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94 화

“Um… Aria.”

“Be quiet.”

Ugh!

“Are you not holding your hand straight!?”

How am I supposed to hold it any straighter when I’m already holding it perfectly at a right angle?

However, knowing that Aria was throwing a tantrum in anger, I pretended to adjust my posture so as not to upset her. My posture was flawless, though.

“… Aria, how about we call it quits now?”

“You stay out of this! If you weren’t so lenient, she wouldn’t keep acting like this! Because you pamper her so much, she doesn’t even realize how precious her life is and keeps running off into danger!”

Caius, who was looking at me with concerned eyes, tried to speak in my defense, but he immediately fell silent, blocked by the furious, demon-like Aria.

I felt like a mischief-maker child raised under a stern mother and a lenient father, rolling my eyes.

“Aria is right. Shushu needs to be shaken out of this with something like this.”

Caius, sitting at the tea table with Aria, wore a cold expression as he gently tilted his cup of black tea. Seeing even Caius, who usually supports whatever I do, turn cold made me a bit gloomy, and I lowered my gaze.

“Again, again! You think acting cute will get you off the hook? Not a chance! Until you fill your ten hours, there’s no way!”

Aria’s eyebrows twitched dramatically as she slammed her hands down on the tea table. I sighed in resignation.

‘Is this the twenty-second time now?’

Right before this, I had wiggled my fingers, and even earlier, I was blinking rapidly, trying to escape this situation by pretending to be cute. I had reached a state of enlightenment.

‘Well… I did mess up this time.’

I had said I would go to the Hunting Tournament and then ended up fighting a Basilisk the next day, getting poisoned and collapsing. I could vaguely imagine how my family must have felt seeing that.

‘Everyone must have been really surprised and worried.’

While I pretended to be casually sipping tea, they were all busy checking on my well-being—Caius, with his angry expression; Aria, with her eyes red as if she had been crying; and Caesar, who was staring at me without trying to hide his concern.

Immediately after the Hunting Tournament, I had to endure a whole day of their nagging and anger while getting checked over by the best doctor to prove that I was excessively healthy. The next day, I was prohibited from even picking up a fork to eat, had to sleep for 14 hours, and couldn’t move at all for 10 hours in bed.

And now, three days after the Hunting Tournament, I was on my knees in the Duke’s garden terrace, with my hands raised for three hours.

‘Everyone knows this isn’t hard for me at all.’

I’m a Sword Master. If they really wanted to punish me, they should have made me kill three giant monsters in an hour or do 5,000 push-ups in a fire. Kneeling with my hands up? I could do that for ten days straight.

‘They know it well.’

Even though they understood this was nothing but a game to me, they still insisted on this being punishment and were monitoring me like it was hard to carry out. I found this side of my family adorably intolerable.

I forgot I was being punished and couldn’t help but chuckle.

“You’re laughing? Is this situation funny!?”

Bang!

Aria, who had been making a fuss over the dessert in front of me, slammed her hands down on the table again when I laughed. I quickly wiped the smile off my face.

Caius, glancing at my serious face, maintained his cold expression as he crumbled the scone in front of him with his fork.

“…I think you’ve reflected enough, so let me ask. What did you do wrong?”

At Caius’s question, I rolled my eyes. After organizing my thoughts for a moment, I slowly opened my mouth.

“First of all… I didn’t run away after seeing the Harabana.”

I wasn’t planning to reveal that I had fought the Harabana, as that would only cause more worry. The corpse had already oxidized and disappeared, so there was no proof left. As long as I could keep Reiner from spilling the beans, it could remain just a memory between him and me.

‘The results of Shushu’s physical exam have come out. The Basilisk’s poison was completely neutralized with divine power. The problem is… one remnant of the poison was detected. It’s none other than the Harabana’s poison.’

I still couldn’t forget the expressions of the three people who had looked at me that day. Their faces, tightly set and staring at me with glowing eyes, seemed to say that they wanted to bind my limbs and imprison me in a tower.

‘Honestly, they seemed ready to forcefully dig through my memories if I didn’t come clean…’

Unable to withstand their persistent questionings, I explained the situation, and immediately afterward, I had to receive healing from Aria multiple times on the shoulder where I was bitten by the Harabana. Even though I lacked any serious injuries apart from a small scar, she had a look of severe dissatisfaction as she tilted her cup.

“And?”

“I stayed out overnight with a stranger without permission.”

The three of them instantly furrowed their brows. I quickly cast a glance at their reactions.

Truth to be told, I didn’t see this as a wrongdoing. Spending the night with someone was a norm during my mercenary life.

