With distrust in Ashu’s village deepening, and Sharti having a seizure on top of that, it was only natural for Ren to be overly sensitive about her safety.
Sharti was worried too.
‘But he’s not forcing me to go with him, so it should be fine.’
It might have been a naive thought, but since Ren was being sensitive enough for both of them, Sharti felt calm instead.
‘It’s not like I don’t have weapons, unlike Ren.’
Sharti pointed at her bag to the still anxious Ren.
After rummaging through the bag and showing him the small pouches, Ren let out a small sigh.
He knew better than anyone how effective the weapons Sharti carried were.
“I’ll try to return as quickly as possible.”
Ren deliberately drooped his eyebrows and gave her a dejected look.
Sharti laughed absently, suddenly realizing that his expression and attitude weren’t very assistant-like.
‘Not an assistant, but more like…’
His anxious reactions to her every move and emotional sensitivity were closer to a large dog.
‘They say dogs with separation anxiety act like that…’
Those teal eyes whimpering only in front of her had some resemblance.
Of course, comparing a person to an animal, especially a dog, wasn’t polite, so Sharti managed her expression.
‘Or is it not? With that size, is he more like a wolf?’
While seriously contemplating Ren’s breed, Sharti quickly shook off her thoughts.
Sharti waved goodbye to the bewildered Ashu and the composed Ren, following after the village chief.
‘Will they lock me in a prison?’
Contrary to her expectations, the place they arrived at was an ordinary house.
In the middle of the room, Ashu’s grandfather was sitting at a small table waiting for her.
As soon as Sharti sat down across from him at the village chief’s gesture, the old man spoke.
“I heard my grandson met the doctor at night, and from then on, it’s devastating to learn that my grandson has been involved in something absurd.”
“……”
The old man clicked his tongue.
Realizing that his grandson’s excited behavior all night was actually due to the tension of deceiving the entire family and participating in wrongdoing, his disappointment was immeasurable.
After a long silence, the old man got to the point.
“Do you know why the hidden village is called the hidden village?”
The reason for the hidden village’s existence.
“Because it hides secrets,” he answered his own question.
The old man turned his gaze from Sharti and nodded to the village chief.
As the village chief moved behind her, Sharti stiffened.
A clattering sound was heard repeatedly.
‘What, what is it? Are they preparing to take me away?’
Due to the ominous flow of the conversation that had just been cut off, Sharti became extremely tense.
While touching her sleeve nervously and listening to her pounding heart, the village chief approached her side, seemingly having finished his task.
“Drink this.”
“…?”
Contrary to her expectations, what was placed before her with a clack was just a rough-looking cup.
And it contained steaming hot milk.
“If you’re afraid it might be poisoned, you don’t have to drink it.”
Sharti shook her head.
Conscious of the old man and village chief’s gaze, Sharti held the cup with both hands.
The warmth spread through her cold hands.
‘I was feeling thirsty anyway.’
Pleased by the rich milk aroma, Sharti quickly emptied the cup.
“…You really are fearless.”
The village chief muttered with a somewhat disgruntled expression.
Though her face was hidden by the hood, to others, Sharti appeared calm and composed.
From their perspective, while Sharti often hesitated and took time to assess others, when faced with a direct choice or doubt, she didn’t hesitate—showing a boldness that seemed to express trust in them.
Of course, Sharti didn’t particularly trust them.
‘I have antidotes in my bag anyway.’
The only thing she trusted was her own thorough preparation.
Regardless of Sharti’s intentions, the atmosphere around the old man and village chief softened slightly.
“Doctor, there are secrets in this world more important than life itself. And if one loses their life to protect that secret, even that is the natural order of things. Though it may seem cowardly to you, for us, that natural order is the truth, an inescapable fate.”
“……”
Just as the tiresome subject was about to repeat, Sharti sensed resignation and surrender in the old man’s tone.
A fleeting bitterness and pain crossed the village chief’s face.
“Doctor, the fact that this village is in a state of mana saturation isn’t particularly a secret to us. Nor is it important. Do you know why?”
The old man’s eyes blazed as he smiled wryly.
“Because we have no choice. Neither choosing this village, nor leaving it. None of it.”
“……”
Sharti suddenly heard a warning sound in her head.
Reflexively gripping the empty cup, she swallowed dryly.
“But you, as an outsider, dared to create choices for us on your own.”
The choice that if they just reached out, if they asked for help, they would be saved.
What a short-sighted and foolish interference.
“……”
The old man closed his eyes intently. Many worries appeared and disappeared repeatedly on his wrinkled face.
Perhaps, once Sharti identified the disease and foretold the large shadow of death soon to fall upon the village, it became futile to debate what was right or wrong by common sense.
“So, you must take responsibility.”
Having put forward the cowardly natural order until now, the old man decided to be cowardly to the end.
The village chief, looking troubled by his father’s decision, took out a small wooden box from the table.
It was an antique wooden box with the emblem of the Neweiton Empire carved on it.
Sharti carefully examined the wooden box.
‘What is this?’
The wooden box, produced in such a solemn atmosphere, was far from clean—as if it had been buried in the ground for many years.
“This is the secret of this village and the reason it became a hidden village.”
“…!”
As Sharti drew in a sharp breath, the village chief opened the wooden box.
Sharti tightly closed her mouth.
Then she slightly glanced at the old man and village chief.
‘…A gold tablet?’
Though she was forced to see the secret, Sharti couldn’t exactly identify what was in the wooden box.
‘Is it engraved with an image? It’s very elaborate… and strangely familiar.’
The long gold tablet had a scorpion image engraved on it.
It looked like a noble family’s crest.
Just as she reached that thought, the village chief spoke.
“Among the nobles representing the Neweiton Empire, there is a family that uses the scorpion crest.”
