Imagining that, my body stiffened completely.
No, that’s not right. The very act of thinking about this is wrong from the start.
Since I’ve used my body as payment, the ending is obvious. That’s how selling your body starts, isn’t it? Lured by big money, casually engaging in skinship, then eventually giving everything.
And isn’t that exactly my situation right now?
Shaking my head from side to side, I roughly rubbed my lips. Even though there was no saliva on them… it felt strangely unpleasant. It felt like unfamiliar warmth still remained in my mouth, giving me goosebumps.
Wiping the corners of my mouth and letting out a sigh, my eyes met with the creature sprawled in the middle of the floor.
Dark red fur, small horns. And a strangely indifferent expression like a human’s.
“…I should go. To the market, I should go.”
Jeffrey must have left, and I should check if his magic worked properly, plus I need to buy ingredients for tomorrow’s business.
Muttering loudly for no reason, I quickly picked up the demon beast in my arms and went outside.
Actually, it was because I felt like I’d keep thinking about it if I stayed at the inn.
Walking sluggishly with my mind half-gone, someone called my name.
“Sion?”
Turning back, the vegetable shop owner ahjussi was burning dried leaves in a corner in front of his shop.
Whoosh— As the acrid tobacco smell wafted over and I frowned, the ahjussi waved his hands and said,
“What’s that, that furball? Are you raising it?”
“Furball?”
Looking down at my arms, the demon beast still had its horns. But it seemed to look different to the ahjussi’s eyes.
“Suddenly a puppy? Where’d that come from?”
“How does it look to you?”
“How does it look? It’s got white fur with only pink ears. Did you dye it?”
At those words, my jaw dropped.
The magic really worked.
Only then did relief wash over me, and I laughed helplessly.
“Yeah, well…”
At my reaction, the ahjussi just shrugged, then grinned and reached out his hand to the demon beast.
“Here, boy, come here.”
“Ah, ahjussi! You just smoked!”
“Geez, already so attached. What’s its name?”
“Name?”
What’s the… name? I couldn’t very well call it ‘demon beast.’ Roughly searching my memory, I blurted out a word that suddenly came to mind.
“Happy. Happy.”
“What does that mean?”
“Just, well… a name meaning to be happy. I picked it up in front of the inn when it was nearly dead.”
The ahjussi smiled, wrinkling his nose.
“Don’t keep it inside the shop. Customers hate it when fur flies around.”
“Yes, I’m just going to let it loose in front of the inn. To guard and protect the inn, killing two birds with one stone.”
“That tiny thing is going to protect who?”
I glanced at the demon beast. No, Happy. The creature had turned its head away crookedly.
To the ahjussi’s eyes it looks like a white-furred puppy, but to my eyes it’s still a demon beast with horns. …It should have enough power to crush an average adventurer.
“Are you going straight to the inn?”
“I don’t want— I mean, I should. Ah, is there a bookstore around here?”
“There is. But what for?”
“Just to read some books. Since it’s an inn on the Boundary, I got interested in the Boundary.”
Actually, I just didn’t want to go straight to the inn, so I made up an excuse, but the reason sounded plausible enough. But the ahjussi snorted and flicked his tobacco as if he’d heard something absurd.
“If you’re curious about something, ask me. Why waste money buying books? That’s stuff only the upper class reads.”
“I can’t take up your time with this. I’m just going to read a little bit before bed.”
I spoke with a forced smile, but my mouth tasted bitter. Well, what’s the use of reading legends passed down orally in books? Most of them would be like fairy tales anyway.
Maybe just silently meeting Jeffrey is the way to avoid suspicion. Did he read my subtly distorted expression? The ahjussi stared at me for a moment, then got up and went into the shop. After the sound of rustling for a bit, he soon came out carrying a heavy pile of books.
“What’s all this?”
They were dusty but fairly well-maintained books. When I asked in surprise, the ahjussi smiled awkwardly and shoved the books into my arms.
“I don’t know what you’re looking for, but just take them. From hero tales that kids read to various things. I have no use for them anymore.”
I stared blankly at the ahjussi. Today especially, the ahjussi’s face was unusually red.
I couldn’t tell if it was from embarrassment or if the sunlight was hot. He just scratched the back of his neck with his thick forearm and cleared his throat unnecessarily, looking somehow bashful.
“When I was young, I dreamed of being a swordsman. I soon realized reality though. But back then, I lived obsessed with hero stories. Magic was something only the chosen could do, so even though I just watched from afar, I was interested. That’s why I even bought and collected magic books for no reason.”
“…Ahjussi.”
