A Prickly Olive Branch

“Radugan!”

Following someone’s clenched-teeth exclamation, the scraping sound of chairs filled the banquet hall.
The escorting Sura, one and all, threw down their cards and stood up.

Amundu gripped his knuckles and took a combat stance, while Asla, who was on the opposite side, even vaulted over the round table to come to my side.

Some were letting out the wolf’s characteristic howl deep in their throats, calling for backup.
A howling sound spread out.

“What brings you here?”

“It’s not like I’ve come to a place I can’t come to. Isn’t this a common space? I don’t know why you’re all so sensitive.”

“Are you asking because you don’t know?”

The escorting Sura with bared teeth and Radugan stood facing each other.
The Sura Karvan had assigned to me were, at a glance, the elite.
Even among the Varg, they were all exceptionally large or had a different air about them, but Radugan was not pushed back by them.
On the contrary, his pitch-black frame was uniquely intimidating.

“What is your business?”

“It’s with the Valtael, not you.”

Radugan was staring directly at me.

“With me? What…”

As I was about to cautiously stick my head out in curiosity, Asla deftly spread his cloak and hid me.

“Now, now, shall we continue our card game?”

“…Oh, Valtael, you have a good hand!”

As if to divert my attention, they all made a playful comment, but their eyes were terrifyingly hard.

“Speak to us. We will listen and relay the message.”

“The Valtael must be very comfortable, having so many mouths and ears to substitute for her. Move. I didn’t come here to cause trouble.”

“How can we move when we don’t know what you’re up to?”

It felt as if a cold wind was blowing in the standoff, where they were facing each other without an inch of giving way.
Meanwhile, Radugan was staring at me with one eye.

“I just…”

As the Sura, who had noticed his gaze, got angry and blocked him, Radugan frowned and opened his mouth.

Just then.

-Move, move aside, you punks! Get out of the way!

Crash!
Just then, a loud, chaotic noise came from outside, and the banquet hall door was thrown open for the second time.

“Shinbi-nim!”

A voice so loud that the table trembled.
It was Tegen.
He had been away for a moment due to a food distribution issue, but it seemed someone had informed him, and he had rushed over immediately.

“Shinbi-nim, are you alright?! Are you hurt anywhere…”

He rushed over with a pheasant feather stuck in his hair, and then crouched down his large body to examine me from all sides.
His face was so urgent that I felt awkward for being perfectly fine.

“Of course, I’m fine.”

“Hehe, that’s a relief. …Radugan! You bastard!”

As I waved my hand, saying nothing was wrong, he smiled like a simple retriever, and then, he turned around and roared.
I thought thunder had struck somewhere.

“How dare you try to pull some trick on the Valtael while I was away?! You bastard…!”

“W-wait a minute! Tegen! Let’s hear him out first!”

As he looked ready to throw a punch at any moment, I rushed and stood between Tegen and Radugan.

Then, as if calming down fighting dogs, I showed them my palms.

“He says he has business with me. Radugan, what is it?”

“I came to repay a debt.”

Radugan finally held out the hand he had been hiding behind his back.

In the large basket he was holding, there were all sorts of fruits and honey candies.
And a handful of pink flowers, from who knows where he had picked them.

“…Is it rotten, poisoned, or will I get sick if I touch it?”

Tegen, who was looking at the basket with a face that was sure that what Radugan had brought was something bad, rubbed his eyes several times and asked, as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Do I have to eat it in front of you?”

Radugan, who had not taken his eyes off me since the moment he came in, replied with a look of displeasure.

“I’m sure I said it was a gift for the Valtael.”

“When did you hate Shinbi-nim so much?”

“Looking back, it was a childish thing to do. So I came to apologize.”

“Really? Then your business is finished, so you can go now! …Shinbi-nim, how about we move to the inner room? It’s warmer and better there!”

Tegen, who was glaring at him with displeasure, snatched Radugan’s basket and turned to me.

As if he had never growled, he twisted his large body and grinned, and at the same time, he gestured to the escorting Sura to pick up the trump cards that were scattered on the table.

“There are too many flies buzzing around when we’re outside. Let’s go quickly. I’m afraid you might catch a cold.”

I felt Radugan’s steady gaze and became restless.
Before, I would have welcomed Tegen’s ironclad defense.
But now that I knew his situation, I couldn’t help but be concerned.

“Thank you for the gift, Radugan. I’ll enjoy it.”

“It’s in return for the eyepatch.”

