Now that she knew, she could definitely see the resemblance. And it was only now that she got the meaning behind what Damon Salvatore said. Come to think of it, why couldn’t she figure out the connection?
Selena Crawford was Kalian’s aunt whom he had a small age gap with, and she was also the reason Genos Sheldon was expelled from his position. To put it simply, Genos was the knight of Selena who was the precious child of the Crawford family. However, despite his power of foresight, he couldn’t prevent her death and that incurred the anger of the Crawfords, leading to his expulsion.
But then, Yuri happened looked like Selena Crawford. This inexplicable connection made her feel a little uncomfortable.
In the end, Yuri pushed back her decision, saying she would think about it a little more.
The old man gazed at her with earnest eyes and said she should definitely think about it carefully. Then he left the coffeehouse with Anne-Marie.
The black tea and scones on the table were not eaten at all. Yuri roughly crumpled the employment contract into her pocket then she cleared the table.
* * *
It was a night with a full moon.
Lakis went out at late into the night. This was because he planned to carry out the plan he was supposed to execute with the crow some time ago.
Like Yuri requested, he told her before he left the house. Her brows furrowed slightly when she heard what he said but she did not stop him. But as expected, she wasn’t satisfied so she looked at Lakis and told him ‘buy Melona’ on the way back as a condition.[1]
So even as Lakis was sweeping through the shadowy night, he was seriously thinking about what this ‘melona’ thing was.
“Lakis-nim! This way!”
The crow who was flying ahead turned around to look at Lakis and said. Lakis followed Odin’s instructions and changed direction.
When they finally reached their targeted location, Lakis jumped down from the roof.
“What the! Who…keok!”
The man who was guarding the door has his neck cut by Lakis as soon as he opened his mouth.
Shaaa!
The blood bursting from the man’s throat moved like it had a will of its own, slashing through the necks of the other people around him.
Lakis also cut down the people who came out running after hearing the calls of an intruder.
According to the information he got from the crow, Odin, there was a ruin’s fragment in this place. As expected, the fake in Carnot, Milliam, seemed to have turned to making mutants directly when the search for mutants made no progress. So he was gathering children from all over the place.
Stomp.
A while later, Lakis stepped over a dismembered corpse and walked deeper inside.
“Hnn, Sniff…”[2]
The occasional cries and groans pierced his ears.
“Seriously…”
Lakis’ cold eyes swept around him and a cold smile hung on his lips.
“I feel dirty. This is stupidly similar to a scene I’ve seen quite well before.”
He could see children who were either dead or in the process of dying all over the place. It was similar to the scene he saw at the research lab in Carnot but as this was set up to be temporary location, the environment was worse.
Clatter.
Lakis cut across the room and picked up his purpose for coming here. It seemed most of the fragments were already used for experimenting because the number of fragments remaining were extremely small.
Regardless, it looked like there was no one who had successfully absorbed the power of the ruins. In the first place, it was an experiment with an extremely low success rate, so that was only natural.
Lakis’ cold gaze fell on the failed ‘wastes’ who were howling in pain, yet to breath their last. They had no chance of surviving after failing the experiment anyways.
Chwiik!
The puddle of blood on the floor wriggled to a stand and pierced the heads of those alive, ending them.
”You…You cruel, cold-blooded creature!”
Right then, Odin flew into the room and opened his break, yelling boomingly.
“A stone-cold killer! Such venomosity deserving of the one called the king of Carnot! This crow, Odin is in awe of your cruelness, Lakis-nim!”
—Is this guy cursing you or praising you right now?
The bug in his head begrudgingly grumbled at Odin’s remarks.
Lakis took the ruin’s fragment and cleared out of the place. Meanwhile at his side, Odin kept squawking things that were impossible to tell if they were curses or compliments, so he just sent him away.
—Um, Lakis, can we just do it later?
‘Cut the nonsense, you better digest it well this time.’
—Ah, hey! Wait…!
Lakis then absorbed the ruin’s fragment like he did in Yuri’s house.
—You venomous jerk! Cruel, cold-blooded bastard…!
After managing to settle down a while later, the bug borrowed Odin’s words to rail against Lakis. Unsurprisingly, Lakis didn’t even blink an eye.[3]
Still, there was some benefit to absorbing the fragment since he could sense his body had strengthened a bit.
Lakis moved to head home before it got too late.
‘Ah, melona.’
Then he remembered what Yuri said despite forgetting about it for a moment.
Lakis called Odin back after just sending him away.
“I’m here, Lakis-nim!”
“What is ‘melona’?”
“What?”
“Don’t you know what ‘melona’ is?”
“Melona?”
“Tsk. What did I expect. Useless punk. Just go away.”
