GDTEA Chapter 85

I Respect You

Sharti found herself alone with the Tower Master in the cramped reception room.

It was consideration born from the village chief’s excessive hospitality.

Sitting face-to-face with the Tower Master in an atmosphere that was beyond awkward and into uncomfortable territory, Sharti gripped a glass of warm milk with both hands and quickly buried her nose in it.

Slurp.

“…….”

The Tower Master, on the other hand, even conjured a teacup with magic and leisurely enjoyed his tea.

With his legs even crossed as he savored the tea’s aroma, Sharti couldn’t rashly raise her eyes or start a conversation with the Tower Master.

‘Repayment, he says.’

That was the reason why the Tower Master himself was sitting before a mere nameless doctor.

[When you think about it, I’m the biggest beneficiary, so shouldn’t I give the biggest repayment?]

The village chief had been delighted, and Karun and the Deputy Tower Master had looked oddly at the Tower Master who readily stepped forward to offer repayment.

Sharti had conveyed that having received pledge documents from the others was sufficient, but the Tower Master wouldn’t listen at all.

‘What is he thinking?’

The atmosphere was quite different from yesterday when he had come looking for Ren, and unable to gauge the Tower Master’s intentions, Sharti’s head only grew more complicated.

With a clack sound, the Tower Master, resting his chin on his hand, stared intently at Sharti.

“The Tower Master steps forward to offer repayment, yet your reaction is exactly like someone being threatened.”

“…….”

At the Tower Master’s indifferent tone, Sharti raised her head as naturally as possible while drinking her milk.

The warm milk scent relaxed her mind.

Having calmed herself as composedly as possible, Sharti carefully raised her eyes.

‘Is he too close?’

Just in case, she pulled her hood slightly forward while leaning her upper body back as far as possible.

Fortunately, the Tower Master didn’t seem to care even seeing Sharti being so guarded.

<It wasn’t something I did expecting repayment. This is too much.>

Sharti wrote a note and held it out, but the Tower Master pretended not to notice.

“I’ve heard various things about the doctor.”

“……!”

It was a meaningful statement.

With the feeling of her heart dropping, Sharti clutched at her robe.

“Can’t you speak?”

“…….”

“If you don’t want to talk, wouldn’t it be polite to at least make eye contact?”

The Tower Master ostentatiously snapped his fingers several times. It looked like a threat to remove her hood with magic. For someone talking about manners, the Tower Master’s conversational etiquette wasn’t very good either.

Sharti barely swallowed the sigh rising in her throat and glared at the Tower Master.

“I will politely decline the repayment.”

“If I could fix either the doctor’s throat or the slave’s head, which would you choose?”

“……What?”

At the suddenly given choice, Sharti asked in confusion.

The Tower Master leaned back and crossed his arms.

“I’m saying I’ll solve one of the two as repayment.”

“…….”

Reflexively pressing her lips tightly shut, Sharti swallowed dryly.

Her heart beat rapidly.

[You said your throat was damaged in a fire, right? This will be difficult unless it’s a mage quite proficient in healing magic. It will cost quite a bit too.]

Five years ago, every doctor who diagnosed Sharti’s throat condition had given the same opinion.

At least the scars had some possibility of treatment, but everyone had shaken their heads at her voice.

‘……But he says it’s possible?’

The Tower Master’s characteristic arrogant expression must also come from his confident skills.

“……Can you really fix it?”

“I’m the Tower Master.”

Sharti lowered her head deeply.

‘He can fix it.’

He says he can fix it, Ren.

Feeling her heart about to burst, Sharti squeezed her eyes shut.

The five years of only cautiously letting out her voice under the blankets when thunder struck flashed by. And she also recalled the teal eyes that had looked at her when they opened in the cave.

[Can you handle it?]

She took a deep breath. She had to decide before the Tower Master changed his mind.

At the same moment Sharti jerked her head up, she brought down her fist—which she’d been clenching all along—on the table.

“It’s fine.”

“Hm?”

“I’m fine as I am.”

Contrary to her words, Sharti’s voice and fist were trembling.

At the unexpected answer, the Tower Master asked again out of courtesy.

“That voice is fine? Truly? Or are you saying you won’t choose either one right now?”

“Yes.”

“……I see. Well, your voice is your decision. But—”

The Tower Master looked at Sharti with a lukewarm expression and frowned.

“That slave with amnesia too—you’ll just leave him as is?”

“He would say the same thing as me. That he’s fine as he is.”

If the Tower Master had presented the choices just a bit earlier, Sharti would have chosen Ren’s treatment without hesitation. However, Sharti had already heard Ren’s heart, his decision and confession that he must have agonized over alone all this time. Having replayed his words countless times, Sharti couldn’t arbitrarily make a choice contrary to Ren’s will.

‘I can’t handle it.’

More than anything, Sharti had no confidence she could handle the anxiety she would experience after saying without any hesitation that she wished for Ren to find his memories.

She didn’t want to hasten misfortune with her own hands.

“Even if the patient himself refuses treatment, shouldn’t a doctor not give up?”

The Tower Master pointed out the difference in Sharti’s attitude from when she had stepped forward to save the residents of Sedipia Village.

“Isn’t it because of the doctor’s personal selfish desire—that she dislikes the thought of the slave leaving if he finds his memories?”

He also openly showed his disappointment in Sharti.

But his reaction and such—Sharti didn’t care at all.

