IVPCB 23

Chapter 23

Even if I had changed my path to that of a gardener in this round, I was already a villainess with the worst reputation. Even when I first saw him at the count’s estate, my infamy score had already surpassed 50.

*’On top of that, in the second round, I had even researched poisonous herbs and plotted to kill Luna.’*

Of course, he wouldn’t know about my life in the second round, but still, this was……

“Do you trust me?”

It was a bit touching, and strange?

“No. I don’t trust humans.”

But as if trampling on my emotion, Aegir’s answer was firm.

The corners of Aegir’s mouth lifted crookedly. It was that familiar smile that looked ill-tempered.

“What I trust is the covenant between us. My dear disciple isn’t a good person, but I don’t think you’re bold enough to do bad things while I’m watching with my own two eyes.”

I pressed my lips shut. It was annoying, but I couldn’t argue because he’d read me so accurately. I was indeed a sensible, ordinary citizen, and a coward.

If Aegir told me not to misuse herbalism, I’d be scared into following his words.

“And the third reason is that I don’t want to work.”

For a moment, I was dumbfounded.

I stared intently at his face, wondering if this man was joking, but his blue eyes were utterly serious.

“It’s already exhausting just taking care of the garden, and preparing medicines to deliver to Heliweka Castle on top of that is terribly bothersome.”

Aegir rested his chin on his hand and muttered with a deep sigh. His face seemed to have the words ‘I.DON’T.WANT.TO.WORK’ written on it in a hallucination. In fact, it was the most blatantly emotional expression I’d seen from him yet.

“And conveniently, I have a good slave—no, labor force right in front of me.”

“You just said slave, didn’t you?”

At my sharp question, Aegir averted his gaze and played dumb.

“No. You’re not old enough to have poor hearing yet, are you?”

Irritation surged up and I tried to call him out, but Aegir calmly avoided my gaze and even threw a sarcastic remark back at me.

“So, is your answer affirmative?”

“Yes.”

It was only natural. This was a good opportunity for me too. Whatever you learn, it’ll come in handy somewhere.

“Alright. Then for now, shall we go out together and start by learning how to pull weeds?”

Aegir’s smiling figure looked like a demon.

Somehow it felt like the gates of hell had opened. With a foreboding chill running down my spine, I prayed.

‘Please let this be my imagination.’

But as always, ominous feelings are always right.

After the meal, Aegir handed me gloves, an apron, a straw hat, and a comfortable-looking cotton dress.

“What’s all this?”

“Change into them and come out. You can’t do garden work in that state, can you?”

“Well, I suppose not.”

I looked down at the clothes I was wearing.

I had on a plain dress—plain for Anaïs’s clothes that I’d brought from Count Porsha’s estate. But it was hardly practical for labor.

“Disciple, if you open the wardrobe in your room, you’ll probably find some wearable clothes. I thought you might not know yet.”

“Oh, is that so?”

I hadn’t thought to look through the wardrobe, so I hadn’t known. I was grateful for the preparation, but a question suddenly arose.

‘How does a man living alone have women’s clothes?’

Moreover, the dress was neatly pressed without a single wrinkle, as if well cared for.

Suddenly, the memory of his gaze lingering wistfully on Rosa Rugosa came to mind. These were probably clothes that ‘Delilah’ used to wear.

Once my thoughts reached that point, I decided not to add any more words and quietly retreated into my room. There seemed no benefit in digging up a past he didn’t speak of himself.

And so, after changing, I came out to the garden.

The midday sun was stronger than I’d expected. Since Sidony was located in the northern region, the weather was relatively cool, but that was all.

I slowly scrunched up my face.

Having gone through the first and second rounds, Anaïs was not particularly friendly with sunlight.

In Anaïs’s first and second rounds, she rarely had reason to go out at midday, and even when she did, I was always under the shade of a parasol or awning.

That was also typical for a noble lady.

But even I had never seen a scene like this. I lowered my gaze, which had been directed toward the sky.

Right before my eyes, at a simple table with a parasol planted in it, there was a man lounging comfortably in a rocking chair, reading a book with an air of utter leisure.

A handsome man with platinum-blond hair reaching his shoulders, loosely tied back with a cord, and blue eyes framed by glasses. It was Aegir.

‘Where on earth did he get all that? In such a short time?’

“What are you looking at?”

