Why Are You So Obsessed With Rejecting Affection? - Chapter 61

I boldly skipped through the room I had seen with the Grand Duke a while ago, immediately opening the door to another room.

‘Why were there yellow lights through the cracks of the door…?’

A lot of yellow light poured out of the gap as I slowly opened the door, and this time, I was nervous about something else.

Nothing inside the room was perfectly displayed, the entirety of it was just filled with what looked almost like a flowing, golden river.

“Meowww!”

At my surprise, I accidentally tightened the grip of my arms holding Miya, and she cried out immediately.

“Sorry, sorry, I got too excited…”

“Meoww.”

Miya jumped out of my arms as we got closer to the golden river.

“Miya! What am I to do if you suddenly run like that!”

I shouted in surprise but Miya just blinked at me a few times as if it was just okay and ran around the golden river. Her golden footprints on the floor were shaped like little jellyfish.

“Ah, I guess this is the source of that rumor!”

“Huh?”

‘It was Franc,’ she exclaimed with a face full of curiosity.

I tilted my head, stopping my hand from touching the gold, handling it delicately as if I was kneading a ball of bread dough.

“There have been rumors of huge gold nuggets stored in the treasury for a while.”

“Is that what this is?”

“Ah, I’ve also heard about it from the Headmaid. The gold nuggets were imbued with magic so that our Master can tear a chunk of them off easily and use them all.”

Nina said cleverly following Franc’s words.

Hmm, okay. I stood up straight, took a step back, then jumped straight into the soft gold nugget blob.

As if I had jumped on top of a giant pudding, the gold swayed softly but supported me.

“Oh my, young lady!”

“Come in if you both want to come in. When will you be able to lay on magical gold again?”

When I picked out some gold and cast it around with my hands, Franc jumped right next to me, unlike Nina who hesitated.

“Oh my God… this gold… the smell of wealth… it makes me feel rich. I have no regrets even if I die…”

“Th-then I will, just a little bit……”

Franc busily moved around, sniffed and muttered to herself. Then the relatively passive and smart Nina hesitated, slowly raising her toes. I let the two of them play to their heart’s content as they wished as they roamed on their hands around the giant gold nugget.

“I think you like this the most out of all the things you’ve seen in the warehouse, young lady. Is there a special reason behind it?” Franc asked with twinkling eyes.

Well I guess, not many people like this….

“Who would ever have an experience like this? It’s like lying on a giant pudding.”

Then I saw Franc whispering to Nina. I wanted to know what they were talking about, but all I could hear was ‘Indeed… likes….’

‘The two of them played well.’

I propped up my butt, pulling my body off of the plump gold, then got up and jumped onto the floor. I was thinking of leaving the two of them to play.

“Miya, let’s go.”

When I reached out my arms to get her, Miya flapped her tail at me and turned her head away.

Usually, you listen to me very well, but you seem to really like this place. I thought I was the only thing Miya likes but her tastes were extremely unexpected.

“I’m going to go? I’m really going to leave you behind Miyaa…!”

Even though her tail was elongated towards me, I somehow felt betrayed, but Miya didn’t move an inch and continued making golden jellyfish marks. (e/n: look up cats kneading if you want a better visual of what Miya is doing)

“This… you like gold more than you like me! Then I will leave you here Miya! Unnie will really go alone!”

My lips trembled as my tears were threatening to fall when Miya pretended not to hear me despite my last warning. As I l looked like that, Nina and Franc were looking at me holding their breaths and laughing.

“Take good care of Miya here, both of you, I will be looking around.”

“You shouldn’t be going alone… I’ll leave her here and follow you!”

“It’s alright, stay here.”

Nina tried to get up right away, but she couldn’t get up right away from the soft pudding and struggled a few more times.

I sighed at Nina and went out of the room that was full of golden nuggets.

There is no danger in the house anyway.

‘Where should I go?’

I could imagine how many more strange things were inside the other rooms just looking at the giant pudding-like gold nuggets.

‘Come to think of it.’

I suddenly remembered the day I saw a boy in front of the portrait, as I was contemplating whether to open the next room with the keys in my hand.

I thought he was just my illusion and a mistake when I first saw him there. Should I try looking for some clues about that ghost boy since this is the first clue I found?

I put the keys to the rooms inside my pocket and walked over to the wall, where the portrait of the founder was located.

“Excuse me… are you here by any chance?”

I approached the portrait and called for him, but of course, no one showed up.

Ei, he isn’t here today? I stared intently at the portrait in front of me instead of the boy who wasn’t here.

‘He’s really handsome.’

He was a man with long, black hair, drawn delicately every strand of it.

There were already many handsome and beautiful men around me, but this portrait has something different.

An inhuman beauty – it was such a strange feeling like I was in deep awe at seeing his majestic nature.

‘Now that I look at him, he looks like that child.’

