1.3 Not Every Summon is Met With Cooperation
Mikhail stepped cautiously into the study, fanning his flushed cheeks with his hand to cool them down. The antique-feeling room was empty, and only a decoration shaped like a giant bird greeted him. On the desk Mikhail cautiously approached, there was a pile of books about agriculture and crops that he had seen earlier.
[All Plants of the North ~Focusing on Cultivated Crops~]
[Northern Ecology Guidebook]
[When the Pumpkin Flowers Bloom]
[Ecology and Breeding History of the Frigid Native Bee]
It was hard to believe these were the books he had been reading in such an elegant posture, but Mikhail recalled hearing through the grapevine that the Duke had suddenly become obsessed with field work recently. Why? Why all of a sudden? Just as Mikhail harbored this doubt, he heard a thumping, striking sound from beyond the window.
“……?”
He cautiously walked to the window and looked down to see none other than the Duke, struggling to plow the field in a posture that looked awkward and strange no matter how one viewed it.
‘Am I seeing things…?’
He rubbed his eyes in disbelief and looked again, but nothing had changed.
‘He’s going to get hurt like that….’
The Duke was moving the farming tool—which could be lifted easily with just a bit of technique—purely by brute force, as if he were someone who had never held a farming tool [Read on Read BL Novels]in his life. Most people wouldn’t visit our siteeven be able to lift that. As if proving that he had become frail due to the curse but was not originally weak-bodied, he was solving a task that required skill with sheer strength.
Mikhail hurried down the stairs and ran out to the field. He then snatched the plow that the Duke was holding clumsily.
“Y-you shouldn’t hold it like that.”
Exactly as he said. The Duke’s palms were flushed red, looking as though blisters would form if he pushed himself just a bit more.
“Hold this side with your left hand, and grip here with your right hand like this to lift it easily.”
Of course, to Mikhail, who possessed the monstrous strength to lift a wild buffalo the size of a house, most things in the world were incredibly light. However, since Mikhail had grown up with many siblings, he could gauge the standards of an ordinary person.
The Duke looked at Mikhail with a momentarily bewildered expression, then slowly took the tool back and adjusted his posture as instructed. The Duke let out a short exclamation of admiration, feeling that it was indeed easier to lift than before.
“I see. It is certainly easier to lift.”
He then tried to strike the ground and move as intended, but since the posture didn’t feel quite right, he looked at Mikhail and asked.
“I’m in this position, so which way should I move?”
At the Duke’s question, Mikhail’s shoulders jumped in surprise, and he stepped close behind him.
“Slowly this way, try stepping back with your right foot first.”
As the Duke stepped backward following Mikhail’s [stolen content]instructions, the clumsy movements—which until [visit our site]a moment ago had been nothing more than stabbing the ground with the plow—became quite plausible.
“Like this?”
“Yes, yes, next is the left foot… ah, yes. Just like that.”
With Mikhail’s help, the Duke barely managed to succeed in plowing one short row, then sighed as he set the plow down on the ground.
“Whew… this is difficult.”
As he did so, he wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, and the glimpse of his flushed cheeks was far too provocative.
‘Gasp.’
Without realizing it, Mikhail watched the sweat trickling down from beneath the Duke’s disheveled hair, passing over the nape of his neck and disappearing inside the collar of his clothes. Realizing how rude this was, he stepped back.
‘But, I’m smaller, so my line of sight….’
Though he was called a hero who beat down monsters with his bare hands in the Delwin mountains, Mikhail was only seventeen, a green youth with three years left until he became an adult. Considering that most Osbrant men do not stop growing until their early twenties, Mikhail was quite tall for a growing teenager, but the man before him was slightly taller. It was inevitable that the Duke’s secretly revealed skin would catch in Mikhail’s field of vision.
‘…….’
Even though he knew he shouldn’t, just as Mikhail’s gaze kept drifting there unconsciously, the Duke turned around and asked.
“You said your name was Misha. You seem familiar with farming?”
He remembered the name I told him…! Beyond being moved, Mikhail tried to calm his pounding heart, feeling like someone caught committing a crime, and answered the sudden question.
“Huh? Ah, yes, since I’m from Delwin, naturally….”
