CH 11

The female lead, Anemone, was seen quite often thanks to my father, but actually, I didn’t care what happened to her with the male lead.

‘It’s selfish, but if it can save Father, it doesn’t matter that other pure-blooded humans go extinct.’

But I couldn’t let my dad die. It had to be stopped no matter what.

For that reason, I absolutely needed Iprus, the only helper I could trust and rely on here.

As if feeling my desperation, Sir Hanu put his other hand over mine with a serious gaze.

“I will definitely bring Iprus in front of you even if I have to pull her hair.”

‘Uh… she’s your younger sister, but the hair is a bit…’

He didn’t seem to be joking, I think he would really go grab her hair and drag her here.

It was then.

The door, which had been tightly closed, swung open without warning, and someone came in.

“Lia, it’s been twenty minutes since you said you were ready, and now it’s really time to leave—”

Suradel’s words stopped suddenly as if he felt the strange air in the room.

Startled, I turned my head towards the door where Suradel entered.

His bright golden eyes turned to the tightly held hands of Sir Hanu and I.

It soon flickered to Sir Hanu. Then to me.

At last, the expression on his face disappeared as if he had somehow found tears in my eyes. .

“Can you explain how this happened, Lia?”

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

“I was the one who held his hand, so why are you being mean to Sir Hanu?”

“…….”

When the secret(?) meeting was discovered by Suradel, Sir Hanu almost had his qualifications as an escort knight revoked on the spot.

After barely stopping it, I hurriedly came out with an agitated Suradel.

Thinking about it, I felt that Sir Hanu was not going to be able to avoid a belated punishment.

“Isn’t it possible for grown men and women to at least hold hands? You’re not even my lover.”

“Then go out with me, Lia.”

“What. I will refuse.”

Having been dumped at the speed of light, Suradel opened his mouth with a slightly sullen expression.

“Lia. No matter how open this country is, there are things that cannot be tolerated.”

“What?”

“First of all, Sir Hanu is older than you. It’s the biggest problem.”

A lot of question marks popped up over my head.

“Sir Hanu… isn’t he young for a knight? He seems almost like the youngest of the knights.”

“He’s young. But Lia, I can’t just stand back to see someone approach you, who has just humanized.”

“…Why?”

“It’s just as immoral as trying to trick a young lady who has just become an adult at a coming-of-age party with honey-coated words and try to do something with her for one night.”

Why is the example so specific?

“But then, Suradel, that means you shouldn’t be clingy with me either, right?”

“I’m fine, but Sir Hanu is not.”

It was the standard statement of ‘it’s romance if I did it, but a bad affair if it’s others’.

‘But again, it’s so Suradel-like that it’s not surprising.’

He was more paradoxical than iced hot chocolate.

“If Sir Hanu is out because he’s older than me, who the hell can I meet? I don’t like younger people.”

Then Suradel replied with a big smile.

“You can meet me.”

“Hey, didn’t you just have the conclusion decided in the first place?”

It was when I was getting angry and frustrated with him. 

“Excuse me…”

The person who spoke cautiously looked at Suradel and asked me. It was a clerk of the boutique store.

“Are you going to wear the dress you’re holding?”

“Ah.”

Only then did I let go of the yellow dress that I had been holding tightly in my hand during the argument with Suradel.

I proceeded to take out the pouch I had received from Suradel in the morning.

It’s late, but it turned out my dad’s emergency money that I stole when I ran away from home was bigger than I thought.

To a certain extent, I could leave the Weil residence right away, find a suitable place to live, and start a new life.

Now I didn’t have to worry about being kicked out of Weil, sitting on the streets, and starving to death.

In addition, the jewel that Suradel threw out the window last night was also secretly picked up and packed away earlier.

How much clothing should I buy? It was when I was staring at my heavy pouch and contemplating.

Suradel let out a slight chuckle as if I was cute for thinking hard.

“I told you, Lia, that I’m your money bag today. It’s okay to buy as many as you like, so go ahead and choose.”

“…Really?”

“Yes.”

“…Come to think of it, I think you’re right. That’s right, if you touch me who doesn’t know the world, you’re really human garbage.”

