NOVEL NEXT Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Knowing the content of the novel, it wasn’t a problem at all to pamper Aria. Even by just following the original route, luxury was an open door.
“But until then, I have to protect my daily life.”
I needed to maintain this daily routine until Aria was adopted by the Count’s Family. By Aria’s side, I would protect her as her sword.
I slowly moved my heavy legs, soaked and weighing down like cotton in water. I had just consoled Aria, who was nagging me to rest, and stepped out.
“I need to hurry.”
After checking the time, I clicked my tongue. I had about ten minutes left until the fixed appointment time of 6 PM.
After days of hunting Monsters, I wrenched the old and worn mana circuit into action. As my insides churned, the mana wrapped around my feet. I lightly leapt into the air.
I had a client I had been dealing with for two years. We always met in the bustling and flashy Sun Temple Street in the capital.
“This client is really strange.”
I lightly sighed, thinking of this odd yet familiar client. Every time we met, they pulled some sort of antics that drove me up the wall.
As I stepped into a dim and deserted alleyway, a clean and upscale restaurant stood alone at the end of the path.
Helene.
It operated strictly by reservation, located in such a remote area that most people didn’t even know it existed. Admission was only possible while wearing a mask, making it the perfect meeting place for high-ranking individuals. Even the prices reflected that.
Since my client always paid for the meals, I had been unaware of the prices here for a long time.
“Is this… real gold by any chance?”
“It’s edible gold, so you don’t need to worry about it. Would you like me to throw it away if you don’t like it?”
“Are you crazy? Why would I throw this away?!”
Then, on a day when I was served truffles sprinkled with edible gold dust, after checking the menu with fear over the prices, I felt like I was eating diamonds every time we had a meal.
After donning a black mask that revealed only my eyes and jaw, and even wearing a voice-modulating magical device, I cleared my throat.
“Ah, ah.”
A voice that was barely recognizable in terms of gender escaped me.
It was time to work as the mercenary “Mir.”
The restaurant was truly a place that could be described as having thrown money around. The interior was crowded with nobles wearing flashy masks.
Surprised gazes brushed against my skin. Amidst the luxurious attire, I was like a crow wrapped in a black cloak among a flock of peacocks.
“The black disaster, Mir?”
“That can’t be. Why would he be in a place like this…”
“But I heard rumors he comes around here often.”
“There are plenty of people trying to imitate Mir. Most mercenaries are like that these days.”
“That’s true.”
As a stir spread around the restaurant area, the murmurs slowly faded.
As the name of mercenary “Mir” gained recognition, the number of mercenaries attempting to imitate his unusual attire grew exponentially. Among the mercenaries, two out of ten wore such attire, so even if I moved around without disguise, they would automatically misunderstand that I wasn’t Mir.
“It’s an honor to have you here. Do you have a reservation?”
The waiter bowed politely. I nodded slightly.
“I have an appointment with Sky at noon.”
The waiter’s gaze changed instantly. It was a sudden comment, but everyone who needed to understand it would catch on.
“……I see. What would you like for your meal?”
“I think a steak paired with red champagne and sunny-side up eggs is perfect for a sunny day like today.”
Today had been dreary all day long, so there was definitely no red champagne, which was clearly nonsense, yet the waiter nodded briefly and pointed towards the inner private room.
“I’ll take you to see Sky.”
Following the leading waiter, I made my way to a familiar place.
Meetings with my client, who introduced themself as “Sky,” always took place in Helene’s VIP room.
“Have a pleasant time.”
As the waiter guided me to the last room in the hallway, he bowed and left.
“Let’s do well today…”
As a mercenary, I had met countless clients. I had also encountered strange humans in droves.
Yet this client was uniquely odd.
Determined not to get caught up in their antics this time, I turned the round doorknob and opened it.
The room was brilliantly luxurious enough to be believed as the imperial palace’s reception room. In the sparkling space, I felt like a bacterium in a sterile room.
Inside, there were four attendants, all clad in knightly attire. Passing familiar faces, I walked towards the client in question.
