Chapter 22: 22. Master...?
Judging from her appearance and the conversation, the woman before me was undoubtedly the First Young Lady.
What kind of nerve had I had, creating a false identity just hours ago and pulling something like this?
I could barely breathe... It felt as though a dagger had flown straight into my chest.
The knights standing rigidly behind her had gone wide-eyed.
The guild master was merely moving his lips soundlessly.
"Huh? Wha?"
The Second Young Lady was making idiotic noises as she looked back and forth between me and the First Young Lady...
No, but how was I supposed to stand still while a child was about to get a full-force slap right in front of me?
Still holding the young lady, I racked my brain.
Should I offer up the Second Young Lady’s cheek even now? Should I flatten myself on the ground and beg? Should I run?
I gently set the Second Young Lady down, then gave a slight bow.
"My apologies, my lady. I overstepped my bounds without thinking."
What else could I do? I just had to be honest.
I spoke firmly and plainly, trying not to sound overly servile.
No matter what, I had saved the Second Young Lady. They weren’t going to kill me, were they?
How did people get punished in this Western region’s culture...? No, was this even something I should be punished for?
I’d rather it were a whipping. It probably wouldn’t hurt that much...
Tap!
The fan in the First Young Lady’s hand cut off my thoughts.
She slowly walked over to me and lifted my chin with her fan.
"...?"
Seeing that, the Second Young Lady stomped her feet and hurried to defend me.
"Uh... Sister... I’m sorry! Because of me..."
"Be silent."
"Eep!"
It didn’t work at all, though.
The First Young Lady gently raised me upright with her fan, one eyebrow crookedly arched.
"Why did you do it?"
"How could I stand by and watch a child get hit?"
"A child...? Even if that gets you killed?"
"I didn’t think that far ahead."
"Foolish."
...I had no idea what she was trying to do.
Still, just when I relaxed, thinking this meant she was going to forgive me, the young lady’s hand began to grope my body.
Squeeze, squeeze.
"...? My lady?"
When I asked what she was doing, the young lady sharply tapped my mouth with her fan.
Tap!
It seemed to mean I should shut up, so I kept quiet.
"Hmm..."
The young lady’s touch was utterly uninhibited.
As though she didn’t care in the slightest how I felt, she touched me here and there with an appraising gaze...
"Take him."
"Yes."
"???"
The female knights grabbed my arms and legs and lifted me up.
Seeing that, the Second Young Lady seized the First Young Lady’s hem and began to whine.
"Uh... Sister!"
"Did I not tell you to call me the Young Lady of the House when we are outside?"
"Young Lady of the House... It’s, it’s all my fault... I shouldn’t have..."
Smack!
"Ow!"
The Second Young Lady’s lips clamped shut after taking a fan to the forehead.
As the First Young Lady strode haughtily toward the carriage, the guild master threw himself flat in her path.
"Young Lady of the great House of Duke Velatus! Please forgive my insolence—"
Without even acknowledging the concept of stepping aside, the young lady lightly stepped on the guild master’s back and headed for the carriage.
Press! Whoosh!
"Look into whoever is behind this."
"...? If you take everyone away, how are we supposed to investigate...?"
With an irreverent look that practically said, What kind of bitch is she?, the guild master watched her. The young lady ignored him and climbed into the carriage.
I, too, was gently deposited inside the carriage, ending up seated across from her.
When the Second Young Lady struggled at the carriage steps because she was too short, the First Young Lady extended her fan.
As if used to it, the Second Young Lady grabbed the fan and was smoothly pulled up. Sitting beside me, she began to whine.
"A-Are you okay? You’ll probably be okay... Ugh... Why did you have to go and help me?!"
...Fortunately, I wasn’t bold enough to flick this brat on the forehead in front of the First Young Lady.
As I carved the character for endurance into my heart three times, the young lady closed her eyes and spoke.
"Go."
"Um, may I ask where we’re going...?"
"The villa."
Which villa, you lunatic...
Even though she was sharing a carriage with an unknown commoner, the young lady simply sat there with her eyes closed, breathing.
