Chapter 24
A lady, her flushed cheek being gently caressed, stood across from her son—who held a guitar and stared at her with a look of despair. Despite the warm ambiance of the timber-furnished café, a cold and oppressive atmosphere began pressing down on my slim shoulders.
Lir and I put down our cups and looked at the young noblewoman and the café’s lady. We were curious what had happened between them—why had this noblewoman slashed the cheek of the café’s owner so mercilessly?
“… I’m sorry!”
To everyone’s surprise, it was the lady with the abused cheek who spoke such remorseful words. Bowing her head like a sinner, she continuously leaned forward deeper in apology.
“I’ll definitely prepare the rent by the end of this week! So please…”
“Because of you, do you know what words I had to hear from my older brother? He called me an ‘inefficient woman who can’t even properly collect money from her underlings.’ How can I live with the shame caused by your mistakes?”
“I’m sorry! Due to the skyrocketing wheat prices, there hasn’t been enough income recently. But the number of customers visiting our store every week keeps increasing, and we’re even starting to gain some word-of-mouth. Our business will undeniably…”
SMACK!
Once again, the lady’s cheek reddened violently as she stumbled.
“I’ll definitely pay the rent by the end of this week… I’m sorry!”
Even as she swayed, the lady continued repeating the same words while bowing her head.
From what I could gather, it seemed the café’s side might have been at fault initially. Not paying the rent on the agreed-upon date was undoubtedly a mistake as business owners. Of course, the punishment was brutal and savage, even so…
“Is this the first time the rent has been late? Anyway, commoners… really can’t be taught properly with just words. They only learn when you cause them pain and instill fear, which shows they’re no different from beasts.”
The world I live in right now operates under a class-based system, rooted in medieval fantasy.
There was no one who would punish a noble for rough physical actions against a peasant.
Especially not in cases where the peasant had erred, like failing to pay their rent.
“Haven’t I seen you before somewhere?”
“What are you doing here?”
The noblewoman turned cold eyes toward the café owner who had just rushed out of the kitchen.
Lir, for her part, seemed to want to say something to the noblewoman about her violence against the café owner in front of the son. She repeatedly got up from her seat and then sat back down, unable to muster the courage.
It appeared Lir’s moral compass was different from that of the usual medieval people of this world. She had spent almost her entire life isolated from society, only interacting with wizards and her master in the magic tower. As intellectuals, wizards generally refrained from overt violence and from insulting people based on their social status. Such barbaric displays were evidently unfamiliar and uncomfortable for her.
She eventually muttered softly “I can do this, I can do this,” a few times, as if casting a spell, and slowly started to rise from her seat with determination.
Then I grabbed her slender arm, pulling her back down.
“The measures might be a bit harsh, but it is undeniable that the café failed to pay the rent by the agreed-upon date. What justification would we have to intervene?”
“… That’s true, but…”
Lir was unable to provide a satisfactory response to my question.
It is indeed unjust to resort to violence easily.
Such a notion, however, only holds true in a world where everyone is truly ‘equal’.
“… It’s too hard to watch. Let’s just leave the café. There’s nothing we can do here.”
This café will eventually overcome this hardship, even if it must endure some humiliation for now.
With the young dragon from the Enker High Plain dead, the price of wheat will soon stabilize, thereby increasing the café’s profits, and the problem of delayed rent payments will be resolved.
Moreover, they mentioned that word-of-mouth was also starting to spread, bringing in more customers to the café…
All they need to do is grit their teeth and weather through this storm.
It would serve no good for us, mere bystanders, to meddle needlessly and create larger conflicts that benefit neither them nor us.
“Miss, why are you here personally…?”
SMACK!
The noblewoman greeted the kitchen master, who had dashed out from behind the counter, with the same slap.
“I’m sorry, miss. I can prepare the rent not by the end of the week, but even by tomorrow if you would kindly extend your grace.”
The kitchen master, his apron covered in coffee grounds and flour, remained steady and humble despite a strong slap to the face. He implored the young lady with unwavering eyes.
“…”
The young noblewoman quietly watched this scene with cold eyes.
The café owner was over six feet tall, his towering frame built from years of kneading dough and baking bread. His arms, chest, and every knuckle bore the scars and calluses of hard labor, including several burn marks.
Looking at her red hand and the formidable café owner, the noblewoman clicked her tongue in irritation.
“Doesn’t seem to hurt much, does it?”
With an unusually cold tone that contrasted sharply with the heat of the kitchen, the café owner felt a chill run down his spine.
“What? No, miss.”
The café owner shook his head and deeply bowed.
He appeared resigned to endure this storm quietly, waiting for it to pass as any other commoner would.
Watching all of this, I couldn’t understand exactly what made the noblewoman so angry.
Could it be her pride that was hurt, seeing the café owner standing firm despite being slapped by her? It was a ridiculous guess, but it was the only one I could make.
“Hey! Come inside!”
Suddenly, the noblewoman brought in her guards who had been waiting outside.
Three towering men with swords at their sides squeezed through the narrow doorway and aligned themselves next to the noblewoman, their eyes set on the café’s owner.
“Even if you lose a leg, it shouldn’t hinder your work, right?”
“… Pardon?”
Startled by the sinister question, the cafe owner could only repeat it in confusion.
“I’m not satisfied. It feels like I’m being treated as nothing. For a commoner, getting slapped by me shouldn’t be something one can withstand so easily.”
The young noblewoman inspected her reddened hand with irritation and clicked her tongue.
“If you lose a leg, next time you won’t be standing so arrogantly, will you?”
With a slight nod from the noblewoman, the guards instantly stepped forward, dragging the café owner from behind the counter and laying him out on the floor. One held his leg, while the other two pinned his arms and shoulders. It was evident that they had done this kind of thing more than once.
