Boom!
Bajjik!
From somewhere, I heard a loud sound.
“Emma, it's loud...”
I fidgeted and then remembered.
Emma is the maid who took care of me, and it has been three years since I escaped the duchy.
So what is this familiar noise?
"…… What is this?"
How did I fall asleep?
There was a blanket wrapped around my body.
The same blanket I gave the man.
“Is he gone?”
I looked around, but no one was there, and then I realized that I wasn't on the first floor either.
'When did I reach the second floor?'
I didn't even realize there was a bedroom here.
I walked out of the room quietly, and a delicious scent filled the air.
The smell was coming from the first floor.
I saw someone moving in the kitchen on the first floor.
'Man?'
I remembered that at that moment.
This is the man I brought yesterday.
A man with black hair and a broad back.
I glanced at him from the top of the stairs.
“Are you awake?”
Then our eyes met.
I felt embarrassed, as if I had been caught eavesdropping.
I crept up to him and hid my fist behind my back.
"what are you doing here?"
“Just cooking…….”
He smiled shyly.
“You don't tend to eat breakfast?”
"No?
What are you doing here, anyway?"
“Oh.”
The man smiled calmly.
“I was late introducing myself.”
He was familiar with other people's kitchens.
He cleaned the dirty, dirty knives with a dry cloth and set them aside, and he unzipped the apron from I don't know where he found it and laid it neatly to one side, as if it were his home.
“I'm Dale, the owner of this house.”
"I knew that.
I thought it was normal, but...what?"
My eyes widened for a moment.
“You are the owner?”
* * *
I immediately went to the real estate agent to get the full story.
“I told you before that the house was unusual and had some problems.
Unfortunately, I cannot refund you the money you paid.”
So that was the problem.
It was a partial sale, not a sale of the entire house.
To summarize the real estate agent's explanation.
1.
The house consists of two separate floors.
2.
There is a staircase out from the second floor and the kitchen needs to be rebuilt.
3.
The only house I can stay in now is Dale's.
There was a reason the house was so much cheaper than the average price of homes.
“Mr.
Dale, are you using the first floor?”
“Yes.
Mostly.”
“Can I use the second floor?”
"Yes."
He constantly avoided my gaze with a shy smile.
Despite his cold exterior, the man felt embarrassed when he made eye contact with me.
“Why did you sell only one floor of this house?”
“It's because…….”
The man, or rather Dale, closed his mouth for a moment.
“I needed money.”
“Oh, money.”
Well, money is the most important thing.
I looked at Dale.
When our eyes met, he lowered his head like a startled rabbit.
He was red from his face to the back of his neck, and despite his appearance he seemed unaccustomed to talking to women.
'The strangest thing is not the house or the situation, but that man.'
'How could he not be full of pride with that face?'
‘With a face like that, pride should rise with every exhale, every inhale, and every breath.’
There doesn't seem to be a mirror in this house, so maybe he doesn't care about his appearance?
I looked at Dale.
“If my presence makes you uncomfortable, I'll go out for a while.”
“No, it's cold, where are you going?”
anywhere……."
He couldn't look at me as if he was sorry.
“Don't go, Mr.
Dale.
Just stay here, this is your home.”
The handsome, intimidatingly sized man sat quietly on the sofa.
He was staring at me with wet, innocent eyes, and I realized...
……?
I was attracted to him.
I wiped away the saliva that had accidentally spilled.
“Are you okay?”
"What?
“I wasn’t thinking about anything.”
I answered, shaking my head.
His temperature had dropped, he was not ill, and he was not a suspect.
Now the problem was me.
'Where am I going?'
There were no houses in Grunwald that I could move into immediately.
“Ha…….”
It was autumn, and it was getting dark quickly.
If I'm going to find another place to live, I'll have to leave soon, and there are no suitable places.
That doesn't mean I can't live in this guy's house.
It's not like I can get my money back.
Dale looked at me calmly with an embarrassed expression.
Knock knock.
Then someone knocked on the door of the house.
“Do you have any guests coming?”
“No, I’m going out, you stay here.”
