CH 41

“Then I’ll be on my way.”

As he was heading out, Swan and I glanced at each other. He seemed surprised after seeing my face.

But that expression only lasted a moment before Swanhaden lost focus on me and headed out, closing the door behind him.

Yves and I, now recovered, organized the documents we needed, then headed out of the villa. We couldn’t send the dead leader to prison, but this was enough to allow Yves to swallow up the entire guild. Not only that, but the organization would come together into his hands. Of course, Yves was planning to get rid of both.

In the carriage, on our way back.

I was going to take a nap. I told Yves to wake me up in ten minutes, then passed out.

Time passed quickly after that. It felt like yesterday when we went on break, but we were soon going to be going back to school.

The Lunaasha guild really crumbled into pieces. That was because Yves had took it apart with his own hands. Starting from the slave guild project investments to the reality of the organization, Yves laid the whole truth for the world to see. And as he did just that, he left a way for him to come out clean. It was, frankly, amazing to see.

With the death of the leader, the contract between Yves and the guild leader had come to a close, and the crescent moon just became a regular old tattoo. Yves could have removed the symbol if he wanted, but didn’t. It looked like he wanted to leave some sort of remnant of his struggles in the past.

With that, Yves was completely free from the guild, but he was still rich. He had taken out every possible asset from the guild that he could. He took the geniuses, the ideas. He mentioned something about how a guild was sweetest right before it fell. Even though it was rotten inside.

Yves was planning on using his assets to build a new company or guild. Yves, well, he had the main character buff to support him, so he was going to succeed no matter what. And knowing how tough he was, there was nothing he couldn’t accomplish.

The requests were done, but I occasionally met up with him to help him with work.

When I asked, “Didn’t you say you were going to play?” one day, he responded with, “Well, I’d have to have enough cash to have fun.” I honestly wondered if he was just a workaholic.

After I passed out from eating the magic stones, I decided to take time off of work and play around for the rest of vacation.

Oh, I also rescheduled the hangout with Cory and Hylli from last time, but one day Cory contacted me via the magic messenger.

It was a message asking if I wanted to go watch fireworks late at night with tthe two of them.

When I finished getting ready and waited in my room, Cory knocked on my window. We were going to watch from the sky anyway so I was just about to leave wearing my pajamas, but Cory said to “Dress warmly” and sent me back to dress warmer.

This time, Cory had a pineapple blanket. To be more exact, he was riding the blanket. Cory had used magic to make the pineapple blanket stiff enough for people to ride. Then, he had made it float. There was a ton of candy and snacks on the blanket.

When I pointed at the blanket and asked what that was, Cory told me that it was a blanket he used at home. When I looked closer, the blanket he used at home was slightly bigger than the one at school.

I worried about what would happen if we fell from here, but Cory told me that he would catch me and to not worry.

Cory and I went through castle security to get Hylli. He seemed to be ready: he had a ton of castle desserts in his arms. Cory and I enthusiastically welcomed Hylli aboard.

The fireworks we watched on the pineapple blanket, floating in the air, were an absolute sight to see.

As Cory and I stared at the pretty fireworks, we ended up making a bet to see who could make the bigger firework.

Hylli seemed jealous of the two of us as we shot fireworks into the sky: he shot his aura into the sky, but it fell back and almost cut the blanket in half. I stored the scene in a memory stone.

It was disappointing that we couldn’t play in the city, but I was grateful that we could watch the fireworks together.

Meanwhile, Hestia was very angry at me. She had been really excited to play with me every day of the break, but I had been busy.

So I had told my mother and went to stay at Hestia’s house for three days.

The moment I arrived at Hestia’s home, I was dragged into a beauty course by Hestia’s mother alongside Hestia. We did face packs, and received massages and nail treatments. It felt like we went to the salon shop every day. I had gone over to play, but I was forced to take manner lessons and formal dance lessons while I was there. It was difficult, but I liked it because it gave me time to chat with Hestia, just the two of us.

Hestia and I generally spent time together by chatting.

Hestia, like my brother Karim, liked the ‘Real-life Fairytale series’ for some weird reason. Similar to how I made up stories like ‘The Part-Time Manager and Passion Pay’ to lull Karim to sleep, I told Hestia the same stories. Whenever I told her these stories, Hestia would always pick out points to argue about like old people, but she listened closely anyway.

Of course, I didn’t forget to play with Yves.

Yves really didn’t have a lot of time because of his work, but he seemed to want to hang out with me. He made time for me, and the two us went on a simple picnic together.

After the guild leader died, Yves regained a bit of his appetite. But it wasn’t an average appetite, but it was enough to just eat properly. I brought all of the food that I had promised Yves from before. Yves only took a bite of each food, but said everything tasted delicious. Thanks to that, I ended up overeating all of the leftovers.

