HH Chapter 19

I received treatment for my hand before the meal. I didn’t think it was that serious of an injury, but everyone was making a fuss.

“Wow, our Young Master is quite something, isn’t he? If he’d put in a little more force, your hand would have been completely severed.”

“Now’s not the time for that, you idiot!”

“Fortunately, we have one bottle of medicine left. The expiration date is… well, about a year past. We’ll have to use this for now.”

“We don’t have any anesthetic.”

“…….”

“Guest, please bear with the pain!”

They were more flustered than I was. I wasn’t in any pain, but I put all my effort into pretending I was. I was so engrossed in my acting that I even started sweating cold.

‘These people have never experienced death before.’

I didn’t understand why they were making such a fuss over an injury that wasn’t even life-threatening.

Scoffing inwardly, I remembered that two years ago, even I was weak enough to be shaken by a small scratch.

‘As expected, experience shapes a person.’

Now, no matter how injured I was, or whether my life was in danger, I was indifferent, knowing I was invincible until I cleared the game. The cost of treatment and revival was a bit high, though.

I was aware that I had changed a little. Blood didn’t scare me anymore. Even during monster subjugations, I found myself rushing forward without thinking if I saw someone in danger.

After getting seriously injured, the Captain would scold me, saying I should stop acting recklessly when my body couldn’t keep up and I lacked the skills. But I didn’t mind if getting scolded a bit as I could prevent my colleagues from getting injured.

‘Because I won’t die anyway.’

There’s no point in being careful with my body; all I’d saved up is money. And since this money would become useless once I escaped this game, there was no point in saving it.

[Would you like to heal your injury?
Full Recovery: 27 Solra
Fracture Healing: 10 Solra]

I completely closed the system window that kept popping up in front of me, asking if I wanted to heal my injury.

‘But this is different. This is my weapon now, so why would I heal it?’

Haylan was watching me get treated from a distance. His small hands, resting neatly on his lap, were clenched into fists.

During the meal in the dining room, I clumsily rattled the tableware, awkward with using my left hand. I could feel Haylan glancing at me every time I did.

‘I can use this for a while.’

If I wasn’t mistaken, Haylan was feeling really, very sorry for me right now.

‘He’s unexpectedly human?’

He wasn’t acting like a character nicknamed “murderer” or “Griim Reaper.” From the glimpses I saw in the game, I thought he was incapable of feeling remorse….

‘…Cute.’

I wanted to nibble on his round cheeks, which flinched every time I moved my hand. I had been fond of Haylan as a character even from before.

Even though he killed me dozens of times, I didn’t hate him. There was no special reason. First of all, he was very cute, and the setting where he would become distracted by the snacks I gave him, giving me a minute of freedom, was hilarious.

“If you’re done….”

I grabbed Haylan’s sleeve as he tried to get up, as if he’d been waiting for me to finish.

“What?”

“Aren’t you going to eat?”

Hailen’s tableware was untouched and clean.

“I told you, I….”

My wrist looked uncomfortable because of the bandages tightly wrapped around my injured hand. When I subtly flexed my own hand, Haylan flinched and sat back down.

“…….”

“…….”

Silence fell over the dining room. I thought it was just my imagination, but looking again, I noticed the others were also staring blankly at Haylan.

Haylan scowled and picked up his utensils.

‘Ah, this is hilarious.’

Even his irritated appearance is cute. As I watched Haylan shoveling soup into his mouth with a disgruntled expression, I was overcome with the urge to pat his head.

I’d discovered yet another one of Haylan’s weaknesses. He was unexpectedly soft-hearted. He might not hesitate to kill, but he was kind enough not to ignore someone injured because of him.

If I wrote about this on the game’s official community forum later, everyone would be shocked, right?

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought of players suddenly inflicting self-harm in front of Haylan.

I stifled my laughter and waited patiently for Haylan to finish his meal.

How far would Haylan indulge me?

Suddenly curious, I started testing Haylan, pushing the boundaries I’d set.

“Would you like to go for a walk in the garden?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to walk.”

“Is it because you’ll melt in the sun or something?”

“What are you talking about?”

