(EP-9) Flower Aira #9

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009 – Evil Flower Aira #9

The novel 'Villain Hunter' did not spend much time explaining how the currency worked.

In the first place, the protagonist of 'Villain Hunter' was a guy who didn't care about money.

The only explanation that I remembered about money was that one gold coin could support a family of four for a month. If we compare it to Korean Won, it should be between 1 million and 2 million Won, right?

I really hated that there was no concrete information and only a vague estimate. In fact, there was no other accurate explanation than that.

Of course, for the poor, the actual value might be even higher.

Plus, that amount was just a tip.

"Hiii, a gold coin!"

From the waitress' point of view, it was not surprising that she shouted in shock.

As a veteran employee, the larger the tip, the quieter they would be and securely stow it in their pocket. But, seeing that she just shouted in surprise, was she actually a newbie?

"Is this not enough? I thought one coin would suffice."

The problem was that, in response to the outburst, Aira took another gold coin from her pocket and handed it to the waitress…

As a result, the waitress was on the verge of passing out.

"So, so much money! Thank you!! Thank you!!! Heu, uh, I'll immediately bring the Manager!"

Tadat, Tadadadat-

The girl immediately scurried away without missing a beat. The customer wanted to see a Nymph, then she shall bring her one!

"It's my first time tipping. It's fun. Did I do it right?"

Aira was naive about her first tipping experience. She knew nothing. I couldn't even smile.

Because of what just happened, people's attention was unintentionally drawn towards us.

━Hey, did you see that? They gave her a gold coin as a tip. Two even!

━Is she the daughter of a noble family? Why is she in a trashy place at a time like this?

━Who knows? Probably to experience being a commoner or something? It's a recent fad apparently. She doesn't seem to have a single escort, other than that guy. Is he a servant?

I could see a lot of eyes turning towards us, perhaps from noticing our wealth. It seemed that our identities had not been revealed, but it was clear that the situation was not very good.

It would be dangerous if we got caught in an argument or something.

Though it was not us that would be in danger, it was them.

Because Aira was not merciful…

Meanwhile, Aira kept talking to me, as if she didn't care about our surroundings.

"I did good, right? I heard that in a place like this, you have to tip."

"Yes, you did a great job. But, I think the amount was a bit large. In fact, one copper coin is enough."

"One copper coin? But I don't have that? I have never heard of such a thing from Elga."

It made sense. Since you tried to buy flowers from the children with gold coins…

Aira lacked common sense.

But it didn't mean that she was dumb. For example, this instance…

"My Lady, excuse me, do you know what 351 times 357 is?"

"Why do you suddenly ask that? Anyways, that is easy. 125,307."

From this, one could see that Aira was smart enough to complete a complex calculation in an instant.

Otherwise, she couldn't have become a Rank 7 Magician, which dealt with complex magic. After all, it was said that magic required mathematical prowess.

However, she didn't know that one copper coin was enough as a tip…

Excellent brain, but no common sense and background knowledge.

What a waste.

No matter how far she was from succeeding the throne, growing up like a flower in a greenhouse, at this point, one couldn't help but wonder what kind of childhood she had.

In the meantime, the things she went through broke her mind.

This was Aira's current state.

Then why not teach Aira common sense? Some would say.

However, since Aira did not trust people, she refused to believe the words of others.

To exaggerate, even if someone said '2 plus 2 equals 4', Aira wouldn't believe it.

The only people Aira listened to were me and Elga, if I had to include her. However, Elga was more like a bad friend and a bad influence rather than a good teacher.

I was also not in a position to teach anyone, due to my lack of common sense in this bizarre world.

"Um."

I was having a headache.

With a throbbing head, I decided to change my thinking into a positive one.

Like, Aira's condition had improved significantly.

About a year ago, when I first met Aira at a court banquet, she was like a rose full of thorns.

In the past, no one could talk to her nor would she listen to anyone. Compared to back then, the difference was like Heaven and Earth.

"I can't wait to see a Nymph. Will she come out soon? How much longer do we need to wait? Are the rumors true, that Nymphs like candy?"

Before, it was impossible for Aira to wait for something like she was doing right now.

This basically meant that even Aira could change.

Yes. At this point, anyone should be able to tell.

I was trying to change Aira from a tyrant to a normal human being. At the very least — that was my goal.

If the situation proceeded like that in the novel, then eventually, one day, Aira would be executed.

It couldn't be avoided.

It was then I realized.

What if I twisted the story?

Stopping Belmott's execution not too long ago was part of my efforts to change the future.

The deterrence of Belmott's execution was quite effective.

Perhaps, by twisting the story so much, Aira wouldn't ever get executed.

To save Aira and myself, I needed to stabilize the kingdom, leading it to a happy ending of a peaceful world.

Shouldn't that be my, the evil Tae-oh Gospel, number one goal?

Then, to further change the story, I must do something that the original Tae-oh and Aira might not have done.

For example, a radical change that would twist the genre of the original novel.

There were a few that came to mind.

The only question now was whether Aira and others would follow suit.

However, the things I worked so hard on over the past year were now starting to pay off.

It was a gamble, but it was worth it.

I had a lot of chips to bet with thanks to the slush funds confiscated from Belmott's. Elga also just came back from the expedition. Wasn't this the chance to go all-in?

Good, good. Now all that was left was convincing Aira.

"Gospel."

I returned from my thoughts upon hearing my name.

"Did you call, My Lady?"

"Hey, those guys. They were talking about you."

Aira was currently wearing a very dark expression under her hood.

She was biting her lip so hard that blood was dripping down her chin. Why did Aira get so angry?

I turned my head and saw some men drinking in the corner.

