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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: The Barbarian Who Hid His Face
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“I appreciate the kindness, but I’ll pass.”
“...Huh?”
Diana looked flustered, as if she hadn’t expected a refusal.
“Really? It’s warm soup, just made.”
It looked it. The hot steam billowed from the soup in the concave wooden bowl as it met the cold night air.
Surely, one sip would wash away all fatigue, and its thick consistency with large chunks of meat would delight the palate.
*Grrrroooooowwwwllll–*
My stomach screamed again. I wished it would just shut up.
But my stomach had a point. What had I properly eaten so far? Soup full of sleeping poison? A few breadcrumbs?
Look at your body. How could you generate the energy to move that massive, muscular frame by eating just that?
Hunger begot fatigue, and fatigue led to impaired judgment.
That’s why I had made the foolish decision to sleep among beggars.
And I’d used quite a bit of strength there. I hadn’t even recovered from the fatigue of what happened in the Labyrinth. I probably wouldn’t have the strength to stand by tomorrow morning.
One foolish choice had snowballed into a massive problem.
I couldn’t repeat a stupid decision this time.
Let’s say I accept that soup.
What if I get so fixated on the soup again that I take off my helmet and bury my face in the bowl like a dog? Diana would see my bare face.
Densi, who had become a slave, and the plain woman who had gone to heaven, came to mind.
Didn’t *she* also go crazy after seeing my bare face, then drug me with sleeping poison and try to attack me?
Of course, Diana might not feel anything at all upon seeing my face.
She might have offered me this soup purely out of 100% kindness.
I might even be succumbing to paranoia and completely disregarding someone’s goodwill.
‘But what the hell was I supposed to do?’
I’d already gotten blood on my hands from a similar situation.
I didn’t want to repeat the same mistake.
“I’ll gladly accept the thought behind offering warm soup, but nothing more.”
“Hmm… Is that so?”
“Yes.”
Diana, perhaps having heard the rumbling, glanced at my stomach for a moment before quickly turning her head away. She then spoke in an awkwardly theatrical tone.
“...Oh, dear. Then this freshly made, piping hot soup will just have to become food waste~ How shall I dispose of it…? Perhaps if I leave it outside, a stray cat might eat it?”
*Clink.*
Diana crouched down for a moment and carefully placed the bowl of soup and utensils on the alley ground.
“...What are you doing?”
“Stray cats often come around here, you see. It’s a small hobby of mine to offer a warm bowl of soup to homeless cats.”
‘Do stray cats use utensils?’
Diana casually uttered those words and turned to leave.
“I imagine a cat will have emptied the bowl and left by tomorrow~”
*Click-clack. Click-clack.*
I watched Diana’s retreating figure, her shoes clicking as she walked away.
What was this? This was a new pattern. But I could roughly guess her plan.
That soup was like a mousetrap. If a mouse, unable to resist hunger, took a sip of the soup, that would be the end of it.
A mouse caught in the trap would be guaranteed to become a 40-gold-coin slave!
Did she think I was crazy enough to eat that? Not a chance.
*Grrrroooooowwwwllll–*
‘……’
But traps are always set because there are mice that fall for them.
Even a mouse knows a trap is dangerous.
But a mouse, unable to resist hunger, will inevitably drool at the cheese in the trap and eventually reach for it.
“What a malicious plan…”
I moved far away from the soup. If there had been no food at all, it would have been fine, but having it right in front of me was even more agonizing.
I settled down at the very end of the dead-end alley and tried to fall asleep.
But I couldn’t sleep at all. My mind had become completely alert from the brief encounter.
‘The smell is killer.’
Moreover, the scent of the soup was incredibly potent.
Even though I was as far away as possible, a savory, rich, and slightly sweet aroma relentlessly invaded my nostrils.
I’d seen earlier that it was full of vegetables and meat chunks. What would it have tasted like? It must have been delicious.
*Grrrroooooowwwwllll–*
Once I acknowledged the hunger, my stomach started throwing an absolute fit. I know, I know I’m hungry.
“*Hiss*.”
