Chapter 23
“Ophelia... do I really have to wear this..?”
“Yes.”
“Why…. ”
She’d vanished somewhere overnight, and then in the morning she suddenly showed up and handed me a new outfit. It had frills all over it, and for starters, it looked like something no Earthling would wear.
I could sort of understand the white shirt and black skirt Suri bought me, but this one was really too much.
Why on earth were the stockings white too? I don’t remember ever seeing white stockings on anyone except cosplayers.
“Do you know about the existence of the Command Issuance Skill, Princess?”
“Y-yeah.. I know….”
“In order to raise the Command Issuance Skill’s rank, the princess needs to have a princess-like bearing.”
“Waaah.”
I think Suri had said something similar before. She’d practically acted it out with her whole body, explaining that if I just spoke like a princess and all that, it would be fine—and in the end, it really was true. I really did turn Han Dohee’s car back from a horse golem into its original state.
And the rank also went up by one level. From F-rank to F+ rank.
“Do I really have to wear it..?”
“Yes.”
“If I don’t wear it, am I going to die or something..?”
Ophelia paused briefly at my question, then nodded.
“Yes.”
“I don’t think that’s it.”
“For the princess’s future safety and improved abilities, and for the reconstruction of the kingdom, this is absolutely necessary.”
This isn’t the kind of mechanical maid I imagined... She’s not like an android that perfectly carries out only my orders, but more like a daycare teacher giving me lessons.
“Ugh.. this isn’t right….”
* * * * *
“Oh, finished?”
“My work is finished.”
“Good work, Jongho~”
“Haha, yes.”
Han Dohee and Kim Chaea took a taxi to Guro, where Im Jongho was working. Around 3:40, after the Guro-gu gate maintenance job was basically done, they headed off in the company Starex van to where Eve was waiting.
“By the way, did you talk to her parents?”
“Ah... about that, watch your mouth in front of Eve.”
“Why.”
“Eve doesn’t have parents. She’s living alone right now.”
“What..? What are you talking about?”
Im Jongho’s words made Han Dohee recall Eve’s appearance from before. Wasn’t she far too small to live alone? If she were at least middle-school age, it would be somewhat understandable.
“I asked her before, but she doesn’t like talking about it. She used to make money with some kind of part-time job, she said. But she had to quit because she can’t do it anymore now.”
“A little kid doing a part-time job? How the hell is she surviving?”
“I told you, I don’t know either.”
“Hah, seriously.”
After all, if she didn’t want to talk about it herself, the best thing was not to pry no matter how much they talked. It was the sort of thing even a child that age would have trouble telling the adults around them.
Rather than hounding her right away with questions, all they could do was help her as best they could and pray that she’d open her heart to them.
“Team Leader Yu said he was sending this because he’s uploading the report this time.”
“What report?”
“He told me to write a battle report. I got the drone cam.”
“Oh, because of Eve?”
“Right. Thanks to Eve.”
After the Guro gate maintenance work, Im Jongho still had to return to the Nova Guild, so being able to drive the guild vehicle and pick up Eve was largely thanks to the report-writing errand. Otherwise, there was no way he could just step out during work hours and be allowed to enter a private gate like this.
“Have you met Eve before, Chaea?”
“Eve? I have. She’s super cute. How do you know Eve, Jongho?”
“Hmm... well.... I guess you’d call her an online friend.”
They had talked often enough on the gallery, but if he’d known the other person was that bratty little grade-schooler, he probably wouldn’t have been able to talk so casually. Her image on the gallery and her real-life appearance were just too different.
“Ahyeon-dong is a bit far. Isn’t the area kind of unsafe too?”
“Don’t say that in front of the kid.”
“I’m only saying it because she’s not here...”
“Pffft, Jongho, you’re saying the exact same thing as me?”
“Is that so.”
Han Dohee’s group slowed down once they reached the Ahyeon-dong area after a long drive from Guro, and looked around for Eve.
“Oh, isn’t that it?”
“Hmm... seems like it.”
A tiny girl with striking white hair was sitting on a bench, her face hanging low.
“But who’s that next to her?”
“Wait a sec, could that be...”
Han Dohee remembered a post she’d seen on the gallery for a second. She’d thought it was some weird nonsense about a beautiful maid being born or whatever, some bizarre talk first thing in the morning.
“It was real after all….”
* * * * *
“And your name is….”
“Nice to meet you. I am the princess’s dedicated maid, Ophelia.”
“Ah, yes. Nice to meet you.”
Im Jongho was driving, Han Dohee sat in the passenger seat. Doggy, Suri, and Minyum sat in the very back row with Kim Chaea, and Ophelia and I sat in the middle.
“Do you know where we’re going today?”
“Yes, I’ve confirmed the address. It’s an entry-type gate that C-rank hunters generally tackle.”
“Um... I was wondering if you might be able to fight a bit.”
“I can perform combat on the level of a typical A-rank combat-class hunter.”
Ophelia’s rock-solid answer startled Kim Chaea, who was listening from the back.
“Wow, A-rank? That’s amazing.”
“Thank you.”
“Eve’s lucky, huh? You got yourself a pretty maid.”
“Huh? Ah.. yes.. I-I like it….”
“And today’s outfit is super cute too, right? Where did you buy it?”
“I purchased the fabric myself at a cloth shop and made it by cutting and tailoring it.”
“So Ophelia can do that too? You’re totally a jack-of-all-trades.”
“Thank you.”
Kim Chaea, who was naturally outgoing, kept up the conversation easily even with Ophelia’s stiff answers. Han Dohee asked her another question.
