chapter 02
“……A person?”
It was a large man with hair as white as snow—whiter than even light itself.
“Wow.”
To be honest, I had never once seen a handsome man in my entire life.
Not idols or actors on TV, not SNS celebrities known for their looks, not even overseas stars hailed as once-in-a-century beauties—none of them had ever struck me as handsome.
At best, I would think, “Well, he looks a bit better than an average person on the street.”
My friends even said my standards were too high, and I agreed. I had half given up, thinking I would probably never experience the thrill of finding a real person attractive—only able to like 2D characters from games or webtoons.
But this man was genuinely handsome.
A real person—well, I wasn’t even sure this place was truly “real,” but this was the first time I had ever looked at a 3D human being and thought he was handsome.
Yes. A handsome man should look like that.
It wasn’t that my standards were too high. The world’s standard for beauty had simply been too low.
The silver-haired man wearing silver armor was very tall, yet his refined face and pale skin made him seem less intimidating. Rather, he looked like something that had stepped out of a cathedral mural. The barren mountain surroundings suddenly felt as if they had been blessed by divine grace, becoming grand and sacred.
I felt so awed I almost wanted to kneel in reverence.
“Why are you in a place like this?”
Oh my. Even his voice is good. A 3D handsome man breathing and speaking and moving. Hallelujah.
His beauty was so unreal that I had to take a deep breath just to steady myself.
If someone is talking to me, I should answer. Huff. It’s rude to ignore someone just because they’re too handsome. Huff. Okay, respond. Hup.
“I-I don’t know either.”
……That sounded extremely clueless. I quickly added,
“I fainted for a moment, and when I woke up, I was here.”
I left out what I was doing before I fainted.
I couldn’t very well say I died getting crushed by a subway train while saving someone, then a ridiculous system window appeared, resurrected me, and dumped me here.
Besides, there was a high chance he wouldn’t understand things like “subway” or “system window.”
Judging by his armor, cloak with fur trim, and sword at his waist, I could roughly guess the era.
Probably early modern… or maybe—
The fur on his cloak was so clean and fluffy despite being in these mountains that this might even be a fantasy world disguised as medieval times.
There’s no way monsters would appear right at the starting point, so this man is probably an ally.
Normally, it would be right to stay cautious when meeting a stranger in a suspicious place, but strangely, I didn’t feel any wariness.
It wasn’t just because of his unreal beauty. It was just a feeling.
“I don’t know where this is. I looked around, but it’s all mountains… Is there a village nearby?”
Probably not, but I asked anyway. Pretending to be a lost victim was better than acting like someone who fell from the sky into nowhere. Looking harmless and gaining sympathy was the safer choice.
“It’s not a place where people would normally come.”
That made me look even more suspicious, didn’t it? Should I have gone with the “I fell from the sky into another world” act instead?
“However you ended up here, it’s dangerous to wander alone.”
Good. So we travel together.
It felt like a party invitation window had popped up—like I was meant to team up with this handsome man.
But how do you form a party?
As if responding to my thought, a system window appeared again. Fortunately, it didn’t block his face and floated off to the side.
Current waiting: (1/2)
A party request has been received. Do you accept?
Of course I accept. If I refuse here, I’m guaranteed to starve within two days.
Even a person with a 30-day death timer would want to use up every last second of life.
Accept! Absolutely accept!
As I sent the signal mentally, the (1/2) changed to (0/1), and a new window appeared.
[Party Formed!]
Party successfully created!
All mission difficulty increased by 2x.
……What nonsense is this.
I followed instructions and formed the party, so why is the difficulty increasing? Are you kidding me?
I glared at the system window, and with a little “pop” sound, it disappeared. It felt like it was mocking me.
But there was no time to be angry at the vanished window. Even if the system considered us a party, I still hadn’t properly responded to the man in front of me.
“Then… would it be okay if I travel with you?”
I asked politely, even though the system had already grouped us.
“Yes. That would be best. We should travel together until we reach a village.”
“Is there a village nearby?”
“The nearest one is beyond two mountain ranges.”
Two mountains? I had just seen how enormous these mountains were.
“Without encountering monsters, it would take about five days.”
Even crossing normally would take five days, and there were monsters on top of that.
But I wasn’t particularly surprised. This world already seemed far from peaceful. I had prepared myself after seeing the party window.
“Um, then…”
“My name is Calion.”
Ah. So it’s introduction time.
It was a fitting name. Not like a real-world person, but more like someone from a game.
“My name is Joo-in.”
I left out my surname. Judging by genre logic, foreigners here would mispronounce it anyway, and wouldn’t understand why surnames come first.
But unexpectedly, he pronounced my name correctly.
“Joo-in… a beautiful name.”
That was unexpected.
“Joo-in.”
“Ah! Please don’t add honorifics!”
He probably meant it respectfully, but with my name, adding honorifics made it sound like “master.”
I had no hobby for being called “master” by a stranger.
“Understood, Joo-in.”
Now it sounded a bit awkward again, but at least better.
“Please take care of me, Calion.”
Calion lowered his gaze quietly.
His softened expression almost looked like a smile.
He was as still as a winter mountain.
His snow-white hair flowed without a single tangle, and his pale skin looked like it had been sculpted. His eyes—like a winter sky—shone vividly as if life itself had been carved into a statue.
“Its beyond that ridge is the habitat of monsters. This side is not their main territory, but stray ones sometimes wander here.”
Calion said he was a monster hunter.
Given his divine appearance, I had assumed he might be a holy knight fighting monsters in the name of God, but he was actually a wanderer with no fixed affiliation.
“What kind of creatures are monsters? Are they different from beasts?”
Since I had set up the excuse of lost memory from fainting, Calion didn’t find it strange that I knew nothing.
“They are immortal beings powered by core stones. They neither eat nor sleep, but wander the mountains. However, if they see a human, they attack and try to devour them.”
“…Only humans? Do they not eat other animals?”
“They do not reproduce, so they do not need sustenance.”
“Then why do they eat humans if they don’t need to eat to survive?”
Calion seemed to think for a moment, as if even he found it difficult to explain.
“Because… they like humans, so they say.”
“….”
What do you mean “like”? They like humans so they eat them? What is that, like loving fried chicken so much you devour it whole?
I was speechless, but there was no point arguing with Calion. I changed the subject.
“Have you been living in the mountains all this time?”
“No. After monster hunts, I resupply at nearby villages and move elsewhere.”
So it was “hunting,” not extermination. They couldn’t wipe out monsters completely.
Considering how many there seemed to be, even someone who looked like a saint favored by God probably couldn’t defeat an infinite number of them.
“Don’t the monsters ever attack human villages?”
“Occasionally, but if they don’t come in large numbers, they can be repelled.”
So they were just normal mobs, then. If villagers could handle them together, they weren’t boss-level monsters.
“If possible, I would like to escort you safely to the nearest ‘castle’…”
Castle?
