Chapter 6
When Tyler pushed the door open and came in again, Shin-yi tensed up. Even though he had come back into the room, Tyler didn’t rush to the bedside like the wind as before.
“…….”
Shin-yi, half leaning against the bed, and Tyler, standing, met each other’s eyes. Robert had assured him to trust his words, but could he really do that? A heavy silence flowed for a moment, and the one who broke it first was Shin-yi.
“Tyler……”
“Hmm?”
“Um…….”
“Yes?”
“If you have time…… will you stay by my side?” Since Robert hadn’t told him a specific amount of time, he said it vaguely. Then Shin-yi inwardly regretted it. What if he only burdened Tyler needlessly and made him feel even worse?
But that worry turned out to be groundless, as Tyler came running to the bedside with a bright smile.
“I have plenty of time.”
It was a short but unmistakable affirmative answer. Only then did a smile play on Shin-yi’s relieved face. The old saying about listening to your elders must be right after all. Who would have thought words he hadn’t expected to work at all would take effect so immediately?
“While Dr. Kent is on his way, what shall we do? Isn’t it boring just lying here?” Tyler smiled affectionately, his arm propped on the bed. His scar-covered face was clearly revealed in the bright sunlight, but as Shin-yi looked at him, there was only a smile on his lips.
“I don’t need anything.”
“Really?”
“Just stay by my side.”
“Is that really enough?”
“Yes. That’s enough. Just stay by my side!” Shin-yi whispered the last words like an incantation, his gaze settling clear and calm.
***
“I can’t do it! I won’t marry that monster, even if I die!” Moran, throwing whatever she could grab in the room, was hysteria itself. Beside her, Baek Miryu stood with his shoulders slumped, and when his daughter’s hand, about to throw a piece of pottery, hesitated for a moment, he quickly spoke.
“Child, what’s this all of a sudden? Haven’t we already told that Westerner, Robert, that we accept the proposal? Even though it was only today that he… no, that Westerner came and made the formal proposal, it’s already too late to refuse. Everyone in the village knows you’re marrying that Westerner, so what are we supposed to do now?”
Baek Miryu let out a long sigh and wiped the cold sweat gathered on his forehead. Baek Miryu was a typical man of Hwaguchon who had lived growing nothing but flowers since his grandfather’s time, and his grandfather’s before that. By now, in the mid-21st century, the affairs of the outside world, advancing with the latest technology, were to him merely a topic to nod at once in wonder and be done with. His daughter and wife, who longed for city life, thought differently, of course.
“So it’s already too late. So with that person…….”
As a man of Hwaguchon who had lived almost cut off from advanced technological civilization, he was an extremely conservative person. Being who he was, he couldn’t simply understand his daughter wailing that she couldn’t marry the man she was already betrothed to.
Of course, it was true that his face was hideously monstrous, but she would get used to it as she lived with him. Besides, this wasn’t a marriage his daughter was entering into out of ardent love for her suitor anyway.
Baek Miryu had also first seen his wife’s face on their wedding night, and she was his first woman, and he had had children with her and built a family. Marrying the person one’s parents chose and being faithful to that family. That was his standard and value of a fine man. So he couldn’t understand the attitude of his younger brother, who had chosen his own partner while prattling on about love and left Hwaguchon.
“Dad, don’t you feel sorry for me at all? You know I’m timid and weak. If I’m in the same place as that monster for even ten minutes, my heart will stop. And you’re telling me to become that monster’s wife, share a bed with him, and bear his children! How horrible. Dad, please, cancel this marriage for me instead. Dad, please!”
“You’ve already spent some of the gold bars that Westerner sent as part of the wedding preparations! If the marriage is called off, what are you going to do about that! You wanted the most lavish wedding in Hwaguchon, so the dress and the food were all ordered from the city at great expense. What about that!”
“I don’t know, I don’t know any of that! You’re my dad. Can’t you do even that much for the daughter you’re marrying off? Give all the gold bars back and break off the engagement!”
Moran clung to her mother’s embrace, her big eyes brimming with tears, and screamed at Baek Miryu. Just as he was about to open his mouth again to persuade his daughter somehow, there was suddenly a knock from behind.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but my master asked me to deliver this to you.” Baek Miryu, his wife, and Moran all froze as they turned to look at Robert standing at the door. They were worried Robert might have heard their conversation. But Robert’s face was still utterly expressionless, so they secretly let out a sigh of relief.
“Wh… what on earth did your master…”
Instead of answering, Robert lightly snapped his fingers. Then the Westerners standing in a line behind him walked in with disciplined steps and stacked heavy chests in the room. The chests themselves, made of fragrant wood so expensive it made one’s eyes pop, were enough to leave their mouths agape, but the contents of the boxes astonished Moran and her parents even more.