He glared at me. Fortunately, the classic vampire setting of being weak to sunlight didn’t seem to apply to him.

“Then, never mind.”

“……!”

I scooped Haylan up into my arms.

‘Wow, he’s so light.’

He really is a child.

Haylan’s body stiffened for a moment, but he didn’t struggle or try to hit me. Instead, he just gripped my shoulders tightly with his small hands, startled.

“If you don’t want to walk, I’ll carry you.”

“…….”

His wide eyes stared up at me. He seemed a little surprised, but if he really hated it, he would have thrown a tantrum.

“Shall we go?”

“What is this….?”

Haylan looked at the others as if seeking help. But for some reason, the head butler was on my side.

“Young Master, you’re not dressed warmly enough.”

He even draped a thin blanket over Haylan’s shoulders, saying he might catch a cold. Haylan let out a series of dumbfounded chuckles.

I could sense Haylan’s reluctance. But he’ll like it once we’re out there, right?

“See, the weather is so…!”

…nice.

Rumble, boom. 

As soon as I opened the door, it started raining. The world is against me. It was clear and cloudless just this morning!

“It’s okay, we can use an umbrella.”

Would this house not even have a single umbrella?

Sure enough, as soon as I went back inside to look for one, someone quickly found one and lent it to me. Holding Haylan with my left hand and trying to open the umbrella with my injured right hand was quite difficult.

Haylan sighed, watching me struggle.

“Give it here. I’ll hold it.”

“Really?”

“…….”

Haylan gripped the umbrella tightly with both hands. He looked more like he was dangling from the umbrella than holding it, which almost made me laugh, but I held back.

I was more used to interacting with older people than with my peers or younger people. When I was in school, I was a lackey to older students, and even after transmigrating into this body, I’d spent two years interacting with mercenaries more than ten years older than me.

That’s why Haylan’s presence, nestled in my arms, felt even stranger. He was soft, small, and light. His prickly personality felt like that of a cat wary of strangers.

It was fascinating that he still had a childlike side despite being older than anyone I’d ever met, considering his actual age.

‘I should treat him well.’

I had always wanted a younger sibling since I was young. Almost forgetting Haylan’s real age, I decided to be a good older brother to him.

I carried Haylan and chatted away, circling the garden five times. While I was putting on a one-man stand-up show, Haylan listened with one ear and let it out the other. Tsk. There was no reaction at all, making it pointless to even tell jokes.

When we finished our walk and went back inside, Haylan slipped out of my arms and straightened his clothes. The head butler approached and handed Haylan a towel, saying,

“Young Master, I haven’t given the guest a tour of the house.”

“So?”

“If you’re alright with it, would you mind showing the guest around yourself?”

“You guys do it. Why are you asking me to do something like that?”

The servants, who had been watching us, started busily moving around, picking up random things. Why are they shaking dusters in thin air? Even I can see how obviously they’re pretending to be busy.

“As you can see, everyone is too busy and doesn’t have the time.”

The head butler said with an awkward smile.

Is that so? They don’t look busy at all. Then it suddenly hit me.

‘It’s because of me, isn’t it?’

I was still an outsider with no one to trust in this house. Moreover, they don’t like me. They want to avoid being alone with me as much as possible.

But I didn’t mind if it meant I could spend time with Haylan instead. My current goal wasn’t to win them over, but to increase Haylan’s affection.

Haylan frowned but didn’t complain. He just glanced at me once and started walking ahead.

When I looked back at the head butler, he nodded as if telling me to follow.

‘Is he helping me?’

I wondered why he was suddenly smiling at me when he’d been treating me coldly just this morning.

‘Did he take a liking to me because I listened attentively to his mealtime philosophy?’

It was called a house tour, but there wasn’t much to see.

“All the locked doors lead to unused rooms.”

Most of the doors in this mansion were locked. I tried to detect using magic what was behind each door I saw, and

[Magic detection successful! This object is under a ‘Blade Trap’ spell.]

I once again realized how terrifying this mansion was….

‘Come to think of it, the way I died was different every time.’

It was probably because the trap magic cast on each room was different.