Episode 7: Rage
[Today’s Diary]
Date: August 2
Weather: I cracked an egg on a rock, and it turned into a fried egg.
Young Lady’s mood: 👹
ㄴ The brewery is running properly.
ㄴ As a token of thanks, I delivered a bottle of makgeolli to Ellir.
ㄴ But for some reason, the young lady’s mood seemed unusual.
ㄴ Judging by her expression alone, I’d believe it if someone said a goblin had descended upon us.
ㄴ We’re screwed, Kongjwi…
* * *
A little over a week had passed since we applied the medieval-style plastic greenhouse.
Step—
The moment I entered the drying room, warm air greeted me inside the sealed space.
“.......”
No.
Warm, my ass.
It was so hot I felt like I was going to collapse.
Who the hell turned on the heating in a greenhouse in the middle of summer?
“That would be me.”
Haha.
As I laughed like a lunatic,
a pale green wind stirred faintly in the distance.
{I knew iiit… he was a craaazy guy… scaary….}
And with that, the wind suddenly grew stronger.
I panicked and tried to stop Sylpho.
“Whoa, whoa! No! Don’t dry me! Nooo drying!”
{...?}
Oh, right.
They don’t understand human language.
I hurriedly spat out unrefined spirit language.
{I-I’m sowwy! Wind soft-soft!}
{Uuu….}
Please, I’m begging you, don’t dry me to a crisp.
After I begged so hard my hands might as well have become feet, Sylpho slowly lowered the strength of the wind.
“Phew….”
Just now, in that extremely brief moment, I realized one thing.
‘My life depends on these guys.’
Whether I go bankrupt and get killed by Ellir,
or get killed by the young lady because she can’t drink makgeolli.
Either way, without these guys, I’d be reduced to crawling around on the ground.
Sweat trickled down my face.
I couldn’t tell if it was because of the heat,
or cold sweat.
In a trembling voice, I added a few words to Sylpho.
{I-I go now? So don’ be scawed, just play nice.}
{Uuung…. Bye.}
I trudged out of the drying room.
Outside, it was already full of workers packaging the makgeolli that had finished its second fermentation.
“Oh my, Sir Rio!”
“Yeah, yeah, good to see you.”
“Haha, your way of speaking is always so strange, Sir.”
A middle-aged man whose hairline had been cleared halfway back like a highway laughed heartily as he greeted me.
Then he held out two boxes of makgeolli, each packed with two bottles.
“We just finished packing them. Go on and take them.”
“Thank you, nameless worker.”
“...It’s been about two weeks. You’d think you could at least learn my name by n—”
The balding man’s lips drooped as if he felt hurt,
but this body was Rio, a one-track young-lady man.
I did not use up brain space on a mere middle-aged balding man.
“Well then, I’m off!”
Tap—!
I grabbed the makgeolli he held out and kicked off the ground, running away.
The worker muttered something toward me as I became a speck in the distance.
“...Iman is my name, you damn bastard….”
Of course, I didn’t hear him.
* * *
Chirp—
Chiiiiirp—
Zirrrrrr—!
Along with the cries of cicadas announcing that summer had truly begun, the sun shining down toward the earth was climbing to the center of the sky.
Under that spear-like sunlight, someone was kicking up dust as he ran somewhere.
“...Mari.”
“Yes, Young Lady.”
Lucy watched him through the window of a high-rise building.
She was very pleased by the direction he was running in.
Because no matter how she looked at it, his destination seemed to be the study where she was.
“He looks like he’s coming this way, doesn’t he?”
“Hmm….”
‘...I don’t think so.’
Mari hesitated, unable to answer.
The reason being that his direction seemed to be subtly off.
However.
She couldn’t bring herself to say no.
‘She’s so excited.’
Just look at those expectant eyes.
Beneath her slightly raised eyelids,
her pupils were already filled with sparkling anticipation.
Mari simply couldn’t deny the words of the girl whose eyes shone like rubies.
“Haa….”
“Hm? What’s wrong?”
“I think I didn’t sleep well last night.”
“Then do you want to sleep for a bit on that cot over there? If Rio comes, I think we’ll be putting off studying anyway.”
“...I’m fine, Young Lady.”
Mari simply.
Closed her eyes tightly, hoping that Rio, that guy, would come straight here.
Though for some reason, she felt like he wouldn’t.
‘Still, if he has any sense, he’ll come here first.’
Mari placed her hope on that one-in-a-million possibility.
.
.
.
Meanwhile,
Rio, who had been single for 63 years, did not head to the study, just as Mari had expected.
To emphasize it once more, he had been single for 63 years.
That was why Rio knew nothing of push-and-pull flirting.
His thought process was also extremely simple.
First, get the annoying things out of the way.
Then enjoy the tasty part afterward.
