What You Must Eat on a Rainy Day (59)

Swoosh.

The rain was coming down with such force that it was as though a hole had been punched in the sky.

If I took a bar of soap outside, I could shower right away.

“I think we’ll have to put off sightseeing in the capital.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

It hadn’t been canceled.

It had merely been postponed until tomorrow or the day after.

Even so, I was rather disappointed that we couldn’t go sightseeing today.

Food always tastes best when you eat it right when you’re craving it, doesn’t it?

It was more or less the same sort of thing.

“Sigh, I’ll go rest in my room for a while.”

“Hmm… All right.”

Leaving Heter and Ruby behind, I returned to my room and threw myself onto the bed.

“Is it because of the weather? I feel gloomy too.”

I muttered while gazing at the rain pouring outside the window.

It was strange.

In my previous life, I had definitely liked the damp air unique to rainy days, the dark skies, and the patter of rain.

Then again, I had gone from liking women to liking men, so I suppose my preferences in weather could change too.

‘I’m bored.’

I had brought some work with me, but I had already taken care of most of it before coming to the capital.

There would be enough time to finish what remained in the carriage on the way back to Fortune.

I now understood why the women in this world took up knitting or embroidery, played musical instruments, and so on.

Otherwise, they must have had an excess of free time.

“Ugh… This isn’t the time for this. I have so much to do.”

I needed to think about the next products to release, and come up with things like board games.

After somehow dragging my motivation up from the floor, I picked up paper and pen and sat down in a chair—

Knock, knock, knock.

Someone knocked on my door.

It was a heavy, steady sound rather than a light one.

“Heter?”

“Yes, may I come in?”

What was up? Had he also been disappointed that he couldn’t go sightseeing because of the rain?

Then again, Heter must have been looking forward to walking around with me too.

Because Heter liked me!

“Yeah, come in.”

My gloomy mood flipped from one side to the other like a coin, and I let Heter into the room.

“But what brings you here?”

I could guess why, but I asked out of courtesy.

‘Talking is going to get a little boring… Is there anything the two of us can do for fun?’

“I came to check on the condition of your ankle, my lady.”

“Hmm.”

From now on, I should stop making a fuss over nothing.

“My ankle is fine, so why all of a sudden?”

“You seemed to twist it after yesterday’s shoot, and your gait looked strange when you returned to your room a little while ago. Just a moment.”

Then, just as he was reaching for my ankle—

“Wait!”

“?”

I hurriedly pulled my foot away from him.

“Why are you doing that?”

“No, I really think I’m fine.”

“I’m glad to hear that, but just in case, let me check it once….”

“Tsk!”

I even pulled my leg up onto the chair, thoroughly avoiding his touch.

“No, seriously, why are you doing this?”

Heter looked at me in bewilderment.

‘Is this guy really asking because he doesn’t know?’

He was usually so perceptive, so why did he become so oblivious only when he was worried about me?

“Well….”

Obviously, it was because I was worried it might smell.

Of course, I had washed, but what if I held out my foot and even the slightest displeasure crossed Heter’s face?

I thought that was something anyone would be embarrassed about.

“Anyway, if there’s something wrong with my ankle, I’ll handle it myself, so don’t worry.”

“Excuse me.”

“Ow?!”

But Heter suddenly hugged me from behind while I sat hunched up on the chair, then lifted me straight up.

“What are you doing?! This violates the contract!”

“I’m doing this because I’m concerned about your injury, so please let it slide this time.”

He then carefully lowered me onto the bed and began examining my ankle, holding it in his hands.

“No, I told you I’m really fine. Why are you suddenly being so rough….”

Throb.

“Ow?!”

“As I thought.”

‘What is this?’

I had been certain I was fine, but the moment Heter touched my ankle, a throbbing pain ran up my leg.

“It seems to be a mild sprain. You’ve been fine until now because you haven’t overexerted it, but if you had gone sightseeing as planned, it might have worsened.”

“Really?”

Heter nodded in response to my question.

As a knight, Heter surely knew more about injuries than I did.

Come to think of it, should I be grateful to the rain?

“This is an herb that reduces swelling. It’s good for mild sprains.”

