GDTEA Chapter 11

Sharti’s shoulders twitched.

“What if I’m some dangerous wanted person or a witness involved in something dangerous? What then?”

“……?”

“Then you’d become an accomplice for treating me until now.”

“……!”

Wasn’t this clearly a threat?

At the man’s change in attitude, ‘Sha’ repeatedly opened and closed her small mouth. She was so dumbfounded she couldn’t speak.

But the man, far from backing down, even crossed his arms.

“Besides, I’ve seen your face. Yours is the only face I remember.”

“……!”

Sharti’s face turned pale.

She hurriedly pulled her hood down deeper and wrapped her robe tightly around her body.

Her lips trembled with fear.

‘If they know I’m alive, if they know a descendant of Krianet is alive…… I……!’

Five years ago, the flames should have taken her face rather than her voice.

As Sharti’s trembling grew stronger, the man visibly panicked.

‘……Run, I need to run away.’

Consumed by anxiety, Sharti struggled to her feet, breathing roughly.

“No!”

Quickly uncrossing his arms, the man urgently bowed his head deeply, as if smashing it against the ground.

Sharti, who was about to flee at any moment, flinched.

“Just now, I misspoke!”

“……!”

“I crossed a line without knowing my place. I, I was wrong.”

It was a quick and clear apology.

In a short time, the man was certainly showing many different sides of himself.

Thanks to this, Sharti was able to calm her breathing slowly without taking medicine.

‘Is he a man whose mindset changes quickly? ……Or maybe he’s under a lot of mental pressure and lacks composure.’

The man’s attitude just now had clearly crossed a line, but Sharti thought rationally.

As a doctor, it was right to consider the patient’s psychological state.

“……But if you hand me over to other people, you might suffer because of me, despite helping me out of goodwill.”

This time his words contained worry rather than advice.

At the man’s serious words, Sharti nodded slightly.

‘What he says is true.’

If he was a risk factor, it might be better to keep him close.

‘……He probably thought about this a lot and worried about how to tell me this.’

The man was speaking to Sharti without hesitation. Even when Sharti just nodded without answering, he didn’t point out her attitude.

She could feel how much worry and practice he had gone through to organize his thoughts.

‘This person, can I trust him?’

There was no way to verify his amnesia.

Conversely, there was no way for him to prove his amnesia either.

‘You can’t ask someone with no memories to prove they have no memories.’

In the end, if he gave her trust, she had no choice but to trust him back.

Sharti slowly lowered her feet to the floor.

The man raised his head.

His face revealed anxiety and urgency.

“Just until I find my memories. Or at least until I remember my name, could you keep me with you?”

Sharti let out a deep sigh.

Anyway, from the moment he asked for help, the answer was probably already decided.

‘At least this person doesn’t seem like he would betray me.’

She decided to take courage in his straightforward apologies without excuses.

Sharti crouched in front of the man and held out her hand.

“…….”

“……Hand?”

With a puzzled look, the man placed his large hand on hers.

<This is how we have to talk.>

“…….”

<Not because I want to talk with you, but because this is how I communicate.>

The man, who had been staring at the letters tickling his palm, nodded slowly.

Sharti folded her trembling hand a couple of times and then traced letters on his palm.

<Right now, border soldiers from the Great Empire of Neweiton are in the village managing security. If you want, I can show you the way to the village. That would be the fastest way to find out your identity.>

“…….”

<But if you don’t want that, and I don’t want to be exposed either. So I’ll take care of you for a while.>

The man’s eyes widened slightly.

<If I take you with me, from then on you’ll have to get my permission for everything. I’m hiding you, after all. You can’t cause me trouble.>

“I will.”

The man nodded obediently.

He seemed a bit dazed.

But somehow, his expression as he focused on her palm looked somewhat gentle.

<And don’t lie anymore from now on. If you do, I won’t be able to believe anything. Can you promise?>

“I promise.”

He answered the last part while looking at Sharti.

Sharti unknowingly relaxed her shoulders.

A verbal contract, not even a proper promise.

But his serious response gave Sharti a sense of reassurance.

“……What I said earlier was sincere.”

The man’s tone had a hint of laughter, making Sharti look up.

Though it would be hard to see through the hood, somehow she felt the man was looking into her eyes.

“About letting you tie me up.”

Sharti thought for a moment before answering.

<We’ll see.>

Tying both arms and legs weighed on her conscience.

‘Maybe just one ankle.’

She needed to find a minimal safety measure, not poison or restraint.

Watching Sharti lost in thought, the man suppressed a laugh.

He thought she would dismiss it as a joke, but Sharti was seriously considering it. From this brief conversation, the man was learning various aspects about Sharti.

‘They say there are magic contracts used by nobles, but those must be expensive?’

Sharti didn’t know what kind of gaze the man was giving her.

Then their eyes met.

“Will you bring me clothes before that?”

As he smiled, lifting the corner of his mouth, Sharti’s face instantly turned red.

<I’ll bring them right away!>

The heat from her face spread up to her head.

She didn’t have clothes for him to wear right now, but she did have a long robe.

As soon as they left the cave, she would go home and bring clothes first.

