Chapter 13

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Chapter 13

Would I not be able to do it? No. I can do it. I’ll have to believe in myself. I took a deep breath after patting my trembling chest with my hand.

After staring hard at the basket containing ten tomatoes, I fervently lifted it.

“Huff!”

My slender arms trembled at the same time heat rose from my neck to my face. I could feel my tendons pulling tight, but I did not give up and heaved the basket as hard as I could. When I held it with both arms, it was definitely more stable than holding it with my fingers alone.

“See. I knew I could do it.”

Good job, me. While basking in the glory of my own muscular strength, I heard laughter reminiscent of chirping sparrows around me.

It was Sherry and Tom, the little kids in town. The two were running around like puppies, each carrying a basket full of tomatoes of their own.

“…….”

Hey, my situation is a little… It felt shabby, but I tried my best to pretend it was nothing. If you lose your self-esteem, you lose.

“Liv!”

Sherry, who was running around waving her braided hair, came up to me and stood in front of me. She was out of breath, and so she tried to breathe more slowly.

“Did you come for errands too, Sherry?”

“Yes! But why are you alone, Liv? The prince?”

The owner of this creepy title that Sherry was talking about was none other than Camian.

“It’s harvest season, so he went to work.”

Sherry’s face darkened noticeably. Her lips stained with disappointment stuck out.

“…I came on an errand thinking that I would be able to see the prince.”

“Hey! Why is Camian your prince!”

At some point, Tom approached and grabbed Sherry’s head and shook it hard, sarcastically.

“Don’t touch my hair! And why do you care?!”

Sherry retorted back sharply, and Tom flinched for a moment as he then let go of her hair. But Tom was too strong, and he turned Sherry’s stomach upside down with harsher words.

“Camian said he was going to marry Liv. My mom said so! And Mister Dregg said that too!”

“Why is the prince marrying a weakling like Liv?! I can lift ten more tomatoes than Liv! Right, Liv?!”

Sherry’s bulging eyes turned to me. I couldn’t decide whether to affirm or deny it. It’s true that I won’t marry Camian, but…

“…I’m not that weak……”

My self-esteem took a hit. I exercised every day, and although it seemed insignificant, I definitely gained some more strength compared to before.

Sherry and Tom didn’t listen to me, and they started arguing with each other. Tom chuckled, putting his hands on his waist and sneered.

“You’re a crybaby. Camian doesn’t like that kind of girl.”

“Is that the same for Liv?”

“I’m not even a crybaby…”

Sherry pulled on my clothes. In an instant, my upper body tilted and my center of gravity staggered.

I braced my toes and held on. Fortunately, I was able to avoid a major accident where I dropped the basket on the floor. After setting the basket on the floor, I leaned over to Sherry.

“Liv is always carried by Camian! Right, Liv?!”

“It’s because he wanted to carry me on his back…”

But again, my words didn’t matter to either of them.

“Camian doesn’t like brown hair that’s so common?!”

“Liv’s hair is brown too! Dark brown, and even uglier than mine!”

My self-esteem was plummeting within seconds. The conversation between the little ones showed no sign of ending, and if I was caught up in a fight like this, I would only arrive at home after the sun went down. After taking a deep breath, I cut into the two as they were yelling at each other.

“Guys, don’t fight over Camian. When you’re my age, Camian is old…”

“Liv is gone!!”

You may not be interested, but I am human too, so I get hurt. I gave up this bitter taste at their celebration and lifted the basket of tomatoes. The little children got excited about continuing the meaningless quarrel without saying goodbye to me.

As I was walking home, moving my legs one step at a time, I heard a loud noise from behind. After arguing all of a sudden, the little children ran across in front of me laughing. I stood stunned for a moment and looked at the small retreating figures that were swiftly moving away.

“…I left 10 minutes earlier.”

This damned body. I let out a laugh and moved my legs slowly again.

When I got home, my body was soaked with sweat. While preparing dinner, Jack threw away the ladle he was holding and hurriedly took the tomato.

