What they found was that all the links on his specially made armor were torn apart, and the clothes were shredded worse than rags.
They were in such a miserable state, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they’d been eaten by beasts.
If Pedro hadn’t known of Ludwin’s inhuman skills, he might’ve believed he’d been beaten by a beastmen.
‘Unless he invaded the beastmen’s country alone, I can’t imagine anyone being able to take him down.’
Pedro chuckled as he remembered his friend splitting a rock with a single blow, with an expression as cold as the winter wind.
He had pretty good intuition. Even though he took on this case because he was the Crown Prince, he still had a bad feeling about it.
‘I need some information.’
Organizing his thoughts by tapping his cheek with his index finger, Pedro spoke to Jade.
“Jade, send someone to the Drew estate to get Ludwin’s belongings. There might be some clues.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
At that moment, someone knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
The door opened, and Lilian entered with a large bouquet of flowers. The atmosphere in the office instantly brightened.
“Pedro! The flowers have arrived!”
“Flowers? Oh, did Lady Dilucia send them?”
“Yes! Aren’t they beautiful?”
The bouquet was lush and filled with elegant and splendid flowers befitting the royal palace.
Seeing Lilian smiling brightly with the flowers in her arms, Pedro felt his chronic headache disappear instantly.
“Let’s go see Her Majesty the Empress together later.”
It seemed that Lilian made an appointment in advance with his biological mother, the Empress. Contrary to his worries, she was adapting well to the imperial palace.
The Emperor and Empress seemed to like her bright personality and were taking good care of her.
“I hope they like it.”
Pedro, who had little affection for the Emperor and Empress, found it intriguing that Lilian cared so much about complete strangers.
“They will surely love it.”
Lilian, naturally cheerful, smiled brightly at Pedro.
Born and raised in a palace where plots and schemes were the norm, it may have been fate that he was attracted to the pure Lilian, unlike himself, who had a conniving nature.
Despite Jade still trembling in the background, unable to adapt, Pedro gave his beloved wife a brief kiss on the forehead.
Then he suddenly realized.
‘Now that I think about it, Lady Dilucia introduced me to Lili.’
Tyria was a benefactor who saved him from the fate of being criticized by others when he was young and might have died miserably.
And on top of that, she introduced him to his wife, whom he loved so much, so the debt he owed her could never be repaid for the rest of his life.
No matter how much he thought it was natural to receive things because he was a member of the imperial family, he was not shameless enough to pretend not to know the grace Lady Dilucia had shown him.
Suddenly, Tyria’s disgusted face came to mind and Pedro chuckled.
*****
“It can’t go on like this.”
I sat down at the table inside the flower shop and sighed.
After enjoying an unexpected but long-awaited holiday, I reopened my flower shop three days ago.
And as expected, a steady stream of customers poured into the flower shop.
Is it true that once a house is famous, it cannot be easily abandoned?
I initially thought it was fine, but people began looking at me with pity, saying my face was turning increasingly pale.
And I heard this morning that Lena, who’d been helping me, finally passed out with her face falling into a bowl of soup.
No matter how much Lena enjoyed helping out at the flower shop, there was a limit to a person’s physical stamina.
Even Ludwin was so tired that he went to sleep snoring loudly every night.
I could no longer cause trouble to those around me.
“Let’s hire employees.”
Even though I opened the flower shop with the intention of taking it easy, I couldn’t irresponsibly close it now that things had turned out this way.
As soon as I made my decision, I published a recruitment notice in the Dilucia local newspaper.
[Job Recruitment
Conditions:
-A person with strong hands.
-A person who is not afraid of big dogs.
-Someone who can show up even if the sky falls.
-Long-term employment preferred.
-Experienced candidates favored.]
Looking at it, it seemed to be very Korean-like content.
Since the store is small, I didn’t plan on recruiting many people. At least one person. No more than three people, at most.
Ideally, I wanted at least one experienced person who could manage the shop in my absence… not that I was planning to slack off.
‘There may not be many people who want to work at a flower shop, but the pay is good, so it would be nice to have some applicants.’
A few days passed like that…
I had to double-check whether I’d written the job posting correctly.
“There’re this many applicants?”
Just looking at the resumes piled up on the flower shop table, it looked like there were hundreds of pages. Lena said she even had to write some for those who couldn’t.
‘What are they thinking?’
Although flowers were a necessity regardless of social status, being a florist was not a particularly promising career.
If they were to choose, wouldn’t they rather work in an emerging field such as a media company, or at the very least a school or hospital, which are the main businesses of the territory? Why are they flocking to work at a small flower shop like this?
