Chapter 50

Tick tock.

In the quiet bedroom, the sound of the clock's hands moving echoed.

Strive.

Tarkan glared at the ceiling. He glared and glared and glared again.

Before he knew it, light had seeped through the thick blackout curtains.

He had spent the night wide awake.

Tarkan quietly and nimbly got up.

Aristine was still sound asleep.

After a moment, Tarkan left the room.

His steps, taken boldly and without hesitation, led to the private training ground.

He felt he needed to move his body.

The rising sunlight hit the silver blade, shattering transparently.

Tarkan's sword strike cleaved the air and the ground.

Boom!

The objects in the training ground shattered and collapsed, causing the ground to vibrate.

Dust rose like a cloud, and the silver blade flashed again amidst the dust.

The immense sword wind made the dust cloud swirl.

It was more than just a vigorous morning exercise; it was almost aggressive.

Tarkan, standing at the center, frowned as if he was displeased.

What does "strive" even mean?

“Master? What is that?”

The maids, who were serving tea beside Mucali, leaned in and asked.

In Mucali's large hand, small rabbits, squirrels, and foxes, among other forest friends, were gathered.

‘What a surprise.’

Everyone in the mansion knew that Mucali couldn't get enough of such cute and adorable things.

However, since Mucali was pretending to dislike them, everyone smiled inwardly and played along.

‘But why is Master holding such cute trinkets?’

He was not even drinking tea, just touching the forest friends, as if begging the maids to pay attention.

When the maids finally showed interest, Mucali couldn't hide his smug look and spoke.

“Well, I don't care for such things and I don't like them at all...”

“Ah, yes.”

“Of course.”

The maids answered with a glazed look, as if they were used to this.

Mucali, completely unaware, smiled broadly.

‘Thank you, Sir Mucali, for accepting my request.’

When Mucali was about to leave after taking Aristine to the palace yesterday, she gestured to him.

Following her gesture, Mucali extended his hand, and something fell onto his palm.

Rabbits, squirrels, foxes, and small ornaments shaped like owls.

Mucali's face contorted.

‘I don't really want such things!’

Anyway, this little Thumb Princess always seems to like things like herself.

‘Huh? You like these, don't you?’

At Aristine's puzzled question, Mucali jumped.

‘Like them! What are you talking about! I don't like any of these things at all!’

Yet, he kept glancing at the ornaments.

The rabbit with its ears perked up, the squirrel with its cheeks puffed out and holding an acorn, the fox with its fluffy tail and nose buried in sleep, and the owl with its snowy eyes.

Mucali's hand, neither clenched nor fully open, twitched.

‘You kept looking at them when you were with Liretren. You like cute things but you're not honest about it.’

‘I don't like them, so why do you keep saying that!’

‘There were a lot of these in the reception room of the mansion.’

The reception room where Mucali entertained Aristine was full of cute and adorable dolls.

‘T, that’s...!’

Mucali's eyes darted around, as if an earthquake had struck.

‘It’s... my cousin’s taste! That’s why it was like that.’

‘You live with your cousin?’

‘That... is not the case.’

Mucali's voice grew smaller.

‘Then is there only one reception room in the mansion? Maybe it’s the taste of the Countess?’

‘That... is not the case either.’

‘Hmm.’

Aristine looked at Mucali with a peculiar expression.

Unable to withstand her gaze, Mucali shook his head.

‘No, absolutely not! These are not my taste.’

‘Sure, sure.’

Aristine smiled and nodded, her violet eyes warm.

‘But if you don't like them, you can still accept them.’

Recalling that moment, Mucali's face was filled with pride.

“It's a gift from Her Highness, so I have no choice! I really have no choice but to keep them in my room.”

The maids, who had been listening indifferently, now had a different look in their eyes.

“From Her Highness?”

“Really from Her Highness?”

The maids, who had been standing by the table, gathered around Mucali.

The forest friends, placed cutely on his large hand, looked incredibly adorable.

‘The Thumb Princess’s friends!’

The maids' eyes sparkled.

“Should we order a glass case?”

“We need to preserve them properly.”

“What if we buy miniature trees or flowers and place them in there?”

“Oh, that sounds good!”

“Leave the arrangement to me.”

The maids chattered and then turned to look at Mucali.

“It won’t work. Master, go to your training. We need to completely clean your room.”

What?

Mucali snorted.

These forest friends were his. Only he could do as he pleased with them.

“Too noisy. Get out.”

“Hmph.”

“No ‘hmph.’ It doesn’t work. Get out.”

“Hmph.”

“Hmph doesn’t work either. Get out.”

Mucali waved his free left hand at the maids.

Yet, he held the forest friends precious in his right hand.

Tsk.

The maids pouted and left the room.

While the relationship between master and servants in Ilugo was not rigid, Mucali was even more free-spirited.

His generous personality allowed the maids to treat him, a general and a noble, quite casually.

This did not mean they disrespected him.

The maids knew very well how affectionate Mucali could be.

