At the End of the Hidden Greenery - Chapter 292
“…What?”
“Wait. Hold on.”
Confused murmurs spread throughout the room.
“People to accompany you on the trip…?”
“Weren’t we just supposed to choose whoever had the worst personality?”
“What?”
Jiwoo was even more bewildered by their reaction.
“Why are we suddenly talking about people with terrible personalities? Who, who here has a terrible personality?”
A quiet snicker came from the side.
Shaen was still bound tightly in vines, since they had decided to keep him restrained until the trip team was chosen.
He laughed because Jiwoo clearly had no idea which of her husbands had foul tempers, while the rest of her group looked equally blindsided now that they realized they had misunderstood the purpose of the vote.
“What a revolting bunch of hypocrites.”
Thump!
Narkreed, who was standing beside him as a guard, immediately struck the top of his head.
“Ah. So that was what happened.”
Reed clicked his tongue and shook out the fist he had just used. Lugarmel, standing beside him, laughed as he recalled how the vote had unfolded.
“Mm-hmm. I had a feeling this might happen…”
“…You expected it, Mel?”
“Mmm.”
With a sympathetic expression, Mel shook his head.
“This always happens when Helka is the one delivering a message.”
“Ah… Then we should probably invalidate the vote.”
Even if it had been a misunderstanding, this could easily lead to arguments. They had essentially been made to insult one another.
“Oh, there’s no need for that. It’s fine. When dealing with bastards like these, having a bit of a temper might actually help.”
Smack!
As Narkreed said bastards like these, he lightly struck the back of Shaen’s head again. Shaen’s head dipped from the blow, and a vein stood out on his forehead as he glared at Reed.
“…I’m going to kill you.”
“Reed, please stop provoking him.”
“What exactly is he going to do to me?”
“Darling, I’m curious about the result. Can’t we at least look at it?”
“Still…”
“Even if we change the decision later, don’t you want to know how everyone voted?”
No one paid any attention to Shaen grinding his teeth. Jiwoo glanced at him and broke into a nervous sweat.
‘It might be better to leave quickly.’
The longer he remained in the village, the more hostility he seemed to attract. Delaying things for another vote did not feel wise.
In the end, they waited for Helka to finish counting the ballots. Reed and Mel then made a simple results board from a small wooden panel and organized the votes.
There were fewer complaints than Jiwoo had expected.
Everyone had only been allowed one vote, and since they had been told it was Jiwoo’s request, they had apparently thought carefully before choosing. It had also been a secret ballot.
“If I’d known this was what it was for, I would’ve voted for someone else…”
However there were complaints of that sort.
“All right, it’s finished.”
Soon the entire result had been arranged on a single board.
“These received zero votes, and these results are too small to matter much.”
Lugarmel first separated the names of those who had received no votes at all. There were quite a few, since most of them had received zero. Beside that section were the names of those who had received one or two votes.
Marron and Night were the first to complain after seeing the results.
“This is strange. Was the vote rigged?”
“Why didn’t either of us receive a single vote?”
Marron: zero votes.
Night: zero votes.
Apparently, both had secretly taken pride in having difficult personalities.
“You two aren’t even close, you brats.”
Reed clicked his tongue.
Marron and Night had only recently separated from the tree, so they were still more selfish and feral than the others. It appeared the brothers had taken that into account.
“…That’s impossible.”
The voice belonged to Enci.
Enci had always wanted to accompany Jiwoo on at least one trip, yet he was rejected every time. It seemed he was less shocked that no one considered him ill-tempered than he was by the fact that he had failed to qualify for another trip.
“Why are we choosing people through a vote like this?”
“What kind of result is this?”
Tevon also looked puzzled.
“Why did I get two votes? Kim Enci, did you vote for me?”
“No.”
Hearing that exchange made Jiwoo wonder who the prickly Enci had actually chosen.
Tevon: two votes.
The two of them bickered constantly, yet apparently neither vote had come from Enci.
“Then was it me?”
“…”
Kaman asked Enci directly.
Enci could not deny it. Kaman seemed to understand immediately from the slight twitch of his ears.
“Kim Enci, you idiot. You do know this was a secret ballot, don’t you?”
“Who, who are you calling an idiot?”
Kaman: one vote.
Presumably cast by Enci.
“…”
Enci’s ears drooped even farther.
“Ah… Someone voted for me.”
When he discovered that Skiass had received one vote, his ears sank lower still.
Judging only by his face, Enci looked calm, rational, and intellectual, as though he were accepting the result without emotion. His ears, however, revealed that he was deeply sulking.
“Enci.”
Smiling, Jiwoo pulled him gently by the arm and rested her head against his shoulder.
“You have a good personality, so there’s nothing you can do about it. Bear with it.”
“Hng…”
This made one thing perfectly clear.
All of his brothers knew that Enci’s supposedly difficult personality was merely adorable. Unable to decide whether he should be pleased or offended, Enci only pushed out his lips.
Enci: zero votes.