When Caesar heard that I had spent the night with Reiner, he drew his sword, Aria searched for an assassin’s contact, and Caius started casting teleportation magic. I realized I must have given them good reason to misunderstand. Caesar, crossing his arms, snapped his fingers.

“…And.”

“Well, um… I recklessly took care of the Basilisk without waiting for backup.”

Honestly, I didn’t think this was wrong either. Even if Sword Master Caius and Noah showed up to help, they wouldn’t have been able to handle the Basilisk more adeptly than I could.

I didn’t think of Caius and Noah, who were over twice my age, as weaker than me. They were certainly stronger than I was.

‘But it’s different when it comes to killing monsters.’

Hunting monsters isn’t something you can do just by being strong. You need to know the characteristics and weaknesses of the monsters well.

‘There’s no one in this continent better than me in this field. It would be better for me to handle it than for others to get injured trying.’

This wasn’t arrogance; it was a natural self-affirmation.

However, if I voiced this thought, I would surely get scolded, so I just looked down, pretending to understand my faults. Caius, with a dissatisfied expression, rested his chin on his hand and nodded.

“And?”

‘…And? Is there more? I feel like there is…’

Having said three things, I scanned the faces of the three people, which were still stiff. I couldn’t grasp what else might be there. I rolled my eyes around seriously as if pondering deeply.

‘I truly don’t know…’

But even if I couldn’t think of anything, I finally gave in and confessed.

“I… don’t really know.”

A simultaneous exhale escaped from the three of them. Seeing their expressions, which looked horrified as if they had been coordinated beforehand, made my pupils twitch.

‘Is it really that pathetic…?’

While I was debating whether I should fabricate something, Caius stood up and slowly walked in front of me.

“You’re missing the most important thing.”

He knelt in front of me. His large hand rummaged through my pocket. I watched in silence, unsure of what he was up to.

“You have a communication magic tool, right? I definitely gave it to you. This magic tool has direct lines to me, Aria, Caius, the Duke’s Mansion, the Imperial Palace, the Temple, and even the Knights Order of the Imperial Palace.”

What Caius pulled out was a round crystal orb, a communication magic tool. His sunken crimson eyes stared directly at me.

“Why didn’t you contact us when you had this?”

‘Ah.’

I momentarily parted my lips. My mind felt all tangled up.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to contact them.

Of course, I didn’t.

‘So, I just…’

In my life so far, asking for help hadn’t been an option. Facing disasters alone had been my only choice.

So I’d forgotten that a new option had appeared. Out of habit, I had just chosen the only choice available.

“I thought… this was the best option.”

Thinking about it, I had never actually had what could be called a “best option.” Initially, there was only one choice; what could be better or worse?

I had been walking thinking the only narrow path was the best.

A soft sigh from Caius brushed against my hair. I couldn’t see his expression as I had my head down.

‘Am I disappointing him?’

I was afraid to look at his face.

I focused only on the terrace floor, thinking that doing so would calm the shaking in my eyes. I thought it might prevent tears from flowing.

Rustle.

I couldn’t help but flinch at the touch of his hand stroking my head. His large hand swept my hair back as if handling a precious porcelain doll.

“Listen well, Shushu. It’s our togetherness that is the best option.”

Caius’s solemn declaration landed heavily on my heart. It felt like my heart was sinking. Without even meaning to, I peeked up at him.

“When you call, there are three people who will drop everything and rush to you. Why don’t you call? If you made them work as servants, they would all be thrilled.”

In his crimson pupils, I clearly reflected. When I first met him, I thought his eyes looked like they could bleed at any moment. But now, my thoughts had changed a bit.

Caius’s crimson eyes felt warm, like a campfire on a winter day.

“You are not alone. We are always by your side. You no longer have to face danger alone. I will always fight alongside you.”

Not alone. A trite comfort, neither fresh nor novel, just a simple phrase that anyone could say.

But I understood the weight of Caius’s words. I realized how much thought he must have put into delivering this sentiment, how much preparation it required from someone who wasn’t good at offering comfort.

“So don’t think of facing danger alone as the best choice anymore.”

Now, I had a family who could say such things to me.

My emotions surged as I pressed my lips tightly together, feeling as if something might spill out.

Having spent only a frigid winter, now I was finally facing a warm campfire.

My heart slowly thawed from the frozen state.

Suddenly, I wrapped my arms tightly around Caius’s waist without saying a word. He flinched in surprise for a moment but soon smiled lightly and embraced me back.

It was a day in my life in Kashmir, which had only been a narrow, treacherous path, that the road home finally opened up.

 

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