Dinner with Adelia (2)
I was stunned, but her sky-high pride made me shrug it off with a simple “whatever.” Worrying about every little thing Adelia did would only hurt me in the end. So I let her words flow in one ear and out the other, focusing instead on devouring the delicious food in front of me without a single regret. That was my only job right now.
“All you have to do is accept whatever I give you. There’s no need to talk about repaying me or doing something for this body of mine. I know perfectly well that you’re a penniless bandit by origin, and that your life has been far beneath mine. Anything you could offer would be mediocre at best, so I have zero expectations.”
“Ah, yes, yes.”
I nodded in a “think whatever you want” kind of way. She was clearly looking down on me, yet strangely enough, it didn’t feel bad. Maybe it was because I could roughly guess what was going on inside her head.
Throughout the entire meal, she kept making remarks that sounded like she wanted to show off and dominate me. Whenever I occasionally threw in an impressed “Whoa~” she would break into a bright, utterly satisfied smile. Anyway, it was an enjoyable lunch—the kind that made me feel like I was finally living like a human being again after so long.
“This time we’re going to a clothing shop.”
The moment we left the restaurant and climbed into the carriage, Adelia suddenly declared it. I narrowed my eyes in disbelief. I had so many things to do, yet she kept preventing me from going home. A flicker of irritation rose inside me.
“Why there? Just drop me off and go by yourself. Why drag me along? I don’t even have any sense for women’s clothes.”
“It’s not for my clothes. We’re going to buy clothes for you.”
“My clothes…?”
“While we were eating together, those rags you’re wearing kept bothering me. Why do you walk around dressed like that? They look like something I wouldn’t even wear if you gave them to me.”
I blinked for a moment, wondering if I’d heard wrong. The idea of her buying me clothes made my ears perk up.
“So you’re saying you’ll buy me clothes?”
When I asked in disbelief, Adelia put on an indifferent expression but still nodded.
“We’ll be seen together often from now on. If you keep walking around in such shabby clothes, what would that make me? Other people’s eyes are on us, so I decided I should buy you at least one outfit. Let me warn you in advance—don’t even dream of running away midway. I will have the soldiers arrest you if I must. I’m the type who always follows through once I’ve made up my mind, so don’t get any strange ideas. Just follow me quietly.”
“Uh, yeah, sure.”
There was no way I would refuse free clothes. I felt like dropping to my knees and shouting “Thank you so much!” but I held it in and obediently followed Adelia.
We visited a clothing shop that only nobles could enter. She chose the fabrics and decided on the style according to her own taste. She never once asked for my opinion. Adelia made every decision; the only thing I did was stand there while they measured my body size. It was actually quite comfortable. It felt like having a girlfriend hold your wallet and pick out clothes for you at a department store.
Just a short while ago we had been ready to kill each other, yet here we were. It was simply fascinating how things had turned out this way.
After paying for three sets of clothes and hearing from the clerk that they would be ready in two weeks, we left the shop.
“I won’t tell you to wear them every day just because I bought them. However, if there are no better clothes in your closet than the ones I gave you, then wear them every single day. That’s why I bought three sets.”
In the end, she was telling me to wear them every day.
“I’ll wear them well.”
“There’s no need to thank me. I did it all for myself.”
Adelia gave a faint, satisfied smile, climbed into the carriage, and left without even saying goodbye.
“I really can’t figure her out… can’t figure her out at all…”
I muttered to myself as I watched the carriage grow smaller in the distance.
“Maybe she gets some kind of conquest thrill from seeing me walk around in the clothes she bought me.”
Considering Adelia had been defeated by me several times already, it seemed highly possible. She had a massive ego, after all. Maybe this was her way of convincing herself that she had won in some sense. Either way, I got free clothes. What was there to complain about? Nice!
I stopped thinking about it and walked briskly toward the building where our mercenary group was located.
“My stomach’s full. In the afternoon I should go look at swords with Pasvachio.”
When I arrived at the mercenary office, the place was bustling with ongoing interior construction. Besides the hired workers, everyone—Marcus, Kelly, Pasvachio, Unia, Jane, Haida, Evynee, and Peggy—was pitching in enthusiastically. The only one missing was Dana.
She was nowhere to be seen at first, but the moment she heard the others welcoming me, she appeared like a ghost. When I asked where she had been, she said she had been sitting at the very top of the bell tower near our office, blankly watching the cityscape.