I feel like his eyes and atmosphere were similar to the boy, but their hair color and facial features were slightly different.

Perhaps, a ghost from the Grand Duchy?

But there were no portraits of successive direct lineages of this place….

I tilted my head and scanned the portrait carefully.

His sitting posture with a book on his lap while looking at it was quite unique.

‘Well, come to think of it, why is this portrait painted to include lower than the bust?’

The other portraits in the hallway were drawn until their chests so you can have a better look at their face, however, this portrait is different.

‘Is that book from the mansion?’

Does that book have any important meaning?

I looked carefully at the bottom of the picture.

With his fingers pointing to somewhere, the man with the book on his lap looks like he was pointing to something.

‘He seems to be telling me something.’

As my eyes blinked, I realized that the tip of his finger was pointing to the opposite wall.

“Do you have something to tell me?”

I thought his fingers were pointing to the book but it was subtly pointing out of the way. I tilted my head as I walked along the wall while following the imaginary line.

“It’s like solving a secret.”

There is no way the hidden history of this mansion will have remained untouched even if it has been around a long time….

Regardless, I felt that something was out of place as I approached the wall with that thought in my mind. I tried to knock on the wall, then the sound reverberated as if there was a hollow cavity somewhere inside.

‘Huh? What is this…….’

As if I was possessed by that certain part of the wall, I pounded hard on it and I clearly felt the space inside it.

I was thinking of choosing whether to bring someone, or try to break it using a bat, so I was about to unleash my spirit powers…

“Ah!”

A light suddenly flashed with a strange-looking magic circle appearing on the wall on its own!

“This, what is this!”

I heard a thud as I screamed.

“Meoooooooooooow!”

“Miya! Young lady!”

Miya suddenly ran towards me along with the voice calling me. She then stood in front of me as if protecting me, and stared at the wall while growling.

“Ahh! Our house seems to be falling apart…!”
“Young lady! Nina!”

The wall slowly fell from top to the bottom. My eyes quivered in fear. Nina ran in front of me and covered me with her body upon seeing the wall crumble. I hugged her and closed my eyes tightly.

“Huhh…?”

I waited for the shock to happen as I closed my eyes, but nothing happened, I could only hear Franc’s sob on the contrary. I slowly opened my eyes and looked at the wall.

“Gyuu.” (T/N: It somehow reminded me of the cute creature from a manhwa. Cutieeee)

Something cried inside the broken wall.

Inside it was a silver monster sitting and occasionally flapping the wings on its back, but it wasn’t that scary.

It was very cute on the contrary with its round appearance, with its long mouth shaped like a smile. It also has small and shiny horns on top of its head.

While it has scales like that of a reptile, its silver scales were shining with five different colors that looked beautiful rather than disgusting. Its body was like a doll, supposedly slightly bigger than Miya’s. It was small enough to barely fit in my arms if I held it.

“What is this……?”

“Meowwwww.”

As I slowly got back to my senses, Miya let out a low cry as if warning me.

“What are you?”

I drew closer to the monster, staring intently into its purple eyes. There was no hostility, and it didn’t look like it would harm me.

‘I’ve seen those eyes somewhere…’

Oh, I know.

The Grand Duke and my brothers have the same eye color, the only difference was that its pupil was vertically elongated. I also noticed that those purple eyes resembled the man in the portrait.

Considering the color and shape of its eyes, it looked more like the founder than the Grand Duke.

‘By any chance….’

What an absurd imagination. The creature in front of me was alive no matter how I looked at it.

The Grand Duchy was obviously a very historic family with a history of a thousand years. Since it was very impossible to paint the founder of this family a hundred years later, it means that this child was also in there for a thousand years – a time when no other living creature could possibly survive.

My mouth opened spontaneously.

“You… are you a dragon?”

“Kyuu – “

Yes, it’s a dragon.

The dragon answered immediately when I asked about its identity. It was strange how I was able to understand its language even though I wasn’t looking at a person’s face.

“Aaaaaah! Get away from that, Young lady!”

Nina and Franc immediately stopped in front of me as I blinked my eyes and spoke to the dragon.

“Krrrr…!”

The baby dragon howled loudly as if it was angry.

How can a howl be that loud coming from a small body, my heart was pounding.

“Ahh!”

“Uu, uuwaa…!”

Both Nina and Franc fell on the floor. It seemed unstoppable.

“Nina, Franc, are you okay? Why are you screaming!”

I was somewhat angry seeing Nina and Franc trembling on the floor. When I yelled towards the dragon, it looked at me in displeasure.

Then it slowly flapped its wings with a slightly sad face.

With the dragon watching me, I checked on the condition of Nina and Franc.

“Are you both okay?”

“Yes, yes…”

The two of them sighed for a long time, and there seemed to be no injuries or shocks.

‘First… I have to get out of here because it’s a mess.’