Chapter 7
Chapter 02
“Uncle, I think sister has been acting a bit strange lately.”
Kay spoke into Lucian’s ear.
It was too loud to be called a whisper and I heard everything, but I pretended not to know and tore off pieces of bread to eat.
Then Lucian answered Kay quite loudly, as if deliberately wanting me to hear.
“Isn’t she originally like that?”
Like that?
The nuance was strangely unpleasant, so I glared at Lucian. Then Lucian said cheekily.
“Miss, did you hear everything?”
“No.”
After briefly denying it, I put the piece of bread in my hand into my mouth.
Kay, thinking I really hadn’t heard, whispered to Lucian again.
“No, she’s been strange since uncle came…”
“I’m telling you she’s originally like that? She was a bit dense from the beginning too.”
“No! When I first met her, her eyes weren’t so vacant and hazy like that.”
After Kay finished speaking, both of them stared at me intently at the same time. Even without looking back, I could feel how hot their gazes were.
I tried my best to pretend I hadn’t heard or felt anything, but the two started talking again.
“She really does look like a fish…”
“Uncle, do fish eyes look like that?”
“I mean the ones they sell at the market.”
“Ah, I think I know what you mean!”
My appetite dropped at Kay’s agreement.
‘A fish…’
I put down the piece of bread I was holding and looked straight at the two of them.
When both of them made eye contact with me, they flinched in surprise and pretended to look elsewhere. They looked exactly alike, making them twice as annoying.
“You two, if you have something to say, say it directly.”
At my words, Lucian pointed at Kay.
“I don’t have anything, but our Kay seems to have something?”
“No! I don’t either! I absolutely didn’t say sister’s eyes look like a fish.”
“Hey, you can’t say things like that. That’s basically confessing you said it.”
“Uncle said it! Not me!”
I watched the two arguing with intensity in my eyes, then shifted my gaze back to my bowl. And I ran my hand down my face.
‘I really am a mess…’
This was all because of the hidden quest. I had found a method, but I couldn’t easily figure out how to execute it.
Maybe because I couldn’t sleep, I had no appetite. In the end, I got up holding my plate after barely eating a few bites and asked Kay.
“Kay, do you know where the leader is?”
As soon as I asked, Kay’s lips started to pout and she suddenly got angry.
“Again!! Again! Again!”
Startled by Kay’s loud voice, I blinked, and Kay started shooting at me as if she’d been waiting.
“Sister is really strange lately! Why do you keep looking for the leader when you never used to? This is the twentieth time! Why do you only look for the leader these days?”
I had been looking for Adrian frequently because of the quest, but was it that much…
I pretended not to know and acted coy.
“Did I… do that…?”
“Every time our eyes meet, it’s ‘leader, leader!’ You won’t play with me! I was wondering why you didn’t ask today!”
At Kay’s words, Lucian also agreed and looked at me.
“When I run into you, you only look for the leader too… Suspicious.”
Both of their eyes narrowed. I felt wronged by the two pairs of eyes looking at me suspiciously.
The method I had come up with to complete the hidden quest <Supporting Character’s Helper> was to make them recognize that I loved Adrian and therefore wanted to help them too.
‘Of course, even I think it’s an absurd idea…’
But thinking about it differently, what could be wrong with it? The genre of this place was romance fantasy.
Moreover, I had the effect of the achievement ‘Achieved 50 Stupid Words and Actions.’ An effect where people would accept whatever I did thinking ‘It’s Ashley, so she could do that.’
But what good were genre and effects if they supported me?
‘It’s hard to run into Adrian…’
We were clearly living in the same mansion, but the number of times I’d encountered him could be counted on one hand. Even more so since we didn’t eat meals together.
Thanks to that, I had to do all sorts of things.
I sat in front of Adrian’s room with Kay, insisted on bringing him meals, and even wandered the corridors hoping to run into him someday, only to get lost.
Thinking about it again, from Kay’s perspective, who had been watching this behavior from the side, it was reasonable for her to think it was strange.
I answered the two who were still looking at me with suspicious eyes in a way that wouldn’t arouse suspicion.
“I have something important to discuss with the leader.”
“Is it an important conversation?”
“Yes… A very important conversation as a hostage… I guess…?”
