"What the hell happened in the middle of the night? What's wrong with father? How come, all of a sudden…"
"The lord is never one to do anything strange…"
Seeing the lord's state, unconscious and in cold sweat, the lord's people cast inquiring glances at Humming.
They wanted her to explain the situation, which they couldn't make heads or tails of at all. However, Humming was also in a position where she needed an explanation too, so the situation became even more absurd. In this situation, isn't it right for Humming to suspect that the lord had approached her with bad intentions and entered the room to do something bad?
However, the people of the castle had too much faith in the lord to harbour such doubts. A great father, a great lord, a great lord and a simple nobleman. That was the reputation and reality of Viscount Shelton, the lord of Loa.
That was…. only until last night.
Well…The lord matched up to his reputation the first time Humming met him. That day, she had followed Kalia to the lord's castle to report their settlement in Loa.
'It's a city that doesn't have much, but I hope you can settle down and live comfortably here.'
She was very impressed with how warmly the lord smiled at Kalia and the way he greeted them whilst holding hands with his wife.
'....Did I go too far?'
She felt a little sorry for the lord with how brutally she had struck him with her knee. Of course, if she didn't do that at the time, she didn't know if she would be okay now…. Anyway, she was glad that she didn't cripple the rare good lord. Luckily.
By the end of the morning, she had earned the hate of almost everyone in the castle. His wife and four children were all glued to the lord's side and watched him closely as he groaned in cold sweat. The castle's staff also did not sleep and prayed for the lord's safety. That alone was enough to show how good of a lord he was.
'It would be nice if there were more mid-rank1 aristocrats with characters like this.' Humming thought almost absentmindedly.
Because of everything that had happened over the past hours, there was excessive tension built up throughout her body; in fact, she felt like she would faint if she didn't find something to think about.
Her mind wandered and unwittingly, she suddenly recalled a certain memory.
A piercing gaze so fierce that if looks could kill…2
'…Ah, the middle class nobility. If that mid-rank noble had not been so greedy, I wouldn't be here now.'
Most of the middle class nobility were greedy. To satisfy their greed, they torment their own people, letting them surfer and even harming others for their own gains. So was the lord that presided over the place where Humming lived.
Cherlo was a wealthy city not far from the capital. Humming was a resident of Cherlo. Though the Humming family lived there as commoners, their lives were not bad because her father and brother were skilled in handling leather.
However, when the plague broke out, all the doctors in Cherlo were forcibly taken to the castle by the tyrannical lord. In order to receive medical treatment or get a prescription for medicine, one had to pay a large sum of money to the lord. Humming was lucky enough not to catch the disease, but all of Humming's other family members were affected by the epidemic. Starting with her mom, then her dad, and finally, her brother.
Humming sold all of the family's assets and ran to the lord, but she got the prescription far too late and eventually, all her family members…
'Still. At least they all left together so they wouldn't be lonely, even in death. My family….'
Humming, who had sold everything and spent the family's entire fortunes to buy medicine to save her family, had no time to grieve. Completely broke, she eventually went to that damn lord's castle to find work.
Around that time, Kalia had been on her way back to the capital when she stopped by there and found out about Cherlo's situation. Kalia freed the doctors who had been held against their wills in his castle and returned the people's property that the outrageous tyrant had confiscated. The lord had a son who looked just like him and was blinded by the wealth that had been taken away and hurled curses at Kalia.3
The lord's son was a man obsessed with aristocratic hierarchy to his very bone. As a result of said ideologies, he lashed out at her bravely without hesitation, mocking her and criticizing her as a 'common' war hero for making a fool of him.
'How dare a commoner wield a sword, trying to be a hero! Do you think you can just arbitrarily dispose of a nobleman's property? I will tell the emperor of this and ask him to greatly punish you at least for four year!'
So, was Kalia angry?
No.
Without blinking an eye, Kalia uncovered all the stolen properties and returned them to the people. The emperor, whom the lord's son was calling for, did not even answer until his family's property was confiscated. Kalia left the city very calmly with great fanfare amid the cheers of the city's commoners after draining the lord of his wealth.
