“This bastard Gemvil isn’t shedding tears of emotion, is he?”

“He’s probably already crying.”

“Must have been lonely sleeping alone all the time.”

“Didn’t he always sleep alone at the guild too? Did he have a lover?”

“No, that’s just a figure of speech…”

“Ah, I see.”

Horas and Ekision bickered endlessly inside the carriage.

“What gift did you buy him?”

“We’re just picking him up, do we need gifts too?”

“I’m saying let’s add more emotion to the emotion.”

“I think we might be annoying him by bringing too many people.”

Padrid, almost glued to the window, grumbled.

He had been forcibly dragged along with the insistence that everyone should go to pick up Gemvil.

Jin, who was being crushed to death with a blank expression on the opposite side, was in the same situation.

“So we’re on our way to Gemvil’s house. I didn’t know.”

Jin had been forcibly loaded into the carriage without even hearing the reason, and until just now, he didn’t know where they were going, but he realized after hearing the recent conversation.

Although the carriage was large, with all these big bodies crammed inside, it seemed like it would burst open at any moment.

“Ugh, stop pushing!”

Rodi, who had been placed in the center with the claim that she needed the safest seat, was getting crushed in the middle every time the carriage turned a corner.

Unfortunately, Lexiard couldn’t join them in the carriage due to a sudden summons.

As Rodi was being pushed around, Ekision beside her simply picked her up and sat her on his lap.

“Sorry, sorry. Our rookie almost became a pancake!”

“Hmm, but did we leave too early? He won’t be sleeping, right? Maybe he’s already found a lover?”

When Hailo spoke excitedly, Ekision tapped Hailo’s mouth.

“We can wake him if he’s sleeping. Not everyone is like you. Always chasing women. Look, it’s over there.”

“That’s Gemvil’s house?”

“Yeah, the roof is black just like him. He really has no sense of style.”

Eventually, the carriage entered a small garden.

As soon as the carriage stopped, the executives poured out.

Padrid, who could finally breathe, leaned against the carriage to rest.

“Hey, Gemvil! Your big brothers are here!”

“Gemvil! We’re here~!”

They made a commotion, knocking on the front door and windows noisily.

But it was strangely quiet.

“What’s going on? Is the house too big for him to hear us?”

“That guy can hear even an ant’s footsteps.”

“He’s not hiding, is he?”

When Gemvil didn’t appear despite their calls, everyone just stared at each other blankly.

Ekision pressed his face against the window, persistently trying to see through the curtains.

“I think he’s really not here.”

Padrid, who had been keeping his distance with the determination not to mix with these fools, reluctantly approached.

He thoroughly examined around the entrance, then reached under the flowerbed and pulled out a jingling bunch of keys.

Padrid held up the key ring and said,”Looks like he went out.”

***

Under the clear sky.

Seagulls squawking as they flew around.

The familiar sound of waves reached Gemvil’s ears.

It wasn’t the feeling of his hometown, but the sound of waves he heard after a long time naturally put his mind at ease.

Day one of traveling away from home.

“Maybe I should just live here.”

Gemvil was beginning to really like this place.

After spending the entire morning at the beach, Gemvil returned to the village well past lunchtime.

Planning to fill his stomach briefly before returning to his inn, he headed to the nearby market.

Hesitation.

Gemvil kept pausing his steps due to the strange gaze he had been feeling all the way from the beach.

He quickly turned his head whick-whick! to scan his surroundings.

“Where is it coming from?”

Someone was watching him.

It wasn’t killing intent, but there was something making him feel uneasy.

“I must be tired.”

He had come quite far, thinking he would be comfortable, but to think someone had followed him.

At best, it would be someone who had met him during a mission and held a grudge.

Gemvil, not wanting to involve others, headed in the opposite direction away from the market to a quiet area.

The gaze continued to follow.

Gemvil, who had been walking leisurely, suddenly changed direction and slipped into a gloomy alley.

The gazes following him became chaotic, enough for even Gemvil to sense it.

Pitter-patter!

Small, noisy footsteps approached.

