Chapter 9
Chapter 9
"Haah… haah… The first principle of investing. Never lose your money. Don’t you get it?"
"Na… Nasus!?"
"You haven’t even recovered your principal yet, you fool."
Catching his breath, Nasus gripped Camellia’s frozen wrist tightly and whispered quietly into her ear.
"I’ll handle that guy myself. So just stay behind me and stay still, alright?"
Camellia’s mana circuits, which had been boiling to the point of nearly erupting, calmed as if by magic at the steady warmth of his body and the firm sound of his voice.
Nasus pushed the slumping Camellia behind him, shielding her completely with his own body.
Then, turning toward Baron Drake, he bent forward as if to fold his waist in half, transforming perfectly into the very image of a pitiful alley rat.
"Oh my! Who do we have here! Is this not the exalted noble, my lord? How could a lowly creature like me dare block your path and commit such a grave offense!"
"...What the hell is this bug?"
Baron Drake’s brow twisted as grotesquely as if he had stepped in the filth of the street.
Just as he was about to enjoy trampling Camellia underfoot, the sudden intrusion of this stinking alley rat ruined the moment, and his anger surged.
He looked Nasus over from head to toe like a disgusting insect and pinched his nose in disgust.
"Who is this worthless scum to block my way? Can’t you get that filthy face out of my sight at once?!"
"My lord! It’s not what you—!"
"Shut up, you lowly creature!"
-THWACK!!
The tip of the baron’s gleaming expensive shoe shot toward Nasus’s abdomen.
It was an annoyed kick, not particularly forceful.
But in that instant, Nasus’s body lifted into the air as if struck by an ogre’s club.
"AGHHHH!!"
A horrific scream that anyone would recognize as someone in severe pain.
Nasus rolled dramatically across the muddy ground, kicking up dust.
Perfectly staged Hollywood action.
"Uh… uh…? Did I kick that hard?"
The baron, momentarily taken aback by his own kick, hesitated and stepped closer. That was when it happened.
"Cough! Gag! Kuuueeek!"
From the crouching, trembling Nasus came a torrent of suppressed coughs.
Dark red clots of blood flew through the air and splattered horrifically across Baron Drake’s luxurious silk cloak and trouser hems.
"Hiiik?! My clothes!! That filthy beggar dares spit blood on me?!"
Baron Drake leapt back in horror.
Nasus slowly lifted his head, blood dripping down his chin, revealing a grotesque smile with his blood-stained teeth.
"Kuhuhu… Oh my lord… what shall we do now…."
"You… you bastard! How expensive…!"
"I’ve recently… contracted a mysterious and terrible ‘plague,’ you see."
"What? Pl… plague?!"
The baron’s pupils shook wildly at the two words.
Nasus tore open his own shirt with bloodied hands and pressed the revealing injuries in front of the baron’s eyes.
Wounds accumulated over two years of harsh labor to protect Camellia, untreated and lingering.
He looked like a truly pitiful, diseased man.
Nasus pointed to the wounds and chuckled darkly.
"See… skin rotting like this… when the body is stressed, it ejects these dark red clots of blood. A nasty, contagious disease. Kuhuhu. I hear it spreads through blood too…"
His gaze fixed on the blood-stained silk cloak of the baron.
"Oh my, my lord, your body’s also covered in my blood. You’d better run to the High Priest for purification immediately, or… your skin will rot and you’ll cough up blood within days. Cough!"
Nasus deliberately coughed again, crawling across the floor and reaching toward the baron’s ankle.
"I… have nothing to lose, so I’ll just suffer and die like this… But you, noble lord, have your grand estate and lands to go back to. You should get treated immediately, don’t you think?"
For a filthy alley rat, this was a lethal blow he could deliver to a hoarding noble.
"O-Oh! Don’t come near me, you filthy diseased wretch!"
Baron Drake, already horrified by the blood, turned pale at the mention of “plague” and staggered backward, covering his nose and mouth with his silk sleeve.
"What rotten luck! Hey! Get the carriage moving! Immediately!"
Forgetting even Camellia’s presence, the baron hastily boarded the carriage and fled the slums without looking back.
The sound of the carriage fading.
The alley fell into heavy silence once more.
"...Ahh."
Camellia sat down dumbfounded, staring at Nasus lying on the ground.
The utterly submissive figure who had been bowing his forehead moments ago was gone without a trace.
He wiped his blood off the ground with the toe of his boot, dusted himself off irritably, and rose.
