117 – Mister – 2
After the princess left, the remaining four left their seats in a state of disillusionment. Maybe it’s because the ending was bad, I didn’t feel good. Rather than feeling uncomfortable with my body, I felt uncomfortable with my mind, as if I had wet shoes in my chest.
Looking back, Seol-Ah and Hestia also had hardened expressions, wondering if they were ashamed of their ugliness or if they were discouraged because the plan didn’t work out as they had hoped. In the end, it was the innocent Cordelia, the only one of us, who set out to unravel this terrible atmosphere.
“Oh, really! How long are you going to look like that chewing something up! What did you do wrong … Oh, I was wrong! Anyway, please don’t be like that. It makes even me soggy.”
The last one was almost like a plea. She didn’t seem to resent us very much, even though she must have been a lightning bolt to her fun weekend. I was embarrassed for nothing, so I forced myself to cheer up. As Cordelia said, we did a little wrong, but we didn’t commit a mortal sin. What is the reason to keep your mouth shut like a loser like this? If we just meet tomorrow and say that yesterday was a bit of a prank and apologize, wouldn’t it be over?
“Right. It’s not that we did anything terribly wrong. Let’s go tomorrow and apologize together. Except for Cordelia.”
“Well, I think I made a huge mistake.”
“Aagh!”
I jumped up in surprise at the sudden intruder. The others were also very surprised, as if they were surprised. I’m sure you didn’t feel any dangerous energy at all, did you? Surprised for a moment, I took a closer look at this uninvited guest. Surprisingly, it was a face I already knew.
“Long time no see?”
“What are you?”
“Are you a bit surprised? Well, it’s hard to notice unless you’re shedding your life.”
Small stature, youthful face, and for some reason, the maid uniform that he wears modestly. What appeared was Lisa, Wilhelm’s hound, whom he had previously met, or, to put it more accurately, had captured. She waved at us with a welcome look, as if meeting her friend after a long absence.
Wasn’t it like starting a new life after washing your identity? The reunion is faster than I thought. There were not just one or two things I wanted to ask about his sudden appearance.
However, Lisa responded with an extremely relaxed expression that contradicted my embarrassment.
“Could you please put that finger away? Pointing is not good manners.”
“Is it manners to show up so unpopularly?”
“Ahahahahaha! Having said that, I have nothing to say. Then I’ll greet you politely and formally.”
She laughed at my point and took one step back from her. She greeted us with her graceful gestures, as if formally greeting them. That figure was truly a perfect maid, so it took some time for her to properly recognize the reality even after seeing her transformation right in front of her eyes.
“Hello. My name is Lira, and I work as a servant here at the academy. Please take care of me?”
“Then, a new identity… ?”
“It just happened that way.”
As if she hadn’t shown the perfect maid look before, she returned to her original, innocent look and winked frivolously. More than that, that sudden maid outfit was like that.
In fact, everyone was dumbfounded at the situation that was too unfortunate to be a coincidence. And out of many identities, why are you a servant of the academy we are attending? Doesn’t it look like you’re being targeted?
“I know everyone is suspicious, but this is a real coincidence. And it’s not like I’m going to betray you. Did you come to say hello first? Isn’t that a good thing?”
“It looked like that when we first met, how can I easily believe it?”
Hestia replied cynically. As she said, how could she be easily trusted when her first meeting was like that. Lisa, no, now Lira smiled bitterly.
“A newer name than that, isn’t it too rough?”
“I like it. And there is a saying that if you want to hide a tree, hide it in the forest.”
“Isn’t that what you use at such times?”
“It’s hard. Anyway, you got a rough idea of what I wanted to say. Originally a little like this, uh, the more roughly you hide it, the more you think he really hid it roughly like this? I’m just going with the thought of doing it.”
No, what do you understand? Maybe it was because she had more time to spare, but she was more smirking than I’d seen before. He was smirking because he said nice things, and the conversation just doesn’t work well. They say that the difference in position makes a person, and he became very proud. Even if we have a weak advantage, this is enough…. No matter what happens, she must not give her weakness. I made a promise to myself.
“What do you mean it was a big mistake? No, more than that, since when have you been watching?”
“From the time Mikhail praised the sandwiches you made in the morning.”
“From start to finish! Aren’t you working?!”
Lira listened to Hestia’s cry. She then blew her fingers in her ears.
“Today is my day off. Welfare is better than I thought. Is it because it is done in the country?”
“Then why are you dressed like that?”
“Preference.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I was half serious. And actually, you have to wear it like this so it’s less noticeable. Wherever you go in the academy, there are people dressed exactly like me.”
I can’t tell how much is serious and how much is a joke. I just stood there and talked, but I feel like my spirits are getting faster. Considering how he confided in us even when he was possessed, did he have to expect something like this? Just as I began to regret not tightening her leash tighter, Seol-ah asked a question this time.
“So, why did you suddenly appear?”
“Isn’t it too cold? From this point on, it’s on your side. As I said before, both to talk about the fact that I will be working near you, and also to deal with the hounds sent by Wilhelm.
