Deklan covered his mouth and cleared his throat as he deactivated the Eerie Smile skill.
He didn't realize that it was active.
Is it really that scary? I'm handsome as fuck. A little bit wider smile shouldn't scare her like this.
Regardless, he was going to get to the bottom of this.
Deklan had only just woken up; he wasn't even channeling his mana, so he found it hard to believe that the Eerie Smile skill had activated on its own. But what he does believe is that the system was messing with him, cock-blocking him now that there's a cutie.
He had to act cool to smite this woman's heart.
After this, you and I are going to have a long discussion, system.
On the other hand, the woman stared at Deklan cautiously.
She watched him sit back down on the edge of the bed and wear this stern look that made her gulp.
'Did… Did he know?' She wondered inside. 'S-Should I confess right now?'
Deklan, oblivious to her thoughts, leaned forward—resting his elbows on his knees.
He stared at the woman with a cool, steady gaze.
"What's your name?" He asked again, intertwining his hands in front of his mouth.
Naturally, the woman sweated even more, fearing that Deklan already knew, but was testing her.
In truth, Deklan was only covering his mouth lest the damn system activate the Eerie Smile skill again.
"M-Marsha…"
"You seem to have something to say, Marsha. Say it."
Marsha's shoulders tensed when she heard this, and her face shifted to one of resignation.
She slowly sat on her knees, ignoring the fact that the floor was wet, and clasped her hands above her thighs like a kid who had done something wrong—and was now about to confess everything. "T-This servant has overstepped. Please forgive me this once, young master. I'll accept whatever punishment you see fit—only, I beg you to spare me."
"…"
"…"
"Huh?"
Moments later, Deklan stood at the edge of the backyard.
Before him was a pumpkin patch.
It looked attended, which meant this pumpkin patch was taken care of by the previous Deklan.
Even though most of the pumpkins had already withered, some were still fresh and orange.
"So, you took a couple of the pumpkins and shared them with the others?" Deklan asked.
"Y-Yes…" Marsha fidgeted with her fingers; her head hung low in shame. "I apologize, young master."
As opposed to being angry, Deklan burst out laughing.
Marsha raised her gaze, surprised to see that Young Master Deklan, who was rumored to be a shame to the Houses of Tiernan, someone who was meek and compliant, was laughing out loud like this. But this only made her more scared.
Someone saw a group of armed people going to the young master's hut.
And since there was nobody else around, the young master's loyal soldiers must've died.
'What do I do…? What if he snapped and took it out on me?'
Marsha sobbed silently, her heart pounding inside her chest.
Just then, she whimpered when Deklan suddenly pinched her cheek and pulled on it hard.
"O-Ow… Young Master?"
"Silly girl. Are you really that afraid of me because of some pumpkins?"
"Y-You're not mad?"
"Of course, not. Especially since you shared it with your people, you even saved my life."
Not expecting the young master to be this magnanimous, Marsha's eyes sparkled.
It seemed she was afraid of nothing.
But that relief didn't last long.
"Still, stealing is still stealing, and you need to be punished." Deklan let go of Marsha's cheek, which was now already red. "As of right now, a punishment hadn't come to mind, so in the meantime, you're going to help me with things."
"Things…?" Marsha tilted her head, confused.
Just then, her eyes looked down to Deklan's crotch, before her face reddened like a tomato.
Seeing what she did, Deklan covered his crotch.
"O-Oyy! Not that kind of thing!" He exclaimed, pointing at her in disbelief. "Why is your mind so dirty?!"
"Young master spoke vaguely, I don't know what to think."
Noticing that Marsha was blushing a little, Deklan stared at her blankly.
"If I were to say that, are you willing?"
"How can I defy your orders, young master? Your status crushes mine."
Deklan exhaled roughly through his nose like a bull, not expecting Marsha to actually say that.
"I-I'm going to remember that," He answered, but quickly shook his head. "Anyway, how long have I been unconscious? And—where are the corpses? There should be three corpses. Did you clean it up? Or did you ask for help?"
"You're unconscious for over a day, young master. And the corpses are in the front yard. I would not dare invite people without your permission."
Even though he asked that, he already roughly knew what her answer would be.
Marsha is the kind type, so her answer was more or less within his expectations.
Hmm, she did say that she brought the pumpkins back to the others. Is there a settlement nearby?
Eugh… this damn guy.
In the memories he inherited from the previous Deklan, most of the things around the hut were done by his trusted and most loyal guard, Axel. The previous Deklan did nothing but cramp himself inside the room, sulking at his pathetic situation.
He depended on Axel so much that there was no memory of the pumpkin patch.
Due to that, Deklan could only go with what he could take in from his surroundings.
