24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 43

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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24-Hour Friendly Market Specializing in Dimensional Items Episode 43

Episode 43. The Arrow That Left the Bowstring (2)

I looked at the moss-covered stone wall and let out a hollow laugh.

“Ha, seriously.”

This is ridiculous, really.

Lee Hae-won, 28 years old.

Imprisoned in a stone jail in the 21st century…

“This isn’t a dream, is it?”

I pinched my innocent cheek, but it only hurt.

In front of me were iron bars as thick as my wrist. Behind me, a bed and toilet placed in the corner.

No, that’s not a toilet—it’s closer to a hole.

It’s very cruel interior design that doesn’t guarantee human dignity in the slightest.

“Ah, cold.”

I was startled by a water drop that fell right on my head and looked up.

So the iron bars blocking my view right now are reality, right?

‘Why is my life never easy?’

Isn’t it a fantasy world rule to overlook things if you tell a few lies?

Even if there was a war near the Tower that left it in ruins.

People can still live in places like that, right?

The knight who put me in this harsh environment left with a face full of mockery and added one last comment.

‘You underestimated us too much, spy. If you don’t confess the truth, you won’t be able to take a single step out of there.’

I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t even respond.

‘Whose spy am I supposed to be anyway?’

If I were a real spy, at least I wouldn’t feel wronged, but this was suspicion not even worth refuting.

“Ah, does this even make sense?”

Since I have no truth to confess, I’ll be trapped here forever unless I break out of this place.

At least it was fortunate that I’m an Open Market Manager.

If I activate the Merchant’s Mark here, I can freely go outside.

My cozy and comfortable three-room apartment prepared on the 50th Floor.

It’s been about 35 years since I’ve been there, having moved around from the studio in front of the Tower of Babel to Kona and the information center.

Just thinking about diving into the fluffy king-size bed I splurged on made me smile naturally.

Well then, shall I go back now?

It was the moment I was about to call Sam-i with a satisfied smile.

“Excuse me…”

“Ugh, damn it!”

I was startled by the eerie voice coming from the darkness outside the bars and shouted.

“Oh, I must have startled you. I’m sorry…!”

A frail woman’s voice came from across the way.

It seemed this gloomy prison wasn’t my private stage.

“Who are you…?”

I quietly asked toward the other side.

“I was captured too. From what I heard, it sounds like you were also captured for no reason, and so was I.”

From the hoarse voice that contrasted with the gentle, soft-spoken tone, I could tell how exhausted the other person was.

The other person offered clumsy sympathy while walking forward step by step.

From the sound of footsteps sticking and peeling off the floor, I could guess why such sounds were being made, and my face naturally scrunched up.

And the moment that person stuck their face between the bars.

“…Are you a beastkin?”

I asked with a dumbfounded expression.

Actually, it was a question not worth asking.

Someone with the elegant face of a swan was looking at me apologetically.

“You look like… a swan.”

“Oh, yes. I’m a swan beastkin. You recognized me right away.”

The swan beastkin muttered while shyly averting their gaze slightly.

Wouldn’t someone have vision problems if they couldn’t recognize that, miss?

It wasn’t just that she resembled a swan—her entire upper body was a swan itself.

The face looking at me with a shy smile was literally a swan’s head, while the legs extending below her worn clothes were human.

Even the arms gripping the bars… were wings covered in fluffy-looking feathers.

‘Wait, are the wings the arms?’

I was speechless at the appearance that looked like a human and swan had been cut right down the middle and stuck together half and half.

Usually, beastkin have human faces with added ears, wings, tails, or claws, don’t they?

My narrow-minded thinking was shining brightly once again today.

“I’m Clara. You’re the first person to be kind even after knowing I’m a beastkin.”

Clara added shyly.

I answered awkwardly, flustered by her sparkling beak.

“Ah, yes, well…”

Anyway, setting aside Clara’s appearance with blurred vision, what really concerned me was something else.

‘A beastkin is imprisoned in human territory?’

Like Kona Village, which was beastkin territory, this place called Casablo, human territory, was also burning with the desire to win the war.

The bad relationship between the two races had probably spread rumors all the way to the distant dimension called Earth by now.

But a beastkin imprisoned in human territory.

Suspecting there must be some very suspicious secret hidden, I couldn’t hold back and opened my mouth.

“Clara, why were you imprisoned here?”

“We… haven’t even introduced ourselves properly yet…”

‘Oops.’

The sensible beastkin’s gentle words hit me hard.

“Please call me Lee Hae.”

Even at my hurried self-introduction, Clara smiled kindly and nodded.

“Mm, Lee Hae. Nice to meet you. Though the location is a bit unfortunate.”

“Nice to meet you too. So, how did you end up imprisoned here?”

“You really… focus on getting to the point, don’t you?”

“Sorry. I was just so amazed to meet a beastkin in human territory.”

Clara, who had been hesitating while moving her beak, lowered her eyes gently and muttered.

“Because I’m having a child.”

They say children are born even during wartime.

…No wait, what blessing of life in the middle of this war?!

I couldn’t even respond to such an unexpected topic and looked up.

‘What, why is she so shy?’

A blush had risen on Clara’s face.

If the blush was visible even in this dark prison, how red must her face have become?

‘No, is it even right to call that a blush?’

How do feathers turn red?

Whether I was getting serious about a question I’d probably never find an answer to or not, Clara covered her cheeks with both wings and spoke.

“It was a fateful encounter… A few years ago, when I was drinking water at a spring in the forest.”

