Chapter: 12
Canna, dressed beautifully and even wearing makeup, knocked on the door of the second-floor office.
When she heard permission to enter, she quickly went inside.
Wayne and Piru were sitting side by side on the sofa, looking through documents.
Wayne had his arms crossed while Piru turned the pages of the documents placed on the reading stand for him.
“Canna, what is it?”
Piru adjusted his glasses and asked instead. Meanwhile, Wayne showed no particular reaction and kept his eyes fixed only on the documents.
“I came to bring you some snacks.”
She answered shyly while trying to make her voice as sweet as possible.
“It’s already 4 o’clock? Put them in front.”
“Yes.”
Canna walked confidently toward them and placed the tray containing pistachio cookies beside Wayne.
Even though Canna had approached him, Wayne’s burning red eyes remained focused on reading the documents.
Canna, who wanted to properly meet his gaze even for a moment, could not immediately step away.
“Your Grace, I’m worried because you haven’t been eating properly lately.”
“……”
“If there is anything you would like to eat, please tell me. I will prepare it immediately. Even if it is a snack from another city, so please don’t worry and feel free to……”
“It’s fine.”
Only after asking several times was Canna finally able to hear Wayne’s voice.
His low voice made her heart pound loudly.
“Or should I buy the pickled tomatoes Your Grace likes? I was actually thinking of briefly visiting my hometown anyway.”
“No.”
“Then perhaps some alcohol……”
“Canna, do I look like I’m free right now?”
It meant she should stop talking and leave because he was working.
Even that warning was spoken without Wayne giving her a single glance.
Sensing that she should not say anything more, she slowly began backing away.
“Wait, that dress… Isn’t that the one His Grace gave Miss Vally?”
Piru noticed first and his eyes widened.
He immediately recognized it because it was one of the dresses Wayne had chosen together with a salon designer after calling them to the mansion.
At those words, for the first time, Wayne’s eyes slowly turned toward Canna.
“……”
His red eyes slowly examined her outfit.
The gaze Canna had desperately wanted was finally directed at her, but she could not feel happy and instead froze.
Because Wayne’s expression had become colder than when she had spoken to him moments ago.
The light purple dress Canna was wearing was a dress that Wayne and Piru had even disagreed about.
“Three sets of everyday clothes should already be enough.”
“I know.”
“You said she might leave after one month. But buying even formal clothes is……”
“I’ll buy those too.”
“Excuse me? Your Grace!”
The reason Wayne had bought that dress as well was simple.
He wanted to see Vally wearing that light purple dress in the garden at least once.
It was a small and casual reason, but seeing Canna wearing it instead of the image he had imagined did not make Wayne feel pleasant.
“Is what Piru said true?”
Rather than asking for confirmation, it was closer to telling her to properly explain what had happened.
Since this was the question she had been waiting for, Canna prepared herself.
She lowered the ends of her eyebrows, trembled her lower lip, and made a pitiful expression.
“Yes. It is the dress Your Grace gave Miss Vally.”
“Then why are you wearing it?”
“Miss Vally threw it away for me.”
Wayne’s left eyebrow slightly twitched.
“I delivered the clothes to Miss Vally according to Your Grace’s orders. However, she checked them so roughly as if she would tear them apart, then said this dress was not to her taste and told me to throw it away immediately before throwing it in front of me.”
“……”
“At first, I was going to do as she said, but I could not bring myself to ignore the feelings Your Grace put into preparing it. So I dared to keep it.”
Wayne silently listened, then lowered his gaze from Canna and returned to looking at the documents.
Canna was flustered because he showed less reaction than she expected.
She pouted her lips and made herself look even more like she was about to cry.
“I only did it for Your Grace’s sake. If you are upset, then I will throw it away again……”
“Enough. Wear it.”
The answer she wanted came out.
Canna almost smiled brightly, so she quickly covered her mouth with the back of her hand and nodded.
“Thank you. Every time I wear it, I will think of Your Grace……”
“Leave now.”
Wayne said it to show that he did not want to continue the conversation.
Piru, who had stayed silent, also quickly waved his hand, telling her to leave.
Since she had achieved her goal, Canna had nothing more to ask for.
She bowed politely and quickly left the office.
All the way back to the dormitory, her smile never disappeared.
“Hehe, as expected, he really cares about me specially. If it were another maid, he would have told her to throw it away immediately.”
Inside the office, where they did not know Canna’s reaction, only silence remained.
