Erika: My Friend Is Obsessed with Me
Chapter 8
Chapter 8
에리카 - 친구가 내게 집착할 때
“Commander Pechenik, there’s a really famous healer here. May I scout her?”
“Oh, sure, sure. We needed one anyway.”
The handsome middle-aged man at the table right next to them answered.
“……?”
Shurin was rendered speechless by the absurdity.
They were together?
Who on earth were these people?
“Yay, nice to meet you! I’m Erica.”
The little fairy of a girl beside him even reached out her small hand.
Shurin shook it as if dazed before suddenly snapping back to her senses.
“Wh-what is this about? I never said I’d join your mercenary group.”
“We’ll offer the best compensation in the industry. Commander Pechenik, is that alright?”
“Of course, of course. We’ve got money to burn anyway.”
“No, wait……”
Shurin pressed a hand to her forehead.
It seemed she had gotten tangled up with a bunch of crazy con artists. Or perhaps some pseudo-cult.
“Excuse me, but despite how I look, I’m not the kind of person who just joins anywhere, you know?”
“We’re not the kind of mercenary group that accepts just anyone, either.”
“Isn’t it normal to at least introduce your mercenary group first?”
“Uh, Commander Pechenik, what’s the name of our mercenary group?”
“Don’t know. Pechenik Mercenary Group, maybe?”
“It’s the Pechenik Mercenary Group. There are eight members, and since everyone has a strong sense of free will, I’m not really sure where they are right now.”
“…….”
“Currently, I’m recruiting members because I’m terribly bored. Commander Pechenik, is that alright?”
“Sure. Can’t let boredom stand.”
“We plan to take over the mercenary guild representing the southern Empire by force soon. Commander Pechenik, can I say things like this?”
“Sure, go right ahead.”
“Crazy bastards…….”
‘You certainly have big ambitions……’
Shurin, whose thoughts and spoken words had come out completely reversed, hastily covered her mouth.
Erica giggled.
Whether the cute fairy was laughing or not, Shurin drew a firm line to escape the situation.
“I see. So you’re going to take over the Southern Mercenary Guild……. Then maybe I’ll consider joining back then.”
The words left her mouth without a single thought.
Because she didn’t believe the bravado of these lunatic swindlers for a second.
The healer Shurin was certain she would never cross paths with them again.
And that she would certainly never treat them with her own two hands.
Time passed.
Seasons changed, and changed again.
Pechenik and his mercenary group moved across countless cities and villages.
In the meantime, Erica amassed vast experience.
Battles on land, sea, and even in the air.
She survived the brink of death time and time again.
It had been long enough for the young girl to grow into a veteran S-rank mercenary.
In the south, she had no equal among her peers.
Erica believed this was not because she was inherently extraordinary, but thanks to the superior teachings of her master.
She trusted and relied on Pechenik.
He was her master, and her father.
Even if modifiers like “good” or “great” were occasionally detachable.
“Disappointing. What a truly foolish man. Wouldn’t it have been better if you’d just surrendered quietly?”
“Guh, ack—!”
“I was going to let you off quietly, so why did you have to drag in the Merchant Guild and make things like this? Huh?”
Even on the day they stomped on the Southern Mercenary Guild Master’s head and seized the guild building.
“You look like a villain, Master.”
Beside Pechenik stood the fully grown Erica.
Thud!
A young woman with her long hair tied high and lean, smooth muscles developed along her limbs.
She could no longer even remember what she had been like long ago.
The pitiful child in a frail body who had been abused by the countess was no more.
“Don’t go learning the bad things.”
“I’ve already learned them.”
With a whoosh, she twirled the longsword held in her right hand.
“You told me to learn everything, didn’t you?”
Lively eyes and a languid smile.
Erica had become an utterly flawless powerhouse.
Erica, age eighteen.
Her beauty had blossomed dazzlingly.
Good looks were utterly useless for a mercenary rolling in the mud, yet Erica was exceptionally pretty.
Pechenik and the other mercenaries found it quite miraculous.
For someone who had roughed it through all sorts of harsh mercenary work since childhood, her skin was pure white without a single blemish.
Even the brown hair so common among commoners was curiously light on Erica, lending her an innocent charm.
