Side Story: The Hired Servant of the Gods Seeks a Heroine for Him to be Healed
“CUT it out! What the heck is with this cat?! It keeps talking and is so creepy!” screamed the beautiful girl with blindingly shiny gold hair as she grabbed the white cat by the scruff of the neck and threw him out the window.
He twirled in midair, righting himself and landing without a sound on the roof. It was shocking how athletic cats were and how much their paw pads eliminated sound. If only his real body could be this full of energy.
The white cat with shining fur let out a little sigh. “Another failure… When will I find a heroine?” he murmured, lifting a fuzzy forepaw to touch the ring hanging from his neck.
The ring glowed, and he disappeared from the rooftop.
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🐈 🐈 🐈
EDMUND Zelati was born with a weak body. He wasn’t ill, but his health failed him at the slightest provocation. Seasons changing, weather changing obviously, and, when he was at his worst, even eating chilled food was enough to render him bedridden.
His body was well-developed, and it wasn’t as if he lacked physical strength. He wasn’t even that bad an athlete. It was just that no matter what he did, his body would give out on him.
If it were an illness, he might have been able to take some medicine or receive medical treatment for it, but since his body was just weak, his only option was to make sure he ate nutritious food and kept slowly training his body up to health.
Edmund was Duke Zelati’s second son. His older brother doted on him to the point that you could even say he spoiled him. The moment Edmund showed the slightest fever, his brother would push him into bed. He would regularly visit and watch over Edmund as he rested.
Edmund wished he would stop—he wasn’t a child anymore—but his brother seemed to see him as a little brother forever needing protection.
Even Edmund’s coloration was terrible. White hair, blue and gold eyes. A single look at that color combination would tell anyone how weak his body was. He’d even once tried to dye his hair black, but he reacted badly to the dye. He gave up that idea, considering how traumatized he was by the event.
He couldn’t do anything about his eyes, but he grew his bangs long in a sad attempt to fight back by hiding the mismatched colors.
And, when he was starting to get fed up with the vicious cycle of trying to train his body to better health only to destroy his constitution, it came.
He immediately knew he was dreaming.
In front of him was a stuffed animal of a well-known character from a long-running television program that a child couldn’t escape from even if they tried.
The moment Edmund saw this hero with his sweet-bean-jelly motifs, he knew he was one of those reincarnated from another world.
“…If I were reincarnated, I would at least want a healthy body,” he muttered. “Health is usually the bare minimum for those sorts of things with some other blessing on top of that.”
It’s not like he wasn’t blessed with looks and status, but he couldn’t very well do anything with a body as weak as his, could he?
“Well then, want me to restore your constitution?” asked the stuffed animal.
Edmund looked at him. Bean Jelly Man looked back.
They stared at each other in silence for a while.
Edmund sighed. “How absurd, hearing fanciful wishes in a dream. I’m going to sleep. Deep, deep sleep.”
“Wait, listen to me! It’s not a bad deal. A bargain, in fact. I’m begging you, just listen to what I have to say.” Bean Jelly Man came over to Edmund, groveling so much it was hard to imagine him a hero despite striking a winning pose with one fist raised.
“I’m pretty sure I didn’t like sweat bean jelly in my previous life,” commented Edmund. “I can’t trust someone who would terrorize passersby by forcing them to eat that jelly.”
“What? You prefer soft sweat bean jelly? Oh well, guess I have no choice. Hang on a sec.” Bean Jelly Man’s dark, reddish face jiggled and turned a bit more transparent. He planted his fists on his hips as if to say, “How ’bout that?”
Edmund closed his eyes and decided to go to sleep.
“Wait, wait, wait,” exclaimed Bean Jelly Man. “You might be so stupid you don’t understand the incredibleness of sweet bean jelly, but I can’t be getting my priorities mixed up. I’ll fix your constitution if you agree to a contract with me.”
“I have no idea what you’re on about, and I don’t trust you,” Edmund replied sharply, and the stuffed toy’s shoulders slumped.
“Is that where we need to start? All right. Tomorrow it’s going to rain. Go out in the rain and get wet. I’ll make it so your body doesn’t give out even if you do. Call it a trial run. A special offer, just for you,” beseeched the toy, his juicy jelly head jiggling around as he did.
The next thing Edmund knew, it was morning. He felt like he hadn’t slept much, most likely due to his strange dream. He looked out the window to a clear blue sky, not a cloud in sight. It definitely didn’t look like it was going to rain.
“…What an odd dream.”
His poor constitution must be such a big problem in his subconscious that he dreamed up something as ridiculous as a Bean Jelly Man who would heal it.
The commotion did make him remember he had once lived a past life, but the memories were so hazy that he didn’t think they’d be good for any specific use.
His shoulders slumped, knowing the whole thing only resulted in him losing a night’s sleep.
Sometime after that, rain fell. He happened to get soaked and, surprisingly, did not develop a fever from it.
For any normal person, that could all be chalked up to coincidence, but Edmund knew his body.
There was absolutely no way he could get soaked like that and not develop something, not even a fever.