Became the Owner of a Poor Estate
Chapter 26
“Yes. A. Spe. Cial. Bo. Nus.”
As Donghee emphasized each syllable, the worry lingering on Thelma’s face melted away like snow. It seemed that no matter who it was, people became infinitely small in the face of money.
“Yes! Understood!”
Thelma’s voice was full of newfound vigor. The mere thought of receiving a special bonus seemed to energize her instantly.
“You’re coming too, Thelma?”
“Of course! I’ll definitely be there!”
Thelma replied with a bright smile before heading out.
“A special bonus!”
Leaving the Lord’s chambers, Thelma summoned the castle servants with a heart full of excitement.
At Thelma’s call—who also doubled as the head maid—the servants of Grace Castle gathered quickly. To them, Thelma was both a workplace superior and one of the few reliable adults in the castle.
In the hall used for communal meals or servant parties, about fifty servants gathered in small, uneasy groups. Among them, the only ones with looks of anticipation were the maids who had previously sewn clothes and received their own special bonuses.
“Why did she call us together?”
“Are we getting fired?”
“That can’t happen. I have nowhere else to go but here.”
“Me neither. This is the only place that gives even a pittance of a wage. If I’m kicked out of here, my younger siblings will starve to death.”
Ever since the finances of Grace Territory had soured, the only times Thelma gathered the servants like this were to deliver bad news, such as staff reductions or the inability to pay wages.
Though the Lord had recently changed, the servants, who were sharp enough to notice that the treasury had been hitting rock bottom until just recently, all wore expressions of anxiety.
Among them, some younger maids were already welling up with tears, fearing they were about to be dismissed.
The hall, which could comfortably hold a hundred people, looked cavernous and empty with fewer than fifty standing inside.
Thelma climbed a few steps so the murmuring servants could see her better, then looked down and spoke in a loud voice.
“You all know that what you ate a little while ago was Dural, right?”
The servants nodded silently.
It had been so long since they’d eaten their fill that their stomachs were still noticeably round.
“There is a vast plain near the Black Forest where Dural can be harvested. The Lord brought back the Dural we just ate from there. Since they are so large, fewer than twenty Durals were enough to fill everyone here. You remember?”
The anxiety on the servants’ faces deepened.
They were worried she might ask them to pay for the meal.
However, Thelma’s next words blew their worries away in an instant.
“We are going to harvest Dural near the Black Forest tomorrow, and we need workers.”
Even though they had enjoyed the meal, their vague fear of the Black Forest and the worry of harvesting the Dural themselves hadn’t completely vanished. The murmuring grew louder.
Thelma waited for the noise to die down a bit before continuing boldly. With her hands on her hips, her posture was nothing short of confident.
“The Lord says she will provide a special bonus to those who help with the Dural harvest tomorrow. Of course, this is a bonus that is not included in your regular wages.”
“Me! I’ll go!”
Five arms shot up abruptly from various spots. These were all maids who had received a special bonus for sewing last time. The rest were hesitating, eyeing one another. The fear of the Black Forest was still significant.
Sensing their hesitation, Thelma shrugged and added one more thing.
“The daily wage is 3 Bron.”
At that, everyone else’s arms shot up simultaneously.
“Me too! I’ll go!”
“I’ll go as well!”
Starting with Anna, the hall was filled with the voices of people volunteering to go.
A short while later, Donghee heard from Thelma that they had secured enough servants for tomorrow’s harvest. In fact, so many had volunteered that they had to decide on a rotation. No matter how good the special bonus was, they couldn’t simply abandon all the chores at Grace Castle.
Thelma reported that the servants were overjoyed at the prospect of earning extra money on top of their wages.
Lying on her plush bed and reflecting on what Thelma had said, a satisfied smile spread across Donghee’s lips.
It was a completely different feeling from when she had been in that place where everything stopped, like a vacuum.
‘Am I gradually getting comfortable here?’
Every now and then, the thought that she might be dreaming still crossed her mind, and she would pinch her cheek.
The status window that popped up out of nowhere like a lie made the situation feel even more surreal.
But the people she met, the food she ate, and even the breeze and cold air brushing against her cheeks were far too vivid to be anything but reality.
Donghee wondered briefly if things were okay as they were, but her eyes blinked slowly under the weight of exhaustion, and she drifted off to sleep.
That night, Donghee dreamed of the silver-haired handsome man staring intently at her.
It felt like he had said many things, but when she opened her eyes in the morning, the only thing she remembered was his long hair, beautiful as silver thread.
“Was that a ghost dream?”
Donghee rubbed her arms at the sudden goosebumps and walked to the bathroom to wash up.
A moment later.
In the empty bedroom, the blue-glowing status window flickered into existence.
