Chapter 35
“Your kind.”
Sometimes, when things are just too absurd, you’re left utterly speechless.
For a moment, I just stood there dumbfounded, my mouth slightly agape, staring at the street vendor.
Perhaps thinking I was hurt, or maybe for some other reason, the vendor smirked nastily, a twitch at the corner of his mouth.
“Got a problem? Or didn’t you understand? I said I’m not selling to your kind.”
He even shooed me away with a flick of his wrist, as if swatting a bug.
I looked at my red, swollen wrist, then raised the corner of my mouth in a faint smile.
“Ah, you won’t sell to the likes of me, is that it?”
Even to my own ears, my voice sounded chilling.
It seemed this was an unexpected reaction. The smile vanished from the vendor’s face, replaced by a full-blown scowl.
The rod swiped across my wrist a few more times, leaving behind an unpleasant sting.
“The seller says he won’t sell, you got a problem with that? I said I’m not selling! Get lost!”
“Yeong-ae?”
Arius called my name from behind, perfectly timed. But right now, Arius wasn’t the issue.
“You’re right. The seller decides. I have no issue with someone who suddenly refuses to sell goods they put out for sale.”
“Then get going, don’t loiter here annoyingly. Ugh, these Moro girls always make my skin crawl whenever I see them.”
Whether he didn’t hear Arius call me ‘Yeong-ae’ or simply couldn’t conceive that I might be that ‘Yeong-ae,’ the vendor waved his thin stick through the air dismissively.
Finally, Arius, who had been standing beside me, let out a sigh, having taken in the entire scene.
He’d come out intending to act as my escort, only to have some nobody hit my wrist with a stick. He must have found it baffling.
But I didn’t want him to step in.
“Please don’t,” I said, reaching out a hand and speaking softly. Arius frowned.
“You still not leaving? Do I have to chase you off myself?” the vendor barked incessantly in the background.
What a fool, completely lacking the basic discernment needed for business.
Hiding my boiling anger, I grinned brightly.
“I’ll go. But I wanted to tell you one thing you got right before I leave.”
“W-what? How dare you, putting on airs with noble speech! Just look at those flashy clothes, clearly some old noble’s back-alley mistress, aren’t you? What kind of…”
“Tsk. Still, you only got one thing right and everything else wrong.”
I laughed again. Strangely, this time, everything seemed genuinely funny.
I leaned forward slightly, smiling.
“From now on, you’ll live your whole life feeling uneasy because of a ‘disgusting Moro girl.’ I can promise you that one thing for sure.”
As I spoke, I scooped up all the necklaces and trinkets displayed on the stall with one hand.
“H-hey, you!”
Before the stunned vendor could say anything more, and before Arius could even think to stop me,
I hurled the handful of gold, silver, and cheap glass trinkets I held in my hand with all my might into the river.
The thin chains and accessories glittered dazzlingly in the air before disappearing into the water with a soft plop.
I admired the brief shower of sparks created by the friction.
“My, how pretty.”
“Y-you, crazy… Hey, look at this madwoman! Everyone saw that, right? You saw it!”
With this commotion, the murmurs around us grew louder, and stares converged on us. The vendor’s neck bulged with veins.
“In all my life, I’ve never seen such brazen troublemaking! Aigoo, you! I’ll teach you a lesson you won’t forget, eh?”
A lesson? What nonsense.
I pulled the single amethyst ring from my pinky finger and tossed it dismissively onto the stall.
“This should cover it.”
“Th-this! I won’t accept this from you! You’ve really… How dare you think this cheap piece of rock can cover the, the immense damage you’ve…”
“You lack discernment. Look again. Didn’t I just throw all those cheap rocks into the river? The immense loss is actually mine to bear, you see.”
The amethyst ring I had been wearing was something that could have bought everything on his stall and still left enough to buy armfuls of gifts for my family.
But he lacked the eye to recognize that, which is probably why he found himself in this situation.
I smiled kindly.
“Ignorant merchant, think carefully. I have received nothing but rudeness from you, yet I’ve paid a price far exceeding the value of those cheap goods. I’ve shown you great favor.”
“Hey, you wretched thing, putting on noble airs. You’re completely insane. Let’s settle this right now.”