Except for the mountain range crossing the continent, Delwin was a region consisting mostly of wide pastures and plains. Most of the residents were hunters with mercenaries as family. The adults made a living hunting bison and deer herds, moving between cabins used communally by hunters depending on the season. The role of young children who couldn’t help with the hunt was to guard the house and manage the fields. Mikhail had also stayed home and tended the fields until he began working with the mercenary company.
‘Thanks to that, I’m as familiar with farming as I am with swinging a sword.’
To think a day would come where that would be so helpful. At Mikhail’s answer, the Duke asked again, looking satisfied.
“Then could you take a look at this?”
“Ah.”
What the Duke pointed to with a face that looked incredibly ashamed and embarrassed was a withered ‘thing that had been an Osbrant pumpkin sprout,’ which had dried up and died because the soil had been covered too thinly.
“Sprouting wasn’t difficult, but they keep dying without taking root like this. What is wrong?”
No matter how one looked at it, it was a sentence that didn’t match the solemn low voice that sounded like it should be discussing world affairs, the territory’s operating budget, or the deployment of troops.
As if possessed by something, Mikhail stared at the Duke’s reddened face before speaking.
“If this is your first time farming, would Read on Read BL Novelsit be alright if I helped you a [Read on Read BL Novels]little until you get used to it?”
He didn’t know why those words suddenly popped out.
“Would you? But you must have your own duties, so I worry if I am taking up your time….”
A bit of color returned to the Duke’s face before it became stern again, and at that moment, Mikhail closed his eyes tight and answered.
“It’s okay…! I have plenty of time. And I like farming!”
Of course, Mikhail had not been a diligent farmer in the distant past. He had been told he’d be locked in the storehouse and starved if he didn’t do it, so he had no choice. He just did as he was told. He preferred going out, mounting horses with the adults to drive prey, and traveling around with the mercenary company to wipe out monsters.
However, if he could get the opportunity to satisfy his curiosity about the Duke, Mikhail was willing to become a diligent and talented farmer-turned-servant starting today. Whether this was inappropriate behavior toward someone who had tried to take his life as a prince was not something Mikhail wished to consider.
Meanwhile, before Mikhail arrived at the frozen lake exile site, Hyeon was facing his first failure in the second act of his new life.
“…….”
Why? What went wrong? There should be no problem with the seeds.
Having failed germination for the third time already, Hyeon swallowed a sigh while glaring at the moldy gauze and the ‘thing that had been an Osbrant pumpkin seed.’
He had been an entrepreneur who successfully led countless projects and hit a jackpot with everything he touched, but this was the first time in his life he had tried to grow something with his own hands. Because a successor who would one day control a corporation should not do menial chores, Hyeon had never even grown a single kidney bean in his life.
‘I didn’t know this was such a difficult task.’
For Hyeon, who had lived eating crops grown by experts and cooked by experts, most things that ordinary people enjoyed as hobbies were incredibly foreign. This was also true for gardening, the easiest hobby available to Isaac, a prisoner who could not leave the exile site without permission and could not request supplies as he wished.
Seeds… aren’t they supposed to just sprout on their own if you give them water? It was easy enough to ask the caretaker and obtain seeds left over from the spring planting, but after that, it was a continuous series of failures.
Hyeon belatedly realized the desperate hard work of farmers as he repeated his failures. Even if he covered them with soil, they wouldn’t sprout; if he gave them water, they rotted and died; if he didn’t give them water, they dried up and died. He even tried the Thousand-fold cultivation method, said to be the easiest way, but even that ended up as a mold party.
‘How on earth do they grow these into such huge vines?’
Whenever Hyeon tried to ask the caretaker, the caretaker would simply watch from about ten paces away with suspicious eyes, as if thinking, ‘That guy definitely has some ulterior motive.’
Since seeking cooperation from the caretaker seemed difficult, the only remaining method was… After thinking for a moment, Hyeon remembered that the Duke’s library was quite spacious and headed for the study.
Indeed. In the vast library, where a dozen people could hide without being noticed, there were piles of books he had never heard of, books that didn’t even leave a trace in Lord Isaac’s memories.