Whatever their reason for applying, I was sighing as I wondered when I would finish reading all of this, when a clear bell rang.
Jingling jingling.
Someone entered the store before it opened without showing any signs of caution. I was about to tell them to come back later since the store wasn’t open yet, but then I heard a familiar voice.
“Wow! Are all those resumes? Amazing. No wonder the counter has been busy these days.”
It was Jeffrey, his long hair tied back. Today, he looked particularly radiant. Unlike my tired self. I replied a bit curtly.
“…Jeffrey, you seem quite free these days, visiting often.”
“Wow, you’re being rude again. I’m coming because I’m worried about the captain.”
He acted nonchalant, even though he initially joked about charging extra fees for royalty when Pedro first commissioned him.
Jeffrey shrugged and then stepped back upon noticing Ludwin lying next to me.
Ludwin came to work with me today, as always.
“Oh, he’s here again today. That dog… sir.”
Ludwin, who’d been coming to the shop with me every day, glanced at Jeffrey and snorted before turning his head away.
It seemed the cold reception wasn’t from me, but from Ludwin.
Jeffrey cautiously approached, keeping an eye on Ludwin.
I asked in a low voice, confirming Ludwin was now sleeping.
“But what do you mean the counter is busy?”
“Oh, that?”
Jeffrey’s face turned mischievous, typical of an information merchant.
Since Laplace Garden is a well-known information guild, it’s recently been in charge of satisfying the curiosity of the general public.
The counter he referred to was the information reception desk of Laplace Garden.
“We’ve received countless inquiries like, ‘What’s the real story behind Tyria’s flower shop?’”
“Huh?”
“I’ve received a ton of such requests. I sold the info at a premium since there’s nothing to worry about.”
I narrowed my eyes as I watched Jeffrey, who was calmly shrugging his shoulders.
“Are you bragging that business is going well by selling the owner’s information?”
“Thanks to you, things are booming. And here’s your share, captain.”
He placed a heavy cloth pouch on the table in front of me with a thud.
I didn’t need to take a closer look to see it wasn’t just one or two pennies.
“…It’s this hefty?”
“Thanks to you, business is booming.”
Repeating his words, Jeffrey laughed as he glanced at the resumes on the table. Then he whistled in amazement.
“Did all these people really apply to work here?”
“Yes.”
As Jeffrey sifted through the resumes, his expression turned increasingly shocked.
“This person is a rising star in the Levan trade group! And this one is a recently successful artist! What? This person too?”
Jeffrey, who was holding up the resumes one by one, reciting information I didn’t know, looked increasingly surprised. After about 30 pages, he put down a resume with a look of despair.
“As expected of the captain.”
His expression, filled with unspoken words, made me frown.
“Maybe they’re just curious. It’s all a hassle for me. When will I be able to read all this?”
No matter how I thought about it, the newspaper article was definitely the problem.
When I answered in annoyance, Jeffrey gave me a look that seemed to be asking me what I was talking about.
“Think about what you’ve accomplished so far, captain.”
“What do you mean? What have I done?”
“Sometimes I wonder, do you really not know, or are you just pretending not to know?”
I raised my eyebrows again at Jeffrey’s words.
‘Did I do something special?’
All I did was follow the survival clichés I’d learned from books in my previous life.
Become friends with the family of the possessed, doing good deeds to clear my notorious reputation, secretly spreading the word, buying out an information network, developing a few items to make money, and scouting a few talented individuals to support.
‘I also requested the establishment of a school and hospital for the same reason.’
At least that was all handed over to my father and Tibon, so it was no longer my responsibility.
As I counted my fingers one by one, I tilted my head.
That’s it, right?
But those were things any transmigrator could do, so I couldn’t see how it related to this pile of resumes.
“Are they planning to befriend me to place their acquaintances in hospitals or schools?”
Instead, when I started contemplating in the other direction, Jeffrey let out a long sigh.
“Well, I figured as much.”
He shrugged.
“I thought you were unique since you first came to the back alleys of the capital’s slums at the age of eleven.”
He seemed to be referring to when I first met Jeffrey. I furrowed my brow, wondering what he was getting at.
Jeffrey looked through the resumes again and selected three, placing them before me.
“Anyway, these three are the best candidates. They’re known for their diligence even within the territory.”
“Wow, Jeffrey! Thanks.”
I smiled brightly at the thought of not having to read hundreds of pages of resumes.
Looking at them, this combination seemed capable of running the shop even without me.
‘Not that I’m hiring staff just to slack off…’
It felt like I was getting further and further away from the flower shop I’d always dreamed of, but I was glad that it was as peaceful as it was.
I immediately notified the selected candidates of their acceptance, and they started working the very next day.
