Chapter 120

“By the way, do they normally wear that outfit even when they’re not in the desert? Is it a traditional southern garment?”

I was so puzzled by the guide’s completely covered appearance, which felt suffocating even indoors, that I asked, and Theodor started stammering again.

“Uh, uh? Well, they don’t, don’t wear it much in the northern regions. It’s a garment for blocking the hot sun. But this person…”

He suddenly lowered his voice.

“I heard their face and body are covered in scars, so they always dress like that to hide them.”

“I see.”

My gloves are like a second skin to me, but sometimes they feel a bit bothersome. How uncomfortable must it be to be covered like that all the time?

I spoke to the guide with a touch of pity.

“I look forward to working with you. What is your name?”

“…”

But the guide just stared at me blankly, with no answer. And Theodore, looking far more flustered than before, intervened.

“Oh, right! I completely forgot. Th-this person can’t speak.”

“Oh… really?”

“Yeah.”

Hmm. Even if I was dense, something felt off.

The trembling pupils. The sweat on his forehead. The stammering speech.

I tilted my head and asked, as if in passing:

“Theo, are you hot?”

“What?!”

“Why are you sweating so much?”

Theodore’s body temperature was normal, and the room was cool. There was no reason for him to be breaking into a cold sweat like that.

“Ah… well.”

He rolled his eyes, shuffled over to a nearby chair, and plopped down.

“I haven’t had much of an appetite lately… I’ve been skipping meals too much.”

“What?! Skipping meals?!”

Traditionally, you should eat even better when it’s hot.

Why else would the tradition of eating chicken on the hottest days of the year have started? If you sweat, you need to replenish your energy!

“Oh, my! Oh, my goodness, you fool! A commander skipping meals! How upset your mother would be if she knew!”

Smack! Smack!

I smacked his back with a resounding thud for every word, and Theodore, with his large frame, writhed in pain.

“I-I’m sorry! I’ll eat well!”

“Good. So, what was the guide’s name?”

“Uh…”

I raised my hand in front of his eyes again as he rolled them, and then, as if a thought had just occurred to him, the name tumbled out.

“E-En, Endy!”

“En-En-En-Dy?”

“No… Endy. Just Endy.”

It’s so ridiculously hard to hear his name.

As I turned away, grumbling, Endy, who had seemed to be glaring at Theodore, bowed his head to me with a dignified motion, as if nothing had happened.

We had surely never met before, but his posture gave me a strange sense of déjà vu. Something felt a little off, but I couldn’t dwell on it forever.

“Well… we’ll be leaving around sunset, so I’ll see you later.”

I felt Endy’s gaze follow me as I wrapped things up and turned to leave.

“Hmm…”

“What’s wrong?”

Ramande asked me, tilting his head as I walked out of the commander’s office.

“Oh, just something.”

“Sir Tregonan looked a little uneasy, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, that, and…”

I trailed off, unable to put my finger on why I felt so strange, but then a good idea struck me.

“Ramande, could you go see Endy for me?”

“Me?”

“Yeah. If you get rid of his scars, he’ll be so grateful he won’t betray us to Chitrum.”

“Well, okay.”

Ramande, who had readily gone to find Endy, returned a moment later with a slightly jaded expression and shook his head.

“He said no.”

Ramande came back having given up on  healing.

Even for a priest, he couldn’t force a healing on someone who refused, but the refusal itself felt strange.

‘Why? Does he want to keep the scars?’

If the scars were something to be proud of, wouldn’t he not need to be wrapped up like that all over his body?

It was getting more and more suspicious, but for now, I had to trust him. After all, Theodore had introduced him as a veteran guide.

***

However, my suspicion was for naught, as my guard lowered the more time I spent with Endy on the journey.

It started when we, unfortunately, arrived near a monster drinking water.

Hiss!

The monster, with a lion-like head and a scorpion’s body, pounced as soon as it saw us.

After teleporting over a long distance with magic, even knights need a few seconds to shake off the dizziness and regain their balance.

But would a monster care about our circumstances? The fangs of the monster, which reached us within those few seconds, glinted even through our blurry vision.

‘This is bad…!’

Just as I was trying to extend my hand forward, enduring the dizziness,

Whoosh!

A curved sword, like a crescent moon, shot out, reflecting the moonlight as it danced.

‘Who is it?’

By the time I squinted to figure it out, Endy had already dealt with the monster and lightly landed on top of it.

Not only that, he was also skilled at camping in the desert and commanded the knights with ease.

‘Well, that’s what you’d expect from a veteran guide.’

I tried my best to tear my eyes away from Endy, as I was starting to see everything in a good light, but it only lasted for a moment.

He sunk my defenses with one blow, as if he knew my weakness perfectly.

“Wow…”

I swallowed hard, looking at the steaming chicken breast in front of me. The well-grilled meat was glistening and shining.

