Chapter 67: Beautiful

Chapter 67: Beautiful

Seeing Edward's display, I couldn't help but chastise him.

"If it wasn't for Nathan holding you back, how bad would the problem have become? You may have even become a mass murderer."

Like how you were in the actual story.

Edward smiled bitterly and gave a bow to me.

"I understand. I will try to keep things within acceptable bounds."

Jess pointed at him with curiosity.

"Is he the manufacturer of the specially processed pale meat?"

I gave a quick nod.

"Yeah, it looks like he's the only one that can make it in this kingdom."

Jess had a somewhat shocked expression, while Raisa's eyes lit up. She reached out to him.

"Hey, can I-"

"Raisa."

I cut her off. With a soft sigh, I continued.

"You aren't thinking of making a deal with him, are you?"

Raisa's expression froze. It looked like her instinct was just to reach out to every chance there was to be profitable. While she was still silent I continued.

"Just so you know, despite doing all of the important work, this guy only accepts the bare minimum as payment. He isn't like you, seeking every possible chance to increase your wealth further."

Raisa trembled and looked down to avoid looking at anyone.

"I... I'm sorry."

Jess seemed rather surprised that I had said that much, but didn't linger on it.

Two bowls arrived and were placed in front of Nathan and Edward. They began eating without another word. It was fairly peaceful, with only the sounds of clacking cutlery, and soft chewing. Nobody brought up any conversation, but it wasn't as though there always had to be someone talking.

Soon enough, I had finished my meal, though the others were still partway through. While I was contemplating whether or not I was hungry enough to have another bowl, I heard someone call out from behind me.

"Natan, why are you here?"

I turned to look over my shoulder and saw that it was Minori. Unlike usual, her tone was far less aggressive, however, it felt like she was repressing it rather than that anger disappearing.

Nathan's frown deepened while his eyelids fell ever so slightly.

"Why can't I be here?"

Minori's eyebrow twitched when she heard Nathan's response. She bit the bottom of her lip anxiously. If I had to guess, she was confused by how different Nathan was compared to the actual protagonist.

"Why... Why is this happening?"

She put one hand on her forehead, the fingers digging into her short light-brown hair. Her eyes were a little bloodshot as she glared at me.

"It has to be you! You were the only one that could've... that could've..."

I turned back to the front and closed my eyes, ignoring her words. On the other hand, Nathan stood up.

"Minori. I've told you before that the change that happened to me was because of the things I've realized. Most of it was on my end, and perhaps the tiniest bit could be because of Bryson. I already told you to stop blaming him."

Practically everyone, except for Minori and me, looked at Nathan in mild shock. Probably because a commoner defending a noble like this was pretty rare.

Minori clasped her hands together and tightened her grip until parts of her hands had become white.

"Then why do you look at me so differently? I-It's like you hate me!"

Ah, this is probably something I should've mentioned before, but Minori was actually one of Nathan's most hated characters, only second to the head of the Mage Association. Not because I liked her, but because he just didn't like anything about her.

Though we would argue, he wouldn't bring that fact up too much out of consideration for me.

Nathan walked around the table, but still remained several meters away from her. He put his hands behind his back. A resolute expression formed on his face.

"I was going to avoid having this conversation in public, but if you're going to start it here, then so be it. The reason why I've changed like this is that I understood that I can't just judge people from the first moment I've looked at them. Nor can I jump to conclusions just like that."

He tilted his head to the side ever so slightly.

"Just like what you are doing right now. Do you really think Bryson is behind every single change in me?"

Minori became a little hysterical.

"Then what else could it be?! You were taken by him to his manor and when you came back you didn't even look in my direction! He must've... done something!"

The servants furrowed their brows and began mumbling to each other, but weren't all that quiet. n-/o)(v./e-.l-.b..I).n

"Is that true? What did he do?"

"Ah, for some reason the two of them opened the door while I was using the loo! But... that's only really hurtful to me."

"Wait, I remember Lord Bryson treated the commoner to a meal, and personally gave up his own food when the chefs tried to serve the commoner something inferior."

Jess turned to me with a confused expression.

"What did you do when you brought that commoner to our home?"

What the fuck was I supposed to say to that? I obviously couldn't tell the truth that we were planning how to use our future knowledge of this game to overturn this kingdom's demise.

Though, while I was panicking, Nathan answered for me.

"I asked him if I could come to see what a noble's life is like. And he accepted, then showed me around his entire manor."

He took in a deep breath before continuing.

"Minori. For how long will you be blinded by your own visions of the world? Have you even realized that there is a world outside of you, that goes on whether or not you're there to see it? Have you even considered that there might be something more than what you think is going on in another person's head?"

Nathan walked up to Minori, before blankly staring at her face.

