Chapter 37: Elissa (3)

“Elissa, what do you want to eat?”

“Um… I’m fine with anything, really. Having lived as a commoner, there aren’t really any foods I dislike.”

“Hmm, I see.”

At Elissa’s words that anything was fine, I fell into thought for a moment.

Unlike me, who had traveled all over the world as an adventurer, even though I was a commoner, Elissa was a girl who grew up in an ordinary orphanage.

So that statement that she didn’t dislike anything was probably true. Compared to the basic meals provided at the orphanage, the restaurants in the autonomous district would be a completely different new world.

Then wouldn’t it be best to eat at the most unproblematic place?

I’m actually coming to the autonomous district for the second time, but I’m a veteran player with 1,000 playthroughs. I know the list of good restaurants in the autonomous district.

“Then let’s go to a place I usually go to. I know a delicious place.”

“Hehe, okay.”

The types of restaurants in the autonomous district are truly diverse. From steak and pasta, which are commonly associated with Western food, to even foods like pho and gukbap (Korean rice soup).

According to the setting, there is also an Oriental Empire with a medieval East Asian concept to the east of this world.

Of course, I don’t know what kind of place it is, because it was a map that hadn’t been released yet when I was playing the game.

There were only speculations among users that it might be an oriental fantasy-style map.

“Is there any food you can’t eat?”

“Um…Not particularly. As long as it’s not something bizarre like mixing mint with chocolate or putting tropical fruits on pizza, I can eat anything.”

“Good, follow me.”

Medieval European food culture was at a desperate level. Forks and knives appeared as late as the 16th century. Surprisingly, before that, people ate with their bare hands.

Moreover, until the 15th century in medieval Europe, the amount of spices was more important than the taste.

In the Middle Ages, when it was thought that covering the taste of ingredients with an enormous amount of spices was good cooking, all kinds of coloring agents and spices were used to cover food.

In addition, ingredients that can be said to be the basic ingredients of Western food,

such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, corn, tomatoes, and paprika, were all foods brought from other continents during the Age of Exploration after the 15th century.

A time when foods that would seem strange in both appearance and taste to modern people were popular among the nobility. That was the Middle Ages before the 15th century. It’s no wonder the Middle Ages are called the Dark Ages.

However, the heroines of a dating sim game can’t eat food with strange visuals with their bare hands. So this game features quite a lot of modern cuisine.

The food I liked the most among them was one of the soul foods of Koreans, chicken. Its official name here was sweet fried chicken.

Unless someone dislikes greasy or fried foods, there’s no one who dislikes chicken. Wouldn’t that be the same for Elissa?

So, I ordered two sweet fried chickens and sat down in a corner of the restaurant. Elissa and I chatted about this and that while waiting for the fried chicken to come out.

Until the instincts honed from living as an adventurer for five years sounded the alarm.

“…?!”

As Elissa and I were chatting, I felt something ominous. The instincts I had honed during my five years of living as an adventurer were sending chills down my spine.

“Sian?”

“Wait a minute. Elissa, just a moment.”

“Ugh?!”

I gently placed my index finger on Elissa’s lips and looked around the restaurant. Sharp, grape-colored eyes scanned the interior of the restaurant.

A sticky, unpleasant trace of mana was felt inside the restaurant. I could instinctively tell. This was the mana exuded by a fake Stigmata.

“Where is it coming from…ah.”

As I looked around, a familiar figure was reflected in my gaze.

The arrogant noble guy I met on the first day of the academy entrance exam, the first test in the battle royale format. His name was Marcus…was it?

I heard that he was treated as a half-absent person in his family and at the academy.

Perhaps that was why. Unlike the oily appearance at that time, he was somewhat emaciated. So much so that I wondered if he was really a different person.

A sharp adventurer’s gaze never forgets a person once seen, though.

“…“

I carefully got up and fixed my gaze on him.

The gait of the drunkard was definitely not normal. Deep mana, like an abyss, wriggled in his unfocused eyes.

That was definitely not a normal situation. A state where the mind was half-gone, consumed by the fake Stigmata. Instinct sounded the alarm.

Damn it, I came out to have a light meal with Elissa today, so I didn’t even bring a sword. It’s a bit of a hassle to deal with a fake Stigmata user in this state.

