Thud.
A short, sharp sound rang out, and invisible sparks flew between the two. Gilbert’s eyes flashed sharply through his shaggy hair as he spoke.
“…Who are you?”
At that, Damian twisted his lips and smiled with a satisfied expression.
“I’m a part-timer.”
“……”
“……”
It wasn’t technically wrong.
But that tone, and the strange confidence when he spat out the word ‘part-timer’ made Gilbert’s temple twitch.
He glanced at me sideways, just like when Theorde had come before, and twirled his finger in a circle next to his head.
I understood what he meant without words. ‘Where the hell did you pick up this one?’ His eyes were saying exactly that.
Damian raised an eyebrow slightly at Gilbert’s gesture, then immediately flung his hand away. He pulled me toward him. But Gilbert didn’t back down either and grabbed my other arm, yanking me forcefully in the opposite direction.
Being pulled from both sides simultaneously, a groan escaped me from the pain of my shoulders nearly being dislocated.
“Uh-uhhh, urgh! …Wait a minute!”
When I let out a pained sound, Gilbert let go first.
When I lifted my wrist slightly to look at it, it was bright red. The nickname “Bulky” wasn’t for nothing. The handprint was so vivid it covered almost half my forearm.
The bright red mark throbbed with heat, sending tingling pain through it with even the slightest movement.
I wanted to touch it to cool it down, but the problem was my other wrist was still caught in Damian’s grip.
Eventually, I raised my head with a grimace, and Damian narrowed his brows and asked instead.
“What was that gesture?”
That gesture? Ah, Gilbert’s gesture? What else. Asking if you’re crazy.
Gilbert seemed to think the same thing, looking at Damian with an odd expression—his face was mostly hidden by his beard, but his half-open mouth and subtly furrowed eyebrows clearly said just that—but soon looked at me and asked.
“Are you okay?”
“It stings a bit, but I’m fine. Oh, and… this is the new part-timer. His name is Damian.”
Though he’s a demon.
At my explanation that left out the important part, Gilbert muttered a beat late.
“What the hell have you brought in…”
Then, when his eyes met Damian’s again, Gilbert’s voice cut off. But he didn’t withdraw his gaze.
As the air grew taut again, I was inwardly surprised.
After all, hadn’t that adventurer swordsman from earlier tucked his tail and run away after seeing Damian?
But Gilbert was different. His momentum was clearly being pushed back, but his expression wasn’t intimidated, and rather he looked at his opponent with eyes coldly assessing him.
…Can he see the horns, maybe? Or is it an old man’s intuition?
As the endless standoff continued, I finally opened my mouth first.
“Anyway, what brings you here? You don’t usually come up this far.”
Right, on the first day he came under the pretense of repairs, but after that he always stayed down in the village below. Occasionally he’d help when I went down to shop and had too much to carry, but he’d almost never come up like this.
Gilbert withdrew his gaze from Damian for a moment and said in a low voice.
“Let’s talk while we walk.”
“Ah, okay.”
I quickly nodded and glanced at Damian. I signaled with my eyes that I’d be going out and coming back, but Damian snorted with a face full of dissatisfaction.
Nevertheless, he didn’t say anything. But his gaze followed my back until I opened the door and stepped out. Long enough to make my back tingle. When I secretly turned around as I closed the door, Damian had already turned his head away as if nothing had happened.
After getting a little distance from the inn, Gilbert glanced back toward the inn and asked.
“Where the hell did you get something like that?”
Unable to tell him the truth, I could only shrug my shoulders.
“Um… Well, I just treated his injuries and he said he’d work for free as thanks.”
It wasn’t entirely wrong. …Except he never actually said he’d ‘work,’ he just settled in.
“For free? No matter how good free is, are you sure it’s okay to bring in something that dangerous?”
Of course it’s not okay. At his worried, scolding gaze, I finally sighed and told him half the truth.
“Does he look like he’d leave if I told him to?”
Gilbert listened silently for a moment, then rubbed his beard and said.
“…Want me to kick him out?”
“No thanks. If an old geezer like you gets beat up, who’s going to take responsibility?”
At that, Gilbert had a blank expression for a moment. That expression was funny, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“So what’s this really about?”
After a moment of silence, Gilbert raised his head and spoke.
“I’ve joined a subjugation force.”
“…What?!”
My voice naturally went up half a tone.
“The innkeeper is going on a subjugation?!”
