Becoming an Extra in a Trash Game

Chapter 24

Our thoughts aligned.

I gestured to the waiter to order more wine, then looked at Kane as if to tell him to speak more properly.

“You have a lot of money and items.”

Kane also refilled his wine, swirled the glass, and spoke in a monotone voice before taking a sip.

“But if you use them freely to move around and solve problems, it’s no different from being domesticated. That’s not the true strength you want, is it?”

“So?”

I listened with interest, tasting the sweet dessert wine this time and stealing another piece of Luna’s bread.

“So it would be good to put some restrictions on yourself normally.”

“Okay, I like it. Give me an example, Kane.”

“Until I ask for help. Don’t step in.”

I was coldly taken aback by Kane’s words.

Is he joking?

Will those words ‘help me’ ever come out of his mouth?

Even if the situation is already a mess and flying spaghetti is descending from the sky, would he ask me for help?

“I don’t think that’s a good standard.”

“Why not?”

“First, put one hand over your heart.”

In my words, Kane, still young and innocent despite his cold face, obediently puts his hand on his chest.

“And ask yourself if you have a conscience, you bad guy. Do you really think there will come a moment when you say those words to me?”

Kane’s hand slowly comes down from his chest.

“…Why wouldn’t there be?”

This… This shameless…

I looked at Kane, who was rather asking me back, and then threw a question at Luna.

“Luna, do you think he would ever ask me for help?”

“Uh… No.”

There’s no way to say it more firmly, really.

Luna, who was about to order a mini apple pie, was startled and looked at me cautiously before adding two more.

Yeah, might as well eat all three if you’re going to eat.

“Anyway, waiting until it comes out of your mouth is rejected.”

I set my fork upright, cut the crispy pie crust like a knife, dropped a piece, stabbed it, put it in my mouth, and waved the fork side to side.

“Okay. Let’s remove the condition of waiting until the words come out of my mouth. However.”

Kane quietly looked at the apple pie, then cut it into bite-sized pieces, put it in his mouth, and lowered his gaze.

“I’d like to receive only a moderate level of support.”

If Kane took a step back, I should do the same.

After all, his autonomy is important.

I nodded while chewing.

“Okay. But if I think you’re being too stubborn, I’ll do as I please.”

As I made my threat, Kane agreed, and Luna, who had already finished her apple pie, glanced at me.

“Luna, if you want something too, tell me.”

“I… Want… Lots of support…”

That sounds good.

“Okay, tell me anything.”

At my words, Luna’s face brightened, and she brought the menu, flipped through it, and pointed at something with her finger.

“This… Anchovy pudding… I want to try it.”

“No.”

Why does that come up here?

I immediately frowned and flatly refused, and Luna’s ears drooped slightly.

But what’s not allowed is not allowed.

Of course, the anchovy pudding here might be delicious, but I didn’t want to take that kind of adventure.

“Drink!”

“If you’ve made a big score, you should write it, right?”

After eating, drinking, and talking moderately, the night had deepened considerably.

The surroundings had changed to resemble more of a pub than a restaurant, and I was considering going up to our rooms upstairs when.

“Who do you think you are!”

Crash!

Suddenly, a wine glass flew towards me and Luna.

‘Shield!’

I reflexively activated my shield and pulled Luna towards me. Then, right in front of my nose, the glass bounced up into the air, and Kane caught it with his scabbard as it fell.

“We should probably go up to our rooms now.”

“Ugh… Yeah…”

Kane must have used his sword in its scabbard to hit the flying glass upwards and then catch it again.

As he slowly moved just his wrist to place the glass on the table, someone staggered over, heavily drunk.

“Oh my, I’m so sorry. Our companion is too drunk!”

The person speaking was also quite drunk, with one eye half-closed and drooping, and a mug full of beer swaying precariously in the other hand.

With each staggering step, beer splashed onto the floor, soaking it.

“Humans…”

“Hey, that’s racial discrimination.”

