A Sweet Reunion

“Andrealphus, it is I. Are you still awake?”

When I turned the old, stiff metal knob and opened the door, there stood an angel descended to earth.

Well, no, it was Azrael.

When he was walking around in that faceless armor during the day, I wondered if he was a Dullahan, but now, dressed in light clothing and holding a lantern, he looked exactly as he did in the previous collaboration quest. I instantly forgot the worries I had been harboring just moments ago.

“What is it, Prince?”

“What a cold thing to say. It is not as if I only seek you out when I have a purpose.”

Actually, from my perspective, you only ever sought me out when there was a quest. I murmured this to myself from the viewpoint of an omniscient player. Azrael, who naturally could not hear my internal grumbling, looked down at me with a playful, mischievous face as if he were up to something. What is it? What’s going on?

“For someone saying that, you seem to have come quite prepared.”

I poked my head out to sneak a peek at the hand Azrael was hiding… only to be stopped by him. Looking down, I saw the lantern he was holding slightly touching my chest.

“What is it? Did you really bring something? What is it?”

“I will give you a hint, so why don’t you try to guess?”

Maintaining that position, Azrael slowly pushed past me and entered the room. As I backed up into the room without turning around, Azrael didn’t turn back either; he simply closed the door with a nudge of his foot. It was an attitude truly unbecoming of a prince. I had initially assumed it was a quest item, but by this point, I was genuinely curious.

“Fine, give me a hint.”

Azrael placed the object on the table. It made a small, dull thud. He was still obscuring it with his body. I didn’t know what it was, but it seemed a bit larger than expected and didn’t seem particularly heavy.

“It is red.”

The head of an enemy general?

I carefully searched the dictionary in my head for a non-impure word, making sure not to let the word that instinctively popped up escape my mouth.

“Lipstick?”

It seems that searching my brain wasn’t very meaningful.

…Azrael pondered what kind of reaction he should show to my words. He seemed to be considering whether my remark was a simple joke or a sincere statement.

If anything, it was closer to the fact that I had played VR games for so long that a ‘troll’ comment fit for the internet had bypassed my filter. Instead of trying to explain to a somewhat rigid VR NPC the vocabulary that spills out without passing through my brain, I chose to just let it slide.

Actually, the first thing I thought of was a rose. Red, a surprise gift from my favorite character…. But as much as I am me, I did have a sense of shame; I didn’t want to see my favorite character’s stern face directed at me for getting ahead of myself. You could say that because of that, I swerved the line of thought so hard it went too far.

“I’m joking. No other hints? Red is too broad.”

“The second hint… it is food.”

Red food?

That was a hint with a difficulty level far too high for a Korean.

I crossed off foods that only a ‘crazy hell Korean’ would eat from the list in my head and recalled red foods one by one.

“Red food that the Prince would bring to me….”

What on earth could it be?

While I was wondering, Azrael just watched me with a smile. It seems he finds the sight of me struggling entertaining….

Vowing to get revenge in the exact same way, I narrowed my eyes because I couldn’t think of a red food Azrael would bring me.

I had read Azrael’s settings in Knights of Dark Ages multiple times, but I had never seen a red food among the things he liked. Azrael’s face was so full of joy that, conversely, I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“What does it taste like?”

Eventually, I demanded a third hint from Azrael. Azrael let out a deliberate ‘Hmm’ and crossed his arms.

“I believe I have given all the hints. Do you not remember?”

“What are you talking about. Usually, all hints go up to three.”

“I think that after you hear the third hint, you will say you could have guessed it with only two.”

Is it that easy?

While nothing was coming to mind, a sweet scent suddenly brushed the tip of my nose.

Red, food, sweet smell.

“…Raspberry tart?”

As I muttered blankly, Azrael smiled brightly and turned around to show the object he had been hiding.

“Correct.”

“……Really?”

I looked down at the pie in a daze. The raspberry tart didn’t look like it had been made with the skill of a professional.

“When you first invited me to your house, did you not give me a raspberry tart? It might sound silly, but it was truly delicious. Even after returning here, I found myself frequently seeking out raspberry tarts without realizing it. I happened to have some left, so I brought it.”

