Living as an Unemployed in Another World

145 – 5. Witch Moon (21)

5. Celine (1)

On that road, I left the street where the sirens sing and headed straight to the adventurer’s guild before dawn. It was to arrange a carriage back to Cornfield.

Due to its nature, adventurers’ guilds start operating very early. When I entered the cool room, where the warmth hadn’t spread yet, a blonde female employee lying on the counter yawned and met my eyes.

“What? Am I looking at nothing…… ?”

When she pulled her neatly cut short hair instead of a cheek, I laughed. That would be the case, I would never have visited the guild early in the morning as I always live in my dreams. I trudged to the window.

“Not…… Place.”

“Right…… Head…… That’s right.”

At that time, I heard a whisper behind my back. It sounds more like a scuffle than a chatter. Since it was still winter, there would be almost no elimination requests, so what kind of adventurer would diligently search for a guild from the wee hours of the morning? Curiously, I turned around to see some shabby-looking adventurers whispering about me.

“That’s right! Pay me because I lost the bet.”

“It was real. Hey, Jin!”

Hilda with an even longer orange ponytail, and Gerald with a red nose waved at me. Gerald handing Hilda a coin, and beyond that, Janice wearing a hood and Mr. Sukhbat with shiny hair looked at me.

As I stood still, not thinking of approaching them, the four of them looked at each other with puzzled expressions.

“Why is he like that?”

“I haven’t seen you in a while…… That’s why I told you not to pretend to know out loud.”

“No, there is someone besides us here…… Hey Jin! We will be staying here until today. What will you do?”

Gerald asked me from a distance, but I just kept my head down. The reflection of the four people in the dawn coming through the window felt like an unreal fantasy.

“…… Uh huh jin?”

“Am I talking to myself? Evil, why are you hitting me?”

“Oi, stay still. Jin is weird.”

While Hilda and Gerald were whispering about me, a shadow suddenly approached me silently. A pair of old boots poked his head at the end of his drooping vision. I looked up. Wizard Zenith stared at me with obsidian-like eyes shining through her bangs.

“Jin…… Are you crying?”

“Someone is crying.”

I hurriedly wiped her face with her sleeve and hurriedly ran to the other side of her. I heard whispers behind my back, but I ignored them.

“Ji-san!? Wait!”

Emily, a guild employee who is now in her fourth year, hastily pursued me, but she has also been ostracized. Kicking off the hard stone pavement, I continued to run slowly, slowly, toward a street with few people.

I had to close my eyes several times as the beautiful view of the port city Eastside continued to shine in one corner of my field of view throughout the run. I ran all the way to the checkpoint, and without breathing heavily, I shook the young guard Maximus’ big shoulders and immediately ordered a wagon. And on that road, he climbed into the luggage compartment and returned straight to Cornfield.

My lungs were full of cold wind, my mouth tasted like blood, my vision was blurry, and my whole body was soaked in damp fatigue from not sleeping. Nonetheless, throughout the journey, I kept my bloodshot eyes open and captured the city moving away.

The wagon moved very slowly, and several times I trembled my limbs and pounded the wooden boards as if to urge them, but the speed did not change. Eventually, when I saw a distant, white field before the buds had sprouted, I forgot to say hello and got off the carriage. Then he went straight up the hill and ran towards the inn.

When the bell rang, a girl squatting on the fireplace turned around, hugging her waist. Celine, the only child of an innkeeper couple, was known for being the most industrious of her family.

“Welcome…… Jin?”

Even she blinked her eyes for a moment as if she hadn’t woken up yet, and I slowly entered the room. Soon after seeing my face flushed with cold, he hurriedly pulled up his skirt and came running.

“Oh my God, look at his face, what is this like? Didn’t you come by carriage? You’re completely frozen.”

“… ….”

“Didn’t the others come with you? Let’s go to the kitchen first. If you boil the water now, it won’t take long. Do some washing up…….”

Without knowing anything, Celine talked nonstop as usual about what she was worried about so much. She caressed my cheek, which was sore from running through the city, with her warm hand several times. His nagging, nagging…….

I grabbed my hand and held Celine’s hand with both hands as she pulled me inside without a hint of coldness. She turned around Her surprised face is reflected in the light from outside at dawn.