Then, muttering in a cold, calm voice toward the departing carriage dust, he said:
"A lowlife who’s not even a shareholder coming to stir trouble for someone else’s valuable prime stock… I should’ve just skewered him with a spear."
"……"
Camellia couldn’t say a word.
The ghost of her past, ready to drag her back into hell.
The overwhelming terror was so easily chased away by Nasus with a single act of feigning plague.
As she sat frozen, Nasus approached suddenly.
"Camellia! Are you hurt anywhere?"
He crouched to meet her gaze.
Then he gently wiped the dark mud from her cheek and collar with his worn sleeve.
A rough yet tender touch, unconcerned about his own clothes getting dirty.
"Looks like you’re unharmed. Let’s go home."
He extended his hand casually.
But Camellia’s heart swirled like a raging storm.
‘…He must have seen everything.’
He had restrained the silver gleam at her fingertips himself, knowing she had lied about not being able to use magic.
He could have scolded her for lying, or gotten angry for acting on her own…
But Nasus offered not a single word of reprimand or interrogation.
The depthless silence weighed heavily on Camellia’s heart.
"Um… Nasus."
"Why? Can’t walk because your leg hurts? Shall I carry you?"
"No… I’m… sorry."
She couldn’t hold back her apology any longer.
In her trembling voice, Nasus looked down at her quietly.
"Do you know the second principle of investing?"
"...Yes?"
Taken off guard, Camellia asked blankly. Nasus chuckled.
"It’s to never forget the first principle."
"……"
"So it’s fine. You’ve kept yourself safe… that’s enough."
At that calm statement, Camellia’s nose tingled.
The emotions she had buried so firmly threatened to burst through.
"But… you rolled on the ground… and even forced yourself to spit blood…"
She bowed her head, holding back tears that threatened to spill.
Her shoulders trembled, and Nasus curved the corners of his lips, replying lightly.
"I got a decent payout for it, so what does it matter?"
"...Huh?"
At that, Camellia’s rising tears receded, and she looked up dumbly. Nasus pulled something from his pocket and shook it in front of her.
A round gold coin, darkened and caked in mud, its original shine lost.
"Ah…"
Camellia froze.
It was the symbol of shame and humiliation, the same coin Baron Drake had thrown to mock her.
She could never have imagined Nasus had kept it.
Seeing her discomfort, Nasus smiled faintly, playing with the coin.
"Anyway, that trash threw it and ran, right? Think of it as compensation for what he did, and use it wisely."
"But… it came from his pocket…"
"All the better."
His eyes gleamed as he continued.
"Taking even a single penny from such a bastard’s pocket is real, satisfying revenge. He’ll now be terrified of this alley, thinking a plague spreads here. Consider it a small reward for what you went through today."
"……"
Some part of her heart ached, yet she couldn’t deny that Nasus was right.
Her noble pride wanted to reject the coin, but the thin arms of Nasus, who had endured and coughed up blood for her over two years, came to mind first.
‘…Right. If Nasus can eat something good and take care of himself, that’s… better.’
As Camellia slowly nodded, Nasus, having wiped the mud from the coin, handed it to her. The surface was still thick with dark grime.
"But Camellia, it’s so dirty you can barely see… is this really a gold coin?"
"Huh? Ah… yes. It’s real gold issued by the Empire."
Having seen countless coins in his noble past, she nodded instantly.
"Right. It’s gold."
His tone became firm, removing any playfulness.
"Even when buried in filthy mud and trampled under someone else’s boots, gold still retains its value."
"…I suppose."
Nasus’s rough fingers caressed the coin, then his gaze shifted slowly to Camellia’s eyes.
"You’re the same."
"……"
"No matter what trash tries to trample or dirty you… your essence won’t change. Your brilliance and value will never waver. So… don’t ever give up on yourself."
A pause.
No words followed.
Tears finally slipped from Camellia’s eyes.
"Wha… why? Are you hurt? If it hurts, don’t hold back, tell me."
His urgent voice made her lips tremble.
"Huh…."
And then,
"Haahhh!!"
Seeing Nasus worry for her even in this moment, the dam she had held back broke.
In the narrow, filthy alleys of the slums, her desperate, relieving cries echoed for a long time.
Two years.
Dreaming of a breakthrough,
enduring while coughing up her own blood,
For Nasus, it had been a painfully long time.
Two years.
Living through an endless nightmare,
swallowed by the blood of that day,
For Camellia, it had been unbearably long.
…
Perhaps she had endured that terrible time
to hear those words from someone.