The gold bars that had come as proposal gifts were nothing compared to the treasures now spread before their eyes. At the sight, as if the room itself had become a treasure island, they all lost their words.
“This is part of the dowry for taking your daughter. The rest will arrive on the wedding day.”
Robert said calmly.
“Th-this isn’t all of it?”
Moran, who until just a moment ago had been crying and making a fuss, asked without taking her eyes off a necklace with well over a hundred nail-sized pink diamonds linked together.
“My goodness, he really must be rich.”
Moran and her mother murmured in rapt tones, as if they had rehearsed it together.
“This isn’t even half of half of the dowry my master had in mind. Compared to my master’s wealth, this is about the level of pocket money given to a neighborhood child.”
“From what I heard before, I thought he was a businessman with a title……” Baek Miryu asked haltingly, and Robert gave a ceremonial smile unmixed with emotion.
“Since you live in Hwaguchon, which belongs to the Eastern Continent, where monarchy disappeared long ago, the complicated system of titles must be unfamiliar. But on the Western Continent, where I live, constitutional monarchy is still practiced. My master is the Grand Duke of Heywood, cousin of His Majesty the King of Brien and lord of the Welles territory. He is also the head of the Grand Noble Group, a military corporation.”
“You mean he’s the King’s cousin? Then he must be a very high-ranking noble? And the head of a group, with this much money too, how amazing!”
Moran’s eyes sparkled brightly, thinking only that it was something amazing, without even really grasping what the title of Grand Duke meant.
***
Shin-yi’s wish to stay with Tyler even a little longer could not last long. Before even thirty minutes had passed since Tyler entered the room, glittering cars lined up in front of Moran’s house, and the medical team that got out of them swiftly entered the guest bedroom.
It was only a single faint, yet what a fuss this was, Shin-yi thought, but Tyler seemed to think differently. He explained in detail the circumstances of when Shin-yi had fainted, and fiercely pressed Dr. Kent, who had just entered the room, to examine him carefully to see if there was anything particularly wrong with his body.
Compared to Tyler’s fuss, Shin-yi’s diagnosis was simple. A brief loss of consciousness caused by fatigue and stress. It was, in a way, an obvious result, yet Tyler wore a dissatisfied expression.
Could his complexion really be this pale just from fatigue and stress? Shouldn’t they do a thorough examination, since Shin-yi’s lungs were bad? Wasn’t his body too small for his age, so shouldn’t they find out the cause? He nitpicked so much that Shin-yi, listening, felt embarrassed.
“Um, Tyler…….”
At Shin-yi’s timid call, Tyler, who had been talking with Dr. Kent with his back to Shin-yi, quickly turned around. Shin-yi, whose mood lifted just from seeing his face, smiled bashfully, and Tyler smiled back in response. At that moment, the faces of Dr. Kent and the rest of the medical team in the room stiffened as if they couldn’t believe it.
“Yeah, is there anywhere uncomfortable?”
Tyler quickly came to the bedside. When Shin-yi held out his small hand, Tyler hesitated for a moment, then lightly held just the tip of Shin-yi’s finger, like a child afraid it would break if he touched it.
“Tell me everything if there’s anywhere uncomfortable. Since Dr. Kent is here, it’s best to have him look at everything.” At Tyler’s tender whisper to Shin-yi, the faces of the medical team, which had been stiff since a while ago, lost even their color. Paying them no mind, Tyler kept his gaze only on Shin-yi’s face and smiled gently.
“I’ve been lying in bed the whole time, so I’m dizzy. Shall we go out for a walk?” Shin-yi tried to subtly lead him out, thinking that if they stayed like this, Tyler would torment Dr. Kent to death. Though he doubted whether such a clumsy method would work, Tyler, still sitting with his knee on the bedside before Shin-yi had even finished speaking, turned to look at Dr. Kent.
“Dr. Kent, would a walk be all right?”
Dr. Kent, his face gone white, wiped his sweaty forehead with a handkerchief.
“Yes. It will be no problem at all.”
“Good. Then shall we go out?”
Tyler carefully supported Shin-yi’s body as he pulled back the blanket and tried to come out on his own. Holding Shin-yi’s small body, which barely reached his chest, firmly, he slowly stood up.
“Where do you want to go for the walk?”
“I’d like to go to the greenhouse. The flowers are in full bloom right now. Since we’ve come to Hwaguchon, we should look at the flowers.”
“Ah, that makes sense. It’s in full bloom now. You said you grow flowers too, didn’t you? Then can I see the flowers you grow?”
Shin-yi nodded shyly, and a deeper smile bloomed on Tyler’s lips.
***
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