Chapter 2
The Reason It Has to Be You
“Would you like to inspect the merchandise?”
A gender-neutral voice called out to Edellis.
“Yes.”
Rehan could hardly be called treated. His wounds had only been barely stopped from bleeding, with a few herbs placed on them and bandages wrapped around them.
The manager called the guide who had been waiting outside and ordered him to wake Rehan.
Then, one of the gladiators from this room, who had also been standing outside, hurried off and came back with a bucket of water.
“Wait, what are you—”
Before Edellis could stop him, he threw the cold water directly at Rehan.
The manager spread his cloak wide to prevent the water from splashing onto Edellis and smiled pleasantly.
However, Edellis could not possibly think well of a manager who splashed water on someone who had lost so much blood and collapsed instead of properly treating him.
“Cough! Cough!! Gack!”
Rehan coughed and struggled to open his eyes. His golden eyes were revealed.
It seemed that they had not even given him painkillers and had simply covered his wounds with herbs, because Rehan’s face was twisted in pain.
“Rehan, are you all right?”
The manager casually asked whether a man who was barely clinging to life was all right.
Only after looking around and understanding the situation did Rehan briefly answer the manager’s question.
“Yes.”
“He says he is. Then, please have a look.”
Edellis was dumbfounded.
Even without thinking about the match Rehan had just fought, he was in a state where he could not say he was all right, even as a polite lie.
She wanted to demand that Rehan be treated, but she was not in a position to say anything.
If she left Rehan as he was, she felt like he would die soon.
If that happened, would the future change?
Or would the future change if she took him with her and saved him?
No one could give her an answer.
‘Even if Rehan’s death changes the future, I still feel uneasy about it…… It would feel like he died in my place. And even if I don’t take Rehan with me and he survives, then the future won’t change anyway.’
In the end, she concluded that the best choice was to take Rehan with her and have him treated at the count’s estate.
Besides, although she knew the contents of the book were true, there was no other clue except for ‘Rehan.’
“I don’t need to look at him anymore. How much is he?”
Edellis spoke while desperately hiding the trembling in her voice.
“Since he is injured, I cannot give you a very good price. However, there are many spectators who want to see him die. Quite a few people lost a lot of money because of Rehan……”
Edellis felt like throwing up as she watched the manager shamelessly smile and talk about money right in front of the person involved.
Besides, Rehan’s life seemed to be in danger, so she did not have time to listen to his pointless talk.
“So? I’ll give you however much you want, so name whatever price you want.”
After receiving an overly warm send-off from the manager, Edellis was heading toward the count’s estate with Rehan.
Neither Edellis, who still had not decided what to do with Rehan, nor Rehan, who was thinking about what he should say, knew how to begin.
The first to speak was Rehan.
“Why did you take me out of all the gladiators?”
His cold voice reached Edellis.
Even though cold sweat covered his face, he was desperately hiding any sign of pain.
She could not tell Rehan, ‘Your name appeared in the book. I am destined to die, and you are an important character.’
So she mixed the truth with a lie.
“Your name came up from the audience seats. They said you were incredibly skilled.”
“Then what am I supposed to do after I go there?”
Edellis flinched for a moment.
She felt as if he had noticed that she had not yet decided what to do with him.
“……I heard gladiators are usually taken as guards.”
At Edellis’s vague answer, Rehan stared straight at her.
“Then wouldn’t it be much more beneficial to hire a knight as a guard or buy a healthy gladiator?”
Edellis could not argue with Rehan because he was only saying things that made sense.
At least, buying another healthy gladiator was better than buying one who was nearly dying.
‘But I don’t need another gladiator. I need ‘Rehan,’ the main character from the book! What am I supposed to do?’
She did not know whether he would actually save her life later, but thinking of it as an investment made her feel better.
She thought that if she treated Rehan, an important character in the novel, well, he would not have a negative effect on her later.
Perhaps he might even play a decisive role in helping her avoid death.
But Rehan spoke coldly with an expressionless face.
“There is somewhere gladiators are used more often than as guards.”
“……Where?”
“Assassinations.”
Rehan spoke as if telling her to stop avoiding the main point and just say it.
But Edellis was horrified. She quickly waved both hands and denied it.
“Absolutely not! That’s dangerous.”
Rather than understanding her reaction, Rehan looked as if he had no idea what she was talking about.
And it made sense.
People took gladiators to make them do dangerous things, not to have them live comfortably as servants.
In particular, because gladiators had uncertain identities, they were generally treated as expendable tools.
However, contrary to Rehan’s expectations, Edellis was prepared to let Rehan live comfortably.
