I Guess I Really Caused a Lot of Trouble Today

Chapter 94

'This feels uncomfortable.'

The soft, clean bed in the academy lodging they had temporarily provided.

Lily muttered inwardly, staring blankly up at the pure white ceiling.

'The blanket is soft, and the room is warm. So why do I feel so empty?'

Even though the frightening figure known as the cardinal had disappeared from her path ahead.

And even now that she could stretch her legs out to sleep and no one would scold her, the strange discomfort in a corner of her heart still refused to disappear.

The reason was simple.

'Cassian isn't here.'

Her heart, her instincts, simply couldn't feel that this was a home where she could truly rest.

Her real home was that narrow research room in the Department of Magic, where the warmth of that indifferent yet kind man still lingered, even if a little dust blew about.

'I wish the sun would rise already.'

At dawn, the moment the first rooster crowed, she would run straight to Cassian's academy research room.

'What is Cassian doing right now?'

Is he sleeping soundly?

Or is he reading a book with that bothered expression again?

Just imagining his face made a shy smile spill onto her lips.

Roll, roll.

Lily rolled around on the bed and hugged the blanket.

'Just a month ago, I couldn't even imagine my life would change this dazzlingly.'

The horrific times of the past.

And those gray days after her regression, when every moment had been bleak and tearful.

But in her second life, as if by a miracle, she met that man and suddenly escaped misfortune so completely.

Was it really all right for someone as lacking as her to enjoy so much peace and happiness without restraint?

As her heart swelled, a small question rose at the same time.

In the first place, it hadn't been something she had won entirely through her own sweat and effort.

It was all a one-sided salvation granted by a man named Cassian Del Farne.

So it suddenly felt like a mirage-like peace, like a pretty glass marble that could roll out of her hands and be lost again at any moment without seeming strange at all.

Smack!

Lily raised both hands and slapped her chubby white cheeks hard.

It hurt enough to make tears spring to her eyes, but thanks to that, her dazed mind snapped awake and cleared right up.

'No, Lily. Absolutely not. That was a very bad, selfish thought.'

It would be foolish to fret over losing this miraculous gift that was already far beyond what she deserved.

It would be enough to leave her with nothing to say, even if she were repaying kindness with ingratitude.

What if she ended up being consumed by that petty sense of loss?

She would surely end up whining and clinging to Cassian's trouser leg.

She'd clearly turn into a burden of a child, shamelessly throwing a tantrum and demanding that he take responsibility for her for the rest of her life because he had saved her from misery.

'Cassian hates troublesome things more than anything in the world!'

She couldn't put him through that kind of inconvenience.

Absolutely not.

'So I have to focus entirely on nothing but this overwhelming gratitude.'

The proper attitude to show the man who had pulled her out of that pit-like life.

What she needed right now wasn't some absurd demand that he take responsibility for her.

It was the firm resolve to hold pure, one-hundred-percent gratitude deep in her heart and gladly repay him with all she had, if he ever needed anything.

'Of course... I'm so helpless and foolish right now that there isn't anything grand I can do for him at this very moment...'

Even so.

Still, someday she had to become a useful person who could help him, even if only a little.

And this thirst rising in a corner of her heart now could never be some grim, obsessive fixation.

'By repaying him perfectly, I have to proudly erase this overflowing debt of gratitude.'

If she could really do that.

If she could stand beside Cassian and do her part as a reliable, proper person.

'Then...'

A red flush spread all the way up Lily's white neck.

Then.

She wanted him to treat her as someone just a little more special and beautiful.

Would it be all right to be so bold as to want that?

It was a wish so thrilling and overwhelming that just imagining it made her toes curl.

Thump. Thump.

Her heart pounded noisily.

'But... I keep thinking about it.'

Lily clutched the blanket tightly and pouted.

The image of Elysia, the Rosenberg young lady whom she had met in front of Cassian's private laboratory today, kept flashing through her mind.

More exactly.

What bothered her was the young lady's eyes.

In her previous life, Elysia had always looked only at Crown Prince Louis with single-minded devotion.

But the look Elysia had in her eyes when she looked at the crown prince back then and the look she had when she looked at Cassian today were completely different.

If the look in the past had been nothing but blind, compulsive possessiveness with only an empty shell to it.

Then the look aimed at Cassian today was...

Because it was the sparkling gaze of a woman looking at someone truly, truly precious and attractive.

Lily felt strangely uncomfortable, as if a corner of her chest were being stabbed with little jabs.

* * *

"Be careful on your way home."

Elysia smiled brightly as she stood by the carriage door.

I almost couldn't tear my eyes away from her dazzling figure, but I forced a cough and bowed politely.

"Thank you for letting me use the carriage, young lady."

"Are you sure you're really all right with only riding as far as the outer gate?"

Elysia asked in a voice that sounded slightly concerned, yet oddly playful.

"Of course."

I answered firmly.

More than all right.

There was no way I was going to ride in the carriage of the House of Rosenberg, which would one day produce the Empire's empress, all the way to my front door in the middle of the night.

If I didn't want tomorrow morning's capital social circle to be plastered with the headline, 'Second Son of the House of Farne Disembarks from the Rosenberg Young Lady's Carriage at a Late Hour,' then it was common sense to stop at a reasonable point.

"If you're worried about the label that would stick to me, there's no need."

Elysia gently urged me again, but I refused once more.

"I'm really fine. I'll gratefully accept your kindness. Shouldn't you be heading back now, young lady?"

