episode_0019

“Argh, Sir Yuseong, please listen to me!”

I ignored Miss Chris, who was clinging to my belt like a field shovel dangling from a tactical belt.

“…”

“No, listen! Just a moment, don’t run away, listen! Listen to me!”

What kind of young lady has that much strength?

It had been over five minutes since I left the room, but we were still in the mansion’s hallway.

“Argh…!”

With a flushed face, I surrendered to Miss Chris’s unrelenting tenacity.

If I tried to forcefully break free, my pants would obviously tear.

Her grip strength, it was something else.

“Alright, I’ll listen–”

–Rip!

“Oh my!”

“…It’s cold…”

A moment later, I changed into the new clothes the young lady brought.

A neat white shirt, a brown vest, black trousers, and low-heeled black shoes perfectly suited my taste.

–Twirl, snap.

“Presenting: New Yuseong.”

“It suits you!”

Clap, clap, clap. At Miss Chris, who was clapping and admiring, I grinned and said,

“Of course it suits me, since my clothes were torn and I had nothing else to wear…”

“I already said I was sorry! Can’t you stop?!”

“Yep!”

Zip! I zipped my mouth shut and grinned widely, and Miss Chris’s face turned blotchy.

When I first met her, she seemed like a cool young lady, but the more I see her, the more amusing her reactions become.

I’ve mastered the young lady’s emotions!

“But Miss, you weren’t really trying to flatten me like a pancake, were you?”

“No, it’s not that! No matter how much I tried to wake you, you wouldn’t open your eyes, so I just intended to tap you ever so lightly–”

Seriously, who uses a hammer as an alarm clock?

Her saying she only intended to tap me lightly is even funnier.

Isn’t it just the difference between becoming a flat pancake or a round pancake?

“Anyway, now that you’re up, there’s something I need you to do. Will you accompany me for a bit today?”

“When things get unfavorable, you change the subject.”

“I can hear you, you know?”

Well, I did say it for her to hear.

She can’t hear this, can she?

You’re a noble young lady, aren’t you? You’re not an Outer God who can read minds, are you?

This is why humans are great, they can’t understand even if you tease them internally–

–Squeeze…!

“Aargh!”

“…Your expression was so provoking, I just had to.”

Today’s lesson: Miss Chris can’t read minds, but she can read expressions.

Caressing my stinging side, I asked where we were going this early in the morning.

“It’s about building the orphanage; I’m thinking of going for an inspection.”

“An inspection?”

It’s always a hassle when important people come to the site.

“Among the newly arrived refugees this time, there are quite a few architects. So I asked them to prioritize the construction of the orphanage.”

Miss Chris explained that Shabriang, which was an ancient kingdom, has more than enough houses for people to live in just by repairing old buildings.

So, there aren’t many problems with housing, and building lacking facilities is the priority?

“What? There were that many houses?”

“Yes, it’s strange for someone like you to be homeless.”

“But I had quite a few neighbors.”

“…That’s because they were early refugees whose identities couldn’t be verified.”

Boo, that’s discrimination–

Well, I’m kidding, and if their identities aren’t verified, then there’s nothing to be done.

In other words, everyone in Shabriang who has their own house and shop now is a kind person with a verified identity.

I’ll have to keep that in mind if I ever need to beg again.

“But that’s funny, didn’t I clearly guide you on the first day?”

That’s right, Miss Chris did show me an empty house.

But Shabriang is a kingdom that was occupied and destroyed by Outer Gods in the past.

If I enter such a place without the owner’s permission, the owner, now a ghost, would surely hate me.

“Then, should I find you a decent place?”

“…For now, just stay here.”

“Why?”

“If I tell you to, then just do it!”

Although her voice briefly rose, we quietly chatted as we passed through the hallway.

“You said it was noisy, but it seems to have quieted down again? You were so angry that accidents never stopped.”

“Well, we got a cleaner.”

A cleaner, huh? I have one in my room too.

“Anyway! While we’re at it, we’ll buy groceries for the children, and you can act as a porter.”

“My clothes were torn, and now I have to be a porter too?”

“Ugh…”

Miss Chris’s cheeks puffed out like a pufferfish.

I quietly nodded, then raised my palm to stop the young lady.

“Wait a moment, before we go, do you have any leftover bread?”

“Who carries something like that around…?”

“…So you don’t carry any around…”

“Don’t look at me like you’re disappointed!”

After a minor scuffle with the young lady, I succeeded in getting a loaf of bread by asking a passing servant.

After asking for the young lady’s understanding, I went to my room and approached Geomgeomi, who was diligently building a spiderweb.