When Dale opened the door, he saw an unfamiliar man standing there with a puzzled look on his face.
“Are you here, Anne, the most beautiful girl in the world?”
Anne is my nickname.
“The most beautiful girl in the world” was a password that Emma created herself.
“Wait a minute, Dale, he's my guest.”
"Yes!
Miss Anne.
“There you are, nice to see you.”
What can I say, the mercenary Emma sent was really…
A strong-boned man who looked like he could protect me.
There are two kinds of people in the world, those who value form and those who value function.
Emma was someone who valued function and I was someone who valued form.
In short, he was not my taste, especially since he was next to a man like Dale, who was exactly my taste.
“I am Hunter, accompanying you from now on.”
He showed me Emma's handwritten application form.
Not Dale, this was the man who would be living with me from now on.
“……?”
I asked the man.
“What class are you from?”
“It's Class S.”
“What about your wages?
Are there additional fees for hiring you?”
“Yes, I was brokered by the Mercenary Guild, so apart from the initial down payment...”
“You don't have a house in Grunwald, do you?”
"What?
No."
I decided, straightening my back, which was bent.
“I'm sorry, but let's just pretend this never happened, I don't have the money to pay you.”
* * *
“You said your name was Dale, right?”
"Yes."
He was a man of few words.
When I spoke to him, he answered in a low, cautious voice.
“According to what the real estate agent said, I have the right to use the second floor for a year, right?”
"Yes."
She dismissed Emma's mercenaries and looked at Dale carefully.
Dale was a mercenary too.
Class A is good enough, I don't have to pay extra money, I already paid money that I won't get back, and his appearance was worth a million points.
“Dale is the owner, right?”
"Yes."
“If this house belongs to Dale, does that mean that when the census is taken, it will be listed in his name and not mine?”
"Ms……."
" that."
“It's as Anne says.”
minute.
The calculator whirled in my head.
'This increases the possibility of avoiding the Emperor.'
“If you'd like, Anne, I can include your name.”
“No, the first option is better.”
I tapped my fingers on the table.
“I was scammed.”
"I'm sorry."
He looked so sorry, even though it wasn't Dale's fault.
"So, I'd like to make an offer.
What do you think?"
“Okay, you can do whatever you want.”
“It's not a specific contract for this house, but I'm making an offer to you, Dale, the landlord.”
"for me…..?"
Dale's eyes widened.
“I saw your ID badge when you fell, Dale.
You're a mercenary.”
jingle.
I put the bag of money I had on the table.
"this…."
Dale was confused.
“I would like to offer you a job, starting with a basic salary of one million kroner.”
“A million kroner?”
His eyes widened in surprise at the unexpectedly large amount.
Typically, 100,000 kroner is the living expenses for a year for a family of four people from the common people.
“Do you want to hear my story?”
Dale looked at me, rubbing his eyebrows.
He looked very confused.
“……I will listen.”
“I needed a place to move right away, or to be more precise, I needed a place to hide.
Yes, I ran away from home.”
“…….”
He listened to my story seriously.
“And I needed someone who could protect me.”
“That's why the man came.”
"correct."
“Is your life in danger?”
For a moment, Dale's face became sharper.
“Something like that, but the details are a little different.”
“Who is threatening you?”
“I can't tell you.”
“…….”
For some reason, Dale's handsome face became very serious.
“One million kroner is the basic salary, but I am thinking of an additional allowance for this dangerous job.”
I raised my index finger.
“I will give you ten thousand kroner, that is, a total of 3.64 million kroner.”
Total 4.64 million kroner.
This was a large sum of money, enough to buy a number of palaces in the capital.
“This is a large amount of money, so it must be risky……Ann.”
"naturally."
“I will definitely keep the order details confidential.”
I liked that this guy was quick-witted.
I took out more bags of money and placed them on the table.
“What I'm about to ask you to do is difficult.”
“I will keep that in mind.”
“The request is.”
I leaned my upper body forward to look at him.
“I want you to be my husband for 364 days.”
***
I ask God for forgiveness 🤍.