novelraw Chapter 67 : I Will Pretend I Didn’t Hear That
Chapter 67 : I Will Pretend I Didn’t Hear That
Chapter 67: I Will Pretend I Didn’t Hear That
The road leading to Admiral’s house was smooth.
Quite literally, the road maintenance had been done well.
Exactly thirty minutes passed before they arrived, and the place turned out to be a two-story house.
A house that looked like it had been built on land of about three hundred square meters.
‘It’s neat.’
For an ordinary person, even buying a house like this would be difficult, but…….
‘The son of a count lives in a place like this?’
Compared to Baron Tefir’s estate, it was extremely small.
As if he had read Robin’s expression, Admiral spoke.
“Please come in, even though it’s shabby.”
“No. It’s not shabby. It’s just different from what I expected.”
When they opened the door and went inside, a small room could be seen on the side.
Robin let out an exclamation of admiration.
“To think there’s a latrine inside the house. This is a luxury home.”
“Haha, you have a good eye. It’s a latrine with a toilet, no less.”
Even when Robin stayed at Baron Tefir’s estate, he had used a shared latrine.
Ordinary houses took care of such business in facilities set up outside the house.
There were very few houses equipped with a latrine inside.
Perhaps pleased with Robin’s reaction, Admiral began introducing the house.
“This is the living room. It’s spacious enough for ten people to stay.”
A living room with a soft sofa and a view of the yard.
“The kitchen is also equipped with the latest Dwarven-made cooking tools.”
A kitchen where one could cook using artifacts rather than firewood.
“I was thinking of using the empty room as a storage room, but it feels a bit bare.”
Even a storage room suitable for keeping odds and ends.
Admiral’s house lacked nothing for a person living alone.
There were as many as five rooms on the second floor.
After finishing the introduction with satisfaction, Admiral guided them to the first-floor living room.
“Now, let’s get to the main point.”
“I’m looking forward to what kind of compensation you’ll offer.”
Robin spoke honestly.
Admiral gave a small chuckle.
“As you might have expected, I am the son of Count Wilcock. Admiral Wilcock is my full name. You may not know this, but the merchant ship you boarded was carrying supplies necessary for the war.”
“So we earned ourselves some merit.”
“That’s right. Thanks to you, the supply line wasn’t cut off. As a reward for that, I came up with three options.”
‘So we’re to choose one of the three.’
Robin waited without interrupting Admiral.
He calmly opened his mouth.
“The first is money.”
“How much are you willing to give?”
“I’m willing to give ten Gold.”
“That’s not bad.”
He had about eleven Gold on hand, but money was always better the more one had.
He glanced over at the party.
Imelda, Serena, and Theodric. All of them looked indifferent.
‘They’ve lived without worrying about money, so they don’t know how big a sum this is.’
Since he intended to hear all the rewards, he did not immediately say he would take it.
When Robin remained silent, Admiral continued.
“The second is a weapon.”
“If it’s a sword, I already have one.”
“I can give you a Dwarven-made weapon, not one made by humans.”
When it came to metallurgy, no one could surpass the dwarves.
Even with money, weapons they made were impossible to obtain.
At the unexpected offer, he failed to control his expression for a moment.
‘Hah… composure. Composure.’
A dwarf’s weapon maintained its quality even after hundreds of years of use.
He was tempted, but the two swords he was currently using were also well-made blades.
More than anything, he had grown attached to them after maintaining them for so long.
Reading Robin’s expression, Admiral immediately moved on.
“The third is a potion. One top-grade potion. If you want, I can give it to you immediately.”
“It would be reassuring to have.”
A high-grade or better potion could be considered an extra life.
He had once reattached a severed finger with a mid-grade potion.
‘They said even severed limbs could be healed.’
Top-grade potions were rare as well, but not to the extent of Dwarven-made weapons.
Moreover, in regions where war was active, they were likely being mass-produced.
All three were tempting, but they were not what Robin wanted.
“What will you do?”
He stalled, pretending to deliberate.
The conversation they had in the carriage and the rewards Admiral had presented.
With this, he could guess Admiral’s position.
‘Admiral is involved in the war. There’s something going on.’
Supplies were an extremely important matter.
Important enough for the son of a count to manage personally.
