GDTEA Chapter 29

Tristan, the soldiers, and Vireta’s family members who had been silently staring at Ren all turned their heads toward Sharti.

Faced with questioning looks about Ren’s existence, Sharti’s lips became increasingly dry.

‘This isn’t right…’

Originally, she had planned to introduce Ren as an assistant she had taken in.

They had already agreed on a plausible excuse that he hadn’t been registered at birth because his face was disfigured.

‘A slave?’

Sharti glanced behind her.

Her eyes met with Ren’s, who, contrary to their plan, had unexpectedly become a “slave.”

‘I’ll handle this.’

Sharti patted the back of Ren’s hand to reassure him, who was probably confused by the turn of events.

She felt Vireta’s piercing gaze, but Sharti pretended not to notice and raised her head toward Tristan.

“That’s right.”

“…?”

But Ren, who she thought would stand quietly behind her, stepped forward.

Ren nodded with an expressionless face.

‘What?’

Sharti blinked at the bewildering statement.

Ren glanced at the soldiers, then slowly knelt on both knees in front of her.

“Sha is my master.”

“…!”

Ren took her hand and rubbed his cheek against the back of it.

Sharti looked down at Ren with an expression close to shock.

Meeting Sharti’s gaze hidden by her robe, Ren gave a gentle eye-smile.

It was an eye-smile with a different meaning from what Ren had shown until now.

“That brazen thing…!”

Sharti was startled by Vireta’s exclamation and came to her senses.

She soothed her pounding heart.

‘She thought I said that.’

As Sharti tried to look away from Ren, who wouldn’t stop his bewitching eye-smile, her eyes met with Tein, who was holding her other hand.

Large eyes were looking up at her.

Then Tein grinned.

“I will protect doctor.”

It was a statement without clear meaning.

While Sharti remained frozen, unable to react one way or the other, Tristan tilted his head.

“Is he really your slave, teacher?”

Tristan, who had been quietly observing the situation, stared intently at Ren.

In Tristan’s view, Ren looked suspicious for a mere slave.

The soldiers also didn’t remove their suspicious gazes from Ren, whose entire face and body were wrapped in bandages.

“Yes! He’s Sha’s slave!”

Virena raised her voice once more.

She walked right past the soldiers and pointed at Ren.

“Look! He clearly seems good for nothing but strength.”

“……”

“Sunken eyes! Damaged face! Just a body! Doesn’t he look like nothing but a slave!”

“……”

At Virena’s explanation, which included snorting, Tristan and the soldiers closed their mouths.

When no denial came, Ren’s eye-smile disappeared.

In the tense atmosphere, Tein nodded vigorously to defend his sister.

“That’s right! The patient—I mean, the slave mister has a body as big as a bear, but there’s nothing in his head!”

“……”

It was Tein’s consistent assessment of Ren.

As Ren’s shoulders drooped, Vireta snorted.

“True. He’s so stupid that despite being a slave, he barely speaks to his master.”

Vireta’s eyes flashed as she clicked her tongue disapprovingly.

“If our child hadn’t taken him in and let him stay, he would have been kicked out long ago.”

“……”

“……”

Her words had thorns.

Both Sharti and especially Ren felt a chill down their necks.

“Is he really a slave?”

Tristan’s gaze, with one layer of suspicion removed, became more cautious.

In the Neweiton Empire, slaves weren’t just possessions of nobles. Commoners could also own slaves.

Nevertheless, he kept confirming because a poor doctor like Sharti couldn’t afford to keep a slave.

“A slave of that caliber would be quite valuable.”

A slave of Ren’s size would be suitable for physical labor and thus expensive.

Unable to think of a suitable excuse to Tristan’s point, Sharti could only roll her eyes.

Instead, Ren rose to his feet. He stepped in front of Sharti and spoke.

“I ran away.”

Ren quietly unwrapped the bandages on his face.

As Ren’s face was gradually revealed, the soldiers, and even Virena, turned pale.

“From those who tried to kill me.”

Dark red veins like spider webs covered Ren’s entire face.

He looked like a monster from a fairy tale.

“……”

As Ren revealed his face, the surroundings became quiet.

Only Tein, who was sticking close to Sharti, examined Ren with curious eyes.

“So you’re saying he’s a runaway slave?”

“Looking at that face, it seems he was tortured.”

