Chapter 14
Arin closely followed Yellow, who was weaving quickly through the trees. Suddenly, a baby deer darted out from the side and collided with Arin with a thud. The little deer quickly got back up and dashed away on its thin legs.
[Clumsy fool!]
At Yellow’s shout, she glanced back. A massive number of animals and monsters were fleeing in terror.
[This way! I smell the Overlord over here.]
Quickly getting up, Arin sprinted in the direction Yellow pointed. Although he could have gone ahead at full speed, Yellow patiently waited for her and stayed by her side.
Boom! Bang!
Loud explosions, like bombs going off, echoed all around. Stones, large and small, rained down from the sky. The speed of their fall was so great that small craters formed where they hit.
[Clumsy fool!]
Time seemed to slow for Arin as she saw Yellow’s expression and the movement around her. As soon as she lowered her head, a massive rock crashed right in front of her. The impact cracked the ground like a spiderweb. A goblin that had been running ahead of her just moments ago was crushed by the falling stone. She had barely avoided disaster.
“Eeeeeek!”
The once green forest was now filled with screams and blood. It was utter chaos.
“Arin!”
Through the confusion, she spotted Deneb searching for her. Relieved, she called out to him desperately.
“Deneb!”
Upon seeing her, Deneb rushed toward her with Yellow tucked under one arm.
“Deneb! It’s a volcano!”
In this world, where science hadn’t advanced, a volcano was seen as a manifestation of divine wrath. There hadn’t been volcanic activity on the continent for centuries. Because of that, Deneb wasn’t well-versed in the phenomenon, having only read about it in old texts.
Seeing his confused expression, Arin explained as simply as she could.
“Very hot liquid is going to pour out soon. We need to get as far away from the rocky mountain as possible. No—this entire island is dangerous! We need to escape far away from this uninhabited island.”
Without hesitation, Deneb picked her up in a princess carry. As Arin reached out her hand, Yellow naturally climbed into her arms as well. It became a sight where Arin was being carried while holding Yellow.
Arin thought he would head toward the sea, away from the rocky mountain. But instead, he moved toward it. Shocked, Arin shouted,
“We need to get away from the rocky mountain!”
“You said we need to get far away from the island, didn’t you?”
“…”
“The fastest way to do that is teleportation.”
Arin bumped her forehead against his chest. He was right. Their only way out was long-distance teleportation magic.
“Alright, let’s go.”
As soon as she spoke, the three of them shot toward the rocky mountain.
‘I hope the magic circle is still intact.’
Arin couldn’t shake the anxiety growing in her as they neared the mountain, seeing the cracked and broken ground with her own eyes.
“Deneb, we haven’t even set the teleportation coordinates yet, have we?”
“Don’t worry.”
“…”
“Whether it’s a river or the sky, we’ll land somewhere on the continent… Ugh.”
Deneb abruptly stopped speaking because Arin had delivered a sharp wrestling-style chop to his chest. He stared at her, astonished at her audacity, while she looked even more flustered.
“If we land somewhere strange, you’re dead.”
“No matter where we land, I’ll protect you. Don’t worry.”
Arin tightly grabbed his cloak.
“I’ll trust you.”
With each step Deneb took, the ground behind them collapsed. Valleys formed, and bright red lava surged upward.
Arin finally spotted the outline of the magic circle. Deneb’s running speed increased, driven by urgency. The surroundings blurred due to the velocity.
At last, Deneb’s foot landed squarely on the magic circle. He gently put Arin down and bit his fingertip to draw blood. As he scribbled certain numbers, the disposable magic stone in the center began to glow faintly. Deneb infused his mana into the magic circle.
A brilliant blue light gradually enveloped their bodies. Yellow buried his face under Arin’s armpit at the vibrating sound that filled the air.
Arin felt both nervous and excited about the new world she was about to face. A little distance away, her eyes met Deneb’s. Embarrassed to be caught looking tense, Arin gave a weak, awkward smile.
Suddenly, Deneb’s eyes widened in horror.
“Arin!”
As though the universe itself was determined to separate them, a thick line split the space between Arin and Deneb. From the crack emerged intense heat, steam, and toxic gas.
At terrifying speed, the ground under Arin’s right foot collapsed. As her body tilted, fear surged through her, and she tightened her grip on Yellow.
Deneb desperately reached out for her. Steam burned his outstretched hand and shoulder, turning the skin an angry red. Even at a glance, the burns looked severe.
At that moment, like a flickering TV screen, Deneb’s image distorted. The interference grew stronger, and Arin’s entire field of vision turned a blinding white.
In a vast, untouched white snowfield called Lavian.