Kay slowly put away her sulky expression and asked me.
“Very important?”
“Yes.”
At my firm answer, Kay thought for a moment, then suddenly revealed Adrian’s whereabouts.
“The leader is in the prayer room right now.”
“Kay!”
Lucian, flustered by Kay revealing Adrian’s location without hesitation, shouted. Kay responded with a calm face.
“Uncle, what’s the big deal that you’re shouting? Noisy.”
“You…! Where is there someone who carelessly tells the leader’s location?”
“Sister isn’t someone who would hit the leader. Of course, even if she decided to, she couldn’t…”
“Still, it doesn’t hurt to be careful!”
He was right. What if I went looking for him and launched a surprise attack…
Of course, that would never happen even if I died and came back to life.
“Mean. Uncle is a completely bad person.”
“I am completely bad, you know?”
“Hmm… no. Not completely, just a little bit bad.”
Saying that, Kay stuffed the remaining bread into her mouth.
Lucian offered water saying she’d choke, but Kay shook her head, pushed her plate toward Lucian, and stood up abruptly.
“Ah ah.”
Kay’s pronunciation was all muffled with her mouth full of bread, but I could roughly understand.
“Shall we go?”
“Yeah!”
“Kay, you…!”
“Eah aou eh.”
“She says she’ll take you there.”
When I interpreted Kay’s words, Lucian looked at me with a surprised face and let out a big sigh.
“I don’t know either. I’ll allow it since you say you have something to discuss… But I don’t know anything if the leader gets angry.”
“I’ll take full responsibility for that!”
At my spirited answer, Lucian laughed helplessly.
Kay took me to the front of the prayer room and then ran off saying she had to help with kitchen work. She probably ran away because she was afraid of getting scolded by Adrian.
After Kay left, I looked at the door of the prayer room.
Unlike its grand name of “prayer room,” it was a door like any other room.
Because of that name, even though it was the same door, I felt strangely nervous, took a short deep breath, and knocked on the door. Then I immediately heard an answer telling me to come in.
When I opened the door to the prayer room, an empty room came into view. Dim light was coming in through the curtains.
And in front of the window, I saw Adrian standing in the darkness, looking out the window.
“Lady Ort, what brings you here?”
Adrian asked calmly, as if he had expected me to come, so I blurted out the excuse I had thought of before coming.
“I heard you were praying… I wanted to do it too.”
Adrian slowly turned around. Eyes like calm winter waves looked straight at me.
Those eyes were deep and quiet, as if they would immediately grasp all my inner thoughts.
“There’s nothing here. I called it a prayer room, but I just named it that casually for convenience. It wasn’t particularly made for praying, so it would be fine if it wasn’t necessarily here.”
I knew he would answer like this. I couldn’t not know that he extremely disliked me approaching. As expected, he didn’t give me an opening today either.
I had no choice. I had to throw a fastball.
“I just wanted to be with you, leader.”
Adrian silently turned his gaze to the window.
I approached Adrian. Worried that if I got too close he might distance himself, I carefully stood a few steps away and asked Adrian.
“I won’t disturb your prayers.”
“It’s not really prayer.”
“What?”
“…There’s just a story I want to hear.”
Those words sounded like he needed something to rely on. I silently looked at Adrian’s back. Even though he had a much larger build than me, I wanted to hug him and pat him.
But there were no words or actions I could offer him right now. Even helping wasn’t easy.
Being a powerless possessor really wasn’t pleasant.
“Um, is it okay if I stay here? I’ll be quiet.”
“What do you think of me?”
Adrian, whom I thought would tell me to leave or ignore my words, asked a question.
Completely unprepared for the unexpected question, I stupidly stared at Adrian. Adrian still had his back turned.
“Keep your boundaries.”
It overlapped with Lucian’s words telling me not to get attached.
That damn boundary. If I keep that boundary, I can’t protect you.
My surging emotions spilled out as words.
“Why?”
“…What?”
This time, flustered Adrian turned to look at me and asked back. I didn’t miss that opportunity and shot back.
“Why do I have to keep that boundary? Both Al and you tell me not to get attached, to keep boundaries. Why do I have to?”
“It’s natural.”
“Why is that natural…”
Adrian suddenly approached me, and my mouth automatically closed.
