Chapter 106
“Did you have a good vacation?”
As Kirine was about to enter the research lab after returning to the Imperial Palace from her brief vacation, a colleague who had arrived earlier greeted her warmly.
“Yes. How have you been?”
“Oh, you know, just buried in the lab.”
After exchanging these customary greetings, her colleague sidled up closer to her.
“By the way, I noticed your vacation overlapped with Sir Arensis’s.”
“…”
They were still suspicious about her relationship with Ares.
“Just a coincidence.”
Trying to appear nonchalant, Kirine stepped back to examine some magical materials.
But her colleague didn’t leave, instead moving closer to Kirine.
“Did something good happen?”
“Hm?”
“You seemed quite down before, but now you look better.”
“Ah.”
Until now, Kirine had pretended everything was fine, focusing only on her experiments. Her colleague, who had been watching her with concern, showed visible relief at her improved state.
“Yes, I’m good.”
Grateful for their concern, Kirine smiled to show she was truly fine.
However, her colleague soon brought up something unexpected.
“But what’s wrong with Sir Arensis?”
“Why?”
“His expression since this morning has been… not great.”
“…”
At those words, Kirine awkwardly scratched her cheek without responding.
“Well… I’m not sure. He looks the same to me.”
Though she had a good idea why he was acting that way, she couldn’t say and instead deflected.
At that moment, memories of what happened during the vacation flashed through her mind.
“Will you live with me?”
Unlike Kirine, who was surprised having never considered it before, Ares had asked in a calm voice. However, his expression clearly showed his tension.
“So suddenly?”
When Kirine carefully asked, finding it too abrupt, Ares nodded.
“It’s not sudden for me. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time.”
“Oh…”
Unlike Ares, who had been considering living together with Kirine for a while, she had never imagined such a thing, making it difficult to answer right away.
“Why? Don’t you want to?”
“No, it’s just too sudden.”
It wasn’t that she disliked Ares at all.
She was just hesitant because everything seemed to be moving too quickly.
“Could you give me some time to think about it?”
Not long after that conversation, her vacation ended and she returned to the Imperial Palace.
“Anyway, be careful. You’re always clashing with Sir Arensis.”
Knowing how the two fought whenever they had the chance, her colleague offered worried advice.
“Yeah…”
Kirine nodded obediently, saying that was her plan anyway.
She didn’t want to run into him today, unsure how to handle the conversation if she saw his face.
But things rarely went as planned.
“Are you still thinking about it?”
“It’s only been two days…”
Though she deliberately tried to avoid him, somehow the more she tried, the more frequently she ran into Ares unintentionally. Each time, he would press her about how long she needed to think.
Because of this, Kirine would make excuses about being busy and escape to her lab. But finding it difficult to stay there all day, she secretly went to see Reilly.
“Really, who wouldn’t be surprised if suddenly asked to live together?”
As soon as she met Reilly, she spilled everything that had happened with Ares.
She complained about how she was surprised and bewildered by the sudden proposal to live together, and how Ares kept pressing for an answer when she hadn’t been able to give one yet.
“I know it’s hard for him to wait, but he could at least be patient. Instead, he asks every time we meet—it’s killing me.”
Even drinking warm tea didn’t settle her mind as she continued venting.
After listening quietly to Kirine’s words, Reilly suddenly asked curiously.
“Do you want to live together with him?”
“I’m still thinking about it.”
“You don’t dislike the idea?”
“No, it’s not that. I just…”
Kirine stopped mid-sentence and narrowed her eyes.
“Don’t tell me he put you up to this?”
It seemed suspiciously like she was being pressured about when they would live together.
“That’s not it.”
“What do you mean that’s not it? It clearly is.”
They say there’s no one you can trust in this world.
Come to think of it, though Reilly often criticized Ares, she was still his family—his sister.
She had forgotten this fact because Reilly always scolded Ares.
“Tina?”
“Never mind.”
As soon as she realized Reilly was trying to persuade her on Ares’s behalf, Kirine looked at her with wary eyes.
Seeing that look, Reilly let out a troubled “hmm” before carefully speaking.
“By the way, why did Ares suddenly want to live together?”
“Well… I think he wants to repay his debt to me.”
“Debt?”
“Not money, I mean.”
Unsure where to start or end the explanation, Kirine frowned slightly before slowly speaking.
“Remember that person Ares was looking for? That was me.”
“What?”
As expected, Reilly tilted her head, not understanding.
Having anticipated this, Kirine calmly explained everything that had happened with Ares, one thing at a time.
“You were ‘Kaen’?”
Reilly, who had been waiting for the story to end, finally voiced what she had been wanting to say.
Facing Reilly’s astonished expression of disbelief, Kirine smiled awkwardly.
“Yes, that’s how it turned out.”
“My goodness…”
She was amazed at how fate had connected them this way.
“He couldn’t recognize you even though you were right beside him.”
“Same goes for me. I was looking for Aria too.”
Kirine even wondered if her subconscious had somehow recognized Aria, since she couldn’t bring herself to kill Ares despite how much she had hated him.
“Wow, this is incredible. We never knew our savior was so close.”
“Please don’t say it like that, it’s embarrassing.”
After that, Reilly thanked Kirine several times for saving Ares. Each time, Kirine waved it off. Her ears had turned so red she thought she might die of embarrassment.
But then.
“So when are you going to live together?”
“…”
One way or another, Reilly was definitely Ares’s sister.
***
Finally deciding she had no allies, Kirine yelled at Reilly in disappointment before returning to her lab.
She felt resentful toward Reilly, who had gone from expressing gratitude to asking when she would live with her brother. The excitement and anticipation in Reilly’s eyes had even seemed annoying.
‘Really…’
She felt like meeting Reilly had only made her heart more confused.
When Ares first asked her to live together, she was surprised but also happy. It felt like he was expressing how much he liked her.
But if they lived together, what would come next was obvious.
‘Marriage… that topic would come up.’
Actually, it wasn’t that she had never thought about marrying Ares.
But having seen with her own eyes how her mother had lived, she not only lacked any fantasies about marriage but was actually negative about it.
Even though she knew not all married couples were unhappy, she couldn’t help hesitating.
‘Maybe I’m getting too ahead of myself.’
She worried despite the fact that Ares had only asked about living together, not marriage.
Even though they now knew they had been searching for each other for a long time, actually living together was a different matter.
She was afraid that living together would reveal unknown aspects of each other, leading to disappointment and hurt.
