TMSTGH 07

Chapter 7

There was something my parents often said to me.

“You’re too sensitive, and you have absolutely no luck when it comes to people.”

I never denied it.

I was sensitive, and I really did seem to have terrible luck with people.

But what happened today wasn’t because I was too sensitive or unlucky.

No, if I hadn’t been sensitive, I wouldn’t have noticed anything wrong in the first place.

And if this man hadn’t opened my eyes to it…

I looked at Rashak through the bars.

He wore an expression of keen interest, as though he found the process of my gradually uncovering the truth with his help fascinating.

“It seems your younger sister is determined to make me handle the food preparations after all.”

I spoke with a bitter expression.

“…My parents probably went along with it, too. They’re hoping I’ll persuade Count Brent to get Renoa and Allen married as soon as possible.”

They wanted to saddle me with debt so that I would have no choice but to contact my parents and return to living under their roof.

Why were they so desperate for me to come home?

When I’d asked them before, they’d said it was because they worried about me being so careless and incapable of looking after myself.

But when Renoa stole Allen away from me, their concern hadn’t been directed toward me.

Instead, they’d worried even more about Renoa, tending to her every need with the utmost devotion.

So… now I understood.

My parents weren’t worried about me.

They simply needed me to be obedient and do as I was told.

Under their control, how I felt and what I thought had never mattered to them in the first place.

And yet Renoa could do whatever she pleased, and they’d never even raised their voices at her…

“Are you okay?”

My voice trembled as I answered.

“…I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine.”

“Yes. Actually, I’m not.”

I understood it intellectually. I’d comprehended the situation and accepted it.

But my heart hadn’t caught up.

Did things really have to go this far?

Why was my family so cruel to me?

The thoughts made it difficult to breathe.

I sat frozen, unable even to sigh, when—

“Wait a moment. I’ll get you out.”

I blinked rapidly as I watched Rashak stand up.

“What? But the hundred million…”

“You don’t need to compensate anyone. There’s no way someone would spend a hundred million on a vase they intended to smash anyway. It was probably a lie from the very beginning.”

Oh. Right.

“But… we can’t prove my suspicions.”

“Why bother proving anything? We can just tell them to let you out.”

“Can we really do that?”

Rashak answered casually.

“I can.”

And a little while later, I walked out of the holding cell without a single hair on my head harmed.

I could hardly believe it, so I kept glancing nervously at the guards. But the guards themselves were watching Rashak.

Well, it wasn’t as if they didn’t know who he was. He was the boss of the Barsen Organization, after all.

Letting me go without picking a fight with Rashak would save them a headache, too.

Besides, I hadn’t committed any serious crime.

“What are you dawdling for? Have you already grown attached to your cell?”

His teasing snapped me out of my thoughts, and I hurried over to his side.

When we stepped outside the guard station, Mr. Fidel was waiting with the carriage.

After hesitating for a moment, I spoke.

“Thank you for helping me. If it weren’t for you, Boss, I wouldn’t have been able to get out.”

At my words, Rashak stopped on his way to the carriage and turned to look at me.

This time, I didn’t avoid his gaze. I meant every word, and I wanted him to know that.

After studying me for a long moment, Rashak spoke.

“So? Feeling a little more motivated to come work for me now?”

“A little…”

“A little?”

“Actually, a lot.”

He chuckled. I smiled, too.

It was strangely amusing to find myself smiling face-to-face with the boss of an underworld organization. Somehow, that only made my smile grow wider.

“Give me your final answer tomorrow. For now, get in the carriage. I’ll take you home.”

I nodded and began following him.

Then—

“Hiel.”

I stopped at the sudden voice.

It came from quite a distance away, but it was so familiar that I couldn’t possibly mistake it.

I turned around, and—

“…Allen?”

The moment I said his name, Allen stepped out of the darkness.

Bright blond hair and clear blue eyes the color of the sky on a sunny day.

He looked a little gaunt, but…

There was no mistaking him. It was Allen.

The man I had once loved so deeply.

The man who was now engaged to my younger sister, Renoa.

My shoulders stiffened instinctively. They stiffened even more when Renoa appeared beside him.

“Allen! Could you slow down a little…?”

Renoa stopped short when she spotted Rashak. She seemed to remember their previous encounter.

The whole situation was uncomfortable. Unpleasant, even.

The two of them standing side by side like that.

…But today, I didn’t want to keep avoiding them.

“Boss, you can go ahead without me. Thank you so much for everything today.”

I bowed politely.

Rashak seemed to consider it for a moment before finally turning away.

I sensed Mr. Fidel’s gaze lingering on me briefly, but I bowed to him as well.

Then, as soon as the carriage departed, I turned back to the two of them.

“I have something to say. Let’s go somewhere else.”

The place Allen led us to was an exceptionally luxurious café.

Most of the customers were young noblewomen, and the prices on the menu I glanced at were enough to make my eyes bulge.