But…….
‘Would he really step in just to bring ordinary goods?’
There had been two knights aboard the merchant ship.
They had died due to the incompetent captain, but if they had been properly deployed, they would have been more than enough to fend off pirates.
They were not knights under Admiral, but they had boarded a ship carrying military supplies.
At the very least, Count Wilcock’s influence had been involved.
As he weighed things in his head, Serena spoke.
“Can’t you give us this house?”
“Pardon……? Miss Serena. Are you talking about the house?”
“Yeah. I like the sofa.”
‘So that’s why she’d been curled up on the sofa all this time.’
Even so, it was far too abrupt.
Before things escalated further, Robin covered Serena’s mouth.
“Please pretend you didn’t hear what Serena said.”
“Mmph! Mmmph!”
“Hahaha. I didn’t know you two were this close.”
Serena tried to smack Robin’s arm to get him to release her mouth, but it was futile.
“Actually, I have something else in mind.”
“Oh? What is it? Something that makes you turn down what I offered?”
“Before that, let me ask. The war. Do you think you’ll win?”
“We’ve been in a standoff for several years, but the tide is gradually turning in our favor. Count Wilcock will win. No, he will win.”
There was certainty in Admiral’s eyes.
Robin finished making his decision.
“What I want is to clear our names.”
“Clear your names……?”
“Imelda Tefir and Robin, who are being unjustly pursued on charges of treason. To revoke the bounties on the two of us. Is that possible?”
Admiral’s eyes widened.
He alternated his gaze between Robin and Imelda.
“So that’s how it was… That’s why Miss Melida… Then Melida is also a false name……?”
Robin calmly waited for Admiral’s answer.
A brief silence followed.
Admiral let out a sigh.
“I will pretend I didn’t hear what you just said.”
It was more or less what he had expected.
‘Right. This much isn’t enough.’
Serena looked around the kitchen and said,
“The facilities are nice, but there are no ingredients.”
Perhaps hungry, she was rummaging through the house.
Unable to bear it, Robin opened his backpack, took out some jerky, and placed it on the table.
Serena popped it into her mouth, chewed away, and continued searching the kitchen.
Imelda murmured with a worried expression.
“What are we going to do now…….”
“Don’t worry too much. Do you really think Admiral would kill us, when we’re his lifesavers?”
It was something said to ease Imelda’s anxiety, but it was also true.
Even after hearing Robin’s story, Admiral did not throw them out.
He left behind words saying he needed time to think and went up to the second floor.
Theodric said he was going to sleep and went into an empty room.
It meant he had no intention of helping them reclaim their names.
“Let’s go out.”
“Now?”
“This is Runeberg. It’s a place where the Empire’s gaze doesn’t reach very well.”
“Well, that’s true, but…….”
“Staying here won’t change anything anyway, right? Let’s go out for now.”
Imelda grabbed Robin’s wrist and pulled him along.
When they stepped outside, an open sea spread out before them.
Children were mostly running around in the streets.
As they wandered aimlessly without setting a destination, his head gradually cleared.
After entering the market and spotting a bakery, Imelda bought some honey bread.
Imelda’s expression as she handed the bread to Robin had softened as well.
“Thank you. I’ll enjoy it.”
“Maybe Admiral expected it. He told me a lot that I seemed like a noble.”
“During the two days on the pirate ship?”
“Yeah. We talked a lot.”
Imelda walked ahead with the honey bread in her mouth.
At a glance, she didn’t seem any different from a commoner, but her noble bearing hadn’t disappeared.
The way she held a fork and knife while eating.
The knowledge and refinement absorbed through years of instruction.
The attitude of gauging the other person’s intentions.
Those things inevitably seeped out, whether she was aware of it or not.
“Actually, I also expected that Admiral was Count Wilcock’s son. Living together, you start to notice.”
“That’s fascinating. Can nobles recognize each other?”
Walking in one direction, the two reached the edge of the city.
After passing through an entrance guarded by guards, they saw a wooden palisade surrounding the area.
Judging by the bloodstains soaked into its sharpened tips, it seemed there had been an invasion.
Robin pointed at the palisade and asked a guard.
“Do battles happen even in places like this?”
