The tyrant Wants To Live Honestly Chapter 10

“Uncle is strong.”

 

“And it’s fast.”

 

Tutu made loud whoosh whoosh noises with his mouth as he flailed around.

 

‘Please. Enough. There’s a limit to how much I’m willing to humor you.’

 

I applauded and matched the tutu’s bravado.

 

Tutu got excited, came closer to me, sat down, and continued bluffing.

 

As I listened, I could see that his imagination was very good.

 

He met a bear in the forest and he won it with his bare hands, so the bear’s skin is hanging on the house.

 

Another time, he’d been buried in a landslide and dug himself out with his bare hands.

 

‘If that’s the case, why don’t you try writing a novel instead? If He had that kind of imagination, He would have been able to make a living.’

 

I thought in a series of mechanical exclamations.

 

Listening to his bluff was as hard as facing Carnan. But thanks to him, I got time to sneak a look around.

 

Unfortunately, there was nothing in my favor, such as weapons, exit locations, or the environment.

 

Having roughly grasped the situation, I did not need to listen to Tutu any further.

 

“Uncle…I am hungry.”

 

Tired of listening to Tutu’s bluffs, I interrupted his story as soon as I had time. If I listen more, my temper will come out.

 

Besides, my hands were shaking from hunger that had reached the limit.

 

“Oh! Our little girl is hungry!”

 

Already firmly on my side, Tutu went over to the man who’d been playing cards.

 

Sitting on a chair at an angle, fiddling with cards, he did not hide his displeasure.

 

“Danny, she is hungry.”

 

“So what?”

 

Danny stared at the tutu.

 

At a glance, it was obvious Danny ranked above Tutu.

 

“Well, it’s about time for us to eat too, and the kid’s been starving for days…”

 

Danny cast me a displeased look.

 

Still, perhaps it really was mealtime, because he ordered Tutu to bring out the food.

 

They cleared away the card table and began setting things up.

 

The food served was pretty good.

 

‘So they’re enjoying a feast while imagining the money they’ll get for kidnapping me.’

 

A whole roasted chicken, bread piled high with melted cheese.

 

Only after the smell of food stung my nose, the hunger I had been ignoring came back.

 

It had been a long time since I’d felt this severe hunger.

 

The kind that could make a person pathetic—bad enough to make you want to drop to your knees and beg for a scrap of bread.

 

I clamped my mouth shut. I had no intention of sinking to the level of begging kidnappers.

 

Tutu naturally grabbed me and sat me down in front of the table where the food was served.

 

“Why do you sit here? Go down.”

 

Danny looked at me with a stern look.

 

a firmness that does not allow me to share a table with him.

I hadn’t even tried to sit there myself, yet I was treated like a criminal—how very familiar.

The words Could you at least give me a piece of bread? rose all the way to my throat, sticky with desperation, before I swallowed them back down.

 

“But she’s just a kid—”

 

“Are you out of your mind? You think this is a picnic?”

Danny frowned sharply, and Tutu immediately shrank back.

I obediently climbed down from the chair. It was only a few steps, but my head spun anyway.

Three days without food? It felt like more than that.

 

“Tie her to the pillar.”

 

“She’s my niece—”

 

“Are you kidding me?”

 

Feeling frustrated with Tutu’s soft behavior, Danny stood up with a knife and came up to me.

 

He held a dagger about the length of an adult’s palm—right in front of my face.

 

“Kid, we brought you here to kill, we are not your uncle.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because seeing rich kids like you makes my guts twist.”

 

Danny grabbed me with his rough hands, dragged me across the floor, and threw me against a pillar.

 

Perhaps because of three days of starvation, my body fell into His hands very lightly.

 

I bit my teeth hard at the unpleasant treatment rather than pain.

 

Danny came with a rope and tied me to a pillar.

 

“Danny, that’s a bit too much…”

 

“We’re going to kill her anyway, what’s wrong with you? Or do you want to die first?”

 

Tutu shut his mouth as Danny threatened with a dagger in his hand.

 

Then as he was about to sit down at the table again, Danny jumped up like a frog.

 

“Ahh! shit!”

 

“Why, why, Danny!”

 

“Scorpion cub!”

 

Danny ran into the corner of the room.

 

I looked under the table and saw a scorpion I did not know where it came from, lying flat.

 

While showing off its shiny dark brown shell.

 

Tutu, who found it, also slowly retreated back.

 

‘ A scorpion.’

 

I thought of a place where a scorpion might come from.

 

There are no scorpions in the Capital of Lampas…

 

There was only one place to point out.

 

In the past, when we were at war with a neighboring country in the western desert, I remember suffering quite a bit from scorpions.

 

Soldiers were occasionally injured, and scorpions even made their way into my tent.

 

Eventually, we caught so many that we ended up holding scorpion-fighting matches.

