“Why are you asking such a question?”
Gapa, who had been watching the craftsmen grinding stones with a displeased expression, looked at me with a puzzled face. I tried to imitate his expression.
“You’re always working with that kind of face. At this rate, even good fortune that was coming your way would run away.”
Gapa turned his gaze away from me and spoke as if it was nothing important.
“I wasn’t born with good fortune to begin with, so there’s no fortune to run away either.”
Gapa’s face turned cold again.
He was always far away so he seemed like an older man, but seeing him up close, he looked younger than I thought. He looked to be in his mid-twenties at most, so what kind of story did he have to always look so gloomy?
“Gapa, how old are you?”
Gapa’s eyes widened as he looked at me.
“Why are you asking that?”
“Just curious.”
Gapa blinked as if he couldn’t understand my intention, then answered belatedly.
“Twenty-four years old.”
As expected. I was thinking to myself that my guess was right when Gapa shrugged his shoulders.
“Daniel-nim, is it alright for you to be here like this?”
It seemed like he was indirectly asking me to leave because I was making him uncomfortable. Even though I understood what he meant, I brazenly stayed in my spot.
It was because of a separate order that suspicious William had given me.
‘What do you think about Dani? Gapa seems a bit suspicious…’
‘He’s cold and blunt, but he works hard. It’s a bit ambiguous.’
‘The lopeia crafting is the most important work. If this fails, I’ll have to marry Ellawud immediately…’
The words “Then you should just get married” rose to the tip of my tongue, but I held back. First, we needed to succeed in mass-producing lopeia to be able to help the poor imperial citizens.
‘So, I want you to go and find out if he has any ulterior motives. I really don’t like him. I don’t want to be away from you, but since no one else can do this job, I’ll endure it.’
Since I had conspired with William like that, today I had to get some words out of Gapa, whatever they might be.
I smiled innocently at Gapa and said,
“I’m from a lower-class omega background. So I didn’t even know there was a gemstone called lopeia. No, actually I had seen gems that looked like this in the Imperial Palace, but I didn’t know that gem was called lopeia.”
Was it my imagination? Gapa’s rigid expression softened gently. I couldn’t tell which of my words had caused his expression to relax.
“…If you were a lower-class omega, it must have been difficult.”
Hearing his response, I got a sense of why he had become more favorable. In that case, I should take advantage of it!
“Oh my, I couldn’t even eat one meal a day, and I had no clothes, so I was always sick.”
Gapa looked at me intently with his lips pressed tightly together. It was a look of pity for me. I thought that if I pushed just a little more here, I might be able to ask what he was dissatisfied about, so I deliberately spoke as if testing him.
“Gapa, you probably don’t know well since you’re from a commoner background, right?”
“Though I’m from a commoner background, I grew up in an orphanage.”
Even if he was from a commoner background, if he grew up without parents, he probably didn’t live a life much different from that of a lower-class omega. I felt sorry for touching on someone else’s pain for the sake of something important to me.
“I brought up something unnecessary. I’m sorry.”
Gapa still looked at me with pity and shook his head.
“It’s fine. But you’re impressive. It couldn’t have been easy for a lower-class omega to become a concubine.”
Seeing him, who seemed to have no interest in others, speak about me first, it looked like things would be resolved without much difficulty.
“Of course. It wasn’t easy.”
Gapa nodded at me and then turned his gaze back to the craftsmen. An awkward silence followed. We needed to become closer for me to ask various things, but he was really a difficult type to get close to.
I looked at Gapa’s profile as he kept his mouth shut, then spoke with difficulty.
“Um, Gapa… I’d like you to answer the question I asked earlier.”
“Which question?”
I stared at Gapa so intently that he would feel burdened. He hesitated and stepped back from me.
“No matter how I look at it, you don’t seem to naturally have a cold or blunt impression. Rather, you have a good impression, but you’re always rigid, so I was worried and curious. Is there a reason your expression is bad? Are you uncomfortable somewhere, or is there something going on…?”
Gapa simply shook his head without saying much. I pondered how I could draw more detailed words from him.
Maybe he’s very shy. If so, should I talk about myself first? Even just before, when I revealed that I was a lower-class omega, he spoke the longest then, didn’t he?
I slowly began to tell my story in order to hear Gapa’s words.
“When I first came here after leaving my hometown, it was good that I didn’t have to starve.”
Gapa made eye contact with me.
“But you know what’s strange? Even though I was always despised and mocked for being an orphan in my hometown, I wondered what was so good about it… I got homesick. Even though the Imperial Palace had much better living conditions and I lived luxuriously from the moment I came here, staying with His Highness the Crown Prince. It’s probably because of memories of the place where I lived with my parents.”
Gapa made a melancholy expression.