“Yeah, it suits you very well. If I have a chance next time, I’d like to talk…”

“I’d like to do that now. It would be perfect to talk while sharing my gift.”

“What?”

Tegen’s eyes, which were going back and forth between Radugan and me as if watching a table tennis match, looked as if they would fall out.

“Has this bastard gone mad? How dare you…”

“Th-that’s a good idea!”

I barely managed to hold onto Tegen, who was cracking his knuckles as if he would wring his neck at any moment, and smiled awkwardly.

“We were all getting a bit hungry just in time. This is great, we can all eat here together!”

“Shinbi-nim! You can’t believe those shiny words!”

“When we were going to get the antidote, only Radugan believed me. Thanks to that, we didn’t waste any time.”

“…But! He’s a man with a dark heart, he definitely has some other motive!”

“If he really wanted to fight, he would have brought his subordinates too. But he came alone, didn’t he? Right?”

I looked at Radugan as if asking for his agreement, and he looked at me and then crossed his arms and nodded.

“That insolent bastard!”

Someone spat out a curse softly.
Tegen also puffed out his cheeks like a pufferfish, and then, forcing a smile, he said.

“I know that Shinbi-nim is very kind, but Radugan has even raised his hand against Valta before.”

“That’s right. He’s a bad guy from birth.”

“I was also a bad Destroyer from birth, and you all hated me, but now you call me family.”

“……”

“So how about we give Radugan one more chance?”

Tegen and the other Sura showed clear signs of conflict.
If it were up to them, they would have kicked him out immediately, but since the Valtael was saying this, they couldn’t refuse.
Well, they had had a very bad relationship.

“If it’s uncomfortable for you all to be together, I’ll…”

“No! That’s even more out of the question!”

After a great commotion, Radugan finally got a chance to stay in the banquet hall.

Even so, his seat was the furthest from me, on the opposite side, and on either side of him sat the most burly Monodu and Amundu.
It was a clear indication that if he tried anything funny, they would immediately break his limbs.

In any case, we all ended up sitting around and sharing the fruit that Radugan had brought.

“……”

“……”

The atmosphere was incredibly tense.

As Tegen and Radugan simultaneously held out the largest peach and dragon fruit respectively, I smiled awkwardly and accepted both.

As they were watching with glittering eyes to see which one I would eat first, I couldn’t bring myself to eat either and just placed them neatly on my plate as if offering them at a memorial service, and then ate one I had chosen myself.

“Excuse me, but I will eat first!”

Tegen would insist on cutting off a corner of whatever I was about to eat and tasting it himself before giving it to me.

And every time he confirmed that it was fine, he would tilt his head.
Even though more than half of the basket was already empty, he had a face that was sure that there was poison somewhere.

The Sura, who had also not let go of their suspicions, also gradually fell in love with the sweet taste of the fruit and ate deliciously.

The fruit basket was soon empty.

“……”
“……”

Radugan and Tegen reached for the one remaining peach at the same time, and when their hands touched, they bared their teeth.

“Here, eat this one! I’m full!”

At the unusual atmosphere, I quickly held out the plate of fruit that was piled high in front of me – the Sura had each picked one out and offered it to me – but they both waved their hands at the same time.

“No, thank you!”

And then they glared at each other as if they would kill each other.

“…I heard the underlings were quite weak. You should have come yourself if you wanted to leave a scratch on me.”

It seemed like they were trying to whisper, but since their voices were so growly, I could hear them quite well.

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know. You ambushed me wearing a sack because you were jealous that I was walking with the Valtael.”

As I was listening, wondering what they were talking about, I remembered.

“Why is your face like that?”
“Uh, I got stung by a bee.”

‘That was it.’
‘It was the black manes who had beaten Tegen’s face until it was swollen just for taking my side.’

‘And the chief of those men was Radugan, so it was understandable why he was so distrustful.’

On the other hand, from Radugan’s perspective, it was understandable why he would hate an Awakener so much, which made me feel conflicted.

In the end, it was an incident that had happened because of me, an Awakener, so I was just biting my lip, feeling like I was sitting on a bed of thorns.
Radugan suddenly turned his head and looked at me.

“……”

I couldn’t take his side, nor could I blame him, so I just quietly lowered my gaze.

Screech.
At the same time, the sound of a chair scraping was heard.

Radugan, who had suddenly stood up, strode towards Tegen.

The other Sura also stood up as if the time had come, and just then, Radugan held out his hand.

“I’m sorry.”