Nurturing the Hero to Avoid Death

translator: mii

editors: sleepchaser, ASplashofMusic

It’s just as Cheddar-san told me before. About how time will fly incredibly fast after graduating from school. Before I notice it, summer has already arrived, the heat of the sun so strong that it burns my skin.

After graduation, I left the church, which had taken care of me until then, and moved into the Cheddars’ ranch. Following that, I started working full-time for them.

My current tasks remain almost the same as before, when I was only a part-time ranch hand. As such, I had no particular problems in adjusting.

The only things that changed are the place where I return to sleep and the greater workload since I don’t need to attend school anymore.

One of the responsibilities that Cheddar-san entrusts to me is to load batches of the ranch’s dairy products, such as fresh milk and cheese, into the wagon early in the morning on weekdays and deliver them to our big customers.

They include the individuals, shops, farmers, and institutions that regularly buy from Cheddar-san in large quantities.

Cheddar-san also hired several part-timers to deliver dairy products to individual houses.

At the beginning, I completed the deliveries with Cheddar-san. But after two weeks of acclimating myself to all the procedures and destinations, I am entrusted to complete several deliveries to nearby locations on my own.

And among them is the kitchen of the lord’s residence.

Cheddar-san gives me the delivery list, laughter leaving his lips, then says, “This will ease your hectic schedule, right?” It seems like he has already taken my other job into consideration.

At this time, Cheddar-san is to travel to a slightly distant village to visit a timber factory and a plantation, as well as complete some deliveries around the town.

After I lug one large tin milk can into the refrigerator by the back of the kitchen, the butler, who came to check today’s delivery list, stops me.

This butler of the Owens always wears a gentle smile, but his movements still remain without fault in spite of his advanced age.

This old man is even the sole person to gain the acknowledgement of my stern seniors, who also work as escorts like me.

“Thank you for your hard work, Fram-sama. My apologies for disturbing you in the middle of your job, but Lian-sama had appointed me to deliver a message to you.”

“A message?”

“Yes. It’s ‘Please stop by before you return,'” says the butler, a friendly grin on his face.

“Got it. I’ll drop by once I’ve finished transporting today’s delivery to the kitchen.”

“Yes. Thank you very much.” The butler performs a perfect bow toward me before returning to the head chef’s side.

Whenever Lian wishes to contact me for some matter or business, the butler will inform me during my deliveries to the mansion.

However, the meeting place is always the private room of the lord’s son.

Although I’m Lian’s private escort, is it fine for someone like me to just casually enter such a room? I once asked the butler about that.

I’m glad for their trust in me, but even I don’t think I have done anything to warrant such great trust.

In response, the butler flashed me a flawless smile and said, “If Lian-sama is alright with that, then so are we.”

But his eyes held no laughter.

I could feel a silent pressure from his extremely dreadful gaze, as well as the message it screamed out: “You understand, yes? So don’t try anything weird on him, you brat.” His gaze seemed akin to silent restraints on me.

Cold sweat began flowing down my back.

Thus, I nodded obediently.

Before that moment, I understood very little about what my seniors meant when they told me, “Don’t go against him if you don’t want to suffer.”

…Well, let’s leave it at that for now.

The purpose of Lian’s meetings vary from time to time.

Most of my work as an escort is on Saturdays and Sundays, but at times, he will contact me for some small requests outside of those two days, such as lending him the sequel to a novel or magazine or handing me items to give to Cheddar-san and the kids.

…I’ve also done things of the same sort. I’ve called Lian for various reasons. Like requesting him to drop by the ranch on his way home since I have to return a book to him, or asking him whether he wants to see a newborn lamb.

In fact, we’ll be more efficient if we lump all the tasks together and finish them all in one sitting, but I don’t plan on telling him that.

Lian hasn’t spoken up about it either.

As such, the butler continues to call me like this during my deliveries, and I’ll stop by Lian’s room before returning to the ranch. Is this another thing that changed after graduation?

After transporting everything into the refrigerator in the kitchen, I climb up to the second floor of the mansion, stand in front of Lian’s room, and lightly knock on the door thrice.

I listen carefully for a response, but I hear nothing. Not even any small noise from inside the room.

I try knocking three more times, this time with stronger force.

This time, I finally hear something. “Yes…” says Lian with a slight slur.

Lian woke up after six knocks today, but there are rare times when he still doesn’t respond after twelve knocks.

In such cases, I’m allowed to enter the room without permission.

