Altruistic Warrior

“What, aaahhhh!”

They tried to turn and run but were struck by the water and sent flying. Angry Face then bounced around like a ball, attacking the people nearby. It was so fast that it was almost impossible to track its movements.

“Ahhh!”

Screams came from all directions. Angry Face swallowed people whole, its body stretching to accommodate them before returning to its original round shape, as if it had digested them.

“Run!”

People who had been trying to attack it gave up and fled across the arena.

Hahahahaha!

The audience seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the chaos. I was also frantically running to avoid Angry Face, which bounced and attacked relentlessly.

“Help!”

A man wielding a sword ran towards us with Angry Face clinging to his back.

“Wait, don’t come this way!”

A person running next to me tried to avoid him, but the man, desperate and blind to everything else, kept chasing us. Running away seemed pointless. I gripped my club tightly and kept looking back.

As Angry Face climbed up the man’s back and engulfed his head, his legs kept running towards us. This seemed like the best time to attack. While Angry Face bounced around too fast to follow, it took a bit more time to swallow people.

I stopped running and turned, raising my club as I ran towards the man. More precisely, towards Angry Face swallowing the man.

Thwack!

The club struck Angry Face squarely, causing it to spit out the man and bounce away. The man, drenched in the monster’s saliva but otherwise unharmed, lay coughing on the ground.

Boing! Boing!

Angry Face, seemingly even angrier now, bounced around erratically. It seemed to hold a grudge against me for hitting it and kept bouncing around me. It was moving so fast that I felt overwhelmed.

This was a monster I couldn’t handle at my current level. I had been lucky to deal with Box, but this was beyond my ability.

“Aine! Be careful!”

Seika, unable to approach due to Angry Face’s erratic movements, shouted anxiously.

I couldn’t defeat this monster with my current level. But if I gave up now, I would be swallowed by Angry Face. I hadn’t come this far to die like this.

Unable to track Angry Face’s movements with my eyes, I closed them.

Recently, I had killed many monsters. Some of them moved almost as fast as Angry Face, and I relied on my instincts rather than sight to deal with them. Dain criticized this approach, but Jenin and Barkrud praised it as a good judgment.

Angry Face was getting closer. The wind and sound it made told me that. Not yet. Not yet. Not… now!

I swung my club with all my might in the direction my instincts told me. Thwack! Something soft was struck and sent flying. Opening my eyes, I saw Angry Face soaring towards the audience.

“How did you hit that…?”

Someone muttered in disbelief. I, too, couldn’t believe what I had done.

―Angry Face? Are you alright, residents?

Jack anxiously looked at Angry Face in the audience. Someone who had collided with it was huffing angrily. Angry Face, regaining its composure, bounced back into the arena, its body dented where I had struck it.

“How hard did you hit it?”

“Beating a rare dungeon monster with a club…”

“Who is that person?”

I could barely hear the people talking about me. As the tension eased a bit, my hands began to throb, and I dropped my club.

“Aine! That was amazing!”

As I picked up the fallen club and put it back in my inventory, I saw Seika approaching me with more loud praise.

“You are truly a lady I can respect from the bottom of my heart…”

Seika, spouting these embarrassing words, suddenly stopped mid-sentence with his mouth open. His shocked gaze wasn’t on me but on the person who had come up behind me and hugged me.

Kelian, whose touch was so familiar that I could never mistake him for anyone else, had naturally wrapped his arms around my waist and placed his lips on the nape of my neck.

“What’s wrong? Are you feeling uncomfortable?”

I was worried about Kelian, who had suddenly come to hug me after standing quietly for so long. Was he having another bad impulse? With so many people crowding around the famous Warrior Kelian, coming down from the top floor, it must have been a trial for him, given his dislike of such things.

He had said he was doing better recently… but maybe he wasn’t completely okay yet. I turned my body slightly to look at Kelian behind me.

“Kelian, are you having bad thoughts again?”

“Not really.”

Not really…?

“It’s just hard to bear.”

What did he find hard to bear? As I blinked in confusion, he continued.

“We decided not to intervene in this dungeon for your growth, unless it became too dangerous…”

I had known that from the beginning. They could have easily dealt with the monsters without me, but they held back to let me grow. I had felt grateful for that.

“But not being able to touch you when you’re right in front of me is hard.”

So, the reason he suddenly came to hug me was simply because he wanted to touch me…? I was relieved it wasn’t another destructive impulse, and at the same time, I felt a flutter in my chest.

“I feel the same way.”

“Really?”

Kelian, who usually would have just nodded quietly, asked back in a low voice. I nodded again, saying yes, and his reaction was different from usual.

“You looked like you were having fun.”

He muttered in a tone that didn’t match his usual indifferent expression.

“Did I?”

Reflecting on our journey from the underground to this place, I only remembered hardships. The few good things were showing some growth to Kelian and the others, and cooperating with strangers to reach this point without disrupting the atmosphere.

This was possible because of Seika and the others’ good nature. While crossing the gates alone, I might have felt a bit of relief or pride, but I wouldn’t say I had much fun.

“No, I’m sorry. Forget what I just said.”

Already having said it, he tried to retract it, which was unusual for him. His cute behavior made me smile.

“I didn’t really enjoy it.”

“…”

“Because I couldn’t reach you.”

I said this with a smile, but it wasn’t an artificial statement to please him. Just as he found it hard not to touch me, I hadn’t enjoyed not being able to touch him. If it seemed like I was having fun, it was unfortunate.

Kelian, with his long eyelashes downcast, looked at me with an expression I couldn’t quite read. Though now, I felt I understood his emotions a bit more.

“D…!”

A sudden strange noise interrupted the moment. It came from Seika, who was standing in front of us.

“What are you doing to my Aine! Get away from her at once!”

Seika pointed a trembling finger at Kelian, who was hugging my waist. His reaction was so close to shock that I was startled. Though Seika, being a noble of the capital, surely knew who the Warrior Kelian was, he seemed not to have connected me with him.

And now, almost everyone in the hall was staring at Kelian and me. This situation made me feel the piercing stares that I hadn’t noticed before.

What should I explain? Maybe just saying that due to certain circumstances, we had been pretending not to know each other, but we were actually in the same party, would suffice?

Then Seika said something astonishing.

“Brother Kelian!”

Brother…? Reflexively turning my head to the side, I saw Kelian looking at Seika with the same cold eyes he had before.

“Brother?”

I asked Kelian for confirmation, and he calmly replied.

“He is my stepmother’s son.”

“Which means he’s your brother?”

It meant he was his half-brother. Kelian had previously told me he had no siblings…

“You said you had no siblings, Kelian.”

“Technically, he exists on paper.”

So, wasn’t that usually considered a sibling? Seeing my confused expression, he added as if to explain.

“I haven’t officially cut ties with the family due to lack of the emperor’s seal, but I’ve been estranged from them for a long time. So, saying I have no siblings isn’t a lie. I didn’t intend to deceive you.”

His statement about being estranged from his family was shocking, but considering the stories he had shared about his past, it wasn’t entirely unexpected. On that almost disastrous night when we had delved deeply into each other’s pasts, I learned about the torment he endured from the Ail family and others since childhood.

But realizing that Seika was part of the Ail family was hard to believe. When I first heard Seika Ail’s name, I noticed the surname similarity but thought it was just a coincidence. I never imagined they were actually brothers…

Their appearances were so drastically different…!

“Still, to think they are really brothers…”

Jenin, who had just managed to shake off the women clinging to her, curiously approached Seika and scrutinized him.

“What, what is it?”

“Oh, sorry. I’ve been curious for a while. Even if you’re half-siblings, can you look this different?”

Jenin’s innocent comment seemed to strike a chord, but Seika, full of self-confidence, didn’t appear too affected.