As a modern person, whenever Hyeon found a field that piqued his business interest, he would read every book written by experts in that field. Once a certain level of foundational knowledge was established through books, he moved on to research papers. After analyzing and mastering the papers, he would then seek out expert lectures or invite them for discussions. That was how Hyeon had resolved his curiosities or problems.
It would have been great if he could solve it the same way this time, but he had already tried everything the books told him to do. He was incredibly frustrated because he didn’t know how much ‘moderation’ actually was, or how many variables he needed to control, leading to repeated futile efforts.
‘I can’t call an expert here.’
There was no YouTube, the treasury of all knowledge that solves hobbyist curiosities. While he was that frustrated, the Imperial Palace suddenly informed him that they were sending another monitor.
Fine, search all you want. Anyway, anything that could be a problem (the Duke’s strange magic tools) had long since been discarded. Even if the dispatched monitor searched every inch, from the bottom shelf of the Duke’s wardrobe to under the bed, all they would find were sowing seeds for Osbrant onions and Osbrant pumpkins.
Just as Hyeon’s convalescence was creaking along in frustration and dissatisfaction, he suddenly met a teacher.
“If this is your first time farming, would it be alright if I helped you a little until you get used to it?”
A servant sent along with an investigator from the Imperial Palace should be busy just attending to various needs. A strange fellow who willingly offered his time first. For Hyeon, there was no reason to refuse someone offering help.
How much cash did the Duke have left? Hyeon opened the safe mechanism hidden behind the wall and checked the contents. Compared to the wealth House Transis had originally possessed, it was a drop in the bucket, but it was more than enough—even excessively so—to enjoy a modest life. Not to mention the assets that couldn’t be immediately liquidated.
‘I wonder if I should give this as a reward.’
This, too, was the way Hyeon had lived in the modern era. If you receive help from others, you should not try to brush it off with ‘affection’ or ‘unpaid service.’ Labor deserves fair payment, and expert manpower must be given corresponding compensation. A situation where the person who helped him refused the reward was a development that didn’t exist in Hyeon’s mind.
“What? Not at all! I’m interfering because I want to help, so I don’t need something like this…!”
When Hyeon handed over silver coins as a reward for the trouble of taking away his off-duty time, the boy who introduced himself as Misha desperately waved his hands in refusal.
“……?”
Why? An investigator might be different, but no matter how much a servant works for the Imperial Palace, their salary wouldn’t be generous. Moreover, a servant of that age likely wasn’t a formal servant belonging to the palace.
He was probably an external servant brought along by the investigator, a child of a noble family. If so, he would be even less likely to be financially comfortable, yet he refused. Hyeon was confused, unable to understand the boy’s intentions.
“I cannot let it pass without giving a proper reward after receiving help. Take [Read on Read BL Novels]it even if you Read on Read BL Novelsdon’t feel you need it.”
“No, if you give me such a large sum of money, I’ll actually feel sorry…!”
In the end, after a long back-and-forth of ‘take it’ and ‘I can’t,’ Hyeon offered a compromise.
“If monetary compensation is burdensome, I would be grateful if you told me what you want. Receiving help empty-handed is something that must not happen, even if only to preserve the honor of my ancestors.”
Though those ancestors had long since been exhumed due to treason, at Hyeon’s proposal, the boy looked at the ground as if lost in thought for a moment before finally speaking.
“Then, there is something I would like to ask.”
After that verbal sparring, what the boy requested was not a difficult task.
“I… I don’t know letters very well, and my eyes are dim, so I can’t read well. If it’s alright, could you read books to me?”
Of course, it was a ridiculous lie. A young man with the eyes of a predator who could accurately find and crush a monster’s core even in the dark, claiming he couldn’t read because his eyes were dim. However, for Mikhail, who found it hard to take his eyes off the sight of him reading, it was a fairly plausible excuse squeezed out in a short time. He happened to be wearing thick-rimmed glasses for his disguise, too.
“That wouldn’t be difficult…. Is that really enough?”
Would it be unpleasant to keep listening to the voice of a low-toned adult man? Hyeon was concerned, but Misha didn’t seem to mind at all.
