Chapter 05
“Sick? In that case, shouldn’t you go back to the duchy quickly and get a good doctor?”
I asked again in surprise, but he replied matter-of-factly as if it were nothing.
“No — a sickness that kills you if you can’t eat octopus.”
“…….”
“A sickness that only gets cured if you eat octopus dishes of every kind for three days.”
I clenched my fist as hard as I could.
‘I wish I could hit him just once. Would I be executed for striking a duke? Maybe I could say it was an accident and shove him—’
A furious heat rose inside me.
Whether he noticed my flushed face or not, the duke stood up from his seat.
“Then have octopus for dinner tonight as well. Ah — I’ll start giving you your daily pay from today, so don’t worry.”
The gold coins the duke had dumped carelessly on the table rolled and clinked, then fell to the floor.
But he didn’t look back; he walked out of the barracks and left in a hurry.
I forced myself to count to ten, and on ten I hurled the ladle toward the barracks entrance and shouted.
“Hey, you unlucky bastard! Trip over a rock and fall! If you fall forward, may your skull crack! As you tumble, may you grab dog shit with your hands!”
Of course those cowardly curses wouldn’t have reached the duke’s ears.
“You must succeed! Don’t you worry about me.”
My mother, swollen-eyed from crying, sobbed again.
Besides my mother, the only other family I had was Jiana. Seeing my mother cry made me feel like crying too for no reason.
“Mom, I’ll make my fortune and come fetch you soon, so please wait a bit, okay?”
I hugged my mother tightly once, then turned and boarded the ship.
The ship set out with power, and the small island, which I already wanted to leave, quickly receded until it was no longer visible.
“Sigh……”
It was a strange mix of relief and sadness. I had hated the island and wanted to leave at once, but now that I’d gone, why did I feel a little homesick? I looked at the sea and fell into a deep, sentimental mood.
But the feeling didn’t last long.
“Uueeek!”
Staring at the slate-colored sea, I vomited.
“What is this disgusting, rolling feeling!”
It was something I had never felt while with Seohayun. I looked from the sea to the sky and then vomited again.
“Kueeeeeek!”
What’s this — Jiana? Seasick?
She didn’t look like someone who’d get seasick; she looked as if she could eat a log and be fine.
“Why is the ship going so fast?”
I thought a ship in a fantasy world couldn’t be that fast, but it felt twice as fast as the high-speed ferry back in Korea. I wiped my mouth badly and grabbed a passing sailor to ask.
“Excuse me, are ships usually this fast?”
“Oh, Miss Jiana, you’ve never been on a ship before, have you?”
The burly sailor glanced at my pale face, tutted, and answered helpfully.
“This ship is particularly fast compared to others. It’s a state-of-the-art vessel, and it uses magical power alongside its engines. Besides, we’re running at the ship’s top speed right now.”
“My seasickness is killing me… could you slow down a little?”
“That can’t be done.”
I turned toward the voice and saw Duke Rupellen striding over.
“I ordered the speed to be set to maximum.”
“Why?”
“Because the octopus dish someone made was so good. It delayed the schedule by three days while we ate it.”
I was so incredulous at the duke’s words that my jaw dropped. A bad feeling crept up, and I had a foreboding that the voyage was going to be rough.
“I knew I had an eye for talent. A woman like her isn’t common.”
Duke Rupellen chuckled as he looked at Jiana standing at the bow.
Who would have guessed a woman like her would be tucked away in a corner of some island?
Jiana’s skills were beyond imagination. Her ability to use streams of magical light to pull seafood out of the water was astonishing. And her cooking — it suited his taste to a tee. She cooked octopus dishes effortlessly without a fire, and when he started to feel the richness in his mouth, she somehow knew and served a red broth to cleanse the palate. It was as if she could see right into him.
“Ugh, why is the sun so hot today? And why’s the wind blowing so hard? Ugh. Uweeeek.”
Jiana complained while looking at the sea, clutched the railing, and retched.
Duke Rupellen snorted a little laugh at the sight.
“Seasick when she doesn’t suit it at all.”
Even while getting sick, she was diligent about her job. He felt rewarded for snatching her up with a contract quill. She seemed worth keeping nearby with appropriate rewards.
Just then, three sailors came out of the cabin, trotting.
“Man, the weather’s great today.”
“This good sun really wastes your face.”
“Ha, three lookalikes arguing over nothing.”
The three who never stopped jabbering were Eolson, Kahn, and Isaac — the trio the duke had nicknamed “the three idiots,” the hangers-on of the Bellettin.
They planted themselves between the duke and Jiana and started stretching their arms, sitting and standing repeatedly to block his view.
“What are those idiots doing?”
The duke frowned at them. They deliberately stood square between him and Jiana, stretching their arms and doing exercise in the same spot.
“Of all places to exercise, they pick that spot. They really have no sense.”
The duke slid his body slightly to move back into a place where he could see Jiana again.
Jiana was staring down at the water, sweeping the surface with her streams of light.
“Something just bit… Ah! It’s a big one!”
She raised her hand and a fish, its gills snagged on the magic thread, flapped and sprang into the air.
“Oho, fish today. Shall we have it steamed?”
Just as the duke, pleased, was about to move closer to Jiana, the flopping fish wriggled free of Jiana’s hand and was thrown onto the deck.
“Argh! I dropped it!”
As Jiana screamed, the three idiots who had been doing morning calisthenics dashed toward her.
“Miss Jiana, are you all right?”
“Did that nasty fish bite your fingers?”
“Shall we pull out all its teeth? Or chop off its tail?”
Watching the fuss the trio of idiots made in front of Jiana, Duke Rupellen’s expression twisted.
“Why are those fools making such a scene? Let the diver handle it.”
An uncomfortable feeling crept up inside him. He didn’t like the idea of someone else showing interest in her.
In an instant he moved to Jiana’s side and scolded the idiots.
“You three — what are you doing pestering my diver here?”
“Ah, Duke. Good morning.”
“We were, as you see, helping by catching the fish.”
“So why were you the ones doing it?”
They really had no sense. But seeing how fierce the duke’s expression was, the three fell silent.
“A hundred laps of the deck, now.”
“Ahh, Duke! Why?”
“We haven’t even had breakfast yet.”
“We don’t have the stamina to run ten laps, let alone a hundred.”
“I don’t remember hiring weaklings like you. Either get off my ship now or run the hundred laps quietly.”
What could they do? When the employer orders, you obey. The three idiots ran toward the other side of the ship, crying.
“Duke, why? They were only trying to help — good people.”
“To me it looked like they were trying to bother my diver.”
“You misread it. I was the one who dropped the fish while I was pulling it up, and they came over because—”
“You’re my contracted diver. If anyone else bothers you, don’t hold back — tell me at once. I’ll deal with them.”
Duke Rupellen cut her off before she could say more.
Jiana looked at him with an expression that seemed to say she was baffled, but whatever. Anyone who approached her without permission deserved to be driven off.
“Then have that fish steamed.”
Still pointing at the flapping fish on the deck, the duke indicated how he wanted it prepared, then slipped back into his cabin.
Bang — the door slammed shut.
