TPCF 40

CHAPTER 40……..

“You should’ve told me that sooner!”

Edmund’s eyes widened as he shouted. The knife in his hand clattered to the floor. A passing waiter glanced at him briefly before silently setting down a new knife.

“It was a tricky situation to explain.”

Anita found herself making excuses.

“Oh, damn it, Anita Rodel. There’s a world of difference between someone just tagging along and pestering you, and sneaking into your dorm room. Don’t you get that?”

“Well, for one thing, I had no proof…”

He cut her off.

“Proof can be made.”

“…What?”

“You can’t just sit there and take it just because you don’t have proof. And besides, who committed the crime first?”

Anita couldn’t find a reply, only sipped at her water. Should she have been more cunning? She jabbed her fork absently at the fish the waiter had set down earlier.

Of course, she was grateful for Edmund’s help. But the fact that she needed his help made her feel pathetic. Shameful as it was to admit, Anita had always thought herself rather clever. When she saw people doing things that made no sense to her, she had wondered why they acted so foolishly.

It had been arrogance.

No matter how much she acted like she knew better, Anita was just a stupid girl who had only barely come of age. Without someone else’s help, she couldn’t even handle her own problems.

And perhaps it stung even more because that help came from Edmund. Without realizing it, she had always thought of him as sloppy and careless, and so she had judged him as incompetent. Looking back now, she realized that even someone who seemed to live idly without a thought in his head was a hundred times more capable than she was.

“…I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“Why am I so stupid…”

Anita was sinking into harsh self-blame before she knew it.

Even though Charles had confessed with his own mouth to being the culprit, she had been too foolish to do anything. Remembering that made her feel all the more worthless.

“I don’t know. Sometimes, for no reason, I feel this surge of confidence. In those moments, I fall into this ridiculous delusion that I’m like the hero of a story—brave, capable of solving anything.”

“Hm.”

“And then reality hits me. I realize I’m nothing at all.”

Hearing herself say it out loud only made it sound all the more pitiful. Anita gloomily poked a piece of salmon and popped it into her mouth.

“I feel that way sometimes too.”

His face, for once, looked serious. The mischief and lightheartedness she had always seen in him were gone, replaced by a kind of inexplicable solemnity.

Just a moment ago he’d been happily eating steak, but now he set his fork down, as if he had lost his appetite. Anita shifted her eyes nervously at the sudden change in mood. What on earth had gotten into him?

“Everyone makes mistakes. You learn, and that’s how you grow.”

He dabbed his lips lightly with the napkin on the table.

“Of course, that’s the sort of cliché thing people say. But in my experience, words like that don’t actually help much.”

“……”

“There’s another way, though.”

Edmund suddenly rose from his seat.

“Want me to show you?”

“…Huh?”

Anita, not quite grasping what he meant, answered a beat too late.

“Come on.”

With that, Edmund walked straight out of the restaurant. Still frozen in her seat, Anita scrambled up belatedly and hurried to catch up to him as he strolled toward the entrance.

“Wait—where are we going?”

If Anita had learned one new thing, it was that Edmund was far more unpredictable than she had thought. He didn’t even slow his pace when she was stuck paying the bill. In the end, she shoved a wad of cash at the waiter and rushed out after him, ignoring the voice behind her calling for her to take her change.

“Edmund!”

After chasing him for some time, Anita slowed her pace.

“What is this place?”

The building Edmund stopped in front of was a wooden structure, the kind you hardly saw in the city anymore.

“A place that makes life a little richer…”

“It’s a bar, isn’t it?”

Anita interrupted, having spotted the beer mug painted on the sign.

“Well. For starters, yes.”

She had never set foot in a place like this before. Curiously, she looked around. The peeling paint on the old building, the loud chatter spilling from inside—it was all new to her.

She had expected the inside to be a mess, but instead, she was surprised at how clean it was. The polished tables, the bartenders in crisp white shirts—it wasn’t much different from the upscale restaurant they had just left.

The only real difference was that the customers here were mostly drinkers rather than diners.

But Anita’s positive impression vanished quickly. For someone like her, who always felt drained in noisy, crowded places, this was nothing short of suffocating.

“Are you feeling unwell? You look awfully gloomy.”

Without answering, Anita went to sit at an empty table. She was startled when the wooden chair turned out to be heavier than it looked, but Edmund helped pull it out for her.

“No, I’m fine.”

She had never drunk alcohol before. But somehow, today felt like the perfect day to start. What with Rootger weighing on her mind and some strange creep sneaking into her room…

“Really?”

Sitting stiffly, Anita clasped her hands together and rested them on the table, as if she were about to enter some grave negotiation. It was far too solemn a demeanor for someone who was just here for a drink.

“Yes.”

Perhaps because she was so firm, Edmund didn’t press the question any further. Instead, he called over a waiter and placed an order in words Anita couldn’t understand.