STM 44

“Your Grace! Have you seen the gifts Adeye sent?”

Rick ran all the way to the training grounds to find Tairok and waved the list in his hand the moment he saw him.

Tairok had just finished sword practice and was catching his breath when he turned to look at his first aide. Rick, who had clearly run the whole way, was panting even harder than Tairok but still spoke loudly.

“My goodness, the gifts… are incredible!”

Rick rarely made a fuss, so if he was reacting like this, Adeye must have sent something truly extraordinary. Even so, Tairok didn’t glance at the paper listing the items.

“Your Grace, it’s really amazing! They say after Adeye Lu nearly died, Adeye Lantuya started treating him like treasure, and it must be true. Otherwise, why would they return the Onali Plains they took from us, just because Your Grace saved Lu?”

Tairok paused, he even lifted an eyebrow and looked over. Rick, encouraged by his reaction, shook the paper more eagerly.

“That’s not all. The gifts from Adeye are enough to buy a small city…”

“Send them back.”

Rick immediately shut his mouth. When he didn’t answer, Tairok smiled crookedly.

“If you want to buy a city, say so. I’ll sell you off to cover the cost.”

“…No, that’s not it. But why, Your Grace? I understand how you feel. Adeye has always been a thorn in our side, so of course you’d hate anything coming from them.”

“That’s not it.”

No? Then why? Rick barely managed to not ask.

“Your Grace.”

“I’ve never done anything that deserves thanks.”

“How can you say that? You saved Adeye Lu’s life!”

Rick gripped the list tightly, unwilling to give it up, and nearly shouted. But Tairok still didn’t even glance at him, he clearly wouldn’t accept the gifts. Instead, he drove his sword into the ground and asked curtly,

“Is he alive?”

“Adeye Lu? Yes, he’s still alive. Apparently that frail Adeye Lantuya hasn’t slept properly for three days while taking care of him.”

Rick’s answer made Tairok stopped for a moment.

“They have every renowned healer on the continent with them, so he’s still breathing, but they say he’s between life and death. Hearing he’s died any time now wouldn’t be strange.”

“…”

“Even so, Your Grace, you’re the one who pulled him from the pond when he almost died. That money-obsessed Lantuya sent this gift because of that…wait, where are you going?”

“To warm up.”

Tairok drew his sword again and walked to the center of the training ground. Rick stared at him, eyes wide with disbelief.

He had spent three straight days hunting monsters since returning from the Central Temple and hadn’t rested once, and now he was going to train again? But even that wasn’t the biggest problem.

“Your Grace! You can return the other gifts, but can’t we at least keep the Onali Plains?! Your Grace!”

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For the past few years, most things that woke me from sleep were alarms. As the captain, I always took charge, and even when resting during outside patrols, I was the first to open my eyes and check my surroundings.

Even if I died, I had to be first.

That was my rule as leader. Only after returning to the shelter could I finally sleep peacefully.

Later, I somehow ended up in charge there too, so I had to stay alert and watch everything. Everyone above me had already died.

So it felt strange to wake not to an alarm but to people’s voices. They were talking close enough that I could hear every word clearly. It was Doctor Kim and Solongo.

“So, you’re saying that pond might be the entrance to the non-human world?”

“Yes. The way Grand Duke Kun suddenly jumped in, and judging by how the High Priest Cheki and her disciple reacted, it seems they definitely sensed something when Lord Lu fell into the pond.”

“The non-human world… could it really be the Forest of Crimson Waves?”

“I looked into it, and it seems there’s an old story saying the Central Temple was built on a place connected to the non-human world. There are no proper records, and it was only passed down by word of mouth, so almost no one knows about it.”

“So Lu found the entrance.”

“Yes. Lord Lu found it at the risk of his life.”

“Then he deserves to be paid for that life.”

“Of course. Lord Lu must be properly compensated for the state he ended up in.”

I had no intention of joining their conversation, but that changed when they started talking about me.

“Who’s in what state? I just woke up, and I’m fine.”

Honestly, I had just opened my eyes, so I wasn’t fully awake yet. I pushed myself up and looked around first. I was in my room at the Adeye estate.