Even though he spoke as if joking around, somehow I choked up. Perhaps it was because I saw the face of a boy living out reality.
Seeing me like that, the ahjussi roughly patted my head and muttered,
“Tch, why’s a man crying? Well, guys like us had no choice but to realize reality early… but you’re a bit different, aren’t you? You already made money early, and you’re still young. I just looked at you with my own standards, so do what you want to do.”
“…Yes. Thank you.”
I hugged the books tightly in my arms. Then Happy made a displeased squeak sound and pushed the books away with its front paw.
Seeing that, the ahjussi laughed heartily.
“How are you going to carry all that? Get the big guy. That bastard has nothing to do anyway since he makes his employees do all his work, so use him as a porter.”
In the end, Gilbert, dragged out by the vegetable shop ahjussi’s summons, scratched his head blankly and helped carry the load to the inn. Though he grumbled something, I didn’t really respond and just held the demon beast. Then after arriving at the inn and organizing the books, I was dumbfounded to see that Gilbert, who’d been making something with clatter clatter sounds behind me, had even made a small house for Happy before leaving.
Jeffrey’s misconduct had long since disappeared from memory, and rather, because of these warm people, my heart tickled even more. So after shedding tears for unknown reasons, I finally opened the hero tale book the ahjussi had prepared for me when night came.
“What, it’s the same.”
[In the primordial world. In the time when endless war continued, a hero appeared. That hero gathered four companions and finally established balance. The Saint who came from another world, one who conveyed the prayer of light. The progenitor of Hart, one who cut through darkness and inherited nobility. The progenitor of Latour, one who conveyed wisdom and mystery. The descendant of Dragon, one who shared immortal power. These five heroes finally erected the Boundary and stopped the bloody battle between humans and demon beasts.]
Though it was slightly adapted like a myth, the content wasn’t very different from what Jeffrey had said.
I closed—thud—the book and clicked my tongue anticlimactically. Then, lying down to go to bed, I muttered like talking to myself.
“But even if Jeffrey is from a mage family, why is the prince doing alchemy?”
That question lingered in my mind, but soon drowsiness heavily descended.
***
The next day.
I opened my eyes at the heaviness felt in my belly. This shameless demon beast—no, Happy—was using my stomach as a pillow, snoring away. When I pushed it aside, it growled irritably.
What a foul temper. Laughing emptily for no reason, I pulled on its horn.
“Khng!”
It flailed—flap—its front paws and swatted my hand away. The half-closed eyes looking at me seemed to find me annoying.
“Huh?”
This thing is oddly human-like?
No, and look at that brazen appearance. Is it really a demon beast? Since when did it become domesticated? Put one collar on it and it’s completely become a house cat?
That sight was absurd yet funny, so I shook my head and got up.
Just as I came down from the second floor to the kitchen to prepare for morning business, as soon as I opened the front door, instead of wind, a thick smell of blood that pierced my nose rushed in.
Lowering my gaze, along with blackened dried skin fragments, bloodstains continuing on the floor entered my view.
These were exactly the bloodstains I’d seen several times before Happy came into the house.
“Was it you?”
When I asked while glancing at Happy stretching behind me, the creature yawned and then kicked the empty food bowl I’d left in front of the inn.
Thud, clatter.
It was the late-night snack bowl I’d been preparing for several nights.
So, it earned its keep, huh? Even while feeling dazed, somehow touched, I picked up the creature and kissed—smooch—its horn.
“Good boy, well done.”
Kyiing—?!
In an instant, Happy’s tail fur shot—poof—straight up. Then it shook off my embrace and ran away, hiding behind a pillar and rolling its bright red eyes. Such a prickly creature.
Just shrugging my shoulders, I prepared for business. After finishing opening preparations and around the time to receive customers, when I glanced outside, the bowl where I’d given food earlier was already cleanly empty.
“It really feels like I’m raising a dog, not a demon beast.”
I muttered that with my mouth, but in one corner of my heart, subtle anxiety pooled.
Well, this is the dangerous Boundary, and the continuing bloodstains recently might mean demon beasts are hovering around the inn.
Forcibly swallowing down that anxiety, I started business.
The inn was crowded as usual. Especially busy around lunchtime, I saw a familiar group coming in. They were adventurers forming a party, regulars who always stopped by before expeditions. I casually offered a rolled omelet as a service to the swordsman carrying a longsword among them and said,
“You always stop by before subjugation?”
The swordsman stopped eating gukbap and smiled warmly as he said,
“Strangely, I get energized when I eat only here. Is it thanks to the innkeeper’s love?”
“Hahaha…”
