WTTAO CH 06

“Why are you trying to buy such worthless land?”

The land looked completely useless now, but it was actually a place where a hot spring would eventually burst from the ground.

‘Father sold that land to the Temple for next to nothing because he didn’t know.’

There was no doubt that Father must have regretted selling it later, while the Temple would have made an enormous profit from it.

But that was what had happened in her previous life. This time, things would be different.

“Don’t worry about it. Just buy it for me.”

“…Understood. I’m sure you have your reasons, so I won’t ask.”

“Thank you.”

Back when the first head of House Hailen was alive, the Hailen territory had been blessed with an abundance of water. There had been numerous large and small lakes, and the land had been extremely fertile. People said it was because the territory had received the blessing of the water spirit.

However, after the first head died and generations passed, the amount of water in Hailen territory gradually decreased. The lakes dried up, and the amount of fertile land diminished.

Naturally, the finances of House Hailen also began to suffer.

As far as Roselia knew, the current financial situation of the Count’s family was barely enough to get by.

The land Roselia wanted Gray to purchase was also one of the many lakes that had dried up.

The difference was that once a hot spring emerged from this land, it would provide a major boost to House Hailen’s finances.

It was a trump card she planned to use later when dealing with Sven and her uncle.

“And… even after this transaction is completed, I would like to continue doing business with you, Lady Roselia. What do you say?”

“What do you think? I’d like that too.”

The contract was revised, and discussions regarding the bank documents and purchase of the land proceeded smoothly.

“I should get going now. It would be troublesome if I’m too late.”

“Please wait a moment!”

Roselia, who had just stood up, sat back down on the sofa.

“What is it?”

“I finally found him.”

Gray spoke with a triumphant expression.

“Found who?”

“Yes. The person who is your first love, Lady Roselia.”

‘He found Cardian…?’

The word first love coming from Gray’s mouth bothered her immensely, but upon hearing that Cardian had been found, Roselia placed one hand over her chest and tried to calm her rapidly beating heart as she caught her breath.

“Tell me everything.”

Just moments ago, she had been about to leave, but now she was urging Gray with an extremely tense expression.

“Of course. As for where he is right now…”

Two days later.

Roselia arrived in District 2 of Hailen territory after traveling by carriage for about an hour with her maid, Mary.

Hailen territory was located on the outskirts of the imperial capital and was divided into District 1, District 2, and the Central District.

District 1 was a bustling commercial area where mostly lower-ranking nobles and wealthy merchants lived.

District 2 had many workshops, forests, and farmland, and was primarily inhabited by commoners.

The Central District contained the Count’s residence, the soldiers’ barracks, and a large open square.

Roselia stepped down from the black carriage, dressed in simple everyday clothes with a robe draped over them, and looked around.

Unlike District 1, the commercial district where the Golden Whale Guild was located, there were no tall or particularly noticeable buildings here.

Instead, what stood out were the small, old, and somewhat rundown buildings.

Roselia turned toward the coachman.

“Park the carriage over there by the roadside and wait for me. It may take a while.”

The coachman removed his hat and gave her a respectful bow before driving the carriage toward the side of the road.

“Let’s go, Mary.”

Roselia watched him for a moment before turning toward the alley on the right with Mary.

She had a note clutched in her hand.

After walking for quite some time, they finally left the alley and came upon a wide open area.

Roselia unfolded the note and looked around.

“Is this the right place?”

Mary, who had been following behind her, looked around in confusion.

“Wait. Let me look around a little more.”

‘Hmm… Since we’ve reached an open area, I don’t think we came to the wrong place. Maybe I should have come with Gray? No. If he had come with me, he probably would have kept going on about my first love.’

Roselia nodded and looked around again.

Boom. Clang. Clang.

A heavy metallic sound suddenly reached her ears.

Roselia’s blue eyes turned toward the source.

The sound was coming from a cabin some distance away.

When she looked at it, her eyes widened.

“I think I found it.”

Roselia walked toward the cabin.

The closer she got, the louder the heavy metallic sounds became.

When she stopped in front of the fairly large cabin, she saw a sign that read:

Mark’s Blacksmith Shop

She remembered what Gray had told her two days earlier.

“He lives in a village in District 2 of Hailen territory. He’s sixteen years old and lives with his father and older sister. Apparently, he currently helps out at a blacksmith shop. Since the area is mostly inhabited by commoners, you would stand out if you went there dressed as a noble. So it would be better to wear ordinary commoner’s clothes.”

