Earning Affection, Earning Souls

“Have you said all you wanted to say?”

“I haven’t said everything yet.”

“Eek……!”

Unable to contain his anger, Leon took out his sharp claws.

He was about to pounce on Theodore at any moment.

He was already quick to anger as a beastkin, but he was even less able to contain his anger because he was still young.

However, Theodore sneered at Leon.

“Are you still not washed yet?”

“……!”

“……!”

Their bodies flinched at the soft voice echoing in the hallway.

Turning their heads at the same time with a creak, they saw Sian standing there with a puzzled expression.

“Sian-niim……!”

“Hmm?”

She had come because she was a little worried, but somehow the atmosphere was unusual.

But as soon as Leon saw Sian, he suddenly burst into tears.

Sian quickly approached Leon.

“What’s wrong?”

“Am I…… not Sian-nim’s disciple?”

“What?”

“…….”

Sian widened her eyes as she looked at Leon, who was saying something she hadn’t expected, and glanced at Theodore next to him.

Theodore was looking elsewhere, pretending not to know anything.

How on earth did these words come out?
Sian sighed.

“Ryuisa is Leon’s teacher, isn’t he?”

“But…….”

Beastkins only acknowledge and follow those who are stronger than them.

Leon, who had a natural animalistic sense, noticed who was stronger than him here without having to fight.

However, that didn’t mean that beastkins unconditionally followed only the strong.

Among them, they only accepted those they truly acknowledged into the group and revered them as teachers.

However, Leon was still young, so he didn’t have such strict standards for choosing a teacher.

Besides, maybe it was because he got along well with Ryuisa in terms of personality, but he was now calling him teacher without hesitation.

So she didn’t think Leon would want to become her disciple.

Sian wore a troubled expression.

“Why can’t I……?”

“Um…… it’s not that you can’t.”

“I want to be Sian-nim’s disciple too!”

“…….”

Leon, who had become fluent in Imperial language recently, was being stubborn.

Sian was sweating profusely at Leon’s unexpected persistence.

Should she just appease him and move on?

Leon was still young, so he might not place much meaning on the master-disciple relationship.

It seemed closer to him showing childish petulance because he felt deprived because she was only accepting Theodore as a disciple.

“……!”

“…….”

As Sian thought that and opened her mouth again, she met Theodore’s eyes, who had turned his head at the same time.

Theodore’s eyes were somehow tinged with bitterness.

Seeing that, past memories suddenly came to mind.

〈Then, am I…… Sian-nim’s only disciple?〉

〈That’s how it will be.〉

〈Forever?〉

〈That’s…….〉

When Theodore had asked that once, Sian had hesitated to answer for a moment.

But then she finally answered Theodore.

〈Yes, forever.
Theodore, you will be my only disciple.〉

〈……!〉

Sian didn’t understand why Theodore was so happy at those words at the time.

But she could understand now.

For Theodore, who hadn’t received proper education in the Kailos Empire, the existence of the “teacher,” which he had for the first time, must have been special.

That’s why he had a somewhat childish argument with Leon.

Sian, who had organized her thoughts, slowly opened her mouth.

“I can’t be Leon’s teacher, but I can be his instructor.”

“Instructor?”

“Yes.”

Sian smiled and nodded her head.

In a way, it might be a play on words, but even so, the teacher and the instructor were clearly different roles here.

In the fantasy world, the teacher was not simply a teacher who imparted knowledge and taught combat skills such as swordsmanship and magic.

They were truly an absolute existence beyond even parents.

That’s why master-disciple relationships were given so much meaning here.

On the other hand, the instructor literally played the role of teaching and helping the student with what they knew.

In this case, it was often based on monetary relationships, like in the modern society that Sian lived in, and of course, most people took teachers as a profession rather than masters.

Although Sian and Leon didn’t exchange money, and rather Sian was raising Leon, it was ambiguous to call her his teacher just because she taught him a little bit of writing.

For Leon, her role was probably a combination of instructor and guardian.
Sian nodded her head, coming to that conclusion.

“You can call me instructor now.”

“Instructor?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, Instructor!”

“Yes, yes.”

“Hehe.”

Fortunately, Leon, who didn’t distinguish the meaning greatly, was just excited and called Sian instructor.

This made her feel like she was a real school teacher.

Sian smiled, looking at the excited Leon.

“……?”

“…….”

Sian, who felt a strange gaze, turned her head and saw Theodore staring intently at Sian and Leon.

