(Risking My Life) Proposing to Miss Hazel - Chapter 8

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 8

When I came out onto the street wearing new clothes, everyone was gossiping about Felix’s mushroom story.

However, no one offered to help find an antidote. Everyone just seemed happy that Felix was regaining consciousness, even if intermittently.

Before going to the general store, I stopped by the town hall. It was to pay this month’s taxes.

“Ahem, hmm.”

Axel glared at me with displeasure the entire time he calculated the taxes.

Axel’s friends, who had been hit by Baron’s stones yesterday, stood beside him with their foreheads swollen.

All three of them looked equally grumpy. Their scrunched-up faces were quite a sight to behold.

“Thirty silver coins for Felix and me, right?”

“…Yeah.”

I handed over the money with an innocent face, pretending to know nothing about last night’s events.

If I had been robbed by them and couldn’t pay taxes, something unimaginable would have happened.

The thought made the back of my neck feel cold.

Axel kept glaring at me until the moment I turned my back, then called out to me just as I grabbed the door handle.

“Miss Hazel.”

“…Yes?”

Why are you calling me so menacingly?

I turned around nervously, but Axel’s face was much gentler than before. He even seemed somewhat deflated.

He hesitated with his words, then let out a rough sigh.

“Never mind, go on.”

“Yes.”

No take-backs. Final.

“Think carefully about that proposal.”

“…Yes.”

Before Axel could grab me, I quickly squeezed my body through the door gap. The silver coin pouch inside my skirt jingled and bumped against my thigh.

To think there would be a day when I’d have money left after paying taxes. The whole world looked beautiful.

***

When I arrived at the store, Felix was sitting quietly at the counter reading a newspaper.

Really. I’ve seen him cover his face with a newspaper while sleeping, but this is the first time I’ve seen him actually reading one. The mushroom’s effects are beyond expectations.

I couldn’t believe this sight and rubbed my eyes.

Felix kept his eyes fixed on the newspaper and greeted me with a perfectly sober voice.

“Hazel, you’re here?”

“Felix… what are you doing?”

“Can’t you tell? Reading the newspaper.”

“You can read?”

“…?”

“…”

Felix glared at me with fierce eyes. Even when he looks like that, he’s not scary at all.

“You have a tendency to underestimate your only brother’s intelligence too much. Your intelligence and mine probably aren’t that different.”

“Felix, why are you speaking so well today?”

Felix let out a deflated laugh. I’m the one who’s confused, but he seems even more bewildered.

“Hey, I was smart during my school days. I was first in our grade.”

“There were only two people in your grade including you.”

“Still, first place is first place.”

He boasted and then buried his face back in the newspaper. He’s even taking notes with a pen.

“Is there any interesting content?”

“Always similar stuff.”

His response sounded like he read the newspaper every day, which was unsettling. Moreover, Felix’s speech was too clear and his eyes too sharp for someone caught in hallucinations.

I moved closer to examine Felix’s condition.

Thinking I was curious about the newspaper content, he rattled off information I didn’t even ask for.

“The 1st Prince has recaptured the capital again. The 4th Prince is on the run.”

“…I see.”

A listless response came out naturally.

It couldn’t be helped since the Abraksia Empire’s civil war has been following similar patterns for 15 years.

Fifteen years ago, the Emperor of Abraksia died without naming a successor.

The problem was that he had thirteen sons from three empresses.

One week after the emperor’s death.

Of the thirteen princes, only three survived.

The 1st Prince, 4th Prince, and 13th Prince.

However, only the 13th Prince’s body was never found, but he’s practically dead. His whereabouts have been unknown for 15 years.

Anyway, the forces of the 1st and 4th Princes are so evenly matched they could split the empire in half.

So the civil war shows no signs of ending anytime soon.

But no matter how serious the civil war gets, Ruden Village is always peaceful.

Being at the westernmost edge of the empire, deep in the mountains near the Monster’s Domain, it paradoxically became the most peaceful village.

“Are there any other articles?”

“Something about the Black Magic Rebels’ occupied territories changing?”

With the prolonged civil war and the Black Magic Rebels causing trouble, making the empire citizens’ lives even harder, people below the mountain must always live in tension.

As I read the article with a heavy heart, Felix muttered in a listless tone.

“Let them fight hard. The emperor will be the 13th Prince anyway.”

…?

What is he talking about now?

“Felix, what did you say?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You said something about the 13th Prince.”

“You must have misheard.”

“…”

No way. Is nonsense also a side effect of the mushroom?

“By the way, what’s wrong with the window? When did it break?”

Felix smoothly changed the subject with his characteristic silver tongue.

Now in trouble, I rolled my eyes and barely found an excuse.

“I-it happened while cleaning.”

“Hazel, when you lie, it’s obvious…”

“Wow, Felix, did you do all this by yourself?”

Pretending not to hear Felix, I checked the newly displayed bottles of purified water on the shelf.

One, two, three, four…, fifty bottles.

It was truly beyond expectations.

Felix, who came to work early in the morning, had neatly portioned the purified water dilution and even attached labels.

This would have taken at least three hours to do alone. I was amazed by the unexpected results. The mushroom’s effects are remarkable in many ways.

Felix immediately beamed at my praise. His unnecessarily sharp nose shot up to the sky.

“I’m naturally smart and good with my hands.”

“You’ve only used that talent for drinking until now?”

“Talent is most beautiful when it’s wasted.”

After spouting that nonsense refreshingly, Felix quietly got up from his seat.

Reading the ominous signs, my eyes immediately narrowed.

“Are you going to waste your talent now?”

“It’s the opposite.”

“…What?”

“Hazel, just wait a little. Felix will make you rich.”

Felix’s confident smile was ominously unsettling.

For reference, I don’t particularly want to become rich.

I just dream of building and living in a proper two-story house in the middle of the village.

Of course, to achieve that modest dream, I’d need to sell about 30,000 bottles of purified water portions.

I earnestly pleaded to Felix’s suspiciously overconfident face.

“Felix, you don’t need to make money for me, just don’t cause any trouble.”

“No, Hazel. Just trust me.”

“….”

How can I trust Felix?

Despite my worry-filled gaze, Felix rushed out of the shop like the wind.

“I’ll be back!”

“Mm-hmm….”

I anxiously stared at the spot where he disappeared, then absentmindedly picked up the newspaper.

A memo Felix had left in red pen caught my eye.

‘Within a week ~~~ arrives in the west.’

“…?”

What?

A week? West?

What did he write for the ~~~ in the middle? His handwriting is so terrible I can’t make it out.

I pondered over the cryptic memo, then remembered that Felix had eaten poisonous mushrooms and closed the newspaper.

“Felix was always incomprehensible anyway. Let’s not waste energy on weird things.”

When I turned my head, I saw the neatly arranged bottles of purified water.

The display was spotlessly clean without a speck of dust, and the wooden floor was shiny as if it had been waxed.

It seems Felix even did some cleaning while he was at it with eating the poisonous mushrooms.

“What? He’s actually pretty good at this?”

A smile slowly spread across my lips.

Still, today was a fun day thanks to Felix for once.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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