TMD - Chapter 60 < Your Own Territory (1) >

Belled listened to my plan carefully. Then, he supplemented a few things in the plan and ordered Ronove to implement it immediately.

After that, he did not forget to 'comfort' me so that I could sleep comfortably.

'...If I fall asleep alone, won't you be lonely?'

I finally asked. Since I had asked while I was half asleep, I seemed to come to my senses only after the question came out of my mouth.

What if he thought it was a strange question?

But Belled answered surprisingly easily.

'I'm lonely.'

I felt strangely happy about that answer, even though I should have felt sorry.

'But it's okay. If I wait, you'll open your eyes soon. Even that excitement is enjoyable.'

My heart pounded as if I was about to wake up at that answer.

'So sleep well.'

If the voice whispering wasn't as gentle as if it was soothing my heart, I might have woken up.

"..."

I slowly opened my eyes. Judging from the unusual brightness outside the window, it was daytime. I remembered him whispering,

“Good night.” and leaving my side. I remembered his side profile that I had seen in my sleepy, blurry vision. Suddenly, I remembered his knightly appearance that I had seen for the first time. The way he looked at others was definitely different from the way Belled looked at me now. 

If I received that gaze again... My heart felt like sinking. 

Even though I had thought he was a kind knight at the time.

“You're tired today, so don’t come out.” 

That was what he had said at dawn. It could be interpreted in two ways. If you come out, you’ll get tired, so don’t come out. Or. If you look tired, don’t come out and rest. 

I was used to interpreting favors as favors if only to avoid disappointment. However, I gradually became accustomed to his favors. It sounded like he was telling me to go to sleep because I looked tired. No matter how much I tried to deny it, I couldn’t. So I closed my eyes in relief.

It would have been nice if I could be satisfied there. But I remembered the thought I had just before falling completely asleep again. 

Then stay with me. 

That’s what I wanted to say. I wanted to demand that he stay by my side as if it was natural for him to be kind to me.

 “...” 

If he were kind to me, if he thought of me, I would be happy. But that wasn’t enough, and I wanted something bigger. 

I tightly shut my lips. I wanted to take out the drink and ask him right away. Pocalor, how much can you ask of someone you love? You can’t ask them to stay with you all day, right? But if you miss him, how do you spend your free time when he’s not around? 

There were so many things I wanted to ask. I, who was thinking like that, suddenly... felt wronged. I wondered if I was the only one who was so desperate.

*** 

Orobas’ monster extermination manual was very simple. To be exact, it wasn’t an external manual, but a manual that was secretly used. The troops for monster extermination were limited to villages that raised a certain amount of taxes within the territory. Other monsters would send small groups of troops to chase them away, depending on the location or importance of the village, or they would often send them to other territories. In any case, if they crossed the territory’s border, wouldn’t they be able to save on unnecessary troops and supplies by making excuses like “they ran away and I couldn’t catch them”? 

...That was Duke Orobas’s idea. He hated losing troops that much. If a knight died, his family had to be compensated, right? If someone who had been in the knighthood for a long time died, they had to be paid even more. He didn’t like that at all. 

“I replaced all the people who carried the carts with trustworthy people.” 

That was until his confidant reported this. Duke Orobas laughed. 

“Good, then it’ll be a little easier to get corpses.” 

He made a gesture. 

“Have you spread the rumor that the number of monsters has increased recently?” 

His confidant bowed his head. 

“Of course. Since the rumor of a state of emergency has spread, there won’t be a big impact even if the number of knights decreases.” 

Usually, a state of emergency declared by a family meant that a situation occurred in which the sacrifice of troops, including knights, was inevitable. Such as a territory war with another territory or when many monsters appear.

At that time, there were naturally many knights dying and many troops being used, so the amount of compensation for each knight could not be small.

Of course, there was some opposition. In particular, those who had knights as family members were very upset. However, the other residents of the same village would stop them.

'The safety of the entire territory is at stake, so compensation is important?'

'The living should live!'