“I resemble my father, while my brother takes after the previous marquis’s wife.”

Jenin and Dain exchanged skeptical glances but didn’t argue. Unlike me, who had just learned of their relationship, they seemed to have already suspected it and weren’t too surprised.

“More importantly, what is the relationship between my brother and Aine that he’s hugging her waist…!”

Seika’s attention returned to Kelian and me. Despite the awkwardness of being pointed out, Kelian didn’t let go and clung to me even tighter. My cheeks warmed at the close contact.

“Isn’t it obvious? We’re in that kind of relationship,” Dain retorted gruffly, disliking Seika.

“That kind of relationship… does that mean you’re lovers?”

“Yes.”

Though brief and slightly irritated, it was the first time Kelian had directly addressed Seika today. I felt a surge of emotion seeing this. We were lovers…?

Looking back at our interactions, it would have been strange not to call us lovers, but hearing Kelian confirm it made it feel real. I was truly someone special to him.

“Is that woman the Warrior Kelian’s lover?”

“I’ve never heard such a rumor. Isn’t she the one who killed Box earlier?”

“And the one who hit Angry Face with a club…”

The murmuring from the people watching us grew louder. Seika’s companions quickly gathered around him to console him.

“No matter what, the true Warrior is you, Seika!”

“Women like her are a dime a dozen in the capital.”

“You’re destined to be the head of the marquisate!”

However, their attempts to console him seemed to have little effect on Seika.

“Aine is my brother’s lover… then, the marks I saw on her body were from… brother…”

Seika’s voice trailed off in shock.

It felt like I had just heard something incredibly embarrassing. As I struggled to confirm what Seika had just muttered, he broke away from his companions and walked towards me with determined strides. Then, with a solemn expression, he knelt on one knee.

“Lady Kruger, Aine. From the moment I first saw you, I felt our fates were intertwined, inextricably and irresistibly.”

What was he talking about? I blinked down at Seika, puzzled. Meanwhile, Kelian was still hugging me from behind.

“Even though you are my brother’s lover now, there is no guarantee it will always be so, and I will not deny my feelings. Even if you had someone, I had no intention of giving up easily. Meeting you again here, I felt the pull of destiny even stronger.”

Kelian’s arms tightened around me. It wasn’t painful, but his gaze towards Seika was so icy that I placed my hand over his, trying to calm him. Kelian wouldn’t harm his brother, but his anger worried me.

“Please choose!”

Seika pulled out a bouquet from his inventory. He seemed overly excited and hopeful, as if he had forgotten we were in a rare dungeon.

However, his excitement quickly faded in the face of Kelian’s frosty voice.

“If that’s the case, Seika Ail, you are now my enemy.”

“En-enemy? Brother…”

“I have ignored you and your family because you weren’t worth my attention. But if you become my enemy, that changes.”

The threat was so palpable that Seika’s face darkened. It seemed Kelian wasn’t just threatening him but speaking his genuine feelings.

I squeezed Kelian’s hand again, trying to calm him down. I was worried he might actually draw his sword against Seika, and his grim expression made me think he just might.

“I-I know you don’t mean that! It just shows how much Aine means to you! But she has become just as important to me!”

When…?

I needed to do something. No matter how estranged they were, I couldn’t stand by and watch this become a tragic conflict between brothers. Seika seemed to believe his brother wouldn’t truly oppose him, but…

Seika, oblivious to my anxiety, pushed the bouquet towards me again.

“Aine, will you choose me or my brother?”

“Kelian.”

“If you choose me, I’ll build a mansion in the capital and… what?”

“I’m sorry, Seika. I love Kelian.”

I hadn’t planned to make such a public declaration, but I was worried about Kelian, and the situation left me no choice. Trying to act naturally, I kissed Kelian on the lips. He, who had been gloomy, looked at me in surprise.

“That’s so corny…”

“Why, it’s nice to see.”

