"Heya." That voice—it was his. Raika quickly drew her sword and pressed it to the man's neck, her teeth clenched and her brows furrowed in a fierce expression.
"Hold up! Don't, Vesper!" The man managed to raise both hands in the air, attempting to stop her. In truth, Raika's arm was trembling uncontrollably, and she could barely catch her breath.
"You—how—" The man reached out and managed to grab the tip of her sword.
"I told you I'm immortal, didn't I?" A memory suddenly flashed in Raika's mind. The night before they began climbing the mountain, they had sat around a campfire in the forest, cooking their meal.
Back then, they hadn't yet started their climb and were waiting for the morning to come.
"Why do you like the night so much?" The man asked, his outfit made of animal hides designed for mountain climbing, with a hood covering his head.
Raika didn't delay in answering, "I don't know… maybe it's the silence that's beautiful?
"Don't forget, the treasure is only forty percent yours, and—"
Raika nodded several times to indicate she understood. "And?"
"If I die, I'll come back," he said. Raika just thought he was crazy and went back to camp to sleep.
"Aren't you crazy, man?" she muttered.
Now, back to the present.
"Idiot!" Raika yelled, launching a series of punches in every direction. The man remained calm, almost eerily so, and eventually, Raika stopped.
"Come on, you just didn't believe me!" The man rubbed his cheek and began to get back on his feet.
"Ah!" Raika looked at him with intense determination in her eyes. "If you're really immortal, what's your purpose?!"
The man examined his sword carefully. "To die." Raika punched him hard in the stomach, the blow echoing through the air.
"Don't end it with a period, you idiot! Also, are you seriously crazy?" The man lay there, silently screaming as Raika's words sank in.
"Really… you fell off the mountain on purpose, didn't you?" Raika asked, her voice steady but her mind racing.
The man, still on the ground, pointed toward her with both hands.
"Bingo!"
Guess what happened next? Of course, Raika punched him in the head again, but surprisingly, he remained standing.
"What happened here? When I came back to life, I saw a headless horse!" the man yelled.
Raika touched his forehead with a single finger, her voice cold, "It's all your fault, idiot."
The man, this time, took his finger and pointed it at himself.
"M-My fault?"
Raika gestured for him to sit down, which he obediently did. She then sat down herself and began explaining. For the next hour, she recounted everything.
"In short, your body was eaten by animals, and then those animals were eaten by others, and they mutated."
The man tilted his head. "Couldn't you have said that from the start?"
Raika shook her head. "No."
"And… people?"
Raika took a deep breath, the atmosphere so thick with tension it felt like they could eat twenty tablest of mammoth meat. Normally, she could eat twenty-five.
"Nothing happened."
This time, it was Raika who received a punch to the head.
"Ugh! That hurt!" The man started to walk toward the exit.
"Stop whining. We still have work to do." Raika, while preparing her sword, spoke with her eyes half-open.
"Was our agreement supposed to end when you died?" The man's face twisted into a sinister grin.
"Guess you didn't read it properly, Vesper. At the very bottom of the agreement, it said 'It ends only if you truly die!'"
Raika just now realized the mistake she had made.
"W-What?! That's not fair, you bastard!" The man grabbed Raika by the shoulder and started dragging her.
"From now on, you're my slave for life." The grin on his face was exactly like the one Raika wore as she wrote this scene.
Fast forward, and Raika walked with a sense of despair and sadness. The light in her eyes had completely faded. When she asked where they were headed, the man simply replied, "To a friend."
They arrived at their destination just before dawn. The reason was unknown, but in the middle of the forest, there stood a house.
From the outside, the house appeared worn by time but still held a sense of grandeur. It was made of either black stone or dark wood, with high, sharp rooftops. The long, pointed windows reminded one of gothic architecture, though the glass was dusty or partially broken. As they neared the door, rusty iron plates caught the eye. In some places, vines and ivy wrapped around the walls, as though nature itself was trying to reclaim the house. The door handle looked heavy and old.
The area around the house was eerily quiet, almost abandoned, but upon closer inspection, small details hinted that a dark presence still resided there.
Raika trembled so much, it was as though one could feel it from miles away.
"Ah, wait a second, I'll be right back!" she tried to escape, but it was futile—he had already grabbed her shoulder.
"Don't worry, friend, it's quite friendly," he smiled, though it was so fake that even a poisonous apple would have looked normal next to it.
Raika didn't just tremble now; she stammered, her pupils shrinking as she saw imaginary bats and lightning emerging from the house.
The man approached the old doorknob but before he could knock, the door opened on its own.
This translation sticks closely to the tone and style often found in WebNovels, with a focus on action, character interactions, and vivid descriptions. Let me know if you'd like to make any changes or further tweaks!