Azrael laughed like a rascal looking at a friend he had played a prank with.

Wow, seriously.

I clutched my chest. My heart is in danger. To the collaboration scenario writer: I don’t know who you are, but thank you so much. I’m not even dreaming, yet I get to experience a situation like this.

“Prince, if you… say you want to eat it again, I can make it for you.”

When I tossed the words out as if speaking without much emotion, Azrael answered as he pressed a piece of raspberry tart into my hand.

“I want to eat it so much that I’ve even thought I’d like for you to open a raspberry tart specialty shop.”

Whether it was a movement circle or a teleportation circle, there was such an uproar over using it just once that I thought that damn movement circle would take us directly to the capital.

Looking at the map, there was still a long way to go from the place we were transported to. Speechless, I almost grabbed the knight—who had made such a fuss over this little thing—by the collar. The only reason I didn’t was 1% reason and 99% image management in front of my favorite character.

Apparently, to get to the capital, we had to pass through several movement circles, and we had to ride horses for another hour or two to reach the next one. Unable to bear that, I cleanly gave up the advantage of riding behind my favorite character and decided to call out a summon.

I pondered which summon would be the least conspicuous and, seeing the knights’ black armor, I summoned a Dullahan. Although it is clearly classified as a fairy, the sight of the Dullahan, which looks like nothing but a demon no matter how you look at it, caused the knights to draw their swords, sparking another commotion.

“Is this person not an agent of the demons? He is clearly someone related to the demon race!”

“Ah, I told you, he’s a fairy!”

“How can you look at something that looks like that and say such a thing!”

The knight portion of the Dullahan pulled the reins in confusion at the knights’ strong opposition, and the horse portion let out a dissatisfied huff.

An old, stiff knight shouted loudly. Was his name Saul? I’ll remember that.

“Don’t you know him? Dullahan! The headless knight! Ah, seriously! I summoned a Dullahan because you said a unicorn would stand out too much, so what is the problem now! If you keep being so noisy, I’m bringing the unicorn out.”

“…In any case, something so ominous is unacceptable. Does he not look like he brings death wherever he goes!”

“Ah, I can’t deal with this person! How can you discriminate against a fairy based on looks! Do you know how good he is for you guys? Being with him increases the critical hit rate for all ‘sword users’ in the party by 10%!”

I brazenly shouted this out, hiding the fact that there is indeed a legend that death comes to the place where a Dullahan stops, that whether an NPC’s stats increase or not depends on the quest, and that since it doesn’t apply at all inside dungeons, there was no telling how it would apply to this quest.

At my words, the knights began to stir. Even Azrael showed signs of joining the knights’ debate.

A 10% increase in critical hit rate.

What sweet words those are.

Moreover, if I ride the Dullahan, the headless knight part is unsummoned when not in combat, cutting mana consumption in half. The only reason I hadn’t ridden him before was purely because the color wasn’t to my taste.

I mentally praised my past self, who had caught the season-limited raid boss about 450 times to get the Dullahan, and watched the knights’ conversation.

“He says it’s a fairy… and it seems to be a summon that helps the party… since he is trying to be considerate of everyone by changing his attire, why don’t we just leave it alone even if it feels a bit uncomfortable?”

When a relatively young knight spoke up, Saul, who had been loudly opposing just moments ago, wore a displeased expression. The other knights seemed to feel uncomfortable as well, but they agreed with the young knight’s words.

“With this, it seems a majority agree with Sir John’s words regarding this discussion.”

I laughed briefly and climbed onto the Dullahan. The headless knight handed me the reins and then collapsed and vanished like ash scattering in the wind. It was indeed a bit of an unpleasant sight for someone seeing it for the first time.

Fortunately for me, the Dullahan’s ride was better than being on Azrael’s horse. Since it was not a living thing, it didn’t sway, giving the feeling of riding almost nothing.

And above all, there was no need to pay attention to avoid falling off the horse. Receiving the dumbfounded stares of the other knights, I put on a monocle and began to read the parchments I had obtained from the previous general store.