Chapter 28

Twenty minutes later, we emerged from the forest and reached the main road.

Monsters usually didn’t wander this far, but lately “usual” meant very little. The exceptions had been piling up, and I couldn’t shake the unease.

“Mr. Allen, are you sure you’ll be alright on your own? At least until you find your companions, you could come with us—”

“Oh, I’m quite alright. You’ve already done more than enough for me. I couldn’t possibly impose any further.”

Waving his hands, Allen firmly declined. Then he rummaged through his bag and pulled out a fairly bulky pouch.

“This isn’t much, but please accept it as thanks. They’re mushrooms used for making potions.”

When I took the pouch and peeked inside, it was packed full of yellow-tinged mushrooms. They didn’t appear to be contaminated, which meant he must have obtained them somewhere else.

“Thank you, Mr. Allen. I’ll put them to good use.”

“Haha, it’s nothing.”

Right on cue, the system displayed a notification.

‘An additional reward?’

Pretending to glance up at the sky, I quietly summoned the inventory window and checked.

The additional reward was none other than a book titled Introduction to Apothecary. What? Was it really planning to give me an apothecary skill?

So wait, I purify, farm, cook… and now brew potions too?

‘At this rate, I’m not some simple farmer—I’m turning into a one-woman everything machine….’

A small laugh slipped out before I lowered my gaze from the sky. Turning to Allen, I came up with something suitably polite on the spot.

“It was clear this morning, but it looks like it might rain soon. Please be careful.”

“Haha, I will. Thank you for your concern! If fate allows, let’s meet again!”

With that, Allen waved vigorously and went on his way.

Lycian and I returned to the farm and spread out today’s harvest across the floor.

“Masteeer~!! I missed youuu~!! …Huh? I smell a monster?”

Ninabel, who had been clinging to me, tilted her round little body to one side.

No neck, so that’s how she expresses herself. I gave the spirit a rough explanation of what had happened.

Once she heard everything, Ninabel began bouncing up and down in agitation.

“That’s terrible! Another monster attack! It’s ominous! A bad omen for sure!! Master, please be careful!”

She was overreacting as usual, but she wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t a good sign.

Better to stay cautious for a while. Still, with Lycian by my side, I felt reassu—

“…….”

Ah. I might be relying on him a bit too much.

When I looked at him with complicated eyes, a question mark practically appeared over his head as he tilted it. Before I realized what I was doing, I reached out and ruffled his platinum hair.

‘Wait, I just doted on him way too much!’

I quickly pulled my hand back and cleared my throat for no reason. Lycian’s lips curved faintly, his gaze turning oddly intent—but I pretended not to notice.

‘I’m weak in combat, so leaning on him a little can’t be helped. And it’s not like I deliberately tamed him in the first place…! It was an accident!’

Having thoroughly rationalized things, I gathered up the pouch and headed inside. One water droplet and one bodyguard trailed after me.

The moment Lycian shut the door—click—rain suddenly came pouring down.

Shaaah—

“Whoa, what? A shower?”

We’d almost ended up like drenched field mice.

After setting the bundles near the entrance, I went to my room and changed first.

When I came back into the living room, Lycian was already seated on the sofa in clean clothes.

As I approached him, I asked,

“Aren’t you hungry? Should we eat first?”

“I’m fine. More importantly… are you planning to make potions with those ingredients, Muriel?”

“Uh….”

Instead of answering right away, I scratched the back of my neck and glanced at the bundles by the door.

The system’s intention in having me collect those ingredients was probably… to grant me an apothecary skill.

‘But there’s still one mission left.’

I opened my inventory and pulled out Introduction to Apothecary. I was certain the skill would only be unlocked after I finished reading it.

But…

‘Why is it so thick…?!’

It was hardcover. And absurdly thick. When I flipped to the table of contents and checked the page count, it came to 817 pages.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me….’

It felt like being a college student who just found out the entire textbook was on the exam.

‘When am I supposed to read all this? Doesn’t it come with speed-reading or something?’

What was that supposed to mean? That if I made unreasonable demands, it would beat me up? I was the one who wanted to beat it up.

I itched to punch the status window in retaliation, but since I had an audience, I restrained myself.

“Muriel, that book…?”

As I approached the sofa with a heavy sigh, Lycian asked curiously.

I dropped limply into the seat beside him and replied,

“Homework from God….”

“Ah….”

He looked like he had a general idea of what was going on.

Feeling dejected, I opened the book. I read the preface first, then skimmed the table of contents.

‘Ugh, now I want coffee. An iced Americano sounds so good.’

As I reminisced about my iced-even-in-winter¹ days, a wave of longing washing over me, Lycian spoke in a low voice.

“That book reminds me of when I had to study under my master. I had to read books like that in a single day and submit a summary.”

“In a single day…?”

“If I went over a day, I had to copy the entire book by hand. Two days meant copying it once. Three days meant copying it twice. Like that.”

“…….”

What kind of hardcore education is that?

At this point, I was starting to question this so-called master’s character.

“So you really finished them in one day? Books that thick?”

“Mm. And wrote the summaries too.”

“…….”

I couldn’t believe it. Don’t tell me your intelligence stat is 999 too?

‘So the real all-rounder wasn’t me. It was him….’

A faint sense of awe crept in, and I found myself staring at him as if he were some rare specimen.

“Are you just good at everything?”

“I suppose so.”

“There’s really nothing you’re bad at?”

As I kept pressing, he let out a short laugh and replied in a low, suggestive tone.

“There is one thing, actually….”

The way he said it—like he was about to reveal a secret—made me tense without meaning to.

“I’m not good at saying things I don’t mean.”

“…?”

“Flattery. That sort of thing.”

I thought about it for a moment before speaking.

“When you talk to me… it doesn’t always seem that way.”

“That’s because when I praise you, Muriel, I mean it.”

“Even if it’s not praise… what you’re saying is you don’t like catering to other people’s moods, right?”

“That’s right. Why should I bother?”

There it was again—that faint glimpse of arrogance that didn’t surface often when he was with me.

If someone else had said something like that, I might have found it insolent. But with Lycian, it didn’t feel that way. It fit him, like clothes tailored perfectly to his frame.

The way he’d been trained in both martial arts and scholarship… Could he actually be of noble birth?

“But you… cater to my moods pretty well.”

“You’re you. How could you possibly be the same as other people?”

“…….”

No suitable response came to mind. I only let out an awkward laugh, shrugged, and lowered my gaze back to the book. Then, pretending to be busy, I said,

“I’m going to read now. If you’re bored… go play with Nini.”

“That’s a bit….”

“What’s that supposed to mean? I don’t want to play with you either!”

After bickering for a while, the two of them ended up heading to the kitchen as if competing over who would prepare dinner first.

Though, honestly, it might have been that they felt awkward continuing to argue in front of me and decided to give me some space.

A faint smile touched my lips as I continued reading in the quiet, the sound of rain pouring down the only thing filling the silence.

The anomaly occurred at dawn the next day.

---

Footnotes

1. 얼죽아 - literally “even if I freeze to death, iced coffee”. the die-hard iced coffee devotees. ↩