Chapter 34

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Thank you so much for the Ko-Fi support Cheng (◕ᴗ◕✿)❤

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‘No, not yet.’

The timing of waking up from the dream was unpredictable. There were conditions.  Vivian reaching her climax was one of them.  It seems that today’s dream would stop here because the conditions had been met.

She tried to resist, but, as always, the power of the unconscious overwhelmed Vivian.

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“Huuggg.”

Vivian gave a long yawn.  It was more tedious than she expected to sit down and stare at only one landscape.

“Are you bored?”

Chen, who was standing next to her, smiled at her yawn. She couldn’t say no, so Vivian just smiled.

Her time in the West went by faster than expected. Half of that time was spent sitting on the wall and watching for cracks to appear. However, no cracks had appeared yet.

As soon as Vivian came to the West, everything was taken care of, so the beasts could no longer be found.  Chen kicked the flat ground beneath them.

“If all the beasts disappear, this wall will also be demolished, right?”

“It will.  Because it was made to stop the beasts in the first place.”

The purpose of the fortress wall that blocked the beautiful scenery of the west was to prevent the invasion of demons. If the cause disappeared, the wall would also disappear. At Vivian’s reply, Chen had a sad expression on his face.

“Chen, when did you come here?”

Vivian seemed to know how he felt, so she asked to get his attention.

“When the wall was built.”

Chen quickly responded with a bright expression on his face.

“You’ve been here this whole time?”

“Yes.  So when the Lady and the Knights arrived, I was there to greet them. I am the person who knows this place best.”

Contrary to the fact that he was very nervous in front of her on the first day, Chen talked about it easily. Apparently, he adapted quickly.

“Who else was here before we arrived?”

“Your Majesty did send several expeditions.  Well, in the end….. It all ended badly.”

Chen had a bitter face as if he remembered the countless faces that had passed by. The fact that the expedition headed to the west lost their lives in vain was a fact that Vivian also knew. So she didn’t press Chen any more.

“I hope we are the last expedition.”

Instead, she voiced what she knew they both wanted.  She said it in a soft voice, but Chen smiled as if he understood it without difficulty. He nodded in agreement.

“By the way, will we see the Captain today?”

Suddenly, Chen changed the topic. The new topic of discussion was Roger.  Originally, Roger accompanied her every time she climbed the fortress wall, but Chen was puzzled because he didn’t see him today.

“I think there’s something he need to sort out regarding the supply of some things”

Vivian, who knew Roger’s whereabouts, suddenly became curious.

“I have a question, can I ask you something?”

“Yes, of course.”

“I mean here… in the West… Did you hear any rumors about the Knights of Eckhart?”

Chen’s shoulders shook greatly.

“Uh, um, what kind of rumors are you talking about?”

It seems that there are rumors that she had heard had reached the West, based on his reaction.  Vivian waved her hand to signify that there was nothing to be nervous about.

“It’s just that, when we first came, Chen, you seemed very nervous in front of Sir Orpheus. You knew something, so you reacted like that, right?”

Chen rubbed his hand on the back of his neck with a shy expression as if he remembered his past self. His expression was quite perplexed.

“……  No matter how dead the West is, rumors are fast.”

It meant that the rumors circulating in the capital had reached the west, even to Chen, a soldier.  Vivian grinned at Chen, who spoke frankly with his embarrassed face.

“Maybe less serious than the capital? I was very nervous when I first met Sir Orpheus.”

“My Lady?”

Chen, who was surprised, opened his eyes wide.

“Huh. It was awkward and uncomfortable.”

Suddenly, she remembered my first meeting with Roger. The first social circle, the place with lavish decorations, the splendid banquet, the first time they spoke…  Roger.  Looking back, it was really scary in many ways.  In fact, Vivian overreacted because of her dreams rather than rumors, but, still, the influence of the rumors was not small.

“That’s surprising.”

Chen had a bewildered expression.

“Huh? What?”

“No, I mean that Lady was just as shy about Sir as I was.  You look very comfortable now.”

At his explanation, Vivian was the one who was bewildered.

“Me? Do I look comfortable?”

“Yes. The two of you secretly get along very well.”

As Chen spoke, he pretended to shoot arrows with his hand, and then opened and closed his hand, imitating an explosion. That must have been referring to the collaboration between Vivian and Roger when they defeated the beasts last time. Vivian rolled her eyes.

‘To other people, I seem comfortable with him.’

It was the first time she had heard how others viewed them.

In fact, it was true that she was more comfortable with Roger than when they first met. Because at first, she was busy thinking he was the man from her dreams.  But as time went on, she realized that she couldn’t just avoid it.

‘Then we got closer and closer.’

So much so that the two of them could eat together.  Vivian realized once again that her relationship with him had developed.  In a way, it was a huge improvement, and in other ways, it was advantageous.  If they had continued to be awkward, she would have gotten sick and would not be able to live up to her name.

“Ugh.”

She felt shivers all over her body at the thought of being sick. Vivian got up from her seat.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“I’m going to take a look around. It’s hard to sit still.”