Eyes bulging with rage, the merchant clumsily clambered onto his now-empty stall and reached out to grab my hair.
Aigoo, the hair Louisia worked so hard to style is going to get ruined, I thought.
“How dare you.”
A low voice resonated.
It was Arius, who had grabbed the vendor’s wrist.
“Ah, aah, aigoo, my wrist! Ah, sir, please wait, aigoo!”
It didn’t seem like he was using much force, but the vendor’s face contorted severely, and he writhed in pain.
“Aigoo, I was a bit, h-h- excited, wasn’t I? Even if she’s low-born, I wasn’t really going to lay a hand on her, I just meant to…”
“You weren’t going to lay a hand on her?”
Arius repeated the vendor’s words coldly.
Even while twisting in pain, the vendor’s eyes darted over Arius’s platinum hair and light green eyes—uncommon in southern Separdia—and then rolled his eyes to take in Arius’s clearly high-quality clothing.
Well, well. It seems he has the eye to recognize that much.
“You seem to be a distinguished guest from the north, aah, I just, just a moment, please. Hear me out.”
“I think that’s enough.”
Finding the vendor’s squawking hard to bear, I tried to stop Arius.
He released his elegant, large hand and turned his gaze to me, extending that same large hand toward me.
What is it?
I hesitated, unsure of his meaning. Arius spoke.
“Please show me your arm.”
I hesitated, then lifted my arm.
It was the wrist the vendor had struck with that thin stick.
It looks worse than I thought.
It was red and swollen, and since the end must have been sharp, it was slightly scratched and bleeding a little.
I hadn’t noticed, being so worked up.
Having assessed the injury, Arius looked back at the vendor.
“What is your name?”
His voice was dripping with icy coldness. The vendor twisted his body, trying to gauge the situation.
He still didn’t seem to think he was in the wrong at all. His next words were a prime example.
“Oof, if you’d just hear me out fully, you’d be truly astonished. There seems to be a misunderstanding. I was trying to politely send her away because I wouldn’t sell, and then that Moro woman! She just… her eyes rolled back like this!”
The vendor raised his voice as if making a grand point.
“She threw my precious merchandise, the items I sell, into the river! You saw that, right? Then she just tosses some toy-like ring and acts all high and mighty. The audacity. I’m just so wronged and resentful.”
“I asked for your name. Just answer that. Your address as well.”
Hesitantly, the vendor gave his name and address, then tried to speak again with an ingratiating smile.
“Judging by your noble appearance, you must be from the castle. I’ll, I’ll be fully compensated, right? And that Moro, I wonder if she’ll even be expelled or something?”
“A summons will arrive within the next two days. Perhaps even sooner.”
Arius’s statement seemed quite clear, but the vendor only looked triumphant.
He glared at me with his bulging eyes and smirked.
“You hear that, you crazy wench? Get ready for jail.”
“Me?”
Why me?
I pondered what to say to the vendor, so entrenched in his flawless delusion, then finally raised both hands and gave a mocking smile.
“I told you I paid. What exactly did I do wrong?”
“Aigoo, look at the nerve of that girl! Did you hear her?”
His face flushed crimson again, the vendor pointed a finger at me.
Arius grabbed that finger and bent it back firmly.
“Ah, ah, ah!”
“You heard clearly that you’ll be receiving a summons. If you flee before then, your crime will be more severe. Act accordingly.”
“Me? Me?”
As if truly feeling wronged, the vendor subtly hid his red, swollen finger behind his back but still had veins popping on his neck.
“What crime did I commit? I’m the victim here! She laid her dirty hands on my goods! And my things thrown in the river, the people here are my witnesses!”
Victim?
His audacity took my breath away. I let out a hollow laugh and considered engaging properly, stepping forward.
I was rummaging in my pocket to show my seal when Arius stretched out an arm to stop me and looked at the vendor.
“You can’t be unaware of how serious the crime of inflicting harm on the Young Lady of the Ducal house is.”
“No, Young Lady of the Ducal house, what nonsense is that? I’ve seen the Young Ladies of Separdia before, and I’ve never heard or seen the likes of that… Ah, wait.”
As he spoke, the vendor’s face began turning pale, a sickly blue.
The words he blurted out unconsciously with his white lips were decisive.
“That half-breed.”
