SWNOVELXO Chapter 73 - Clue (2)
Chapter 73: Clue (2)
In the Dream World.
Puk- Puk- Puk-.
Thresia’s sense of self was fading away, lost in the endless cycle of repeated pain.
Puk-.
‘Again…’
Puk-.
‘Again.’
Puk- Puk-.
‘Again, again.’
Puk- Puk- Puk- Puk-!
‘Again, again, again, again….’
She was nothing more than a puppet, thrusting her spear endlessly at the wall.
Becoming more and more ragged, she was like a puppet that could break at any moment.
Despite knowing this, Theresia couldn’t stop stabbing.
How much time had passed like that?
Puk-.
When she stabbed the wall as usual, something unprecedented happened.
Jjejeok-.
A large crack appeared in the wall.
Theresia tilted her head in confusion.
‘Why?’
The new wall had appeared not too long ago. To tear it down again, she should have needed to stab it countless more times.
So why did the wall suddenly crack?
Jjejeok-.
The wall, its cracks slowly widening, soon crumbled to pieces.
As it did, a massive hand made of light abruptly appeared from beyond the wall.
‘What is that…?’
Theresia instinctively knew.
That massive hand was what had broken the wall.
The giant hand, which had destroyed the wall, reached out toward Theresia, the puppet, and grabbed her without hesitation.
Like a princess captured by a giant in a fairy tale, Theresia was held in the hand.
It could have been an extremely perilous situation, but Theresia felt an inexplicable warmth from the giant’s hand.
The warm heat from the enormous hand.
[Humming~.]
A soft humming sound.
And.
‘…a savory smell?’
The moment she recognized it, she awoke from her dream.
Startled-.
Throb-.
Theresia hastily sat up, the pain in her muscles helping her quickly gather her senses.
Blinking, she took in the unfamiliar scene before her.
‘Huh?’
It was undoubtedly her own dwelling.
But there was a campfire she hadn’t lit, and, on top of that, a large stone pot was hanging over the fire.
And next to it, someone was crouching.
“Humming~ Oh?”
Stirring the contents of the pot while humming, Yuri noticed that Theresia had woken up and greeted her with a bright smile.
“You’re awake?”
He transferred a portion of the pot’s contents into a small wooden bowl and shuffled over to Theresia.
“Here, take it.”
“…….”
Theresia received it, somewhat bewildered.
The newly carved wooden bowl was filled with a generous serving of an unknown porridge.
As the warmth of the steam reached her nose, the savory smell hit her fully.
Only then did she realize that this was the scent she had smelled in her dream.
She stared blankly up at Yuri.
Noticing her dazed look, Yuri smiled kindly.
“Come on, eat up. You need to recover quickly.”
“What are you doing… here?”
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m doing this with absolutely no ulterior motive. It’s just a very pure act of kindness, really!”
“……?”
Seeing the question marks floating above her head, Yuri put on the most innocent and pure expression.
‘Yep, no ulterior motive at all.’
Indeed, Yuri had no ulterior motives.
“I just want our Senior Tessa to eat well, regain her strength, and get back to training as soon as possible.”
“……?”
So you can recover quickly and start training again, and we can have a sparring session soon, right?
“That’s really all there is to it.”
“……?”
Yuri genuinely had no ulterior motives.
“Really, that’s all.”
…Probably?
After Johan’s visit, Yuri had been showering Theresia with his kindness.
“Hey, what’s this? Where you sleep is important! It helps you recover from training fatigue! Here, use this!”
He gifted her a wooden bed he had made himself.
“Do you think you’ll have the strength to wield a spear after eating something like this? Come on, give that to me and eat this instead!”
When Theresia was eating her rations, he would suddenly appear, snatch the food from her hands, and give her a skewer of meat instead.
“Wow, how did you live in a place like this? Your living environment significantly impacts your condition! Here, these are some leftover things from when I was decorating my place…”
He would craft various things and fill up Theresia’s empty dwelling.
Yuri took meticulous care of Theresia.
The problem was… he took care of her too much.
“Hah…”
Theresia let out a long sigh as she watched Yuri follow her into the training ground.
She turned around and asked,
“Why are you doing this?”
“What do you mean?”
Yuri tilted his head, looking genuinely clueless.
Theresia’s delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly.
“Are you asking because you don’t know?”
“What did I do?”
“Why… why are you being so nice to me?”
At this, Yuri’s expression turned sullen.
“Wow, you’re giving me a hard time for being nice?”
“…What?”
“If you don’t like receiving kindness, you should have refused it right away. You accepted everything I gave you, and now you’re asking why I was nice to you? What kind of nonsense is that?”
“…….”
Theresia’s gaze wavered at his sharp rebuke.
To be honest, she didn’t dislike Yuri’s kindness.
How could she dislike it?
For the first time since entering the cradle, she slept on a bed that actually felt like a bed.
She ate food that tasted like real food, not just rations.
Her once-empty dwelling now looked like an actual living space.
All these changes were thanks to Yuri.
And all of it had happened in just a few days.
Even so, Theresia said this because she felt burdened.
She sighed quietly.
“Haa… Honestly, I already knew why you were being so nice to me.”
At her words, Yuri waved his hands in denial.
