Chapter 23

“The person who says that doesn’t really fit in this street.”

“It was I who informed you that the festival was going to be held.”

“Just because you informed me, doesn’t mean you fit into the streets.”

I was about to call Liddon, but I roughly glossed on calling him out because I was conscious of the eyes of the people around me.

Liddon offered me a new title.

“It will be better to call my name.”

“…I, your name?”

“I don’t want to get caught in this crowd on streets.”

“Wouldn’t it be the same if I called your name?”

“I have an allias for this kind of situation.”

‘Is that so?’

No matter how many times I searched my memory, I never read that Liddon had an alias.

‘Is it one of the pages that I turned over?’

It could have been.

I didn’t read every detail of <Lady Catherine> either.

I agreed and nodded.

“Then tell me the alias.”

“Eden.”

‘What is this basic, half-hearted allias?’

It was a very questionable allias.

“Eden?”

Looking at Liddon, I couldn’t believe it and he pronounced his alias once again with certainty.

“Yes, that’s right. Eden.”

“……isn’t it too similar for an alias?”

“It’s all about being one bit different.”

“I’m sure I know ‘Eden’ is more sloppier than I thought.”

“A lot of people don’t know.”

Liddon laughed as if my answer was funny.

Perhaps because he was been affected by the festive atmosphere, Liddon laughed more often than usual.

Then El came out.

“L…”

“Stop.”

But Liddon raised his hand to stop El, before he could even call his name.

“I told you it was Eden, for now.”

“Lying is not good.”

“As expected of a righteous man. “

Liddon shrugged and laughed.

“But that doesn’t mean it applies to me.”

There was a strange tension between El and Liddon.

I felt like I was going to die between the two.

I just wanted to have a festival and have fun, but how did I end up stuck between these perfectly uncomfortable fishes?

‘I can’t wait to go home.’

I was sighing and lamenting alone when Liddon spoke to me.

“Aren’t you interested in that?”

That was where the mountebank’s board was.

“Yes, I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

I nodded obediently.

“Why don’t you try it?”

Gambling was almost the only entertainment of this era.

The nobles made personal connections at the ball, then they went to the club house and drank all night and gambled.

The clubhouse where the alcohol and money flows, was a symbol of decadent aristocrat culture.

Sometimes it becomes a place for affair, smuggling, a secret meeting place, and producing numerous scandals. Club houses has become the center of aristocratic culture.

Compared to that, the commoners’ mountebanks was a cute level.

Mountebanks are about tricking anyway.

It was impossible for a customer to beat a mountebank in the first place.

I watched the rascals and the gamblers who were gathering people triumphantly and the people who lost their money.

I didn’t quite like the smug look of the swindler.

‘Is because my villain instinct is triggered that I want to flatten the nose of that man?’

Well, the reason did not matter.

“It looks fun.”

I stepped in the center of the mountebank’s board where the crowds were gathered.

***

“What are you doing?”

El grabbed Liddon’s arm who tried to follow Yvesria.

His attitude towards the prince was quite rough.

Liddon, who was held back on walking, frowned irritably.

“That’s why it was annyoing to be caught. I didn’t come here to stick to you, so why don’t you let me go?”

But instead of letting go of Liddon’s arm, El grabbed his back.

“Impersonating a royal family is a great sin.”

El lowered his voice, pulling the body of Luke, who was pretending to be Eden or Liddon.

It was a rather dismal warning, but Luke didn’t give in.

“It doesn’t matter if I didn’t get caught.”

“I’ve already caught you.”

“Then you can shut up.”

“Do you think I’m going to let it go?”

“Hey, El. Since when have you been so talkative?”

Luke took El’s hand off that grabbed his back.

“Besides, you look like a teenager in puberty having his first date after you stuck to her. What the hell is that?”1

Luke wriggled his eyebrows, shaking off his wrinkled clothes. This was Luke’s own habit, not Liddon.

“……where is the prince?”

El who was hit in the bullseye, turned the conversation around.

Of course Luke knew his intentions.

“I put him to sleep with a sleeping pill. You think I’m gonna do something weird to that dog? Stop beating around the bush and answer my question. Your attitude toward her, what the hell was that?”

El who work righteously and Luke who work illegally were perfectly at opposite ends.

As a result, there were many times they bump into.

El could not accept the illegality Luke was committing, and Luke was tired of El’s knowledge.

However, they agree on the part that defines Yvesria Oberon.

The same was true of the idea of protecting Catherine.

‘But what is this nonsense?’

When he came to the scene for a long time, the atmosphere was strange.

El lowered his gaze silently at Luke’s reproachful gaze.1

“No matter what I do or what I think, there’s no reason for you to evaluate it. “

“Wow, this is totally crazy.”

Luke glanced at El as if he was dumbfounded and clicked his tongue.

“Yes. It’s your freedom on whatever your taste was. Even if it bothers me.”

Luke turned around with high spirits.

His footsteps, which seemed to be chasing Yvesria right now, suddenly stopped.

“Luke?”

El who was curious called Luke.

As if to answer him, Luke called El in a subdued voice.

“El, what the hell is going on there?”

Luke pointed to the mountebank’s board, where Yvesria was headed for.

In just a short time, the fire flared up on the mountebank’s board, making the surrounding area noisy.

El instinctively looked for the figure of Yvesria.

But wherever he looked, he couldn’t see her at all.

El’s face slowly hardened.

***

[Harry, where are you?]

I cut in between the people who were around in the mountebank’s board and called for Harry.

