Becoming an Extra in a Trash Game

Chapter 25

The vegetables in the sandwich were crisp, and the meat in the stew was tender, making for a satisfying meal.

The horses, having eaten boiled beans and young grass, were more lively compared to yesterday.

“Let’s charge up before we leave.”

I said casually, as if stopping by a convenience store before catching a bus, and headed towards the magic tower.

We’ve come to a city-level place, so I’d feel more at ease if I charged up with magic.

Since it was a mining city, the level of the magic tower wasn’t great, and I had no reputation or recognition yet, so it was difficult to receive anything other than simple magic. But that’s better than nothing.

“Hello. What are you looking for?”

‘Oh my!’

I knew that even among siblings from the same womb, trait inheritance was hit or miss, and (Suin) beastkin could have appearances ranging from very close to human to very close to animal.

But I didn’t know there would be one that looked like a cat grown to human size.

I could feel both cuteness and fear at once as I looked at the giant cat employee with grayish fur and stripes.

The jelly-like paws waving in greeting were too cute, but… A cat of this size… If it accidentally scratched with its claws…

“I came to receive some magic enchantments.”

Putting that aside for now. I approached, speaking slightly haughtily.

After all, with no reputation or credibility, it’s better to subtly flaunt my noble status to reduce the difficulty of enchantment, even if I end up paying more.

“Meow… Do you mean enchantments? Rather than that, pre-made scrolls are much more diverse and cheaper.”

The fluffy paws against its cheeks as it tilted its head.

“Aww… It’s too cute…”

Luna had already fallen for it.

“I have specific items I want to use, so just do the enchantments.”

“Mmm, alright. Come this way.”

Does it get some incentive for selling scrolls?

It looked a bit dejected as it guided me, which made me feel a bit bad, but it couldn’t be helped.

“What kind of magic do you want enchanted?”

I spoke as I was served a cup of tea in a room decorated like a reception room in a regular mansion on the second floor.

“All the magic that can be enchanted here. Oh, and some daily life magic useful for traveling too.”

I took out the Codex from a small subspace and lightly flicked it into the air. It floated by itself, opening its pages below my line of sight and emitting a small burst of light.

“Hmm. A Codex. It’s been a while since I’ve seen one. I suppose you wouldn’t… Want to sell it.”

The giant cat glanced at me before taking the Codex.

I was tempted to look at his traits with my User’s eyes but held back.

I wondered if my buoyancy would decrease every time I used it.

‘Like Kane’s Indomitable.’

So there’s no need to use it just out of curiosity.

“Magic above 3rd class can’t be enchanted? Will this be satisfactory?”

After waiting for a moment, it came back holding the Codex with its fluffy paws.

I received it and opened the Codex to skim through it.

Simple attack magic and partial shield magic instead of a full-body shield.

Alarm, or magic for making fire, creating water, cleaning the body, and other daily life magic.

There was also plenty of neutralization magic to remove simple poisons or monster magic.

It wasn’t a bad composition.

However, the price was something that an ordinary adventurer would struggle to earn in a lifetime.

Well, I’m an Adelian, so…

“Good luck! Please visit us again!”

I was able to leave with an enthusiastic send-off, with the jelly-like paws waving all the way to the entrance of the magic tower.

Then, after leaving the magic tower, I was about to walk to the city gates holding the horse’s reins when I bumped into someone again.

“Watch where you’re going!”

Small fangs flashed in the mouth that shouted sharply.

Slightly bluish skin with fangs. Ears with pointed tips.

A child who was clearly not of the human race snapped angrily and was about to leave haughtily when Kane quickly grabbed the back of their neck.

“No way…”

“What? Let go of me!”

As I looked with a ‘Could it be?’ expression, Kane silently handed the child to Luna, who then patted down the child’s body and searched my pockets.

Ah, I forgot to get that enchanted.

“Doing this… Is… Bad.”

“What’s it to you?”

This city… This won’t do…

I sighed, holding my coin pouch that had been stolen twice now.

In the end, we handed the child over to a passing Patrol officer again and awkwardly returned to the magic tower, where I received an anti-theft enchantment as a service.

“By the way, Kane, why didn’t you hold them upside down and shake them?”

I asked Kane as I properly tied the money pouch around my waist, to which he calmly replied.

“The Ain race is often oppressed, so they easily fall into crime. If we can guide them, there’s no need to treat them roughly.”

This protagonist?

He’s so different from yesterday. You racist.

I’ll have to keep educating him steadily. Really.

I sighed and shook my head, then mounted my horse as we reached the city gates of Sul.

We moved along a path that could barely be called a road, rather than a regular highway, heading towards Kane’s village.

The low grass had grown quite tall as if hardly anyone had passed through for a long time.

“Roughly, how long would it take to ride there by horse?”

“Well, when I was still a child, it took all day to walk to this city.”

As I looked at Kane while slowly swaying on the horse, he had a thoughtful expression, somewhat bitter or regretful.

Was he remembering his childhood?

“Well… Why don’t you tell us about your past? We still don’t know much about you.”

Actually, I already knew all about Kane’s past even without him telling me.

I just threw out the suggestion. Sometimes, just speaking things aloud can help organize one’s thoughts and provide comfort.

Hoping that he might confide in Luna and me a little.

“Well, it’s a very common story. Slash-and-burn farmers gathered to reduce taxes.”

A virtuous mother, a father with strong principles, and a lovely younger sister.

The villagers cared for each other despite being small and poor.

Yes, in a way, it’s a common story. I, who lived in modern times, had seen it often. In movies, dramas, games, novels.

The protagonist always faces trials, and we enjoy watching them overcome those trials.

However, for the person experiencing it, it was an incomparable pain that I could vividly feel by being close to them.