“Yes! In fact, I’m almost sorry for asking such a burdensome favor….”
“It’s not a burdensome favor. I often read books alone to kill time anyway.”
In a place where there was nothing but a desolate field and a lake surrounding an island where a mansion stood lonely, there wasn’t much to do. Reading books in the study all day, strolling along the lakeshore, or casting a fishing rod into a lake where nothing properly caught to fish for time. If someone offered to accompany him in such a modest and insignificant schedule, he should be grateful rather than refuse.
“Then, I… look forward to it….”
Upon receiving Misha’s shy thanks, Hyeon smiled lightly, thinking that they had at least reached a mutually satisfying deal.
It was only natural that Marcel, who later learned the full story through Mikhail, let out a scream and fell backward.
“Has the Prince gone mad?”
“What a way to put it!”
“Then what else would you call what the Prince just did if not mad? Are you in your right mind? Do you know what that guy did to you! Not only did he try to trade with your life, but he’s a criminal who tried to assassinate you when the negotiations broke down!”
As Marcel’s nagging poured out, Mikhail tried to calm him down.
“I know that, but… it’s different now than then, isn’t it? As you said, he’s become a different person to the point that they had to dispatch an investigator, and he doesn’t seem to recognize who I am?”
“You call that a reason? For a day or two, he might not recognize you, thinking, ‘Surely that Prince wouldn’t have come all the way here!’ But not just a few days—you’re saying you’ll stay here until his investigation is over? Do you think the Duke is a fool? That he wouldn’t recognize you?”
However, there was a slight distortion here. The Prince had become a hostage of Duke Transis at the age of fourteen. Until then, he had lived by eating leftovers from his family and the mercenary company, so he had a thin and frail build that was hard to believe for a fourteen-year-old. To the point where everyone wondered how such monstrous strength could spring from such a skinny, small body.
At that time, Mikhail was so different from the current Mikhail that one could believe he was a completely different child. Having enjoyed the superior nutrition [Read on Read BL Novels]of the Imperial Palace, Mikhail had grown by more than a foot in three years. Furthermore, his sunken cheeks had filled out with baby fat, and thanks to eating well and training hard, his entire body was lean and muscular. Now, as long as he continued to eat and grow well until he reached adulthood, no one would believe he was that same child from back then.
The image of Mikhail remaining in Hyeon—or rather, Isaac’s—mind consisted only of a scrawny brat and the image of the robust protagonist in his twenties. Moreover, he could never have imagined that the Prince would hide his identity in a place like this to teach him how to farm.
Contrary to Marcel’s concerns, it meant the possibility of Hyeon discovering Misha’s identity was close to zero.
“For now… I want to know a bit more about the Duke. Whether he really… tried to harm me back then….”
“No, I’m telling you, that is an indisputable fact! I’m going crazy….”
Unable to get through to the Prince, Marcel could only let out deep sighs. It was Marcel’s clear oversight that, in his extreme distress, he failed to notice that Mikhail had the eyes of a boy completely infatuated with something.
Thus began the first week of a headache that Marcel could not share. Mikhail returned with a bright face, having expanded the scale of his activities.
“Your Highness? Didn’t you clearly say you were just helping out for a little while?”
As Marcel pressed his fists against his eyelids and grit his teeth, unable to accept the situation as reality, Mikhail subtly avoided his gaze. The way the corners of his mouth were twitching suggested that he wasn’t entirely devoid of a guilty conscience.
“No, well… once winter comes, everything we painstakingly sowed will freeze to death…. That would be such a waste.”
Waste or not, why on earth are you helping with that! Marcel wiped away tears, his heart feeling as cracked as a field hit by a severe drought.
“So, are you saying that the Prince of Osbrant has personally declared that he will act as the carpenter to build a greenhouse?”
At Marcel’s sharp shout, Mikhail jumped in surprise and covered Marcel’s mouth.
“Shh, speak quietly. What if people outside hear…!”
“You’re worried about that, yet you’ve gone this far?”
“I told you, it’s all to confirm in more detail what kind of person the Duke….”
At Mikhail’s excuse, Marcel raised his voice again.
