Rumors (2)

A woman.

My eyes widened.

As I raised my head, I could identify the face of a woman with long raven hair that flowed beautifully behind her back, reaching her thigh.

She looked around my age and wore a comically large bow behind her head, binding her soft, silky-looking hair together in a ponytail.

Her hair was split in the middle, forming a middle part and her face was flawless reminded me of the dolls they sold in the Empire's toy store.

She looked like a piece of art, carefully painted by an artist who spent his entire lifetime trying to create a forever-lasting masterpiece.

And they succeeded.

Her eyes, two radiant violet orbs, scanned me with a hint of curiosity. Her smell was similar to the same-named flower, violet: soft, sweet, almost candy-like.

"Hellooooo?"

Calling my name, she waved her hand in front of my face, testing if I would react.

That made me return to reality, quickly returning to my usual stoic expression as I gave her a faint, apologetic smile.

"Ah. I apologize. I was spacing out."

She shook her head as she returned my smile.

"No, I was just wondering what you were thinking about. You seemed to be unwell."

"It's nothing."

I shut down the sentence, not having a reason to tell her about anything. I then turned my head around, wanting to proceed further, as I had no time left to waste.

"Now, if you excuse me, I h-"

The woman leaned forward, putting her tilted head in my way and blocking me from going any further.

She then shot me a wicked grin, slightly narrowing her eyes with a smug look.

"It was something about your past, wasn't it?"

Her voice was innocent, asking that question with a child-like curiosity. However, as I looked into her eyes, I could see that the tone of her voice was a deception.

Her eyes had a glimpse of mischievousness inside them.

I shot her a sharp glare, warning her to stop.

The woman giggled in response, not taking my warning seriously.

"Awww..come on, Mr. Voidwalker. There's no reason for you to be so mad..or should I rather just call you Voidwalker?"

***

***

"So, Raum called you for help?"

I repeated what the woman, Acedia, had just told me while turning my head to her, crossing my arms.

Although I shouldn't trust her about such a thing so quickly, it was totally in character for Raum to ask someone else for help as a 'safety measure'.

He was the one who suggested that I investigate that rumor, so he probably didn't want to feel guilty if something happened to me.

"Yes. Raumiboy did."

She nodded energetically, her head almost threatening to fall off her neck.

'Raumiboy? She must be quite close to him then.'

"You can't believe how surprised I was when I heard your last name, Voidwalker."

She giggled before spinning around loosely, stopping as her face turned to me.

"Who could've expected that you would actually use your last name as a mercenary name? I certainly didn't."

With a hand in front of her mouth, she looked away with trembling shoulders, seemingly trying to suppress her laughter.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance.

"I was twelve when I decided on my mercenary name."

"Even if you were twelve. You should've known better than to literally use your last name as your codename."

Sighing, I admitted my defeat.

She wasn't wrong. Even at that age, I should've known that it would be stupid to use my last name, but I didn't care about such things at that time and just used whatever my mind came up with first.

"Maybe."

"Aren't you curious about how I know your mercenary name?"

I shook my head, denying her question.

"Not really. It's not like I was unheard of."

I already knew that sooner or later, somebody who knew about my past would recognize me, so the fact that it actually did happen wasn't surprising to me.

"Come onnnn. At least act like you are interested."

Acedia pouted, dissatisfied with my answer.

"That's not the way to treat a fan of yours."

I frowned as she said that, turning my head to her.

"I have fans?"

"Of course you do!"

"Really?"

Although I knew that my reputation was pretty high, I didn't expect that fans of me actually existed.

Usually, only righteous people like knights or saints had fans.

"Like who?"

I glanced at her with an amused expression, curious about who my so-called fans might be.

"Like me!"

Proudly sticking her chest out, she gestured to herself.

"Is that so? Then I like you."

I chuckled in a husky tone, finding her eccentric behavior endearing in some sort of way.

Beaming with a wide smile, Acedia turned to me.

"Good." She rejoiced. "After all, you can't just not like your dearest supporter, can you?"

"My dearest supporter?" I furrowed my eyebrows, glancing at her from the corner of my eye.

As she said that, I could quote multiple names from the corner of my head.

I had many regular clients ask for my services, but listening to her voice now and thinking about all of my regular clients made me realize something.

Although the voices were slightly different due to the distortion of the mana audio recorders, I could still see the voices of the two persons overlapping.

"You're 'cutest magician girl', aren't you?"

I turned my face to her with a blank expression, recalling one of my clients who kept sending me on monster elimination tasks.

Recalling the memories, I formed a faint smile.

Acedia froze up when I mentioned that name, turning her head away, and avoiding my eyes, as she gradually started to turn red.

"I was 16."

She coughed with a weak voice.