LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 39 - Something went wrong. (1)
It seems quite some time has passed since I entered this forest overflowing with monsters under the pretext of a test.
I advanced while clearing the wildly tangled bushes and vines before me.
The forest, without even a single paved path packaged to the level of a wrecked hiking trail, was a shittier place than I imagined.
The ground was bumpy, so I had to put strength in the soles of my feet to maintain balance with each step. Even walking forward like that, bushes that obscured the view and hidden monsters would pop out.
Just like now.
“Keee!”
At that moment, as I swung my sword to clear the bushes, a monkey-like monster suddenly leaped out from between the bushes.
As it jumped out with a cry, I quickly ducked back as if lying down to avoid the beast’s arm.
The moment my body bent back as if lying down, a blue blade passed over my field of vision, not even a finger’s width away.
-Crack
A beautiful sword strike with a blue aura and frost swirling.
Ultimately, the monster that leaped out of the bushes to catch me became monster meat like that.
“Are you okay?”
Gwen reached out her hand for me to get up after I fell on the dirt floor.
“Thank you.”
I grabbed her outstretched hand, stood up, and dusted off the dirt.
“When something like that jumps out, you should just cut it down with the sword. Why have you been dodging like that?”
“Because I’m weak.”
I answered simply to Gwen, who was curious as to why I had only been evading until now.
“I don’t know what kind of person you knew me as, but at least the current me is self-aware that I’m weak.”
“Being weak isn’t self-awareness. It’s an excuse.”
“…Tch.”
Unable to refute Gwen’s words, I turned my head and proceeded while cutting through the bushes.
Gwen, following behind me, patted my shoulder and changed the subject to ask another question.
“By the way, what item are you trying to find? I need to know so I can help too.”
“Ah.”
‘I haven’t told her what it is yet, have I?’
I hadn’t even told Gwen, who was accompanying me, what I needed to find.
“It’s a mask. An artifact with quite interesting functions.”
“What functions?”
“To be honest, it’s nothing special. When you wear the mask, you can take on a different appearance for a certain period of time.”
Now that I needed help from both Sephir and Gwen, I answered without hiding anything.
The Mask of the One with Many Tricks.
It can change the user’s appearance.
It also had a short duration and no basic effects as equipment like stat increases when equipped, and it would immediately be undone if hit by even a low-grade spell. It was a flawed item that had a long reuse time.
Nevertheless, the reason for going to get it was none other than that transformation ability.
It might be different in a game, but being able to freely change one’s appearance meant that the things I could do would increase tremendously as someone who can’t even use magic properly.
As I was recalling the mask’s effect, Gwen spoke with a doubtful voice as if she had remembered something.
“By any chance… is it a white mask with a strange shape?”
“Huh? You know about it?”
Gwen’s reaction was as if she knew about the mask.
“Well, whenever I went to your room, there was always a mask like that on the desk.”
“It seems I also obtained that mask back then.”
“That’s what I’m saying. Do you really need to go find that mask?”
Gwen, who had stopped walking momentarily, slightly pulled on my collar and said we shouldn’t seek the artifact.
“Did something happen?”
At this time, artifacts can’t be obtained simply with money.
Even if not used, if I asked Sephir to sell it in the back world, it could bring in quite a large sum of money.
However, if Gwen says it, the story changes.
If it was an item that the future me possessed, then there must be a reason for Gwen to express such an opinion.
“Well… there’s something you said after seeing that mask.”
“What did I say…”
I wonder what kind of impression I left about the mask.
“You said it was too useless compared to the effort…”
Gwen’s voice grew quieter as she spoke.
As if she herself thought it was a bit forced, Gwen lowered her head.
“…What does that mean?”
It was like a lament, but she said it was none other than me who said that.
It was probably the me who had regressed.
If the regressed me expressed it as bothersome to that extent, there’s a possibility that something is diverging from my expectations.
“I don’t know. You rarely said things like it being useless, so it was something that stuck in my memory.”
“Me?”
It was unexpected information.
‘I didn’t say such things to that extent? As a slave?’
As I looked at Gwen with information that didn’t add up, she added that I should believe her a bit.
“I told you, you were a butler. The head butler had a hard time fixing that mouth of yours.”
Gwen glared at me with puffed cheeks as if still not believing it.
‘Cute.’
Even though she’s glaring at me with all her might, her ruby-colored eyes that are close to purity without any hostility, and her puffed cheeks as if begging to be poked.
