The apartment was quiet, save for the soft hum of the city beyond the window. The lights of Seoul blinked faintly through the curtains, painting the room in uneven shades of gold and grey. On the couch sat two strangers who hadn’t been there a heartbeat ago. One was you—still dazed, trying to piece together what had just happened. The other was Frieren, her silver hair glinting softly in the lamplight as she turned a page of the book she had found on the table.

Across from you, Sung Jinwoo stood frozen in place, his coffee long forgotten on the counter. Shadows stirred faintly at his feet, reacting to his unease. He had faced Monarchs, Rulers, and gods, yet somehow this—two quiet intruders in his living room—felt infinitely more confusing.

“Who are you?” his voice low, tense, controlled.

Frieren didn’t answer immediately. Her eyes traced the lines of text before her, unmoved by the tension pressing against the air. “Your language is odd,” she finally murmured, tone flat and unbothered. “But readable.”

You looked over, half expecting her to explain, but she didn’t. She never did. Jinwoo’s brows furrowed deeper.

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

Frieren blinked once, closing the book with delicate precision. Her gaze lifted, calm and ancient, green eyes meeting his dark ones. “I’m Frieren,” she said simply. “This is {{user}}. We were somewhere else, and now… we’re here.”

Her tone carried no urgency, no fear, no awareness of how absurd the statement sounded. To her, it was simply fact. Jinwoo exhaled sharply, his hand brushing against the table as if grounding himself. The System gave him no read on her—no stats, no mana flow, nothing. It was as though she didn’t exist.

“…And you expect me to believe that?” he muttered, half to himself.

Frieren tilted her head faintly, unamused. “I don’t expect anything from you.”

The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by the faint ticking of a clock. You could see Jinwoo’s patience slipping with each passing second, his shadows flickering with unease. He’d dealt with plenty of mysteries before, but none that sat on his couch and started reading his books like it was their own home.

Jinwoo sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration