CHAPTER 12

  [Scylla, Lowly Peasant Half-breed, Maid]

  [Demon Territory, De Gracia—Guest Mansion]

  The dog before me was shivering.

  Its little legs were close together as water dripped from its chin. The water splashed around as it tried to escape someone’s hands, but the hands were fast enough to catch it mid-jump. It tried to escape again by wiggling its soapy body and whining.

  After a while of the hands managing the dog and its need to break free, the dog ultimately succumbed to the hands holding it, thinking it wouldn’t be able to get away from it.

  “Sneaky one.”

  The young lord Deilos laughed.

  He had been taking care of the dog he bought yesterday and was having fun washing it.

  The dog’s expression was that of compliance as the young lord scrubbed its body with soap meant to be used by nobles like him. While most nobles would find this act rather blasphemous, that their commodities are being tainted by such a mutt, the young lord doesn’t seem to mind it.

  “Scylla, grab me the towel.”

  As the young lord commanded, I gave him the towel and wrapped it around the wet dog, who shook its body, splashing water on me and the young lord.

  “Kuh. This little bastard.”

  He lightly squeezed the dog’s head.

  Although the dog had been quite rebellious, when the young lord punishes it, he does not do it in any overt way. He doesn’t scream at the dog, and all of his supposed punishments were only light taps, squeezes, and playing with the dog’s ears.

  “Shouldn’t the young lord be a bit more forceful when disciplining the dog? This one thinks that he should be a bit stricter.”

  I spoke.

  “These are enough. I don’t know the dog yet, and neither does the dog to me. So I’m still trying to gain its trust.”

  Trust......

  To think that he should build trust with a mere animal in trying to domesticate it is rather surprising.

  “Does the dog know trust, young lord?”

  “Of course it does.”

  As he scrubbed the dog, the dog didn’t retaliate and only let him dry it off. Yet, when the young lord was done drying it off, the dog darted off and exited the bathroom, running into the bedroom.

  “Ah...... and there it goes.”

  “This one thinks that the young lord should try to discipline it better.”

  “I am disciplining it.”

  The young lord whistled, and the dog stopped what it was doing. Its tail wagged uncertainly, and it took glances at the young lord.

  “See? It learned that yesterday while playing with me.” He made a ‘hup’ sound and stood up. “Well, how about we change? The mischievous dog had gotten a lot of hair and water on me.”

  “Young lord, please have some decency.”

  “Hmm?”

  The young lord had already taken off his shirt.

  “This one—never mind.”

  As I tried to avoid looking at the young lord’s body, he nonchalantly put on a shirt while trying to keep the dog from jumping into the dresser. I stood in the middle of the room uncomfortably.

  Some people say that repetition can make a person get used to a particular thing, be it work, a hobby, or their daily routine of sleeping in the morning and waking up at night.

  Even though it would seem like the Young Lord Deilos at first was just careless about him taking off his shirt, it seems like he’s enjoying the thrill of being seen. This isn’t my first, not even second, but a third time seeing his body. If there’s a conclusion that anyone would come up with, then it is a perversion. He’s someone who is used to this. Therefore, my earlier comment on him being such a person was an accurate assumption.

  To think a noble is a pervert. How surprising!

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  Either way, I’m going to look after him for some time. I have no place to complain.

  Once the young lord had finished dressing, he asked me to go out with him again. While the young lord wore clothes that closely resembled a low-ranking noble yesterday, he was now wearing something more akin to his title.

  When he opened the door, a knight standing outside the door was waiting for him.

  “Seekth.”

  The young lord talked to the knight who stood in the corner.

  “Young lord, I’ve heard that you went out to the city without my knowledge.”

  “Hmmmm? What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”

  “Please take this seriously, young lord. This goes beyond what you’d normally expect. If you had gone with other knights, then I wouldn’t be this concerned. But that wasn’t the case. I feared for the young lord’s safety when I learned he’d gone alone with only a maid.”

  The young lord only shrugged.

  “I’m fine, see? There’s no need to worry.”

  “The young lord should think about his safety.” The knight sighed lightly. “From the young lord’s attire. I suspect he’s going somewhere again?”

  “To check the markets. There’s a festival coming when the Eve of Walpurgis comes up, correct? I’d like to explore it a bit. It’s my first time seeing it, after all.”

  “If the young lord wishes, but this time I will be going with him.”

  “Of course.”

  The young lord smirked.

  When we walked through the mansion, the servants and maids, as well as other nobles that we passed by, greeted the young lord. The dog followed us around meekly as if being shown the opulence of the mansion terrified it. The young lord picked it up, trying to comfort its nerves.

  We strolled through the city where the shop vendors were making stalls for the upcoming event.

  The city of De Gracia is the center of trade between the Eastern and Western factions of the demon territory. That’s the reason the city is filled with markets that even extend to the slums. It is a favorable place to set up a business because of its geographic advantage, and by extension of that serene market economy, the city is also filled by nobles and merchants, making it more self-sustaining despite it being a border city and not a capital.

  There are various shops, ones that make bread, tailoring, and even bars, each with a distinct product from the others. As we went past them, the young lord conversed with the people who would ask him if he wanted to try what they were selling.

  “Young sir, would you like to have a taste of our fruit?”

  “It tastes sweet.”

  “Sir, kindly feel our silk.”

  “Ah, such softness.”

  “Meat here! Top-notch, exotic wild boar!”

  “Aha...... I think I’ll pass.”

  Most of the vendors were quite friendly when they saw the young lord.

  Not all were treated the way he did, though. Looking back here and there, I could see some of them frown at the fact that the young lord didn’t purchase anything and would reluctantly try to be kind to the commoner who would purchase something.

  Well, considering that he’s wearing noble clothes and is being escorted by a knight and a maid, it is reasonable for them to keep up a face of kindness.

  Business is business at the end of it all.

  It took half the day before we could finish going around the markets. My feet were getting tired.

  “That’s most of them, yeah?”

  The young lord stretched his arm. The dog followed him closely.

  “I believe, young lord,” I replied. “Does the young lord still have some place to go to?”

  “Don’t know. There isn’t much here.”

  As the young lord was talking, he stopped when he saw another shop. I looked at where his eyes were fixed. There were two people there, one a delivery man and another a merchant. The merchant was shouting something to the delivery man that wasn’t audible from our current distance away from them. The delivery man only timidly replied to him, nodding his head every so often.

  Once it was nearing a physical confrontation where the merchant actioned a physical threat to the delivery man, the young lord had stepped in.

  “What seems to be the problem here? Let’s not get physical now. Shall we?”

  The merchant stopped his swinging action at the delivery man when he saw the young lord’s soft smile.

  “Tsk. This isn’t your business.”

  The merchant sneered.

  “Hah. This motherfucker was putting my products into a sham. Who wouldn’t want to hit some piece of shit like that? Not only did the payment fucking increase, but my products are also delayed.”

  “As I’ve said, the local storages were already full, and the coaches couldn’t bring anything in because several nobles had already made a big deal with them. About a third of the coaches were bought out. Your delivery is delayed, and so is everyone else’s.”

  The delivery man said worriedly.

  Coaches being bought out? Though using multiple coaches is common if there are going to be a lot of products being transported, having to buy a third of the current coaches is rather ridiculous. If we were to look at how many coaches are currently in De Gracia, there may be around 500 on average, and another 200 for the coaches that are either only here temporarily or because of the festival.

  Having bought out around 100-300 carriages.

  That’s rather unusual.

  “What do you mean by that?” The young lord asked. “You’re saying that there’s a sudden absence of coaches? Wouldn’t the market be affected by that?”

  “That wouldn’t be a problem. The goods in the city are enough to sustain it even with the festival happening. It’s just that there wouldn’t be one going in and out for a while.”

  “Hmm......”

  As the young lord and the delivery man discussed, the merchant groaned in dissatisfaction. He demanded his money, and the delivery man could only bow and apologize. We left shortly after. The young lord didn’t pester them anymore because of the merchant’s temper. The young lord went silent for a while. He didn’t make jokes, nor did he even regard me and the knight as we walked silently back to the guest mansion.

  To think he can be silent. It makes you wonder what’s on his mind.

  . . .

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