“Surely, I foreshadowed… , wait a minute. What?”
Lira answered in a nonchalant tone, but the content was not at all nonchalant. Seol-ah’s eyes widened at her bombshell remarks. She asked, pointing at me this time.
“The hound sent by Wilhelm. Doesn’t the archduke have something to catch?”
“That snake-like presence.”
When she heard this far, she immediately knew what she wanted to say. When I fell down, that bad feeling of living that instantly made my spine go cold. It suddenly disappeared at some point, but I guess I didn’t feel it wrong.
“As expected. I wondered why he woke up all of a sudden, but he must have noticed. Certainly, geniuses are different no matter what.”
“Please explain in a way that we can understand.”
Hestia seemed unable to understand what Lyra and I were talking about. Cordelia and Seol-ah also nodded, as if they couldn’t keep up with this conversation.
“To put it simply, I and Mikhail saved your lives. Just when you guys were just starting that funny play, didn’t Mikhail suddenly get up and ruin the whole play?”
“… A funny play.”
Hestia repeated the word “Funny play” With a dark face this time as well, as if it was quite a shock. No, I mean, where did that confidence come from?
“I apologize if I was a little provocative in my choice of words. Anyway, I’m saying it wasn’t for nothing that Mikhail jumped up at that time. There were really dangerous people around, and Mikhail felt that and jumped up.”
“So, are you saying it was really dangerous?”
“Yes.”
Lira asserted in response to Hestia’s question. Seol-ah shuddered at her resolute affirmation. When she thinks of lying down without knowing how dangerous the situation was, she seems to be trembling in her hamstrings now.
“If you said you took care of that hound, does that mean you took care of it yourself?”
“It feels like it’s been a Q&A session since a while ago. Well, that’s correct A hunter’s most dangerous moment is when he thinks he has succeeded. It happened that I was a human I didn’t really get along with, so I thought what was this and ate it.”
Leela said she was ‘caught up’ in a lively girlish tone, but she probably had things she really didn’t want to imagine.
Because even now, the faint smell of blood still emanates from her body. She even said she didn’t get along very well with her own mouth. She is an opponent whose name and face are unknown, but she would not have died gracefully anyway.
The atmosphere turned dark again. Could it be because she feared that she would be in a dangerous situation again? Perhaps it was because she felt a sense of alienation from Lira in front of her, whose face color did not change even when she immersed a person in it. When we showed a strangely uncomfortable look, Lyra opened her mouth.
“Why is the atmosphere like this? There is still one more important thing left.”
That’s right. I had one last question to ask. The story she told us when she first showed up, how we made a huge mistake.
“What do you mean by that big mistake?”
“Originally, I was going to start with that story. You kept saying different things, so you got farther and farther away from what you were originally trying to say.”
If I pointed out again here, it was obvious that the topic of conversation would go to the distant mountain again, giving back and forth, so I just agreed and agreed. He clicked her tongue as if she wasn’t having fun.
“That’s right. It’s all my fault, so please explain. It’s just a little bit of a joke, isn’t it?”
“Sheesh, not funny. Well, it must have been just a prank for a normal person. But, again, it’s not that easy for Her Highness, the sensitive princess. I’m going to tell you a story from now on, so listen carefully and think about it.”
She tapped her own head with her index finger. She then, like a storyteller reading a fairy tale, she was loud and clearing her voice and began her narration. The stories she told about her old days were obvious. Is the ending a bit bittersweet?
A girl who suffered from endless surveillance and control like a bird in a cage. And a middle-aged man who became the only side of the girl. In their cramped lives, the two considered each other like daughters and fathers. However, one day, the middle-aged man suddenly collapses complaining of pain in her chest and disappears in front of her forever. Frustrated by her terrifying helplessness, the girl soon regains her composure and vows never to lose a precious person like this again.
After the story, Lira shrugged her shoulders. But we were silent. No, it might be too light to describe it as silence. In the suffocating atmosphere, I let out a sigh. A sigh rising from the depths of the chest, sinking endlessly like lead. Not once did Lira ever directly mention that she was the princess, but in this situation it would be an idiot not to notice that the girl is the princess.
“How is it?”
“Ha….”
A while ago, someone said it was as if someone had put wet shoes in their chests, but now I feel like I’m lying in bed without taking a shower after marching in the rain for about 10 years wearing an unwashed poncho raincoat. In short, it was terrible. It’s as if I deliberately provoked her trauma. Unexpectedly, I finally understood the way she was sincerely worried about me and Seol-ah, her strangely skillful response, and her final anger.
Cordelia, who is rich in sensitivity, had tears in her eyes. If you poke it from the side, it seems like tears will flow soon. Seol-ah and Hestia also couldn’t hide their sorry feelings.
At the end of the sighs and suffocating silence, Hestia was the first to speak.
“Let’s go apologize together tomorrow.”
“… OK.”
“Yes.”
The atmosphere was so solemn that it was difficult to breathe.
Only Lira was smiling as if the situation was quite interesting.
Isn’t that a real psychopath?