[The Mysterious Merchant has been detained.] . . . [The Mysterious Merchant has been detained.] [The Mysterious Merchant has been detained.] [The Mysterious Merchant has been detained.] [The Mysterious Merchant has been detained.] [The Mysterious Merchant has been detained. Her secret letter will arrive in 10 days.]
Kim Hyunwoo was momentarily startled by the notification window that filled his view, and then he looked closely at it and thought.
‘…The Mysterious Merchant has been detained?’
By whom? The thought shed through his mind, and instinctively, he envisioned Loria’s face.
‘No way…?’
Doubt blossomed in his mind; although he had no way to confirm if Loria had actually done such a thing, he could think of no one else capable of such actions against merchants who had an air of transcendence.
The way she had revealed her true self to him had seemed sufficiently transcendent.
‘…A secret letter.’
After seeing the description in thest of dozens of notification windows delivering such an important message, Kim Hyunwoo made a vague expression.
He couldn’t decide if he should feel relieved that the secret letter would arrive in ten days or unhappy that he wouldn’t get to meet the Mysterious Merchant… It was hard to decide.
Thus,
“…My Lord?”
“Ah.”
Kim Hyunwoo, who had been pondering with a serious expression until he heard Elena’s voice, waved his hand as if to say it was fine and then spoke.
“Sorry, I just had something on my mind.”
“…You look more serious than usual for just thinking.”
“Did I look that bad?”
“Yes, it was brief, but still.”
At Elena’s affirmation, Kim Hyunwoo sighed and then seemed to ponder something.
“It’s gettingte today, so please call for Merilda, Rin, Aria, and Charyll tomorrow.”
After giving Elena that order, he continued to ponder for a while after she left.
An abyss where nothing could be seen.
“Wow—I tried really hard not to get caught, but here we are. What a shame.”
In the pitch-ck void, a woman spoke with afortable smile.
With her ck hair and dark eyes, she appeared quite ordinary no matter how you looked, aside from the fact that her beauty was somewhat different from that of the Blue or Red Merchants.
The only notable feature was that her pupils were star-shaped, emitting a brilliant light, unlike the round pupils of others.
And then.
“Surely, you didn’t think you could pass through my territory without being detected?”
In response to Loria blocking her path, the woman—no, the ‘Mysterious Merchant’—smiled and replied,
“Honestly, I expected to be caught, but I didn’t think it would happen so quickly. I thought I could evade for a while.”
“What does it feel like to have been caught so quickly without even attempting to evade?”
“Naturally, it doesn’t feel good. Of all times, I didn’t expect to be caught at thest moment when everything was going ording to n except for you.”
“Well, it’s only natural since you entered my territory.”
“However, if I hadn’t entered this area, you would have killed Kim Hyunwoo before I arrived. That’s not something I desire.”
Despite being wrapped in ck tendrils, the Mysterious Merchant expressed mild disappointment with a rxed demeanor, which made Loria smile.
“Too bad. The future where your ns will bepletely shattered is all that remains.”
Loria spoke with a clear sense of victory in her smile.
But.
“Hm, is that so?”
“Do you really think that won’t happen?”
“Well…honestly, I think there’s about a 20% chance of hope.”
“Why is that?”
In response to the Mysterious Merchant’s words, Loria asked in curiosity.
“Well, it’s because of you.”
She smirked.
“After all, no matter how hard you try, it’ll still be iplete.”
With those words from the Mysterious Merchant, Loria’s previously smiling lips straightened out into a t line.
“Surely you didn’t think that just putting on a fa?ade would make everything perfect? But then again, you are going to all this trouble just to create something you want.”
The Mysterious Merchant began to speak incessantly, as if that were a turning point.
However—
“The effort you’re putting in because of a mismatched fa?ade-”
Thud—!
The ck tendrils enveloping the Mysterious Merchant’s body quickly covered her entirely,pletely sealing her mouth.
As Loria watched the Mysterious Merchant disappear as if seeping into the dark abyss,
“…Ugh-!”
She frowned deeply, as if having received an unbearable insult.
Her expression was reminiscent of someone provoked to anger.
But after a while, as she regained herposure, Loria began to pace through the dark abyss once again.
However, the smile that had always graced her lips had long since vanished.
“…I can be perfect. I will.”
She muttered as if hypnotizing herself, walking down the dark path.
And because of those words that irritated her by the Mysterious Merchant, she did not notice.
That a letter imbued with a gentle light was disappearing into the darkness.
The next day.
Kim Hyunwoo spoke to the four heroes gathered in his office early in the morning.
“Thank you all for gathering. The reason I called you here today is…wait a minute. Why does everyone look so tense?”
He paused mid-sentence, showing a somewhat flustered expression.
This was because the heroes looking at him were wearing expressions that clearly said they were very tense.
Merilda, with her tail swaying gently, wrapped it around her waist as if her spirit was wavering, repeatedly tilting her ears forward and back.
Rin was putting her hand in and out of the darkness she usually carried around.
Moreover, Aria was staring at Kim Hyunwoo with wide eyes, while Charyll made a sound resembling “Gahhh”, one that, upon closer inspection, was quite audible.
“I’m not, I’m not tense, Master.”
Feeling flustered, Merilda was the first to speak.
“I’m not flustered at all, so feel free to speak!”
“I’m not flustered at all either.”
“Me too.”
He thought fleetingly that he had asked if they were tense, not if they were flustered…but given the situation, he felt it unlikely that they would answer even if he asked, so he simply posed another question.
“…The reason I gathered you here today is to ask about Loria.”
“Loria…?”
“Are you talking about someone named Loria?”
“…Who is that?”
“Whew, thank goodness—”
The four responded hurriedly, exhaling low sighs as if relieved by Kim Hyunwoo’s words.
In particr, Charyll looked genuinely relieved, cing a hand on her heart as he wondered what was so fortunate, but Kim Hyunwoo soon continued with his questioning.
“Does anyone remember or know anything about someone named Loria?”
“Master, is this someone we know?”
“…No, not really.”
After that response, Kim Hyunwoo briefly pondered and then exined about Loria.
He spoke about how she had been with him from the beginning, even revealing that she had shown unnecessary notification windows to deliberately dy the heroes’ joining.
Of course, he could not exin the notifications in detail, so he reced them with spoken descriptions.
And then.
“…That bastard?”
The first to react was Rin, muttering with a chilling expression.
“Is that why I couldn’t return to Master because of that bastard…?”
“…Well, there were reasons due to the restrictions, but that bastard’s influence yed a significant part.”
“Master.”
“Yeah?”
“Where is that bastard now?”
“I called you to ask because I have no idea where she is and wondered if any of you might remember.”
In response to Kim Hyunwoo’s words, the four heroes stood there for a while as if digging through their memories, but soon all of them shook their heads in negation.
“…Sorry, Master, but it seems I don’t have that name in my head.”
“Me neither, My Lord. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone like that.”
“I have no memory of her at all.”
“…I’m the same.”
“Really? Well…don’t feel too bad; I expected that. She’s quite a suspicious fellow.”
After answering like that, Kim Hyunwoo suddenly spoke.
“By the way, what’s with all the tension earlier?”
“Ah-”
“Well…um-”
“…Ahem…”
The heroes began to exchange nces and hesitate at Kim Hyunwoo’s words.
But—
“I came here thinking I was getting the Proposal Ring!”
“Ah.”
At Aria’s bold statement, the heroes let out a quiet gasp of surprise.
“…Oh, speaking of which, there was that Ring.”
Kim Hyunwoo also let out a quiet sigh.