Death Can’t Sleep - Chapter 91
“Did you really have to? Really?”
“I said I’m sorry.”
Amarion mumbled.
They had walked over to the campfire to eat. She wanted to lie down in the tent and sleep for a while, but she had to stay as she knew how important it was to eat while traveling. In the mercenary corps, if you missed a meal, it was difficult to get a single crumb afterwards.
As she knew, mercenaries were not interested in others, but a handful of them greeted the duo and asked for their names. Victor suffered every time they said his name.
“If I had been introduced as Flamberge, at the very least, I wouldn’t have been so embarrassed.”
“I couldn’t think of anything!”
Victor pretended to be sad.
“Have I done you so much wrong?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“If you thought of a dog as soon as you saw me…”
Amarion desperately shook her head.
“It’s not like that!”
“Then?”
Her face flushed red.
“The nickname I made for you recently was, uh… puppy. I think they’re cute, so…”
Victor’s gaze softened. He chuckled and whispered.
“Marion, you are really-”
“Hey, aren’t you going to eat?”
Suddenly, a mercenary approached them and poured something thick into two wooden bowls.
Victor’s smile faded away. Amarion looked down at the bowl, pale.
At first glance… It didn’t look like human food. It was burnt, and there were black particles floating in it.
‘The Mercenary King doesn’t even have a cook?’
Soon, complaints erupted from all around.
“Hey, what’s this? How can I eat this?”
“Scoop out the burnt parts! Shut your mouth and eat!”
The mercenary who served the stew snapped. Amarion looked back at Victor with a worried expression. He seemed to be using all his willpower to hold in his disgust.
The mercenaries continued to complain.
“People who can’t cook, why do you keep putting them on duty? Mirage!”
“What do you mean? You can’t even cut a carrot! I will eat whatever is served.”
“What?!”
Abusive language flew back and forth between Mirage and the mercenaries.
She had no choice but to eat the stew…
Anyway, she was hungry.
Victor sat down next to her, but didn’t touch his bowl.
“Aren’t you going to eat?”
“…It’s okay to go hungry for one night.”
She thought so too.
She looked at him with sad eyes and ate the stew in the middle of the noisy campsite. It was a bit bitter, but she closed her eyes and endured it.
Mirage came and sat across from them just as she was polishing off her bowl.
“I’m sorry about your first meal. It’s not usually like this.”
He politely apologized.
Amarion sighed.
“It’s okay.”
“Good. As you can see, we don’t have set chores, so we take turns doing everything. I assign work because there’s no one who wants to be the manager.”
Mirage sighed and took out his journal.
“So, do either of you know how to cook or sharpen arrows?”
Amarion and Victor quickly glanced at each other. Victor shook his head.
“All we can do is use a sword.”
“D*mn it. These mercenaries…”
Without hesitation, Mirage spat out curse words and erased something in his journal. Amarion swallowed the last of her stew.
Actually, she was a little curious. This was the first time she had seen such a large, well-known mercenary group taking turns and dividing chores. Usually, such a high-class mercenary corps had as many workers as knights.
‘Wait, do mercenaries do things like washing dishes and cleaning horse manure?’
Naturally, worries arose.
‘…Has Victor ever cleaned?’
Mirage suddenly asked, as if he had read her thoughts.
“Are you guys really mercenaries?”
“Why are you asking?”
“Honestly, no matter how you look at it, you don’t look like mercenaries. Especially you.”
Mirage pointed to Victor with his pencil.
“It’s strange that even though he’s wearing a thick robe, he somehow looks like a nobleman.”
Amarion stuck her tongue out. Half of his face was covered, but the senses of mercenaries could not be ignored.
She spoke vaguely as she recalled Chubby’s advice.
[T/N: Chubby is the name of the short man who helped Amarion and Victor to get to the campsite.]
“He was a knight, but he had to leave. So he became a mercenary.”
“What could’ve happened that caused a knight to leave his estate? Did you rob the castle’s treasury?”
“…”
Mirage chuckled.
“Or did you touch your Master’s family? You know, the escort knight had an affair with the Lady, and the Master went on a rampage…”
“It’s not like that.”