Chen calmly nodded at her as if to say good-bye. He was used to the land that was peaceful for the past few days.

Vivian started walking along the sun-drenched wall.  As she walked like this, she could see all of the mansion.  Knights training in the morning, servants tending the gardens, and vice-captains Enka and Ben chatting.

After walking a little further, the back of the mansion appeared. A row of windows appeared, showing rooms and the hallway.  Vivian found her room without difficulty.

Vivian’s eyes, passing over the familiar room, noticed something and flinched.  It was Roger’s room. Vivian stared at his room for a long time, with the curtains removed and the light illuminating it well.

It was the same layout as her room, and even the location of the furniture was the same. Even though the room was nothing special, it caught her attention just because the owner was Roger.  Before long, Vivian flinched as she felt like she was spying on his room. She was startled and hurriedly walked forward.

Vivian continued her stretch and turned her head, then she faltered again. Almost all the rooms on the second floor had their curtains open, but there was only one room with the curtains drawn. She couldn’t see anything inside like it had a blackout curtain.

Vivian looked from side to side, judging the location of her room. After a while, she realized that it was the locked room.

‘The door is locked, the curtains are closed…  …  .’

It was so suspicious. To the extent that she wondered why she had forgotten the existence of that room until now.

Vivian crossed her arms and watched the room for a long time. It was of course impossible to reach out her hand to open the window because she was far away, so there was only one way.

Vivian focused her attention on the ground.  Her slight vibrations spread like waves, and then something spurted her ground and popped out. It was a pale,  slender, green stem.

As Vivian concentrated, the stems grew longer and climbed up the wall.  Slowly, slowly. The growing stems wrapped around the window’s latch. And according to its master’s orders, the vines tugged on the window.

Shudder.

Shudder.

Contrary to her expectations, the window did not open. It seemed to be locked just like the door. Vivian released her powers with a troubled face. In an instant, the stem retreated into the ground.

After returning from an uneasy walk, Vivian asked Chen.

“Chen, do you know about the interior of the mansion?”

Vivian thought of Chen on her return trip.  She hoped that maybe he might know.

“No. I’m only in charge of maintaining the walls, so I’ve never been inside the mansion.”

But Chen’s answer shattered her expectations. Vivian turned her head with a frustrated expression at the unresolved question. Her eyes looked into the distance towards the room where all the doors and windows were locked.

If Vivian had been the owner of this mansion, she would have already broken down the door. There’s one reason she hadn’t. Because this wasn’t a place where Vivian could do anything she wanted. The land belonged to the imperial family, and the mansion belonged to the Marquis of Ogent.

“Does anyone know anything about the mansion?”

At her question, Chen rubbed his chin.  His closed eyes were deep, as he was deep in thought.

“Probably not. It was empty from the time we arrived until the Lady came.”

The soldiers were only in charge of the wall, and the servants came just before Vivian and the Knights of Eckhart came.  So, he didn’t know much about the mansion.

“Hmm.”

Vivian took her pocket watch out of her pocket. A lot of time had passed without her realizing it. Today, she just watched the landscape outside the fortress wall and it was already over. At the end of her one-day mission, Vivian came down from the wall.

That evening.

“Since there are so many rooms, I never thought there would be such a room.”

“I found it by accident.”

Anxious throughout dinner, Vivian eventually told Roger about the room. She was worried that it might be taken lightly, but Roger listened carefully.  After listening to the story, he suggested that they go together after dinner.

So, after eating, the two were on their way to the closed room.

“How many rooms do they have?”

And Tainy, who was bored with nothing to do, followed after the two of them. He, who had never been up to the second floor, could not contain his astonishment as he looked at the endless rooms.

“How many do you think?”

Not long after the three of them walked, they arrived in front of a tightly closed door.  The room with a window right in front. Vivian glanced at the room in line with the window and then nodded.  Roger tried to turn the handle.  It still didn’t open.

“Tainy.”

Roger neatly backed away and called Tainy.  Tainy smiled as if he were waiting and rummaged through his pockets.  A slender lockpick appeared. Tainy, who sat in front of the door with his legs bent, skillfully pushed the lockpick into the gap in the doorknob. Vivian’s arm, which was leaning against the wall, twisted at his sudden action.

“…Sir knight. What are you doing now?”

“Wait a minute.”

What this is, a thief would do. Vivian looked at Tainy and Roger alternately with a puzzled face. Roger stood still, indicating whether Tainy’s behavior was familiar.

“Doesn’t it take too long to call a repairman?”

Then, the excuses they gave, in Vivian’s eyes, were not enough. It was absurd, but thinking that she had nothing to lose, Vivian focused on Tainy’s hand.  Now what was beyond that closed room was more important than scolding him.

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[TN/N: Hello, my fellow readers. I have been busy with my studies and I have my board exam incoming, so for now I won’t be accepting any Ko-Fi support now. And I really appreciate your patience. Please don’t be angry with me. (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ ]