The Novel's Extra - Side Story 86 – What If Story (1)

Yoo Yeonha woke up before sunrise. She stayed still with her eyes open for a while before she yawned and stretched.

“Yawn…”

She checked the time. It was three thirty in the morning. She went to bed around one, so she slept around two hours and thirty minutes.

She got up and opened the curtains. It was raining outside.

“Yaaawn…”

She yawned again. Strangely enough, she felt refreshed even though she only slept for two hours. In fact, it felt as if she slept a good eight hours.

Was this bed really that good or…?

Yoo Yeonha pressed the mattress a few times before she suddenly felt someone’s gaze.

“Kyahk! You scared me!” she screamed after seeing Kim Hajin peeking at her from between the small gap in the door.

He was holding a mug and sipping what she assumed was either coffee or red tea.

“What are you doing?!” Yoo Yeonha shouted while arranging her messy hair.

However, Kim Hajin looked surprisingly calm. No, he even looked at her in disbelief.

“What…? What’s your problem…?” Yoo Yeonha asked.

“This is my room,” Kim Hajin replied.

Yoo Yeonha froze. This was her mansion, but she was currently on the third floor that her special attendants used. Her personal space began from the fourth to sixth floors. This meant the third floor was technically his floor.

“I don’t recall allowing you to peek!” Yoo Yeonha retorted.

“Hey, this is my room. I already told you. You should’ve gone to sleep in your room,” Kim Hajin nonchalantly replied while looking straight at her.

Yoo Yeonha avoided his eyes and grumbled with a pout, “… But this is my house.”

“Fine, I’ll just resign and move out then,” Kim Hajin replied with a shrug.

He was currently working as Yoo Yeonha’s bodyguard. She highly valued his abilities and found it a shame when he dropped out of Cube.

However, she ran into him by pure coincidence two years after he dropped out and managed to hire him after offering an excellent package.

Of course, he didn’t live on the third floor right away. He commuted to work like others for around six months, but he was soon made to stay after his work requirements changed.

“Forget about it. I’ll let it slide just this once.”

“Let what slide…?”

“I said I’ll let you off the hook! Now move.”

Yoo Yeonha shoved Kim Hajin aside and left the room. She sat on the couch in the living room with the mug of coffee that Kim Hajin prepared for her.

She switched her smartwatch on and browsed the news.

[Yoo Yeonha’s involvement in the guild… Will it lead to mutiny?]

[Yoo Jinwoong is silent as usual.]

[An anonymous report says that…]

The whole world was gossiping about her and her name was being thrown all over the place.

“Haa…” she let out a sigh.

She was getting head-splitting migraines from this involvement and the mutiny they were talking about.

“You have a press conference today,” Kim Hajin said as he followed her to the living room.

“So what…?” Yoo Yeonha curtly replied.

“Aren’t you going to prepare for it?”

“I already did.”

Yoo Yeonha had been on the edge ever since news of her excessive involvement in the guild was published. No, she was already quite sensitive long before that. However, the news made her even more sensitive and she barely got any sleep for two entire weeks.

By sheer coincidence, she happened to lie on Kim Hajin’s bed. She didn’t have much expectations for it, but the bed turned out to be extremely comfortable.

After that day, she had been stealing Kim Hajin’s bed and sleeping on it ever since.

It was still a mystery why the bed felt so comfortable and helped her sleep, but she definitely knew that it wasn’t because of him…

Kim Hajin sat beside her, but Yoo Yeonha moved away from him.

“Don’t worry about me and just focus on your work.”

“My work is protecting you.”

“It’s guarding, not protecting.”

“That’s that.”

Kim Hajin laughed while Yoo Yeonha glared at him with discontent. To be honest, Kim Hajin had been too relaxed around her these days. He did renew his contract and got a huge raise after that incident, but he hadn’t been doing anything for the past eighteen months aside from making fun of his employer.

