Belsus had a dream.
Some neat-looking boy took him to his home. Behind him, knights clanking in armor were running with spears, but when the boy grabbed his arm and crossed the threshold, the knights crashed into a wall and disappeared.
In that space, no one ridiculed him. It was an incredibly cozy and quiet place. So much so that he wanted to close his eyes and end his life just like this.
He himself was the filthiest and most shabby thing in the boy’s house, yet the boy didn’t frown. Far from pinching his nose saying it was dirty, he fed him to his fill with him right in front and generously offered the well. Perhaps he’s an angel or a fairy.
If it was a dream, it was too wretched. He’d rather not have such a dream.
Because it would be too agonizing if when he woke up, his body thrown in a dirty back alley smelled of rat piss, and his starving belly had long forgotten how to make rumbling sounds, with his stomach skin just stuck flat against his intestines.
‘This isn’t my home.’
‘This isn’t a space permitted to me.’
‘This is all just a dream.’
Slowly waking from sleep, he blinked his eyes several times.
“……”
No matter how long he waited, he didn’t wake from the dream. Belsus pressed the center of his thigh hard with his fingernail. It hurt.
Was it his imagination…… The barn walls seemed to have changed to cleaner wooden boards than before he fell asleep yesterday.
When he got up, a clean blanket slid off his body. It was a blanket he had no memory of covering himself with.
*Creak*…… He came out of the barn. The barn door made much less noise than yesterday.
It was certain. Even in just one night, the farm where he was staying was developing.
While Belsus was just waking up disheveled, the landlord who had risen at who knows what time and was diligently moving about carrying sacks of soil discovered him.
The man wearing a straw hat on his small, round head and black work clothes with top and bottom connected saw him.
Hian’s eyes widened seeing him. Soon he shook his head vigorously, and after a moment Belsus realized Hian had greeted with his head because he couldn’t use both hands.
Belsus approached and extended his arms to receive the luggage first. Then he got yelled at.
“What are you doing!”
It was quite a thunderous rebuke. Did he upset him? Belsus stopped all his movements and stood still.
An awkward atmosphere flowed for a moment. Awkwardness, embarrassment, and unfamiliarity passed between them, and before long Hian chuckled.
“Doing this won’t reduce your lodging fee. You know that, right?”
When Belsus stopped not knowing what to do, frozen, Hian released him with a light joke and slipped away to the side. He set down the soil sack in the field and entered the cabin.
Belsus washed his face at the well and tidied his hair. Behind him, sounds of Hian bringing out breakfast could be heard. Not knowing where to put his body, he sat carefully at the outdoor table while fumbling.
“Aren’t you……?”
“I ate.”
This conversation is familiar now too. Without a single word telling him to eat well, but having laid out a hearty meal prepared with care, Hian suddenly left.
Belsus lowered his head and chewed and swallowed his food thoroughly, occasionally sighing.
What is his identity? How old is he? What kind of life has he lived?
Just looking at his face at first, he thought he was a boy who hadn’t fully grown.
However, seeing him remove the long cloak that had covered his body, his limbs were long and lanky and his body lines were sturdy like an adult’s. Still, it was certain he’d lived a shorter time than Belsus. His tanned and clear skin still had soft down and no beard had grown.
He wasn’t as bright as a child running through fields, but he also wasn’t as dark as a traveler standing in the rain.
He seemed unburdened by anything. He was free and lighthearted.
This space was special.
Belsus felt like he had entered inside of him.
So…… Belsus found this place difficult.
“Why are you hovering around?”
“I’ll help.”
“No need.”
Making a fuss about helping makes him uncomfortable. It was the conclusion Belsus reached after long deliberation.
However, Belsus simply didn’t know how to stay still. With the landlord working, staying still was honestly so apologetic and uncomfortable he wanted to pass out.
As if knowing his feelings, Hian tried to persuade him, but this made him feel even more ashamed. Making the landlord explain point by point because of his deficient personality.
“It’s better if only my hands touch my farm as much as possible. That way experience points rise faster. Got it?”
“Is that so?”
“It’s most efficient when I do it. Not helping is helping.”
“……”
“It’s okay to be comfortable. I like seeing you just lying down the most.”
No, to be precise, seeing him weight training or swinging a sword would be best to see, but there’s no need to tell him the truth. Hian shut his mouth on his own and passed by him.
Belsus looked at his retreating figure and ultimately lent strength to the speculation he’d been making since yesterday.
