Chapter 93

While the two exchanged urgent words, one of the terrorists charged straight at Blaine. Blaine, unable to even draw a weapon, instinctively stepped back, and Theo blocked the attack in his place.

At the same time, a pain-perception filter flicked on in front of Theo’s eyes, and his level shot past the gauge. Maybe because his body remembered the pain, his shoulders shrank without him realizing it.

As Theo faltered for a moment, another terrorist rushed him. Theo knocked aside Terrorist 1’s weapon, then blocked Terrorist 2’s attack, and in that opening, Blaine’s magic surged toward Terrorist 1.

But Terrorist 1 showed no reaction at all even after being hit by Blaine’s magic. It was as if the attack hadn’t worked in the slightest. Terrorist 1 gave the flustered Blaine a crooked smile, twirled the dagger in their hand, then swiftly gripped it properly and lunged at Blaine.

As if prepared, Blaine dropped a gravity field in front of the terrorist, but Terrorist 1 ignored even that completely.

In an instant, Terrorist 1 closed the distance. They were close enough to reach Blaine with a single outstretched arm. Grinning as if they had him, Terrorist 1 stretched out their hand—but Blaine detonated a Flare and created distance with a backward movement.

The carefully closed gap reopened, and after losing their prey right in front of their eyes, Terrorist 1 twisted their face and clicked their tongue. They tried to close in again, but with a sound like air being sliced apart, something flew in and slammed into Terrorist 1. Terrorist 1 was knocked away along with it, tumbling across the ground in a complete mess.

Coughing as they pushed themselves up amid the thick cloud of sand, Terrorist 1 checked what they had collided with.

“?”

It was Terrorist 2, the one who had come with them. Terrorist 1 quickly lifted their head and looked in the direction Terrorist 2 had flown from.

There was nothing there. Realizing too late, Terrorist 1 turned to look at Blaine—but Blaine was gone as well. After staring blankly at the empty space where the two had been, Terrorist 1 hurriedly checked toward the village.

Theo and Blaine had already entered the gates of Lucilvania. Terrorist 1 clenched their teeth, their face twisted with irritation. After clenching and unclenching their fist in frustration while glaring toward Blaine’s direction, Terrorist 1 finally withdrew their gaze as if giving up, gathered Terrorist 2, and hastily left the area.

It seemed they wanted to avoid causing a major disturbance. Lucilvania was the largest village in the Vikechi region, after all.

Watching the terrorists flee, Blaine looked at Theo. One moment, the terrorist charging at him had been sent flying by something, and the next, Theo had appeared from behind, scooping Blaine up and dragging him into the village. Everything had happened in the blink of an eye. Blaine was still stunned, while Theo calmly brushed the dust off his clothes.

“Did your attack work?”

Theo paused mid-brush and looked at Blaine.

“Didn’t work for you either? It wasn’t just me, right?”

“Yes… magic didn’t work at all. Gravity too… then how?”

“Contact still works.”

“…What?”

“Even if you can’t deal damage, you can still touch them. So I just grabbed and threw them.”

“Ah…”

It was a painfully simple explanation.

“Anyway, going back to Ratteon just got risky too.”

“Yeah…”

“For now, let’s go back to Gilha.”

Blaine looked toward the village entrance, then nodded silently, and the two headed back to the guild house.

When the two, who had said they were going to Ratteon, returned to the guild house instead, the guild members looked confused. But once they heard that the two had been ambushed, they rushed over in shock.

“Attacks don’t work?!”

In the middle of hearing about the terrorists, Father shouted. The other guild members felt the same; they just hadn’t gotten the chance to yell. Attacks not working—what did that even mean?

“Yeah. My attacks didn’t work, and Blaine’s magic didn’t either.”

Father couldn’t close her mouth. If attacks didn’t work, how were they supposed to deal with that? If they couldn’t deal damage in a confrontation, it would be no different from fighting zombies. A one-sided fight where all you could do was run—the penalty was far too severe.

“What did they even do to make it so you automatically switch to Murderer Mode on contact, adjust the pain filter, and make attacks useless? Are they some kind of munchkin?”¹

At that moment, Noquia slammed the table repeatedly, venting her anger. More than the penalty that had been forced on them, it seemed she was furious about the fact that they couldn’t even properly fight the terrorists. Behind the enraged Noquia, Marco muttered under his breath.

“I thought they’d only attack in quiet or isolated places. Pulling this in Lucilvania… that’s unexpected.”

Everyone looked unsettled. Even more so because they couldn’t avoid the danger they were now facing head-on.