A figure covered by a white cloak. A mask similar to mine, with bright silver eyes sparkling conspicuously in between.
His clear, transparent gaze resembled that of a child who had only just seen the world. I felt I could not tell any lies before him. The faint scent of lilies brushed against my nose.
“Have you been well, Minister?”
After a brief bow, I exchanged the customary greeting. He turned his head away from the window to face me.
“Isn’t there a title you asked me to call you instead of Minister?”
His red lips formed a beautiful arc. It felt embarrassing to meet such a lovely smile, like that of a blooming lily.
“……Have you been well, El?”
I stammered, awkwardly bringing up the title he had requested again. El smiled gently.
Despite my intentions to keep my distance from the client, I found it problematic that my tension eased when I was with El.
“Sit comfortably.”
I sat across from El as I was used to. As El waved his hand, the attendants exited in unison.
“Is he not afraid of being alone with the Sword Master, or does he trust I won’t harm him?”
I clicked my tongue in my mind. To be left alone in front of a Sword Master without any means of self-defense was tantamount to putting your life on the line. El was excessively lacking in a sense of danger.
“Have you been doing well?”
I exchanged polite greetings. El slowly rolled his eyes.
“Life in the temple is always the same. Dull and mundane.”
Propping his chin, El flicked the flowers in the vase on the table. His languid gaze turned toward me.
“So I was counting the days for our meeting. You always make me feel good.”
El’s eyes looked at me as if they were gazing at something dearly loved, sparkly and mesmerizing.
“Just words I cannot understand.”
I let out a faint sigh. Even with his face hidden, the handsome client always stated ambiguous things that could easily be misinterpreted, while revealing nothing of his honest thoughts.
“……The leather of a Claki and the blood of a Madorus.”
Avoiding El’s penetrating gaze, I pulled out a small pouch. The pouch connected to a vast space was filled with the byproducts obtained after days and nights of hunting Monsters.
“You always work hard. Here’s your payment.”
Without even checking inside the pouch, El handed me a white paper bag. During the exchange, his fingertips slowly brushed against the back of my hand.
“Payment…”
I gazed at the paper bag for a long time.
It was the reward for my laborious efforts. I planned to use this to buy medicine for Aria.
However, even in the presence of money, I couldn’t feel joy.
“El has been known to pull antics more than once.”
Four times a month, I sold him useful byproducts obtained from hunting Monsters, and he would pay me. To this point, everything was normal.
What was strange was that the amounts he handed me were always fixed at one thousand gold.
A hundred gold was an amount close to a commoner’s monthly living expenses. One thousand gold was enough to buy a bottle of the Fairy Forest’s miraculous potion.
“The monsters that appear vary depending on the region and the season. The value of the byproducts obtained from hunting also varies.”
The monster byproducts I brought could fluctuate in value by location and time. Thus, to pay me a fixed amount of one thousand gold for them was allegedly a loss on his part, as I had explained to him numerous times, yet El always insisted on providing me with a considerable sum without question.
“Moreover, he always plays with the payment.”
The days I spent shocked and horrified at his antics felt endless.
Under El’s pushing for me to open it, I reluctantly opened the bag and pulled out the check. I sighed deeply.
“……Minister.”
“El.”
“El.”
“Yes.”
The smirk on his lips could hardly be contained. I sighed once more.
“From the promised payment… one more zero has been added.”
Ten thousand gold.
My client was quite the madman.
“I see.”
El shrugged his shoulders and lifted his teacup. I was about to lose my mind.
“I see? Is that it?”
Ten thousand gold was not an amount to joke about. It was money that I could barely earn after half a year of being trampled by Monsters and struggling.
“No matter how much of a minister you are—.”
I gripped the check tightly in my hand.
El never explicitly revealed his identity, yet he made no efforts to hide it either. My rough guess about his identity pointed to the Minister. El didn’t refute it when I called him Minister, so I was half convinced he was indeed one.
“A Minister is someone I can hardly look up to.”