Wayne continued looking through the documents without a single change in expression.
Piru, however, bit his lips, fidgeted with his nails, and watched him nervously, not knowing what to do.
“What are you doing?”
“Yes, yes?”
“Turn the page.”
At those words, Piru carefully asked.
“…Are you alright?”
“What about?”
“She said she threw away the clothes Your Grace gave her. How could someone not understand the sincerity behind it? She truly has no shame.”
Piru sounded so angry that it seemed he might rush out immediately.
Yet Wayne remained calm, as if it was someone else’s matter.
“She probably didn’t like it.”
“Excuse me? If someone took the time to prepare something for her, she should at least say thank you.”
“I didn’t give it to her expecting that.”
Wayne casually gestured with his chin, telling him to simply turn the pages.
He could not even turn a single sheet of paper himself because anything he touched would burn.
Piru was angry, but since Wayne himself was not bothered, he had no choice but to suppress it and continue turning the documents.
“It is a long explanation, but in the end, it seems the Imperial Family means that Your Grace should not participate in monster exterminations for the time being.”
“I see.”
“What reason do they have for suddenly worrying about Your Grace’s health?”
“Because they are not worried.”
“Excuse me?”
“They don’t want me to be sent out unnecessarily and become a hero remembered for dying for the Empire.”
Understanding the hidden meaning, Piru looked even more hurt.
“How could they do this when the Viterad family has sacrificed itself as the Empire’s special forces for generations……”
“It means we have become useless.”
Wayne clenched the fist of the arm he had crossed and stood up from the sofa.
Everything he had requested from the Imperial Family until now had been rejected.
When fire attribute magic users had been dying rapidly for ten years, he had asked them to find a way to treat them, even if it meant requesting help from other empires.
And after becoming the only survivor, he had asked them to create a memorial space exclusively for fire attributes so those who had contributed to the Empire would not be forgotten.
That request was rejected as well.
He had even heard from former members of the special forces that the traces of Wayne being their commander were being erased.
The Imperial Palace was trying to erase the very existence of fire attributes.
Wayne had no intention of allowing himself to be forgotten quietly.
He was modifying his own mansion to create a memorial space, but progress was slow.
No, more accurately, the time until his death was moving faster.
That was why the most important thing was whether Vally could create the flower garden before that happened.
As Wayne casually looked over the garden from the window, a figure’s back entered his sight.
It was Vally.
She was wearing the beige dress Wayne had given her and was busily moving around a barren area with not even a single blade of grass.
“The sleeves……?”
Wayne narrowed his eyes and stared at Vally to see more clearly.
But just as he had first seen, her arms were completely exposed.
Since she would mostly be working in the garden, he had given her a long-sleeved dress because he worried she might scratch her arms.
Why was she wearing it like that?
Wayne stared at Vally, who was running around like a puppy.
Piru, who also became curious, quietly stepped closer and noticed her.
“Ah, she’s still doing that.”
“Still?”
“Yes. She was already outside in the garden before I came to the office.”
He did not know exactly when she had gone out, but she had been doing it for at least three hours.
“Open it.”
“Excuse me?”
“Open the window.”
Piru slowly blinked, then hurriedly shook his head after understanding.
“Are you saying you’re going to go to Miss Vally?”
“Yes.”
“There is no need to meet her. She rejected Your Grace’s gift, and you won’t interact with her for a month, then on the final day……”
“Your Grace!”
As Piru’s explanation grew longer, Wayne unfolded his arms, grabbed the window, and forcefully opened it.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, he jumped down.
The height of the second floor was approximately 8 meters, but he made his body as light as a flame easily carried away by the wind and landed safely on the ground.
However, the window he had touched for a moment and the place where he landed were both scorched black.
After standing still briefly to cool his heat in the cold wind, Wayne walked forward and approached behind Vally, who was now crouching in front of the flower bed.
“Hmm, should the colors be consistent? But since it’s the entrance, it should probably be more colorful……”
She was so focused that she did not notice Wayne approaching at all.
He intentionally made no sound and stood behind her, watching what she was doing.
She was practicing a landscaping design by drawing on the soil of the flower bed with a branch.
Seeing this, Wayne spoke indifferently.
“Practice your magic first.”
“Kyah!”
Vally’s shoulders jolted in surprise at the sudden voice.
Because of that, her crouched body lost balance and she fell backward.
Since Wayne was standing behind her, her back lightly leaned against his long legs.
