#091
“Why do you care about that?”
Carlisle’s gaze turned slightly cold.
“Taro was the one who prepared the room like this in the first place. That guy naturally thinks we’ll use the same room, the same bed. We used the same tent throughout the desert, and just yesterday…”
Carlisle paused for a moment and stared straight into my eyes.
“It was obvious to anyone that we had slept together, wasn’t it?”
Hic.
My hiccups got worse. Carlisle clicked his tongue and suddenly approached me. I thought he was going to perform some kind of first aid when he grabbed my chin, but he suddenly kissed me. I was startled and hesitated for a moment, but then he grabbed my nose too, preventing me from breathing, so I started flailing and hitting his shoulders.
“Mmph mmph mmph.”
Even then, he held on without letting go and only separated our lips when I was almost about to pass out from lack of air. His eyes were slightly smiling as they pulled away. This bastard.
“Puh, haa, hey, you crazy…”
“Is there really a need to keep it secret?”
I was catching my breath with tears even trickling out, but he still had my face trapped in his hands, rubbing around my eyes and mouth with his thumb as he calmly continued the conversation.
“Wouldn’t it be better for you too if everyone thinks we got back together? Rather than being seen as just sleeping together in some ambiguous broken-up state. Considering your promiscuous reputation, that wouldn’t be too surprising either, but as you know, our village is quite conservative. You don’t want to attract negative attention, do you?”
“Who would want to attract attention for something like that…”
I pushed away Carlisle, who kept touching my face, and glared at him. Whether it was from not being able to breathe or from being startled, the hiccups had stopped anyway. It was fortunate, but somehow that also annoyed me a bit.
“Since we’re on the topic, let’s get things more clearly sorted out.”
Carlisle sat back with a somewhat regretful expression and continued.
“As I said before, I developed something like mysophobia ‘thanks to someone.'”
What’s the point of emphasizing “thanks to someone”? Are you trying to say it developed because of me?
“Diseases can be transmitted, and I have no hobby of sharing with others, whether they’re lovers or sex friends.”
“I don’t have such hobbies either?”
“Ah, really?”
Carlisle raised the corner of his mouth mockingly.
“Then that’s fortunate. Unlike you, I’m quite concerned about my reputation in that area, and I absolutely hate being treated as just one of the fish in the pond you manage.”
“No, well, I also…”
I mumbled excuses, but there wasn’t really anything I could say. Carlisle ignored my reaction and continued anyway.
“So from now on, wherever you go, I’ll accompany you, or if that’s not possible, Taro will accompany you.”
“What?”
“Hmm?”
Carlisle made an expression as if asking what the problem was.
“What’s that… No, it’s not like you’re surveillance or anything…”
“It is surveillance. Since my debtor and exclusive sex partner is an overly promiscuous person, I have no choice.”
Exclusive what? I’m a promiscuous person? I was so dumbfounded my mouth fell open.
“No, I said I understood. I understand, okay? There are many eyes watching here and there anyway, and there are many people keeping watch including Hayden ahjussi, so why go to such lengths? Why don’t you trust people like this?”
“I don’t know about other things, but I can’t trust you on this matter alone. Now that I know Eira Wintum even makes and uses stealth potions, how can I trust anything? People should be trusted based on their actions, not their words, darling.”
“Hah…”
For this Kang Raon to be treated like a playboy. It was utterly unfair. But I couldn’t say it wasn’t something I had done, so I could only feel frustrated inside.
“Well, fine. Do as you please.”
I eventually sighed and raised my hands in surrender.
Honestly, I didn’t really intend to go around cheating (is “cheating” even the right expression in this case?), and if I was with Carlisle, at least nothing dangerous would happen, so from my perspective, aside from feeling a bit uncomfortable, there was no loss. It was certain that I wasn’t in a position to refuse, so I decided to accept the situation positively. I’ll just think of it as having a bodyguard with me. It would be nice to have Taro along too so I wouldn’t be bored.
When I easily declared surrender, the tension seemed to ease from Carlisle’s eyes and body as well. It might be too much to say I took advantage of that opening, but before the conversation ended, I quickly added one condition.
No matter how much I didn’t intend to do such things, given my reputation and Carlisle’s deep-rooted suspicions, situations that could be misunderstood might arise again. I absolutely hated being unfairly cornered and unilaterally blamed every time that happened. I didn’t want to put up with that.