Dain and Jenin had different reactions. Maybe the kiss was too much… I had acted impulsively to shift Kelian’s attention and hide my embarrassment.

While it seemed effective in redirecting Kelian’s focus entirely to me, it was too successful. I felt embarrassed.

At that moment, an unexpected notification message appeared, catching me off guard.

“Oh my…”

On the other side, Seika knelt and staggered, covering his forehead with one hand, looking as if he might faint. His companions rushed to support him.

“Did you have to answer so quickly?”

“You should have pretended to consider it!”

Seika’s companions scolded me, but Seika shook his head.

“Don’t blame Aine. This is all my fault.”

“Seika, what do you mean it’s your fault?”

“I don’t know, but if she felt even a slight deficiency in me, that’s why she didn’t choose me. Don’t blame her… just take care.”

“Seika!”

Seika collapsed, and his companions, crying, carried him to a corner. Watching this, Dain commented.

“Are they crazy?”

They were dramatic, but they weren’t bad people.

―The love drama of the new toys has ended quickly!

Waaaah!

The previously quiet Jack and the audience were now noisy again.

―But since Angry Face is out of commission… I suppose I’ll have to step in.

Jack! Jack! Jack! Jack! Jack!

Jack, who I thought was just the announcer, was now the next opponent. The audience chanted his name wildly. Could I keep fighting? I looked at my aching hands. Both palms were bloodied and raw from earlier.

Then Kelian gently took my hands in his.

“Rest now. Knowing your limits is also important.”

I agreed. Even if I didn’t, I couldn’t fight any longer. Kelian handed me over to Sayiris and went to face Jack.

“You did well.”

Sayiris, usually expressionless, praised me as she treated my hands. I wasn’t sure if she meant my fight with the monsters or acknowledging my limits, but it felt good.

“Thank you, Sayiris.”

Jenin patted my shoulder, Barkrud ruffled my hair, and Dain gave a grudging compliment of “not bad” as Kelian returned, having finished everything.

[Dungeon cleared.] [Jack defeated. Rewards granted.] [Level up.]

Among the flood of notifications, the level-up caught my eye. Checking my information, I couldn’t help but exclaim.

LV.50

“Oh my…”

❖ ❖ ❖

“That woman is really…”

“The Warrior’s…”

Ever since we cleared the SS-rank rare dungeon, the Noisy Toy Castle, rumors had spread so widely and rapidly that whispers followed us wherever we went.

“Aine, you’ve become famous.”

“Haha…”

Jenin nudged my waist playfully with her elbow, making me let out an awkward laugh. Being with Kelian’s party already meant attracting attention, but now I felt like I was the center of all the rumors in the capital.

Ignoring the attention, we entered the inn, where our party was sitting in the dining area. Since we had rented the entire inn for our exclusive use, there were no other guests except for the owner and the staff.

“Did you get the weapons?”

Barkrud, leisurely sipping tea, asked. Sayiris was reading a book in a corner, and Dain was lounging in another seat, tapping the back of his chair with his fingers.

“Yes, we bought the best-forged ones we could find.”

When I showed the daggers we had chosen with Jenin, Barkrud nodded approvingly.

“Kelian isn’t here yet?”

Looking around, I asked. Dain pointed to the door we had entered through, saying, “He’s coming.”

Soon enough, Kelian walked in, opening the inn door. Clad in a navy robe, he looked as radiant as ever. I used to think he looked like a prince or an imperial prince, but now I knew exactly what to call him.

The sole scion of the empire’s only marquisate, a high-ranking noble…

Even though his reputation as the Warrior Kelian had eclipsed his noble background, he had never intended to inherit his family title. Instead, he left the family and almost severed ties with them completely. How did I know this…?

“Aine.”

Because my lover, Kelian, told me as he approached and embraced me. Dain had also mentioned it when I found out about Kelian’s noble bloodline.

