49.
Keith was watching Jinhyeon and Yu Jin walking in the garden. To be honest, he didn’t want to put them together, but there was no other choice. Since that day, Yu Jin had been afraid even of familiar guards. He had deliberately called in men to try and overcome his trauma, but the fear didn’t easily subside. Though he was slowly getting better, the pace was so slow that it was eating away at Keith.
Now, Jinhyeon was the only person Yu Jin could keep close. Although he didn’t have seizures when seeing Keith because they had been together continuously, Keith could tell from the occasional trembling when Yu Jin faced him.
Ah, Yu Jin has become afraid of me too.
Every time he saw this, Keith’s heart was torn apart miserably.
‘I shouldn’t have killed him.’
Regret washed over him for killing the third son of Granadan so easily. If he had assessed the situation and managed to smuggle him out alive, he could have inflicted more pain. It was too late for regrets now.
As he was blankly looking down at Yu Jin strolling in the garden, suddenly a small gray bird perched on the windowsill. The round-shaped bird shook its beak several times and then opened its mouth wide towards Keith. And through it, a low, rough man’s voice leaked out.
[Keith.]
“Yes, Rector.”
[Pathetic fool. If you wanted to die so badly, you should have said so. I would have killed you easily.]
“Are you telling me to commit suicide up there?”
At Keith’s question, the bird clicked its tongue, but the sight and sound didn’t match at all, making it grotesque. Originally, human and bird oral structures are different, so no matter how much the bird moved its tongue, it shouldn’t be able to make proper sounds.
[No. We were planning to reveal ourselves soon anyway, so we decided to let it slide.]
You saved your life then. That day, Keith, along with Jinhyeon, killed everyone in the mansion where the third son of Granadan was staying and set it on fire. After that, he sent Jinhyeon and Yu Jin away and did some work to make it look like Leviathan had done everything. It was impossible to make it look like a simple accident.
It would have been troublesome if someone discovered the bones of the dead in the burned-down mansion and found out the cause of their deaths. So he had done such a disguise at the risk of his life, but things turned out better than expected.
It was worth dedicating himself to Leviathan all this time.
[You stupid bastard!]
Rector berated Keith as he was feeling relieved.
[Don’t do this again. This is why you shouldn’t associate with someone crazy in love. Risking your life to protect someone like that.]
Keith sighed as he watched the bird chattering away. Knowing that it would keep talking until the magic wore off, he raised his hand and flicked his finger against the bird’s head. The magic that transferred words through the bird was efficient but had a major drawback. If the enchanted bird received a shock above a certain level, it would break.
With a sound like breaking glass, the bird snapped its beak shut. Then it rolled its large eyes, saw Keith nearby, and flew away startled.
Rector would be furiously angry when they met later, but that was something to think about then. Right now, he just wanted to watch Yu Jin from afar to his heart’s content. Keith turned his gaze back to the window. Yu Jin, who had been strolling in the garden until just now, was standing still, looking at Jinhyeon. But the expression on Jinhyeon’s face across from him was strange.
He seemed angry, and also dejected. What had happened between the two while he was talking to Rector? Keith resented Rector for coming at such a moment.
‘Even if I ask, he probably won’t tell me.’
Unlike before, Yu Jin was gradually keeping more secrets. Keith was very curious about those secrets, but he had promised not to ask, so he didn’t.
“When will he tell me too?”
Keith closed his eyes slowly with a bitter expression.
Jinhyeon sent Yu Jin back to his room and came out to the garden again. More precisely, it was the training ground located in a corner of the garden. Looking up from the training ground, he could see the window of Yu Jin’s room. However, Yu Jin was not visible there.
He must have gone to sleep early, probably tired. Jinhyeon stood in the training ground and mulled over what Yu Jin had said.
‘There’s no reason to like me, he said.’
At the moment he said those words, Yu Jin showed no sign of wavering. Usually soft like tofu, at that moment he seemed so hard that no finger could penetrate no matter how much you poked. Jinhyeon smiled in front of Yu Jin, but even that didn’t last long.
Once alone, the emotions boiling inside him overflowed. Jinhyeon lightly swung the sword in his hand. Once became twice, twice became thrice. He moved his body like that for a while, but his chest still felt tight.