Victor cut off his words. His face was contorted into a scowl.
She bet he had never heard anything like that to his face.
Mirage replied with a smile.
“Or not!”
There had been some kind of ridiculous misunderstanding…
They quickly excused themselves and trudged back to their tent. She crawled into her cot and tossed and turned for a while, thinking about her hometown before falling asleep.
＊ ＊ ＊
Troo woo!
The next day, they woke up to the sound of a trumpet.
“Get up now! Don’t be lazy!”
Amarion got out of her cot in a panic.
Sand filtered through the gap in the tent. The mercenaries who rose to their feet grumbled, but Mirage didn’t care.
“We are going to eat breakfast, so hurry and wake up!”
‘Morning already?’
She left the tent with the sole intention of eating.
Looking around, all the mercenaries were heading to the nearby waterfront. She decided to follow them.
Her face reflected on the water’s surface was a spectacle. Her hair was messed up, and her eyes were swollen from not getting a good night’s sleep.
‘I can’t believe Victor will see me like this! No matter how close we are, I can’t do this.’
She splashed cold water on her face. After scrubbing for a while, she gave up, and struggled to cover her eyes with her hood before returning to camp.
At the campsite, breakfast was already being distributed. Similar to yesterday, it was soup made with dried vegetables and bread.
Fortunately, the meal was quite good. It was a little bland, probably because there was not much salt available, but that was okay.
However, Victor only took two bites and put down his bowl.
“Aren’t you hungry?”
“…I’ll just eat jerky.”
He sighed and took out the jerky Diederick had given him.
Amarion was worried. He was blessed with a strong body, so he had no problem starving a little, but if he was already picky like this, he wouldn’t have any body left.
She was going to suggest something else, but Mirage butted in.
“Dog! You aren’t going to eat this either?”
Victor didn’t answer. Mirage shook his head.
“Why are you so picky? You will starve to death.”
“It’s okay, so don’t worry.”
“He really must be a nobleman from somewhere.”
She flinched and covered her face with her soup bowl.
Mirage must have noticed something. It would be too obvious if they made excuses, so she couldn’t say anything.
Fortunately, Mirage did not ask any further questions. But it was not at all reassuring to know someone so quick-witted was in front of her.
Before he left, Mirage added as if he had remembered something.
“Oh, you guys are in charge of washing the dishes today.”
Victor’s face contorted to the point that it could not be recognized anymore.
＊ ＊ ＊
As soon as the meal was over, they were driven to the waterfront along with a few other mercenaries. They were surrounded by a mountain of bowls. Submerging wooden bowls into ice-cold water reminded her of Amari. She laughed bitterly.
In Amari, firewood during winter was precious. This was because all the dry wood was used to build barriers or make fires on the battlefield. There was not enough wood for cooking, so people gathered at the Amari estate to eat together.
Her mother and father hated it and ate separately, but she always stayed on the first floor with the villagers. She didn’t feel lonely when she was there.
After the meal, the men broke the ice and the women washed the dishes in cold water. She followed them every time. The villagers tried to dissuade her, but she silently helped them push the cart and clean the dishes.
Anyway, that’s why she knew this kind of work better than the average noblewoman. She was soaking a bowl in water and wiping it with a crumpled cloth when she noticed Victor standing awkwardly.
“Victor?”
“I…This is my first time washing dishes.”
He admitted.
She burst into laughter.
“Really?”
“Yes? …What’s so funny?”
He asked sternly.
She answered with a smirk.
“It’s funny that there are things you can’t do.”
Victor bit his lip. Then he squatted next to her.
“…I cannot sleep without you, did you forget? So please help me this time too.”
At his words, Amarion smiled softly and handed him the cloth. Victor awkwardly began to wipe the bowl. She desperately held back the laughter that kept threatening to come out.
It was really refreshing to see this side of him.
Walking Death washing dishes… who would have imagined?
His disheveled hair was still elegant, but seeing him this way, he was human.
As she thought about it, her anxiety about Amari was somewhat forgotten.
‘Did I do the right thing coming here with him?’
Amarion thought about strange things as she thoroughly cleaned the bowls.
***
