[CHAPTER 53]
“Let’s go inside somewhere and talk.”
She held Caliph with one hand.
With the other, she pulled Gigi along and stepped into a random cafe.
“âŚâŚ.”
Caliph kept his lips tightly sealed with a terrifying expression, but fortunately he didnât resist and followed.
Gigi, on the other hand, was busy smiling brightly at Mayna as if thrilled to see her.
Even though she had fallen on her backside because of Caliph, there was no sign of annoyance at all.
“This is so amazing, Mayna! What an incredible coincidence!”
“Haha. Y-yeah.”
“What brings you here, Mayna? I saw you holding a pamphlet.”
Gigiâs eyes sparkled as she leaned in close.
“Donât tell me youâre watching the same play as us?”
At her bright, ringing voice, Caliph frowned and covered his ears.
Mayna glanced between the two and pressed her lips together.
“No, Lady. I just⌔
She had only come here to take care of something and had no plans to see the play, but Gigi seemed to have already reached her own conclusion long before hearing Mayna’s answer.
“Correct.”
“What?”
“You have a lover now, right?”
“No!”
“Youâre watching it with your lover!”
“No, thatâs not it, Lady.”
“It is!”
“Ah.”
When Gigi smacked Maynaâs arm, Caliph wrinkled his brow again.
Mayna rubbed her arm and continued to explain, but Gigi just narrowed her eyes and smiled like a girl who had discovered her friendâs secret by accident.
“Itâs fine, Mayna! Iâll keep it secret!”
“Thereâs nothing to keep secâ”
“Youâre so shy, you know that?”
“Thereâs nothing to be shy abâ”
“Anyway, itâs perfect.”
Gigi sipped her hot coffee as if moistening her throat.
With her cheeks flushed and her lips lightly biting down, she looked between Caliph and herself and said:
“We decided to take our time and get to know each other.”
“âŚâŚ.”
Mayna closed her mouth.
Caliph almost let out a laugh but swallowed it.
It wasnât entirely untrue.
âLetâs take our time and get to know each other.â was a line Caliph had actually said just moments ago, right as they left the Beririch Marquisate.
Though the real exchange had gone like this:
“Sir Renox?”
“Yes, my lady.”
“So are we starting from day one today?”
“What are you evenâ”
“What?!”
“âŚLetâs take our time.”
“Oh my? Sir Renox, youâre very cautious when it comes to ladies, arenât you?”
“âŚSure, letâs go with that.”
Mayna, who had been silent for a while, finally spoke.
“I see.”
“Yes! Hehe.”
“Good for you, Lady. Congratulations.”
Speaking calmly, Mayna even smiled warmly at Gigi.
Watching her, Caliphâs expression twisted like stale bread.
“Kyaa! Thank you. I wanted to tell you first, Mayna! To be honest, I never had a chance to run into Sir Renox. But then⌔
Gigi, excited, began chattering nonstop.
Mayna pretended not to notice Caliph glaring at her like he wanted to burn a hole through her face, and she continued entertaining Gigiâs story.
The hawker earlier, and then Gigi herself, both claimed Caliph and Gigi were lovers, but Mayna knew the truth.
Even if the world ended tomorrow, that would never happen.
Caliph always stirred up rumors, but despite his flashy reputation, he never actually dated anyone.
If he had been secretly dating someone without Mayna noticing while she monitored his every move, maybe that would be different, but as far as she knew, he hadnât.
And the reason he didnât date had nothing to do with duty or responsibility.
More likeâŚ
Mayna looked at Caliph sitting across from her.
A bit annoyed, or perhaps simply emotionless, wearing that dry expression.
Right.
For the past seven years, he seemed to find the idea of romance itself troublesome.
He didnât look like someone who valued giving and receiving affection.
He was the type who would rather throw emotions and time onto the street than spend them on someone else.
Caliph Renox was that kind of man.
“Oh my! Iâll go enjoy a bit of contemplation!”
Clearly heading to the restroom, Gigi left with a strange excuse.
Only after she disappeared did Caliph let out a hollow laugh.
“I donât know why Iâm doing this idiotic nonsense.”
“âŚâŚ.”
It was deeply self-mocking.
The reason he had even come out with the Beririch Marquisâ eccentric youngest daughter was to figure out what was on Maynaâs mind lately.
He wanted to know anything she was thinking.
But instead of getting what he wanted, he found himself stuck in this ridiculous farce.
“Ha.”
Caliph, his expression icy, laughed only with sound.
As he looked at Mayna quietly savoring her coffee, he thought:
That unreadable woman definitely doesnât believe Gigi and I are lovers.
First, she wasnât an idiot like Gigi.
Second, she knew him better than anyone.
But if this were the old Mayna, she wouldnât have reacted this way to Gigiâs claim that the two had decided to start dating.
If there had been a misunderstanding, she would have corrected it before it turned into something worse.
She knew from experience that when resentful women teamed up with snake-like reporters, they could be far more terrifying than monsters.
“The sun is about to set.”
“âŚâŚ.”
“Shouldnât you get going? The play is about to start.”
But now Mayna was calmly reminding him about the play as if nothing mattered.
As if she didnât care that the famous Caliph Renox might be seen watching a play alone with the famous Beririch Marquisâ daughter.
He knew too.
Even if that shady hawker and Mayna had leaned close to talk, even if they whispered to each other, there was no way they would end up dating or anything like it.
Looking back, Mayna had always seemed like someone who didnât know how to harbor romantic feelings for anyone.
No matter how handsome or capable a man was, to Mayna he was either someone she needed to work well with or simply someone irrelevant enough to pass by.
So the only reason he rolled his eyes whenever she so much as talked to another man was because of his own heart.
Why?
What was she to him?
If his aide fell for another man, why should that be a problem at all?
“Letâs go when the Lady returns.”
“âŚâŚ.”
“Sir Renox?”
Mayna called him again.
DRRRKâ!
Startled, Mayna flinched and followed his movements with her eyes.
Caliph stood without a word and walked out of the cafe.
When Gigi returned and heard he had already left, she looked stunned.
“Should we look for him together?”
Knowing instinctively they wouldnât find him, Mayna soothed Gigi and led her outside.
It was already completely night.
“Itâs so dark.”
“Yeah⌔
Mayna looked around the pitch-black surroundings and trailed off.
Strange.
It was just past seven in the evening.
Considering it was summer and the days were long, it was odd for it to be this dark already.
“Mayna. Isnât it a bit cold?”
A faint white breath escaped Gigiâs lips.
“Yes. It is⌔
Maynaâs breath also came out in white mist.
A sharp sense of wrongness took hold of her entire body.
Then someone walking nearby pointed at the sky.
“What is that?”
Following his finger, they saw a massive cloud-like darkness swallowing the sky at incredible speed.
Somethingâs wrong.
And at that momentâ
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaa!”
A sharp scream of warning echoed from somewhere in the distance.
