Erika: My Friend Is Obsessed with Me
Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Erica — When a Friend Becomes Obsessed with Me
“Erica, what are you doing here? Smells like bread.”
It was Caron.
His hulking, heavily muscled build hadn’t changed at all over the years, perfectly befitting a mercenary whose primary weapon was a greatsword.
“This bread! It’s not like I was eating it! Shurin’s had so many mercenaries to treat lately that she’s often skipping meals, so I brought it for her—”
“Huh? When did I ever? I eat just fine.”
“……”
Ha ha ha. What do you think you’re doing? Erica glared daggers at her, forcing the corners of her mouth up into a rigid smile.
Oblivious as ever, Shurin turned to look at Caron.
“Caron, did you come because you’re hurt?”
“My left shoulder is aching. Could you take a look?”
“I assume you didn’t take a dive from a high-rise building like someone else. Come over here.”
“Who jumped off a high-rise? Did we have an idiot like that in our guild? Shouldn’t they be expelled?”
Caron walked over and set his greatsword down on the floor.
It was so massive that it landed with a heavy thud. Carrying something like that meant he had come straight to the guild the moment his commission ended.
He sat in a chair and pulled off his shirt.
Shurin stood beside him, lifting his arm to inspect the condition of his shoulder.
“Does it hurt when I do this?”
Ugh. Caron answered with a groan, his face contorting into a grimace.
“Is my shoulder done for? How miserable.”
“Cut the crap. It’s just a sprain.”
“Phew.”
“……”
For a man with such a menacing physique, Caron was a terrible baby about pain.
Erica rested her chin in her hands on the table.
Tsk, tsk. Just as she was about to click her tongue and tease the big crybaby, Caron beat her to it.
“Oh, right. Erica.”
He looked over at her as if something had just crossed his mind.
“Did you check the request board today?”
“No.”
Erica let out a wide, ill-timed yawn and stretched languidly.
“I just got back from an A-rank commission, so I’m planning on taking this week off.”
“Is that so? Too bad.”
Caron casually rolled his stiff shoulder with a pop.
“A wyvern request for the Lygis region just went up, but I guess you’re not interested?”
“……?”
Erica’s eyes snapped wide as she stared at him.
“A Lygis wyvern?”
“Yeah. A monster subjugation commission for the wyverns in Lygis Canyon. Just got posted.”
“Jackpot!”
“Right?”
“You can’t say no to Lygis!”
A wyvern extermination commission in Lygis Canyon!
No one who hadn’t experienced it firsthand could understand just how thrilling and fun it was.
Absolute peak entertainment. Erica could confidently swear it was the number one most entertaining commission in existence.
It was an S-rank request that popped up maybe once a year, posted only when the wyvern population exploded beyond what the Lygis Knights could handle, forcing the local lord to ask the Mercenary Guild for aid.
The problem was that in the entire Mercenary Guild, there was hardly anyone skilled enough to actually accept it.
“The blood inside me is boiling! A sense of duty calls to save the suffering people of Lygis…….”
“Don’t you just want an excuse to visit Lygis for the first time in a while?”
Erica was one of those exceedingly rare elite talents.
The lingering exhaustion from completing a long-distance commission only two days ago, or the fact that her spine still ached from falling off a high-rise building, didn’t matter in the slightest.
You simply couldn’t pass up peak entertainment.
I have to snatch that request sheet before someone else takes it!
By the time she came to her senses, her feet were already sprinting down the stairs.
Clatter, crash—!
Watching the stairway where Erica had vanished, the two left behind let out a synchronized sigh.
Shurin, in particular, wore a conflicted expression.
“It’s not like anyone else could even take that commission anyway. What’s the big rush?”
“S-rank requests are rare to begin with. Ones that suit Erica’s tastes are even rarer, so of course she’d want to go as fast as possible.”
Caron spoke nonchalantly, but Shurin’s face remained clouded with concern.
“She’s going alone, right?”
“Of course she’s going alone. No one will follow her there. Or rather, no one can.”
“Lately, whenever I look at Erica, she seems a little lonely.”
“You’re seeing things.”
