Chapter 91: Edmund The Barber

"Ahh, what?"

"Can you cut my hair?"

I blinked.

I looked at Mary, then at the others, waiting for someone to laugh and tell me it was a joke.

Nobody did. Everyone seemed perfectly calm, as though asking a man to hold a blade beside someone’s skull was the most ordinary request in the world.

"Why not Arthur, Theodore, or Sera?" I asked carefully.

Mary tilted her head slightly.

"Because I would like my hair to remain hair. Not filled with plants, stinking of meat, or set on fire."

I stared at her. ’Reasonable.’

Painfully so.

’Somehow, I am the normal one here. What a terrifying thought.’

"Why, though? That style suits you."

It wasn’t an excuse. Her raven-black hair had grown almost to her shoulders, and its natural volume framed her face in a way that softened her sharp features and made her shiny brown eyes stand out even more.

"Uhh... thank you, I guess?"

She ran her fingers through the ends and laughed, a little embarrassed. "But I don’t have time to brush it every day. And if I keep neglecting it, you might mistake me for an unorthodox creature one day."

I chuckled. ’She’s talking more nowadays.’

When we first met, pulling more than three words out of her had felt like pulling teeth from a sleeping dragon. Now she was making jokes. Progress came in strange forms.

Before I could answer, another voice joined in.

"Can you cut mine as well?"

I turned toward Sera.

[Quest Activated!]

[Quest: Accept Her Request]

[Reward: 10 Plot Points]

[Failure Would Result In Drop In Physical Strength]

[Time: 1 Hour]

’Hehehe.’

My eyes narrowed. Free Plot Points, just sitting there, waiting for me to be kind.

"Sure," I said immediately.

Arthur and Theodore looked at me. Then they looked at each other. Then, in perfect unison, they smiled. "Mr. Edmund," Arthur said sweetly, "could you cut ours as well?"

I opened my mouth.

I had many things to say, and most of them involved questioning why their ancestors had decided that having children was a good idea.

In the end, I closed it.

"...Alright."

My gaze slid toward Lee, who had suddenly become very interested in the back of his own head. He was rubbing it slowly, eyes fixed on a point in the middle distance.

"Pfft."

I couldn’t help it.

"Fine. I’ll do everyone. But I’m not a barber, so don’t expect miracles."

"That’s fine!" Arthur said cheerfully.

’Why does that sentence feel like it is going to haunt me?’

Lee finally handed me the scissors. They were plain, but the edges gleamed sharp and cold in the firelight. I turned them over once, feeling the weight of a responsibility I had never asked for.

’Do not butcher anyone. Do not butcher anyone.’

"Sit," I said to Mary.

She obeyed without complaint and turned her back to me. Her black hair spilled over her shoulders and down her spine like spilled ink.

I gathered it in one hand.

"How much?"

"Enough that it stops being a problem."

"That is not a measurement lady."

She laughed quietly and raised a hand to mark a spot near her neck. "Around here?"

"Got it."

I did not want to ruin her hair just because I had been handed a pair of scissors and far too much confidence. So I separated it into sections first, working out the tangles with my fingers and taking my time.

"Ready?"

"Mm."

Snip!

The sound echoed far too loudly in the silence. A thick lock of black hair fell free into my palm, and I quickly moved it aside before it could drift onto her clothes.

’One section down.’

I worked carefully, stepping back every so often to compare both sides. Whenever one looked longer, I trimmed it. It wasn’t exactly professional work, but at least she wouldn’t walk away with one side at her shoulder and the other at her chin.

The front was the delicate part. I left the strands around her face longer and trimmed only the uneven ends, letting them fall naturally along her cheeks. Then I swept the upper portion backward, twisted the longer length at the back, and secured it neatly so it stayed compact.

I stepped back. "...Done."

Mary turned around.

I braced myself for the question. Does it look terrible?

Instead, she touched the side of her hair. Her expression slowly changed.

"How does it look?" she asked the others.

"It suits you," Sera said, smiling.

"Much better!" Arthur said.

Theodore raised a thumb without a word.

Mary looked back at me. "And you?"

I studied her. The swept-back hair gave her face a cleaner, sharper outline, and a few shorter strands still framed it softly. It was far more practical than before, and it hadn’t stolen what made the old style good.

"You look good."

She smiled. "Then I suppose it was worth it."

’Thank God.’

One down. Three to go.

"Sera. Your turn."

She sat in front of me. "Only a little, please. Just the ends." She hesitated. "And I want more volume."

"...Volume?"

"Yes."

"Right."

I nodded gravely, like a man who understood. I absolutely did not.

’What does that even mean?’

I decided not to ask. Instead, I trimmed her ends in small, uneven cuts at slightly different angles, never enough to look messy, only enough to stop them from hanging like a flat curtain.

"How’s that?"

She ran her fingers through her hair, turned her head left and right, and smiled.

"Much better."

I nodded with enormous confidence.

’Of course. Whatever I just did, apparently that was volume.’

Arthur was next. His blonde hair had grown rebellious, curling outward at the sides and dangling over his eyes in the front. I trimmed the sides, then the back, cutting conservatively because the hair wasn’t bad, only overgrown. Finally I lifted the strands over his forehead and shortened them just enough to sit naturally.

"There."

"How does it look?" he asked Theodore.

"Good."

He grinned like the sun had personally complimented him.

’Another one survived.’

Theodore sat down with noticeably less enthusiasm. The front was fine. The sides were fine.

The back... I stared.

’What the f*ck happened here?’

A strange, uneven patch marked where his hair began at the nape, as if it had decided halfway through growing that symmetry was overrated.

"What happened?"

He shrugged. "I don’t know."

"Fair."

I trimmed a little, checked, then trimmed a little more. Slowly, the damage faded into something almost normal.

"That’s it?" he asked, touching the back of his head.

"That’s it."

"Thanks."

I handed the scissors back to Lee and looked around. Mary’s hair was neat and swept back. Sera’s ends had texture. Arthur looked clean and bright. Theodore no longer looked like he had been attacked by a bird.

And Lee...

"You don’t want one?"

"Nah."

"Sure?"

"Yeah."

I sighed and sat down on the rock, feeling as though I had fought a war. Every muscle ached, and I hadn’t even lifted anything heavier than scissors.

"Why did I agree to this?"

"Because you’re a nice person," Arthur said.

I looked at him.

"...Don’t say things like that. It makes it hard to stay angry."

Sera burst out laughing. Mary covered her mouth, shoulders shaking. Even Theodore’s lips curved upward.

I leaned back and exhaled slowly.

[Quest Completed!]

[Reward: 10 Plot Points Received!]

A smile crept onto my face.

’Worth it.’