Became the Owner of a Poor Estate
Chapter 37
The village chief’s house was old but impeccably neat.
Despite the mud-plastered walls prone to shedding dust, the lady of the house was clearly diligent; not a single speck of dirt sat upon the furniture. Befitting the owner of such a tidy home, her hair was pulled back into a tight, firm bun, and though her clothes were worn, they were scrubbed clean and presented a disciplined appearance.
Donghee sat on a backless wooden chair provided by the chief and took a sip of the mysterious tea his wife had brought out.
“Ugh!”
The tea in the wooden cup was bitter—far too bitter.
Her tongue felt numb. Even though she knew it was rude, Donghee instinctively spat the tea back out onto the floor.
“Ugh, so bitter!”
“I-I am so sorry. This is the only tea we have in the house.”
The village chief’s wife looked as if she were about to burst into tears, not knowing what to do. Donghee couldn’t even lift her head because her tongue was still tingling, so she simply waved her hand to signal that it was alright.
Even as she did, the wife continued to apologize. Donghee finally lifted her head, her eyes welling with tears as the bitterness stung all the way down her throat.
“No, it’s fine. It just didn’t suit my palate. Since it’s this bitter, it must be incredibly good for the health, right? Hahahaha.”
She added a lame joke for the sake of the guilt-stricken wife. It seemed to work, as the woman’s expression softened considerably compared to before.
The awkward laughter was followed by an unsettled silence.
The village chief continued to watch Chloe’s every move with an expression tangled with wariness and fear. His wife sat on pins and needles, while Nell and Bron, who had guided her here, paced outside the door like puppies that needed to relieve themselves.
“Why would the Lord come to such a humble place…?”
The chief cautiously broke the silence, his voice trailing off. Donghee set down her teacup and stared intently at him.
With sunken cheeks, he possessed eyes that were mysteriously clear. It was a face that naturally inspired trust—the kind of face where you’d believe him even if he claimed peanut butter was the secret ingredient in fermented soybean blocks.
“How much food do you have left?”
Donghee asked, trying her best not to let her sudden surge of goodwill show.
“My Lord, the villagers have barely managed one meal a day. If you raise the taxes any further, the people of this village will die.”
The chief, assuming the worst at her question about remaining food, pleaded with her. Donghee found him remarkably admirable for finding the courage to speak up for his villagers despite being so terrified.
“I’m not here because of taxes.”
“Then….”
“How much food is left?”
Donghee looked him straight in the eye and repeated the same question.
“To be honest… as of yesterday, the warehouse is empty.”
The chief answered in a crawling voice, looking like a criminal. As he bowed his head, his gaunt nape stood out even more.
I’m the criminal here, I’m the criminal.
“I will have grain sent to the village soon. It should be enough to last a week.”
“Is that… true?”
The chief asked back in disbelief, having expected nothing of the sort.
“Giving it away for free ends there. For the rest, you must work to earn money and buy the grain yourself.”
“But it is not the farming season, so finding work is difficult. If you could just show a little more mercy….”
The chief’s voice shifted back into a pleading tone, not wanting to miss the opportunity.
“I will provide the work.”
Donghee scanned the interior of the house again. It had looked decent enough from the outside, but upon closer inspection, she could see many places in disrepair.
“What kind of work do you mean?”
The chief couldn’t understand what Donghee was saying. The Lord he had known until now and the Lord sitting before his eyes seemed like two completely different people.
“We will renovate the village. We’ll pave the roads and repair the houses so people can survive the winter. Naturally, the fief will provide the materials needed for repairs, and those who work will be paid a fair daily wage. You can hear the details from the butler.”
Having said her piece, Donghee stood up lightly, as if her business were concluded.
“Handsome.”
“Yes, my Lord.”
“I’ll leave a horse and a few knights behind, so explain the details before you head back. I’m tired, so I’ll be leaving first.”
Since bandits were known to appear frequently in the vicinity, she left a few knights to protect him.
“Yes, I understand.”
As Donghee left the chief’s house, Handsome remained behind as ordered and explained in detail to the bewildered villagers everything that had happened since his arrival at Morta Village.
The villagers asked him to repeat himself several times in disbelief before erupting into cheers. Cries of relief that they would finally live broke out from all directions.
-The favorability of the fief’s residents has increased by 10.
-The favorability of the fief’s residents has increased by 10.
As soon as Donghee sat in the carriage, ding, ding, the notification sounds rang frantically in her ears.
What had initially been a welcome sound became as annoying as the buzzing of a mosquito when repeated incessantly.
“It’s so noisy I could die.”
-Would you like to switch to Mute Mode?
It was the best thing she’d heard all day.
Donghee was feeling exceptionally tired and thought the service was unusually kind today, so she nodded quickly.
-Switching to Notification Mute Mode. The cost for the mute transition is 50p. The deducted points will be converted to the mp index.
“Hey!”
She shouted in belated regret, but the points had already been deducted.
-Switching back to Notification Sound Mode will deduct an additional 50p. Would you like to proceed? Similarly, the deducted points will be converted to the mp index.
