One Day, a Villain Fell into My Wardrobe – Chapter 64

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64

“Ji-ho!”

Eventually, Set ran towards Yeon Ji-ho from afar. At the same time, Yeon Ji-ho dropped the cheese he was holding into the army stew pot.

Only when the intense smell of cheese disappeared, mixing with the army stew smell, did he feel like he could survive. Yeon Ji-ho frowned and muttered.

“…Has the cheese gone bad?”

“Ji-ho. Ji-ho, what’s wrong? Why did you cover your mouth just now? Are you feeling unwell?”

Set, who approached in the blink of an eye, instantly wrapped his arms around Yeon Ji-ho’s waist and shoulders. However, Yeon Ji-ho, who had returned to normal as soon as the cheese smell disappeared, was only puzzled.

“No, it’s not that, the cheese smell just felt unusually pungent today…”

Muttering, Yeon Ji-ho picked up the transparent cheese wrapper he had just opened, just in case. It was to check the expiration date written on it. But of course, the cheese they had bought recently for coming here still had plenty of time before its expiration date.

“Has it gone bad?”

“Ah, no… Since Mr. Apophis put a spell on the refrigerator and it’s working well, there’s no way this could have gone bad.”

“Then why did you react like that just now?”

“I’m not sure… I usually like cheese.”

As Yeon Ji-ho had never been a picky eater since childhood, this was the first time he had nearly gagged at the smell of food. However, if he was asked to smell the cheese again right now, he would decline.

“I’m fine now. I think I just felt a bit unwell for a moment.”

At those words, Set’s face hardened. He took the ladle from Yeon Ji-ho’s hand and said:

“I’ll do this from now on.”

With a resolute expression, Set lifted the ladle and slowly stirred the pot. Suddenly left with nothing to do, Yeon Ji-ho instead took out the disposable bowls he had brought.

“Shall we try eating now?”

As Yeon Ji-ho took out bowls and handed them to Set, he began ladling out one portion at a time. With each scoop of the ladle, large pieces of ham and generous amounts of noodles fell into the bowls.

Yeon Ji-ho told people as he distributed the bowls that they could come back for more if they wanted. The small folk would glance at Set with lukewarm expressions and then only thank Yeon Ji-ho beside him.

“Mr. Chronos!”

Then it was Chronos’s turn. Like the others, Chronos had been standing in line, and as soon as he came in front of Yeon Ji-ho and Set, he greeted them with his eyes.

“Mr. Set, please give me a little more ham here.”

“Hohoho, I’m fine. Please leave it for your portions.”

“But still…”

Thanks to the high-grade potion, Chronos looked much better than when they first saw him, but the image of his miserable state was still vivid in Yeon Ji-ho’s mind. Yeon Ji-ho, who became even kinder to patients, subtly urged to give more, and Set quietly increased the amount.

Meanwhile, Chronos looked around quickly and spoke.

“…The villagers are still very afraid of Your Excellency, aren’t they?”

Ah, so that’s why.

Yeon Ji-ho finally realized why the villagers made lukewarm expressions when they saw Set holding the ladle. And why they only thanked him.

Chronos explained the situation to Yeon Ji-ho instead of Set. As if he had already noticed that Set, who doesn’t make excuses about his own affairs, wouldn’t say anything.

“Our Village of Time is quite sensitive to rumors because we move around so often. …We’ve heard countless times not to meet the ‘demon of the century’. I was even driven out of the village the day after I became one of Gorgon’s beasts.”

Chronos had joined the Gorgon Knights long before Set was born. But even then, the Gorgon Knights were only infamous, with no honor as knights at all.

Chronos recalled the past with nostalgic eyes, as if reminiscing about long-ago events. Being a beast of Gorgon had always meant receiving criticism from everyone.

“That will change after today.”

“…Change?”

“Because if Your Excellency and Mr. Ji-ho hadn’t shown kindness today, the children and the elderly would have gradually succumbed to hunger.”

With those final words, Chronos left with his bowl to eat. He seemed to be eating alone, leaning against a corner of a tree.

Yeon Ji-ho decided to put in a bit more effort, thinking that this incident might help clear Set’s bad name a little. As the distribution of food to the small folk was coming to an end:

“Your Excellency, Mr. Ji-ho! Haven’t you eaten yet?”

“…Let’s eat together…”

Shango and Apophis approached. Apophis, saying he couldn’t comfortably receive food served by His Excellency, took the ladle from Set and portioned out his own share, but he was quite greedy. All the remaining ham that hadn’t been scooped up ended up floating in his bowl.