Hard to believe, but could Hian perhaps…….
Feel ‘satisfaction’ when he eats food deliciously and sleeps well?
If so, let’s do his utmost to satisfy Hian.
If he wants him to shamelessly eat, sleep, and laze around, let’s do so as much as possible.
‘If this is also a type of way to repay kindness.’
However, even if Hian chases him out someday, let’s prepare his heart so he can leave nonchalantly as if this was all just a dream.
Someday I must leave this place.
For him, let’s pretend I’ve adapted well here and am at peace.
Before the kindness he’s shown completely breaks me down.
Having given to others but not received kindness in ages immemorial, he vowed again and again. Every time sunlight gently melted his body, every time the hot and moving dishes made by the farmer accumulated in his body and warmth overflowed, he would need to remind himself.
Because no one else in this world is like him.
Because everyone in this world will drive him from their nest.
* * *
After driving Belsus, who was hovering around again, into the barn telling him to take a nap, I let out a small sigh.
‘What did I tell you to do? Why don’t you figure out how to pay the lodging fee instead?’
Living with a sucker isn’t easy. I have to keep telling him the same things over and over.
There’s exactly one thing I want from Belsus—absolute rest and a sturdy body based on that—so is keeping that so difficult?
Whew…… Right. It’s difficult, which is why he’s called the game’s worst sucker. I’ll endure.
I looked at the blue status window in charge of the farm system.
[Lv.4 Farm Still Like Ashes]
There was only this one phrase in the status window. Things like quests or lifestyle guides didn’t exist.
Someone playing this game for the first time would surely be flustered.
‘But that’s how the original game was. There were no quests, it was entirely the user’s responsibility.’
If you sweep and clean the house, improve inconveniences, and grow crops in the field, the level naturally rises.
So finding the points where the level rises is also fun. My farmer 1st place isn’t something just anyone can do—it comes from trying several times to find the most rapid and efficient route.
On the other hand, there are also variables I can’t gauge.
‘Naturally, Belsus’s existence.’
Belsus’s food expenses are…… honestly considerable.
To be blunt, there’s nothing left to eat now. The refrigerator substitute chest emptied this morning.
Because Belsus needs to pour all his capacity into rebuilding his body, I shook out everything I had.
‘Earlier too, I quickly left the spot worried my stomach would growl, because if Belsus heard it there’d be chaos……’
I haven’t eaten anything since yesterday. I’m fine though. It’s not like I’ll be running dungeons. I can fill up on water.
But Belsus not being able to eat enough more is a problem. My dignity would hit rock bottom.
No, I can go out and buy ingredients.
Because the farm system pays a little money every day, today’s money came in. I can buy with this. So the problem isn’t money.
Leaving the farm is the problem.
‘If I go out…… it’s still that slum.’
A day has passed, so have Kaline and the 1st ranked Archer gone somewhere else by now?
Let’s think. What are the chances that Archer is still sitting in that spot?
‘Anyway, I had to look for the Archer once on my end.’
Because the Archer might find Belsus’s disappearance suspicious and consult in the chat or something. It’s actually better if I collude first.
Reaching this conclusion, I headed toward the farm’s front gate.
[Will you cross the subspace door?]
‘Yes.’
That alley in the beggar village I last saw. I appeared from thin air.
And really, exactly, had 3 seconds passed?
I ran smack into a youth with a slim build lying on the street.
Even though he was covered with a dirty blanket like a homeless person, his white and sharp face and shimmering long blond hair stood out. It was a Kuma that followed the archer concept to the bone. If his ears had been pointed, he probably would have looked like an elf.
“You……! The bastard who was with Belsus!”
The moment the Archer saw me, he jumped up and shouted loudly. Even pointing with his index finger.
Ah, fuck!
This is bullshit, how can he be there right as I come out! I turned around and prepared to run at full speed.
If only tears hadn’t suddenly welled up profusely in the Archer’s two eyes and trickled down his cheeks.
It was instantaneous. A powerless farmer like me couldn’t avoid it when the 1st ranked Archer recklessly clung to my arm.
“Are you a person? Or a character?”
Crazy bastard, he’s just making dangerous statements that I’m not an origin character. And aren’t characters people too?
“No, it doesn’t matter either way! Take me too! You came to rescue me, right?”
No…… I think I got caught too, but what is this situation anyway?
Why is this bastard begging in beggar form instead of Belsus?
so wtf is that pale blue hand on the cover?