The Carrots I Tasted as a Child (3)
Three months had passed since the carrots were planted.
Which meant—yes. Harvest time had arrived.
"Hyung! They grew so well—look how fresh they are!"
Din surveyed the field with a gasp of wonder. Rian watched him, grinning from ear to ear. Lush stems and leaves filled the plot to bursting. Rian's work was done. All that remained was for the traveling merchant to come and appraise the field's worth.
He held off on harvesting and waited, counting the days until the green-haired woman returned.
And yet, for some reason… one day passed, then two, then three, then four.
The carrots had already grown plump and vigorous, but a full week went by and the woman never appeared.
"You don't think she got attacked by a monster and died, do you?"
Rian grew more restless with each passing day.
"Strange. She always came by once every three months, without fail."
The village chief cocked his head, sensing something amiss as well.
"Maybe she got in a huff because I told her to bring Peter along…"
"Who's Peter?"
"The master of the merchant guild she belongs to. She kept sending just the girl, so I told her to bring the guildmaster this time. I suppose that didn't sit well with her."
"Hmm…"
Even after wasting a week, Rian waited another four days. It was reaching the point where the carrots had to come out of the ground. Leave them in the soil any longer and a sudden rain would rot them in an instant.
"That's it. We're harvesting everything today."
He called Din over and they yanked the carrots up with gusto. He shared a portion of the harvest with Din, then set aside shares for the village chief and the villagers who had lent him the land.
Everyone was astonished.
"Good heavens! I've never seen carrots of this quality!"
"Are these even carrots? They're so delicious they taste like something a king would eat!"
"Thank you, Rian!"
When the villagers had gathered in one place, Rian revealed a decision he had been carrying in his heart.
"I'm… planning to leave the village."
The people stirred as if they'd been struck.
"You leavin' for good?"
"You'll come back, won't you?"
"Why all of a sudden?"
He couldn't keep waiting around for a merchant who might never come. He intended to take the carrots to the nearest city and sell them before they lost their freshness. And with that money, he would prepare for the next step—to earn even more.
"Do you really have to go?"
"I do. I'm sorry."
Amid the general regret, the village chief nodded, however reluctantly.
"Live well wherever you end up. And remember us."
The village chief prepared a cart for Rian, who had lived among them all this time. Rian loaded it high with carrots and made ready to leave at once.
"Everyone, take care! Thank you for everything!"
"Hyung! Waaah! Don't go!"
Din bawled at the top of his lungs, tears and snot streaming down his face. Rian patted him, pulled him into a hug, then took up the cart and left the village.
Not long after, Din's voice rang out from behind him. The boy had chased him all the way past the village outskirts. He shouted through his tears.
"Hyung! I'm gonna miss you! If you make a lot of money, you have to come visit our village!"
Rian waved and called back brightly.
"I will! You take care too! I'll come see you when you get married, so wait for me!"
"You have to come!"
"Yeah!"
It was a bittersweet parting. His steps felt heavy at the thought of leaving people he had come to know. But far away, Audria was waiting.
The vow he had made to her long ago rose unbidden in his mind.
Rian recalled that day's oath and steeled his wavering heart.
"She's already spent hundreds of years in loneliness. I can't leave her by herself again. I have to get to her—fast."
After parting with Din, Rian paused in pulling the cart and unfolded a map. He focused on the spot the village chief had circled: a city called Lantes. It was quite a distance, but the closest city from here.
"The chief said it'd take about five days… five days of sleeping rough, no two ways about it."
Fortunately, carrots stayed fresh for a long time even at room temperature. He folded the map carefully and tucked it into his clothes.
Gripping the cart with both hands, he pulled harder and harder, his pace climbing until before long he was practically sprinting. The prospect of selling the carrots soon had energy pouring out of him.
"I'm gonna haul ass and break that tape in four days! Hyaaah!"
Lisa, who had spent the past two months in her territory, was on her way up to the capital to fulfill her duties as Imperial Advisor. She and her assistant Emily rode in a carriage that rocked gently as it went.
"Emily, you look like you're in a good mood."
"Do I? Maybe because we're going to the Imperial Capital?"
"What's so special about the capital."
"There are plenty of handsome men, and lots of things to enjoy."
"To my eyes, they're all just corpses."
Lisa answered coldly, her gaze drifting out the window. Beyond it, barley fields ripened to gold beneath the warm sunlight.
"…It's autumn."
"It is. We'll need to buy you new clothes, my lady. The evenings are already getting chilly."
"This reminds me of gathering barley ears with my sisters."
Her childhood. Lisa's thoughts always lingered in those days. Her family still stood there, their faces unchanged. Her sisters were still little girls. Lisa, on the other hand, had already become an adult.
"I'm the only one…"
"Did you hear?"
