Chapter 70

Meeting (2)

“Ow, ow, ow… That hurts. Please, be a little gentler…”

Noel could say with complete confidence that she had complained far less than this even when suffering severe wounds on the battlefield.

Yet despite the sharp, narrow-eyed look she gave Aiden, he only continued making pathetic noises at the simple sensation of the bandage being wrapped around his arm.

To be fair, disinfecting a deep cut that had been pouring blood and then binding it tightly with a compression bandage was painful enough to make anyone groan. Still, watching a grown man tearfully whine over the sting made it hard to believe he was the same person who had driven a fountain-pen nib into his own skin just moments ago to corner a shopkeeper.

Judging by the expression on the infected girl Aiden had brought outside, even she seemed to share that exact thought.

“Why would you do something so reckless in the first place?” Noel grumbled.

“There are things more important than pain,” Aiden insisted defensively.

“…I would appreciate it if you considered me one of those important things too.”

“What? What did you say? Could you speak just a little lou—”

Noel answered by pulling the knot in his bandage as tight as she possibly could. Aiden let out a sound like a dying man, but she ignored him completely.

“A-anyway,” Aiden stammered, working to recover the dignity expected of a responsible adult. He straightened his back and turned toward the young girl.

She had followed them outside simply because he had brought her along, but her confused expression made it obvious she still had no idea why she was here. Fortunately, Aiden had dealt with people suffering from this sort of infection often enough to know how to handle it.

“So, what are your symptoms? Where does it hurt?”

The question came without any preamble. The girl merely rolled her eyes around without answering. Aiden had not actually expected a quick reply, so he was not particularly disappointed.

Someone living with an untreated infection while being denied basic necessities would naturally be extremely reluctant to open up to strangers. Having lived a harsh life, the fear of being ostracized the moment anyone discovered their illness was carved deep into their instincts. That was especially true for a child who appeared to have no proper guardian.

In cases like this, Aiden sometimes had to use a approach he personally disliked. He sighed and glanced back at Noel.

“Noel.”

“Hmm?”

“I’m not a pervert.”

If Noel’s affinity toward Aiden were ever plotted on a graph, it would require an absurd amount of space. Even so, there were moments when she wondered why he suddenly blurted out completely deranged statements. No one could blame her for pressing a palm to her forehead and muttering a particularly colorful curse under her breath.

“Why are you suddenly telling me that?” she asked, fighting an incoming headache.

“I’m just saying, don’t misunderstand.”

Leaving her with that cryptic warning, Aiden stepped closer to the girl. Without hesitation, he reached out, grabbed the sacklike garment she wore as a shirt, and lifted it up in one smooth motion.

“…!”

It was less that she chose not to resist and more that sheer shock left her frozen in place. Despite her pale face and trembling body, Aiden inspected her bare torso with cold, clinical eyes.

Normally, Noel would have stopped him immediately, even if it meant striking him across the back of the head. This time, however, she stood by and watched without interfering. Every one of his movements carried the calm, practised ease of a trained professional, inspiring unexpected trust. It was blatantly obvious that Aiden had treated people in this condition many times before.

After examining the trembling girl for a moment, he lowered her clothes back into place.

“I have a good idea of what’s going on,” he said, his voice carrying a heavy sigh as he offered a firm warning. “First, stop using your ability.”

The girl’s eyes quivered violently. This time, it was clearly not simple fear; she looked genuinely shocked.

“I don’t know what kind of ability it is, but I can tell it’s the sort that will become extremely dangerous if you keep channeling it,” Aiden explained calmly. “You’ve been having trouble controlling it lately, haven’t you?”

She offered no verbal answer, but Aiden did not wait for one. He lifted the paper bag hanging from his arm and held it out to her. It contained the remedies he had forcibly purchased through self-harm and subtle intimidation. Setting the bag on the ground, he arranged the small bottles neatly in front of her.

“Take one of these, two of that one, and two of this one. Even if you can’t manage a proper meal, eat a little something before taking them. Understand?”

The girl remained silent, her sunken eyes staring blankly at the glass bottles. Aiden did not push her further. Instead, he reached down and gently took her cold hand in his.

