novelraw Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Ch.3 Either Cross your Legs or Not
Leah’s footsteps toward the capital were light and cheerful.
‘I won’t let you slip away this time.’
When she was young,
‘If only I hadn’t met my master back then.’
The master who had gallantly saved her when she was in danger.
It was because of him that she could exist as she was now.
Back when it was first revealed that she possessed extraordinary talent in magic, her pride had been high.
Countless mages had wanted to take her as their disciple.
It was during that time that she met her former master, Clyman, a man with a rather slender face and considerable ability.
Unlike most excellent mages, who tended to be elderly, her former master was young, in his mid-thirties.
Not only could he wield powerful magic despite being in his mid-thirties, but he was also handsome—Leah had no reason not to serve him as her master.
To be more honest, as a 15-year-old girl, she had no desire to live with and learn magic from someone who looked like a grandfather.
Whenever she saw them, she couldn’t shake the feeling that they resembled the wicked wizards from the fairy tales her mother used to tell her in bed when she was little.
But perhaps it was because she had chosen her master based solely on appearance?
Her former master, Clyman, imprisoned her and stripped her of her freedom.
Several days after she had been cut off from everyone, her former master, Clyman, approached her, holding a syringe filled with an unknown drug and muttering incomprehensible words.
[Thanks to you, I can now prove the existence of the Gift.]
[P-please… save me.]
She was terrified.
The man before her, his eyes filled with madness, frightened her beyond measure—she had no idea what he might do to her.
Clyman, whose handsome face now seemed sinister, smiled contentedly at the bound Leah.
[Hehe… don’t worry, I won’t kill you.]
He then brought the syringe toward her arm, preparing to inject it.
Just as she was about to suffer at the hands of this wicked master, her current master appeared and defeated Clyman.
The master she met that day took a metallic magic staff from his bosom and aimed it at Clyman.
In an instant—
—Taaang!
The tip of the staff glowed, a tremendous explosion rang out, and Clyman clutched his chest and collapsed.
In the briefest moment, her master had cast a spell so powerful it could kill a person.
Even now, she still didn’t know what that spell was.
The reason?
‘It was too fast to see with the naked eye.’
And it was terrifying.
Though she had always prided herself on being a genius, witnessing her master’s magic made her finally understand what true, overwhelming talent meant.
The magic she saw that day surpassed imagination.
She had never seen magic with such rapid projectile speed and casting speed.
‘I couldn’t even see what spell he cast, nor could I feel it.’
She desperately wanted to learn that magic—it was, in her mind, the ultimate magic.
In the end, she begged the master who had saved her to take her in and teach her, and he accepted.
Thus, she was taken in by her master and began living with him.
After some time had passed, while living with her master, she asked him to teach her that magic.
[Master, could you teach me the magic you showed me last time?]
But at Leah’s request, her master looked troubled and uneasy.
[That’s still too early for you.]
‘What’s so too early about it? You haven’t taught me anything at all! Stupid master.’
Thus, though she became his disciple, she learned nothing.
How could she learn anything from a master who didn’t even know the essential formulas required to handle magic?
‘What should I say? He just seemed completely clueless about magic.’
But strangely, he somehow knew how to wield magic, which was odd.
That said, her master didn’t neglect her.
He invited excellent masters from the Mage Tower or somehow obtained rare magic books that were hard to come by.
Whether one could even call him a ‘master’ when he didn’t fulfill the typical role of a master, yet casually tossed her absurdly precious magic books, was questionable.
Anyway, Leah spent three years with him.
Clyman, who had rescued her before she could suffer harm, remained a major trauma for Leah.
Whenever Leah had nightmares about Clyman and cried, her master would gently comfort her—preparing delicious meals to cheer her up when she felt down from the nightmares.
Leah believed that any woman who saw him, who always cherished her while living under the same roof, would inevitably fall for him.
‘Yes… Master always thought of me first.’
Whenever she met his warm and steadfast gaze, all she could do was blush.
Back then, she was young.
If asked to pick the happiest period of her life, she would undoubtedly say it was the time she lived with her master.
