Side Stories: Chapter 14
Feijadiru didn’t say anything for a while, but it wasn’t because he agreed with what Hans said. He temporarily lost his sense of judgment because he had never been insulted like this right to his face. Soon, Feijadiru recollected his senses, and his face became bright red.
“Y-Y-You bastard!” Feijadiru got up abruptly and his chair dropped to the ground with a loud bang.
“What’s wrong, sir?”
“What? Are you seriously asking me like you don’t know?”
Hans tilted his head and turned to Lara. “Why is he so angry? I don’t think I really said anything that could upset him.”
“Ah, well…” Lara hesitated. The two contrasted each other perfectly—Feijadiru was steaming red in anger while Hans looked at the people around him with pure, innocent eyes.
“I suppose you said something that could’ve irked him a little bit.”
“A bit? Did you just say a bit!” Feijadiru couldn’t believe that after all the offensive insults Hans uttered to him, Lara could describe Hans’ words to be ‘a bit irksome.’ Those descriptions alone were greatly offensive to Feijadiru. Of course, it was still nothing compared to what came out of Hans’ mouth.
“That’s strange. I only spoke the truth though,” Hans said.
“What?!”
Lara already knew that Hans had been considerably tainted by Zich, and she saw this side of Hans from time to time while they traveled together. Unlike Zich, it appeared that Hans didn’t infuriate his opponents on purpose.
‘It’s good that he seems to instinctively differentiate who to mock and not,’ Lara thought.
Nevertheless, this incident clearly showed that Hans was Zich’s disciple. Feijadiru continued to spew out words in anger and Hans remained oblivious as to why Feijadiru was acting this way. Yet, every response that Hans gave artfully struck Feijadiru’s nerves. Lara thought she should intervene now. If the fight progressed and eventually blew up into a physical fight, it would be difficult to deal with the aftermath.
Yet, an emotion wiggling in a corner of her heart stopped her from acting. The edge of her mouth shook, and she had to bite down her lower lips to stop herself from bursting out in laughter. Yet, in the end, she couldn’t stop herself. Like a fragile bank broken down by a rough water current, the emotions stirred up inside of her ended up pouring out.
“Hahahahah! Haha! Hahahahaha!”
The one-sided fight between Hans and Feijadiru stopped. Lara felt the two looking at her in surprise, but Lara still couldn’t stop herself. She wiped away the tears rolling down her cheeks and continued to laugh out loud.
“What! Did you lose your mind or something?!”
“What happened?”
The two young men’s questions and tone contrasted with each other. Lara naturally ignored the first voice and said, “I-It’s because you are too funny, Hans…!”
“Huh? Was there something strange about what I said? I just asked about things that I was genuinely curious about,” Hans replied.
“You bastard!”
“Ahahahaha!”
“What are you laughing your head off about?” Feijadiru shouted, but his rage only added more humor to the situation, and Lara laughed even harder.
Her brother had tormented her just because she was more outstanding than him. Since her family valued the eldest son the most, they had only taken her brother’s side. Feijadiru didn’t dare to confront Lara head-on as she instantly surpassed him in duels not long after taking up the sword, but as the family’s heir, there were many methods he could utilize to torment Lara without personally getting involved. Thus, naturally, Lara didn’t have good feelings toward Feijadiru. Seeing Feijadiru get torn apart by Hans’ insults brought Lara an incredible sense of relief and payback.
When would the heir of a marquess hear such insulting words—though again, the person saying the insults didn’t have such intentions at all? Furthermore, it was clear that Feijadiru also knew that Hans also had no bad intentions, but that inflamed his anger even more.
‘Ah, I really love him!’ Lara felt her already overflowing affection for Hans leap up.
“Shut that damn mouth of yours!” Feijadiru yelled.
However, her brother’s curses were as meaningless as the mountain winds were to the great plains now.
“Don’t you think it is too much, sir? I mean, she is your sister. Even though Lara beat the crap out of you in every duel and shoved your reputation down to the dogs, isn’t it time to let go of what happened ages ago? Only the pettiest and most small-minded person would do such a thing,” Hans continued.
“Shut up!”
“Ahahahaha!” Lara was sure that telling Hans about her past was one of the best decisions she had ever made.
‘No, perhaps, it is the best choice I made,’ she thought. The seemingly endless laughter gradually died down. She already felt the resentment inside her heart dissipate, and she thought Feijadiru was almost at his limit.
“It’s fine now, Hans. Please stop…pft, stop.” Lara tried to repress the laughter seeping out of her mouth and pulled on Hans’ clothes. Thus, Hans backed away without questioning much. He still had an innocent look on his face even though it greatly irritated Feijadiru. Despite Hans’ insults and Lara’s laughter ending like that, Feijadiru’s reddened face didn’t return to its original color, and he seemed very intent on killing the two. Of course, Lara didn’t pay any attention to him.
“Okay, so does that mean you didn’t bring any more offers besides the ones you mentioned?” Lara asked.
“…Do not test my patience any more than this,” Feijadiru responded.
“I was simply confirming it. I wasn’t planning to test your patience, nor is it even necessary,” Lara said and nodded.
“All right. I will sell it.”
“What?” Feijadiru’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected Lara to accept his offer in this atmosphere. Hans also seemed quite surprised, but he showed no signs of interfering with Lara’s decision.
“I said I’ll sell it. Do you not need it?”