Heter took out a green clump of weeds (at least, that was all it looked like to me) and some bandages, then began finely chopping the herb.

“If we apply this, it should be better in about a day.”

“…Thank you.”

“You’re very welcome. It’ll be mine someday, after all.”

“Ha.”

His words made me laugh, but on second thought, it seemed there wasn’t much time left.

When we get back this time, I’ll sign over ownership of my arm, and after that, it will be my foot.

‘Come to think of it, the order is a little strange.’

If we were following the natural progression, wouldn’t it make more sense to start with the arms, then move on to the torso and legs?

Was there any reason the legs had to come after the arms?

“I’m finished.”

“Heter, according to the contract, the section after the arms starts from the ends of the legs, right? Is there a reason for that?”

“Because I thought the torso was the most valuable part of the body.”

When I asked Heter, who had neatly tied the bandage, the answer came immediately.

“The most valuable?”

“Yes. A person can survive without an arm or a leg, but the moment even part of the torso is lost, their life is in grave danger.”

“Oh….”

It was a fairly convincing argument. As he said, damage to the internal organs would be more deadly than an injury to an arm or leg.

But… an immediate answer, and a fairly logical explanation.

I could tell that he had put considerable thought into the contract between us.

“When did you start thinking about the terms of the contract?”

Unless I was mistaken, he had been thinking about something like this for a long time.

I wondered who he would have proposed such a contract to if not me.

“…That’s a little difficult to talk about.”

Well, I could understand his reaction, since it was a contract to own a woman.

‘But that only makes me more curious.’

The spare time I had because we couldn’t go outside was probably part of the reason I was curious.

“I’m one of the parties to the contract too. Can’t you tell me?”

“I’m sorry. In that case, the treatment is finished, so I’ll be going….”

“Oh, wait!”

It felt wrong to just let him leave like this.

More than wanting to hear the reason, I simply didn’t want to lose my conversational companion.

I was so bored on my own.

So, just as I was wondering how to keep him from leaving—

Swoosh….

‘Oh.’

The rain was still pouring down heavily outside, and it caught my eye.

Come to think of it, in my previous life there had been a dish I absolutely had to eat on days like this.

“Heter, could you call Ruby?”

“Ah, now that I think of it, I forgot to tell you.”

Heter, who had been about to leave, looked as if he had just remembered something.

“Ruby went outside to watch the rain, so she probably isn’t at the inn.”

“No, seriously?”

Heter nodded as if to confirm that it was true.

Heter had no reason to lie about something like this, so it must have been true.

‘How could she, a maid in name, leave her master behind to go watch the rain?’

It wasn’t as though this was her first time seeing rain… Ah, Ruby had never left Fortune, so it really was her first time seeing it.

“Hmm….”

Ruby was a curious girl, so I could understand her taking an interest in the rain.

But that was beside the point; it remained an undeniable fact that she had abandoned her master.

‘This time, I really need to scold her until she cries….’

“So please tell me if you need anything. She went out because I told her I would attend to you in her place.”

“Really?”

If she had made sure to find a replacement before going out, I suppose it was fine.

I wrote something down on a piece of paper and handed it to Heter.

“Could you go to the inn’s kitchen, check whether they have these ingredients, and ask whether I can use the kitchen for a while?”

“Understood.”

Heter left the room with the note.

***

“Flour, bacon, eggs, and wine. And finally, chives…?”

On the way to the kitchen with Heter, who had obtained permission, he muttered the ingredients I had written down with a puzzled expression.

“What on earth are you planning to make with these?”

“It’s something like that.”

Bacon and chives—ingredients that, in Korean terms, could be considered pork belly and scallions.

“There’s a dish called pajeon that you absolutely have to eat on rainy days.”

“Pa…jeon?”

Of course, to make it properly, we would need seafood such as squid or shrimp, but going out of my way to find some in weather like this would be a bit much.

‘It would have gone better with makgeolli than wine.’

This wasn’t even the Eastern Continent, so how could I possibly find makgeolli?

‘Come to think of it, is this the first time?’

It would be the first time I had drunk real liquor with Heter, rather than wine diluted with water.

“Hehehe.”

I wonder how much Heter can hold.

I really want to find out.