Ch.36Chapter 36. Lin Gets Annoyed at Lucy

# Zramun Archipelago.

A coastal region consisting of small islands clustered around the central Zramun Island.

This territory, governed by the Protek family, is historically only slightly larger than Efalterga. Whenever foreign powers attempted conquest, the archipelago would readily surrender to maintain peace, provided there was no particular persecution.

Foreign powers, too, found the navigation route to Zramun Archipelago treacherous and saw little benefit in maintaining a permanent presence. If the locals were obedient, they would grant them autonomy and pay little attention to their affairs as long as taxes were properly paid.

Curiously, throughout various world crises, many great figures emerged from the Zramun Archipelago, the most famous being the Second Hero.

Once, the land took immense pride in producing a Hero, but after his execution due to false accusations, they swallowed their sorrow and now modestly honor his spirit through this festival.

Even though the kingdom has fallen and the empire has taken its place—a time when the truth could be revealed—the people of Zramun Archipelago, including the Protek family, remember the Second Hero who fell due to his overwhelming popularity, and thus keep themselves humble and hidden.

But that, too, is a story from hundreds of years ago.

Today, the festival has become purely about enjoyment—eating, drinking, and celebrating.

Lucy’s eyes widened in amazement.

She had heard that on the mainland, only certain people knew about this festival, but the streets were filled with merchants and visitors.

Though unfamiliar with it all, seeing the various street foods made Lucy hungry.

As a fallen noble who had wielded a sword just to avoid starvation, this country Hero had seen aristocratic social gatherings where people pretended to be nobles, but had never experienced such a grand festival.

Lin, on the other hand, was tense.

Despite paying expensive fare to come all this way, the reason for taking this porter job was simple.

First of all, they had no money.

Before departing, Lin had sent a letter to Naidrian through the World Postal Service.

The World Postal Service was, of course, expensive.

And while the ship fare wasn’t quite as costly as the postal service, it was still considerable.

The captain’s kindness hadn’t been without reason.

With the “privilege” of being a porter, Lin could take miscellaneous items acquired during the Hero party’s journey and trade them with merchants for money. But Lin had diligently saved everything to fund Naidrian’s research, gathered resources for the Hero party’s preparations for the Demon Lord subjugation, and hadn’t hunted any monsters since except for Baltercrua.

With only expenses and no income, Lin’s precious savings were rapidly dwindling.

In that sense, the porter job at the Zramun Archipelago festival paid quite well.

It was among the best options for honest manual labor with honest pay.

“Alright! Part-timers! Line up! Four columns!”

This was especially true because the Protek family paid the wages directly, ensuring fair compensation.

“Hey, you three rows, follow that person.”

Additionally, working as a porter reduced the chance of encountering the Hero party that would arrive later.

To be precise, it reduced the risk of them recognizing Lin and Lucy.

The reason being,

“All divided by work assignments!”

“Understood! Now let’s put on the masks.”

“Masks?”

Lucy tilted her head in confusion, but Lin skillfully rummaged through the porter’s bag.

When the person distributing masks approached, Lin politely declined.

“We brought our own.”

“Oh, really?”

During the festival period, staff and part-timers work wearing masks.

The reason behind this tradition was symbolic: the unjustly executed Hero enjoys the festival while his persecutors serve him—a meaningful gesture.

Naturally, they couldn’t entrust this task to just anyone, so they only recruited people with identification from the port town before departure.

This was a major reason why Lin had asked Ravin for fake IDs.

“So cute!”

Lucy received a rabbit mask.

After putting on the rabbit headband as well, she eagerly anticipated what mask Lin would wear.

But when she saw the mask Lin pulled out from the porter’s bag, Lucy hesitated.

It was a mask divided into black and white.

A bizarre mask with one side smiling and the other crying.

“Is that all you have?”

“It gives me a sense of stability.”

The smiling side was white and prominent, while the crying side was pitch black and difficult to discern.

Somehow, seeing that mask made Lucy wonder if Lin’s current state mirrored it, causing her distress.

Lucy realized she didn’t have a good relationship with masks.

Indeed.

Masks forcibly reminded her of her first meeting with Lin.

“The lady is coming!”

“Attention, everyone! The patron is arriving, so don’t make a bad impression!”

Everyone stood with some semblance of respect at the mention of their employer.

A carriage slowly approached and stopped beside them.

The door opened, and a maid stepped out first to assist the noble passenger, together with the coachman.

“Thank you, Bran.”

A vibrant, clear voice.

The young lady in a white dress possessed a strange charm that energized those who saw her.

Her skin was more pinkish than white, which, combined with her half-tied blonde hair, enhanced her overall vitality.

“What an interesting mask.”

As she walked toward the platform, the young lady passed by Lin.

In that brief moment, she didn’t miss the opportunity to speak with a gentle smile before moving on.

What’s with her?

Thanks to her mask, Lucy could glare freely at the young lady.

“Hello, everyone! I’m Aibis Protek, the eldest daughter of the Protek family.”

The platform was nothing more than a wooden box she had climbed onto.

It was a glimpse of the young lady’s unpretentiousness.

“The Zramun Archipelago Festival has quite a deep history, you know? But it’s so deep that we’ve forgotten why the festival staff wear masks in the first place.”

Everyone laughed lightly at her unexpected wit.

Seeing that the atmosphere had lightened, the young lady continued her speech.

“I know everyone gathered here has come for their livelihood. But no matter what, it doesn’t feel great to work while others are enjoying themselves, right? That’s why the Protek family pays double the usual wages to those who work during the festival period!”

“Wow!”

“Make it triple!”