“What’s wrong…”

“Elissa. Evacuate the people.”

Elissa, who asked carefully, immediately erased the smile from her face as soon as she saw my expression, which had become cold.

I only make this expression in dangerous situations. Noticing that, Elissa slowly pulled up her mana without speaking.

When Elissa, who had mana excess, pulled up her mana, the surrounding water glasses began to shake. Water-attribute mana lightly suppressed the space.

Perhaps because of the changed atmosphere of the space, his gaze turned towards us. The drunkard drew his sword and staggered towards us.

“Ugh, you were here…damn, hic. Wench.”

“It’s really the worst. To even touch such a thing.”

I blocked Elissa’s front and clenched my left hand, where the Stigmata was. Preparing to activate the Stigmata at any time, while glaring at him.

It’s not time yet. I need to buy time until Elissa evacuates the people.

“Hehe, without a Stigmata, you’re nothing, b*tch. How daaaare you defy me, with your hic. status. What’s so great about that damn Stigmata, that damn tattoo…”

“Sigh…You still haven’t gotten over that thought. I wonder if you don’t receive a Stigmata because you think like that.”

Unless you belong to a family that inherits Stigmata like Yelena, Stigmata only appear to people who have a truly earnest desire.

But there was no way that the guy who harassed me and was defeated 8 to 1 had such an earnest desire for anything. In the first place, if he had that kind of will, he wouldn’t have been going around in a group and acting like a thug.

He would just blame everything on the Stigmata and rationalize that he would have won if he had a Stigmata.

And then he finally got his hands on a fake Stigmata.

There would have been no more attractive offer to a guy who had no will to work hard for something, but who wanted to get strong power easily.

“You too, you’re saying the same thing as those fogeys in the family, hic. Hehe, funny. What’s so great about a Stigmata obtained by sucking up to the stars…”

“…It seems meaningless to talk any further.”

My amethyst-like eyes scanned the surroundings.

The only things that could be used as weapons were two longswords hung on the wall as decorations.

It’s inferior in many ways to the 5-star sword I normally used, but if I imbue it with mana, it won’t be a bad sword.

“Because of you, because of you, everything went wrong! My family abandoned me, hic. My henchmen too…grrrr…”

“Elissa, have you evacuated everyone?”

“Yes. Now Sian…!”

“Then get out of here. It’s better to be here than to rampage in the middle of the city.”

“But…”

“Call Elin-sensei. This is not a matter I can handle alone.”

The focus disappeared from his eyes. The guy lost his reason and wildly swung his greatsword in all directions as he approached me.

The density of the turbid mana emitted by the fake Stigmata decreased momentarily. The mana in the air is sucked into the fake Stigmata engraved like a brand on his neck. Like a tide pulling back before a tsunami.

“So, hngh…I’ll prove it. I’ll break you, b*tch, right here, and I’ll ravish you until you beg for death!!!”

“…Sigh, I guess I won’t hear what you say now?”

The guy’s appearance, half-losing his reason, his voice becoming bizarre like a demon, and absorbing all the surrounding mana, was quite familiar to me.

It was a sign of a fake Stigmata going berserk, which I had seen countless times in the game.

[Marcus (Lv.20) activates the fake Stigmata ‘Flames of Frenzy’]

[‘Flames of Frenzy’ inflicts Status Effect: Burn on the player. As the battle continues, the fire attribute damage the player receives increases]

I clenched my left hand without hesitation.

Looking at the guy who believed in a fake Stigmata, I sneered faintly.

[Activate Stigmata ‘Blink’]

[Marcus (Lv.20)’s fake Stigmata goes berserk!]

The crimson engraving embedded in his neck emitted flames as if it were exploding. The guy, whose eyes were turned upside down in the pain of his flesh being cooked, took his greatsword and rushed in, and at the same time, my body turned into dark particles.

Whoosh-

With an eerie sound of breaking wind, a crimson slash cut through the place where I had been a moment ago. Along with that, the fake Stigmata engraved like a brand on his neck burned even hotter.

A painful groan echoed in my ears.

“Keoheok, knghhhh…!”

“…I’ll end it as quickly as possible.”

I muttered that and drew the longsword hanging on the restaurant wall.