Yoo Yeonha got up and said, “I’m going now. I’ll leave arranging the bed to you since I’ll be using it again tomorrow.”

“Whoa, first it was excessive involvement and now you’re power-tripping?”

“Damn you!” Yoo Yeonha growled before she jabbed her elbow at his head and stormed off.

“Kekeke!” Kim Hajin burst into laughter and fell on his back.

Meanwhile, Yoo Yeonha trembled in anger as she heard him cackle. Strangely enough, her body was trembling to the beat of his laughter, which annoyed her even more…

***

There was a saying, ‘If you can’t avoid it, just enjoy it.’

I used to be immature and said that I would never do something I didn’t want to, but I learned how to compromise as time went by.

A human’s brain was quite the fascinating thing. It would boost the other half’s output if half of it wasn’t being used. As if it was forcing us to not even spare a glance at closed doors or waste our time knocking on them.

Thanks to that, I became a part of this world and adapted because I couldn’t do anything about it.

This was a world I created, but all of the episodes I created disappeared and I wasn’t able to return to my own world.

— … The team leader is entering the conference room.

One of the bodyguards reported through my earpiece. I didn’t bother responding and just acted immediately after hearing the report. I enjoyed a certain level of independence compared to Yoo Yeonha’s other bodyguards. That was all thanks to the big thing I did around a year ago.

“There she is!”

“Get the camera ready!”

The conference room started to get rowdy and the doors soon opened. I observed Yoo Yeonha walking towards the podium. There wasn’t a single part of her that looked disheveled like this morning.

She was walking with a straight and confident posture in formal attire.

Yoo Yeonha walked to the front of the podium and flashed a smile before greeting the reporters on the front line.

“Hello, how have you been?”

“Huh…? Ah, y-yes. Good. Hahaha…”

Yoo Yeonha gently nodded in response before she went up to the podium and started her speech without a single paper in hand, “I am here today to refute all of the rumors about me…”

The press conference started and I observed the entire thing. Yoo Yeonha confidently articulated and delivered her speech to quell the rumors, but the reporters barraged her with both legitimate and baseless questions.

However, she replied to their questions and skillfully avoided the ones that were difficult to answer. She was doing quite well, but the main problem was the number of enemies. There were roughly six to seven hundred reporters in the conference room and all of them were out to get her.

Yoo Yeonha did her best to answer as many questions as she could, but the press conference soon came to a close as there wasn’t enough time to respond to everyone’s questions.

“I will show with my actions instead of words from now on,” Yoo Yeonha said.

“What do you mean by that? How will you show it by actions?”

“Is Essence of the Straits a kingdom?! Why the nepotism?!”

The reporters that didn’t get their turn shouted at the top of their lungs when Yoo Yeonha tried to end the press conference, but she flat-out ignored them and left the room.

It was now my turn. I ran up to her and blocked off the cameras and reporters trying to get close to her. I was quite good at it as I had the gift, [Bodyguard].

“Wow, you were quite eloquent,” I praised her.

The team leader, Yoo Yeonha, gritted her teeth while trying her best to not smile after getting praised.

***

Our way back after the intense press conference was no different from a war.

Yoo Yeonha wiped her eyes with her sleeve and was surprised when there was a droplet of water. She discreetly looked sideways and saw Kim Hajin busily on his smartwatch.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Nothing, just reading the news.”

“What news?”

“Your news,” he replied before projecting a hologram.

[Yoo Yeonha from Essence of the Straits has refuted all allegations of excessive involvement…]

[Yoo Yeonha’s tear-jerking effort to wash her image…]

“They say it was tear-jerking.”

“Hey… I told you to stop that…”

Yoo Yeonha waved her hand over the hologram and cleared it away. Her information guild was already analyzing the media’s reaction to the press conference, so she wanted to avoid seeing these tabloid-like headlines for the sake of her mental health.

“Hey, I’m asking this just in case, but can we proceed with the hunt?” Kim Hajin asked.