There were always people like that in school cafeterias, weren’t there?
People who ate the bad-tasting things first and saved the delicious things for later.
People who wanted to fill the final moment with the happiest memory.
Rio was exactly that kind of person.
So he was heading toward the Finance Department to take care of the most annoying task first.
Of course, the young lady glaring down at him from above would not understand that.
Tap—
Before long, he arrived in front of the Finance Department.
A guard was standing in front of it, guarding the door.
“Sir Rio? What brings you all the way here?”
“I came to give Lady Ellir a gift.”
Rio lifted the packaged makgeolli and shook it.
The cloudy substance settled at the bottom surged upward as if vomiting.
The guard looked at the makgeolli with curious eyes.
“Is that makgeolli?”
Rumors had already spread all throughout the ducal residence.
There had been quite the uproar that the young lady, who had just become an adult, was already touching alcohol.
And with the brewery for mass production now completed as well,
it was only natural that everyone’s eyes and ears would turn in one direction.
Of course, Rio didn’t care about any of that.
If his young lady ate and drank it deliciously, that was okay.
The financial difficulties were a problem for later.
‘In that sense, I should hurry up, toss this over, and go back.’
Rio tapped the ground with the toe of his shoe, urging the guard on.
“Yes. May I pass through? I have to deliver some to the young lady quickly too.”
“...To the young lady too?”
“Yes.”
A knight escort proudly declaring that he would give alcohol to a princess who had only recently come of age.
The guard wondered if he should scold him as an adult,
but he barely managed to swallow the boomer mindset that had risen all the way to his throat.
“...You may pass…”
“Thanks~”
Bang—!
“.......”
They said there was no point speaking at length to someone who wouldn’t listen anyway.
“...What lovely weather.”
The weather was clear, without a single cloud in the blue sky.
But within it, a single patch of dark cloud had bloomed.
“.......”
It seemed rain would fall again soon.
* * *
I went and delivered the alcoholic makgeolli to Ellir.
[...Did you just gift alcohol to an elf?]
Holding the makgeolli I handed her, she wore a somewhat dumbfounded expression.
[Do you know what this means?]
Of course I didn’t.
‘Like I care.’
I didn’t want to know, either.
I simply gave it with the meaning of thanks for helping the brewery run properly,
and with the meaning of a bribe asking her to keep up the good work.
[...Gifting alcohol to an elf carries the meaning of wishing them a safe delivery.]
[Then have a safe delivery! I’ll be going now!]
The moment I heard her words, I turned around without looking back.
‘She’ll have a kid someday, I guess.’
After that, Ellir vanished completely from my mind.
Then I filled it with the most important person: the young lady.
The existence of that knife-ear was no more than an ant’s booger to me.
“Let’s gooo~”
Tap—!
At the highest speed I could manage, I ran like a bird in flight toward the study where the young lady would be studying.
Now it was finally time to eat the delicious side dish I had truly cherished and saved for last.
Knock, knock—
“Young Lady, it’s me, Rio!”
“.......”
There was no answer.
I knocked once more.
Knock-knock-a-lock, knock-knock—!
“Young Lady?”
“.......”
For some reason, there was no answer.
Normally, I would at least have heard her talking with the Captain,
but this time, I couldn’t even hear the sound of an ant crawling.
No way.
‘An assassin?!’
I hurriedly grabbed the doorknob, turned it, and opened the door.
However.
The sight before my eyes was not what I had imagined.
The young lady had her arms crossed and was glaring toward the door,
or more precisely, at me, with fire in her eyes.
‘...Why?’
I turned my gaze to the Captain standing behind her.
Then the Captain sharply averted her eyes.
Judging by the sweat trickling near her forehead, something serious had definitely happened.
Soon, the young lady’s tightly shut lips parted.
“Who said you could come in?”
“Young Lady…? Did something—”
“Get out.”
“Eh?”
“You bastard! Get ouuuut! I don’t even want to see your face! Get out! Right now!”
Crash—!
The young lady threw something in her hand at me with all her might.
Black ink splattered before my eyes.
It was an inkwell.
‘That thing is really expensive!’
Ah, that wasn’t the issue.
I had to quickly figure out why the young lady was angry.
The young lady this angry?
‘I’ve seen it exactly once.’
Before my reincarnation.
To be precise, on a day when a drizzle was softly falling.
The day she witnessed the crown prince lip-locking with his mistress in front of the garden fountain.
I saw a monster beside me.
‘The young lady was truly incredible back then.’
Even now, thinking back on it made my vision grow distant.
[You fucking bitch!]
In an instant, she took off her shoes, ran over,
grabbed the woman by the hair with a snap of her wrist, and jumped into the fountain.
It was the first day she threw away all noble dignity and everything else.
“...Gulp.”
So.
This rage is on par with that day?