Chapter 1
Violet eyes, white hair, long pointed ears, and a slender nape.
Hollow cheeks, sunken eyes, greasy hair,
and a body so emaciated her bones showed.
Yet her face was so cute it made you want to protect her, and she was maybe 140 centimeters tall?
Anyone who could look at that face genuinely frowning and not feel hurt would be a psychopath. Probably.
It was a little strange to think this was the changed face of a friend he’d spent three years of high school with.
The elf slave… that is, Suyeon, was wearing Seonghyeon’s shirt, loosely draped over her and slipping off.
His friend blinked as she ravenously ate the soup he’d gotten from the inn.
It ran down both sides of her mouth, got all over her clothes, and she even licked the plate clean.
“Kyaa… They say eating stuff like this on an empty stomach will mess you up, but whatever, it’s seriously delicious. Feels like my brain’s being soaked in sugar.”
“Good grief, feeling a little better now that you’ve eaten?”
It was truly pitiful, but his friend, now a petite girl, seemed to have gone hungry for days.
This was a human city, and dangerous elves were usually captured and killed or subdued with a slave contract.
Apparently, ordinary elves were a natural race that lived for hundreds of years, which made them extremely dangerous.
Seeing the little elf eat with such gusto put Seonghyeon at ease, too.
But when he saw Suyeon finish the plate, his feelings grew complicated again.
There was so much he wanted to ask.
Unlike Seonghyeon, who had lived in this other world for a year, he had no idea how long Suyeon had lived here as an elf or what she’d been through.
Considering an elf’s lifespan, Suyeon might have lived here much longer.
“Seonghyeon, thank you. Thank you so much. I’m really grateful you saved me.”
“You don’t have to thank me. How did this happen?”
“How did it happen? I don’t know either. I just closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I was in a forest. A bear suddenly showed up and attacked me, so I ran for it, and then I found some hunters, right? I shouted to them for help, but they couldn’t understand me. Instead, they caught me and dragged me all the way here.”
“You got caught by elf hunters.”
“No, I don’t think those people were deliberately hunting elves. I was just stupid and got caught.”
“Fuck,” the emaciated girl muttered, barely audibly.
He could imagine the rest without needing to hear it.
After Seonghyeon laid the unconscious Suyeon on the bed, he couldn’t help seeing her wounds, whether he wanted to or not.
When he saw the slave mark on the back of her neck, as if branded with a hot iron, his expression twisted.
Unlike Seonghyeon, who had reincarnated in this other world looking just as he had in his previous life, Suyeon had changed completely.
“Hey, by the way, how’d you fix this? It didn’t hurt when I woke up.”
“Healing magic. One level-one spell slot.”
“Healing… magic? Ah… Right, this is that kind of world. Jeez…”
“For your information, my class is Cleric.”
A shadow fell across Suyeon’s face.
Fortunately, Seonghyeon was a Cleric, so he could heal his friend with a minor healing spell.
It did use up a spell slot, but he was done with everything he needed to do in the dungeon anyway.
If he hadn’t cast healing magic, Suyeon would still be passed out on the bed, bleeding.
“This really is a strange world.”
Meeting his friend made it feel all the more real.
Lee Seonghyeon had become a Cleric.
It was a truly RPG-esque class name.
True to its reputation as an all-around class, Seonghyeon had even made the list of the most promising up-and-coming adventurers several times.
“Aren’t you curious about my class?”
“I… have a class?”
“Yeah. You’re a Sorcerer.”
Anyway, the elf sitting across from him had been identified as a Sorcerer, which was a pretty decent class.
Unlike a Wizard, who had to study and learn magic, a Sorcerer could apparently use magic by instinct.
Seonghyeon recalled the Sorcerers he’d encountered in the Labyrinth and thought that if he trained his friend, she’d make a pretty useful companion eventually.
“Um… I see. Did the slave trader tell you?”
“Didn’t I tell you I have an appraisal skill?”
“Mm-hmm… Got it. And thanks for saving me.”
“You’re thanking me again?”
“I mean it. That fucking old man was so hell-bent on killing me. He kept saying stuff I couldn’t understand, but I’m pretty sure it was all insults.”
“You’ve experienced it yourself, but elves aren’t welcomed in this world. At least not in this city.”
“I know. So I just have to go around with you, pretending to be your slave?”
Suyeon deliberately showed him the chains wrapped around both her wrists and rattled them.
Seonghyeon chuckled at Suyeon’s joke, but he also felt conflicted inside.
Suyeon, his friend for three years, had gotten into the university that high schoolers across the country, including Seonghyeon, wanted to attend, while he’d failed to get in even after taking the entrance exam twice.
He used to meet up with that friend and drink often, but…
An uncomfortable jealousy was gnawing at Seonghyeon again.
Maybe it was because their Intelligence stats differed by two in the status window.
Maybe that was why he just couldn’t bring himself to take off her chains.
It was kind of cute seeing her like that, with the appearance of a scrawny girl,
and when he thought of her as his possession… even though the slave contract was enough to keep her in line, he couldn’t take off the chains.
