Ding Dong.
[All of Baron Frontera's subjects were deeply moved by your heroic courage and sent their praises.]
[For that achievement, you have been awarded a large amount of bonus RP.]
[You have acquired 500 RP.]
[Current RP: 507.]
Lloyd blinked absentmindedly. He wondered if it was because he had slept for too long. Everything was blurry.
No, technically speaking, he was seeing things. Wait, RP? A large amount of bonus? A whopping 500 RP? Still feeling the grogginess in his head, he read the message. Then, the events that had taken place began to come back to him.
Oh. He remembered the mine construction, the wild ants, the methane gas explosion, the rescue from the dark tunnel, and the hard, painstaking walk with Javier on his back. Everything was slowly returning to him.
I'm alive. He especially recalled the gut-wrenching walk with Javier on his back and how the baron and the group of soldiers arrived to save him. As the backstory of the RP award became clear in his head, he understood the message.
Kekeke. Everyone's praising my accomplishment, eh? This is going great. Very great.
Lloyd was satisfied. He had done his utmost to stay alive, and he managed to survive like a tenacious honeysuckle. He was now being compensated with a hefty sum of RP.
This feels like finding a 50-dollar bill in a jacket pocket after forgetting about it the whole time. Sweet. He fell into a happy reverie. How should I use this? Wait, hold on for a second. You know what? I better save them up instead of splurging it all away. The future was uncertain, and the most reliable help he could turn to in contingencies was the richly accumulated RP. He knew this from his personal experience.
What would've happened if Javier's impression of me didn't improve when I got him on my back? He wouldn't have acquired any RP. He would've wasted all his hard-earned RP by failing to turn the Asrahan Core Technique into a skill. I'd have helplessly perished there.
Every strand of hair on his arms stood at the thought. Since RP is my last resort and insurance in dangerous situations, I shouldn't waste any and should save some for later.
Lloyd shook off his jitters, then slightly turned and froze. He spoke.
"Hey, what are you doing there?"
"Tam watching you, Master Lloyd."
Lloyd asked a question, and Javier answered it. After that, a heavy silence fell over them. Just like any other time, Lloyd was the one to speak first.
"No, I mean, since when were you sitting over there like a statue and watching me?"
"Well, if you are inquiring about the time, I say about three hours."
"Three hours?"
"Yes, I have been like this since I took the shift from the baron after breakfast."
"So are you saying that you've been sitting down there since you ate breakfast?"
"Yes."
"And you've been keeping a careful eye on me this whole morning?"
"Yes."
"Are you a pervert?"
"No, Young Master."
"Then what are you doing?"
"I was just nursing you, that is all," Javier explained.
"Nurse me? How so?"
"I was prepared to call someone the moment you stopped breathing in your sleep."
"Tam joking."
"Ha, it doesn't sound like one."
"You are mistaken," Javier said. "By the way, how are you?"
"Tam doing quite okay."
Lloyd's gaze moved down to Javier's ankles. A smile of satisfaction spread across Javier's face.
"They are perfectly healed."
"Already? How long has it been?"
"Four days," Javier replied.
"What? You mean I was out for four days?" Lloyd's voice grew high-pitched.
"Yes."
"And that's how long it took for your badly sprained ankles to heal completely?"
"Yes."
"What? Tell me honestly. You were malingering, right?"
"What is malingering?"
"Feigning illness."
"T have never feigned any illness," Javier retorted in confusion.
The veins in Lloyd's temples popped out.
"Don't lie to me. You couldn't walk at all. You totally looked like you were about to cry. Hm? You whined, saying, 'Master Lloyd, I cannot walk.' Don't you remember? You cried like a baby. Right? That's why I personally carried you on my back. Was it all an act?"
"Of course not."
Javier shrugged and in a cynical tone unique to Javier, he blurted,
"Tt is all thanks to the triple circle's recuperative powers."
"Recuperative powers? Triple circle?"
"Yes," Javier answered.
"Aha. So you are saying that you heal wildly fast because of the triple circle that explodes your mana?"
"That is perfectly correct."
"Yikes. Now you're upsetting me. It's so unfair. My bones ache even now as I speak."
"Do not get upset," Javier comforted.
"Why not?"
"Perhaps it would be comforting if you attribute your slow healing to old age."
"Goodness, are you a rocketman or something? Stop attacking me with the truth."
