Chapter 19
Chapter 19
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: Worries and Omens
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“Beth, you feeling good today?”
When no one’s around, my voice doesn’t shake.
But strangely, whenever someone’s nearby, my tongue stiffens and my breath quickens, so I end up speaking slowly.
Maybe that’s why I love galloping around chatting in places where there’s no one else.
Sometimes, when I climb onto Beth’s bare back without a saddle and grip her mane instead of reins as we race off, it feels like the two of us have become one.
“Should we split this carrot half and half?”
I grab the carrot with both hands, snap it, and Beth quickly licks my hand and snatches her piece. So cute.
Lately, one worry has been creeping up on me.
Yesterday, Young Master Adelrian looked so exhausted that I couldn’t say anything...
“But, is it really okay like this?”
I know it too. My real value was having a sturdy body to take whatever the young master threw at me until his anger subsided.
The exclusive maid who was here before me apparently got a deep gash on her forehead from a wine glass he hurled.
But what happened?
The young master has changed. As if everything before was a lie.
And now, it even feels like he’s preparing for something huge.
Yeah. The young master is definitely gearing up for something in secret.
It’s a little scary, but starting with bringing in that kid named Kane who’s getting stronger by the day.
He even talks with that terrifying Alkaido butler.
And then there’s that green juice that tastes utterly awful.
The taste is a total mess, but the more I drink, the more I’m amazed by its effects.
If this got registered and sold at the magic tower, how much value would it fetch?
But the young master only shares it with me and Kane. Is there anyone kinder than him?
“That kid’s going to be the young master’s knight... Beth. Then what about me? Is it okay for me to stay like this?”
Back on the plains, I never worried about stuff like this...
I want to be someone truly needed by another person.
I resent this timidity that makes me shrink around others...
Little by little.
Step by step.
If I grow strong enough to erase this trait someday.
“Then what would the young master call me?”
Could I protect the young master too?
* * *
“Oh, you held up pretty well this time.”
“Ugh... Back then... my eyes could see the sword, but... my body wouldn’t follow... Now it’s clear, and... I can even predict it...”
I stood on the balcony—a prime spot for watching Kane roll around—and munched on dried fruit, impressed.
“Wow. Wasn’t that sword just bending?”
“Yeah... The trajectory... curved midway. Like a snake... So the technique probably has... ‘snake’ in the name...”
And he blocked it and counterattacked. Damn, he’s improved a lot.
At first, he’d go flying with a whoosh or shatter bones with a thud.
Now that I’ve watched so much, I’m getting used to it—the sword movements are familiar, and I can even tell fakeouts mixed with feints.
“Huh? What was that just now? I only caught that Kane attacked.”
“Wow... He swung the sword, and in that split second... accelerated the swing... to slip into the knight’s blind spot... and thrust in.”
Of course, there’s still plenty I can’t see.
Anyway, Kane. I’m no expert in swordsmanship, so I can’t say for sure, but this sparring match...
“Kane’s... got the upper hand, right?”
“Yeah... Ah, up until just now... The size and weight difference is... just too much...”
Well, his opponent’s a giant over two meters tall. The weight gap alone must be insane.
Still, landing effective hits is no small feat. I voiced the nickname I’d been hearing whispered even around me lately.
“They’re calling that guy a monster these days, huh?”
“Yeah... Among the male servants... I think so...”
“And among the women?”
“A proper... husband material...?”
I burst into loud laughter at the unexpected answer and looked at Luna.
“What? Does Kane go around being nice to girls when I’m not there?”
She shakes her head, eyes wide as if asking what I’m talking about.
“With Kane’s personality, he’s not buying food, showering gifts, listening to troubles, or flashy with words. So why?”
At my genuine question, Luna rolled her eyes then spoke as if it just hit her.
“Uh... his face...?”
An answer I never saw coming.
I slammed the table laughing until I ran out of breath and started coughing.
God, now that I think about it, I remember a comment complaining about how all the beauties from every race end up tangled with one male lead and calling out the contrived plot.
“His face is the plot device. Yeah, exactly.”
Even when the comments were blowing up, that mossy rock of an author—who never replied or even posted afterwords—said it.
The reason for all these heroines? Kane’s face provides the plausibility.
‘Wait, thinking about it now, mossy rock. Isn’t that one a heroine too?’
If Rachel was part of the Innocent Saga dev team, then the original author, the rolling mossy rock, has a high chance of being a heroine too.
“Ha. This is insane. My stomach hurts.”
“What’s got you doubled over like that?”
I laughed so hard I didn’t even notice Kane finishing his spar and coming over.
I just raised a limp hand from where I was sprawled against the terrace chair and opened my mouth.
“Welcome home, proper husband material.”
“Pfft...”
“What bullshit is this?”
Kane scowled, but I was still cracking up.
Once more. This time giggling with Luna until I finally calmed down, then pushed green juice and dried fruit toward Kane as he sat in the empty spot.
“Heard your new nickname’s ‘monster.’ You know that?”
“...I’m merely training hard.”
“Ease up sometimes. At first, people want to help someone weaker, but once you surpass them, inferiority festers like a snake in their heart.”
“That holds if the gap’s middling. When it widens beyond reach, they start following instead.”
Is this from his time as a black mage’s experiment?
That episode was early-game even in the original, and it didn’t even make it into the game, so my memory’s fuzzy. I’ll dig it out later, but for now, I spoke up.
“But right now, aren’t you like a sprout easy to trample?”
“If someone tries, I’ll pierce their instep.”
“That’s the spirit. That’s what I expect from my sponsored squire-to-be.”
