A Stable Awakening
Delma stepped in front of the lord to block Ray in case he got back up and charged again.
But even after some time passed, Ray remained sprawled on the floor without any sign of moving.
“M-My lord, I think he’s dead.”
Delma stammered as she stared at Ray lying on the floor like a corpse. The color drained from her face, which was filled with fear.
“Dead, my foot. He’s just sleeping. Look at that. He’s snoring.”
Donghee pointed at the fallen Ray with her finger.
“Grrrn, phoo!”
Just as Donghee said, Ray hadn’t passed out from the blow—he had simply drunk himself into a stupor. His flushed face from the alcohol was covered with disheveled blond hair that stuck to it like straw.
“Good heavens, that gave me a fright!”
Only then did Delma relax, patting her chest in relief.
Donghee let out a small chuckle at the sight of Delma, who looked as though she had aged ten years, fussing over the sleeping Ray.
“You sure didn’t hold back when you shoved him.”
“I only did it because I thought he might harm you, my lord.”
Delma mumbled, rubbing the shoulder she had rammed into Ray.
It wasn’t only Donghee who was surprised by Delma’s swift action. Handsome, who had been standing by the lord’s side, and the knights guarding the office door all gaped at Delma for a long while.
“Shall I move Lord Ray to the guest room?”
Handsome asked cautiously after staring at the fallen Ray. There was hesitation in his voice.
Outside, it was gradually growing dark.
The carriage Ray had arrived in had already left, and it didn’t seem likely that the lord would lend him one of Grace’s carriages for the sake of her former fiancé.
Ray no longer existed in the lord’s eyes.
“No. The guest room is too valuable for that.”
“Then where…? If we leave him outside in this weather, he might freeze to death.”
Winter was just around the corner. Delma was quietly worried, knowing that drunk people who fell asleep outside often froze to death.
She wanted Ray to disappear from the lord’s sight, but she didn’t wish for him to die.
“Even so, we should at least let him sleep somewhere warm. We do have some old affection left.”
Surprisingly kind words came from the lord’s mouth as she gazed at her former fiancé with cold eyes.
“Mmm…”
Ray stretched languidly at the sensation of something damp and warm repeatedly licking his lips.
Despite acting so reluctant, Chloe must have finally accepted him. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be showering him with such passionate kisses from the morning.
“Mmm, Chloe. Calm down.”
Ray turned his head with a grin, feeling entirely pleased that everything was going exactly as he had intended.
With his eyes still closed from the swelling caused by last night’s heavy drinking, he turned his head—only to feel something rough brush against his cheek. His eyes flew open.
The first thing that entered his vision was a pile of straw.
Am I still dreaming?
Ray blinked rapidly, trying to grasp the situation. Then it happened.
Something warm and slick that he had felt in his sleep brushed across his cheek.
Ray turned his head slowly, half in disbelief. Three large horse heads suddenly thrust toward his face.
“Aaaaargh!”
Ray flailed his arms wildly before scrambling to his feet.
“W-What is this! Where am I!”
Neigh! Neigh-neigh!
Prrrt!
The horses, startled by Ray’s shout, snorted and whinnied loudly.
Only then did Ray realize he had spent the night in the stable, and that what he had mistaken for Chloe’s lips had actually been a horse’s tongue.
“Ugh!”
Ray grimaced, rubbing his cheek with his palm.
“You threw me in the stable?”
The old Chloe would never have done something like this.
“Has she really lost all feelings for me?”
He couldn’t believe it.
As Ray stood there dazed, the horses that had backed away earlier thrust their heads forward again.
Their long, damp tongues began licking his face as if it were sugarcane.
“Aaaah! Get away!”
Armed mercenaries began gathering one after another at Grace Castle.
The weapons they carried and the clothes they wore were all vastly different.
Some were fully armed from head to toe, while others looked too weak to even hold a stick.
The castle, which had only seen servants and the occasional merchant, suddenly buzzed with unexpected energy.
“Is it true that Grace Territory is really recruiting mercenaries?”
One mercenary who had just entered the castle grounds looked around anxiously and asked his companion.
“Judging by how many people have gathered, it doesn’t seem like a rumor.”
“What if they just work us to the bone and don’t pay us?”
“Haven’t you heard?”
“Heard what?”
“They say the lord of Grace has become a completely different person lately.”