"Have you ever considered that what I'm telling you right now isn't a lie, but the complete, undistorted truth?"

Well... it was definitely a little bit of a lie, but-

Tears began falling from her face. She began to mumble words with difficulty.

"No... not you too. I thought... I thought at least you would stay with me."

Minori directly pushed Nathan out of the way and ran towards me.

"IT'S YOU! IF IT WASN'T FOR YOU! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU."

Her words prompted several guards to unsheathe their swords, but ended up hesitating.

Because the original speed she was running at had died down tremendously. By the time she had actually reached me, it was slower than a snail's pace.

Regardless, the guards moved forward, pointing their swords at her.

"Step away from the table!"

However, she didn't listen. Instead, Minori spun my chair around, forcing me to face her. She placed both hands on my shoulders as she cried, her teardrops falling onto my pants.

"Please... Please bring back the old Natan. You can do anything you want to me and I'll do whatever you want, just please bring him back to me."

This... was a rather strange scenario. I should definitely tell her a way to get over this or some sort of resolution.

But...

Before I knew it, my left hand gradually went up, and a smile slowly began forming on my face. As gently as I could, I held onto the side of her rough dirty face, brushing my fingers through her stiff hair.

Now that I think about it, these actions are probably the same thing some disgusting villain in a story would do, before declaring their conditions like a devil.

From how she tensed up, and now everyone was looking at me, except for Nathan, it seemed as though they agreed that was what I was going to do. That I would go on to list some irresistible deal that would never be truly fulfilled, to drag her along before finally breaking her.

But instead, tears fell down from my face, as a few soft words escaped me.

"You are so incredibly beautiful."

Those words came straight from my heart. I almost didn't realize I was smiling, because of how natural it felt. And almost everyone looked at me as though I was some sort of monster. Only Nathan let out a sigh and shook his head.

Minori's eyes widened all the way as she looked into mine. She was shocked, and rightfully so. After all, it was hard to expect some random noble was actually a reincarnation of some nerd that liked her way too much in a video game.

But there seemed to be something even more shocking to her than my strange response. She paled somewhat before holding onto her stomach in pain. After stumbling away from me, Minori turned and violently vomited onto the floor.

...I'm not that ugly, am I?

She didn't spend a second longer before running away with all her might. Unfortunately, she ended up tripping, landing face-first on the floor, but immediately picked herself back up and continued running like she was going to die if she didn't.

All of the servants with me were terribly confused.

In particular, Jess and Raisa looked at me as though I was actually a creature that had stolen a human's skin and was wearing it to blend in. Raisa licked her lips before posing a question.

"S-She was beautiful to you?"

I gave a small nod.

"Yeah."

The strangeness of that statement was not lost on me. Although Minori wasn't ugly by any means, there was hardly anything compelling about her appearance. In fact, she was easily overshadowed by every other character in the main cast who either looked better or had something special in their appearance that made them stand out.

When I first saw her, I too thought that she was nothing special.

But now, just looking at her made me feel entranced for some reason.

Raisa gently touched my arm with the tips of her fingers.

"W-What about her is beautiful?"

I blinked a few times.

"...I don't know."

Raisa's expression twitched. She was incredibly thrown off by my answer. It was at this point I felt myself sobering up, gradually coming down from that strange state and returning to normal.

I tapped my chin a few times.

"Huh. She was so persistent before, but I was able to chase her away with only one word."

Nathan went around the vomit and shot me a bitter smile.

"How much do I have to pay for a lesson?"

I let out a sigh and held out my hands helplessly.

"Since I feel generous, I'll give you a fifty-percent discount. Just give me half your lifespan."

Without skipping a beat, Nathan responded.

"Deal."

The two of us laughed, while everyone else looked at us like we were aliens, which wasn't exactly wrong all things considered. From there, everything went on normally. But everyone except for Nathan and me were still feeling the aftereffects of shock, not really focused on what they were doing.

Edward was looking at me as though he wanted to burn a hole into me. I thought if I just ignored it, he wouldn't bring anything up, but when he finished his meal he posed a question to me.

"Have you known that girl for a while?"

I scratched the side of my head as an awkward smile formed on my face.

"Not personally, no."

Edward simply looked more confused, but didn't ask further. We soon disbanded the group and tidied everything back up. After saying our farewells, I found myself in the carriage with Jess looking at me like I was some rare animal in the zoo.

"Although it is not proper for a noble to lust after a commoner... I will not stop you."

The corner of my lip twitched.

"No, no. To be honest, I don't think I'll ever be able to look at her in that way."

Jess furrowed her brows.

"Then how do you see her?"

I chuckled.

"Maybe it's like how Raisa put it before. That I appear to be a father."