"T never attacked you. However…"
"However?"
"T want you to know that I am happy that you are awake."
"Sure, yes. I'm happy, too, you bastard."
A chuckle escaped Lloyd. He couldn't help but feel relieved. The fact that he was alive and Javier was okay relieved him. He welcomed it very much. Lloyd noticed that the feeling must be mutual for Javier.
"What a relief, really," Lloyd said as the reality of surviving that horrid and dreadful ant cave finally sank in him.
He slowly rose from his bed feeling relieved. But he couldn't neglect his job anymore. He had work to do.
****
Lloyd's body healed very fast. It was the power of the double circle he'd acquired underground. All day long, he used the Asrahan Core Technique whenever he had the chance. He amplified the mana he absorbed with two circles and had it rotate around every part of his body.
The bio-cycle of his somatic cells quickened, and so did their recovery period. Within ten days or less, Lloyd's badly sprained muscles and ligaments had almost completely healed.
On top of his fast healing, there was more good news. The orange foreclosure notices Lloyd saw the first time he arrived in this world were gone now, bugging him no more. The baron estate was no longer a foreclosed property. It's all thanks to me.
Lloyd recalled the story in The Knight of Blood and Iron. If things happened according to the novel, the baron's estate should have been completely empty now because of the early foreclosure.
However, the seizures had been canceled instead. He had worked hard to grow a heated flooring business, and it granted him the money to pay off the interest debt.
I was also able to recover the credit of the barony. What a huge relief. In the novel, the family members of the baron get evicted from the property around this time. The baron and baroness spend days in stupor and despair while Lloyd's drinking streak gets worse to the point that it spins out of control.
None of that was true anymore. The unfair tragedy was being rewritten by Lloyd himself. So, Lloyd resolved to keep changing the future.
"So move! Stop lazing around because it's getting hot!" Lloyd's voice boomed aloud on the construction site. Time had flown by, and he was already wrapping up the mine construction project. With a tool belt hanging on his waist, he took charge and commanded the workers.
He always oversaw any hard and dangerous jobs. The artisans and civil engineer soldiers put their noses to the grindstone with more zeal and sweated heavily without any complaint.
Now trusting Lloyd all the more, they thought to themselves, The young master puts our lives and safety before his. The foolish little boy they knew was long gone. His past no longer mattered to them. What mattered more was that Lloyd had stayed behind to make sure everyone evacuated safely on the day the wild ants appeared. His sacrifice and devotion left a huge impression on their hearts.
Thus, they thought to themselves that such selflessness wasn't a common trait. They could trust someone like him to lead them. He would be there to protect them even if they fell into danger again. Trust was a powerful thing. Thanks to it, there was an air of vitality in the site.
"Okay, this is the last reinforcement pillar! A little more! Okay, on three! Two! Three!"
"Argh!"
The final stage of construction came to an end at Lloyd's command. The coal mine was completed at last. However, Lloyd wasn't excited about it. He knew that this was just the start. During the dinner celebrating the construction and during the moment he handed a large bonus to everyone, he didn't get their elated emotions to carry him away.
Instead, he calmly thought about his next steps and put them into action.
Don't rush. One step at a time. Now that construction came to an end, it was time to go through safety checks. I have to grind away to pay off the debt! It went without saying that he needed to work hard. The baron's estate had only managed to avoid foreclosure at this time. The money he earned from the heated flooring system was just barely enough to cover the monthly interest.
And I still have the principal debt to pay off. The principal, not the interest, burdened Lloyd very much. He couldn't afford to take any breaks to pay off everything. But at the same time, he couldn't be hasty.
Safety first. Safety above all. In truth, he could simply open up the mine right now if he just wanted to pay off the debt as soon as possible. Recruit miners and educate them — the process behind it was simple. He could start mining for coal right away. Opening now without a thorough safety check would save time and money. However, Lloyd wasn't interested in the short-term profit.
Sure, I can make some easy money by doing that. However, considering the long-term prospects is especially important for these kinds of projects.
He recalled the countless events he had gone through back when he was in South Korea.
South Korea was a fast-paced country. He couldn't even dream of having things like safety inspections. Heck, workers were treated like disposable objects. Factories, warehouses, and construction sites… Everywhere was the same.
