Chapter 9
Chapter 9
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: Aira, the Flower of Evil #9
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The explanation of currency values in the novel *Villain Hunter* is quite vague.
To begin with, the protagonist, the "Villain Hunter," was the type who didn't give a damn about money.
From what I remember, the only description of money was that one gold coin was enough to cover a month's living expenses for a family of four. If I compare it to Korean won, it'd probably be somewhere around 1 to 2 million won?
Back then, I despised it as a lazy, half-hearted way of putting things. But now that I've experienced it firsthand, I can't think of a more accurate description.
Of course, since everyone's living in poverty, the real value might feel even higher.
I'd taken that as mere trivia.
"G-Gold coin—!"
From the waiter's perspective, it was no wonder he yelped in shock.
A veteran server would have just quietly pocketed a large tip without a fuss, but since he was freaking out like this, he was probably a newbie who hadn't been on the job long.
"Is this not enough? I thought one coin would suffice—."
The problem was that Aira, reacting to his surprise, pulled another gold coin from her pocket and held it out to him.
As a result, the twin-tailed waiter was on the verge of fainting.
"Th-this much money—. Thank you—! Thank you—! I-I'll go fetch the manager right away—!"
Tap-tap, tatatap—.
The girl bolted off so fast it was like her feet weren't even touching the ground. She was probably going to bring the nymph Aira had wanted to see.
"I gave my first tip ever. It's fun. Did I do it right?"
Aira innocently chattered about her first experience as if she had no idea what was going on, but I couldn't just smile along.
What had just happened had unwittingly drawn aggro from the whole area.
—Hey, did you see that? She tipped with gold coins. Two of them, even—.
—Some noble's daughter? Why's she in a dump like this at this hour?
—Slumming it for fun or something? I heard that's trendy these days. But she doesn't have any escorts—. That scrawny guy in front—is he her servant?
It was obvious they'd caught on to our wealth. Tons of eyes were turning our way. They hadn't figured out who Aira and I were, but it sure as hell wasn't a great situation.
If some idiots picked a fight, things could get dangerous.
Not for us, but for the idiots picking the fight.
Aira had no mercy.
Still, Aira acted like she didn't care about any of that and kept talking to me.
"Did I do it right? I heard you're supposed to tip like that in places like this."
"Yes, you did well. But—. Wasn't the amount a bit much? Honestly, one copper coin would have been plenty."
"Copper coin? I don't have any of those. Elga never mentioned anything like that."
Of course not. Earlier, when she was trying to buy flowers from those kids, she'd pulled out a gold coin too.
Aira lacked common sense.
That didn't mean she was dumb, though. It was more like this.
"Miss—. If I may be so bold, do you know what 351 times 357 is?"
"What a random question. Why are you asking that? Fifteen thousand three hundred and seven."
Just like that—Aira could crunch complex calculations in an instant.
Well, yeah. Otherwise, she couldn't have become a 7th Circle mage handling intricate spell formulas. Magic required mathematical computation skills, after all.
But she wouldn't know that one copper coin was enough for a tip.
A brilliant mind, utterly devoid of common sense or background knowledge.
What a waste.
Even if she'd grown up like a flower in a greenhouse, as a lady uninvolved in the line of succession—. At this point, I was starting to wonder what kind of childhood she'd had.
And after going through all sorts of ordeals lately, the scales in her heart had gone completely haywire.
That was Aira's current state.
So, why not just teach her some common sense? someone might say.
But Aira didn't trust people, so she wouldn't believe what others told her.
To exaggerate a bit, even if they said "2 plus 2 equals 4," she wouldn't buy it.
The only ones whose words she'd actually listen to were me—and if I had to include someone else, Elga. But Elga was more like a bad influence of a friend who led her astray than a good mentor—.
And I wasn't in any position to teach anyone, lacking common sense about this bizarre world myself.
"Hmm—."
My head was starting to ache.
With my throbbing head, I decided to reframe my thinking positively.
Still, Aira's condition had improved a lot.
About a year ago, when I first met her at the court banquet, she was like a rose bristling with thorns.
No one could talk to her, and she wouldn't listen to anyone. Compared to then, the difference now was like night and day.
"I can't wait to see the nymph. Hurry up and come out—. Making me wait—. Is it like the rumors? I heard nymphs like candy—."
Back then, it would've been impossible for Aira to look forward to something like this.
What that meant was that Aira could change.
Yeah. By now, anyone could see it.
Turning Aira from a tyrant into at least a normal human—that was my ultimate goal.
If I just got dragged along by the novel's plot, eventually I'd end up executed just like in the episodes I knew.
With Aira presiding over my hanging.
No escaping that.
That's when it hit me.
What if I twisted the story completely?
Stopping Belmot's execution the other day had been my attempt to warp the narrative.
And blocking Belmot's execution had been pretty effective.
Maybe I could twist things so far that Aira wouldn't get executed.
Saving Aira's and my necks, stabilizing the kingdom, and leading to a peaceful, happy ending—.
Wouldn't that be the top priority for me, Monk Taeo Gospel?
To twist the story, I'd have to do things that Taeo and Aira never did in the novel.
For example, something drastic enough to flip the genre of the original story.
A few ideas came to mind right away.
The question was whether Aira and the others would go along with it.
But after all my efforts over the past year, things were backing me up now—.
It was worth betting on.
With the secret funds seized from blocking Sir Belmot's execution, I had plenty of chips. And with Elga back from her expedition—. Wasn't now the time to go all-in?
Alright, alright. All that's left is figuring out how to convince Aira—.
"Gospel—."
A voice calling me snapped me out of my thoughts.
"Did you call for me, miss?"
"Over there, those guys—. They're talking about you."
