CHAPTER 4: EACH TRUTH AND EACH HAPPINESS (XV)
Part 081
When she lived as Mihyang in Korea, one of her favorite foods was thinly sliced pork belly. Thin and crispy grilled pork belly with thin slices and a glass of soju took away all her worries. And, for the first time in this world, she saw meat the thickness of thinly sliced pork belly. In an instant, Adrian dismantled two servings of meat with a piece of paper.
“Is this enough?”
“It’s great.”
She clapped. She moved the meat to the pan and poured a ladleful of sauce as Jenny said. As she was about to bring the pan to the fire, Adrian reached out and took the pan again. He said we’d do it together, but it looks like he’s planning to do it all on his own. She tied an apron around Adrian’s waist.
Adrian smiled like a new sexy woman, holding a pan in one hand, a ladle in the other, and a white apron. Adrian skillfully stir-fried the meat and took the pan from the fire. She picked up a piece and ate it, and it seemed saltier than the one she ate yesterday. While looking around the kitchen, she found a can of sugar. She put a spoonful of sugar in it and Adrian brought it back to the fire and stir-fried it. She looked at the liver again, hehe. salty and sweet Salty and sweet are always delicious. They sat side by side, cut bread, and made sandwiches with vegetables and meat. After making it, it turned out to be a pretty decent sandwich! She couldn’t believe they cooked!
She was blushing because she felt so good, and Adrian asked her as she took off her apron. “I made sandwiches, shall we go on a picnic?”
Several thoughts passed through her mind in an instant. He has been training hard since dawn, he has to go on a mission tomorrow, the whole mansion is busy preparing for the owner’s long expedition, etc. She had no idea what to do for the person who would lead the army the next day. It’s something she had never experienced before in both worlds. Picnics and sandwiches at this time might be laughed at by anyone who hears her saying it’s immature, but she wanted to do anything that made this person happy. What if she didn’t have any skills? Spend time together with your face on as much as possible. Because that’s all she could do. She was going to do that.
She smiled and nodded widely.
“Yes!”
When she went out to the front door with a basket of sandwiches and juice, Adrian’s huge black horse was standing there purring. He made her sit on the horse, carried the basket, and Adrian sat behind her. He held the basket and her together in one arm, held the reins with his other hand, and kissed the top of her head. You might not have known that she had bitten him instead of kissed him. She was having a hard time keeping her cool on the horse she was riding for the first time.
“Riding a horse…”
“This is my first time!”
She interrupted Adrian and answered loudly, and he laughed. She felt Adrian’s heart pounding behind her back. When she was very young, after struggling for an hour to climb on a pony that was a gift from her father and failing, she never even thought about getting on a horse. Horseback riding. The most intense area of exercise she could do was dance. Even walking on her own feet was sometimes too much for her, so how could she ever ride a horse?
Adrian chuckled and started his horse. The hips rise and fall in sync with the horse’s movements. Ugh, do people who run and shoot arrows on this platform have semicircular canals made of steel? Since we weren’t planning on going far in the first place, they walked through the well-manicured garden of the Duke’s mansion and landed on a meadow with a small fountain. When she went down to the ground in Adrian’s arms, even though it felt like the ground was lifting, ugh, her butt hurt! While she patted her butt, Adrian laid out the carpet he had brought with him on the nicely grown grass.
The grass was soft, the clouds in the sky were puffy, water rippling from a small fountain, and the smell of grass mixed with the scent of flowers was pleasant. She was sitting on the carpet and looking around when Adrian, who was sitting across from her, started talking.
“This is a place I often went to when I was young. It’s been a while since I’ve been here, and the gardener has taken good care of it.”
“Did you come here and play when you were young?”
“I practiced swordsmanship alone. It was a secluded place, so no one came.”
“Have you practiced swordsmanship on your own? Since you were young?”
“Yes, I wanted to quickly become strong like my father.”
Looking at Adrian’s faintly smiling face, she answered cautiously.
“I heard he was a very brave person.”
“I thought so too, but now I’m not sure.”
The former Duke of Bigor was known to have led the Laurentian army since his youth and led them to victory against shouts big and small. Teacher Adol told them about the treason he almost committed, but as it was known in history, hitwould be recorded as an undefeated operation.
“I wanted to be a strong person, but when I met Damian, my thinking changed a little bit.”
“Really? What kind of person do you want to be now?”
“I want to be a good person.”
“Aren’t you a good person?”
Adrian was already a good person. He was a kind man, a brave commander and a hero who would save Laurentyne from danger.
“Adrian is a good person.”
When she said this with a smile, Adrian also smiled. Then he took her hand and kissed the back of it.
“If Damien says that, I think I can still be a good guy.”
“You’re already a good enough person. Don’t try too hard. I don’t like Adrian because he’s nice and sweet. Adrian also does what he wants. That would be right.”
When she returned what he had told her not long ago, Adrian laughed out loud. She liked him because he treated her kindly at first. He only smiled at her and nodded no matter what she said, so she liked it. She felt reassured by the reassurance that protected her, and it was great to see a commander who was cool-headed and good at his work. But now she felt sorry. Adrian was a man whose heart was full of burden because his father tried to start a rebellion. He had subordinates who were like his family by his side, but he had no family. When danger came, he was the one who would stand at the forefront and run out with his sword drawn as if it were natural. Why should it be natural for this person to take such a risk? Why did this guy always have to be upright with all those heavy loads on his shoulders? Adrian was a human too, and just because he could do it, didn’t mean he had to do it all. Adrian, who trained alone here as a child, ran into someone’s arms when he was tired and having a hard time? Did someone hug him? She hoped so.