And Odin who was called by Lakis was sent away again in 5 seconds. However, due to having absolutely no idea what ‘melona’ was even though Lakis was asking about it, Odin flew away unsteadily as if his pride had received a huge crack.
Lakis jumped back onto the roof again, seriously wondering what exactly he should bring to Yuri.
* * *
I was mulling over the crumpled employed contract in front of me, which I got from Bastian.
Honestly, it wasn’t something worth thinking this much about. Of course, I knew the old man’s situation was sad but that was something I only understood with my ‘mind’, I didn’t feel it with my heart. Besides, I had no intention of getting involved with the male lead for no reason.
However, the issue here was that the conditions stated in the contract were just too good.
‘Anyways, so Anne-Marie ended up working at the male lead’s house.’
Even though Kalian saved Hestia last time, there didn’t seem to be any deep emotional exchange between the two of them, so I thought it was going to just end smoothly like that.
I guess their fate wasn’t broken that easily.
Swish.
Just as I was sitting at the table with my arms crossed, looking at the document and thinking about all sorts of things, something happened.
Feeling something prickling my senses, I turned my head and noticed a white butterfly flying in air. It was not a real butterfly, but thin threads intertwined in the shape of a butterfly. It was a mark used for communication between my client and I.
When I stretched out my hand, the fluttering butterfly sat on my finger.
Poof!
Instantly, the threads forming the butterfly unfurled and scattered in the air. It swiftly got entangled again, forming a small, square paper this time.
Once I saw the phrase inscribed on the paper, my eyes narrowed for a moment.
At first, I thought it might be a reply from Damon Salvatore, but it wasn’t. The sender was the person who usually asked me to win an item on their behalf whenever the secret auction was held. However, his commission this time was different from the other ones so far.
‘He wants me to look for something similar to the ‘philosopher’s stone’ that was at the auction?’
I fell into slight contemplation.
Why was he trying to look for the philosopher’s stone separately? Was he feeling stubborn because he failed to win the bid at the auction this time?
Or…was there a chance that he knew that the philosopher’s stone was the ruin’s fragment?
Click.
Right then, I sensed someone touch the door, so I made the paper turn into a butterfly again and send it into the room with the dolls. Then I removed the employment contract from the table.
“You’re back?”
Lakis who had just closed the door and stepped inside, heard my voice and paused for a moment. For some reason, he stood there, staring at me then he suddenly swept his hand over his face.
“Yeah…I’m back.”
His low voice escaped through the hand covering his face. Soon after, Lakis removed his hand and walked up to me.
“Ms. Yuri.”
But his face was very serious.
Did something happen outside? Why is his expression like this?
“No matter how much I think about it…”
And as I began to ponder over it, Lakis drew close to me, held my wrist and said.
“I have no idea what a melona is.”
“…”
I looked up at Lakis’ face.
The blue eyes staring at me gave off a dim light. He looked awfully distraught. The sight of him dejected made him seem like a downcast large dog.
I guess the species would be a golden retriever?
Honestly, when I told him to ‘buy melona on the way back’, I didn’t really have any meaning in mind. I also didn’t know he would take it so seriously.
Although I did intend to trick him a little.
I looked at Lakis who was immersed in grief and my mouth opened a little impulsively.
“Mr. Lakis…Now I see you have a cute side to you.”
At that moment, Lakis’ eye went wide. He looked shocked.
This was definitely this first time he was hearing something like this.
Then again, before this, who would have dared to use the term ‘cute’ on the king of Carnot?
“Do you like cute guys?”
However, Lakis didn’t get angry or find it ridiculous, instead after pulling himself together, he looked at my face and asked that.
I immediately nodded.
“It’s definitely better than not cute.”
Lakis’ face brightened a bit. He looked like he was a better mood after hearing what I said.
‘Hmm. Definitely kind of cute.’
As if it was taking away from Anne-Marie who reminded me of Coco, somehow I felt I could be a little more magnanimous with Lakis.
“You have to buy it next time though. The melona.”
But I still wanted to mess with him so I said that and Lakis’ face became serious again. Only
Seeing the conflicted look on his face made my lips twitch but I managed to hold it down and walked past him.
Translator’s Corner:
[1]Melona. It’s a cute icecream.
[2]I need crying sounds. How do you spell someone crying? Apart from ‘waah’, ‘boohoo’, ‘sobsob’ & ‘sniff’. English can be so limiting sometimes.
[3]This is such a weird saying. The literal translation is [Lakis’ nose didn’t even fart] which is probably something like his nose didn’t even twitch but still.
T/N: I was eating a barbeque chicken leg while translating this and the fact that blood and barbeque sauce look similar did not help my case.
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