Chapter 6
I was completely speechless.
Seeing me stop walking and open and close my mouth without saying anything, Roan added,
“For three years, that is.”
“Yes, yes… Of course.”
“Well, I don’t know how things will turn out.”
“…Huh?”
“Winsphere might suit you perfectly, Miss Walker. You might even end up staying here for the rest of your life, don’t you think?”
Roan smiled with his eyes.
Unfortunately, he was incredibly beautiful.
The corners of my mouth trembled, but I forced myself to smile.
Of course, a few tears slipped from my eyes, but I was still smiling with my mouth, so wasn’t that good enough?
“Lord Roan. You really like making jokes.”
“I wasn’t joking. More importantly, didn’t we settle on how you would address me before you came here?”
“How to address you? Ah, there was that…”
“I noticed earlier that you called Bael ‘Mr. Bael,’ but you’re calling me ‘Lord Roan,’ even though we’re going to be working together. I’m rather hurt. You called me that way at first too.”
“Then! I’ll just add ‘Lord’ to everyone’s name in the mansion…”
“It would be much simpler to just change the way you address me. Why make things so complicated?”
“…I don’t want to.”
The answer almost came out before I could think.
It was pure instinctive rejection.
But the moment I met Roan’s cold eyes, I changed my answer.
“Right? Now that I think about it, I suppose you’re right. Mr. Roan, I look forward to working with you.”
Other people might have called me spineless for changing my attitude so quickly.
But I didn’t care.
My survival was at stake!
Roan seemed satisfied as he smiled, showing his teeth.
“We’re here. Shion, teleport us back to the place we came from earlier.”
The mage, who wore a robe pulled low over his head but was actually a demon, raised his head.
“Duke! If it’s a request from Mr. Roan…”
It sounded like he had almost called him Duke.
“Of course I’ll grant it. Miss Walker, we met earlier, didn’t we? My name is Shion.”
“Yes. Nice to meet you.”
I released Roan’s hand and shook Shion’s hand.
After our relatively peaceful greeting, he immediately stepped away from me without hesitation.
Then he stuck close to Roan and whispered,
“Maybe it’s because it’s been so long since I’ve seen humans outside… Haah. I’m so excited.”
Shion was whispering very quietly, but my senses had become so sensitive that I could hear every word.
“If you’re going outside again, you have to call me. Don’t take the others. They’ll get caught.”
Damn it. I can hear everything, you demons!
I stared at the forest in the distance so I wouldn’t have to look at them.
I could feel Roan looking at me, but I absolutely refused to turn my head toward him.
After Roan, Shion also turned his gaze toward me.
My mouth went completely dry.
Had they noticed?
I hadn’t even lasted a day.
No, I hadn’t even lasted an hour before being found out.
But contrary to my worries, the words that came out of Roan’s mouth were completely ordinary.
“Shion. Stop saying useless things and hurry up with the teleportation.”
“Tch. Yes.”
At Roan’s command, Shion waved his hands several times.
I stood quietly and watched him.
Before long, a perfectly spherical teleportation portal was completed.
“All right. You can go through now.”
He had completed the magic in less than a minute.
‘Even a mage from the Imperial Palace wouldn’t be able to use magic this easily.’
Besides, according to what I had learned in theory, teleportation had a very short duration.
You had to enter immediately after the spell was completed.
If the spell ended while you were inside, your body could end up scattered in pieces across different locations.
But Shion seemed completely confident that his magic wouldn’t end anytime soon.
He casually scratched his ears a few times and looked around.
Seeing how relaxed he was, I was once again reminded of how incredible the demons of Winsphere were.
At the same time, a small question arose in my mind.
As far as I remembered, Shion wasn’t particularly strong even among the demons.
Bael, who was in that mansion…
And Amon, who had yet to show himself…
They were much more powerful.
I couldn’t understand how all of them had fallen so easily in the novel.
But I didn’t have much time to think about it.
“Miss Walker.”
“…Yes?”
“Hand.”
The moment Roan pulled me toward him, my body was sucked into the light.
After passing through the bright light, a familiar landscape came into view.
I shivered briefly at the sudden change in temperature.
Then I pulled my hand away from Roan’s.
“Hmm, we’re here. It shouldn’t take long to collect your luggage.”
“Is that so?”
As I walked toward my house, Roan and Shion naturally followed behind me.
“Um, I have some family matters to take care of. Would it be all right if I went alone?”
At my question, both of them stopped walking.
For some reason, even their expressions seemed to stiffen.
“You don’t need to worry about me running away.”
Of course, I had thought about it.
But if I ran away now, it would only amount to admitting that I had realized they were demons.
Besides, if you ignored the fact that they were demons, this wasn’t actually a bad job.
The demon part was the problem.
After hearing my words, Roan’s expression became even stiffer than before.
I wondered if I had said something wrong.
Just as my palms began to sweat, he spoke.
“We’re not worried about that.”
It was an answer I hadn’t expected.
I blinked several times and cleared my throat.
“Ahem. Thank you for trusting me.”
“Don’t mention it. Then Shion and I will wait at the place where we first met Miss Walker. Take your time and handle your affairs comfortably.”
Roan moved away from me without hesitation.
I called out to them.
“Two hours! No, I’ll be back within an hour.”
We would be seeing each other regularly for the next three years.
Well, there was no benefit in having a bad relationship with the person, or rather, the demon I would have to work with.
I bowed politely and hurried away.
For some reason, my steps felt lighter as I headed home.
In any case, I had managed to get the 300 gold coins my father demanded in half a day.
Once I gave them to my father and finished removing myself from the family registry, I would no longer be Baron Walker’s property.
Although today had been an incredibly eventful day, I had a strange feeling that I would be able to go to sleep smiling tonight.
The rain that had stopped seemed ready to start again, as dark clouds gathered in the distance.
“I should hurry.”
Perhaps because I lengthened my stride, I arrived about five minutes earlier than expected.
I stood in front of the old door and closed my eyes, taking a couple of deep breaths.
If I gave my father the 300 gold coins I was holding right now, he would no longer be my father.
It felt strange.
I had spent my entire life calling him my father.
Now that I was preparing to end our relationship, perhaps I was getting caught up in unnecessary thoughts.
“I’m crazy. After being so foolish for seven years, am I still not coming to my senses?”
I slapped my cheeks a couple of times.
Then I seriously considered something.
“…But maybe he’ll finally come to his senses if I pay this debt for him.”
My father hadn’t been a bad person from the very beginning.
Before he started his business, he had been a devoted and affectionate father who cared deeply about his family.
Of course, all of that had been completely destroyed after he started his business.
Maybe I couldn’t let go of him because I still remembered the father he had once been.
I stood around in front of the door for a long time.
‘I can decide what to do after seeing his reaction. There’s no need to cut ties with him immediately. I’m scared to do that right now.’
I closed my eyes and took a couple more deep breaths.
After finally making up my mind, I slowly opened the door and entered the house.
The rusty hinges made an unpleasant sound.
My father inside must have heard it too, because he greeted me as soon as I entered.
“I’m home, Father.”
“Oh! Liliana, you’re back!”
Wait. He’s happy to see me?
My shoulders flinched as my father approached me with a bright smile.
There was a reason for my reaction.
Whenever he acted like this, it was usually because he had done something wrong.
An ominous feeling immediately spread throughout my body.
The optimistic thoughts I had entertained in front of the door had already disappeared from my mind.
I backed away from him and asked coldly,
“What did you do?”
“What do you mean, what did I do? You really have no respect for your father.”
“Tell me the truth.”
Unable to withstand my pressure, my father finally opened his mouth.
And what he said was more than enough to send me straight into despair.