"No."

Elysia answered softly, folding both hands neatly while holding her fan.

"I should go only after I've safely seen off an honored guest as well."

Come to think of it.

That was true enough.

This was, after all, the territory of the Duke of Rosenberg, and I was just a guest who had popped in unexpectedly in the middle of the night.

It was basic noble etiquette for the host to see a guest off.

Just as I nodded and was about to reach for the carriage handle.

"Why?"

"…Pardon?"

"Perhaps you'd like to be the gallant gentleman who escorts a lady home?"

Elysia tilted her head slightly and smiled with a twinkle.

'Gasp.'

This, this.

She really does look like she wants me to do it.

The moment I said, 'Ah, shall I?' and took one step forward here, she'd drag me right back inside the mansion and I'd clearly end up getting bombarded with flirting while drinking tea all night.

I immediately denied it, relying on my instinct for survival.

"No."

"My, you didn't even hesitate for a second."

"I'm not bold enough to sneak into someone else's house in the middle of the night and act that arrogantly."

At my ironclad defense, Elysia looked somewhat disappointed.

She let out a small sigh, then soon smiled again with her eyes and waved.

Her silver hair swayed softly.

"All right. Be careful on your way home, Cassian."

"Yes. Please rest well too, young lady."

I gave a brief bow and climbed into the carriage as if fleeing.

Clunk.

The coachman closed the heavy carriage door.

I was leaning back against the plush velvet seat and about to let out a long breath when I felt a gaze through the window.

It was Elysia.

Even though the carriage was ready to depart at any moment, she was still standing there motionless by the door.

And she waved at me through the window once more.

'Ah.'

How do I put it.

Maybe because that look in her eyes was so clear, yet somehow melancholy.

My conscience pricked at me, making it hard to simply pretend not to notice and turn my head away.

In the end, I lifted my stiff hand and waved back through the window.

Clatter, clatter.

The carriage started moving.

I stared ahead blankly, then, driven by some inexplicable impulse even after quite a while had passed, glanced back at the carriage's rear window.

"……."

Before the manor's iron gates, where the darkness lay thick.

I could see one tiny silhouette still waving at me.

I straightened back up and leaned my head against the cushioned backrest.

And I let out a long, heavy sigh.

"I'm alive. Hah."

It felt like I'd walked straight into some fox den from legend and barely escaped just before being swallowed whole.

There should be some limit to how much a person can become someone completely different overnight.

To the point that it was hard to believe she was the vicious villainess from the original story, the one who had been obsessed to madness.

How could she turn into such a forward fox in an instant?

"Aaaagh."

I covered my face with both hands and rubbed it in frustration.

I'm mortified.

I'm mortifyingly embarrassed.

When I thought about how I'd fumbled around for hours in that beautiful star-tree forest, blushing and stammering, and acted like my heart was about to burst just from draping a cloak over her.

I was sure I'd be cringing under the covers to my heart's content for a while.

It wasn't as if I had been completely clueless about romance in my past life either.

I had no idea why I turned into such an idiot in front of that woman.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Maybe because I was alone in the quiet carriage, I could feel it so clearly.

My pulse was truly racing violently.

I pressed my forehead to the cold windowpane to cool my burning cheeks and savored the lingering aftereffects of that long, long night walk.

* * *

"Phew, finally home."

I massaged my stiff neck and opened the familiar manor entrance door.

But then I touched my outer coat and remembered something I'd forgotten.

'Ah, the cloak.'

No wonder my shoulders felt light. I left the cloak behind.

Whatever. It's not like I'd have any use for it twice.

Now all that was left was to take a nice hot shower, dive into my soft bed, and sleep like an unemployed bum to end the day.

"Young master!"

"Ah, you startled me."

The moment I stepped through the front door, a booming voice slammed into my eardrums.

When I turned my head, Alfred, the faithful old butler of House Farne, was hurrying toward me with a face drained white.

"What, you stayed up just because I hadn't come home yet, old man?"

I casually waved a hand and joked.

"It's past the time you ought to be asleep, and yet you even came out to greet me at the door. I feel awful."

"That's not the problem, young master!"

Alfred grabbed my sleeve and stamped his feet.

Beads of cold sweat were gathered on his forehead.

"How can you come in only now? Do you know how worried I was!"

"Why would you be worried? I'm not some little kid, and it's not like I'd get lost in the middle of the capital."

I casually took off my outer coat and tossed it aside.

"And I'm really tired today. I'm dying to wash up, dry off, and go to sleep, so can't the nagging wait until tomorrow morning—"

"The master!"

Alfred cut me off cleanly.

"The master is waiting for you right now! You need to go to his study at once!"

"…Huh?"

I came to a sudden stop, my steps headed toward the stairs.

My father?

My father, the man so cold you'd think he wouldn't bleed even if stabbed, was still awake and waiting for me?

'Ah.'

Only then did the memories of today's events, which had been wiped completely blank from my mind, begin flashing past like a revolving lantern.

Right.

I really caused a lot of trouble today, didn't I?

That midnight tryst with Elysia.

Because the dizzying memory of that star-tree forest had lodged in my mind with such a powerful impact.

I had completely forgotten for a moment what on earth I had done earlier today.

Hmm.

"Is he very angry?"

When I asked cautiously, Alfred shook his head vigorously.

"He wasn't angry, but... he had an expression so hard to describe it was uncanny. He just kept rubbing his temples, as if he had a headache."

"I see."

So that means I'm screwed?