The End of the Hunt and New Beginnings

“What exactly do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what I said. This is the last time. As I mentioned, the demons won’t be able to reappear.”

“So, it’s truly over? We won’t have to wander around hunting demons anymore?”

“That’s right. Demon hunters won’t be needed any longer.”

It wasn’t a lie. Only then did Rabi seem satisfied with my words, smiling as he embraced me once more. I glanced over to see Nocturne pointing a finger our way, his mouth agape.

I looked at him and raised a finger to my lips, signaling him to be quiet. Rabi, his face buried in my chest, mumbled.

“Now, when it’s really over… when it’s over….”

‘Ah. This is a bit awkward. If he’s this happy, I feel a little guilty.’

“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t touch my chest earlier?”

“…I didn’t say I wouldn’t.”

“Hmm. That’s true, but…”

‘Look at him subtly kneading it. He’s a complete rogue.’

Forcibly separating myself from Rabi, who wanted to come along, I returned to the underground passage.

Ultimately, my date with our cute Bodangbo was thwarted. These days, guards were terrified at the mere sight of goblins, so we were stopped. While I did have an item for appearance transformation, it was a ring, which Bodangbo, being a goblin, couldn’t wear.

“Damn it. I can’t extract magic from this.”

Typically, magic items can be disassembled to extract their magic. To enchant an item, one must either already know the spell or learn it by dismantling another magic item. However, the ring that changes appearances is a special item, designed so its magic cannot be extracted. Lore-wise, only non-human species can acquire it, and as a human character, I couldn’t learn it.

“It’s okay. Pata can visit often.”

“It really seems I should just exterminate them as quickly as possible….”

“I also need to do business to live. It’s difficult.”

‘Right. He needs to keep the bakery running.’

Rabi had suggested I stay the night, but claiming I needed to organize the base, I returned underground. I handed Nocturne a temporary visitor’s identification badge and told him to explore the base. I even hinted that he should pick out any room he liked. I had come to drop Bodangbo off and was now temporarily inside his home with him.

Bodangbo’s house had a counter on one wall and a small door right next to it. It was built to Bodangbo’s height, making it difficult for regular NPCs to pass through. I recalled having set up numerous traps and friend-or-foe recognition magic, just in case.

“Does this work well?”

“It works well. Last time, two went to heaven.”

“I don’t know what there is to eat here that they keep crawling in.”

“Bodangbo is rich. Ahem.”

‘How cute.’ Seeing him proudly puff out his chest and raise his nose filled me with a sense of satisfaction.

The inside of the house was surprisingly spacious, unlike its exterior. Originally, Bodangbo’s default home was a broken-down wagon, but I had built this place for him little by little while constructing our main base because I disliked the wagon. Though not built very high to match Bodangbo’s stature, the style was identical.

The interior was filled with furniture and cloths decorated in all sorts of colors, resembling a rustic house from an old movie. On one side, various items that looked like trade goods were neatly stacked.

“Bodangbo, why is that teleportation magic circle turned off?”

A magic circle drawn in one corner, half-buried among the items, caught my eye. Bodangbo waddled on his short legs, bringing me tea and snacks, and then spoke.

“Manastones became expensive. And they don’t appear often. Humans don’t use magic, so they don’t know how to use manastones.”

“Good heavens. I can’t believe how low things have sunk.”

“So I couldn’t buy them. Couldn’t charge it.”

It seemed that customizing the magic circle to be smaller by charging it with manastones, rather than adding magic engraving for automatic mana charging, had backfired.

I stood up and rolled up my sleeves.

“Bodangbo, could you move those things? I’ll engrave it with auto-charging right now.”

“Don’t do it. Play with me and then go. I won’t use it anyway. It’s a waste of time.”

“You never know what might happen.”

“I’m not human. It’s fine.”

Then, Bodangbo toddled closer, took my hand tightly, and gently pulled.

“Pata is leaving again. No time. Can’t see.”