“Yeah. I’m going to tell people you’re my slave when we’re outside, so don’t take those chains off.”
“Mm, okay.”
After all, the slave contract wasn’t something those chains could represent.
The slave mark was what enforced it.
Had Seonghyeon’s thoughts somehow reached Suyeon?
Suyeon suddenly flinched and looked at him.
“Oh, and…”
“And what?”
“Th-that, um, I’d rather you didn’t use that slave mark thing.”
“Why?”
“Well, um… I mean…”
Suyeon looked like she was about to say something, but then she chuckled and scratched her head.
Seonghyeon knew all too well what the slave mark did.
He remembered when someone with a porter contract in another party tried to run away and got caught.
He could only hope he’d never have to use the mark on his friend.
“No, never mind. What’s the point of that between friends? Anyway, shouldn’t you wash up first?”
“I-is that so? Ah… now that you mention it, I do feel itchy. I haven’t washed once since I got here… haha.”
“Yeah, this inn is pretty nice. It even has a private bathroom. I’ve been earning a decent living as an adventurer, so I got a room in a nice place.”
“Then I’m going to wash up? It’s okay if I do?”
“Yeah.”
Suyeon smiled brightly, with a look that made Seonghyeon’s heart nearly stop, and went into the bathroom.
He heard the door slam shut, followed soon after by the sound of a faucet turning.
Then, from inside, he heard the girl imitate an old man’s voice, going, “Gueeeh~”
Seonghyeon absentmindedly watched the spot where Suyeon had gone, rubbing at the surface of the slave mark.
Wondering if he was just being oversensitive, he cleared away the plate Suyeon had eaten from.
**
As soon as Seonghyeon returned to the room after taking the empty plate back to the inn, he came face-to-face with a flushed, naked girl.
Suyeon had come out and was drying off her dripping-wet body when her eyes met Seonghyeon’s.
“Eek—!”
“Whoa?”
Startled, Suyeon reflexively wrapped a long towel around herself to cover her body.
But Seonghyeon couldn’t forget the glimpse he’d gotten of Suyeon naked.
She was so scrawny that her body was nothing to look at, but… seeing for himself that she really didn’t have one made him realize she was a girl.
“Ahem…”
“Uh… sorry. I thought you’d gone out…”
“I did go out and come back.”
“The clothes… I’ll wear these.”
“Okay.”
Suyeon rummaged around, pulled out Seonghyeon’s clean shirt, and put it back on.
After washing up, she looked much better than before, with all the dirt gone.
Without Seonghyeon even telling her to, Suyeon cleaned the filth off the bed she’d been lying on.
Seonghyeon just watched while Suyeon cleaned.
In the meantime, the sun had already set and night had come.
Perhaps because this was a world where magic existed, a soft night-light glowed on the ceiling.
Seonghyeon lay down on the bed at the inn, now familiar to him.
The bed where Suyeon would sleep was across from his.
Seonghyeon thought about what he had to do tomorrow and started to turn off the night-light, then stopped.
Suyeon was still bustling about, not yet done getting ready for bed.
“Oh, sorry. Are you going to sleep?”
“Yeah.”
“Ah… I’ll just put this away—no, should I do it tomorrow?”
“Do whatever.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Suyeon switched off the night-light and lay down in the bed across from his, the chains on her wrists rattling.
Listening to the rustling, Seonghyeon drifted off to sleep.
**
Seonghyeon opened his eyes, sensing something strange.
It was still pitch-black night, and though this was a fairly safe neighborhood, that didn’t mean intruders never showed up.
Sensing someone’s presence, Seonghyeon reached for the mace beside him.
But what his outstretched hand touched was warm and soft…
“Kyaa… Who are you! S-Seonghyeon…?”
“What? It’s you?”
“Uh… sorry. I couldn’t sleep.”
“You couldn’t sleep?”
“I mean… sleeping alone… somehow it reminded me of a prison… I was pacing around beside you…”
When Seonghyeon turned on the night-light, Suyeon’s face was streaked with tears.
Judging by her actions, she looked like a cute girl crying out of fear of the dark, but in reality, this was his friend suffering from PTSD.
Seonghyeon sighed, then pulled Suyeon into a tight embrace and drew her into his bed.
“Ah, uh, yikes!”
“You said you couldn’t sleep alone.”
“Hey… but this is…”
“You think I’d sleep with you? Are you crazy?”
“Uh… no.”
“Just sleep. I need a good night’s rest to recover my skills, too. We’re going to the Labyrinth tomorrow.”
“Uh, sorry… okay…”
Suyeon trembled in Seonghyeon’s arms, but once he turned off the night-light, the trembling subsided.
Seonghyeon found it hard to sleep with her there, but seeing Suyeon sleeping peacefully in his arms left him unable to believe it.
He’d gone and made this troublesome friend his slave…
He’d thought she’d be pretty decent after seeing her status window, but he closed his eyes, hoping she wouldn’t do anything stupid in the dungeon tomorrow.
It truly was a long night.