SIWALL Ch 19

When Arzen changed locations, Elliot genuinely thought he was being led off to an execution ground or a torture chamber.

He had only flinched a little from the cold, and the man had suddenly grabbed his wrist and thigh as if trying to crush them to death.

Elliot rubbed his wrist, which looked like it would develop deep bruises as time passed, and desperately held back his tears.

But a greenhouse? And he had brought him to a warm place because he was cold?

He felt a slight touch of emotion at the realization that Arzen was not a psychopath.

Arzen cast a somewhat puzzled look at Elliot, then walked deeper into the greenhouse first. Afraid of what the man might say if he didn’t follow, Elliot quickly hurried after him.

The interior of the greenhouse was warm, humid, and lush. Unfamiliar exotic flowers and grasses each radiated their own vibrant vitality.

Having occasionally followed Benny into the greenhouse before, Elliot felt his heart calm down at the familiar, characteristic scent.

Arzen naturally seated himself on a bench in front of a tea table. From that spot, palm trees and flower thickets imported from the distant kingdom of Hosraon were clearly visible.

Elliot pulled a chair over to a spot where he wouldn’t block the man’s line of sight. Noticing that careful consideration, Arzen arched one eyebrow slightly, though he didn’t voice any comment.

“Over there.”

Arzen pointed toward the ground right in front of them.

When Elliot turned his head in that direction, he saw a cluster of strangely twisted, crooked-looking weeds clinging together on the dirt floor.

“Dig that up.”

“…Pardon?”

Arzen didn’t even offer a word of explanation. Muttering complaints under his breath, Elliot stood up from his chair. The sound of the chair scraping against the ground was so loud that he momentarily flinched, terrified his dissatisfaction had shown, but he quickly strapped on his all-purpose service smile and walked toward the crooked weeds.

He squatted down in front of the twisted plants and glanced back at Arzen once. It was a silent question asking if this was really the right thing to pull up.

Arzen was just quietly looking down at him. The faint light leaking from the mansion and the dim moonlight carved Arzen’s face into even sharper, more striking angles.

He really is ridiculously good-looking.

Elliot grumbled inwardly once more and turned back around.

A nightmare among nightmares. An unprecedented, catastrophic pain in the ass. Is being good-looking everything?

Yet the most absurd part of all was that he was actually pulling up weeds without putting up any real resistance. Elliot dug out about three plants all the way down to their roots and respectfully presented them to Arzen.

Arzen took the plants, snipped off the root portions, and roughly brushed away the dirt clinging to the stems. Then, he handed them back to Elliot.

“Eat it.”

“…Pardon? Haha, could you say that again, Grand Duke?”

“Eat.”

Is this some kind of poisonous plant…?

As Elliot’s eyes wavered, Arzen seemed to read his thoughts and added impassively, “It’s an herb with exceptional regenerative properties.”

With that, he glanced down at Elliot’s swollen lips. He was probably referring to the state of Elliot’s mouth, which had likely been wrecked from pouring scalding tea straight down his throat earlier.

Elliot brushed his fingers lightly against his lips.

“I’m, I’m fine now. Aside from it being a bit scraped up, I can pronounce everything properly—”

“Eat.”

“…”

Ha… This hopeless, impossible nuisance.

Even a five-year-old child could explain things better than this. Even a foreigner who struggled with the language would explain things in more detail than you!

Anger and anxiety made his hands tremble. At first, he had half-jokingly thought it might be a poisonous plant, but now, no matter how he looked at it, it really seemed like a poisonous plant.

Suddenly, his gaze dropped to the area right beneath the hand holding the weeds. His wrist looked even blacker than before. Beyond a dull throb, even the bones deep inside were aching.

It was pain caused by Arzen.

Could he guarantee that eating this weed raw wouldn’t create yet another kind of agony?

Arzen currently suspected Elliot of being a spy, and for that reason alone, he felt not a shred of remorse about killing or injuring Elliot.

It wasn’t all that long ago, but back when he worked at a family restaurant, a hair had accidentally gotten into a customer’s food one day.

As luck would have it, the customer who received that food had a fiery temper, and Lim Seongsik was his server. At the customer’s roaring demand to eat the food himself, Lim Seongsik chewed and swallowed the meal that contained the short hair. That had pacified the customer’s anger enough for him to let Lim Seongsik go.

This wasn’t his first time experiencing having to eat something he didn’t want to. But back then it was just a hair, and now it was an unidentified weed that might very well be a poisonous plant.

When Elliot’s hesitation dragged on, Arzen let out a soft sigh.

Just as Elliot, reacting reflexively to the sigh he had heard so many times before, straightened his back and tried to bring the weed to his mouth—

Arzen caught Elliot by the wrist.

Fearing that the man was going to squeeze him ruthlessly like before, Elliot shrank back, but Arzen merely pulled his wrist forward gently. Then, lowering his upper body slightly, Arzen bit off a stalk of the weed sticking out from between Elliot’s fingers.