“Confirming things is my job, Your Highness! One of the many tasks I am responsible for is escorting Your Highness safely back to the Imperial Palace. What on earth were you thinking, acting so imprudently….”
The moment Marcel’s nagging poured out, Mikhail suddenly looked at him with eyes so clear it was almost chilling and asked.
“I know you’re worried. But Marcel, I think it would be better if you remembered one thing first.”
Then, with a beaming smile, he hoisted the robustly built Marcel over one arm. His grip was so strong that although Marcel was quite confident in physical altercations—unless he was fighting elite knights—he ended up dangling helplessly.
“Your Highness? W-what is the meaning of this!?”
Hanging completely upside down, Marcel struggled to break free, but he couldn’t even loosen the grip of Mikhail’s single hand. Only after Marcel had struggled for a long time and completely run out of strength did Mikhail answer with a smile.
“I’m no longer a fourteen-year-old kid who doesn’t know how the world works. I’ll grow more, but I don’t think I’m small even now. Even Vasily, who is called the Empire’s Greatest Sword, can’t beat me at arm wrestling. Do you really think I’d be that dangerous?”
It was exactly as he said. Because the Prince was so unassuming and easygoing, and had a cute impression with lingering youthfulness in his face, [visit our site]it was easy to forget that only the knight serving [stolen content]as the current Emperor’s Captain of the Guard could beat Mikhail in swordsmanship, and by a slim margin at that. In terms of pure physical strength, the knight had started losing to him since last year.
While his mind understood that Mikhail was a monster of a human who tore through monsters with his bare hands every time his military achievements grew, his heart couldn’t accept it. Marcel muttered a curse under his breath and replied in a defeated voice.
“I get it, so please just let me go. The blood is rushing to my head and I’m dizzy.”
“Ah.”
Though he had resorted to extreme measures to get his point across to Marcel, Mikhail had no intention of hurting him, and he quickly set Marcel back on the ground.
“Anyway, you really don’t have to worry. I’ve sufficiently grasped the extent of the Duke’s power….”
And the moment Mikhail spoke that far with a smug look, Marcel launched a kick aiming for Mikhail’s left leg.
“It’s still ten years too early for you to be playing tricks on me!”
It was an attempt to show that no matter how strong someone is, no one is immune to a surprise attack. Unfortunately, Mikhail took the attack without budging an inch, then grabbed Marcel’s ankle and lifted him straight up.
“Ack!”
In the end, Marcel had to face Mikhail’s glossy, smiling face while hanging upside down once again.
“Yeah, I don’t think it’s too early. I look forward to your cooperation, Marcel.”
The moment he saw that confident expression, Marcel felt his headache double. In a way, it was unacceptable to treat a Prince like some neighborhood kid. Nevertheless, the reason Marcel treated Mikhail like a nephew whenever it came to things regarding unauthorized copyhim was [unauthorized copy]that he had watched Mikhail since the days he suddenly became a Prince from a wild little mercenary kid.
Back then, he thought it would be fine to have at least one member of the Imperial family who wasn’t authoritarian, and he had looked after Mikhail with a sincere heart, cherishing him like a nephew. When did he suddenly become such a man? Despite being a fuzzy little brat who hasn’t even had his first rut.
“Ugh….”
While Marcel was nursing his sorrow, thinking that raising men like family is useless because they just show their teeth and do whatever they want, Mikhail’s mind was filled entirely with thoughts of the beautiful man he had seen today.
How could a person exist who made even clumsy plowing feel noble? The Duke’s skill was, as always, utterly clumsy. However, perhaps because of the reassurance of having someone by his side to guide him, the hand striking the plow into the field had more strength than before.
‘Is this how I do it?’
Then, he looked back at Mikhail cautiously, appearing shy and awkward. It was an absurd situation for a servant to teach a Duke how to plow a field, but Mikhail wished that surreal moment would never end.
‘No…! Hold it here like this, and pull firmly this way; you can dig deeper with less effort.’
Before the mention of the greenhouse. It was utterly improper, but while guiding the Duke, who was diligently learning how to use farming tools, situations arose where he had to keep touching his body. For instance, like then. As he naturally gripped and pulled the muscle dividing below the Duke’s elbow, he felt a body that was lean but had a sturdy frame.