The soldiers murmured, unable to look directly at Ren’s face.

Given the many rumors about the treatment of slaves, Ren’s claim gained credibility.

‘Do they believe it?’

Sharti inwardly sighed with relief.

Of course, she still felt uneasy about suddenly becoming the master of a slave.

But for now, convincing the soldiers about the situation and Ren’s existence was the priority.

“Well, that’s how it turned out.”

Vireta slowly moved.

A cold wind brushed past Vireta’s wrinkled face.

She stopped in front of Dodindt.

“He has no education, knows nothing, and just follows our child around. His mind is gone, but his body is useful, so our child took him in.”

“Ugh, urgh… ugh…!”

“How could I leave the child alone in this rough mountain, not knowing who might be hiding around? We need at least a watchdog. Something to bite an insane person, right?”

Dodindt’s face turned white under Vireta’s domineering gaze.

The moment he made eye contact with Vireta, a sensation like a well-sharpened blade pressing against his Adam’s apple swept through his body.

She was definitely not an ordinary old woman.

“Urp! Ugh, ughugh!! Ugh, kh…!”

Dodindt desperately tried to alert Tristan and the subordinate soldiers, shedding tears and mucus, but his paralyzed body could only emit faint groans.

No one paid any attention to Dodindt.

“But why are you doing this only to Sha?”

Virena, who strongly agreed with Vireta’s words, stretched her head toward Tristan and asked accusingly.

“Sha used the paralysis powder because that wicked man broke into the house and threatened her, so she had no choice.”

“Th-that’s…”

“Why did you soldiers come to the village in the first place? Isn’t it for the village’s security? You only searched for one day! And at night at that! You said you got hurt because you encountered a violent criminal! But the violent criminal… Wait, could that man be the criminal you soldiers let escape?! You called a fellow soldier a violent criminal and concealed it, right?”

“No, miss, that’s, um…”

Virena turned her head sharply and glared at the soldiers as well.

“What! In the end, Sha was in danger because of you soldiers! Sha, who has been doing her best to provide the best treatment for the soldiers until today! That man!”

Virena jabbed her finger, sharper than a thorn, at Dodindt and each soldier one by one.

There was nothing to counter Virena’s sharp criticism.

Tristan also lowered his gaze, as if ashamed.

‘No, to be precise, the cause is almost entirely with me…’

Only Sharti looked sympathetically at the dejected soldiers.

On the other hand, Ren was nodding vigorously along with Tein.

For this moment, Sharti stopped thinking deeply.

‘Oh, I…’

Sharti rubbed her eyes.

Her vision was a bit blurry.

Was it because she was wearing a robe at night?

Come to think of it, her body felt chilly as well.

“Doctor?”

When Sharti held her head, Tein immediately noticed her condition.

She felt small hands trying to support her.

‘Now that I think about it, I haven’t been sleeping properly…’

It must be fatigue from standing in the windy mountains in the early morning hours.

As her thoughts broke off, Sharti unconsciously grabbed the hem of Ren’s clothes.

“-Sha!”

With a feeling of her body tilting, strong arms wrapped around Sharti.

In Ren’s arms, Sharti lost consciousness.

****

Ren, holding the collapsed Sharti, gritted his teeth.

He felt a burning temperature from her body under the robe.

“Damn it.”

Chewing on a rough curse, Ren took her hand.

It was abnormally hot, as expected.

Ren felt self-loathing for not noticing Sharti’s condition until now.

“Is the doctor all right?”

When Tristan, who belatedly reacted, approached, Ren looked at him.

The clear hostility in his blue-green eyes made Tristan stop in his tracks.

“Are you curious about what happened to Sha, my master? Whether she’s hurt, how much, where she’s hurt, if she’s all right now, whether the shock has put a strain on her body—no one even bothered to ask.”

“……”

“Thanks to my master, you’re alive, you received help, and yet you only pressured my master when she needed help. What exactly do you want to know? Are you checking if it’s appropriate to shift your own disgrace onto her?”

An icy cold wind froze the faces of the soldiers.

“You’ve heard, so you should know.”

Ren rose with Sharti in his arms.

His blue-green eyes gleamed with hostility.

“The only thing I seem to have a poor head for is my master.”

With an expressionless face, Ren growled threateningly toward the soldiers.

“So don’t hurt my master anymore.”