My mouth kept watering. I forcibly closed my eyes and plugged my nose. I tried my best to forget the hunger, but it wasn’t easy.
“Ah!”
Suddenly, an idea flashed, and I pulled out the antidote the Armored Knight had given me from my backpack.
I had practically chugged it like water, so only a few drops remained now.
‘…If I just drink a spoonful, wouldn’t that be enough to detoxify?’
The thought momentarily crossed my mind. I immediately shook my head, but the more I thought about it, the more plausible the idea seemed.
It was an impulsive thought, but not impossible. I knew firsthand how amazing the antidote’s effects were.
I had drunk soup that reeked of sleeping poison and woken up detoxified just a few minutes later, hadn’t I?
‘No. Think calmly. There’s no harm in waiting a bit longer.’
I held my breath and let time pass.
I couldn’t fall asleep and stayed awake all night.
Before I knew it, the sky, which had been black, began to take on a blue hue.
I stared at the soup until dawn broke.
Just as I thought the other party must have grown tired of waiting and fallen asleep, I moved towards the soup.
The soup, which had spent the night in the darkness of the Labyrinth city, was now cold, a stark contrast to how it had steamed and boiled earlier.
When I poked the surface with the spoon next to it, the thick, solidified soup lifted.
*Sniff, sniff.* I smelled it first, and there was no sour scent characteristic of sleeping poison. Instead, a savory butter aroma wafted up.
I cautiously took off my helmet, wary of my surroundings.
I carefully touched just the tip of my tongue to the soup.
My tongue twitched as it met the cold, solidified soup.
‘...It’s not sour.’
Without even trying to properly taste it, I took one bite and quickly brought the mouth of the bottle to my lips.
If drowsiness washed over me, I intended to immediately chug the antidote.
I waited for a long time with the antidote at my lips, unsure when the drowsiness might come.
About ten minutes passed, and no drowsiness came. There were no unusual symptoms like my body tingling either.
Only after confirming there were no issues did I scoop up a full spoon of soup and take another mouthful.
Even though it was cold, the basic flavor was beyond imagination.
It wasn’t the watery, bland, and sour soup I remembered.
It was a rich soup, full of ingredients, made with genuine care for the person who would eat it.
The soup, chilled by the night wind, wrapped around my heart more gently than the soup I’d eaten by a warm campfire.
The more I ate, the blurrier my vision became.
For a moment, I wondered if it was poison, but my mind knew this was no poison.
I forced down the surging tears and drank the soup. Only after chugging the whole bowl did the surrounding scenery come into view.
This was where the beggars had stayed yesterday. Their belongings, which they hadn’t cleaned up in their hasty escape, were scattered around.
Setting aside all the miscellaneous items, the most noticeable were the bowls.
Bowls identical to the one I was holding were laid out, exactly matching the number of beggars.
—Stray cats often come around here, you see. It’s a small hobby of mine to offer a warm bowl of soup to homeless cats.
“Ah…”
Only then did I realize Diana’s intention in saying that.
A warm bowl of soup for homeless cats.
I stood in thought for a moment, then slowly put my helmet back on.
And then I started cleaning the alley the beggars had messed up.
I cleared away the scattered rags and gathered the messy bowls together. A total of seven bowls stacked up like a tower.
“Cozy Winter Night… Cozy Winter Night…”
I stepped out of the alley and looked at the sign on the wooden building right next to it.
[Cozy Winter Night Inn]
It was clearly a script I had never seen before, yet I read it naturally. I carefully opened the inn door and stepped inside.
“Welcome— Oh, my?”
Diana, who seemed to be just opening for business and wiping down tables with a cloth, met my gaze.
“Thank you for the soup. I enjoyed it.”
I bowed my head, expressing gratitude for her warm kindness, and Diana smiled sweetly.
“There’s no need to be so thankful. We just help each other out when we’re in need, don’t we?”
Diana said that, but I couldn’t fully accept this kindness.
Kindness always comes back as a debt someday, and I feared that if I got used to such favors, I would eventually collapse.
“No, I insist. I’ll pay for the soup. How much is it?”
“...Breakfast at our inn is three copper coins.”
