Raga of the Dry Branch - Chapter 23

23: The beginning of the Upcoming Incident (4)

It seemed like Shuzlin whispered something to the captain, but Juli wasn’t an ordinary human. In other words, he had extraordinary ears.

“Who said I was ugly now? Huh? I am super handsome!”

Guess who the owner of Poppy was, who claimed to be smart too? I was dumbfounded. So does this mean I will be spending a lot of time with this guy?

… wouldn’t it be best for him just to act cold?

It was the remarks which seemed more absurd than the whispers he heard. Everyone, including Shuzlin, seemed to be shocked. And Juli wung his hood back wildly as if proving his point to all who were there.

“Woah-!”

Captain and Shuzlin were there, and the people who were watching us all burst into exclamations simultaneously. Well, I did understand their reaction. I had only seen him a few times, but each time I saw it, he was rivalling Fay’s handsomeness.

That long, straight black hair flowed down and gleamed in bright shade. The pale white face was surrounded by fantastic sharp features like a nobleman. And the cold metallic silver eyes under his long lashes of black would glance.

Everyone exhaled at the appearance of a colorful man with silver eyes, which shone brightly in the day. And the slender body behind the robe which stood tall. He was a handsome man.

“Isn’t this amazing?”

Shuzlin, who was looking at Juli, said out loud.

He was putting both hands together as if he was looking at Juli, who made his heart weak.

It was because he had doubts that his man, Juli could even be part of this world. This was what romance novels would describe their male leads, and I became suspicious.

… no, no way. Would a pretty subtly beautiful female lead employee pop up now?

Well, no matter how she looked, despite his fantastic appearance, Juli didn’t have a pleasant personality, and he is a man with unique tastes. I wasn’t sure that could happen, but I promised myself that I would never date someone because of their face.

Juli, who glanced around, looked back at me. And said,

“You, be careful.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t wander around and come back right away…”

Is it because of the bad luck they talked about in the morning? And with that, Juli put his hood back on and looked back before leaving.

Which left all the eyes of the people directed to me.

“Ah, then I need to go and hand this over to lady Jean.”

The ladies I never knew came up to me with shining eyes, but they all backed away when I mentioned Lady Jean. As Shuzlin said, Lady Jean is a fantastic person!

“Ah, a new book came out today, I need to head to the bookstore.”

“Same as ever.”

“Sir Alkeris will head straight home, will Dame Ilina go to the theatre?”

“Yes. Today the the long-awaited film is going to be released.”

After finishing the work which seemed rather challenging, it was finally time to head home.

I was leaving the office with three other people except for Dame Mino. It was a day which felt particularly long as I hadn’t been in a good mood since the morning. Thanks to that, I was mentally tired and really wanted to walk home faster.

“Woah! So cute. Look at those chubby cheeks.”

Dame Ilina, who had a cold face all the time, abruptly stopped and exclaimed. And likewise, I looked.

This time, it was exactly opposite to me, I would sigh if anyone else said anything more.

Please, please, why are you doing this to me?

“What a cute little lady!”

“I look forward to seeing you in the future. You will turn into such a fresh and shining woman.”

It was none other than my little girl, Heliciad, whom the Captain and Sir Shuzlin praised.

With her gorgeous pink hair rolled up into a circle bun high on her head and decorated with a white lace ribbon.

She wore a pink, plump sleeve cardigan in a rich white lace dress that reached right above her knees, and her pink showed.

Of course, she looked good from others points of view.

Heli was sitting at the fountain outside the office at the entrance with her red cheeks puffed up. It was just a small child waiting there, but people kept looking over at her as she looked cute to them.

They were all giving her snacks too. And the ordeal wasn’t done.

As if trying to cause more pain, my colleagues who knew nothing about my relationship with Heli were praising her.

“I don’t usually like young girls, but she is so lovely. Ah, how much I want to touch her cheeks.”

“I have candy with me, should I give her one?”

As I felt before, humans are fragile. Do they even realize what is inside such lovely looking faces?

Suddenly, the group approached Heli as if possessed, and I followed them. And my worries turned into reality.

“Do you like candy?”

