I Killed the Player of the Academy-Side Story 2 ༺ Side Story – Familiar (2) ༻

→ Side Story – Familiar (2) ←

Miss Park Sirin was a mage from the east.

“You mean you started traveling without even entering the Purple Hawk Academy?”

‘Travel’ was a nice way to put it, and at this point she was closer to being a vagabond.

“Yes. There were some things I had to do.”

Miss Sirin replied as she continued engraving magic circles along the pathways used by the demonic beasts. Looking at her expertise with them, she looked like a fairly high grade mage.

“This much should be good enough. Some of the beasts haven’t returned yet from their hunts. Let’s wait until they’re all asleep in the middle of dawn.”

“Sure. That was quick though.”

“It’s all thanks to your Rune Magic, Mr. Korin.”

She was very courteous. She smiled before guiding the way to her tent.

There were three nests in total, each having dozens of demonic beasts in them. To deal with all of them at the same time, there were timed magic circles engraved all around them.

The way to the village was also blocked off in case any of them ran away towards the village, meaning all the measures were in place.

It must have taken her a long time and effort to make all these preparations… which revealed that she must be a diligent kind of person.

“Miss Sirin. Would you like some jerkies?”

“Sure, if you don’t mind.”

She appeared to have spent the last two days repeating the same actions, while spending the rest of her time by a small campfire that she lit up with magic. In this cold weather, in the middle of the mountain with no other light sources nearby, this mage was here all by herself for the sole purpose of killing these demonic beasts.

Or perhaps, maybe that wasn’t the only reason.

Mages were extremely valuable. They were treated with respect wherever they went, and there was no need for her to do such voluntary actions in a place this secluded.

Academy students needed to fill in certain hours of volunteers, but she wasn’t an Academy student either.

“Mhmm…”

While nibbling on the jerkies I gave her, Miss Sirin took something resembling a map out of her bag.

“What is that?” I asked.

“Ahh…!”

She was greatly surprised by the fact that I saw it, and immediately hid it back inside the bag. She seemed… a bit clumsy.

“It’s… nothing.”

“I see.”

I didn’t feel the need to delve deeper into what she wanted to conceal, and glossed over it.

“By the way, Korin-oppa—”

Oppa?

I immediately turned my head around upon hearing that word.

“Ah, umm…” she hesitated before apologizing. “Sorry, I have a habit of calling people older than me, ‘oppa’.”

“It’s an excellent habit! That will make any guy happy!”

Fuu… It was sad because no-one called me oppa except for Ran. I once asked Marie and Alicia to call me ‘oppa’, but they refused to do so with a strong look of repulsion so I couldn’t possibly ask them again.

Hoh? Wait a minute. Maybe Master will do it if I asked her.

[Uhh… Korin o, oppa?]

Kyaa~. Just imagining how embarrassed she would be, as she grumbled about her age while still reluctantly calling me oppa put me in a good mood.

That was remarkable indeed. I decided to insist on it once I went back.

“What are you thinking about?”

“I’m thinking about my close friends.”

Obviously, I wasn’t so thick-skinned to call them ‘girlfriend candidates’.

“You seem to have a lot of friends,” she said.

“I do.”

Of course, only a few among them were ‘friends’ with a special meaning behind them… Actually, I guess there were quite a lot.

“Haa…” I sighed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Umm… Can I share a little story?”

I needed someone to consult with. Jaeger and Lark would simply condemn me with prejudiced eyes after all.

She might be able to provide a different opinion coming from an objective perspective. Most importantly… I had a feeling that I knew her from somewhere.

My unusual big-mouth might have been a mistake stemming from that sense of familiarity.

“This is about my friend.”

I knew this sounded very much like it was about myself, but so what? Even if she were skeptical, she wouldn’t delve deeper into a stranger’s circumstances, right?

Excluding the story about the Precept, I shared the situation I was in.

“You mean…”

Miss Sirin dropped her head low after hearing my story. It seemed like her shoulders were shivering but… I might be seeing things.

“There are seven bitc–… I mean seven people around ‘your friend’, right?”

“If you consider the one with split personalities as one, that is.”

“Eight, huh… Haha, fuck. He’s the same as always, this fucker.”

“Miss Sirin?”

I didn’t quite catch what she was mumbling under her breath, but instead of repeating herself, she lifted her head back up and said with a sarcastically bright smile on her lips.

