No Regression for the Victor - Chapter 19

How much cash does the Duke have left? Hyun opened the safe hidden behind the wall and checked its contents. Compared to the fortune the Transis family had once possessed, it was less than a drop in the bucket, but it was still far more than enough for a modest life. Indeed, it was even more than he’d ever need. There was no need to even consider the non-liquid assets that couldn’t be readily converted into cash.

‘Should I use this to pay him a fee?’

This too was the way Hyun had lived in the modern world. If you received help from someone, you shouldn’t try to brush it off as goodwill or unpaid volunteer work. Labor deserves fair compensation, and expert skills must always be properly rewarded.

A situation where the person helping him refused the reward simply did not exist in Hyun’s mind.

“What? That’s out of the question! I only want to help, so I’m interfering of my own accord—there’s no need for something like this…!”

When Hyun discreetly offered a silver coin as thanks for taking time outside of work hours, the boy who had introduced himself as Misha desperately waved his hands, refusing.

“……?”

Why? Even if he was an inspector, it wasn’t as if an attendant—no matter if he worked at the imperial palace—would have a generous salary. What’s more, an attendant that age would rarely be formally employed at the palace.

Then he was probably an attendant brought from outside by the investigator, who must be a scion of a noble house. All the more reason he shouldn’t be well-off, so why refuse? Hyun was confused, unable to grasp the boy’s intentions.

“I can’t just accept help without proper thanks. Even if you don’t need it, please take it.”

“No, if you give me that much money, I’ll feel even more sorry…!”

In the end, after going back and forth for quite a while—‘Please take it.’ ‘I can’t possibly’—Hyun suggested a compromise.

“If financial compensation makes you uncomfortable, then tell me what you want instead. I’d be grateful if you would. For the sake of my ancestors’ honor, I can’t accept help with empty hands.”

Even though all those ancestors had long since been dug up from their graves as traitors, at Hyun’s suggestion, the boy hesitated for a moment, staring at the ground before finally opening his mouth.

“Then, there’s something I’d like to ask of you.”

What the boy finally requested after their lengthy argument was not a difficult task.

“I’m… not very good with letters, and my eyesight isn’t great, so I have trouble reading. If it’s not too much trouble, could you read books to me?”

Of course, it was a completely unbelievable excuse. For a youth with the eyes of a beast, able to spot and destroy a monster’s core in the dark, to say he couldn’t read because of poor eyesight was absurd.

Still, for someone who’d been unable to take his eyes off the way Hyun turned pages, it was a fairly convincing excuse Mikhail had managed to come up with in a hurry. Plus, he was conveniently wearing thick glasses for his disguise.

“If that’s all, it’s not difficult… Are you sure that’s enough?”

Wouldn’t it be uncomfortable, having to listen to such a low, adult man’s voice all the time? Hyun was a bit concerned, but Misha didn’t seem bothered at all.

“Yes! If anything, I feel sorry for asking something so burdensome…”

“It’s not a burdensome request. I often read books by myself anyway, just to pass the time.”

After all, on an island where the only things to be found were barren fields and a solitary mansion surrounded by the lake, there wasn’t much one could do.

He could spend the whole day reading in the study, or stroll along the lakeshore, or—if nothing else—cast a fishing line into a lake that hardly ever yielded a proper catch, hoping to reel up some time instead.

If someone offered to join in such a humble, uneventful routine, it was not something to refuse but rather to be grateful for.

“Then, please, I’ll be in your care…”

When he received Misha’s shy words of thanks, Hyun smiled lightly, thinking at least they’d managed to strike a mutually satisfying bargain.

***

It was only natural that Marcel, after learning the whole story from Mikhail, let out a shriek and fell over backward.

“Your Highness, are you out of your mind?!”

“How can you say that?”

“Then what else am I supposed to call what you just did, if not crazy? Are you in your right mind? Do you know what that man did to you? He tried to bargain for your life—and when negotiations fell through, he tried to assassinate you!”

As Marcel’s scolding poured out in a torrent, Mikhail did his best to calm him down.

“I know that… but things are different now, aren’t they? I mean, he’s changed so much that the imperial family had to send an inspector, and besides, he didn’t even seem to recognize who I was.”

“How can you even say that? Maybe for a day or two he might think, ‘Surely the prince wouldn’t come all the way here?’ and not realize it’s you! But are you planning to stay here the whole time I’m investigating? Do you think the Duke is an idiot? That he wouldn’t catch on?”

However, there was a slight misunderstanding here.

The prince had become the Duke of Transis’s hostage when he had been fourteen years old. Until then, he had survived by scavenging whatever scraps his family and the mercenary band left behind, so his body had been so thin and scrawny that no one would believe he was fourteen. People were always shocked at how such monstrous strength could come from such a small, skinny frame.

The Mikhail of those days and the present Mikhail were so different that one could easily believe they were two different people.

After enjoying the excellent nutrition of the imperial palace, Mikhail had grown more than a hand’s length in just three years. The sunken cheeks had filled out with baby fat, and thanks to eating and training well, his body had filled out with solid muscle. If he continued to eat and grow like this until he reached adulthood, no one would ever believe he was the same child from back then.

The only images of Mikhail left in Hyun/Isaac’s mind were of a skinny brat and a robust protagonist in his twenties. Moreover, who could possibly imagine that the prince would be hiding his identity and teaching him how to farm in a place like this?

In other words, contrary to Marcel’s worries, the likelihood of Hyun realizing Misha’s true identity was nearly zero.

“Anyway… I just want to know a bit more about the Duke. Did he really… try to kill me back then…?”

“No, there’s no doubt about that! I’m seriously going crazy…”

Unable to get through to the prince, Marcel could only sigh deeply. So distraught was he that he failed to notice the way Mikhail’s eyes now shone like a boy completely and utterly smitten.