Erika: My Friend Is Obsessed with Me
Chapter 22
Erica - When a Friend Becomes Obsessed with Me
“Erica, are you asleep?”
Resting his chin on the sofa, he gazed at Erica’s face.
The more he thought about it, the more absurd it felt.
Did he really have to woo her this hard just to form a pair?
The reason he had deliberately let his Aura flare so brilliantly at first was hoping it might make her want to pair up with him.
When she hated it contrary to his expectations, saying he would hold back on using Aura from then on had also been in the hope that doing so would change her mind.
He was telling her he’d accommodate whatever she wanted.
If she still wouldn’t yield after all this...
“Erica.”
Should he overpower her by force?
He could pin her to the floor, twisting her arm behind her back, straddle her, and throttle her throat.
Until she gasped for breath and choked out a yes.
“Erica.”
But he could never do that.
“Erica.”
He simply couldn’t bring himself to do it.
“……Haaah, please……. Just let me sleep…….”
Whether half-asleep or awake for who knew how long, Erica cursed with her eyes still shut in a scowl.
“Why the fuck do you keep bothering me while I’m sleeping……? Don’t you sleep……?”
She mumbled, her slurred pronunciation sounding more like drowsy whining.
Yet Chaud felt pleased, even by her raspy voice.
She knew an uninvited guest had slipped in.
She knew it was him, and yet she had continued sleeping in peace.
It meant she trusted him.
Not about to let the opportunity slip, Chaud cast his line.
“Pair up with me.”
“…….”
“Come on, do it with me. Just with me.”
A voice urging right in her ear.
Erica furrowed her brows and scratched her ear. Though faintly conscious, she didn’t open her scowling eyes.
She turned all the way onto her side.
Annoying man beside her or not, sleep was far more important right now.
“Erica, do you still not want to form a fixed pair with me?”
“I told you no a hundred times…….”
Erica answered, even in her half-asleep daze.
How could she be so resolute even in her sleep? Besides, he didn’t think it had been quite a hundred times.
Chaud barely managed a reply, suppressing a smile tugging at his lips.
“Fine.”
Her feelings weren’t something he could force anyway.
Wouldn’t it be enough just to stay by her side?
Couldn’t he entice her, little by little, slowly?
“All right. Have it entirely your way. I’ll let you do whatever you want.”
“……What’s with that tone? Fuck, I’ve always lived however I damn well pleased……. Don’t boss me around.”
“Are you really asleep? You’re talking back.”
“……Wake me up one more time and you’re fucking dead…….”
“How terrifying.”
Truly, she was nothing short of the most fearsome squirrel in the world.
Suddenly, he wanted to reach out and touch her delicately furrowed brow.
If not her forehead, anywhere on that pale, tiny face.
Would she bite him if he touched her?
‘I should hold back.’
Chaud simply rested his chin in his hand, a faint smile on his lips.
His gaze lingered on her for a long time, unable to look away.
* * *
Three days later.
One of the mercenary group’s members returned to Dangtus.
“Caron!”
Shurin and Erica came running out.
Like baby birds waiting for their mother, they swarmed Caron with a flurry of demands.
“Why are you only back now?! Do you want to die?!”
“Hm?”
The moment Caron returned from finishing a long-term commission, he was nearly beaten to a pulp by Shurin.
“……?”
Thud, thud, thud. Without knowing why, he had to endure a barrage from her cotton-soft fists for quite a while.
“Why is Shurin doing this to me?”
“Well, while we were gone……”
Only after Erica, who had been watching from the sidelines, explained the situation did Caron’s face turn grave.
At the part where Shurin, left all alone, had nearly met her end from a beating, his expression crumpled violently.
“Why did they attack Shurin?”
“That’s what I’m saying! Why the hell did I get beaten?! Do you know how much they hit me for not handing over the Master Key?! Only Guildmaster Pechenik would know where that is—how on earth would I know?! Seriously, I can’t even—”
“I have it.”
“…….”
“……?”
Erica and Shurin stared blankly at Caron.
What did this guy just say?
“Why is the Master Key……”
“Guildmaster Pechenik tossed it to me when he left back then.”
“……Doesn’t that mean you were supposed to act as the interim guildmaster?”
