GDTEA Chapter 87

Payment

Sharti walked along with heavy steps.

The heat that had been swirling in her head just moments ago had dissipated slightly, leaving her feeling somewhat dazed.

‘……I was, confessed to.’

It was something completely unrealistic, yet she had received a confession.

And from a completely unexpected person at that.

[I’m not, not forcing you or being unreasonable. I just wanted to get even the smallest chance……]

The Sharti that Ashu knew was just a doctor with a terrible voice, burn scars on her body, who hid her face with a hood and lived in seclusion.

Yet despite this, Ashu had gathered his courage to confess that he had come to like her, even without knowing her face.

‘I was so surprised I thought it might be a lie.’

Why would Ashu, the village chief’s son who met all of Virena’s ideal type conditions, harbor feelings for a woman whose face he’d never even seen?

It was a confession that raised nothing but questions.

[May I…… continue to like you, doctor?]

However, his face red as if about to burst and his trembling voice showed it was not a poor joke, an empty jest, or words thrown out as a test.

Without saying when he started liking her or why he came to like her, only that one sincere feeling of liking Sharti came through strongly and clearly.

‘He says he, likes me…….’

She was still bewildered from receiving such an unimaginable confession from someone who had never appeared even once in her dreams.

The feeling of excitement from watching Ashu trembling as he gathered all his courage still made her heart flutter slightly.

[Thank you.]

She wasn’t just flustered by the sudden confession.

It was her first confession in life. Rather than being embarrassed, she was happy, and though troubled, she was excited.

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t thrilled by the confession from Ashu, who was always gentle though timid.

However, Sharti could give him neither opportunity nor permission.

[And…… I’m sorry.]

Sharti had no room or space to accept Ashu’s feelings.

There was already someone who had taken a place in her head and heart.

Though Ashu may have been faster with his confession, someone else had been expressing those feelings first.

[You have someone else in your heart, don’t you?]

Ashu seemed to have noticed too, showing a calm smile.

For a while, there was no word.

Ashu lowered his gaze as if trying to hide his pitiful smile and squeezed out his last bit of courage.

[Even if I, try harder, can I not enter your heart, doctor?]

At that moment, Sharti couldn’t open her mouth.

The heart doesn’t move as one wills, so it was a problem she couldn’t be certain of herself. But she didn’t want to leave Ashu with any opening through an uncertain answer.

False hope. Sharti knew all too well how sweet and how cruel that could be.

[The presence of the person who entered my heart is so large that even if that person disappears someday, there will be no room to give to another.]

There were too many memories with Ren carved into this small heart.

Ren had given too much, and the time spent with him was too precious, so even if Ren left someday, those memories wouldn’t be overwritten by anything.

[All I can handle is this one heart that holds that person.]

Ashu’s confession was a feeling too generous for Sharti.

She felt sorry and troubled that she couldn’t accept his kind heart.

‘……I should have answered more carefully.’

Sharti glanced at the bouquet of a hundred flowers cradled in her arms and swallowed a sigh.

It was a bouquet she had tried to return, unable to shamelessly accept it.

[Please just reject my feelings. The flowers are a thank you separate from my feelings.]

Ashu had smiled as he always did.

It would have been better if she had rejected him as kindly as the consideration he showed, at least.

If she had chosen a more indirect way of refusing, wouldn’t the bitter smile he showed at the end have been a little different?

‘I wonder if I really needed to reject him in front of the children when Ashu has his pride too.’

Children were as sensitive to adult emotions as they were innocent. As if not to interfere with an important moment for Ashu, the children held their breath and didn’t interrupt anymore.

When Sharti finally rejected Ashu’s feelings, the children surrounded Ashu with pitying eyes and even comforted him.

Thanks to that, Ashu left with the children fussing over him before he could even become gloomy.

‘Speaking of which, I might have to leave tomorrow.’

Coincidentally, just as she had roughly finished the matters weighing on her mind, the former doctor who was Marquis Bridend’s minion had returned.

Fortunately, she had received a written pledge as compensation and made the antidote for the purple poison herb, so there was really nothing left for Sharti to do in Sedipia Village.

“It would be best to leave before various talk starts.”

Because she had unintentionally received Ashu’s confession on the village street, quite a few residents had sensed the awkward atmosphere. The fact that the always cautious and timid Ashu had suddenly confessed on a busy street meant he was that nervous.

Sharti stopped walking for a moment and examined the bouquet.

It was an unusual flower resembling a rose. It was also strange that the flower’s scent persisted in the cold weather.

‘I’ve never seen this flower in the village.’

It seemed like a bouquet specially prepared to confess to her.

‘Ah! I need to hurry to grandmother.’

Before the former doctor wandered around the village, she needed to hurry and meet Vireta to tell her of her intention to leave. There would surely be watchers hiding outside the village too, so it would be safer in many ways to leave the village with the help of the Krofl Mercenary Group.

It would be easier to ask the Tower Master or the mages, but since teleportation magic leaves coordinates, she was reluctant to rashly ask for help.

‘I should also separately inform grandmother about the purple poison herb.’

It was just as Sharti was about to take a step.

“Sha-!”

“……!”

Sharti reflexively turned around.

Ren was running toward her with his blindfold clutched in his hand.

