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Chapter 35
Nana glared at the cow in front of her with a sulky expression.
<Manager Kim kicked the approaching zombie. The zombie takes damage and disappears.>
As always, she had enlisted the zombies to test the cheese-making machine.
Since Manager Kim’s feed had always been provided by zombies, she assumed milking would be no different.
But it took less than three seconds for her to realize just how wrong that assumption was.
SSS-grade dairy cow Kim truly lived up to his SSS rating—his kicks were absolutely top-tier.
He literally sent the two zombies that had tried to milk him straight to their maker with a single kick.
“Hey, Manager Kim, hey! Are you going to keep doing this?”
As his name suggested, Kim really did have that obnoxious look Nana remembered from Manager Kim in the modern era: a scornful “hmph” as he turned his head.
Nana furrowed her brows.
“All right, fine. But you—”
She glared at him again.
“You even tried to kick the passing Tanbang, didn’t you? No matter how SSS-grade you are, that’s not acceptable!”
What could that small, cute little creature possibly do to get kicked?!
Just then, an alert popped up in the message window as if in response.
Ding!
<Although SSS-grade Daily Milk Cows are animals, they are treated equivalently to spirits due to their grade.
They do not allow anyone not recognized by them to approach.>
In short, unless Nana—the one chosen by the World Tree—was present, no one could get near.
Nana sighed deeply and perched herself on a chair.
To think that she, of all people, was destined to milk a cow herself just to make a single cheese.
If this were a story with a guide character or a romantic fantasy male lead, it might have been a charming scenario—but in reality, it was a haughty, ill-tempered dairy cow.
At this point, it was hard to tell whether being chosen by the World Tree was a blessing or a curse.
“I want to help too…”
“No, it’s fine. Ishanka, all you need to do is hold Tanbang right there.”
Ishanka was clutching Tanbang tightly, a little apart from the cow.
From afar, it looked like a heartwarming scene of someone holding a cat close, but in truth, he was restraining Tanbang from lunging at the cow.
Ishanka glanced down at Tanbang, and just by looking at his fierce expression, he could tell exactly what the little one wanted to say:
‘You jerk! You saw it too, didn’t you?! That ugly cow came at me first and tried to kick me! So why are you stopping me?! Let go! I’ll leave scratches on that face for sure!’
Ishanka naturally ignored the desperate, pleading gaze of his own kin.
Meanwhile, Nana, milking the cow, felt uneasy.
Ding!
<Milking combo hit! Use your technical skills to skillfully manipulate Manager Kim’s udder!>
<Manager Kim is pleased with your handwork. Your milking skill is excellent. Manager Kim is impressed. A modest amount of experience is granted to Adrien Logitton for improving Manager Kim’s mood.>
If anyone saw this, it could be easily misinterpreted. Nana felt tormented. She was simply milking the cow, yet her mind was under assault.
And then there was the name: Manager Kim. It made it feel like she was teasing him on purpose. No! She didn’t even want to imagine it!
She clutched her head and shook it. The elders’ words about carefully choosing names resonated painfully—she had no choice but to deal with the disaster she had inadvertently summoned.
After what felt like an eternity, she poured today’s milk into the metal container, sealed it, and stored it in her inventory.
Bang!
The barn door burst open as someone rushed in.
“Hey…!”
Sam gasped for breath as he ran toward Nana. When he saw Ishanka sitting beside her, he flinched as if struck by lightning.
“Nana… Drien… no… Miss Nana… no, Adrien…”
“Are you hurt? Why the nonsense as soon as you arrived?”
If he were hurt, a quest notification might appear.
Nana reflexively checked the system window, but no alert popped up.
“No, no, it’s not that. Hey, did you know?!”
“Know what?”
“That man over there….”
Sam struggled not to look at Ishanka as he shouted toward Nana.
“He’s… a foreigner!”
For a moment, the protest fell silent.
Sam’s face carried the solemnity of revealing the truth, and Ishanka looked shocked that such words had come from Sam’s mouth.
