Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 187
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 187
“Why?”
The first thing that came to mind was a question.
The Second Prince had written in his own hand about Teacher’s injury.
Knowing Teacher’s personality, the circumstances of the injury must have come from protecting, or trying to protect, the Second Prince.
If so, wasn’t this an uncommonly advantageous situation for their business partner, Jack?
“Asteri could feel that strongly about making the Second Prince Emperor.”
Human politics were said to be always full of twists and turns, but even so, that general point held, didn’t it?
‘…Then was it not spite?’
Freyania sank deep into thought, brow furrowed so deeply that the crease reached her forehead.
At first she had wondered if that bastard Jack was causing unnecessary trouble, but as she went over it step by step, she began to think that wasn’t the case.
After all, didn’t humans often have different outer faces and inner hearts?
Jack was exactly the kind of human Freyania had always imagined.
In that case, this was actually… goodwill?
Once she thought of it that way, the pent-up questions burst open and her thoughts raced ahead.
“Did he catch on to Teacher’s ability?”
Maybe he was planning to bring Teacher to the Criminal Underworld and put him to work?
That idea had potential.
Teacher was so versatile that his abilities might well have tempted him.
‘Then just how much does Jack know?’
First, she assumed he already knew about the alchemy.
And that someone had come from the elf country…
‘Does he not know about the spirit arts?’
What should she say and what should she hide?
Teacher loathed stepping into the spotlight!
“This won’t do!”
She hadn’t planned to disturb Teacher’s peaceful time, but now that a letter had flown all the way here, it would be faster to ask him directly.
In other words, what to hide!
If it were anyone else, she would have used the inconvenience as an excuse and handed over every scrap of information she knew.
Jack’s personality was foul, but to his own people, he was boundlessly generous and gave everything he had.
Freyania had benefited from that plenty herself.
Of course, she had been worked twice as hard for it.
But this time, wasn’t the target Teacher?
That changed everything, and by a great, vast, enormous amount.
Delicate Teacher might not even die a natural death!
He was already short-lived because he was human!
“I must go to Teacher. Let’s go, Salamander!”
The instant Salamander leaped onto her shoulder, Freyania strode swiftly and blindly toward Teacher’s room.
* * *
While Freyania was causing a commotion from early morning,
Lion…
“Oh, it’s growing fast?”
He was checking on the Mushberry sprouts that were shooting up next to the Moonflowers.
The Mushberries were growing faster than expected.
They hadn’t grown much yet—you could only tell the sprouts had come up if you looked closely—but the stems definitely felt thicker.
Maybe it was thanks to the labyrinth’s abundant nutrients.
“The Moonflowers are still coming along nicely too.”
The Moonflowers he’d planted before had already bloomed in glorious profusion, making the scenery even more beautiful.
“Peep, peep.”
Nature, who had been sipping honey from a Moonflower, let out a satisfied chirp.
“Yeah. You like it too, don’t you?”
Nature had taken such a liking to Moonflower honey over the past few days that it had begun eating it as a snack.
And every so often he would pluck a bloom or two that had grown prettily and set it gently on top of the egg.
Honestly, the sight of flower petals placed like a hat on a giant egg was pretty funny, but since both the egg and Nature seemed content, Lion had to work to suppress his laughter.
“Right. You’d better come out soon so you can try sucking honey with Nature and all.”
He’d have to make sure this kitchen garden-slash-flower garden was nicely tended so they could experience it directly.
After watering the flowers and Mushberries with a watering can, Lion returned to the cabin.
“They should be dry by now…”
He’d come to check on the meju blocks laid out on the rice straw.
Brushing them lightly with his hand… the surfaces definitely felt rough and nicely dried.
And the characteristic smell was beginning to rise. The meju smell—one you could call savory, and also a little disagreeable.
‘I think I disliked it when I was young.’
He’d hated the cheonggukjang smell that sometimes wafted from street stalls, calling it foul.
But when had it changed?
Probably around his rookie days when he’d been run ragged by work, he’d found himself drooling at the smell of cheonggukjang.
With a bowl of rice in the hot stew, plus a side of grilled fish or fresh-made geotjeori, that alone had been a feast.
“Mm, I can move them soon.”
Lion tied the meju blocks into crosses with straw ropes he’d made in advance from rice straw.
“They won’t fall off, right?”
He picked one up and gave it a gentle shake; luckily nothing crumbled and no knots came loose.
Carrying the meju blocks, Lion went outside and hung them from the cabin’s eaves.
The cozy little wooden cabin, with just a single meju block hung, suddenly took on a K-countryside vibe.
“I like it.”
It had its own flavor, he thought.
When autumn came, maybe he’d peel some persimmons and hang those up too.
“Hoo. Anyway, today’s chores are done, so shall we head out and have breakfast?”
Yawning and stretching lazily, Lion stepped out of the labyrinth.
“Whoa, you startled me.”
And there he ran into her.
Freyania, panting heavily as she waited for him.
“Te-Teacher! There you were!”
“Were you looking for me?”
“Yes!”
It was true that he hadn’t checked on Freyania’s alchemy lately.
‘Hss, got carried away with the meju.’
It was only natural that Freyania, with her tremendous passion for alchemy, would be hunting for him with fire in her eyes like this.