Aira's expression, peeking from under her robe, was incredibly dark.
She was biting her lip so hard it looked like blood might drip down any second. For Aira to get this mad—?
I turned to look, and there in the corner were some guys drinking and slurring their words.
—Taeo that bastard, because that bastard suddenly changed the laws, I can't even beat my slaves anymore. These days, whenever I pick up a whip, my slave says—?
—What does she say?
—This is slave-phobic or some shit, and she's gonna file a complaint at the government office. Fuck—. Damn it. The slaves are acting like the masters—. And now we're supposed to pay them minimum wage?
—Yeah, that's crossing the line. Just tossing them the scraps should have them bowing and thanking us—. Minimum wage?
Ah—. They must be slave owners pissed about the minimum human rights law for slaves I pushed through a few months ago.
There was an episode where abused slaves banded together for a rebellion that wrecked the kingdom, so I'd tried to prevent that somehow with the slave rights law.
—And when I wanted to sleep with my female slave—. What the hell is "slave sensitivity"? It's ridiculous. That Taeo guy—. Is his slave sensitivity so high because he's the queen's slave?
—Tell me about it—. Hey, I heard something—. Apparently, Taeo that bastard used to be a slave too? About a year ago, someone saw him being sold to the Lioness family.
—Whoa, so he went from slave to striking it rich and becoming the queen's boy toy? Life's unfair—. Some of us get screamed at for human rights by slaves—. The nerve of slaves—.
Grind—.
I could hear Aira grinding her teeth. For her to hold back this much was impressive. Was she following my old advice to let insults about me slide?
"They're insulting you. And they don't even know you—. Taeo, you're not my slave. I've never thought of you that way."
Rumble, grrr—. Grrr—. Clatter, clatter—.
Objects around us started reacting to Aira's rage. The windows creaked, and well-placed dishes fell to the floor, shattering and rolling.
Whoosh—.
Aira slightly lifted her index finger from the table.
Roooar—. Clatter—. The shaking intensified.
This was the prep phase for a 7th Circle spell, Earthquake.
If this kept up, the ground would heave, and everything might get buried in rubble.
—What the hell, an earthquake? Why's the building shaking? Am I the only one feeling it? I haven't even had a drink.
—The kingdom's probably doomed anyway. Quit yapping and have a drink.
—Sure, pour me one—.
No, if you think an earthquake's coming, run, you idiots.
If they stayed, the building could collapse into a disaster, and Aira might get a taste for it and awaken as the Angmar Massacre Witch Queen.
That's when I was about to intervene to calm Aira.
"Excuse me—."
—Excuse me, could you please stop—. You're so loud, the other customers hate it.
Someone cut into the group badmouthing me. Thanks to that, Aira's finger, hovering slightly above the table, froze.
—Oh, Sophie—. Were we that loud?
—Yes—. You were. The tavern's shaking because you're so noisy!
—No, why's it our fault? It's an earthquake—.
—And Sir Taeo saved me. I don't know where you old men were or what you were doing then—. Don't badmouth my lifesaver.
—Well, anyone with that kind of power would act nice to underlings—. Isn't that obvious?
—Shut up—! Is that why you beat slaves?
—Slaves are—. Uh, what are they—. Human but not human, uh, how do I put it—.
—Anyway, two black beers. Two pig legs. Eat this and quiet down.
She was Sophie, the freckled waitress. The same woman who'd nearly been dragged off and brutalized by the tax collector earlier.
Her stepping in naturally to scold the men insulting me shut down their trash talk, and Aira's rage simmered down with it.
"Quite the interesting girl."
"...Seems like it."
I swallowed a sigh of relief inwardly.
My actions had created a butterfly effect, stirring up a storm in some far-off land. It was amazing that this happened because I'd saved that girl.
Karma, maybe?
"The beernymph has arrived in person—!"
Then, someone approached us from afar.
It was a girl with light pumpkin-colored bobbed hair, looking about fourteen or fifteen, with a youthful face.
"Who summoned this beernymph—! I'm busy, but I always make time for VIPs—! That's my business savvy—!"
Her short, pointed ears stood out. She was the madam running this tavern, "Nymph's Gutter Water," named Beernoi. Her fancy dress looked comically like she'd raided her mom's closet.
Her speech was childish too.
But her actual age? Who knew.
Fairies stayed youthful-looking no matter how old they got.
"Pleasure, esteemed guests—!"
Beernoi chirped in her bright, tinkling voice as she set down our ordered food on the table. Aira, who'd wiped the blood from her lips, gave a slight smile.
"A real nymph. There's a nymph."
"I am Beernoi, nymph of the brook—! Who dares rudely tug at this beernymph's cheeks—! That's horribly nymph-phobic—!"
"See—. She's different from humans. Looks like a kid. Cheeks are all squishy. And pointed ears."
"Don't treat me like a child—!"
Even as the head of a nation, this was probably Aira's first time seeing a nymph up close.
She didn't have many human connections to begin with, and her range of activity was limited.
Plus, nymphs were so rare you might never encounter one.
"What do nymphs like? Candy, like kids?"
Aira seemed to have taken a liking to the nymph.
"Ahh—! More importantly, you—. You're giving off some serious vibes—!"
Just then, the nymph manager Beernoi, whose cheek was being pinched by Aira, shouted as if she'd noticed something.
Had she sensed Aira's immense magic power? I'd heard nymphs were innate mages who handled the mana in the air.
But the nymph manager Beernoi's eyes weren't on Aira.
They were on me.
"Ahh—! I get it now—!"
She scrutinized me this way and that, then spread her arms wide and yelled as if she'd figured it out.
"You're a half-breed, a half-nymph—!"