#057
This bastard.
I felt a flash of anger. At first he had a slightly puzzled expression, but now he was raising one eyebrow completely.
“Ah, are we being formal with each other now?”
His face as he said this with a laugh was like he was asking “let’s see what you’ll do.” He’s probably looking for something to mock again. I was about to ask what kind of relationship we had, but it sounded too much like an obvious drama line so I gave up. Even if he answered something about divorced couples, honestly that would be awkward.
I decided to surrender cleanly.
“Yeah, we’re being formal since we’ve broken up. Could you really please get out?”
Carlisle’s mouth corners lifted slightly and he deliberately slowly swept over my body in the bathtub.
My hands gripping the bathtub railing tensed up. I briefly regretted not choosing a bubble bath. At least I was in a half-prone position gripping the side railing, so my front wasn’t exposed, which was fortunate. I just gave up on my scrawny back and unsightly butt being visible.
“……”
“……”
I was preparing to control my anger early since he’d definitely try to tease me about something, but it was strangely quiet. I glanced up to check his face.
‘Why is his expression like that again?’
Just moments ago his face had been full of mockery, but the laughter had completely disappeared. He’d returned to his usual blunt expressionless face. Somehow seeing that stiff expression made me feel even more uncomfortable.
“Why again…”
I was cautiously opening my mouth when he briefly met my gaze, then turned around and left without a word. Ah, really, that bastard.
Grumbling, I quickly finished up and peeked outside the bathroom. I was being cautious in case he was still there, but the room was completely empty—he must have left entirely. I picked up the new clothes left outside the bathroom door (could that bastard have brought these clothes?) and hurried down to the dining room.
I felt oddly strange knowing the location of the dining room familiarly without needing guidance.
“Sit.”
Carlisle pointed to the seat across from where the tableware was set. As soon as I sat down, the meal was immediately brought out. From fresh salad with green leaves and coconut flesh (probably from what we brought back from this expedition) to hot onion soup and thick, juicy steak with red wine. It was definitely real food. There was no contamination or spoiled parts at all.
Does he always eat like this?
I quickly forgot about being nervous over what Carlisle might say. He didn’t even try to make me lose my appetite with unnecessary comments while I ate.
I was suspicious about what he might demand after feeding me so well, but I accepted the wise words of our ancestors that “even a ghost that dies after eating looks good” and ate first. If I didn’t eat today, I didn’t know when I’d get to eat food like this again. How much I’d regretted not boldly accepting when I was first invited to dinner.
I might shock my stomach by eating like this after not eating much, but I figured I’d rather eat everything and then take a healing potion. Even though I was someone who got drunk just from smelling alcohol, I didn’t forget to sip the wine bit by bit. Potions were expensive, but they couldn’t compare to a real full-course meal.
Emboldened by the slight buzz that was starting, I was the one who brought up the topic first. It was when I’d finished the main dish and chocolate cake and black tea came out for dessert. I took a deep breath and opened my mouth.
“Um, about this expedition…”
I started to speak while lifting my head, then flinched. Carlisle was sitting with his arms crossed, staring directly at me. How long had he been like that? Though I was a bit startled, I pretended it was nothing and continued speaking.
“I promised there would absolutely be no inconvenience or asking for help, but with combat and potions and… I received a lot of various help. I know that well.”
“Right… including Taro’s snack box.”
Carlisle responded indifferently.
‘He knew after all.’
I cleared my throat.
“Right, including that… um… how much debt do I owe?”
Honestly, it seemed like I’d make some money from this expedition, but since I had to prepare for the next expedition too, I still wouldn’t be able to repay the debt to Carlisle. I didn’t even want to know the exact amount since I couldn’t pay it back immediately and would just stress about it, but I couldn’t keep avoiding it forever, so I timidly asked. And Carlisle was happy to let me know the length of my leash.
“2.4 billion Rual.”
“Gak.”
I thought my eyeballs would pop out. Instead of my eyeballs actually popping out, the piece of cake I was eating got stuck in my throat.
“What, what? That can’t be right.”
“That’s after subtracting things like the potion costs used in Wanderer’s Plains and Taro’s snack box. It’s purely calculating only the costs from this expedition.”