Arin and Yellow lay atop a fluffy pile of snow.
The words Deneb had shouted right before the teleportation kept echoing in her mind. Arin softly murmured his last words.
“I’ll come for you… just stay alive.”
Uncharacteristically, he had screamed it, veins bulging in his neck.
“Yan! It’s our squad’s turn to eat.”
Hearing her new nickname, Arin waved her hand in acknowledgment.
For the locals, pronouncing “Yang” or “Arin” was tricky. And so, she was simply called “Arin Yan.” People here avoided first names unless they were close, so she didn’t mind.
After landing in the Lavian snowfield, Arin had struggled to find a mercenary guild, register her identity, and join a small mercenary party as a temporary member.
When she once asked people to just call her by her name, they replied, “Wait… Yan, are you from some eastern minority group?”
The eastern part of the Cosmos Continent was full of islands where people with similar features to Arin lived. Curious, she researched and found that while they shared slightly tanned skin and dark hair, they were still a different race from her.
Though dried meat that altered skin and muscle texture, and permanent whitening cosmetics, made her look somewhat exotic for an East Asian, she still stood out awkwardly among Westerners.
In the end, Arin had no choice but to live as a mercenary under the guise of being from an eastern minority.
“Yan! Eating alone today? Hahaha.”
Jake, a temporary member like her, laughed heartily. With dark red hair and brown eyes, Jake stood nearly two meters tall. Arin had to crane her neck just to talk to him.
“Still haven’t eaten yet?”
“I was feeding Julie and Tenky. I’m going to eat now.”
Jake, also a beastmaster, had two familiars: Julie, a rare water-element slime, and Tenky, a 1.5-meter-long venomous snake. Beastmasters were ranked based on how many familiars they could control and how strong they were. Thanks to Julie, Jake held a silver rank.
Technically, Arin should also be silver rank for controlling a rare Giant Black Leopard like Yellow. But her lack of formal identification was the problem.
‘Becoming a mercenary wasn’t easy…’
Unlike those cliché web novels where protagonists easily got mercenary badges, Arin had faced harsh reality. Without Yellow, she wouldn’t have bypassed the background checks and identity verification.
Arin fiddled with the wooden tag in her pocket. This was her only proof of identity until she met Deneb again.
She sat with Jake, receiving their food rations. As they ate, Jake suddenly spoke.
“Three more days, and we’ll reach Luxen Territory.”
“Really? Just three days?”
“Yan… I showed you the map earlier. You seriously can’t read maps, can you?”
Arin swallowed her bland soup and refrained from saying how amazing it was that people here could navigate with just a small paper map. In this world, she was the weird one for being map-illiterate.
“You said you were going to the Procyon Empire to meet someone, right?”
Nodding, Arin gulped her soup. More precisely, she was heading to Altair Duchy, where she might find Deneb. But she hadn’t told the mercenaries the full story.
“So… how do you plan to get there without reading a map?”
With little enthusiasm, Arin replied to Jake’s nosy question.
“I’ll find some party members heading toward the Empire.”
“Hmm… good luck with that.”
Jake grinned broadly, flashing his white teeth, giving her a thumbs up. Feeling oddly teased, Arin playfully bent his thumb backward.
“Yan, that hurts!”
“That’s punishment for teasing me.”
“I wasn’t teasing. I was worried about you!”
“I’ll pretend to believe you since I’m nice.”
Holding his thumb, Jake gave her a betrayed look. As the two bantered, the surroundings became noisy.
“Yan! Your familiar brought back more prey!”
Barret, a freckled boy, pointed toward Yellow, who sat between the bushes.
Yellow had returned to his original size. Each time he wagged his tail, it cut the air with a whip-like sound.
Dropping the baby boar he had caught, Yellow purred proudly.
[Grrr! I’ve caught meat for you!]
After finishing his sentence, Yellow suddenly grew to the size of a large dog. He had mastered size control.
[It’s all yours. Got it?]
From Yellow’s proud expression, Arin could read his unspoken thoughts: “Our poor little clumsy master who always fails at hunting… lucky you have me.”
Arin scratched his chin with a complicated expression, feeling she was being treated more and more like a helpless pet owner.
“T-Thanks…”
People around stared in awe at the rare sight of a familiar hunting for its master.
“Are we sure Yan’s not the familiar, and Yellow’s the beastmaster?”
Covering her face with both hands, Arin rubbed her cheeks in embarrassment.
Meanwhile, oblivious to her feelings, Yellow was busy reaffirming to himself that until the Overlord returned, he would take good care of her.
[I’ll protect you.]
Yellow was fully enjoying playing the number one in Deneb’s absence.
