I looked at Richel, doubting my ears.
He wore a calm face, as if he hadn’t said anything a moment ago.
Then his gaze met mine.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
I chose my words carefully for a moment.
Then, I finally parted my stiff lips and let out a soft voice.
“I thought you would tell me to leave.”
“If I told you to leave right now, would you have?”
I didn’t answer, but Richel seemed to see through me just by looking at my face.
“Cassius will have some heartache.”
He put down the teacup he was holding and murmured to himself.
The air in the office was calmly still, but it wasn’t heavy enough to oppress me.
Richel’s gaze that landed on me was the same.
“There’s no reason not to welcome you.
When Cassius was in Agrigent three years ago… um.”
However, he didn’t finish his words and showed a sign of agonizing for a moment.
“I don’t know what to call you.
I don’t think you’d want to be called by your last name.
I’ll just call you comfortably as I do now.”
“Yes, that’s fine.”
“Yes.
Cassius said he received a lot of help from you when he was in Agrigent three years ago.”
I was silent for a moment.
I looked down at the liquid shallowly collected in the teacup without a word, and finally parted my closed lips.
“No.
Maybe… the truth is a little different from what he thinks.”
Whatever Cassius and the people of Fedelian thought, it would not be exactly the same as the truth I knew.
To be honest, it wasn’t a pure good deed, but just using him as I pleased.
In fact, I deliberately put him in danger in those days to achieve my purpose.
I thought it didn’t matter if he got hurt to some extent in the process of achieving what I wanted.
Most of the reason I wanted to save him was just a small amount of self-satisfaction.
However, there was no need to reveal such things myself.
Anyway, it was clear that I wanted to help Cassius at that time, and that I actually did it.
So, if I just kept my mouth shut, everyone would misunderstand me as a good person on their own.
But why am I telling Richel this now?
It’s as if I’m saying that there’s no need to accept me into Fedelian for that reason.
It’s as if I want to be kicked out of here.
But no one is forcing me here now.
So, if I want to leave, I can express my intention directly.
But the reason I don’t…
I completely closed my eyes that I had lowered and blocked my vision.
Maybe it’s because of the tea I drank a little while ago, but my mouth felt a little bitter.
“Originally, when something happens, it’s extremely rare that there’s only one reason for it, whatever it is.”
Richel stared at me like that and then turned his gaze.
“Isn’t it the same for evil deeds or good deeds?”
He lifted the teacup on the table again.
“So, even if the giver didn’t have that intention, if it became a good deed to the receiver, then the truth doesn’t matter anymore.
Besides, Cassius doesn’t seem to care what the intention was.”
His words were surprisingly kind.
“So, I have no reason to object.”
The tone was indifferent as calm, and the temperature inside was neither high nor low, but lukewarm.
But the content of the words was not.
“Besides, there are complicated things that you and we are equally concerned about… At least for us, that matter is more important than the part I mentioned earlier, so it’s okay not to bring it up.”
The people of Fedelian were strange.
I didn’t know that not only Cassius but also Richel would say such things to me.
I can accept you for that reason…
I swallowed my words because I thought that any answer to Richel’s words would not be appropriate.
And then, Richel spoke again, and I fixed my gaze on his eyes.
“But I think I should say this now.
It’s news about Agrigent.”
Richel stared straight at me and added.
“Cassius told me to let you choose whatever you want, so choose directly.
Do you want to hear it?”
After a while, I came out of Richel’s office.
And as soon as I did, I ran into someone who was approaching.
The distance was less than twenty steps away.
She was a woman with a refined and elegant atmosphere.
Both she and I faced each other and stopped moving for a moment.
The eyes toward me widened for a moment.
However, the woman soon composed her expression and took the steps she had stopped and came straight to me.
“It seems you’ve already finished talking.”
Perhaps she was planning to visit Richel’s office.
I could easily tell that she was the hostess of Fedelian.
Then I greeted her first.
“Yes, I’m just leaving.
I’m sorry for not visiting you earlier to say hello.”
“What’s your name?”
“Roxana.”
“Okay.
I’m Jeanne.”
She introduced herself only by her name, without her last name, like me.
I realized that it was a consideration for me and felt a strange emotion again.
“Why would it be your fault that the time to say hello has been delayed?
We’ve been away all the time.
The situation wasn’t good, so don’t worry about it.”
Jeanne’s gaze briefly swept across my face.
Her quiet eyes slowly examined my appearance.
Then she smiled slightly.
“I’d like to talk more, but I just saw Cassius waiting.”
When I heard those words, I unknowingly moved my gaze to the hallway behind her.
But Cassius seemed to be in a place that was not visible from where we were standing now.
“I’d like to treat you to tea soon as a sign of welcome.
I’ll send you a message soon.”
I sent a sparse gaze to the person in front of me, feeling a feeling that I couldn’t define exactly.
Then I barely whispered softly.
“…Thank you for your hospitality.”
“You came out later than I thought.”
As soon as I stepped out into the cloister, I noticed Cassius standing right in front of me.
“Really?
How long have you been waiting?”
“Since a little while ago.”
As I approached, Cassius stared at my face.
But that was it.
Cassius didn’t ask me anything.
His silence was similar to what I had shown in front of Cassius.
So I didn’t tell him about the conversations I had with Richel and Jeanne.
Cassius and I started to move side by side.
“Ah!”
Then we ran into Hyperion’s cousin siblings.
It seemed that they were also going to greet Fedelian’s family like me.
“I didn’t expect it, but seeing you like this, you’re really a human!
Sister, can’t you see it too?
It’s not an spiritual being, is it?”
Orca pointed at me while rambling.
But when Cassius stared at it as if he would break him, he soon flinched and lowered his hand.
Pandora had been staring at me with her mouth open since a while ago.
She seemed as surprised as Orca when she saw me.
“Ma, demon?
Siren in mythology?”
Seeing her call me demon again, it seemed that she was indeed a cousin with the same blood as Orca.
Cassius’s chilling eyes were fixed on Pandora, who was treating me like a demon.
But she didn’t seem to feel it and continued to mutter to herself with a spaced-out face.
“Or is it a nymph that’s extinct…?”
“Let’s go, Cassius.”
“Ci, 지금 사람 말을… [Hey, are you listening to me?]”
Cassius and I turned away, leaving the two people who couldn’t snap out of it.
Anyway, it was clear that they wouldn’t hear anything even if we said anything in their current state.
As soon as we stepped completely out of the cloister, the dazzling sunlight pierced into my eyes.
I paused and raised my hand to shield my vision.
I wondered if my eyesight had weakened because I had been mostly indoors during that time.
Cassius’s gaze reached me next to him.
Perhaps he misunderstood that I had dizziness.
“Tell me if it’s hard to walk.”
“If I tell you?”
This person is really treating me like a serious invalid.
Of course, it wasn’t completely wrong.
Besides, there was also the fact that I unintentionally showed him a weak side.
But that didn’t mean I was so feeble that I couldn’t even walk this distance.
Of course, what I retorted to him now was not really because it was hard to walk and I wanted him to do something for me.
But Cassius approached me without hesitation.
“No, wait a minute…”
Then my body floated up.