“Would that be so wrong?”

“……!”

Sharti didn’t avoid the Tower Master’s eyes.

Though her lips were parched and the fist placed on the table trembled, Sharti straightened her back. She paid no heed even to her timid heart that was already beating rapidly.

“Before being a doctor, this is who I originally am. I’m not righteous, not kind, not altruistic.”

Sharti wasn’t particularly a moral doctor. She hadn’t lived that way either.

No doctor would swing a weapon at a patient bleeding profusely to knock them unconscious. They couldn’t do the shameless act of accepting meat as payment for treatment from soldiers who might arrest them.

Sharti was just an ordinary doctor and an average person too.

“Even without memories, he can think and express opinions. He can also decide by judging right from wrong. He said he wouldn’t look for his memories, and I respect his opinion.”

Ah. Sharti swallowed a small exclamation.

Ren’s sincerity, which she had endlessly doubted and denied, had somehow become a conviction-filled belief within her. It was an honest feeling she finally realized upon facing him after only avoiding him, being clumsy and awkward.

A dizzying coolness poured through her head.

The corners of her mouth, hidden by her hood, lifted slightly.

“……Because the him right now is ‘real’ to me.”

From this moment, there was no vain hope that Sharti had to bear. Only the desperate hope longing for happiness remained.

Sharti swallowed the overwhelming emotion tickling her throat along with the cold milk.

“…….”

The Tower Master, who had been quietly watching the mental and psychological growth of a young adult, said nothing.

Then he let out a chuckle.

“Right. It’s because you’re this kind of doctor that you made it this far.”

It was acknowledgment and recognition with multiple meanings.

On one hand, the Tower Master felt somewhat proud, thinking that Sharti’s change of heart was thanks to his advice. He was drunk on his own magnificence for leading the young with the magnanimity of an adult befitting his age for the first time in a while.

“If you have the guts to kick away the Tower Master’s repayment, you’ll succeed at whatever you do.”

Anyway, since the repayment he’d offered as if testing her had been rejected, his business was done.

The Tower Master lightly rubbed the tip of his nose, uncrossed his arms, and stood up. As he was about to turn away without regret, he suddenly paused and looked at Sharti again.

“The slave aside. Aren’t you disappointed about your voice?”

It was purely the Tower Master’s personal curiosity.

At a young age when one would want to dress up and be pretty, she covered her entire body with a long, wide-fitting robe and even covered her face with a hood, so wouldn’t she want to at least fix her voice?

“Even while speaking, you pay attention to others’ expressions one by one and your voice trembles depending on their reactions.”

“…….”

Sharti didn’t particularly deny it and just nodded slightly.

“Why, are you giving up on your voice fairly since you won’t help that slave find his memories?”

“Yes. I can’t say I don’t have such feelings.”

The affirmation came easily.

Sharti touched her throat.

“That person made a big decision to stay by my side. While acknowledging his lacking parts and making efforts to improve, I can’t do nothing myself.”

Sharti didn’t want to feel indebted to Ren.

Sharti wanted to shoulder an equivalent price in her own way too.

“It’s a terrible voice, and speaking is still scary, worrying, and frightening, but I’ll try not to avoid it. In the first place, practicing using my voice instead of written notes was a decision not to hide my voice.”

“Isn’t that what they call borrowing trouble?”

“I don’t know any other way.”

She had always lived like this. Rough, difficult, and clumsy.

And courage was always hard.

“Having to live with this voice until I die is certainly sad, but since I’m with someone who says even this voice is good, I’m fine as I am.”

Should he say she hates to lose, or should he say she’s stubborn? Either way, she was truly strong.

The Tower Master chuckled.

No matter how much he’d lost his memories, she was indeed the owner of a firm heart strong enough to have made Leodelt Gwendhill her slave.

“Um, if we’re exchanging questions one by one, may I ask one thing?”

“Permission granted.”

She said she wouldn’t accept repayment, so a question or so was fine.

Before the Tower Master could change his mind, Sharti quickly pulled out a bundle of cloth from her bag and placed it on the table.

When the Tower Master, who had sat back down, flicked his finger, the cloth bundle Sharti had taken out smoothly unraveled.

Then a slightly withered purple poisonous plant was revealed.

“Hmm?”

“It’s a poisonous plant commonly seen in this village.”

“Poisonous plant?”

The Tower Master, who had already uncrossed his arms, narrowed his eyes and alternately looked at Sharti and the poisonous plant.

“It’s a poisonous plant I’ve never seen before, and it seems quite different from ordinary poisonous plants. I was wondering if you’d seen this poisonous plant before, or if you could provide any related information……”

“Wait—”

The Tower Master, frowning, shook his head.

“What makes you certain it’s a poisonous plant?”

“……!”

The Tower Master pointed at the cloth bundle.

“It’s just a wildflower though?”

A wildflower? Sharti immediately lowered her gaze to look at the purple poisonous plant.

Multiple leaves shaped like purple flower buds, long roots with grain-like things stuck all over them like frog eggs. It absolutely didn’t look like a common wildflower.

However, the Tower Master’s eyes were telling only the truth. He was really seeing the purple poisonous plant as a wildflower.

Suddenly she recalled what the white-haired old man had said before.

[Long ago, when giving up this village, he said so. That it was a precious resource to be used greatly in the future.]

Her spine went cold for a moment.

Was the resource for rebellion really only the massive mana mass, just that?