“But promise me one thing. I don’t care if you surveillance me or whatever you do. No, rather, please surveillance me with all your might. But if there’s ever a situation that could be misunderstood in the future, you must, under any circumstances, ask me first about the facts. No matter what my conduct is like, I don’t lie about such matters, so if I say it’s not true, believe at least that much.”
I was a bit nervous waiting for an answer, wondering if we’d have to engage in another lengthy war of words and wills. But unexpectedly, Carlisle nodded obediently.
“…Alright. I’ll do that.”
His attitude was as if he had already gotten what he wanted, so nothing else mattered. I felt deflated too. I absolutely cannot predict at which points this person gets angry and at which points he complies obediently. In short, he was an unpredictable person.
Silence flowed for a brief moment. The tension-free silence while just the two of us were together felt unfamiliar, making me a bit uncomfortable. I glanced at Carlisle and our eyes met, almost making me hiccup again.
Why is he staring like that? If you have something to say, say it. I was anxious. Should I bring up some topic? What is there to talk about… Ah.
‘Come to think of it, there was something I was curious about.’
There was something I hadn’t been able to ask because I was constantly distracted or busy, and Freya was often with us.
“Um, Carlisle. There’s something I’ve been curious about.”
“Ask away.”
“At the ghost mansion… do you remember? When you told me to eat the apple in the bedroom.”
“Ah, that.”
That? Does that mean he remembers?
“I do remember. No, should I call it remembering… I lost consciousness and when I opened my eyes, I was on the bed, and I was conscious from then on. But I just… didn’t think the situation was strange. I was just languid and sleepy and didn’t want to leave that room. I thought I wanted to keep you there and sleep together, and I think I thought I could make you sleep if I fed you the apple…”
Carlisle tilted his head.
“I don’t know why I did that either. It felt like how in dreams, everything seems natural and obvious – I felt the same way.”
“Hmm.”
There were too many mysteries. Things like Licht’s story that suddenly came to my mind, or Carlisle’s reactions as if he knew my real-world preferences that had nothing to do with this place.
The memories between Licht and me might have been injected by the system. But what about Carlisle’s words? It doesn’t make sense for the system to know my real-world preferences that have nothing to do with this world. Had there been any occasion in the game where I mentioned personal preferences?
Carlisle seemed to not know the answers to most questions either, and the scope of what I, as a player, could openly ask about was limited.
I was lost in deep thought when Carlisle asked me this time.
“Why did you cry like that? As if… someone you loved had died.”
Someone I loved… what’s that about. No, now that he says it, it did feel like that… No. No matter how much, I couldn’t have been that immersed in a game character… That said, it’s not like I was thinking of someone I loved in reality either.
My interpretation was that since I was feeling sorry for myself, tumbling around after falling into this world, Licht’s eye drops triggered those emotions. Don’t they say people don’t know the exact cause of their emotions anyway? They tend to think about them in broad terms.
“…I don’t know either. It was probably just because of the medicine.”
I had no choice but to give an evasive answer.
“Ah.”
Carlisle’s reaction was brief. His expression was ambiguous too. It seemed like he had heard an unsatisfactory answer, and he looked slightly disappointed. Disappointed about what, exactly? Was he dissatisfied because my answer was too evasive? But I had no other way to explain it either. We’re both equally unable to give proper answers, aren’t we?
And if I had to be honest, that wasn’t really an important issue. I recalled another situation that seemed more important to me.
“About Licht, the mansion owner. When he took away your consciousness, he said something like commanding in the name of the Sacred Tree, right? What could that mean? Why would that bastard invoke the name of the Sacred Tree and actually have such power?”
Carlisle’s gaze lingered on me for a moment. It seemed like he was asking why I was asking him that. Somehow, I think Licht had a similar reaction. After a somewhat long silence, Carlisle shrugged.
“I don’t know either. If I had known, I wouldn’t have been caught so easily.”
“……”
Well, that’s true. I sighed and relaxed my body. It seems Carlisle doesn’t know the answer to this problem either.
Even after talking to each other, our questions weren’t particularly resolved. We both didn’t know most of the answers. Of course, there would be information that Carlisle knows but is hiding from me. Just as there are facts I can’t tell Carlisle.
‘Will there ever come a time when we can openly discuss and puzzle out answers together?’
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