Lisa looked at Emily sitting across from her.
"Hear what?"
"Lord Druba's eldest son is apparently very handsome. He's well-versed in scholarship, eloquent, and popular with the ladies. Ah, we'll be meeting him soon—I can't wait."
Emily chattered on, excited all by herself, but Lisa answered with complete indifference.
"He'll be a corpse eventually, same as the rest."
"My lady, really."
Emily asked,
"Are you actually going through with it?"
"With what?"
"Killing people. Aren't you afraid?"
When Emily looked at her with genuine seriousness, Lisa found the expression amusing and smiled faintly.
"Far from afraid—I'm glad. Humans are hypocrites. They play at being moral and kind at first, then betray you without a second thought the moment they stand to lose something. I find that thoroughly filthy."
A memory surfaced from her childhood: the neighbors who had been close with her parents, turning around and branding her family as demons with even greater cruelty.
"The parents were unhinged, and so were the children! Let's burn them all at the stake!"
The violent gleam in the eyes of a neighbor lady who had always been so kind was still seared into her mind.
"Human life is stuffed with lies and hypocrisy. Wretched creatures like us should never have been born. If humans vanished, the world would be a far better place to live."
Emily stared at Lisa for a long moment, then asked,
"Will you kill me too, in the end?"
Lisa snorted.
"You're not human."
The carriage carrying the two of them was already drawing near its destination. In the distance, Lantes Castle came into view.
"We're almost there. Be careful when you speak with Lord Druba. Don't just say whatever comes to mind, the way you usually do."
"I know."
"And don't give me that halfhearted answer."
Emily issued a firm warning.
"We're only staying one night and then leaving, so don't cause any incidents. Keep quiet and let's just go. Understood?"
"I can't stand a ruckus either."
Lisa answered briefly and turned her gaze back out the window, toward the golden fields.
"I'm not in the mood to play with corpses anyway."
"Hah! Hah! I made it! I finally made it!"
A gray stone wall rose before his eyes. After running hard for three nights and four days straight, Rian had at last arrived at Lantes Castle, just as the village chief had described.
"Ah, I'm dead…"
Rian collapsed spread-eagle on the ground. He caught his breath in that position for a while, then sprang back to his feet. Swallowing dryly, he took up the cart again.
The area before the castle gate was packed with people of every description. Guards with spears were conducting inspections. Rian joined the line and waited his turn.
"You'll need to pay the toll to enter."
Rian could see the guards demanding money from people, but he wasn't worried. The village chief, who had come and gone from this place often in his younger days, had already given him the toll in advance.
"Next!"
Soon it was Rian's turn. He pulled the cart forward and approached the guards with confidence.
"Name, place of origin, and purpose of visit."
Rian answered the questions well enough and paid the toll.
"You came to sell carrots?"
One of the guards went over to the cart and lifted the black cloth covering the cargo bed with the tip of his spear. His eyes widened slightly at the sight of the carrots piled high.
"They're huge. You grew them well."
"I'll give you a good price—why not buy a few?"
Rian made the offer with easy familiarity, but the guard's response was not what he expected.
"Uncontracted merchants are required to surrender forty percent of their produce to the lord. Set down that amount in the corner over there immediately and be on your way."
"What?"
Rian was so flabbergasted a hollow laugh escaped him.
"You take forty percent and I'm supposed to live on what, exactly? Are you people vampires?"
"Are you unaware that we're at war with the demonkin? It is thanks to His Lordship protecting this land that you can do business in peace. And the produce you surrender will be used honestly as military provisions, so don't begrudge it. Our army will eat well because of you—you ought to take pride in that."
Not a coin to his name, and now they were going to seize the carrots he'd worked so hard to grow. It was so absurd that Rian's temper flared in an instant.
"I'm not giving you anything! What kind of bullshit—"
Before he could even finish, a spearpoint was pressed to his throat. Four guards had surrounded him.
"If you don't like it, leave."
"Hey, everyone does it this way. Who do you think you are?"
That was when it happened. The vigorous thunder of hoofbeats rang out nearby. The crowd waiting in line before the castle gate parted to either side. Through the gap, Kestiria appeared astride a white horse, her subordinates riding with her in imposing formation.
"A-already!?"
At Kestiria's cry, the guards scrambled as if their feet were on fire.
"Move! Out of the way! Make way! This is the path of the Imperial Advisor! Move aside!"
They shoved people to both sides, opening a broad lane wide enough for a carriage to pass.
While the guards were thus distracted, Rian watched his chance and edged inward, little by little.
Then, in a single instant—
Life is all about timing!
He seized the cart and bolted through the gates.
From horseback, Kestiria happened to watch his retreating back…
Uncommon, that black hair. A farmer, perhaps?