Chapter : 10
“Chris?”
At the sound of his voice, Bendia sat up and wrapped the shawl she had left on the bedside table around her shoulders.
She had been fast asleep when the knock startled her awake. Chris had announced himself from outside.
He’s here in the middle of the night?
Using the dim bedside lamp as her guide, she shuffled to the door.
Thinking it must be something urgent, she opened it without hesitation.
Chris stood there, fidgeting anxiously.
“M-Milady.”
“What is it?”
“T-There’s an intruder.”
The unexpected news left her speechless for a moment.
Chris quickly added,
“D-Do you… happen to have any idea who it might be?”
He couldn’t keep his hands still. Though visibly nervous, his eyes never left her face.
Huh? What’s this?
Normally, wouldn’t someone ask, “Should we report it? What should we do?”
And if there are intruders, shouldn’t you deal with them first? Why wake me up instead?
As she sensed something strange, Chris hurriedly spoke again.
“It all happened so suddenly, so I-I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do…”
He lowered his gaze with an embarrassed expression, but kept sneaking glances at her, almost as if checking her reaction.
At that moment, something clicked in Bendia’s mind.
That’s it!
The classic episode where the seemingly clumsy male lead finally reveals his true abilities.
The heroine worries he’ll get hurt, only for him to effortlessly defeat a bunch of thugs, showing off his hidden cool side.
A textbook romance scene.
Besides, she’d even been muttering to herself that afternoon while reading Ron’s movements.
The timing was perfect.
So that’s why he woke me up. I have to witness the male lead’s heroic moment.
You sly little kitten.
“Where did the intruders go?”
“T-To the second floor.”
“Let’s go.”
“N-No! It’s dangerous! I’ll go by myself!”
Chris desperately tried to stop her, blocking her way.
But Bendia had already figured everything out.
Barely suppressing the laughter threatening to burst out, she slipped past him into the hallway.
“Let’s go together. Just in case, let’s grab a weapon on the way.”
Passing the cleaning closet, she picked up a long, sturdy broom.
Of course, she wouldn’t actually need it.
Chris would probably beat them all up barehanded anyway.
I guess I should act surprised.
As she wondered what kind of reaction would spread the best rumors, she climbed the stairs.
* * *
“Trying to die, huh? Do you even know how much this face is worth?”
Ron tossed the last thug he’d beaten onto the top of the human pile.
The last man’s face was far more swollen and bloodied than the others’.
He had been the idiot who, out of jealousy for Ron’s handsome face, had focused solely on punching him there.
The uninvited guests who had shown up in the middle of the night never even made it into Ron’s apartment.
Instead, they were stacked neatly in front of the second-floor entrance, forming a human grave.
They were the same group that had surrounded him at the café terrace earlier that day.
Apparently running away because of the city guards hadn’t satisfied them, so they’d tracked him all the way home.
If they’d stopped there, he’d have simply let them hit him a little before ending it.
But they actually came to his house.
And in the middle of the night, when no one was around.
At least they had come after him.
If they’d misunderstood after seeing him talk to that woman earlier and taken her hostage, it would have been a real headache.
“They sure brought a crowd.”
Ron glanced over the pile of unconscious men before opening a large leather bag lying nearby.
“Well, would you look at that?”
The bag was filled with tools of every kind.
Hammers.
Saws.
Knives.
Practically everything imaginable.
“What are you idiots? Carpenters?”
He snorted and kicked the bag.
The tools scattered across the hallway, several crashing into the wall with loud thuds.
There was no need to report any of this.
By morning, the whole mess would have disappeared on its own.
“So much for sleeping. Damn.”
Stretching his stiff shoulders after finally getting some exercise, Ron turned around.
“There’s noise upstairs.”
Just as he was about to head back inside, voices echoed from the stairwell.
Someone was coming up.
“That sounds like the tenant! It must be dangerous! What should we do?”
There was an odd note of anticipation in the voice.
Ron dismissed it as his imagination and quickly turned around.
Only one person called him the tenant.
There was no mistaking who it was.
Unfortunately…
He was too late.
Dia had already reached the second floor.
She stood there, staring blankly at the mountain of unconscious bodies filling the hallway.
“Damn it. Hey, this is… well…!”
“…Huh?”
For an instant, utter disappointment crossed Bendia’s face.
“Where’s my episode? The male lead’s heroic scene…?”
She muttered incomprehensible nonsense like a madwoman…
Then glared at him as though he’d committed an unforgivable crime.
