Chapter 11

TL: pineapples

ED: Sid

***

“Hello, unnis.”

“Yes.”

“The wind’s getting colder. Autumn will be here soon.”

“Yes.”

“……Did you eat?”

“Yes.”

“……I’ll be back after playing.”

“Yes.”

None of the four newly assigned servants looked into my eyes and spoke. They aren’t even soldiers, but their expressions were so stark when giving out short answers. Those unnis weren’t just like that to me. I spied on four of them together one day, and they didn’t say a word to each other.

It creeped me out that they were sitting stiffly and staring into space like machines. I wanted to show off my pronunciation and have an intelligent conversation with them, but I could never start a conversation with these unnis.

I grabbed onto my nanny’s hand.

“Don’t you think the girls are weird?”

“What?”

“They are like dolls. They have no expressions and don’t talk at all.”

“It’s because they have been educated to be like that since they were young.”

Why are they getting that kind of education?

I didn’t understand at all, but Seoyoung answered it for me..

There was also another strange thing.

Isn’t the daughter of the sect leader not allowed to use honorifics?

‘Don’t be respectful to your inferiors, Young Miss.’

Such words should have been said at least once, but no one said such things.

Do the magyo have unexpected respect for their seniors? Weird, it didn’t seem like that.

I clasped Seoyoung’s hand and circled the maze of corridors.

I wasn’t familiar with the new palace I had moved into and the corridors were so busy that it was hard for me to explore alone.

After taking a long time to find and enter the garden, Seoyoung let go of my hand and said

“Young Miss, stay here for a minute.”

“Are you going to make another flower crown? I have 158 flower crowns which were made by you alone. We will run out flowers if you keep that up.”

“Well, then, I’ll just… I’ll be right over there.”

“I’ll come with you”

“You can’t!”

Suddenly Seoyoung burst into a roar. When I looked at her with my eyes wide open, Seoyoung hurriedly avoided my eyes.

“Well… you could fall while following me, so… stay here.”

“…okay.”

Seoyoung quickly left as if she had been waiting for me to answer. I stared at her and opened my eyes wide at a thought that flashed upon me.

Oh! Is she going to meet her boyfriend?

Seoyoung is 20 years old. Isn’t it high time for her to be in a relationship?

No wonder she was so flustered when I said I was going to follow her.

You probably didn’t have time since you were taking care of me, but fortunately you met someone. Nanny, I commend you.

I giggled while making a bouquet. I should congratulate her when she comes back and give her this.

It was then.

“Hmm, hmm!”

Suddenly, I heard a cough coming from behind my back. When I looked back, there was an old man standing there. The old man’s face looked like someone had sprinkled red paint on it.

“Who are you?”

“Just an old man passing by.”

“…? Then good-bye.”

“Who said I was leaving now?!”

“Oh, I see.”

I scratched my cheek, ignored the old man. and focused my attention on making the bouquet.

Grandfather seemed a little embarrassed. He hesitated for a moment and spoke again.

“Well… can you take this?”

He took out something. It was a red orb that was a bit bigger than my thumb. What is this?

“What is this?”

“Don’t you see? It’s an orb.”

“Why are you giving me this?”

“It was in front of me, so I picked it up. If you don’t like it, throw it away.”

The old man answered curtly. I held out my hands as I stared at him blankly.

“… Thank you.”

“Hmph! Since there’s a safety mechanism built inside, it’ll be okay to mess with it.But it’s better to leave it alone.”

“I thought you just picked it up from the ground. Do you know what this is?”

“… I just know! Does it have to be mine for me to know what it does?”

“Well not necessarily…”

Since I sounded a little scared when I answered, the old man hesitated. Blinking rapidly, he looked embarrassed. He was an emotional old man.

“Uh, you know, if you see an annoying guy, try throwing it at him.”

“What happens then?”

“It will explode.”

“What???”

“It’s going to explode, boom! It’ll be hard to even find a trace. Nothing comes close to this when it comes to destroying evidence.”

….are you kidding me?

Dazed, I held out the bouquet of flowers. I received something, so I’ll return him the favor.

