I didn’t dare speak and focused on my chores. Soon we emptied the shelf completely. Then I started wiping it off with a wet towel.
“Because A-888 is taller… .”
“Felix.”
“Ah… yes. Since Felix is taller, could you wipe the top? If you wipe the top, I’ll clean the three lower ones.”
“All right, you do the bottom two.”
“Yes, thank you.”
He spoke curtly, but did not linger. Thanks to him, I went to the other side and started to clean the shelves, but strangely, our eyes continued to meet. It felt like the scene of a movie where two people in a library are on the other sides of a bookshelf, one pulls out a book and their gazes meet.
Every time, he was watching me with a really cold, frightening look.
I wiped the dark shelves down although there was hardly anything to wipe. However, the lab could not leave manpower idle, so they assigned us to clean a different area everyday even if it had just been cleaned.
Class A was a waste status.
Even the meals for A levels were considered profligate.
We were disposable so it was natural to be used willfully.
“Aselia.”
“Um?”
“Why do you think I helped you?”
I purposely concentrated on wiping the shelves harder to avoid eye contact.
“Because you’re a good person?”
“… So, you’re not even curious about how I persuaded that researcher?”
Not curious.
Grateful? Yes. But from the moment I realized that he wasn’t an A-class like myself, but Duke Magnolia in disguise I didn’t dare be curious.
I’m afraid Felix might be up to something. And I want no part in it.
There are now only 12 days left. Until Kalisten explodes.
My life might end in 12 days. I am not interested in adding more risky variables.
“I thought you would be in trouble if you were curious.”
He came right in front of me and held my gaze.
But unlike the expression he donned earlier, for some reason his face had softened.
“Aren’t you curious about the person I’m looking for?”
As he asked, my fingers started to tingled. The wound on my hand seemed somehow bigger.
“I shouldn’t ask.”
Then his expression darkened again.
“No, I want you to tell me if you want me to tell you.”
His mouth shut in a straight hard line.
He put down the wet towel he was holding and walked over to me. He was really tall, maybe similar to Kalisten’s height.
No, Kalisten was still bigger. About two fingers worth.
“Aselia.”
“What?”
“The one I am looking for is my younger sibling*.” [t1v: * the Korean word is gender neutral]
Come to think of it, there was a rumor that the Duke of Magnolia had casually provided his illegitimate child as a test subject. Supposedly, it was in the name of proving his loyalty to the imperial family.
“Your sibling… you need my help to find them?”
“You think I can’t find my sibling?”
“Uh, isn’t that why you’re asking me?”
Don’t avoid his eyes.
If I avert my gaze from the beast, it will rush at me and attack me. This was no different from being prey in front of a snow leopard. No, he might be closer to a polar bear.
“They have bright hair just like yours. And pretty eyes just like yours.”
“A boy with platinum hair… I’m the only one with that coloring in class A. Could he be in a different rank?”
The air felt heavy as if he was testing me.
But I was not familiar with the other grades.
“My sibling is a woman.”
“Huh?”
“She’s my younger sister. Her blood smells sweet like yours.”
“… .”
“So it is driving me crazy.”
He grabbed and grasped the wound he had opened last time. Blood started to flow again in the place that was not yet healed.
A cold sweat poured over me.
I had the foreboding that if he found out I was a woman right now, it would be over for me.
“So I’m going to kill her*.”
“Ah—”
“She* made me go crazy and hid, so I won’t let her* off the hook this time.”
My throat choked, I was suffocating from the intensity of his threatening aura as he growled.
“But what’s this?”
With a sneer, he put his hand on my necklace. His other hand held my wrist tightly so I couldn’t escape.
Alarms rang in my head. If he ripped my necklace off, I would undoubtedly return to my feminine form.
[*t1v: in Korean he doesn’t need to say ‘her’ so he could also be saying you. Example: “So I’m going to kill you.”]
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