Chapter 14
“Well. Our commander is a bit rough, you see. He hasn’t the slightest clue how to treat a woman. He treats a lady just like one of the lads, tsk.”
Toby clicked his tongue as if he were entirely different. Elio, returning her skeptically furrowed gaze back to Toby, promptly nodded.
The uncle among the knights who had bought the most potions didn’t seem as bad a person as she’d initially thought, but sitting alone with him made her sweat from awkwardness.
“…Even if your temper is a little rough, I actually like straightforward knights like you the best, sir.”
Whimper-whine! Whimper-whine! Whimper-whine!
Frowning with worry at the puppy’s cries flaring up once more, Elio rolled her eyes to search for the dog. Only after the whimpering subsided did she think of the woman with the roughest, foulest mouth in her own life, speaking in a calm, measured tone.
“It’s fine even if your mouth is rough and unrefined, sir. When you bought my potions, your sincerity reached me, sir. I’m quite used to bad tempers, so you don’t need to walk on eggshells around me.”
Every time she recommended the potions to the knights, Toby would toss out a casual word saying they worked better than expected, which seemed to be why they sold even better.
“Thank you so much today. I believe you and I can become good friends, sir. Without any prejudices toward each other.”
Was this an insult or a compliment? The moment Toby opened his mouth with a look of displeasure, Elio abruptly tilted her head.
“And, Sir Toby is the most outstanding in Lobitan… well, Commander Carlos is, of course.”
Elio hastily corrected the slick-tongued flattery that Toby used to despise with a shudder.
“Shit… what is she even rambling about?”
“S-sir, you’re the one who knows the second most and handles the sword second best… so I have no choice but to ask Sir Toby instead of Commander Carlos, right?”
Toby scratched the back of his neck vigorously and let out a dry cough. Gulping down half of his open wineskin, he stared at Elio.
Under a gaze that felt as though it could see right through her, Elio tightly clasped both hands together.
“___Honestly, your speed was decent.”
Toby leaned in toward the crazy rabbit whose face was brightening radiantly.
“But why on earth do you shake your hands like that? That bizarre, ingrained cowardice of yours… or did that crazy swordsmanship teacher of yours only teach you assassination arts meant for butchering people?”
“My big sis?”
Elio narrowed her brows in tandem and leaned closer to Toby.
“I learned it just for self-defense…”
“Toby.”
At the sharply dropping, low voice, Elio startled and straightened her back.
“Commander? What is it now?”
The man strode over, carrying a white bundle wrapped in a blanket under one arm and holding a basin in his hand.
Elio recoiled in horror, scooting her backside backward.
“Go find Leon.”
“What’s that bastard Leon got to do with this?! Is he throwing another fit over the budget? He buys magic books however he pleases whenever he wants, so why is he making a fuss over my sword?”
“Go fight him, then.”
Carlos dropped the bundle tucked under his arm down into the basin with a dull thud.
Elio blinked rapidly, inspecting the white puppy happily lapping up the milk in the basin.
It was shocking enough that Carlos was feeding a puppy, but the sight of it swimming almost like it was doing laps in the milk was even more absurd.
No… if you’re going to feed it, you should do it properly… you’re… you’re drowning the poor thing in milk… Is that why it kept crying?
With a tearful expression, Elio scrambled over to the basin.
“P-puppy. Puppy.”
Lifting the soaking wet puppy with its round, chubby belly, she narrowed her eyes fiercely.
The man raised an eyebrow at her glaring gaze.
How can someone be so rough even with a puppy?
She wanted to scream and yell at the top of her lungs, but under the man’s heavy, sunken gaze, her backside kept inching backward.
Refusing to back down, however, she thrust the milk-covered puppy forward and said with pluck,
“Were you trying to test if even a puppy is strong? Don’t drown a baby in milk when it needs all the affection it can get. You did the same to me—you really love picking on the weak, don’t you?”
“I was being rough with you?”
“Yes. Terribly so.”
Elio let out an exaggerated sigh and cradled the puppy back to her chest. Carlos pulled out a cigar, clamped it between his lips, and smiled with his eyes narrowing.
“Affection?”
Elio’s jaw dropped at the man’s back-alley-thug demeanor. The relaxed way he leaned crookedly against the wall with a grin strangely suited him like a natural-born gangster, making the tips of her ears burn hot.
“No!”
Exhaling a long stream of cigar smoke, Carlos murmured in a low voice,
“How mean.”
“……!”
“Not even letting me show affection to a dog.”
With a face blushing furiously red, Elio turned away and bit into the tender flesh on the inside of her lip.
“I-I’m going to show it plenty of affection, myself.”
Nodding as if to say is that so, Carlos crouched down right beside her. Sitting sideways, Elio quietly rubbed the puppy’s belly.
“I want to show affection to it, too.”
“……”
“Shall I?”
“……Do you find teasing me fun?”
When Elio stood up panting with her breath heaving, Carlos flicked his ash and nodded. The corners of his mouth curved up coolly.
“Yeah.”
Just as Elio bit her lip once more, her stomach throbbing painfully, and lowered her head,
“Your medicine. Does it still hurt?”
Elio flinched. Before she knew it, the man’s large boots were right in front of her.
“I’m asking if you need painkillers or something.”