When her long hair was tied high, revealing her pale neckline, she looked quite delicate.
However, there was no longer any clueless fool in the Southern Mercenary Guild who would try hitting on her based on appearances alone.
Because nobody wanted to end up in a sickbed.
Erica was quite famous in the southern mercenary scene.
‘Mess with Erica, and first Erica screws you over, then the Guild Master finishes you off.’
Guild Master Pechenik was her master.
Though they were master and disciple, they were practically father and daughter. Even now, there were still people who mistook her for his daughter.
And reasonably so, given how much she resembled Pechenik in so many ways.
For example—
“Where do you think you’re going?!”
Grab.
“There’s still so much liquor left!”
“E-Erica, let’s stop drinking now.”
“Why…… why won’t you drink with me? Do you hate me? Do you hate me?! Spend just two hours explaining why you have to go home right now!”
“Ah, shit, someone go call Shurin.”
The fact that she insanely loved alcohol.
The firm belief that drinks must always be shared with comrades.
Only after finishing a commission and drinking all night at a pub while chatting with guild members could her fatigue finally melt away.
And that she loved interesting things and was endlessly curious.
That she was spontaneous, unable to hold back from whatever she wanted to do.
She had grown up taking after her master in all those regards, and that was still very much ongoing.
“Breaking news, breaking news!”
The front door of the Mercenary Guild slammed open!
“The Merchant Guild’s under attack! Right now!”
“What?!”
“Looks like the Dangtus Merchant Guild’s succession dispute finally blew up!”
“Hey, hey! Let’s go see!”
“Aaaay, can’t pass up watching a fight!”
Rumble—!
A horde of immature mercenaries rushed out in a stampede.
Among them, naturally—
“Huh? Erica! Where are you going?”
“Are you guys stupid?”
was a completely plastered Erica.
“It’s way faster to jump across the rooftops and cut straight through!”
Giggling, Erica lightly scaled the building’s exterior wall and leaped onto the roof.
Whoosh—
The wind whipped through her hair. The sensation of floating in midair was exhilarating no matter how many times she felt it.
Tap, tap.
She kicked off the edge of the building, leaping from roof to roof.
Whoosh—!
Tap, pat-pat-pat!
It was a method of cutting straight across to the Merchant Guild.
By crossing high above the sky.
“Right.”
“…….”
“And so.”
“……That’s all.”
“Good grief!”
Shurin smacked Erica’s back repeatedly.
“Ow! Ow, that hurts!”
“Hurts? What hurts?! As if getting hit with the soft, cotton-like hands of a frail healer like me could possibly hurt!”
“Damn it, it hurts! I’m bruised there!”
“Of course you are, after plunging headfirst from the roof of a five-story building!”
“Ah, so what?!”
“Is getting drunk and falling flat on your face something to be proud of? Is slamming right into the ground something to boast about?!”
“Only walking away with bruises is something to be proud of, isn’t it? I fell from that height and not a single bone was brok—”
“Good grief!”
“Eek!”
Even as she hollered in pain, Erica kept shoving bread into her mouth with one hand.
Having starved all day on top of a hangover and a concussion, she was famished.
She whined while cramming the bread into her mouth.
“I’m already suffering enough because the guild members keep teasing me.”
“Teasing you?”
“Believe it or not, I’m an S-rank mercenary. Do you think it feels great to get drunk and do something so humiliating?”
“So you do know what shame is?”
“Of course I do. You were so adamant that you’d never sign a contract with our mercenary group, Shurin, but the moment Master took over the south, you wiped that expression off your face and stamped the contract—I was embarrassed just watching it.”
“……Just how far back are you going to dig up stories from?”
“By the way, do you have any strawberry jam?”
“Why on earth would there be strawberry jam in an infirmary?!”
Even amidst the scolding, Erica, with her hearty appetite, devoured one piece of bread after another from the table.
She even diligently spread butter on each slice.
Bang!
Suddenly, the infirmary door swung violently open.
“Ack.”
Erica frantically hid the remaining bread.
The sign hanging on the wall—<No Eating in the Infirmary. Fine: 2 Silver>—felt exceptionally large.