She hadn’t tied me up or put anything over my face... Wasn’t she worried?
I changed into a spare set of clothes from my inventory.
"Hmph..."
"...?"
"Ahem! Hey! D-Don’t worry! I’ll protect you! Hmph~ You were scared, weren’t you? As for your reward for saving me..."
And so, with the Second Young Lady chattering away beside me, I headed for the villa.
**
When we stepped down from the carriage, knights standing in perfectly aligned ranks greeted us.
"Of the great Empire—"
Just as the knights began their booming greeting, the young lady waved a hand as if it were bothersome.
The knights’ mouths snapped shut, and an elderly woman in a suit walked between them toward the young lady.
"You have arrived, my lady."
"Yes."
Accepting the respectfully offered documents and pen, the young lady skimmed through them and spoke.
"Send this to the training grounds. Call the probationary knights. Have the Second Young Lady report the incident to the captain of the knights."
At the vague word "this," the elderly woman gave me a quick once-over.
"Yes, my lady. Sir, this way, please."
Bear with it... This is a world with a class system... Or should I just go tell Master?
"Sir?"
"Yes..."
I wasn’t a reincarnated noble, just someone who had transmigrated here. So I simply followed the elderly woman.
**
She had definitely called it a villa, but after walking for more than ten minutes, I finally arrived inside a castle.
"...Wow."
As I stood there stupidly agape at the magnificent inner castle, the elderly woman pointed at the stairs with her palm.
"This way."
"Ah, yes."
After arriving at the infirmary, I received a potion following an examination by the physician.
"You have no immediately visible external injuries."
The potion silently placed in my hand was giving off a glow.
Its neck had been carved to resemble roots, and it had a golden hue...
"Is this, by any chance, a top-grade potion?"
"Yes. You may have internal injuries, so drink it."
For some reason, the expressionless physician writing something on a sheet of paper inspired confidence.
Highly skilled doctors with plenty of work were always cynical.
Before drinking the potion, I opened my status window.
[Status Window]
Name: Jang Ryu-o
Class: None
Title: [Transmigrant]
Level: 13
HP: 410/900 MP: 70/460 Strength: 26 Agility: 23 Stamina: 18 Intelligence: 10 Luck: ¿? 9
Remaining Points: 1
Trait: BUG
Skills: [LV.MAX Slime Body], LV.7 [Basic Swordsmanship], LV.4 [Qi Circulation and Meditation], LV.2 [Cloud-Treading Phantom Step], LV.1 [Water Resistance], LV.1 [Poison Resistance]
Inventory
Seeing how much my status window had soared after just one dungeon, I couldn’t stop myself from grinning.
I still had stamina left and didn’t seem to have anything seriously wrong with me, so just as I was about to stash the potion away...
"I’ll prescribe another bottle, so you may simply drink it."
At that point, the physician wasn’t a doctor. She was a ghost.
Right. There was no downside to listening to a doctor.
I drained the potion in one gulp.
HP: 900/900
‘Wow.’
Ha... Full health in one go. So this was why money was great.
With a top-grade potion in hand, I followed the elderly woman to the training grounds.
**
When I arrived at the training grounds, knights stood lined up in an at-ease stance.
Seated beneath a large parasol, the young lady looked at me and spoke.
"Spar."
...Asking why was amateurish. Suppressing a sigh, I picked up a wooden sword.
A man wearing a blue armband turned around among the knights and shouted in a booming voice.
"Siren Clase, step forward!"
"Stepping forward!"
A girl around my age, her discipline razor-sharp, stepped out.
When our eyes met, her eyelids suddenly began to twitch.
Seeing that, the man furrowed his brow and shouted loudly.
"Prepare for sparring!!"
"Y-Yes, sir!!!"
The Marines...?
Moving quickly, the girl took a wooden sword, settled into her stance, and stood before me.
I raised my wooden sword in response...
"Begin!"
At the man’s signal, she gritted her teeth and charged at me.
"Haaah!"
