Chapter 4: The Demon’s Bargain

His heart pounded as if it would burst. He was actually running like mad to make it home by dinner.

Luti made a promise with a demon after coming down from under the Chunchu tree. He didn’t hook fingers like humans, but he gave his name as proof.

The small demon’s name was Sorotel. It meant fast-footed man, and his age… He said when he came to his senses he was already wandering the forest alone. By human age, he must have been well over a hundred.

Luti started running home. He hadn’t found a Landter, but that wasn’t the problem.

Ru would scold him if he found out, but Luti had secured a deal with the demon. That meant he could buy the prophecy book.

His heart raced. The thought of soon holding that book filled him with excitement, and he wanted to tell Ru.

Ru was generous about books. Unless it was the strange picture book the Yondo subordinates looked at, he would allow it.

And because Ru knew how much Luti loved books, Luti thought he would understand even if the demon deal came out.

Luti dashed toward home. When he crossed the fence where yellow flowers bloomed, he saw the cabin.

White cloths fluttered in the yard. That meant Ru wouldn’t leave the workshop all day tomorrow.

He would be too busy coating those white cloths with powder and drying them to notice time passing.

Luti loosened the bag tucked at his side and quickly entered the cabin.

“Ru!”

As soon as he opened the cabin door, the smell of fruit preserves filled the air. The wheat dough bought from Yondo must have finished baking, because a savory smell mixed in and made him hungry.

“You’re a little late today.”

“Yeah! I was looking for a Landter and went all the way near Swan’s hill.”

Swan was a blacksmith blind in one eye. He made weapons for the subordinates from Yondo and received flour and sugar in return.

“You should have greeted him.”

“I was going to, but he looked busy. I heard more subordinates came from Yondo?”

He hadn’t meant to listen. He’d gone nearby to get fresh water, but Swan’s expression hadn’t been good.

Swan had looked tired. He said so many people had come from Yondo that orders had increased, and he might need an assistant.

“Hmm, I wonder how long they’ll keep doing that.”

Ru stirred the fruit preserves with a worried look. The strong scent of apricot spread through the house.

Ru took a small bottle from a drawer.

“By ‘that,‘ you mean the war?”

Instead of answering, Ru dipped his fingers into the small bottle. He took out white powder with his thumb and index finger and put it into the fruit preserves.

“Because land is as important as salt.”

Salt was a precious ingredient. It was one of the precious things that couldn’t be found in the forest. They said it was treated as valuable in both Yondo Kingdom and Helter Kingdom.

Salt, sugar, flour. And human greed for land.

Luti didn’t yet know what human greed was. But judging by the way Ru muttered to himself, it had to be something very unpleasant.

“Why do they need land?”

“Because humans need land to live.”

“If they don’t have it, do they die?”

“They die. Just like we wouldn’t exist without the forest.”

Ru finished the fruit preserves with a stiff face. Several fully baked wheat dough pieces were placed on a plate, and dinner began.

Luti cut a wheat dough piece in half and spread fruit preserves on it. The sweet and salty fruit preserves tasted very good.

Ru was a gifted person and also a very good cook. There were people who came to eat his food.

Of course, Ru didn’t share his cooking with all of them. But there were some he took special care of.

He was especially generous with the subordinates from Yondo. The problem was that the Yondo subordinates were afraid of Ru.

“The subordinates have set up a big tent below Cloran Valley.”

“It’s the season. The seeds are just starting to swell underground.”

“But it isn’t raining.”

“It will rain soon. Clouds heavy with rain will arrive around the day after tomorrow.”

Luti stopped chewing his wheat dough and stared at Ru. The dwarf Ru asked, “Why?”

“Ru, you’re really amazing. How do you know everything?”

When he said it like that in admiration, Ru would laugh lightly and shrug. He’d say there was no need to bring up something so obvious, but inwardly he liked it.

“Because I was born in this forest.”

If you were born in the forest, you knew. It was a matter from the beginning. Ru’s father had been the same, and his grandfather too.

“But why don’t I know?”

For a moment, Luti’s face darkened. Whenever he said this, Ru’s face darkened too.

“Because you’re still young.”

“I’m thirteen too. I heard it from Aunt Debora. Imperial children leave the castle at thirteen to earn money.”

“They do work the lord gives them, get meals, and take responsibility for their living.”

