OLOTV 19

Chapter 19

“Then, I’ll ask you to prepare the horse feed. You just need to mix the ingredients; it’s not very difficult. If you go to that building, you’ll find buckets of ingredients. Just take a handful of each and mix them here.”

As he said this, Aron handed me a bucket. From the description alone, it didn’t sound like a difficult task, so I answered confidently.

“Alright.”

“My Lord, I’m not sure how you’ll find this kind of work, but why don’t you come with me to clean the manure? It’s simple and not too hard.”

Aron suddenly flashed a meaningful smile. I looked up at Keris anxiously. Keris had no expression on his face. Still, I’d been the one to suggest coming here, and I worried about how Keris would feel if he got upset. I cautiously spoke to Aron.

“Um… I’d like to try that job. Could we swap roles with the Lord?”

At my words, Aron seemed extremely flustered for some reason, though he didn’t seem displeased. Hesitating, he finally said.

“But… is it alright to ask someone like you to do such a task…?”

So Aron also recognized that cleaning manure wasn’t a particularly welcome job. But I was truly fine with it. Even if horse dung was dirty, wasn’t it something people like Aron did every day? I had no reason to dislike it. It was far better than unnecessarily provoking Keris’s mood.

So, I drove the point home to the hesitant Aron.

“I’m really okay with it. And I’d like to see what kind of work you do up close, Aron. Wouldn’t I understand better if we were together?”

“T-Together…?”

Had I said something wrong? Aron muttered to himself, his face turning red like a malfunctioning machine. Worried about him, I cautiously asked.

“What’s wrong? Did I say something incorrect?”

“Ah, no! Then, my Lord, please prepare the horse feed, and the young lady will… work with me! It’s truly an honor.”

Aron answered, seemingly at a loss. Watching him, I couldn’t understand why this was an honor, but I was glad my suggestion was accepted so easily. I was about to follow Aron to work when…

“No, I’ll go do that. Sarina, you go make the feed.”

Keris spoke in a tone that was oddly sharp. Why was he acting like this? Could it be that he actually wanted to clean the manure, and I’d butted in unnecessarily?

Aron, sounding puzzled on my behalf, replied to Keris’s words.

“That’s not necessary. The young lady said she wants to work ‘with me,’ so please prepare the feed, my Lord.”

“I’m only doing this because I think that job isn’t suitable for Sarina. She’s my guest, so I should be considerate, shouldn’t I? That’s the duty of the one who invited her.”

Was this just going to lead to more trouble…? Feeling the strangely tense standoff between the two, I watched them with a nervous heart. While I was wondering what to do, Keris headed towards the work area first. Aron had no choice but to hurriedly follow Keris.

Left behind, I blankly watched where they had gone, then reluctantly picked up the bucket and headed to the place Aron had mentioned earlier. As Aron had said, the work wasn’t difficult at all. Perhaps because it was a routine task, the ingredients were all prepared in advance. I really just had to mix them.

‘By the way, mixed like this, it looks really unappetizing… Do horses actually eat this?’

I even had that thought as the mixing became tedious. Carrying the bucket containing the mixed feed, I returned to where the problematic horse was. Keris and Aron were still nowhere to be seen, as if their work wasn’t finished.

‘It’s probably better to just stand here and wait, right?’

But standing around felt awkward. There were several other workers at the stables besides Aron, and they kept glancing at me as they passed. I guessed it was because my appearance didn’t quite fit in with the stables. I awkwardly headed towards the area where the horses were, away from everyone.

Perhaps because Aron had restrained it earlier, the horse didn’t get excited even when I approached. Just standing beside it should be fine, right? Waiting for Keris and Aron, I stood still next to the horse, holding the bucket. As I continued spacing out, sleepiness began to creep over me.

How much time had passed? Thinking they should be back by now, I looked around when I suddenly felt someone—or something—nudging the bucket I was holding.

Wondering who was touching the bucket, I turned and gasped in shock.

“Ah, no…!”

The horse had stuck its head into the bucket and was helping itself to the feed. I hurriedly tried to back away from the horse. I shouldn’t have stood so close. I tried to step back, but the stubborn horse refused to pull its head out of the bucket. Struggling, I pulled on the bucket and ended up falling backward. In the process, I kicked the horse’s shin.

Right before my fallen self, the horse began to thrash about wildly, completely excited. It was a situation where I could easily get trampled, potentially leading to a serious accident.

I hurriedly tried to get up and move away to prevent such a mishap. But the moment I stood, I collided with the horse’s body and could only fall back down. And in that instant, the horse reared up over me. I raised my arms to shield myself and squeezed my eyes shut.

* * *

“All you have to do is clean up the dung here.”

Keris watched Aron, who emphasized the word ‘dung,’ with an expressionless face, and started working before Aron even began. Aron looked at Keris with some surprise. He had thought that a lord of Keris’s status would refuse to work altogether. Why would a lord do such dirty work? Indeed, most of the nobles Aron had met to sell horses had been like that. Nobles coming to buy horses would grimace and cover their noses at the slightest hint of dirt, making exaggerated gestures as if to show off, as if saying, ‘Only lowly folk like you should see and touch such filth.’

He had never seen a noble who wasn’t like that. So, he had developed a strong aversion to nobles. For Aron, Keris’s attitude was inevitably surprising. Truthfully, he didn’t know much about Keris. He had seen the villagers gossiping about him, but he wasn’t interested in worldly affairs to begin with. Taking care of horses suited his temperament better than facing a tiresome world.

All Aron knew was that people didn’t have a very good impression of their lord. He had assumed the lord of this territory would be no different from other nobles. If there was any difference, it was probably that, unlike other nobles, he didn’t hide his ‘dirt,’ which was why people disliked him. That’s what he had thought.

But seeing him now, it seemed that might not be entirely true. Aron spoke to Keris in a blunt, almost sarcastic tone.

“For someone of your esteemed status, you’re quite good at this dirty work.”

He hadn’t intended it, but it came out sounding mocking. Aron felt a twinge of worry, he might have gone too far, even if this was the territory’s lord. If he made too bad an impression, he might not be able to run the stables in this territory anymore. Though, given how much he’d already antagonized him, it was probably too late to worry.

Unexpectedly, Keris didn’t get angry but merely muttered in a very low voice.

“…Just because someone was raised in a noble house doesn’t guarantee they were treated like nobility.”

“Huh?”

“It’s nothing.”

Keris quickly pretended he hadn’t said anything, regretting his slip. What were they even doing? It was just cleaning horse manure. Why had he reacted so sensitively?

‘No, what reason do I have to be angry just because Sarina is doing something with someone else? Surely I’m not still thinking of her as my possession just because she was my doll all this time?’

No matter how much he thought about it, Keris couldn’t understand his own feelings. He had never had occasion to look inward before, so he didn’t even know how.

Before long, Aron and Keris, having finished their work, returned to where the horse was. Aron’s attitude had softened slightly towards Keris, who had worked harder than expected.

“You worked hard.”

Keris didn’t particularly care about the change in Aron’s behavior. They had spent too much time at the stables. The sun was already setting. Just then, a clattering sound followed by a short, sharp female scream echoed from a distance.

“What was that?”

Aron exclaimed in surprise beside him. Keris knew who the scream belonged to. It was Sarina. Something must have happened to her. He quickly ran towards the source of the sound.