I said it while jumping, but now that I thought about it, wasn’t he the guy who smashed a centipede demon’s head with a frying pan when I first possessed this body?
“…Now that I think about it, boss, you killed a demon with a frying pan, didn’t you?”
At that, Gilbert chuckled.
Looking at him anew, I could see a body solidly armed with muscle, and beneath his shaggy hair, sharp eyes that hadn’t dulled.
If he had actually taken up a sword, he would have been one of the renowned adventurers by now.
I belatedly realized this fact and firmly closed my mouth. Gilbert roughly ruffled my hair and said.
“You think I’m going to slaughter demons? I’m going as cooking personnel.”
“Cooking…?”
“Yeah. Cooking meals.”
At those words, I closed my mouth, then asked with slightly suspicious eyes.
“You volunteered for that, didn’t you?”
I’d heard stories about the group that adventurers formed to subjugate demons that crossed the boundary. Among them, there were quite a few people who followed along as cooks or porters, calling it a niche market.
But Gilbert volunteered?
That guy who fired me saying he didn’t want to become famous?
When I looked Gilbert over with suspicious eyes, he shrugged and muttered.
“Someone I know is going.”
“Still… even so…”
As I was speaking, my mind suddenly flashed.
If Gilbert, who wanted to live an ordinary life, was volunteering to join a subjugation force…
“It’s your daughter, isn’t it? Your daughter!”
When I shouted with almost certainty, Gilbert looked at me as if dumbfounded.
“What the hell do you take me for?”
“A migrant father who divorced his wife, raised his daughter alone, had a big falling out, and now lives lonely by himself… Ah!”
Gilbert’s hand struck precisely on the top of my head.
“Don’t make up useless stories.”
“Ah! That hurts!”
Gilbert sighed and stroked his beard.
“Your mouth is always alive no matter when I see you.”
“It’s a profession that lives by mouth.”
“What? Since when did innkeeping become a job that lives by talking?”
“Talking is business. Through the power of love, kyung!”
“…You’re really crazy.”
When I made a finger heart while saying that, Gilbert shook his head. His expression looked exactly like he was saying, ‘This guy is beyond help.’
He soon took out his wallet from his pocket and said.
“Anyway, I think I’ll be gone for quite a while. Those meal kits you sell? I want to buy some.”
“Yes, understood. And what money? After how much you’ve given me already.”
Gilbert grabbed me as I hurried to turn back toward the inn. When I turned around puzzled, his expression was much more serious than before.
“Sion. Do you remember what I told you before?”
“What? What did you say?”
As he gazed at me intently for a moment, his words from a few days ago suddenly came to mind.
“Conviction?”
“Yeah. That.”
Honestly, what conviction could I have?
I’m busy enough just scraping by day to day. Aren’t I only just now digging into the inn’s secrets?
“What conviction could someone like me have? Cooking gukbap is all I do.”
When I just scratched my head and smiled awkwardly, Gilbert looked at me for a moment and then chuckled.
That laugh had a weight to it like fatigue, or perhaps like solidity forged through many years.
“Then at least cook that gukbap properly.”
“Huh?”
Gilbert turned his head to look far beyond the boundary. At the end of his gaze was the blue forest of demons. I also stood beside him and looked at the boundary line.
When the silence had stretched quite long, Gilbert finally opened his mouth.
“Craftsmanship and all that, you think that’s something grand? People ultimately live by the honesty they put into a single bowl of rice. When that crumbles, life loses its flavor too.”
There was no joke or comfort in his eyes as he spoke. Only the sincerity that comes from someone who has lived a long time. That’s why it hit heavier.
“…What’s that supposed to mean?”
Gilbert slowly turned his head. His eyes shining between strands of hair were unusually clear.
“Don’t let money chase you.”
It was words that hit right at the heart of my situation.
“When you’re chased by money, your emotions get clouded, and when your emotions get clouded, you eventually lose yourself. Conviction isn’t something grand. If you’re not ashamed even selling a single bowl of rice, that’s your conviction.”
Normally I would have laughed it off saying, ‘Well, that’s all just rice business,’ but today those words didn’t come out.
Why?
Though I’d refused, the scene from last time when Jeffrey mentioned my ransom suddenly came to mind. I’d never made money through shameful means, but I’d never put forward anything particularly grand either.
As always, I endured day by day, and sometimes all I had to sell was my pride.
But now Gilbert’s words quietly touched that thin line.
Was that why?
Not a single word would come out, stuck at the end of my throat.