That speed wasn’t something I could take lightly. She was on an entirely different level from the mercenaries I had faced earlier.
Her sword, which had been coming down from above, changed course and swept toward my waist.
I closed the distance, knocked her wrist aside with my waist, then drove into her with my shoulder.
"Ghk!"
Before she could regain her balance, I aimed a thrust at her chest. She braced her sword against her shoulder and barely deflected it.
Then she swung down at my head, so I offered up my shoulder and drove the wooden sword into her abdomen.
Thud!
Thunk!
"Guhk!"
Her breath burst out as she doubled over, and I placed my sword against her neck.
Tap.
"Whew..."
When I looked at the young lady as if to ask, What now?, she gave a faint smile.
"Next!"
**
Just kill me already...
After that, I faced three more female knights and two male knights.
Sweat ran all over my body until my eyes stung.
They all looked young enough to be probationary knights, but their skill was no joke.
I wished she would at least tell me what she intended. Was this just simple harassment? Some twisted hobby of the young lady’s?
As I looked at her while breathing hard, the young lady nodded with a sly smile I had never seen before.
"Next."
...It really did seem like she was harassing me.
I couldn’t take any more.
I raised my sword at the man before me, whose face had darkened into a fierce scowl.
"Begin!!!"
"Uoooooh!"
As I casually extended my sword toward the charging man, he frowned and knocked it aside.
Putting all my strength into resisting the rebound, the Bug Sword shattered the man’s blade.
Swish! Crackle! Crunch!
"Uh..."
The man before me went blank-eyed...
Swoosh!
The young lady shot to her feet and stared at me with her eyes wide.
My temper fully flared, I met her gaze...
"Hoo..."
As though delighted, the young lady pulled up the corners of her mouth and approached me.
Snap!
When she snapped her fingers, the elderly woman stood behind her carrying a sack, a box, and a wooden plaque.
Looking up at me with a grin, the young lady said,
"In front of the guild on the twenty-fifth."
"...Pardon?"
The young lady turned around and entered the castle, while the elderly woman piled everything into my arms.
"...?"
"You have worked hard, sir. I shall escort you, so please follow me."
"Excuse me, could you at least explain what exactly you just did...?"
"I will explain on the twenty-fifth."
Fuck... I seemed to have gotten myself caught up in something bad.
**
Clatter, clatter.
"They could’ve at least let me use a bath... Ha."
I should have gone to the guild and updated my rank, but I was so tired that everything felt like a hassle.
On the way, I opened the sack and found no fewer than thirty gold coins inside. The box contained a flower I had never seen before.
"Tch, I have a status window, but I can’t appraise things..."
I didn’t know what kind of flower it was yet, but Master would probably explain it to me.
I put the box back into my inventory, then took out two bottles of Wonhongju and gazed at them contentedly.
‘Master will like these, right?’
The kind coachwoman even stopped by Maehyanggak for me.
Thirty gold coins... Feeling absurdly rich, I ended up buying two bottles of liquor.
Maybe it wouldn’t be bad to buy a bottle every time I went on an adventure and fill up the kitchen?
Lost in that pleasant thought, I had already arrived home.
After thanking the coachwoman, I went inside and called for Master.
"Master~?"
There was no answer.
‘Did she go out?’
Well, it would be nice to greet Master while clean, too.
As I headed to my room to get a change of clothes...
Creak... creak... slap, slap, slap, slap, slap!
A strange sound echoed from my room.
"...? What is that?"
Was it Master? Was she cleaning with water?
I grabbed the door to my room and called for Master.
"Master~ Are you in there?"
"..."
When no answer came, I tried to open the door...
Rattle! Bang!
"Maste—"
"..."
Naked? Master? Why... was she sweating... Ha... That scent...?
As the door opened, a damp, sticky scent filled my nose and paralyzed my brain...
"...Sniff!"
Twitch!
...After smelling me, Master’s one eye twitched, and the corners of her lips rose.
A pungent, heady scent. An ominous atmosphere.
Thud! Roll, roll, roll.
Between the two of us, only the sound of a bottle rolling echoed.
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