“…What are you doing?”
“I’m sorry. You just look too pokeable.”
In the end, unable to hold back, I approached Gwen and poked her cheek.
“……”
Ah.
She turned her head away.
—–
“So, what would you like to do, Gwen?”
Since Gwen expressed a dissenting opinion, I asked her what she would do.
“Hmm… I don’t know. You didn’t say anything more than that, and it just stood out to me because it was odd.”
Gwen’s opinion was still ambiguous.
‘The problem is that it felt odd to her…’
The fact that I couldn’t control my emotions to the extent that they felt odd to her was a signal.
Therefore, I also considered giving up, but,
‘What’s the problem when Gwen is next to me.’
Gwen, who easily defeats even the strong Aslan, is an overturned character.
In fact, at this point, the only people who could be said to possibly defeat Gwen would be Vivian, Lioness, and Sephir.
“Hmm…”
“Then… shall we go see it and decide?”
While I was contemplating what to do, Gwen carefully offered her opinion.
“Shall we…?”
My slightly wavering mind was firmly set by her opinion.
‘No matter what, ignoring an artifact that’s nearly impossible to obtain in the early stages just because of a single remark with an unknown meaning is a bit much.’
I had so little to the point of it being too much to simply ignore the artifact and move on.
“Then, if something feels off after seeing it, let’s return…”
“Let’s do that.”
Gwen nodded at the content I reaffirmed once more.
Now that the goal was reset, I was about to hurry my steps when I hesitated and turned my head.
Because…
“Gwen.”
“Yes.”
“No matter how I think about it, wouldn’t it be better for you to take the lead rather than me?”
Gwen seemed much more comfortable, and we moved faster as she cut through the bushes and vines with her aura like a chainsaw, rather than me flailing my arms to clear them.
“……”
Gwen was silent for a moment.
However, her gaze somehow gave the feeling of an obedient cat.
After a short while, her answer was.
“You always said the master should stand behind the butler.”
“No, I don’t know about that…”
I insisted that I didn’t know.
After pondering for a bit, Gwen’s eyes lit up as if an exclamation mark appeared on her head, and she pointed at me with her finger.
“Ah, you said if I say this to the weird guys who argue with me, they’ll do any favor I ask.”
“What? What did I-”
“I’m from a ducal family, you know?”
“……”
Damn class society.
There’s no way to refute it.
“See!”
Gwen proudly puffs up her chest and smiles.
‘…Dammit.’
In the end, seeing that, I turned my head again and swung my sword, making small talk to myself loud enough for her to hear as a bit of amusement.
“That’s unfair.”
-Flinch
“Just because you were my former master, doesn’t mean you can claim ownership now.”
-Twitch
At that time, I didn’t know.
I didn’t think that was really her intention…
—–
Sometime later, a familiar terrain began to appear in front of us.
“We finally made it out.”
A mystical space with blue leaves falling, clearly different from the surrounding trees.
“It’s a blue forest.”
It was Gwen’s simple impression after looking around for a moment.
‘What a response.’
I didn’t expect such a one-dimensional reaction to seeing such a bizarre and beautiful nature with her own eyes.
“It’s full of Gwen’s hair color.”
“Hey!”
At my single remark, after pondering what I could say to get a reaction, Gwen showed a big response with a reddened face.
“Well, if we go ahead, that mask should appear.”
Gwen muttered something next to me, but I roughly ignored it with one ear and proceeded forward.
“By the way, do we have to dig the ground here to find the mask?”
“No. If we used that method, I would have brought a shovel instead of a sword.”
“Then?”
“Soon, a sleeping gorilla-like monster will appear. That guy carries it on his head.”
I briefly informed Gwen of where the artifact was located.
“Go…rilla?”
Ah, right.
‘There are no gorillas in this world, are there?’
“There’s just a hairy, muscular giant-looking guy. Anyway, the weak point of that sleeping guy-”
“Aaron.”
Gwen interrupts my words.
“By any chance, are you talking about that?”
As I was about to explain what to do after roughly informing Gwen of its appearance, Gwen pointed behind me with a blank look.
Seeing her expression, I silently turned my head back.
“…Huh?”
‘Why is that guy… awake?’
Moreover, while intently staring at us in the forest.
—–
-Bzzt
[Characteristic: {????} was involved in this situation.]
[This… seems quite dangerous?]
-Bzzt