Yoo Yeonha had to busily move about starting next week to solidify her position as the team leader. The main reason there were such rumors about her in the first place was due to the prejudice that Yoo Yeonha was not talented enough to be a hero.

“I have to. People are calling me an administrator instead of a hero.”

“Really? Then I’m taking tomorrow off.”

“I know right? Does it make sense for them to say this about someone who graduated ninth from Cube?!”

“… Are you even listening to me?”

“What?”

Kim Hajin smirked in response. Yoo Yeonha found his smirk to be quite annoying.

“Sigh…”

In the end, she could only sigh in resignation and looked out the window.

The limousine soon reached the mansion gates and both of them got off at the parking lot.

Clack… Clack…

Kim Hajin suddenly extended his hand towards her, but Yoo Yeonha flinched and distanced herself from him.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“It tried to bite you,” he replied as he opened his hand to show a mosquito.

Yoo Yeonha frowned and grumbled, “… You’re quite the odd one.”

“That’s good to know.”

***

The third floor of Yoo Yeonha’s mansion, which was basically my house, was filled with all sorts of furniture I created with [Dexterity] and [Stigma]. Not only that, all of them possessed a special effect.

For example, anyone who saw a portrait that I randomly scribbled would feel at ease. Anyone who sat on the chair I made would feel their spine and pelvic bone realign and anyone who slept on the bed I made would feel all their fatigue wash away.

These were all extremely practical, yet magical effects.

“I should probably make her a bed…”

That was probably the main reason our esteemed team leader took over my room in the first place. I could see her burying herself in my bed and sleeping with a smile like a kitten.

“Hmm… Rather than that…”

I went over the news articles.

Yoo Yeonha’s excessive involvement was a part of the story setting I wrote, but I never expected it to happen as all of the story settings I wrote were removed.

“What should I do…” I rubbed my chin and contemplated.

First off, I wasn’t sure if this episode would play out as I wrote it or if it would branch off in a different direction.

I couldn’t help but hope that this wouldn’t cause significant damage to Yoo Yeonha. I mean, I guess she kind of grew on me these past two years. More importantly, she was the key to my retirement…

Not because she was my employer, but because most of my investments were tied to Essence of the Straits’ stocks.

“Tsk…”

I confirmed that she was fast asleep before I went over to the armory on the third floor.

***

The next morning, Yoo Yeonha didn’t pressure her team to perform in this hunt. After all, she was the one who had something to prove and not her team.

She leisurely stepped on the field just as she always did with her six teammates right behind her.

“Alright, we’re going to report this dungeon,” Yoo Yeonha said with a smile while looking down a small hidden passage.

Finding this hidden dungeon was one of her main accomplishments today.

“Yes, ma’am!”

Yoo Yeonha smiled before she turned around and radioed someone.

The new recruit who was taking pictures of the dungeon entrance raised a brow and looked at Yoo Yeonha.

“Who is team leader talking to?”

“Hmm? Ah, that one?” Lee Hojun, a third year hero and warrior, flashed a grin. “That’s probably the security team.”

“Huh? The security team?”

“Yeah, we were ambushed once before. The team leader has made it a habit to frequently stay in touch with them. I mean, you probably heard of that incident a year and a half ago, right?”

“Oh, right… Was team leader there as well?”

“Yep.”

The new recruit’s face darkened as he recalled the worst catastrophe of this decade that resulted in thousands of civilian casualties.

Something certainly changed in the team leader after that incident.

“Are you there?”

— Yeah, I’m watching over you right now. Why?

“… Don’t respond so late.”

— There are no threats around you.

“Tsk… Alright…”

Yoo Yeonha clicked her tongue and faced her team members with a bright smile.

“So, how does it look?” Yoo Yeonha asked.

“We reported our findings. We can go in as soon as we get permission,” one of the team members replied.

“I see. That’s great news,” Yoo Yeonha said with a nod.