For Sale: Male Lead, Obsession Included - Chapter 125

Fwick, fwick.

In the early morning, before the sun had fully risen, the makeshift sword training ground Jin had secretly prepared on the mountainside was already lively from the crack of dawn.

Calling it a ‘training ground’ was generous, really. In truth, it was just a patch of dirt Jin had leveled, with some straw-wrapped wooden posts stuck in the ground. It was training in the wild, pure and simple.

I stared blankly at Jin and Feyden as they clashed wooden sticks, sweat streaming from their exertion.

“Haahm.”

I’d yawned more than five times in a row. I’d come out here to get some morning exercise, thinking my frequent indigestion was probably from eating too much and not moving enough, but my brain was still lost in dreamland.

I was so, so sleepy.

Haaaahm. As I yawned again, Feyden knocked Jin’s stick aside with one hand and shouted at me.

“Don’t sap everyone’s energy. If you’re that tired, just go back inside and sleep!”

“Ah, geez… Why are you yelling so early in the morning?”

“You said you’d work out! Get up!”

Even after the medicine Jin had brewed for me, my indigestion hadn’t gone away. In the end, I forced my heavy body to stand and stretched my arms overhead.

Yeah. Let’s exercise, exercise.

Back when I lived at the Margraviate, I was so busy cleaning up after Lavelier and doing chores that I barely had time to eat, let alone exercise. As a result, the only muscles on my body were the bare minimum needed to survive.

Seeing how my arm was basically just skin and bones, I realized that if I kept living like this, I’d probably die from illness sooner or later.

With the clean air and delicious food of Dongguk, I needed to put on some weight and build some muscle.

I really couldn’t keep living like this.

After glancing at the men’s sweat-soaked training, locking together and then breaking apart, I started doing some New Millennium Health Exercises I’d learned a long time ago.

“Ugh… Oww.”

Was my body always this stiff?

How had I even lived like this? Feeling all my joints creak, I finally understood just how little exercise I’d been getting all this time.

Worried that my growth would stop for good, I resolved to start eating well and exercising hard from today.

‘Maybe I should try a light run.’

Holding my heavy stomach, I jogged gently along the well-tended mountain path.

The morning air, just at the cusp of summer, was the perfect temperature for exercise. The coolness in the mountains, the rustling of leaves in the wind—

Everything was satisfying and pleasant.

It was such a peacefulness that I found myself wishing, every day, that life could stay this happy.

“Huu.”

My stamina must have been rock-bottom; I’d barely run at all before sweat was dripping down my forehead. Naturally, my steps took me back down the mountain.

This was enough exercise for today. If I overdid it on my first day, I’d just hate it tomorrow.

Really, the most important thing is to exercise only as much as you enjoy, so it doesn’t become stressful.

Having worked up a sweat before dawn, I felt like the most industrious person in the world, and with a heart full of satisfaction, I headed home.

In the distance, I spotted a familiar figure and hurried my pace.

“Mister!”

“Oh! I was wondering where you’d gone off to so early.”

“You’re here early!”

The man loitering in front of my house was the traveling merchant. He sold goods and information as he made his rounds through the village, and I’d asked him for a favor in advance.

“Did you get the magazine?”

“This is the one, right?”

I’d asked him to find copies of the magazines I’d bought and read in every village on my way to Dongguk. They contained everything from cheap noble and royal gossip to society rumors and anonymous political critiques.

“Yes, that’s right. Thank you! Did you just arrive?”

“That’s right. I was just about to head right back out.”

“Huh? Why? Aren’t you tired?”

“There’s no money to be made hanging around here, and it’s not fun either. I’ll bring more the next time I pass through.”

He would often say that he had a wanderer’s fate and would grow horns on his backside if he stayed in one place too long, and it seemed it wasn’t just an act. He handed me the magazine and disappeared coolly into the mountains.

I gave a big wave to his back and quickly hurried inside with my prize.

Even before I was properly inside, I was flipping through the pages, looking for a single piece of news.

“Duke… Ducal House… Ragnar…”

Flip. I turned to the very last page, unable to even sit down, and let out a sigh of relief.

Not a single mention.

I’d been on edge, worried there’d be some sudden, outrageous article about someone from the ducal house suddenly coming down to Dongguk for a retreat, just like last time.

But, as expected, there was nothing, and I scolded myself for worrying over nothing.

No matter how obsessive Declan was as a character, I wasn’t the female lead, and last time we met, things ended amicably, so there was no way there’d be news of him coming all the way to Dongguk. Of course.

Even the reports from Ribolto said Declan had holed up at the ducal estate, focused only on his studies, so there was nothing for me to worry about now.

It was just words, but it seemed Declan really had understood when I told him we should just stay. friends.

I hoped he’d keep studying hard and become an excellent duke.

I tossed the magazine aside and got ready for work. Okhee’s gukbap shop was reopening after a renovation today, so I needed to prepare earlier than usual.

With hands now used to the routine, I braided my hair and went outside to draw water from the well.

A bright new day was beginning.