Allen strode into one of the café’s private rooms as though he were perfectly familiar with the place.

Renoa stayed glued to his side.

…So they must come here together often.

The Allen I knew hated desserts, and places like this had always been his idea of a nightmare.

But now wasn’t the time to feel bitter over something like that.

The moment I sat down, I got straight to the point.

“Today’s incident. It was your doing, wasn’t it, Renoa?”

Renoa, who had been carefully lowering herself into her chair, froze. She shot me a sharp look.

“What are you talking about, all of a sudden?”

“I had a little accident while walking down the street today. Thanks to that, I was detained at the guard station until just now.”

“Did you get yourself into trouble again? Typical of you, Sister.”

“I wasn’t being careless. Someone deliberately came up and bumped into me.”

“And you think I arranged that?”

Renoa let out a cold laugh, looking utterly incredulous.

“Why would I do something like that?”

“Because I refused your proposal, and you wanted to make things difficult for me. It was also a convenient way to force me to come back home.”

“I’m so glad I don’t live with you anymore, Sister.”

“If you’re so glad, why did you come to see me last time and ask me to help you?”

“Help? That’s ridiculous. I was simply informing you of a responsibility you’d neglected. It was a notification, not a request! Please, can you stop blaming me for every misfortune that befalls you?”

“You were the cause of this particular misfortune.”

“I’ll have you know that I had absolutely nothing to do with that vase—”

“But I never said anything about a vase.”

Her fingertips suddenly trembled.

“You really did do it.”

Her lips, which had been moving nonstop, fell silent.

“…Hiel is right. It was Renoa’s doing.”

Allen, who had remained quiet until then, took my side.

Renoa’s expression twisted more violently than I’d ever seen before.

“I only found out a little while ago myself. …I’m sorry.”

“…”

“I should have realized what was happening sooner and gotten you out of there.”

I knew Allen almost as well as I knew Renoa.

He genuinely looked sorry.

So… he must have found out from Renoa and come to get me out as soon as he could. That’s why we ran into each other.

After a faint sigh, I shook my head.

“It’s fine. I’m already out, anyway. I just hope nothing like this happens again.”

“…Understood. I’ll make sure Renoa knows better.”

His tone made it sound as though he were dealing with a troublesome younger sister, and Renoa’s face flushed even redder.

However, she didn’t scream at him like she had earlier. It seemed that even Renoa, who had spent her entire life doing whatever she pleased, cared about what Allen thought of her.

“Fine. I’ll leave that to you.”

That should have been the end of the conversation.

There was no reason for me to keep sitting there with those two. I was just getting up to leave when—

“…However, I agree that you should return home.”

At those words, the Brent family’s townhouse in the noble residential district immediately came to mind.

The place where Allen, Renoa, and my mother were staying.

The place I’d left four months ago.

I clenched my fists and turned to face him.

“Go back? Me? There?”

“Your mother is very worried about you. Running the shop… you’ve been through a lot of emotional hardship, haven’t you?”

In other words, both my parents and Allen had heard all the rumors about me.

I’d always known it would be difficult to keep them hidden forever, especially since they were only rumors. Still, hearing it said so directly made it hard to hold my head up.

It felt as though the little pride I had left was being crushed to pieces.

“I know none of this is your fault. There must have been another misunderstanding. You’ve always had strange things like this happen to you.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine.”

“…I believe I’ll be fine eventually. And I’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen.”

I spoke with my eyes lowered.

I didn’t want him to see how uncertain I really felt.

But at least one part of what I’d said was true. I intended to do everything I could to get back on my feet. Somehow, some way…

“Then how are you going to get better?”

The unexpected question made me raise my eyes to him.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m sorry if I’ve upset you. But I’m talking about a very practical problem. You’re worried about how you’re going to pay your living expenses right now, aren’t you?”

“…”

“If you come back home, I can take care of everything. And as for your future employment, the count’s household can…”

What?

“The count’s household?”

I stared at him, repeating the words.

The count’s household?

“You mean the very household where you and Renoa will get married and live as husband and wife… you want me to work there, under the two of you?”

“It won’t be easy, I know. But this is for your sake. Wherever you go, trouble always seems to follow you. Even when you don’t mean for it to happen, misfortune always finds its way to you…”

That was the moment my patience finally snapped.

Without a moment’s hesitation, I picked up the glass of water in front of me and threw its contents straight into his face.

Splash!

It was as though time had stopped inside the room.

Allen and Renoa were both so shocked that they froze in place.

I was the only one who moved.

“You’re doing this for my sake? Shut up, Allen Brent.”

“…”

“Don’t ever come looking for me again.”

I slammed the door shut with a resounding BANG!

It was the first time in my life I’d ever slammed a door that hard, yet my anger refused to subside.

I turned around, marched back down the corridor, opened the door again, and shouted—

“And I already have a place where I can get a job, you know?!”