- A ghost dream, she says. Hehehehe. Didn’t you say you’d plant your existence in her subconscious? All you got for it was being called a ghost.
The text etched on the status window wavered as if it were laughing.
The silver-haired man appeared out of thin air, looking at the status window with annoyance before glaring at the firmly closed bathroom door.
“It seems I’ve brought an idiot.”
Most souls he had brought here before would remember at least half of what he told them. But this woman named Donghee didn’t seem to remember a single thing, let alone half. Not even his face.
Otherwise, there was no way she would compare such a handsome face to a ghost.
- Maybe you should change your strategy?
“Be quiet. I’ll decide that.”
- I didn’t say anything? You could just stop watching, you know?
The man looked at the taunting status window with irritation, let out a deep sigh, and waved his arm. Then, the inventory that Donghee had worked so hard to upgrade appeared.
Inside, a few items remained that hadn’t been taken out yet: cup noodles, juice boxes, and some chewing gum.
Looking at them with disapproval, the man reached his arm into the inventory.
- What’s the point when you can’t even touch them?
The status window blinked noisily as if to scold him.
However, the man’s eyes widened as he looked at the small juice box held in his hand.
The paper carton, which fit perfectly in his palm, was ice cold.
It was a first.
- She might not be an idiot after all! Drink it! Put the straw in! Suck it! Let’s see if you can eat it!
The status window flashed even more frantically than before, blurring the man’s vision. The silver-haired man stood dazed for a moment before peeling the straw off the carton and poking it into the top.
- What are you doing? Hurry! No time!
Glancing at the status window’s urging once more, the man slowly brought the straw to his lips.
Slurp.
As the cool apple juice entered his mouth, a sweet and tangy flavor exploded across his palate.
- JACKPOT!
The status window displayed the two large words in excitement, and the man reached for another item.
At that moment, the hourglass spinning on the back of the man’s hand flickered and vanished. Consequently, the man disappeared before his hand could even touch the inventory again.
In his hand, which was being sucked back into the status window, he pitifully held the crumpled juice box.
“Well then, shall we head out? Thelma, are the workers ready?”
“Yes, they’ve been waiting for a while.”
Thelma’s voice was slightly stiff, perhaps due to nerves.
Donghee, dressed in the most comfortable clothes she could manage for the second day in a row, desperately wanted to call a tailor and have some trousers made as soon as possible.
Back when she wore nothing but jeans and work clothes every day, she had longed to wear fluttering, pretty dresses. But after spending a few days in dresses that dragged on the floor, she craved sweats and pants. If it were up to her, she’d put on the jeans and jacket from her studio apartment, but she knew Thelma would throw a fit as if the world were ending and probably tear the clothes to shreds on the spot.
Kind Thelma had a surprisingly aggressive side.
“The wagons?”
Donghee shook her head, dispelling the image of her T-shirt becoming a rag in Thelma’s hands, and asked.
“I’ve prepared ten.”
Thelma replied after counting the line of wagons once more.
Scrooge was walking among the wagons, meticulously checking if anything was broken and if the horses and oxen pulling them were in good condition.
“Hmm… that’s not enough. Can we get more?”
Considering the vastness of the Dural field that stretched beyond the horizon, ten wagons were woefully insufficient.
“Ten is the total number of usable wagons in the territory.”
To think a castle this large only had ten usable wagons.
They really were incredibly poor.
She decided she would have to ask Builder if he could make more wagons. Since he had the skills to build houses, she hoped he could manage something like a wagon easily enough.
Before going to the Dural field, they stopped by the Black Forest first. Though they had hurried, logging was already well underway in the forest.
There were laborers who occasionally glanced at the Black Forest with fearful eyes, but the fear actually seemed to speed up their work.
“Right! Let’s pick up the pace!”
Builder’s loud voice boomed across the entire worksite.
Hearing a voice even more energetic than on the first day made Donghee feel good.
“Builder.”
“Oh! My Lord!”
When she approached and called his name, a startled Builder hurried over with a deep bow.
“Is it hard work?”
“Not at all! I am truly grateful just to have work like this! Besides, aren’t these logs all going to be used for… our village? I feel a surge of strength I didn’t know I had. It’s not just me… everyone gathered here feels the same way.”
Builder seemed overcome with emotion, his voice cracking as he repeatedly paused and resumed speaking.
“I’m glad to hear that. Distribute these among the workers.”
At Donghee’s word, two servants held out several large boxes to Builder.
“What is this?”
Builder asked, looking at the long objects filling the boxes. They glinted in the sunlight, looking somewhat like metallic pillars at a glance, and were covered in strange characters he had never seen before.
Though a commoner, Builder had learned to read through his work as a carpenter, but his eyes went wide at the sight of letters he had never encountered in his life.
“Hot6.”