Suddenly the foreman came over and asked how we wanted the sign designed. That was when I realized we hadn’t even decided on the mercenary group’s name yet. I put the sign production on hold and gathered everyone together. Then we all brainstormed what to name the group.
“Rabbit Mercenary Group!”
“Kitty Mercenary Group!”
That was what Evynee and Peggy shouted. Haida, who was older than the two children, wore a serious expression and couldn’t decide right away. On the other hand, Pasvachio and Unia looked like they wondered why we were even bothering.
When I asked why, they said that mercenary groups usually took their leader’s surname, so naming it “Kang Mercenary Group” would be the simplest option. But I didn’t like it. Maybe because it was a single syllable, “Kang” felt too plain and boring. And if I went with “Hyunwoo Mercenary Group,” people here would probably mispronounce it as “Hyeonu Mercenary Group,” so I scratched that from the list first.
After much thought, I settled on “Kether Mercenary Group.” My English initials KHW sounded like “Kay-Haitch-Doubleyou,” so I casually took “Ke” and “ther” from it and named it without thinking too hard. It might have been too simple, but I didn’t want to waste time worrying about a name when we were so busy. For the sign, I decided on the spelling Kether.
Meaning: Crown
“Do you perhaps have ambitions of becoming king?” Marcus asked, startled. He explained that in other kingdoms Kether was read as Keter and meant “crown.” “Crown Mercenary Group,” huh.
I chuckled and told him it was simply a proper noun—Kether, not Keter—so there was no need to misunderstand.
After deciding on the name, I sent Kelly—who was quite knowledgeable about the city’s situation—out with Unia as an escort to find a house big enough for our large family.
Dana, Pasvachio, and I headed to the horse market held in the square on the famous Saint Michel Street. After buying five horses and a wagon amid the crowd and various breeds, the sun had already set. It was time to wrap up the day’s work.
Since we didn’t have a house until the new one was contracted, I took everyone to an inn near the mercenary office so we could spend the night comfortably. After receiving our room keys and unpacking, I briefly worked on the household ledger.
In just two days, we had already spent over 6,000 veni for our fresh start. Out of the 99 gold coins I currently had, 90 remained. We had spent money like water—buying land and buildings, horses, a wagon, interior work, and travel expenses—yet an enormous amount was still waiting to be spent. If Phelton hadn’t left me his fortune, I don’t know what would have happened. Just thinking about it made my head spin. With so many mouths to feed, I probably couldn’t have supported them all.
Suddenly, Phelton’s last words came to mind.
I felt so grateful to him that I suddenly thought about erecting statues of both Harry and Phelton right in front of the mercenary office. When I excitedly mentioned it to Marcus, who was changing into comfortable clothes on the next bed, he snapped at me to shut up and go to sleep if I was tired.
“Why would you put up a statue of a guy doing dirty things with a woman? People will call you a weirdo and curse you. Wait until you’ve succeeded. Once you’re powerful and famous enough that no one can point fingers at you, then do whatever you want.”
After everyone unpacked in their rooms, we gathered in the inn’s first-floor hall for dinner. With so many people—including children—it was noisy, which actually helped us avoid the stares of the other guests. We looked like a normal large family with a grandfather, a married couple, and kids, so no one paid us much attention. Thanks to that, we could relax our guard and enjoy the meal happily.
During dinner, I asked Pasvachio—who used to be a blacksmith—for advice on buying weapons and suggested we visit a weapon shop together tomorrow. That was when he brought up an interesting story.
“Before I abandoned my forge and ran away, I hid a small amount of cobalt ingots. It’s not enough to make a longsword, but plenty for a dagger.”
He said that while running his forge he had collected rare ores, turned them into ingots, and stored them. Among them, cobalt ingots were what he had gathered the most. He had once dreamed of making a cobalt greatsword someday, but the sudden disaster forced him to give up on that dream. So he would give me those cobalt ingots and asked me to have them made into daggers.
Equipment made from cobalt was rare on the market, and finding a blacksmith who could work with the ingots wasn’t easy. But Nobern was a major city. In big cities, the chance of meeting skilled artisans was high. Pasvachio said there was exactly one blacksmith on the street of forges who knew how to handle cobalt ingots.
“Since you’re getting new ones anyway, make them good. Something you can use for a long time. Oh, and you don’t need to pay for the ingots. I was treating them as good as thrown away anyway. You’ve spent a lot of money for our mercenary group lately, Captain. Just seeing my family eating well and living comfortably is payment enough.”