“Caron! Think about it. Erica looks like she gets along great with the guild members on the surface, but does she have a single friend she can actually run high-rank requests with?”
“What can you do? There’s no one in her age group in this line of work with that kind of skill.”
Looking out for guild members who only slowed her down was fine once or twice. Erica was already being generous.
“If I were Erica, I would’ve switched to strictly solo commissions a long time ago,” Caron added coldly.
Erica liked having friends and enjoyed group missions with multiple people, but that was a separate issue altogether.
No matter how much experience she had gained to become a veteran mercenary, she remained an uncomfortable presence in this industry.
At the tavern, she laughed and chatted boisterously with the rest of the guild, but when it came down to team missions, her position was awkward.
Her overwhelming skill was far too great for her young age.
Particularly in the mercenary world, where misogynistic attitudes ran deep, her prowess was rarely welcomed with open arms.
Catering to teammates who couldn’t keep up occasionally made things uncomfortable for everyone involved.
In a mercenary world bound by its own hierarchy, it was a complicated matter.
While nothing serious had happened yet, Shurin, who had watched Erica closely for so long, couldn’t help but worry.
Shouldn’t the guildmaster at least be looking after the kid?
Guildmaster Pechenik had long since set off on a solo adventure, as if he’d gone senile.
He had left on his own claiming he was going to explore an ancient ruin, and there hadn’t been a single word from him since.
Whether he’d dropped dead in some desert or swamp, or gotten so enraptured by an ancient artifact that he lost his mind, he showed no signs of returning.
And it’s not like Caron hangs out with her much either.
Caron was plenty capable, but his combat style clashed horribly with Erica’s.
Their teamwork was beyond terrible. It was bad enough that they had an unspoken agreement to avoid taking overlapping requests.
Shurin let out a heavy sigh.
She never shows it…… but she must be lonely.
Years had passed since she became the guild’s exclusive healer.
She hadn’t been watching the guild members for just a day or two.
Among them all, Erica was a special child.
She would whine about minor scrapes, but when it came to deep wounds, she wrapped them up and hid them all by herself.
On the outside, she always looked cheerful, but there was no way she wasn’t lonely deep down.
I wish she could make a friend her own age.
Someone with similar skill, and even better if their synergy matched.
Her wish was simply an extension of her worry.
Lygis was a border region situated between the south and the west.
Getting there from Dangtus took a considerable amount of travel.
Erica wasn’t thrilled about traveling such a long distance on her own, but she had no choice.
Hardly anyone ever joined her for S-rank requests unless it was Master.
It’s far. So far.
She was an expert at enduring long journeys.
She climbed rugged mountains and crossed winding rivers.
She would catch a brief nap in nameless villages and set off immediately upon waking, repeating the cycle over and over.
Even so, by the time she was only halfway there, she ended up climbing onto the roof of an inn just to let out a roar of frustration.
When she finally arrived at the entrance to that barren land, she cheered at the top of her lungs.
“Yahoo!”
It was Lygis!
Erica was reminded of the very first time she had come to Lygis.
How many years ago had that been?
“……Can people really live here?”
Parched, cracked earth. Plumes of smoke rising from various spots.
Soaring cliff faces and terrifying canyons.
The arid land was too barren for farming, and flying monsters nested throughout the steep gorges.
She had wondered who on earth could ever build a home and live in a place like this, but surprisingly, once she ventured into the residential areas, quite a lot of people lived there.
Lygis was an unexpectedly large region with a deep, storied history.
Generation after generation, the lords who ruled Lygis had all possessed exceptional character.
That had been a stroke of immense luck.
Unlike the nobles of the West, which was a breeding ground for corrupt aristocracy, they cherished and protected their people.
The caliber of their private soldiers was higher than the imperial average as well. The knights in particular were remarkably skilled, earning a solid reputation throughout the surrounding territories.
Erica had always liked Lygis for that very reason.
Now this is a triumph of the human spirit.
A barren land, inhabited by people who were anything but.
It was a community that had stubbornly clawed its way to survival, carrying on its lineage for ages.
Beneath the cracked, dry earth, she could feel a vibrant life force pulsing like a heartbeat.
And there was another reason Erica loved Lygis—