Gemvil pressed himself against the wall as he entered the alley, ready to attack.

‘Now!’

As Gemvil was about to strike, strangely, he couldn’t see anything in his line of sight.

Suddenly, his right leg felt heavy.

‘Damn, below!’

The moment he lowered his head and was about to bring down his fist.

“Ugh!”

He came face to face with Rodi, who was hugging his leg with her eyes tightly shut.

There was only a palm’s edge of distance between Gemvil’s fist and Rodi’s face.

Gemvil, startled, quickly hid his hand behind his back.

“Rookie?”

Then Rodi’s eyes flew open.

A delighted smile quickly spread across her small face.

“Gemvil! I came to get you!”

He was dumbfounded.

Gemvil tried to detach Rodi who was clinging tightly to him and asked, “Why on earth are you here?”

With those words, the outside became noisy.

“See, I told you he wouldn’t hit the rookie.”

“That was dangerous. I’m going to report this.”

“Ah, you always do that.”

“It’s okay. I’ll protect our baby. Right?”

“Please shut up.”

Familiar voices were getting closer and closer.

With a terribly bad feeling, faces he wished not to see appeared one by one.

“Hi, Gemvil. What a coincidence meeting you here! Looks like you’re traveling. Us too!”

Ekision, who had thrown away his conscience, “Your taste is really old-fashioned. Coming to this countryside.”

“Yeah. Hmm? That lady is pretty. Should I go say hello?”

Horas and Hailo, who had somehow already changed into colorful resort clothes, red and blue.

“I apologize for disturbing your well-deserved vacation, but I came with a message from Eclise.”

Padrid, who had been scowling until just now but was now composed.

“I missed you, Gemvil.”

Jin, who appeared with a sudden confession.

“Gemvil, I’m sorry because of me. I caught the culprit so let’s go back now!”

The little rookie appeared recklessly without knowing the danger.

They were all people he knew well.

***

“Hah… So that’s why you followed me?”

After hearing all the explanations, Gemvil pressed his temples firmly to calm his rising headache.

His precious vacation had been shattered.

Slurp.

Sluuurp.

“Yeah, something like that. We went to your house but you weren’t there?”

Slurrrrrp.

“Whew, I thought I was going to die from the heat looking for you. It’s already summer here.”

Slurp, slurp.

They all sat at the table, each with a glass of juice filled with ice, watching Gemvil while noisily sucking through their straws.

“Do you know how hard it was to find you?”

Slurrrrrp!

“The boss told us.”

Rodi, who was slurping grape juice beside him, added, causing Ekision to sigh.

“Rookie, are you betraying us? We still did the searching once we got here. Right or wrong?”

“Right.”

“Want to try something else?”

Ekision said, tilting his juice toward Rodi, asking if she wanted to try orange juice.

Rodi pulled out her straw while still holding it in her mouth and plunged it into Ekision’s juice, then slurped again.

Gemvil looked at his colleagues who said they had come to get him, arms crossed.

“Well, first.”

Then he said to his former workplace colleagues who were cooling off from the heat while drinking juice.

“I really appreciate you coming to find me, but I’m sorry, go back. I left with full responsibility and have no intention of returning.”

“Yes, I heard your insincere words loud and clear.”

Ekision retorted while wiping Rodi’s mouth.

“I’m not joking, I really don’t plan to go back.”

“Yeah, but Gemvil, sorry to say this, but your opinion isn’t needed here. We’ve already decided.”

Hailo, who was quietly letting Rodi put a decorative flower in his hair, cut off Gemvil in a tone that wasn’t sorry at all.

“I don’t want to agree, but Hailo is right. Eclise has also given permission.”

“Padrid, why are you like this too?”

“Please come back, Gemvil.”

With Padrid and now Jin making requests, Gemvil became even more perplexed.

“Ah, really. Why is everyone like this?”

He had already sorted out all his regretful feelings while cooling his head for a few days.

As they said, even if he had lingering attachments, going back would be losing face.

“It’s not losing face at all, so come back, Gemvil.”