Unknown Man

BELLE’s P.O.V

“My lady!”

Someone’s calling me, I tried to move my body but my back hurt instead.

This seems familiar. I tried to open my eyes and saw Jessa’s worried face. Oh, this definitely happened before.

“My lady, you’re awake!” She looks relieved to see me open my eyes, I’m relieved too Jessa. These days I always feel relieved when I open my eyes, maybe because I’m afraid that I’ll never open it again. Okay enough with the drama! But why am I lying like the first time I came here? I feel weak.

I tried to sit but May stopped me.

“You should rest my lady.” She said as she guided me to lie comfortably on the bed.

I look around, last time I remember we’re harvesting crops and… oh my gosh!

“Jessa, someone tries to kill me!” I shouted.

“I know my lady, thankfully Mr. Hendrick’s doing his patrol that he managed to save you.”

I look at her confused, “who is Mr. Hendrick?”

She looks confused- now we’re both confused.

“He’s the one who saved you, my lady.”

I can’t recall meeting another person except the one who has a sword and aims it at me.

“What are you talking about?” I asked her.

She sat beside me and said, “Mr. Hendrick is a mercenary that lives outside your land, he comes here once every week to exchange herbs for meat.”

“Oh, that’s why we have meat.” I’m always curious about where she's getting those meat. So that’s why.

“Don’t tell me you don't remember him?”

I tried to look into this body’s memory but I can’t remember this Mr.Hendrick. Who is that? Is he someone who’s important to me?

“I can’t remember him…”

She gasps.

“No way!” Wait, what’s with her reaction?

“-but maybe, I’ll remember if you tell me?”

I ask her to help me sit, my body’s still hurting but I can now manage to sit. Of Course with her help. She got me a glass of water and made me drink the medicine she made.

After a while she looked at me and said, “I’ll tell you my lady, we first met him when I planted the herbs for the first time… “

LATER that day, Jessa asks for a day off. She told me she needs to go to town to get us what we need for the upcoming winter.

I stay in bed the whole time because I feel like my body’s still in shock. That was the first time that someone pointed a sword or whatever to me, in short, that is the first time someone tried to kill me. Like what did I do wrong?

Come to think of it, the owner of this body seems to be poisoned that causes her to die. Why does someone want to kill me? Goodness!

As far as I know, I’ve been living here all the time and I haven’t even met my family. I don’t even have any friends nor enemies. It’s driving me crazy!

I spent a couple of hours thinking about that but nothing comes to my mind.

MONTH has passed and everything seems fine. The incident never happens again and the preparation for winter went well. Since it’s hard to go out when snow starts to pour, we took a lot of food and preserved them to last longer.

I helped her but since this body is weak, I need to rest like three times a day.

I also helped her by replacing the curtains with the one that’s much thicker.

“This is fluffy!” I told her as I hugged the curtain.

“Mr.Hendrick gave that to us last year.” She said without looking at me.

She’s now folding the dirty curtains as well as the dirty pillow cases.

“It seems like Mr.Hendrick is a good person.”

“Well, he really is a good person.”

“Do you like him?” I tease her.

She shrugged.

“What does that mean?”

“He’s not my type.” She said casually.

I laughed hard but she just shrugged again.

“Seems like you have your own standard!” I tease her again.

She looked at me and smiled.

“Of course my lady, you too, shouldn’t lower your standards.”

“Yes mother.” These days I’m calling her mother.

This started when one night I had a nightmare, when I woke up she’s the first one I saw then I called her mother.

She teased me at first but I called her that since then, she used to look disgusted every time I called her that before though.

It’s funny how I adjusted well in this world. Imagine waking up without going to school? It’s making me excited to wake up!

They don’t have electricity here but it’s called so you really didn’t need to use an electric fan or what. The scenery is also top notch so that you can stare at it all day without getting bored.

There are a lot of things you can do here, especially relaxing. I didn’t get the chance to relax before because of the pressure I had on my shoulders but now I can feel my soul being relaxed.

After we finished replacing the curtains, I helped her prepare our dinner. She cooks so well that you will forget who you are when you taste it.

I’m preparing the table when I heard something drop.

“What’s that?”

Don’t tell me it’s another murderer!

“That’s Mr.Hendrick.” May said casually.

What?

“He can come in anytime he wants?”

She looked at me with one eyebrow raised.

“I mean, yes?” She said in a sarcastic way.

“Why?” I don’t get it. Isn’t he a mercenary?

Instead of answering my question, she pointed at the door and went out the kitchen.

I followed her and we went straight to the main door.

“Is this really okay?” I asked her again.

“Yes my lady.”

I sigh. For someone like May to trust him, I hope he’s really a good person.

We reached the main door and May opened it widely.

A man with a huge figure welcomes my eyes. I can’t see him Clearly because of the darkness.