“By any chance… don’t you have parents either, Daniel-nim?”
“No. They passed away when I was very young. But since I was an omega, I couldn’t go to an orphanage either… Fortunately, some kind villagers raised me.”
Had the common point of being an orphan moved his heart? The expression with which he looked at me had become even gentler than before.
I didn’t believe in people unconditionally, but I believed that people originally had kind hearts. This was something I had personally felt during my teaching days when I thought children were malicious, but when I grabbed them one by one and talked with them, they turned out to be kind. So instead of thinking Gapa had impure intentions, I thought there was another reason he always showed an attitude that seemed full of dissatisfaction.
“So, by any chance, is Gapa also suffering from homesickness?”
Gapa cast his gaze toward somewhere far away. Following his gaze, there was a window in the wall of the workshop.
Was it homesickness after all?
“It’s not homesickness.”
“Then what is it?”
After a moment, his face when he turned his head showed contemplation. It seemed like he was wondering whether it was okay to tell me. Instead of rushing him, I waited with patience.
Not long after, Gapa opened his mouth.
“The nobles who ruled the territory were only busy filling their own greed. I wasn’t originally from Putdy.”
Although there wasn’t no freedom of movement, it wasn’t easy for commoners to move territories. There were many restrictions for the empire’s territorial people to move and relocate from the territories where they were born and raised. Among them, the biggest restriction was money. Therefore, it would have been even more difficult for an orphan to move territories.
“Did you even move territories?”
“No. The orphanage where I lived was a place directly operated by the lord, where they gave children just enough food not to die and made them work all day long.”
“My goodness… such a thing!”
Gapa smiled bitterly and asked.
“You said you were a lower-class omega, right? Originally omegas can’t enter orphanages, but the lord who was blinded by money even brought young omegas and made them do work that was difficult even for adults. Not only that, but he also committed terrible acts that can’t even be spoken of. To prevent such things, villagers are supposed to raise omegas…”
The corners of Gapa’s eyes were turning red as he spoke. The cold expression had completely disappeared from his face now.
I too felt sad at Gapa’s shocking words.
“Count Waburn Putdy was the one who safely rescued the children from that place and brought them to Putdy.”
“Wow…”
I unconsciously let out an exclamation. At this moment, Count Waburn seemed more impressive than the Emperor.
“So you felt bad about leaving the side of such a person.”
Gapa nodded. The saying that you shouldn’t judge people only by their appearance was exactly right. Contrary to his cold-looking impression, Gapa seemed to be a person with deep affection.
“I tried not to show it, but it seems hiding my feelings wasn’t easy. However, since it’s the Count’s order, I’ll do my best in this work. Then I’ll go back to work now.”
Only then could I understand why Gapa worked so hard despite having a dissatisfied expression.
Gapa tried to leave hastily, perhaps embarrassed after opening up his heart, and I grabbed his wrist.
“Gapa, is crafting lopeia difficult work by any chance?”
Gapa looked at me with a puzzled expression as if asking why I was asking such a question, but soon answered obediently.
“It’s work that requires a lot of hands, but it’s not difficult work. It doesn’t require much strength either, so if you just follow the process, it’s easy enough for a child to do. As you can see, lopeia is a rare gemstone that doesn’t require a refining process.”
“Ah… you don’t need to use fire? No wonder I didn’t see any furnaces.”
“Yes, that’s right. Unlike gold, it doesn’t need refining, and the crafting process just has many steps but isn’t precise. But why do you ask?”
“I want to ask His Highness the Crown Prince. To help the craftsmen here learn lopeia crafting quickly so Gapa can return to Putdy.”
Gapa’s eyes widened.
“Really?”
“Yes! Of course. His Highness the Crown Prince is affectionate and loves the imperial citizens. Since it’s a request from someone who has been of great help, he’ll surely grant it!”
Gapa grasped my hand with both hands and said,
“Please tell him I’ll serve with complete loyalty.”
“Yes! Gapa.”
I went straight to William and told him the story I heard from Gapa. William was angry about the orphanage situation and at the same time cleared his suspicions about Gapa.
Thinking this was the time, I linked arms with William. He looked at me with narrowed eyes as if suspicious.
“Why are you suddenly like this?”
“I have something to tell you.”
“You could just say it. Do you really have to link arms like this?”
William, whose face had turned bright red, said while looking elsewhere. I couldn’t understand why he was being so sensitive about linking arms once when every night we sleep under the same blanket and he even puts his feet on my stomach while sleeping. Even so, William didn’t pull away from the linked arms.
“Do you dislike it?”
“Who said I dislike it! It’s just because you’re doing something you don’t usually do.”
When I tried to unlink the arms I had linked, William put strength in his arm to stop me.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
