Chapter 27 - Deep Slumber

“What did you just say?” he asked with a stern voice. When he looked at me angrily, I frowned.

“I don’t know why you’re upset when you’re in the wrong.”

As soon as I finished speaking, he spoke with an icy voice. “Speak to me politely.” 

I didn’t understand why he wanted me to do this. It didn’t help that I was getting more and more sleepy, but I managed to keep my eyes open. 

“If you want me to talk to you politely, you should have…” I tried to snap back at him but ended up yawning before I could finish my sentence. My embarrassment roused my senses, making me forget my sleepiness for a moment. 

‘Oh, I just showed an unseemly sight,’ I thought.

The man suddenly removed his sword from my neck and continued staring at me. “What are you doing?” he asked.

I probably looked ugly when I yawned, but he was looking at me as if he had seen something very strange. In order to avoid upsetting him again, I decided to speak very politely, as if I were a preschool teacher soothing a whining child. 

“I haven’t been able to sleep because of you, so I’m tired. Don’t you have to go back home as well?” 

The man continued to stare at me silently, so I wondered if he was going to ignore my question again. Then he said, “I don’t have a home.”

I looked at him with surprise. His physical appearance was so refined that he could’ve passed off as a prince. ‘Well, I guess that’s a bit of a stretch.’ 

Due to the appearance-based nature of aristocratic society, it was unheard of to go outside without wearing luxurious clothes. The man in front of me was only wearing a simple white shirt and black pants. Although he carried a long sword instead of a claymore today, it was unpolished. He seemed more like a wandering swordsman or mercenary than a knight or prince. 

‘He was also wearing a hooded cloak before.’ Considering his current and previous attire, he was…

“Are you a wanderer?” 

He nodded with an unpleasant expression. 

‘I was right. He must be a wandering swordsman or mercenary who usually frequents inns. Judging by his simple clothes and lack of belongings… he was probably kicked out because he couldn’t pay. I guess he came here because he has nowhere else to go, but why today of all days…’

Now that I thought about it, he didn’t receive an official welcome when he visited my father a few days ago. The servants didn’t attend to him either, so he probably wasn’t an official guest. ‘That’s probably why he didn’t come through the front door but through my window instead.’

I sighed and felt displeased by my father’s absence at a time like this. ‘I guess it can’t be helped.’ Although I wasn’t a nice person by nature, I wasn’t so coldhearted as to ignore someone who didn’t have a home to go back to. After renting so many one-bedroom apartments in my past life, I knew how sad it was to not have a permanent home. I looked at him pitifully.

“If you don’t have a place to go tonight, you can stay in my room for a while.” 

“What?” He stared at me with widened eyes. His expression made me feel a little proud for some reason. 

“You don’t have to thank me. Just pay me back when you become successful in the future.”

He continued to stare at me with confusion. I guess this was expected because not many people would show this degree of kindness. 

“I’m going to go back to sleep,” I said, content that the situation was sorted out. “You should go to sleep too. Okay?”

I lied back down, but suddenly felt a gust of cold air through the open window. “Hey, could you close the window?” I asked him.

“Why should I?” he responded arrogantly to my request and looked down at me with folded arms. 

‘What did my father even teach him? Obviously not manners.’

When I sat up on my bed again, I noticed his thin clothes. ‘He’s troublesome… but it can’t be helped.’ I closed the window and brought a blanket over to him. He was still standing with an arrogant posture.

“It gets cold at night because we’re in-between seasons,” I reminded him.

He stared at me without accepting the blanket. ‘Seriously? He can’t even do this on his own…’ I felt like I was caring for a pet. Although I wanted to say something, I didn’t even have the energy to argue with him anymore. I stood on my tippy toes and placed the blanket over his shoulders. His red eyes stared at me as if to ask what I was doing, but I didn’t have the energy to explain myself. 

“Good night.” I immediately fell asleep after saying those words. 

* * *

‘She really fell asleep.’ Max furrowed his eyebrows and gazed at the woman in front of him. ‘What kind of person is she?’ 

He had met many people in his life, but no one had treated him like this. They either trembled in fear or tried to hide their fear behind words of flattery. Their fear was the only thing they shared in common. However, his master’s daughter wasn’t like either of those things. He recalled the first time they met.