Doah slowly moved her gaze along the hand.
The hand stopped before touching her.
The fingertips brushed the air between them.
Slowly, making sure not to touch her.
It seemed less like he was being careful and more like he was afraid to touch her.
As his hand passed by her cheek, Doah tilted her body away.
What had Josephine said?
She said physical contact was the best way to get close to someone.
Cultural differences can be accepted.
The moment his hand touched her cheek, the man froze as if struck by lightning.
Doah stared at him intently.
He stared back at her.
The hand that had touched her moved slightly, then gently cupped her cheek.
With his thumb and index finger.
‘Is he pinching me?’
He gently squeezed her cheek as if to check its softness.
After touching her cheek a few times, he spoke in a slightly dazed voice.
“Is this real?”
“Is there such a thing as fake?”
Doah asked.
She already knew he had suffered from flashbacks due to high fever.
“No, don’t go.”
He murmured like a groan.
Doah held his hand and whispered several times,
“It’s okay, I’m not going anywhere.”
She once said the same thing to her mother before, so his pain resonated in her heart.
‘He might think it was just a fever dream.’
She thought that and smiled faintly.
“It’s not a hallucination.”
As if he couldn’t believe her words, he didn’t take his eyes off her.
Doah went back to the beginning and said,
“My name is Kim Doah. What’s your name?”
“…Don’t you know me?”
“No.”
His expression twisted a bit.
Doah thought hard.
He was an S-rank adventurer.
Although she didn’t know much, S-rank adventurers must be very famous and well-known to many people.
So, what she was saying might sound like a lie!
‘But I really don’t know him!’
Moreover, pinching her cheek.
Doah asked in a sulky voice,
“Do I need to know?”
She asked again, and the man squeezed her cheek slightly harder before letting go.
“No, you don’t need to know.”
He crossed his arms.
Doah rubbed her cheek.
“Then what’s your name?”
“Isn’t it something you don’t need to know?”
His curt response made her frown.
Why is he acting like a child?
Doah also crossed her arms and said,
“I saved your life, and now you’re being petty over something trivial?”
“Trivial…”
He seemed about to say something but closed his eyes tightly.
He looked like he was holding something back. After a moment, he opened his eyes and said,
“Khunak Shendel.”
He looked straight at her.
“That’s my name.”
He looked at her as if desperately expecting something, but Doah’s mind was blank.
“Nice to meet you.”
Doah greeted him as if meeting him for the first time, and Khunak, after staring at her for a moment, unfolded his arms.
“I see. Is that so?”
He said in a somewhat sad tone.
After a brief silence, he took a deep breath and wiped his face with both hands.
As if organizing his emotions in an instant, he smiled amiably and said,
“Forgive my rudeness, Miss Doah. Thank you for saving me. I was out of my mind and behaved rudely.”
His sudden change in attitude made Doah blink.
“Oh—no.”
She shook her head.
“It’s understandable to act that way when you’re sick and confused. Ah, let me make the fire brighter.”
She turned and found a star fragment lantern in her luggage.
The light from the star fragment was much brighter than an oil lamp, illuminating the cabin.
The light literally shone from the star fragment, emitting a bright glow.
She looked around for a place to hang the star fragment lantern.
Khunak approached, took the lantern from her hand, and hung it on a rafter crossing the cabin.
His height made it an easy task.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Please speak comfortably, as you are my life savior.”
“Alright. Shall we eat something first? You must be hungry. I feel like my stomach is stuck to my back too.”
Doah said as she approached the kitchen and checked the remaining ingredients in the pantry.
When they left the travel agency, they had carefully packed various groceries, but they were almost out now.
‘At least there was still rice.’
Looking at the world map, it seemed like there were about seven countries, and one or two of them apparently grew rice.
She had happily gathered rice from the food storage.
‘But…’
Although it was called rice, the rice in Rencia was as different from Earth’s rice as tangerines are from hallabong oranges.
Not just rice, everything was like that.
It was similar yet completely different.
Humans also looked similar on the outside but were entirely different, and the same went for all living creatures.
‘But it was convenient that way.’
It was easier to perceive things that way.
Doah skillfully cooked white porridge.
In any situation, make delicious food!
Like Elibas’ motto, Doah also decided to win over with delicious food first.
Just boiling it in plain water might make it taste bland, so she used dried laurel leaves to create a light broth.
Dried laurel leaves gave a slight broth flavor, but since it was a plant, it didn’t have a fishy taste or strong aroma.
She cooked the rice in the clear broth.
Finally, she added the perfect amount of salt.
The umami of the broth and the salt brought out each other’s flavors perfectly.
The moment she took a bite, the white porridge was warm and mild in her mouth, but not lacking, with a rich flavor.
‘Even though I made it, it’s amazing.’
Doah sighed with satisfaction.
Khunak naturally approached and handed her a plate, and Doah ladled the porridge generously.
‘And lastly.’
A touch of sesame oil.
As the oil poured from the small bottle, a delicious smell started to fill the air.
“Would you like some sesame oil too, Khunak?”
Since it could be a matter of preference, she asked, and he nodded.
Doah drizzled a bit of sesame oil on his portion as well.
Of course, she didn’t forget the Sea King’s share either.
Doah sat at the table and took a big spoonful of porridge.
‘Delicious!’
Even eating it again, it was delicious.
She glanced at Khunak to see his reaction, and he paused briefly after taking a slow bite of porridge.
Then he took another spoonful of porridge into his mouth and,
“Hahaha!”
He started laughing out loud.
Doah widened her eyes in surprise.
‘He’s laughing?’
She unconsciously looked at the porridge.
Did something weird get in there?
She took another bite herself, but it was still just as delicious.
Perplexed, she looked at him, and he bent over laughing, then finally chuckled briefly and looked at her.
