「Please leave, cough! Cough!」

「Can you at least listen first?」

「This is my ancestral land. I’ll be the innkeeper till I die. I won’t sell it.」

「Don’t say that. Why don’t you sort things out and recuperate…」

「I’m dying. I have a mortal disease.」

It is true that this old man looked incredibly pale.

He also has blue and yellow spots on various parts of his body. He indeed looks like someone who’s about to die.

「Who told you that?」

「Doctor. Even if I don’t ask, it’s obvious! Cough! Cough!」

Ah, this could be our chance, right?

Master easily cured me, who was also deathly ill, so she should be able to cure this old man too. The payment will be…..

No, no, this is not something I, a slave, could decide. I can’t arrange a job for the master.

「Just leave……me, al…….」

Bang.

The old man collapsed with his face on the ground in front of me.

For a moment, my mind went blank.

Eh!

What should I do!

We’re still in the middle of negotiations!

This….everyone will think I killed him!!!

Even if I bring the nearest doctor here, no one would believe a slave once this old man died…..

Worst case scenario, I’ll be turned to the authorities and hanged in the end!

I managed to run to the main street with my strengthless legs. I asked for the help of my friends who were running a store nearby and carried the old man to the headquarters.

There’s no permission from the other party but it can’t be helped, lives were at stake!

-0-

While waiting for master to return from the academy, I didn’t feel alive.

The old man’s complexion is grave. I can’t even tell if he’s breathing or not.

If the old man dies like this, I would have to….

If they think that I went to grab the land by killing the other party, I would be turned over to the Torquiva authorities.

I’ve just gotten a warm place to sleep.

I had made friends.

I had survived all this time!

As I sobbed in front of the old man, who I don’t know if he’ll even wake up, someone patted me on the head.

「He’s cured. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.」

It was master in his magic academy uniform.

The face of the old man, who looks dead, has already regained color.

Thank god…..but I still need to explain myself!

「Hiii……that………huuuu…..huhu……hiiiii……」

For some reason, I can’t even speak.

I have to explain my side.

A sense of hopelessness fills my heart.

I even started to feel difficulty in breathing.

Master just waved his hand and smiled.

「Don’t mind it. I heard what happened. You did the right thing.」

Hearing those words, tears stopped flowing but my nose started to run.

For some reason, I find it hard to breathe.

I feel dizzy and my eyes are spinning.

「Even if the old man didn’t make it, I still won’t sell you.」

I managed to blow my nose.

The funny thing is, tears started flowing again.

「Maybe you have a cold. Perhaps the coat I provided you is not enough to protect you from the cold.」

Master used his healing magic on me as well and walked toward Chicken-san.

I surrendered to my drowsiness and my consciousness fades away.

-0-

After that, there was a discussion with master, master’s father, and the old man. The old man decided to sell the land on the condition that we would build a house for him next to the cemetery.

The construction of the brewery has already started and is scheduled to be completed around summer.

In the end, I was not blamed and I continued to work as usual.

The only thing that has changed is that we’ve been provided with fur hats and mufflers.

They are made of the fur of herbivorous wolves. They are very warm and everyone likes them.

I put on my muffler, gloves, and socks in order not to catch a cold again.

-0-

Digression. It seems that the Schenker family was flooded with requests from nearby business owners to sell their land.

There was a rumor that in order to buy land, they will beat people half-dead and then heal them before negotiating….

That never happened!