This is because Lian himself told me that if he doesn’t answer, that means he’s still fast asleep. So I should come in and wake him up.

…It’s not like I don’t understand the butler’s worry.

He’s just too defenseless.

This time, I may have to inform him a bit about his own fragile situation and the things he should do if he were to land in a crisis.

“…Who is it?”

“It’s me.”

“Ah… Yes, come in.”

Thus, I open the door and step into the room.

Lian’s room is filled with all sorts of things, like how it typically is.

It’s nothing like what one expects the room of an aristocrat’s son to look. At all.

My every visit here feels like I’m entering a small library. Or even a scholar’s research room.

Inside the room, which is honestly too spacious to be called a private room, stacks of books of varying topics can be seen everywhere. There are books about magic, research, and history, dictionaries, picture books, and a lot more. Among them are mountains of documents too.

Aside from this, paper and parchment, along with books, writing utensils, scales with various shapes and meters, letters and lists related to surgical procedures, and diagrams lay scattered on the sofas and low tables.

If Lian likes studying this much, he could’ve opted to attend the Royal Academy.

And yet he chooses to remain in the village.

When I asked for the reason before, he told me that it was because he could study anywhere.

That’s true, but…

Even now, I’m still incredibly uncertain as to what he plans or intends to achieve through his desperate studying.

No matter how many times I ask him, Lian only gives responses that I thought I understood but also didn’t such as “Well, I have my reasons. Lots of them,” “I want to learn and expand my knowledge.” And he never forgets to add unnecessary words at the end like “…unlike you.”

I walk further into the room, passing by the shelves and foldable partitions, the heights of which reached the ceiling, and avoiding all the things scattered around the room.

I’m called to this room at least once a week, so I’ve already had the layout perfectly memorized.

In the inner part of the room is Lian’s bedroom.

Situated there is a large bed with a canopy, its head toward the wall. And covering the entire surface of the bed is a blanket, green and beige with a cool tone.

I can see the morning rays stream through the thin curtains on the wall, illuminating the room and shining softly on the bed.

The rays also shine onto the owner of the room, who is dressed in silk sleepwear dyed navy blue, who is now sitting up and rubbing one of his eyes.

I approach the bed until I’m right beside it and pull the bedsheet to the side.

Lian lowers the hand from his eye and raises his head to look at me. His ice blue eyes, dazed as though he were still in dreamland, narrow, after which he flashes me an extremely soft smile.

“Alfred…” calls Lian with a slight lisp.

Lian’s silver hair is a mess of curls. Maybe because his sleepwear is a little too big for him. or because he’s just too thin, but one side of the collar has slipped down his shoulder.

Not only is his smiling expression so soft and cute, but the expanses of pale skin peeking out from his clothes and his languid aura, which is due to his recent rousing, are also very… coquettish.

As I draw closer to him, a soft, gentle fragrance, akin to that of a wildflower, enters my nostrils.

But if I were to lose to my instincts here and push him down or something, I can imagine Lian’s face flushing red and his anger burning like a raging fire. Then he’ll definitely grow wary of me. He won’t laugh around me anymore. It’s for that reason that I desperately press down the impulse back into the depths of my heart.

“…Good morning, Lian,” I say.

Alfred’s POV! Wahhh, it’s going to be fun! How he describes Lian makes me despair that we can’t get an official illustration of Lian-sama… (´• ᴗ •̥`✿)

Anyway…

It’s this translator’s birthday!!!!! ₓ ｡ 𐐪₍ᐢ. ̫ .⑅ᐢ₎𐑂↝

Fwahhh, I’m getting older~ …What? I should do something special to celebrate it with my readers…? I see, you’re right! Then NHAD will take a break next we– AH!? !?! (Дﾟ≡ﾟДﾟ) ?!! W-why are you all angry…? I was just joking, it’s only a joke!!!

By the way, I already celebrated it with my close friend last week~ We had to do it sooner because of this pandemic, but it was fun! (✿´ ꒳ ` ) I thought it would be awesome if both of us could finish 15 cm cake together, but turns out we were already full just by eating a piece of it wwwww

I also used the ad revenue I have saved for a year to buy a nice keyboard, so it’s a gift from the kind readers who are currently reading this chapter!!! Thank you so much~~~! I promise I will keep typing a lot this year! And maybe I’ll take a break at the end of the year because my back is hurting so much recently…

Please take care of me again in this long, long journey~ ♡҉٩(*´︶`*)۶҉

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