“Haha, what are you talking about? Wanting something from you? This is just my pure goodwill! Pure goodwill!”
“You’re being nice to me… because you want to increase the number of sparring sessions.”
“…?!”
Yuri’s pupils trembled.
‘How… how did she know?’
Was it that obvious?
I was just being nice, nothing more!
What part of my actions gave it away?
There shouldn’t have been any hints!
Countless thoughts raced through Yuri’s mind.
Seeing Yuri suddenly go quiet and his eyes quiver, Theresia realized her guess was correct.
Her sigh deepened.
“Haa… Don’t be so nice to me. Honestly, it’s a bit… no, very burdensome.”
“That…”
“I understand that you want to earn more points.”
“…?”
“You want to increase the number of sparring sessions because of the points, right? But no matter how nice you are to me, it’s difficult for me to increase the number of sessions given my current situation.”
“…?”
“I’d like to increase the sparring sessions as well, but if I do so recklessly, my expenses will become too much.”
“…”
Yuri stared blankly at Theresia.
Then he realized.
‘Oh, so she thinks my goal is points?’
Yuri’s original goal was the sparring sessions themselves.
To increase the number of sparring sessions and receive as many insights as possible.
But Theresia thought Yuri’s goal was points.
She believed he was being nice to her to earn more points through additional sparring sessions.
This was what made her feel burdened.
Having figured it all out, Yuri suddenly burst out in anger.
“No, really, what do you take me for?”
“…?”
“Do I look like someone who only cares about points?”
“You don’t?”
“Of course not!”
Yuri puffed out his chest proudly.
“I accept material goods too!”
“…?”
“Or information!”
“…”
Theresia’s mind momentarily froze.
It took her a while to understand what Yuri meant, and when she did, she let out a deep sigh.
“Oh… So you don’t just care about points, but other things as well.”
“Of course, it’s not healthy to be picky.”
Do you think I’m being nice to you just to earn points and increase the number of sparring sessions?
Is that what Theresia misunderstood?
‘Wow, how considerate!’
Yuri’s eyes gleamed.
“Alright, since it’s come to this, I’ll be honest with you. From now on, if you offer 10,000 points, or their equivalent in goods or information, I’ll spar with you anytime.”
“Hmm…”
Theresia pondered.
Yuri’s proposal was better than she expected.
‘Instead of 10,000 points worth of goods… information might be better.’
Since she didn’t have any goods on hand, she leaned towards the idea of providing information.
Theresia subtly asked,
“How will you determine the value of the information? How will you judge whether the information I provide is worth 10,000 points?”
“I’ll decide that myself. If the information is useful to me, I might value it at more than 10,000 points. Don’t worry, I’ll price it very, very fairly.”
Hearing Yuri’s response, Theresia nodded.
It wasn’t a bad deal.
She had been hoping to spar with Yuri more frequently anyway.
“Alright. Let’s do that.”
Hearing her confirmation, Yuri’s smile widened.
‘This is good.’
No, it wasn’t just good—it was really good.
It was as if the other person had set the stage for him, revealed their cards, and even added a generous pot.
10,000 points, goods, information.
He had already succeeded in his original goal of increasing the number of sparring sessions, so he wouldn’t lose out no matter what he received.
Whatever it was, it would be a gain.
‘And I can easily increase the number of sessions by assigning a value of 10,000 points to some decent information.’
Yuri’s eyes curved into crescent moons.
“So then…”
He rubbed his hands together, his eyes gleaming.
“Shall we have a sparring match today?”
“Let’s do it.”
“How will you pay? Points? Goods? Information?”
“I’ll pay with information.”
“Information is good! An excellent choice!”
Yuri beamed.
Once Theresia’s personal training ground, now used as a sparring arena.
Inside, the sound of metal clashing and explosive booms echoed continuously.
Cheng!
Bang!
Yuri and Theresia.
Since making their new sparring agreement, they hadn’t skipped a single day of training.
A duel between sword and spear.
Moreover, a contest of speed against speed that had continued for several days.
But in all the matches so far, neither of them had gained a decisive advantage.
The sparring sessions naturally ended after they surpassed 100 exchanges.
Today’s match was no different.
Neither was able to gain a perfect upper hand.
But there was one thing that had changed.
It was the ratio of offense and defense.
In their first sparring match, the attack ratio was about 50-50.
But in the next match, the ratio shifted in Yuri’s favor.
And now, Yuri held a 55-45 advantage over Theresia.
Yuri’s attack ratio had increased, while Theresia’s defensive ratio had naturally risen.
All of this happened within just a few days.
Realizing this, Theresia gritted her teeth.
‘He’s… different.’
The growth gap was too large.
Whenever she took a single step forward, the person in front of her leaped several steps ahead.
Theresia couldn’t help but sense it.
Soon, not only would the ratio of offense and defense completely collapse, but the day would come when she would be clearly outmatched.
And that day might come sooner than she thought.
But that was a mistake on her part.
Cheng.
‘He’s going to come from the left.’
Kang!
‘Next, he’ll dig below.’
Bang!
‘He always responds this way to this attack.’
The ratio of offense and defense had already collapsed.
Theresia was simply the only one who hadn’t realized it yet.