On the day Kalia left, the lord's son, who had poured out all kinds of curses at her behind her back, fell down empty stairs on his own, resulting in broken legs and smashed ribs. There was even a rumor that a pot had fallen from the second floor, shattering between his legs and narrowly missing his crotch. 4
It was a very serious injury for a fall from a small staircase with only 7 steps.
The residents murmured that it was heaven's punishment. 5
But Humming saw it.
Immediately after Kalia left, a handsome wizard with fierce eyes briefly muttered something in the direction of the young lord still swearing at Kalia. When the word 'Light-' came out of his mouth, Humming had no doubt that if Kalia hadn't called him, the young lord would have been struck by lightning that day.
'I'm sure it was him.'
As soon as she glanced around, her gaze averted away.6 Shuddering, she fixed her eyes on Allen who was currently prescribing her medicine.
That day, with that very same gaze, he had silently stared at Humming. The fierce look seemed ready to kill a person.
Gulp.
Her saliva went down her dry throat with an audible gulp. At the same time, she felt that the cold air emanating from the side was getting closer.
After completing the prescription, Allen got up from his seat and heard a low, mellow voice call Humming's name.
'Damn, I guess he even remembered my name.' Humming plucked up her courage and looked back at Simon.
He urged her with a cold smile, "I think it's time for you to tell me now that you've cleared your minds…"
Allen, who had also approached, looked at Simon with strange eyes.
Humming, who was nervously biting her lip, lowered her frightened eyes and forcibly deflected from the question by changing the subject. "Aren't you here to retrieve the dragon egg? Don't you care about the egg…"
"The other wizard's enough to take care of that. You don't have to worry about that. I'd like you to tell me something else." He crossed his arms and tilted his head to stare down Humming.
The way he spoke was polite, but his eyes were very fierce.
"Excuse me, but who are you?"
In an instant, Simon's gaze was on Allen. Eyes ablaze, he muttered under his breath, "Black hair…."
On the other side, Allen took a quick glance over the wizard's outfit with wonder. A snow-white uniform and black, leather half gloves. In addition, gorgeous silver hair and enchanting golden eyes. He was very similar to the appearance of one of the most famous people in the Empire, but he wouldn't be here.
….Right?
This was one of the farthest regions from the Capital, and no matter how precious the dragon's egg was, the distance was not short enough for an archmage to travel in less than a day.
"I am quite curious as to who you are ..." Simon's voice dripped with ice as he trailed off, "A dark haired man that was very friendly."
"What? What do you mean…?"
Simon replied curtly to Allen's puzzled remarks, "Kalia."
Allen's eyes flickered at his reply.
Simon looked straight at him and a corner of his mouth tugged up, as if he were smirking. "Where is she?"
The polite tone quickly disappeared, and there was only a cool sneer directed at Allen, who was looking at him with suspicious eyes.
With a pale complexion, Allen looked at Humming and in return, Humming clasped her forehead with embarrassment.
Though it was nearing dawn, it was still dark outside and the rain was only getting stronger.
***
The longer the three were together, the stranger the atmosphere they gave off. The three could no longer remain in the lord's room so they eventually moved on. After sobering up, the lady of the castle prepared the best guest room in the castle for Simon. However, it was not the guest room, but the reception room where Simon settled.
The room was spacious with a burning lantern that barely lit up the room shrouded in the darkness of dawn. The three of them sat in confrontation opposite each other in the drawing room, not minding that the sun would come up in just a few hours.
With his legs crossed, Simon lounged on one of the soft sofas and stared intently at the two across him. His posture seemed to represent a crooked heart. 7
It had already been an hour since the trio moved to the drawing room.
Simon kept Humming and Allen in his custody, continuing a deep and silent war with the two regarding Kalia's whereabouts.
"Do you need more time to think?"
"...We've already told you we don't know."
"It's just too naive to act innocent and say that with a face that reveals everything. It's so… " Simon paused mid-sentence, lips pursing, as if he were carefully choosing a word.
Then he smiled slightly and picked the right word to finish it. "Stupid."
He was clearly smiling with his mouth but he radiated complete hostility with his eyes and voice. What was disconcerting was that his hostility was focused solely on one person.8
"If you're thinking of taking your time, I can wait for as long as you want. I've been in hell for several months already…"
Fixing his gaze on Allen, Simon murmured languidly, "It's not like it's hard to endure for just one night."
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