Duke Orobas knew how to use that selfishness very appropriately.

"Then leave the disposal of the bodies to them."

The Duke gestured. The confidant bowed his head.

"We are already handling it as you said."

Duke Orobas nodded lightly.

"Accelerate the supply."

"Yes."

The confidant bowed his head.

***

Change in the purpose of the cart.

The cart, which was originally used to carry the coffins from the mansion and deliver the bodies of knights, was now used to transport the bodies of monsters.

Then what about the bodies of the knights who had to go there?

The monsters would take care of them.

The front-line confidants of Duke Orobas who heard the order nodded as if it was natural.

“We are glad that you are saving us the trouble.”

They had brought the cart to the mansion and were on their way to have a meal.

“So we don’t have to go back and forth twice?”

“Right.”

The confidants’ faces brightened.

“You don’t have to prepare anything separately, you just have to do what you always do, right?”

“Just change the contents.”

The one who answered lightly shrugged.

Of course, they thought that Duke Orobas, as a courtesy to the dead knights, wasted money and manpower carrying the coffin back and forth.

But who would have thought that it would be this helpful?

“No one would open the coffin lid and check the contents.”

Only after they were not the family.

But even then, only after they were told who the owner of the coffin was, did the family come and open it. Some even didn’t dare to check the damaged state and just carried the coffin and held the funeral.

So it meant that if they didn’t tell who the owner of the coffin was, there would be no trouble.

“But what if we get caught by those real people?”

The real people they were talking about were, absurdly, families who were saying, “We have to check the coffin to see if our child is there.”

“Then we should be thankful that we are buried in a place of honor. We can’t enter the mansion at a time like this.”

One shrugged.

“If you were to choose between being buried on the street without a proper funeral or being proudly buried next to the lord’s mansion, they would all say the latter.”

Many people in the world clung to the idea that even the dead had honor.

“That’s true.”

The one receiving the words nodded as if he understood.

“Anyway, if they are buried underground, that’s the same thing. You’ve been to empty coffins before, haven’t you?”

They burst into laughter.

“That’s right, they cry a lot even when holding onto empty coffins.”

“The coffin is heavy to begin with. Who would know what’s inside?”

A sigh was heard a little way away from those who were laughing so loudly.

The two people’s conversation stopped for a moment. Their eyes turned in that direction.

“Hey, what’s up?”

The one who sighed was Dustin, one of the cooks of the Orobas family. He looked at him and asked back in surprise.

“Huh?”

The subordinates asked as if they had read his thoughts, “Did you hear that?” 

“Why are you sighing?”

Dustin quickly answered in response to the sharp question.

“My arm hurts a little, haha.”

The subordinates’ sharp gazes were fixed on him as he laughed awkwardly.

“Don’t worry about it and eat.”

Dustin quickly left the place.

Only after he was out of their sight did he let out a deep sigh.

“Those guys who aren’t even human.”

The voice was so quiet that even he couldn’t hear it. How could he not be bothered by such open talk?

Dustin didn’t hear the details, but one thing was certain: they seemed to be trying to transport other items in the coffin.

In the meantime, the knights’ bodies... it was obvious what would happen to them.

“Ugh.”

He thought of his son who must have died on the battlefield. His son was also in the coffin brought by those guys.

He personally inspected the coffin and confirmed that it was his son's body, but it was uncertain whether those who brought the coffin with such a mindset would have treated the body properly.

“...”

Yes, how could my son have come back?

Having lost his family one by one in battles with monsters and being left alone, he had nowhere to go even if he left this mansion.

A cook is a job that involves hearing all sorts of stories. So he should know how to ignore them.

A few hours after thinking that.

“Seal it in a coffin.”

Dustin heard a secret voice from the storage room at the back of the mansion where he brought in cooking ingredients.

Was this the voice of the head of the household?

Dustin, who was about to leave the storage room, stopped in his tracks at the voice of the Duke of Orobas.

“It’ll become poisonous the faster it’s exposed to the air.”

What makes it poisonous? Dustin frowned.

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