“Even so, she’s still young.”
Though he had set out together because of his friend’s urging, he wasn’t pleased about entering Grace Castle. He worried that he might end up working himself to death without receiving a single coin.
The man walking beside him smacked the shoulder of the one looking around with a displeased expression.
“Haven’t you heard the rumors about Morta Village? They say it’s completely changed.”
“Don’t tell me you came all the way here because of that nonsense.”
“I’m telling you, it’s not nonsense. Not just Morta— they say Enol has changed completely too!”
It wasn’t just those two whispering.
People gathered in small groups, looking for anyone with more information as they tried to figure out whether they would actually get paid and whether the rumors were true.
They had come after hearing that the pay was good, but most of them knew about Grace Territory and didn’t have high expectations.
They had only gathered on the off chance, since there weren’t many places hiring mercenaries these days when work was scarce.
Around that time, Donghee was receiving a report from Red Bear.
“My lord, all the mercenaries have gathered.”
Red Bear spoke in a voice full of military discipline.
Perhaps because he had been eating well, his complexion looked better than when she had first met him, and his voice carried strength.
I want to feed him as much meat as he can eat.
As Donghee thought this vaguely, she suddenly wondered if it would be good to raise livestock within the territory.
She had seen the stables, but there were no barns for chickens, cows, or pigs.
She hadn’t explored all of Condal, so there might be barns somewhere she hadn’t checked, but after the long drought and food shortages, even if there had been any, they would have already been slaughtered and eaten.
Should I build a chicken coop first? Where would I get the chickens? Ah! I could bring fertilized eggs from the mart and hatch them!
One thought led to another.
But the problem was that the only activated section in the mart was the frozen dumpling stand.
I need to expand the activated areas in the mart quickly. But where should I expand first?
Donghee, lost in thought while chewing on her thumbnail, lifted her head when she felt Red Bear’s gaze fixed on her.
“How many gathered?”
“A total of 130 people.”
It was quite a large number, but still fewer than what Donghee had originally intended to recruit.
“Even so, I’m surprised more came than I expected.”
Red Bear quickly added this after reading the disappointment on the lord’s face.
“Did they look skilled?”
“There were some with quite a reputation, but there were also quite a few who looked like a ragtag bunch.”
Not only was the number of people lower than expected, but their skill level was far below what he had hoped. Red Bear felt he had no face to show the lord. His face turned as red as his name.
“A ragtag bunch?”
“Yes. It seems some territory residents who aren’t even mercenaries came looking for work.”
Donghee, who had been quietly listening to Red Bear, nodded and gave a light order as if it were nothing.
“Hire them all.”
“Pardon? But there are clearly people who have never even swung a sword.”
Red Bear spoke while thinking of the scrawny youths who looked like they would collapse at a single touch.
“They came looking for work. If you judge them unfit for mercenary duties, ask what they want and assign them to construction sites. Builder has been complaining that we’re short on hands anyway.”
“Yes, I understand, my lord.”
Red Bear’s moist eyes gazed at Chloe.
Feeling both embarrassed and burdened, Donghee cleared her throat and headed toward the open ground where the mercenaries had gathered.
As Red Bear had said, the mercenaries’ appearances were all different.
There were mercenaries who looked threatening at a glance, and scrawny ones huddled together, intimidated by their presence. The only weapons they held were shabby sticks.
“We probably won’t even get any work, right?”
“Yeah, probably.”
Henry spoke with an envious expression as he looked at the imposing mercenaries standing in the center of the grounds, his body shrinking.
“Well, even I wouldn’t hire us. Haah, what do we do now?”
They had rushed over after hearing that the lord of Grace was urgently recruiting mercenaries.
Although they had never learned swordsmanship, they were confident in physical labor. But standing next to lifelong mercenaries, their scrawny frames looked pitifully weak in comparison.
“If we can’t find work even here, there’s no hope.”
“I’m so hungry the world is spinning. I can barely stand.”
They had walked day and night without rest with a few friends after hearing the rumor.
Without the means to hire a carriage or buy horses, all they could do was walk on their sturdy legs.
The only thing they had eaten the entire journey was a few sips of water.
While they stood there unable to hide their anxiety, the noisy surroundings suddenly quieted. A knight in armor and a young lord who still looked like a girl walked out.