Amid the tense silence, Sam broke it first.
“Damn it. I’ve been living with a barbarian this whole time, and it’s disgusting! If I had stayed ignorant, maybe while I was sleeping he’d have cut me open and eaten my insides!”
His pale face was a mixture of emotions, but the unmistakable ones were fear, contempt, and disgust.
After a long pause, Nana slowly opened her mouth.
“…That makes no sense.”
“Yeah, it really doesn’t. How can a barbarian just enter the kingdom so confidently….”
“There are actual idiots who practice racism.”
“What? Idiots? Racism? Wait, what do you mean…”
“If it’s not racism, then why speak like that about Ishanka… no, about foreigners? I can’t claim to be free of prejudice, but at least what I saw with my own eyes, I believe. From what I’ve observed at this farm, Ishanka was not the filthy barbarian you claim. And you must know that too, right?”
He couldn’t deny Nana’s words. Sam had also lived on the farm and received Ishanka’s help.
Sometimes with a wary glance, but that was irrelevant. He also understood logically that Ishanka was nothing like the barbarian he had accused him of being.
But Sam had been taught for half his life that foreigners were threats to the kingdom—dirty, uncivilized barbarians.
Ideas ingrained over decades were hard to remove. To deny them felt like invalidating everything he had learned.
For this reason, Sam’s words were ultimately a denial of reality to protect his own pride.
“…Still, foreigners are barbarians. They could stab you in your throat and eat your insides anytime.”
“To me, the one saying that now looks more like the barbarian.”
“What?!”
“People who fail to recognize their own prejudices are the scariest barbarians.”
“What? What did you say? Ha, you’re so infatuated with a barbarian you’ve completely lost your mind?”
“You’ve lost your mind to prejudice. If it bothers you so much, leave. I’m the owner of this farm.”
“Fine, I’m leaving! Did you think I couldn’t leave?! I don’t want to see dirty barbarians or humans who side with them!”
Sam roughly reopened the barn door and stormed out.
“Let’s go, Ishanka.”
Nana clicked her tongue at the ruckus Sam had made and started walking.
Ishanka, however, remained rooted in place, unable to follow Nana despite her casual demeanor.
Sam’s words didn’t surprise him; he had expected the truth to come out eventually.
That he was a foreigner—
A truth that anyone from the kingdom would be wary of.
So leaving the farm before being discovered was the most rational choice for both the employer and himself.
“Are you upset because of Sam’s nonsense just now? Wait a moment, I’ll bring him back…”
That was the most rational choice.
“Why is that?”
“Huh?”
Nana turned to look at him, confused by his rambling.
“Why don’t you see me the way they do?”
‘Filthy barbarian.’
The common derogatory term used by the kingdom’s people for foreigners.
For them, it wasn’t even an insult. If someone got upset over it, they would just mock them for being narrow-minded. It wasn’t even a complex.
Yet for some reason, Ishanka didn’t want to receive that kind of gaze from Nana.
He had unconsciously been hiding the fact that he was a foreigner, fearing her eyes might turn cold if she found out.
“Do you really have to discriminate? Is that what you want, Ishanka?”
Of course not. If he did, why would he hide it?
Nana studied Ishanka carefully and made a peculiar expression.
“The truth doesn’t always match what others say. That’s why I only believe what I see and hear myself.”
This was one of the pieces of wisdom she had acquired while living as Song Nana.
At school, in workplaces, among countless people, most of the rumors she had heard were distorted or exaggerated.
“What I saw of Ishanka is not the barbarian Sam described.”
Her voice was unwavering.
Her sky-blue eyes held nothing but Ishanka—no hypocrisy, no lies.
She didn’t see him as a barbarian, a devotee of God, or the king of foreigners.
Just Ishanka. To her, he was simply human Ishanka.
The moment Ishanka realized this with his whole being, a faint, gentle light began to fill the deep recesses of his heart.
It was a clear attraction toward her, and a first-ever desire—that only he be reflected in her clear, honest eyes.
A possessive desire.