“…!”
Sharti instinctively recalled Vireta.
[It was said there was a scorpion emblem on the noble carriage that took my daughter. Yes. Today I must go kill the owner of that emblem.]
It was the only family Vireta had planned to assassinate regardless of a commission, and the only family the skilled Vireta, who had never failed before, had failed to assassinate.
Moreover, Sharti knew the secret that Virena had secretly revealed when she had taken out Tein’s swaddling clothes.
[Tein and I are half-siblings. And unlike me, Tein is…]
‘Why, why is this crest here too…’
Confronted with a crest she absolutely did not want to be involved with in such an unexpected place, Sharti was stunned.
As Sharti remained motionless with her hand over her mouth, the old man smiled bitterly.
“Yes. Do you recognize who is hiding this village from the eyes of the world?”
“……”
“This village is managed like private property by the noble family of this crest.”
Belatedly coming to her senses, Sharti held her head.
Though confused by the unexpected village secret, Sharti tried to grasp the situation as quickly as possible.
‘I heard that hidden villages are implicitly permitted villages. Even under the empire’s supervision.’
But it didn’t make sense for a mere noble family to manage it like private property.
If they were managing it like private property, hidden from the world’s eyes, there was only one way.
“…You intercepted it in the middle.”
In other words, the village registration documents were missing.
‘And the reason for that is probably… this village’s massive mana?’
The use of massive mana, unknown to the Magic Tower and the imperial family, could only be one thing.
For a noble, and especially for ‘that’ Marquis family that Sharti knew of, it enabled hasty conjecture.
‘That’ Marquis family was one that had power, title, and influence all secured within the empire.
“Long ago, when we gave up this village, they said it was a precious resource that would be greatly used in the future.”
“……”
Sharti almost bit her tongue.
She was quick-witted.
Although they were speaking in roundabout terms, their secret was clear.
‘You’re saying it’s a resource for treason!’
Sharti pressed firmly near her pounding heart.
Perhaps due to the sudden shock, her head felt slightly dizzy too.
However, the old man continued speaking, lost in distant memories.
“The people of this village were refugees who had lost their homes due to war, and for us, weary in body and mind, this village, disconnected from the outside, was an offer we couldn’t refuse.”
“Just a village, a village where we could live normally without questioning anything.”
The village chief recalled the past with shadowed eyes.
“Even though they were nobles, they didn’t particularly harm us, so we thought nothing of it. We didn’t have time to think deeply about anything. Even if we had known that decision would eventually consume our lives, well… we probably would have willingly accepted that secret.”
Sharti lowered her gaze and bowed her head.
What she had to take responsibility for was a secret as important as these people’s lives.
Sharti deeply regretted judging their secret rashly and criticizing it hastily.
“We are paying the price for our choice. Isn’t that the natural order of things?”
“……”
A moment of silence passed in the heavily sunk atmosphere.
The village chief quietly swallowed a sigh. Then he glanced at his father.
The old man’s eyes were still testing Sharti.
“Doctor, do you understand now? The moment we receive outside help, we will all be killed to silence us. Isn’t it better to die while keeping the secret?”
It was a question about choosing a better death.
Sharti slowly shook her head.
“…I don’t need to understand a death chosen by others.”
“Yet you still want to save us.”
Despite sharing the secret, Sharti’s attitude remained unchanged.
To the village chief, she seemed unable to sympathize with the dangerous and enormous secret the village held.
“……”
Ashu’s grandfather slowly stroked his long white beard with his eyes closed.
“Let’s say we follow your advice and cooperate with treatment, engaging with the outside world.”
“Father—”
“That would mean risking a more terrible danger than the disease and putting our lives on the line. Unlike us, you, the outsider doctor, have a place to return to, so it doesn’t matter to you.”
“……”
“Why on earth are you trying to save us?”
The old man looked at Sharti with quiet eyes.
“Responsibility comes with saving people. Especially when saving someone who wants to die. Doctor, are you prepared for that?”
It was a weighty question that reflected years of experience.
“If you carelessly form ties with others, you may have to pay the price.”
The word ‘price’ sounded particularly significant.
[Sha-.]
Strangely, at this moment, Ren came to mind.
Sharti reflexively frowned.
“Doctor, are you prepared to pay the price?”
Emerging from her thoughts, Sharti couldn’t easily speak.
The price Ashu’s grandfather demanded was one thing.
An equal secret—sharing secrets to trust and cooperate with each other.
‘They can’t risk offending a Marquis of the Neweiton Empire by trusting just one outsider.’
Sharti swallowed a sigh.
She was an outsider. Moreover, a completely unrelated outsider who could simply return home.
In an uncooperative village where persuasion didn’t work, she was a nuisance, feverishly trying to save people.
‘I know.’
Even Sharti herself sometimes felt doubtful when faced with hostile gazes.
Why was she so desperately raising her voice for something that brought no benefit?
Sharti fidgeted with the sleeve of her robe.
‘…Because it reminds me of myself.’
She might have been identifying with her own self from five years ago.
“If you’re going to show me your burn marks like last time, there’s no need.”
The village chief shook his head toward the contemplative Sharti.
They had already suspected why she hid her face, given the burn scars on her right leg and arm that Sharti had revealed.
Coldly thinking, a fire victim hiding and living in secrecy seemed lighter compared to their secret.
“Neither my father nor I are forcing you. So…”
Sharti slowly removed her hood.
Her honey-colored hair, which had been carefully hidden, flowed down.
As she raised her gaze, her crimson eyes were revealed.
“……”
“……”
Facing the two people who were speechless at her identical face, Sharti slowly opened her mouth.
“Would the reason for hiding a face without a single scar be an equal secret?”