Is she so shocked she can’t even see all these unconscious people?
Just as Ron thought that—
“KYAAAAAA!”
She suddenly screamed while staring at a certain spot.
There we go.
Just as her delicate appearance suggested, it was a piercing shriek.
“H-Huh! I-I’m going to report this!”
The twig-like guy beside her bolted down the stairs before anyone could stop him.
Only then did Ron realize his mistake.
The landlord lived on the first floor now.
There was also new security.
He’d completely overlooked the possibility that someone might check the second floor at any time.
Now he’d been caught, and it was nothing but a nuisance.
Running a hand through his hair irritably, he snapped,
“So why did you come up here without—”
“My wall…”
“My wall is cracked!”
She threw the broom she had been carrying and sprinted toward the wall by the hallway window.
Clinging to it, she grabbed the knife embedded there with trembling hands.
Apparently, the knife he’d kicked out of the tool bag earlier had flown into the wall.
Cracks stretched about five centimeters to either side of it.
Against the white wall, they were clearly visible even in the moonlight.
“…You’re telling me that’s what scared you?”
Ron found himself genuinely speechless.
She had just seen a mountain of unconscious people.
She had seen him standing there perfectly fine.
And the reason she’d screamed…
…was because the wall had cracked.
“Oh no… There are already so many repairs to do… and now I have to fix this too…”
She deliberately spoke loudly enough for him to hear, her voice clear despite trailing off at the end.
“I’m going to go bankrupt…”
This time she even bumped her forehead lightly against the wall in despair.
With tear-filled blue eyes sparkling under the moonlight, she alternated glances between the wall and Ron before speaking again.
“I’ll starve to death just repairing this apartment building…”
“Hey.”
“I’ll spend my entire life fixing apartments…”
“…”
“When I die, bury me in the courtyard out front. It’s still my apartment building, after all. I’ll stay with it until my bones turn to dust…”
“Oh, come on already!”
“I’ll pay for it! I’ll fix it! Happy now? Is that enough?”
“Oh my.”
“Our tenant isn’t hurt, is he?”
The moment he shouted just to stop hearing her rambling, she instantly sprang to her feet and checked him over.
The pitiful face from moments ago had completely vanished.
She was beaming.
She smiled so sincerely that, under the moonlight, her already fair, translucent face seemed to glow.
This lunatic…
“Quit overdoing it.”
“You defeated all these people by yourself?”
“That’s what you’re curious about now?”
At his question, she awkwardly scratched her cheek and looked away.
Her expression clearly said she wasn’t actually interested.
This woman really did say things she didn’t mean.
Calling him our tenant was the same.
Her eyes looked ready to curse him with every foul word imaginable, yet her mouth kept saying, “Our tenant, our tenant.”
“Should I pretend to be curious?”
“No thanks.”
“Right? We’re just a landlord and tenant. As long as rent gets paid, that’s enough. Let’s not pry into each other’s personal business.”
Though what she said was perfectly reasonable…
She was also subtly warning him not to dig into her past either.
“Who said I wanted to know anything about your business?”
Ron barked.
He’d never wanted to get involved with her in the first place.
She had some nerve saying that.
“Exactly! Then let’s keep it that way. Umm… is it okay if we report these people?”
She pointed at the pile of unconscious men with one finger, her cheerful smile completely unchanged.
“What do you mean?”
Ron narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
“I’m worried that if I report it, you might end up caught in something troublesome. Still… I’m on our tenant’s side rather than theirs.”
“You mean you’re on the rent’s side.”
“…!”
She stared at him as though she’d just seen a ghost.
Her eyes grew enormous, practically shouting,
How did you know?!
“Tch. You thought that was hard to figure out?”
Ron clicked his tongue in exasperation.
The very first time they’d met, she’d checked the rent and laughed like a madwoman.
It would’ve been stranger not to notice.
And the reason she kept calling him our tenant was painfully obvious.
“Go stop that twig who ran off to report it. I’ll take care of everything before morning.”
“Okay. But… will something like this happen again? I’m the landlord, after all, and this kind of danger is a bit of a problem.”
“It won’t.”
“As expected of our tenant. Then good night!”
She flashed him a double thumbs-up before happily skipping down the stairs.
She was so excited that her long hair swayed from side to side with every step.
“…Honestly.”
Left standing alone, Ron pushed his red hair back with an incredulous expression.
She really is the most unbelievable woman.
