SVWK | Ch 18

Episode 18

Worth a lot of stuff like gems or antiques usually comes with scary, mysterious legends. Especially when owners end up dead or cursed — those stories make an item seem rarer and more valuable.

The “Bloody Diamond” that “cuts throats” was so notorious that Rania had even heard the name before. Sure, rumors get blown out of proportion, but the real problem was that Rania — who didn’t know the full story — still felt a bad vibe from the necklace. She got chills down her spine.

Enoch watched her shiver and finally grabbed the necklace back.

“You hate it that much? This alone could buy a castle,” he said.

“I’d take a castle over it… You should get rid of that thing,” Rania answered, half joking. She hurried to wash her hands properly at the sink — just to be safe. After soaping and rinsing, she came back with a wet cloth and rubbed Enoch’s hand off.

Enoch laughed, amused by her reaction. He’d brought the necklace because he’d heard girls liked gifts like jewelry and flowers, and he had no idea she’d be so unnerved. Up by the counter, Yurion watched them with a blank face and added one more note in his head: Enoch really was spoiling Rania.

“Should I just sell it?” Enoch asked.

“Throwing it away is a waste. Better to sell it. But don’t sell it to some innocent person — give it to a bad person,” Rania said.

“A bad person, huh? Like who?”

She started to answer, but then froze. “Bad person” usually means criminals. Night’s Eye was an assassin guild hiding as an adventurer guild — basically a shady group who did illegal stuff. Rania looked at the necklace, then Enoch, then Yurion, and said in a half-empty voice, “Honestly, you should just keep it.”

She’d meant to joke about handing it off to a nasty partner, but she couldn’t lie in front of Enoch, who’d said earlier, “I hate liars.” So she blurted out the truth: “You’re the worst person.”

Yurion swallowed. Enoch just laughed like an amused monkey. “Yeah, I’ll keep it. I’ll give you another present later.”

“Okay… but nothing too expensive,” Rania said, forcing a smile and folding the cloth.

Enoch shoved the necklace into its velvet pouch and then asked, mildly interested, “How did you tell it was creepy just by looking? You got a good sense for things?”

“No,” she said. “It wasn’t a sense. It just looked off. I’m usually kind of slow on that stuff.”

Enoch tilted his mouth. “If you’d been better at sensing danger, you wouldn’t have walked into that other trash.”

Rania worried for a second — was he insulting her? Her face tightened, and Enoch’s smile faded a little.

“Pretty,” he said softly, “I wasn’t talking about you — I meant your ex-fiancé.”

“Oh! Of course, I meant him! Like, Robel, yeah!” Rania hurriedly protested, flustered.

Yurion, who’d faded into the background, felt a little sorry for her. Whenever Enoch stared at her with that blank expression, she got nervous like a mouse in front of a cat. She was trying hard to follow Andel’s advice — treat him like part of the environment — but it was wearing her out.

So she looked down and, half-practically, said the line she’d learned: “…Please, just once, please forgive me.”

It was ridiculous, but she couldn’t help it.

After a short pause, Enoch smiled brightly. Rania blushed — his face matched her taste exactly, and when he smiled on purpose, she understood why people fell for charm like his.

Enoch kept teasing, “If you answer my question honestly, I’ll forgive you.”

“What question?”

“Trash comes in many varieties.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Right.”

“I haven’t always lived cleanly. Some people probably call me trash.”

“Yeah, I guess…”

“What kind of trash am I to you? And my ex?”

Rania started sweating cold. Yurion was right beside her, giving a tiny, desperate look that screamed, Help me. Yurion quietly mouthed encouragement and bowed his head: You can do it.

Rania inwardly wanted to bury Yurion on a lonely mountain and leave his face smeared with honey — she was that annoyed. She inhaled and tried to answer honestly.

“For Robel… food waste. The kind that smells and rots and can’t even be used as feed or compost. That damn guy.”

She hissed the words and felt a rush of old anger. Robel had been her fiancé; she’d wasted time, money, and feelings on him. She remembered how the guild had dragged Robel away from her café when he caused trouble — and he never came back. Was he dead? She didn’t care anymore.

Before she could dwell on that thought, Enoch asked again, “And me?”

She froze. She expected to waver, to cry, to plead. Many guild members behaved like that around handsome men. Enoch liked to tease.

But when Rania answered seriously, Enoch was honestly surprised.

“Pretty trash?” she said quietly.

“…”

“Cute, pretty trash?” she added, softer.

Silence fell.