Chapter 305 – 305. Caravan Travel (2)
The harsh stories of a 15-year-old girl’s family that she went through as she was suddenly destroyed and sold into slavery.
In the end, the story of Lily’s body being mutated into a half-man, half-horse (half-man, half-demon) evoked various emotions in Erin’s heart.
“So I was sold as a slave to a black magician, a remnant of the empire, and turned into a demon while undergoing human experimentation…”
“Sister.”
“…”
“Stop… It’s okay now. You don’t have to tell me any more.”
Rather, as time went on, Erin, who was listening, only felt heavier in her heart.
Erin restrained her Lily, who was talking about her own past, and she squeezed her right hand into both of hers.
The little trembling of the girl transmitted through her right hand represents Erin’s feelings.
“My sister too… It was very difficult.”
She is qualitatively different from her own experience.
Although she has had a difficult life in Aither as she has been treated with contempt, ridicule and discrimination by many students due to the difference in her status.
At least she hadn’t lived a rough life being betrayed by her family and sold into slavery.
Erin had an Elvin who never gave up on her until the end.
It is an insult in itself to compare her story of Lily, who was separated in her worst form from her mother, who, due to her father’s betrayal, to carry her to the end, with her own experience. .
It was because of her responsibility to take care of the children in the nursery school as well as manage her house with her bright and sincere appearance, which allowed Erin to throw off her first impression of being a ‘devil’ to Lily and open up to her.
Although she is the same age as Eira, she is of the same commoner status, and it was an opportunity for her to form an inner affinity with Lily, who had lived with her in one house longer than Eira, and let go of her words. .
The past of her close sister, who was bright and full of vitality, was so heavy, gloomy, and cruel that even though Erin wanted to comfort her, her words couldn’t come to mind.
At her loss for words, seeing a single tear roll down her girl’s cheek, Lily smiled her plaintive smile.
“… Thank you.”
This is the third time she spits out her story about her own past.
The first is to Eunhyun.
The second is to Illyana and Eleanor, after having a relationship with Eunhyun.
And this time in front of Erin and Emilia.
Emilia is concentrating on driving, and she shows no reaction to Lily’s story.
Only Erin was shedding her tears for herself.
Eunhyun calmly hugged her and accepted her.
Illyana made a frowning expression that evoked her sorrow. Eleanor comforted Lily with her sad expression.
By meeting good people who comforted her at the end of her story, Lily’s own heart, which had almost collapsed, was being healed again.
“Erin, I am happy now. Master and mistress, because I was able to meet you. The children in the orphanage are also growing up well.”
“… Huh.”
Lily smiled and nodded her head, and Erin nodded at her sniffling head.
There is no way the heart of a child like her sister who sheds tears for herself cannot be happy.
“The sun is slowly going down.”
Eunhyun, who was listening to the grim story going on in the back seat, stared at the sunset in the air and muttered.
“Let’s prepare for camp.”
“Yes. Master.”
It was Eun-hyeon’s consideration to change the mood of Erin, who was getting depressed as time went by with Lily’s story.
Lily smiled and nodded her head at Eun-hyeon’s suggestion, which came at the right time for her.
During the trip, Lily faithfully fulfilled her role wearing a maid outfit remodeled for going out.
After parking in a suitable spot, Lily prepared the dishes in the caravan’s kitchen while Eunhyeon and Erin built a campfire, retrieved equipment from the trunk and set up a Dutch oven over the campfire.
“You’ve gotten pretty good at it.”
“Well, of course not. Hehe, I’m a silver-tier adventurer now too.”
There was no more rookie clumsiness in Erin’s appearance, skillfully lighting a bonfire and setting up equipment without hesitation.
In response to Eunhyun’s compliments that seemed satisfied with her, Erin proudly pushed out her chest and spoke her words proudly.
She had been working as her adventurer’s solo for nearly a year, and the experiences she had learned did not evaporate anywhere, but were imprinted on Erin’s body and mind and were utilized.
“I’ll boil it right away.”
Lily brought out ingredients that had been prepared and aged before her departure, and she threw them all into a Dutch oven pot that was heating up over an open fire.
As soon as Lily’s cooking started, Erin raised her anticipation of the simmering pot of tomato stew, and after dinner, she pre-made a cot inside the caravan so she could go to sleep right away. .
“Ah… Delicious smell…”
Under the chilly weather as the sun went down, Erin felt relaxed as time passed and she smelled the scent of the stew rising to the top.
“Whoa, wait a minute.”
After bringing out her utensils and serving the stew to Eun-hyeon and Erin, the dinner started as Eun-hyeon scooped up the tender meat with a spoon and ate it with the soup.
“Oh, hot…”
As Erin put it in her mouth as she blew and cooled the hot stew, her body trembled at the warm, fragrant energy that filled her inside.
“Sister, it’s delicious!”
“Huh. Eat a lot.”
“Can I have a bowl too?”
“Ah…”
Suddenly, Belldandi, who appeared behind Eunhyeon and materialized her, spoke to her, and Lily shook her shoulders slightly.
Although she heard the story from Eun-hyeon.
After the relationship with her, the visible appearance of the goddess in her two eyes proved that Eun-hyeon’s words were true.
“Sure. Please wait for a moment.”
Since it happened like this, Lily had no choice but to get used to Belldandy’s existence as much as possible.
She gave a small smile and passed her bowl of soup to Belldandy.