Judging from how the surroundings looked, Deklan assumed that this small hut was built in a glade of a massive forest. Since he was exiled, he assumed that he was far away—from core settlements, utterly abandoned by his family.
But it doesn't seem to be the case.
Or maybe it was the case, and Marsha's hometown is also isolated.
Either way, Marsha should know the answer.
"Marsha, can you tell me about this place? Where are we?" Deklan asked, eyes staring at the woods.
"Hmm? Did you hit your head, young master? Let me have a look…"
Marsha tiptoed to check whether there was any hidden wound on Deklan's head, but he stopped her.
"Young Master, I only wanted to have a look."
"Just answer the question."
Just one look from Deklan, and Marsha swiftly went back in line and told him what he wanted to know.
Currently, Deklan was inside a dense forest named the Rora Forest that was located near the border of the March of Tiernan, a place that was unregulated and thus, full of the wilderness. About half a mile from the small hut was Marsha's hometown, the Slosa Hamlet.
Only about sixty people live there.
And the people there never made contact with the Gasea Kingdom, even though technically, it was inside the kingdom's territory. Due to a Null Zone breaking out in the past, there are roaming Ghosts scattered around the forest.
Fortunately, Deklan's hut was on the outskirts, so there were not many Ghosts around.
"Null Zone? What's that? Like a dungeon?" Deklan raised a brow.
It was his first time hearing this.
Marsha blinked her eyes—and looked at Deklan as if he spoke a different language.
"What's a dungeon?"
"Ignore that part."
Marsha explained that Null Zone is where a friction between the tangible veil—and the intangible veil happens—and the stronger side, most likely to be the intangible veil, will dominate that space. And due to that friction, a portal connected to the Rift of Dusk will be opened.
Ghosts will come out of there and run rampant, growing wider the more lives the zone is fed.
Additionally, Marsha also explained about the Rift of Dusk.
It was basically a rift that appeared when the metaphysical realm merged with the tangible reality.
A phenomenon that tied the two realms together.
To her knowledge, there are five Rifts of Dusk across the entire world.
"I'm sure young master knows about this more than my narrow mind," Marsha said meekly.
Lecturing someone like Deklan felt wrong, and she assumed that Deklan was only testing her.
To what end? She doesn't know.
Deklan knew that, but he had no intention of explaining why he asked her.
"So why exactly did you steal my pumpkins?"
"Eh…? Young Master, are you sure you're okay? It's because we got blocked off."
"Ah… Right."
Deklan decided to pretend to know as he didn't want Marsha to really suspect him to be someone else, not the real Young Master Deklan. I'll find out about it later when I visit the place myself. For now, I have better things to do.
…
[Sudden Quest!]
Description: Visit Slosa Hamlet and help the villagers to overcome their situation!
Reward: 50 Spooky Dollars, 20x Basic Mana Candy, and Awakening Ritual.
Penalty: Marsha will hate you, and Red Pumpkin Head will prank you for an entire day.
…
Yeah, yeah… I'll deal with it. I was going to visit even without the quest.
Marsha stepped forward and leaned toward Deklan, trying to pull Deklan's attention back to her.
He was spacing out again, and it was worrying.
"I'm really worried, young master. Can you at least let me check your head?"
"Fine, fine. Let's go back inside. You were about to wipe me, weren't you?"
"Ah, yes…"
Deklan immediately spun and hummed back into the hut.
It was going to be his first time being wiped, and he was anticipating great things from it.
Seeing the excited smile on Deklan's face, Marsha's face reddened again, and her mind spun.
'Why is young master that excited at the prospect of someone like me washing him? I'm sure I can't be compared to the servants he was used to,' She thought, confused at Deklan's reaction. 'I-In any case, it is good that nothing bad happened.'
Just then, Marsha remembered something.
"Young master!" She called, taking out a few fruits from her pocket. "I found these near the tree earlier."
Deklan looked over his shoulder and squinted.
He noticed that these fruits were identical to the fake ones he'd bought from the Shop to catch the Red Pumpkin Head off guard two nights ago. And almost instantly, his eyes lit up—those apples had to be the Lv. 1 Mana Apples.
"Give me those," Deklan took the apples from Marsha.
Seeing their lusters, he smiled inwardly—as the Lv. 1 Mana Apple should be more potent than the Basic Mana Candy he gained from completing quests. But then, a frown crept to his face. Wait a minute, only a day passed since that night, so how come I got three Lv. 1 Mana Apples?
Since it was now morning, there should only be one Lv. 1 Mana Apple.
But instead, there are three apples.
Deklan contemplated for a moment, confused as to how these apples came to be.
It was then, a jolt of realization struck him as he stared at the apples.
"No, that can't be it, right?" He muttered, swallowing harshly. "Don't tell me… Did killing those guys produce me an apple each?"