Holding his wrist lightly and looking up at Elliot at an angle, Arzen’s expression showed no change whatsoever. He simply chewed slowly on what was in his mouth while locking eyes with Elliot.

For a split second, Elliot felt as though time had stopped.

The man had just casually bitten off a weed, yet he looked as elegant and dignified as if he were dining on a fine course meal at a luxury restaurant… and—though this was the first time he had ever felt such an emotion toward a man—he was a little, just a tiny bit, sexy.

Moreover, there was a strange kind of power contained within Arzen’s eyes.

It conveyed the unspoken sentiment of believe it if you want, and don’t if you don’t, but precisely because of that, it paradoxically made you want to believe him. A power like that.

The masticatory muscles in Arzen’s thick neck soon quieted down as he gracefully chewed the weed, and his thick Adam’s apple bobbed slowly. He was still holding Elliot’s gaze.

In the original story, Grand Duke Arzen Teron was immensely popular among the knights. The knights offered him blind loyalty, and that was what made the emperor uneasy.

Elliot felt like he finally understood a little why those knights had felt that way.

The method was identical to what Elliot had tried in the bedroom by gulping down tea to prove his innocence, but there was something about the act of Arzen eating the weed that inspired a much heavier sense of trust.

This man was probably a warrior who would be the first to charge into the jaws of death. He was likely someone deeply accustomed to bearing the hopes and trust of others entirely on his own shoulders.

That was the premonition he felt.

…Isn’t this all just because of his face?

Feeling momentarily resentful that he had felt something akin to a favorable impression toward Arzen, Elliot muttered pettily—entirely in his head.

Then, squeezing his eyes shut, he shoved the weeds he held straight into his mouth. There was a slight smell of dirt, and the aftertaste was quite bitter.

As Elliot involuntarily winced at the bitterness, Arzen straightened his posture and spoke belatedly.

“Leperti is most effective when eaten raw.”

Following that, he pointed with his finger to various corners of the greenhouse.

“That one is palan. Over there is jesernat. That’s gatus. They are all herbs that are fine to eat raw. You can crush them and apply them directly to external wounds, or squeeze out the juice and drink it.”

“Yeees….”

“If you need them, pick and eat them. That’s what they’re planted here for.”

“Ah… right, thank you.”

Seeing Elliot respond submissively despite making a face, Arzen clicked his tongue.

Elliot, for his part, found the whole thing utterly absurd. Though he nodded, his mind was noisy.

Was that an implication that he was going to get hurt a lot in the future?

Why on earth is he telling me to pick and eat this?

He told me to eat it, so I said okay, why are you clicking your tongue?

Still, it seemed to be a genuine herb. In a world where sword masters and magic existed as fantasy, herbs worked quickly, too. The scratchy, stinging sensation in his tongue and throat began to tingle, and he felt the pain diminish noticeably compared to before.

As Elliot, in sheer amazement, rubbed his tongue against the roof of his mouth, Arzen stood up from his seat.

After casting a sweeping glance around the greenhouse, he plucked a small fruit from a tree a few paces away.

“Eat.”

Without even asking what it was this time, Elliot took it and popped it straight into his mouth. It was driven by the thought that it was probably another fruit with medicinal properties.

However, the red fruit crushed between his molars turned out to be refreshing and sweet. Growing puzzled, Elliot widened his eyes.

Don’t tell me he gave me this because I looked like I thought it was bitter…?

He actually has a surprisingly sweet side. Is that why he’s the top of a BL novel, or something?

Thinking that to himself, Elliot gave a polite bow of his head.

“Thank you. It’s delicious.”

At that, Arzen glared sharply as if he had just caught a thief trying to plunder his private property.

“I’m not giving you any more.”

“I… I didn’t ask for more.”

So much for his sweet side, my foot. He makes things terribly awkward just when I’m trying to get through social life. What an utterly unendearing guy.

Ignoring Elliot, who was gritting his teeth and talking back, Arzen sat back down on the bench.

Once he rolled the lingering sweet taste of the fruit in his mouth to the very end, an awkward silence settled between the two of them. No, since Arzen looked completely unbothered, it was an awkward silence for Elliot alone.

The outside world, still deep in the dead of night, was dyed in thick darkness. Perhaps out of consideration for a master suffering from insomnia, or perhaps simply because the estate grounds were excessively vast, the Grand Duke’s mansion was enveloped in absolute quiet. Rolling his eyes in that stillness, Elliot pondered how on earth he was supposed to spend the remaining hours until sunrise.

At that moment, Arzen spoke up out of the blue.

“If everything you said is the truth.”

“Pardon?”

“If you aren’t a spy, and you really are just a lowly servant and a devoted follower of Loran Pedet, how is it that you know Generwin Tulion?”

Elliot almost bit his tongue off.

How the hell does he know I know Generwin?!