“Geomgeomi, let’s eat.”

Geomgeomi, who chose bread instead of human flesh, might eat someone if I don’t give it to him.

As I attached the loaf of bread to the small spiderweb, rip! Geomgeomi’s diligently built home tore apart.

–Thump, roll…

‘Why? Mister? Why?’

Geomgeomi, dangling from the half-destroyed web, looked at me with countless eyes and asked.

Though I couldn’t hear it, it felt like it was saying exactly that.

“Ahem…”

Feeling awkward, I tore off a piece of bread and attached it to the web, then put the remaining bread in my pocket and turned away.

“I’m sorry…”

“What? You were looking for bread because of that child?”

There was a little commotion~

“But do spiders usually eat bread?”

“Originally, hu–”

“Hu?”

“There are some who like bread just like… humans, they say?”

“So spiders have such ecology, you’re surprisingly knowledgeable?”

“Haha!”

The young lady and I, chatting constantly as we walked, stopped at a grocery store along the way, bought an armful of ingredients, then headed for the outskirts where the orphanage was located.

“But it’s quite strange.”

“What’s strange?”

Miss Chris looked at me with innocent eyes, and I asked to satisfy my curiosity.

“Even just outside the city, monsters are swarming, but you can still consistently get food, right?”

“Mostly because farming is done within the city walls, but the problem is meat.”

Miss Chris grumbled that no matter how vast Shabriang was, they couldn’t build livestock farms.

She said that to build livestock farms, they would have to deal with the monsters outside as soon as possible.

“So next, I’m thinking of trying a large-scale subjugation.”

“Is that possible?”

“If you eliminate their strongholds and embed the emblems, they get purified. You don’t know about that, do you?”

“Where do you even get those emblems?”

Now that I think about it, both Ms. Erica and Miss Chris always carried a white stick, or rather, an emblem.

Only I don’t have one!

“Hmm, then, should we go get one together next time?”

“Yay!”

“Heh heh.”

As we chatted, losing track of time, we had already arrived at the orphanage.

The young lady and I were astounded as we watched the orphanage being built.

Dozens of people were bustling about the vast site, laying foundations and nailing planks, and the way the building rapidly took shape was truly astounding.

Even in a game, it wouldn’t be built this fast.

“Nacha~?”

“Miss.”

Just as Miss Chris anxiously called out an unfamiliar woman’s name, a woman quietly approached us.

Luxuriant violet hair and innocent-looking purple eyes.

Features I felt like I’d seen somewhere before… Well, people here have such unusual hair colors anyway.

I followed the woman called Nacha and placed the grocery bags in the temporary shelter.

“Now we can make something delicious for the children, that’s such a relief…”

The woman named Nacha, as if happy that the children could eat their fill, smiled gently as she watched the children playing.

Even though they weren’t children she bore herself, to look at them with such a tender gaze.

I whispered to Miss Chris.

“How hungry were they, that they’re so happy just because food has arrived?”

“We’re giving them enough, you know?!”

An indignant Miss Chris, as people’s attention turned to her, covered her reddened neck with her hand and made me face Ms. Nacha.

“Nacha? This is the person I mentioned before. You two should introduce yourselves.”

“Ah, your name is Nacha? Hello, I am Han Yuseong…”

“No…”

I was introducing myself gently and extending my hand, when I abruptly froze.

As if she didn’t even want my hand to touch her, Nacha abruptly turned her head away.

Seeing her embrace the children who had toddled along after her, and bury her face in them, I was dumbfounded.

…Anyone would think I was about to attack her?

“Na-Nacha? It seems there’s some misunderstanding… Even though he seems crazy, he’s actually quite decent, you know?”

Normally, even if someone were trying to defend me, they wouldn’t say it like that…

“Excuse me, Ms. Nacha? Miss Nacha? Lady Nacha?”

Thinking there might be a problem with the form of address, I called her name several times.

But the reply that came back was…

“Stay away.”

Wow–

“Hah.”

“Yuseong…?”

This is the first time I’ve met someone here who openly says they dislike me.

Okay, I also dislike people who dislike me.

Does she think I’m some beaten wife? If she dislikes me, I’ll dislike her too.

Then die.

But ‘Then die’ didn’t succeed. Consider yourself saved by Miss Chris.

Recalling a certain famous quote, matching Nacha, who abruptly turned her head away, I also turned my head away.

The atmosphere instantly turned cold.

Only Miss Chris, caught in the middle, was flustered and didn’t know what to do, but this time, I wouldn’t yield either.

In the stiffening atmosphere, fear lingered in Nacha’s eyes as she looked at me.