He told her not to struggle alone and to lean on him, but Adrian always said he’s fine. She was not confident that she could handle his tears, but she wanted to tell him that he didn’t have to try to smile all the time.
“I love you, Adrian. I love you no matter what you are.”
Adrian, who was stroking the back of her hand, suddenly raised his head and looked at her. His dazed face distorted slightly. His brows furrowed slightly, and his eyes also trembled a little. The hand he was holding hurt a little. She guessed he gave it strength without realizing it. She ignored it, looked at Adrian, and smiled. She was sorry for being such a helpless lover, but she would always be nice to him. She let out a long, deep breath, and Adrian’s hands went limp. Adrian smiles, eyebrows hanging down. It was the most beautiful smile she had ever seen.
“I love you more, Damian.”
“Is it true? I really love you a lot?”
“If you knew how much I love Damien, you would run away in fear.”
He made a threat with a smiling face, which made her burst into laughter. She walked closer to him and kissed him on the cheek.
“I won’t run away, so just come back safely. I’ll be waiting for you, so as quickly as possible.”
Adrian smiled and nodded his head.
“I will definitely come back safely and quickly.”
Fortunately, it looked like the switch wasn’t pressed this time. ‘Hehe’, she smiled and sat down next to Adrian and unpacked the basket she brought. After greedily sharing meat-filled sandwiches, chatting and laughing for a while, they returned to the mansion before the sun set.
* * *
Ethan and Jenny were standing in the kitchen, looking down at the meat left in the pan. Jenny picked up a fork, picked up a piece of meat, put it in her mouth, and muttered. She loved Damien very much, but love was love and salty was salty. It was very salty and extremely sweet. Even considering that it would be eaten with bread and vegetables, this was too seasoned. When she thought of Damian’s innocent face as she poured sugar on it, she couldn’t help but sigh. Ethan carefully put the meat into her mouth and was surprised to find it so sweet that his backside was sticky and his tongue was curled up. He swallowed it without even chewing it.
“I hope the duke doesn’t hold back and eat it all.”
Jenny said as she put down her fork, and Ethan shook her head.
“My lord, he can’t taste it, so he’ll be fine. Will my lady be okay?”
“It suits our young lady’s taste. I told you that salty and sweet things like this are bad for your health. By the way, has the Duke lost his sense of taste?”
“It’s not that he lost it, it’s that it seemed like it wasn’t there before. He’s the type of person who eats anything he can chew. He’s the type of person who thinks coffee has to be as strong as poison to be considered coffee.”
Ethan turned around while drinking water, and she nodded, saying she was glad, and followed behind him. Ethan, who was supposed to go on a mission with Adrian tomorrow, was taking Jenny around and telling her about the Duke’s place and places. He thought he wouldn’t receive it even if he gave it to Damien, so he handed over the key to the warehouse he was managing to Jenny.
After a short picnic, while Adrian was spending time with Ethan, inspecting preparations for departure, Damian was receiving a formal greeting from Hegel. The entire Bigor Knights decided to follow Adrian, leaving behind Franz, who was in charge of protecting Damian, and one additional member. It’s not that he doubt the newly selected knights, but just in case, he decided to leave one more of the knights who had been with Adrian behind, and after a bloody discussion, Hegel won.
“It is an honor to be in charge of escorting you, young lady. I look forward to serving you in the future. Please take good care of me too, Jenny.”
Hegel smiled and joked with a kind face, but Jenny just lowered her head without any expression. After Hegel left the room after saying hello, Damian asked Jenny with a puzzled look.
“Is it because you’re unfamiliar? You get along well with Lord Franz. You’ll soon become friends with Lord Hegel.”
It was unusual for Jenny to act coldly in front of someone she met for the first time. She asked Jenny, who was not the type to put up a wall for her partner, because she thought it was because she was unfamiliar with his cold attitude, but Jenny shook her head with a stern expression on her face.
“It’s different from Sir Franz. He’s a man you don’t really want to get close to.”
“Why? He seemed very bright and personable.”
“Miss. When I was a pickpocket, there were two types of people who taught my younger siblings not to touch anything.”
Damian became even more puzzled by Jenny’s attitude of bringing up old stories without showing any expression.
“One is someone who doesn’t seem to have any money, and the other is someone who doesn’t seem like they will let you out alive if you get caught. Back then, everyone was just kids and they got caught sometimes. Just like I was caught by the lady’s escort night. You let me go though. And you did me a favor. If you looked like someone who was going to cut off my hand or head, I wouldn’t have touched your wallet.”
“Are you saying Lord Hegel looks like the kind of man who would cut off the hand of a kid who picked his pick?”
“Well, I may have been wrong since I’ve been retired for a while. But I don’t think I would touch that knight’s wallet.”
Damian’s eyes widened at Jenny’s serious words. Adrian had introduced him to her himself, so it was clear that he was a trustworthy person, but she wondered if he was cold-blooded more than he seemed. He was always smiling so much that you couldn’t see his eyes, so it wasn’t a good match.
Looking at Damien, who tilted her head and had a serious expression on her face, Jenny waved her hand.
“Don’t listen seriously, young lady. The Duke appointed him as your guard, so he must have seen him better than me. I said something for nothing.”
“But Jenny isn’t the type of person to talk nonsense.”
“Ah. It’s not like I’m going to steal that knight’s wallet. Well, anyway, as long as he takes care of my lady, I’m a grateful person. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”
Jenny said with a smile, and Damian, who thought for a moment, nodded her head.
—————————————————————
Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
If you like my work please support me with Ko-fi or Patreon. Next post will be released on December, 4.
Want to read more?