I was sure I had fainted after coming out of the pond.

I didn’t know how long I’d slept, but my body felt fine, just like I said. Actually, I felt refreshed. Yet both Doctor Kim and Solonggo just stared at me without saying a word.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You woke up after three days. We’re allowed to look.”

I blinked, not believing what I’d just heard. I’d really slept that long? When I turned to Solongo to check, she asked calmly,

“Lord Lu, how is your body?”

“I feel great. I slept so well it’s refreshing.”

At my answer, Solongo gave a small nod.

“I see. So that’s why you were snoring so loudly.”

“…I was a little tired lately.”

“Who told you to train so much?”

Doctor Kim intervened, and started scolding me. Out of everything, that was the last kind of nagging I wanted to hear.

“What do you expect when my stamina’s garbage?”

“With that garbage stamina, Lu still managed to roll around with at least three men a day.”

“…I guess his mental strength was impressive.”

“So stop worrying about stamina and just use this as a chance to lie down and act sick.”

“I wasn’t pretending to be sick, I was actually asleep. And who woke me up? You two were making too much noise…”

“Then go back to sleep.”

“I slept so long my back hurts.”

“His back hurts!”

Solongo suddenly raised her voice, and the healers rushed in, flipping me over and pounding all over my body. It was hard enough to make me gasp.

The way they treated me made external shock therapy seem gentle, and they only stopped when I was about ready to die for real this time, then they left.

What the hell… huh? My back doesn’t hurt anymore.

While I poked at my waist in disbelief, the two of them kept talking as if I didn’t exist.

When I listened closely, they were busy planning how to use me as an excuse to squeeze money out of the temple. And as if that wasn’t enough, Doctor Kim took it further.

“Since Lu’s noble sacrifice proved the temple’s legend was true, tell them to rename the pond Adeye Trading Company Pond.”

“Brilliant idea. I’ll come up with a marketing plan tying the pond’s legend to the company’s promotion.”

I interrupted them again.

“Using the company name on it sounds cheap.”

They both turned to me with the same look.

“What do you know about business?” That’s what their eyes said, and it hurt my pride a little. I’d made plenty of secondhand deals back in the day.

“I’m just saying, logically…”

“If I ran my business with logic, I’d have gone bankrupt ages ago.”

She was a born trader. I had no idea how she’d ended up in academia instead. I looked at her with admiration and disbelief, then objected again.

“But what sacrifice are we talking about? I just fainted, that’s all.”

“No, you’re standing between life and death.”

“I’m perfectly fine.”

“That’s your story. To everyone else, you’re barely hanging on, so act like it.”

Doctor Kim only gave the conclusion, but Solongo added the reasoning.

“When you collapsed, the temple said anyone who touched the non-human world without invitation would die.”

Ah, that.

I remembered Tairok saying the same thing before I passed out, that it would drain my life force.

But I really was fine.

I looked down and checked myself carefully, but nothing hurt.

“Lord Lu must have survived because he could communicate with the diamond. But if that gets revealed, your ability will be exposed. So for now, we’ve announced that you narrowly escaped death again. We also requested compensation from the temple while we’re at it.”

That last part sounded like the real reason.

“So now everyone knows about the pond, right? Even Borhumi’s side, the ones searching for the Sword of Silence?”

I pushed myself up and looked between them.

“If Adeye Trading Company makes a show of it and brands the pond with their name, the attention will keep Borhumi away for a while.”

When I caught on to their plan, Solongo looked at me, a bit surprised.

“You’re not as stupid as I thought.”

Excuse me?

“I’m from Incheon. I’m not stupid.”

Doctor Kim nodded in agreement, showing her biased affection for a fellow local. But what she said next didn’t make me happy.

“That’s exactly why you ended up in danger in front of Tairok and got rescued by him. They say Grand Duke Kun Tairok carried you out of the pond in his arms like a princess.”

“Yes, anyone watching would’ve thought you were lovers.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

I protested, but neither of them looked at me. Doctor Kim just smiled, she was too amused to stop.