As I stood dumbfounded, staring blankly, Aegir must have felt my intense gaze and shot a look my way.

“…Nothing. Go back to your book.”

Despite his appearance being nothing if not strict, my master seemed incredibly lazy. I’d vaguely sensed it when he gave the third reason for teaching me herbalism earlier.

“I was planning to do that even without you saying so.”

Aegir, about to lower his head to his book, suddenly seemed to remember something and looked back at me.

“Ah, from here to way over there—you just need to clean it up neatly.”

Using his fingers and chin, Aegir indicated the area from the hut to the glass greenhouse.

“…Yes.”

I answered weakly, but Aegir had already turned his attention back to his book without hearing my reply.

At this moment, the word that came to mind was just one.

‘Lazy good-for-nothing.’

After that, a period of grueling labor continued.

The simple labor itself—bending over, squatting, and pulling weeds—was exhausting, but what was harder was Aegir’s nagging.

“No, does that look like a weed to you?”

“You said you read the ‘Bergen Empire Animal Encyclopedia’ as a child. Then didn’t you read its required companion, the ‘Bergen Empire Plant Encyclopedia’?”

‘Calm down. The ancestors said: three times of patience can prevent murder.’

Irritation surged, but I silently pulled weeds—until I couldn’t.

‘No, does that man have 360-degree vision? He doesn’t even seem to be looking this way, so how is he so sharp?’

About thirty minutes in. After five minutes of nonstop nagging, a streak of rebellion sprouted.

“…They all look like pretty plants to me. How am I supposed to tell weeds from flowers?”

Eventually, I muttered quietly, a small act of defiance.

For the first time in thirty minutes, Aegir lifted his gaze from his book. He narrowed his eyes and stared at me for a long moment, then curled the corners of his mouth. His face was full of spite.

“Hmm. This master has been lacking in understanding of ‘pretty plants,’ I see. Then, shall I have you sow some geranium seeds in that plot over there? The geranium’s planting season happens to be spring. Ah, and geraniums are clearly flowers, you know.”

“…I’ll just, finish pulling the weeds I was pulling.”

“Good. Well thought.”

Aegir gave me a sweet smile, then suddenly, as if something had occurred to him, quietly closed his book.

‘What is he trying to do?’

Curious, I kept pulling weeds with both hands while secretly casting my gaze toward Aegir.

Having straightened up from the rocking chair, Aegir raised one hand and drew a forceful vertical line in the air.

“Triadent.”

As he muttered softly, water condensed along the vertical line he’d drawn, taking a long shape.

The water, beading and flowing downward with gravity, turned a deep blue and froze just before touching the ground.

Aegir grabbed hold of the long blue object—roughly the length of his own height.

‘Hm? It looks like a staff… but it seems to have something attached to the end.’

I furrowed my brow and examined the staff more closely.

Attached to the end of the staff was something about thirty centimeters in size. At first glance, it looked like a sharp crescent moon, or perhaps the horn of a small beast.

‘So, to put it simply, it looks like a two-pronged fork. A pretty cool fork, though. But what on earth is he going to do with that?’

*Thud!*

At that moment, Aegir struck the staff once against the ground. Only then did I realize its purpose.

*Swoooosh—!*

With an eerie, loud sound, the ground vibrated, and from the end of the staff that had been pointing skyward, a jet of water burst forth.

The powerfully surging water shot high without a single drop splashing onto Aegir himself, then began to fall as a fine mist sprayed evenly across the entire garden.

Moisture was evenly distributed across the area, except for the section where Aegir stood.

‘So, it’s a giant sprinkler. With a mist nozzle attachment.’

I blankly watched the falling water for a moment, then recalled a fact I’d buried in the recesses of my memory.

‘Ah, right. My master, before being a male lead candidate and a reclusive master mage, his main job was Heliweka Castle’s gardener, wasn’t it?’

So Aegir had been doing his main job of ‘gardening’ with that cool fork-like thing.

‘No, why are you watering so grandly?’

Realizing this, I couldn’t hold back the laughter that suddenly burst out.

“Pfft. Hahahahaha! Master, huff, you’re so cool, *cough*, yo!”

Haha, hahahaha!

Laughter echoed widely across the spacious garden.

What stopped my uproarious laughter was the sharp gaze I suddenly felt from right beside me.

“Disciple?”

Still holding the giant watering device that hadn’t stopped working, Aegir approached me with a sour expression on his face.