As the person came closer, repeatedly bowing and apologizing, Luna and I waved our hands saying it was okay, but Kane’s sharp eyes didn’t soften.

“Stop glaring and let’s go up.”

Feeling suddenly tired, perhaps from eating and drinking so much, I rubbed my neck as I started to go up to the second floor, but Kane glanced back.

“What now?”

“It’s nothing.”

Suspicious, this protagonist…

I looked at Kane, shook my head once, and moved on.

* * *

‘One…’

‘In the middle of sleeping well…’

Kane accurately picked out that voice even amidst the noisy commotion.

‘Surely, it’s that person from earlier.’

The sense of unease he felt since the cup flew.

Kane yawned and grabbed Adelian, who was trying to enter the far end of the three rooms lined up next to each other, and pushed him into the middle room he was planning to use.

“Huh? Why all of a sudden.”

“Well.”

Adelian, who had a slightly puzzled look on his face but didn’t think much of it, or maybe because he was tired, went into the middle room without saying anything. Kane glanced at Luna.

“Young Master… My Lord… Sleep well… … .”

“Good night, Luna, you too.”

After letting Adelian in, Kane turned his head and whispered softly into Luna’s large ear with his lips.

“I guess I won’t have to sleep well today.”

“Uh… Why?”

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

If nothing happens, that’s it.

Luna, who is a little sleep-deprived, will be able to get some sleep along the way if Kane himself guides her on horseback.

If anything happens, at least there is a shield to protect Adelian while you move.

‘That head, well. Even if you put it back, that body is unbelievable.’

Adelian’s reflexes aren’t that bad, but they’re not that good either, so I don’t think he’ll be able to wake up and respond right away.

So he deliberately placed Adelian’s quarters between himself and Luna.

Kane entered the room attached to the outer wall at the far end and looked around.

“There is one window.”

I lightly knock on the wall on the side of the room where Adelian is.

At this level, it should be sufficient to destroy it in an emergency.

Kane opened a book he had taken out of his luggage, using the moonlight shining faintly through the slightly open gap in the window curtains.

‘I don’t know why you gave this to me so readily.’

A thin, untitled book.

The book that Adelian had previously told him he could take out of his bookshelf was Adelian’s diary.

Phalang.

The white sheets of paper, bathed in moonlight, slowly turn over one by one.

The tavern on the first floor must have been closed down, so now it was quiet all around, and the sound of birds crying could be heard from afar.

If nothing else came up, Kane would have spent the early morning like this, but as he was scanning his diary, his eyes slowly moved upward.

Widely!

The sound of a book closing cuts through the silence.

Kane walked silently, still holding the sword he had received from Adelian, and leaned his back against the wall next to the window.

“Don’t even breathe deeply.”

“Anyway, only one of those guys will get to eat with a knife. And they’re kids, so they must be dreaming about drinking from a bottle right now. Right?”

“That bastard with the golden hair and the slightly sleazy-looking parasite brother must be killed, because he handed over our child.”

“You said you spent some money to get it from the guards?”

A giggling sound.

It was a sound so small that ordinary people wouldn’t be able to hear it even if they put their ear against a wall, but it was clearly audible to Kane’s ears when he reached the magic user.

‘Also.’

A glass of wine flew in as if it was aimed at me.

He clearly looked drunk, but his steps were to avoid a piece of food that had fallen on the floor.

Kane noticed the discomfort in the steps that avoided the food dropped on the floor despite appearing drunk.

‘Moreover, the smell of blood.’

You can’t completely erase the smell of blood just by washing once or twice and pretending to be drunk.

“I heard they said they’d use the room at the very end when they booked.”

“If not, we can just beat them all up and cripple them.”

A clanking sound was heard from the window direction.

It was a dull sound, probably because they had wrapped something like bandages around it to reduce the metal noise, but this was likely…

‘A hook?’

Kane carefully peeked outside through the small gap he had left in the curtains he had drawn earlier.