“Um… Certainly, this taste is a sensation that can be tasted because it has a human body…”
“I’m glad you like it too.”
The expression of Belldandi, who was enjoying the happiness while chewing the soft, melting beef meat, made Eunhyun smile.
In the midst of a strange meal with the goddess, Erin looked at Eunhyeon as if she had suddenly remembered.
“By the way, Hyuna.”
“Huh?”
“What happened to the uncle I told you about before? Have you met him?”
“Mister? Oh, that potion swindler?”
“… Are you a cheater?”
Lily, who was listening to the conversation between the two, joined the conversation with a subtle expression.
It was a bit surprising that none other than Erin had introduced Eunhyeon to a swindler, not someone else.
“Yep. That’s what…”
As Erin ate her soup in front of her campfire, she recounted the happening she had been through at her mo Graf change.
In the course of the happening between the Krasir Knights and Erin, Lily nodded her head in agreement as she heard the story of what kind of role the aforementioned adventurer, the ‘potion cheater’, played.
“In fact, by having that man take the lead, we secured the statements of many adventurers and soldiers.”
And the hundreds of statements secured through him became a means to drive other nobles into a corner at the court meeting.
“I see…”
Erin had never properly met the potion swindler after that.
Although she promised to arrange a meeting with Eun-hyeon.
After hearing the story from Erin, Eunhyeon smiled and said that she knew, but did not hear about the situation after that.
It is because I was curious about the current situation of the servile swindler adventurer who tried to scam Eun-hyeon in the past, but realized his personal connections and identity, and the thief tripped and asked Eun-hyeon for a place to apologize.
“Right now, I’ve changed my mind and run the store.”
“… Are you doing a merchant? Is that person?”
“Huh. I am entrusted with the delivery of potions, medicines, and other materials that I personally manufacture to Pernin.”
“… That person is a bad person.”
“Well, because you promised me that you would live a good life in the future, so I even tried to run so hard that your feet sweated in the Mograf Territory in order to keep an eye on you and to look good to me personally.”
Although he lived up to this point eating the backs of other novice adventurers.
As soon as the potion swindler adventurer saw him on the border of Mograf, he fell on his face in front of Eunhyeon, apologized for the day, and promised to live a good life from now on.
“What if I cheat again?”
“I entrusted him with a part of my job to monitor it. The manufacturing cost, distribution cost, and retail price were all set by me, and I set the profit properly for that man. If you sell my potions at a higher price than the standard I set, or if you try to have a different mind, a report comes to me through Heilangdan.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Even a portion of the profit that man earned goes to the dukedom’s adventurer’s guild for two years as a donation to help nurture new adventurers. That was my condition in exchange for forgiving him.”
It would be impossible to visit each rookie adventurer who had already cheated and compensate them for the amount of damage they had suffered in the past.
At least in some way, he was looking for a way to get the amount he had been scammed back into.
“Is there no way to compensate the person who was harmed by that person?”
“First of all, I put up a notice in the adventurer’s guild in the duchy of Fernine that he wanted to compensate adventurers who suffered direct damage due to being scammed by him, twice the amount of damage, but the process to confirm this is not too complicated.”
Even though there is no connection at all, naive people claiming to be victims of fraud and seeking compensation may appear, and even if a notice is posted, it is unknown whether all victims will come.
“Um… But doesn’t that mean that in the end Hyun-i will directly pay for the amount he has to compensate?”
“For now, it’s not like that.”
“Do you have any reason to do that?”
To be honest, Erin couldn’t understand why Eunhyeon was so lenient to the potion swindler.
“Even this side did not set the condition that they would repay the money unconditionally. He is quite good at business.”
His witty gestures drew the interest of the people around him, and he was quite good at selling goods by explaining the benefits of the product in a well-coherent way.
At least, if he hadn’t immersed himself in fraud, he might have been successful as a merchant.
“It is like an investment. Instead of paying off the huge reparation, I will put it on debt and make it pay off in 5 or 10 years.”
To Eun-hyeon, money is so much that it rots and overflows.
It’s like investing in people.
I had no intention of just throwing away the money that went into the man.
It wasn’t a bad plan either, since he was going to make a profit out of it by rolling and rolling, more than it cost.
“While I pay off that debt, I acquire the right to lord it over one of my superior mercantile subordinates.”
It is similar to Eunhyeon’s method of using Heilangdan.
Instead of taking care of all the orphans they have and paying for the minimum cost of living necessary for their activities, they have to live with the limbs of Eun-hyeon, who must be plucked for the rest of their lives.
With heartlessness that can be discarded at any time if need be.
In a way, the treatment of this potion swindler is better than Heilangdan.
The risk of being targeted is relatively small, at least because they are active in commerce rather than risking their lives as part of information gathering.
“… I know that the old man is an adventurer who has been scamming and doing bad things… Hyun-i also looks like a vicious business owner who treats his employees like slaves now.”
Eunhyun burst into laughter at Erin’s honest impression.
“See? Still, it’s an attempt to reform the impostor and use it like a human being. And Erin.”
“Huh?”
“Originally, the relationship between employer and employee is like that between master and slave. It’s not a concept like status, but the roles of these two naturally form that kind of relationship. Therefore…”
Eunhyun shrugged his shoulders and continued.
“If you succeed later, you will definitely become an employer.”
When she lived on Earth, Eun-hyeon, who had just graduated from high school at Erin’s age, dreamed of becoming a building owner, several steps above her employer.
