WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Pushover Young Lord in a Romance Fantasy Won't Take It Anymore ◈
Chapter 60: Does He Like Her That Much?
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Of course, I wasn’t qualified for the Holy Sword this time either.
The Holy Sword Keeper hadn’t seemed to expect much the first time, but this time, she left looking slightly disappointed.
Right after the rain stopped, work to restore the camp moved along swiftly.
I walked around the butchering team, giving detailed instructions.
“Be careful not to damage the poison sacs when you remove them. Discard all the organs, and set aside only the tender meat beneath the gills.”
The butchering team looked puzzled, but followed my instructions for now.
“What are you planning to use the meat for?”
Lucia asked, tilting her head.
“I’m not planning to use it. I’m planning to eat it.”
“...Eat it?”
Her gaze shifted to the merman’s corpse, and her expression crumpled.
“You’re saying we can use magical beasts from the Ashen Forest as food? You’re joking, right?”
It was a natural reaction.
These were magical beasts mutated by the Ashen Forest’s demonic energy. Eating one carelessly was practically suicide.
Unless someone was starving to death, no one would even consider it.
I hadn’t believed it at first, either.
If I hadn’t known what was written in the first-run strategy journal, I wouldn’t have tried.
“During the expedition, our food supplies ran short, so we boiled and stewed magical beasts for food. Most tasted terrible and were harmful to the body, but merman meat was different.
“It enriched the soup, and its tender texture melted in the mouth. Expedition Commander Lucia liked it most of all, emptying five bowls at every meal.”
It suited Lucia’s tastes perfectly.
Apparently, Lucia herself had even written down how to prepare merman meat, along with the spices that went best with it.
This was my first time trying it too, so I was pretty curious about the taste.
“Remove the poison sacs, then boil it with medicinal herbs. The demonic energy should disappear as well.”
“Mm, that hasn’t even been proven.”
“Just trust me this once. If you’re really worried, take an antidote. Kyle made it, so its effectiveness is guaranteed.”
No matter what I said, Lucia still looked unconvinced.
“Please, just trust me this once. You’ll like it most of all, Adjutant.”
“...”
Lucia finally let out a deep sigh and gave up.
I dropped the cleaned meat, stripped of its scales, into boiling water. After adding medicinal herbs, I heated it for ten minutes.
Then I added spices and the merman meat to the mushroom soup already boiling in the mess tin.
I would have preferred to make it in a huge pot, but that would only make the soldiers more suspicious.
Well, once they tasted it, they’d change their minds on their own.
As the soup simmered, a surprisingly appetizing smell spread through the air.
After some time, I ladled the soup into a bowl.
I blew on it to cool it down, then took a large mouthful.
“...Wow.”
The exclamation slipped out on its own.
The savory flavor lingered in my mouth, deepening the soup’s rich taste.
The spices had gotten rid of the fishy smell, and the meat was as tender as beef, melting softly on my tongue.
“Are you really sure there’s nothing wrong with it? You don’t feel sick?”
There was such a thing as being too worried.
I used to enjoy pufferfish often in my past life.
“Yes. Nothing’s wrong. If anything, I feel like all my fatigue has melted away.”
“The smell is different. What did you put in it?”
A cold voice came from behind me.
When I turned around, Selena was staring intently at my bowl. She must have finished maintaining her weapons.
I held out the wooden bowl to her.
“It’s mushroom soup with merman meat in it. Would you like a taste, Sister? It tastes incredible despite how it looks.”
Selena abruptly snatched the bowl from me.
Splash.
She poured it straight onto the ground.
I had half expected it, so I wasn’t that surprised.
Just like with the cosmetics, she had no idea how valuable something was. That was all I thought.
“Take responsibility for your position.”
Her icy silver eyes fixed on me.
“Astin, if something happens to you, it will hinder the expedition. How can you thoughtlessly put magical beast meat in your mouth? Do you have any sense at all?”
I understood Sister’s reasoning completely.
These weren’t just any magical beasts. They came from the Ashen Forest.
I was the unreasonable one, while Selena’s response was perfectly reasonable.
Her manner was as sharp as a blade, but she was still worried about me.
Whether it was as commander or as my sister, I was somewhat grateful for that.
“I understand your concern, but I checked everything before eating it. There’s no problem.”
“Have you never heard of an incubation period?”
“My sense of taste is very sensitive. If it had tasted strange, I would’ve spat it out immediately.”
Selena silently glared at me. Her grip tightened around the bowl she had taken.
Lucia, who had looked uncomfortable being caught between us, cautiously stepped forward.
“I’ll try some too. I’ll honestly tell you whether anything feels wrong after I eat it.”
Trying to mediate, Lucia carefully scooped some soup from the mess tin hanging over the campfire.
Her eyes were squeezed shut, and even her fingertips trembled unsteadily. She really didn’t want to eat it.
‘That’ll change soon enough.’
Would she really end up emptying five bowls after one taste?
Only after about ten seconds did she finally force the soup into her mouth.
Gulp.
The sound of her swallowing seemed unusually loud.
Then, the next moment.
Flash!
Lucia’s eyes grew wide as saucers.
She stared blankly back and forth between Selena and me.
“...This is unbelievably good?”
Lucia began scooping up more soup.
All her doubts from moments ago vanished like snow melting in the sun, replaced by exclamations of delight.
“Mmm! The Commander was right. It doesn’t seem harmful at all, and it’s really delicious.”
Selena’s expression twisted strangely as she watched.
Holding back a laugh, I scooped up a spoonful of soup with plenty of meat in it.
Then I carefully offered it to Selena.
“You should have one bite too, Sister.”
“...”
Selena reluctantly accepted the wooden bowl.
Even after taking it, she stood still with her brows deeply furrowed.
“Do you want me to feed you?”
“...No.”
With an unhappy look, Selena brought the soup to her mouth.
She disliked it so much that even the way she rolled it around in her mouth seemed to be moving at one-quarter speed.
Chew, chew.
Selena’s lips moved slowly.
“...”
Her faintly moving lips stopped. The spoon in her hand plopped into the bowl.
Soon, her blank gaze turned toward the soup she had thrown away earlier.
I somehow managed to keep from laughing.
“Would you like more?”
Selena stood silently. She really couldn’t be honest.
Whoosh.
I snatched up the wooden bowl and filled it generously with merman meat soup.
Selena caught it without thinking, then narrowed her eyes at me like a bird of prey.
“...I don’t eat food for its taste. I only consume nutrients.”
“Yes, yes. Eat plenty and keep your strength up, Sister.”
I had been wondering when she would say something like that.
Selena was silent for a moment before reluctantly sitting down.
Clink. Clink.
The quiet sound of a spoon scraping the bottom of the bowl echoed.
“Ahem.”
Someone cleared their throat beside me.
Lucia was glancing at me from the corner of her eye.
“Well, it’s already all gone...”
“Ah.”
I had given all of it to Selena and emptied the pot.
“I’ll make more right away. Please wait a moment.”
“P-Please do.”
Lucia’s cheeks had turned red.
For some reason, I could already see the future. Lucia licking her lips after finishing more than five bowls.
I had originally planned to let the soldiers taste it too...
But just for today, I would become these two women’s personal chef.
* * *
After the successful meal.
The expedition members, their bellies full, settled into camp one by one and drifted off to sleep.
The Ashen Forest felt bleak at night after the rain had eased, but a full stomach softened even their fear.
Lucia returned to her tent as well and lay down in her sleeping bag.
Fatigue rushed over her, and her consciousness quickly began to fade.
Then, when she opened her eyes again.
‘...!’
Lucia realized it immediately.
This was the same sensation as that vivid lucid dream from before.
Her mind was completely awake, yet she couldn’t see her own body. It was a dream viewed from an invisible first-person perspective.
‘Again?’
This time, too, the left side of her vision was submerged in pitch-black darkness, as though ink had been poured over it.
Lucia had no way of knowing why.
‘Could it be?’
She thought it was the same dream again, but the setting was different.
Instead of a cold cave, she sat before a campfire in an open clearing.
Rustle.
Lucia’s hands moved regardless of her will in reality.
She stretched her cold hands toward the campfire.
Her conscious thoughts could not control the body in the dream.
Just as before, the Lucia moving in the dream and the Lucia in reality were separate beings.
“Astin.”
Lucia flinched at the words that came from her own mouth.
Another dream about that man? Really?
The dream Lucia, warming herself by the fire, slowly turned her head to the side.
A man filled the remaining half of her vision.
As expected, it was Astin.
They sat alone across from each other with the campfire between them in the middle of the night.
They seemed to be standing watch.
Unlike his pale face when they had been stranded in the cave, Astin now looked somehow different.
His hair was cut a little shorter than the Astin she knew in reality, and his strongly defined face looked more mature.
More than anything, his air was strangely different.
If she had to put it into words, he had a decadent charm, as if life’s hardships had worn him down.
“You know, Astin.”
Lucia took a quiet breath before continuing.
“If, just if, there really is another life, what would you want to do in your second life?”
Lucia was flustered by the question that came out of nowhere. Why was she suddenly getting so sentimental?
Astin was silent for a moment before answering.
“I don’t know.”
His low, pleasant voice carried the weight of time and exhaustion.
“At least I wouldn’t use a sword.”
“Really? That’s unexpected. I thought you liked it, with how you fight like a mad dog.”
“I force myself to do it because I like peace. Who actually enjoys fighting? I just want a quiet, peaceful life. I’d be born into an ordinary family, tilling fields and farming.”
“Is that all?”
