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As they passed through the rough road and entered the frigid land, a white castle wall appeared, so bright it hurt the eyes.
Unlike Gray who stayed behind, Rose looked at Casa, who had insisted on coming along.
“Are you going to settle in as a guard?”
“Hmm, we’ll see.”
“You like being a mercenary. Why are you always by my side?”
Casa glanced at her and asked.
“So, do you dislike it?”
“Don’t you feel stifled?”
While Casa helped with tasks requiring force when the merchant group settled, some days he would suddenly be off wielding a sword and doing mercenary work.
Casa looked quietly at Rose’s worried face, then gently bumped his forehead against hers and said.
“It’s fine now.”
“What is?”
He just smiled without answering.
Rose poked his side and deliberately brought up the Duke.
“Perhaps you’ve become interested in the Duke?”
“Sorry, but I don’t swing that way. No matter how pretty, I’ll pass on men. What about you? What do you think about national beauty and voyeurism? I’m very~ curious. Ah! Perhaps you had some secret, decadent taste? Does the Duke like that sort of thing? So you two are lovers… Wow~ I should have turned a blind eye, I was too oblivious. Sorry.”
Rose retreated from the attack that came back twice as strong as her teasing attempt.
“You… It’d be better if you didn’t say that to the Duke.”
Casa grinned.
He always spoke and acted as he thought, but looking at his red eyes twinkling with mischief, somehow it wasn’t annoying.
The carriage heading towards the castle suddenly shook.
Rose looked out to see what was happening and saw another carriage ahead fixing its wheel.
She saw the young-faced coachman Jorge running towards the other carriage.
After a brief conversation, suddenly the knight became angry and swung his sword at Jorge.
“Casa!”
When Rose turned her head, Casa was already throwing his dagger.
A piercing sound rang out as the knight’s great sword clashed with the dagger.
Pushed back by Casa’s mana-infused dagger, the knight who almost fell backward shouted.
“Who are you!”
“Who else would I be but me?”
Casa got out of the carriage and stood in front of the boy who had fallen in surprise.
After confirming Jorge wasn’t hurt, he smiled at the knight.
“Hey, shouldn’t you fight someone your own size? A knight trying to stab a child, since when did the chivalric code include making thugs? Seeing this, knights really aren’t all that. Right?”
The knight didn’t dare to say anything in response to his mockery.
Although Casa had a slender build, the knight seemed to sense the considerable difference in skill and realized he was outmatched.
The knight, swallowing his anger, glanced towards Rose’s direction, rolling his eyes as if trying to confirm their status.
After seeing the plain-looking carriage without even a family crest, and Casa’s mercenary attire, he seemed to have made his calculations and raised his voice to scold.
“The coachman, seeing a noble family’s carriage, not only doesn’t offer help but asks to move aside! I was reprimanding him for being too presumptuous and rude, but instead of being grateful, why are you picking a fight?”
“What?”
Seeing Casa frown, the knight became even more aggressive and shouted.
“This is no ordinary carriage, but one belonging to a Count’s family. If you didn’t recognize it properly, shouldn’t you at least show respect when you realized it was nobility? But instead, you’re protecting that insolent brat, how will you atone for this crime…”
Casa pointed a dagger at the knight’s neck, which no one had seen him draw.
“What are you saying, you madman.”
Rose, who was in the carriage, lowered the window with an intrigued expression and rested her chin on her hand.
‘I never thought I’d see such a scene in my lifetime.’
It was like a cliché villain straight out of a cheap novel.
Rose was curious about how this would be resolved when she noticed the young coachman sobbing.
“Jorge.”
When the teary-eyed boy looked at her, not knowing what to do, she just smiled.
“It’s not your fault.”
“But…”
“It’s fine. It’s Casa, after all.”
Jorge, who had been crying with a heaving chest, finally wiped his eyes and nodded.
Then he let out a deep sigh.
“Why?”
“Because it’s Casa.”
“Ah.”
On this point, Rose agreed completely.
‘A kid should be a bit peculiar. Especially one sensitive to these matters… tsk tsk.’
As Rose looked around, the situation was unfolding predictably.
Usually, in such cases, someone would appear to help, but no unexpected figure emerged.
After rummaging through the carriage for a moment, Rose took out a cookie and placed it in Jorge’s mouth.
The boy outside just rolled his eyes.
“Chew.”
“Yes.”
While the sweet taste calmed the boy’s startled heart, Rose muttered to herself.
“The mercenary sisters were wrong.”
“Pardon?”
“I heard before that if someone is in danger, a handsome man will come to save them.”
“What if they die trying?”
It was a very realistic answer from a seventeen-year-old boy.
Rose laughed and shared the stories the sisters had recited.
“If the woman is married, her husband will come to save her, and if she’s an unmarried lady, a dashing hero will come to rescue her. Do you know what’s most important in this story?”
“What is it?”
“The woman being rescued is a beauty, and the man doing the rescuing is handsome!”
“…I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Jorge added with a cynical expression.
“Probably because the woman is a noble and doesn’t live in the slums like me. That makes sense. Noblewomen have escorts, and nobles help other nobles.”
“Indeed.”
Rose patted Jorge’s head.
The young coachman blushed and muttered.
“Well, I know a beauty who saves a boy.”
“Oh?”
“Lady Rose.”
She forced a smile, trying to hide her embarrassment.
“Don’t say that anywhere. I’m already overwhelmed with just the old men. And if Casa, who’s taking out your frustration over there, hears it, he’ll cry. Plus, if any man hears this story, I might have to drown myself in a dish of water.”