Such confidence.
I shrugged and stood, habitually spinning the Krueger ring on my fingertip.
The sub-spaces whirring in the corner of my mind.
It’s nagging, but it feels as natural as reminiscing old memories.
“Let’s read this today...”
I pulled a trade-related book from Adelrian’s show-off library, flipped to a section with a simple map illustration, sat, and rested my chin.
‘Let’s see... desert’s roughly this way, huh.’
From the data Alkaido gave me, I was floored.
Usually, the reasons plunging the continent into chaos—especially the evil cult tied to Kane’s past—always stir up trouble at 100%.
And the five random encounter main streams stemming from them:
Beastkin war, plague, monster wave, imperial throne civil war, and undead uprising.
But right now, the data shows four events underway.
Increased food shipments into the desert.
Plus, Kane heard rumors of more beastkin slaves in the villages.
That’s 100% tied to the beastkin war, and the herb flows point to plague.
Monster byproducts scream monster wave, and magic stones likely link to the civil war.
Leaving undead uprising as the outlier...
“Four out of five already starting, with just one missing?”
I prayed that one stayed away, but my instincts signaled it was hooked.
From my memory, when Kane killed the black mage experimenting on him and escaped.
There was a 30% chance the mage survived, and it looks like that hit.
‘To survive, he thrashes and chooses turning into a low-rank lich instead of his desired high lich.’
Then, rage at Kane pierces the heavens, and revenge begins...
I unwittingly tore at my hair with both hands.
“Whew, this trash game.”
No balance patch? Seriously.
Usually two. Rarely three—we called those hard mode among ourselves.
I’ve had three hit at once: plague, beastkin, civil war.
‘But five? Five? You kidding?’
Even in the community, only one guy posted a screenshot of four, and what did I comment?
‘Nice, Korean difficulty.’
Don’t mock others, indeed.
Karma always bites back.
With five...
‘Snap out of it.’
Kang Suho. Snap out of it.
Adelrian. Snap out of it, for real.
No new game button, so I have to deal somehow.
Random in the game, but in the original, they all hit at once anyway.
The original Kane rolled through hell to resolve them, so this Kane...
I glanced at Kane chatting with Luna on the terrace and sighed.
“It’s fine. Still some time buffer...”
But I’ll need to accelerate plans to let Kane ripen more before sending him off.
‘Gotta ditch game-based senses now.’
Two years leeway in game time, but this is reality.
‘Should I bullseye-tell Kane everything like Alkaido, pretending it’s foresight?’
No. One trigger could derail everything unpredictably.
Plus, saying it outright makes me his blatant guide.
That’d tangle his event tree high probability...
I started sorting priorities in my head.
Civil war won’t ignite immediately. Same for beastkin war.
Plague has countermeasures, and undead boils down to powering up Kane.
‘So, monster wave’s left.’
The most immediately actionable encounter.
Problem is, in my memory, it was the second wave in-game, and timing-wise, this is the first.
‘Definitely, in the original, Rachel blocked the first monster wave.’
Can I trust and leave it to Rachel?
But this chill crawling my spine warns against it.
‘Well, she’s a walking variable of hot-blooded lizard anyway.’
“For now... stockpile food.”
It’ll serve multiple purposes.
I pondered hitting the auction house tomorrow to hoard when a knock sounded.
“What is it? Something up?”
“Young master. The auction house sent an item via manager.”
Auction house?
Item?
I forcibly calmed my surging body and told them to enter.
“Oh dear, young master. It’s me, your faithful exclusive manager!”
I shrugged at the goblin manager rubbing his hands and bowing.
“Just hand over the item and go.”
“Of course, sir.”
He rubbed his thick gold ring, opening a sub-space, and began placing items on the table one by one.
“This is a multi-person random teleport scroll. Per your request, instead of the 65 pre-saved safe destinations, it’s fully random...”
“Meaning dangerous? Not planning to use it myself.”
I grinned mischievously, and he looked like he thought I was toying with him.
Yeah, actually, I will use it. Won’t die, hopefully. Even fully random teleports have slight coordinate tweaks.
No way it punches through the low-prob correction to dump me mid-ocean or in the sky, right?
“And this is living metal from the Regios school.”
It was sealed in a flask a bit larger than a fist, looking like mercury.
I shook it; the silver shifted, revealing faint purple glints inside.
“And this... was hard to procure.”
At the goblin manager’s hushed tone, I eyed the faded, patternless pendant that looked utterly worn.
“Once a month. Blocks magic, curses, or even standard physical attacks perfectly—just once.”
Ah, that thing?
I rubbed my chin to hide my rising smirk, pressing my lips.
“Pfft, at best it’d stop an assassin’s blind dagger once.”
“Right? As you said, some lord from Halderon region tried it and sold it to the auction house.”
Eyes questioning how I’d know about some distant Halderon lord dumping a castoff.
I played dumb and smiled.
“So, you tested it?”
“What do you...”
“I asked for an item hitting the market with real defensive effects. You wouldn’t bring it straight to me without checking?”
The goblin rolled his eyes slightly, then casually rubbed his hands with a grin.
“Aww, for you, young master? We checked for defects, sure. Not much, just a smidge? Worried it’d break since it’s so worn.”
“A smidge how much.”
“Sword expert’s aura level?”
I feigned nonchalance like it was nothing.
Once a month, just once, so they tested the effect once before delivery.
Exterior too shabby for strong magic scrolls anyway.
‘No way they’d imagine it blocks even a meteor once.’
Sure, post-impact, it’d shatter instantly—not just the once-a-month limit.