His eyes were gentle.
They were eyes looking at something beloved, making Doah feel proud for a moment.
“Is it delicious?”
When Doah asked, he chuckled again and nodded.
“It’s very delicious. Miss Doah, you are an excellent cook.”
“There’s plenty, so have some more.”
The pot blessed by the World Tree ensured that the food was neither too little nor too much.
It was a precious pot that always maintained the right amount.
Khunak nodded.
And he slowly savored the porridge.
Doah also enjoyed the delicious porridge after a long time.
Eating something warm and soft made her stomach feel comfortable and her mood relaxed.
Feeling relaxed, Doah chattered away, telling her story.
That she hadn’t been in the southern continent for long, that she was an aspiring adventurer, that she had gotten lost and was wandering.
“I were lucky.”
Khunak said in a leisurely tone.
“What do you mean?”
When Doah asked, he replied.
“If Miss Doah hadn’t been wandering in the forest, I would have died there.”
“Oh.”
For a moment, Doah didn’t know what to say.
What would be the right thing to say?
As she was pondering, he asked,
“By the way, was there no body near me?”
Doah was used to the unrestrained conversations of Josephine and Rakshasha, so she felt comfortable with such questions.
“There was one without a head.”
“What did you do with it?”
“I left it as it was…”
Feeling awkward, Doah asked cautiously.
“Were they not an enemy?”
“They were a friend of ten years.”
“Oh.”
Doah was even more flustered.
With time passing like this, wild animals probably wouldn’t leave the corpse alone.
“No, I was… I had to save the living person first… And I thought that person had poisoned you…”
“Yes, they did poison me.”
“You said they were a friend of ten years?”
“Yes.”
“But they poisoned you?”
“Yes.”
“Oh dear.”
Words slipped out without thinking.
Oops, Doah thought, but Khunak laughed.
“Unless they’ve known me for about ten years, they wouldn’t be able to poison me.”
Doah looked down at her porridge and then back at him.
Noticing her gaze, Khunak said,
“Miss Doah, you are my savior. If you had intended to kill me, I would already be dead.”
Should I call this a precise judgment or commendable nerve?
Doah suddenly recalled his hearty laughter from earlier.
‘Was that why he laughed?’
Despite being poisoned, he found it amusing that he was dining without any sign of poisoning?
Doah suppressed the question, ‘Are you okay?’ that almost escaped her lips.
No matter how she thought about it, there was no way he could be okay.
Of course, asking ‘Are you okay?’ wasn’t really a question about his well-being, but it wasn’t the right time to ask.
“Hmm…”
Doah hesitated before speaking.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
Khunak asked back.
Doah replied matter-of-factly,
“Cause you being poisoned by a friend of ten years.”
“Miss Doah has nothing to feel sorry about.”
Doah scratched her cheek.
“Still…”
When people experience such shocking events, they usually vent their shock to those around them or become unstable, but he remained calm.
‘Considering what he went through, his slight irritation towards me is actually mild.’
Doah stared at him for a moment.
She had been thinking this for a while, but his eyes were incredibly beautiful.
They looked like a deep well filled with stars.
She couldn’t tell what lay hidden in those depths or how deep they were, but the starlight dancing on the surface was enchanting.
No, it wasn’t the starlight that was alluring but the deep darkness below it.
Surely, even at noon, it was deep, dark, and its end was unknown—a cold well.
It felt like if she stood on tiptoe to look inside, she would be sucked in…
Doah averted her gaze and finished her sentence.
“For some reason, I feel sorry.”
It felt like she had asked something she shouldn’t have.
“It’s not something a savior like Miss Doah should worry about.”
At Khunak’s words, Doah chuckled.
“Just because I’m your savior doesn’t mean I can do anything.”
Doah slyly asked,
“Why did that person do such a thing?”
It was a direct question but a necessary one.
Khunak smiled gently and said,
“Because I am the owner of a cursed sword.”
❖ ❖ ❖
The people of the Rencia continent use mana.
They use and accumulate it in their bodies.
But there is mana from the outside.
In Rencia, this is called ‘contamination.’
About five thousand years ago, there was a ‘Great Cataclysm’ on the Rencia continent.
The continent was split, and the southern continent broke away at that time.
When the dimensional barrier surrounding Rencia broke, external mana poured in while internal mana was sucked out.
The proud ancient cities were swallowed whole by black hole-like dimensional rifts.
Simultaneously, external mana contaminated people, creating numerous magical beasts.
Earthquakes, floods, and droughts occurred simultaneously, and fiery hailstones fell from the sky.
The apostles of the World Tree gathered all their remaining power.
They limited the dimensional rifts into forms known as ‘dungeons.’
Although dungeons appeared everywhere, natural disasters stopped, and cities and people were no longer sucked in.
However, ‘contamination’ remained.
Just as people naturally accumulate mana while breathing, they also accumulated contamination.
Contamination caused diseases, accidents, and misfortunes.
And there were mage.
Mages originally used external mana to interfere with Rencia’s mana to cast spells.
But after the dimensional rifts, they could no longer draw external mana. The dimensional barrier had become as fragile as a soap bubble.
So, mages chose another method, using a substance called ‘crystal.’
Using this material caused contamination to accumulate in their bodies.
To use this material and partially purify and expel the contamination, mages engraved special spells on their spines.
Yes, directly on their spines.
And how great must the magic be to endure that?
It was indeed great.
Doah could only gape when she saw Elibas using magic.
‘How could anyone defeat that?’
That’s all she could think.
Thanks to Josephine, she learned how to counter it.
Nonetheless, mages were still shunned.
They could be compared to small power plants.
After all, they emitted contaminants.
Compared to that, what about a cursed sword?
A cursed sword was like a walking nuclear power plant.