“I’m not from a noble family, so I’d definitely work and earn money. If I left the forest and lived with you, I’d definitely be earning money.”

Debora was a woman who had fled into the forest with her son after being accused of being a thief.

She was good at drawing. She gathered materials from flowers and trees to make paintings and sold them.

Sometimes she painted portraits. Sometimes she painted things that happened in the forest and sold those too.

She was especially popular with Helter people. Her paintings were definitely different from the pictures in the picture books the Yondo subordinates looked at.

“But we live in the forest. You don’t have to earn money.”

“I’m going to earn it too. You know why I go around looking for places where Landters gather.”

That was because Luti was a boy. Boys instinctively sharpened their sense of survival. Eating and living.

When Ru grew old and could no longer work, Luti would have to feed Ru. Luti accepted that fact very naturally.

“I don’t care what people in the human world think about this forest. Thinking it’s a den of demons and criminals is just their prejudice.”

At the word prejudice, Ru looked surprised.

“You know words like that? What kind of stories are you hearing while wandering the forest…!”

“I learned it a year ago. How old do you think I am, Ru?”

He was annoyed and angry. Ru didn’t understand how old he was, how knowledgeable he was, or how much he wanted from the world.

Luti had made a contract with a swift-footed demon and climbed to the top of the Chunchu tree.

He was surely the first person in this forest to climb to the top of the Chunchu tree. Maybe he would be both the first and the last.

He was this amazing, so why did Ru still think he was a child?

“I know your age well. You’ve just turned thirteen.”

‘The child knows nothing. No, I hope he lives his whole life without knowing.’

‘I hope he never learns that he was born in Helter Kingdom, that he is a child born from the queen’s infidelity, or that his odd eye is considered a disgrace to the Helter family.’

‘I only want him to live freely in here, now that contact with the commander has been cut.’

“But we will live in this forest until we die. So don’t wonder about what happens outside.”

“You just need to inherit all my knowledge and skills and live as a gifted person of the forest.”

‘That would be enough. At least Ru could be sure that this forest wouldn’t threaten them.’

‘The child was loved by the forest, and as a result, he had grown up well. His body was smaller and weaker than others his age, but he would gradually grow.’

‘Ru fed him good herbs and constantly bought and brought quality salt and sugar, so soon he would have an adult’s body.’

“I want to leave the forest too.”

“You’re still young. When you grow as big as the Yondo subordinates, I’ll take you out myself.”

So for now, he should run around here and there and be loved by the forest.

Ru wanted him to recognize and learn the forest using what Ru taught him as knowledge.

Ru knew what complaints Luti had, but for now he had to pretend not to know.

“You don’t know me at all, Ru.”

Luti muttered gloomily. When his sulky face filled with gloom, Ru sighed and brought something.

When he held it out, Luti’s eyes went wide.

“It’s Grapes and Olive Trees.”

“Ru…”

“You wanted to read this book, didn’t you?”

Grapes and Olive Trees was the book he wanted to read most after the book of prophecies.

There were countless books in the study, but his greed for books had no end.

This book in particular was connected to a book called ‘The Sky Gardener, the Moon.’ It was the one he wanted to buy most after the prophecy book.

“All summer you read books about the sky, so now you’ve come down to the earth. Your interests spin round and round like a wheel.”

“I really wanted to read it!”

“I knew. I read ‘The Sky Gardener, the Moon’ twenty years ago too.”

Ru had read all the books in there. So he knew exactly which book Luti would want to read next.

“I lost it but found it again. Here, it’s yours.”

Luti jumped up and took the book. Whether it had really been lost and found again, it had the musty smell unique to books.

“Where did you find it?”

“Behind the storage room. You know I turned everything upside down from floor to ceiling looking for this, right?”

With those short limbs, he had found it anyway. He had flipped the floor over and climbed a ladder to search through the things covering the entire wall.

A book found among ceramics hundreds of years old and faded cloths. For the time being Luti would stay quiet and just read.

Besides, rain and wind were coming the day after tomorrow. He wouldn’t complain about not being able to go outside.

“Thanks! Ru! I’ll read it happily!”

Luti threw away his gloomy face as if it had never been there. Then he shoved a piece of wheat dough into his mouth and chewed with a smile.

📚 Also on NHV Novels

I’m not broken, you’re the one who seems broken, Fairy

InvincibleReverse PursuitRomance

Read Now →
Not interested