Rose briefly imagined the blinding ‘national beauty.’
Hearing someone praise her looks in front of him would be mortifying.
“It’s already been thirty minutes, and it doesn’t seem like it’s ending?”
Crunch.
Jorge, who was chewing on a cookie as if he had never cried, coldly assessed.
“Casa must be bored. Or maybe he’s really stressed. It seems like he’s playing right now.”
Even though the knight had no intention of fighting, Casa taunted him with remarks like, ‘With skills like that, how did you become a knight? The world has really improved!’ or ‘Are you running away because you left your manhood in your mother’s womb?’
His attitude, picking a fight from start to finish, showed a clear desire to see blood.
Rose watched Casa’s sharp remarks for a moment before glancing down at Jorge.
“Should we let him continue?”
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
Jorge, who was eating the cookie Rose handed him, hesitated a bit before shaking his head.
“I think he’s vented enough. Besides, if we delay any longer, Lady Rose might get caught by the Duke for no reason. I don’t like that.”
“Really? Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Well, it’s not completely resolved, but this is enough.”
Jorge smiled brightly.
Rose, brushing the cookie crumbs from the boy’s mouth, called out to the troublesome person who was venting his stress by holding a sword to the knight’s neck and launching a mental attack.
“Casa.”
Judging by the lack of response, he must be really annoyed.
Though she hadn’t listened closely, the knight was tediously repeating the same old story about status and class differences.
Rose had seen many shallow people like that.
Though they were said to exist only in novels, most people are lenient with themselves and cruel to others.
In a class society, this was even more prevalent, and she often saw people who didn’t hesitate to wield the values they formed against the weak, regardless of age or gender.
Casa, who was once the weakest in society, exploded with anger whenever he encountered such situations.
It was probably a compensatory mechanism at work.
‘If you’re not angry, you’re not human. But getting entangled with people like that is a waste of time, Casa.’
Rose knew that while Casa’s anger was justified and mocking the knight was quite entertaining, the longer it went on, the more Casa would end up getting hurt.
She quietly called out to him.
“Casa.”
“I haven’t even started yet.”
As Casa turned around with dissatisfaction, Rose almost let out a laugh.
The knight’s appearance was already a mess.
His armor was covered in all sorts of insults, and his hair was cut as if rats had chewed on it.
And that wasn’t all.
The sword the knight was holding had been thrown away, but it seemed Casa had gone out of his way to retrieve it and place it back in his hand.
He had handled it so skillfully that all the teeth were gone, and one more hit would shatter it completely.
‘That sword seems to have a bit of mithril mixed in, but even a bucket of tears wouldn’t be enough to fix it.’
Seeing Casa’s face, still not fully relieved of anger despite having done such a wicked thing, was almost absurd.
As he trudged back, Rose swallowed her laughter and asked.
“Are you serious about not being done?”
“Yeah.”
Judging by his short response, he seemed serious.
His fiery red eyes glared at the carriage that didn’t even bother to come out despite their knight being attacked.
“I should deal with them too.”
“Getting involved with those types is just exhausting.”
“No. Those types need to roll in the dirt to truly understand their worth.”
Casa’s voice was eerie and cold.
Rose didn’t say more and rubbed her cold hands against his warm ones.
“Your hands are the best. So warm! I don’t need a heater when I’m with you.”
Casa, who had been silent, came to stand by her side.
Slowly, the venom faded from his eyes, and he pouted his lips.
“Yeah, yeah, a heater, huh? You have a top-class mercenary you can’t meet even with a fortune, and you can’t find a better use for him?”
Despite his words, Casa’s lips were smiling.
Only then did she feel relieved.
It’s not good for a person to be too twisted.
Sometimes you have to know how to let go, and it seemed Casa had grown enough to do that now.
‘In the past, it only ended after seeing blood, but now it’s resolved so simply. Those people are lucky.’
However, looking at the knight’s condition, it seemed it wouldn’t end properly without a conclusion.
Having left the knight in such a state, he would surely harbor resentment.
‘I don’t care about grudges, but I hate nuisances.’
Rose smiled at Casa and stepped out of the carriage with her hood on.
The knight seemed a bit dazed from being handled so roughly.
“Excuse me…”
“What, what, what!”
The rather shameless-looking knight hurriedly pulled down his hat in surprise.
He must have been quite frightened.
Rose glanced at his sword.
“My man went a bit overboard. I know someone at the Chaos Merchant Guild, so if you leave it with them, they won’t charge you for repairs.”
“Hmph! Do you think the Brill Count’s family is short on money? Charity is for beggars!”
“Well, if you say so.”
The knight, perhaps expecting Rose to cling and apologize, stood there blankly before quickly starting to fume.
Just as the atmosphere was about to heat up, a knocking sound came from the other carriage.
The knight returned to whisper with the people inside the carriage, then came back with a displeased expression, frowning.
“They acknowledge that your side went too far and ask for forgiveness, so I will generously do so.”
‘I said we went too far, not that we asked for forgiveness.’
As Rose looked at him, the knight, still not fully relieved of his anger, threw his armor to the ground.
The words ‘ignorant fool’ glinted brightly in the sunlight.
“My lord says you seem to have some conscience, so he’s giving you a chance to repay.”
Though it was absurd, Rose, curious about how far this would go, asked.
“So what do you want us to do?”
“Take off your carriage wheel and give it to us.”
‘Are they really trying to rob a perfectly good wheel?’
Rose felt like she had discovered the scum of the earth.
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