“Probably.”
“Then why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“Because acting as guildmaster is a pain. Of course, I didn’t expect things to turn out like this.”
“…….”
“Fuuck.”
He flinched.
“The person holding the Master Key……”
Infuriated, Erica swept her hair back from her forehead with one hand.
“How could the person holding the Master Key just leave the guild empty?!”
Caron had to run for his life.
A furious chase swept through.
The skirmish, bordering on a duel, tore through the streets of Dangtus and sent the entire area into an uproar.
And a week later.
Jeremy returned.
Shurin didn’t stay still this time either. She rolled up her sleeves.
“You take a beating too.”
“……?”
Thud, smack. Every mercenary group member who had left her alone had to be punished.
Next, Horizon returned.
“What the hell! Why are you hitting me?! Shurin, you’re going to break a bone in your hand!”
One by one, the elite members belonging to the Pechenik Mercenary Group returned after completing their commissions.
Caron summoned all the returned members at once.
Since they were all free-spirited rascals who might vanish again at any moment, he had to post a bounty: <Wanted: Meeting Absentees. 10 gold per head.>
The top floor of the Southern Mercenary Guild headquarters.
The Guildmaster’s office.
“Is everyone here?”
Excluding the absent guildmaster’s seat, ten people packed the room.
Ignoring the perfectly good sofa, they each leaned against the walls or sat down comfortably wherever they pleased.
Their expressions were mostly identical: already bored, but conscientiously pretending to look a little serious.
They had already heard about the guild headquarters being raided during their absence.
Gathering together like this after so long was for something akin to a strategy meeting.
Yaaawn— someone yawned stealthily.
Although the summons was officially for an emergency strategy meeting, none of them took the situation very seriously.
Every single member of the Pechenik Mercenary Group was a renowned powerhouse of the southern region.
Honestly, it didn’t matter who the attackers had been.
“Well, even if another mercenary group had taken over the guildmaster seat, we would’ve reclaimed it immediately.”
“Aren’t the bastards idiots for bothering to steal it without even anticipating we’d take it right back?”
It was confidence and composure grounded in sheer skill.
If it were taken by some slim chance, they could just take it back.
Caron wasn’t unaware of this either.
However, the longer Pechenik’s absence dragged on, the more prepared they needed to be. He was also worried about Shurin, who lacked combat prowess.
“To be honest, I didn’t expect Commander Pechenik still wouldn’t be back.”
“Me neither. I thought for sure he’d be here once I finished this commission and returned.”
“It feels like it’s about time he showed his face. Nothing happened to him, right?”
“Wait, didn’t he just drop dead somewhere?! Maybe we should go recover Commander Pechenik’s corpse—”
Smack!
Struck on the back of his head, Horizon fumed, glaring with wide eyes.
“Did you just hit me?!”
“Listen to how nicely you talk, huh?”
“What did I say?! Seriously! At this point, he’d have no right to complain even if we replaced the guildmaster!”
“Sure. I’ll tell the guildmaster exactly what you said when he returns.”
“……!”
“Aren’t you excited just thinking about it? Thrilled and ecstatic at the thought of getting worked half to death?”
“……What did I even say for you to do that?”
Horizon shrank back, sheepishly fiddling with his massive double-bladed axe.
“I’d…… rather you not tell him.”
Horizon’s massive, muscular frame shrank to nothingness whenever Pechenik crossed his mind.
“For now,”
Caron spoke up as if mediating.
“at least one of us needs to stay at headquarters from now on. Excluding Shurin, we must never all leave on commissions at the same time.”
“Understood.”
“Sure.”
“Yeah.”
Everyone agreed without much complaint.
Though it was a gathering of commission junkies, adventure addicts, money-grubbers, and workaholics, each figured that the one remaining at headquarters wouldn’t be themselves.
And staying at headquarters for a day or so every now and then didn’t really matter anyway.
“And another thing……”
But what Caron said next was a different story altogether.
“I think someone ought to go look for Commander Pechenik.”
Total silence fell over the room.
“……?”
“……!”
“…….”
Everyone froze, not daring to let out a breath. It felt as though whoever made a sound would be the one forced to go.