‘Cardian is supposed to be here, right?’

Now that she was actually about to meet him, the pounding of her own heart seemed unusually loud.

Heat gradually rose to her face as well.

‘Calm down.’

Roselia took a deep breath in and slowly exhaled.

Then she turned toward Mary.

“Alright. Let’s go inside.”

“Yes.”

Roselia opened the blacksmith shop door and stepped inside with Mary, but then she stopped.

A wave of intense heat rushed toward them from inside.

‘Ugh. I knew it was a blacksmith shop, but it’s unbelievably hot in here.’

The interior of the blacksmith shop was considerably larger than it appeared from the outside.

Along the shelves against the left wall were neatly arranged pieces of armor, shields, swords, spears, and other weapons.

Underneath the shelves, things such as shovels and pickaxes were stored upright in large wooden barrels.

On the right side stood a furnace with enormous flames flickering inside.

However, upon closer inspection, Roselia noticed that the items on the shelves were covered in dust, indicating that they had been sitting there for a long time.

Two or three steps away from the furnace stood a man with golden hair streaked with strands of white.

There was no one else around.

The man was quite large, and the bulging muscles in his forearms made it immediately obvious that he was strong.

Clang! Clang!

Apparently unaware of their presence, the man repeatedly brought his hammer down with tremendous force on a large anvil, striking the red-hot piece of iron.

“Excuse me! Hello!”

Roselia raised her voice.

The man stopped hammering and turned his head.

One of his eyes was covered by a black eyepatch.

He wiped away the sweat that was continuously running down around his other eye before turning his gaze toward her.

His bronze-colored skin made him look even more muscular.

He glanced at Roselia and Mary, gave a slight nod, then turned toward a door on the left and shouted in a booming voice,

“We’ve got customers!”

Then, as though nothing had happened, he turned around and resumed hammering.

‘W-What was that?’

Roselia was slightly taken aback by his reaction.

A moment after the man shouted, someone opened the door and appeared.

A handsome boy wearing a beige tunic with a dark brown leather vest approached Roselia and Mary.

He was about a head taller than Roselia.

Between his smooth black hair, a pair of exceptionally deep and vivid red eyes stood out.

Roselia suddenly drew in a breath.

For an instant, she saw the cold and murderous expression he had worn in the courtroom overseen by the Temple in her previous life.

Her mouth went dry, and both of her hands began to tremble slightly.

All the resolve she had made after her regression—to treat Cardian normally when she finally met him—completely vanished.

Now that she was actually looking at him, she had no idea what to say or how to act.

Her mind had gone completely blank.

“What can I do for you?”

The boy looked back and forth between Roselia and Mary before speaking in an expressionless voice.

“Uh… well…”

Mary glanced sideways at Roselia, who had remained silent with a pale face, and began to mumble.

Only then did Roselia snap back to reality and tightly clench her trembling hands.

‘Pull yourself together, Roselia. The Cardian standing in front of you isn’t the same Cardian from your previous life.’

“…My sister and I are looking to buy some gardening shears. If you don’t have any… w-we’d like to place an order.”

The words she had barely managed to think of beforehand finally came out.

The boy narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at her, then slowly opened his mouth.

“We don’t sell gardening shears here. Nor do we take custom orders, noble lady.”

“Huh? I-I’m not a noble…”

Roselia immediately denied it, startled by his stiff tone.

‘I even changed my clothes and tied up my hair so tightly that none of it would be visible. How did he know?’

As though he could read her thoughts, one corner of his mouth lifted.

“You seem to have dressed plainly to look like a commoner, but if you look closely, the fabric of your clothes is expensive. Besides, the older woman beside you keeps watching your expression even though she’s older. Wouldn’t that make the two of you a noble lady and her maid?”

‘Whoa. What kind of observation skills are those? He figured out I’m a noble just from that?’

“Even if I were a noble, I came all the way here, so I’d still like to order the gardening shears.”

“Our blacksmith shop hasn’t accepted orders from nobles since last year. Please find another blacksmith.”

Roselia was caught off guard by the boy’s firm refusal.

Just then—

“I’ve told you time and time again that you shouldn’t be turning customers away like that, Cardian.”

The man who had been hammering moments earlier stepped forward from behind Roselia and placed a hand on one of Cardian’s shoulders.