A strange light crossed Sharti’s crimson eyes as she watched Ren running with the pale sunset sky behind him. As Ren, whom she had been constantly searching for, waiting for, and hoping to see, appeared, her coldly stiff facial muscles melted and a smile spread across her face.

Her heart beat a little faster.

“Ren-.”

The terrible frog-like croaking softened in an instant and flowed out naturally.

It was a change that even Sharti herself didn’t notice.

“Huu…….”

Ren stood before Sharti, breathing heavily in a way unlike him.

The first place his gaze went was to the bouquet Sharti was holding with both arms full.

Ren, who had been glaring at the bouquet with eyes that had much to say, took a deep breath.

“Sha.”

His teal eyes, determined as could be, stared directly at Sharti.

“Actually, I’m not ready yet.”

“Hm?”

“So what I’m saying now is the petty jealousy of someone unqualified.”

Because Ren’s expression was so solemn as he made this cryptic declaration, Sharti ended up nodding.

As Sharti agreed, Ren immediately snatched the bouquet from her.

“……!”

Before she could react, her arms were empty.

As Sharti stared blankly at the bouquet that had disappeared in the blink of an eye, Ren held out a small box from his pocket instead.

“Wha, what, what is this?”

Sharti received the small box with both hands for now.

The palm-sized small box was light in weight. When she shook it slightly to see if anything was inside, there was a small clinking sound.

‘Metal?’

She had an idea of what it might be.

“Did you get a badge from the Krofl Mercenary Group?”

Sharti recalled how when she found Ren, he had been surrounded by the Krofl Mercenary Group.

Since Shukadi had coveted him as a talent so much, it wouldn’t be strange if they had enrolled Ren in the Krofl Mercenary Group even temporarily.

“It’s not a badge.”

At any rate, it meant he had received something from the Krofl Mercenary Group.

Sharti looked at the outside of the box with puzzled eyes.

“Sha, it’s yours.”

“Hm? Mine?”

Since she had already received a written pledge from Karun as compensation, Sharti tilted her head.

‘But why does Ren look so tense?’

What on earth is this.

Sharti opened the box while watching Ren’s reaction.

“……A ring?”

It was a thick silver ring.

Sharti blinked as she carefully examined the silver ring with an unusual jewel embedded in it.

“I received it as payment.”

“Payment? ……You don’t mean they didn’t want to give you money and gave you this instead? They didn’t try to deceive you by saying this was incredibly valuable, did they?”

“……No.”

At her worry-filled concern that he might have been scammed, Ren’s expression immediately soured.

Only after hearing the explanation that he had worked for this ring in the first place did Sharti feel relieved and take out the ring again to turn it this way and that.

It certainly didn’t seem like an ordinary ring.

Then suddenly she remembered what Shukadi had said when he visited their lodging last time.

“Don’t tell me this is, a magic tool……?”

Ren nodded.

“Ren!”

Magic tools are expensive. No matter what ability they contain, magic tools are expensive.

Sharti couldn’t help but choke up at the fact that he had volunteered for dangerous work to receive such an expensive magic tool.

Moreover, she couldn’t stand it even more if it was for Sharti’s gift rather than for Ren himself.

“I won’t accept it. I can’t.”

Sharti firmly closed the box and held it out to Ren.

“Get something you need instead of…….”

“They said the ability I’ve most desired is contained in this ring.”

Despite Sharti extending her arm to hold out the box, Ren paid no attention and opened the box as is and took out the ring. Then, as smoothly as flowing water, he slipped it onto Sharti’s left pinky finger.

Before Sharti could react, the silver ring placed on her finger automatically shrunk to fit her finger size.

“Sha, this ring is a magic tool that interferes with facial recognition.”

“……Huh?”

Flustered, Sharti immediately examined the silver ring on her finger.

While Sharti floundered, Ren quickly rummaged through his pocket, avoiding her eyes.

The silver ring magic tool originally came as a pair.

“Don’t look at the ring, take off your hood, Sha.”

“…….”

Sharti flinched and looked up at Ren with trembling eyes.

Ren nodded, saying it was okay.

Sharti bit her lip and checked the contours of her face under the hood just in case. Unlike the face-altering magic cast by the mage, even though she wore the magic tool, her original face remained the same. Her hair color was the same too.

“Trust me, okay? Sha-.”

At his words to trust him, Sharti didn’t think any further.

Though her hands hesitated, she slowly pushed back her hood.

At the same time as she squeezed her eyes shut, her long curly hair cascaded down and fluttered lightly in the cold wind. The heat from her flushed cheeks quickly dissipated.

“…….”

Sharti’s eyelids trembled finely with anticipation and anxiety.

The weight of the ring felt heavier than the weight of the hundred-flower bouquet.

“Sha-.”

At Ren’s affectionate call, Sharti pressed her lips tightly together.

She was somehow afraid to open her eyes. Her heart pounded loudly.

Ren also closed his mouth for a moment. But the day was growing cold and dim to wait for Sharti to open her eyes. He fussily removed his outer coat.

“The village children came looking for me a little while ago.”

“…….”

As he draped the coat around Sharti, Ren’s voice unintentionally came from a span’s distance away.

To calm her trembling, Sharti focused on his voice coming from close by.

“Sha, you and the village chief’s son-.”

“……!”

Sharti gasped and opened her eyes wide. Her eyes met the teal eyes looking down at her from right in front of her nose.

Sharti reflexively gulped down her dry saliva.