The temple and the imperial family co-rule the Solatine Empire, where the temple wielded immense power.
Politics was divided among the pro-emperor faction, the noble faction, and the temple faction, so the Pope of the temple was on par with the Emperor, while the Minister matched the Marquis.
“Then why does this Minister continue to meet with me, and act as if he can’t wait to give me money?”
I couldn’t understand El.
“Just take it, it’s my fault.”
El shrugged. Even the way he elegantly tilted his teacup resembled a piece of artwork.
I sighed and returned the check to him.
“I can’t accept this kind of money. It’s excessive.”
“Not excessive at all. It’s your blood price.”
El’s serene gaze and lowered voice were somehow sorrowful, leaving me momentarily at a loss for words.
“What do you know…?”
I squeezed my knees that were placed on my thighs tightly.
I had never regretted my bloody life as a mercenary. It was my choice. Even though I had experienced loss and faced danger every day, I had no shame in the path I had walked.
“But you don’t understand anything.”
How dare you speak of my blood price? My tightly clenched hands trembled.
The esteemed Minister couldn’t possibly understand the life of a lowly mercenary who lived off borrowed life. I felt deceived.
“Minister! Don’t deceive me any further.”
Grinding my teeth, I threw the check at him. I didn’t want to be his plaything anymore.
“……Can’t you just accept it?”
“Minister!”
“I’m really just inviting you without any intent! Why can’t you always take my pure goodwill at face value? Why do you always refuse to pay back my kindness? You did it too! For no reason, you…!”
With a strained expression, he suddenly closed his mouth.
“……What about you?”
I furrowed my brows. El, with a flustered expression, avoided my gaze.
“Nothing, nothing at all.”
‘Suspicious.’
I sighed, narrowing my eyes at his reaction.
“Let’s stop with the jokes here. One thousand gold is already excessive.”
One thousand gold was excessive. I had worked so hard hunting and had never once brought back anything worth close to one thousand gold.
I wasn’t someone who could happily accept unfounded goodwill.
“……I’m sorry if I upset you. However, I truly am not mocking you, Mir.”
El looked at me with sorrowful eyes. Seeing his deflated expression, I felt inexplicably guilty.
I knew that El wasn’t the type to pull these stunts to deceive me. I was sensitive to falsehoods and malice. Someone who sought to make a fool out of me wouldn’t possess such eyes.
“If this were a matter of pride, I could’ve easily received it without a second thought.”
Gazing into the void, I let out a heavy sigh.
I once crawled like a dog before nobles to earn money. Pride, in essence, was virtually nonexistent to me.
“But still, I cannot accept unjust money.”
Despite having abandoned all that pride and holding onto a sense of dignity, I had never accepted unjust money.
“I must have principles. Make sure they are your own, which do not waver even in the face of time and circumstance.”
Once, my mentor taught me that. I followed this principle: though I abandoned my pride, I built my own belief.
Refusing El’s payment was my principle. Even if some might scoff at a poor mercenary like me having principles, it remained my justice that I wanted to protect.
“I won’t accept unjust payment.”
I would take what I earned, and I won’t engage in any illegal activities for money. One thousand gold was the maximum I could accept without compromising my beliefs.
Accepting anything beyond that would betray my principles.
“I hope you don’t do this next time; my reaction was excessive. You don’t need to apologize, Minister. Above all, please forgive my rudeness.”
However, I had indeed been too much this time. It was not an attitude befitting someone addressing a Minister like El, nor was it something I should say to someone showing me kindness.
When I gazed straight at him and apologized sincerely, El slowly opened his mouth.
“Mir.”
“Yes?”
“I don’t expect much from you. Yet, I thought you and I could at least be friends…”
His silver eyes glimmered as clear droplets of water glistened beneath his slowly blinking eyelids.
“I’m sorry for acting on my own. But, could you call me El? If you keep calling me Minister… it makes it seem like you and I have no connection at all.”
With droopy eyes, it seemed tears might fall at any moment.