“It was the day I went alone into the forest to pick fruit that my sister said she wanted to eat.”

The fruit was deep in the forest, and after picking plenty, Young Kane, still a child, sat down to rest on a hillside overlooking the village and saw it.

The villagers and his parents are offered as human sacrifices while still alive.

“Black smoke was rising from the village I was looking at.”

By the time he arrived, running, rolling, stumbling, his shoes coming off, his feet bloodied from stone fragments and tree roots, everything was already over.

“When I got there, no one was left.”

Dumbfounded, wailing, trying to crawl to the city on his tattered legs to ask for help, but a dark mage who appeared just then took Kane away.

“That’s the end of it.”

No, that wasn’t the end.

And then came five years of human experimentation.

Even among the test subjects, there was a hierarchy and society, and Kane was exploited and betrayed even there, but he endured and survived until the end despite it all.

And when he finally stabbed the dark mage and escaped, the one he sought help from was, unfortunately, a witch who ate people.

Escaping again, the kind man he met put shackles on Kane’s feet and tried to use him as a communal slave for the village.

And after escaping and wandering again, when he met people, once more.

In the end, he was sold to an auction house.

A story that only Kane and I know in this world.

“You’ve been through a lot.”

But when Kane said that was the end, I pretended not to know and spoke, though I couldn’t hide a slight heaviness in my voice.

Because I knew.

All Kane wanted was to live happily again with his family.

But the only family left was…

Just meet someone you like and be happy. I’ll help you.

Let’s end it with ‘The hero who retired after having children with his loved one lived happily ever after.’

Thwack!

“Huh…?”

I was hit in the head by an arrow that suddenly flew in and turned my head dazedly.

“Goblins.”

“They must have been lying in ambush!”

Wow, an arrow in this atmosphere?

I was so dumbfounded that I couldn’t even activate my shield, and my pendant flew off.

Now I don’t have a spare life for a month, because of one goblin.

I belatedly activated my shield and smiled with just the corners of my mouth raised, feeling irritation welling up.

Anyway, all monsters are enemies no matter what route you take, and they’re a threat to people, so there’s no need to show mercy.

“Kigek! Drop everything! Gek! Go away!”

Ah! A wild goblin thief gang has appeared!

Go, Kane c’mon.

“Kill… Them all.”

Being quite far from the main road, they seemed to have thrived, with about a dozen goblins slowly surrounding us.

I took out the Codex from a small subspace and placed it in the air, and it floated around me, automatically flipping its pages.

Kane swung his sword to deflect the poisoned darts shot towards the horses, and the three horses, trained as war horses, naturally formed a formation and pawed the ground.

Kane in front, Luna in the back.

As I watched them dismount and rush forward, I activated my shield and stayed on horseback to keep an eye on the overall situation while guarding the horses.

After confirming the goblins who had hit my head first, supported with crude arrows from the trees, I placed my hand on the Codex.

“By the power of truth.”

Although it’s just first-class magic, when I simultaneously activated 3 pages storing non-elemental magic missiles, it felt like an FPS aim assist device turned on in my head.

As Kane’s sword swung with the momentum of his charge, and sent the heads of two goblins flying into the air, my missiles struck the goblins in the trees according to my gestures and exploded.

Glancing back, I saw Luna kick off a goblin’s head, then twist her body to drive her heel down into another goblin’s head, forcing it into its shoulders.

“The blood isn’t green, huh.”

The blood of the monster I actually saw was red.

Is it less creepy because of the affluence, or…

‘Mortal Kombat feels more brutal.’

I thought as I pulled the reins to trample a goblin that was crawling through the grass unnoticed, trying to attack the horse’s legs with a rusty dagger.

The crushing sound is dull.

“Ugh… My body got dirty… There’s poison in the blood… We need to burn it before the ground gets contaminated…”

“No, I’ll purify it.”

As I watched Kane and Luna pile up the dead goblins on one side, I approached with a slightly furrowed brow, flipped through the Codex to cast a purification spell, then asked Kane.

“Is there a water source nearby?”

“Not close, as far as I remember.”

It’s good that I got the enchantments in advance.

I turned my back on the scene that didn’t need to be looked at for long and smiled at Kane, who was splattered with red blood here and there, and Luna, who was making a sad face as if uncomfortable with her legs below the knees.

“Indeed, having ample funds improves the quality of life. Remember this well, Kane. To buy and sell things and live comfortably, you shouldn’t dislike conversation.”

Looking at that stubborn one who slightly turned his head away, I found the ‘Clean’ spell in the Codex and quickly removed the bloodstains.

“You might not feel refreshed, but you’re clean now. Let’s go.”

Except for Luna’s horse, Beth, who had wandered off far away, distracted by a beetle while we were cleaning up, we mounted our horses again without any major incidents.

‘This is strange.’

I wasn’t particularly surprised, and I don’t seem to be shocked about killing something, but my hand was trembling oddly.

I looked at one hand holding the reins and the other hand with the strange sensation, then shook it in the air before gripping the reins again.

* * *

“This is the place.”

As the sun was about to set.

When one side of the blue sky was burning with a pale orange color.

As we rounded a huge rock entangled with forest, there stood houses now collapsed and charred, with only their frames remaining on empty land.

“Is this… Your hometown?”

It was a space that could be taken in at a glance.

A small flowing stream and a small well inside.

The place, now overgrown with lush grass, was much deteriorated from its former state of human habitation.

As if to indicate that it was once a small village, not far away was a signpost that had once marked the village entrance, now broken and stuck in the ground.

On top of it, there seemed to be nothing else living, just a single crow perched there, which soon flapped its wings and took off, circling nearby.

Caw!

At the somewhat eerie cry, I looked up to see a crow with red eyes glaring brightly, circling ominously above us once before flying off somewhere.