/
“Then, I’m going to bite you.”
“That wouldn’t be bad either.”
I don’t think it’ll hurt to bite him anyway.
‘Should I really bite him?’
Dillian, who knew nothing when that scary thought crossed Lia’s mind, suddenly lowered his corner of lips.
“Miss Lia. Where’s my house, who’s my family, I don’t know everything about it. If that me, leave on the road all alone and get caught by the bad guys…”
Dillian lowered his eyes and blurred the end of his speech.
It was meant to win Lia’s sympathy, but in her ears,
‘You who smashed my head, crushed it, then became like this, must take responsibility. If I get hurt, you know, right?’
that’s what she heard.
At that time, Dillian’s face looked like a grim reaper that brought a sickle.
With that he will shickled my neck, right? Lia’s face turned white.
“Stop! Stop! I get it. I’ll do that.”
This must be why they say they can’t live after making a sin.
I can’t live because I’m scared.
Dillian smiled brightly at Lia’s teary answer.
‘Blin, it’s blinding…!’
I was blinded by the bright smile like the midsummer sun.
“Then, please promise me.”
Dillian reached out his pinky finger.
“Where did you learn this?”
“In the book. It’s said they hang their fingers when making a promise.”
It’s a fairy tale book then. It’s a fairy tale book. It was clear it’s the fairy tale book that Nathan read when it was bored.
“Alright. I’ll do it.”
Lia reached out her hand as Dillian wanted.
‘Unfortunately, a promise exists bound to be broken.’
While hiding her insidious feelings, Lia promised Dillian with her pinky finger.
But she didn’t know.
That Dillian’s dearest wish deepened.
Thus, he didn’t know that she bound a promise with a complacent heart.
Swaaa-
In the change that happened to Lia, the butterflies, who hid itselves, trembled slightly.
***
“Woah, this time too, it’s the best.”
“Lia, it’s her thing. She grows herbs well, has a good personality, and is soft hearted. And you don’t know how pretty she is.”
Claude put on a serious face while looking at the herbs despite giving Lia compliments to his colleagues.
“But, what is this? I don’t think this is the herb listed.
“Ah, that’s. Lia gave it to me for the hard time I got while breaking through the snowstorm.”
To be exact, she gave it to cover my mouth tho.
When I saw the herbs in my colleague’s hands, my mouth was bitter.
‘Lia. In the end with that kind of guy.’
Claude, who remembered the strange atmosphere between the two, sighed as the ground collapsed.
“What’s wrong with the guy who always smiled after seeing Lia?”
“Did Lia scold you?”
The colleagues giggled and teased Claude.
However, Claude had no energy to get angry or to laugh together.
‘Bring the information about the red eyes man you mentioned.’
Claude, who recalled a low voice that had been messing up his head from before, hit his head on the table.
‘Is that brat a stalker? Why is he eavesdropping there?’
With an uncomfortable heart, he comes out from the greenhouse, welcomed by Dillian who is colder than the cold winter wind.
‘What, what?’
‘Bring the information.’
‘Wh, what. Why should I listen to you?’
‘This is enough for the commission fee.’
‘Hey! I never said I wi…’
Something he refused on his hands, is a high-end cuff button.
Claude swallowed his saliva seeing the antique black sapphire.
‘Is this not enough?’
‘N, no.’
As he said that, one more is given.
Claude accepted Dillian’s request after much consideration. It was a force majeure*.
*Irresistible compulsion or greater force.
Because he was a capitalist slave.
“About a bounty* for the guy this time.”
*A bounty is a payment or reward of money to locate, capture or kill an outlaw.
Claude who gave in for money, faithfully to the request.
“What kind of guy? It’s not one or two to get a bounty to take guys.”
“You know, the one with the red eyes.”
“That guy?”
“Do you know anything about it?”
Then, the lifeless eyes of the colleague who talks back as if uninterested turn around.
“You see it? Huh? Find it?”
“What do you mean see it? It’s just because I think it’ll be useful later if I collect the information.”
He pretended to be fine, but on his back the cold sweat flowed down like rain.
“Hmm. Yeah, there’s a lot of talk. Some say he’s a heinous murderer, others say he’s a thief who swept away a famous jeweler in the capital, and others say he’s a slave who ran away because he offended a noble lord.”
I expect it, there’s no useful information. Everyone only guesses he is dangerous.
‘As expected he’s a dangerous person, right?’
Is it right to have Lia next to such a dangerous person? Is it right to pretend not to know as she asks?
It should be revealed for Lia’s sake but… The problem was that the relationship between those two seemed too deep and affectionate.
They seem to be unable to live if they don’t live together. If I forcibly separate them I’m worried something wrong would happen.
I only gave Lia a look, but the man staring at me with killer looks as if telling me she was his, and Lia who was desperately asking me to pretend not to know, were all the same.
‘It’s the first time I’ve seen that kind of eyes.’
When I recalled Lia’s eyes, which were burning hot beyond desperation, my heart weakened again.