What should he call this emotion? He was prepared to be rejected, but he didn’t expect to be told like that. He said there would never be a reason to like him in the future. Just thinking about it made him feel sick, but Jinhyeon tried to think rationally.
Both Jinhyeon and Yu Jin were people from the modern world. If there had been someone acting like Jinhyeon in the modern world, they would have been on some program long ago. And they would have been cursed as the world’s biggest asshole. He had sex by putting forth conditions without their hearts even being connected, and treated him carelessly.
“Thinking about it again, I’m a real bastard.”
Although this time Jinhyeon had saved Yu Jin, that alone wouldn’t easily shake the firmly built-up feelings. With everything he had done so far, Yu Jin wouldn’t completely fall for him just because he did one good thing.
‘I shouldn’t have done that.’
But since his feelings started from simple curiosity at first, it seemed that even if he went back to that time, Jinhyeon’s attitude wouldn’t change. Given the situation, a sigh escaped naturally.
“It’s difficult.”
While others had approached him to gain favor before, Jinhyeon had never actively approached someone himself. He had never had someone he liked before. So in a way, Yu Jin was Jinhyeon’s first love.
‘What should I do from now on?’
First, it seemed he needed to change Yu Jin’s heart. Jinhyeon suddenly thought of Keith. Come to think of it, even in his terrible state, Yu Jin was generous towards Keith. Probably because he liked him, it was possible.
‘How did that guy smile?’
Jinhyeon gently pulled up the corners of his mouth and smiled kindly. Keith’s words to Yu Jin were always pleasant to hear. Jinhyeon imitated that kindness and smile. Even when living in another world, he had worn a certain degree of pretense to maintain his social position.
So he thought he’d try it this time too. Jinhyeon was someone who could do anything to get what he wanted.
The main mansion of the Lucid viscounty. Many people lived here. Although Yu Jin had run away unable to endure, those who had not yet satisfied their desires often stayed here to catch the eye of the family head. Ahmed was also such a person.
From the moment he first recognized his father as the family head, Ahmed had only one dream. To become the head of Lucid with its enormous wealth and power, and then to take a woman of imperial blood as his wife to make the family prosper even more.
There was an older brother above him, but that man was ruined. He might have excellent physical abilities, but he was quick-tempered and stupid, so Ahmed thought that with a little effort, he could become the successor.
But then.
‘Why did things turn out like this?’
Ahmed bit his nails. Even though he knew it was a filthy habit, he just couldn’t stop. He had planned to use the useless youngest to gain a huge benefit and contribute to the family.
But the third son of Granadan, who was supposed to bring that benefit, had died. And it wasn’t just him who died. Most of the people living in the mansion died, and the mansion burned down. All that remained were burned corpses and a ruined mansion.
The capital was in an uproar because people in a noble’s mansion were wiped out overnight. An imperial investigation team was dispatched for a detailed situation assessment, and the Granadan family also moved people. The result that came out was unexpected.
Leviathan had killed them.
‘What is that?’
Ahmed heard that name for the first time. According to rumors, it was some kind of organization of powerful people, but he couldn’t understand why that organization would kill the third son of Granadan. What was even stranger was that the youngest had survived in that situation.
“Why, why is he alive?”
He had clearly told him to go to the third son of Granadan’s mansion, so why did Yu Jin survive?
The answer was simple. That day, the youngest did not go to that place.
That was the only answer. Even knowing this, Ahmed kept having doubts. Did Yu Jin really not go there? Really? Really? Really?
Ahmed, who had been spinning in place, stopped. He put down the hand he had been biting and urgently called for a maid.
“Prepare for me to go out!”
It seemed he needed to visit Yu Jin’s mansion to see his face and ask. He needed to understand the situation surrounding the accident that day, and if he really didn’t go to the Granadan mansion, he needed to punish him. After all, he hadn’t followed his orders.
Thinking this, he was about to leave when the head butler appeared behind the entering maid.
“Master Ahmed.”
Ahmed frowned as he looked at the head butler. There was only one person in this mansion who could give orders to the head butler.
His father and the head of Lucid, Ruhan.
“The head of the family is calling for you.”
He was looking for Ahmed.