He had half-expected her to pull away or perhaps even bite him, but she quietly allowed the contact. Aiden remained still, using his own warmth to chase away the chill in her fingers.

Silence settled between them. Slowly, her irregular breathing steadied, and the shivering that had looked like a cold fever finally subsided. Only then did Aiden point toward the medicine bottles again, still holding her hand.

“One of these, two of that one, and two of this one. Do you remember?”

“…”

“One of these, two of that one, and two of this one. Repeat it for me.”

“…O-one. Two. Two,” she whispered weakly.

“Again.”

“One. Two. Two.”

“Good. Don’t forget. Can you read?”

Silence answered him again, but Aiden waited patiently. It took about as long as drinking a cup of tea before her frail voice emerged, barely above a murmur.

“…Are you helping me?”

“As much as you’re willing to trust me.”

“…Mister, are you a bad person?”

“First, I’m not old enough to be called ‘mister.’ Second, I’m not a bad person.”

“I can read.”

“Good.”

Aiden pulled a slick business card from inside his coat pocket. Taking out the fountain pen he had just used on his arm, he quickly jotted down an address on the back. Despite the blood that had covered the nib earlier, the ink fortunately flowed without trouble.

“Take this and go to the location written here. They’ll give you a safe place to stay for a day or two.”

The girl accepted the card uncertainly, glancing back and forth between the crisp paper and Aiden’s face. After repeating the motion several times, she spoke up, her voice slightly firmer than before.

“I can’t give you anything in return.”

“I know.”

“Why are you doing all this for me?”

“Because I’m a sane, responsible adult.”

“Adults aren’t kind like you.”

“Those were just people who called themselves adults,” Aiden replied gently. “This is what an actual adult is supposed to do.”

“I think you’re a very strange kind of adult.”

Standing nearby, Noel snickered softly. The girl’s logic was simply too spot-on to refute.

✦ ✦ ✦

“How did you do that?” Noel asked after the girl had gathered her medicine and disappeared down the street.

“Do what?”

“She was trembling so violently out of fear, but the moment you held her hand, she completely calmed down. Did you use some kind of calming magic?”

“Oh, that?”

Aiden absentmindedly leaned back against a streetlamp, only to realize he had leaned on his freshly bandaged arm. He writhed in sudden agony for a moment before answering through a suppressed groan.

“I’m not entirely sure… Someone taught me.”

“You were taught?”

“Yes. I just can’t remember who it was.” Aiden frowned slightly, looking unusually dissatisfied with his own memory. “It was something I learned during a critical situation. That’s the only part I can recall.”

Noel nodded thoughtfully to herself, then suddenly froze as a realization struck her. Aiden turned to her in confusion, only to find her staring at him with absolute, deadly seriousness.

“Was the person who taught you a woman?”

“…No. I told you, I don’t remember.”

Aiden briefly wondered why that detail mattered so much to her, but considering he had given Noel plenty of reasons to criticize him today, he decided it was wiser to keep his mouth shut.

Noel, meanwhile, fell silent for a reason of her own. Something Aiden had just said had lodged itself sharply in her chest.

‘He doesn’t remember.’

That phrase carried a heavy weight for Noel, who was missing a portion of her own childhood memories.

So this man is missing part of his early past too.

It was a strangely coincidental similarity. She pondered it for a long moment before asking her next question.

“Where did you learn all that medical knowledge, though? Anyone watching you would have assumed you were a licensed doctor.”

Aiden gave a soft laugh and rubbed his chin. It certainly might have looked that way to an onlooker, but he did not view it as professional expertise.

“I just saw a lot of kids like her back in the day.”

“Kids like her?”

“…During the Alliance War, there were plenty of orphans whose illnesses spread far worse than what she has.”

“…”

“I picked up bits and pieces back then.”

The dark alleys of those years were still etched clearly into Aiden’s mind. War orphans and defeated soldiers who had lost limbs filled those overcrowded streets. Calling it hell on earth would not have been an exaggeration.

Back then, people used a grim, unspoken timeline to guess how much time someone had left: if a person could stand and speak, they had a week; if they were bedridden, three days; if they couldn’t keep food down, two days; if they lost the ability to speak, one day.