“So what are you going to do? You can’t go back to Ratteon right now, can you?”

Theo and Blaine looked at Holanghee. Just as he said, there was no way back to Ratteon. As the two stood there looking dejected, Father asked casually from between them.

“Want me to take you by carriage?”

Theo looked at Father.

“There’s no guarantee we won’t be attacked on the way.”

“I’ll escort you.”

“Me too.”

The guild members volunteered eagerly to act as guards, but after a moment of thought, Theo shook his head.

“That still doesn’t cover everything. I don’t like it.”

The terrorists’ blades couldn’t be allowed to touch even a single strand of Blaine’s fur. The moment they did, Blaine would be burned black and vanish.

Noquia, who had been watching Theo’s frighteningly serious expression, scratched her head and asked,

“As long as you stay in town, isn’t it safe anyway? You don’t really need to go back to Ratteon. You could just stay in the guild house.”

“The town isn’t completely safe either.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t you remember? I was in town when they dragged me out and attacked me.”

“Ah….”

“Besides, the guild house has people coming and going several times a day. We can’t exactly lock it up just for Blaine’s sake.”

Just as Theo said, the guild house had people coming and going several times a day—acquaintances of guild members and members of allied guilds alike. Of course, entry required permission, but there was no way to thoroughly screen or monitor every single person who passed through.

The only place that could be perfectly safe was a private residence.

“Hyung, I’m fine staying at the guild house.”

A quiet voice spoke up. Theo looked at Blaine, and Blaine met his gaze with a small smile as he continued.

“So you can go back to Ratteon, hyung—”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“…What?”

“With things like this, you want me to leave you alone?”

“What? No, I mean… still…”

Blaine trailed off. Of course, he didn’t want to be separated from Theo. He knew he was usually a burden, always following him around, asking him to stay together—but being a nuisance was one thing, and Theo getting hurt because of him was another.

Right now, this was the latter. And that was exactly why Blaine hated this situation.

Because of the piercing gaze pouring down on him from one person, Blaine couldn’t even lift his head. He wanted to say, “I don’t want you to get hurt because of me,” but the moment he said it out loud, he felt like Theo would explode in anger.

As Blaine hesitated under the increasingly sharp stares, unsure what to do, a sharp clap echoed through the room. Startled, he looked up to see Father standing there with her palms pressed together. When everyone’s attention, including Theo’s and Blaine’s, turned toward her, Father spoke briskly.

“Alright, then let’s do this.”

“?”

“Blaine, do you have money?”

“…Huh?”

“If you do, buy a residence in Lucilvania. Then just hole up there.”

“Uh…”

“If possible, get one near Gilha. Only allow guild members to enter.”

Blaine could only blink as he stared at Father. From all around, people started agreeing that it was a good idea. After glancing once at Theo, Blaine looked back at Father. Reading his thoughts from that look alone, Father turned to Theo.

“What about Theo? Are you going back to Ratteon?”

“No. I’ll just stay around Gilha.”

“If you’ve got money, why don’t you buy a place in Lucilvania too? You can sell it later.”

“I don’t have money.”

The reply came instantly.

“…You broke bastard.”

“Did you chip in?”

“No.”

After hearing Father’s utterly soulless response, Theo stood up and left the guild house. Startled by Theo leaving him behind, Blaine hurried to follow, but Theo only left behind a single line telling him not to come out of the guild house before disappearing with quick strides.

Left alone with a hollow feeling, Blaine stood at the entrance of the guild house like a stone statue, waiting for Theo. After some time had passed, Theo returned, took Blaine with him, and led him out of the guild house. They stopped in front of a residence not far away.

“?”

“I looked around nearby, and this seemed like the best option.”

It looked like he had gone to check out residences for Blaine. Blaine silently glanced around. It was close to a main road with plenty of foot traffic and not far from the guild house either.

Seeing Blaine only looking around without any sign of wanting to make a contract, Theo asked,

“Don’t like it? Then go back to the guild house. I’ll look at other places.”

“No, no! I like it. Since you picked it, hyung, anywhere is fine.”

“You like it without even seeing the inside?”

“It’s just a temporary place anyway.”

Blaine smiled brightly and opened the door, stepping inside. Unlike Ratteon, it was a large house built with a wooden structure. Without much hesitation, Blaine signed the residence contract, and Theo bought some furniture suitable for temporary use from a shop.

And then, two days after Blaine had settled into his new residence in Lucilvania, the game suddenly entered a heightened security state. All users who had been in the field or dungeons were forcibly summoned to their residences, and the entrances to the towns were barred shut.