Then it made even less sense. In this expedition, I had prepared various things myself albeit inadequately, and at most I’d gotten a ride in his car and received Carlisle’s protection which I hadn’t asked for but ended up getting… wait, then could this bastard be saying…
“I originally had no expedition planned. I only stepped in suddenly because you asked.”
Carlisle’s face looked dry and bored as he explained, resting one arm on the table and leaning his chin on it diagonally.
“Of course, I’m not demanding compensation for the opportunity cost losses I incurred because of that, I’m simply billing for the cost of hiring me and Taro, vehicle costs, etc. Even that is a heavily discounted price considering the expedition’s purpose of contributing to village reconstruction and our past connection. It’s the first time I’ve personally stepped in to escort someone anyway.”
“……”
“I’ll have my accountant’s documents sent up to your room. Look them over carefully and speak up if you have any objections.”
I was left speechless by Carlisle’s calm and cold reaction. Half the cake was left but my appetite completely disappeared.
“No, but that kind of talk should have been done beforehand before we left…”
“Ah, unfair? Well, what would have changed even if I’d mentioned it beforehand? But if you think that way, you don’t have to pay. Let’s pretend it never happened. But then.”
Carlisle’s mouth corners lifted smugly.
“There’s no next expedition either. I’m a businessman, not a volunteer. Try finding someone else on your own. Muchi or whoever.”
His attitude of having nothing to lose was annoying, but that was reality. I was destroying the precious chocolate cake with my fork due to a surge of anger, but eventually asked again dejectedly.
“When do I have to pay by?”
Thinking about it again, even if I heard a deadline, it was obvious I couldn’t meet it anyway, so without even hearing the answer I hurriedly continued speaking.
“It’s true that this harvest was quite good, but most of it has to be donated to the village and I have to prepare for the next expedition, so I probably can’t repay it right away.”
Carlisle just stared at me silently with his mouth closed, as if telling me to continue.
“But once the quest to collect the Fragments of the Sacred Tree is finished, I’ll be able to revive the farm, so I’ll definitely be able to repay it then. After all, there are only, uh, three Fragments left, right?”
Come to think of it, that was right. And considering it took about a week to get a fragment in this desert expedition, it probably wouldn’t take that long to see the ending. Of course, considering that what took two days in Wanderer’s Plains stretched to a week in the desert, the duration would likely increase in other places.
But even so, since it was a game world, it would be at most ten days, two weeks, or a month at maximum. Then including rest and preparation periods in between, it would definitely end within 3 months, or 6 months at the longest.
My heart was pounding somehow. Thinking about it that way, didn’t that mean there wasn’t much time left until I could return? (I deliberately pushed aside the gloomy prediction that the cost I’d have to pay might easily exceed 10 billion Rual.)
I tried my best to persuade Carlisle with the most serious attitude possible.
“Just cooperate until I collect all the Fragments of the Sacred Tree. As I said before, this isn’t something I’m doing just for my own benefit. It’s good for the village and for you too. Once I collect all the fragments, I don’t want anything. I’ll revive the farm and hand it all over. If that’s not enough, anything else—if there’s something you want, I’ll hand over everything I can give.”
Since I was planning to delete this game and never look back once I returned to reality anyway, there was nothing to regret. Honestly, in a farm management game, if the player hands over their farm, doesn’t that mean handing over everything? In reality, my farm had great value in this game world’s economy. The villagers’ food shortage started when my farm failed, didn’t it?
The only problem was that Carlisle was born with a diamond spoon, had his own farm that was small but the only one that survived in the village, and the Lightinger family’s main business wasn’t agriculture to begin with. Of course, with the world in this state, trade and such would have collapsed, but he had massive assets already accumulated plus he was thriving in the hunter business, so he might not be very interested in my farm.
Setting everything else aside, due to Carlisle’s twisted personality, he had never once given me a good answer willingly since we met. Naturally expecting an answer like “I have no interest in your ruined farm,” I worked hard thinking about how to persuade him.
Even if he wasn’t interested in farm management, wouldn’t he be interested in developing it to sell? Once all the Fragments of the Sacred Tree were collected and contamination was resolved, the hunter business would decline and my farm’s value would rise again. Even if contamination disappeared, the long-lasting food shortage wouldn’t be resolved overnight, so as long as he wasn’t being spiteful for no reason, the profits obtainable from the farm wouldn’t be small.
“Fine.”
“No, don’t reject it outright like that, think about it a bit… Huh, what did you just say?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