Aiden had simply watched life and death intertwine in a place like that. Infectious blights were a common occurrence. The girl he had just examined looked almost identical to an orphan from those alleys who had possessed an unstable supernatural ability. The more that child had channeled their power, the more their internal organs had rotted away. In the end, they had perished long before the people they were trying so desperately to protect.

Noel watched Aiden in silence, her eyes heavy with unspoken emotion. Every person carried as many stories as the path they had walked, and she knew better than to make careless assumptions about his past.

Even so, she couldn’t help but wonder: What kind of living hell did this man endure before coming here?

Noel herself had seen every horror the battlefield had to offer, yet Aiden clearly harbored a deep, quiet trauma that even she could not begin to fathom.

“Well, that’s that,” Aiden said, breaking the heavy silence with a light stretch. “Shall we head back? What a chaotic way to start the morning.”

No matter how many times Noel saw him brush off such heavy memories as if they were minor inconveniences, it never became easy to accept.

What in the world is he really made of…?

As it happened, Aiden was also in a position where he had little choice but to move forward.

[System Message]

▶ The ‘Bonus Quest’ has been successfully completed!

▶ Target ‘Drakan’ now holds goodwill toward you. You can copy 1 skill!

▶ Target ‘Ganesha Aldebaran’ now holds goodwill toward you. You can copy 1 skill!

▶ Your exceptional choices have unlocked an additional event. Raise their Affinity even further!

Aiden stared blankly at the glowing floating text. He had known a bonus quest was active, but still…

‘…Wait, did I just finish it just now?’

Apparently, a major encounter had taken place without him even realizing it.

✦ ✦ ✦

The young girl walked down the quiet alley, clutching the paper bag of medicine tightly against her chest.

There was a stark difference in her posture now compared to moments ago. Unlike her limp, agonizing stagger outside the pharmacy, her gait was smooth, steady, and light—as though the intense pain she had displayed earlier had been nothing more than a flawless act.

A smooth voice echoed from further down the shadowed alley.

“You’ve grown remarkably skilled at imitating humans, haven’t you? Back when we first met, you could barely maintain the physical disguise.”

Standing near the end of the alley was a young man wearing a polished monocle, a silk top hat, and a impeccably tailored suit. Every detail of his appearance screamed high society merchant.

“…Master,” the girl greeted softly.

“Your speech, your subtle body language—it all looked entirely genuine. The training paid off.”

As she faced him, a dense, shimmering aura began to pulse around her body. It was neither the Empire’s martial aura, the Great Plains’ spiritual power, the Holy Kingdom’s sacred divinity, nor the dark energy of demons.

It was a ancient force long forgotten by the modern world—pure, primeval magic, an art whose noble lineage had been severed centuries ago.

The shimmering mana swept across her form once, washing away the filthy appearance of the slum child to reveal her true identity.

Though she maintained a humanoid shape, shimmering scales covered her skin, and her eyes transformed into sharp, reptilian slits. They were the undeniable traits of dragon blood—the legacy of an ancient race believed to be completely extinct.

“So,” the young man continued, unbothered by the mythical creature standing before him. “Now that you’ve interacted with him directly, what are your thoughts on this generation’s ‘Omnipotent One’? What kind of man is he?”

The dragonkin hesitated, looking down at her hands. In her true form, her frame was far larger than her small disguise, causing the paper bag to strain at the seams. Yet she held it with extraordinary care, exactly as Aiden had instructed.

Reflecting on his gentle warmth, she reached a single, firm conclusion.

“…I think he is a truly good person.”

“I tend to agree,” the young man replied, a faint smile gracing his lips as he tipped his silk hat lower over his eyes. “He genuinely seems worth approaching. The previous Omnipotent One was a bit of a disappointment… Let’s see if this one proves to be different.”

Ganesha Aldebaran, the legendary ‘Merchant of Death,’ stroked his chin with keen interest, his eyes gleaming with sharp calculation beneath his pleasant smile.

“Let’s see if he is a man worth staking our ultimate fate upon.”