“So you’re saying you don’t want to choose one person and make the rest of them unfortunate, right?”

“That is exactly correct.”

I didn’t want to do something that I would regret, and I wanted everyone to be happy. And although I didn’t tell her, it was also a problem related directly to my own life because of the Precept.

“It’s a difficult problem.”

Indeed it was… Perhaps there was no other way apart from persuading each of them one by one.

“But before we discuss solutions to problems as complicated as this, we need to consider the personalities of the people involved. That will let us assess whether we will be able to persuade them or not.”

“Ohh…”

As expected of a mage, she was very logical. Why couldn’t our Marie-sunbae be as logical and rational as her?

“What are some characteristics about them?” she asked. “I think it will help just to hear about some of their unique traits.”

“Right. Umm…”

I pondered a little, but for some reason, I had a feeling that I could share everything with ‘this person’.

“One of them is a senior who’s really cute and easy-going. She’s from a family of farmers, and she’s so affectionate that she boils the potatoes that she gets from home to share with her juniors.”

But the unexpected twist here was that Marie was from a tremendously rich family.

“She really wanted to do everything for me. Ah… I still remember how she summoned a troop of wyverns to congratulate me for earning a peerage…”

That made me dizzy. I refused because of how much she was giving me, but Marie told me instead.

[I can do anything for you, and I want to, as long as it can reduce the burden on your shoulders by even a little. Peerage? Land? Hresvelgr? None of them are that important.]

[I want to give you e~verything I have, and do whatever I can for you. Because you’re so, so precious… And if you want to walk the hard and dangerous path… I want to polish that road even a little.]

She generously gave me everything. Whether it be money, peerage, manpower… and even her love.

“I am grateful for everything she’s done. She’s been so much help, so adorable and… I feel so indebted.”

“…”

– Crunch!

I heard something break and looked up, only to find that Miss Sirin’s pen had been broken into two.

“Miss Sirin?”

“Ah~ I accidentally gripped it too hard… Please continue.”

“What were you writing down?”

“I wanted to organize everything and look at it objectively.”

Hoh… As expected of a mage. She was very systematic.

“What about the other people?”

“Hmm…”

I continued telling my story. I felt like I could share everything with this person.

“It’s hard to say.”

The conclusion she came to after hearing that long story, was a bit of a disappointment.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help,” she apologized.

“No, it’s okay. At least talking about it like this has made me feel better.”

Even a clever mage couldn’t untangle the knots of my complicated romance life.

“I will be on the lookout first so you can go to bed,” she suggested.

It was a bit early to sleep, but we had to wake up early in the dawn so it was best to get some sleep ahead of time.

“Okay. Thanks for that.”

………

……

…

In the middle of the night, a shadow was cast over Korin’s face, who was sleeping in a sleeping bag next to the campfire.

The owner of that shadow, Park Sirin, was gazing down at his face with a chilling look of indifference that was completely different from the amicable smiles that had been on her face during the day.

“He’s still the same.”

He was no different than before.

That was just the kind of person he was.

He was too kind.

And even now… there were too many girls around him.

Getting the answers out from him weren’t that hard.

Both in the past and now, he was weak to ‘drugs’. But for some reason, his resistance to magic had gone up ridiculously compared to the past, so she had to use a very strong curse to pull it off.

“…Fucking hell. He’s way too handsome.”

She had followed his traces on earth, and now Sirin knew his real name and his real face.

The fact that it didn’t change her thoughts just reflected how deep her feelings towards him were.

Sirin pulled out the notes she had written during her conversation with Korin.

Although he never shared their names, deducing the names based on their background, characteristics and personalities was an easy feat for a player of <Heroic Legends of Arhan>.

– Marie Dunareff

– Hua / Ran

– Alicia Arden

– Lunia Arden

– Estelle Hadassa El Rath

– Miruam Elizabeth El Rath

– Erin Danua

Each and every one of them were Unique Grade named characters – all of them were, without a doubt, key personnel of <Heroic Legends of Arhan> and some of the strongest people of this world.

Looking at the notes of such powerhouses… the ‘list’, Park Sirin mumbled in a cold voice.

“A lot of bitches to kill.”

Foolish NPCs not knowing their place.

****

During sunrise, Miss Sirin and I climbed down the mountain after eradicating the demonic beast nests.