━That bastard Tae-oh suddenly changed the law and made it impossible to beat slaves. I can't even discipline the darned thing with my whip anymore!

━I know, right?

━This slave rights bullshit. They could even file a complaint to the Government Office? Ah, just… Fuck off! That is not even a slave anymore. Also, what type of slave needs to be paid minimum wage?

━Now this is really crossing the line. Was giving them leftovers not enough? Minimum wage, really?

Ah. It seemed that the slave owners were dissatisfied with the enactment of the Minimum Slave Rights Act that I had implemented a few months ago.

There was an episode in which the abused slaves united to revolt and caused a great amount of damage to the Kingdom. Hence, the Minimium Slave Rights Act was created to stop such a thing from happening again somehow.

━I can't even fuck my female slave. Like, what? Slave sensitivity? I'm so mad that I can't even speak. Tae-oh, that guy. Is it because he is the Queen's slave, that he is extremely sensitive to slavery?

━That's right. Hey, speaking of, wasn't that Tae-oh bastard originally a slave too? A year or so ago, someone had seen that bastard being sold to the Lioness's.

━Wow, then after he got sold out of slavery, he became the Queen's secret concubine? Life is really weird. Now, slaves can have Human rights. On the subject of slavery—

Gadeudeuk-

I could hear Aira grinding her teeth. She was really holding up well. Was she trying to stay true to what I said before, 'Don't bother with the gossip about me?'

"They are just blindly cursing you. Tae-oh, you are not my slave. I never thought of you that way."

Gooo, gwareureu- Gwareureureu- Dolkong- dolkong-

The surrounding objects began to react to Aira's anger. The windows creaked, as the well-placed dishes fell to the floor, shattering and scattering all over.

Seuk-

With her palm on the table, Aira gently lifted her index finger.

Gwaooo- Dolkong- This made the shaking more intense.

This was the preparatory stage for the Rank 7 magic, Earthquake.

If this continued, the ground would really shake and everything would be buried in the soil.

━What is this, an earthquake? Why is the building shaking? Am I the only one who is feeling this? I haven't even had a drink yet.

━I guess the time has come for the country to collapse. Now, stop nagging and have a drink.

━Alright, give me a drink.

No, if you thought that an earthquake was going to happen, you should run away, you idiots…

If the situation stayed like this, the building might really collapse and a catastrophe would occur. By then, Aira, who had tasted massacre, might awaken her slaughterer tendencies.

So I had to say something and prevent Aira from going any further.

"You, over there—"

━Hey, over there, stop it. Your loud voices are disturbing the other guests!

Someone interrupted the group that was gossiping about me. Thanks to that, Aira's finger, which had been slightly lifted from the table, stopped.

━Oh, Sophie. Were our voices that loud?

━Yes, it was loud. It was so loud that the tavern was shaking!

━ No, that wasn't because of us. It was an earthquake.

━Also, Tae-oh saved me. I don't know where or what he did back then, but don't curse my savior.

━Well, if anyone has that kind of power, isn't it natural to be kind to your subordinates?

━Noisy! Do such people beat slaves?

━What are slaves? Are they also people or not, you reckon?

━Anyways, here. Two glasses of black beer and two pig hind legs. Eat this and be quiet.

She was Sophie, the freckled waitress I had saved. Just a while ago, she was about to be forcefully taken away by the tax collector and nearly beaten.

Thanks to her appearance, the men who insulted me were reprimanded and had to stop their gossiping. Thus, Aira's anger began to subside.

"What a funny girl."

"…It seems so."

I exhaled a sigh of relief.

What I had done before was like the flap of a butterfly's wings. It had created a chain that eventually came back to me. It was amazing that this had happened because I had saved that girl.

If this wasn't karma, then what is?

"I, Bionoi, have come-!"

[T/N: 비-어-노-이 => Bi-eo-no-i with 'eo' pronounced as 'Uh' with an 'O' mouth shape]

Then, someone approached us from afar.

It was a girl with short, light amber hair and a youthful looking face. She appeared to be around 14 or 15 years old.

"Who called this Bionoi? I'm busy, but I always free up time for VIPs! That's my trade skill!"

Distinguished by her short, pointed ears, she was Madame Bionoi, who ran the tavern "Nymph's Ditch." However, her outrageously luxurious dress looked quite ridiculous, as if she was wearing her mother's clothes.

She also spoke like a child.

But no one knew how old she really was.

Nymphs were a strange race that looked young, no matter the age.

"Hello, nice to meet you, Ma'am, Sir!"

As Bionoi shouted in a loud voice, she placed our food down on the table. Aira, wiping the blood from her lips, smiled slightly.

"A real Nymph! So this is a Nymph."

"I am Bionoi, the Nymph of the creek! However, who do you think you are, rudely pulling the cheeks of this Bionoi? That's Nymphophobic—!"

"Look, it is different from a Human's. It's like a child's cheek, so soft. Her ears are also pointy."

"Don't treat me like a child!"

Although Aira was the head of a country, it was her first time seeing a Nymph.

In the first place, Aira did not have a very broad scope in terms of Human relationships, and her range of activities were narrow.

Nymphs were also so rare that it was extremely hard to meet one.

"What do Nymphs like? Do you like candy like kids?"

Aira seemed to like the Nymph.

"Ahhh, you- You!"

At this time, the Nymph Manager Bionoi, who had her cheeks pulled by Aira, suddenly shouted as if she discovered something.

Maybe she noticed the powerful magic that Aira possessed? I had heard that Nymphs were innate Magicians, who dealt with mana in the air.

However, her eyes weren't looking at Aira, but towards me!

"Ah, I got it!"

She scrutinized me from all directions before saying with outstretched arms, as if she had finally figured out something.

"A half, you're a Half-Nymph!"

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