When I left the mansion, I left Harry inside but he could answer anytime and anywhere if I called.

[You was excited going out with that knight, why are you looking for me suddenly?]

His answer that was quickly returned as if he waited was quite clear.

[Is my dog angry because I left him behind? I can’t help it, because I can’t bring a dog out to a crowded festival.]

[Do you think I’m just gonna be angry because I can’t see the festival with you? For a demon as great as me, that’s nothing!]

[Oh, come on, relax.]

[But why? Aren’t you with the knight?]

[That’s true, but……]

I glanced behind.

Liddon and El were talking about something with serious faces.

[I don’t think he’ll come back anytime soon. Just come here, it’ll only take a minute.]

It was impossible to get rid of professional hooligans with my own power in gambling. Harry’s power was needed.

However, Harry, who has a frog in the well tendency, never listened on what my request was nor knowing about it before accepting it.

[Am I a dog? Come if you tell me to, and go if you wanted me to?]

[ What’s wrong with you? Harry is a dog. My pet dog. Isn’t it?]

[Ah, ahhhh!]

Harry’s cry rang out on my head. It was such a loud noise that my head hurt.

“I can’t really stop you.”

I breathed a sigh and covered my ears.

“Why can’t you stop me?”

Then, a man who appeared with a spiteful voice put his hand on my shoulder.

It was Harry, the human form that I saw after a long time.

It was not a good thing of getting caught with this figure.

Before Liddon and El came this way, I had to clear the situation and send Harry back.

“Why do you look like this?”

“I’m trying to show you who I am. Do I look like a dog?”

Harry gritted his teeth and bring his face closer to me.

As his unrealistic handsome face approached my nose, my face was flushed in dismay.1

Harry smiled contentedly at me with my mouth open blankly.

“Who would look at their dog with that look?”

‘Oh, my God’

That handsome face that was smiling made it more destructive.

Thanks to the sudden appearance of a handsome man, people who were gathered around began to get noisy.

Thanks to that, it brought me to my senses.

“What if you use that face like this?”

“What do you mean?”

“You just used it to seduce people!”

“Hmm…”

Harry’s eyes squinted at my face.

“Master, are you attracted to me?”

“To be exact, it’s not Harry, it was Harry’s face.”

Harry tilt his head as if he couldn’t understand.

“What’s the difference?”

“There’s a big difference. I like Harry’s shell, but I don’t like the core. “

“What? What’s wrong with my core!”

“Think about it with your hands in your chest. How’s your core? “

Harry put his hand on his chest without hesitation, but he looked back in less than ten seconds.

“I put my hand in my chest and I can’t figure it out no matter how much I think about it.”

It looked like as if he had considered it deeply.

‘At least pondered it for a while, you demon.’

“If you wanted to use the phrase ‘no matter how much I think about it’, you have to think about it for at least a minute.”

“I don’t understand. Why are human conditions so demanding?”

“You’re being too generous.”

I heaved a sigh and pulled Harry’s arm.

I felt Harry flinch as I got my body closer.

“You see that?”

I pointed to the mountebank’s board with my hands. Harry’s gaze moved slowly along my fingertips.

“I see it. What’s up with that rascal?”

“Isn’t that elation a little annoying?”

“……do you know? You just spoke like a real demon.”1

“I guess I’ve got demonic tendencies because I’ve been next to someone.”

“That’s a great change.”

“That’s why I’m going to make an onslaught.”

“Onslaught…”

Harry’s mouth opened as if he were speechless at my violent choice of words.

“There’s no time to be so surprised. We have to figure it out before they come back.”

I glanced at Liddon and El with nervousness.

The atmosphere was much more relaxed than before, as if their conversation had reached its final stage.

“How do you intend to make an onslaught?”

“There’s only one thing between a mountebank and a board. To see through the trick and earn money.”

“That’s a good idea, but doesn’t that take a long time? There’s a simpler and certain way.”

Harry grinned and snapped his finger without listening to my answer.

As soon as the light snap ended, flames soared from the peaceful mountebank’s board.

“Ahhhhh!”

The sudden fire left the crowd in a chaotic state.

Whatever the process, it was clear that the game was broken.

“How do you like it? It’s as simple and certain, as I said, isn’t it?”

Harry raised his chin with a proud face.

He looked at me with a face that seemed to be written “I’m good, right? Isn’t that right?’

It was a very absurd solution to set fire the mountebank’s board, but I didn’t even want to be angry when I saw him smiling innocently hoping for praise.

‘It’s all because of your face.’1

If I ran in a rage. Even a thousand years of anger seemed to wane when I saw Harry’s smiling face.

‘He must be well aware of the power of his face. So if anything happens, he used his face like this.’

I sighed and patted Harry on the back.

“Oh, you did a great job. It’s great that I don’t know what to do anymore.”

Harry looked satisfied even with the lack of strength in my speech.

“You’ll give me a prize for my good work, won’t you?”

“Prize?”

“Yes. You give a prize to your dog if it does something pretty.”

“You said you weren’t a dog.”

“Yes. I did, but now I’d like to be my master’s dog.”2

“Why do you become a dog only when you have an advantage?”

“Because that advantage is the strength of our clan?”

“That’s not an advantage, Harry.”

Harry grinned like he did when he lit a fire on the mountebank’s board, pretending not to hear me.

However, this time it was ominous.

“Come on, this way.”

Harry grabbed my arm as I looked at him suspiciously.

‘Where on earth are you taking me?’

Then, my body was dragged by Harry before I even asked.