“…”

“…”

There were two pairs of disgruntled eyes on me as I returned to the village.

“It’s not what you guys are thinking.”

“Of course.”

“Sure sure~”

“Like I’m saying, that’s not it!”

I might have a lot of women around me, but I wouldn’t flirt with another lady in just a single night on the mountain, okay?

“Nice to meet you, I’m Park Sirin.”

“…Jaeger Hinzpeter.”

“Hi, I’m Lark Buhgman.”

The three of them greeted each other. Miss Sirin had a slightly stiff look on her face, but she smiled after turning towards me.

“Are they your friends?”

“Kind of.”

“This little bastard…!” Jaeger raised his fist in a joking manner, but in that split moment, Miss Sirin’s expression quickly turned stiff.

“Come on, let’s stop mucking around. Are you done cleaning up the snow?”

Feeling slightly spooked, I immediately stopped Jaeger and changed the topic, to which Lark replied.

“Not done yet, but it shouldn’t take long. A bigger problem than the snow were the demonic beasts occasionally coming down looking for food.”

“We’ve dealt with all of them. There shouldn’t be any more issues there.”

“Really? Well then… there’s actually not much left for us to do.”

It was a week-long volunteer mission, and I didn’t like the idea of going back already…

“Should we do some hunting nearby and provide the villagers with some meat?”

I could do the hunting and Jaeger could do the cooking. We’ve had some meat together, and surprisingly enough, Jaeger was actually a very good cook when it came to meat.

“We could, but I heard this while I was cleaning up the snow yesterday. There seems to be an interesting legend around this village.”

Now what was this going to be about? I listened on with doubt but Lark also joined in, which added to the credibility.

“It sounded quite credible,” commented Lark.

“Really? What kind of legend is it?”

Was there something in this village? Well, it was a village that you would go to and from in the game, but…

“Apparently there’s a secret place that hides treasures~”

“Ah…”

It was Miss Sirin who reacted to that statement. After that was me.

“A place with treasures?” I asked back.

“Yeah. Apparently there was a hero who hid all sorts of worldly treasures there in the distant past.”

The legend didn’t have any proof to back it up, but it brought back memories for me.

Was this… that?

Although I had never been here in the game apart from the one time I had to come here for the main playthrough, I recalled how this was the village where you could meet a random spawn of a Treasure Hunter NPC from whom you could buy a treasure map.

Wait… was the map Miss Sirin was holding onto last night…

“Miss Sirin? Were you also looking for those treasures?”

“Ah, umm…”

She hesitated to reply but soon lowered her head and admitted to it.

“Yes. That’s… probably the same thing that I am looking for.”

I see. Now I could understand why a mage was volunteering here for basically free.

****

In <Heroic Legends of Arhan> there were a lot of NPCs that you could come across as a random encounter. Among them was also a treasure hunting NPC who gave up on his career and was looking to sell his map.

And the place you could visit through that treasure map… Well, although it wasn’t that meaningful for me it would still be a decent little event.

“It’s amazing that you came all the way here based on a treasure map that you bought.”

“No, I was just curious.”

This Miss Park Sirin here seemed to have encountered the treasure hunter that I hadn’t met before, and purchased the map.

One would normally consider them a scammer, so it was surprising that a citizen of this world like herself would make such a purchase which otherwise only players would buy.

“Would you like to look for the treasure together?” I offered.

“Sorry? Umm…”

“You never know right. We might be able to find an actual treasure.”

Actually, this wasn’t a treasure that could make you filthy rich or one that required you to split the treasure down equally. Everyone could only get it once and the same person couldn’t get another one.

The only reason I offered Miss Sirin to look for the treasure together was because of my friendship with these damn friends.

“Ohh, treasure hunting huh… My dream used to be becoming a treasure hunter back in the days.”

“…It sounds tedious but well, if you’re going Korin, I’ll come along.”

Jaeger and Lark. Although they were always pushed to the back in terms of priority since they weren’t the strongest combatants of our groups, it would be a good gift for them now that everything was over.

Well, it depended on them though.

“I’m actually quite skilled at finding treasures, you see. What do you think, Miss Sirin?”

“Mhmm… If you say so, Korin-oppa…”

Miss Sirin contemplated a little before eventually accepting my offer.

“All according to plan.”

That seemed like quite the evil smile on her face… No, I must be seeing things.