“Miss, what is this… Miss! By tonight… no, by this evening, I’ll have the money ready, please just give me another chance!”
The desperate voice reverberated off the ceiling and back down onto the café floor. The café owner didn’t dare confront the towering guards threatening him with his massive frame. The only thing he could do was to beg the noblewoman repeatedly.
“You still don’t know what you’ve done wrong. The reason I’m punishing you isn’t because of the late rent. It’s because you made me feel insignificant. You insulted me. Cutting off all four limbs wouldn’t satisfy me, but since you need to work to pay rent regularly, I’ll let it go with just one ankle.”
The noblewoman was crazier than I had initially thought.
“…”
During this momentary silence, the guards drew their swords and placed the blade against the café owner’s ankle. The café owner clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, accepting his fate.
This is what the medieval times are like. The Western historians were right not to call this era the ‘Dark Ages’ for nothing.
“At the very least, can we change the location… please?”
“No. We’re doing it here. Your family needs to witness and learn. They need to know what happens when they break an agreement with our family.”
With a cold smile, the noblewoman approached the young boy clutching his guitar in one corner of the café.
The boy, who appeared to be around ten or eleven years old, only tearfully blamed himself for his incapability to do anything.
“Close your eyes.”
Helplessly accepting this reality, the café owner, while drawing a breath, gave this desperate instruction to his son.
The noblewoman brought a chair over and sat next to the boy. She wrapped an arm around his frail shoulders.
“If you close your eyes, the man who claims to be your father won’t just lose an ankle.”
Upon hearing the noblewoman’s whispering, the boy must have felt as if a viper’s tongue had pierced his ear and ravaged his brain.
“Watch carefully. And learn this. You stupid beasts like you only learn when something is taken away from you.”
The boy trembled violently, clutching the guitar as tightly as he could, paralyzed by fear.
“I don’t want to do this either, but what can I do when your kind, the commoners, are so stupid? Don’t you agree?”
The young noblewoman smoothed the boy’s disheveled bangs with her delicate fingers and smiled kindly at him.
“…”
Sitting across from us, Lir was unusually revealing her raw emotions without hiding them.
The emotion she displayed was intense anger.
“Looks like we cannot just leave the café after watching this, right?”
“I slowly stood up from my seat while asking this question.”
“… But I don’t know what to do,” came an unexpected reply from Lir.
She was hesitating.
Hesitating?
Wasn’t she the one who moments ago was ready to stand up in protest even when the noblewoman had merely slapped a commoner? And yet, now she hesitated when the father’s ankle was about to be cut off in front of the child?
“Why not?”
“It’s quite far from the castle here. I can’t forever stay by their side to protect them, and it’s unrealistic to station elite soldiers here. As Bin had mentioned, if we interfere and protect these people for the day, we can get through it now. But what about tomorrow? And the day after?”
Indeed, while we might help protect them immediately, from a long-term perspective, this could bring about a much larger catastrophe.
The Bin family had hit, but they didn’t fall. The kind of people who would cut someone’s leg off for such an insignificant reason are precisely the young noblewoman and her prestigious family.
“Next time, it might not end with just a leg. And there’s a chance the lives of these people could truly be in danger…”
We are merely passing acquaintances while they, the café people and this noblewoman, will continue to live and conduct business in this location and frequently cross paths. If we humiliate her today, even as commoners, they might face an overwhelming retaliation they can’t handle.
“So, are we just going to leave?”
“No! It’s just that… I don’t know what to do.”
Stopping the guards and embarrassing this noblewoman now would be nothing more than a fleeting act of self-satisfaction.
An act of self-satisfaction that would only bring calamity to the café family.
“Then, why don’t we wait a little longer?”
I rose from the table and gave Lir a faint smile.
Despite her outwardly reclusive demeanor, which could seem somewhat mysterious, it seemed her inner self was much more straightforward than I had anticipated.
“I’ll be back after I change the situation.”
I stepped away from the well-lit window seat and made my way past the group led by the towering guards.
The guards and the towering café owner were astonished at my puny frame suddenly intruding into their midst.
“Hey, what are you?”
“Are you blind? Can’t you feel the tension in the air?”
I ignored the idle taunts from the guards and approached the counter directly.
“Check-out, please.”
“What do you mean?”
As I handed my coin pouch to the lady standing blankly at the counter with her cheek swollen blue, a sharp voice came from my right ear.
“Can you hurry up with the check, please? The bugs in this café have completely ruined my appetite.”
I glanced at the noblewoman and whispered under my breath, pretending to be bemused.
Her face contorted immediately.
“… Hey. Was that something you said for me to hear?”
“No, it wasn’t.”
Ignoring her with an unfazed expression, I responded.
“Is this kid treating me like an idiot? Do you even know who I am? I am the first daughter of the Gweneir family, Vinessa Gweneir! Do you think you’ll walk away unscathed after treating me like this?”
My initial plan was to quietly pay the bill on the table and leave the café without further ado. The café was undeniably at fault first, and there was a significant gap in status as well… It didn’t seem wise to interfere in this dispute and waste this rare day off.
But this noblewoman had crossed the line.
Even if they, who were commoners, erred first, she had gone too far by ordering someone’s leg to be cut off in front of a child.
Lir was a principled elf who couldn’t sit idle in such situations, and I was still holding onto the remnants of modern human common sense and ethical awareness.
“… If I say no, it would just amount to nonsense. If you don’t believe me, why did you bother asking?”
“What did you say?!”
“Arrogant people who don’t even show up in the Setting Collection, pretending to be nobles…”
I glared at the Gweneir family’s daughter who was angrily shouting at me, my face twisted with disdain.
And the cherry on top? Pretending to scratch my ear when my ear didn’t itch, purely out of acting.
And the next moment, the world in my sight flipped upside down.
