After filling our stomachs with Selena’s delicious stew, I thought I could quietly return to my training. But…
“Help dismantle this drake,” Selena said casually—as if asking to fold laundry, not carve up a twenty-ter monster.
“Huh? Is that okay?” I blinked in surprise. “I've never dismantled a monster before. Isn’t it valuable? What if I ss up the materials?”
“It’s fine.” She shrugged easily. “I don’t particularly need money. And if I did, I could just sell a few basic magic bags. Besides, dismantling monsters is an important skill for adventurers. You’ll need it eventually.”
“If you say so…” I replied nervously. “Please teach .”
Sohow, this felt very wrong.
Wasn’t there supposed to be a sequence to this?
First, slay a weak monster.
Then practice dismantling it.
Instead, I was skipping straight to carving up an A-Rank monster—without even slaying it first.
Still, excitent welled up inside .
Finally!
This was sothing straight out of the fantasy novels I used to read—the brave hero slicing up monsters for materials!
...or so I thought.
The mont I made the first cut into the drake’s black scales—
I sprinted inside the house and barely made it to the sink before emptying my guts.
Selena followed after , concern etched across her face. “Freed? Are you okay?”
I wiped my mouth, my face pale. “Y-Yeah… I’m fine… Let’s… Let’s try again.”
“You sure?” she asked gently.
“Yes.” I nodded weakly. “I don't want to give up just because I failed once.”
Besides... if I couldn’t even do this much, what right did I have to stay here?
So far, I just ate, trained, and freeloaded like a useless cat.
I needed to do sothing. Anything.
Determination burned anew in my heart.
I would not give up!
Or so I thought.
“BLEEEGGHHH…!!”
I clutched the sink again like it was my last lifeline.
When I staggered outside again, Selena had already continued dismantling the drake by herself, humming a little tune as if gutting a twenty-ter monster was the most natural thing in the world.
She glanced over her shoulder at with a patient smile.
“Freed, that's enough. You've vomited ten tis already. If you keep this up, you'll turn into a skeleton.”
“Ugh… but…” I tried to protest weakly.
Deep down, though, I knew she was right.
This wasn’t just 'hard.'
It was brutal.
For a boy who had grown up in a clean, modern city—and spent most of his ti indoors gaming or reading—trying to dismantle a real, bloody monster was another kind of hell entirely.
I slumped against the doorfra, feeling utterly defeated.
Selena did everything.
She trained , cooked for , hunted monsters, washed our clothes and the house with Clean magic… heck, she even shared her bed without a second thought.
anwhile, what did I do?
I just stood there.
After seeing hesitate, Selena paused her work, glancing up from the drake’s body.
A soft, almost teasing smile crossed her lips.
“You feel guilty… because you’re staying in this house without being able to help, don’t you?”
“H-Huh? How did you…”
I stiffened, caught completely off guard.
She chuckled quietly, her silver hair shifting with the gentle breeze.
“Didn’t I tell you? You’re a kind person, Freed. It's normal for soone like you to feel that way.”
“Uhh..”
“That’s okay, really.”
She turned back toward the drake, continuing her careful dismantling.
“Honestly, your presence alone…” her voice was calm but carrying a strange weight. “has already helped more than you realize.”
“Huh?”
Without looking at , she kept working, speaking almost casually—yet each word seed heavier than the last.
“To be honest… it’s been over a hundred years since I had soone to talk to. After my master died, the only things I ever received were gratitude from slaves… or resentnt from nobles.”
The knife in her hand sliced neatly through the tough hide, but I could tell her mind was elsewhere.
“I always sent the slaves I rescued back to their countries. Adults would take the children. If not, I’d place them in orphanages.”
She paused, staring at the drake’s body for a long mont before continuing.
“I couldn't bring anyone to live here with . This forest is too dangerous. And… I didn’t know when this curse would kill . If I died, they'd be trapped here too.”
Her voice softened even more, almost like a confession.
“I couldn't leave either. This house… it holds too many mories of my master. I couldn't abandon it.”
A small, self-deprecating laugh escaped her lips.
"At first... I thought it would be enough," Selena said quietly, her fingers tightening around the blade she held.
"Saving slaves. Fulfilling my master’s dream. I thought... if I just kept moving, kept saving people... the loneliness wouldn’t catch up to .”
She paused, her voice trembling slightly, barely above a whisper.
"But after a while..."
She set the knife down gently beside her, as if even its weight had grown too heavy.
"Living alone in this house... day after day... year after year..."
Her golden eyes stared blankly at the ground.
"It ate away at . Wore down.”
She drew a shaky breath.
"I realized... I wasn’t saving them because I was noble, or brave. I wasn’t carrying on my master’s dream the way she deserved.”
Her hand gripped her sleeve tightly.
"I was just... desperate.”
A soft, hollow laugh escaped her lips—one that didn’t reach her eyes.
"Saving slaves… beca nothing more than an excuse. An excuse not to hear only my own silence. A way to hear soone's voice. Even if it was only for a mont... even if they were strangers I'd never see again…”
She smiled bitterly, and in that mont, she looked so fragile, as if she could shatter at a single touch.