“…are you giving me this? Hmph! How will I use this?”

The old man, unlike his words, received the flowers carefully and looked at them for a long time. The red petals matched his face pretty nicely.

“It looks good on you.”

Grandfather’s red face turned black

“S..so what? Do you think I’ll give you more stuff?”

“What? No, I didn’t say that because I wanted something…”

As I waved my hands at his misunderstanding, the old man took something out of his pocket and pushed it onto me.

“That’s enough flattery! Just take this.”

“… what is this now?”

“Why do you keep asking the same things? It’s an orb!”

So why do you keep giving me orbs? I’m not interested. And didn’t you say you picked it up on the way here? Afraid of the old man’s anger, I gently took the orb.

“By the way, you’re a good talker. For a three-year old.”

I can’t believe I’m finally getting the compliment that I wanted to hear. I grinned broadly.

“Hehe, thank you.”

“By the way, your body…”

Grandfather suddenly stopped talking and frowned.

“No, how long have I been talking…”

He was muttering to himself. But then he turned around while drooling.

“Go in before it gets dark. The wind is cold.”

Shaking off my hands, I turned to the old man and bowed deeply.

“Good-bye, grandfather.”

“Alright.”

The old man had disappeared in the short time that I had bowed and raised my head.

If one looked at the orbs, it was clear that they weren’t cursed. Was he a so-called martial arts master that I’ve only heard of in legends? Anyway, it was clear that he didn’t know who I was. If he knew who I was, he wouldn’t have spoken to me so informally.

“… wait, how did he know I was three years old.”

At that moment Seoyoung had returned, so my thoughts were interrupted. She looked at my hand and jumped.

“That is a Red Fire Orb? Young Miss! Put that down carefully! Don’t drop it! Slowly, slowly put it down!”

“Huh? But the old man said it was fine to mess around with it.”

“A.. an old man?”

“Yes, the old man gave me this. His face was super red. Nanny, do you know who he is?”

“Hmm, I doubt it… I don’t really…”

His face was seriously red. The next time I meet him, I must show him to Seoyoung. Seoyoung hesitated, with a concerned look like she wanted to say something, but she took my hand.

“It’s time for you to eat, lady. Would you like to go in now?”

I’m not hungry. Strangely, I didn’t feel much hunger these days.

But I calmly returned to the palace with Seoyoung. Even when it grew dark, Seoyoung was anxious.

It was the next day.

“… who are you?”

“Just an old man passing by.”

This time, an old man with a dark blue face appeared.

————————————————————————————–

The Poison King, who had gone to see the child, returned with a strut.

“No, how long did I stay with the Young Miss that you had to call me back.”

“You did the same thing to me last time.”

“…”

Did he do that?

Keeping his mouth closed with an ashamed look, the Poison King stayed silent.

“Whatever. Show me that. What did you receive?”

A bright smile spread over the Poison King’s face. He opened his hand proudly.

“This.”

His index finger was fitted with a poorly made flower ring.

The other king opened his mouth wide as if he was shocked. TL: this king is the red-faced king from yesterday.

“Oh, not like this! For me, it was just a bouquet of flowers!”

“Giving her a couple pieces of useless Red Fire Orbs was a good trade for that flower bouquet. You need to stop being greedy.”

“That’s weird. Your disciples were the same. The child doesn’t like disgusting things. But how is it possible that she liked the godok as a present?”

Godok was a type of parasite.

If one’s blood was fed to the godok and then was forcibly fed to another person, that person would become a slave.

But it didn’t look pretty because it looked just like a leech.

Of course he thought the child would hate it, but somehow he managed to get a flower ring!

The Poison King stuck out his tongue mockingly.

“Of course I didn’t say it was a bug! Since I had put it in a small gourd bottle the size of my finger, how would she know what’s inside? I just told her to feed it to a person that needed to be enslaved.”

“Oh ho, good job.”

Other elders praised the Poison King’s trick.

Maybe it was because the Poison King had eaten a lot of wild animals since he was young, he was smarter.

“By the way, you didn’t get caught, did you? Did you pretend you didn’t know her?”