In addition, Shango tried to take the whole pot but was stopped by Set. Left with no choice, he trudged away with a bowl as big as his palm.

Set even carried Yeon Ji-ho’s plate as he walked. The destination was in front of the tree where Chronos was sitting alone.

“Sir Chronos, did you finish eating already?!”

“Haha, I was too hungry to wait!”

“I told you I’d wait a little and we could eat together!”

Chronos patted Apophis’s shoulder, laughing heartily at his complaint. The beasts of Gorgon took their places around Chronos, who had seemed to be alone.

Yeon Ji-ho, following behind, also took a seat next to Set. Although it was far from the villagers, it wasn’t bad. Because everyone was together.

“Ji-ho, here’s your spoon.”

“Thank you.”

“Be careful, it’s still hot.”

With Set’s kind caution, Yeon Ji-ho looked around with the spoon in his mouth.

Apophis, Shango, Chronos, and Set.

Every day as their number increased by one, instead of feeling burdened, he felt only pride. Yeon Ji-ho thought that if he ever returned to his world with everyone, he would continue to look after them to help them settle, even if he couldn’t be of much help.

After everyone took a big spoonful of army stew and praised Yeon Ji-ho for how delicious it was, he finally prepared to eat. And just as he scooped up a spoonful full of ham and glass noodles and put it in his mouth…

“Urgh!”

The army stew, half-swallowed, was spattered on the ground. A startled Yeon Ji-ho covered his mouth with his hand.

The army stew, which he usually loved so much that he could easily finish a bowl of rice, was nauseating. There was no reason for it to taste different from usual since he had made it himself, and there couldn’t be anything wrong with the food since everyone except him was eating it well…

“…Ji-ho.”

But Set was even more surprised than Yeon Ji-ho. When Yeon Ji-ho couldn’t eat the food and spat it out, he immediately stopped eating and approached him. Set’s expression was very grim.

“S-Set. This, I mean…”

“This won’t do, Ji-ho.”

Set, who had declared this, finally stood up abruptly. At the same time, he was cradling Yeon Ji-ho’s legs and back.

Suddenly finding himself in Set’s arms, a surprised Yeon Ji-ho looked up to see the three seated people waving their hands. All three were gesturing for Yeon Ji-ho to rest a bit.

“I, I’m really fine…”

“You’re sick. You must be sick. Ji-ho, don’t cook for a while.”

“What?! No!”

A surprised Yeon Ji-ho vehemently refused. However, all Yeon Ji-ho could see was Set’s frozen gaze.

“Didn’t you gag while cooking today too? You’ve been pushing yourself without realizing it. It’s no wonder, since you’ve been running non-stop since we moved dimensions.”

“But, still. Cooking is the only thing I know how to do…”

“Who said that?”

Set stopped in his tracks. Then he looked at Yeon Ji-ho in his arms with cold, sunken eyes.

“Who spouted such nonsense to you?”

“Ah, no… It’s not like that, but everyone moves busily when we travel. I’m the only one resting.”

Shango drives the horses, Apophis finds the way. Isquis, who was with them before, was in charge of perimeter security, so Chronos would surely find something to do on his own if he joined. And Set oversaw all of this.

Watching them move as one body, Yeon Ji-ho felt distressed that cooking was the only thing he knew how to do. It would have been nice if he had a special ability like the protagonists in novels often did, but sadly, he had nothing of the sort.

That’s why he kept obsessing over cooking. To appear as someone who wouldn’t be embarrassing to be beside Set in front of the beasts of Gorgon.

“Ji-ho.”

“…Yes?”

“Yeon Ji-ho.”

This might be the first time Set had called him “Yeon Ji-ho,” including his surname. However, Set’s voice was colder than the north wind, to the extent that he dared not point it out.

“You seem to be under a misunderstanding.”

“…”

“I am not someone who gives you orders.”

With those words, Set stepped onto the makeshift stairs of the caravan. With a clunk, Set entered and approached the bed with neither fast nor slow steps, gently setting Yeon Ji-ho down.

At the same time, Set took a step back from Yeon Ji-ho. His odd eye was piercingly cold. As Yeon Ji-ho struggled to find words, opening and closing his mouth, Set spoke:

“But sometimes you see me as ‘Duke Your Excellency’ or one of ‘Gorgon’s beasts’.”

“Mr. Set, that’s…”

“Is it because to you, I’m just a ‘character from a novel’?”

Yeon Ji-ho’s heart crumbled with a thud as he heard those words. Sometimes, the feeling of liking someone is acutely realized only after something upsetting happens.