WTTAO CH 07

The boy lowered his gaze and bit his lip.

‘As I thought, that boy really is Cardian.’

The man turned around and gave her a slight bow.

“I apologize. My son has his reasons for disliking nobles. Still, you must have come a long way to get here, so I’ll make the gardening shears especially for you, young lady.”

“Father! Have you already forgotten what happened to your eye?”

Cardian sharply protested from behind him, but his adoptive father, Mark, merely chuckled and covered his mouth with his large, pot-lid-sized hand.

‘His eye? Then does that eyepatch have something to do with the nobles?’

Roselia was gasping for breath in the middle of the courtroom, as though she were about to collapse.

“Every member of that blasphemous family must die! Kill her! Kill her!”

Nobles and commoners surrounded her, shouting and pointing their fingers at her.

‘No. I don’t want this. I don’t want to die.’

She needed to escape from them, but her feet wouldn’t move, as though they were stuck to the floor.

Cardian looked down at her with his chilling red eyes filled with icy hostility.

“My sister died a miserable death, yet you want to live? No. That won’t do. You, the daughter of Count Hailen, must die too.”

Blood-like tears streamed down from both of Cardian’s eyes.

At some point, a sharp longsword had appeared in his hand.

He slowly approached her and raised the sword high above his head.

“Die!”

Whoosh!

The blade came crashing down toward her head.

“AAAAAH!”

Roselia let out a scream and abruptly opened her eyes.

“Hah… Haa… ha…”

It had been a dream.

She stared blankly into the air for a moment before sitting up and leaning against the headboard.

Cold sweat had formed across her forehead.

Overcome by a burning thirst, Roselia grabbed the glass of water on the bedside table and gulped down the cold water.

The hand holding the glass trembled slightly.

As the cool water passed down her throat, her mind slowly cleared.

It had only been a dream, but it had felt incredibly real.

Perhaps she had the nightmare because she had met Cardian the previous day.

Roselia became anxious.

‘I found him, but how am I supposed to become friends with him?’

Apparently, Mark’s eye had been ruined because of nobles.

Because of that, Cardian hated nobles, which was an unexpected obstacle for Roselia, who was trying to grow closer to him.

‘At this rate, the past from my previous life might repeat itself. That absolutely cannot happen!’

Remembering the nightmare, Roselia shuddered.

She couldn’t simply sit around worrying.

She had to do something.

Three days later.

Roselia returned to Mark’s blacksmith shop with a large batch of cookies she had asked the chef to prepare.

Her official reason for coming was to pick up the completed gardening shears, but what mattered to her now was making a good impression on Cardian.

So she came up with a plan: win over the people around Cardian first.

“Oh my. What did you have to bring all this for, Lady Roselia?”

By this point, Roselia had already revealed to Mark that she was the young lady of House Hailen, since he had already discovered that she was a noble.

“These are cookies with nuts in them. Since you don’t normally make gardening shears but agreed to make them especially for me, I brought these as a token of my gratitude. Please have some as a snack.”

“Yes, thank you. I’ll enjoy them. Cardian! Come over here and have some too!”

“…You eat plenty yourself, Father.”

Unlike Mark, who happily welcomed the cookies, Cardian didn’t even look in her direction and continued working the bellows beside the furnace with all his strength.

Roselia swallowed a sigh as she watched him.

“By the way, you made the shears very well. The handles are covered with leather, so they’re smooth and fit perfectly in my hand.”

Roselia examined the gardening shears Mark had handed her from several angles and gave a sincere compliment.

“Haha. Is that so? I may be a big man, but I’m quite skilled with my hands.”

Mark laughed heartily at her praise.

“That reminds me… I’d like to order five more pairs of gardening shears. I’ll pay you well.”

It was a plan she had come up with simply as an excuse to keep visiting Cardian.

“I have no problem with that. And if you’re willing to pay well, I’m grateful.”

“Great. Then I’ll leave it to you.”

After discussing the schedule for her next visit with Mark, Roselia left the blacksmith shop.

Unlike the heat inside, the cool air outside felt refreshing.

Just then, Cardian hurried outside and blocked her path.

“Why are you blocking Lady Roselia’s way?”

Mary, who was standing beside her, raised her voice at him.

“It’s alright. He probably has something to say to me.”

At Roselia’s insistence, Mary nodded and fell silent.

“My father may be naturally kind and think well of nobles, but I… I absolutely do not trust nobles.”

Cardian stared at her coldly.

“They’re the reason my father lost his eye. So… please go to another blacksmith.”

