No Regression for the Victor - Chapter 23

He sure is energetic for this early in the morning. Watching the young man nearly fall over as he tried to catch the mole with both hands, Hyun, who had been staring down at the garden with a dull expression, found the corners of his lips lifting before he realized it.

In Hyun’s life—which could be considered either short or long—he had never met someone like this before. Was his name Misha? Perhaps it was because he really was from a simple farming background, but after building the greenhouse all by himself, he didn’t hesitate to start reclaiming land either.

When Hyun tried to stop him, saying that if things went on like this, it would be Hyun who ended up ordering Misha around rather than learning from him, Misha still came out at the break of dawn and took care of the work Hyun was supposed to do.

‘Even though I told him it wasn’t necessary…’

Hyun didn’t even need to ask to understand why Misha was doing so much. In Osbrandt, everyone knew that Hyun was a condemned man with only a few years left to live. Who wouldn’t feel unable to turn away when someone expected to grow weaker and die within five years insisted on working in the fields? Hyun couldn’t say he didn’t understand.

It wasn’t that Hyun didn’t understand the psychology behind not being able to trust people—he had simply lost faith in others. If it was for the sake of becoming the perfect successor, or for the sake of taking revenge on those who betrayed him, Hyun was a man who could exploit anyone’s sympathy for his own ends.

But now that he no longer found meaning in life, he didn’t want to be indebted to others for anything.

No matter how hard Misha helped him, as long as he wasn’t expecting monetary compensation, there was nothing Hyun could give back to Misha.

‘He asked me to read to him.’

He’s not even a child. Hyun knew it was an obvious excuse.

Misha must have cleverly come up with a task that wouldn’t be too taxing for a sick person, knowing Hyun wouldn’t leave him to do manual labor barehanded. To refuse such transparent goodwill…

Hyun was simply too bored. A professional he’d always wanted to call in whenever he had an excuse had come to him on his own, even legally, and was offering to help—what reason did he have to refuse? Hyun couldn’t turn down Misha’s overly bright goodwill.

As Hyun continued to watch Misha moving busily about the field, the familiar ringing in his ears faded before he realized it. Soon, the sun would rise high overhead. Not long after, the caretaker would bring in breakfast.

After finishing an ordinary, uneventful meal, it would be Misha who knocked first on Hyun’s study door.

Hyun didn’t dislike this sudden change that had crashed into his life. Even if it wasn’t familiar, it wasn’t a bad change. In fact, it was such a suitable daily routine for a patient taking slow steps toward the end of his life that he might even say it was a little frightening.

“Your Grace, I’ve brought your breakfast.”

As Hyun expected, the caretaker soon came in with the morning tray, and Hyun, having dressed himself in simple indoor clothes, greeted him.

“Just leave it there and go.”

Hyun tried not to be conscious of the caretaker, who kept glancing at him, and carried the breakfast tray—warm soup, soft bread, and butter with jam—over to the nightstand beside the bed. The jam, kept in a lidded jar, seemed to be made by stewing fruit brought in from outside, as it gave off a fresh and fragrant scent.

Including the Ice Lake exile grounds, the lands left to the Duke of Transis were humble and poor to the extreme. However, the Duke of Transis’s infamously fastidious palate was so famous throughout the empire that at least the meals remained of fairly high quality.

No fancy clothes, no jewelry, not even new carpets—spend the entire budget on food.

It was a most unusual demand, but thanks to the fact that the real Isaac had set things up that way, Hyun was able to enjoy quality meals.

Would there be any need to drape expensive cloth over a body that was only going to grow weaker? As long as the clothes weren’t so shabby as to be an eyesore to others, that was enough.

Even though he had never worn anything but luxury brands after becoming an adopted child of a conglomerate family, so as always to appear like he belonged to the wealthiest household wherever he went, Hyun actually preferred his current situation.