Becoming an Extra in a Trash Game

Chapter 16

The elegantly decorated office, while not outwardly extravagant, is filled with items that have been touched by artisans’ hands, down to the smallest accessory.

The desk alone, piled with documents up to a person’s waist, was a top-grade piece of furniture carved entirely from ebony wood from the Black Forest.

And on top of it, a high-quality quill pen dances across the paper with a scratching sound.

As soon as the ink that has flowed out appropriately dries, the hand that brings the next paper is covered in calluses.

Lean shoulders without excess fat, broad and firm. A tightly fitted uniform.

From his appearance alone, this man seems more suited to an outdoor training ground than an office.

“Huu… Muscle loss…”

At this time, how many times would he have lifted weights, how many times would he have swung a sword?

Harlon glared at the paper with bloodshot eyes, nervously messing up his hair before collapsing onto the desk.

“This is ridiculous.”

Right now, his colleagues would be sweating and moving in the training ground, wielding swords and sparring.

‘It must be exciting.’

Or they might be chatting about how much muscle has been gained on their forearms, or who needs more training while watching colleagues spar to the brink of death and being rolled around by Vice Captain Mark.

“I feel like mold will grow in my mouth.”

But no one comes to this office.

Except for servants occasionally bringing in or taking out documents.

Harlon’s colleagues acted like anemic ladies, complaining of headaches and dizziness from the smell of paper.

‘Why am I here now…’

The musty smell of paper instead of the sour smell of sweat.

He never thought he’d miss the joint training time that was so annoying with only men gathered.

Harlon never imagined he would feel so tearfully regretful about those times he often lazily skipped.

“They said smelling ink causes muscle loss, so I didn’t even write a diary…”

Harlon had believed even such trivial superstitions to that extent.

Starting as a knight’s apprentice from childhood, he instinctively felt.

That he didn’t have physical traits. If he had such talent, it wouldn’t have been this difficult.

Indeed, the traits confirmed at the temple after becoming an adult were keen eyes and dexterity.

From then on, Harlon trained in a direction that mixed technique and irregularity based on dexterity rather than orthodox swordsmanship, and aimed for weak points with the help of his keen eyes.

What he could do best, after all.

No, the only thing he knew how to do since birth was wielding a sword.

“It’s really funny. I thought I’d die if not for this path.”

What’s even funnier is that while his heart denies it, his head knows.

“To think this is my talent…”

Wielding a sword was painful yet happy and enjoyable, but.

As time passed, what quickly gained know-how and gave a clearer sense of what to do was wielding a pen, which confused Harlon’s heart.

“But that’s that and…”

Perhaps talking to himself increased from being alone in the room wrestling with letters and paper.

Harlon opened his mouth, glaring with bloodshot eyes.

“I can’t live like this.”

This must be a trick by the Young Master. He must have fallen into a trap set by Adelian.

If someone heard this, they might say what would that thoughtless brat who only causes trouble know?

They might say it doesn’t make sense, but Harlon felt his head was full of groundless conviction.

It was Adelian who specifically named him for a duel among many knights.

Even though Harlon himself might be weaker than other colleagues who delved into the orthodox way since he uses technical and irregular swordsmanship, he is still a full-fledged knight, not an apprentice.

There were apprentice knights and squires who hadn’t yet been knighted in that training ground.

In other words, his ranking in the knighthood was not very low.

Moreover, that rabbit girl was strangely the type to counter him.

‘So there’s no way he just picked me. Me among all those colleagues? And it turns out I have talent as a paperwork slave?’

Otherwise, there’s no way he would have prepared a divine contract to enslave me and then give me a pile of documents as if he had been waiting.

I don’t know how, but everything must have gone according to Adelian’s plan from the moment that small, cute rabbit-girl appeared in the training ground.

So if it’s the Young Master who planned all this, he must know everything, even if I can’t stand it anymore and do something.

Harlon’s brain, which had been looking at documents all day, skipped the stages of reasoning and reached only the conclusion before making a decision.

“Let’s go… To grab his trouser leg.”

To win… No, at least to get a paperwork slave to help with one hand!

With his hair all messed up like a bird’s nest, Harlon stood up abruptly and opened the door.

* * *

Certainly, when you put food in children’s mouths, the atmosphere improves.

For example, it’s similar to how they come out of their rooms slightly mollified when you order chicken even after fighting with their parents.

The awkward atmosphere that had been flowing for a while dissipated; after eating and drinking to their heart’s content, Luna’s face relaxed into a grin, and Kane also seemed to be in a good mood.

I swallowed the sherbet I had been melting in my mouth and opened my lips.

“That was delicious. Right?”

“Yes… I think it would be nice to come out like this sometimes…”

Right. Later, when traveling with the main party, we might not be able to when camping out, but we should definitely go to good restaurants when we stop by cities.

After finishing the lime sherbet that came as dessert, I pulled the tea and cookies in front of me and looked up to meet their eyes.

“These cookies are delicious. Should we buy some to take with us? Places like this usually pack desserts for takeout.”

“To eat… At the castle?”

At Luna’s words, I shook my head and glanced at Kane, who was drinking tea.

“No. I’m going to have Kane take them to the knights’ order. Luna, I’ll give you a box too, so take it and share it with your close friends if you have any.”

As they both looked like they didn’t understand why they should do that, I leisurely enjoyed the aroma of the tea and spoke.

“Usually, when you go out for something special and come back, it’s part of social life to bring something and share it with friends.”

“You talk as if you’ve done it before.”

“Young Master… You only have drinking buddies as friends…”

These main party members are really shooting arrows at my heart…

I was trying to give them a decent tip, or rather, basic advice, but seeing the two of them immediately point out the facts, I spoke grumpily.

“Shut up and get them packed. Both of you. That’s how you live being loved.”

