Chapter 52

26. — The First Female Knight of the Empire (2)

⌊ …The scary-looking man carried her the whole time. Adelia was also naturally in his arms, too. I thought it was because we were getting married, seeing them go around like that without any hesitation. My parents were like that before Enni was born — Oh, Enni is my little sister.

Anyway, Adelia is a good person. Everyone in my village is saying that we can trust humans again thanks to Adelia. Think about it, which human being could turn into a dog shapeshifter and fight with us? I think Adelia is the only one who can do that.

Oh, and this jerky was also given by Adelia. It’s called premium beef jerky made from wine-drinking calves. ⌉

Cus’ mouth widened when he saw the article of the interview published on the outside of the extra edition.

They said that the woman took the medicine herself and fought for the shapeshifters? The cowardly woman who wrote a book modeled on the Grand Duke and threatened to hide herself when she heard he was looking for her…?

“Look at this! Even this kid named Ed who did this interview said that Young Lady Adelia and His Highness the Grand seem to be getting married!”

“No, that’s absurd! This is misinformation…!”

“Don’t you see the extra edition? Even though they’re saying that they’re lovers, seeing that you don’t recognize it… Aren’t those eyes just decorations?”

“What, decorations?”

“Yes, decorations! Why don’t you just throw away publishing? With those kinds of eyes, you’ll be ruined soon anyway!”

“…What?”

At the woman’s sarcastic sarcasm, Cus fiercely opened his eyes. Nevertheless, she continued as she crossed her arms, ignoring his angry appearance.

“Hey, listen to me. Because I feel sorry for your bald head, I will give you good information.”

“….”

“If you want your publishing house to do well, don’t trust your brain and read the atmosphere. I mean, the atmosphere where the square is going up and down on one extra edition like this.”

Cus’ eyebrows twitched at the woman’s words.

Although he pretended not to listen because of his pride, his gaze drifted towards the square without knowing. His eyes blinked nonstop as if he could not believe the excited faces of those who had picked up the edition.

“If I were the president of a publishing house like you, and I knew these two, I would rather go to Young Lady Adelia and publish a book.”

“Ha, that’s funny. Because of her book now…!”

“Ask her to write a book about how she managed to turn the icy Grand Duke’s heart and even get married to him.”

“…What?”

“Well, a book title would be something like ‘How to Make a Cold-Hearted Grand Duke into My Man in 10 Minutes’.”

The woman, who laughed and chuckled, quickly turned around and left with her party. Cus shook his body at the insult the woman had given him, though the strange woman’s words did not leave his mind.

…Ask Adelia to write another book?

Also, this time with the Grand Duke as the subject…?

Cus licked his lips as he recalled Adelia’s books piled up in the publishing house. That woman was able to say things like that because she was unaware of the existence of those numerous books. That was why she was talking nonsense like that…

Thinking that, he swallowed dry saliva at the thought that flashed like a ray of light in his gloomy head.

‘…No, if you think about it, that woman was right.’

Perhaps, he could use this opportunity to get rid of those dusty books. If only he could use the honor of Adelia, who became Lian’s first woman to become a knight, he could sell at least half of the books that had piled up no matter what he did. There was nothing better for Cus than that.

With that thought, his eyes shone with determination. There was no need to worry. After all, there was nothing more for him to fear  as he had been being chased by her debtors for an entire week without sleeping or eating properly. Whether he dies of starvation or you die of a knife, it was all the same to him now…!

“Hahahaha! This is a hit. Jackpot!”

With a strange laugh, Cus rushed towards the publishing house.

ﾟ· : * ✧ * :· ﾟ

“Ah, ah—ahchoo!”

“Is it a cold?”

In response to Cain’s soft question, I wiped my nose with the handkerchief that Lily had brought and shook my head.

“Rather than having a cold, I guess someone’s cursing at me.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know. I’m also the type of person who gets a lot of resentment unintentionally, so I don’t really know who would do that.”

As I sighed and folded the used handkerchief properly, Cain, who was gazing at me quietly, raised the corner of his mouth and asked.

“So, when are you going to answer that?”

“What’s it?”

“About how you suddenly turned back into a human that day.”

“….”

“If my memory’s correct, I remember that it happened before I even checked the hypothesis that Young Lady said.”

Seeing Cain’s smiling face, I bit my lips before asking back.

“…Are you curious about that?”

“I usually have a lot of questions about you.”

I wrinkled my face at Cain’s sly reply.

…How did I get back?

〈 “Aaak! My sister must be sick! It hurts!” 〉

〈 “What, hurts? You deserve to be hit!” 〉

Even as his sister, Lily, hit him in the back by wielding a broom, his mouth fluttered. Eli held his face down as his head was throbbing while shouting and grabbing the swinging broom.

〈 “By the way, Young Lady Adelia, did you really take the drug and return as a human in the middle? It normally wouldn’t do that unless your heart beats like it was about to explode?” 〉

〈 “…Huh?” 〉

〈 “I made the drug based on the feeling that it makes me feel calm — like a peaceful moment when your heart beats slowly. So, when turning back as a human, I based it on the moment when my heart jumped like it was going to explode as the standard.” 〉

〈 …. 〉

〈 “For example, it’s like the moment you fell in love with someone at first sight. But, if you turned back into a human in the middle, don’t you have a crush on anymore… Aak!” 〉

〈  “Say something that makes sense. It must be one of your many defective products again!” 〉

“Adelia?”

I gazed at Cain, erasing the thoughts of a few days ago that were ringing in my head.

…Yes, Lily was right.

Does it make sense to say that I fell in love with Cain, and I turned back to human then? It would be more accurate to say that I ate one of  Eli’s countless defective products.

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