‘Ah, this is tough. How does he know I’m weak to this kind of thing?’ I hesitated between the magic circle and Bodangbo for a moment, then took out several large manastones from my inventory.

“Just use these if you need them urgently. Got it?”

“I haven’t seen such big manastones in a long time. Is Pata okay? Will you become poor?”

“I have more, but the rest are too small, so I didn’t take them out. They’re for engraving, so they’re tiny.”

Bodangbo, who had been hesitating, looked at me as I kept pushing the manastones into his view, eventually accepting them. Then, with Bodangbo holding my hand, I was pulled back to my seat.

‘Others might call him disgusting, but Bodangbo is truly cute. Where else in the world would you find such an adorable goblin? Everyone must be blind, clearly.’

“Something else has increased?”

Returning to the Ravens of the Riverbank stronghold, I found four unfamiliar faces had been added. All of them, except Nocturne, looked disheveled, like beggars, and rose from their seats, eyeing me nervously.

“They’re… the ones with the raven seals. They returned, so I brought them in with me.”

“Did it recognize them properly?”

Nocturne pondered my question for a moment before shaking his head. The other four had such indistinct features that they clearly seemed to be generic NPCs, just there to fill numbers. I had been in a good mood after a pleasant chat with Bodangbo, but it seemed I’d have to fix these guys’ seals first.

“Did you guys engrave your seals properly? With pearl powder and dragon’s blood?”

“Uh… wasn’t it just a design?”

All of them looked utterly bewildered. I had suspected this might be the case, but never thought it could actually be true, so I hadn’t mentioned it until now. It seemed they really had just engraved the design.

“No, can’t that brute read? The guy who even had the ring didn’t handle such a basic thing… Oh, my bad. Now that I think about it, I forgot he didn’t even memorize the chant. My oversight.”

‘So, when I used the base’s defense system, Nocturne wasn’t recognized as a member, but was safe because he was my companion. I thought the recognition error only happened during entry because my level was too low. I almost killed him without even knowing it.’

“Sir Haut, what exactly is that ring?”

“Twilight Mist.”

“No, I mean, I know the name…”

“It’s literally mist. You can receive the blessing of the unknown. It conceals everything. It can also reveal everything. If you use it well, you can uncover all the world’s secrets and hide them too.”

At my words, Nocturne merely nodded, his face looking oddly exhausted. He certainly had a lot to do today. He must be too tired to even react. The ones who were making a fuss were the other four.

“B-but, uh… Nameless One, that is to say, that…”

“You guys can just call me Sir Haut. It’s too much trouble.”

“Uh, Sir Haut? We’ve never seen Victor use such a thing…”

“Victor? Ah, so that brute’s name was that? Well.”

I shrugged dismissively, casually scrolling through my inventory list.

“It probably didn’t suit his caliber. Even a real child could typically use it, so if he couldn’t, he must have been worse than a dung beetle. Thinking about it, it’s pitiful—it’s not easy to be that insignificant.”

“So, by Sir Haut’s standards… sigh. Never mind. It’s fine. I’m tired now.”

“Why do you stop mid-sentence? It’s annoying.”

“I was about to ask, but the answer just came to me.”

If that was the case, there was nothing to be done. I retrieved the leftover ink and a long needle from my inventory. The ink was mixed with pearl powder and dragon’s blood.

“First, let’s re-engrave your seals. Oh, if anyone wants to quit right now, raise your hand and leave quickly. Once this is engraved, it’s very troublesome and painful to remove. You might even get a scar from extracting dragon’s blood again.”

At my words, the four, excluding Nocturne, exchanged glances. Nocturne, with his worn and weary face, was already taking off his shirt on his own.

‘Hmph, at least he’s not completely devoid of common sense.’

The four rolled their eyes at each other, and then one finally raised a hand. I looked at him and asked.

“Where did you engrave it? I’ll remove it for you.”

“But, is it really alright if I just leave? Usually, even regular thugs don’t let people go so easily…”

“Just go. We, despite appearances, are Debora’s priests. If you don’t like it, you just leave.”