“If I paid triple, I’d have to work as a porter myself at the next festival.”

Hahaha. More cheerful laughter.

But Lucy disliked Aibis.

A woman’s intuition told her to be wary of her.

Come to think of it, she hadn’t been able to hold Lin’s hand since disembarking from the ship.

Lucy, who had separation anxiety, had never been apart from Lin except for his sake, so her heart was racing.

“And one more thing! During the festival, there are more people than usual. So there’s something we only ask at this time.”

Damn it, finish quickly.

“Not to brag, but our family has produced many great figures. Though not widely known externally, there are important individuals to our family.”

Lin’s energy is lacking.

I want to cling to his arm and lick the sweat off his neck.

“Among them is someone named Gerero Protek. Since none of us care what he did, I’ll cut to the chase and just say this.”

Gerero Protek.

Only Lin, with the memories of the transmigrator Lee, would know exactly who he was.

“Our family will offer a substantial reward to anyone who finds Gerero Protek’s tomb. It’s quite embarrassing to ask you to find our ancestor’s grave, but he’s truly an important figure in our family history.”

“How much will you pay?”

“Remember the sailing ship you took to get to the archipelago? Enough to buy one like it.”

“Woooooah!!!”

The crowd cheered.

Lin clenched his fist.

Good, the side quest begins.

“Any clues? Are there any clues?”

Gerero Protek.

“Wouldn’t there be a tombstone or something since it’s a grave?”

“That’s not enough!”

The greatest figure produced by the Zramun Archipelago and the Protek family.

“I’m joking. They say you feel very eerie and sad when you’re near the tomb. And occasionally there’s a pitch-black sword stuck in it?”

“Occasionally?”

“Hehe, if it were easy to find, I wouldn’t be offering so much money, would I?”

He was the protagonist of a tragedy still spoken of today—the Second Hero.

The Protek family had gone to great lengths to bring his executed body back to the archipelago.

But a cursed sword, sealed on the archipelago with deep resentment, began moving his grave around, starting an absurd game of hide-and-seek between the Protek family and the demonic sword.

The side quest of Chapter 3 in Zramun Archipelago was to find this tomb, which appeared with abysmal probability, and then discover the demonic sword that appeared at the tomb with even worse odds.

It was still a game of terrible RNG.

“And everyone! Didn’t you come here for the porter job?”

“Oh right, that’s true!”

“Hahahahaha!”

After the cheerful speech ended and Aibis stepped down from the platform, people quickly became boisterous again.

“Alright! Let’s get to work!”

Good, now we can move around.

Being porters meant they would inevitably traverse various parts of Zramun Island carrying all sorts of luggage.

“Just a moment.”

But Aibis approached the work supervisor and pointed at Lin.

“I’d like to take that person as staff for the beauty pageant.”

“A man?”

“Precisely because he’s a man. Do you know how much luggage there is? Our maids complained terribly until last year about how difficult it was.”

“Yes, yes, I understand. The Protek family is paying anyway.”

“You understand so well~.”

With a liveliness unbecoming of a noble lady, Aibis snatched Lin away.

This is bad.

The beauty pageant would be held in one location, so they couldn’t explore the island.

Lin tried to decline indirectly.

“Ah, but I’d rather…”

“Double pay, paid today.”

“I’ve always dreamed of becoming an event planner who creates shows for people since I was young.”

It was too much money to refuse.

There was no choice.

In truth, despite saying his funds were dwindling, Lin was completely broke without the money from this job.

In other words, he had spent everything.

At this point, the only option was to do this job himself and tip off Lucy to search for the tomb instead.

But,

“Eek!”

Lucy strode over and hugged Lin.

“My goodness?”

“Hey! Move out to work!”

Aibis was surprised, and the work supervisor was flustered.

Lucy spoke to them with natural innocence.

“I work best when I’m with him!”

“Hmm, who are you?”

“I’m Lee Soon-yi!”

“I’m Lee Chun-sik.”

“Aha!”

The young lady clapped her hands.

“You’re siblings!”

“That’s not—”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Surprised, Lucy turned to look at Lin.

The black and white mask hid his expression, making it impossible to read.

“If you’re siblings, I should accommodate that. I’ll use this friend as staff for the pageant too.”

“Thank you!”

“I should be thanking you. Gayanal, please guide these two and bring them along.”

Having made her decision swiftly, Aibis boarded her carriage.

“Shall we go?”

The maid led the way with a strictly professional attitude.

When they were a little distance from her, Lucy tried to confront Lin.

“Lin, why did you say we’re siblings…!”

“Let’s go, Lucy. Time is of the essence.”

“L-Lin?”

Lucy was bewildered.

Lin had left without properly listening to her.

“Lin, what’s wrong…?”

Though she felt uneasy, she followed him but couldn’t approach his back, which emanated a cold aura.

Only then did Lucy realize that Lin was angry.

“Lin…”

“Lucy, let’s talk after work. Let’s focus for today.”

The probability of both Gerero’s tomb and the demonic sword appearing simultaneously was comparable to winning the lottery.

The festival lasted three days total, and with both of them stuck working at today’s beauty pageant, they had already lost one day.

That fact was extremely irritating.

Wait.

Irritated…? Me?

“Haah…”

Sighing, Lin extended his hand to Lucy.

Quickly grasping it, Lucy was too busy reading the situation to say anything else.

She felt

lonely

and

disappointed.

With just the thin thickness of a mask between them, he couldn’t see what expression Lucy wore or understand how she felt.

Nevertheless, Lucy only watched carefully because

she couldn’t even begin to imagine how much pain he had hidden beneath his mask throughout the entire Demon Lord subjugation journey.