Without even giving Roselia a chance to respond, Cardian said what he had to say, then went back inside the blacksmith shop and slammed the door shut.

Roselia bit her lip as she stared at the firmly closed door.

Roselia returned to the Count’s estate.

“You keep saying you hate nobles and telling us not to come back. What are you going to do now?”

Mary looked at her worriedly.

Roselia’s expression hardened for a moment before she relaxed and answered with a smile.

“What am I going to do? …Go again.”

“What? You’re going again?”

“Yeah. Even if he keeps telling me not to come, there’s a reason I have to keep going.”

‘If I can’t become close to Cardian, the past from my previous life will repeat itself anyway.’

“…I see. You said he was your first love, right? I didn’t think of that.”

‘Ugh. No! That’s not it. It’s not!’

As she looked at Mary’s knowing expression, Roselia inwardly cried in frustration.

A week later.

Roselia headed to the blacksmith shop again, carrying freshly baked bread as a snack.

She was there to pick up the five pairs of gardening shears she had ordered from Mark.

‘I’m worried because Cardian told me not to come last time, but I should still try to win Mark over. If that doesn’t work, maybe I can try his sister.’

Lost in thought, Roselia arrived in front of Mark’s blacksmith shop.

Just as she was about to go inside, something caught her eye.

It was a wooden sign with writing on it.

Although there were some spelling mistakes, it clearly meant that the blacksmith shop was closed.

She tried pushing the door, but it was firmly locked as well.

“The sign says the blacksmith shop is closed.”

“Until when?”

“It doesn’t say, so I don’t know.”

There had been no mention of the blacksmith shop closing just a week ago.

“Could they have closed it deliberately because they don’t like nobles?”

“Surely… it wouldn’t be because of that, would it?”

Considering Cardian’s attitude so far, Mary’s guess was actually quite reasonable.

Just then—

“Are you customers who came to the blacksmith shop?”

A sudden voice from behind startled Roselia, and she turned around.

An elderly woman with her long white hair tied up stood there, leaning on a cane.

“Who are you?”

“I’m a neighbor who lives next to this blacksmith shop.”

“Oh, I see. But what happened here? I came to pick up the items I ordered today, but the door is locked and there’s even a sign saying the shop is closed.”

Roselia politely asked the old woman.

“Hmm… Something did happen. The family at the blacksmith shop must be beside themselves right now.”

“What? Why?”

“I heard their daughter came down with a fever.”

“Their daughter… has a fever?”

“That’s right.”

“Thank you for letting me know. Please accept this as a token of my gratitude.”

Roselia gave the bread she had brought to the elderly woman and fell into thought for a moment.

“What are you going to do?”

“…I think I need to go see Gray immediately.”

Roselia headed straight to the Golden Whale Guild.

The next day.

Roselia returned to the blacksmith shop with Mary.

As expected, the door was still firmly locked.

‘The old woman said that if I keep going behind this blacksmith shop, I’ll find Cardian’s house, right?’

Following the route the old woman had told her about the previous day, she walked for a while before spotting a single-story wooden house.

Up close, the house looked extremely old and worn.

‘No wonder the armor and shields on the shelves in the blacksmith shop were covered in so much dust.’

It seemed that they weren’t particularly well-off financially.

When Roselia reached the front door, she was so nervous that she swallowed hard.

She took one deep breath before carefully knocking.

Knock, knock.

After a moment, the door opened.

“Who…?”

“Hel-hello?”

The moment Cardian saw her face, his expression hardened.

Then—

Bang!

The door slammed shut.

Roselia was momentarily stunned by his fierce reaction.

But she quickly pulled herself together.

Knock, knock.

She knocked on the door again.

This time, however, there was no response from inside, and the door remained closed.

But she couldn’t simply return to the Count’s estate again.

“Mr. Mark! Are you there? Please open the door!”

This time, she raised her voice and continued knocking.

The door finally opened, revealing Mark’s face.

“Oh, Lady Roselia! What are you doing here? Cardian, you rascal! How can you leave a guest standing outside the house like this?”

Mark, flustered, turned toward Cardian, who was standing behind him.

Cardian paid no attention to Mark’s scolding and continued staring coldly at Roselia.

“After everything the nobles did to you, you still act like this?”

“You fool. Do you really think Lady Roselia is the same as the noble who did this to my eye?”

Mark glared at Cardian.

“At the very least, Lady Roselia hasn’t looked down on us, beaten us like animals, or cheated us out of our money like that noble bastard did. Am I wrong?”

“That…”

Cardian couldn’t refute Mark’s words and pressed his lips into a thin line.