The Peaceful Life Of A Maid Who Hides Her Power And Enjoys It - Chapter 184
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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 184
The strength slowly drained from the sword I was gripping.
Staring into his strangely peaceful eyes, I couldn’t help but ask back.
“Why… do you say such things so casually?”
A curse, and four days’ reprieve.
These eyes belong to someone who will die in four days? It was too cruel to be a joke. What made it even more cruel was that Lu wasn’t the type to enjoy such jokes.
“Don’t you have any attachment to living?”
In the quiet silence, I grasped one answer.
Yes, Lu has no attachments.
The reason is quite simple. He’s already finished everything so no attachments would remain. Perhaps even death is part of his plan. No, death would be the best ending he could face.
Just as I had been in the past.
‘Is this how Raphael and Natasha felt when they looked at me?’
Did I make them feel this kind of emptiness?
“…Who are you to make that understanding face?”
Lu’s rebuke was fierce. As I just pressed my lips shut and glared back, he stared at me as if trying to read my mind, then casually threw out a remark.
“I have attachments.”
“…”
“Are you ignoring me? I said I have attachments. I need to know how on earth you ended up talking about having my child. I never imagined such ridiculous attachments would arise when I’m so close to the summit.”
“…There’s no grand reason. It’s simply because you’re a pervert.”
“That’s exactly why I need to know how the fuck I ended up being called a pervert.”
“Do you believe everything I say?”
“Yeah. You can’t lie.”
I was left speechless by his confident assertion.
But was I unconsciously making a dissatisfied expression? Lu, who had pulled his head back to check my reaction, raised one eyebrow and threatened me.
“Just in case, I’m warning you – don’t think about deceiving anyone anywhere. Against bastards with brains like mine, you’ll obviously get caught. You’re much more careless than you think you are.”
“What’s the point of telling me that now? I’ve already been caught by everyone who was going to catch me.”
“Honestly.”
Lu looked at me with pitying eyes while drawing a terribly beautiful smile.
That smile, which created heavenly harmony while giving off an atmosphere completely opposite to his gloomy impression… was identical without a single deviation to the smile the Lu from 150 years later would show me, and the resentment I’d been holding back suddenly surged up.
“And what’s this about a slave farm! Why do you have to keep suffering and struggling? Are there really no other talents who can lead or take responsibility for this army besides you?”
“Would there be? Even generously assuming there are, they’d be inferior to me. I’m a genius of the century.”
As I sighed and slumped onto the bed, Lu stood on one leg looking down at me for a while, then used his right foot to poke and gather the heads scattered around under the bed.
“The slave farm is… literally a farm. To extract the refined stones buried in the underground mines, you have to inhale hundreds of grams of toxic gas emitted by raw stone byproducts every day. It’s work that only slaves could do.”
After opening the door and rolling out the heads one by one, he let out a self-deprecating snort.
“A livestock that lived trapped in a slave farm rebelled against the royal family that was no different from its master, and eventually trampled them completely. Human affairs are truly unpredictable. Don’t you think?”
Hearing the great Lord Caleph-to-be constantly mention slaves made me feel quite uncomfortable.
“That’s not unpredictable, it’s called karma. They paid the price for trying to confine and use a fierce slave like you.”
“Do you pity me?”
“Then don’t you pity yourself?”
“Yeah. But I pity you more.”
Placing one foot on the head of Ropski Sereniye, stained with blood and dirt, he glanced over my face.
“I just became certain. You shouldn’t have caught my eye.”
Just as I thought what kind of bizarre threat this was, I remembered a sign I had forgotten.
‘That expression.’
Wasn’t that the damn annoying expression the future Lu would make whenever he tormented me? I was certain. If I reacted here, he would obviously think ‘that’s it’ and attack even more persistently.
“Aren’t you going to ask why?”
“…”
“Hmm. Then just answer my question. I have a rough idea of when you and I met. The problem is what comes after that’s confusing.”
He has an idea. I judged it to be ridiculous overconfidence.
“Did we get married?”
I wrinkled my nose and lifted my chin as I asked.
“Curious?”
“Quite.”
At his uniquely serious answer, I also responded seriously.
“If you’re still alive after four days, I’ll tell you.”
His serious expression immediately contorted.
“Are you mocking me now?”
“No. …I just mean I hope Lu will still be alive after four days.”
