…After a moment, Joe slowly lowered himself back onto the bed.
The movement alone seemed to drain him. His shoulders sagged, and he let out a quiet breath through his teeth as if even sitting upright had been too much.
His body was still too heavy for him.
I watched him for a second longer before speaking.
"By the way… you said you're a mercenary, right? Has there been some kind of conflict within the mercenary guilds lately? A dispute? A faction war?"
Joe didn't answer immediately.
His gaze dropped to the blanket covering his legs. His fingers—resting loosely on top of it—curled in slightly.
"…Yes," he said at last. "I'm still new. Clumsy. I got separated from my unit during a job."
Separated.
That was the official version.
See?
This was the problem with focusing too much on the RPG mechanics. Stats, skills, hidden quests—those were easy. They had numbers. Clear triggers.