I took copper coins from my backpack and placed them on a nearby table, along with the bowls the beggars had left behind.
*Click-clack. Click-clack.*
Diana’s shoes clicked as she passed me and walked towards the table.
“One. Two. Three. Yes. That’s right.”
“...Then I’ll be going now. The soup was delicious.”
“No, wait a moment. There’s change.”
“Excuse me?”
How could there be change when I had paid exactly three copper coins?
As I stared with a bewildered expression, Diana pointed at the bowls next to the copper coins and smiled.
“Since you did what I would have had to do, I can’t not pay you for it. Here. Three copper coins in change.”
She tried to place the three copper coins on the table directly into my hand.
“I cannot accept such kindness.”
“It’s not kindness, but fair compensation for work done. Please, take it. My hand is starting to ache.”
‘……’
Her slender yet healthy, white, and beautiful arm caught my eye.
Given how far she was going, it felt awkward to refuse. I simply bowed my head slightly again in thanks and pocketed the copper coins.
“I don’t know what your circumstances are, but if you have nowhere to stay, you’re welcome to stay at our inn.”
“...Why are you taking such care of me?”
The words suddenly slipped out.
Why was she going to such lengths? It was logically incomprehensible.
I recalled the people I had encountered in this world so far.
Except for the Armored Knight, I had been met with nothing but betrayal.
Almost raped after eating soup, almost raped after innocently sleeping next to someone. It was a world rife with betrayal upon betrayal.
In such a world, this level of kindness was honestly hard to accept.
To be frank, I still couldn't fully trust her.
In a corner of my mind, I still believed that a cunning snake might be coiled beneath that warm smile.
Suddenly, my eyes met Diana’s. It was impossible for our gazes to connect through my helmet, which covered my entire face, yet somehow, I felt that our eyes had met.
“Hmm… I don’t think you’d believe anything I say right now, would you?”
“No.”
Diana gave an answer that felt as if she had seen right into my heart.
Yes. That’s right. In my current state of paranoia, I couldn’t fully believe her words.
“Hehe. You’re honest, aren’t you? Hmm… Still, if I were to tell you my intention… Mhm…”
Diana slowly crossed her arms, pondering for a moment.
“...What if I just said, ‘Just because’? Would you believe me?”
She said, “Just because.”
Without any special reason. Without expecting any reward, just because.
In this damn world, the reason she offered warm soup to beggars on the street and even to a guy who threatened her with an axe, and then offered lodging to someone who came to pay, was “just because”…
“...That’s admirable.”
I said it was admirable because I believed it was something someone like me could never do.
“...I-is that so? Th-thank you…?”
I spoke carefully to Diana, whose face flushed slightly as if embarrassed or shy about what she’d said.
“I only have four copper coins right now. Could I perhaps run a tab using this as collateral?”
The inns I had visited before had all refused credit.
Honestly, if I were an innkeeper, I wouldn’t let a suspicious man in a blood-stained helmet into my inn either.
“Of course. I don’t usually do it, but somehow, I trust you. You can pay me back slowly.”
Perhaps it was because I had shown the sincerity to pay after eating the soup, but she nodded more easily than I expected.
“And you don’t need to put down collateral. Use those copper coins for yourself. There’s a big difference between having nothing and having even a single coin.”
Her words were true. Having even a little initial capital makes a huge difference compared to having nothing at all.
*Jingle.*
Diana took a key from the pouch at her waist.
“Room 201 on the second floor. From now on, you can stay here.”
“...Thank you, Diana.”
Diana simply smiled sweetly without a word.
Following her guidance, I arrived at the room.
I inserted the key and opened the door to reveal a room that, while not particularly spacious, was fragrant and impeccably tidy.
*Thud!*
But before I could even look around the room, all strength drained from my body.
Why did it feel like coming home?
The moment I entered the room, the tension that had permeated my entire body slowly released.
Indeed. I had been tired.
“Uggghh…”
I let out a strange groan and instantly fell into a deep sleep.
It was the first truly comfortable sleep I had experienced since being dropped into this world.
[Synchronization 100% complete.]
[■■■ ■ watches over you.]
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