Sharti huffed in embarrassment.

<But why do you keep speaking informally?>

As Sharti pressed her index finger firmly to write, the man burst into laughter.

“I guess I was unconsciously comfortable with you.”

“…….”

“Should I promise not to speak informally if it bothers you?”

Contrary to his looks, he was shameless and smooth.

For some reason, that image stuck with Sharti, and she turned her head away sharply.

<I have no intention of being comfortable with you.>

Sharti drew a clear line.

Her reaction was natural for her.

‘Just a relationship where I provide a hiding place until his body and mind fully recover. I don’t want any relationship beyond that.’

She wasn’t confident that the man would maintain the same attitude after regaining his memories. She feared the situation where the distance would narrow and his presence would become more prominent in her domain.

“…….”

The man carefully imprinted in his eyes the message firmly pressed on his stiff palm.

A woman hiding her body and heart with a thick robe.

Not wanting to make Sharti’s defensive wall even stronger, the man slightly shrugged his shoulders.

“Alright……..ma’am.”

The man didn’t insist unnecessarily. He didn’t rashly cross the line she had drawn.

His instinct was telling him.

If he showed one more flaw, he would no longer be able to rely on her goodwill.

<And from now on-.>

Just as Sharti, who had hardened her expression again, was writing letters on the man’s palm.

Growl.

“…….”

“…….”

<You-.>

Grooooowl.

“…….”

The man’s gaze moved very slowly downward. And stopped around Sharti’s stomach, covered by the robe.

The white face inside the hood turned bright red.

“……Hmm…….”

The man was also embarrassed. Even if he wanted to pretend not to notice, her ‘belly button clock’ kept ringing. (TL: “배꼽시계” (belly button clock) is a Korean idiom for a growling stomach due to hunger.)

Sharti, whose face was as red as a radish, closed her eyes tightly.

“……Uh-.”

As the man tried to speak, hiding his awkwardness, Sharti stood up abruptly. Taking large strides, Sharti brought a basket.

She put the basket down in front of the man and quickly showed him the bread and jam inside.

“……So that was the smell lingering in the cave.”

The man thankfully changed the subject.

“Did you bring this? ……Ma’am? With a smell like this, I couldn’t help but react…….Ma’am.”

“…….”

His words, meant as comfort, were tactless.

‘I would have appreciated it if he had just quietly pretended not to notice.’

It seems he lost his tact along with his memories. Sharti grumbled inwardly.

As Sharti’s mood didn’t improve, the man looked at her nervously and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Ah. My stomach also just made a sound…….”

“…….”

“No, never mind……Ma’am.”

The man belatedly closed his mouth.

Sharti ignored him and focused on the fruit jam lid.

‘Hmm…… ugh!’

No matter how much strength she applied, the lid wouldn’t budge.

“Let me try……..Ma’am.”

The man, who had been watching her tap the lid with her fist, took the jar with one hand.

Pop. With a cheerful sound, the lid opened instantly.

“Here. ……Ma’am.”

The man held out the jar and lid to her.

Sharti stared blankly at the man’s large hand.

‘Men’s hand strength really is impressive.’

Various uses for such large hands flashed through Sharti’s mind.

‘He was tall too, wasn’t he?’

She recalled the pile of herbs stored at home and the list of household chores she couldn’t handle alone.

‘He’s a patient, but as long as he doesn’t move too much, it should be fine, right?’

She had already decided to live together.

Thinking positively, she had gained a valuable worker.

Sharti took out bread from the basket and first handed one to the man.

“Not going to feed me anymore?……Ma’am?”

As Sharti unhesitatingly tried to take the bread back, the man hastily accepted it.

“Ah, no. I’ll eat it well,……Ma’am.”

After giving the man a brief warning glance, Sharti used the fork from the basket to spread jam on the bread.

‘It seems to be apple jam.’

The sweetness seeping into the savory bread looked delicious.

Sharti immediately took a big bite of the bread.

She had to silence her belly button clock that was about to ring again.

“…….”

The man also ate bread while stealing glances at Sharti, who was continuously chewing with her small mouth. Following Sharti, he also ate with jam.

The man seemed to be trying to eat at her pace, but his food disappeared instantly.

‘……Food is the biggest problem.’

The man’s size took on a different meaning.

A piece of bread that Sharti would divide into several bites was just one mouthful for the man.

How much would his meal portions be to maintain those large, solid muscles?

‘We can somehow manage with garden vegetables now, but……. what about winter?’

Of course, food prices double in winter. Especially in mountain villages, quantity was more of an issue than price.

‘There will be a lot to think about.’

It was depressing to face the problems that come with taking in one person. Sharti pushed a sigh down her throat along with the bread.

Watching her expression change, the man pushed the basket toward her.

“……I’m full.”

When Sharti offered him another piece of bread in surprise, he waved his hand.

Having eaten just one piece of bread, he completely turned his gaze away from the basket.

“Maybe it’s because I’ve been lying down, but my stomach fills up quickly…….Ma’am.”

It was a plausible reason.

Sharti, her cheeks puffed up like a squirrel’s, nodded.