We’re standing a few inches apart but I can feel that he is dangerous but hot!

Gosh! What am I thinking even though I can’t clearly see his face!

“Welcome, how can we help you?” May’s the first one to talk.

The man didn’t answer, instead a few people started appearing from his back.

He’s with someone! Who are they?

The man seems to see my reaction.

“Good evening my lady, good evening May.” A baritone voice echoed the whole hallway.

Goosebumps started to fill my body. What’s with that voice, does he come from the underworld or something? It feels like he can even summon a monster that has been asleep for billions of years.

“May I ask you a favor, my lady?” He asks.

MAY let the man called Mr.Hendrick in, she didn’t even get my permission! Who’s the boss here really?

Mr.Hendrick has three accompaniments, they were introduced one by one a while ago at the front gate.

Now we’re heading to the kitchen, May invited them to eat before we talk about the favor he needs. Maybe I’m mistaken, maybe May is the real owner of this house, she just decides alone!

We reached the kitchen and May let the guest sit. The bag they’re carrying looks heavy and old. They also have a lot of pockets, I bet it’s full of sharp objects.

One of them who introduced himself as Josh seems playful.

“We’re really thankful that you let us eat with you my lady.” He said.

“It’s nothing, please feel at home in this humble home.” I replied smiling.

He looks kind.

“Please bear with the food.” I added.

“No, this is more than enough my lady!” He said happily as he started eating the curry stew May made. Of course I tell her how it should be made.

Josh seems to like the food. He keeps on talking about how he’s able to eat such delicious food he’s never eaten for almost a year. Well…

While Josh seems kind, the other two seem intimidating. The other guy named Bora never talked to us other than the man named Hendrick.

When you look at them, they’re all handsome. It’s just that they look dirty but if you clean them they’ll pass as the king's guard. Especially Mr.Hendrick, he looks like one of those idol rookies!

I was admiring his beauty when suddenly he raised his gaze and our eyes met. I automatically look in another direction. Gosh, it’s embarrassing!

DINNER went well, Josh and Bora helped clean the dishes while we went to the meeting room to talk about Mr.Hendrick’s request.

“What would you ask for a favor Mr.Hendrick?” May asks as soon as we sit down.

Mr.Hendrick looked at her.

“Our party is on their way to the capital but bandits appear near this village so we had to take care of them first.” He then looked straight into my eyes. Oh man… look at those beautiful eyes.

“I wonder if you’ll let us stay here-“

“Of course.” May said she didn’t even let Mr.Hendrick finish.

She decides herself again! Seriously? It makes me smile though. She’s really different, but why do I feel relieved that she agreed?

“Thank you lady May, but may I know my lady’s say about this?” He said, still looking intently at me.

How will I reject this beauty?

“S-Sure, why not.” I said then looked away.

Mr.Hendrick said thanks and gave us some meat they hunt in return.

Now that it’s settled that they’ll stay here, May gave them the guest room. It’s a little small and old but they’ll fit in it right? We don’t have another room to offer though, so they don;t have a choice if they don’t want to sleep on the sofa or outside.

The guest room is on the first floor while our room is on the second floor.

While on our way to our room, I ask May.

“Why did you accept them so easily? What if they do bad things to us when we’re sleeping?”

“My lady, I have known Mr.Hendrick ever since I took care of you.” That’s all that she said.

Is that enough to let a man stay here? It’s just the two of us here and we don’t really know them. Well, I hope Mr.Hendrick is really a good person.

I’VE BEEN awake ever since I entered my room.

I don’t know why but I can’t sleep tonight. There’s nothing to do so I decided to open the veranda and sightsee for a couple of minutes.

May advises that I should never open any doors or windows during night time because it’s really cold these nights and I might catch a cold, but I’ll just open it for a short time, it should be okay.

I wore my nightgown before coming to the veranda.

I look at the sky, this scene never disappoints me. It is calming, I remember that even before I was transmigrated here the night sky always makes me at ease, together with the stars.

My family from Earth suddenly enters my mind. How are they? Do they miss me? No, the question should be, do they still remember me?

After a few minutes, I decided to close the veranda door because it’s getting colder. I was about to close the door when I saw a figure of a man in the garden.

“Who’s that?”

I closed the door and grabbed my personal knife. Who is it this time?

I walked fast to catch that person. When I got to the garden, I saw the figure walking in a certain direction.

I followed him, and he went straight to the fountain. I knew a shortcut so I went there to catch that person in the easiest way.

I tried my best to make my movements silent, the figure I was following turned right, I had to walk faster to catch him so I did. I ready my knife but when I get to where he turns, he’s no longer there. I can’t see him anymore.

“Where did he go?!”

D*mnit. I’ve got a bad feeling about this, my instincts are telling me to turn around right now. I turned around to go back to my room but suddenly a hand covered my mouth. A second before, I was unable to move.