A distinct Alpha’s body, which could be known even without checking pheromones. The muscles visible through the slightly open collar had certainly decreased compared to the past, but they were still firmly in place. I wonder what it would feel like to touch that smooth skin. What kind of face would this person make when his rut comes? The moment Mikhail unconsciously had these impure thoughts, the Duke’s buttocks—with his long legs and great proportions—pressed closely against Mikhail’s crotch without intention.
‘……!?!??’
And for a young man at an age where his rut was about to begin, that was an overly stimulating contact. Mikhail reflexively tightened his grip on the Duke’s arm.
‘Ah.’
Only after the Duke let out a short groan from the pain did Mikhail barely regain his reason and step back.
‘I’m sor— sorry…! I couldn’t control my strength well….’
When Mikhail apologized flusteredly, the Duke comforted him with a truly nonchalant face.
‘No, it’s fine. It happened because I pulled my foot back too quickly.’
Thinking that Mikhail had only held on to keep from falling because he had pushed back without warning, the Duke, who was in the position to receive an apology, apologized instead. Mikhail shook his head, hoping the Duke wouldn’t notice the heat rushing to his face.
‘No! I am the one who almost dared to injure the Duke.’
When he bowed his head just as other mercenaries did when they made mistakes before nobles, the Duke spoke, looking even more bewildered.
‘Don’t think of it that way. Since I am in the position of receiving instruction from Misha, don’t treat me too formally.’
Seeing him lower himself so unreservedly made Mikhail feel as if his heart was being tightly constricted again. Eventually, after blaming themselves for the mistake, they veered off into a conversation—suggested by Mikhail—about how it would be good to prepare a greenhouse for the winter.
Then, Mikhail guaranteed that he would build the greenhouse before his dispatch ended, and ultimately, he asked Marcel to procure the materials.
Honestly, considering the Prince’s monster-like strength and stamina, it wasn’t an impossible task. But still, why? All of a sudden? With questions in his mind, Marcel contacted a nearby carpenter and procured the materials to build a small greenhouse.
The fact that the reason was simply that he wanted to keep seeing the rewarding face of the Duke, who had [unauthorized copy]finally managed to grow a proper Osbrand pumpkin [unauthorized copy]sprout, was something Marcel would never know.
And that night. The Prince, who shared a room with Marcel, kept getting up to wash his face and lie back down, feeling as if his face was constantly heating up. He felt strange. The Duke’s face from that afternoon and his sturdy body kept alternating in his mind. He had heard that before receiving the assassin’s crown, the Duke had a body stronger than most warriors. As long as the assassin’s crown continued to tighten around his heart, he would only grow thinner.
The Duke was holding on, unshaken, with a mental strength like a castle built of solid bricks. In the eyes of others, he would appear as a person who was suspiciously steadfast, with an overly detached attitude.
However, Mikhail could not take his eyes off the bitter smile that occasionally flickered across the Duke’s face. Though he endured while pretending to be resolute, Mikhail’s heart raced every time he encountered those well-hidden cracks. The moment he finally reached the conclusion that the identity of that faint shadow might be loneliness, he dared to want to soothe that loneliness.
If asked why, he couldn’t answer immediately. He simply couldn’t take his eyes off that person. He stood firm, pretending to be resolute, but it felt as if he might disappear the moment one looked away. As if he had never existed there from the start. What must one do to hold onto such a person? It would be difficult unless there was something that person cherished very dearly.
‘What I can do is….’
Mikhail’s mouth turned bitter as he continued to think about the Duke. All the current Mikhail could do for him was help with his hobbies while hiding his identity, as he was doing now. Even that, if the Duke refused, Mikhail had no right to interfere in his affairs. He couldn’t even dream of the possibility that he might become someone precious to him. Feeling discouraged by his own helplessness, Mikhail pulled the blanket up to the top of his head.
A normal and peaceful morning. Hyeon woke up early and waited for the sun to rise high. Having never experienced a moment of leisure even in his original life, such a relaxed day was very unfamiliar to Hyeon. Except for the flaw of not being a biological child, Hyeon’s daily routine, which seemed as flawless as a needle couldn’t find a place to prick, usually began as soon as the sun rose.