Being lifted in Kelian’s arms, my elevated view was now very familiar. I naturally wrapped my arms around his neck and asked,

“Did you get the potion? I heard there aren’t many places that sell extreme poison antidotes…”

“It’s not impossible to get; it’s just that the alchemist’s demands were tedious.”

Kelian had managed to get the needed potion. It must have been incredibly expensive.

Our next target, the ‘Trap of the Serpent Tree,’ was an SSS-rank dungeon, and it was known that the monsters inside emitted deadly poison. Since poison purification was different from curse purification, Kelian couldn’t help with it, and Sayiris’s magic couldn’t fully purify extreme poisons, so we had to get the antidote.

“Are we leaving now?”

Barkrud, having finished his tea, looked eager to head to the dungeon, shifting restlessly. Normally, Sayiris wouldn’t pay any mind to his restlessness, but even she closed her book and stood up.

“I’m ready to leave immediately.”

The mood among our party was one of anticipation and readiness. We had faced and overcome many challenges together, and the bonds between us had only strengthened. As we prepared to embark on our next adventure, I felt a mixture of excitement and determination. The road ahead was dangerous, but with my companions by my side, I felt ready to face whatever came our way.

“Alright, everyone, let’s head out,” Kelian said, his voice calm and reassuring. “We have a dungeon to conquer.”

With that, we gathered our gear and headed out, united and prepared for the trials ahead.

“I agree. We’re done with the level-up mission for Aine, and it’s been so boring just visiting dungeons and resting. If we’re ready, let’s go.”

Even Jenin, who had suggested a break, seemed to have been extremely bored over the past two weeks.

“You’re so impatient…”

“Dain, didn’t you say you’d go crazy if we didn’t go to a dungeon soon?”

“I didn’t mean right this second.”

“Are you backing out?”

“Back out? You wish! Jenin, maybe you should back out!”

It seemed Dain was on board too. Kelian glanced around at the party and finally stopped at me, silently asking for my opinion.

“I’m in favor too. It might be a challenging dungeon for me, but I’ll do my best to contribute.”

Not too long ago, I couldn’t have said that. Especially not about going to an SSS-rank rare dungeon and claiming I could hold my own. It felt like an arrogant claim, but now I truly believed I could pull my weight.

Of course, pulling my weight didn’t mean taking the lead in battle. Though my level had skyrocketed recently, my goal in this high-level party was to avoid being a burden. That was the best way I could ‘pull my weight.’

Kelian, holding me, gave a light smile, seemingly pleased with my words. Oh, he’s so handsome. I cleared my throat and added,

“And, my curse is completely healed.”

That’s right. The rare S-rank curse that had plagued me was finally purified.

When I kissed Kelian in the Noisy Toy Castle dungeon, the notification I had longed for appeared before my eyes.

[The rare Torong’s Curse has been purified.] [You have gained resistance to curses.]

I even gained resistance to curses, meaning I wouldn’t easily fall under another curse in the future. When I shared this news with the party on our way back to the inn, they were as happy as if it had happened to them.

“Then let’s head out immediately.”

Kelian tried to leave the inn with me still in his arms, but I hurriedly asked him to put me down. Though I had gotten used to being carried by him, I still wasn’t comfortable doing it in front of so many people. Especially with the crowded streets, the stares were more intense.

Kelian looked a bit disappointed, but it couldn’t be helped. Dain clicked his tongue behind us.

“Kelian, have you forgotten that Aine has legs?”

“Why, it looks good,” Jenin said, watching us with a content smile.

Ignoring Dain’s grumbling, Kelian set me down and extended his hand.

“May I hold your hand?”

He asked as if he thought I might refuse. But there was no way I’d reject his hand. Instead of replying verbally, I showed my response through my actions.

“…”

I grabbed his hand firmly. He looked at it for a moment. I loved the feel of his calloused yet elegant hand.

Why wouldn’t I? We exchanged a glance, tightened our grip, and looked ahead. As we opened the inn door, the bright sunlight enveloped us.

―fin.