“Mm. Living happily with my family for the rest of my life? Rather than brothers, I’d want sisters. An older sister and a younger sister. It’d be even better if the three of us were close.”
Lucia let out a small laugh.
“Family sounds nice...”
She drew her uniform collar closer and looked at Astin.
His face, lit by the flickering firelight, held chronic exhaustion and bitterness.
As Lucia wondered why, her lips opened on their own.
“If I get another life, I’m going to find true love.”
“Here we go again. Are you talking in your sleep?”
“I mean it. I’ll find true love and build a family. I’ll have a daughter who looks like me and a son who looks like him.”
After finishing her words, Lucia slowly moved her hand.
She placed it over Astin’s hand resting on his knee.
Lucia’s thoughts were filled with horror.
Whether she panicked or not, control of her body did not belong to her.
“What’s this all of a sudden?”
“My hand’s cold.”
It was an obvious lie.
She knew reaching toward the campfire would be much warmer.
Lucia wanted to slap her own cheek right then.
Tsk.
Astin clicked his tongue, but left his hand where it was.
A faint warmth passed between their touching hands.
“But I hope that man is a little blunt.”
Lucia’s thumb slowly stroked Astin’s callused hand.
“I hope he has a lot of scars too. I want there to be unexpected sides to him. He could look like a womanizer but be innocent, or not drink or smoke. Ah, and I hope he’s a little oblivious too.”
“...”
“It’d be even better if he were stupid enough not to understand why I’m holding his hand like this.”
Lucia was dying of embarrassment.
Astin didn’t bother replying. Only the crackling of burning firewood filled the air.
Lucia grinned and lightly bumped Astin’s side with her elbow.
“What? Does it sound like I’m describing you?”
“Stop teasing me.”
“Pfft. Your reaction is so funny. Seriously, what would I have done without you?”
Whoosh.
The night wind swept through the leaves.
Rustle.
The chirping insects blended into a quiet chorus.
A warm, peaceful air wrapped around them.
“Hey, Astin. Want to sing it together sometime?”
“Sing what?”
“Come on, you know. ‘High mountains, deep valleys...’ That one.”
The moment she heard the humming, a memory flashed through Lucia’s mind.
The military song Astin had sung alone on the terrace during the Founding Festival ball.
“No. Why would I?”
“Oh, come on. It’d be nice to sing together. I’m getting tired of singing it alone.”
“You’re probably the only person in the world who likes singing military songs.”
Hmph.
Lucia pouted.
As if she liked it because it was a military song...
Her quiet mutter scattered into the air.
Astin didn’t seem to have heard it.
But Lucia, inhabiting the body, felt every emotion contained within those words.
It was a feeling she couldn’t deny, no matter how much she tried.
Just then.
“...Ma’am.”
Lucia sucked in a breath.
A whispering voice tickled her ear.
“Adjutant Lucia. Please wake up.”
The moment she opened her eyes, Astin’s face was right in front of her.
He wasn’t the fully grown man she had seen in the dream.
He was the Astin from reality, neat and with a trace of youthful softness still remaining.
Lucia stared up at him with a dazed expression.
Her heart was still pounding in her ears.
“It’s our turn to stand watch.”
“S-Stand watch?”
“Yes. You have about ten minutes. Take your time changing. No, just put on a coat and come out.”
“...”
“You can sleep longer if you want. I’m not particularly tired, so I can do it alone.”
“N-No. I’ll get ready and come.”
“Yes. I’ll go on ahead and wait.”
Astin left only those words before turning around and walking out of the tent.
Flap.
Once the tent flap closed, Lucia released the breath she had been holding.
Her frozen thoughts slowly began moving again.
Come to think of it, she had agreed to take the third watch with the young lord.
“...”
Lucia raised her limp hands and covered her face.
Her cheeks beneath her palms were burning hot.
“Haa...”
A low breath escaped through the gaps between her fingers.
The embarrassing things she had done to him in the dream just before waking flashed through her mind.
The feeling of tenderly stroking his rough hand. The open confession that she would find true love.
“I’m crazy. I’m crazy, Lucia.”
Lucia groaned, clutching her head with both hands.
Then and now, she hated the Lucias in those ridiculous dreams to death.
‘I feel like I’m losing if I’m the only one having dreams like this.’
No matter what, dreams came from emotions in reality.
She couldn’t dismiss it as a ridiculous dream like before when it had already happened twice.
She wanted to start kicking her sleeping bag right then and there.
Why did she have to dream something like that now?!
And why did she have to stand watch with him the moment she woke up?!
Their images were sure to overlap like an afterimage, so Lucia repeatedly smacked her head with both hands.
Begone, shameless fantasies. Away with you, dark desires.
No matter how many times she shouted it in her mind, the thoughts would not disappear.
‘...Do I really like him that much?’
Footnotes:
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