CH 107

There was a polite knock on the wooden door. It was obvious who it was.

“Ah, hm, come in.”

The door opened and a silver-haired handsome man appeared.

He did not enter the room but leaned diagonally against the doorway. The way he crossed his arms was unusual.

“It takes exactly 48 hours to wake up. It’s amazing.”

“Haha…Terry, hello?”

“Yes, hello.”

I was worried because he didn’t smile, but he still accepted the greeting. The relief in his inner self was obvious to see.

“I don’t mean to say anything. I know it was necessary.” 

“Ri-right?”

“Still, I hope you don’t use it as much as possible. I was worried because the high fever didn’t go down. To the extent that I thought dozens of times of going together into an ice lake by teleporting to the north.”

“……”

The tone was so calm that it felt refined. However, paradoxically, I could clearly see how much he suffered for these two days because of me.

He must have been worried a lot even though he knew the characteristics of God’s Fever.

[‘The Spoiler Inspector’ wonders why he is going to go into the ice water together if he just needs to drop her inside.]

[‘The Scales that Judges the Soul’ hits the ground in regret that the aftereffects of Descent should have been hypothermia, not high fever.]

[‘The Creative Business Manager’ says that if you purchase the right to change the genre, there is a possibility that the aftereffects will also change.]

Stop it. The atmosphere is serious right now.

Thesilid seemed to be waiting for me to say something. I shyly opened my mouth.

“Thank you for holding back on the bath in ice-cold water.”

“……”

His brow narrowed slightly.

It seemed that this wasn’t the answer he wanted, so I quickly added follow-up words.

“Sorry for worrying you.”

“……Yes.”

Only then did his brow unveil and his stiff expression softened.

Thesilid, who stretched his arms and stood upright, strode to me. He hesitated a little, then bowed his back.

“Excuse me.”

His large hand gently touched my forehead. It was that kind of contact.

“It’s hot. Your hand.”(Ellet)

“Right.” (Terry)

Now that he finished my health check, I hoped we could move to another place and talk about something else.

“I’m hungry because I’ve been starving for two days. Terry, did you eat something for lunch?”

“No, not yet.”

“What do you want to eat?”

All right, it’s time to experiment with the picnic basket.

I excitedly picked up the satchel bag, and Thesilid gently held my hand. 

“You don’t have to take it out of there.”

“What?”

He smiled and said it was nothing.

“There was a cookbook.”

“Oh……”

“Come slowly to the table.”

After Thesilid shut the door and left, there was a rattling sound from the kitchen.

<You’ll have to use the basket later.>

“I know, right.”

After changing my clothes and washing my face in the backyard, I went to the dining table.

Thesilid was scooping the food from the pot with a ladle and transferring it to a plate.

I, the host of the house, couldn’t stand still, so I set down the cutlery and took out the condiments.

I made eye contact with Thesilid, who was putting down the bowl right next to me.

“Thanks.”

“It’s nothing, we should do it together.”

I feel friendlier because we’re setting the table together.

[‘The Scales that Judges the Soul’ rests her chin on her hands and smiles happily.]

The dish Thesilid made was a cream stew with lean meat.

With a high cooking level, I could immediately recognize that the ingredient was a wild turkey.

<Where did the meat come from? Did he hunt in the mountain at the back?>

Then he would have gutted it himself, but he probably didn’t cry like my dad.

With that thought in mind, I took a step forward. The taste was as expected.

“Oh, delicious.”

“That’s a relief.”

[‘The Spoiler Inspector’ wonders if being good at cooking is the main character’s default characteristic.]

It’s amazing when you think of the original work, where he almost always ate only tasteless things at the level of bare minimum consumption for life preservation.

Thesilid also started eating. Is it because he’s smiling softly? Even the trivial act of scooping stew with a spoon was like a painting. A breeze swayed the curtains on the windows and Thesilid, who glanced at me, opened his mouth as if immersed in emotion.

“I don’t think this rural life is bad either.”

“I knew you would like it.”

“Really?”

“It’s the 17th episode of your life. When you get older, you tend to be interested in your hometown.”

“……”

Oh no, he’s not laughing.

At that time, Thesilid’s eyes became a little dazed as if he was far away.

“Come to think of it, how old am I?”

“I feel like I have to use honorifics for some reason.” 

“Don’t do that.”

His tone was so firm that I silently nodded. 

Thesilid said as if he had just remembered. 

“On the contrary, I think I should respect you from my side because now you are The Messiah and also my temporary direct superior.”