“Wow, really cute. Those cheeks look like real cheeks! Why is a baby like you here alone? Where are your parents?”

Heli, who looked like a sparkling little girl, turned into a ferocious rabbit when she saw Dame Ilina and Sir Shuzlin talk to her.

“Get away,,,, hmm!”

So, my Heli tried to say “Get away” right now, but I was running out of patience for the day to end. So I barely closed her mouth, looked at my scared party, and said with a tired smile.

“The maknae of your home, isn’t she cute?”

After barely walking away from my bewildered mates, I was back to heading home with Heli holding my hand. In the distance, the white mansion stood tall against the reddish sunset, which was beginning to happen.

They are probably all back home by now. I asked Heli, who was walking next to me.

“Did you come to meet me because you were worried?”

Heli, who looked at me for a moment, then shook her head as if to say NO, but her ears were already red.

Heli turned her head once again as if she didn’t want to speak to my face. And then said,

“I asked you not to go, but you still went ahead for work. When I asked you, you just ignored my plea. Except in the worst case you wouldn’t die, but I still don’t want to see you get hurt, I don’t like seeing Al hurt. Now do you understand how delicate my heart is?”

“You said three days from today, so I’ll be careful of it. Now, I just need to be careful for two days, right.”

“Huh! But you won’t say that you won’t go, right?”

I said it sternly. Heli was this worried, and I couldn’t help but be sorry for her. It would be better to do something not to worry her if I could.

“I have paperwork to organize. Hm… the paperwork which needs to be done tomorrow is urgent, so I’ll just deal with that and get my pay the day after tomorrow. Is that okay?”

“Really”

Among the documents requested by the captain today, there was a case in which a noble lady from Cheiva was dead in this nation.

Initially, most of the cases were handled by 1st division, and ours was only to assist them. However,r due to the recent events, it was impossible for the 1st division to take charge of the case, so the 2nd Division took it as a joint task.

Dam Mino, who will return tomorrow, should be in charge of the field operation, and the documents need to be processed by tomorrow. And the task needs to be done by that point. Even if I took a leave, I had not to bother others.

“Huh. Just be careful tomorrow and everything will be fine.”

As we reached the home, I opened the gate and looked at Heli, who was smiling broadly.

“Do you know about this mansion of labyrinth?”

As I was drinking tea while leaning on Poppy’s huge body on the sofa, I suddenly remembered about the file and asked Juli.

“What is that?”

“One of the tourist attractions by the themed tourist spots that the Marquis of Dautendai of Bishatsur opened, and it was built with a mystery theme.”

It was a theme which he liked. To that, Juli expressed some discomfort.

“You, don’t tease my tastes. I don’t deal with fakes.”

“…”

The answer to my question came from elsewhere.

“You seem to be talking about something that was made by Al-heim Lindt foundation.”

“You know about it, Ren?”

On the opposite side of the round sofa for one person, he sat there looking at a book; Mahoen smiled and nodded.

“I know. Quite well too. Because of that, my masterpiece resort fell out. Who can forget that? quite a suffocating situation.”

He had a warm smile, but his eyes were in anger.

I looked at him, hoping he would explain it more, as he did.

“The origin of the theme part was ‘Castle of Nightmare’ in Rabam Nation in the eastern continent. And its planning setting and design were borrowed from ‘The Quiet Garden’.”

“Anything more?”

“Yes. But after the opening there were a lot of ugly rumors going around, and in the end an accident happened. And with that the ‘Castle of Nightmare’ was stopped. And the one which was a tackle for my resort came to an it. That was it. Looks like it will be demolished.”

“I see. Do you plan on making it into a resort?”

Please say no.

“Obviously. Isn’t it too troublesome to go all the way to the Eastern continent? It will be a cool site to visit in summer, so it should be fine.”

“No. it is fine, Ren. Just demolish it.”

Ren shook his head as he couldn’t go along with my words as I said it.

“By the way, what was the accident?”

Was I asking this because of what happened this time? When I asked if the rumors were there from the start, Ren talked as if nothing wrong had happened.

“A young girl who came to play from a foreign nation died. It was quite gruesome since a lot of people had witnessed it.”

“… I see.”