“……”

Their emotions, which had shifted from suspicion to apology, now weighed them down with guilt.

The soldiers would no longer bother Sharti.

Ren swallowed an irritated breath. Even so, he felt no satisfaction.

He felt sorry for Sharti, who had been shivering in the cold because of his dishonorable existence, and angry at his own incompetence for not noticing her physical condition earlier.

“Only the doctor should follow.”

“What?”

“Understood!”

Tein raised his hand high and followed Ren into the log cabin.

In the awkward atmosphere, Virena sidled up to Vireta.

“Grandma, he doesn’t look dangerous like Tein said, does he?”

“Is that a question?”

Vireta snorted at her naive granddaughter’s words.

Only Vireta had seen through Ren’s dangerous nature.

A peculiar killing intent, refined yet raw.

“Hmm. ‘Master,’ huh…”

Vireta sensed it.

No one could hold the leash of that peculiar man.

Unless he himself extended the leash.

“She picked up a useful one.”

Vireta chuckled.

Sharti was a child who felt lonely, wished for someone by her side, but never dared to desire it.

At just twenty, the flower of her youth, Sharti was still a girl abandoned in the fire.

Perhaps that’s why.

For the first time, Vireta wanted to watch over someone Sharti had kept by her side.

One insignificant catalyst. She hoped Sharti would change within this unremarkable relationship.

Because people grow by interacting with others, learning and feeling many things.

“I was so worried when I heard she was living with a man in the same house.”

“Tsk. Didn’t Sha say earlier? That she’s keeping him. That man is just a watchdog.”

What man?

Though she couldn’t raise Sharti delicately, she had cared for her like a granddaughter.

She was not someone a man with no identity or possessions could dare to covet.

Virena chuckled at Vireta’s firm words.

“We’ll see.”

Virena thought a bit differently.

The big, scary-looking man looked at only Sharti with gentle eyes.

Even when Sharti collapsed, Ren blocked others’ approach with cautious eyes, worried that her hood might come off and reveal her face.

“So, do you soldiers still need something more? Now you need that runaway slave instead of our child? Do you want to somehow entangle him to cover up the disgrace of your fellow soldier?”

No one opened their mouth to Vireta’s direct accusation.

Even Tristan avoided her gaze.

There was nothing wrong with what Ren and Vireta had said. It was their responsibility that Sharti had collapsed.

“…We’ll be going.”

Vireta smiled gently, wearing the mask of a kind grandmother.

“Let’s say that man has never been to this old log cabin. Whether it’s a runaway slave, or a soldier who stabbed his subordinate, it’s better to turn a blind eye to each other’s dishonor.”

“……”

“Helping and being helped, that’s what relationships are about. Yes.”

Vireta chuckled as she entered the log cabin with Virena.

An awkward silence fell.

“What… should we do? We should report a runaway slave, shouldn’t we?”

The owner of a runaway slave was likely to be a noble. Reporting was, of course, obligatory.

Yet they hesitated—was it due to guilt, or conscience?

“We searched the mountain today.”

“Pardon?”

“During the search, we encountered a beast, and our squad leader fled alone, cutting down his young subordinates. This resulted in many injuries. We desperately pursued the squad leader, and during the capture process, the squad leader had an accident.”

Tristan’s eyes turned cold.

Realizing the meaning of his words, Dodindt glared with a sense of betrayal.

“It was inevitable, merely the consequence of his actions that led to an unavoidable accident. Understand? We captured the squad leader. The victims are only us, and the perpetrator is clearly the squad leader.”

“Understood.”

“Remember, everyone. We were never around here.”

“Yes!”

Of course, all soldiers had to agree, and Dodindt had to keep his mouth shut.

It would be a simple yet difficult task.

But wouldn’t it be shameful as soldiers of the Neweiton Empire to involve Sharti and her runaway slave?

Sharti should only be reported as a doctor hired to care for the injured soldiers remaining in the village.

‘I will repay this debt, Doctor, for sure.’

Tristan bowed his head toward the old log cabin.

It was truly time to leave the village now.

At the time when the soldiers finally left with Dodindt, Ren was having a one-on-one conversation with Vireta, who had a terrifying aura.

“Do you think you can stay by your master’s side like that?”

Vireta clicked her tongue at Ren, who was holding his head stiffly high.