‘My life is on the line. What’s wrong with letting him live comfortably?’
But Edellis could not explain all of this in detail, so she decided to give up on persuading him with logic.
If logic does not work, then what?
Insist!
“Because I like you.”
“……What?”
“I said I liked you more than the other gladiators.”
This claim did not need any evidence. It was simply her personal feeling.
‘I like you because I like you. What are you going to do about it?’
As expected, Rehan’s face was filled with confusion.
He had lived a short life in which he never knew when he would die, so he had no immunity to words that made his heart flutter.
It seemed her strategy had worked, because Rehan’s face was clearly embarrassed.
Seeing that, a smile spread across Edellis’s lips.
“I like the color of your hair and your eyes, too.”
She swallowed the words, ‘Your name is the most important thing, though.’
After hearing that, Rehan closed his mouth, completely unfamiliar with such a situation.
Edellis smiled broadly and spoke to him.
“First, get treated by the count’s personal physician. Once your body is completely healed, you can look forward to what comes next.”
After arriving at the count’s estate, Rehan received excellent treatment from the count’s physician until he was completely healed, just as Edellis had promised.
The servants were wary of Rehan because he had been a gladiator, but they could not refuse because of Edellis’s request.
‘Why is she treating me this well?’
Edellis’s consistent kindness only made Rehan more suspicious.
He wondered how she could say she liked him when they had barely even met.
He had thought he would be sent on a mission as soon as he arrived, but that did not happen.
He thought that since he could not carry out a mission while he was half-dead, they would send him once he recovered a little, but that did not happen either.
When his body had recovered enough that he thought he could escape, Edellis strangely kept coming to see him during the day.
He tried to escape secretly in the middle of the night, but the guards were quite strict because they were wary of him as a gladiator.
One day, while working hard to secure an escape route, a hypothesis he had never seriously considered before came to mind.
‘Does she really like me because of my appearance?’
Rehan stood in front of a mirror and stared at his hair and eyes for a long time.
Although he had cleaned himself up, it was obvious that his hair had grown roughly.
It was not something that would normally appeal to the eyes of a noble young lady who had grown up in comfort.
Rehan himself could not understand why she had brought him here, so he sometimes asked Edellis.
But Edellis always answered as if he were asking something obvious.
“I told you. It’s because I like you.”
Once, he even asked her to tell him the truth, saying that he would accept it without being shocked, even if she told him seriously.
Then Edellis explained in even more detail.
“Rehan, I like your name, too, and I like your red hair. I think it looks really good with your golden eyes. I want to become close to you. Let’s get along well from now on.”
Even when Rehan told her that he was a gladiator who had killed other people, it was useless.
“If I had known you before, I would have taken you out of the arena sooner. I would have taught you the value of life, too…… I’ll teach you about the value of life from now on!”
After that, Rehan had to listen to Edellis lecture him about the value of life for quite some time.
“And if the people around you try to hurt someone without a care, you have to know how to stop them!”
“The people around me?”
“Yes. This is the most important thing. You have to know how to stop someone when they are doing something wrong. Understand?”
“……Yes.”
As time passed and Rehan was nearly fully recovered, the count, who had received reports about everything Rehan had done from the moment he first stepped into the estate, summoned him.
“Count, I have brought Rehan.”
“Come in.”
After the butler briefly reported from outside the door, Count Brill gave permission.
Rehan opened the door with a nervous heart and entered.
Sitting inside was Count Brill, whose hair was the same golden color as Edellis’s.
As soon as Rehan entered the room, Count Brill silently placed a pouch taken from a drawer on the desk.
Then the butler took it and handed it to Rehan.
When the butler opened it and showed him, there was a large amount of gold inside.
It was not a large sum of money for the count, but for Rehan alone, it was enough to live without trouble for at least a year.
“Take that and leave this place. With that money, you can rent a small room and you will not have to worry about living expenses for a while.”
Only after hearing those words did Rehan become certain.
Edellis had really taken him out of the arena out of kindness.
‘I kept wondering where the lies began and where the truth ended.’
And yet, instead of sending him on a mission, they were trying to send him away as soon as his body had recovered.
And it was not Edellis, who had shown him kindness, telling him this directly.
It was a count whom he had never even seen before.
‘Then perhaps the young lady doesn’t know about this situation.’
Only then did Rehan feel as though he had escaped the fate of a gladiator.
The fate of constantly killing other people according to orders just to survive.
As Rehan stood there, Count Brill gestured for him to leave.
However, Rehan placed the pouch he had received from the butler on the count’s desk.