He could clearly see two hooks painted black so as not to shine even in the moonlight, hooked onto the window frame.

“Really… An attack…”

Luna, whose hearing was sensitive, had also not fallen asleep thanks to Kane’s earlier warning, and she slipped into the room, hiding her body opposite Kane.

“In one go.”

Low and short, without adding more words.

Luna nodded at Kane’s words as if she understood. And then.

Creek―

As the window slowly opened and someone stuck their head in first, gripping the windowsill, Kane grabbed their collar tightly and pulled them inside.

“Gak!”

A single cry.

Before it could continue, he pinned them to the floor, straddled them, and used his knee to press down on their throat to immobilize them while covering their mouth with one hand.

Thwack!

And as the person behind, not realizing the first person had been dragged in, tried to climb into the room, Luna moved her body and kicked their head before they could react, causing their neck to snap as they slowly fell backward.

“Ah… If they die…!”

“Isn’t it already hopeless?”

“No…!”

As Luna caught the falling body and dragged it inside, Kane made a comment seeing the head dangling limply, to which Luna grumbled.

“Ku…Ugh… Kuk!”

Wouldn’t pressing down on their windpipe with his knee be more likely to kill them?

At Luna’s look, Kane looked down at the man pinned beneath him, still covering his mouth to prevent him from shouting.

“What should we do?”

“I think… We shouldn’t kill them…”

It was a common occurrence in the plains. Catching criminals and then just killing them and burying them in the ground.

But this place is different.

“The Young Master… Will find it troublesome…”

In the dark mage’s secret dungeon, dozens died every day.

There were many times when Kane had to give peace with his small hands to those who were sacrificed in experiments, neither alive nor dead, begging him to end it.

‘But there’s no sulfur pit here.’

Kane and Luna’s understanding aligned.

They would knock them unconscious without killing them.

Kane, though doing it for the first time, twisted the neck of the man pinned beneath him with seemingly skillful hand movements to knock him out, then stood up carrying him over his shoulder.

“Let’s leave them with the guard.”

“I… Want to sleep now…”

After Kane slung the other man with his neck dangling over Kane’s shoulder, she rubbed her eyes and yawned while patting her mouth.

* * *

The bed felt somewhat uncomfortable, so I took out a blanket from my subspace and covered myself, which made it easier to sleep.

Sleeping curled up like a cloak made it quieter too.

“Still, I slept pretty well.”

Before Luna woke me up, I got up first and looked out the window, seeing a different scenery instead of the usual training ground made it feel even more real that we were finally out.

Knock knock―

“Oh, you’re up. I’ll come out.”

This timid and cautious knock is 100% Luna.

I spoke leisurely before putting the used bedding back into my subspace and got up.

“Young Master… Did you sleep well… Last night?”

As I came out stretching, everyone seemed to be up already and greeted me in front of the door.

I nodded at the question asking if I slept well since it wasn’t particularly noisy last night, but then met Kane’s strange gaze.

Luna once.

Kane once.

“What did you two do last night?”

The atmosphere is strange.

At my question, Kane slightly furrowed his brow, while Luna’s body jumped a little.

“Nothing… Nothing happened… Slept… Well…”

“Nothing at all.”

No, the atmosphere right now is exactly like something happened.

What? Did you two do something while I was asleep last night?

As I cast suspicious glances while going down to the first floor, Kane snorted and turned his gaze away arrogantly, while Luna fidgeted nervously before opening her mouth.

“What… Would you like… For breakfast…?”

Surely they didn’t meet last night and gossip about me all night…

I’ll let it slide for now. But I’ll be watching. With that meaning, I pointed at my eyes once, then at Luna and Kane each once, before saying:

“What’s in the breakfast set?”

“I saw… Sandwiches and… Beef stew?”

“Sounds delicious.”

I smiled while licking my lips, and thanks to that, the atmosphere became one of smoothly moving on, and Luna also smiled brightly.

“I’ll have both.”