I quickly changed my stance and gave a capitalistic smile.

Then Suradel covered his face with a large hand, his shoulders shaking.

Judging by the frequency of chuckles, the answer must have been satisfactory.

“I’m glad you understand my feelings, Lia.”

“You were right, hmm…”

Satisfied with how the conversation went, I took a wide look around the entire store.

Maybe it was because this store specialized in high-end ready-to-wear, overall the clothes were plain yet pretty.

Custom-made clothes would take time to make, so I went to a ready-to-wear store, but it didn’t seem like it was a bad choice.

After thinking about what to buy, I raised my hand without hesitation and pointed from one end of the store to the other.

“Give me everything that fits my size from here to here.”

It was a line I had always wanted to try.

“Puhaha!”

Suradel burst into laughter again. He grabbed his stomach, and wiped the tears from his laughter as he asked,

“Well, why did you ask for only the ones in the right size, not everything?”

“There’s no need to buy clothes that don’t fit me.”

There might eventually be a few that I bought and didn’t like, but I couldn’t erase the psychological feeling of waste from not being able to wear it because the size didn’t fit.

Even if it wasn’t my money.

“That’s a reasonable overspend.”

Suradel paid for the clothing with a very cheerful expression, and took only a few dresses I could wear right away, putting it in a subspace.

“Please send the rest to Weil Street.”

“Yes. I will make sure you receive them all by tomorrow, Lord Suradel.”

After a satisfying shopping session, we exited the boutique.

But somehow, the whole shopping district felt cluttered.

Scanning the area, I saw a large number of people searching here and there as if they were looking for something.

“Let’s take a quick look at the storefront.”

“It’s only been a day. She couldn’t have gone far, so she might be here.”

“No. If she had made up her mind to run away, she would have left the capital.”

Did a criminal run away?

After listening intently to the conversation for a minute or two, I lost interest and looked away to find another boutique.

Until I thought their faces looked a bit familiar.

‘…Wait. I think I’ve seen those people in the tower, are they pure-blooded humans?’

I stopped and listened to their conversation again.

“Even if she couldn’t get out of the capital, would we be able to find her in this spacious place? It’s not like there’s a tracking spell placed on her.”

“We’re going to die looking for her. You know how much Lord Reynos loves Adelia.”

…Crazy. I mean…

‘Daddy is looking for me!’

“Damn, how many people are suffering just to find a penguin?”

“Be careful. Adelia is from Lord Reynos’ family. Who is it thanks to that pure-blooded humans like us can live without being persecuted among demibeasts?”

“Hah. Do you think I’m saying this because I don’t want to find her?”

“Then why are you talking like that?”

“Looking at the fact that nobody asked for a ransom, it doesn’t seem like a simple kidnapping. A carcass of a penguin may arrive in front of Lord Reynos in a few days.”

“…Right. There are countless families who hate pure-blooded humans.”

I pulled Suradel’s sleeve, desperately resisting the urge to turn my head back to where they were.

‘I should quickly get out of this place.’

I expected my dad to find me, but I didn’t have the courage to face it.

“Is it possible that the crazy Weils kidnapped Adelia?”

Dun.

At their speculative conversation, my gaze naturally turned to the madman, Suradel.

As if he was eavesdropping on the conversation like me, he lowered his head and met my eyes.

“Lia, it’s a little hurt to see you being so sure that the crazy guy is me.”

‘Oh. I got caught.’

Since my thoughts were already exposed, I just decided to say what I wanted to say.

“Then is Madam Bella or the head of the household crazy?”

“Surprisingly, I might be the most normal.”

Just when I was about to scold him to not say nonsense, I heard the voices of the pure-blooded humans again.

“Honestly, is there anyone in the Magic Tower who doesn’t know that he came to Lord Reynos every day claiming to be a penguin lover?”

“Hey, how could he kidnap her openly when he has a social position? Besides, it’s obvious that he will be the first to be suspected.”

“But…”

“It would be more convincing to say that the penguin succeeded in humanizing and ran away with the money.”

‘What. You’re good at speculating!?’