“Ten?! Why did you overdo it?”

I didn’t have the energy to answer Jack’s question. I flopped down on the sofa and drank some water. I was able to open my mouth only when my gasping breath calmed down.

“I feel like I worked out for a week.”

“Wash up and lie down. I’ll call you when dinner’s ready.”

Even if I saw Jack working all morning without resting, I wanted to say I’m fine, but I was so exhausted that I couldn’t even refuse politely.

“Thank you. Oh, did the laundry pile up? Leave that. I’ll do it tomorrow.”

“It doesn’t matter because Debra is going to do it after dinner.”

Jack patted my sweaty back. This kindness makes me smaller. I couldn’t hide my regret and smiled awkwardly.

When I finished taking a bath, I fell into a feeling of exhaustion as if I could fall asleep just by putting my head down. I squinted through my sleepy eyes and removed my sweat-soaked clothes. It seemed like an impossible thing to have Debra come up to my room and move the laundry where I can’t even do housework.

As I was going down the stairs to the first floor, Camian’s door suddenly caught my eye. Isn’t it time for him to do laundry too?

“Since I’m on my way, I’ll take it with me.”

As soon as I opened the door, I saw a neatly arranged bed. The urge to jump into that bed immediately rose. No, let’s be patient. First of all, I need to bring the laundry down. I stacked his pajamas hanging from the back of the chair on top of my clothes.

“Isn’t it time to wash?”

I put my nose in his clothes and sniffed it. Camian’s unique body scent subtly entered my senses. I mean, it smelled strangely good even when there’s no perfume on. A refreshing, cool scent resembling summer tickles me. As though it’s not enough that his face was like that, he’s trying to attract people even with his smell. I couldn’t get my nose off his clothes like I was addicted.

“What are you doing here?”

The resonant low-pitched sound made my body tremble. Camian was leaning against the open door. I looked back at him with my nose stuck in his clothes.

…Sh*t, this is mortifying.

Let’s be as natural as possible. I skillfully unburied my face from his clothes.

“Why didn’t you even knock?”

“This is my room.”

“…….”

I couldn’t immediately think of what to say, and I just clenched my mouth stupidly. Acting naturally is a stupid idea… Anyone who’d see me like this would think I’m a criminal caught red-handed.

Camian, who was looking at me languidly, moved forward in strides. Without realizing it, I took a small step backwards, but I couldn’t back away and grabbed my wrist.

“I was wondering where you went, but I didn’t know you’re here doing something perverted in my room.”

“Per—”

I was startled by the blatant remark. What do you mean perverted! Isn’t that too harsh? Even if I think about it objectively, it’s just that someone sneaks into your room while you’re away and sniffs the smell of clothes… Well okay, this is making me feel very dirty.

I shut my mouth and swallowed a gulp. Camian unbuttoned two of his shirt’s buttons and pulled out his arms from the sleeves.

“Come on. You can smell this while I’m letting you.”

He opened his clothes and I turned my head away from the approaching Camian.

“…I just smelled it to see if it was time for you to do laundry.”

“You were burying your face pretty passionately for just something like that.”

“… Can’t you just let this slide?”

Camian smiled and took the laundry from my arms.

“Instead, don’t sleep today.”

It wasn’t until his words went through my head that I realized what he meant. It’s already been a full moon. Day by day, time passed faster. It was also because it was the harvest season, and the rush of work made my sense of time go whack.

“Sit down. Are you going out again? Aren’t you here for dinner?”

“I’m going to eat at Aunt Rosalind’s house. My work there isn’t finished yet.”

“Then why did you stop by home?”

Camian lightly scratched his cheek with his fingertips.

“If I can rest for even a minute, it’s more comfortable to rest at home.”

And Camian was so busy but he still stopped by the house without even being able to sit down for once, and left right away.

I sat down on his bed and stared at the open door.

“I know that you came here because you wanted to see me. Jerk.”

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