“…If you are trying to quell my anger with just that, that’s not nearly enough—”
“If you’re not going to buy it, then forget it.” Lara stood up without hesitation.
“W-Wait a moment!” Although he was mad, Feijadiru didn’t forget his mission and quickly stopped Lara.
Lara looked back at him coldly. “You should know your place. I have no reason to sell the dragon’s body to you, and you’re the one who has to buy it. Do you really think I want to quell your rage? I don’t have the slightest interest in such a thing. What does your anger have anything to do with me?”
“You…!”
“So, are you going to buy it or not?”
“…” Feijadiru gritted his teeth, but he knew he couldn’t act on his pride right now. For his kingdom, family, and his own future, he needed to bring back the dragon’s body.
“…I will buy it.”
“Fine.” Lara took out her magic box and pulled out the dragon’s body. The guard standing beside Feijadiru immediately focused on the item.
“…This is the dragon’s corpse.” Stretched out on the floor, the dragon’s body emitted a strange luster. What Lara took out was part of the dragon’s skin that had scales stuck all over its surface. The scales looked extremely hard from a glance, and since it was excellent at absorbing and amplifying mana, a knight or mage could probably use it magnificently if they crafted it into a weapon or armor. Moreover, the scaly skin was tough and hard, and there was a certain flexibility to the scales, so it could be used for other purposes as well. There was no ingredient more enticing to make weapons and artifacts than a dragon’s body. In addition, the fact that these body parts of the only dragon were the only ones left in the world added to its rarity and desirability.
Without realizing what he was doing, Feijadiru stroked the dragon’s scales. He felt a thrill shoot across his body.
“Good, very good!” Feijadiru’s look of intense fury changed to a joyous face in a second. “I will take this immediately!”
“Why don’t you give the money you promised first?” Lara asked.
“Of course. I have no plans to break our promise.” Feijadiru handed over the money, which was nothing compared to the actual price of the dragon’s body, like he was doing some grand favor. The way he acted so pretentiously was utterly laughable, but Lara took the hefty sack full of money that Feijadiru handed her. She didn’t check its contents and dropped it inside her magic box.
“You’re not even bothering to check it. Well, there’s no way I would lie about the amount. You’re acting quite commendably at the end.”
“It’s a puny amount compared to the real price of the item anyway. It doesn’t matter if you gave some less or not.”
“…You are impudent until the very end.”
Lara pointed to the door and said, “It’ll be more ridiculous for us to mind our manners with each other. If you’ve got everything you wanted, could you take the belongings and leave already?”
There was nothing more for Feijadiru to ask Lara, and he placed the dragon’s corpse into the magic box. But then he stopped and said, “Wait.”
Lara turned back to him.
“Is that all of the dragon’s corpse?”
“No.”
All the dragon slayers took their share of the dragon’s body according to the size of their contribution. Lara’s contribution to defeating the dragon wasn’t small, but it wasn’t great either. Thus, the proportion of the dragon’s body that was allocated to her wasn’t that large. However, if one considered the entire size of the dragon, it was still a plentiful amount if the dragon’s skin with scales that were the size of a large carpet was only a fraction of what Lara owned.
On the other hand, it was still true that the amount Lara gave Feijadiru was still far more valuable than the price he offered. Feijadiru should’ve simply been grateful that Lara sold him something that wasn’t even available in the market. However, if Feijadiru suddenly had sound logic after all this time, it would’ve been stranger.
“Then, you should give me the rest! What are you doing?!” Feijadiru yelled.
“Perhaps, was the amount that you offered for the entire dragon’s body part that I owned?”
“Of course!”
The more Lara talked with Feijadiru, his warped logic seemed to fly to no limits. Though she had no more feelings of attachment for her family, Lara wondered if the Browning family would really be fine with an heir like this.
“The amount I gave you is more than enough for you already. Be satisfied with just that.”
“Don’t make me laugh! Do you think your nonsense will work on me?!”
“Then, should we cancel the deal? It doesn’t matter to me.”
“If you just give me everything you have…!”
“You are the one who should stop your nonsense.” After calmly responding to Feijadiru’s remarks until now, Lara’s face hardened for the first time. “Since I know it’s impossible for us to see eye to eye, I won’t talk about what’s right or wrong. You simply have two choices right now. First, you can take this item right now and quietly leave. Second, you can cancel this exchange. I won’t accept anything besides these two choices, so make the decision for yourself.”
“You think I would abide by such nonsensical terms?!”
“Then, what else are you planning to do? Are you going to take the rest of the dragon’s body from me by force? Or are you going to proclaim my unfairness to the whole world? Do as you please.”
Feijadiru couldn’t retort. Taking the item by force wasn’t an option from the get-go. He couldn’t cause a big commotion at the center of the Karuwimans’ base. Appealing to others outside wasn’t a viable option either. Though he had whined and insisted on the unfairness of the situation, he knew that public opinion wouldn’t sway in his favor. Thus, in the end, Feijadiru heaved hard and turned around.
“You selfish wench. You are blinded by greed. My payment ends with the money I gave you just now. Since you only gave me part of what you have, I will also give you a part of what I owe.”
“Do as you wish.” Lara didn’t even expect a fair exchange anyway. “But keep this in mind. With this, my relationship with the Browning family is completely over.”
“You took the words right out of my mouth!” Feijadiru slammed the door shut as he left.