“And sohow... I convinced myself that was enough.”
I swallowed hard, my chest tightening.
I knew that feeling.
In my past life, I'd had plenty of people around —friends, classmates, coworkers.
But no one I could talk to.
No one who really listened.
No one who stayed.
It had gnawed at silently for years.
And yet, compared to her…
Living utterly alone for a century…
Her loneliness was a thousand tis heavier.
“I thought...” Selena murmured, her hands still, “I thought I would die here. Alone. Forgotten.”
Her voice soft, almost lost to the wind. She drew her knees closer to her chest, hugging herself lightly, as if trying to hold her heart together.
"But then... I t you."
She lifted her gaze to — and for the first ti, I saw sothing raw in her golden eyes.
Not strength. Not resilience.
But loneliness.
"I used your existence as an otherworlder as an excuse," she whispered. "To bring you here. To keep you close.”
She smiled — small, trembling at the edges.
"At first, I told myself it was just for a few days. That I'd send you ho after you got so rest."
Her voice wavered.
"But then you… you found a way to analyze my curse. Sothing I had long given up on.”
She looked down at her hands, flexing her fingers as if feeling the weight of guilt there.
"I should have been happy just for that. Just for the hope. But…”
She pressed her hand over her heart.
"More than lifting the curse... what made happiest was finding another excuse to make you stay longer."
Her shoulders trembled slightly.
"Three years... it sounded like a lifeti’s worth of happiness to soone like .”
A silence stretched between us — heavy, fragile.
Then, in a voice barely more than a breath, she added,
"Even if I fail to remove the curse... even if I die before it's over... it’s fine. Because for the first ti in so long... I could rember what it felt like to not be alone."
She turned to face fully then—still sitting there on the ground—her expression open, vulnerable.
"I’m a terrible person, aren’t I?" she said with a bitter smile.
"Using your kindness to keep you here.
If you hate for it... I understand.
If you want to leave... I’ll send you back tomorrow."
She bowed her head.
“Thank you... for the past month. It was short... but I was truly happy.”
As I listened to her voice tremble out that final ‘thank you,’ sothing inside twisted painfully.
She really ant it.
She was truly ready to send away—to go back to her endless, aching loneliness—just so I wouldn't feel trapped.
Even though she was the one who had been alone for over a hundred years.
Even though she was the one abandoned by ti itself.
Even though she was the one who was suffering the most.
How could she still put my freedom above her own happiness?
And at that mont, I finally understood.
The real reason she insisted so desperately, so stubbornly, on becoming my wife…
It wasn’t about paynt. Her endless magic stones were far more than enough as the fee of saving her life.
It wasn’t about romance.
It wasn’t because she wanted a husband.
But it was loneliness.
What she was really asking for was sothing far simpler, and yet so much harder to find.
She just wanted soone to talk to.
Soone to sit with.
Soone who would listen to her stories, her burdens, her laughter, her sadness.
What she needs… are friends.
But she was afraid.
Afraid to be alone again one day.
Friends could leave her side.
Friends could live far away from her.
That’s why… she asked to be soone’s wife.
Soone who would be there, every day—soone who wouldn’t disappear the way friends sotis did.
I clenched my fists.
I couldn't just stand there.
I stepped forward, my shadow falling over her small, hunched figure that was still sitting on the ground and bowed at .
She flinched slightly—maybe expecting rejection, maybe preparing herself for the goodbye she thought was inevitable.
Slowly, I raised my hand—and with a light, almost playful chop to her head, I broke the heavy tension.
“Ouch...” she muttered, rubbing the spot while looking up at , her golden eyes wide and confused.
I smiled gently.
“Such a lancholic attitude doesn't suit you at all, Selena,” I said quietly.
“B-But I’m really using y—”
She opened her mouth to protest—maybe to insist she was right, that she had been selfish—but I didn't let her.
Instead, I pulled her into an embrace, pressing her head gently against my chest.
Her body stiffened in shock at first—then slowly, hesitantly, she relaxed into my arms.
“That's fine,” I whispered. “If you feel guilty about it... then don't you dare die.”
I tightened my arms around her slightly, as if to anchor her here, with .
“Repay by living,” I said. “Repay by staying by my side.”
She didn't say anything—just listened, her breath warm against my chest.
I took a deep breath, feeling the weight of the promise I was about to make.
“You asked once... what path I would choose for my life,” I said softly, my hand gently stroking her silver hair.
I smiled, even though she couldn’t see it from where she rested against .
“I've decided.”
I let the words fall slowly, carefully — as if laying down stones for a road we would walk together.
“After we lift your curse…” I whispered, my voice steady against the quiet air between us, “co with .”
I felt her breathing hitch, the faintest catch against my chest.
“Let's beco adventurers together,” I continued, threading each word like stitching new hope into the torn fabric of her heart. “Let's journey across the world. Let's save slaves—but not the way you used to.”
I gently rested my chin atop her head, feeling her soft silver hair brush against my skin.
"Not alone anymore."
I felt her body stir faintly, like a leaf caught in a breeze—fragile, uncertain, and aching for sothing to hold onto.