You don’t even understand my intention to improve your public image, at least for you two.

Even for someone isolated and wary of others. Just one person who treats them a little kindly.

If even that much more appears, the thorns they’ve raised so much, the walls built from fear, will slowly melt away.

It’s just a box of snacks, but if even one person thinks, “They even know how to be considerate like this. I received it, so I should return the favor next time.”

‘That itself is a gain.’

I probably won’t stay here long, but there’s no reason not to take care of it when it’s not difficult.

‘As for me… Well, I’m hopeless…’

The closest and most intimate to Adelian would be his blood relatives.

Caiman, Gadia.

‘…Sigh.’

Feeling a salty taste from somewhere, I shook my head and stood up.

“If you’re done eating, let’s go back now. I’m tired even though we didn’t do much. Don’t you feel the same?”

Feeling somehow stiff, I stretched my arms and turned my head with a crack as I spoke. Luna shook her head, making her ears flutter.

Kane just looked on indifferently.

“It’s a lack of exercise.”

“Because you…Lie down all day…”

Somehow, why are these two saying what my mother used to say often…

Seeing Kane and Luna matching up in a direction unfavorable to me, I opened my mouth as if making excuses without realizing it.

“What are you talking about? Do you know how often I do things like horseback riding and running these days?”

“Is that exercise?”

“You move… Less than I do…”

No, did these two hold hands behind my back after I fed them a delicious meal?

Why are they in such good harmony?

“No, humanely speaking, Luna, you’re a rabbit race. You should consider the difference between species! And Kane, you… What you do is self-abuse, not exercise.”

You conscienceless ones!

I grumbled as I handed them each a box of snacks.

* * *

“Oh my.”

Even though I’ve bounced to a strange place and my hair and eye color have changed, I guess a Korean is still a Korean.

When it’s tough, the sound of “Oh my” comes out naturally.

Although it wasn’t physically demanding, I felt strangely tired when I returned, so I sent Luna away early and lay on the bed looking up at the ceiling.

After soaking in hot water mixed with flower petals and herbs, and even getting a massage, this is heaven, what else could be heaven?

Moreover, with the soft touch of the bed enveloping me comfortably, I feel like I could fall asleep right away, but I should organize my thoughts before resting.

I raised my body slightly, piled up cushions at the head of the bed to lean on, and lay down with my legs crossed.

“Let’s see…”

I took out a bundle of papers from a small subspace and skimmed through a few pages fluttering.

Since I had written somewhat hastily at that time, I read the worm-like writing while wiggling my toes.

“Here it is, The Beginner.”

The original Kane started with [The One Who Burns His Soul with Anger].

And then, after burning all emotions with indomitability, he was [Survivor with Only Hatred Left], I think.

When I proceeded without knowing much in the beginning, I just considered cost-effectiveness while running dungeons.

Of course, I reached that point several times without knowing why.

Later, when I searched the gallery and realized I had done everything I shouldn’t have done, how frustrated I was.

I really stayed up all night cursing the game developers who had designed it so that maximum efficiency could only be achieved that way.

I was so distressed that I eventually replaced the main party units with mercenaries or randomly appearing NPCs before proceeding.

‘Not bad. Rather than a mediocre title, it’s a jackpot if it’s a jackpot.’

I had a knight I was raising as the main dealer in the sub-party displaying this title, and things went well enough to roll satisfactorily to the ending.

‘If there’s a slight problem, it seems I need to plan the game well.’

Looking at the paper where I had written various things, albeit a bit disorganized, it became even more certain.

This is because you can expect endless growth potential depending on how you set the direction of growth.

“The Morning Star Leading to National Ruin, The Sword Ruling Over Ruins. The One Who Leads All Dead Things.”

Hidden title.

‘There were probably people who did resets at the beginning to get an NPC with the title of The Beginner.’

This trash game, the very culprit that made people say playing with a sub-party instead of the main party is 300 times more fun, and content for veteran players.

The so-called Monarch tree.

Depending on the direction, after founding a pseudo-religion, with just one word, “You’re a heretic,” to other mainstream enemies except the evil god cult.

There was even a streamer who turned everything into religious wars and crusades and smashed them.

In my case, although the country became a wasteland in the middle because I took a wrong turn, I once saw a sub-party ending where I became the king of a kingdom.

Others mixed undead types and built as necromancer Lord.

Of course, there were many cases where if you made a slight mistake in the middle, you deviated from the Monarch tree and changed to a general title.

‘But it’s worth trying.’

After all, aren’t I a veteran player who has walked the Monarch tree to the end, even though I failed slightly in the middle?

I should be able to predict the branching points to some extent.

In the first place, since the title is a sign that roughly indicates the job or current state of the unit,

In other words, as long as I don’t twist Kane’s state too much, there shouldn’t be much hindrance to raising the Monarch tree for the time being.

“If they just squeezed the user’s eyes and sent me here, this much luck should follow.”

Rachel, are you watching?

I’ve twisted your companion’s fate.

If you’re grateful, give me some lottery numbers when I go back.

‘Do you believe it?’

I smiled at my frivolous thoughts.

I don’t know, but the Rachel I’ll meet here in the future probably isn’t omnipotent enough to send me back now.

But it will be different by the time we see the ending.

I started scribbling down derived titles and expected trees and builds for them on a new piece of paper and quill pen.

First, I write down as much as possible and then consolidate.

‘And what I need to keep in mind most is.’

To pass the title change branching points as intended without Kane noticing anything strange about my guidance.

In other words, helping Kane change titles beneficially without him knowing as much as possible.

That will be important.

“The time to leave is approaching soon.”

Once the items I ordered arrived at the auction house…

That will be the end of such a cozy bed.

I filled the paper with thoughts until the sunset and the night deepened.