Donghee grit her teeth at the question from the scammer-like status window. If she could actually see it in person, she felt like she would grab it by the collar and shake it senseless.
“No. Keep it as it is.”
Donghee barely managed to answer, engraving the word ‘patience’ in her heart.
As she glared irritably at the status window, the term ‘mp index’—which had been bothering her for a while—caught her eye.
The mp index, which had slipped into the bottom of the status window one day, had been slowly increasing its numbers, and today it had blatantly stolen her points.
“What exactly is the mp index? You’ve never asked me about it before. Why are you accumulating it however you want and then suddenly stealing my points? Wait! Are there a lot of people like me? Gasp! Is this like a pyramid scheme or something?”
At Donghee’s sudden barrage of questions, the text in the status window blurred and shook side to side for a moment before becoming clear again.
Even though it was just text, Donghee got the impression that the status window was flustered.
-Are you curious about the mp index? You can check information regarding the mp index using your held points.
“How much does it cost?”
If it was around 20 or 30p, she was willing to pay. That was how curious she was about the true nature of mp.
Until now, the accumulation of the mp index hadn’t really caused her any harm, so she hadn’t paid much attention to it. But if it was going to start nibbling away at her points like this, she definitely needed to know what it was. There might even be a situation where she couldn’t do something because she lacked mp index points.
-You only need to pay 100,000,000,000p.
However, the status window demanded an amount so large she could barely read the units.
“Get lost.”
-The only one ‘lost’ here is the user.
“Not lost as in a loser, I said get lost!”
-Ah, I see. Well then, I’m off. Toodles.
The status window displayed a phrase that had long since gone out of style and then vanished with a tease-like flicker.
“Why do I keep feeling like I’m being played?”
-It is an illusion.
The status window, which had vanished, spat out a quick sentence and disappeared again. While she didn’t know exactly what the mp index was, she was certain that it wanted her to remain ignorant.
“Darn it, this feels dirty.”
Donghee grumbled about the unsettling feeling for a long while before she began to doze off.
Her head had been nodding back and forth for some time when it hit the carriage wall with a thud.
Beside her, a shimmering blue status window floated up.
Zzzzt.
A faint static noise was heard, but it was naturally drowned out by the rumbling of the moving carriage.
As the momentarily unstable status window cleared, a silver-haired man suddenly appeared out of thin air and sat in the seat next to Donghee.
The image of a blue hourglass floated above the back of his hand and began to spin.
-mp : 125 / 86,400
It was the number 75, the original mp index, plus the 50p taken from Donghee.
As time passed, the numbers above the hourglass rapidly decreased.
-115
-114
The man stared blankly at the back of his hand, then turned his gaze to the profile of Donghee, who was sleeping as if she had fainted.
-Is this the first time?
Instead of answering the status window’s question, the man nodded with a heavy expression.
-How can she be curious about the mp index? Is your magic not working?
The status window flashed text rapidly. The man looked calmly at the letters that appeared and vanished with urgency, then shifted his gaze back to Donghee.
Even then, the numbers on the hourglass on the back of his hand were rapidly dwindling.
“Perhaps.”
-Then is there really hope this time? To end this wretched life?
The man remained silent this time as well.
The status window flickered, thrusting the text right in front of his eyes as if frustrated, but he remained as motionless as a wax doll.
Until now, no one had ever been curious about the mp index. Most users couldn’t even see the words ‘mp index’ in the status window, and the ten or so users who did manage to find it either had their thoughts clouded or simply couldn’t muster any further curiosity. It was because of the magic the man had cast.
Yet this user had read the mp index without issue, wondered what it was, and even tried to pay points to find out.
What if the status window hadn’t suggested an absurd price? The mere thought was horrifying.
-Are you planning to waste all your allotted time today just watching the user?
-38
-37
The status window urged him impatiently, but the man didn’t budge. It was then.
The carriage lurched violently with a loud thud, as if the wheels had caught on something while moving at high speed.
Thump!
The sound of Donghee’s head hitting the wall as she slept echoed through the carriage.
“Ow!”
Startled awake, Donghee squeezed her eyes shut and cradled her aching head with her palm.
“Oh, my head.”
“My Lord, are you alright?”
The sound of her head hitting the wall must have been quite loud, as the coachman slowed the carriage and asked with concern.
“Yeah. I’m fine. Just keep go-aaaaaaaagh!”
Donghee, who had been turning her head this way and that while saying she was fine, finally spotted the silver-haired man sitting next to her.
Caught completely off guard, she pressed herself against the carriage wall and screamed at the top of her lungs. At her scream, the fast-moving carriage came to a halt, and the knights escorting nearby rushed over.
“What is the matter!”
Red Bear threw open the carriage door, his face full of tension. He held his sharply gleaming sword in a stance that suggested he was ready to attack at a moment’s notice.
“Here! There’s a man in here!”
Donghee scrambled to her feet and pointed at the seat beside her.
But the seat next to her was empty.
“Pardon? There is no one there.”
“No! He was definitely there! A man who looked like a silver cutlassfish was sitting right next to me!”
-Silver cutlassfish lololololol
The status window popped up, scribbled out some strange text, and then vanished.