When he lost his left eye, the maids were more saddened than he was and stayed by his side to nurse him.

Alone, Mucali, ignoring the cooling tea, fiddled with the ornaments in his hand.

‘I really don’t like such small and fragile things.’

Yet, his fingers busily caressed the squirrel's tail.

Fiddling, fiddling.

‘...Because they are from Her Highness.’

It’s not because they are from the princess.

It’s because they are from Aristine.

‘Sir Mucali, a warrior who fights in life-and-death battles, would only find them inconvenient.’

‘Sir Mucali is a warrior, so his job is to fight. Even if he doesn’t go to battle, he trains every day. It’s the same during training.’

Aristine’s words to Bolton, who had given him a blindfold.

When they first met, Aristine saw Mucali as he was.

A monstrous creature with a hideous face.

Or a pitiful and unfortunate person.

A good person despite the monstrous appearance.

None of these views were present.

She looked at him as if he were just a person in red or blue clothes.

Thud.

Mucali placed the ornaments on the glass table.

Things that resembled Aristine.

Mucali lost his left eye due to a demon.

It was a fierce battle.

In the midst of the intense pain of his left face being burned, he found himself separated from his comrades.

The demons, smelling the blood, pursued him.

There was no time to tend to his wounds. Survival was the only priority.

After a fortnight, Mucali rejoined his comrades.

However, the untreated wound on his left eye had deteriorated to an irreversible state.

The area around his eye was already rotting.

Measures were taken to prevent further necrosis, but a terrifying scar remained.

The maids, who cared for him, burst into tears, not knowing what to do.

His parents praised him as an excellent warrior.

But they knew he would come to their side and beat his chest when he slept.

Mucali had many good people around him.

They did not fear or find him hideous.

They pitied him.

This was because they cared for and valued him.

Mucali understood this and had no complaints, even feeling grateful.

However.

Sometimes, he felt like an abnormal monster, and unbearable nights would come.

Whether they found him terrifying or pitied him, it all meant he was abnormal.

But, Aristine—

Aristine.

Mucali's index finger gently tapped the ear of the sleeping fox.

‘Will Her Highness really commit adultery?’

Yesterday, Aristine visited Mucali’s mansion with the palace attendants.

When Aristine said she would go to the forge with Mucali to meet Liretren, the attendants readily agreed and returned to the palace.

If it were really adultery, would the attendants have reacted that way?

Moreover, would Aristine openly announce her destination and the people she met?

From then on, he felt something was different from his expectations.

Feeling a bit excited, Mucali asked straightforwardly.

‘Why do you want to meet him?’

‘Well, since I’ve already gotten Tarcan’s approval for the business, I can tell you now.’

Mucali was surprised to hear his lord’s name. So, his lord knew about it?

‘Because it’s necessary for my business.’

‘Business?’

‘Yes.’

It was the first he had heard of it.

Clearly, Diona...

Aristine herself had previously said she was trying to seduce that man.

‘If I make a lot of money, I’ll treat Mucali too.’

Aristine said this with a charming smile.

Really, is it for that reason?

I hope so.

It will be.

He wanted to believe that.

Mucali felt this in his heart and tried to steady himself.

He needed to see it with his own eyes.

And he did. With his own eyes.

Aristine was innocent.

She was not hiding any sinister intentions, nor was she chasing after another man while having a husband.

She... was really a good person.

Mucali struggled to admit it.

The princess of Silvanus.

He had denied and rejected her many times due to his pride.

He got angry at others who saw her properly, telling them it was easy for them and that they were being deceived.

He rudely intruded to criticize based on others' words.

He even planned to catch her in the act of adultery and humiliate her, pretending to help.

‘I am ashamed.’

Aristine had seen him more clearly than anyone else.

Mucali clenched his fist tightly with a ‘humph!’

‘I will serve her loyally!’

Aristine was a wonderful woman who suited his lord well.

Saying that she suited Tarcan was the highest praise Mucali could give.

‘I should tell Diona too.’

Now that the misunderstanding was cleared, it was time to reassure the child who was most worried.

Diona, who wished for Tarcan’s happiness and for Aristine to be a good person, would surely be happy.

‘I should tell her in person.’

It didn’t seem right to inform her by messenger.

Mucali got up with a happy heart.

‘But...’

Mucali paused as he was about to leave the room.

‘Why did Diona have such a misunderstanding?’

The claim that she was chasing after a man was definitely made by Diona.

He had heard Aristine’s denials, but there must have been a reason for her to think that way.

‘Even others, who knew about Liretren, did not suspect adultery.’

Why only Diona?

Mucali, who had already stood up, sat back down.

He could ask Diona, but it didn’t seem like a good idea.

She was a good child, and her concern for her lord was admirable, so she might have been worried.

‘Still, first...’

Mucali’s remaining eye looked heavy.

‘I need to find out where Diona got the information that Her Highness was interested in Liretren and how she heard it to have such concerns.’

‘Forget about the husband, I just want to make money.’