ERMS CH 07

Chapter 7

“I found one!”

Baron shouted excitedly, holding up a fist-sized sea snail in his hand.

“Oh. Nice job.”

I gave him a thumbs-up, and he smiled brightly. His cheerful face was so cute that I couldn’t help smiling too.

“Not bad, kid.”

“Ugh! I’m not a kid.”

Baron pouted in protest. Maybe because he was young, but no matter what expression he made, he just looked adorable.

This morning, I grilled the leftover sea snails from yesterday and fed him breakfast. As soon as I confirmed the tide was going out, I came to the sea. Baron insisted on coming with me, saying he wanted to help gather shellfish.

He said it was daytime, so it would be safe. And if he stayed home alone, he’d be bored.

So I agreed, but only after making him promise to stay right next to me and tell me immediately if he got tired.

It’s not very dangerous during the day unless the tide changes suddenly, so I brought him along after giving him plenty of warnings. Surprisingly, he was quite good at it.

Those tiny hands were still hands, after all.

Thanks to him, the bucket filled up quickly with sea snails. It felt heavy in no time. I guessed it was about eight kilograms.

“Let’s head back now.”

“Huh? Already?”

Baron looked toward the horizon.

“It doesn’t seem like the tide is coming in yet.”

“It’s already too heavy. And I can’t use up all my energy in the morning.”

I still had a lot of work to do today, so I needed to save my strength.

When I stood up holding the bucket, Baron held out his hand.

“Give it to me. I’ll carry it.”

“What are you talking about? It’ll be even heavier for a kid.”

“No, I’m strong.”

I shook my head, but he insisted.

“I’m serious. I’m way stronger than you, noona.”

“Liar.”

“Just let me try. You’ll see.”

“You’re so tiny. What are you saying?”

How could a seven-year-old lift this?

I almost laughed at his childish confidence.

But then I thought—

Wouldn’t it be cute if Baron struggled trying to lift the bucket?

I looked down at him. He was waving his hand impatiently, asking for the bucket.

This isn’t teasing him. I’m just helping him realize reality.

It was heavy even for me. There was no way he could lift it. I just needed to make sure he didn’t hurt himself.

“Alright. Just try once. Carefully.”

“If I lift it well, can I keep carrying it?”

Instead of saying, “That won’t happen,” I warned him again.

“Be careful not to get hurt.”

I placed the bucket on the ground and pushed the handle toward him.

And then something completely unexpected happened.

Baron lifted the bucket easily.

With one hand.

“It’s pretty light.”

What?

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

I watched carefully, worried he might get hurt, but after taking a few steps, he only frowned slightly.

See? I knew it.

I quickly reached out my hand.

“It’s hard, right? Give it back.”

“No. It’s just uncomfortable because I’m short.”

Then he changed how he carried it, supporting the bottom of the bucket with one hand like a waiter.

“It’s fine like this.”

“Huh?”

That was definitely not the strength of a normal seven-year-old.

“Baron, why are you so strong?”

He grinned at me.

“The Eldit family has always been a knight family. Father was strong even when he was young.”

As I watched him walk ahead confidently, I was reminded again that this was a romance fantasy world.

Wait!

Suddenly, I realized something.

Baron had all the classic signs of an original novel’s hidden plot.

He had no parents. He was the only survivor of a noble family that had been destroyed.

He had extraordinary looks, intelligence, and now incredible strength from a young age.

Could he… be a future sword master seeking revenge?

Thanks to my long experience as a romance fantasy reader, I could easily imagine his storyline.

His title was stripped. His family’s wealth confiscated.

That meant the imperial family must have destroyed the Eldit barony.

Baron, who lost his parents and was abandoned by his nanny, would be kidnapped and even sold as a slave. He would grow up hiding his hatred for the imperial family, becoming strong and cold-hearted.

With such natural strength, he would eventually escape slavery and become a mercenary—or hide his true identity and become a knight serving another noble.

At the end, he’d probably become a mercenary captain or commander of the imperial knights.

After earning great achievements fighting monsters, he might receive a new title and quietly wait for his chance at revenge.

But then I tilted my head.

Wait. If he grows up, that would be after the original story ends. The timeline doesn’t match. So… is he from a side story?

There was no mercenary captain in the original novel, but there was a commander of the imperial knights. In the side story, a sword master who was the imperial knight commander rebelled.

After the male and female leads went on a happy journey and their daughter became empress, the knight commander—who secretly loved her—confessed and asked her to make him her consort.

She rejected him.

So he rebelled.

When I read it before, I thought he was such a foolish idiot.

Don’t tell me… that was our Baron?

I remembered the knight commander was described as having long black hair. I vaguely remembered his eyes being dark orange—or maybe clear purple? I couldn’t remember exactly.

Wait!

Everything clicked.

Wasn’t that knight commander actually Baron after changing his name? Maybe the rejection was just an excuse. Maybe it was revenge all along. After all, if a child dies, the parents suffer deeply.

But the knight commander underestimated the princess’s power.

Of course, the rebellion failed easily. In web novels, villains can’t defeat the protagonist.

The knight commander was killed by the princess’s death knight, Raven.

An expected ending.

As I stared at Baron’s small round head walking ahead of me, I suddenly felt sad.

He had so much talent, yet his fate might be to sharpen his blade for revenge his whole life, only to die at the hands of the protagonist’s daughter’s subordinate.

Poor kid. If that’s you, then you’re carrying a huge death flag.

Baron suddenly turned around.

“Why are you crying?”

“Huh? Oh.”

I quickly wiped my tears and forced a smile.

“I’m just moved by how strong you are.”

“I told you I’m not a kid. Well, still…”

One corner of his mouth lifted proudly.

“This is nothing.”

He started walking again, shrugging his shoulders happily.

He looked so cute.

I made up my mind.

I would save Baron from his death flag.

No matter how hard it was, I would raise him with lots of love so he would grow up with a warm heart.

I’d earn a lot of money, feed him delicious food, buy him good clothes. Even if he couldn’t become a noble again, I would raise him without lacking anything and send him to the academy.

If he met good friends and maybe even got a girlfriend, his desire for revenge would fade away.

Yes. Love is the answer.

Of course, losing his parents was tragic. But surely his parents would rather see their only son marry and live happily than die while seeking revenge.

To raise Baron well, I needed to earn a lot of money. So I had to work hard gathering shellfish—

Ah, right.

“Baron, that flashing firefly you mentioned yesterday—how do you catch and tame it?”

“Huh?”

“I need bright light. The brighter it is, the better I can see underwater.”

He thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers.

“Yeah, it’s easy to catch. I’ll get one for you tonight.”

His confident answer made me smile.

After washing up quickly, we packed the sea snails and headed to the market stall.

On the way, I stopped by a shop to check the prices of daily necessities and today’s seafood market price.

The stall price and shop price would differ, but it was important to know the average price so we wouldn’t get cheated.

“Hello.”