“It’s frustrating just thinking about it.”

“Shall we not?”

“That would be nice.”

“Don’t say anything about mutiny later.” 

“I will not.”

The agreement went smoothly. Terry from the 17th episode was quite flexible in this respect, more than I originally thought.

Or maybe he was influenced by me who made a big scene in The Vatican.

After finishing the meal, we drank tea and talked about our upcoming schedule.

“Eli, when are you planning to leave for the Lilcan Peninsula?”

“I think tomorrow morning would be fine, right? There is also a transfer stone that goes all the way nearby.”

An undiscovered S-class dungeon located in the southern part of the Lilcan Peninsula. He knew it well, because Thesilid had been there several times in his past lives.

“Eli. About the thousand-year-old ice castle.”

“Yes.”

“I’m asking just in case, but do you know what kind of dungeon it is?”

“Sure.”

I nodded my head vigorously as any Transmigrator of respect should and Thesilid replied as if he knew that.

“Then there will be no need to talk about fairy tale books.”

<Fairy Tale?>

“Should we? Agnes doesn’t seem to know.”

After asking Thesilid for his understanding, I began to explain.

“There is an old fairy tale related to this dungeon.”

Some fairy tales are not simple stories, but also contain meaningful tales and legends. So you can get clues to a dungeon raid.

<What kind of fairy tale is this?>

“Agnes, do you know the fairy tale called The Snow Queen?”

<The Snow Queen……? Oh, isn’t that the story of a boy with a piece of mirror embedded in his body and the kidnapper Queen?>

“Ooh, that’s right. As expected of Agnes. Wide knowledge by reading.”

<Ahem.>

A brief summary of the contents of the fairy tale is as follows.

A very long time ago, a malicious devil accidentally broke a mirror while ascending to heaven to reflect an angel with an ‘ugly mirror’ that makes all objects ugly.

The shattered mirror shards rained down on the human world, and two of them were stuck in the heart and eye of a boy named Kai.

Under the influence of the fragments, Kai gradually became colder and could not perceive anything as beautiful except for cold snowflakes.

A beautiful Snow Queen appears in front of Kai wearing a dress made of millions of snowflakes.

She kisses Kai’s forehead twice and takes him to her ice castle. 

Meanwhile, Kai had a childhood friend, Gerda, who grew roses together with him and lived like siblings. 

Gerda goes to the ice castle to find Kai, who has been kidnapped by the Snow Queen.

In the ice castle, Kai was busy putting a puzzle together, unaware that he was freezing cold.

Right before Kai turns into an ice statue, Gerda’s tears falls on his chest and melts the shard in his heart, while Kai’s own tears, when he comes to his senses, sheds the shard that was stuck in his eyes.

Thus, Gelda and Kai returned home safely.

[‘The Critic who adjusts the balance’ is happy that the official couple is childhood friends.]

[‘The Scales that Judges the Soul’ is surprised by his unexpectedly plain taste.]

<It’s a happy ending.>

“Not for the lonely Snow Queen.”

The story of the dungeon begins at the end of the fairy tale. In other words, this is an after story.

“Originally, the Snow Queen was a divine spirit, but she lost Kai, went mad, and became corrupted because she made a pact with the devil.”

<Oh dear……>

“The devil said he would bring Kai back if she collects all the fragments of the ‘The Mirror of the Ugly’ a put it back together. So the Queen used her own alter ego to find the shards, and used humans to carry the shards into her castle to mend the broken mirror.”

<So how did it go?>

“After many years, the Snow Queen had almost finished the mirror. However, there was a problem with the only two fragments left. As her territory was completely demonized, there was no human who could move the fragments to the ice castle.”

Since the Fallen Queen cannot leave the Ice Castle, she is still waiting for humans to carry the fragments to her.

<Ah, I get it. It’s a strategy to complete that mirror?>

“Yes. So we have to find two mirror fragments outside the castle and safely take them inside. Without this process, going to the boss room would be for nothing.”

<Hmm, it doesn’t look particularly difficult.>

It was when I was about to say something. Thesilid opened his mouth to Agnes, who could not be seen by his eyes.

“Nothing to worry about. I will be responsible for moving the fragments.”

That’s how it went in the original.

I slurped my share of tea.

“Okay. We’re leaving tomorrow, so let’s get some rest today. Since I haven’t been here in a while, I’ll look around the garden. I might be able to harvest potatoes and onions.”

“Can I help you?”

“It’s okay.” 

She was able to naturally get off the table.

Without reacting to Thesilid’s previous statement.