Feeling dejected, I approached Lu and grasped his hand tightly like wringing out a rag, asking again.
“You will be, right?”
“The other guys are already searching everywhere. All the renowned mages of the Northern Continent, Rogues and whatnot, are being brought in, so don’t worry about it.”
How could I not worry?
I had already witnessed firsthand the power that the future Lu possessed. I had experienced how unnatural and alien the power of a demigod was. It wasn’t magic that a few old, smart mages gathering together could dare to stop.
“…For reference, when I get in this kind of dejected mood, you always used to hold me and pat my back.”
“Ha.”
Lu snorted as if it was absurd, but awkwardly pulled my shoulder into an embrace. Then he patted my back with the clumsy attitude of someone doing it for the first time in his life.
“Idiot, I didn’t say embrace, I said hold me. Or don’t you know what ‘hold me’ means?”
After a brief silence.
Lu grabbed my waist and lifted me up like pulling out a radish, then held me with one arm supporting my bottom. When he was teasing me naked, he held me without hesitation, but now acting shy and reserved was utterly ridiculous.
…No.
Actually, it wasn’t ridiculous.
Actually, I was a little happy and very sad.
* * *
How can I prevent Lu’s heart from stopping?
To nullify a demigod’s magic, at least corresponding power is needed. Of course, since Caleph, the caster of the magic, has already left this world, it might be possible to destroy it at an appropriate level.
But if there’s something troubling, it’s that only three days remain of the given time.
Can I really find a solution within three days?
“Screech!”
Just then, the young hawk approached right in front of me and made eye contact. White, who entered the room accordingly, held out what appeared to be a new small leather pad to me.
“Here, this.”
“…What is this?”
“Jesses. Looking at it now, Ash doesn’t have jesses, right? You need this to raise a hawk in the Northern Continent.”
“Jesses?”
“It’s a name tag that goes on the hawk’s leg. If you don’t leave a mark showing it has an owner, someone might steal it. Hawks are valuable.”
I wondered what she was doing sitting at the table all this time – she was making this. I thought she knew unusually much about hawks, but it seems she’s learned many things.
“You can engrave Ash’s name on this.”
“I’m not Ash’s owner. That should wait until Dian wakes up…”
“Dian asked you to do it, didn’t she?”
“Asked me?”
“Yeah. She asked you to write Ash’s name in Imperial script. I don’t know why it has to be Imperial script specifically? Ash is a name with a very wonderful meaning in the Northern Continent. …But you can write Imperial script too?”
Of course I can. I’m from the Empire.
The reason I currently have no difficulty reading and writing Astrosian is presumably because Dian’s soul and my soul are mixed together.
But when the body was mine, I didn’t seem to be affected by language at all. Does it really depend greatly on who the dominant one of the body is?
White, who had been hovering around, cleared her throat loudly and said.
“Ahem. You don’t know what my name White means, do you? It means snow-white hunter. In the Northern Continent, only the finest hawks are given the names White and Ash…!”
White, who had been chattering loudly, suddenly opened her eyes wide. For a brief moment, as if she had spotted something inside the room, she flinched and lowered her voice.
“…are given those names.”
“Really? My name is Ash too.”
“What? Really? Your name is…!”
White, who had stiffened again, now asked back almost in a whisper.
“Ash?”
“Yeah. It means ashes. Does it have a different meaning in Astrosia?”
“No, it’s the same. In the Northern Continent, snow-white hawks and ash-gray hawks are considered the finest breeds. But is your name really Gray Hawk, Ash? Ugh, it’s creepily fitting. Gray hawks usually have nasty temperaments too…”
Her black eyes glanced toward the bed every three seconds. I looked at White while gesturing with my chin toward the figure openly positioned on that bed.
“Why do you keep watching Lu’s reactions? Just speak comfortably.”
She stiffened her shoulders with a start and averted her gaze, rolling only her eyes.
“I-I was speaking comfortably though?”
“No, you weren’t.”
“N-no, I really wasn’t not speaking comfortably though?”
After drawing out her words at length, White backed away and left the room. Of course, it wasn’t like I didn’t know why she was excessively watching Lu’s reactions.
Lu was currently sleeping in my room.
Why was she sleeping in my room of all places?
Well. What was certain was that Lu, who was busy enough that three bodies wouldn’t be sufficient, seemed to have recently taken a liking to monitoring me.
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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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