To continue, I read Yves all of the popular fairytales that I could. His habit from before had continued on, so he tried to hug me whenever he could. It was the same as I read the stories. He kept patting his lap and told me to read from there, but obviously, I refused. But whenever I noticed, I was being hugged by him. Yves rested his chin on my hair and, hugging me from behind, listened as I read the story out loud.

“It would be nice to have a puppy just like you.”

Yves suddenly said, just as I read ‘The Puppy’s Adventure Tale’ to him.

“So I’ve been looking into it recently. An orange puppy. A fluffy one.”

Yves said as he touched my hair. I didn’t know whether I should’ve been happy or angry, so I stayed still before I chose anger. Why did I have to keep getting compared to a dog? And I was sure that Yves was going to call the dog ‘Shushu’.

Then there were going to be uncomfortable situations. For example, if his future puppy, ‘Shushu’, pooped on the floor, Yves would probably say, ‘Shushu, you shouldn’t poop there!’ or something similar. That would probably feel really bad.

“I’m doing this because you won’t let me hug you.”

“I really won’t be able to date then.”

I did give up, but I did want to date at least once in my life, so I was holding onto hope. Who knows? There could be someone who was blind and confessed to me….. I hoped there was somebody out there. No, get your head back on your shoulders. Give up, Shuraina. They’re all the same. You might as well take that time to do some self-improvement. But just once……

I frowned as my head felt like it was overloading.

Yves listened to my explanation, then frowned alongside me. I was the one that was supposed to be angry, but Yves was the one complaining instead.

“You just don’t get it because you’ve never hugged yourself. Do you know how soft and fluffy you are? Hugging you is my one joy in life.”

“That’s not something I should care about.”

“I’m going to bite you.”

I ended up giving permission for Yves to buy a puppy that looked like me. I even gave up my name. I expressly told him to bite or hug hus puppy instead.

Worried that he was going to act like this in the academy, I warned Yves beforehand. The school was full of rich capital kids, so there were a lot of conservative mindsets. And if Yves just suddenly hugged me out of nowhere whenever and wherever, I would, in both my past and current life, end up forever alone.

Just once……. I could date just once. That would be okay, right? I did say that I wasn’t interested, but dying without ever having dated once was too sad.

“Don’t date.”

“Why?”

Yves suddenly opened his mouth. It looked like he had been mulling it over in his head since I talked about marriage earlier.

“Personally, I want you to live a life without restraints. Your talents would be wasted if you were tied down to anything.”

Yves put a hand on my hair and was concentrating on curling my hair. My curly hair was curlier than usual because of it.

“From the moment a noble’s child is married off, you know how many constraints they have. Even if the noble system is mostly just name only, there is a silent promise.”

He wound his arms around my sides, then hugged me tight. He stayed still like that before speaking, voice annoyed.

“So, if you decided to bring a lover or anyone like that, you’d best be prepared. If they’re not as powerful as a dragon, I’m not going to accept it. No, even dragons aren’t worthy.”

When I asked what right he had to block me from dating, Yves avoided my eyes. Then, he muttered a, “I don’t know, I’m not giving you up.”

It was the moment that I was forced to become alone forever.

Vacation had ended, so we were back in school. It was both sad and exciting–a weird mix of feelings. It looked like there had been quite a bit of construction going on during the break: there were new buildings here and there. I cheered at the wealth of our school.

I met Hazel unni as I hauled my trunk to the dorm. Hazel unni gave me a big hug and greeted me warmly.

“Aigo, our pretty Shushu. Did you have fun during break?”

“Yes.”

Hazel seemed to get prettier by the day. I was happy to see Hazel greeting me so I smiled.

“Why are you the only one that had fun? I didn’t.”

Hazel suddenly said, expression and voice cold. I was taken aback.

“How could you not visit me once during break? Do you know how much I called and searched around for you?! If you had even just stopped by a salon that my house owned! You’re so mean Shushu! You only called me to help get a refund! Am I just an unni who helps you get refunds? Are you joking?”

Hazel grabbed both of my shoulders and shook me back and forth as she cried. I definitely should have made plans with Hazel. She had just said, “We should hang out during vacation!” and I had forgotten that. I gave Hazel some handmade cookies and cheered her up.

“I’ll go to your class with delicious snacks every so often.”

Hazel’s eyes shined brightly as she asked, You’re serious, right? to check.

Thinking back, I did have to also visit Harun’s class once. He was definitely going to whine about it if I didn’t. I pinky-promised Hazel and even stamped and signed on the promise before she let me go.

And that was how I ended up heading to the third years’ classrooms.