“But if you’re A-rank, are you a mage or a melee combat type?”
“I can fight both in close combat and at range. I prefer mid-range combat if possible, to better protect the princess’s safety.”
“So you’re like a bodyguard knight.”
“Unfortunately, I am not specialized in combat, so I am not suited to being a knight.”
“If you’re not combat-specialized, can you really be A-rank..?”
The driver, Im Jongho, scratched his head up front, but I had the same question. In the first place, there are only about 1,000 A-rank Awakened in Korea.
Including civilian Awakened, Korea has just under 130,000 Awakened total, which means by ratio they’re in the top 1 percent.
“Eve really is impressive.”
“You recognize the princess’s true worth.”
“Heh heh... yes.”
The place reached by riding in Im Jongho’s car was the Hyochang Park Gate in Yongsan. It was an entry-type gate where, on average, a 12-person D-rank raid party or a 4-person C-rank party could go in, explore comfortably, and come back out.
Like the others, it was a site managed by the Korean Hunter Association, so there was an entry fee, but it wasn’t very expensive. One entry cost about 8,000 won.
Then how does the Hunter Association make money??
Saying that would be a bit much, since the amount they take is enormous. Rare metals, magic stones, and all the miscellaneous sales taxes on everything that comes out of gates designated by the Korean Hunter Association are those guys’ lifeline.
Because they take a cut from sales based on how many people enter, the entry fee itself is cheap. They’re basically treated like civil servants.
“Four people.”
“Why four?”
“This one... um, five people.”
I was about to pay without including Ophelia, but it wasn’t really a lot of money. Im Jongho, who was about to pay, just included Ophelia as one of us and paid for five.
That was how we entered the swamp forest where the Lizardmen lived. For entry-type gates, the spawn point when you enter is always the same, and you just leave through the portal you came in from.
Old entry-type gates are safe because there are no monsters around the portal. And the location is broadcast skyward every fifteen minutes with something like a beam-projector, so there’s no need to worry about not finding the portal.
“Every so often a Lizardman Warrior or something shows up, but it’s not really a big problem, so don’t worry. I can handle those too.”
Sometimes there are so-called elite monsters—guys stronger than ordinary monsters—but they’re only around the level Han Dohee, the only B-rank on the team, could handle.
Ophelia frowned slightly the moment she stepped inside the gate, and Chaea caught it right away and asked.
“Ophelia, do you need anything? You don’t look too good.”
“No. I was worried some dirt might splash onto the princess.”
“I-I’ll be careful….”
Since Doggy is in my arms and Suri is flying, it doesn’t matter. It’s a swamp, so the ground is a little wet, but is that really something to worry about?
Minyum is the type you can wash with water despite how it looks, so it’s not really a problem.
“Speaking of which, what’s that... Minyum? That thing looks pretty cool.”
“Minyum is cool, right?”
“Yeah, guys like this sort of thing.”
“I know.”
“Haha, really?”
Jongho seems to have taken a liking to Minyum. By looks alone, it definitely looks incredibly cool. Once I make a ton of money later on, I’ll have Minyum fitted with full plate armor made from rare metal.
And then I’ll buy a weapon around SSS-rank and have it fused together too.
“For now... Han Dohee and I will stand in the front line, and Ms. Ophelia, please stay in the rear with Chaea and Eve. Let’s do one loop on a 30-minute route and then head out.”
“Understood.”
“Okay.”
Honestly, aside from me, there wasn’t really anyone suited to a gate of this difficulty. Im Jongho and Kim Chaea are C-rank, but Chaea is a healer and Jongho is a telekinetic. Han Dohee, a B-rank swordswoman, was the highest-ranked of the group.
This was basically neighborhood-stroll difficulty. They only came here because of me....
“There’s an ambush of four Lizardmen 310 meters ahead at two o’clock.”
“What? Ophelia can scout too?”
“Yes.”
“That’s incredible. I have to use a skill myself to scout.”
I remembered seeing the scouting skill Han Dohee uses from before. She sticks a sword into the ground and listens with both hands on the hilt. Things that stay still, like ambushers, don’t make much noise, so they’re hard to find, and the range is only about 250 meters.
Maybe Ophelia’s scouting ability is just an upgraded version of the mana-detection feature on the phone. Just like how Minyum’s hair dryer combined with a magic stone and became a powerful booster, it seems that adding a magic stone maximizes the abilities already present in the material.
“Then would you mind going to check it out, Ophelia?”
“Understood.”
This gate was also to test Ophelia’s combat power. She says she wasn’t built for combat, but it also used incredibly expensive materials, and she said with her own mouth that she could fight.
“Minyum. Make sure you protect the princess properly.”
ㅡ철컥!
“Good.”
Minyum nodded at Ophelia’s words. Then Ophelia put a little distance between herself and the party, looked toward where the Lizardmen had been detected, crouched slightly, then kicked off the ground.
ㅡ콰아앙!!
“Gasp..”
Ophelia flew so fast it was hard to follow with my eyes. She dashed forward, lightly stepping on the trees blocking her path like a ninja, and swung something like a bright blue strand of optical fiber from her fingertips.
ㅡ촤락..!
The bushes and trees where the four Lizardmen were hiding were cut cleanly in one sweep. With a crash, the trees collapsed, and Ophelia quickly backed away to avoid the wet mud that splashed up.
“Whoa….”
Kim Chaea watched from the side, marveling nonstop. Im Jongho, who was recording it on the drone cam, was startled too, and Han Dohee seemed surprised that Ophelia was stronger than she’d expected.
“Eve, you’d better listen to what Ophelia says.”
“Ah, yes….”