People get their hands cut in the machines. They fall into the furnace and get electrocuted by the high-voltage wire. Get stuck in a screen door on the train. Boom. Accident. Fix an escalator, and you find a worker sucked into the belt… Tragic accidents make news, and the supervisors and managers make fake promises of more vigilance and shed some tears of guilt. That's all. Everything's back to square one once the camera is off. And they fill the empty positions left behind after an accident with new workers. They make them work until someone gets injured again. They don't care if there's another accident because they see the workers as replaceable.
There's nothing strange about this. It's just a tradition. Out with the old and in with the new. Easy and convenient.
It was the dark side of society he painfully felt as he watched the news and lived in poverty.
Such tradition sickened Lloyd to the core. It even bordered on abhorrence. Opening up the mine may make me happy now, but in the long run, I 'Il lose the trust of the workers. No one's going to do a job I give them afterward. On top of that, if an accident occurred, the costs for repair would be high. Most importantly, he didn't like that people would be exposed to such dangers under his management. Therefore, it was necessary to perform a safety check before opening the mine. At least I have the surveying skill with me. It's very handy. Survey!
Crackle! Lloyd's eyes faintly shone as he meticulously studied the mine. Lloyd meticulously inspected the internal composition and structure of the mine. He checked to see if the geographical composition was stable, the foundation was well-placed, and there weren't any signs of subsidence.
He made a great effort to make sure he scanned every inch of the ground. Once he was done with the mine, he decided to go further in.
"Please do not tell me you will be going into the ant cave again."
The coalbed that rested at the bottom of the mine—Lloyd was making his way there through an opening when Javier asked a question from behind. Lloyd chuckled as he looked back at Javier.
"Yeah, are you scared?"
"No, Young Master. I am curious why you are going in there."
"However…"
"However?"
"I'm just checking to make sure that everything's safe for my people. Is it that weird?"
"That's not what I meant. It is reckless but outstanding."
"Oh, dang. It's not every day I get a compliment from you."
"Please be reminded that I said 'reckless' before praising you."
"Don't be shy. Just compliment me if you want to."
"No, thank you."
"Haha, you're getting soft now."
"Soft? What is that now?"
"Nothing. Hold on. What's that over there?"
Their bickering, which took place as they examined the ant cave, came to a halt. Squinting his eyes, Lloyd held out his torch to see what lay straight ahead. Something glimmered on the floor.
"T will check it," Javier said as he drew his sword and moved forward.
He inspected the area Lloyd pointed out. The glimmering object turned out to be…
"A sword," Javier announced.
"A sword?"
"Yes."
Javier picked up the weapon.
"Tt is not used by humans. It is shoddy and unbalanced. Given the shape of its hilt and damaged shape… I say this belongs to an orc."
"An orc?" Lloyd repeated in disbelief.
"Yes."
"What's an orc's sword doing here?"
"T am in the dark about that."
Lloyd was confused. He recalled orcs with pig heads occasionally appearing in The Knight of Blood and Iron. It was a shock to see an orc's sword was found hundreds and thousands of feet away from the ground.
"Don't they live in the wilderness across the eastern mountain range?"
"Yes, they do."
"Hmm… Interesting."
It could be that an ant just dragged it down here. Thinking that in his head, Lloyd put his worries aside.
"If we keep looking, something might turn up. Let's get moving," Lloyd urged.
"Understood."
With that, they resumed their inspection. The cave was vast and complex. Fifteen days passed by in a flash as they meticulously studied the cave. On the 16th day… They came across a young orc warrior lying inside storage at the bottom of the ant cave.
"What is this?"
"What's an orc doing here?" Dazed, Lloyd studied the orc. Javier was doing the same when he said, "It appears that this one has been captured by the ants. But it seems like he is breathing."
"What?!" Javier exclaimed in disbelief. "It's alive? Like a frozen person?"
Javier nodded his head.
"T believe he's been poisoned."
Just then, Lloyd recalled the story about the wild ants in The Knight of Blood and Iron.
Yes, right. The wild ants tend to store a portion of their food by paralyzing them alive.
That must have been what happened to the orc, Lloyd thought. Once he confirmed the truth, a new idea dawned on him.
"Hold on… Bingo."
Just as soon as he checked the orc's state, Lloyd came up with a surprisingly good plan.
A smile of contentment spread across Lloyd's face.
Translator: https://bettertranslation9.wordpress.com