Disconnected

Chapter 13: Mainstream Trip (pt.3)

In the midst of her dwindling, Gil's voice suddenly resounded.

"You can leave me here," he said. The one-legged young man realized Serein's concern and thus decided for himself that it was for the best.

"What? What do you mean by leaving you here?"

Cherry, who nearly choked when she heard that, is now glaring at her best friend.

"This idiot... are you really going to go through this conversation agai—”

Yet, "Sounds good to me," Serein cut in and agreed with the smiling Gil. This caused Cherry's glare to shift from the knight to the adventurer.

"Serein-shi, we can't just—"

"With all due respect, princess."

Despite the stern tone directed at her, Serein cut the mage’s sentence short once more.

"He's just going to slow us down," she pointed out the obvious.

Gil wouldn't be any sort of help to them.

"If he's going with us, the best thing he'd end up being is a meat shield or bait."

Serein had no problem laying out the harsh truth, even as Gil's lips twitched and Cherry visibly became agitated.

However, before any more arguments could ensue, that smoky voice could be heard once more.

"You think you can just dump your leftovers here however you wish, little girl?"

Serein turned to the newcomer who decided to join their conversation at that moment, before then replying to him.

“Of course not, sir,” she said, still talking with respect although this time she didn't lower her gaze as she did before. “We have overstayed our welcome. So, if we don’t get your permission to bring him out here, then we might need to get him somewhere else first.”

“Regardless of my decision, you’re not going to bring him along the way.”

Serein politely smiled.

There was no need for a verbal reply since everyone there understood the situation already anyway.

“When do you plan to return?”

Cherry and Gil were surprised to find out that the half-blood dragon Cevahir didn’t seem like he was going to just kick them out and rather sounded like he was willing to hear them out.

“If there’s no explicit hurdle along the way, by sunset. Or the latest, by the next day tomorrow.”

The ashy-haired male hummed, though he’s still not out from the shadows. Which is too bad, since Serein couldn’t check on his condition.

“He can stay.”

Cevahir stated, making the childhood friends stare at each other wide-eyed, not expecting this at all. Different from that monochromatic-haired adventurer.

‘As I thought.’

Serein was not all that shocked that things went as she had predicted. Dragons may be known as selfish and arrogant. But, above it all, they are beings that owe nothing to nobody.

If you did something bad to them, you better expect some if not destruction to commence. Although, at the same time, if you were to help them in any way, they’d definitely pay you back with something equivalent.

In a matter of fact, the elixir that has been passed down in the Whitehall family, one that Cherry’s brother snuck her some, is none other than distilled blood of the ancient dragon lord itself, which was gifted by the Lord to a Sage who was later known as the first Queen of Amaranth Kingdom.

A long story of a praised hero party in the past who managed to save this world from the wicked warlock that terrorized the lands…

‘What’s his name, again?’ She couldn’t remember at the moment.

But anyway.

Serein’s hazel pair calmly eyed the silhouette within the shadow when she replied to him.

“Would that be alright? You’re not in any way indebted to us just so you know. You have allowed us to rest here for the night, after all.”

Despite how it’ll be a great help for them, Serein couldn’t just accept Cevahir’s offer blindly like that.

Regardless of what happened yesterday, they’re still overall strangers.

And if the two Wyrms Sam and Pam’s actions were in fact due to a human’s betrayal in the past, who could guarantee Gil’s life once they left him alone in the hands of these three?

Cevahir the half-blood dragon clicked his tongue as if annoyed before then replying shortly, “A life for a life,” he said.

To which, now that she listened more carefully, he sounded less breathy than the first time they met. Depending heavily on this lone fact, she hoped that it means the half-blood dragon is doing better than last time.

“You saved mine, so I’ll let that kid stay here a bit longer. While the time you had stayed... Well, think of it as my way to express regret on behalf of these two.”

The three humans listened carefully as Sam and Pam, who were on top of each of Cevahir’s shoulders, lowered their heads, not wanting to agree with what their caretaker was saying.

Dragons and their kin would never admit or say sorry to anyone even if they were proven to be wrong.

Which is why Gil and Cherry were shocked to witness this even though they’d never seen an actual dragon before this.

Meanwhile, with Serein…

She traced the bandages on her neck. The place where she was bitten still hurts but supposedly, it’s no longer bleeding as badly as yesterday.

‘Well, I mean, although it was Cherry who wrapped me up, these are undoubtedly Sir Cevahir’s, right? Shouldn’t that be enough of a payback then?’

Either way, it’ll be profitable to accept the offer rather than declining it in vain.

So, while she watched how the two cuties flinched in guilt, she removed her hand before bowing respectfully toward the half-blood dragon.

“He’ll be in your care, then. Thank you very much, Mister.”

“Hmm…”

Cherry also said some words toward Gil before then standing up herself, ready to go next to Serein.

“Well, we’ll be going now.”

“Once again, thank you for your hospitality, Cevahir-min, Sam-shi, Pam-shi.”

Serein’s ears perked up at that moment.

‘Right.’

She felt amused hearing what the disguised princess just said.

When she wrote this draft, Min Suhyun had thought that it would be humorous to change the suffix used in her world and tweaked the pronunciation or the syllables a bit to make up new words.

‘-nim to -min and -ssi to -shi?’

Looks like she needed to keep this in mind for future interactions.

Serein internally shook her head as a thought crossed her mind at that time.

‘I really REALLY need to get that relic…’

Anticipating the possibility of her actually getting stuck in this world, she really needs to come prepared with many things. First on her list is definitely that Archaic Relic.

Yeah, anyhow, off to the Ervenyl Mountain they go!