“I haven’t been able to look at your alchemy these days…”
“That’s not it!”
Freyania glanced furtively all around, then handed Lion the letter, which was beyond crumpled and even a little damp by now.
“Please read this…!”
Even knowing there was no one in House Asteri from the Criminal Underworld except herself, Freyania whispered in the smallest voice she could manage.
“…”
Of course, Lion, who hadn’t yet grasped the situation, was only puzzled.
Still, thinking it must be important if she’d come drenched in sweat, he unfolded the letter…
“Hmm.”
From Freyania’s perspective, it was certainly a highly awkward situation.
But—
‘Is it all right for you to show me this?’
After all, Freyania was currently staying in Asteri, but she belonged to the Criminal Underworld, didn’t she?
And a person of fairly high rank there… no, a half-elf, she’d said, or something like that.
‘Strictly speaking, isn’t this a leak of confidential information?’
Of course, he was genuinely grateful she’d told him.
“What should we do? I will follow your words, Teacher.”
“…Hmm.”
Of course, if Freyania spilled absolutely everything, it would get troublesome.
First, the fact that he could use spirit arts would be exposed on top of that, and a great deal related to alchemy might leak out as well.
But—
‘That much would be all right, wouldn’t it?’
Truthfully, Freyania didn’t know all that much information.
She knew nothing about his use of magic, of course, nor what had happened at the temple.
Though it would certainly be best if as little as possible got out, these were things that, given the Criminal Underworld’s or Jack’s information network, were bound to be learned someday anyway.
In other words.
The information Jack wanted—how he had figured out the relationship between the Second Prince and himself—would not be coming out.
“Will you be all right if you hide it?”
“…Well, I’ll have to endure Jack’s spite, but that much is manageable.”
“Spite?”
“Mm… well, he might send me off to another posting for, oh, ten years or so?”
Wasn’t a ten-year exile a pretty big deal?
‘Is she all right with it because she’s a half-elf…’
But from a human standpoint, it looked pretty bad.
Plus, even if Freyania kept her mouth shut, it was obvious they’d send a second and a third person to harass her.
‘Hmm. Then I’ve got no choice.’
He’d meant to avoid dealing with them as much as possible, but if they were going to poke their noses everywhere…
“Then how about we do this?”
“By ‘this,’ you mean…”
Lion pulled a portable fountain pen from his breast, scribbled something on the crumpled letter paper, and handed it back.
“This is…”
“Don’t open it. If Jack gets annoying, just give him this. Got it?”
“…!”
Freyania’s eyes went round, and then her brows sagged downward.
‘For Teacher to go this far for meee…!’
She didn’t know what it was, but it was surely something that would stop them from harassing her.
If so, this might be information or an answer containing tremendous value.
“But wouldn’t that put you in a difficult position, Teacher…”
“Mm, it’ll probably be fine. It might even work to my advantage, in fact.”
Lion murmured and chuckled to himself.
‘If the information is going to leak anyway, I’d rather sell it and collect a price.’
Lion didn’t know much about the organization called the Criminal Underworld.
Even when he’d played <In the World>, he hadn’t paid that much attention to the story.
But if there was one single thing he did know.
It was that when a deal is made in the Criminal Underworld, a price must be paid.
Even Jack, their leader, couldn’t overturn that rule.
Knowing themselves that the rule was a bother, they seemed to use it only for “people in the know,” so to speak.
But the moment you invoked that rule, from then on the deal had to proceed according to it.
Well, it was information you wouldn’t know unless you properly belonged to the Underworld.
He had learned it while playing his alt assassin character.
‘I thought I’d never use it in my life.’
But since they were so blatantly trying to get under his skin, he had no choice but to keep sowing confusion on his side too.
And… if they really did make what he’d requested, it would never be a losing deal.
“So don’t worry and just slam it down hard. All right?”
“Teacher…!”
The emotion Freyania felt was beyond imagination.
If being moved had a lethal dose, it would have killed her on the spot.
‘I was a fool to have felt even a tiny bit hurt!’
He was going this far for her!
And all she’d been doing was thinking about how to spin things around on Jack…
‘You idiot!’
She should have been thinking, not about excuses, but about cooking Jack one way or another to extract information that would help Teacher!
‘Now that I think about it, I’ve done plenty for the Underworld too, haven’t I?’
In that case, she could consider all remaining debts canceled.
And that meant, if Jack started spouting nonsense, she could just hand in her resignation and come right back to Asteri!
Honestly, the knowledge she had received from Teacher was beyond any sum of gold.
In that case…!
“Understood. I will deliver it without fail!”
“Great. Ah, did you eat breakfast? If you haven’t, want to eat together?”
“No! I now have something I must do!”
She turned passionate all of a sudden…
“Y-yeah. Then I’ll go eat.”
Glancing at Freyania, Lion moved on his way.
And—
In the empty corridor, Freyania made a solitary vow.
To give Teacher her utmost loyalty!
And from a distant spot, Elvia, who had been watching the whole scene, balled up her fist, suppressed a laugh, and silently melted back into the darkness.
‘The half-elf youngster can handle it on her own.’
There seemed no need for her to step in herself.