“We'll invite them to walk with us,” I said, speaking quietly into the space only the two of us shared. “We'll laugh together. Eat together. Cry together if we have to.”
“And whenever you miss your master... we'll co back here, to this house. But we won't return empty-handed.”
My arms tightened just a little, protective and sure.
“We'll bring our friends with us. We'll fill this place with stories. With voices. With life.”
At those words, I felt it—a tremor running through her small fra. Her slender fingers, almost shy, clutched the fabric of my shirt. Trembling. Grasping.
As if clinging not just to —but to the future I was promising her.
Slowly, hesitantly, she pulled back just enough to look up at .
For the first ti—clear and undeniable—a delicate flush blood across her cheeks.
Selena, the woman who smiled fearlessly at monsters, who joked about life and death without flinching…
was blushing.
It was only a tiny change.
Barely there.
“That's unfair,” she whispered, her voice shaking with a laugh. “If you say sothing like that... if you offer dreams like that... even if it's just a lie…”
She smiled—that small, fragile smile that made her look like the girl she must have once been, before the loneliness hardened her.
“I might really fall for you.”
I chuckled, brushing a stray silver hair from her face.
“Then live,” I said. “Stay alive... and see for yourself whether it’s a lie or not.”
“Hmph,” she pouted playfully, resting her forehead lightly against my chest again. “That still doesn't sound convincing coming from a child.”
“Then how about I say it again six years from now?” I teased.
“Are you seriously planning to woo ?” she asked, half-exasperated, half-laughing.
I opened my mouth instinctively to throw a playful answer back—but the words caught in my throat.
A shadow passed through my heart.
I thought about it—about all the people who once said they cared for . About how easily sweet promises turned into cold goodbyes.
About how I had trusted before, only to be left behind, again and again, wondering what I lacked.
Could I really believe soone wouldn't do the sa?
Could I really hope... that if I reached out, they would stay?
My fingers curled slightly as I patted her hair.
Even if she was different—even if Selena was kind—
Sowhere deep inside, the fear still lingered like a scar that refused to fade.
So I didn’t agree with her question right away.
Instead, I choose my words carefully.
“I won't accept a wife who only loves half-heartedly.”
Because this ti, I wouldn't pretend trust was easy.
Because if I chose to believe again—
I needed it to be real.
All the way.
Or not at all.
She snorted. "So now it’s the princess who has to capture the prince's heart?”
“Of course. Because…” I grinned mischievously, “I'll be busy choosing my other wives carefully. You'll need so good sisters.”
Her head snapped up.
“You're ruining the mood!” she huffed—but there was no real anger in it, just exasperated affection. “Still... having lots of little sisters doesn't sound bad. I'll take a thousand.”
I laughed. “Why not just adopt every girl in the world while we're at it?”
She shrugged, grinning. “That sounds great. But I’ll feel bad for the poor guys left with no one.”
We exchanged playful banter under the dappled sunlight, wrapped in an embrace that neither of us seed willing to break.
Joking, laughing, dreaming about a future that, for the first ti in a long while, didn't feel impossible.
“Thank you, Freed.”
“You can talk to whenever you have worries, Selena,” I said, smiling softly. “I’ll always listen.”
She blinked for a mont, then gave a small, almost shy smile.
“I'll gladly take you up on that offer.”
We finally let go of each other, though a lingering warmth stayed between us.
I glanced down and noticed my shirt was stained with spots of drake blood from our earlier embrace.
Without a word, Selena lifted her hand and cast a simple spell.
“Clean.”
A soft light brushed over , and the stains vanished as if they were never there.
“Thanks,” I said with a grin.
She smiled back, then our eyes naturally shifted toward the enormous drake corpse lying nearby.
“So…” I started, scratching my cheek awkwardly, "about the drake…”
“You don’t seem bothered watching dismantle it,” she noted teasingly. “You just can’t bring yourself to do it yourself.”
I chuckled weakly. “Yeah... I guess so. But if I want to be an adventurer, I should at least be able to do this, right?”
Selena gave a light shrug as she continued working, her movents smooth and practiced.
“Didn't we just make a promise?” she said, her voice gentle. “We’ll travel together, rember? You don’t have to do everything alone. I can handle the dismantling. Or we can ask our friends to help.”
“Besides,” she added with a wink, “you can always sell the whole corpse to a guild. They'll dismantle it for you... for a small fee.”
I blinked, processing her words.
I wasn't used to it—this feeling of not having to shoulder everything myself.
Of trusting soone else to help.
“I see…” I muttered, a little overwheld—but strangely happy. “Yeah. Thank you, Selena.”
Then she flashed a teasing grin. “But you better train harder, Freed. You’ll need to get stronger if you want to protect your wives later.”
I rolled my eyes and smirked. “As you wish, princess.”
She laughed—a clear, musical sound that filled the clearing with life.
And with that playful exchange lingering warmly between us, I turned back to my training, while Selena—with her usual easy grace—continued dismantling the mighty drake beside .
Beneath the quiet embrace of the sun, two broken souls, once adrift, began to nd each other’s loneliness—stitching their wounds together with laughter, with warmth, with the simple, stubborn miracle… of walking the sa path.
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