It seemed chicken breast was among the ingredients preserved with magic. Endy had grilled it and brought it to me himself.

“Thank you very much. I’ll eat it well.”

At that, he pulled out a small piece of paper from his clothes, handed it to me, and as soon as I took it, he returned to his place.

I watched his back for a moment and then slowly unfolded the two-folded paper.

Inside, only one line was written.

[It’s an honor.]

“Hmm.”

It was surprising enough that he could write, but his handwriting was so neat. The strokes were firm yet not rough in their direction.

‘I feel like I’ve seen this kind of handwriting somewhere before.’

Ramande asked me as I frowned, inspecting the small note as if I were about to dig into it.

“What’s wrong? Your food is getting cold.”

“No, this glistening meat shouldn’t get cold!”

I immediately shoved the note into my pocket and enthusiastically picked up my knife.

“Wow. Is this chicken or pork?”

It was so moist that with every chew, the juices poured out almost like pork jowl, and I was on the verge of tears of joy.

“I have to recruit this person as our family chef!”

I made a firm resolution.

‘What kind of flavor would beef grilled by this person have? Or lamb?’

My heart fluttered just thinking about it.

As I began to calculate the best time to bring it up, my eyes kept drifting toward Endy.

But the more I looked at him, the more my scalp felt a strange tickle.

“Hmph… This isn’t the first time I’ve felt this.”

I folded my arms, paced back and forth, and slowly recalled past events.

– Pink goldfish.

“Pink goldfish.”

Gabbie and Ramande took turns teasing me, but ignoring them all, I finally used my immense concentration to figure it out!

“Yes, that’s it!”

But my cheering was short-lived. I sprang up from where I had been about to lie down and clicked my tongue.

“It was a similar feeling to when I brought El home.”

That familiar, fleeting feeling from a large animal.

Come to think of it, everything was strange.

Theodore’s panic whenever I asked a question, and the refusal to show his face to Ramande for a healing.

And his blue eyes.

Even his name, ‘Endy,’ was similar to ‘Esadien’, wasn’t it?

‘But…’

Even as I put all the pieces together, I hesitated to take off Endy’s mask because his eyelashes and hair were black.

“Hair dye could be found if I searched a magic shop, but there’s no mascara in this world.”

Aaaagh!

My head was a mess from the frustration when I heard the sound of water splashing.

‘Gah. Is that a monster again?’

The magic travel scrolls for crossing the desert are all set to go to oases.

So it was a rare occurrence for people to encounter monsters coming to drink water, just like we had, at small oases where cities hadn’t been built.

I cautiously looked around.

We had left the border around sunset, timed to when Chitrum’s city gates would open, and now it was the last rest period for our group.

‘No need to cause a commotion, so I’ll just keep an eye out and shoo it away if it tries to come over here.’

Thinking that, I quietly pushed through the bushes and looked towards the water.

But.

‘Huh? There’s nothing there?’

I was about to move back, thinking I had misheard.

The calm water rippled, and a person with black hair emerged as if rising from the surface.

Water droplets streamed down, like rain. From his fine hair to a silver necklace, and along his well-sculpted body line.

It was the shape of a necklace I knew well. And the scar on his back that I knew well, the wound on his abdomen that I knew well, and most of all! It was a face I knew well!

‘…Esadien Roquate!’

Crack.

I suddenly heard something break and thought my disbelief had finally snapped my sanity and run away.

But as soon as the sound occurred, Esadien turned towards me, and I realized that the sound was me crushing the tree branch I was holding.

“Minuelle.”

Esadien wasn’t surprised at all and cut through the water, walking towards me.

He was so unreserved that it was hard to tell if he was the one who had been hiding his identity and was caught, or if it was me.

“Ha.”

I let out a short sigh and brushed off the wood fragments from my gloves. Esadien smiled and extended his hand towards me.

“You recognized me. I’m happy.”

But instead of taking his hand, I asked petulantly:

“Why is a sick person here? You’re not all better yet, are you? And you just get in water like this? Does that make sense?”

It looked clean, but what if he got an infection?

As I poured out my nagging, his handsome face clouded over.

“Are you going to send me back?”

“…”

“I don’t have a scroll. Are you just going to leave me here and go?”

The face that tilted its head and looked up at me was so beautiful, but just as beautiful as it was, it was also infuriating.

“You took off the outfit because you knew I wouldn’t be able to leave you here, didn’t you?”

“Did I get caught?”

Wow.

How did that stoic person turn into such a fox?

As I stood there with my mouth agape, Esadien retracted his hand and began to walk towards me completely.

Naturally, with every step he took towards the water’s edge, the water level got lower, and that meant…

“S-stop! Stop right there! No, go back farther!”

I waved my hands wildly and shouted in a hushed voice, thinking that if he took one more step, things would get dangerous.

‘I’ve played pranks on the attendants, but they were just jokes.’

I had never imagined a situation like this.

My face was burning hot.