I just blinked and stared at Clara.

‘Huh, am I the only one who can’t follow this flow?’

In this prison where sticky strange liquid drips from the ceiling and just touching it would probably cause skin disease.

“I was suddenly hit by an arrow that came flying out of nowhere. The one who shot that arrow was Anton, oh, my love.”

Is it really happening that I’m suddenly hearing ‘the story of our first meeting’?

Perhaps because she didn’t notice my confused inner state, Clara flapped her wings and fanned her face.

It seemed that just recalling the memory was making her face heat up.

“He saw my upper body and thought I was a swan, so he tried to hunt me. But when he realized I was a beastkin, he was shocked and came to help me.”

“Ah…”

“At first, I was really angry. But Anton felt so sorry and took care of my wound every day until I was completely healed. He was such a gentle human. And then… you know?”

“…Know what?”

“That kind of story. Oh my, how embarrassing. I’ve never told anyone our story before.”

“What kind of story are you talking about?”

Instead of answering my question, Clara covered her face, embarrassed all by herself.

“I fell in love. Those were truly happy days.”

Her rough feathers rustled.

‘Isn’t that Stockholm syndrome?’

He must have shot the arrow intending to eat swan meat, but then found out she was a beastkin and fell in love while treating her.

As an ordinary South Korean, this was a shocking narrative I couldn’t relate to even a fingernail’s worth.

Is that normal in this dimension?

Does it make sense for a human to fall for a beastkin’s face in the first place?

‘More importantly, am I using too many question marks today, or is that just my imagination?’

Then, Clara’s wing that had been covering her face slowly lowered to grasp the bars.

Clara’s face, which had clearly been embarrassed, now showed painful resignation.

As I could only blink, unable to follow the rapidly changing emotions, Clara muttered in a gloomy tone.

“Until we were caught loving each other.”

My curiosity instantly vanished.

Though she had just recited it sadly, I could clearly tell that Clara was grieving.

Right, was there any need to apply the standards of reason to a beastkin who was trying so hard to suppress her emotions?

Clara stroked her still flat-looking belly with her wing and spoke with a strange mixture of joy and sadness.

“I’m having a child, a lovely child.”

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you. Lee Hae, you really are a kind person.”

“So that’s why you’re imprisoned here?”

“You really can’t resist curiosity, can you?”

Clara let out a small laugh.

However, that laughter quickly faded.

“My body suddenly started feeling strange, so I secretly went to the village doctor for treatment, but that doctor reported me.”

“Were you living in a human village?”

“Yes, the place where I met Anton was in the very deep forest on the outskirts of Casabl. We were living in a cabin near there.”

“Then that village doctor was also…”

“A human from Casabl. He smiled and said the baby was growing healthily, but it was all an act. While I was alone at home, knights came bursting in.”

As expected, humans were creatures stained with lies and betrayal.

When I looked at her feeling unnecessarily sorry, Clara added weakly.

“Anton must be looking for me…”

“Anton doesn’t know that you’re here right now?”

“Anton will think I disappeared. Maybe Anton was captured too. If that happened, then Anton is…”

Clara couldn’t continue speaking and lowered her head.

Though there were parts I couldn’t understand with my common sense.

‘What a true love story.’

It truly was a fateful love story.

A love that bloomed amid beastkin and humans blindly raising blades against each other.

It was a moment that made my resolution not to empathize with the scenario’s ‘performers’ anymore seem meaningless.

This was a tragedy no less than, no, greater than Romeo and Juliet.

Because it was a story that could never reach a happy ending unless the scenario was resolved.

This wouldn’t just apply to Clara’s case.

It was a fact that also applied to Echo and Onak who would be in Kona, and the 7 Great Guild Alliance who would enter Floor 51 with determined faces.

‘That said, I have no intention of intervening in the scenario.’

The main quest had explicitly demanded ‘do not interfere with the scenario.’

And after helping Chae Geun-dam once and being troubled by Lee Hwa-yeon and Park Ji-woon consecutively, I was done with risk-taking.

Listening to the story of the grieving swan beastkin beyond the bars was the best I could do.

Clara, who had been composing her emotions for a while, slowly crouched down on the floor.

“A few years ago, I heard rumors that a human who had maintained friendship with a squirrel beastkin was dragged to the front lines. I know that interacting with beastkin is a serious crime, but… what if Anton is in that situation too?”

At her mumbling voice, I bit my lips.

Whatever I said here wouldn’t comfort Clara.

But as someone who could read the atmosphere, I felt like I had to say something.

I leaned my forehead against the bars and carefully offered comfort.

“You said he handles a bow, right? Then he wouldn’t be on the front lines. Archers are usually positioned in the rear.”

“Haha. Lee Hae, you’re terrible at comforting people.”

…That was my best effort at consolation though.

I was about to feel sorry seeing Clara’s weak smile.

That’s when it happened.

Ding-

I doubted my eyes at the notification that appeared brightly, cutting through the darkness.

[■ Babel System > Floor 51 Notification

– Scenario participant quota has been met. (10/10)]

The Merchant’s Mark that I had forgotten while listening to Clara’s heartbreaking love story.

The 30 minutes I couldn’t activate it.

In just those 30 minutes, the raid team had entered.

Which meant.

[■ Babel System > Scenario Notification

– Main scenario ‘Such Desperate Peace’ begins.]

It meant that this underground prison where I was had become a hellish inferno.

“Ah, damn-“

With an E-rank body, I had become a participant in Floor 51’s scenario.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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