Because she remembered countless memories with him, she could confidently say:
That time was the happiest.
She gazed blankly at the capital’s walls, now visible in the distance.
‘Finally… I’ve arrived.’
Passing through the familiar gate in the city wall and walking along the main road through the city district, since she had lived here for three years, she headed straight for her master’s house.
The fountain spouting water in the center of the square and children running around.
Seeing young couples, Leah thought of her master.
‘We should have a beautiful love like that too.’
Her master, who had said he would accept her confession after she returned from slaying the Demon King.
Thinking that her master, who had accepted her innocent first love confession, now had nowhere left to retreat, made Leah happy.
Suddenly, she felt glad she had slain the Demon King quickly.
***
While Leah dreamed of meeting her master and headed toward his house, meanwhile, her master was…
“What are you doing?! Load it onto the ship immediately!”
The splendid master Leah so longed to meet… was directing dozens of sailors as they carried large boxes onto the ship, essentially exploiting their labor under the guise of encouragement.
Hans, working hard day by day to escape from the Hero party, cracked his whip in the air and shouted loudly,
“Do you know how much this is worth?!”
Seeing Hans tormenting the sailors like a demon pressuring the damned in hell, Giovanni sighed.
“Chairman… please show some dignity befitting a noble.”
“Forget it, I bought it with money—what dignity? There! Once you’ve loaded that, hurry up and bring the next one! What are you waiting for?”
“Sigh… fine.”
Who could possibly believe that this devilishly wicked man was the chairman of the Pisa Trading Company, rumored to be cultured and courteous?
“Well, fine. If we work well, we should be able to set sail tomorrow.”
At that, Hans nodded.
“Of course we have to leave tomorrow. If we dawdle and Leah arrives… then things will get really troublesome.”
‘If Leah finds out I’ve set four legs,… I’m definitely getting burned alive.’
No matter the reason, if she—who suffers from male-hating tendencies in the original story—discovers I’ve been exchanging intimate letters with other women while playing hard to get with her…
Leah certainly won’t let it go.
Even if things have changed from the original story, I’m certain she’ll burn me alive if she finds out I’ve been exchanging letters with all the Hero party members.
Given Leah’s rough, tomboyish personality, she’d do exactly that and more.
“Ah, right. Did you sell all the buildings linked to the letter addresses?”
Just as playboys dating multiple women use multiple phones, Hans had bought buildings to create four different addresses.
All buildings purchased with Pisa Trading Company funds. To avoid being tracked, he had put them up for sale at rock-bottom prices…
“They haven’t sold yet. Even at half the market price, they still haven’t sold.”
Hans fell into thought, then suddenly brightened as if an idea had struck him.
“Then you buy them.”
“What?”
“You buy them—I’ll sell them to you cheap.”
Giovanni’s face turned pale, as if he had heard something he shouldn’t have.
“No… if I buy them, won’t I be the one tortured?”
Hans shook his head and grabbed Giovanni’s shoulder with a solemn expression.
“Giovanni… your dream was to become a knight, right?”
His eyes, recalling past memories, were filled with melancholy. Reluctantly, Giovanni replied,
“Y-yes?”
“As soon as I bought the baron title, I appointed you as a knight, right?”
Hearing Hans’s words, Giovanni nodded uneasily. Surely not…
“Yes…?”
“So sacrifice yourself for me! Sacrificing for your lord is a knight’s virtue, isn’t it?!”
Giovanni’s face turned ashen.
“No! Are you telling me to die?!”
“A knight never fears death. Dying for your lord is the highest honor for a knight! I’ll grant you permission to earn that honor for me.”
“No way! What about my parents and older sister in the countryside if I die?! I can’t do it—if I meet the Hero party, I’ll tell them you’ve ‘set four legs’… ugh!”
Hans, his face pale and stiff, clamped his hand over Giovanni’s mouth.
“No! How can you say that so loudly?!”
Seeing Hans anxiously looking around, worried someone might have overheard, Giovanni sighed.
‘Just don’t set four legs in the first place, damn it.’
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