Chapter 3
Chapter 3
“Involuntary long-term investment.”
Do you know the tragedy that small investors in the stock market face most often?
You go all in with absolute conviction, thinking, “This will definitely skyrocket!”
But instead of rising, the stock just stagnates for years.
If you cut your losses, all the time and money you’ve poured in feels like a waste.
If you keep holding, it feels like your blood is drying up.
That dreadful swamp called “involuntary long-term investment.”
That was exactly my situation.
I had been stuck for over two years in an undervalued blue-chip that I believed would soar any moment and fill my wallet.
“Nasus. Is dinner potato stew today?”
“Yeah. The meat ran out yesterday, so it’s just potatoes.”
“That’s fine. The stew you make is quite good.”
Her calm and refined voice reached the back of my head.
I paused while stirring the pot and glanced back at her.
Camellia was sitting by the window, reading a book.
The skeletal, corpse-smelling figure I had picked up for a single silver coin was nowhere to be seen.
Clear, milky skin, and an elegance that could not be hidden.
Just based on appearance, she could easily sell for over ten gold coins in the market.
If not for the label of “traitor family.”
That was why improving her appearance alone was far from enough.
The future I had glimpsed through my Foresight was nothing short of astonishing.
“The only silver archmage in the empire’s history.”
With a single casual wave of her hand toward a sky filled with tens of thousands of monsters,
thousands of silver meteors rained down, swallowing the world in white.
Even now, two years later, I remembered that dazzling peak clearly.
That was why I ignored everyone’s ridicule and took her in.
I believed without a doubt that she was the perfect blue-chip to save my life.
But two years.
It had been exactly two years since I relied solely on that Foresight and supported her with utmost care.
During that time, I believed in her future value, took on debt, and did all kinds of rough work, from manual labor to running errands for smugglers, just to earn money to feed her.
I bought expensive mana recovery potions and gathered all kinds of basic magic books for her.
And yet,
the current Camellia could not even use the most basic fire-starting magic.
A devastating hidden risk had surfaced.
Her mana circuits had been completely destroyed after her family’s fall.
“Damn it… where the hell is my archmage!”
I clenched the ladle tightly, crying tears of blood inside.
Camellia would surely… someday…
someday become a great mage.
But whether that would be in three years, five years, or ten years…
it was like I had poured my entire life into a single stock with no timeline.
“Nasus? You don’t look well. Why don’t you rest early today?”
“Ah, no. I’m fine. The stew’s ready, so come eat.”
At her concerned voice, I forced a bitter smile and handed her a bowl.
After two years together, she now accepted the food I gave her without complaint and sometimes showed a faint but gentle smile.
But whenever I absentmindedly reached out or got too close,
her thin shoulders would stiffen.
Seeing her instinctively hold her breath and shut her eyes,
it felt like her time was still trapped somewhere in that past.
…
But just as her memories were bleak, my situation was burning just as dark.
Forget recovering my investment, I could barely afford next month’s rent and food.
The reflection in the mirror showed a hollow-eyed wreck who looked like he might die from overwork at any moment.
“Should I cut my losses now? No… how much time, money, and blood have I already poured into this…!”
As I chewed on the potato stew, I repeated the same dilemma hundreds of times in my head.
A few days later, as my soul slowly withered away,
“Cough, hack…”
After working late into the night carrying loads in the market alley, I opened the door, coughing up blood.
My condition had been worsening rapidly.
Overwork and malnutrition, most likely.
“At this rate, I’ll get delisted first.”
Staggering into the room, I realized something was wrong.
Camellia, who should have been sleeping on the bed, was not there.
“Huh? Camellia?”
The room was dark, with no light on.
The bed was empty.
Instead, a single note lay in the center of the room.
A note?
…Did she run away?
No way. My two years of blood and sweat, my future blue-chip, wouldn’t just disappear like that.
Even my coughing stopped.
Holding my breath, I reached out with trembling hands toward the paper that felt like a bankruptcy notice.
The handwriting was elegant and refined, reminding me of her past as a noble lady.
“To Nasus.
I still do not fully understand why you have shown me such kindness.
But you have treated me far better than someone like me deserves.
For that, though late, I wish to express my gratitude.
Recently, every night, the sound of you coughing up blood has deeply disturbed my heart.
If you collapse, then even this miserable life of mine will lose its last hope.
So please wait just a little.
I will go to the market and find medicine to stop your cough.
Before sunset, no matter what happens, I will return.
Camellia.”
“….”
“Before sunset, she said she’d return?”
I turned my head and looked out the rattling window.
The sun had long set.
The slums were already buried under pitch-black darkness.
Veins bulged on the hand gripping the note.
Countless terrible possibilities flooded my mind like rotten water.
She went out alone?
That coward who trembled even when I reached toward her?
Did she really run away?
Did she suck up my two years of effort and leave behind a fake note to buy time?
No… wait.
This was a back-alley slum filled with the worst kinds of people.
At night, vagrants, gangs, and traffickers crawled out like rats.
When she looked like a worthless wreck, no one cared.
But now, after two years of my effort,
Camellia was different.
Platinum blonde hair anyone would covet.
An elegance that could not be hidden.
A woman like that wandering alone at night?
What if she didn’t “not return,”
but “couldn’t return?”
“Damn it… no. Absolutely not!”
The stress twisted my insides, and dark blood spilled from my mouth again.
My exhausted body screamed in protest.
But I wiped my bloody lips with my sleeve and kicked the door open.
The cold night air tore into my lungs.
Like a madman, I searched every corner of the market alleys.
Even thugs avoided me, seeing my unfocused eyes and bloodstained clothes.
“Did you see a platinum blonde girl earlier today? About this tall!”
Grabbing a herbal shop owner by the collar, I demanded.
The man flinched and shouted,
“Y-yes! I saw her! Before sunset!”
“Where did she go? What was she doing!”
“She… she came without money and asked what herbs are best for lung disease. I told her a few, and she asked where to find them…”
“Don’t tell me you told her?”
“The back mountain… I said she could find them there… but I warned her it’s full of beasts at night, that it’s basically a death sentence…”
The mountain behind the slums.
Too steep for escape, too dangerous to hide in.
She wasn’t buying time to run.
The note wasn’t a lie.
That timid, wounded girl had walked into that hell to save me.
“Damn it…”
Before even hearing everything, I ran toward the dark mountain ridge.
Archmage… no, court mage… no, even a high-level mage would be enough. I could recover my investment…
And now she’s going to ruin everything by rushing in alone?
“Absolutely not!!”
Ignoring the pain in my lungs, I climbed the pitch-black mountain path like a madman.
Branches cut my face, my worn shoes slipped in the mud, my knees slammed into rocks.
But I felt no pain.
“Hah… hack…!”
Hot blood spilled from my mouth between ragged breaths.
Still, I wiped it away and pushed forward, eyes burning as I searched for that foolish blonde.
The mountain at night was a gaping hell.
Each distant howl of hungry beasts sent my heart plunging.
For some herbs, she walked into this death trap?
You stupid woman! Idiot! A complete fool who doesn’t even know her own future value!
If you get even a scratch and lower your value…
I swear, I won’t put a single piece of meat in your stew ever again!