Her light brown hair tied up behind her, her eyes shining like blue lakes, her high nose and slightly pouty pink lips, the dot at the corner of her mouth and her quivering eyelashes shone clearly in the middle of my vision.

“Why, why is this…….”

I know I shouldn’t do that. I knew all too well that it was a meaningless act, but I wrapped my palm in the palm of my hand and buried it in my chest.

“Uh, when I was about to wipe my face, all of a sudden… ….”

“Black… ….”

“You…… Are you crying? Are you crying now?”

No. I kept repeating only her words with her mouth, holding her body tightly against her, holding her tight enough to break her thin waist. Behind us, the sun rose higher and the shadows slowly dwindled.

Time passed continuously. Savagely.

※

I was in my room when the morning was bright, the noon was bright, and the sun had set and it was evening. Room 12, right next to the stairs at the far right of the corridor on the second floor, where I spent several times as many hours as I did in that mansion. It’s my room

After sharing a very long hug with Celine, I got an early breakfast and deliberately exchanged greetings with the inn family once again. Angela is beautiful today, and Cooper seems to have less hair loss, such an everyday conversation. Celine, who was wiping my face with a wet towel, looked at me suspiciously the whole time she was in the hall, but she didn’t bother to interrogate me.

The sound of adventurers returning one by one could be heard through the door, but Mira, Alphonse, and Grace did not return as soon as they peeped. Same goes for Gerald’s party. Would you like to meet each other by now? Maybe everyone is sorting out their thoughts. Anyway, I’m glad I am now.

Because I’ve already finished preparing to leave before dawn. I carefully fed the items and objects that were lined up on the bed one by one through the mouth of the bag. After diligently organizing things, there were only a few things left on the bed.

The Witch’s Book, the Infinite Grimoire, and the staff borrowed from Zenith. And it’s Blink’s ring. I raised the blunt, short staff. This is something I borrowed from Janice. Given his personality, I don’t think he’ll say anything if I keep using it as he lent it to me, but…… There has to be something coming and going.

I opened the magic book, tore off a part of the page, folded it up, and put it in my pocket. A witch’s knowledge is dangerous enough for an average wizard, but I know that my Janice is also an eccentric enough among the people I know, and I believe that some of them can probably be acquired over a long period of time. In return, he takes the wand.

And…… Blink’s ring. It’s an item that has saved me several times in times of danger, but I know that this item is much more useful against thieves. I put the ring in my drawer, closed it, and opened the door for a moment to put the scraps of pages from the book of magic through the cracks in Zenith’s door.

And…… Before she could put them through the crack in her door, Celine met her eyes as she climbed the stairs. She bumped into me, stopped her steps as she came up, and then squinted her eyes and called my name. I answered. Why?

“…… Wait, can you come down?”

Rarely did she ever say something to me in response to her request, so I casually replied that I knew. There was never a sign of him leaving, so I was relieved. I came down the stairs looking at her back, went around the counter and passed the hall…… I stopped in front of her door at the deepest part of the first floor.

I thought I would at most ask for help with her kitchen work, but I actually asked her while looking around the rather dark and unfamiliar scenery she hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Isn’t this your room? You don’t like me coming here.”

“… ….”

“I’d rather talk to you later in my room… ….”

While muttering such a thing, I was suddenly dragged by her hand and rushed into the room in an instant. I was pulling so hard with that little body that I almost fell over, but barely hit the bed and got my balance.

And…… Seeing that a candle was lit on the desk in his room, I inadvertently looked at Celine’s face through the mirror.

It was red. Like a blazing flame.

She asked me. What’s going on?

I replied. There is no such thing.

Celine immediately pursed her lips as if she was about to get angry…… Just like that, he let out a very long sigh and caught his breath…… She said this right away.

She approached one step at a time.

Soon, as she sat on her bed, she held out her hands to me, and I grabbed them one last time, knowing I shouldn’t.

“Today is my birthday.”

By the way? I asked. Celine added.

“Now…… Eighteen years old, an adult.”

I thought for a moment about the meaning of that word. She said again.

“Me too, to you…… Can take responsibility therefore… ….”

I also thought about the meaning of that word. Her pounding heart was transmitted to me from the hot hands that were clasped together.

“Will you share yours with me now?”