Ah, I don’t know. Claude poured alcohol out of frustration.
One glass, two glasses, three glasses… The taste of alcohol, rose rapidly.
“To Lia…”
“What’s wrong with Lia?”
“To Lia…!”
“What will happen to Lia?”
Colleagues who immediately responded as hearing about Lia asked Claude.
Claude screamed with a red-hot face.
“Has someone she likes!”
“What? Our youngest has someone she likes?”
“What kind of guy?”
“What kind of guy to our Lia…!”
It was Lia, who was known as the youngest sister of all herbalists.
Our kind little sister is dating? The atmosphere of the table subsided violently due to the information about their younger sister’s dating news.
Bang-! Claude threw the alcohol glass, then opened his moist mouth.
“You asked what kind of guy? He’s a dirtily handsome guy.”
“Ah… If that’s the case, we can’t help it.”
“Lia does like handsome guys.”
“It seems like the face that can’t be passed by our youngest.”
“Hey, I thought I saw a statue when looking at him.”
Claude who was drunk at the latter said in admiration that he doesn’t know anything else but his face is no joke.
“He is a good guy, right?”
“Well, about that I don’t really know…”
Claude reached his pocket and showed the cuff button that Dillian gave him.
“Wow, as soon as I see it, it looks expensive.”
“If he gave you this expensive thing, he seemed to have quite a lot of money. I don’t know anything else, but sure our Lia will get luxury!”
“Of course he should! If he doesn’t, let’s get him a kick!”
Wahaha!
An unfamiliar voice poured cold water over the drunken guys laughing.
“Where did you get that?”
The eyes looking at the black sapphire shone dangerously.
***
I’ve imagined countless deaths by Dillian who regained his memories.
Die from cutted neck, die from getting hole in the stomach, or die while living as slave…
However, among the countless imaginations, there was no ending with die from starving.
“… Dillian, that brat is the problem. Is there a beggar living in his stomach!”
Nathan, who was suddenly going to be starved to death together, could not hold back its anger.
Actually I don’t want to shoot the arrow at Dillian who doesn’t know anything. But certainly, one mouth increase was the problem. Even so, Dillian is eating well. Really eating well. He’s a big eater.
And I’m responsible for that big eater. As I became the head of the household by chance, I shouted resolutely as I looked outside at the snow that had stopped.
“I need to go hunting.”
“Because of the snow, isn’t it hard to find the prey?
“A bird, there must be one, tho.”
I took out the bow I put in the warehouse and placed it on my shoulder.
It would be nice to go down to the village, but the road would have been blocked by ten days of snow.
‘It’ll take a whole day.’
It was faster to hunt in a nearby forest than go down to the village.
“Sir Dillian, I made sandwiches, you can eat it when you’re hungry.”
After seeing the layer-up of clothes and bow, Dillian looked at me with suspicious eyes.
“Where are you going Miss Lia?”
“A forest nearby. I will go hunting because we are running out of food. Sir Dillian can wait together with Nathan.”
“What? Lia! You can’t. I can’t let you go alone in that dangerous forest.”
Nathan, who surely thought it was going with her, jumped up from its seat.
“It’s alright. I’m not going to go deep. And if you follow along, who will take care of Sir Dillian?”
While arguing with Nathan, Dillian intervened.
“Miss Lia, it is insulting.”
“Yes?”
The atmosphere subsided sharply with the cold voice.
My fingertips were hardened by the cold appearance I saw for the first time since the first day.
Is he angry because I treated him like a child? How dare I treat the strongest like the weak?
“What do you mean to be taken care of by a beast who is not even human? That also Nathan’s care. I feel like my humanity, even my pride has collapsed.”
It was that.
“If you want to treat me like a child, Miss Lia, who’s my guardian, must take me.”
“No.”
I flatly refused.
I know how to hunt. I know how to distinguish herbs. He who doesn’t know how to do anything is like dirt.
Then Dillian looked at me with a grumpy face and suddenly put his hand in the basket.
“What the?”
“If you leave me here, this brat will run and let me be known.”
What Dillian had in his hands was my share of the sandwich.
“Are you pretending to be a hostage? Give it to me.”
As I reached for the sandwich, Dillian raised his arm high. I, who was much smaller than him, could never reach.
When Dillian gave strength in his hand, the poor ingredients began to leak out little by little.
“Are you crazy? My sandwich is dying!”
“I’m a hostage. If you want to save the sandwich, take me.”
That must be a third-class line he learned somewhere. With a mean smile, he looked like a real villain.
I frowned at the books piled high behind Dillian’s back.
‘I should have filtered out some books.’
I handed it over as much as I could, and didn’t know this catastrophe would happen.
‘The face is all dead.’
As I couldn’t pretend to be cool at the sin I have committed to Dillian, a  sigh came out.
“… Get ready in five minutes and come out. If you don’t come, I’m going to leave you.”
Dillian’s face, who smiled meanly, brightened at once.
“I will be ready in three minutes.”
Dillian ran to the room.
Without letting go of the sandwich in his hand until the end.