“Yes. Not people, but monsters come occasionally.”
“Could you tell us what kind of monsters?”
“Various kinds. Goblins, gnolls, orcs… They’ve been rampant lately.”
“Thank you for letting us know. Take care.”
He turned his steps back and fell into thought.
‘If monsters appear frequently, that means they aren’t subjugating them. Why are they leaving it unattended?’
A small port city located at the eastern edge of Runeberg.
Its official name was Briokodon, but local residents called it the port city, or the end city.
There were knights, and there were guards.
It didn’t look understaffed.
Most monsters were no match for knights.
‘Goblins, gnolls, orcs. None of them are impossible to deal with.’
Several hypotheses emerged.
First, they considered it trivial.
Second, there was a monster so strong it couldn’t be subjugated.
Third, they couldn’t spare guard manpower to the outside—that is, they were protecting something.
The third hypothesis brought Admiral to mind.
If what was brought in by the merchant ship was important, it couldn’t be stolen.
Or else…….
‘It could be all three.’
After walking in silence for a long while, Imelda rested her forehead against Robin’s back.
“What are you thinking so hard about?”
“What the guard said earlier. If there are many monsters around here, couldn’t we take care of it?”
“To gain Admiral’s favor?”
“Yes. If we help a bit more, wouldn’t something come of it?”
Imelda lightly bumped her head against his back a few times, then spoke softly.
“Robin, why are you going this far?”
“Does helping a friend need a reason?”
“A friend… Is that all?”
“Should I be honest?”
“…Yeah.”
“Baron Tefir showed me goodwill. Thanks to that, I was able to learn a lot. To only receive and then shut my mouth? That’s not how a person should be.”
The sea breeze blowing as they strolled through the streets felt cool.
Imelda’s short hair fluttered in the wind.
“And as you know, Young Lady. Having people around you die is a horrific experience. One you can never forget for the rest of your life.”
“…….”
“Let’s stop the gloomy talk and think about what to do next.”
“Actually, there is a definite method.”
“What is it?”
‘If there was something like that, she should’ve said it sooner.’
Robin asked Imelda with eyes full of expectation.
Imelda hesitated and opened her mouth.
“Marriage…….”
“Pardon?”
“You just have to marry Admiral.”
“Uh… you mean you getting married, Young Lady?”
“There’s precedent. Cases where the child of a traitor married an influential noble and regained their status.”
At the shocking statement, Robin’s thinking came to a halt.
“Robin, are you okay?”
“Ah, yes… It was just so sudden.”
“When you asked him to revoke the wanted order, Admiral probably thought of this method too.”
“Well… nobles really are different. I suppose they do a lot of political marriages.”
“It’s embarrassing to say it myself, but I think I could lure him…….”
‘Well, wherever you put our Young Lady, she wouldn’t fall short.’
After showing her face in high society two years ago, Imelda had received countless proposals.
When people suggested engagements to a fourteen-year-old girl, Robin had initially thought it was strange, but this was normal.
Some were engaged as early as eight or nine.
‘Some even make promises before they’re born, so that says it all.’
Even though Robin knew this, he felt a sense of resistance somewhere.
Like an older brother with a younger sister.
If the little sister he’d watched since she was a snot-nosed brat suddenly said she was getting married, wouldn’t anyone feel the same?
“What do you think, Robin? If I seduce Admiral and marry him, not only will our wanted orders be revoked, but we can live without worrying about money from then on.”
“I don’t like it.”
“Huh, huh? You don’t like it?”
“Yes. We’ve known him for how long that we’re talking about marriage? Do you think you’d be happy if you married Admiral?”
“No.”
Imelda was smiling for some reason.
She desperately tried to put on a blank expression, but Robin could see everything.
Her effort to hold back the corners of her mouth from rising.
“Even when you’re sure you’ll be happy, married life is hard. But marrying someone you don’t even have feelings for? That doesn’t make sense.”
“That’s true.”
“Then why have you been holding back laughter this whole time?”
“When did I!”
Imelda abruptly turned her face away.
With her ears flushed red, she quickened her steps.
Robin followed the suddenly faster Imelda, racking his brain.
There had to be a way, one that didn’t involve using Imelda’s marriage as a drastic measure.