Elio stared at the man’s black combat boots, blinking rapidly.
“Greta told me. You said your stomach hurt.”
Unable to find words to reply, Elio merely reddened the back of her neck. Her stomach had turned inside out because of the greasy meal she’d eaten for the first time in half a year. No, it was definitely because of the stress this man was giving her.
“You’re a lot of work.”
The man’s cold, tongue-clacking voice dropped over the top of her head.
“…I don’t need medicine or anything. I’m fine.”
“Wrap this around you and go to your room. Why are you hugging a wet dog?”
The man stripped off his tunic and tied it around Elio’s waist.
Startled, Elio looked down at her skirt. The front where she had hugged the puppy was completely soaked through.
“It’s see-through. Wrap it around and go.”
“It’s fine. I can just cover it.”
“Fine. Fine. Are you going to make me say things twice?”
Speaking with an even, flat tone, the man gazed steadily into Elio’s eyes.
Swallowing hard, Elio shook her head.
“Do you only need painkillers?”
“Where are you going to get them from? It’s late at night, so just tomorrow…”
“I’ll figure it out and get them, so just go get some sleep.”
The man cut her off as if she were a nuisance. Pressing the back of his hand against the woman’s forehead, he let out another sigh.
At his persistent sighing, Elio shrank her neck back like a nervous tortoise.
“Take care of your own body. Don’t go collapsing for no reason and take your medicine on time. If you keep withering away like that, I’ll dump you somewhere and let a bad bear eat you.”
Elio shifted her churning eyes away from the coldly cascading voice.
A bear? Who does he think he is, telling someone to let a dragon’s descendant get eaten by a bear?
Avoiding the rugged chest that entirely dominated her field of vision, she cast her gaze down at the dirt floor. She felt miserable wondering how much more pathetic she must look to a man whose ideal type was a genuinely strong woman.
When on earth was her mana going to increase?
“Come here.”
Elio lifted her gaze in surprise. Once again, the man was already standing ahead of her.
“Where are we going?”
To avoid looking at the man’s chiseled, shifting back muscles, Elio widened her eyes in determination. She bypassed his sleek waist, thick thighs, and straight calves, fixing her gaze firmly on his boots.
“To your room. We’re going upstairs.”
“You too?”
“Well. Did you want me to walk around naked?”
“No? Of course you should wear clothes. You’re the commander of Lobitan and a young duke. You naturally need to move around with proper decorum.”
Elio hurried alongside him, feeling as though she had no idea what nonsense was tumbling out of her mouth.
Why was this man the one walking around shirtless, yet acting completely unfazed? As Elio rolled her eyes with a scowl,
The man crooked one corner of his mouth and suddenly bent down close to her.
“Right. With the commander of Lobitan and young duke right here, why ask the vice-commander?”
“Me? Ask what?”
“About today’s spar. Honestly, I did wel-“
Before the man could finish his sentence, Elio let out a sharp cough and turned her head away.
Contorting her flushed face, she picked up her pace with hurried little steps.
“…As for you, sir. Do something about those oversized ears of yours.”
Rustle, rustle. The sound of her stepping on sand and leaves grew faster.
“How can a person have no privacy at all—listening in on things two floors up, eavesdropping on conversations from a distant bench, and all that?”
“I don’t do it all the time.”
“Then why did you eavesdrop?”
“I just hear things well. Especially your voice.”
While the woman took four steps, the man took one slow, deliberate stride and flipped open his cigar case. Elio glared up at the brazen chain-smoker.
“Are you blaming my voice? I have my own private life, you know!”
“Ah. You have a private life?”
Carlos replied with an utterly nonchalant expression.
Elio dropped her jaw in sheer disbelief before lengthening her stride as if refusing to associate with him anymore.
“Of course! From now on, please never eavesdrop again.”
“On what? On you confessing to another man that you like him while you have a fiancé?”
Carlos tilted his head, letting out a trail of cigar smoke. Elio recoiled in horror and waved her hands frantically.
“Th-that’s not what I meant when I said that to Sir Toby! Besides, Sir Toby is super old! Th-there’s no way it could mean anything like that—!”
“Arranged marriages with a twenty-year age gap are quite common, you know.”
Carlos smiled coldly, asking if she didn’t know that half of the young ladies who debuted married men over a decade older than them.
Elio stammered, turning her blazing red face away.
Debuting in high society? She had never even attended a single tea party with other young ladies or gentlemen. Knowing full well that there was probably no one as much of a country bumpkin as herself, her voice inevitably grew shrill.
“I don’t even consider anyone more than two years older to be a man!”
As Carlos opened the inn’s back door, he raised a single eyebrow.
“…Then am I a woman?”
“No! You’re a total middle-aged uncle!”
Evading the man whose eyebrows were twitching, Elio quickly darted inside through the back door and shot him a sideways glare.
“Right. This uncle is going to go get you some diarrhea medicine right—”
Bang. Blushing furiously, Elio kicked the door shut.
Carlos rubbed his face, letting out an absurd laugh.
As if he were about to yank the door right back open, he threw it wide. He grabbed the slender wrist of the woman who was backing away with wide, rabbit-like eyes.
“Th-the wind! The wind closed it! Really, it wasn’t me, it was the wind…!”