Before going to work, Hyeon stopped by a private swimming pool he could use alone to wet his body. It was a ritual that was no longer necessary since all members of the executive family who led the company had been ousted except for Hyeon, but he did not stop his steps toward the pool.
Since he started around the time he first took his first steps, he had essentially lived with water for almost his entire life. The reason Hyeon started swimming was, naturally, his parents.
‘…….’
When he closed his eyes while submerged up to the top of his head, he heard a familiar sound. The horrific sound of a man and a woman wailing, struggling because they didn’t want to die, and gradually sinking into the water. Whenever he entered the water and gasped in pain, his adoptive parents pushed him back into the pool without hesitation. Their logic was that a successor who would shoulder the heavy responsibility of the company’s affairs could not afford to be unable to overcome something like that.
It was only when he entered elementary school that Hyeon finally stopped fearing water, and he believed those mysterious screams were merely imaginations created by [unauthorized copy]his own fear. He only realized [Read on Read BL Novels]that they were, in fact, very old memories of his own after he had risen to the position of director.
When the real son returned, and it was time for Hyeon to return the position he had solidified as a successor to the real one. Hyeon investigated his biological parents, whom he had never once wondered about while growing up as the proud son of his adoptive parents.
What Hyeon managed to find was a short article. It was an article stating that a corporate accountant had embezzled a vast amount of funds and squandered them on gambling, and after failing to flee overseas with the remaining funds, attempted a joint suicide with a child of about two years old.
‘These days, instead of joint suicide, the term “filicide-suicide” is used.’
At the secretary’s brief personal opinion, Hyeon swallowed a sigh while pressing his forehead. Both parents were found as corpses at a nearby pier, and only the child survived. No one knew what happened to the surviving child.
Even after learning the reason why he had feared water so much as a child, the strange sense of déjà vu did not disappear. Even if he stopped visiting the swimming pool, the sound that had become exhaustingly familiar continued to hold onto Hyeon’s ankles and stretch out, along with the sense of loss that even his biological parents had tried to kill him. Just how much of one’s humanity must be abandoned to be able to push a two-year-old child, who looked just like oneself, back into the water to kill them? Sensing that this was a scar he would carry forever until the day his life ended, Hyeon began his daily routine with swimming once again.
Glug, glug. Only after the sound of splashes scattering toward the surface filled his head did the familiar noise stop.
Because he could no longer do what he had always done, the morning felt too long to Hyeon. No matter how much he read and re-read the book he had brought from the study to the bedroom, it was too quiet and too long until the time the caretaker began preparing breakfast in a bustle.
‘To think that even though I no longer need to do anything, I’m itching because I have nothing to do.’
While thinking he was ridiculous, Hyeon accepted the situation he was in. If a sprout grew by one node every morning he woke up, would the morning no longer feel excessively long? Just as this unanswerable question took root in his mind, a change came to Hyeon’s daily life.
“Whoa, a mole!”
Hearing a commotion outside, he trudged to the window wearing only an evening shirt, and there was a face that had become familiar, fluttering about. What is it? Wondering why he was flustered like that, he looked down to see a young man wearing glasses the size of fists chasing something while tilling the field.
He’s energetic for so early in the morning. unauthorized copyLooking down at the garden with unauthorized copya dry expression, Hyeon unconsciously curled the corners of his mouth [stolen content]when he saw the young man almost fall to the ground while trying to grab a mole with both hands.
He was a type Hyeon had never encountered in his short—or long—life. Was his name Misha? Perhaps because he was from a simple farming background, he built the greenhouse all by himself and didn’t hesitate to reclaim the land.
When Hyeon tried to stop him, saying that he was the one who should be learning, not the one ordering him around, the young man would come out at the crack of dawn and finish the work Hyeon was supposed to do.
‘Even though I told him there was no need to go that far.’
Hyeon didn’t need to be told to know why Misha did that. Because there was no one in Osbrant who didn’t know that Hyeon was a sinner with not much time left to live. It was understandable that people couldn’t help but feel pity when they heard that a person who would gradually weaken and die within five years at most was doing field work.
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