+6 enhancement.
Rarely, when enhancement succeeds, it sometimes succeeds consecutively to the next level.
Right now, I had achieved +6 enhancement with the cost of +2 enhancement.
‘Lottery winnings of fifty million won.’
“Are you alright?”
Belsus came running in a hurry, startled by my scream.
Seeing me throwing punches into the air bababam, Belsus was greatly shocked.
“Fuck fuck, this is crazy!”
“Crazy? You mean me?”
I spun around. Unable to contain this euphoria of my head being completely filled with dopamine, I grabbed Belsus in a hug.
Ah, but this bastard isn’t wearing a top.
The feeling of my face touching his bulging male chest made me quite uncomfortable, but even that couldn’t stop this elation of mine. I threw a few more punches into the air.
“Whew…”
After bouncing around excitedly, I gradually came back to reality along with post-clarity.
Only then did my eyes follow the handle I was gripping tightly in my hand.
Right, this isn’t a sword but a sickle… Ha, this should have been a sword.
Can’t be helped.
“Hey.”
Belsus, who had been looking at me with concerned eyes wondering if I’d gone crazy, flinched at the look in my eyes as I turned around. He cautiously asked why.
“Want to try being a pure dealer with a sickle?”
It was a weapon I’d intended to use temporarily, but it became too strong.
* * *
Belsus had just one rule. To live on Hian’s farm.
Don’t come near the cabin. Don’t look inside the cabin either.
“It’s my private space, so there should be some separation.”
He completely understood. How uncomfortable would it be to live with a stranger?
Belsus faithfully observed this. He never went toward the cabin and only used the space given to him.
Today too, in the space designated as an exercise area next to the field, he swung the sickle instead of a sword while basking in the warm sunlight. Belsus, who had been concentrating so hard that sweat flew, paused to catch his breath and discovered something.
Hian’s field with lushly sprouting green leaves. They were leaves he always saw, but something felt off.
On the green leaves, he saw something wriggling. Small caterpillars were munching away at the leaves with crunching sounds.
Belsus threw down the sickle and ran over in a hurry. He forgot the unspoken rule he must not break and flung open the door to Hian’s cabin.
And then, he witnessed with his own two eyes a more shocking sight than the bugs on the crops.
Inside Hian’s cabin…
It was shockingly in its original dilapidated state. When it rained, water came in, it smelled of mold, and was damp from lack of sunlight.
In the middle of it, Hian was lying down taking a rest. Not on a bed with soft bedding like what he’d given Belsus, but on something too shabby to even call a bed—just a bare wooden board.
Hian had poured even the experience points that should have gone into his own space into renovating Belsus’s barn into an annex. He had deceived Belsus by only changing the outer appearance of the cabin to look neat.
The reason he’d threatened him not to enter or look inside the cabin was precisely to avoid being caught doing this.
Belsus froze motionless at the doorway. Hian jumped up.
“What are you doing!”
Hian shouted more startled than usual.
“I was trying to tell you that bugs appeared on the crops…”
This time, Belsus was about half as angry as when he saw Hian being threatened by Kaline. This was the action a pushover with his rage meter filled to about 50% was capable of.
“……”
Silently opening his eyes wide and sending a look demanding explanation to Hian.
Hian coughed awkwardly in embarrassment.
“Well, the landlord has to have some dignity… How can I make a boarder live in a shabby place?”
It wasn’t convincing at all.
Belsus’s eyes, which had been blankly looking around the house, gradually became gentler.
Even so, Belsus just kept staring intently at Hian’s face.
“Why are you so… to me…”
A dazed voice leaked from the man who seemed to have lost his mind.
Hian took a deep breath and completely got up from the shabby bed. He lightly pushed Belsus’s chest, subtly driving him out the door.
“You eating good ingredients, sleeping with your back against somewhere clean and warm—that’s as much of a pleasure to me. Got it?”
Belsus seemed half-believing and half-doubting. His eyes were somewhat peculiar.
Sad eyes… should he call them? Hian briefly wondered if what he thought was right. Why is he sad?
Moreover, rather than sadness, it seemed tinged with slight bewilderment or confusion.
“And the bugs, I left them to nibble a bit on purpose.”
Hian changed the subject.
“That’s lettuce, and there’s tons of it anyway. Letting bugs appear so I can catch bugs gives slightly more experience points. I left them knowing that, so don’t be surprised.”
The explanation was finished, but there was still an unresolved problem.
However, Hian boldly blocked the doorway and crossed his arms as if asking what he’d done wrong. A sharp, stinging gaze pierced through Belsus’s face.
Belsus silently knelt down. Then, realizing that would make Hian sigh more, he quickly stood up. He sheepishly closed the cabin door again. And whispered to the door, “If I could turn back time, I would.”
Belsus resolved. Since Hian is this smart and he is dull, he would unconditionally not doubt and just leave alone whatever Hian does.
Also, that he didn’t have the power to pressure Hian into making Hian improve his own space.
‘If I carry Hian to my room while he’s sleeping and I sleep in that cabin, Hian will try to kill me.’
Sadly, there was nothing else Belsus could do.
Lettuce was a plant that grew so well that even selling surplus crops to the system didn’t yield much profit.
If urgent and bothersome, the market price wasn’t bad, but later if he traded with game NPCs, he could receive a higher price.
But that was for after there were more crops, and right now he only had enough to share with neighbors, so it was more profitable to sell to the system and create initial capital.
Currently, Hian had only succeeded in harvesting lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, and garlic.
The farm’s plants flowed according to the rules of this subspace. The most prominent was rapid growth.
There were differences depending on each crop, and the farm level, that day’s weather, and luck, but basically what should grow in a week grew in just one day.
But that meant it sucked up the soil’s nutrients just as much, so he had to work without a moment’s rest. He sprinkled water several times a day, and pulled weeds three or four times daily.
As fast as the crops grew, the farmer had to move diligently.
Hian didn’t know. He had just done what he naturally should do, but Belsus, who always watched Hian while exercising beside him, couldn’t help but develop warm feelings for such a Hian.
The first fruit formed on the cucumber that Hian had particularly cherished.
‘Hian likes cucumbers.’
Hian jumped around in joy. Even jumping up and down, Hian couldn’t surpass his height.
Then he discovered Belsus staring at him intently.
“What are you looking at?”
He seemed more embarrassed than displeased. Belsus turned his head away in time.
Just when the sunlight had settled on the joyful Hian’s head.
Hian was like… a squirrel happy after gathering lots of acorns.
Belsus was flustered with himself because he’d never thought of such a comparison for a person before. To think Hian was more like a squirrel than even a young child.
This was… because the sunlight inside the subspace was special. (It was the exact same sunlight as outside.)
Also because Hian was short. (He didn’t recall that much younger children were far shorter.)
And because Hian looked like that.
His tanned skin was smooth and soft, bringing to mind a warm brown-tinted small animal.
Right at that moment. Belsus suddenly felt a sensation like static electricity rising slightly in his head.
Hian had used Reading by surprise and read his mind!
Belsus flinched. Though not noticeably on the outside.
What was I just thinking?
Hian had been at a loss for words then.
{Will I be able to repay the kindness of eating and sleeping here?}
Pushover…
{Does Hian like potatoes or sweet potatoes? I want to eat whichever he doesn’t like.}
* * *
Still a pushover.
Why is he curious about such private things like whether I like potatoes or sweet potatoes? Does he have that kind of leisure? With that time, he should think about returning as a Hunter.
While thinking such thoughts, it’s also ridiculous that he doesn’t directly ask me beside him but just wonders to himself.
