<CHAPTER 33>

I Wish You’d Stay By My Side

Aksion wore an expression that suggested something didn’t sit right with him.
Evelyn, bewildered by his reaction, raised her eyes slightly.
‘Is it because it doesn’t suit me very well?’
She glanced down at her own attire unnecessarily.
The dress that Madame Angela had altered differed from the previous one only in the depth of the slit.
Aksion must be showing that reaction because the dress didn’t suit his fiancée.
‘I told you so. Who told you to gift it?’
“Drawing lines on a pumpkin won’t make it a watermelon, I suppose.”
Evelyn pouted her lips as if to say he was being spiteful.
However, contrary to her thoughts, Aksion showed completely unexpected behavior.
Why is he approaching me?
Evelyn’s pupils trembled in confusion at the sudden situation, unable to step back.
The man who stopped right before her feet removed the wool jacket he was wearing and draped it over her shoulders.
Then he began fastening the buttons one by one from the top.
At the abruptly close distance, Evelyn momentarily seemed to forget how to breathe.
How much time had passed?
His tightly pressed lips loosened.
“This suits you better.”
“What…… are you doing right now?”
At her question tinged with bewilderment, Aksion raised one eyebrow obliquely.
“Did you plan to go wearing only that dress?”
“Say it properly. You were the one who gifted it to me.”
Evelyn glared at her fiancée with petulant eyes.
The man who neither affirmed nor denied soon let out a low sigh.
He must have belatedly realized the atmosphere of the banquet.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t be looking at the dress he had gifted with such dissatisfaction.
Staring at her as if lost in thought, Aksion spoke with a deliberately serious expression.
“If I had known it was this kind of place.”
“?”
“I wouldn’t have brought you.”
What, is he feeling sorry toward me right now?
But Evelyn didn’t particularly hold any resentment toward him.
She had her own separate purpose for attending the Night-Blooming Banquet.
‘Dr. Fabian said he would come here too, right?’
In the original story, it was written that a famous figure from the Magic Tower’s affiliated Life Research Institute would attend today’s banquet.
He must have come to investigate the smuggling of prohibited drugs, just like Aksion.
‘To obtain Mordian………………’
Evelyn absolutely needed to make a deal with him to obtain the fertilizer necessary for her poison research.
Currently, contact with Magic Tower personnel was the only way to acquire Mordian.
While she was steeling her resolve, Aksion’s hand that was escorting her gradually tightened with strength.
When Evelyn tilted her head to the side, the man whispered lowly.
“Today, I wish you’d stay by my side.”
Aksion’s pupils, looking at her with her brow slightly furrowed, revealed a red glint.
“Don’t go wandering off to strange places for no reason.”
Having arrived before the banquet hall, Evelyn exchanged silent glances with Aksion.
In any case, they were in the same boat as partners.
Her fiancée had attended the banquet to capture a high-ranking member of the Dark Guild who had smuggled in prohibited drugs.
‘Committing evil deeds in a place like this, they must have guts spilling outside their stomach.’
Recalling the criminal trading drugs illegally at a social gathering, Evelyn clicked her tongue.
Illegal acts being committed right in the heart of the capital was tantamount to demonstrating the Emperor’s incompetence.
Therefore, she couldn’t help but raise her expectations for the next ruler.
Though not for the Crown Prince, but for a different figure.
“What are you thinking so deeply about?”
“Ah, nothing.”
Startled back to her senses by her fiancée’s words, Evelyn soon adjusted her mask.
Since the dress code for this banquet was ‘masks,’ the attendees wouldn’t easily recognize each other’s identities.
Aksion took out an invitation letter from his breast pocket.
The invitation was written with golden ink on black paper.
After checking the invitation, the gatekeeper bowed politely to them and opened the banquet hall doors wide.
“Welcome to the Night-Blooming Banquet!”
Upon entering the banquet hall, cheerful trumpet sounds rang out as if announcing the two’s arrival.
Soon, colorful confetti poured out from magical fireworks.
‘What, was this place always like this?’
Confused by the unexpected welcome, Evelyn hesitated and took a step back.
As if to support his partner, Aksion wrapped his arm around her slender waist.
“I told you. It would be better if you stayed by my side today.”
The man’s red lips curved into an elegant smile, catching the eye.
“With this appearance, everyone will avoid me on their own, won’t they?”
Who does he think would approach me when he won’t even let me take off the jacket?
At her words, the man only slightly tugged at one corner of his mouth without saying much.
In any case, Evelyn intended to seek out Dr. Fabian herself today.
Since the original story described what mask Fabian wore, she believed she had a chance.
Moreover, she strongly didn’t want to interfere with Aksion’s undercover investigation.
‘Because perhaps I might uncover the drug case even before Kalid.’
Today, she had a feeling that things would proceed smoothly.
Evelyn, having stepped one pace away from her fiancée, opened her mouth primly.
“I’ll just stay here. You’re busy today anyway.”
At those words, Aksion raised one eyebrow crookedly.
Then he asked in an extremely dry voice.
“Are you telling me to leave you behind right now?”
For some reason, a chilling atmosphere circulated around the man.
She felt cold sweat trickling down her spine.
I haven’t done anything bad, so why am I so nervous?
Evelyn wet her dry lips with her tongue and shook her head.
“I have someone I need to meet today.”
“Here?”
At Aksion’s question that seemed to require explanation, she continued briefly.
“Yes, I need to obtain an important sample.”
Only then did the man’s expression seem to relax slightly.
Perhaps in his eyes, his fiancée appeared as a plant enthusiast.
Well, that wasn’t entirely wrong.
When she shrugged her shoulders slightly in relief.
“Outside the banquet hall is dangerous, so as much as possibleㅡ”
“You really treat me like a child. I’m a fully grown adult, you know?”
Evelyn cut off her fiancée’s words mid-sentence and glanced at him without malice.
Aksion let out a short, languid laugh as if amused, then took out a necklace from his breast pocket.
Then he slowly moved his steps and reached his hand toward her neck.
When the man’s hand lightly brushed against Evelyn’s pale nape, a subtle tremor was transmitted instantly.
‘Wh-what is this………………’
At the unfamiliar sensation, she felt the area around her neck inexplicably heating up.
The purple necklace looked unusual at first glance.
“Aksion, what is this?”
Evelyn, hiding her flustered expression, asked in a deliberately calm voice.
Aksion bowed his head and recited lowly.
“I’ve cast a tracking spell on it.”
The man shrugged his shoulders slightly and spoke as if it were no big deal.
“So you won’t get involved in unnecessary matters.”
Why is he suddenly worrying about me so much?
Perhaps Aksion was feeling a sense of responsibility.
Regarding having brought his fiancée here for his own purposes.
‘But such things won’t happen anyway.’
In the original story, aside from the drug incident at the banquet hall, no other incidents occurred.
Moreover, the male protagonist Kalid had quickly suppressed the scene, allowing the banquet to proceed without incident.
Still, Evelyn was curious.
What exactly was Aksion keeping in mind when he gifted her this necklace with a tracking spell.
“For example?”
When she finally voiced the question that had been lingering at the corner of her mouth, a strange spark gleamed in the man’s red eyes.
Soon Aksion answered leisurely in a nonchalant tone, as if it were nothing.
“I could eliminate the flies approaching you.”
‘I’m not sure if I should say this………………! You look the most dangerous.’