Chapter 73
“What was my commission today again….”
“It was to exterminate a mantis demon. They said it turned the village’s rice paddies and fields into a wasteland. If we catch the demon, they promised to pay a commission fee worth half the year’s harvest.”
Bezel answered as if he had been waiting for the question. Not a coin or two, but half the harvest. He had no doubt that Eden would reply, ‘Oh really? Then let’s get moving.’ To him, the circumstances of a child who lost his parents did not feel all that different from the circumstances of a farmer whose fields were ruined.
However, Eden’s reply defied his expectations.
“I suppose it is the right thing to do, catching a murderer that devoured a pregnant mother rather than a mantis that just ruined some fields.”
“Miss Hunter, please….”
The boy crawled across the ground and pressed his forehead against Eden’s foot.
“Hey, hey. Don’t keep lying there like that. Stand up and talk.”
Even as she said that, Eden didn’t shake him off like before. She let out a small sigh and bent down, sliding her hands under the boy’s armpits.
“Up we go.”
With a small grunt, the boy’s body was lifted into the air. Eden set him upright and spoke.
“You can’t tell anyone that you came looking for me. If you do, a whole bunch of annoying punks will start showing up. Got it?”
It sounded like a scolding at first listen, but the meaning was clear. The boy’s tearful expression gradually softened.
“Does that mean….”
“Take me to that wretched bastard.”
“Eden, what happens to your original schedule then?”
Eden looked at Bezel staring at her with a surprised expression and shrugged.
“I have no choice but to cancel it. This situation is more urgent, after all. It’s pitiful, too.”
This was all the fault of receiving a good education at the Academy. She had been brainwashed to help the weak and give to those in need.
“This way, Miss Hunter!”
Julien wiped the tears from his face and took off running as if every second counted. Bezel watched Eden’s retreating figure as she followed after the boy.
To choose the boy over the money she loved so much. This showed just how much the boy’s situation had weighed considerably on her mind.
Being swayed by this kind of messy emotional game was so very human, as expected. But if she was weak to this sort of thing, then there was no reason why Bezel, who was putting on an act to win her heart, couldn’t play along.
‘Hmm. So her heart goes out to those who look pitiful like that.’
Bezel scanned his own body, which looked nothing but strong no matter how he looked at it, then slowly turned his gaze.
The boy, a complete mess from rolling in the dirt. The boy’s body, covered in wounds.
And the moment he saw the look in Eden’s eyes as she watched the boy, his lips that had been set in a straight line curved up ever so slightly.
Ah, now he was finally starting to get it. How he needed to act to move Eden’s heart.
A powerful move that would imprint his existence onto her. It felt as though he had finally grasped the clue that had seemed so vague until now.
* * *
The place Julien led Eden and Bezel to was a small village not far from the capital. The boy, who had run off like he had been given the whole world at Eden’s single command to lead the way, kept glancing back nervously as the village drew near, watching for her reaction.
“Um, Miss Hunter.”
“What?”
“The commission fee….”
“We’ve come all the way here and now you’re bringing up the fee? You should have thought about that before chasing me all the way to my house!”
Even as Eden scolded him, she didn’t turn back. If she had been thinking about money, she wouldn’t have followed the boy. The compensation for the other commission had been no less than half a year’s harvest.
If it hadn’t been for her parents’ death anniversary, if her heart hadn’t gone all soft and sentimental because of it, Eden would have gone on that wealthy farmer’s commission.
“Honestly, my overflowing compassion is a problem. Tsk. The whole world should know that I go around doing good deeds like this.”
“…Thank you again, Miss Hunter. I’ll never forget this kindness for the rest of my life.”
“Never mind that, just tell me about the demon. I need to know what kind of creature it is if I’m going to hunt it.”
Eden reached into her pocket out of habit to take out a sansho leaf and put it in her mouth, then stopped and looked at Bezel. Catching her gaze, Bezel shook his head slightly.
‘You have me now.’
Even without him speaking, it felt as if she could hear what he was trying to say. No matter how good a medicine is, it becomes poison if overdosed. There was no reason to ruin her body chewing leaves when there was an effective painkiller with no side effects right there. Eden flicked the sansho leaf away and focused on what the boy was saying.
“A few months ago, a young woman moved into the village.”
Just like the commission she had received from Damian before, the story began with the arrival of a stranger. The woman who moved in was named Sena, and she was said to be such a beautiful woman that all the men in the village came out to watch on the day she arrived.
“Sena had a heart as beautiful as her face. She was warm and kind to everyone, but that ended up being the problem.”
The village men showed interest in Sena as if bewitched. It was one thing for the young men to act that way, but everyone from newlywed grooms to sixty-year-old grandfathers fell for her.
Sadly, Julien’s father was no exception.
“My father abandoned my pregnant mother and went to see Sena every single day. Like he was her servant, he would go and cook for her, clean for her…. Mother suffered a great deal of heartache.”
“Wow. What a piece of trash….”
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