 

When I see the air is dry and the sand is scattered on the floor, it must be right there.

 

‘Even if I run away, it will be difficult to return to the imperial palace.’

 

Even by carriage, it would take at least two full days.

 

It is quite far from the Lampas, and there are not many villages near the desert.

 

Even if I run away with my small body, I will quickly catch up with them and have no travel expenses.

 

First of all, I’m hungry and I don’t have the strength to run away.

 

“Tutu, catch that scorpion or throw it outside.”

 

“What if I am stung by a scorpion?”

 

While I was contemplating, the two of them were locked in a corner, trembling like fools.

 

‘I’m dying of hunger, but it’s very noisy.’

 

It’s not like people who aren’t aristocrats see a scorpion once or twice in their lives.

 

It was obvious that if we were stung by that little scorpion once in the desert, we would die without treatment.

 

We will die of poisoning before we even see a doctor.

 

“Damn it, this is why I hate deserts!”

 

I looked back and forth between the scorpion and the men.

 

Thankfully, the scorpion was lying flat, showing no sign of attacking.

 

‘I need to eat something first. Then I’ll think.’

 

My head was too dizzy to think more.

 

“Uncles, if I catch a scorpion, will you give me bread and milk?”

 

“Bread and milk?”

 

Tutu and Danny looked at each other.

 

“Can you really catch that scorpion?”

 

“If only I had two sticks.”

 

They were terrified of entrusting me with a crisis situation, but they couldn’t find any other solution.

 

In the end, they had no choice but to accept my conditions.

 

“Alright, If you catch a scorpion, I’ll give you something to eat.”

 

“Then at least untie this first.”

 

Get rid of this damn rope.

 

Then the tutu came close to the wall, sneaked up to me, and untied the rope.

 

The moment my hands were free, I grabbed the two gambling draw sticks I’d noticed earlier.

 

Then, holding it like tongs, I grabbed the tail of the scorpion that was on the floor and carefully lifted it up.

 

“I got it.”

 

I quietly picked up the scorpion and showed it to Danny.

 

“Get rid of it! Now!”

 

“Get rid of it where?”

 

There aren’t even any windows here.

 

What, should I shove it into your mouth?

 

“Kill it!”

 

I can’t kill it. Then how about you do it, Uncle?”

 

What did the scorpion ever do wrong?

 

The guilty ones are you.

 

“A j-jar! Put it in a jar! Our water jar!”

 

“Why the hell would you put a scorpion in the water jar, you idiot!”

 

While the two of them had a debate, the scorpion struggled with its claws wildly extended.

 

Poor thing.

 

“Uncle, look at the scorpion. It’s amazing!”

 

As I smiled coldly, their faces became paler.

 

Two shiny claws and a stoutly outstretched tail were truly menacing.

 

“I’m so hungry my hands are shaking. I think I might drop it.”

 

If I drop it and someone gets stung, that person’s done for today.

 

I thought maybe it would be a good idea to introduce a scorpion to the two of them.

 

Then Danny ran away from me, and opened the locked door.

 

“Leave it outside! If you throw it away, I will give you something to eat.”

 

A kidnapper willing to open the door to a kidnapped child.

 

A single scorpion was the key.

 

“You’ll give me food tomorrow too, right?”

 

“Yeah, yeah.”

 

“And the day after tomorrow?”

 

I lifted the scorpion as if making a toast.

Danny squeezed his eyes shut and shouted,

 

“Yes!”

 

Scorpion, the most beautiful creature in the world at this moment.

 

I left the room with the ecstatic scorpion.

 

The room led into a narrow, dark hallway. Then I realized why there are no windows here.

 

‘This is the basement.’

 

I made my way through the hallway and headed up the stairs.

 

‘Can’t I just go out with the scorpion and run to the village? but you don’t die just because you’ve gone three days without food…’

 

Turning these thoughts over and over in my head, I climbed the stairs and pushed open a closed wooden door.

 

Then a bright light poured down. A dry sand wind blew with the light.

 

I frowned for a moment at the light so bright that it was hard to open my eyes, but I slowly adjusted to the light and looked around.

‘This place is…’

And then I understood why they’d been so lax about guarding me.

What lay above the underground room was a ruined village in the wasteland near the desert.

Buried in sand, surrounded on all sides by endless wilderness with no clear direction to go.

 

The intense sun was shining directly overhead without a single shade, heating up the sand.

 

I’m lost for hope here.

 

With this body, it was clear that I was going to fall over there on the way to the hot horizon.

 

Which direction is the village? Where might there be people? Did anyone even know I was here?

 

I put the scorpion down in the dry bush.

 

Unlike me, who didn’t know where to go, the scorpion disappeared while circling the sand as if it knew the way it had to go.

 

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