The corner of the count’s mouth twitched at the sight.
“I want to repay the young lady who took me out of the arena.”
“How do you intend to do that?”
The count spoke with a mocking laugh.
“Besides, the young lady……”
The sound of a door being thrown open with a loud bang interrupted the quiet study.
Edellis entered with an unmistakably displeased expression.
“Could you please explain what exactly is going on here, Father?”
Edellis spoke each word slowly, one by one, in anger.
Her eyes were fixed on the count.
“Well, that……”
Unlike when he had been coldly cutting Rehan off and trying to throw him out, the count now looked noticeably weak.
“The physician said his body has recovered quite a lot……”
“Just because his body is completely healed, is it okay to send him away without even telling me?”
Just as Rehan had expected, Edellis had not known that the count was trying to send him away.
“Sigh, Edellis. Gladiators are dangerous by nature. That is why, except in very special circumstances, people rarely bring them into their homes. Especially a noble lady like you.”
“Rehan already left the arena. He is no longer a gladiator!”
Edellis shouted firmly, trying to stop Rehan from being forced out of the estate.
“Even if he left the arena, that does not change much. Have you never heard stories of former gladiators trying to kill the person they were supposed to guard and being subdued and killed?”
As the count raised his voice, tears welled up in Edellis’s eyes.
An uncomfortable silence settled between them.
“My lord.”
Rehan quietly opened his mouth.
Both pairs of eyes turned toward him.
“……I don’t know what the other gladiators did.”
“So, are you saying that you are different?”
“However, if the young lady had not taken me out of the arena, I might be dead by now.”
Several days had already passed since he came here.
Considering the arena’s schedule, he would have already fought several more matches by now.
And since he would not have received proper treatment, his wounds would not have healed, and he would have died before long.
Unless, just as Edellis had done, someone had miraculously bought him.
“My life was going to disappear anyway. I want to use it for the young lady who saved me.”
The person most surprised by Rehan’s words was none other than Edellis.
She had been slightly worried that Rehan might want to leave and live outside instead of doing what she hoped.
But Rehan was looking at her father with unwavering eyes as he spoke.
Her father continued exchanging glances with Rehan.
“If you think I am dangerous, then I will travel together with a knight who can subdue me.”
To be completely honest, Edellis had taken Rehan with her for the sake of her own life.
But she had never expected Rehan to say this much, and she felt a little guilty.
Everything she had done for him had actually been for her own sake……
Still, having Rehan take her side gave Edellis tremendous strength.
And even if it had started selfishly, she thought she could simply treat Rehan well from now on.
It would also be much more comfortable for Rehan to live here than in the arena.
“That’s right, Father! If you’re really worried, then just assign another knight to me! You were planning to give me a guard anyway, weren’t you? I’ll travel with Rehan and two knights.”
Seeing the count’s eyes soften compared to before, Edellis worked even harder to persuade him.
In truth, having several knights follow her around was extremely inconvenient.
But if it meant she could stay together with Rehan, she would have accepted even if her father told her to take an entire order of knights with her.
“They say Rehan is also very skilled with the sword. He was famous in the arena.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to assign two knights instead?”
“I don’t want that. I like Rehan. Then I’ll travel with the two knights and Rehan, so there will be four of us.”
The count’s displeasure became obvious on his face when she said that she liked Rehan.
However, he seemed to be the only one bothered by it. Both Edellis and Rehan only showed desperation on their faces.
“A gladiator is fundamentally trained for killing, not for protecting someone like a guard.”
“Then let him train together with the knights.”
“Rehan grew up only in the arena, so he doesn’t know much about the outside world. If he goes outside, he might become involved in crime again. So wouldn’t it be better to teach him some work here?”
Edellis and Rehan continued trying to persuade the count.
Rehan also promised that he would train hard and protect Edellis from anyone who tried to harm her.
“Sigh……”
“Father, please. Honestly, if Rehan had intended to hurt me, he has already had plenty of chances. But he didn’t, did he?”
In fact, Edellis did not realize it, and Rehan did not feel the need to mention it, but there had been a guard hiding close enough to rush over immediately if Rehan showed even the slightest sign of trying to harm Edellis.
Because of that, the count also thought Edellis’s words were reasonable.
In the end, after Edellis continued persuading him, the count nodded.
As expected, there was no parent who could defeat their own child.
Just as Edellis said, Rehan and Edellis would not be alone. If they were accompanied by two knights, then even if something happened, Edellis could be safely protected.
“If anything happens to Edellis……”
The count spoke as if threatening Rehan.
“I will leave of my own accord.”