‘Blood oaths and such like those other guys are just tacky. I never made such rules. How rough must their lives have been to utter such chilling words so casually?’

Indeed, judging by their appearance, they must have endured a lot. I waved my hand, telling him to go well, and the person hesitated before simply walking out. I shook the ink again, mixing it, and picked up the needle.

“So, you guys will continue to work, right? First, take off your clothes. The ink won’t come off if it gets on them.”

‘What? Why are these grown adults standing there with such stupid expressions? I don’t get it.’

“That… is it really okay to just let them go like that?”

“If they don’t like it, they should leave. It’s obvious.”

“If they go out and say something…”

“Let them say whatever they want. They won’t know anything anyway.”

‘If they leave, they leave. I don’t know why they’re making such a fuss about it.’ I briefly explained the seal, then re-engraved it where the crude tattoos had been removed. I also warned them not to fight each other, as a curse would activate if those with the same seal killed each other, suffocating them and slowly drying them out.

Then, I gave each of them 100 gold as pocket money. I concluded by telling them that if they prayed at Debora’s statue in the prayer room, they could receive revelations, and they should try it if they were bored.

Originally, if a proxy NPC was set up, a prayer room wouldn’t be necessary, but I had specifically made one so Bebe wouldn’t be inconvenienced when going out to play. While human NPCs sometimes directly give tasks, most quests are received this way. Players could also receive tasks. I had received revelations a few times in the early stages, but stopped after that.

NPCs using it was just lore; I had never actually seen it in practice. ‘Now that I think about it, they would have used it on their own anyway, so did I explain it for nothing?’

‘As I was about to sleep, I suddenly felt like I had done something unnecessary. Anyway.’

“What are you doing? Lie down.”

“How long do we have to keep doing this?”

“Until I catch the demons.”

At night, NPCs go to sleep, so they don’t interact. That meant I should sleep too. Rabi would likely let me into the Capital’s Magic Tower, but enchanting and crafting would create loud banging noises. Even if it was an NPC, too much noise would wake them.

Honestly, whether they slept or woke was none of my business, but if they woke up, they’d constantly bother and interfere with me.

Nocturne, looking awkward, hesitantly climbed onto my bed.

“Sir Haut, who exactly was that wizard during the day?”

“Why are you asking that now, just when we’re about to sleep? You should’ve asked earlier.”

“I wasn’t going to ask, but I feel like I won’t be able to sleep if I don’t know.”

“I don’t know why everyone makes such a fuss about what the problem is.”

I grumbled, pulling Nocturne, who was lying opposite me, into an embrace. ‘I don’t know why this guy flinches so much at what I do.’ Soon after, Nocturne’s arms wrapped around me in return.

“Hmm. He’s the current Grand Sage and the head of the Magic Tower. His name is Raphael Carton.”

“You seemed close.”

“I raised him and then handed the position over to him.”

‘I don’t know why this guy sighs after I bothered to answer his question.’

“Hurry up and kiss me. I’m going to sleep.”

“Seeing that you don’t have any particular thoughts after hearing that, I guess I’m adapting too. Truly amazing.”

“What adaptation are you talking about? You always misunderstand and talk nonsense.”

Nocturne frowned, then subtly lowered the arm he had just raised. ‘Huh? What’s wrong now?’

“That, you seemed to have a special relationship with that wizard, but is it okay to be like this with me? I’d rather not get caught up in a love triangle.”

“Hmm? I do like Rabi, but that has nothing to do with this.”

At my words, Nocturne looked at me as if I were the most disgusting trash in the world.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“After that… messy kiss?”

Oops! That’s right! My face flushed without my realizing it, and I shrieked.

“I-I don’t know! Why that happened! You made me remember it again—Aargh!”

I let go of my embrace, covered my face with both hands, and rolled around on the bed, kicking the blanket. Damn it! I was just starting to forget it…!

The blanket, kicked by my feet, fluttered and fell off the bed.