If he was a good at remembering things, Theodore would definitely remember the promise he had made with her.

She was a little worried that he might misunderstand that she had accepted Leon as a disciple.

But fortunately, Theodore’s expression wasn’t bad.

Rather, he seemed satisfied, as if he knew the difference between the teacher and the instructor well.

Perhaps Theodore was smart and understood everything.

Sian, who had a pleased face, stroked both Theodore and Leon.

“Then can you wash well and come down now?”

“Yes!”

“Come down quickly before the food gets cold.”

“Yes!”

Sian, who had been looking down at the two children who were answering with their mouths open like sparrows, confirmed that the children had entered the bathroom and turned her body.

“Such rumors are going around?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Hmm…….”

Sian couldn’t hide her bewilderment after hearing Carli’s report.

She had guessed that there would be a reason why the adventurers had flocked to the mountain, but it was all because of rumors.

Besides, it was a really ridiculous rumor.

“I kidnapped people?”

“To be exact, it’s that Sian-nim kidnapped people and cruelly experimented on them and killed them for fun…….”

“Wait, just wait a minute.”

Sian interrupted Carli, who was speaking seriously, and pressed down on her throbbing head with her hand.

She never thought that such rumors would spread because she had accepted the villagers.

She understood why the nosy adventurers had gathered and were trying to enter the mountain with bloodshot eyes.

‘Besides, the content of the rumor is the same as Drake’s reputation in the original story?’

However, in Drake’s case, it was the truth, not just a rumor.

The protagonist Theodore was not the only one who had been harmed by him.

Eventually, it was Theodore who succeeded in getting revenge, but there were countless others in the original story who had grudges against Drake and tried to defeat him.

But after Sian possessed the body, all the rumors disappeared.

This was because Sian, unlike Drake, had spent her years in seclusion in the mountains.

So she naturally knew that it would be a different development from the original story.

‘Can’t I escape from the original story’s force after all?’

Something keeps trying to give Theodore pain, and it’s turning her into the terrifying villain of the original story.

Sian guessed that this rumor was also no ordinary matter.

“Now that such rumors have spread, let’s just wipe those guys out this time.”

“I told you to calm down a bit.”

“Tch.”

Carli was still burning with violent will, and Sian’s head ached even more than before.

Carli, who didn’t know the original story, naturally didn’t realize the seriousness of the situation.

Only Sian, whose head was complicated with various problems, was groaning alone.

“What if we make the area around the mountain like a dungeon?”

“What?”

Then, Ryuisa, who had been quietly listening, opened his mouth.

Sian looked at him questioningly.

“Well, we can’t do anything about the rumors for the time being.

But I think we can use the adventurers who are flocking in now.”

“Hmm, tell me in detail.”

“Yes.”

Ryuisa, who had bitten into a bright red apple, smiled playfully.

And he began to explain skillfully.

The method he suggested was to turn the adventurers’ attention to something else.

Unlike the mercenaries who moved strictly for money, they had a sense of duty to protect the world, but even that was a rather shallow and duplicitous sense of duty.

Ryuisa, who had wandered around Outchamber, was accurately piercing through their psychology.

“If we put more monsters around the mountain and give them appropriate rewards, they’ll quickly forget the rumors.”

“Are…… adventurers really that simple?”

“Of course.”

“Hmm…….”

Unlike Sian, who was skeptical, Ryuisa was full of confidence.
Sian was increasingly tempted by his words.

“What if even more rumors spread and more adventurers flock in?”

“Well, wouldn’t it be better than more bad rumors spreading?”

“Hmph.”

In a word, it was to spread the rumor that it was a dungeon food spot, rather than the rumor of the evil dragon.

It seemed that the latter was definitely safer than the former.

“It’ll be okay if we adjust the number of monsters to lower the difficulty so that S-class adventurers don’t pay attention.”

“Indeed.”

Sian nodded at Ryuisa’s words.

If it was rumored to be as difficult and rewarding as a high-level dungeon, S-class adventurers might pay attention, so if she adjusted the difficulty and rewards to lure only small fries, it wouldn’t be a big threat to the mountain.

“I’ll have to place moderately strong monsters around the mountain.
And release some treasures as well.”

“That’s a good idea.”

“Hmph, to think that we have to waste Sian-nim’s time and treasures because of those human bastards.”

Carli clicked her tongue as if she didn’t like it, but she couldn’t come up with an idea as good as Ryuisa’s.

So in the end, the story was concluded with the decision to proceed according to his words.