

'Then what really happened...?'

If anything, her curiosity only grew.

What made it more frustrating was that she couldn't ask further.

He had a tendency to avoid questions about himself. She couldn't help but notice he had many secrets.

And honestly... asking him anything in his current state might actually get her hit.

'Ah whatever.'

After pondering briefly, she decided to let it go.

Though very curious, there was no way to find out. She could only think that her curiosity would be satisfied later if the chance arose.

"You turned on your stream?"

As she was organizing her thoughts alone, he returned.

As he said, he'd taken a bath.

The blood-soaked appearance was completely gone, replaced by a clean look.

[sudden stream AND Yor wow wow wow]

[is today some special occasion?]

[yoha]

[why's his hair so wet after shower lol]

[wet Yor wow wow wow]

[ahem]

"Well, I'm going to sleep. Guard well."

[Sleep?]

[But it's morning..?]

[He does look pretty tired tho]

[I know how to sleep too lololol]

[Should we sleep together? hehe]

Seeing the chat window go wild at Yor looking more defenseless than usual, Chae-rin spoke up.

"Hey, keep the chat clean. You think I can't use the ban function?"

Starting the stream so early in the morning was the issue.

Since the mods were probably still sleeping, the viewers' brakes seemed a bit broken. Still, they settled down somewhat at her warning.

[so what are we doing today?]

After Yor went deep into the cave, viewers asked her this.

Chae-rin looked at it and edited her stream title.

Though it was just a chatting stream, more viewers were always better.

So to draw more attention...

[Doing stuff while Yor sleeps.avi]

Well, it wasn't wrong.

*

7 hours after Yor fell asleep.

During that time, she did various things as per the stream title to kill time.

Though it was called a guard quest, honestly there wasn't much to do.

No monsters invaded, and there weren't bandits like in carriage escort missions.

If anything, she felt guilty about getting such an easy quest...

So she decided to do something while Yor slept.

She cleaned up the blood he'd dripped on the floor, chatted with viewers, and even made some soup using preserved food from her inventory.

Who knew her experience living alone would shine here.

Of course, every time viewers frantically demanded she go into Yor's room, but she ignored them. She didn't want her throat slit.

As a guest, the area she could move around in wasn't very wide.

Still, she could tell this cave was spacious.

From seeing how he lived, it seemed to have bathing facilities and a storage room.

It had everything needed for living.

"......"

She deliberately ignored the faint blood scent from deep inside. The atmosphere clearly suggested it was something she shouldn't know about.

'...He probably just butchered some monsters right? Right?'

She could only try to cover her curiosity with thoughts like these.

After another 2 hours passed, Yor finally woke up.

She saw him approaching from far away, rubbing his eyes. He still looked half-asleep. Chae-rin said to him:

"Still tired after sleeping that much? You can sleep more."

"...It's fine. The sun will set soon and you need to head back too."

Hearing that, Chae-rin looked outside.

An orange glow softly covered the forest. It meant sunset was falling.

In just a few more hours, it would be completely dark.

Chae-rin gave a wry smile.

'Guess I'll have to tell him about the Arena later...'

It was slightly disappointing but couldn't be helped. She wasn't confident about returning at night.

"Come on, I'll take you back."

Chae-rin nodded at Yor's words.

Though she could return alone, having him along made things feel much safer on a different level.

Better than sneaking around with stealth activated, it was more comfortable going with his escort.

They could chat lightly while walking too.

So Chae-rin and Yor had some soup and headed out of the cave.

Fortunately no monsters attacked.

It was late afternoon, and recently the forest monsters' aggro was dispersed to various places.

After walking through the forest for a while, they spotted a group approaching from the opposite direction.

"Oh found him!"

"Wow the forest really is all similar. It's super hard to meet up."

They were Otherworlders just like Chae-rin.

It had been a year since [Demons Saga] launched. Users' average levels had risen quite a bit during that time.

And with that, quite a few were now challenging the 'Forbidden Forest'.

Of course, only 5% succeeded in reaching the Middle Layer... but in other words, 5% did succeed.

Thanks to that, the forest had gotten a bit busy lately.

Sometimes while walking through the forest, you could even see items dropped by dead users.

In a way, Yor's prediction had come true.

"Hello, I'm a fan."

"Here's a gift."

And these Otherworlders they met were viewers of Chae-rin's stream.

They immediately pulled bread from their inventory and handed it to Yor.

"...?"

Watching them with wary eyes, Yor accepted the bread with a bewildered expression.

It was a sugar-coated donut.

"Hey hey, let's get out quick. I'm about to die from no mana."

"Well we'll be going then. Keep up the great streams~"

After giving their real-life(?) donation, the viewers coolly left the forest.

Similar things happened a few more times.

Viewers who somehow found Yor would approach and act familiar.

Each time, Yor would receive gifts or requests for autographs.

"...?"

Yor wore an ambiguous expression.

What is this, it feels like being a zoo monkey for the first time in ages.

Getting gifts felt nice but something felt off.

He looked at Chae-rin with a blank face.

She answered with an awkward expression:

"Ahaha, this is interesting...?"

"Were, there always this many strong viewers?"

"Yeah... I'm a bit surprised too."

Seeing Yor's uncomfortable face, Chae-rin spoke to the chat.

Though she appreciated the sentiment, she asked them to stop coming since it might be burdensome.

While only kind-hearted viewers had passed by so far, you never knew when sketchy ones might show up. Not everyone was normal after all.

Still, they continued onwards regardless.

And not long after warning the viewers, they encountered two more people.

Chae-rin was about to speak up again.

"Look, I appreciate the thought but please stop coming-"

That's when it happened.

Thud.

Yor blocked Chae-rin's path. She looked at him for a moment.

His amber eyes were filled with wariness.

Then he asked menacingly.

"Who are you?"

Chae-rin didn't know, but right now a window had appeared in Yor's vision.

A window completely different from the viewers they'd met so far.

[Condition not met!]

['Player's Eye' cannot be used on this target!]

In other words, they weren't Otherworlders.